Chapter Text
A/N
I don't own Zootopia, bleh bleh bleeeh.
It's my first FanFic published ever, and I haven't been writting anything since... i don't remember. High School maybe?
But I hope you'll like it.
Big thanks to blueberryandhoney- my beta-reader, editor, and if I sum up all her work here- almost co-founder of this story.:) You are the best!!!
Chapter 1
The plan was simple.
Find the street seller, check their license, and—if they didn’t have one (highly likely)—confiscate their goods and issue a fine.
Zero-efford job. In, out, report written, maybe grab a donut on the way back.
Other merchants in the area had been complaining for weeks about unregistered sellers stealing customers and undercutting prices. Apparently one had appeared near Jumbeaux’s Café just that morning, and the owner had wasted no time calling it in.
So now Officer Nicholas Wilde was walking down Zootopia streets on a warm Monday morning, weaving effortlessly through the tide of mammals crowding the main street.
Savanna Central was already alive with its usual chaos — cars honking, the smell of roasted peanuts mixing with smog, and every species imaginable trying to squeeze through the same narrow sidewalks. However months of practice at Police Academy—and a lifetime of dodging elbows—had made the fox a pro at slipping between hooves, trunks, and tails.
Eyes wide, he scanned the area in search of the latest “criminal mastermind.”
Suddenly, a sweet laugh caught his attention.
Not the mocking kind, not the forced kind either. It was light, pure, and so full of joy that it didn’t belong in a city this loud and jaded.
Nick slowed, ears twitching as he tried to trace where the sound came from.
And then he saw her.
His culprit, apparently.
A gray bunny, standing beside a small, pastel-colored stand strung with ribbons and handwritten signs that read Honey-Bunny Confectionery. She was handing out chocolate lollipops shaped like little rabbit heads, each one on a stick wrapped with a tiny bow. Her smile was radiant; her movements quick, bouncy, full of energy that seemed to ignore gravity altogether.
Nick froze mid-stride, watching her currently chatting with a pair of giraffe tourists.
She was wearing a loose, green, pawaiian style shirt slipping to expose her shoulders. And he was hard pressed to find a problem with that. Nothing wrong with that type of shirt at all, he decided. The type that showed off more than it covered. And the fact that it ended right below her breasts did nothing to fight against his decision. How could it? No argument stood a chance when her soft, white belly made a strange, yet pleasant, ache grow in his chest. An ache that only doubled when he realized she was sans bra.
Being a cop who graduated at the top of his class (and a red blooded male), it wasn’t hard to miss. Being observant was all fine and dandy, but this didn’t need his overly developed skills of observation. She wore no bra, the hem of her shirt fluttered in the most delicious of ways, and Nick caught himself staring.
"You’ve got to be kidding me."
Snapping himself out of his short-lived stupor, Nick composed himself. A brief glance down at his uniform, just to remind himself to stay worthy of it, he unconsciously smoothed the fur on his head as he slowly approached the bunny’s stall. Purely for investigative purposes, of course. She’s was street vendor after all. A potential offender. He had to do his job.
Now the stall came into full view: neat rows of chocolates, a small cooler in the back, and a handwritten display sign in swirling pink letters.
The fox decided to wait until she finished her sales pitch to those who stopped by. It gave him another moment — purely observational, of course — to take in the scene, as her back was to him. The very snug brown skirt she wore fit neatly over bunny's figure, and her fluffy white tail looked like a cherry perched on top of a birthday cake.
“Get your shit together, Wilde!” he scolded himself inwardly, dragging his gaze away. “This is getting really weird. She’s not even a vixen! Nothing about her is like a vixen. Even her behavior is typical for a bunny — bouncing around and… and… things. Seriously, do any of her antics look even a little bit sexy?”
Nick risked another glance. The happy flick of her tail gave him the instant answer.
He was simply doomed.
Taking a deep breath, he tugged his tie into place and told himself to act like an officer — calm, composed, absolutely not fascinated by the way the sunlight caught in her fur.
Some minutes later, the bunny turned and walked back to her stall, eyes closed from exhaustion, still a pleasant smile was glued to her muzzle. With a sigh, her eyes fluttered open and she noticed the fox in uniform standing in front of her stall.
Bunny's muzzle didn’t show any kind of fear, just a hint of surprise as she didn't expect him to be there. Then she smiled, that disarming, apologetic smile he’d already fallen for without realizing, and Nick forgot how to breathe.
“Oh! Hello there!” she said cheerfully. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have any more samples left.”
Nick found himself utterly lost in her eyes — those bright, violet orbs that seemed to pull him in like a tide. He had no idea how long he’d been standing there, staring like an absolute idiot, until his brain finally kicked back online.
"Professional, remember?" he reminded himself sharply, blinking back to life.
Trying to find his voice before his brain decided to melt entirely.
“Ah—” he finally managed do say, his voice creaking back to life, “such a shame…”
And that was it. That was all his highly educated, smart, smooth-talking mind could produce.
They looked at each other for a second too long, saying nothing.
"Perfect, now it’s weird. Great job, officer. Just keep standing there like a speechless creep, and maybe she’ll call animal control herself."
But before the silence could get awkward, her expression brightened. “Actually…” she said, hopping lightly toward a small cooler. “There’s one left. Well, sort of...”
She rummaged through the ice and pulled out a chocolate popsicle shaped like a bunny head — one ear bitten off. “This one was mine, but I didn’t have time to finish it. So…” She flashed him a playful grin. “…if you don’t mind sharing a slightly imperfect one?”
Nick was only vaguely aware of how dumb his muzzle must’ve looked at that moment, still not quite recovered from his swim in her eyes. He reached for the sweet she was offering almost automatically, barely conscious of his own paw moving.
When their paws brushed, he noticed how small hers was compared to his — soft, warm, impossibly delicate.
His brain fizzed and sparked like a shorted wire.
“Y-you sure you don’t want it?” he managed to ask, though something in his chest had apparently decided that breathing was optional now.
“Oh, believe me,” she said, waving a paw dismissively with a playful grin, “I’m slowly getting enough of those…”
Nick took a cautious bite, closing his eyes and trying to focus on the taste — not on the beautiful bunny standing in front of him. The chocolate was sweet, creamy, and cold enough to make his whiskers twitch.
When he opened his eyes again, he caught her watching him — or rather, his teeth — with open curiosity. It was probably the first time she’d ever seen a fox’s fangs this close. She smiled when he took another bite, clearly pleased that he liked her product.
“Hey,” she teased, her grin widening, “you realize we just kinda kissed by proxy?”
Nick nearly choked on his bite. The startled sound he made only seemed to amuse her more, and the sweet, melodic sound of her laughter filled the air around them.
“I’m kidding!” she said, paw over her mouth, still giggling. “A dumb joke from a dumb bunny.”
The words hit him hard. How could she underestimate herself like that?
A wave of irritation washed over Nick, making it suddenly difficult to swallow the bite in his mouth. When he finally managed, his expression turned serious.
“Don’t call yourself that,” he said, shaking his head.
"And the joke wasn’t all that dumb...", he added inwardly, his thoughts slipping toward less innocent territory. "Not that I’d mind a more… direct version of exchanging saliva..."
“Yeah, yeah,” she said with a half-smile that didn’t reach her eyes, her tone bringing the fox back from his dreamland. “Like that’s not what everybody thinks about bunnies — that, and being good at multiplying.” She gave a small, sad laugh before her gaze dropped. It lasted just a second, during which Nick didn't stand a chance to say anything smart to stop the bunny from self depreciation.
“Anyway…” She gave a little shake of her head, as if physically tossing the thought away. Her cheerful tone returned in full force. “I’ll be here tomorrow. Same time, same place. Today was supposed to be the only free-sample day…” her grin turned teasing. “...but for you, officer, I can make an exception.”
Nick would have smiled back immediately, if his brain hadn’t decided to short-circuit. For a long moment, all systems failed. He simply stood there like a fox statue.
“What’s wrong with you, buddy?” his brain scolded. “At least give her a reply!”
“O-okay,” he finally managed to say, still frozen in place. Then, somehow, his muzzle caught up to the situation and produced a wide smile. And then words. Many, many words.
“Thanks! I mean—that’s great! I’ll, uh, I’ll be here. It’s—uh—really nice of you. You’re nice. Like, talking-nice. But also not-talking-nice, I suppose! Since you look nice, too. Uh, I mean, not that I want you to stop talking, because that wouldn’t be nice. But, uh—yeah. It would be nice to see you tomorrow! ” he sputtered and stammered, the words reaching his brain and killing him inside, one syllable at a time.
“What. The hell. Just happened?”
The bunny had a quizzical look on her muzzle during Nick’s gibberish. Though the sound of her laughter, still sweet and happy, slightly eased the knot that formulated in his stomach.
“It would be nice to see you tomorrow, too, Nick.” She said gently before turning to pack her stall up into the push cart that held it. Nick could only stand and watch her quick movements, still embarrassed by his jumbled words.
Until it occurred to him.
He blinked.
"Nick? Wait—how—"
“How do you know my name?” he asked, finding his voice again, this time steady and actually belonging to a functioning adult.
She clicked the latch on her cart, folding the stand down into a neat little push-wagon, and looked up at him with a smirk that could’ve sold a million chocolates.
“Lucky guess?” the bunny said smugly. “Or maybe I can read minds? Oh! That’d be great for business.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully, her expression far off, as though she was considering how to acquire that kind of power.
Nick wasn’t sure he liked that idea. If she could read minds, the past ten minutes of his thoughts would probably make her file for a restraining order.
Then she looked up at him again and smiled — so sweetly that the chocolate popsicle suddenly tasted bitter in comparison. But before he could think about anything, she stepped closer. And closer. Close enough that the air between them seemed to hum. And with the way she leaned into him, he found himself hating their size difference. Had she not been a head shorter than him, their muzzles would have connected easily. But, alas, she was smaller, making her head leveled with his chest.
Nick’s heartbeat kicked, a sharp mix of excitement and panic as he met her eyes sparkling with mischief, now so close like never before. For one breathless moment he was sure she was about to kiss him.
Her paw landed gently on his chest — right over where his heart was trying to punch its way out — and she tapped her finger against it.
Right on his badge.
With his name on it.
Nick blinked as the realization hit.
"Smooth, Slick, smooth. The Nobel Committee is on the line — put them on hold, would you?"
Meanwhile, she rubbed it briskly with the inside of her wrist, polishing the brass until it gleamed.
“So…” she began, leaning back as her gaze lingered for a second on his freshly polished badge. When she finally looked up again, her smile could have powered the whole street. “Tomorrow then, Officer Wilde?”
Nick didn’t dare look away. He just nodded — slow, dumb, utterly entranced.
“Officer_Wilde.exe is not responding. Exit program?”
“So, bye then!” she said brightly, flashing one last smile before turning to push the cart away.
Too soon, she disappeared into the crowd. The second she was gone, Nick let out a long breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding. The world slowly came back into focus — the chatter, the car horns, the smell of roasted nuts — but without the bunny, everything felt simply off.
Like a jigsaw puzzle with one piece missing.
"Hold on, Nick."His brain snapped to life. "What’s with this romantic nonsense? Missing puzzle piece? Since when are you poetic? Plus you've known her for, what, fifteen minutes? You don't even know her name! Get a grip, you sap!"
He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed.
"Fine. I’ll come back tomorrow. I’ll check her license properly, ask her name… maybe a few other things too.
Fine.
Fine.
…Fine?
FINE!
I came here to give her a fine!
Bogo’s gonna kill me.
I just hope I’ll look good stuffed and on display in his office… or maybe he’ll go for the fox-butt rug. Or a blanket for a rainy day?
Time will tell."