Muddled (but not really)

Summary: This is not what he signed up for.

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She'd been peaceably writing up her case review under the dim light of her desk lamp when the door flew open and mud whipped past her, missing her by a margin. In that second, if she had just turned her head, she would've been met with a face full of dirt.

"Carrots."

His voice was as brown as his body. She was a good twenty feet away from him and was still able to make out the clumps of dull dirt crusted in his usually shiny, red coat.

When he spoke again, Judy had to choke down her giggle. "You didn't tell me it would be like this." The paw he waved wildly over his front was caked in mud, and she could see little bits and pieces cracking off and falling to the ground.

"You're making a mess," Judy piped, sliding from her seat so that she could approach him.

"I'm doing just great, thanks for asking," Nick groused, shaking himself like a wet dog. More dirt flew off him, and Judy could no longer contain her laughter.

"What happened?" She asked, despite her suspicion that she knew exactly what had occurred.

"What happened?" His usually flippant green eyes were narrowed at her, as if daring her to make him recount the ordeal. "The Academy's Rainforest District training is what happened, Hopps. My application didn't say anything about eating mud cakes and greeting death face-to-face. Is it too late to resign?"

"Nick!" Judy scolded, even though her eyes were twinkling and she was beaming up at him as she continued half-fondly, half-chidingly, "I know you're not a quitter."

"Don't 'Nick' me, sweetheart," he grumbled under his breath. "And clearly you don't know me as well as you think. I've quit a lot of things."

"Oh?" Her ears fell flat as her gaze became quiet and gentle, awaiting his confession made in vulnerability.

He smirked, tugging on one of her ears. "Sure, Carrots. Smoking, drinking… you know, all those things delinquents do."

"Nick!" She exclaimed again, whacking him in the chest.

"Yow!" The cocky look on his face quickly vanished as Nick flinched away from her, rubbing the spot she'd just attacked and looking appalled. "What was that for?"

Her attempt to sound indignant was foiled by her wobbling mouth, which was doing its best not to smile. "Don't take advantage of my empathy!"

"Ha! I'm pretty sure your empathy wasn't here just a second ago, when I was walking through the door, straightjacket-ed by mud."

"Please," The bunny scoffed, looking at him smugly as she rolled her eyes. "I've already gone through all of what you're doing. It's not that bad."

"Oh yeah? You try failing every course and having a fanatical polar bear coach let you know."

"How is Trish?"

"She has a name?"

He's never failed to make her laugh, and she let him know he'd also succeeded this time by throwing her head back with a peel of laughter.

Nick was pleased with her delight. She could see it in the way he fought down his own mirth and tried to keep a neutral expression. "Seriously, rabbit. Tell me your secret."

"Nuh-uh," Her nose twitched. Before she could see him frown, she turned away, bounding towards the bathroom to prep the shower for him and also grab a broom and dustpan from the closet. "You've gotta figure it out on your own."

"Judy," Nick whined, voice carrying through the hallway.

"You'll figure it out! You're a clever fox, after all." Her voice was filled with affection as she peered at him. Her partner had just tugged his shirt off and was making quick work of unzipping his fly. He hurried past her and straight into the bathroom, which released a cloud of steam as he opened the door before shutting it securely.

Just a second later, she heard him singing to himself, clearly not as bothered as he'd made out to be. Smiling softly to nobody in particular, she turned to leave, only to yelp as his paw shot out from a crack in the door and grabbed her.

"Thanks, Carrots." His snout was the only thing poking through the crack, and his nose was shiny with condensation.

"For…?"

The opening widened just enough so that he could look at her. He'd lost his usually smarmy, half-lidded gaze, looking at her with so much innocence. There was absolutely no pretense in his verdant eyes. "For believing in me."

The way he said it was as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Judy could only blink owlishly at him.

Her stupefaction seemed to amuse him because his face melted back into its traditional hooded stare and crooked smile. Nick didn't wait for her to react, just stooped down so he could look her in her bewildered eyes and kiss her on the nose.

"You know I love you." Then he closed the door in her face.

Judy was left to mull over his words, settling into the warmth that they lit inside her chest. Right now, she could choose to worry– worry for their future or worry about their individual pasts– but no, she'd rather not let anxiety eat away at her present joy. She waved away the uncertainties of their lives because she knew they would tackle those together.

Instead, she smiled at the door as Nick picked up singing where he'd left off. "Yes," She murmured. "Yes, I do know. And I love you, too."

He certainly hadn't heard her admission, but she'd have a lot of time in the future to let him know.

—

a/n: Ta-da! I have too many tiny head canons despite the fact that I'm working on two lengthy fics. I don't have enough inspiration to just punch those two fics out, so I thought it'd be a good idea to keep writing ANYTHING, as long as I was writing. Thus, this compilation was born. A collection of un-beta-d, unedited (for the most part), un-long (can you tell I'm trying too hard) writing.

It'll be a variety of drabbles/short stories, whatever you wanna call them. Some of them might be related, some of them won't be at all. Some may be AU, etc. etc. etc. Honestly, this is just a jumble of everything. I'll be sure to label everything appropriately!

This collection is subject to update whenever I want! Thanks for reading! Leave a review! They seriously keep me motivated. :"D