Hello guys!

God, I try so hard not to work at so many fics at once, but this idea just hit me and I had to work with it! Zootopia is my new obsession and I've been trying to come up with a story for it. Considering how Nick is my favorite character and I adore sibling stories, this is what came up in my head.

Also this is just a very vague and short prologue; some of its details will be brought up and explained later on. It just seemed to be the best way to start the story. I promise next chapter will be longer, better and set on the present.

Also, since Nick's full name is Nicholas; I named his brother Richard so that his nickname would be Rick. I just thought Nick and Rick sounded cute. Since in Zootopia animals age like humans, Nick is 10 and Rick in 16 in this flashback.

Well, I hope you like it!

Empty.

That's how it felt when Rick's eyes fell upon the cold piece of stone where his mother's name had been carved in, a painful reminder that she had ceased to be. He tried to understand that she no longer existed, but it was like his brain refused to acknowledge that. Deep inside, he still hoped that when he got home she would be there, waiting for him to give him dinner and tuck him into bed with a soft goodnight.

But that was never going to happen again.

The cold wind blew, fluttering his orange fur. Rick felt a shiver going down his spine, but he was too focused on the tombstone in front of him to care for the cold weather around him.

What was he going to do now? He was all by himself. Things were already hard enough when he had both his parents with him, now everything was surely going to collapse at once...The ruins that long struggled not to fall would finally lose what fragile strength kept them together all that time and become nothing but ashes.

Rick was brought out of his thoughts when a little cold hand closed around his.

"Rick?" A soft voice called him.

The older fox shook his head back to reality and looked down at his brother, who looked at him with scared eyes. His face was still wet from all the tears he had shed that afternoon that they spent in their mother's funeral.

Rick sighed and held Nick's hand back, closing his fingers tightly around the little fox's paw as he forced a smile. He was so sad that his face almost hurt when he did so, but he needed to be strong for his little brother. Even if it was all an act, Nick had to believe he was fine.

"I'm cold." Nick said, closing his eyes and leaning his forehead against the side of Rick's body as he shivered, drying his tears on his brother's shirt.

"I know." Rick said with a sigh. He released Nick's hand and bent over to grab Nick, taking the smaller fox in his arms. Nick wrapped his arms around Rick's neck and rested his head against Rick's shoulder as Rick hugged him and tried to keep him warm. "Let's go home. It's getting late."

Rick took a last look at their mother's grave before turning around to leave the cemetery. Nick sniffed as his brother carried him out of that awful place, quietly watching it as the grave got smaller and smaller with each step his brother took. He could not bear to look anymore, so he closed his eyes and buried his face deeper into his brother's shoulder. Rick noticed and rubbed his brother's back to comfort him.

"It's alright to cry." He whispered, both to himself and to his brother. "I miss her too."

Nick waited until he heard his brother opening the old gate of the cemetery and then he heard him closing it behind him, meaning that they were finally out of that place. Only then he was brave enough to open his eyes again.

"What will we do now?" Nick asked, pulling himself away from Rick's shoulder so that he could look his brother in the eye.

Rick's heart broke inside his chest when he saw Nick's watery eyes looking at him in confusion and doubt. He wanted to smile true and tell his brother that everything was alright, that they were perfectly fine and that he had a plan to get them out of that situation; but that would be a lie. If anything, he was as lost as his little brother was. Or even more.

"We will be alright." Rick assured, a smile disguising his doubts about his own words. He stopped walking and put his brother on the ground, kneeling down to look at Nick in the eye. He then took Nick's hand and caressed Nick's head with his other hand, wiping his eyes in the process. "I know things may seem complicated right now, but we will be ok. We just have to... Do our best to carry on. But I need you to be strong to help me. Can you do that for me?"

Nick nodded, sighing. "I'll try."

"Thanks. Now come on," Rick stood up with his brother's hand in his and began walking again, "Let's go home."

Nick jogged to get by his brother's side before he could be pulled by Rick's grip on his hand, walking faster than usual so that he would be by his brother's side - which was a little hard since Rick was taller and had longer legs than Nick did. Every one step he took, Nick had to take two.

"Hey, Rick?" He called as they walked.

"Hum?" Rick responded without looking at Nick and still walking.

"You won't leave me, will you?"

That got Rick to stop in his tracks and frown, looking down at his brother with a confused face. Nick looked up at him as he waited for an answer.

"What? What kind of question is that?" Rick watched as Nick's hand slip from his.

"Well..." Nick said as he rubbed his hands together, looking down as if he was nervous. "First, it was dad. Now mom's gone too. It's like... It's like everyone I know is going away one way or another, I don't understand. The only one I have left...The only one I have left is you. Are you going to leave me as well?"

"Nick, I..." Rick shook his head in disbelief. "Of course not! I'm never going to leave you. Especially not now. We'll always be together, no matter what."

Nick looked up at Rick and sighed. "Promise?"

"I'm not going to leave you."Rick straightened himself up and drew an X in front of his chest with one hand as he held out the other."Promise."

Nick smiled. "Alright."

"Yeah. Now let's go home, alright? It's getting cold." Rick said as he took Nick in his arms again, so that they would get home faster as Nick walking slowed him down. Nick sighed and rested his head against Rick's shoulder again, closing his eyes so that he could feel the motion of his brother walking. As he breathed and took in his brother's scent, his smile grew wilder.

'I'm not alone.' Nick thought to himself. 'He's here. We'll be ok.'

And so he fell asleep on Rick's shoulder, unaware of all the lies he had just been told; and that he had told himself without knowing.

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it!