Guuuuud Mernin... afternoon... night?

Oh who cares? (Psst... I don't)

I'm Baaaaaack. My hiatus is at its end (fur now) and I feel great. Recharged the mental batteries and went a little loopy in the process.

Ok fine... i'm always loopy but i ended up getting back into the writing groove and did a bunch of stuff. WOOHOO!

Ended up writing about 16k words on Tuesday alone and powered through another 5k ish today. Four chapter updates with a fifth one-shot underway and nearing completion.

Now then... Read, enjoy, fav, follow, review, and grab that strange snack. Mine today is just a ton of pizza. plain old boring pizza... with cream cheese and chocolate sprinkles on top... XD

The sky above was littered with the tufts of fluffy clouds, the fading light of sunset turning into twilight as it set the sky aglow with many beautiful colors. Night would be upon the landscape soon…

It gave a certain fox little time to so methodically execute his plan. He felt quite proud of it. He wished he could boast of its creativity from every rooftop.

Wouldn't that be a prime example of counting your eggs before they hatch? The tod's mind countered sarcastically. Before he could brush aside the cynical part of him that dared to peek into the good mood permeating his entire being, a paw grasped his own, interrupting his thoughts.

"So… remind me again…" Judy began, "why do we need to be out here?"

Nick turned and recited the lines he so often practiced, ready for almost any outcome to her inquiries, "Why, dear Fluff, we are just out having a pleasant evening stroll." His trademark charming smile and half lidded gaze were firmly set in place, acting as a poker face to her intuitive stare.

The two were walking the city, enjoying the sites and frequenting the nearby parks to see the summer colors predominantly encompassing their vision. It was a mix of dark browns and vibrant greens of the trees. The wind rustled the leaves up high, the sound of their sway and flutter making the bunny's ears twitch as she enjoyed the sounds of nature in such a busy city usually void of natural sounds such as this.

"Uh huh…" she mewed slowly, face upturned with a sneaky grin as she rolled her eyes. "As pleasant as it is, I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact my birthday is next week."

"Absolutely nothing at all," the fox answered all too assuredly, flicking his gaze in another direction. The doe's eyes narrowed and lips spread further.

"You wouldn't be the first to attempt surprising me for my birthday at an early date," Judy mentioned, eyes forward again, satisfied at her assumptions that appeared to be correct, if the faltering smile in her mate's face was anything to go by. "My parents tried that with me and my littermates before. I think I nearly hit my dad in the face."

"How in the world…" the red fox began, tone taking on a rather annoyed twinge to it.

"Clawhauser."

Nick facepawed.

"Of course."

The grey rabbit shrugged as she explained, "He never said anything directly, but he kept getting overly giddy around me and hiding his phone from me. Blurted out a happy birthday yesterday and realized his error in dates. I put the clues together."

Dragging his paw down his muzzle, the tod chuckled a little maniacally, a twisted grin lining his face.

"I'm going to get that blabby spotted donut-munching…" he started to rant before his mate coughed to interject.

"You shouldn't blame him so much as yourself. You know he can't keep secrets."

"I know…" Nick sighed heavily, lowering his head and scratching the back of his neck. "I didn't want to leave him out of the loop though." Another long sigh as the red fox perked up and let his face set in once more. "Alright… do me a huge huge favor then. Just go along with my stupidity for a while longer and pretend to be at least mildly entertained by the surprise when we go back… please?" He clapped his paws together in a begging gesture in front of his mate, smiling nervously as his heart pound within him wildely. The doe tilted her head back and forth, paw on her hips as she mulled the thought over.

"Oh alright," she mock relented to him, quite obviously having already made up her mind to go along with it for their sakes. "Can I at least have a hint of who all is involved? As supportive as my parents are now, I doubt they would show up."

"I can most certainly tell you, you're parents aren't involved in your surprise party," he definitively divulged. "As for the rest… I want to keep at least that much a shock to you."

"Fine, but let me know when it's okay to come back. I enjoy the outing, but it's difficult to imagine so many mammals being unsupervised in our home for a long while."

"Duly noted," Nick chirped at her, guiding her by the paw to the next park. "Let's visit my favorite park then. It's got a large pond and a small pier to walk out to the center for viewing purposes. I use to go there with my mom when I was a kit."

An ache permeated the little doe's chest, feeling a small rise in her affinity to her mate when he was able to bring up his past without getting sad. He had learned through struggle and strife to see those moments of the past as treasured instead of reminders of a loved one's passing. Judy kept silent, nodding slowly and going along with her fox's energetic flow.

The two jogged at a more playful pace, paws padding through the streets. They laughed and smiled with no real reason in mind, darting and dodging in some loose form of a game neither truly knew the rules to. Larger mammals were woefully shocked to see smaller blurs of grey and red running around and between their legs, barely avoiding them with professional accuracy. It came with their training and instinct, being able to pursue a criminal without disrupting or inconveniencing the populace too much.

On the straightaways, Nick had more speed and power, able to easily overtake his bunny. Judy however, had her strength in the turns and recovery from speed loss due to them, catching up and taking the lead. The two were fairly comparable in reflexive agility, with Judy's species' inclinations and officer training preparing her for dodging mammals on a dime and not being crushed under foot by anyone, and Nick's own species pros coupled with having lived on the streets and adapted to them helping him predict many things to avoid or paths of least resistance to take.

To say this was a rare occurrence would be a lie. Both rabbit and fox would randomly get in a competitive mood and end up doing such things or similar ones to pass the time or settle some unspoken challenge. The results were usually mixed or up for debate, but neither truly cared about the score, as lost as the numbers of loss versus win might be to them at this point.

Both approaching a large open gate to a park, they stopped to catch their breath, eyeing one another and holding back a laugh that would most assuredly keep them from doing so.

"Is this it?" she asked almost rhetorically. The red fox nodded.

"You got ahead of me and took a few wrong turns in your enthusiastic fervor," Nick mentioned, looking at his bunny as she squeaked a whisper of an apology before he pet her head and continued, "but I was able to keep ahead enough to lead us back here. Might have been able to cut our travel time here in half if I had keep that lead though." He let out a low chuckle, breath still ragged. Judy matched his breathing, trying to appear more collected, but failing somewhat.

The grey doe was about to say something in kind, but was distracted by the familiar look of a mammal nearby. It was a lion. More like the back of one, but he looked… odd. It wasn't anything criminal or out of place exactly but she couldn't help but wonder.

"Does that mammal look…" she started in a near quiet voice before her mate interrupted.

"Shall we go in?"

Judy looked at Nick, lost in his eyes for a moment before turning back to look at the lion from before. He was walking away now, playing with his phone or something, extending the distance between them. Choosing to defer her thoughts to focus on that later, she took the tod's paw and let him guide her in, looking up to see the lamp lights coming on, with the sun descending below the horizon and the only light coming from it was fading, the painted sky turning into stars and moonlight.

Her vision was obscured by the bright lamps, with ambient light lacking from the sky. She could still easily see everything around her, but things weren't exactly adding up. A couple more mammals in the distance looked all too familiar to her, but their heads were down or backs were turned.

"What's wrong?"

"It feels like there are mammals here i should recognize…" she mumbled, feeling a little guilty for being distracted. The tod only gave her a roguish smirk and shook his head.

"For your information, we are near the Precinct," Nick detailed, "so, we're likely to see a few familiar faces."

"Oh… that's… I suppose you're right," Judy sighed awkwardly, slicking an ear back with her paw as they fell behind her head, feeling slightly foolish for her distractibility.

They walked leisurely along the pathways, with the red fox pulling his bunny away from the paved path to point at the pier into the pond. To call it a pier, considering it had no actual boats docking on it, was a stretch, though it was built to look like one. It was large enough for heftier mammals to frequent it, but built to consider the smaller variety of mammals as well with its open design.

That wasn't the appealing part however, with the water growing still in the twilight air. It became a mirror surface of the stars above, both the sky and water twinkling with flickering light.

Judy stepped on the wooden slats of the pier, equally entranced by the stars of the night, the waning wisps of clouds fading away, and the near perfectly still surface of the water, the only disruptions being from a leaf here and there landing on the water. The ripples from it were wonderful to look at on their own, the simplicity of that tiny rolling wave looking so uniform as it spread and faded into the water once more.

Turning to her mate, the bunny was about to speak, pausing when she saw him on his phone, the most genuine, genial, and quite possibly warmest smile on his muzzle that the doe had ever seen. It confused her as to why she would see it while he was on his phone. He closed his eyes and let out a slow breath, thumb pressing something.

"Something up?" the grey bunny asked curiously. The tod jarred himself from his reverie and put his phone back into his pocket, grasping her paw once more.

"Almost ready," he spoke, "but one more minute, if you please. I'm enjoying the view." Judy looked around in wonderment, nodding her approval.

"It is pretty great," she softly agreed. Turning her eyes back to her mate, he was facing her, surprising her with his still present warm smile.

"I wasn't talking about that," the fox replied smoothly, moving to clasp both her paws in both of his, the duo being on the centermost platform of the pier in the middle of the pond.

"Dumb fox," Judy giggled.

The two allowed their eyes to lock, much like their paws, for an indeterminate amount of time, the world nearly falling away.

Nearly...

Judy's ears perked up and eyes narrowed as something in the distance sparked into existence. A light… a lamp…

A flame…

Before she could muster the will to speak up, asking her mate what he could see, another flame flared into being… then another and another.

Numerous small lights came into being around the pond, illuminating something they were present in. it was faded and spread out, as if the light were inside something like those rock lamps or paper lanterns. The many glowing lights began to float, the not so far away flames getting closer.

Turning around and watching the edges of the pond, the doe looked on as a few dozen such floating lights flared into her vision, befuddling her and making her mind race with a multitude of theories and questions to be answered. It was all too confusing, convoluted, strange…

"Judy," Nick softly called from behind her, his voice instantly calming the storm inside her mind. She turned slowly, unsure what to expect.

He was standing ever present, head tilted and eyes gleaming as he focused on her and only her, floating lights a mere background to the vision he saw before him.

The lanterns floated closer, encompassing their position and creating a brilliant reflection on the pond, the lights becoming doubled by it. One such lantern floated close enough for Judy to see a word painted on it.

Carrots

Another in the distance twirled around, with a word painted upon it as well.

Toot-toot

Giggling, she was getting an inkling of something else going on.

"Nick… what are you doing?" the bunny asked in the midst of her humorous release. Instead of answering, he grabbed her paws gently once more, mouth nervously working as he found his voice.

"Judy…" he repeated, "I have been so lucky and blessed to have you beside me… to have you as a partner and friend."

"Uh…" the grey bunny let out, eyes widening and nose twitching as the situation appeared to be taking a turn she wasn't quite expecting.

Nick continued, apparently unhindered or unwilling to be so, "You have become something more than either. You became my heart and soul, my very reason for being as I am now and will ever be."

"There's no surprise party is there…." the rabbit whispered so low, only she could hear it, her previously shocked face turning into an expectant grin.

"No feeling has been greater than to have you as my best friend, my mate…. Though I hope one feeling will trump them all…" the red fox resumed, releasing Judy's paws and kneeling down before her, pulling a small box from his pocket.

The grey bunny doe, clapped her paws over her nose and mouth, a squealing gasp leaving her as she hopped back in reflex. Upon regaining her footing, she was bouncing, tears pricking at the edges of her eyes.

"...If you will do me the greatest pleasure of being my wife," Nick finished, having been so committed or possibly even expecting her reaction so as to keep going in the midst of her reactions.

The ring box opened, revealing a small, bunny sized, ring of a simple design. The band was white gold, refracted glitters of the lanterns gleaming off of it, with two small paws wrapped around a heart in the center, encrusted with purple amethyst. A small crown sat atop the heart, itself encrusted with grey and white gems.

The seconds passed as the doe let out a muffled squeal, barely able to contain herself as she darn near tackled her mate.

"Oh yes… yes… YES!" Judy exclaimed in rising volume, nuzzling and kissing her fox as he tried to hold the ring away so it wouldn't get knocked out of his paw.

A high-pitched squeal, that wasn't Judy, echoed off the water from across the pond, sounding like it could shatter glass.

"Clawhauser!" a most familiar and deep tone bellowed in turn.

The bunny froze, having forgotten that to do all that happened, the lanterns still floating around as testament to that, Nick would have needed help. She stood up, trying to compose herself, but failing as she saw the ring again, plastering her muzzle against his and not letting go.

It felt like several minutes before the two separated, with the tod laughing heartily as he finally got the ring from the box and slipped it on his… fiance's finger.

"Oh sweet cheese and crackers, this is really real… really happening," Judy voiced happily, tears now liberally and unashamedly falling.

"I sure hope so," Nick replied. "Otherwise, I wouldn't want to wake up from this dream."

"Sly fox," the doe stated in belayed compliment to his plan. "You are such a liar about the whole birthday thing." A warm, bubbly laugh left her. "How did I not see this coming?"

"It's called a hustle, Sweetheart," her fiance whispered into the rabbit's long ears. Once again, Judy giggled, closing the distance again to nuzzle her fox. She began to chin him, marking him with her scent. Nick returned the favor in kind, making sure to get the top of her head and sides of her face.

"I think this one time… I'm okay with being hustled," she admitted, leaning up to kiss her mate once more.

"He hustled you good!" an abrasively low voice echoed from over by the start of the walkway of the pier. A resounding 'thwack' followed the statement. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Well… shall we go?" the grey doe inquired, tears still mussing her fur. Nick rolled his eyes and nodded.

"I don't really want to move from here, but I do wonder who hit Finnick after an outburst like that," he revealed. A look around told him the lanterns were floating away, fading into the night, like twinkling stars at dawn.

The two betrothed made their way as quickly as they wished, the bunny almost literally hanging off her fox in a most welcome form of clingy affection. The short distance felt like some sort of renewal, stepping through a door from one aspect of their relationship… into something that electrified and pervaded their entire beings.

A soft cry could be heard nearby, as the two stepped from the pier and into an encircling of mammals that had made their way over to meet them.

Clawhauser was a bouncing, bubbly, bundle of jiggly joy, with Bogo attempting to keep him quiet. Chess stood firm against a tree nearby, crutches laid out on the grass as he looked on. The entire precinct appeared to take part in this, unable to pass up the opportunity or swindled into it by Nick, the bunny cared not.

Turning to take in all her friends and colleagues, Judy's eyes fell upon Finnick, who was still rubbing his head and angrily eyeing a very cross rabbit thumping her foot. Next to her, a rabbit buck, was the source of the crying she heard.

"Mom! Dad!" Judy cried out in surprise. "You are here?" the doe whirled on her mate, crossing her arms. "I thought you said my parents weren't involved." A smug smile lined her muzzle. The devious grin that spread over his features saw to it that the rabbit's faltered.

"I never said they weren't around… just that they weren't at your surprise party, which I should remind you, doesn't exist," the tod explained to his grey bunny.

"Oh… slick play there, Scruffy," she commended him, taking in the multitude of mammals watching them again. "On that note… I doubt all of these mammals are only here to launch a few flying lanterns for you." Nick scratched the back of his neck, shrugging as he found the words to explain.

"I may have… set up a whole after party thing," he divulged, pointing behind the crowd. "Paid for food and drink for all who want. Everyone here was more than willing to help without asking for anything in return though. I just wanted to let everyone have a good time." Through the throng of mammals, Judy could see the setup, missed by her before or set up while out on the pier. Picnic tables were grouped together with a generous amount of food and drink on them, plenty for all types of mammals.

"You had a whole party planned, believing I would say yes?" the grey doe asked with a tinge of chastising sarcasm to her tone. "That sure, huh?"

"Oh, I planned for this for months and made all the predictions I could about… things," he described in detail rather assuredly. "And yes, yes I was."

"Come here you idiot," Judy cooed, grabbing her fiance by the tie and pulling him in for a fierce kiss, to which he wrapped a paw around her waist and the other around a thigh, lifting her up to allow her easier access to his muzzle. She took advantage of the moment, grasping the fur on either side of his snout and firmly pressing her lips to the tod's.

A cacophony of hoots, hollers, and various whistles emitted from the crowd, a few of them firing off confetti poppers and taking pictures or videos.

Nick lowered Judy enough so they could look into each other's eyes, the life they led by one another's side flashing through their minds and bringing them back to this moment, every decision… good or bad… putting them on this path they would walk the rest of their lives, paving as they went.

The people around them were not only witness so they could take part, but it was testament to the bonds they formed with others. It was proof that they were of importance to someone else, loved and cared for, given influence to them as part of every moment the story of their life produced.

Nick wanted to show her, and himself, that fact. In his long life filled with darkness, Judy was the everlasting light that brought him back from a precipice he never even knew was there. If it took him the rest of his life to pay her back for that, he would consider it a pleasure.

"I know that look," the bunny in his arms cooed at him, quiet enough that others couldn't hear her. "And I wouldn't have anyone else. You are the best and only choice."

"What do you mean?" the fox questioned, confused. "I don't think I was saying anything."

Judy rolled her eyes, giving him a scratch behind the ears as she told him, "I've seen that look quite a few times now. It's the 'I doubt I'm good enough, but I'll do all I can' look. You depreciate yourself too much, Nick."

"Fair enough," he mumbled at her, enjoying the feeling of her stubby claws on his head. "Now I see why you thump your foot when I do that to you."

The grey rabbit laughed, wrapping her legs around his torso as his arms lowered in a subconscious reaction to her scratching.

"All I ever ask of you is three little things."

"Prey tell, what are they, my dear future wife."

Judy sucked in a breath, loving the sound of those words in her head, as she spoke in response, "Respect me, Love me, and never ever leave me." She pecked his nose and watched it wiggle a bit.

"Oh… I don't know," Nick jibed playfully. "That sounds like a tall order. But… Done." He returned the peck, getting her right on the nose and chuckling as he watched her nose twitch and eyes cross to look at it. "Darn it, you are too adorable."

"Shut it."

He finally let his mate down, turning to the waiting crowd.

"Alright everyone!" he yelled to them. "Show's over. Now go eat and have fun." The fox made to turn away and spun on heel, returning to face the masses.

"Oh… before you go, I have… a joke." His paws clasped together as he said this, to which everyone groaned, Judy included. "Oh come on! It'll be punny! You see… mahhrhgkhfg…"

It was at this moment that his muzzle was desperately clamped shut but the paws of his fiance.

"Nick, I love you," the little grey doe began, "and you have created the perfect evening and event, but please please please… don't ruin it?"

The gathering of mammals, Finnick being the loudest, started laughing hysterically.

The red fox rolled his head around in thought, saying, "Fine. Just for tonight, but I'm telling twice as many puns tomorrow."

"At least we'll be around other mammals to share the pain," the bunny mentioned to herself, but for all to hear.

"I wouldn't worry about that," the tod chirped happily. "Bogo gave us the week off. You get my puns all to yourself tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that, et cetera." He couldn't help but give her a lopsided smirk as Judy went still upon that realization, eyelid twitching as the words seeped in.

The only sign her mind was still functional was the outburst that came after several seconds of stunning silence in the form of her usual brand of cursing.

"Flying Figs!"

Oh goodness, I hope you all loved this. namely because this is a plan I have in the works for my own mate. She is my light and life, heart and soul, the reason I'm such a giddy goof most of the time.

I have her and my family in on a very similar plan to this one. (No worries, she hasnt followed the story thus far and won't unfortunately. but also fortunate for the sake of secrecy. lol)

I can't wait to enact it and have her read this after the fact, telling me whether I was correct or not in assuming the things she would have said. I'll either look crazy, like an idiot, or quite possibly genius. Maybe all three in some combo. whatever the case, I'm quite sure i will be happy in any case.

And for all wondering... yes. that was a Disney's Tangled inspired theme.

As for the time frame compared to my Dusted storyline, this takes place after the Resolution chapter by a several months but no exact dates.

Until next time, It's been a hustle, Sweethearts.