Zootopia: Undercover Pursuit

Chapter 12: An Old Friendship

Chapter 12: An Old Friendship

By the time Judy was talking to her family Nick and Finnick had been talking to each other for a good 3 hours, they hadn't even realised the time had passed so quickly. It had been a long time since they had talked to each other so frankly and bluntly. It had been a while since they had last seen each other and during that time quite a lot had changed for both of them and they alternated between telling their stories. Finnick talked about how he'd quit the icebreaker job, after Nick had left them to pursue some meaningful fully legal work and found it! Admittedly, it was a fairly simple job, but as Finnick usually said, you have to start somewhere. That's what he said when they sold ice-cream together and earned barely 10 dollars per hand. Over time, however, the business grew and it got to the point where this income was enough to support themselves in Zootopia.

"All right, but enough about me. Tell me something about you and Judy...You said you guys...are..."

"Shhh! Quiet, please!" he was interrupted by Nick abruptly. Finnick showed slight surprise on his face, but stopped his rant by looking into Nick's eyes, which were wandering around the room.

"Listen Finnick" sighed Nick stopping his gaze on Finnick. He showed him with his hand to bend down to the middle of the table, he himself did so too speaking in a whisper so no one would hear.

"I love Judy and we are happy together, but relationships of different species...are quite...original. There aren't many couples like that in Zootopia, you know?"

Nick asked, at which Finnick nodded with a movement of his head as he leaned back from the centre of the table picking a comfortable position in his chair. A moment later he raised his right eyebrow, looked around the room and moved closer to the edge again.

"I mean...I don't want this to sound bad...but you're ashamed of her ?"

"What, no, of course not! Ugh I beg you, but you could think sometimes..." He sighed with resignation waving his head gently from side to side.

"We need to prepare ourselves for the fact that we might be criticised for being with each other...it takes time" countered Nick.

"No well that's a given, although I've seen a few couples like you before and it's unlikely anyone paid much attention to them"

"Really?" asked a surprised Nick.

"Look Nicki, if you really love each other and want to be together, why can't you just be together without hiding? You know, just because you're different species shouldn't limit you, you decide everything, it's your life" replied Finnick. Nick felt more confident after hearing those words. It was the first time he had heard such words about their relationship outside. He had broached the subject a few times with Judy and only with her because he wasn't supposed to talk about it with anyone else. He smiled warmly at Finnick showing that it was a good choice of words on Finnick's part.

"Yes...only her parents are left "

"What about them?"

"They don't know we're with each other...the worst part is probably that I'm a fox...it complicates things a lot, you know how famous we are..."

"Foxes...just, have you heard what's going on in the fox district?" asked Finnick, to which Nick lifted his head up dragging a hand across his elongated muzzle stroking the fur on his chin.

"No, you know I haven't maintained any contact with anyone there since we escaped from there." replied Nick coolly straightening up in the chair that gave him comfortable support.

"Yeah, but listen. Apparently something bad is going on over there. They've brought in the military on the shores of the city, no one can leave or enter there now! " said Finnick which partly interested Nick, although at first he wanted to hide it by looking at the diner guests, but he couldn't pretend that Finnick's news was boring.