Okay, so quick lead-in for those of you who haven't read my first Zootopia fic, "Something Stinks," this is not a direct sequel to that, though it involves a character of mine, Taelia, who is covered in a lot more detail in SS. In this story, Nick is most of the way through the academy (I understand police academy training can take between six and nine months, and I decided to go with the long haul), and he and Taelia are dating (which I did so Judy could pick on both of them about their relationship; see chapter four).

And now, without further delay...

"It's a shark, and it ain't friendly! It looks like a dolphin. Tricky fish! Tricky fish!"

Pleakley, Lilo and Stitch

A light snow fell outside as the bullet train sped past the city limits of Zootopia, carrying an assortment of animals out to the countryside. The upper level, which would not very well accommodate any passenger more than five feet tall, was more packed than usual. Many parents of larger species had allowed – or strongly urged – their youngsters to head topside where they might better enjoy the view, not get stepped on, and give their elders a brief respite (not necessarily in that order). Also there were many who lived and worked in the city most of the year, but who were heading out to spend Christmas Eve and perhaps a day or two after with family in the outlying buroughs.

One of these was Judy Hopps, accompanied – somewhat reluctantly – by her friend Nick Wilde. On break from the police academy, Nick had planned to spend some time visiting his girlfriend Taelia and her family. Judy's parents, however, had been dropping hints since before Thanksgiving that she should bring a guest, so she had finally broken down and convinced Nick to come. She had even promised him that there would be no pranks for the duration of the visit – a rare enough opportunity, where she was concerned, to persuade him to renege on prior plans. Not that he made that choice without some regrets.

"I did mention that I saw her returning mistletoe later, right?" Nick asked for about the sixth time.

"I know," Judy replied. The first time he'd told her, she'd tried to let him back out, but he'd already tried that with Taelia and they nearly had a fight over it. That vixen was nice, but she could be a bit tempermental at times.

Nick thumbed through Judy's phone, which she had converted into a vast collection of snapshots of her family. It had taken her most of the previous night to put in names for all of them, hoping that Nick would make a better impression if he knew some of them by name. After all, they'd have no trouble singling him out.

Unfortunately, nearly all of them looked alike to him. "You know," he pointed out, "I don't think your parents will mind if I don't know everyone's names. It's not like I'm their future son-in-law or anything, right?"

Judy said nothing, and Nick grew uncomfortable. Maybe she's just zoned out, he thought, like a stranded swimmer hoping that an approaching fin belonged to a dolphin instead of a shark. "Carrots?" he persisted, waving a paw in front of her face.

She looked up at him sheepishly. "Uh, Nick, I might have forgotten to mention something."

Nick smacked himself in the face. I gave up mistletoe with Taelia for this! he thought. "Okay," he implored, spreading his paws with the pads up, "please tell me you did not tell your parents I was your boyfriend."

"Well, did I tell them we were dating? No. No I did not."

Great. Now she's a comedienne,

"It's just that when my parents encouraged me to bring a friend along, there was this subtle tone in their voices that-"

Nick handed the phone back to her. "I'm not talking with you," he said icily, walking through the crowd to the other end of the car.

She chased after him. "Nick, Nick, please," she begged. "I promised no pranks on you. I didn't say anything about them."

The fox retaliated with a loud, off-key rendition of 'It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.'

'Lot like Curtains' is more like it, thought Judy. "Nick, I promise, I'll make this as painless as possible – and I'll make it up to you."

He pretended not to hear her at first, then clasped his paws behind his back. "And just how do you plan on doing that?" he asked.

Fortunately, Judy never pulled a hustle without ammunition. "Remember when you said you wished you had a shot of Bellwether's face back in the museum?" she asked, holding up her phone.

By the time she sold him on the plan – promising not only a full photo collection of the prank but also a four-course dinner for him and Taelia come New Year's – they had gotten off the train. Nick had a sneaking suspicion that Judy had worked extra-hard to sell him on the plan before that point, for the young buck who greeted them – clearly Judy's brother based on the similar markings – wasn't the least bit surprised to see his sister in the company of a fox.

"A fellow conspirator?" asked Nick, glancing at his friend.

"Nick, meet – wait, let's see if you can guess. He was in my phone."

"Along with half of the Bunny Burrow phone book, I'll bet," Nick replied.

Judy rolled her eyes. "If you know everyone in the city, this should be no problem. Come on, Junior Detective."

Nick raised his paws. "Okay, if you're going to get everyone calling me that, I'm going to Taelia's right now."

Judy's brother raised his paws in turn. "Secret's safe with me," he promised.

The fox turned his dubious emerald eyes on Judy. She raised her paws.

"Hey, I promised no pranking on Christmas, and that includes putting my family up to anything. I promise, today it's just Nick. Now, who's he?" She pointed to her brother.

Nick studied the buck. "Let's see... Shamus?"

"Nope."

"Uh, Rick?"

"Wrong."

"Jacko?"

"Nobody in our family by that name."

Nick groaned. "Rumplestiltskin?"

The buck just laughed. "If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that..."

"You'd be the richest mammal in Zootopia," Nick finished. He studied the rabbit's face as hard as he could and made another guess.

"Alex."

The rabbit nodded. "Ding ding ding, we have a winner. Oh, and don't call me Alexander. Mammals get us mixed up."

With the guessing game (finally!) over, they climbed into the car. Judy offered to drive, and Alex opted to nap in the back. "Sorry if I don't offer much conversation, but I was up half the night making sure everything was ready."

"Ready for what?" asked Nick warily.

"Christmas, silly," Judy teased.

The fox simply rolled his eyes as Judy started humming along with the radio, which had just begun to play Aaron Kautippin's rendition of, 'Christmastime Down South.'Not for the first time (and not for the last, he suspected), he wondered just what he had let himself in for.

Half an hour later, Nick was once again looking through Judy's pictures. The more he looked, the more alike the rabbits all looked to him.

"Carrots, am I going cross-eyed?" he asked.

"I'm driving," she told him. "Have you tried looking at something far away?"

He focused on the road ahead – with his eyes, at least. His mind was on the destination, and the reception he might find there. Well, those and one other thing, but he tried not to think about the one other thing.

"Are you sure they won't mind having a fox come to the party?" he asked, looking like he wished he could jump out of the car.

"Trust me – unless you feel like walking back." Seeing that he was still ill at ease, she lightly bumped his shoulder with a fist. "Relax. You spent all week getting your stomach ready for vegetarian."

His paws strayed to his gut. "I should have made it two weeks," he groaned.

"You should have started with something other than the extra-fiber whole-grain oat muffins with granola topping," Judy remonstrated. "Anyway, you're with me. Mom and Dad would never chase off a guest after I invited him."

Nick grimaced and gripped his midsection a little harder. "Uh, Carrots, that's not the only reason I'm so nervous."

Judy blinked as she got what he was getting at, and her foot pressed harder against the gas pedal. "Hang on; gas station coming up."

Alex awoke while Nick was in the bathroom. "Where are we?" he asked.

His sister glanced back at him. "We owe him big for this."

"We?" he echoed. "You talked me into it."

"Yes, and as my older brother you should have tried to talk me out of it."

Alex rolled his eyes. "Does," he muttered.

She rolled hers right back. "Bucks," she quipped in turn. She made it a rule not to play favorites when it came to her siblings, but there was a reason she and Alex had always gotten along so well.

Fortunately, the visit to the restroom proved sufficient to hold Nick over until they reached the Hopps house. Along the way, Judy took the opportunity to point out several elaborately decorated yards backed by houses built into large hillsides – or, Nick suspected, large hillsides built up over houses in some cases. It was a little hard to tell the houses themselves apart when the decorations were so elaborate. They were in all shapes, makes, and sizes: hard plastic, inflatable, snow and ice, wire frame, animatronic, and just about every conceivable mix of the above. He didn't know it, but Bunnyburrow was at the height of their annual Christmas décor contest – and many of the families also strove to make their houses stand out for visiting relatives.

"Is that an actual working ferris wheel?" he asked at one house – on the small side, which was to say it was only about the size of a modest college dorm. Out front, several bunnies were riding an inflatable ferris wheel.

Judy glanced over before returning her eyes to the road. "No, those are the Houstons – north country Houstons, that is. Some of their bunnies make me look sane."

Sure enough, an older doe came rushing out a moment later to chase the scamps off the ferris wheel. The mischievous dibbuns jumped off into the deep snow and scattered in all directions, undoubtedly in search of more ways to get on the Naughty list.

"North country Houstons," Nick repeated in wonder. "I'll never know how you keep up with all these families."

"Kind of have to," she shrugged. "I've got siblings-in-law mixed into most of them. Not the Houstons, though; them I know because in high school I kept getting compared to one of the West Side Houstons. Wonder what became of him?"

Nick barely heard her answer. He had gotten distracted by a three-story-tall Nativity scene, with figures so large they reminded him of dinosaurs. He shook his head and sipped a coffee he'd grabbed at the gas station; gingerbread flavor with a shot of all-natural peppermint. Knowing Judy, he was going to need the caffeine and sugar.

And if her family's wired anything like she is, I'd better make sure none of them get ahold of it, he thought to himself.

At long last, they came to the Hopps farm. Nick almost missed the sign amidst the bustle of activity around it. Although the whole of the farm had been given over to snow forts and sculptures, the main attraction was a vast snow castle looming behind the hand-painted sign trimmed with pine garlands.

'Snow castle,' by the way, was not an exaggeration. It had turrets, lines etched in the walls to simulate real stone, ice windows cut from a nearby pond, and overall looked like it had been built by frost giants rather than bunnies.

"How the heck did they build that?" he asked, pointing.

Alex, who had foregone further sleep to enjoy the lights, looked out and beamed a little. "Ah, the wonders achievable with enough paws," he replied. "Nothing to it, really. We just build up each story, carve out tunnels as we go, and bring the snow from inside up top to build the successive levels."

Nick almost dropped his coffee. "Story?" he echoed.

"Of course," Alex replied. "What's the point of a snow fort if you can't go inside it? You should have been here the year we built a scale model of the Great Pyramid; even got extra credit at school for it."

The fox was almost afraid to ask, "What scale?"

"Oh, just half; nothing fancy."

The trio stopped in a parking lot – yes, a parking lot, not a driveway – thick with vehicles from visiting relatives. The area around it was largely empty, with most of the visitors already in the house or over at the snow castle. Nick stepped out, privately hoping that Judy had forgotten about her little prank on her parents.

He might as well have hoped for Chief Bogo to show up at work in a 'Foxes Rule' T-Shirt. The bunny didn't even give him a chance to admire the Nativity Scene (rabbit sized, thank goodness) poised by the front door in a cave made of snow rather than the usual stable.

"Okay," Judy whispered, "how should we do this? Let's see, put your arm around me like this... yeah, right there. Hmm. You don't quite reach my waist. Could you pick me up?"

"Over my dead body," he answered.

"Well, the ribs, then; they'll get the message."

"I'll just go in the side door," Alex announced. Throwing the pair a wink, he teased, "Give you two lovebirds a little space."

"Taelia is going to kill me if she ever finds out," Nick muttered out the side of his mouth. "Assuming one of your relatives doesn't get me first."

Judy shook her head, clicking her tongue. "Tisk, tisk," she chided. "Aren't you ashamed? A big fox like you scared of a bunch of rabbits?"

"I work with you," he pointed out. "I have every reason to be scared of rabbits."

"Ooh," she said slyly, "I wonder if it counts as pranking if I don't use that one until after Christmas."

He blanched. "You promised to leave the carrot pen back in the city," he complained.

"Didn't say which one," she pointed out, holding up three.

He groaned. "Can we get on with this?"

Judy rang the doorbell and leaned her head into Nick's side.

"You owe me for this," he whispered.

The door opened. "Well, who do... we have... here?" asked Stu, staring in total stupification at the scene before him. The setup could not have been more perfect; even Nick's nervous grin seemed to underscore his image as a boyfriend very reluctantly pulled into a meeting with his girl's dad.

"Hi, Dad," Judy greeted cheerfully.

Stu raised one paw, more than a little uneasily. When he spoke, his words came haltingly as if from the mouth of a robot. "Hi. Come. On. In."

He didn't notice that Judy had strategically placed her phone in her coat's breast pocket – with the camera out and recording.

"Is that Judy?!" came a voice from inside. "Tell her to come... on in." Bonnie, coming into view around a corner, stopped and stared. "Judy?"

"Hi Mom. This is Nick. I told you about him, right?"

Bonnie fainted, and it was only by reflex that Stu caught her in time.

Nick glanced at Judy, deciding enough was enough. "You were right," he said as evenly as possible. "Best prank ever."

"Nick!" Judy exclaimed. "Why'd you blow it early?!"

He just smirked. Sly fox: one, he thought. Dumb bunny: zero.

Nick might not have been so smug if he had been able to read minds. It was no surprise that some of the younger rabbits who saw him disappeared around corners, and in the Hopps household it wasn't even so strange when one of them pulled out a walkie-talkie.

"Eyes to Ears," she reported. "Judy's here, and you're not gonna believe who her boyfriend is. Over."

"Copy, Eyes. Does it change the plan any? Over."

'Ears' glanced back around the corner to where Nick was helping Mr. Hopps with a slumped Mrs. Hopps. It was hard to hear what they were saying, but she saw no reason to change plans.

"Negative," she reported. "Boyfriend is prime target. Maybe better than we hoped. Over."

"Copy that, Ears. Report to your station on the double. Over and out."

The Sisters Six were on the move.

Well, that's it for chapter one. My hope is to release one part of this story for each week of Advent – which, I'm sorry to say, is going to mean a hiatus on my other projects, and probably on my reading as well.

As a consolation to those who are still disappointed that Nick and Judy aren't together in this one, I will promise some mistletoe humor later. Also, you can check out AngloFalcon's fic, In and Out of Love, which is very WildeHopps.

I didn't write much of this chapter to music, but I will name two songs: Casting Crowns' "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," which has a very serious tone, and "Christmastime Down South" featuring Aaron Tippin (yeah, you saw what I did with the name in the chapter), which is much brighter and livelier. I'll suggest in advance that you may want to play the latter one at low volume in the background when you read the next chapter, to set the Hopps House mood.

Speaking of the Hopps House, how's Judy's family going to react to her and her little prank? Well, you'll have to keep reading to find out, so click that Follow button!