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This story is the continuation of a series originally written thanks to support from my Patreon supporters. It contains poly romance, some relationship drama, and takes place in the world of Zootopia. :3

The Two Lovers of a Dumb Fox - Chapter Six

The rain drummed loudly against both concrete and asphalt, oddly comforting as it filled Nick's ears and rang inside his mind. It kept him from having to think about other things. About everything he had screwed up. About his abject failure to keep a single good thing going in his life without eventually destroying it.

He'd been so close. So close to everything he'd ever wanted. Or... everything he thought was what he had wanted.

He'd loved Finnick for years, and Judy... since she'd hopped her way into his life he'd fallen for her so hard and so fast it had been terrifying in its own right at times. But somehow, for a while at least, everything had gone exactly as he'd hoped. When he'd told Finnick about his feelings for the rabbit, his dear friend and lover had actively encouraged Nick to go for it. When he'd told Judy about how he felt, but also shared that he was in a committed but open relationship with another man too, he'd been amazed and overjoyed by her acceptance of that fact. And when Judy had started to express an interest in getting to know Finnick better... god, he'd tried not to get his hopes up. Tried so hard not to think about what that could mean. The two people he loved getting closer. Perhaps close enough that one day they might be able to close the triangle of their relationship, and share with each other the same over-abundant joy and love which Nick felt pouring into him from two sides each and every day.

The fox had been so happy, just imagining it. But... perhaps therein lay the issue. He had spent all his time dreaming and wishing, without thinking of what might actually happen if such a miracle came to pass.

And now that it had... all he had felt was fear.

A sickening, stomach churning fear deep inside himself that everything was about to fall apart. That by suggesting this, by making Judy and Finnick happen, he had only served to seal his own misery in the long term. Before, if they'd tried to become closer friends but hadn't found it to be a workable arrangement, it might have been a little awkward but overall manageable for at least the time being. If they'd become close friends but discovered there was no real romantic spark between them, even better. A warm and supportive arrangement on all sides, but without the complications and entanglements of love and lust.

But this... this situation, having risen into being so fast, and having been displayed so shamelessly before Nick's eyes, it was both heaven and hell. Heaven because it was everything the fox had ever wanted for not only his relationship, but the others' relationships too. As fulfilling as his, not just from one side, but two. And hell, bringing him to where he now found himself wandering in the pouring rain, because he knew now that if anything went wrong... if any problems arose to compromise what was beginning to grow here between the three of them, it would mean disaster.

If they broke up... if the three of them started to date, to engage in a fully supportive triumvirate romance, then one bond of that relationship was broken, he'd lose everything. They would all lose everything. Sides would be taken. Battle lines drawn. Feeling hurt. Scar tissue formed. Worse and worse, more and more volatile and personal in every attack. It would continue until either one part of their former trio was sheared off and discarded by both other parties, or... far more likely in the fox's eyes, they all grew so sick of the conflict that whatever relationships remained were also ground into dust, unrecognisable and unrecoverable.

He couldn't face that.

He couldn't handle that. He knew it was weak. He knew it was pathetic, but... he couldn't deal with that possibility. Couldn't deal with losing those he cared about most of all. Not again.

And thus, he'd fled. Running away like a coward, and in doing so sealing the very fate he was fleeing from.

He had ruined everything.

"Dumb fox."

Nick turned abruptly, facing the nearest wall beside the pavement upon which he was walking and glaring at it with teeth bared and fists clenched.

"Dumb fucking goddamn idiot f- fuck!"

He flung out one fist, wild, thoughtless, and yelped as he punched the brick wall and sure enough felt sharp pain lancing through his knuckles. Grabbing at his hand with the undamaged one, he held it close to his chest as he panted and shuddered in agony for a few moments. Only then did he look down at it, wincing and growling in frustration at his continuing stupidity. The fur had been scraped off a couple of his knuckles, a sizeable amount of skin along with them. He could see blood flowing, diluted as the rain continued to pour down onto his still clenched and trembling fist.

Staring down at his bloodied fist, Nick suddenly felt very dizzy. Very cold in his rain soaked shirt and pants, and unsteady upon his feet. He could hear the rain rushing in his ears still, but now even that seemed dimmed, distant in comparison to the sound of his own pounding heart.

He staggered.

Stumbled.

He pressed his hands flat against the wall to steady himself, groaning as his bleeding knuckles ached at suddenly being forced to open up, and the thumping in his ears was joined by something else. The sound of splashing. Of a deep rumbling growl approaching through the rain. Not upon the pavement, but amidst the puddles and rivers of water flowing across the asphalt. The sound of a door clicking open, of feet landing in standing water, and a voice calling out.

"It's him. O-oh my god, Nick..."

Then he felt hands. Grabbing at him. At his water-logged clothes, dragging him away from the wall. He stumbled dizzily, eyes rolling as he felt a sudden wave of nausea. He doubled over, retching and coughing, overwhelmed by his own distress, but the figures grabbing and guiding him back towards the van were gentle and kind even though they had no reason to be.

"It's okay. You hear me, fox? It's gonna be okay. C'mon now, out of the cold. Out of the wet. Judy... help me get him inside."

Nick felt himself being lifted, pushed up by two sets of smaller, more delicate hands. He was too tired all of a sudden, too heavy with water and his own sorrows to fight them as he was rolled out of the rain and into a familiarly scented environment, the sound of the rain muffled and yet louder somehow as the door slammed shut and it was reduced to a frantic drumming upon the roof.

"God, he's freezing. Soaked through. Help me take his clothes off, Finn."

Nick was too weak to argue. Too embarrassed. Too ashamed. Too overwhelmed to do anything as he felt his clothes being removed and several paws pressing soft towels against his soaked fur. His eyes were closed, and even when they did flutter open for brief periods too blurred by his own tears to possibly catch a glimpse of more than a haze of sandy brown or grey fur moving around him. Guiding him eventually to something soft, a bed perhaps, and wrapping warm, dry sheets around him.

Still though, he felt himself shivering. Shaking violently with the lingering cold that had permeated him from his walk... god only knew how long he'd spent roaming in the rain after all, he certainly had no idea. And it wasn't long before those voices by whom he was now being so carefully tended seemed to notice this.

He felt a warm body press up against him from behind. Bare fur and flesh pressing against his, adding their body heat to attempt to warm him.

Then another, from in front of him. He opened his mouth to say something, he tried to move, but the figure before him growled.

"Not a word. You don't get to speak right now. You don't get to complain. Not till you've had some time to screw your head on straight. Just you rest your goddamn head down on these pillows, and you be thankful that the bunny didn't let me run you over like I was half tempted to when we found you."

Nick whined softly, but did as he was told. He was, after all, exhausted. Still so scared, so sad, so confused by not just the actions of the two figures surrounding him, but his own, too. It all seemed so bizarre now. What he'd done. What he'd felt. What he'd been thinking.

But now, he didn't need to think. Or feel. Or... anything, really.

All he had to do was sleep.

And quite frankly, right then and there... sleep seemed like a really good idea.

***********

When Nick awoke once more, it was day. He could see the light shining in through the rear windows of Finnick's van, and...

The bottom dropped out of the fox's stomach as just a few seconds after regaining consciousness, he remembered everything.

A thousand horrified thoughts rushed through his head all at once, but at the very top of that mound was one in particular that differed from the many, many others.

He was supposed to be working today.

He tried to leap up, tried to drag himself free from the bedding and seek out a clock to see just how late he was, but something stopped him. Something holding him from behind. Or rather, someone.

"Judy already called in. You're sick. She's taking the day off to look after you. Maybe tomorrow too. You're lucky she has favours to cash, it was easy to find a couple of other cops to fill in your shifts."

Finnick didn't let go of Nick even when the fox stopped trying to move, holding him under a guise of tenderness, but in a way that kept his arms by his sides and his legs together, encircled by the smaller but intensely strong fennec fox's own limbs.

"Finn, I..."

"Don't."

Nick winced as Finnick cut him off tersely, but a mere moment or so later he heard the fennec sigh with regret.

"Sorry. I... I just mean, wait a little. She'll be back soon. Getting a change of clothes for you from her apartment. We should all be here for this conversation."

They fell into silence. A silence that lingered for what felt like forever, until they heard the gentle sound of knocking against the van's rear door.

"It's open."

Finnick called out, and a moment or so later the door sprang open, Judy hopping up into the rear of the vehicle with a large grocery bag in one hand. She set it down upon the floor, delved inside, and soon pulled out several items. Amongst them was a change of clothes for the fox, dry and neatly folded, but also a bag of jelly doughnuts and three sodas. She set them down on the bed, and sat close by, cross-legged and staring expectantly at the fox where he lay.

"Well?"

She gestured to both him and to Finnick, then at the food and drink she'd brought along.

"Not the healthiest breakfast, I know. But dig in."

The fox and fennec separated. They both dressed in silence, sat down cross-legged in a triangle with Judy around her bag of doughnuts, and began to eat. To drink. To focus upon their food, only rarely glancing up at one of the others and looking down sharply once more if they found that person glancing towards them at the same time.

It was maybe fifteen, twenty minutes of awkward, silent eating and drinking before any of the trio spoke another word, and when they did... well, it wasn't actually a word at all.

Finnick belched. Loudly, lengthily as he crumpled his soda can between his hands and tossed it across the interior of the van. Both Nick and Judy snorted with laughter, but their reactions were wholly different.

"Gross. Soda and fennec breath..."

Nick waved a paw in front of his face while holding his nose in an exaggerated manner. The rabbit meanwhile took another swig from her own soda, threw back her head, and matched the fennec's burp note for note in terms of length and intensity. Finnick rose to his feet in applause, and as Nick buried his face in his hands in dismayed laughter, for just a moment he forgot all about the thoughtless stupidity of his actions the night before.

Of course, after forgetting about it for a second or so, he remembered, and his laughter faded. So too did the smiles upon Judy and Finnick's features, and they all realised in that moment that they couldn't wait any longer.

There was always going to be a talk. A discussion of what was happening between them, what they wanted it to mean, and whether that would make any degree of sense moving forward. But now... now that talk was being thrust upon them, and hanging over it all was the spectre of the previous evening. The sight of Nick's face regarding Judy and Finnick together, and then the back of his head as he turned and walked away from that intimately romantic scene.

"We're sorry, Nick."

As soon as Judy spoke those words, the fox's heart broke. He shook his head, he opened his muzzle ready to say that this was all his fault. His issues. That they had no reason to be sorry, and he was glad, so glad they'd found some happiness together.

Before he could though, Finnick cut him off.

"We're sorry we caught you off guard. That we lost track of time. That what we did made Judy forget about meeting up with you. That totally wasn't cool of us."

Again Nick tried to react, but again he remained quiet as Judy picked up where the fennec's point ended.

"But... Nick, as much as we fucked up, as much as we should have considered that there were three people in this relationship, and that before we got carried away, we should have thought of you too? You fucked up as well. What you did last night... after you left, we almost..."

Judy had tears in her eyes as her voice trailed off, and Finnick reached out to grab one of her hands.

"We almost turned on each other. We yelled. Blaming each other for what happened. Saying we'd moved to fast like we'd been pushed into it. Fuck, man... do you think this has been easy for any of us? That we all haven't been scared at some point? Terrified of... god, a million things. Spoiling our friendship. Ruining the relationship between the two of you. Finding out that our relationship doesn't match up to yours under close scrutiny. But, we didn't run. We didn't bottle it up. We talked that stuff out, a lot of it with you. So to learn that something's bothering you that badly, and only to learn it when you just turn and walk out on us like that? It brought up every worry... every fear we'd thought about. Except now they weren't baseless."

One last time Nick tried to speak, and one last time he was unable to do so as once more Judy took over from Finnick, holding her hand up towards the fox as though pleading for him to wait just a little longer.

"But... after a little while, we realised something. Half the reason we were both so desperate to fight and win whatever dumb arguments we'd started was because we just wanted them to be over. So that way we could stop fighting, and start doing what really mattered. Looking for you. And once we realised that... once one of us said it, and we both agreed that was all that mattered... well, we talked. Properly, actually talked while Finnick drove us around. That's when we figured out what we needed to say to you. But... before we say it..."

Both Judy and Finnick looked towards the fox. Eyes wide and both with a tear or two shining at their corners.

"...tell us why you ran. Why you looked so... scared by what you saw when you found us. Tell us, and be honest. Don't hold anything back. So... so that we can understand. And so that whatever comes next, we can all say we went into it with our eyes open."

By Jeeves

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