As much as she hated to admit it, Judy had been blindsided.

It had started out such an average Tuesday. She was on a usual coffee run for her coworkers at the ZPD. (Seemed like sometimes they only kept her around as their caffeine-supplying hare.)

Standing in line, she had everyone's orders jotted down on a notepad, cash she was given by each of them tightly secured in her wallet. Even though she probably knew all of the orders by heart, Judy never wanted to risk messing up and facing the wrath of Chief Bogo.

She hadn't been paying any attention at all to her surroundings until she locked eyes with her barista.

A fox.

Not like the saying, but an actual fox. That was the first thing that blindsided Judy. You didn't normally see foxes or most predatory species as baristas at the local coffee shop.

There was nothing wrong with that, of course. Judy herself was in an unusual role for her species.

The other thing that blindsided Judy was indeed, well...what a fox this fox was.

Tall and slender with inviting green eyes, something about this fox from the second the two met eyes immediately clicked in Judy's head.

Before she knew it, she was being snapped back to reality by the fox.

"Uh, hello?" The fox asked, snapping his fingers. "How may I help you?"

"Oh!" Judy exclaimed, jumping in line and bumping into a sheep behind her. "I am so sorry!"

The fox laughed, smiling at her. "So you're the cute little hare I've been hearing about getting a job in Zootopian police. What can I get for you?"

"Um..." Judy stuttered, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. "I don't know if you knew this, but when rabbits call each other cute, it's playful, you know? But when someone of another species says it, it's kind of...well..."

"Didn't mean to ruffle your fur, sweetheart." The fox said, cutting her off. "Now about those drinks?"

Judy was a bit ruffled by the fox's attitude more than anything. She could tell he was the type of person who might have more enemies than friends. Despite that, part of her found it kind of...charming? Was that the right word?

"I have three medium black coffees, one small coffee with a splash of cream, one medium vanilla iced coffee, two medium Earl Grey teas, one small hazelnut iced coffee, and a large Birthday Cake Zappacino with extra sprinkles," Judy stated, feeling embarrassed as she did so (as she always did).

The fox whistled. "Those all for you?"

Judy chuckled. "Nope, coffee run. Sorry if I hold you guys up or anything, I try to come when it's less busy-"

"Hey, it's what I'm here for."

Turning around, he patted a black cat behind him working on the blender on the back, startling her.

"And thankfully I've got you with me to help, right, Carrie?" The fox questioned.

Carrie hissed at him. "Just write down the order."

"Oh, no need, I've got it right here." Judy stated, ripping the little piece of paper off her notepad and sliding it over the table.

"Thanks." Carrie said, turning to her coworker once again. "You're going to help with these, not just flirt with the customer."

Judy's face went a bit crimson at the thought of the fox flirting with her...or maybe he had been doing so the whole time? Seemed like weird flirting.

"Wouldn't dream of it." The fox stated, turning back towards the blender with Carrie.

Judy got lost in her phone for a couple of minutes, checking her various social media sites and updating a few desperate coworkers that their fix was indeed coming before being blindsided yet again by the voice of the fox.

"Your drinks, madam."

Judy looked up at the fox holding her drinks with a puzzled expression. "That quick?"

"The power of modern technology." The fox laughed.

She took her drinks from the fox, thanking him as she left the coffee shop.

As she entered her car, she noticed some strange writing on her hazelnut iced coffee sitting right in her vision in the cup holder. Picking the beverage up, there was a clear signature written on the bottom of the drink.

Nick ❤️

How did he know...?

Another day, another coffee run.

Judy was hit with the delightful smell of the roasted beans as she entered the shop, liking it a lot more than usual due to the rough night she'd had. The station was dealing with a particularly rough case that was causing her stress day and night.

Sometimes she felt she had way too much anxiety over simple things, and it was times like this she understood the appeal of coffee the most.

She hadn't seen Nick since that fateful day (albeit it'd only been about a week or so, and she didn't run for coffee every day), so part of her was very pleased to see the fox again as she entered the cafe. There was no one in line, which meant she was free to shoot off questions that had been weighing on her mind since that encounter at him.

"Hey, how'd you know which coffee was mine?" Judy asked, approaching the bar.

"Um...nice to see you too?" Nick laughed. "What do you mea...oh! My signature. I was just taking a wild guess. I'm actually amazed I got that right. And I figured maybe if I didn't get it right, some other pretty lass would be made aware of my existence."

"Oh, I'm pretty?" Judy teased.

"What can I get for you?" Nick asked, dodging the bunny's question. "Same as before?"

Judy's eyes went wide. "Can you seriously remember what that huge order was I made a week ago?"

"Of course. Didn't you know foxes are known for their great memory?"

"Really. I didn't know that."

Nick laughed. "I made that up. So the usual?"

"Yeah, but, hmm..." Judy said, looking up at the menu board above their heads. "I'm feeling festive today. How's the carrot cake latte?"

The barista groaned. "Please don't make me make that. It's such an elaborate pain with all its little goodies, I'm praying for the day corporate gets in their heads to discontinue it."

"But is it good?" Judy asked.

"Well, yeah, but..."

"I'll have that instead of my usual. Still a small."

Nick sighed. "You are a difficult one..."

Looking for a name in his head, he realized he'd never asked the bunny her name. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"It's Judy." Judy replied. "Judy Hopps."

"Judy Hopps." Nick repeated with a frown on his face. "Doesn't sound right to me."

"Well, it's my name."

"Nah. You're Carrots."

"Pardon?"

"Carrots." Nick laughed. "It suits you quite nicely."

"Hey!" Judy exclaimed. "That's not cool, throwing out a stereotype out. You don't know if I even like carrots or not."

"Do you?"

"Well, of course."

"Aha!"

Nick held his hand up, refusing to hear an argument as he turned to the table behind him to make the drinks.

And when the drinks were made, he said something truly cringeworthy to alert her:

"Carrot cake latte for Carrots?"

Over time and several coffee runs, Nick and Judy bonded and developed a weird acquaintance-kinda-friends relationship. Nick knew her coffee run order like the back of his hand, except for the occasions where she just messed with him and made him whip together something difficult.

One day, Judy came in for the usual, and as she got in her car, noticed the Birthday Cake Zappacino was lacking any sort of sprinkles. A certain cheetah would not be happy about that if she left it unnoticed, and it simply wasn't like her usual barista to make a mistake like that.

Getting out of her car and reentering the cafe, she hesitantly walked back up to the bar up to Nick, who was almost...relieved to see her?

"I don't mean to bother, but you forgot the sprinkles on the Birthday Cake-" Judy began.

"I know." Nick interrupted, looking sad as he sighed.

"No, no, it's no big deal, really-"

"It was intentional, Carrots. I had something weighing on my mind when you came in today, but didn't have the guts to speak to you about it when you first came in. I knew a little mess-up like that would give me two more minutes to prepare myself."

"Well, spit it out." Judy stated.

"Yeah, Nick." Carrie butted in from behind him.

"You stay out of this." Nick snapped at Carrie.

Nick looked down at the floor anxiously, then back up again at the hare. "Do you...wanna go do something sometime? Like, that movie that's out, Furception, that's supposed to be good...would you maybe wanna, I dunno...see that?"

The fox's words sort of jumbled together as he said them, embarrassing him as he spit them out.

Judy gave him a bewildered look at first.

"Oh, man, I just made this awkward, didn't I?" Nick asked. "Forget I said anything."

"Shut up." Judy said sternly, startling Nick. "That sounds lovely."