I shot upright in bed, my fur matted with a cold sweat. A ball of tension roiled between my gut and my throat. As my breathing slowed, I hesitantly checked the time. Nearly midnight. Not so bad.

Going back to my crummy apartment after the shift was—well, in a word? Hell. I was in a rotten mood from the turn our conversation had taken, partially due to what she'd reminded me of. But even more so was the guilt I felt from pushing her out again.

I bummed around for a few hours, but, surprise, surprise! Foxes who eke a living out of recycling ice cream don't tend to accumulate a lot of hobbies, an issue I still had yet to rectify as an upstanding, tax-paying mammal. So, I mostly scrounged around for snacks, broke down and ordered another pizza, tried melting my brain with an ever-increasing variety of streaming services, and eventually scrolled through memes before falling asleep.

I mean, god damn it, Hopps, what is it about you that gets under my fur?

Feeling that sleep would continue to evade me for some time, I slipped on a ratty bathrobe that barely fit me in the sleeves and made for the kitchen. With the amount of caffeine in me, it was no wonder I had trouble sleeping, so I decided to try some tea.

I hate tea.

As the kettle boiled, I kneaded my forehead with a paw absentmindedly, willing away the storm of thoughts and regrets.

"Ugh", I groaned aloud. "I shouldn't worry about how she feels, she was being nosy." The words felt sour on my tongue as they slipped into the silence of my apartment. Slapping a paw down on the counter, I sighed. I knew it wasn't fair to say that. She really hadn't even asked anything or tried to pry anything out of me before I was ready. Resignedly, I turned the stove off and went for my phone.

Only three rings and she picks up. Past midnight, no less, and she's on the other end anyway.

"Mmm…'lo? Nick?"

Judy's voice was thick with sleep, but I could still hear the concern from earlier, carving a furrow even deeper in my heart.

"Hey, Fluff. Um, Judy." I sucked in air, steeling myself. "Would you maybe want to come over for some tea?"

There was a long pause.

"Judy?"

"Sorry," came her voice from my phone. "I was just throwing some clothes on. Be there in a few."

The call ended.

"I'm sorry," I said to no one.

…

In no time at all, Judy sat at—well, on really, the chairs in my place were still too low for her—my counter, nursing a cup of tea. We hadn't spoken when she'd arrived, hadn't exchanged a word as I got the kettle going again, and even as I poured and served the tea, we were silent. She took a sip.

"My mom was the only mammal who ever believed in me," I said suddenly. "Consistently, I mean. I guess there might have been a teacher, a neighbor at some point, but it never lasted long and it was never enough.

"Any way, as a kit, my mom believing in me was. Enough, that is. But as I got older…well. I started to feel like she only believed in me—that she only cared about me because we were related."

Judy flinched at that. I stared.

"What?" She set down her tea.

"Let me clear something up. You think that, just because your mom is related to you, her love means something less? That she was only supporting you because she had to?"

"It's not that simple—"

"You're right, Nick, it really isn't." Judy said, cutting me off. "Do you know how many times my parents supported me in wanting to be a cop? How many times they told me they believed in me?" I opened my mouth in an attempt to get a word in edgewise but was rebuffed once more. "Zero, Nick. I love my parents, I really do. But even now, they still don't want me out here. They still call four times a week with another job at the farm or buck that they hope will sweep me off my feet and back to Bunnyburrow." She sighed. "I know they love me, but, Nick. You shouldn't diminish the support you have."

"Had." I replied eventually. She looked up sharply.

"What do you mean?" I fiddled with my cup.

"I went to her after the museum. I don't know, I guess I was still coming down from the adrenaline, and just so—happy that you and I were talking again. I told her I was applying to the academy. And she looked at me—and she asked me not to." Judy's face fell in shock.

"What? Why?" she asked.

"'I can't watch you get yourself hurt trying to con the police', she told me. Thirty years of telling me she believed in me, and the first time since I had baby teeth that I wanted to do something good and she sees it as a scam." I hung my head. "We fought, and I told her that I knew she'd been lying all those years when she'd said I could be anything, and that I wasn't going to come back this time." A tear rolled down my face, before being joined by a few more on each side.

I heard Judy slip from the counter and pad her way over to me. Enveloping me in the kind of embrace only she could give, I silently wept.

"I'm so sorry, Nick," she said, her face pressed into my chest. Her paw rubbed gently along my back as my sobbing continued. "Let's move to the couch, alright?"

Allowing myself to be led along to the thrift store sofa that inhabited my apartment, I attempted to stem the flow of tears with the too-short sleeve of my bathrobe.

"I'm sorry, Judy. For today. I shouldn't have shut you out, I just—"

She shushed me with a padless finger on my lips.

"It's okay, Slick. I understand." Taking a seat further along, Judy swung my head slowly down to her lap as I continued to cry quietly into the night.

…

Morning brought with it two events; one uncommon, and one disastrous.

The first event, the uncommon, was that I had awoken before Judy. She was doubled over my head, her ears dangling in front of my face, her soft breathing gently tickling my ears.

The second event was an awful epiphany for me. I've mentioned before that I had, at one point in time, been very proud of my ability to read mammals. My firm belief in that ability was rocked to the core as I realized I had crucially misread…myself.

"I love her," I whispered, horror sinking into my bones at my admission. "Damn it all, I am in love with Judy Hopps.

This wasn't some mixed-up feeling brought on by that trailer, or by Bogo's little heart-to-hearts, or even as a result of last night. Well, obviously, it played a part, but the feelings were there before. That funny feeling I'd been noticing when she'd brush my arm or hip check me, it was ten times stronger with my head in her lap, her paws resting where they'd been petting my ears when she fell asleep last night.

I mean, let's be frank here. I am an adult mammal—moreover, a male adult mammal. I knew what it felt like to be, well, horny. I'd never done the whole…dating thing. Kind of hard to get close to someone when you've got a hustler's mask up all the time. The experiences I'd had, however, had all been with vixens, and red foxes, at that. Never so much as an arctic or fennec fox. But this sensation, wrapped in her arms, my eyes sore from crying? It couldn't be the furthest thing from what I'd felt before.

I mean, sure, I was attracted to her, that much I'd already conceded. But to just feel the raw emotion battering my chest from the inside as that little rabbit wrapped herself around me…it was a little like standing in front of the sea as a storm comes in. The waves are enormous, crashing on the sand and the rocks and throwing spray ten feet into the air, and you know that one wrong move and you could be pulverized.

As gingerly as I could, I eased my way out from under her and arranged her in a position that wouldn't cause a terrible crick in her neck and back all day.

"Shit, Wilde. You really played yourself, huh?" I murmured, standing at the foot of the couch for a moment to watch her sleep. Something caught my eye. Her eyelids were crusted over with the obvious remains of many shed tears. A vice seemed to grip my heart. I ran my paw along her ears before drawing it away just as fast. She had begun to stir.

"Hey, Carrots…" I began, about to launch into a bit of my trademark ribbing. Before I could get anything out, the pressure in my chest grew. It felt like I was hiding from her, trying to play off last night as a joke. "Judy," I began again. "Sleep well?"

"Mm-hm. You make a good pillow, Slick." She blinked sleepily at me, and I couldn't help the smile that slid onto my face.

"I try my best," I replied. She gave a yawn at that moment, revealing her adorable buck teeth. "I'm going to get some food started, if you wanted to stick around." Turning to leave, I was stopped by her paw around mine.

"Hey, Nick." I faced her once more. "I know that took a lot, last night. I just want you to know I will always be here for you." She gave my paw a squeeze, running her thumb along my knuckles. "I believe in you, okay?"

If my heart were to swell any further, it'd probably burst from my chest.