Hello and welcome to sort of an intro to my first ever fanfiction! I hope you like it. Enjoy! - StoryCrusader

Prologue (well sorta but we'll go with it; You can skip it if you want.)

Nicholas Wilde hung his head low as he looked at the object in his paws.

The red-furred fox was leaning against a wall underneath a bridge near an old warehouse. He rotated the carrot-pen in his paws absentmindedly while he pondered about the past few days.

He sighed and placed the pen back in his pocket before dawning his sunglasses and plopping down onto the lawn chair that was setup in the sunlight out from underneath the bridge.

A war of emotions and thoughts was being waged inside the usually clear headed fox. The events dealing with a certain rabbit were the focus of this war.

Had I been too hard on her? I mean, what she said at the press conference had been honest and could very well be the truth for all I knew.

Nick let out a sigh. He took out the pen again to feel it in his paws. His ears laid back as he rested his head against the backrest of the chair. He closed his eyes and thought back to when the rabbit in question, Judy Hopps, had hustled him using this very pen. That was the first time he felt something connect between him and the bunny. The day she found out about Nick and Finnick's hustling operation, Nick had thought the bunny as pathetic, chasing an impossible dream.

'This is Zootopia, where anyone can be anything.'

Judy's sweet voice rang in his head. At the time, Nick didn't believe it. His past had convinced him that he could not be anything more than a sly, up-to-no-good fox. If he couldn't achieve his dreams how could a little rabbit achieve hers. He had laughed inwardly at her. He had belittled her, made her feel worthless. He had seen the pain in her eyes and had figured he had succeeded at convincing her that she was wasting her time chasing an impossible dream.

But, Nick had underestimated that bunny. So much so that when they met again, he was surprised at her sheer determination, even more than the fact that she had managed to hustle him, the sly and cunning fox, into helping her with her case. He could not have been prepared for what happened next.

After the hustle, the fox couldn't help but to start questioning his own doubts about achieving his own dreams. But more than that, he also began to respect the doe and even started to enjoy her company, and when she saved his life that night in the rainforest district, Nick felt dedicated to right his wrong and was willing to go to any lengths necessary to help her fulfill her goals and make a difference.

After they had tracked the missing animals to that medical facility and Judy's career had been spared from destruction, Nick felt something he never felt before towards anyone: pride. The fox actually felt sincere pride for the bunny. But at the press conference when Judy talked about the predators possibly converting back to their primal-biological selves, something snapped inside Nick.

He felt betrayed, angry, tricked into having feelings toward the rabbit. He had trusted the rabbit, but when she said what she said about predators and biology, Nick felt his heart being crushed in that very moment. It made him feel the familiar feeling of being incapable of achieving his own dreams because he was a fox and a predator and that no one will ever him as anything else.

The only one, a rabbit of all things, to ever give him hope and determination to overcome the predator-fox stereotype had just crushed that very same hope.

Nick felt a tear come to his eye and quickly wiped it away, afraid someone will notice even though he was alone. It was not normal for the fox to shed a tear, or let any sign of emotion show for that matter, but for the first time in years he couldn't help it, and he didn't know why. The fox played the recording on the pen and managed a grin as he listened to his own voice in the recording.

Sly bunny.

Nick let out a chuckle, and another tear fell. He wiped it away.

Dumb fox.

He remembered her saying how he could actually make a pretty good cop. The words from her lips was enough for him to believe it, but now it was too late.

He had hurt the very rabbit who could have helped him out of this life he lived. He always talked and went about his life like it was everything he had ever wanted, but that was not true at all. He had to live his life under the stress of constantly trying to stay two steps ahead of the cops as well as all the animals he had ever hustled.

He lived under a bridge. When it rained, he could not stay under said bridge because it flooded, so he had to move, usually to the abandoned warehouse nearby. He had little to no clothes other than the ones he wore. He had to hustle people for money to buy food and other necessities. His life was horrible, and some of the things he had done to others were equally as horrible.

It had took Judy for Nick to realize how broken his life had come, and he had relied on that same bunny to help him fix it. But, she was gone now. He had pushed her away.

It had been months since the press conference. Since then, Judy had quit the force and moved back home, and Nick was worried she would never come back. The rabbit felt guilty.

And the dumb fox feels guilty for causing the rabbit to feel that guilt.

Nick sniffed and regained his composure. He wished she would come back. The fox knew that if she didn't he might have to track her down because of his own guilt. He still felt hurt from what she said, but felt even more pain for what he himself had said to her afterwards.

If only she would come back.

"Nick!"

Nick's ears shot up when he heard the distant call.

Judy?!

His heart nearly jumped for joy, but he kept calm and quickly slipped into the calm-but-still-mad-at-you façade. He swiftly pocketed the pen, grabbed the light reflecting object next to him, and acted like he was sun tanning. He could hardly keep himself from smiling with joy as he heard her shout again. He finally spied the grey furred rabbit atop the bridge saying his name before finding her way down to him. All the while, a plan quickly formed in Nick's mind that almost made his tail wag at the thought, but he suppressed the action.

He could not be mad at the rabbit, in fact he felt nothing but compassion for her as she slid down the slope. He was just happy that she had came back. By the looks of it, she may even had figured out another piece to the puzzle that may disprove the whole 'predators reverting back to their primal nature' thing. Nick didn't care. He felt the carrot-pen in his pocket. All he wanted was the rabbit to say how she really felt, no simple 'I'm sorry' will cut it, and he will keep up the act for as long as it took for her to do so AND record her saying it. There was a high chance that she will say something that Nick could not allow her to forget anytime soon.

With a final mental smirk, Nick pretended to take notice of the rabbit for the first time.

He owed his life to the bunny, but he could not allow himself to pass up this opportunity. He could come out right away and say that all is forgiven, BUT….

The fox hid his grin away from Judy.

Where will be the fun in that? Hehehe!

AND! Scene! Well that was that. Pretty short? I know. It is sort of a teaser anyway of the emotional lunacy that is to come, although it may take me a while to develop and write.

Don't worry, the story is not going to be this emotional all the time. Like I said, this is sort of a foreshadowing of the underlining emotional conflict of the actual story.

Anyway, I hope you liked it! If you watched the movie, you have probably picked out when this whole scene unfolded and which scene it opened up to at the end. ;) Well I hoped that this made you look at that scene a bit differently now as well as how Nick himself felt after the press conference. Hoped you liked it! - Story Crusader

P.S. If you can, please please tell me how I did in a review. I really want to publish only the best material. So, if there is something that you think could have made it better, I would like to know about it so I can work on it later. Thanks!