December 24th

9:12 am

The usually bustling cafeteria reflected more the ambience of a library than what was every morning the whirlwind of movement that stampeded through the wide room. Clinking of forks and utensils across plastic trays could be clearly heard from across the array of tables, and the only mammals that let their voice rise into the hushed atmosphere did so barely above a whisper. The morning rush had become far more subdued in the past few days, as it was the morning of Christmas Eve, and all mammals that intended to go home for the holidays had taken their leave in days prior, all except one.

Nick walked down the isles of empty tables, sauntering across the room made for mammals four or five times his size at a leisurely pace. The claws on his hand paws clicked across the tiled floor with every step he took, and the small, constant sound echoed throughout the cafeteria. The fox's tail swished behind him, sticking out a pair of camouflage cargo pants with a dark blue pattern, and he brought his paw out of his pant's pockets to buff the sharp claws across his light blue T-shirt with a Zootopia Police Academy insignia on the breast. Inspecting them with his usual lidded smile, he returned it to his pocket, satisfied.

In the fox's other paw, he carried with him a beaten and weathered styrofoam cup, patterns and simple pictures cut into the side around the cartoonish depiction of a two heads, one fox and one bunny. The contents jingled, and the metal disks within bounced with him every step that he took. Nick glanced around the space, inspecting again the relative desertion of the ZPA cafeteria. There remained a few mammals slowly eating their breakfast. Most of them were off on their own, reading books or playing on their phones, but some congregated in small groups, laughing and talking in hushed whispers to each other in the quiet room.

The ZPA buildings were practically archaic by modern standards, but Nick found himself surprised by how used to he was already to the brick and mortar architecture and the old, creaking wood. It was not dissimilar to what most of the southwest side would look like if it had been properly cared for, and the old, frigid tiles that bit at his pads on his way across the room seemed appropriately dated for the building. If he was to be honest, he would have said he expected something a little more modern, but he enjoyed it all the same. Nick was used to being generally smaller than what things were made for, and it did not take him long to get used to life in the ZPA.

A wolf on the other side of the room barked out a laugh at the behest of a panther's joke, and his voice traveled throughout the artificial light, echoing off the ivory tiled walls easily. Nick's smile grew wider as he reached the end of the tables, walking out into an open area in front of a wall of brick pillars, each one with a similarly built arch that connected the row, framing the counters and food stations that opened up into the kitchen behind. The fox took a sharp right, following the edge of the array and towards a brick wall with an enormous ZPA insignia painted on it. Below the insignia hung a paper banner with the caption 'Happy Holidays'.

The entire room was almost three stories at its tallest point, accommodating some of the largest mammals that walked the planet. The north wall held the brickface with the giant ZPA insignia, the east and west walls were covered in an ivory tile in what spaces that weren't opened up to the kitchens beyond, and the south wall, behind the fox, had a row of glass doors looking out into the flurry of snow that was slowly blanketing the campus. Tables that were meant to seat mammals of all sizes and shapes were arranged throughout the space, bolted into the weathered, white tiled floor.

Nick reached the edge of the array, coming up to the base of the brick wall where a collection of payphone fixtures were attached to the wall. Much like the rest of the building, they were old but well cared for, their shiny chrome plating and light blue paint only slightly scuffed at the edges from age. The fox stopped just short of the tallest fixture, though it was still larger than many of the payphones back in the city. He reached out to grab the handle of a fold out step, pulling on the rubber coated bar so that a steel checker plate step fell into a horizontal position. With some effort, he pulled himself up onto the the step so that he was right in front of the payphone's face.

Reaching up with his paw, Nick sat his styrofoam cup up on the top of the fixture, retrieving three coins from the open top. The fox jingled the coins around in his closed paw, reaching out to grab hold of the pawset twice as large as he was used to. He may have not been overtly bothered by everything else being built too big for him, but the payphone was an exception. When Nick had left for the academy, he had made a familiar promise, telling Judy he would call her every night. It was a routine that he had been very consistent with, and he usually scarfed down his food in order to talk to her longer before the cafeteria was closed.

The mechanism that the pawset rested on clunked loudly as he pulled it off the face of the fixture, draping it over his shoulder like a hook. He stopped jingling the coins, and one by one, Nick slotted the quarters, pushing them the rest of the way in with his thumb before dexterously pulling out another with just one paw. Once all three of them were inserted, he punched the pound sign on the dialpad, following it up with a rapid flourish of his fingers to enter in Judy's number, something he had found himself doing absently on his desk during long sessions of study it had become so ingrained in his mind.

With both paws, he grabbed onto the oversized pawset draped over his shoulder and lifted it up to his ears, the faint ringing becoming a droning electric hum when it finally reached the side of his head. Nick was usually the only one to use the fixtures, and because of that he almost never found himself having to turn the volume knob, which was what made the painful volume worse. Darting his paw to the ridged metal dial, he twisted it almost to mute with a grimace on his face, which made him lose balance of the pawset, which he just barely caught again. Groaning, Nick carefully got a better grasp on the clunky piece of plastic in his paws, only twisting the volume knob back up when he was sure he wasn't going to drop it.

The receiver's droning hum returned as he stared daggers at the volume knob, silently hating the payphone in front of him for all the grief it had given him. If he wasn't the only mammal currently enrolled that couldn't use the larger fixtures normally, he would spam the faculty with anonymous letters complaining about it. Halfway through one of the ringing cycles, it was cut off and the receiver was filled with a static clamor off an echoey background. From what he could tell, all the muddied voices were female, and the ambience sounded like she was stuck inside a fridge.

"Nick?" Judy asked cheerfully into the microphone, her smile shining through her voice. Nick could hear her messing with something, and sharp metal creaks echoed through the receiver.

"Hey, Carrots," he replied with his own smile, and he turned his body to glance over the cafeteria. The fox leaned back into the face of the payphone, being sure not to press into the various buttons and dials, and swished his tail around to cover his hind paws. The cafeteria was heated, to be sure, but with just a couple panes of glass and a single measly airlock between him and a blizzard - and the fact that the mammals running the ZPA were apparently sticklers on matters of energy efficiency - it wasn't exactly cozy in the large room. "How's it going?"

"Pretty good," she replied, humming lightly over the airwaves, causing a smile to split the fox's face. Judy's voice had been his lifeline in the academy, and the few times they had gotten to hang out since he had left were few and far between. If the rigorous training had ever put him in a bad mood, all it would take it one of her dorky pep-talks and he felt like he could do it all over again. "It's cold, but other than that everything's great!"

Nick hummed back at Judy, and allowed his eyes to unfocus as he listened to her, trailing over the large space in front of him. Over the sparsely populated tables, the snow continued to whirl around the cold outdoor air, falling onto the ground with a forceful onslaught. He thought it was surprisingly light out for how hard the snow was falling. "Oh, yeah?" Nick asked, raising his eyebrow again at the background noise he could hear around her. "Are you off work yet?"

"Uh-huh," she chirped, and the fox heard her press the phone between her cheek and shoulder, freeing her paws for something. "Snarlov just relieved me at the parade." A low hiss shot though the receiver, and to Nick it sounded like an old shower being brought to life. "I'm in the locker room right now, getting ready to head out."

Nodding his head in response, it made sense to him with the amount of noise that was coming from wherever she was. He listened to her fuss with something on her end, and the sound of metal creaking right next to the microphone told him she was probably getting dressed right that moment. The image that immediately popped into his mind was not one that he believed was appropriated for best friends. "They went through with it, huh?" he asked with little interest, though he enjoyed her voice enough to feign interest in just about anything. "I thought the city got a couple inches of snow."

"We did," she replied, the sound of her ripping her shirt off of a hanger in her locker coming through the receiver. Judy sucked in a shrilled breath through her lip in thought. "They might be cutting it short here in a few. They tried to get Rampyke to cancel it, but he really wanted it to happen this year." While she was talking to him, her voice alternated in closeness to the microphone as she slipped her arms through her sleeves, and when she was done she stuck the phone back between her cheek and shoulder to work the buttons. "The Chief's over in the staff room watching the weather right now. I think he's going to call it if the snow gets any worse."

Nick groaned loudly, putting up his distaste a little more than he actually felt. "I wish Major Hardass would have called off the pre-dawn run," he said bitterly, receiving a breathy giggle from the rabbit on the other end of the line. The fox shook his head in mock disbelief, throwing a paw up to wipe down his long snout. "You'd think she'd have a more festive spirit and let us off easy on Christmas Eve." Snorting in clear dismissal of the previous statement, he continued in a droning tone. "All she did was push the schedule forward a couple hours."

"Hey!" Judy interjected, and he could tell she had stopped what she was doing to focus on talking on the phone, something he had found incredibly endearing. Nick could vividly imagine her finger out in front of her, pointed directly 'at' him despite the fact that he was nowhere near. "Major Friedkin is a fantastic drill instructor. She might be a little rough around the edges, but she gets you motivated when you need it."

Replying with something in between a dry laugh and a scoff, Nick chuckled while he was trying to reply. "Okay," he said in a shaky voice filled with mirth, rolling his lidded eyes. "I must have gotten her sister then, because this one is only motivating me with spite."

Judy replied by laughing along with him. "Hey," she said absently, and he could hear her whip out another piece of clothing. "If it works…" Nick chuckled back at that, and they fell back into one of their usual silences, only it felt a little strange to Nick considering he was listening to her dress. The doe was the one to break the silence, though only after he heard her struggle to put on her pants with only one paw. "So you're just getting done with breakfast?"

"Yup," he replied, nodding his head. The fox's eyes snapped over to the kitchen, watching a number of the staff clean up the mess that they had generated from preparing breakfast. Nick did not eat much of it. He had some of the generic fruit and berries that they offered, but the main course did not particularly look appealing to him. Fish, Nick thought harshly. Why does it always have to be fish? "I'm off the rest of the day, though," Nick said, returning his undivided attention to the bunny on the other end of the line. "I already told her you were coming to get me this afternoon."

"Good, because I am about to leave," she replied. The sound of her pulling more things out of her locker filled the air between them, and after a moment he heard her shut the metal door with a loud clang. Slipping her combination lock back into place, Judy locked it with a heavy click followed by her spinning the dial around randomly. "I should be over there about eleven-thirty."

A lazy smile crept across the fox's muzzle as he stared out into space, listening to her throw her jacket on before shouldering her bag. "Put the pedal to the metal, sweetheart," he said in an amused tone. "Get me out of here."

She answered him with a breathy giggle, the sounds of the women's locker room fading into the distance she she pushed open the door. "Come on, Slick," she replied. "It's not that bad." Judy started humming as she made her way through the precinct - the familiarity of the ambient noises coming through the receiver suggesting that perhaps he had been talking to her too much at work. Before long, she started talking again, only this time with a thoughtful voice as she scratched her cheek. "I got some stuff last night that we can make for dinner. I still don't really know what to get you, so I just got a few different things that you can pick from."

Nick forced himself to suppress a groan. It wasn't that he thought it was bad cooking with her, it was just that with his luck and her - shall we say - lacking skill, it more often than not turned out less than deserving of those five stars they were after. "Are we going to make it in that fire trap you call a kitchen?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow towards nothing in particular. Someone in Judy's building had decided one day to throw out their half-sized bookcases. It was her brilliant idea to drag it all the way up the stairs and use it as a kitchen, since they could technically use it as the same time, each of them on a different shelf.

"We are not going to have takeout on Christmas Eve, Nick," she replied, and he could practically feel her rolling her eyes. "It won't be so bad." Judy desperately tried to sound convincing, but they both knew that it was really a toss-up as to whether it would be 'fine' or not. "Trust me."

It was Nick's turn to roll his eyes. "That's what you said last time we used it," he mumbled. The fox turned back around on the metal step, letting his eyes fall onto the face of the payphone without really looking at it. Still having to hold onto the pawset with both of his paws, he found it awkward to stand in front of the fixture. On other occasions, he'd drape his free arm around something, but here he had to stand there like an asshole holding onto a clunky piece of plastic too big for him. He really did hate this payphone. If it wasn't his only connection with Judy, he would have sworn it off the week he arrived.

Judy laughed at his comment, though he could tell she was still very embarrassed about his going away dinner. What was meant to be a nice dinner with wine and celebration turned into a unscheduled pizza night with only half a bottle of wine. "Yeah," she drawled out, agreeing but with a catch. Nick couldn't wait to hear whatever rationalization to not dump the shelf and be done with it was this time. "And it worked plenty of times before that."

Snorting at her, he tried to keep up his disapproval, but she had a way of drawing out a smile from him. "All it takes is one to burn us all alive," he informed her lazily, receiving an incredulous scoff from the doe, like he had somehow insulted her. It just made his smile grow wider as he stared at the payphone. As far as fire hazards go, it seemed they had a knack for it, but thankfully it had never progresses past some scorch marks on the odd bit of furniture or the thoroughly crispy remains of what used to be food. One thing he knew for sure though is that he did not want to push their luck with a Christmas hallmark. "Did you get a tree?"

There was a long pause on the other end of the line as Judy walked through the precinct. "Yeah…" she replied like it was a stupid question.

"Then we are not using your jury-rigged shelf," he said firmly. Nick did not know much about domestic life besides what he had learned in the weeks of living with Judy, but even on the streets you learn some things about normal life simply by osmosis. One such thing being Christmas trees were notorious for catching a spark. He supposed that's why the phrase was 'lit up like a Christmas tree', as opposed to the obvious. "The whole apartment will go up in smoke."

Judy groaned at him, probably wishing that he would just go along with everything that she asked, though he had a feeling that he already did too much of that simply by her fluttering her damn eyelashes. When she started again, she did it in that exact same tone that she always used, and if he was a betting mammal (which he used to be), he would put money on the fact that she was, in fact, fluttering her eyelashes across the phone line. "Nick, I hardly think it's very kind of you to continuously insult my culinary ability-"

"What ability?" he asked, cutting her off.

"And the tree is very small," she said, choosing to ignore his comment. The sounds of the precinct grew louder as she passed into another room, phones ringing inside a large space filling the receiver, but it only lasted a few seconds as she passed through it into another hallway. Judy still used her soft, droning tone in an effort to change his mind, and he hated that it was working… Again. "It's miles away from the shelf. It'll be fine."

Shutting his eyes tightly, he removed the pawset from the side of his face and tapped it onto his forehead, making a silent prayer that this would not be a mistake. "Fine," he relented, listening to her try to remain quiet in her triumph, pumping her fist and releasing a barely audible 'Yes!'. Nick sighed, the fact that he had been coerced into putting his life in danger for the hundredth time sinking in. "But we're not drinking until after we unplug everything," the fox ordered, the memory of trying to sauté some vegetables while tipsy flashing through his mind like a horror movie. "What did you get, anyway?"

"The wine?" Judy asked. After a moment of thinking she hummed, obviously unable to recall even the slightest detail. "Something that had the word 'chateau' on the front. I couldn't tell you anything else."

Nick chuckled dryly, returning the pawset to his ear. "How very cultured," he replied sarcastically, turning around on the step again to lean into its face. His emerald eyes ran over the space again, falling finally on the flurries of snow. If it kept up like that, he would be waiting with nothing but his head poking out of the powder.

Scoffing at the fox, Judy rolled her eyes at him again, or at least that is what he imagined her doing. "Oh, right," she drawled out, unable to hide the smile shining through her voice. "I forgot. You're like some kind of wine expert, is that it?" Nick's lips matched her's as she went on, creeping up his muzzle into a toothy smile. "I hope I didn't insult your refined sensibilities."

"Far from it," he replied. Nick found himself studying the symmetrical layout of tables. Much like the trains and various other things, they had been arranged in alternating fashion, with large tables fit for elephants and rhinos spaced out between a far greater number of medium sized tables. The fox had to stand on the stools to reach his food, which wasn't usually that bad, but it did make him wonder how Judy was able to get by with how small she was. The fox's eyes lazily fell back down to his hind paws covered in his tail as he smiled into the pawset. "I find the ignorance endearing."

Judy snorted, and the sounds of the precinct became distinct again, her voice trailing off as if it was in a large room. Distant sounds of music led him to believe that she was in the entrance hall of Precinct One, which bled out right into the fray of Central Plaza where the parade was taking place. "Okay, Slick," she said with a light chuckle, and he heard her call out to the reception desk that she was leaving. When she turned her attention back to the phone, she made a soft hum into the microphone, causing the fox's ears to twitch as his mind buzzed in comfort. "I'm letting you go now-"

"Say it ain't so," Nick replied, cutting her off. His smile was difficult to hide, though he tried nonetheless. The dry humor that he so often utilised seemed to lose its weight when he was beaming like a kit in a candy store, and he had to wonder if he would have to stand in front of a mirror to practice his mask like he had done so long ago just to not smile like an idiot all day.

Another breathy giggle escaped the doe's mouth, and the sound of her entering the echoey concrete enclosement of the parking garage made her voice sound distant. "I'll see you in a bit," she said cheerfully.

Nick hummed into the hushed atmosphere. "I can't wait. I'm going to go stand outside right now," he said lethargically, his smile growing back into a toothy grin. Rolling his head around his shoulders in mock deliberation, Nick pursed his lips in thought. "If you hurry, I might not be frozen," he said in a leading tone, wiggling his eyebrows around on his forehead. "And you can warm me up."

"That's it!" Judy cried with a raised voice, but Nick could tell by the smile shining through that she didn't mind his teasing as much as she let on.

The fox's body tensed abruptly, and his tail swished around so that he could jolt into a pouncing stance, holding onto the pawset tightly. "Wait!" Nick called out, attempting to stop her from hanging up.

There was a brief moment of silence that made him think that he was too late, but after a moment, he heard the phone being returned to her face. "What?" she questioned exasperatedly. He could hear her fishing around her pocket for her keys now, nearing the cruiser she would be borrowing to pick him up.

A smarmy grin captured his muzzle as Nick straightened back out, his lidded eyes narrowing thanks to the force of the curl in his lips. "Drive safely," he replied, completely serious.

Judy groaned, and he again pictured in his mind her rolling her amethyst orbs at him in the way that her mouth sparked up into a slight grin, her buck teeth barely peeking out at him. Just the image alone was rapturing, but the real thing was something so much more for the fox. He almost wished that she would take his pleading seriously and actually speed the whole way there, though another part of him strangely wanted her to go under the speed limit with the weather that was currently coming down. "Hang up the phone, Nick," she ordered him, a genuine smile present in her voice.

Nick chuckled. "You first."

"Gladly," she chirped back.

The noise on her end of the line was cut off abruptly with a tone, and then the pawset went dead, beeping at him to hang it up. Nick couldn't help but chuckle at the exchange, his toothy smile threatening to split his face in two. Slowly, he returned the pawset back to its mechanism, the metal lever clunking into place when he rested the its weight back onto it. For a moment, he just stared at the payphone's face with a dorky smile, his ears relaxing back on his head. That same unfamiliar feeling that had been coming to him more and more had returned, and it melted his worries away. He still didn't know what it was.

Nick was beyond elated that he was going to see Judy again in just a few short hours. There were things he still had to do before she came, but he had time. In truth, he had no intention of standing out in the snow for any more than fifteen minutes - and even then it was pushing the boundaries of his patience - the fox had something else in mind. After another moment of blankly staring at the fixture, his paw rose back up to the styrofoam cup that rested on the top, retrieving another three quarters. Nick reenacted the familiar routine, inserting the quarters after taking the pawset and draping it over his shoulder.

The number he entered this time was not so familiar, and his fingers punching the numbers on the dialpad were slow and methodical as he tried to recall the sequence of his next telephone foray. After he was sure he had gotten the right string of numbers, he lifted the pawset up to the side of his head, hearing again that electronic ringing of the call being connected. In all honestly, this was Nick's last resort. He had thought about it a lot, and no matter how many times he turned himself around in circles, he still couldn't be sure of himself. So, he ordained it necessary to give the one person he knew that could help him a call.

Halfway through one of the electronic hums, it was cut off mid tone, and the noise that greeted him was a whirlwind of laughter, shouting, and loud banging. "Hopps residence," a female voice answered, and whoever it was tried to cup he paw around the microphone without any real success.

The sounds of her warren sounded absolutely headache-inducing to the fox, and his eyebrows rose high up on his forehead. Exactly how Judy's mother dealt with something like that, he did not know. His only guess would probably be some kind of noxious gas that could be pumped through the warren to put everyone to sleep at the same time, and even then it sounded ridiculously difficult. Judy did say it was a rabbit thing, he thought to himself. "Is Hare available?" Nick asked.

The phone wasn't silent, what with the cacophony of noise that permeated from every corner of the room that the rabbit on the other end of the line was standing in, but she did not answer him for a moment. "Hare?" she asked, sounding confused. "Uh…" Nick knew it was probably impossible for her to tell if the buck was on the same planet as her from where she was standing, and did not envy the bunnies that answered phones in a warren. "If he is he would be in the barn," she drawled out, not sounding the slightest bit confident in her assertion as she bit her lip while she spoke. "Would you like me to put it through?"

Nick nodded his head slowly. "Sure," he replied. "I'll call back if he isn't there. It's fairly important."

The doe on the other end of the line seemed to be reluctant, as she probably didn't want wait by the phone to see if he'd call back. He imagined she was thinking about whether or not he could be anywhere else, but after a moment she hummed at him. "Alright," she said absently, the sound of her punching in a code into the dialpad coming through the receiver. Nick had learned from Judy that the entire warren was wired with an internal directory of landlines, and any of the bunnies that lives there memorized the different codes for various important rooms in the house. Just another bizarre rabbit thing as far as he was concerned, though he guessed it did make sense with a house so large.

The cacophony of sound coming from the room around the doe was cut off by a sharp click, followed by the return of the electronic ringing. Nick took the opportunity to turn back around on the step, stretching his toes off the edge as he waited. Leaning back into the face of the payphone, the fox heaved the pawset around in his paws, getting a better grasp on it. He listened to the ringing for a moment, and grew less confident that he would be out in the barn, as he was fairly certain the weather in Bunnyburrow wasn't that far off from what it was like at the ZPA currently. The very thought of being in that barn when it was snowing made his tail swish back over his hind paws.

Halfway through one of the cycles, the ringing was cut off, and the sound that accompanies the absent static was a whirlwind of howling wind and creaking, old wood. "What is it?" a familiar voice barked into the microphone, distinct irritation laced throughout every word.

Nick's eyebrows rose high up onto his forehead at the tone of voice. "That's no way to speak to your sister's future partner," he replied, doing his best to suppress a chuckle. The fox actually wanted the buck's help, and he did not think laughing at him when he was so obviously pissed off was the wisest move in the current circumstances.

Hare groaned, and the sound of heavy metal tools being chucked haphazardly into a pile of junk shattered the droning noise of the wind. "Let's hope not," the buck mumbled under his breath, causing Nick to chuckle at the comment despite his consideration. The sounds of a roaring fire could also be heard, and after a small moment of silence, he could hear the rabbit heave open an iron hinge, the low creaking of metal filling the air between them.

"What are you doing out in the barn, Smokestack?" Nick asked as he leaned back into the face of the payphone, easing himself into the conversation so the agitated rabbit didn't slam the phone on him. It had already happened once. "Isn't it snowing over there, too?" The buck grunted as he tossed something away, the sounds of the object impacting with a dull crunch and and the fire crackling around it giving Nick the impression he was adding fuel to a fire.

"Yeah... It is," Hare replied bitterly. "I'm working on some stuff." After a moment of chucking more wood onto the fire, the sound of the iron hinge complaining as it was shut back into place filled the air. When he stood up, Judy's brother did so with a spiteful breath of air shooting out of his nose. "It seems like shit's breaking twice as often in the winter, and the damn carrot on the top of the tree is busted. I'm out here in the freezing ass cold rewiring a stupid carrot that I'm going to have to drag up a twenty-five foot pine when I'm done. It's just me and the wood stove out here. You'd think if it meant so damn much to them, they'd lend a paw."

Nick chuckled again at the woes of the Hopps family handymammal. "Sounds like you've got your paws busy," he said carefully.

Snorting at the fox, Hare could be heard slapping the butt of a cigarette carton harshly onto his desk, little bits of metal and hanging tools clinking in the background. After a few pounding motions, he brought the carton up to his teeth so he could rip the plastic off in one fluid motion. Another second went by until Nick heard him pull one of the bundles of fibrous material out between his buck teeth, tossing the carton across the desk. "That's right," he said with the cigarette in his mouth. A sharp click shot through the receiver followed by a few flicks of a lighter that finally caught after the fourth try.

When he was done igniting the end, the buck flicked the lighter back closed and tossed it across the desk. Hare took a long drag off of his cigarette, the embers on the tip of the bundle hissing with the rapid acceleration of its burning. After pulling the cigarette away from his face, he took in a sharp breath of air. "What's up?" he finally said before blowing out in a long breath the smoke that had completely filled his lungs. "What are you doin' calling me? Can you not get ahold of my sister?"

"I can't just call you without a reason?" Nick asked with a smile. Hare did not answer him, and the phone settled into an uneasy lull in conversation, the buck taking a few drags off his cigarette in the silence. From where Nick was, the howling wind and fire made for the silent treatment to his attempt at levity all the more ominous, and his smile fell off his face gradually. After a moment, his ears went the way of his smile, plastering themselves on the back of his head as he shut his eyes tightly. He abandoned his method of slowly leading his way into asking for help and took a deep breath. "The thing is... I need some help."

Hare scoffed at that. "Figures," he droned out, sucking in a shrill breath through his buck teeth. The creaking of old wood filled the receiver as the buck plopped down into a chair, puffing out a tired breath as he did. "I'm apparently the go-to damn bunny around here."

Ignoring his vitter slight towards his own family, Nick pulled the pawset closet to his ear, glancing around to make sure nobody was in hearing distance as he cupped his paw around the microphone. "It's about Judy's Christmas present," he said quietly, turning around on the step to stare at the face of the payphone fixture, shielding his voice with his body.

There was a long pause on the other end of the line as the buck let his words sink in. After a moment, Hare took another drag off of his cigarette before sighing. "It's a little late to be calling me about that, don't you think?" he asked. Hare's chair creaked again as he shifted his weight on it, and the rabbit returned to whatever task he was doing before Nick had called, sifting through a pile of metal tools to find what he was looking for. "I kinda figured you for a last minute kind of guy, but this is a little ridiculous-"

"No, I already got it," Nick replied, cutting him off. The fox glance around his shoulder again, feeling nervous. It wasn't that he was particularly worried that mammals might overhear him, it was more the fact that he had never done what he was doing before. It felt awkward to be calling a friend's sibling to ask for advice of this sort, and that feeling made him pause. He ran his tongue over the tips of his sharp teeth, paying greater attention to his canines than any other, before continuing. "I'm just not sure she'll like it."

This time, Hare scoffed so loudly it made the fox pull the pawset slightly away. "Are you serious?" he asked incredulously, stopping his movement of pulling something metal from a pile of similar sounding objects. The buck let the question hang in the air for a minute, and Nick had to wonder if he half expected him to pull a 'gotcha' and ask him something else. When he did not respond, Hare scoffed again, though this time it was accompanied by a dry chuckle. "You're calling me because you think Judy isn't going to like a gift you're giving her?"

Nick felt his brow furrow on his forehead, his lips raising slightly to bare his teeth at the dismissive tone that he was using. "Would you take me seriously for once?" he asked harshly, his ears plastering even lower on his head, flattening out completely. "She told me it's her first Christmas without her family." It was a fact that he had learned not long ago, and it had caused him to spend a lot of time - and money - making sure it would be okay. It was also the reason he felt so unsure, and thought it was necessary to call her brother to ask for help. "Now, I'm a poor substitute for nearly three hundred rabbits that she is immediately related to, so I need you to just cut me some slack and help me make sure I'm not screwing this up."

Hare sighed and stopped his light tinkering, tossing the tool back onto the pile with another heavy clank. "Nick, let me tell you something," he said pointedly, having no patience for whatever the fox had to say. "If you got her a gift at all, she's going to love it." The buck made sound between a groan and a scoff before taking another long drag off his cigarette. "And why do y'all keep calling me? How the hell am I supposed to know what to get either of you? Cheese and crackers, if you need somebody to just bounce ideas off of, draw a picture of me and tape it to the damn wall. Stop botherin' me about-"

"Does your sister like jewelry?" Nick asked plainly.

Another long pause filled the airwaves, Hare having stopped ranting and thoroughly abandoned his task in front of him. The only sound between them was the light noise of the cafeteria, the howling wind, and the fire. After what felt like a long moment, Hare sniffed harshly. "Jewelry?" he drawled out, his nasally tone laced with an incredulous air.

Nick clicked his tongue at the buck. He was not one to be easily angered, but the way Hare was dancing around answering his question was really starting to get on his nerves. "I didn't know what else to get her, Smokestack," he said, biting every work out. "I got her a couple other things, but they're all small stuff. I wanted to get her something nice, and the only thing I saw was a necklace." Again, a silence permeated the call, and the fox found himself wishing he would have asked for Ellie, or even Cotton at this point. Hell, he was a hair away from believing asking her mother would have been better, and that was not a great idea, as far as he was concerned. "Do you think she'd wear something like that?"

After a long few seconds, Nick heard the buck take a very slow and drawn out drag from his cigarette in thought. He blew the smoke out from his lungs in an equally drawn out motion. When he started again, Hare could be heard snuffing out the embers of his cigarette on the desk in front of him. "As clever as you think you are, you're pretty dumb, aren't you?"

11:43 am

The biting wind whipped around the small fox, ruffling the small bits of rosette fur exposed to the cold winter air. Nick shivered again and pulled his body tighter together, holding onto every bit of dear warmth that he possessed. It was getting dangerously close to that fifteen minute mark, and he was running as short on patience as the number of limbs that he could feel the tips of. The wind picked up again and blew into the fox's huddled form with enough force to make him stumble slightly, forcing one of his hind paws to shoot out from its place in order to catch his fall. The todd groaned in distaste, feeling frigid air hit the tail that had until this point been sandwiched between his legs.

Nick glanced around down the snowy street again, not being able to see more than a couple hundred feet, and again saw no headlights. He was starting to get anxious, and not because Judy was late. It was because he was starting to think she really was going to find a block of ice when she finally arrived. A white cloud of breath that was stolen away by the wind finally spurred the fox into motion, pulling his paws out of his dark blue cadet jacket and lifting the padded collar up high enough that he could stick his freezing nose into the warmth beneath his clothes.

He had changed out of the workout uniform that all cadets had to wear while he was packing his bag. Having changed into something that wasn't so different from the clothes he usually wore, he had felt quite a bit more comfortable. His camo pants had been replaced by a pair of dark green winter slacks, and his t-shirt had been thankfully replaced by a long, maroon button-down collar shirt. He wasn't wearing a tie, but he did have on a Christmas themed cotton vest, pine green with snowflakes and jagged lines. Over everything he wore the cadet jacket that he had been issued for the extreme cold endurance training that they had to undergo.

All in all, it wasn't the worst Christmas eve he had spent outdoors, but it was definitely up there. Having already lost the encumbering warmth that his tail had been staying in, he kicked his hind paws around, shifting his weight between them as he widened the crater of snow he was standing in. Nick was pressed almost all the way up against the cobble pillar of the front gates, his dark blue duffle bag dropped into the slope of snow that wrapped around the base of a green light pole. If he craned his head to look back into the campus, he could see the parade ground in front of the Administration building coated in almost a foot of snow.

Standing just in front of the main gate, the Zootopia Police Academy sign stretched from the pillar that was behind him all the way across the entranceway into another cobble pillar, though the paved road that led into the complex beneath it was invisible under the falling blanket of snow. The Administration building was barely visible through the flurry and freezing fog, the only defining characteristics being the bright lights coming from the windows and the sharp points on its roof. Nick could not even see the water tower beyond, and the buildings he could see had slopes of snow up their bases and sharp icicles pointing down to the white ground.

Nick stood back around, facing the road that had been plowed not too long ago, though it was certainly difficult to tell. Having secured his nose into the inside of his jacket, his stuck his paws back into the outside pockets, attempting to retain some modicum of warmth within them. The universe did not see his warmth as particularly important, however, as a sudden surge of wind was the straw that broke the camel's back, and the nearly one foot of snow that had been piling on top of the cobble main gate shifted. It let loose several inches of snow that had been clinging on for dear life, and the slab of power tumbled towards the ground.

Just before the snow could hit the ground, it's path was blocked by a small mammal, slashing across his shoulders and onto the hood of his cadet jacket, covering him. Nick had tensed at the impact, but even after it had used up all of its strength, the fox stood stock still with snow all over him for several moments. Groaning, Nick shook himself around, flinging the water crystals in all directions. He glanced over to look at the snow piling on top of the other pillar, only to see that it was loaded with almost twice the amount of snow without losing any to the steep drop. Nick's eyes slowly returned to staring straight ahead, only this time they were narrowed dangerously and his brows were furrowed on his forehead

For whatever reason, Nick had believed he was just going to be standing out in the snow for just a couple moments, as Judy was usually very punctual, but he was now wondering why he thought something would go his way. He had always made his own luck, and more often than not it showed. The fox could only hope that Judy wouldn't be too much longer, as his fingers and toes had lost a good amount of feeling almost ten minutes prior, and now he it felt like he didn't even remember what having working appendages was like. The winter pawguards afforded to to him did little for his extended digits, and the ones on his hind pair just made the cold worse.

Taking his paws out of the jacket's outside pockets, he studied them for any signs of frostbite. It seemed a bit dramatic, but he didn't want Judy feeling guilty for any damage done to his rough pads. On his paws were a set of fingerless guards, made in the likeness of gloves, that protected the large pad of his palm and the thin fur from the cold. It wasn't exactly a mitten, but it served its purpose well enough. He had completely ruined enough mittens with his claws to know fingerless was the way to go unless you liked spending money, which he did not. He had precious little legitimate money saved up, and the pile had gotten even smaller thanks to the holiday.

The idea that he was getting paid to go to school still seemed strange to him, but he was not one to complain. It honestly did not even occur to him to ask about anything like that until he got his first paycheck, and even then he thought it was a mixup. Imagine his surprise when he found out he could get an extra fifty dollars per check because he knew sign language. Passing that test was almost the first thing he did after he learned about it, not wanting to miss out on any of that sweet, sweet cash. Still, his two months of enrollment did little to mitigate the chunk he had taken out of it to buy Judy her presents. He didn't mind it, though. The fox may not have particularly liked spending money, but spending it on Judy wasn't the same thing.

As he continued to study his paws, the faintest little flash of light caught his eye. Nick's head whipped around to gaze down the road, and sure enough there was a pair of dim lights growing brighter as they neared the entranceway. Standing completely still, the fox stared at the approaching vehicle with bated breath, silently praying that his rabbit had come to save him from the horrifying fate of freezing to death because of his own stubbornness. As the car sluggishly pushed through the blanket of snow and freezing fog, features started to become apparent. Nick had to calm himself when he recognized the hallmarks of a ZPD cruiser, believing it could be another sick joke by the universe.

His prayers were answered, though, because the cruised passed the entranceway completely, abruptly coming to a halt right in front of the fox. For a moment, he just stood there, watching the windshield wipers fling bits of snow off the sleek glass. Then, the passenger door to the cruiser opened, and standing on the seat inside was his bunny, struggling not to fall out as she held onto the door. Her elegant dark gray cotton coat covered a purple sweater underneath, bringing out her eyes beneath the oversized crimson beanie she had stolen from him, her ears stuffed up into the interior to keep them warm.

"What are you doing? Get in!" she called out to him, making the fox realize he was just standing there, staring. Spurred into motion, he snatched his rucksack from the base of the light pole, and started jogging towards the cruiser. "It's freezing!" Judy shivered harshly, closing her eyes tight and baring her buck teeth to the cold air. Chucking his bag onto the floorboard, Nick scrambled up into the cruiser, pulling himself up onto the passenger seat with a desperate fervor to get out of the cold. Just as Judy was closing the door to keep out at least some of the cold air, Nick's paw shot out to pull his tail in at the last moment.

The howling wind became a muffled wail in the interior of the cruiser, and Nick sprawled himself out on the seat, the material feeling like it was the water of life with how warm it was. "Cheese and Crackers," Nick mumbled, rolling around onto his back and rubbing himself into the cushion like he had a bad itch. After a moment of adequate friction, he rose himself up onto his elbows, looking up into Judy's amethyst eyes. Her expression reflected that of shock, and he attributed it to the cold as he pulled himself up into a sitting position, watching her twitching nose. "It just figures that my vacation would be like this - Oof!"

Judy had barreled into his chest with her arms out, burying herself into him. It was only for a split second, because she immediately reeled back in shock. "Ah!" she shrieked, pulling away like she had been burned. The doe's eyes snapped up to meet Nick's gaze, her mouth gaping. "You're cold as ice," Judy said, making Nick roll his eyes as he sat up completely, turning around on the seat so that he was properly orientated.

"That is what happens when you stand in ice, Carrots," he droned back, his lips curling up into a smile. Her twitching nose slowed to a stop as she stared at him, and Nick watched her brow get progressively more furrowed. The expression of shock was replaced by determination as she puffed up her chest and moved back closer to the fox. To his surprise, she didn't immediately go in for a hug. Instead, her small, gray paws came up to grab at his jacket collar, working the cross button at the top. Nick's eyebrows shot up on his forehead as he glanced down at her working his jacket open "What are you doing?"

She grabbed hold of the zipper once she had undone all of the button, flicking open his front in one fluid motion to reveal his brightly colored clothes underneath. This time, she did wrap her arms around him, burying herself into his chest and snaking her paws between his jacket and vest around to his back. Her heat made Nick lightheaded in an instant, and he found his head swimming in warmth despite the fact that he could only barely feel his fingers. Judy's face was stuck into the cream colored fur of his neck, and when she spoke again, her hot breath snaked through his fur to his skin. "I'm warming you up, of course," she replied, eyes closing as she hugged him tighter.

Every muscle in his body relaxed against her, the initial tense from when she had hurtled into him melting away. Nick found his chin falling over her back slowly, and allowed himself to wallow in the feeling. Now within his vision was Judy's cotton tail down at the end of her gray coat, and with most of the warm air having been thrown out into the atmosphere, Nick thought that it might be cold. Bringing his paws around, he grabbed onto either side of his jacket and wrapped it around Judy's back, encapsulating both of them in the thick material, and he paid great attention in getting her tail inside the warm space. "Wow," he said, a lazy smile creeping up his muzzle as he leaning back into the seat. "You are warm. Thanks."

Judy hummed into his neck, and he could feel a broad smile reaching up her face. They stayed like that for several moments, Nick only removing his wrapped arms to change the direction of the vent to blow right on them, the warm air feeling even better as he shifted around to get more comfortable. After a time, Judy shook her head from side to side, burrowing her face further into his neck until he felt the chilly tip of her nose press into his skin. Her breath blew right onto him now, and a low rumbled escaped his throat before he could think to stop it. "Have you really been standing outside since you called?" she said in a muffled voice directed into his fur. "You feel like you did."

A toothy smile crept up one side of the fox's muzzle, and he let his eyelids sink closed. "Nah," he replied lethargically, rubbing the pads of his paw behind Judy's back before sticking them out in front of the warm air. "This is just fifteen minutes worth of frostbite." Judy reacted by giggling breathily into his neck, her small body shaking on his chest. The fox could feel her heartbeat she was so close to him, her rapid flourishes seeming bizarre next his his steady beat. She had to stand on his legs in order to hug him like she was, and her hind paws supporting her were pressed together between the fox's legs, on either side of his tail. "So how was your first Christmas parade, Fluff?" he asked. "Did you take a lot of pictures?"

"Only a couple," she replied, pulling away only enough to bring her chin up, pressing herself back into him now that she was staring up at the underside of his muzzle, her neck flush with his. Nick turned his head sideways, peering down at her through one lidded eye with a lazy smile. "I took a few on my way out in the cruiser, but I was on duty while I was actually at the parade." Judy stared up at him cheerfully, and the soft smile on her lips was just enough to show off her buck teeth just barely. "It was nice, though. All the colors and lights really looked cool in the snow."

Nick chuckled at her, the motion in his neck bouncing her around underneath him. When he leaned back into the cruiser's seat, he shut his eyes again, resigning himself to the comfort. "Well," he said, cocking his head to the side in resignation. "I'm glad one of us had a decent morning." Judy laughed again, the paws that had been latched onto the back of his vest relaxing slightly to trail up his shoulderblades. They came to a rest when she had taken hold of his shoulders on either side of his neck, her forearms pressed tightly up against his back.

"Oh, yeah?" she asked nasally, blowing a bit of air up to ruffle the cream colored fur on his neck. Nick hummed at her antics, continuing to use her to bring his body back from the brink of freezing. She was like a little furnace pressed right into his chest, and just her closeness was intoxicating. That feeling was there again, rising from the pit of his stomach. If he had known what it was, he would have felt worried, but again he did not concern himself with knowing, instead just basking in whatever it was. He had plenty of time to think about it when it wasn't robbing him of precious time with his best friend. "How's the ZPA been treating you?"

One of Nick's green eyes peeked open, looking out the windshield and into the flurry of snow being illuminated by the headlights. He took a quick glance in the side mirror to see if they were blocking traffic, but as he suspected they were alone. "I'm not as young as I used to be, that's for sure." The fox turned his head again, gazing down at the rabbit stuffed inside his coat. She was watching him closely, he large eyes studying his features. "It's alright," he replied, shrugging lightly. "I've been talking more to the other cadets like you've told me to. I've found that I really don't have a lot in common with most of them, if I'm being honest."

Judy snorted up at him, pressing her chin into his neck when she tensed with the exhale. "What, there's not another ex-conmammal looking to make the world a better place?" she asked sarcastically, her own eyes growing lidded as she looked up at him. Nick couldn't get over how ridiculous she looked with his beanie on, with it thoroughly covering her head and most of her forehead with the knitted crimson material. She had swiped it off of him before he left, explaining that it was the perfect size to stuff her ears inside without it feeling weird. He didn't really mind. The cadet jacket's hood filled the void of his lost apparel well enough, and it looked way better on her than it did him.

"If there was, I'd take him to the ring for the title," Nick replied, glancing up again at the police cruiser's dash. The computer had been muted and was idly playing the weather forecast, large blotches of purple and pink spread across the coast in a swirling motion, pulling with it the cold, arctic air of the front. The fox was immediately disheartened by the realization that they couldn't stay like they were forever. His head tilted to the side to gaze into Judy's eyes, giving her a look of resignation. "As much as I enjoy this, we should head out of here. I don't want to be stuck in a buried cruiser for Christmas."

Judy just blinked at him for a moment, his words not really sinking in. Then, realization swept across her features, and her cheeks immediately flushed red. "Oh," she said lamely, prying her arms from his shoulder to pull them out from behind his back. Every inch she made between them was another painful wrench of heat away from his body, and her comforting heartbeat left him. She let his jacket slide off her as she stepped away, pulling off the fox completely. Judy was having a hard time looking at him at the present moment. "Right..." One of her paws came up to scratch her neck as she awkwardly made the trip back over to the driver's seat.

Watching her settle back into position to take them back into the city, the fox disappointedly fastened his coat back up. Thankfully, because of Judy he could feel his fingers and toes again, and he thought it would now be fine to push his hood off of his head. Nick looked down at his cadet jacket, feeling that feeling again as her lingering warmth still radiated off of his shirt underneath. Now that he could adequately use his fingers again, he buttoned the cross piece on his collar, sealing away what was left of her touch within. "So are we heading straight to the apartment?" he asked, looking over at her as she pulled her seatbelt across her.

"That's the plan," she beamed back at him, throwing the cruiser into drive and starting their slogging journey back to the city. Judy's smile lessened somewhat as she looked down the road, her nose beginning to twitch. Turning her attention away for a moment, she adjusted her vents before cranking up the heat on the dash. When she was done, she glanced over at the fox to give him an inquisitive look. "Do you need me to stop somewhere on the way?"

Nick shook his head slowly before glancing out his own window, watching the last sights of the campus he would see for awhile vanish beyond the falling snow and fog. "Nope," he replied, falling easily back into his sarcastic demeanor now that she didn't have his brain turned to mush in her paws. Nick smiled lazily out into the snow, bringing up his paws to rest behind his head after attaching his own seatbelt. "I don't have to back until Wednesday, and I am not going to leave that apartment for anything." Shifting his back from side to side, he mimicked the motion at trying to scratch his back without his paws before groaning in pleasure when he found the most comfortable spot.

The wind whipped around the cruiser in a low howl, and Judy glanced over at Nick with a cocked eyebrow, looking at him skeptically. "What about morning runs?" she inquired. The question caused Nick to rolling his head over to look over at her incredulously before glancing back outside and then back to her, his brow tenting up on his forehead the more he confirmed that - yes - it was a blizzard outside, and - yes - she was asking him to run in it. Judy saw none of his disbelief, and merely interpreted it as him not wanting to keep up with his exercise while on vacation. "You're not going to come with me like usual?"

Scoffing, Nick's smile crept up his muzzle in a way that said he didn't know if she was being serious or if was an attempt at humor. It took a moment for him to realize that it was the former, and his brow subsequently furrowed on his forehead. "Are you telling me that you are going to run in this weather?" he asked, waving his paws out from behind his head to gesture out the front windshield.

Judy puckered her lips in thought, humming as she turned back around to watch the road ahead. "I'm going to skip Christmas," she chirped, her buck teeth shining brightly from her broad smile. "But after that I will definitely be doing it. I can't just choose not to run through Tundratown because it's cold." She glanced over to the fox to see him glaring at her with an expression that was a mixture of disbelief and defeat. Giggling at him, she returned her eyes to the road. "It'll be fun, Slick. We can even stop at that coffee shop we went to last time."

Another spout of howling wind sung over the cruiser as he stared at her. After a long moment, he groaned, slumping back into the seat in complete resignation. "You are going to be the death of me," he said in a low voice, pushing the pads of his fingers into his temples. Judy laughed at him again, and even though he was looking forward to not getting up at the crack of dawn to run in the snow, Nick couldn't help the smile growing on his muzzle. His exasperation was short lived, because spending a cold morning with Judy in a coffee shop actually sounded pretty nice in spite of himself.

A smug grin spread up the doe's face, and she turned to look at him with lidded eyes. "It'll be fun while it lasted, though," she replied in a singsong voice. Nick chuckled dryly at that, shaking his head before returning his eyes outside the passenger window. He was so relieved to be back in her company it was beginning to make him question things, and the fact that her touch had such an effect on him always seemed a little strange. Despite his reservations, he attributed it to just the simple fact that he was never a touchy mammal, and now he was just making up for lost time. As his paw snaked up to the spot on his chest where their hearts had been pressed up against each other, his brow furrowing slightly.

"Do you want to listen to some Gazelle?" Judy asked cheerfully, reaching over to the radio and punching the dial to turn it on. The high pitched vocals and instrumentals immediately blared through the speakers, but she thankfully twisted the volume down when she saw Nick wince at the noise. Returning to driving, she bounced around on the seat in tune with the rhythm, her head swaying side to side as she happily beamed out the window, and Nick could not help himself but to smile at her. "You know, she's having a concert over at the Zootennial Stadium around when you're going to graduate. We should get tickets before they're scalped."

Nick snorted at her, rolling his eyes as he looked back out the window. It was going to be a long drive back to the city in this weather, and while he usually didn't particularly care for Gazelle, Judy did. It took a moment for his eyes to trail down to his dark blue rucksack sitting on the floorboard, carefully looking over the lumpy shapes of her presents hidden away. Five was starting to seem like a little much to him, and he could only hope that she realized that at least three of them were relatively cheap. Nick was toying with the idea of keeping at least one of them to give to her another time.

If he was being honest, he would say he didn't actually know how much was too much, seeing as how he hadn't really celebrated Christmas - or anything, for that matter - since he was nine. That was fine, though. He was going to celebrate it now, and while he still didn't think he was going to be enough to give her the holiday experience that she was used to, he was going to give her his best. Nick only hoped that they didn't burn alive because of a cooking disaster or get sick from cheap wine. Among his other concerns were Judy actually liking his gifts, and the hope that they would make it to the apartment without her landlord sharing some choice words. So was the possibility of a ZPD emergency that would leave him home alone.

Nick silently reprimanded himself for thinking too much again. It was going to be fine. He had earned that much.

Author's Notes:

So, I imagine you may not have expected me back so soon. The explanation is very simple: back in September when I started Quid Pro Quo, I got the idea to do a Christmas story. Simple enough, right? Nope. I got the idea to do it only after I was done with QPQ, and that meant I had to plan and then regiment a strict release schedule to not only finish QPQ, but give myself enough time to write a whole other story. Back in November, that release schedule crashed and burned as it conflicted with my work schedule. It turns out that you can't write several thousand words a day at the same time as working full-time without going crazy. Who knew? Anyway, that's why it got so quick there at the end. It was crunch time if I was going to write this, and crunch I did. To bad for me that my constant pushing got me a cold, and I had to push through the last chapter on my deathbed.

Now, I am (mostly) recovered and writing again. I said their story wasn't over, and I did not lie. I'm working on replying to those reviews for chapter 21, but man did a lot more of those come in then I thought. Regardless, thanks for reading.