The Long Game, A Zootopia Fanfiction

Puke Boy

Disclaimer: Zootopia and all Canon characters are owned by Disney. All other characters, product names, trademarks, and copyrights, belong to their respective owners.

.....

"Shh, you'll wake him up, it's not time yet."

Nick stirred slightly. He was warm and comfy wrapped up in his blankets. Sleeping under a bridge wasn't as bad as other mammals made it out to be. He'd blocked off a section to keep the wind out and it was usually warm and dry enough that he could get a good night's sleep.

Sensing that it was still dark out, a nocturnal mammal superpower that he relied upon regularly to avoid getting out of bed, he squirmed himself deeper into the blankets, sighed and then settled back into his slumber. Unfortunately, something was interrupting his bliss and was trying to drag him to consciousness. His conscious-self took a sniff and was confused, it should smell more like a musty tunnel, but it didn't. His unconscious-self stood with its paws on its hips, 'You're in your new place, not under that old bridge, go back to sleep.'

"Mm-hmm." Nick smiled and floated back to sleep. Until his conscious-self took control of his ears and swiveled them toward what sounded like quiet giggling. His unconscious-self quickly jumped in, 'Must be the neighbors, ignore them and go back to sleep.' He could buy that until his conscious-self countered with, 'Your neighbors are an old raccoon couple, scowl yes, giggle never.'

Conscious-self took another sniff, bunnies, young bunnies. Nick rolled the scents around in his head, definitely a Hopps base, but not Judy. As more mental circuit breakers closed, he finally remembered where he was.

A muffled voice came from the blanket pile, "Steven, Spencer, Scotty, aaaand Sunni, what are you guys doing in here? It's way too early to be awake."

More giggling, "How did you know it was us, you're still buried in your blankets?" Sunni reached into the pile and carefully lifted a blanket off of Nick's head.

"Foxes use more than just their eyes and ears, we use our noses too." Nick poked his nose into Sunni's paw. "Yup, smells like a Sunni Hopps."

"Eww, your nose is cold."

Nick stretched in his blanket pile and yawned. Reaching over to his phone on the nightstand, he tapped it and saw that it was 5:30 am. "Guys, it's kind of early don't you think?"

"Nope, it's breakfast time, you don't want to miss out on Mom's blueberry pancakes, do you?"

That got Nick's attention. Suddenly fully awake, he decided going to breakfast was a good choice. "Alright, I need to change, save me a seat and I'll be right there."

The kits scampered out of his room, letting Nick get dressed and run a grooming brush over his head fur before heading down to the dining hall.

Arriving dressed in a ZPD t-shirt and shorts, Nick joined the food line in the kitchen. The line moved quickly and within minutes he had loaded up his plate with a stack of pancakes, poured on some maple syrup, and then added some hash browns and fresh fruit. Licking his chops, he went over to the kit's table and sat down.

"Yum, this smells terrific." Nick joined everyone in eating.

A few minutes later Janae walked over, "Good morning kits. Did everyone sleep well?"

Everyone, including Nick, replied in unison, "Good morning, Janae." And then they all giggled.

Janae smiled back. "Sunni, would you please hand Mr. Nick a napkin, he has syrup all over his muzzle."

Nick grinned and then with a sweep of his long tongue licked all the syrup off his muzzle. The table suddenly went quiet as Nick looked around and saw all the kits staring at him.