Work Text:
It was Judy who’d suggested taking a walk.
Nick had woken up in his bed in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, and after an agonizing five minutes of psyching himself out, he’d finally decided to text her.
She’d responded back immediately, making him wonder if she was a light sleeper with good rabbit hearing, a deep sleeper with outstanding rabbit hearing, or just a struggler like him at this hour. He didn’t bother to ask, and she didn’t explain herself. All he’d said was, “Trouble sleeping. Stupid dream. You up?” to which she’d replied, “Yeah. Meet me at Victory Garden?”
He’d instantly typed back “Ok”, then hovered his thumb over the enter button, waiting, for some foolish reason, in case she’d think his reply was too soon. But then he’d remembered that she couldn’t care less and wouldn’t introspect over something as trivial as a text message, and after all, she’d replied to him instantaneously, and he hit send, feeling rather stupid for caring in the first place.
Now they were ambling silently side by side down the garden pathway. It was one in the morning, and the area was deserted, leaving just the two of them to do as they pleased. Nick had his paws in his pockets and was putting one foot in front of the other at his slowest, most casual pace. Judy shared his easy gait, her paws clasped behind her back. The pair passed by a vending drink machine, and Nick paused to survey his options before deciding he didn’t really need a soda; his stomach was already uncomfortably fizzy enough on its own as it was. He turned away, and so did Judy.
They walked toward a bench that faced a pond surrounded by shrubbery. Judy sat down first, and Nick followed suit, resting his wrists on his knees, his paws dangling in between.
The two shared a knowing, understanding silence as they took in the ambience of the quiet garden. Nick knew Judy was waiting for him to speak first, and it made the corners of his lips lift up involuntarily.
She was a thoughtful bunny. She knew him well.
And so he sighed audibly, and she shifted in her seat just slightly, preparing herself for whatever it was he about to tell her, and for some reason her patience with him made his stupid heart swell with even more affection, and he changed his mind at the last second and made the first sentence more about her than himself.
“I know you’re dying to ask, Carrots, so just ask.”
She let out a laugh. “Okay. Fine. ‘Do you want to talk about it?’ …There, I asked.”
His smiled deepened. “Okay, the truthful answer? Is heck no.”
“I figured.”
“But I know you won’t let me get away with that. Not when we took the initiative to actually drag our butts all the way over here.”
“You can take your time.” Her voice became soft. “You don’t have to tell me right away. We can just sit here, if you want.”
“Why prolong the inevitable? You’re all for feelings and mushy venting sessions anyway.”
She elbowed him. “Every time you think I’m just an emotion-driven, girly rabbit, remind yourself that you’re the best friend of said emotion-driven, girly rabbit.”
“A fate I’ve resigned myself to, since there appears to be no escape from you at this point.”
“Har, har.”
They smiled at each other. Judy then turned her face back to the pond, her expression carefully neutral, and Nick knew she was silently offering him a chance to dive into the conversation on his own accord, without being pushed. For that, he was grateful, and so he opened his mouth, and words came tumbling out.
“So I dreamt about my ex tonight.”
She twitched, and he knew he had her undivided attention, even though she kept her eyes trained on the pond.
Her voice was even, calm. “Didn’t know you had one.”
He had to really hand it to her; she’d learned a thing or two from him. She was betraying no emotion over the new knowledge. A small part of him had hoped she would have, but he quickly killed the thought.
“That’s because she’s not typically worth the conversation.”
“Gotcha.”
“And anyways, I have more than one.”
“…Huh.”
He looked over at her then, and her eyebrows were slightly raised, but not furrowed like he’d expected.
“So… how many?” she asked casually.
He hesitated. “Three… if you count the high school one.”
“Oh, okay.”
Something about the way she was refusing to exhibit her usual, dramatic personality over any of this bothered him, and he leaned forward in his seat.
She, in turn, leaned back. “So… not my intention to sound repetitive, but do you want to talk about it?”
He shrugged. “It was stupid, really. Like the past five years of my life had never happened, and I was back to dating her. Well, dating is a relative term. We were together, but we didn’t really go on dates, mind you, we pretty much just fought all the time. And… to be frank, the dream was dumb because we were in the middle of one of our yelling matches again, and she suddenly just… walked out on me, and for some godforsaken reason, I felt pain.” He shook his head. “I woke up all irritated because that part of my life is over; it’s been over for five years, and I don’t still love her. So it weirds me out that I actually felt upset over her walking out, when I should’ve just thrown a party. Dreams are dumb.”
Judy sat still, thoughtful. “Did you… ever have closure about the end of that relationship?”
He scrunched up his face briefly, waving his paw in a so-so motion. “Ehhh. Yeah, I mean, sort of. We broke up in real life the same way as in the dream; she just walked out one day. Never came back.” He focused on the claws on his left paw, hoping Judy wasn’t about to launch into a pity fest. “No big deal. Hurt like hell at the time, but like I said, it’s been five years. I’m just annoyed that she showed up in my dream. It’s an inconvenience, more than anything.”
“Right, of course,” Judy nodded. “I get it.”
But it wasn’t just an inconvenience; he had woken up alarmed. And suddenly he felt distant because he couldn’t tell Judy that. But he needed to overcome that somehow, because he was used to being honest with the rabbit, and keeping things from her at an hour in which she was expecting all his secrets to be shared wouldn’t sit well with her.
And suddenly he was wondering who he had become, because a bunny had a stronger influence on him then any vixen had ever had in the past.
“Can I ask you a question?” she asked now, and his eyes darted to hers for a moment before staring out ahead again.
“Shoot.”
She chewed on her bottom lip before speaking. “What was her name?”
He was silent for a while.
“Vanessa.”
She leaned forward. “And… I assume she was a fox?”
“Yep.” Nick drew out the “p” sound. “They were all foxes.”
“Okay.”
Nick didn’t like the sound of that response. Like she’d just decided for herself something about him based on implication alone, without really questioning that he might be more lenient than all things considered on the surface level. So he opened his mouth again.
“I’m not opposed to dating anyone outside my species; it just hasn’t happened.”
Judy said nothing.
This, in turn, made him feel like he had to keep talking. “I mean, foxes are attractive, but so are plenty of other mammals.”
“What are your other exes’ names?” Judy asked, and he wondered if she was changing the subject or just trying to continue the same one.
He closed his eyes. “The one before Vanessa, Rebecca. The one before Rebecca, Nadine.”
“Nadine being the high school sweetheart.”
“If you could call her that.”
“So…” Judy scooted half an inch closer to him. There was still plenty of space in between them.
“So…” Nick gestured for her to continue.
“So what happened there? With Nadine.”
Nick chuckled. “Now there’s a blast to the past.” He shook his head. “Nadine came from a rich family. I mean, really well-to-do. She had everything she could possibly want, and then some. I did my darnedest to give her gifts when I could, but since I was using the money I made from being a pawpsicle hustler to provide for Mom… long story short, one day Nadine said it was either gonna have to be her, or whatever else it was I was spending my money on. I was too proud to tell her my family wasn’t rich, and she was too spoiled and insensitive to realize that it couldn’t be all about her, all the time. I was gonna break up with her, even though I didn’t really want to, but she beat me to it. She found a fox who could somehow pay for fancy dinners and expensive gifts, and I found more time to hustle. All in all, everybody won.”
Judy mulled over this story silently for some time, and Nick rested his elbow on the top of the bench in the space between them, his arm hanging.
“And… Rebecca?”
Nick winced, surprising himself. He trained his expression to go back to normal before he started talking. “…I was twenty-three. So about your age, Hopps. Rebecca was a few years older. Not that that matters, it’s just a detail I remember.” He waved his paw in the air. “Anyway. I uh, I guess you could say I really loved her. She was everything I’d ever wanted in a girlfriend at the time: pretty, funny, charismatic. She got along with Finnick, which for some reason was a huge deal to me, and she didn’t look down at my, uh, way of doing business. We dated for two years, and I actually went one day to the florist’s and bought a bouquet of roses and whatnot. Planned to propose.”
Judy remained absolutely still.
Nick looked down at his paws and took a deep breath. “Walked into her apartment with the flowers, and caught her with another guy.”
Judy gasped softly.
Nick gave her a half-lidded smile that was all too practiced. “It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not.” Judy shook her head furiously. “It really isn’t. I’m so sorry, Nick. How… how did you react?”
Nick looked up at the starry sky. “I was devastated,” he said as nonchalantly as he could. “But then sadness gave way to anger, and by the time I’d met Vanessa, I was way too jaded and cynical to have a healthy relationship. I carried my anger from the chaos with Rebecca over to her, and I didn’t trust her. But Vanessa had her own issues too. She was pretty messed up herself. Loved arguing more than anything. It was like fire meeting gasoline, the two of us.”
He looked back down at Judy curiously. “So, now that you know the story about my love life… What’s yours, Fluff?”
She fidgeted with her paws, looking down. “I… uh… don’t have one.”
His eyebrows shot up. He had not expected that response. “You’re kidding.”
She held his gaze sheepishly. “Nope. I mean, I had crushes growing up. But they were all unrequited. I mean, I don’t really know, I never pursued any of them, so I never found out. But anyway, growing up, crushes were pretty frivolous things to focus on compared to my dream of becoming a big city cop.” She smiled. “Go ahead and say it: I’m really boring.”
But Nick shook his head slowly. “I wasn’t gonna say that.”
“Uh-huh.”
“No, really.” He tilted his head, thinking about her lack of experience. “It just took me by surprise, that’s all. I’m kinda jealous, in a way. No romance? No heartbreaks.”
She considered that. “I guess you’re right. But no romance, either.”
His heart started thumping a bit faster, and he cursed himself internally. “You have plenty of time. You’re young, you have your whole life ahead of you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Grandpa.”
He smirked at her, cocking an eyebrow. “Look, the way I see it, you’ve got a great thing going for you. I can be your wingman whenever the day comes that you actually decide you’re gonna date some nice rabbit out there. I’ll use my years of experience to single out the nice guys and the not-so-nice-ones, since you probably won’t be able to tell the difference.”
She scoffed. “And what makes you think that? Bunnies aren’t blind, you know.”
He looked at her seriously then. “I wasn’t able to, Carrots. When the situation’s personal, it’s hard to see it from an objective standpoint.”
Judy looked at him with pitying, caring eyes, and he found he had to look away.
“So. Work.”
Her expression changed, now confused. “Work?”
“Yeah.” He crossed his arms. “It’s past midnight, we’re two co-workers hanging out. So let’s talk about work. Got any complaints?”
She laughed. “Complaints about the best job in the universe? Not a chance.”
“Come on.” His voice was teasing. “Look, I can come up with plenty of complaints. For example, Delgato. The way that guy makes his coffee just irks me.”
“What are you even talking about? Delgato uses the office’s coffee pot.”
“Precisely my issue.” Nick pointed at her. “Has he never heard of a Snarlbucks?”
“Not everyone wants a foamy drink with whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkles and what-have-you. Some animals actually like coffee in their coffee,” she grinned.
He smiled back. “And then some animals get to enjoy the finer things in life, like me. But anyway. Back on track. The way Stevens has been eyeing Francine for the better half of a year? Really grinding my gears. The guy seriously needs to just ask her out already.”
“Oh yeah!” Judy jumped up and down in her seat, suddenly excited. “I’ve noticed those two flirting when they weren’t on their shifts! It was the weirdest thing, because one of them would say something, and then the other one would laugh, and then Stevens would”-
-“immediately high-tail it out of there,” Nick nodded. “Every. Single. Time. That elephant needs some serious advice on how to keep a conversation going with a girl.”
“And who’s gonna give him that advice, huh?” Judy wore a shit-eating grin. She was positively goading him. “You?”
“I’ll have you know, madam”- Nick placed a paw on his chest, closing his eyes solemnly “-I’m the king of flirtation. I have ways.”
“Oh? Ways?”
“Yeah.” His voice came down to a conspiratorial whisper. “See, it’s the natural ability to get the nervous women to let their guards down and the confident women totally tongue-tied.” He shrugged smugly. “What can I say? It’s a gift.”
Judy crossed her arms. “As if.”
Nick raised his eyebrows in disbelief at her apathy. “Rabbit, I’ve had three girlfriends. I’ve managed to successfully charm women into dating me since I was a teenager.”
“That doesn’t make you the king of flirtation.”
“Have I mentioned how many ladies I’ve talked to in bars on the weekends as a single guy? How many numbers I got, that I didn’t even ask for? They practically threw themselves at me, week after week.”
“Dream on,” she laughed. “You are definitely exaggerating.”
“Carrots, I could make anyone blush if I wanted to. All it takes is knowing the right thing to say.”
“Oh yeah?” She had an easy, confident smile on her face. “Work your magic on me, then.”
Taken aback by her invitation, Nick smoothed the fur on the back of his head and neck down. “Uh… you don’t count, Carrots.”
“Why not?” she challenged. “Are you saying I’m not a woman?”
He hesitated. “No… but”-
“Sounds to me like the king of flirtation has just renounced his chair,” she said with a mocking lilt in her voice.
He angled himself in his seat so that his body was facing her. “All right, fine. I’ll make you eat your words.”
“Ooh, so flirty. You’ve really got the charm,” she teased.
His cheeks warmed, which frustrated him, because he wasn’t supposed to be the one coming undone at the seams.
Swallowing down inexplicable nervousness, he scooted closer to her. “All right, you bunny.” He lowered his voice. “Tell me if this gets you nervous.” With his heart beating rapidly inside of his chest, he slowly hooked an arm around her shoulder, closing his paw around her upper arm, and pulled her toward him so that she was leaning against his side. The entire left side of his body suddenly went numb, and the fizzy feeling in his stomach was back. He ignored it and glanced down at her out of the corner of his eye, half-lidded, and smiled casually.
He was planning on saying something superficial about the way she looked, but the words that tripped out of his mouth instead surprised both of them.
“There’s honestly no one I’d rather be sitting with on a random bench at one in the morning.”
…And lo and behold, Judy blushed.
Startled by his own sincerity, Nick blushed too – deeply – and unhooked his arm from around her neck, resting it across the top of the bench so that his arm was still technically around her, just not touching her.
She scooted slightly away so that she was no longer pressed to his side, but not so far away that it was awkward.
She spoke, finally. “…I guess I stand corrected.” She chuckled uneasily. “Good job, Nick.”
He had not expected her to admit defeat, so he just stared at her.
She rolled her eyes, but the blush was still there. “Ugh, you’re gonna hold this over my head for the rest of eternity, aren’t you.”
He shook his head before he could stop himself. “Nah.”
The silence between them was heavy.
And so he added, for humor’s sake, “Maybe an eon or two, but not a whole eternity.”
“Well, anyway.” Judy shook her head. “Work complaints.”
He exhaled, not sure if it was out of relief or not.
“Um…” she looked up at the sky. “Okay, I got one.” She turned back to him with a strange expression on her face. “Swinton, the one who’s usually on prison duty? She saw us walking out after the meeting at the bullpen the other day, and apparently we’d just been joking around like we always do, but she pulled me aside when you went to the bathroom. She’s convinced we have a thing for each other.” She scrunched up her nose. “And then Phillips joined in on the conversation, and went as far as to suggest that we’re secretly dating.” She laughed. “Co-workers, am I right?”
“Okay, so, why didn’t you tell me?” Nick asked. “I could’ve set them straight.”
She lifted a shoulder. “There’s no use convincing animals who have their minds set on something. Anyway, we’ve been the hot gossip for a couple days now. So… that’s my work complaint.”
Suddenly, Nick didn’t like this conversation anymore.
“Your complaint, huh?” He kept his tone carefully light and jovial. “Funny you should say that; most women would kill to have rumors about themselves with me.”
She punched him in the shoulder in lieu of a response.
The silence returned between them for a while, and Nick’s mind wandered.
He thought about how he’d woken up an hour ago, with that strange knot in his chest, and how his first instinct had been to contact Judy.
Well, Judy was here now. And he still hadn’t completely let his walls down yet. And he knew that when they were to eventually return back to their homes after this, he’d still be trapped with the truth swirling around in his own head, pestering him, if he didn’t voice it.
And so, with a sigh of reluctance, he opened his mouth again.
“It was more than just an inconvenience.”
She looked up at him. “What?”
“The dream about Vanessa. It was more than just an inconvenience.”
She blinked.
He sighed again. “It was- all right, you know what? It really hurt. I guess I never properly healed from the day she walked out on me, but I managed to forget for a good few years. But then I had to re-live the memory tonight, and now I’m worried that it’ll be a recurring nightmare or something.” He frowned down at his own feet. “Life is… really, really good now. I have a job I never thought I’d have, and a best friend like you to keep me from going nuts and to sometimes drive me nuts, and I don’t mind either way. My point is, I’ve moved on. So I don’t need Vanessa to claim a spot in my head now. I just don’t.”
To his horror, he felt a strange lump forming in the back of his throat. The sensation was utterly foreign to him, and he immediately tried swallowing it.
When he spoke again, his voice broke all over the place. “I don’t think I’ll ever date again, Carrots.”
Judy lifted herself up and returned to his side, and gently touched his arm. His first instinct was to pull away, but after allowing her paw to sit there for a moment, his second instinct was to hug her. He did neither.
“Nick.” Her soft voice made a reappearance. “It was just a bad dream.” She tilted her head, looked up, and bore into his eyes with her own. Her paw closed down on his wrist. “It’s okay to not be over it.”
“Five years.” He furrowed his eyebrows. “A guy shouldn’t be hung up over something that happened five years ago. ”
“What she did was terrible! And same goes for Rebecca. Especially Rebecca.” Her eyes searched his, her brows knitted in concern. Her voice went down to a whisper. “But please don’t let three awful girls keep you from hoping for true love. That’s one of the best things we have. Hope. It keeps us trudging through the day-to-day, it gives us motivation to live life like we really mean it.” She drew closer. “I may not be the best rabbit to tell you this, since I have zero experience, but love, when it’s right? With the right animal, at the right time? I believe it must be a truly wonderful thing. Something that’s worth all the pain of the past. So please-” She took his paw in hers, squeezing tightly. “-don’t give up on love.”
Nick wanted to kiss her.
Frightened by this realization, with his stomach twisting, he let go of her paw and stood up.
She stood up too, assuming he was done for the night. “Was that enough of a ‘mushy venting session’ for you? Ready to go home now?”
He didn’t want to leave just yet. “Yes, and no. We can still walk. I’m just done with sitting at this bench.”
“Okay, good,” she smiled. “The garden’s too pretty to not walk through it the entire way at least once.”
He shoved his paws back into his pockets, and they continued on their stroll as if they’d never sat down.
After a minute, a new, sudden curiosity formed in Nick’s mind, and he felt compelled to voice it. “Hey, Jude…”
“Yeah?”
“When we talked about you dating some rabbit someday,” he spoke slowly, “I assumed it was going to be a guy.” He tried to calm down his racing heart. “Would it actually… be a guy? Not that there would be anything wrong with it being a girl... I was just wondering.”
She laughed, not bothered by his question in the slightest. “I’m heterosexual, Nick.”
He nodded. “Gotcha.”
After a moment’s hesitation, she ventured, “And you, I’m assuming…”
“Same as you.”
She thought silently for a moment, and then smiled up at him and joked shyly, “So I guess if we were the last two animals on earth, we could still have one last chance at romance.”
Nick tried to remember how to breathe like normal. “…Too bad Swinton wouldn’t be around to say, ‘I called it’, am I right?”
“Yeah,” she laughed, and it sounded slightly nervous to his ears. “Too bad.”
Crickets chirped.
They walked further down the path.
Judy took a deep breath. “Do you think… logically speaking… that that would be the case? That we’d wind up falling for each other if literally no one else was alive and available?”
Nick stopped walking, his eyes on the ground.
She stared up at him, with her wide, violet eyes and nose twitching just slightly.
“Carrots…” He brought his gaze to her face, and the rest of the words spilled out without any of his control. “…You wouldn’t need to be the last girl on earth for me to fall for you.”
Her eyes widened. He instantly regretted his words.
“Okay, I’m going home now,” he muttered.
“No, wait!” She grabbed his arm as he tried to walk past her, and she held onto him for dear life. He sighed in despair.
“Nick”-
“No, please don’t say anything.” Nick’s expression became desperate. “I- I didn’t mean for that to come across as so… flirty. It was an honest mistake. You’re my best friend, and that’s all I’ll ever need you to be. So please… forget what I said.”
She looked up at him with an odd expression he couldn’t read. He’d never seen that look on her face before.
“Nick,” she said again softly, and he visibly cringed. She shook her head. “Will you stop freaking out? I’m not going to make fun of you!”
He groaned and closed his eyes. “I don’t want this talk, I don’t want this talk, I don’t want this ta”-
“-Well whatever talk you think you’re gonna get, you’re not!” She clutched his arm more tightly. “Just… don’t run away!”
He wanted to punch himself in the face. She was giving him that same sympathetic look that she’d had when he was talking about Vanessa.
“Whatever you’re about to say, don’t start or end it with ‘I’m sorry’, all right?” He pleaded with his eyes. “I can handle it. I’m thirty-two years old. Just rip the band-aid right off, so we can go ahead and pretend that we never had this conversation.”
But Judy looked confused. “I’m not sorry about anything!” she exclaimed. “Nick, would you just- okay, look.” She let go of his arm and stared up at him with eyebrows furrowed. Her words came out conflicted and uncertain and opinion-defying and thought-provoking, all at once. “You’re my best friend in the entire world. Okay? And I don’t know what it is about you that makes me want to be around you all the time, but there’s something there. And I never had a name for it, and I still don’t, but there’s honestly no one else I’d rather sit on a bench with at one in the morning either. Or walk in the garden, or talk about exes, or go for a coffee run, or work at the precinct, or anything else we do. I don’t have a name for this, but”- she pointed back and forth between them with her finger –“there’s… something. And I’m perfectly fine with the something, whatever it is. I… I like you as my friend a lot, and I also like it when you let things get to you and you tell me about it, and I like talking about hypothetical scenarios with you such as being the only two animals on the planet, and I like telling you things like that my work complaint is the idea of others pairing us up together in their minds because of the look on your face that you get when I say it, and I like challenging you to flirt with me and try to get me to blush, and I like when you succeed, and I even sort of like the weird – and I mean super weird – feeling I get in my chest when you talk about your ex-girlfriends. And I don’t understand any of it, and I hesitate to call it a crush because what I feel for you is so different from any crush I’ve ever had; it’s like, not even on the same plane of existence in comparison, but just know that I know it’s something. Nick, we’re something. Something that I don’t ever want to lose. So for the love of cheese and crackers, let’s please not pretend this conversation never happened.”
She let out a long breath of air.
Nick, for his part, could no longer feel his feet.
“So...” he stood there with a mixture of disbelief and hope in his eyes. “We’re… something?”
She looked exhausted all of a sudden. “I figured you already knew.” Her voice was now very, very small. “I figured you felt it the same way I did, and we were just treading along carefully with our words because we don’t have a name for it.”
He shook his head. “Honestly, no. I always assumed you were either with someone, or you weren’t. I never thought there was something… in between.”
She looked down at her feet bashfully. “We’re not together, but we’re not not together.” She rubbed her arm. “We’re just… us, and I really like it.”
Nick thought about this. “Us,” he repeated.
“I know you have issues with the idea of dating again because of what happened with those colossal jerks Vanessa and Rebecca, and I want you to know that I honestly have an issue with dating too, because I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to reach your expectations.” She smiled slightly. “I’m not saying I’m a dumb bunny, but I’m not a genius when it comes to… when it comes to matters of, you know.” She averted her gaze from his eyes to look down at his striped tie. “Love.”
Nick’s voice came out in a whisper. “Love.” He didn’t phrase the word as a question, but that was exactly what it was.
Thankfully, Judy understood. “I stand by what I said.” She looked back up at him. “Hoping for true love is very important. And I don’t want you to give up on the idea. Especially since, as best friends and as… something else… I think I do… love you.”
Nick’s paws went limp at his sides.
She looked down again. “So, I guess what I’m trying to say is”-
But she was silenced, because Nick stepped forward and crushed her into a hug.
She rocked backwards, and he stepped forward with her, and she wrapped her arms around his middle, and held him tightly. He, in turn, pressed her face into his chest with one paw on the top of her head and the other paw on her back.
He waited for ten long seconds before letting go. He took a deep breath as he pulled away.
“Carrots…” His voice was soft in a way he could hardly recognize. “You don’t have to be a genius when it comes to love. I’m sure as heck not. But…” His expression was hopeful now; totally, utterly, stupidly hopeful. “If you want… maybe we can figure it out together?”
She regarded his words thoughtfully. “What are you asking?”
He reached out and slowly grasped her paw.
“Just… hold my paw. Let me walk you back home, and hold my paw. Right now, that’s all I’m asking.”
A sweet smile graced the bunny’s features. “…Okay. We’re holding paws.”
They were both blushing all over the place. It was ridiculous, really. Nick smiled back at her.
“We’re holding paws,” he agreed, feeling, without a doubt in his heart or mind, that this was the most special thing he’d ever done with another animal in his life.
The two turned around and started heading back toward the entrance of the garden. They passed by the bench, and then the vending drink machine.
Nick walked Judy all the way back to her apartment complex. At the door, he hesitated.
“What is it?” Judy whispered.
“I…” Nick looked down at their clasped paws. “I don’t want to let go.”
This was a whole new side to Nick that was being put out in the open, and he knew it. There was so much between their friendship and their “something else” that had never been encountered, never been discovered, never been explored. He knew it and she knew it. And they both also knew that tonight was the start to changing all that. All their vulnerabilities and all the careful treading of the past were about to collide and merge into something brand new, something more.
She smiled fondly at him, and then carefully extricated her paw from his. She turned the doorknob, then looked back up at him before opening it.
“If you have another bad dream tonight,” she said softly, “I don’t care if it’s forty-five minutes from now; you better text me. And we will go back to that bench in that garden and talk for another hour or two or three or however much you need. Got it?”
The lump was back in his throat, but this time, he didn’t feel the need to swallow it.
“Got it, Carrots.”
She opened the door, and without another word, smiled at him, walked in, and closed it.
Nick walked back to his own apartment, unlocked the door, changed back into his pajamas, and got into bed.
He laid there, thinking of how suddenly everything, and yet, at the same time, sweetly nothing had transpired between him and Judy.
Suddenly everything… and sweetly nothing.
His heart still hurt over Vanessa. And Rebecca too, if he was being honest with himself.
But maybe that was okay. Maybe Carrots was right, and it was okay to feel this way. Maybe… maybe letting it get to him was a healthy thing to do, and maybe if he dealt with it now, then someday he would no longer have to.
…All he knew was that as long as he could continue to have with her what she’d christened “something”, then he wasn’t worried about falling asleep again.
Because she’d be waiting, with that outstanding rabbit hearing of hers, for his next text message in case he needed her again.