The Fire Triangle, A Zootopia Fanfiction -- Part One

The Fire Triangle, A Zootopia Fanfiction -- Part One: Fuel - 53

Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.

----------------------------------------------------

The Fire Triangle-A Zootopia Fanfiction

----------------------------------------------------

Part One:

Fuel

----------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6-Nick's Story
(Continued...Pt. 3)

Judy set the coffee cup on the table in front of Nick, and the other in front of her own seat, trying hard not to grumble. (Trust this fox to get a craving for a blueberry cappuccino just as the story was about to take an interesting turn.)

"All right, so what did Finnick say?" she asked, sliding into the chair opposite and ignoring her own latte for the moment.

Nick tapped at his chin with a finger and puckered his mouth, closing his eyes and angling his muzzle upwards, like some ancient philosopher-fox, seeking enlightenment from the gods.

Then he looked at Judy again.

"I-I-I think the first thing he said to me was, 'Where you get off kicking me outta bed at two in the morning?'" He cleared his throat and then added coyly, "Erm, uh...but not in those words."

Judy pantomimed heaving her cup at him. "Oh, YOU!" She might actually have done it if she hadn't been feeling a small flood of relief at the moment. This playful fox was the Nick Wilde she knew, certainly better than the melancholy animal who'd boarded the train with her. Somehow, by some strange twist of logic, Nick's story was helping him to jettison his emotional baggage-but not without laying some of it on her, however unintentionally. At least some of what he'd said had wrung the tears from her eyes.

For a long time now Judy had suspected that that being fitted with a muzzle when he'd tried to join the Ranger Scouts had been the first, but not the only time Nick Wilde had suffered a broken heart. There had been a vixen somewhere in his past, she was sure of it; nothing that he'd told her so far that had come as a surprise.

Except...she had never expected anything quite as wrenching as this; in Judy's imagination, it had always been the age old story; Nick Wilde, back in his high school days, falling for the cheerleader-vixen who refuses give him the time of day; get lost wimp, I'M dating Mr. Touchdown.

But as so often happens in life, the reality had been nothing like the expectation; Robyn McFerral had been no youthful crush, the kind you laugh about with your friends at the watering hole when you get older. She had been Nick Wilde's Pearl of Great Price, the one so rare and special the merchant had sold all his other possessions in order to have it.

The saddest part for Judy Hopps was that she already knew how the story was going to end. Nick had sworn to Robyn that he was done with hustling, and yet when Judy had first met him, he had A), been unattached and B), right in the middle of running a scam; heck, he'd even scammed HER.

How had it happened? How had Nick managed to backslide like that? He was capable of walking away from the hustling life; he'd proven that when he'd joined the ZPD. Not once in the two years Judy had been working with him had the fox made use of his street skills; at least not for fursonal gain. Yes, he'd used them in the furtherance of his duties as a police officer, but that was something altogether different. Officer Nicholas Wilde was a good cop, and anyone who doubted it need only ask the good citizens of Bunnyburrow for their opinion on the subject..