friendship

platonic

1. Seeing Double

Judy and Nick are always together. And if Judy is mentioned then so is Nick. And everyone (everyone) knows that one does not mess with one unless they want to mess with the other.

"What did you do?" Del Gato asks an intern, who walks into the coffee room looking shaken up and a little well worn, his pride hanging somewhere at the end of the tail currently tucked between his legs.

"Um… I- uh… said something about the Fox."

"Ah," says Del Gato.

No more questions are asked.

2. Double Date

She's stood up. Her first date in the city, and Judy is stood up.

She sits at her table, playing with a bread stick and seeing how many small puffs it takes the blow out the candle (the number is 26).

"Excuse me, ma'am?" her waitress, a Koala with dayglo orange lipstick, approaches with meaning.

"Just a few more minutes?"

Apparently her pleading purples are enough to buy her a few more, and she slouches back into her seat. Her phone buzzes.

[Nick: How's the date going]

She rolls her eyes fondly, hoping it does its part to mask the way that they're beginning to burn up and tear. She's upset (lie). She wants to tell him she's fine (lie). She wants to say that this was just a hiccup (lie lie lie).

Instead

[Judy: I was stood up.]

Then, after a moment.

[Judy: Buy pizza. I'm coming over. Need to vent. Giving him another five min.]

But it's five minutes later when there's a flash of red at the restaurant door, and he's standing there, still in the midst of tying the top knot of his tie. Half his shirt is tucked out, and he shoves it in while the hostess raises her brow.

"Sorry I'm late," he tells her. He's brought flowers. Daisies. She wants to cry all over again, but for a whole new reason.

"You didn't have to do this…" she says, taking the flowers when he offers them, and he reaches over, kissing her on the cheek.

"Course I did, Carrots! If your best friend can't take the place of guys that suck, then it's like I have no role at all."

Her date does arrive thirty minutes later carrying roses and wearing a polo. But by then, he finds, his place is already (had been for longer than that) taken.

3. Double Trouble

"What's the meaning of this?"

The Chief looks them both down. Judy carrying the same look as a school kid with their hand caught in the cookie jar. Nick folds his arms over his chest.

"It… it was an accident, sir…" she tells him, wringing her paws together. "Just… you know… a harmless thing."

"Hopps. You think that destroying police evidence is a harmless thing." She goes quiet. Shifts low. He rubs at his face. "To be fair, it isn't as if I don't know what happened. Wilde here broke the extremely fragile and well protected vase covered in paw prints and you were strung along until the two of you were caught. Sound familiar."

It should have.

It was just about how every disaster happened.

With Judy standing over the mess, trying to fix it, while the (her) Fox stood back and watched with a cool smile and an easy grin.

But neither talks. She sits back, and follows his lead, tucking her arms about herself.

They end up being sentenced to a months worth of traffic duty and the odd ticketing job. Which Judy could have avoided if she'd just admitted what had happened.

But apparently, Bogo notes as he watches the two of them don their vests for their fourth day, Nick holding her tight to his side, tail curing around her legs, the two of them would be separated when the world split in half.

And then they'd jump down the chasm together.

4. Double Edged Sword

There are moments where she has to wonder if fear is the correct reaction. Moment like when she sits below the stream of the shower until the hot water runs freezing and the sun falls below the city line and her apartment falls into complete darkness. Moments where she hears her front door open and close (she hadn't locked it, had she… she'd forgotten… she'd forgotten everything…). Moments where she sits alone in the dark and the eyes suddenly appear.

She sees them in the moonlight that ushers through the slats of her bathroom window. The shower is still on. The water is cold, and she shivers beneath the stream, clutching at her arms. She's wearing nothing but her white undershirt that stretches just below her hips. The water stopped running red hours ago. The shirt is still stained.

"I killed someone."

The eyes blink. She watches them. The cold water runs down her ears. "I… I saved Fangmire… but… but I…" She sobs, a little hiccup of a noise. "I killed someone."

The eyes wink.

She wonders if she should be scared when she hears the door click closed through the pitch. Trapping her inside with the cold and the red. The eyes advance.

"I'm sorry…" she tells them. Not at all sure why. But needing to say it.

The water turns off when he reaches up and twists the knob. Something warm is wrapped around her, and then he's there. The eyes are close, and she can just see his outline if she squints. But when the blur of mercifully warm tears start, even his eyes become hard to see.

"I… I… I'm sorry…"

The eyes close. He breathes. Tugs her near. Kisses her temple. "Don't be…" he whispers, and his fangs brush her skin. "Don't ever be."

5. Double Digits

"You know I love you, right?" He says it after she's feeling homesick. After she's gone through two containers of cookie dough ice cream and half a jar of maraschino cherries and she's lying back, spent of all tears and feeling, all together, rather bad for herself.

He'd found her like that. Halfway through her second container and glaring at an empty tissue box. So he'd gotten her a roll of paper towels and a bottle of chocolate sauce, and after snagging another spoon from a drawer in her kitchen, he helps her finish the rest.

"I know, Nick." Because she does. How could she not. He gets her coffee every Tuesday morning and tells her which email advertisements and charities are scams and lets her choose the movies once a week.

But he just shakes his head. Leans in close. "Nope. You don't know enough. Just how much, I mean."

"I do, Nick."

"So you know I'd do anything for you?" He takes the empty ice cream container off her lap and takes her hands. "You know I'd do that, right? That… that I'd literally do anything. For you. Because you're honestly the best friend in the world to me."

"And you're mine."

"I'm your only friend, Fluff."

"Rude and untrue."

He touches his nose to hers. "Just… know that. Because your families not here. And I know I'm a lousy substitute. But I'm a willing substitute. For as long as you want. Preferably forever. But… you know… until tomorrow."

"I can have tomorrow?"

"You can have all the tomorrows," he promises her in a voice that's void of all Nick's usual Better-Than-Thou sarcasm, and her smile softens like melted cookie dough.

She hugs him back, and outside the sun is still beating itself a steady drum against the tar. He's golden in the haze of it reflected through dirty windows she needs to wash. "I know, Nick…" she tells him. Honestly. Truthfully. "I know. And I do. Too."

"Even if I steal the last of your cherries?" he asks, eying the jar.

"Even then."

He gives her the last one. Just to show he cares.

Please leave a review! If there's something you'd like to see, message me!

visit me on tumblr!