Chapter Text
Nick had a thing for fusion.
It had taken a while to grow on Judy, who had started life with country sensibilities and then eventually built a mainstream collection of mostly pop. But she listened to it more and more when she was over. It probably helped that she got to spend time with him while she did it. Everything was more enjoyable when you had a fox idly stroking your ears.
It was their weekend, their first free evening after days of pleasantly thorough policing. A traffic stop-turned drug raid this time, just to keep things interesting, and the accompanying paperwork, because there was no escaping that. But they both threw themselves at it. Nick, she was both pleased and a bit melancholy to see, really did do it for the sake of it now, not just for her.
And, well, their nights tended to make up for any romance lost to the rigors of patrol.
Judy turned to take in her bedmate's splash of coppery fur. Nick kept white sheets, always clean and well-laundered. He stood out.
"What?" he asked.
"Up a bit."
Nick adjusted his careful claws and Judy closed her eyes in pleasure.
"Highland Woods tomorrow?" He asked.
"Riverwalk's closer," Judy said. "And it's warm enough to poke feet in the water this time."
"Hadn't thought of that."
They went for walks on Saturday mornings, with bagels. Judy had been meaning to get them back to Riverwalk now that Spring had sprung.
She pushed herself closer to him under the comforter, halfway onto his bare chest. She was swimming in one of his green shirts; it took a minute to wrestle her arms through the sleeves, even when they were rolled. She traced the rise of his collarbone with her fingers. "I'll let you choose the bagels, then. Moe's or Gerald Brothers."
Nick considered.
Her phone rang. Judy started on top of Nick. It was almost ten o'clock and that wasn't her service tone. Who could possibly-
Oh, cheese. She'd forgotten about yesterday already, the way the paperwork had dragged on from all the evidence they'd tagged. But a promise was a promise. Her heart picked up a few beats and she fumbled for the remote to pause the music. Of all the times to call...
She scrambled back to her side of Nick's bed and reached for her phone. The ceiling was anonymous, at least, and if she pulled the shirt tight enough it wouldn't be too obvious it was hanging off her otherwise naked frame. She wrapped it close and turned to Nick. This would be the hard part.
"If you really love me, not a sound. Don't move, don't talk, don't even think."
His ears dropped, in exaggerated dread. He placed a finger to his muzzle and nodded.
Judy put the phone on her pillow and checked the camera angle, then glared a warning at Nick again and tapped receive.
"Hi, mom."
"Oh, Judy, I'm glad I didn't wake you up." Her mother frowned from the screen. "At least I don't think I did. Where are you?"
Judy pretended not to see Nick's jaw dropping open. "Over at a friend's. We're watching movies for the weekend. I wasn't sleeping."
"Oh, good. How was your week? Quieter than last, I hope?"
"A bit busier, actually. Lots of paperwork."
"Aw, poor Jude. At least you're staying safe."
"Always, mom." Judy's ear rotated. Nick was indeed motionless, and that was a bad sign. She couldn't glare at him again without it being obvious, so she stabbed a threatening finger at what she hoped was his nose.
"We just got in from the Triburrows Spring Swap," her mom said. "It ran even later than last year. Cobbler judging went into overtime."
Judy froze as a canine tongue lapped at her finger.
"That's - uh, that's great! Did Dad beat Mr. Anders again this year?"
"No contest," she heard her dad crow from somewhere back in their kitchen. "It's the ice cream, it's always the ice cream."
Her mom went on about selling out of blueberries again and the renovations on the school they were going to help with next week and Judy tried not to let the panic and the indignation and the mounting pleasure show on her face as Nick continued his assault. He had her finger between gentle teeth now, just tight enough to keep her from getting free. He knew what that did to her.
"-so I told Miss Marielle and the rest of them they could teach fourth grade back here in the backyard if we really had to. It's their biology session right now and the ladybugs are out, so they could see the whole life cycle-"
Judy yanked her paw free and heard Nick's teeth click together. Hopefully her phone wouldn't jump too much with the motion. "That would be fun." She had to keep the conversation moving. "How are the rest of the kids? Did Leon and Lauren choose colleges yet?"
Her mom launched into an abbreviated rundown of the Hopps brood still at the farm, which to the outside listener probably still sounded exhaustive. 200-plus siblings was a lot, to be fair.
Nick fidgeted. She could feel him moving under the comforter, but she wasn't about to poke at him again and give him another excuse to distract her.
T, U, V, W and back around again mom went. "And Charlie III will be in charge of Saturday pancakes soon, he's so excited to direct all his little brothers and sisters-"
Nick grabbed her tail. Judy yelped.
"Judy! Goodness, are you all right? What's going on?"
"Oh-" Judy covered the camera with a paw and turned to glare. Nick was shaking with silent laughter, ears back, one paw over his muzzle: every inch the bold fox in the cookie jar. "I'm fine." She shook out her ears and uncovered the camera again. "Like I said, it's scary movie night."
"Oh, Judy, I'm so sorry. I know I tend to go on and on. We'll call you sometime this weekend instead. Say hi to Fru Fru for us!"
"Oh, it's not Fru Fru," Judy said. Oh, great. "It's... Nicole, a friend from City Hall."
"Oh! Well, say hi anyway. We'll have to meet her sometime."
"Hi, Jude!" Her father popped onscreen.
"Hi, dad. Nice job on the cobbler ribbon."
"Thanks, hon. I saved you some. Make room in your freezer; we'll send it along with the next package."
"Stu, we have to hang up. She's busy! There's a movie on."
"Oh, okay. Bye, Jude!" He waved.
Her mom ended the call.
Judy put on her best thunderous expression and turned to Nick, except he was looking right back with a mischievous glare of his own.
"One: Nicole?" he asked before she could say anything.
"I had nothing," she muttered.
Nick's face collapsed back into sly fox mode. "You want me to go squeeze into some of your clothes?" He looked her over. "Seems only fair."
"Don't you dare," she said, and reached for him so he wouldn't go anywhere. "You'll stretch my shirts out."
"Fine." He captured her paw and brought it to his lips. "Two: you know you love it."
Oh, but did she. Judy supposed it was her fault for making him wait in his own bed while she talked to her parents. She deserved the distraction. Enjoyed it a lot more than she could ever show to mom or dad.
"More than a little."
Nick pushed on the covers for long enough to get his arms around her again and pulled her close against his chest. "That's a start, I guess."
Judy nestled back against her fox, as deep as she could get into his presence. She loved the way he wrapped all his limbs around her, even his tail. Part of it was a simple matter of scale: Nick being bigger meant he was the best fit to be on the outside. Part of it satisfied Judy's instinct to nest up when it got cold and dark outside.
And no small part of it was the unique dynamic they shared as a fox and a rabbit, that shot their love through with constant reminders of what they were. No matter what Judy thought, no matter what she knew from their time together, there was always that part of her midbrain that twisted with disquiet when she remembered it was fox wrapping her up warm every night.
It didn't scare her. It almost never had. It was a fear to master early in life, and one she'd fought to control and shape and insulate from prejudice as she'd grown and learned and lived in the city. Now, she was past the rough spots, past the tests to her mindset. Now, Judy knew better. There was one fox she never had to be afraid of.
He was playing with her ears, running his nose along their edges.
"You should come back and meet my parents sometime," she said, idly.
"As more than your professional partner, you mean."
"They know we're friends."
Nick rested his muzzle atop her head, between her ears. "Call them back, then. 'Hi, mom and dad, you remember Nick, this shirtless fox playing big spoon here and doing naughty things with his paws?'"
Judy squirmed so she could see the humor in his eyes. "There's nothing naughty about a hug."
Nick stopped, considered, and she shivered as he reached down her front, past her borrowed shirt, and did something very naughty indeed.
"Okay, now call them."
"Mmf. They'll like you when they get to know you."
The top of his nose tapped under her cheek. "I hear that tense."
Judy willed her legs not to twitch. Nick was really good at this. "It's happening at some point, fox."
But he withdrew, to her quiet dismay. "I know. I don't want you to rush, though. Don't force anything."
"I want them to actually talk to you at some point," she persisted, and grabbed his paws before they got too far away. "More than just the wave they gave you at graduation. I got them over their fear of foxes, you know. I told you about Gideon."
"I know, Carrots. But working with a fox is much different than discovering your daughter curls up with one every few nights."
"You love it," she told him.
"I love it," he agreed. "More than anything. But this is about you, too. 'Meet my Boyfriend the Fox' is a big step you can't undo."
"Eloquent."
"Well, could you promise me your dad wouldn't tag me with fox spray if I stepped off the train tomorrow?"
"He doesn't just spray unfamiliar foxes," Judy said. "He was never that jumpy. And as far as he knows, you're still just a friend. We don't have to pop that bubble."
Nick's arms tightened around her. His muzzle tapped the base of her ear again. "I smell pretty unmistakably like you right now."
There was the biology again, packed into quiet words that went in right under her armor. And Nick had a point. It was one of those things about them she never mentally registered anymore unless she was actively enjoying it. She loved his scent, and Nick frequently confessed an immobilizing fascination with hers. But it was a clue to those outside now.
Judy would have dismissed it because it was part of what they were now. But Nick, more sensitive to scents, noticed it more often. It was something he kept in mind because he had to, as a predator. He would have been raised to be aware of it, the same way she'd been taught early on to keep an ear on nearby foxes, just in case.
"Do your parents care about predator-prey relationships?" she asked.
A long pause. "I like to think they would have come around."
Their happy little ball of awkward pillow talk shattered. Judy felt her ears wilt.
All this time, all these months together, and it had never come up. He tolerated her ramblings and her reminders about family and her videoconferences with her own parents while they were nearly naked next to each other, without so much as word.
She pushed herself around so she could see his face. He was composed. Solemn, maybe. The hurt she expected to find was missing.
"I never asked." her voice caught in her throat.
"It's okay, Carrots."
"Nick, I'm sorry. I don't even know where to start."
"It's never been something I worried about," Nick said. He took her paws and watched her fingers wrap around his automatically. "Mom died when I was almost still a kit. Dad moved on even earlier. Almost 25 years ago now." One of his ears dropped and he looked up at her. "Wow, I really am that old."
"Nick-"
He shushed her and held her close, stroked her cheeks and her ears and the top of her head.
He was always, always doing that. He could tell her not to worry about it, tell her he didn't worry about it, but the way he was squeezing her betrayed him. She knew him too well now. Underneath the smooth, sarcastic facade he presented to the world, Nick Wilde was still a vulnerable fox. And in those rare moments he did show it, it was to care about her, to transfer his armor to her so his own problems never hurt her.
She felt herself blinking tears into the soft fur of his neck.
Once upon a time, she would have bristled at such personal-sounding guidance as 'don't tell your own parents about me,' even from Nick. But Judy knew even better where his worry came from now. His desire to keep her safe and happy extended into nearly all corners of her life; into those most people wouldn't ever have a right to. She had given him that power. But it wasn't a matter of control, or dominance.
She did it because she loved him. Trusted him enough to surrender to a dynamic she didn't fully understand, because it made him so happy to just lie here and protect her. Sometimes it was the only way she could repay him for the sacrifices he made for her.
"Stop with the droopy ears," he murmured, and nuzzled them. "I just want you to be careful. Don't do something you'll regret because of me. Then you risk ending up like I did."
"I love you," she told his chest ruff.
"I know, sweetheart." Nick brought his paws up under her shirt, against her back. His claws pressed into her shoulders.
"And I hate the things you have to worry about," she said.
"I can't share my open mindset with everyone." He went modest. "It would be nice if I could, though. Actual crime would vanish overnight, reduced to a series of nested pawpsicle scams."
She couldn't decide if she wanted to laugh or cry.
She settled for letting him hold her tight. It wasn't supposed to be about her right now, not with a revelation like that, but this seemed to be how Nick wanted to deal with it. Judy was too persistent to let it go completely, though, and Nick had to know from their experience together these things eventually came into focus. But she was also patient. She would help him however and whenever she could.
She wriggled around again so she could curl up in the shelter of his neck. He sighed around her and settled down.
"Thank you."
"I figure I'll get through to you eventually," she said. "Until then, I'm right here."
This time Nick's claws went almost to the point of pain. "I love you so much, Carrots."
Judy indulged in it, shameless, trying to recapture some of the moment they'd ruined together. She tilted her head so she could kiss him. "I know."