#so i was bound to draw a 3-eyed rabbit eventually

[keplerscove]

in a similar vein to my recent WTNV art, because i super liked the style and playing with the desert colours :]

[randomwoohoo]

Nick: Previously on Zootopia

Judy: During the press conference on the missing mammal cases, I ignorantly harmed a precious friendship and stirred up conflict among animals. I therefore resigned from ZPD, but I then learned that the Night howler plant was actually a cause of predators going savage, so I reconciled with Nick in no time.

Nick: How can I stay mad at dumb bunny forever?~

Judy: Please don’t tease me like that! I really felt bad back then! Anyway, thanks to Weaselton’s confession, we were able to discover the truth and expose Bellwether’s plan. The ZPD arrested her shortly afterwards.

Nick: All the savaged animals were cured. Zootopia was saved. Carrots quit her farming job and got to wear her badge again. Happy ending~

Judy: Oh, it got better when you officially became this city’s first fox cop, not to mention my partner.

Nick: What crimes will we solve? What adventures lie ahead of us?

Nick & Judy: Let’s find out!

Fanfiction.net

.-.. . - .----. ... / .-. . -.-. --- ..- -. -

    Nearly at midnight, a smartphone with the carrot logo, put in a cup holder between a driver seat and a passenger seat, rang continuously while the grey doe rabbit officer was driving the police cruiser on patrol. It looked like she did not bother to answer an incoming telephone call.

“Carrots, aren’t you gonna pick it up?” The red fox police officer, sitting next to her, pointed at her phone which eventually stopped ringing.

“It’s Senior Officer Hopps to you, Officer Wilde.” Judy the doe rabbit said humorously to her partner, Nick the tod.

    It had been roughly two years since their first assignment they worked together as police partners. At the time, Judy got a promotion not long ago.

“Correction~ I’m not just an officer. But I’m a senior-officer-to-be~” Nick smirked. He used to joke with Judy that if he had got serious, he would have been promoted in no time. It was just that he did not want to become the senior officer before she did.

“You’d better work hard cuz if you don’t get promoted anytime soon-” She sounded threatening.

“You wouldn’t approve, would you?” He somewhat finished her sentence, “Aye aye, partner~ So, what’s with that phone call?” trying to get back to the point.

“Augh, there’s one buck who keeps hitting on me. And now, I regret giving him my number.”

“Why? You’re still single, right? Or he’s too annoying to you?”

“I’m pretty confident that I could handle anybody since I can stand you.”

“Oh ha ha” Nick laughed sarcastically.

“But in all seriousness, he isn’t bad. It’s just I am too occupied with my work, so I don’t have time for a relationship.”

“Still, you have enough time to hang out at my place~”

    Judy blushed at Nick’s teasing because she was unable to deny that she genuinely enjoyed spending time at his apartment. Hence, she moved on to another topic.

“You’re also single, aren’t you? Are you seeing anyone now?”

“Nah, I’m very busy looking after fluffy bun bun~” Nick made Judy roll her eyes in amusement.

    Then, without warning, “Judy! Nick!” a familiar energetic voice that the duo heard almost everyday at ZPD reception desk came out of police radio attached to their car.

    Accordingly, Nick quickly grabbed a radio mic to answer. “What’s up, Clawhauser?”

“There’s an emergency at Cliffside! Please go there immediately!” Clawhauser shouted on the radio mic on his end.

“We’ll be there ASAP.” Judy made a quick U-turn before the car sped down the street after Nick had already turned on sirens.

    When they arrived in front of Cliffside Asylum, a barrier gate of which was left open, there were quite a number of vehicles that clearly belonged to government departments, a police department and a fire department, parking on the bridge connecting the main land and the small island where the building was located in the middle of a waterfall.

    Some floors were ablaze with fire; therefore, some of firefighters were hosing those floors while some others and police officers were helping civilians to evacuate the building. Those officers were summoned like Nick and Judy because they were in near nearby area.

    Most of mammals that escaped the building were wearing lab coats. However, before the duo could fully understand the situation, a slender orange tiger with white muzzle and black stripes approached them to ask for their help.

“Thank scott you’re here! Some parts inside the asylum collapsed, blocking our ways in, but it may be possible for small mammals like you two to get in there and escort remaining civilians out.”

“We’ll get right on it! Let’s roll, Nick!” Judy led his partner into the burning building hurriedly.

    The tiger threw wet towels to them. Nick then caught the towels behind his back before entering the building with the doe.

    Both covered their noses and mouths with the wet towels while passing through smoky rooms. After some time, they came across a huge pile of broken concrete pieces and a large hole in the ceiling. It appeared that the floor of an upper story collapsed.

    Next, Judy walked up the pile cautiously, so Nick was going to follow her.

“Ouch! Hot! Hot!” He exclaimed when he touched some broken concrete pieces with his right paw unawares, drawing his paw back fast.

“Be careful” She warned him in a caring tone. Soon afterwards, her ears perked up as she heard footsteps from the upper floor. “Is anyone there? We are here to rescue you!” She sped up to the top of the pile.

“Wait for me!” Quickening his pace, he tried to catch up with her.

    Judy leapt off the peak of broken concrete pile, followed by Nick. He landed on the edge of the collapsed floor, almost losing his balance. Fortunately, Judy grabbed his tie in time and pulled him forward.

    There was a sound of footsteps again. This time, Nick also heard it. The duo consequently ran down the hallway.

She took off the towel covering her face, which would allow her to speak clearer. “Hello!” She shouted to call any remaining civilians’ attention.

When they saw a moorit ram in a lab coat darting across the end of the hallway which was connected to another path like 3-way intersection, “Sir, wait!” Judy together with Nick dashed to follow the ram, turning left at the end. “Don’t be afraid. We ZPD officers came to your rescue.” Nick attempted to reassure the civilian.

However, the ram, mumbling to himself, rushed into one room, completely ignoring the duo. They still continued following him. Once they reached in front of the room, Judy noticed a mammal curling up in the corner of the opposite room.

Therefore, she chose to help this mammal first. “It’s okay. You’re safe now.” She approached the trembling mammal steadily while Nick was following her close behind.

    He had unpleasant feelings towards this curling jaguar. It was not wearing any clothes. Even if it was a nudist, Nick doubted why nudist animals would be in a place like this. What’s more, its fur color was purple. It did not look like color dyed fur. Apparently, every single fur on its body and its skin were naturally purple.

    Instantly, the feline turned to face the duo, its pupils glowing the same color as its fur. It let out a primal hiss while standing on four legs in contrast to present-day mammals that walk on two feet.

    Both bunny and fox got startled by the hiss, falling backwards, so their bottoms hit the floor. They shifted away from the threatening purple jaguar. It gave a hostile vibe that reminded the duo of the first time they encountered the savage black jaguar, Mr. Manchas.

    Without hesitation, bunny fox duo stood up and then “Run!!” escaped the room at full speed. The purple savage mammal chased after them straight away.

    As they were running away from it, Nick brought out his police pistol. He turned a gun safety to off before he fired it at the purple mammal.

“Nick!! What are you doing!?” Judy believed that they should not injure the feline purple mammal even though it appeared monster-like and they were basically bolting down the hallway for their lives.

“I’d rather not become somebody’s dinner!” He kept shooting bullets until the door a few steps ahead of Judy burst open, then “Quit shooting!” the moorit ram poked his head out, “This way!” inducing the duo into the room.

    They felt as if it was good fortune in misfortune. Thanks to fire in the building, they were able to see inside the room to some degree.

    When they passed the door, they spotted that there were connecting doors inside the room which seemingly was a scientist office having file cabinets and various lab equipment on the desks; thus, they came to a conclusion that the rooms were connected and that explained how the ram in a lab coat could showed up in the room far from the one he went in earlier.

“Typical bullets are totally useless against them.” The ram said, leading them to emergency fire exit stairway through another door at the back of the room.

“Them?” Judy wondered.

“What’s worse, gun sound just gonna attract others-” As the ram was accompanying the police duo down the spiral stairs, he glimpsed a drop of thick saliva falling from higher level down to a void in the middle of the square spiral staircase. “Speak of the devil” The ram leaned over a rail of the stairs to look up.

Following that, he bounded down the stairs. Confused, Nick and Judy looked out the same direction as the ram previously did, then they caught sight of four drooling ferocious looking purple animals. On upper stairway opposite to the side they were standing on were a hartebeest with extra middle horn, a bulging-eyed hairless beaver, a frog-like hind legged aardvark and a saber-toothed marten.

“C’mon, hurry!!” The ram shouted.

    Regaining awareness, the duo hastily went after the ram when the monstrous creatures started to hunt them on all fours wildly.

    Both Nick and Judy were led by the ram out of the emergency fire exit stairway to a gradually burning laboratory with many expensive scientific instruments and computers.

“Umm, sir-” Judy addressed the ram.

He cringed in the response, “Please don’t address me like that. I’m not used to being called ‘sir’. I prefer ‘professor’.” while he was searching for something in the lab.

After both exchanged looks, Nick asked. “Shouldn’t we head for the exit?”

“There’s no way we’ll outrun them.” The scientist ram picked some kind of devices up.

One in his left hoof was a black machine with purple 1.25 inch diameter flat circle at the center, maroon motorcycle handle on the right half and silver syringe having a 45 degree tilt. Its length from the end of the handle to the syringe was as long as Nick’s forearm. Another in his right hoof was identical to the previous one but slightly bigger.

However, he found that the bigger one was broken, thus “Tsk” making sound of disapproval.

A moment later, primal roars became louder and clearer, indicating that the creatures were coming closer. As a result, the ram threw the broken device away. Nick dodged the thrown machine, thereby bumping against Judy lightly. He then glanced at Judy before looking through stuff scattered on the floor.

“Found it!!” He lifted the other device over his head. The length of this one was as long as Judy’s forearm. Immediately after that, he strode towards the duo “Put these MidniDrivers on” and presented the devices to them.

“Midnight what?” Puzzled, both questioned simultaneously.

    When the scientist ram perceived that the feral purple creatures were coming their way, “Please! Wear these, officers.” he begged the duo desperately.

    The fox and the bunny turned their faces to look each other in the eye for a brief moment. Despite the lack of understanding of the situation, she gambled on trusting the ram, reaching out to take the smaller black device from him. The fox soon followed his partner's lead in spite of hesitation.

“How do we use these things?” The fox examined the portable machine called MidniDriver in his paws.

“Just place them over middle front of your waists!” The ram yelled tensely.

    Turning to face the coming mutated-mammal-looking creatures, Nick and Judy followed the professor’s instruction amid blazing story on fire. They were surprised by the devices automatically extending belts and wrapping the belts around their waists. The strange black devices attached themselves to both officers with belts that were fit.

“Predator officer! Pull the syringe!”

    The tod fox felt off after the fact that he is a predator was emphasized by the ram, still he did what he was ordered.

“DRAW BLOOD” The device on him spoke robotically.

“Yeow!!” The fox got hurt, a part of his waist under the device stinging. The syringe was filled with blood immediately afterwards before all the drawn blood disappeared and the pulled syringe retracted on its own.

The doe rabbit worried about her friend. “What’s wro-”

“Push your syringe! Prey officer!” The ram intervened.

    Despite being interrupted and called weirdly, she was aware that she had no time to be irritated. Hence, she pushed the syringe on the left side of the device on her. The syringe which used to be empty had a dose of dark red liquid like blood inside it at the time that she was pushing it.

“INJECT” The device on her spoke robotically as well. The syringe then sprang back.

    Next, the bunny’s body twitched, feeling slight pain of getting an injection.

    Right after Nick’s blood was injected into Judy, “Carrots, I-...” he passed out while standing up.

“Nick! What did you do to him!?” Shocked to witness that her partner fell unconscious, she shouted at the ram.

“Forget that! You got an upcoming fight!”

“Wait? Fight??” Judy wondered what the ram meant by ‘fight’.

“Now! Twist the handle back to transform!” He told her.

“Transform?” She became more confused when she heard the word ‘transform’. Even so, she had already twisted backward the maroon handle sticking out from the right side of the device.

“IGNITE” The device on her spoke before its handle was twisted back to its original position by the spring mechanism. Following that, the device promptly emitted purple steam, which gave a sign to the scientist ram to distance himself along with the unconscious fox from the rabbit by dragging him.

    Shortly afterwards, the black machine caused the blistering purple mist explosion that made the creatures halt and look fixedly at the doe swallowed by the mist.

    The device’s core and two amethyst headlamps on Judy’s eye level shone up in thick fog. When the mist finally faded away, an armored hybrid mammal was revealed.

    The mammal had a full suit of armor covering from head to toe, flamingo red color body except for the stylish amethyst headlamp eyes and the device, and a doe rabbit figure but also had a noticeable fluffy fox tail made of spikes instead of fur and pattern of fangs with a pair of buck rabbit teeth on muzzle part of the helmet.

“What the...” Looking down through the headlamp eyes, Judy slowly raised her arms or at least that was what she aimed for. However, it turned out that the flamingo red armored arms were lifted instead.

“What’s happening!? Where am I!?”

    Judy heard Nick’s voice so close to her. Before she could react, the body started to move without her control, turning around swiftly.

“Am I mistaken or that’s really me over there?”

She could hear him again. The eyes she was looking through were fixed on Nick lying unconsciously next to the ram in the lab coat.

“Nick!” Judy called to her fox friend.

“Carrots! Judy!” He, turning left and right, tried to look for the bunny.

“I’m here! Or I think I am...” She made an effort to regain control of the body; as a consequence, the body stopped moving panically.

“What’s going on…?” Baffled to hear Judy’s voice so close as if it came out through his throat, Nick moved left arm to touch the side of the helmet and the long rabbits ears which were as hard as metal, yet able to move around freely just like normal soft bunny ears. The other paw touched the rear.

“Hey! Don’t touch that part!” Judy drew the paw away from the behind speedily.

    Although the duo were unable to fully comprehend the situation, they understood that both of them were sharing the body.

“What are you waiting for!? Fight them!!” The ram reminded Nick and Judy of the monstrous purple beasts. Nevertheless, they did not even know how they could possibly defend themselves against the creatures.

    When the armored mammal turn to face them, the saber-toothed marten leapt to attack the united duo. Consequently, they raised the left arm to guard the face.

However, they did not feel an expected pain on the lifted arm. Once they got a hold of themselves, they found that the marten, standing on hind legs, was trying biting into the flamingo red arm but its fangs were unable to penetrate biomechanical armor.

Subsequently, Nick shook the purple marten off and Judy then threw a straight right punch at it.

“On second thought, maybe we can fight...” Judy said after she together with Nick saw that the saber-toothed marten fell backwards due to the punch.

    Commanded by their instincts, other purple creatures charged at the armored mammal.

“Push the syringe and think about dodging!”

“What?” Nick and Judy, sharing the body, were distracted by the ram.

“Just do it!”

They pushed the silver syringe like he told them when the creatures got so close to the armored mammal.

“ACTIVATE”

    Not taking notice of what the device vocalized, both who were in charge of the body jumped up to avoid the lunging beasts.

    The next thing they registered was that the head tapped the ceiling. They did not think that the body would jump that high.

“Push it again twice! This time, think of speed and strength!” The ram yelled rapidly.

    The armored mammal flipped over in mid-air before pressing the syringe two times.

“ACT-ACTIVATE” The device spoke.

    The flamingo red rabbit with fox features kicked the feet against the ceiling, launching the body down towards those three monstrous mammal-like creatures, and then struck the hartebeest heavily with a fist. Its left horn was broken as a result, while the middle and the right ones remained intact.

    The armored mammal dived to the floor, then did a forward roll to minimize the impact of a height drop. Immediately after that, the hybrid mammal grabbed the beaver’s tail and cast the beaver to crash against the aardvark.

    When the scientist ram noticed that the saber-toothed marten got back up before sneaking up behind the flamingo red mammal, “Twist your handle back and finish off that weasel behind you!” he shouted to the united duo.

Nick and Judy in the same body turned back to find that the marten pounced on them as one, thus twisting the maroon handle and swinging one of the legs to kick the beast to the side in a reflex action.

“CRITICAL BREAK” The device spoke.

Surprisingly, the purple martes was sent flying through the wall by merely one strike. Even the duo did not predict this mind-blowing outcome. Fire smoke started to flow into the lab through a recently-made big hole in the wall.

“Alright! Show me what you’ve got!” Nick, feeling confident, struck a fighting pose.

    The rest of the purple creatures surrounded the armored hybrid, the hartebeest standing in front of the united duo. It then dashed forwards.

    While the armored mammal was rushing to collide with the foe, one of the flamingo red arms was pulled back by the aardvark's extended tongue that wrapped around the hybrid mammal’s arm.

Because of being distracted, the united duo were directly butted by the hartebeest. The armored mammal consequently fell back and rolled on the ground.

When the flamingo red mammal struggled to rise to the feet, the purple beaver tripped the armored mammal with its tail.

Lying on the back defenselessly, the hybrid mammal was about to be attacked by a small group of the monstrous creatures, so Judy skedaddled instinctively. In response to the urge to flee, Nick hit the silver syringe. “ACTIVATE”

The armored mammal ran away from the charging creatures at an incredible speed, coming to an abrupt stop in front of the ram accompanied by the unconscious fox body.

At the same time, the severely injured marten crawled through the large hole into the laboratory, its broken bones and fresh wounds healing remarkably fast. It was clear that the duo as they were at that moment did not have an ability to defeat even one of the purple beasts.

“I had a feeling this would happen… Without a doubt, the synchronization is still too weak.” The ram said worriedly, nearing the armored mammal.

    After that, he pulled the silver syringe of the black machine device on the flamingo red hybrid between a leporid and a canine.

Next, a dose of blood was drawn into the syringe and disappeared. Following that, the suit of armor released purple steam, then vanished, changing Judy back to previous unharmed state with her uniform undamaged.

“Eh?” She was surprised to see that she had returned to normal, looking at her gray fur and lighter-shaded-furred paws before touching her own face to make sure that there was no helmet covering her head.

“Nick!! Are you okay!?” She then suddenly thought of her fox friend.

“C-Carrots… I...” Nick, still lying on the ground, woke up in his original body, experiencing extreme tiredness to the point that talking was hard for him.

    The ram came back to the fatigued fox, pushing the syringe of the device which he was wearing. He remembered that the blood inside the syringe was supposed to be gone, yet he felt that there was a dose of some sort of liquid injected into him.

    All of the sudden, Nick regained his strength as the fatigue went away.

    The bewildered fox officer was helped up by the ram glancing at the purple creatures which were targeting him as well as two officers. He therefore advised. “There’s one survival option left-”

“What is it?” Judy asked.

“-but it’s seriously dangerous...” He commended.

    Nick directed his gaze to his bunny partner, his dear friend, then “We’ve come too far to back off. Lay it on me.” turned his face to talk to the ram.

“Pull your syringe and then push it right away.”

Subsequently, the tod followed instruction from the scientist ram. After he pulled the silver syringe of the device on him, he pushed it promptly before the device could draw his blood into the syringe.

“RELOAD” The black device he was wearing spoke robotically.

    This time, Judy was the one who lost consciousness.

“Twist your handle!”

    Nick twisted the device’s maroon handle back according to the ram’s order.

“I’m sorry.” The ram said. After the device uttered with a robotic voice "IGNITE", both Nick and Judy blacked out.

    They were unable to remember anything with clarity, having just faint memories of heat like everything was burning, tearing flesh sensation, sound of breaking bones and blood...

    Suddenly, Judy awakened, discovering that she was lying on side. Aside that, she also learned that all four of the monstrous mammal-like creatures lay dead on the floor with long and deep cut wounds all over their bodies that were disintegrating into vapour.

    Afterwards, she looked for Nick. She eventually found him and the scientist ram but something was not right.

    Nick, panting tiredly, was standing in combat pose with open arms, protracted claws and shocked expression while the ram was down on his knees before the fox, his bloody hoof in contact with the syringe of Nick’s device. The ram was obviously bleeding excessively.

“I’m really sorry.” The ram apologized again, pushing the syringe weakly. In consequence, Nick’s exhaustion left him, still the shock remained.

    The tod and doe officers had no clue what happened but it seemed that they successfully finished off the purple beasts and the ram risked his life to turn them back to normal.

    The ram then leaned against the fox weakly, so he and the bunny hurriedly gave the ram assistance to stand on feet.

“We don’t have time to waste...” The ram said exhaustedly. “Let’s leave before more of them show up.” He suggested, guiding others to a hatchback sports car on an underground floor.

    Back then, the car had only black color, no white doors and no pair of sirens.

    The duo helped the ram to enter the car. He told them that the car was linked to the devices. Therefore, they got into the car and transformed to the flamingo red armored mammal right before they departed from the asylum as fast as possible.

    The scientist ram was admitted to the closest hospital. That was when the duo learned the name of him, Professor Woolworth. Despite having a ton of questions, they could not ask him since he fell into a coma after that night.

    Beside that, more of the purple creatures made appearance around Zootopia from time to time throughout a year. These creatures were named ‘Savage’.

    With the devices called MidniDriver, Nick and Judy possessed a power to save the city from these monsters. Fight after fight, the armored mammal had the appearance changing and developed more forms, from the only red suit of armor to red full body armor with vertical blue stripe in the front middle of light green torso and grayish-tan lower body excluding the feet, which was later be called ‘Hustler form’, as they gained more battle experience.

In addition, they also had Police form, the form with police hat that could summon a sports car, and Archer form, the form with a hood and a monitor detecting movement.

    The bunny fox cop partners eventually became a hero whom animals knew as Hybrid.

. -. -.. / --- ..-. / ..-. .-.. .- ... .... -... .- -.-. -.-

[hannahberrie]

Something That Finds You: Chapter 8

Fandom: Zootopia Pairing: Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps Rating: T WC: 3259 Summary: “Love isn’t something you find. Love is something that finds you.“

In a time of tension in the land of Zootopia, Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps are arranged to be married as a symbol of peace and unity. The only problem? They can’t stand each other (the 8 year age gap doesn’t help either). A story following Nick and Judy growing up together, through all the good and bad.

Chapter Selection: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]-8-[9][10][11][12]

[AO3]

In order to prepare for married life, there were lessons.

Yes, lessons, meaning Judy and Nick were ordered to sit at a table in the manor’s study for the majority of their mornings and afternoons. They were trapped in front of a dusty, chalky blackboard, learning about how to run a manor, how to hire a staff, how to coordinate their outfits for dinner parties, or how to modify their family crest, among other thrilling topics.

While it was all rather (extremely) silly, Judy had never been one to do badly in school, and she wasn’t going to start now. She took notes feverishly, making sure to remember everything, no matter how silly or ridiculous. She wanted to prove to herself and to her betrothed that she was superior in some way; this seemed like the easiest way to do so.

Nick, on the other hand, was not as enthusiastic. He spent most meetings lounged back in his seat, doodling something on the corner of his parchment or making silly faces at her.

Judy wasn’t amused.

“Can you focus?” She hissed one afternoon. Their instructor was Miss Hufflethump, a stuffy-looking elder bunny with a dress that seemed to drape over her rather than fit her. She had turned her back to the two, scribbling something on the slate blackboard, which had given Judy the opportunity to snap at Nick.

“I am focusing,” Nick whispered back, smirking smugly. “I made a paper crane. Trust me, it required a lot of focus, Fluff.”

Judy’s eyes narrowed. “A paper crane?”

Nick gave a gentle push to the piece of parchment he’d folded into a bird. It slid across their shared desk and came to a stop before Judy’s incredulous glare.

“You’re welcome,” he winked.

“You’re so immature!” Judy whispered back harshly. “We’re supposed to pay attention! This stuff is important!” Okay, so the last sentence may or may not have been true, but it didn’t matter — she was trying to prove a point.

“No it’s not,” Nick snorted dismissively, turning his attention to another piece of parchment.

“If it wasn’t important, then we wouldn’t be learning about it,” Judy countered, though the phrase felt like it was more to reassure herself than to argue with him.

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that,” Nick muttered, rolling his eyes.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, really!”

Okay, now he was just asking her to prove him wrong. Judy’s paw darted up directly into the air, a determined frown on her muzzle. “Miss Hufflethump!”

Nick snorted at ‘Hufflethump,’ like he always did.

“Yes, dear?” The elder bunny asked, turning around to look at her.

“Will we be tested on this information?” Judy asked.

Her instructor eyed her, puzzled. “No?”

Nick snickered.

Judy kicked him under the table.

“There’s no test!” Miss Hufflethump said sternly, pushing up her dainty glasses. Evidently she hadn’t seen Judy kick Nick. “You’re going to be married within a year! This is all directly applicatory information!”

“That’s what I keep trying to tell her, Miss Hufflethump,” Nick said. In the time between Judy asking her question and the instructor turning around, he had sat up straight, ears perked with feigned attention. “But you know, she just won’t listen! You would think with such big ears…”  

Said ears flattened against Judy’s head. “You insufferable, ignorant, stupid—”

“Enough, you two!” Miss Hufflethump snapped, glaring crossly at the two. “Stop your bickering! Now, let’s return to our discussion for today; how to throw a celebratory brunch for your relatives!”

“How enlightening,” Nick mumbled.

Judy kicked him again.

The rest of their lessons went just as well. They would bicker through every dance class, every mannerisms lesson, every conflict resolution workshop (the last of which was highly ironic).

“Are you sure you two aren’t already married?” Their dance instructor had joked once.

Neither of the two were amused by this and continued to step on each other’s feet out of spite, just to prove that no, they weren’t.

While the two managed to remain civil in front of their parents, the instructors were bound to tip them off eventually.

And they did.

“I thought you promised you wouldn’t make a fuss over this!” Her mother lamented one evening. Judy was walking through the library nonchalantly, pretending like she wasn’t being berated for ‘accidentally’ spilling an inkwell on Nick’s lap.

“I didn’t make a fuss,” Judy replied, flipping open a random book — The History of Geology. “It really was an accident.” Okay, so that may or may not have been true. But Nick had deserved it! Nick had spent all of Miss Hufflethump’s lesson drawing mocking pictures of her. Doodles, really. Scribbles. Nick could go on and on about how he steered ships out of thunderstorms and how he was practically perfect in every way, but he definitely was no artist.

That didn’t mean that his amateur doodles of Judy standing over a mountain of vegetables as the “Queen of Carrots,” wasn’t any less annoying.

Her mother grabbed the book from her paws and snapped it shut. “You promised me, Judy. Don’t forget about your responsibilities to our people.”

“I know, I know,” Judy sighed, pulling her ears down and over her eyes. “I’m sorry. I haven’t forgotten, I just — Nick gets on my nerves! You should see the way he teases me!”

“You and your siblings tease all the time!”

“This is different!”

“How?”

“Nick is more…annoying about it.”

Her mother eyed her. “Do you want me to talk to him?”

“No!” Judy replied instantly (and loudly). Her mother looked alarmed by the outburst, so Judy repeated herself once more. “No,” she said, more calmly this time. The only thing worse than Nick’s teasing would be Nick teasing her for whining and trying to get her mother to solve everything. Like she was 5, or something. That wasn’t happening.

“Couples fight all the time, right?” Judy said reluctantly. “This is normal…I guess.”

“Yes, but, if he’s hurtful to you…”

“Mom, he’s not!” Judy assured her, placing a paw on her mother’s shoulder. “He’s never hurt me, not like that. He’s just irritating, that’s all.”

Very irritating.

Her mother looked relieved. “Well, that’s good. But Judith, please try to keep your behavior in check. Even if he teases you. We must keep appearances, remember.”

“Yes, mother,” Judy replied, and even though it was with a groaning sigh, she did mean it. Nick was driving her up the wall, and marrying him still wasn’t even on the list of things she wanted to do to him, but she did love her family and wanted to keep them happy and safe.

No matter what the cost.

Spring was steadily transitioning into summer, a rather insufferable one at that, and not just because of Nick (though that certainly was a factor). It was one of the hottest summers recorded in recent history, and Judy could hardly bear it.

She was perched by her bedroom window, exhausted after a long morning of lessons with Miss Hufflethump. The elder rabbit had a real fit with Judy today during a poise lesson. Nick and Judy had to practice good posture, as naturally, slouching even in the slightest would mean the end of the entire world, the entire universe, even. After Judy failed on multiple occasions to keep a book balanced on her head, Miss Hufflethump had lost in, going on and on about how Judy needed to take this more seriously, like Nicholas.

It. Was. Ridiculous.

And of course, Nick had gotten a kick and a pat on the back out of the whole thing (even though it wasn’t fair at all — everyone knew foxes’ heads were flatter and had smaller ears than bunnies). It had taken every ounce of Judy’s self-control to not go off on him again.

After such a strenuous start to the day, sitting by her big window and letting the faint summer breeze waft in was a welcome distraction for Judy. Though it still wasn’t quite enough. It was just about high noon by now, and the sun was blaring down so intensely Judy felt as if she could almost feel the weight of it, breathing down her neck, causing little beads of sweat to form on her forehead. Her 1000-pound dress wasn’t helping either. Something needed to be done.

The idea came to her on a hazy whim, one of the few coherent ideas she could form through this unbearable heat. She didn’t have any activities scheduled until dinner in the evening, leaving her plenty of time to sneak away and cool off.

She made sure to tip-toe, as she didn’t want to answer any prying questions as to where she was sneaking off to. She had to sneak past the servants, the staff, and just barely avoided her mother before she finally made it outside. Her destination? The Coney River, a small body of water less than a quarter mile from her home. The call of rushing water lured her out the front gates and around the back of the house, its cool relief beckoning her onward.

Judy ran down to the river giddily, cicadas humming and grass warming her feet. The stream was nestled at the bottom of a large hill, only a short walk from the manor. It led from the High Hills in the east and ran right into the western bay near town, but behind the manor, this area of the river was secluded, reserved only for the Hopps’ family. She knew her mother wouldn’t approve of her splashing around in river water, but when it was this hot out, Judy didn’t really care about what her mother wouldn’t like.

Glancing back and forth to make sure no one was nearby, she unlaced her dress quickly, leaving her only in her corset and drawers. Oh yes, her mother would certainly kill her if she saw her now. But once Judy hopped into the river, the last thing on her mind was whether or not she’d get in trouble for this. Instead, sweet relief. Cool, rushing, watery relief.

The stream wasn’t terribly deep, only 3 feet, possibly 4 in some of the deeper parts, but as Judy herself was barely 2.5 feet, the water was more than enough to engulf her. She dunked her head under the water, relishing in the feeling of the water rushing past her, soaking her clothes, smoothing over every last strand of fur. Her body felt deliciously numb and buoyant as the river reeds tickled her legs. No thoughts about wedding preparations or pleasing her family. Underwater, the world was silent and she could just float endlessly.

It was heavenly.

Until she came up for air.

She burst up from the water to catch her breath, and within seconds was greeted with an all-too-familiar, incredibly irritating voice.

“Hiya Cottontail!” Nick called out, walking over to the stream casually, paws behind his back. He was missing his usual suit jacket and instead wore a loosely-buttoned undershirt with a pair of trousers. Apparently, the heat was getting to him too. “Looks like you had the same idea as me.”

Judy’s first reaction was anger. Had he followed her?! He probably had. He was infuriating! However, her anger quickly evaporated into embarrassment. She was still only in her corset and undergarments! She was practically naked!

She masked her humiliation with a glare, dipping deeper into the water in an attempt to conceal herself. “What are you doing here?” She snapped, swimming back at he stepped closer. “Y-you need to leave!” She almost got away with not sounding nervous. Almost.

“It’s a public waterway, Fluff,” Nick snorted, eyes momentarily flickering to her crumbled up dress by the shore. “You don’t own it.”

“Well, we own the property! And this part of the river falls within our property line!” Judy huffed, growing more and more irritated by the minute.

“Well, we’re about to be married, so I think that makes it our property, wifey.”

If she hadn’t been in her undergarments, Judy definitely would have gotten up from the water and strangled him by now. “I am NOT your ‘wifey’!” she instead retorted hotly.

He shrugged and began to unbutton his undershirt. “Sure ya’ are. My future bunny wifey.”

Judy’s eyes widened as she glanced away quickly at the first sight of cream fur. She hated herself for blushing. “You’re insane,” she said tightly, forcing herself to stare at the water as Nick tossed his shirt aside. “Like, mentally deranged.”

“Maybe,” Nick said nonchalantly, and with that, jumped right into the water, causing a splash so large it jostled Judy in the water. He couldn’t have been more than 4 feet tall, so when he reemerged the water lapped around his upper chest. “I guess that’d make us perfect for each other, huh?”

Judy felt her cheeks grow even hotter as she continued to make a point of not looking directly at him. This was wrong. She wasn’t supposed to see this much of him! They weren’t married! She wasn’t even sure she would even want to see him like this, even if they were.

Well, she had two choices. Either leave the river, not only letting him win but also possibly roasting to death, or she could stay and try to enjoy herself.

Considering she could still see waves of heat flickering over the hills of Bunnyburrow, she chose the latter.

Nick wasn’t going to push her around anymore. He could tease her all he wanted, but she wasn’t a little baby anymore.

So she continued to swim, though she made sure to keep her distance from him. It worked for a short while, Nick swam on his side and she swam on hers. She wasn’t able to let her guard down completely, as she didn’t want to accidentally flash too much of herself to Nick, but it was still nice to swim around the cool stream. She found herself incredibly self-conscious of the fact that he wasn’t wearing his undershirt. As much as she didn’t like him, she found herself glancing at him now and then, watching as he took long strides through the water.

Whatever. He looked pretty dumb, honestly, with his little head bobbing above the water. His fluffy, fat tail did too. It splashed around, making small waves as it bobbing up and out of the water lackadaisically. It was sort of cute.

And the moment that thought entered her mind, Judy felt herself grow even hotter because Nicholas Wilde was not cute in any way, shape, or form. He was annoying, cocky, and completely lacked a sense of humor. There was no way that she could possibly think any part of him was cute.

It was almost funny that just as she was thinking this, Nick stepped in to further prove her point. The moment her back was turned, she was splashed. And not just a little splash, but a big huge one, one that made water go up her nose and into her lungs and flipped her under the water and everything.

It took her a moment to register what had actually happened, as one minute she’d been swimming about, stewing silently, and the next she was tumbling head over tail under the water. But by the time she came up for air, she was greeted by Nick’s loud laughter, and no further explanation was needed.

“NICK!” She snapped through a mouthful of water, coughing and sputtering as she wiped at her eyes. “I’m going to — cough — KILL — sputter —YOU!”

“You’ll have to catch me first,” Nick taunted, already making his way upstream.

He was so incredibly dumb. Like, the dumbest fox Judy had ever known. And yet, she found herself smiling as she pursued him, feeding off all the dumb laughs and fake cries for help he emitted as Judy pursued him. “Help!” He wailed as Judy approached him, though he could barely keep a straight face. His ‘help’ sounded more like a laugh than a legitimate cry of fear. “This bunny has gone savage! She’s attacking me!”

Judy snorted as she finally caught up to him. She was panting slightly, even though she knew Nick had purposely swum a little bit slower than usual. Why did he want her to catch him? Didn’t that ruin the whole point of the game?

Nevertheless, she wasn’t going to back down from a challenge. Once she caught up to him, she gave her large bunny foot a swift and large thump, causing water to spray all over Nick.

“Hey!” The fox yelped, wiping at his eyes quickly.

“Gotcha!” Judy smirked, feeling satisfied.

“That you did, rabbit,” Nick laughed, eyes twinkling with mischief. “But I kind of let you.”

“No you didn’t!” Judy protested (she knew he had).

Nick splashed her as a reply. That led into an all-out war between the two, splashing and kicking water at each other until they were both soaked and gasping for air. Judy found herself laughing, actually laughing. Was she…having fun? With Nick?

They continued to splash each other in the water until Judy’s chest hurt from laughing so hard and her arms were sore from flinging water around. She dunked her head under the water to avoid Nick’s continued splashing, only resurfacing once she heard that he’d stopped.

She popped out of the water again, greeted by the sight of Nick looking down at her with a grin. “Wait a minute Carrots; is that a smile on your face?”

“No!” Judy smiled, wringing water out of her ears and looking away. “You blind fox!”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a smile, Fluff. Which means I actually made you laugh.”

“You’re crazy,” Judy said flippantly, tossing her ears over her shoulder.

“I guess I’m not that bad,” Nick smirked, leaning in closer to her. He was so much taller than ever. Judy had to crane her neck to make eye contact with him, gaze intent on avoiding the exposed creamy fur of his torso. “I, for one, can think of several people that would be worse to be betrothed to than me.”

And there it was. That word, betrothed. It felt so heavy, so…weighed-down. Restricting. As she felt herself opening up to him, she found that it wasn’t a welcoming feeling. Was she actually starting to like him? Or was her spirit just giving up, forcing herself to settle for a situation she still wasn’t thrilled about?

Her conflicting emotions combined with his smirk was even worse. His admittedly charming smile had warped into that sly, teasing, vulpine grin that reminded her of every teasing for and every insult they ever shared. It all popped the moment and brought Judy back to reality. And the reality was that she was currently in the river with a half-naked fox, her drawers were soaked and clinging to her thighs, and she was angry again.

“I’m leaving,” she replied suddenly, pulling away from him.

“Wait, what?” Nick’s smirk melted and he frowned, trying to grab her arm. “What’d I do? I thought we were getting along, Carrots.”

Judy yanked her arm out of his grasp. “We’re not! We’re being forced to. Now just…leave me alone.” She forced herself to ignore the look in his eye — was it disappointment? Frustration? She didn’t want to find out. Hating Nick would be easier than dealing with the conflicting emotions swirling and tumbling in her gut.

Without another word, she pushed herself onto shore and redressed quickly, not looking back even when Nick called her name. Not Carrots, Fluff, Cottontail, Long-Ears, or any of the other stupid nicknames.

Judy.