Chapter Text
On Saturday nights, when they weren’t working, they had a tradition. Watch movies at Nick’s place with the volume on super loud to drown out the elephants and constant clanging of exercise equipment above.
Judy didn’t grow up watching that many films. It was actually much too expensive for bunny families to go to the movies. The movie theater in Bunnyburrow was kept open by mainly young couples going on dates.
Judy never went on dates except for when her mother forced her to go to prom with a neighbor’s son, pressuring her to go accompanied. For another social outcast, he was surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, judgmental of Judy’s future occupation.
Her family would attempt to watch movies together, usually kids’ movies, but it’d always get too loud and out of hand. When Judy watched stuff alone, in her childhood bedroom, on her phone’s small screen, it had been CSI: Zootopia. She loved catching the inaccuracies and imagining possible future cases.
Nick, on the other hand, grew up on movies. Judy wasn't sure how he even had a catalogue of so many film references in his brain. He told her he’d sneak into his local movie theater and watch different movies for the entire day or until he rarely got caught.
He also spent his free time after work watching movies on his TV when Judy’s nose was typically in a book.
Nick decided that he had to give her a proper film education. They both didn’t have much to do on Saturday nights, when they were both off, so a tradition was born.
Judy waited a few minutes before knocking on the dull, gray door of Apartment 23 under Gym Trunks. She typically arrived early because she lived by the phrase, “On time is late and early is on time.” Nick didn’t live by this statement and she learned it was best to knock at exactly the time he asked her to get there.
And like clockwork, before she knew it Nick was at the door to greet her, “Welcome back to my humble abode. Pizza’s been ordered.” He gestured for her to come in with the movement of his head in his effortlessly cool way that Judy always was slightly jealous of. Even if she tried she couldn’t be as cool as him.
Her eyes scanned the apartment. “Every time I come here I see it’s slightly more cleaned up than the last.”
Nick shrugged, “I can clean up well when I have the inspiration to.”
Judy started making her way towards his couch. “Well, if these movie nights are gonna inspire you, I’m gonna keep coming over for them.”
Nick moved around her swiftly and sat on the edge of his couch, so he was at eye level where she was standing. He leaned forward. “You’re actually required to come to them whether I clean this place up or not because your lack of movie knowledge is tragic and you don’t have any streaming services.” Nick challenged confidently.
His close proximity to her and confidence made her breathless for a second. She didn’t want him to catch on, so she subtly made her way to the other side of his couch. While she moved, she declared, “I’m saving lots of money by not having streaming, so I can eventually move out of my place.”
“Who says I’m not saving money?” Nick smirked.
“Well, you could save more by not paying for Huluzoo.” Judy put her paws on her hips.
“There are ways to get around that…” Nick replied in a teasing voice.
“Don’t tell me you somehow illegally have Huluzoo.”
“Hey listen, it’s Finnick’s family plan that he may or may not be paying for.” Nick said with a shrug.
“Just be careful. You’re an officer of the law you have to be on your best behavior,” she warned.
“Carrots, you need to relax. I know nothing of it, just that my ‘cousin’ shared the account with me.”
“Finnick’s not really your cousin.”
“Well, in the fox world we’re all cousins.”
“You just stole that concept from bunny culture that I told you about.” Judy narrowed her eyes.
“Why can’t Finnick and I start our own fox customs?”
“Ugh! Nothing is simple with you.” Judy took a random throw pillow that she bought at Home Burrows for him, to spruce up his apartment, and threw at him.
Nick’s reflexes were good. He caught the pillow before it hit his muzzle. “Well, you wouldn’t love me if I were too easy to deal with. You relish the challenge.”
She did relish a challenge at work, but what had been going between her and Nick lately had certainly been an unwanted challenge. They were spending all of their free time together, texting any time they weren’t together, and had set up plans for the next few months. They never kissed or held paws, but they did cuddle sometimes when it got late while they were watching a movie. Clawhauser told her they were in a situationship. Given her absolute lack of experience with dating, Judy didn’t even know what that meant. When she learned the definition, she supposed Clawhauser was onto something, but told him she didn’t want to say or do anything that could ruin their friendship. It was stressful not knowing what to do about it. She really tried not to think too hard about her feelings.
Judy decided to not take things into more touchy territory and changed the subject, “What movie are we watching tonight?”
“Excellent question, pupil. Now sit down and be prepared to watch a classic comedy film called Raising Armadillo. It even has a cop in it, so you can pick it apart for its police inaccuracies. I know you just love to do that.” Nick pointed to his couch for her to sit on.
Judy rolled her eyes at his usage of the term pupil and his jab at her for picking films apart with inaccuracies about the police. She then asked, “Is this one of your favorites?”
Nick shrugged. “It’s really funny, but I’m not sure I’d classify it as one of my favorites.”
“I see you’re holding on to your absolute favorites, or you’re too embarrassed to reveal them,” Judy teased in a sing-song voice.
“I’m not embarrassed, but with that attitude you’re not ready for them.” Nick scoffed.
“Oh yeah, like I’m the one that’s not ready.” Judy replied sarcastically.
Before the conversation could continue, there was a knock at the door. “Well, the pizza’s here.” Nick sat up to get it.
Judy did wonder what type of movies he actually liked and if he was secretly into romantic dramas or comedies.
Nick set the pizza down on the table. “I got us a large veggie pie and some garlic knots.”
“Oh awesome! Let me know how much it was and I’ll send you the money through FurFunds.”
Nick shook his head. “That won’t be necessary. It’s on me.”
“What? No. I’m paying for half, Nicholas.” Judy insisted.
“You can get the next pie. I’m fine to pay for this one.” He counteracted.
“You better allow me to pay for the next one.” She warned.
Nick saluted her. “You’ve got it, Officer Hopps.”
Judy bit back a smile.
“Shall we eat while we watch?” He asked.
Judy nodded.
The film was humorous overall despite its far-fetched plot of a female coyote police officer falling for a coyote convict and stealing an armadillo to raise.
Judy pointed out discrepancies in the enforcement against firearms while her head rested on Nick’s shoulder. His arm was draped around her shoulders and his tail was wrapped around them. It felt nice and intimate, but she heard Clawhauser’s voice in the back of her head. Friends don’t just cuddle on the couch together, Judy.
The truth was Judy didn’t have any idea of what friends really did and didn’t do. She hadn’t had any real friends since elementary school. She had no idea what adult friendships looked like, however, despite that, she knew that Clawhauser was right. Nick hadn’t made any indications that he wanted to be more than her friend, though, so she wasn’t going to ruin a good thing. She didn’t want to stop cuddling with him on the couch.
Suddenly, her phone began to ring.
“Do you want to get that or send it to voicemail?” Nick asked, his eyes still fixed on the TV screen.
“Let me check who it is,” Judy shuffled around to dig her phone out of her back pocket.
Mom.
Judy shook her head. “Ugh, I’ve been avoiding her MuzzleTime calls all day, but now it looks like she’s resorting to a regular phone call.”
Nick paused the movie. “So, what are you gonna do?”
Judy sighed in resignation, “It looks like I’m gonna have to answer.”
“Good luck,” Nick said with a slight smile. He knew any time her parents called chaos ensued.
She stood up from the couch, partially out of nervousness and partially to achieve some sort of privacy. It hardly seemed acceptable to speak to her mom on the phone while she was resting on Nick.
Judy hesitated before swiping to accept her mom’s call. “Hi Mom,” she attempted to say in a cheerful tone.
Nick snorted at her failed attempt.
“Hi sweetheart! I’ve been trying to get you for the past few hours. Is everything all right?”
“Everything’s fine, Mom! I’ve just been really busy.” Judy had been purposefully avoiding her Mom’s calls because after the first call she did actually miss, her Mom sent her a text saying she wanted to tell her something. That was never a good sign and typically meant her parents were trying to meddle in her life.
“Well, I thought today was your day off, so you’d have time to chat.” Her mother said.
“I had a lot of errands and cleaning to do,” she supplied. She really wasn’t good at lying to her parents.
“You should let me know in a text, so I don’t worry about you. Luckily, I caught you now, so I didn’t tell your father. You know that would've sent him into full panic mode and we wouldn’t want that.”
“Yeah, we wouldn’t want that,” Judy agreed with a nervous laugh.
“So, remember my friend Susan?”
Judy did remember Susan and was suspicious of why her mother was bringing her up. “Yeah, you volunteered with her for the community garden project.”
Bonnie’s voice brightened at Judy’s response. “You have such a good memory, sweetheart! Yes, her! Well, do you remember how she had a son named Caleb?”
Now that Judy did not remember. It was impossible to remember every bunny’s kids' names given just how many children they typically had. “I really don't, I'm sorry.”
“Well, anyway, she has a son named Caleb, who’s your age and recently moved to Zootopia! He’s unmarried and working a government office job. You’re going to meet him next Thursday for a coffee before your evening shift at the Nibble & Sip coffee shop!”
Judy’s eyes widened at the overload of information her mother just dumped on her. “Wait, what? You arranged a coffee date for me?” She practically shouted.
Nick was holding back a full on chuckle at this point and visibly sat up on the couch to get more of an idea of what was transpiring.
“Yes, you’re single, he’s single. You both live in Zootopia. I don’t see the issue.” Bonnie replied matter of factly.
Judy was speechless, unsure of what to say to her mother. She stammered, “I–I don’t—”
Bonnie cut her off, “You always said you had no time to date here because you had to put all your energy into becoming a police officer in Zootopia. Well, now you’ve done that.”
“But–” Judy tried to interject again.
“And you also said that none of the bucks in Bunnyburrow understood you or your dreams. Well, now there’s a rabbit who may understand you! There really are no excuses for you not to go on this coffee date.”
Judy’s mind raced. She had to get out of this. She didn’t want to go on a coffee date with some random rabbit her Mom of all mammals picked out. She could say she was dating someone. The logical answer would be to say Nick, but that would open an entire can of worms she wasn’t ready to deal with. She also wouldn’t hear the end of it from her dad if she was actually dating Nick. Her foot would not stop tapping as she tried to come up with a solution to this mess.
“Judy? Are you there?” Bonnie asked.
Judy started walking back towards Nick on the couch as if he could provide her any support in this situation. “Well, Mom, you see, I actually can't because I already have a boyfriend,” she said and winced at the lie.
Nick mouthed “What’s going on?” to her.
Judy shook her head and motioned that she would tell him later.
“You have a boyfriend? Who is he?” Her mother exclaimed.
She had to think of something else now. Lying did make things worse and Judy hated lying. “Um, yeah, his name is Keith and he works in I.T. at the ZPD.”
“Who the fuck is Keith?” Nick asked in a low voice.
Judy jumped and gestured for him to be quiet.
“Is he there with you now?” Bonnie asked. She heard Nick’s voice.
“No, no, he isn’t. I’m just watching T.V. and was fiddling with the remote. The volume went up by accident."
“I’m so happy you’ve met someone, darling. Why didn’t you mention Keith to your father and I?”
“It’s, um, a new relationship. I just wasn’t ready to tell you guys yet, but yeah, um, surprise, I definitely have a boyfriend named Keith!” Judy realized just how silly that sounded.
“You know your father and I are coming into Zootopia in two weeks to see you. We’d really like to have him join us for dinner.”
Sweet cheese and crackers. Judy completely forgot about her parents coming in. This was bad. Really bad. She replied nervously, “Yeah, of course. I’ll talk to Keith.”
“You do that! I’ll let Susan know you can’t meet Caleb and I’ll speak to your father. You know he’s gonna have a lot of questions.”
Her dad would even be worse than her Mom. “Yeah, let Susan know and please don’t have Dad call me now. Can he call me tomorrow?”
“We’ll call you both on MuzzleTime, so I can try to make sure he doesn’t ask too many questions, but be prepared because I’d like to know about Keith too!”
Judy rubbed her paw over her muzzle. “Yeah, sure. I’ll speak with you both then.”
“Good night, Judy!”
“Night, Mom.”
Judy put her phone back in her pocket and threw herself on Nick’s coach with a groan.
“Okay, Carrots, I’m gonna ask again. Who the fuck is Keith?”
“My fake boyfriend, who I am allegedly dating, so I don’t have to meet Susan’s son for coffee.” She said before putting the throw pillow on her face.
“Yeah, that doesn’t really help me out as to who Keith is. Also, Susan?”
“He’s not real! And somehow I’m gonna have to make him real because my parents are visiting in 2 weeks!” Judy groaned.
“Yikes. Sounds like a tough situation. Couldn't you just tell her Susan’s son wasn’t up to your standards?”
Judy lowered the pillow from her face. “She wouldn’t have taken no for an answer and if I ghosted, it would make things awkward for my mom and Susan.”
“Well, we don’t want to get involved in that community garden drama, Fluff.”
“This isn’t funny, Nick! I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
“This is why the children’s books try to teach us to not lie.”
“Well, it’s too late for that.” Judy threw her paws in the air.
Nick sighed and pulled Judy closer to him. He rewrapped his arm and tail around her to provide some comfort. “You’re gonna have to either come clean to your parents, or have someone pretend to be Keith.”
Judy didn’t object and leaned into him. “Pretend to be Keith?” She repeated.
“Yes, pretend to be Keith. It can’t be me because your parents already know me.”
It wasn’t a terrible idea. While still practically cuddling with him, she opened up her Notes app on her phone, so they could make a list.