Chapter Text
Violets in the Rain
Prologue
Violet eyes snapped to the sound of someone knocking over a metal trash can in the alley. Two of Zootopia’s blue clad police officers shared a look of apprehension and anticipation. Judy Hopps gripped her weapon tighter as she began cautiously heading towards the alleyway where the sound had come from. Her black tipped ears were at full alert, scanning the area like radar for any sounds that could warn her about what she and her partner were about to face.
Knowing that Nick Wilde was at her back, she slowly made her way to the corner of the old style brick building that stood at the entrance to the alley and took a quick glance around it before snapping back into cover. She didn’t see anything, but her partner with his vulpine enhanced night vision would be better suited for that. “I can’t hear anything,” she whispered.
Nick nodded and took a glance himself with his rifle at the ready. He relaxed slightly and began to slowly advance forward. Judy followed while scanning the balconies and fire escapes for anyone hidden waiting to ambush them. Both mammals advanced slowly and cautiously into the dark, each trusting the other even while their own hearts paced rapidly.
An explosion and gunshots back in the street they had come from made both swing their heads and weapons behind them. Both of them heard the panicked cries from the teammates who had been covering their rear as they came under heavy fire. Acting on instinct, Judy kicked off and sprinted back the way they had come hoping to save her friends before they were overwhelmed.
“Carrots, wait!” her partner shouted, but it was already too late, she was committed and had exited the alley into a battlefield.
Three of their team were pinned behind a car trading gunfire against multiple targets down the road. Another explosion blasted the car backwards making a cheetah dive to the side and into the line of fire. Judy aimed her pawgun down the street, but didn’t have time to draw a bead on anyone before several more shots cut through the air and straight into the downed body of the cheetah.
She gasped, but didn’t freeze up while firing three shots at a crouched hyena dressed in black. She felt the recoil of her oversized pawgun jerk her arms back, but she remained in control of the weapon. Her aim was true and the canine dropped to the concrete with a spray of blood that gave her no pleasure. She was a police officer to protect, not to kill.
Four shots behind her made her wince slightly and flatten her ears against the back of her head at the loud sound, but she smiled knowing that Nick was now at her side and assisting with suppression fire. The fox was three times her weight and was able to carry a light caliber rifle that, while not as powerful as what their larger teammates could wield, was still more accurate and had longer range than her pawgun. Nick made good use of that accuracy to shoot another of their adversaries straight in the head.
It was too dark for Judy to see the details, but she knew that there were still more mammals trying to kill them huddled down the street. Glancing over to the two surviving members of her team, she saw that the wolf and horned ram had made it to the limited cover of the other side of the street and were using various potted plants and stairs as cover to leapfrog their way towards the enemy.
The rabbit looked around for a way to join them and immediately saw something that might help. “Cover me, Nick,” she called to her partner then jumped up on a trash bin and up onto an awning that covered the entrance to a shop. Even while continued gunfire and at least two more bright explosions rang out, she hopped across two awnings then onto a small balcony. She was thrilled to see she had managed to advance around thirty yards down the street unseen and had the advantage of the high ground.
Looking back at Nick, she could see he had managed to move up to the entrance of the second shop and was firing his own rifle back at the black clad mammals. Another flash grenade went off, though Judy was not looking at it and was only slightly deafened by its loud explosion. She gritted her teeth as the ram policemammal took a shot in the leg and went down, but the wolf was there to help. She could hear that Nick was saying something, but the ringing in her sensitive ears from the flash grenade and gunshots turned it into garbled nonsense. She was the one on the high ground and in the best position to finish off the remaining two hostiles, that meant it was up to her to end this and end it she would.
With another leap from the balcony she had been on to another store awning, she was able to get a clear line of sight. She saw a mule deer crouched behind a parked car exchanging fire with Nick and shot him twice in the chest, killing him instantly. Her cry of victory died in her throat when a massive rhino she hadn’t yet seen emerged from the shadows carrying a stupefyingly large minigun and opened up. The doe cried out in terror as a hail of bullets ripped through the large potted planter that the wolf and ram duo had been using as cover. In two seconds, it had shattered to pieces and bullets ripped through her teammates.
Anger pulsed through her veins as she shot down at rhino hitting him multiple times but only managing to stagger him. He turned the minigun on her, but wasn’t quick enough to avoid taking a shot to the neck from Nick’s rifle and plowed headfirst to the ground. She scanned the area for more targets, but didn’t see anyone else and there weren’t any more gunshots being fired at anyone.
She stood up and looked back at Nick with a smile when she saw another figure emerge from the alley they had originally headed down. Her heart skipped a beat as she suddenly remembered the reason why they had even been in that alley in the first place: they had heard someone back there before being distracted by the firefight in the street. “Nick!” she shouted, but it was too late.
Her violet eyes widened in horror as the raccoon lifted a pawgun and shot Nick twice in the back. The expression on his face was one of pure shock and regret at his lapine partner standing above him. Her partner didn’t even have a chance to cry out before collapsing onto the street, his rifle clattering to the ground beside him.
With a cry of pure anguish, Judy lifted her own pawgun and fired until her magazine ran dry.
She didn’t see the raccoon go down, but she must have hit him because suddenly, her world erupted in light and bright green letters proclaiming: “VICTORY!!! Team ZPD Wins!” with a triumphant fanfare.
Blinking several times to try to clear the emotion that was causing her paws to shake and heart to race, Judy looked over at Nick. The fox was sitting a few feet to her right and took off his headset before turning from his own victory screen to look at her with a happy smile on his face. He gave her a thumbs up and waited until she took her own headset off before exclaiming, “Great work, Carrots, you got three of them and an assist on their Heavy. Great shooting!”
Her heart was still beating rapidly as adrenaline continued to course through her veins, but she managed a weak, “Yea, we won, I guess.”
A look of concern flashed over Nick’s emerald eyes as he stood up and crossed the narrow gap between their booths to put a paw on her shoulder. “You okay?”
She couldn’t hide that she was shaken. Putting down the controller and turning more to face her partner, Judy replied, “It was so realistic, I could just see our team get mowed down.” Tears formed in her eyes as she fought to keep her voice steady, “I watched you die, Nick!”
Nick’s ears fell back and his tail dropped to the floor. He knelt down to put himself at eye level with his sitting partner and took her paws in his own. Guilt made his voice slightly hoarse as he said quietly, “It was just a video game, nobody was hurt and I am right here.” He paused for a moment, then winced. Looking down, he added, “I am sorry, I should have thought a little more before getting you to play a game like this.”
Judy swallowed hard against the lump forming in her throat. Seeing her partner this upset when he was only trying to help her just made her feel worse, and that in turn made her feel even more distraught because she knew how it would make him feel. He had brought her to Gatzby’s Entertainment Zone, a giant arcade and games plaza, as a way to unwind from the chaos surrounding the Lynxley’s lies and their attempts to help Gary De’Snake reclaim his great-grandmother’s legacy.
It had only been three days since they found Agnes’s journal and were able to get clear of the immediate threat of arrest and imprisonment. Chief Bogo had received the anti-venom from Gary’s accidental fanging, but he was not yet fully back to duty and, as such, wasn’t able to properly get the paperwork for them to return. There was still a great deal of confusion, tension, and no small amount of animosity towards them for their flight after the Zootennial Gala and things weren’t yet back to any semblance of normal. From his hospital bed, Chief Bogo had ordered the pair to simply lay low and stay away from the precinct until he was able to get everything sorted.
As much as she wanted to get back into uniform and start working on the aftermath of the reptile revelation, Nick had managed to convince her to take a breath, slow down, and be patient. She didn’t want to stay home, but there wasn’t anything she could do right now. If there was anything she had been confronted with in the last week, it was that her impulsiveness could sometimes lead to problems and she needed to learn to listen to her partner. She had nearly lost everything that ever mattered to her because of her blind drive to prove herself and not plan things out. Realizing there was no point in fighting the inevitable, she reluctantly decided to stay home and lay low.
That lasted for just half a day before she found that she was bored out of her mind. She was an active bunny and being cooped up in that small apartment of hers was beginning to do terrible things to her mental state. She quickly called Nick and the two of them had been hanging out since, each trying to enjoy a brief break after nearly dying multiple times. It wasn’t quite as fulfilling as being on the streets facing criminals, but it did help pass the time and she would have to admit: hanging out with her best friend was a blast.
It was Nick’s idea to spend their third evening at a giant arcade gaming. She didn’t have too much experience with gaming, but apparently Nick was pretty good at some of them and wanted to see if she may be interested. It warmed her heart a little to see him trying to bring her into another part of his life, even if it was a bit silly and frivolous. They had been here for almost two hours playing random games and having a generally good time until she had seen his eyes lit up upon seeing a series of closed off booths advertising a game he had only heard of: Long Paw of the Law.
She had scoffed at the name, but had to admit that she had been intrigued when she heard its premise. The game was played online and featured teams of various sizes fighting on the streets of Zootopia and other major cities around the world. Players picked either one of the many law enforcement agencies or a series of villainous but nebulous criminal organizations and then thrown against each other to fight to the death.
Figuring that it was going to be easy since they were both actual policemammals, Judy agreed and was slightly thrilled to find that the game allowed them to create custom characters with quite a lot of freedom. To her shock, she found that rabbits were included alongside foxes and a host of over a hundred other species. Nick had scoffed a bit, pointing out that the rabbits were likely only included because of her and the foxes were probably meant to be criminals, but he was able to select a fox character to play as a ZPD officer along with her.
They had played several rounds and managed to handily win and beat the criminals, but everything fell apart on this last one. Judy had not realized how into the game she had gotten and, when she saw her best friend’s avatar get mowed down in gory detail, she didn’t realize how much it would affect her.
“No Nick,” she said after composing herself for a few seconds, “it isn’t your fault. It was a fun game, I think I just got a bit too into it. We did so well at first, but that was the first time either of us died and seeing it like that really shook me.”
With eyes still full of regret, Nick answered. “I know, I didn’t think it was going to be this realistic. Still, I was stupid to not think about what it would feel like if one of us died.” He paused, looked down, and said defeatedly, “We can leave if you want. I am sorry for ruining the evening.”
Remembering the joy she had seen from him while showing her games he had played in the past, she shook her head, “No, we don’t need to go, just maybe no more shooters.”
Nick was clearly not convinced as he stood up, taking her paw to help her out of the booth. “It’s okay, Fluff, we have been here for some time, it is fine if you want to go somewhere else.”
Mustering a half-genuine smile, she looked up and said, “There are plenty of cool looking games we can enjoy that don’t involve seeing digital representations of ourselves getting shot up.” She did her best to blink away the tears and adopt her normal perky self, if not for his sake.
“Okay, if you insist, we can keep going.” She didn’t think he was buying it, but appreciated he was willing to try to not let her spoil the evening. She pointedly didn’t surrender his paw as they left the shooter section of the arcade, instead enjoying the connection to her best friend.
There was a divide ahead that took them to two separate sections of the arcade. She saw something on the right that caught her attention so she started off, pulling her partner along. As she squeezed his right paw harder, her sensitive ears heard a soft yelp from behind her and immediately froze. She let go of his paw and turned around to face him, kicking herself for forgetting the injury he had sustained, an injury she didn’t see him get but that she knew happened during the Lynxley Case. “Nick, what happened to your paw?”
“Just got it all scratched up in some of the action. Not a big deal.”
That wasn’t very descriptive and she knew it. “It looks like it hurts.”
He rubbed his hurt paw nervously and covered the gouge marks on it. “Not too much, but it is tender when a certain overpowered superbunny decides to crush it.”
She tsked at him and slowly shook his head. She knew now that he used humor to deflect and she wasn’t going to let him revert back just yet. “Flattery won’t get you out of an answer.” Seeing the nervous expression on his face, she paused and something dawned on her. “Is that from your fight on the Weather Wall?”
He chuckled and shook his head, “No, Fluff, it wasn’t. Don’t worry about it, we have been through quite a bit and if this is all I have to show for it, then I will gladly pay that price.”
It was what she feared. She hadn’t noticed it before their separation at the Honeymoon Lodge and if he didn’t get it on the Weather Wall, he had to have gotten it somewhere in between while he was trying to escape prison to save her. “You got that because of me, somehow, didn’t you?”
There was a tiny bit of fire in his eyes as he quickly and firmly said, “No, I got it because there are bad mammals out there. I am able to make my own choices, and if there is some pain involved in those choices, then it was because of my choice and not your fault.” His features softened and he added nonchalantly, “Besides, if the vixens see this, I am going to be able to spin all sorts of tales to get tons of sympathy.”
She frowned at that comment and fought to hide the brief spike of pain that pricked her. He didn’t want to tell her yet and that was okay for now. She turned away and said mutely, “Okay, as long as it doesn’t hurt too much.”
If he could tell how the comment and deflection affected her, he didn’t show it much, but he also didn’t add any other jokes. The two of them wandered for a little in awkward silence until they reached a section of the arcade that featured predominantly racing games. There was a particularly impressive game station that had eight different booths around one central pillar where each player raced against each other live.
Intentionally forcing herself to focus on something else, Judy’s ears perked up when she saw the booths had various mammal sizes of realistic looking racecar cockpits complete with steering wheels, gearshifts, and pedals. Feeling her spirits immediately lift, she tugged on his paw. Looking up at him with pleading eyes, she gestured to the nearest empty game with a genuine smile.
With a single raised eyebrow, he said in a cautious voice, “Oh no, Carrots, you don’t want to do that.”
Keeping her face still eagerly optimistic as she detected his conmammal mask form up and knowing he was trying something, she insisted, “Why can’t we? Pleeease!”
The fox was unable to fully keep control of the sly smile that he normally wore while pulling a hustle off his face. She didn’t know if he even knew he was doing it, but after almost a year knowing him, she recognized his tells. “Because if you get behind that wheel, the amount of catastrophic digital damage you will unleash will be truly traumatizing. Everyone knows bunnies are terrible drivers.”
Judy let go of his paw so she could properly punch him in the arm. “Are not!”
“Au contraire, I seem to recall multiple vehicles that have not survived their encounter with one certain Officer Hopps.”
The rabbit pouted, “That was ONE train, and I wasn’t the one technically driving when it blew up, you were.”
“… At your directions, remember? Don’t forget the Lynxus two months ago that ended up in the canal.” The sly smile had turned smug as Nick reminded her of the ill fated luxury sedan she had been allowed to take from the precinct’s pool of low profile vehicles confiscated from various criminals and repurposed to serve the City.
Judy gaped, “That wasn’t my fault! I tried to engage a PIT maneuver to stop a getaway vehicle full of robbers. There was no way for me to know that there was a pothole in the road and that it would blow one of my own tires!” Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she asked, “Besides, how do you even know about that?”
Nick shrugged, “I was at the Academy, Carrots, not in prison. We did get the news, and trust me, cops talk about stuff like that.” At Judy’s little huff, he added, “If that was the only automobile casualty, maybe you could be forgiven. Remember Wolfard’s squad car? It took two weeks to fix it!”
“It was salvageable. I mean, I didn’t do that much damage to it. How was I supposed to know that the mammals we were chasing would throw out 5 gallon buckets of paint as we were chasing them?”
Nick chuckled at that. “You also took the top off that poor sweet Hog Rod when chasing Snootley. I bet it only survived because you let me take control after jumping into his van.” His eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers, “Come to think of it, that poor van is another Hopps casualty, this time with added corrupt politician sculpture damage to go with it!” The only reason why they weren’t likely to get into even more trouble from that disaster is because of their later revelation of Ebenezer Lynxley’s murder and the massive cover up that led to his family’s ascendancy and the disenfranchisement of the De’Snakes and all of the reptiles in Zootopia.
The insides of her long ears were beginning to heat a little, though even Judy wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or a rising urge to wipe the smug expression on her partner’s face. “Fine!” she exclaimed while throwing up her paws. “I may be a bit…hard…on vehicles, but that just means you are going to be able to easily beat me at those games, right?” She gave her own smirk as she batted her eyes at him. “I mean, you wouldn’t happen to be afraid of losing against me since you are such a superior driver?”
Nick paused for a moment, possibly realizing he had been outmaneuvered into playing the game. “Oh, no, not at all. I am going to absolutely destroy you. I am a master at Grand Heist Auto, so this will be a piece of blueberry pie.” He paused briefly and added, “If you really think you can beat me, do you care to place a little wager on it?”
Judy’s right ear twitched slightly in alarm as she sensed a hustle coming on. He liked his wagers and, while she did often win, there were a few times that he had bested her. “What do you have in mind?” she asked cautiously.
“If I win, I get to drive the cruiser for the first week we are back.”
Violet eyes went wide for a moment as she considered the suffering she would endure listening to him crow for a whole week about getting to drive the flashy new police cruiser she had gotten a few weeks ago just in time for him to graduate. If that is what he wanted to wager, then she would have to come up with something equally painful for him. “Fine, but if I win, then I get complete control of the radio for a week, and I get to pick where we go for lunch.”
Nick’s eyes narrowed at that, but the smile never left his lips. “Not worried about that, Fluff, so you are on!”
With a small squeak of happiness, Judy ran over to the nearest booth that she could sit at and smiled as Nick took one nearby. She quickly familiarized herself with the controls and began setting up her vehicle while they waited for the next match to start. They would be competing in a 5 lap race through Zootopia’s streets against eight other players here. Though there was a booth between them, the excited otter at the wheel wasn’t large enough to block her view of her vulpine partner. Even with six other players in the match, it was an unspoken agreement that the real battle was only between the two of them. She wasn’t going to let that smug fox beat her because then she would have to hear it for the rest of the week.
Glancing over at her, Nick smirked before pointing a finger at each of his eyes, then aiming a single one at her in the universal “I have my eyes on you” gesture. It wasn’t enough to distract her, not when the race was about to start, so she just gave him a stony glare. Seeing that, he switched to giving her a silly kissy face before sticking his tongue out at her. Despite her best efforts, it definitely caused her to blink rapidly while her ears began to turn pink. Seeing victory, the tod flashed her a genuinely warm smile before turning his attention back to the screen in front of him.
Groaning in frustration at his distraction, Judy tried to calm her fluttering heart. Throughout the year she had known him, there had been a pawful of moments just like this when he let her see through his mask. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, she could see the true nature of one Nicholas Wilde and it never failed to stir something deep within her.
She stood with him through the long months he was in the ZPD Academy, encouraging him when he was down and picking him up when he was overwhelmed. She worked hard to quiz him on the academic side and even spent a few of her days off running the obstacle course and training runs with him. More than once, she had sat patiently as he vented about Major Friedkin’s “You’re dead, Foxtrot” comments every time he fell on the course and the pain he was often in as a result of being forced to get into shape. She had wished to have someone to help her and encourage her while she was going through the Academy, so when it came time for him to go, she was eager to help. Seeing him graduate and join her as her partner was the prize she won for all of her time and energy and it was a prize greater than any she thought she would ever deserve.
Of course, that didn’t mean she was going to let the fox win this race.
Ignoring any of his other attempts at distraction, the rabbit’s face adopted the singularly focused, determined expression she was known throughout the ZPD for as she prepared to enter the game. A low rumble in her seat announced the beginning of the next match. Now, on her screen, a large traffic light began counting down to the start of the race. With a slightly manic grin on her muzzle, Judy gripped the steering wheel with one paw and stickshift with the other, ready to start and wipe that smirk off Nick’s face once and for all.