Lawful and Indecent

Part Three: The Sidetracking

Being naked at dusk made it far too easy for them.

Puzzling scribbles on his notepad, faintly legible from nothing but the setting sun turned out to be the last thing Nick would see that evening. If he had only heard the footsteps...in the span of one second, total darkness - physical, painful darkness, a fabricated nighttime that pulled on his neck and face while the chain of his own handcuffs bound his wrists, lurched away from the tentative crime scene. His lame attempts to thrash and resist were as pointless as his decision to remain there in the first place. A storm of hushed obscenities darted around his gagged, helpless body until he was thrown into nowhere, squirming between the tight ropes. But it was no use. The slamming of a car trunk and the muffled sounds of chaos became the lullaby to his unconsciousness.

Time passed....

As the world fizzled back into existence, he felt only apprehension at the same exact darkness obscuring his view. Though now, it was in the form of a black plastic bag wrapped tightly around his head, coated with the condensed vapor of his breath, blurring the faint, buzzing white lighting beyond it. Instantly, Nick gasped in fear and tried to scramble to his feet, but could only struggle as he discovered the coarse rope around him. Hands to the arms of the chair and his legs together by the ankles, he was completely immobile. The seat wasn't much better in quality than his vision or his hearing, and the floor was dreadfully cold to the touch of his bare paws.

His surroundings were a bad watercolor painting. Face smouldered from the neck up, his ears finally adjusted to the noise. Beyond his peripherals, the roaring of maniacal laughs at all corners were breaking down his eardrums.

Five different voices, he counted. No...maybe six. Six?

Yet the laughs seemed to stop as a hazy, black figure appeared before him, blocking out the light.

Seven.

"Rise and shine, you little snitch!" it aggressively mocked, striking a fist directly into Nick's bagged cheek. His head flew to the left in recoil, but the pain was the least of his troubles. His pupils dilated as he slowly realized why it all seemed so painstakingly familiar. The voice...the laughter...the silhouette...the high pitched, raspy voice...it hit him like a hurricane.

"Zane..." Nick breathed irregularly. "Never thought I'd see you again."

There was silence. Then, the clawed hand ripping the bag off his head caused a yell from Nick, leaving a ring of plastic stretched around his neck as he stared nose-to-nose with the dapper, devilishly grinning raccoon, glowing under the fabricated lights in his white tuxedo.

"Likewise," he growled.

Thrashed his arms in place, Nick darted his head like R.E.M. across his pitifully obscured vision room. His cries for help were only met with the same indifferent murmurs of complete strangers, as he felt weak, quickly draining hope the longer he wailed. There was nobody who could save him. He could feel himself giving up as he stared back in the face of the cocky, smirking grey monster standing before him, screams now turned to heavy breaths.

"You done?" the raccoon raised an eyebrow. "Kinda overdid the performance there, limpdick."

Resentment slowly corroded through his joyful attitude as he drew a paw down his face. As if on emotional cue, he paced away from him in thought, skirting the room in huge, slow steps until the loudest sound that happened was some kind of metal tool that was dropped behind Nick. The raccoon only let out a few grunts of frustration before it suddenly turned into laughter. His arms were outstretched as it intensified, torn bag clenched within his palm as he strolled around the room.

"All those sweat and tears, huh?" he broadcasted enthusiastically. "All that time I spent thinkin' he was about to bust our asses! And then we catch him like this?!"

Nick gulped. The sound of suppressed laughter behind him became increasingly obvious. He inhaled deeply as he looked down, noticing they had stripped him of his cap and belt.

"I swear, they're never gonna believe me when I tell them we caught him naked on the job," he reiterated gleefully. But his happiness was quickly replaced with scorn as he tightened up the bow tie on his uniform. When he met with eye to eye with Nick again, he held up his palm as he turned to a scowl, and all of his boys were silent. "You mind repeating me what I told you years ago?"

Nick tried to utter a sentence. "I...I think you've got the wrong-"

"If I were you, I wouldn't pull that shit," he muttered threateningly, dangling his badge in front of his eyes. "Only one place you coulda gotten this. Cough it up."

The shocked fox took a long, breathy sigh, but it didn't calm him down.

"D-don't ever speak of the Chorda gang," he admitted.

Zane held a look of disgust. "I want to know what you told them."

"Never said a word, sir," Nick mumbled.

"Don't ever fuckin' call me that again!" Zane snapped like a twig and punched him across the same place of his face again. "You swine! You have any idea how many of my boys you got arrested ever since you left? (He cleared his throat.) I know they made you sing. Tell me everything."

"Never said a-"

"Tell me everything!" Zane demanded, leaning forward, losing his cool.

"You know I can't do that!" Nick screamed back.

The enraged raccoon said nothing, letting the echo from his captive linger. He wasn't about to let this go on much longer. So, he straightened his posture, giving off an ominous, crooked smirk, and mumbled his captive into a state of shock:

"You don't have to."

He reached a hand into the pocket of his sports coat, eager to see the look on his face, which was already curling in horrific anticipation. With an evil eye, Zane left it there for a few seconds, indulging in his fear. And once those fingers curled inside the clothes, Nick's eyes widened to two full moons.

"I thought you'd remember this," Zane teased, laughing a bit to himself after saying it. "After all, you can't."

When he drew his hand back out, Nick's heart dropped. There it was in his palm: the small, six sided die, each face a different color, exactly the nightmare he expected. He only saw purple and yellow in the second it remained there before Zane tossed it into the air, curling his fingers up as it flew out. It clattered to the ground beyond his field of vision. The flurry of tap dancing plastic on the ground was like gunshots in his ear as its frequency drew to a full stop.

The raccoon's scalp furled when the toy stopped making noise, almost disappointed at its result. But he beckoned a presence behind Nick's chair, eager to continue with business. This was it.

Another raccoon pass to his right side like a ghost, footsteps reverberating as he picked at a scab, dressed in a scraggly, white muscle shirt with torn, denim jeans. He turned to be side by side with Zane, showing he was slightly shorter in height, evil eyeing the fox with him. As he pointed his pistol directly at his head, he snorted in disgust.

Zane interlaced his hands around his back, staring at Nick pathetically while he panicked.

"Listen...," he started. "I ain't into torture, pup. You know me. So, before I end this quickly, I really think you should tell me everything you know." The smirk came back briefly as he clutched his badge harder. "Maybe then, I might consider your legacy."

Nick wanted to retort of the consequences, but his henchman held a death grip on his gun.

He trembled, staring back, exhaling long. "I-I couldn't tell them..."

"Why not?"

The defeated officer was gasping for words in his chair.

"Because I was...too afraid...of...," his speech was slowing into a mumble, "of what would come next...."

Opposite to the guise of his henchman, Zane looked almost deadpan as he pursed his lips in response. His right hand rose in front of him, knuckles outward. Shaking his head, raising his thumb, he slowly uttered his final words:

"Y'haven't changed a bit."

His fingers snapped, and it seemed to blast through his ears while the world faded to black.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"Hauh!" Nick gasped frantically, thrashing himself upward directly into yet another new darkness. He gnashed his teeth hideously, but his fighting spirit died fast once he realized it was just his blanket. It was unmistakable; his eyes were open, the covers were over his head, and he was awake as a morning songbird. Sure, a fang was stuck in the blanket from his lunge, but at least it wasn't a bullet in his skull.

Sighing, he dislodged his tooth, laying his head back down, still engulfed in its suffocating warmth. Breathing softly into the covers, his right eye squinted under the light of the sun's rays through the hole he left in the fabric. He lay prostrate on the mattress, nuzzling his back against its cool surface just to feel it there. It was all just a dream. Yet, his impatience hadn't left him. Something about the ambience of that metal room didn't sit right. Perhaps it was from the vague, hazy coating of the details. Maybe it was the claustrophobia.

No, no, he thought to himself. _I just auto-piloted back home. That's all. _

And he wasn't wrong. It was much easier without the spectators. Still not entirely over that, Nick begrudgingly ordered himself out of bed, taking his time to release each leg from the covers. Nudity didn't come as a shock anymore, but the thought of how he'd carry out the day made his eyes droop towards the ground like the hang of his big penis. At least it wasn't hard this time. And since the clock beside him read 7:30 AM., he'd have some extra time.

"Let's...just...," he groggily talked to himself, trying not to think about today. "Read over the case files, I don't fuckin' know."

The full police belt and cap hung from a coat hook on the front door, which was right in his face as he reached the end of the stairs. As if on command, he looked away from it in shame, but turned back when he remembered what he was doing, unhooking the case files from the belt. Still narrow-eyed and over it, it was tossed onto the kitchen table as he turned towards the counter.

He heard a rumble onto the counter and knew immediately was his phone, lying face down and plugged into the walls. Finnick had left it on his doorstep at the dead of last night, with a nice little note that said "I told you so!". It kept moving, but he had no urge to answer it.

"If I'm gonna be like this all day, might as well be thin," he sighed as he fired up the coffee machine and put the bread in the toaster. His steps were lethargic as his temperament while he paced towards the table, slinking into the chair. His testicles tapped the cold seat on impact, and he winced, but it didn't hurt much...at least, not nearly as much as Nick's psyche when he re-opened the leather folder.

Yeah, that was him all right: full, black and white photo from the one surviving footage in existence. Zane Schroder. The sight of his low quality body with a bag and a gun in his hand outside the bank made Nick sick to his stomach, forcing a sneer. No matter how many times he saw that damn picture, it never got any better. The descriptions to the side of the wilted page weren't much less disheartening to read: silver raccoon, dark outlines over his eyes, accused of seventy two pickpockets, nine kidnappings, possible murders, insufficient evidence...blah, blah, he couldn't read the rest.

Filthy bastard, Nick thought as he stuffed it back into the folder, retrieving the other two in one swift motion. After that, he was happy to read anything. Luckily, the next one was a grey, buff pig named Jared Rash. Just looking at him made him exhale hard and smile; that old cartoon had been to jail so many times, the cockroaches probably remembered him. They had plenty of mugshots of this bruised up tank of a man, every shot of which usually caught up in something different, but it could always seem to break out by means of pure strength or Zane's wit. He was their biggest man, and Nick needed to find him.

The last was far more ominous. Its case file was basically empty, aside from a couple of descriptions that implied it was a female working for Zane, but they never caught footage of them. She yelled rambunctiously all the time, taunting anyone who chased her, but always seemed to fade into the shadows just in time. No pictures, no evidence, no trails. Just a black silhouette standing squarely at the 2'8" mark titled "Subject 23", pinned up like some kind of unidentified object.

"They're fucking people!" he yelled out all of a sudden, slamming his fist on the table before bringing his palms to his forehead.

He didn't even know why it got to him, but it was a good sign to leave the table. Instead, he leaned elbows first onto the counter again, one hand supporting his chin while the other traced a claw across the glued spots between the tiles. Saying nothing more, he stared out the window to the front yard. A green car was parked on the curb outside. He thought nothing of it. There wasn't much to see on a dreary, silent morning, anyway.

Shaking his head, he averted to the side, now in a trance with the shadow the corner of his cabinet made on the wall as if it was a bad omen. The only thing that broke that trance was his phone buzzing from across his counter, but he opted to stop the toast from burning, instead.

Nothing about him was hungry; more just distracted. He thought of easing the anxiety by browsing online a bit, but that'd require a phone. Head laying restlessly in his folded elbows, he peered at it from across the room, its blue screen diffusing on the reflectance of the table as it vibrated.

The weight of the world helped plunge his head into his forearms.

But a knock on the door jump started his nerves, raising his left ear to the door. As curious as he was, the morning did not treat him kindly enough to be a good sport - nor did his lack of clothing. But alas, he put his breakfast down on the table in the center of his kitchen and trudged over to answer it while the knocking became rampant.

"Now what?" he mumbled, but backed up in one motion when he saw the man standing in his doorway, the grey avian holding a clipboard and pen, wearing a light blue company jumpsuit outlined with a darker shade around the logo on his chest and his baseball cap that read "ZL". And his first impression wasn't up to par, as his gruff voice spoke first:

"Zootopia Landlords, sir, good m-oh god, put some clothes on!" the avian's bugged out eyes matched Nick's as he nearly mirrored his reaction, looking down at the fox's exposed crotch. "God, please, just push the door closed a bit."

"It's been a long couple of days," Nick groaned as he did what he said, feeling more sorry than embarrassed. He read off the badge from his uniform: "Jared".

"You could at least put on a robe, sir," he retorted, placing his clipboard over his eyes.

"Can't do that," Nick sighed.

Jared stared. "Wait...are you that guy from the internet?"

"I don't know, why do you have the same name as him?" Nick snarkily asked.

Apathetic staring contest.

"Why are you here?" Nick asked at last.

"Your rent." Jared looked him dead in the eyes, appearing to speak from script. "The payment was due yesterday by five o'clock in the afternoon. You had all day until then to send it through the post office, and you failed to do so. May I have an explanation before we continue?"

The guilty fox's fur prickled. There wasn't a single lie he could think of if the world depended on it. His snout curved upward as he spoke: "Uh, yeah, so, um...I'm in a bit of a rush between me and the Z.P.D.. They need me to do a _very_important job out there, three cases, and...(he shook his head around) Look, what I'm trying to say is, I need more time!"

"This isn't a high school test, Mr. Wilde," Jared sighed at him, "if you fail to come through, you get evicted. Everybody knows the rules, everyone else follows 'em."

Nick's blood boiled, having just read the contradiction in that. "Come on, man! I've been living here for years now! At least give me a few more days."

"That's not up to me to decide," Jared concluded.

"I can help with that!" Judy informed from across the lawn, beaming wide for some reason, completely ignoring the driveway as she approached them.

Jared raised an eyebrow at Nick, gesturing a hand in her direction. "Is this a joke?"

"Far from it, sir," the rabbit articulated, standing adjacent to them both as Nick hid further behind the door. "My friend, Nick, here is currently on some Zootopia's most crucial cases, and since he has special information on the suspects, we really need him here."

"What does that have to do with rent?" Jared asked.

"It doesn't," Judy nodded, somehow remaining straight-faced.

Jared stifled back. "Okay, who the hell are you?"

"Carrots," Nick ducked his head into his hand, angrily muttering, "you're the best, really, but that's not going to-"

"Shhh!" She scowled at him with a finger at her lips, then turned back to the landlord with the same smile. "So, my friend Nick here is on an important case, and he just found a massive piece to the puzzle last night. Important, right?"

The avian snorted. "Right."

"And for us to solve the crime, he's gotta be here. Correct?"

"Yes."

"Which means you should probably drop the feud and give him some extra time?...Right?"

Jared stayed deadpan as he shook his head. "Ah, geez, lady. I already told ya once. I don't make the decisions here."

"Well, maybe you can let the Z.P.D. take a little priority?" Judy suggested, splaying out her hands. "Can't let a criminal get away, right?"

"And I can't let Mr. Wilde be a criminal by refusing to pay his rent."

"I'm not saying take off the rent," Judy mused, ears flopping slightly while tilting her head towards him, "I'm just asking you to give it a little more time. He got all the case files readied up and set for us. All he's gotta do is his job!" She waddled over to her friend and put her hand up to touch his shoulder. "We need him."

Jared looked back at the bunny for a while, becoming filled with more endearment than puzzlement overtime. Though he still had one question left.

"Right, okay...so...is this, by any chance, that one guy on the internet?" he asked, bowing his head over to the bewildered fox. "I'm sorry, it's just been bothering me..."

"Shhh." Judy winked at him cutely. "Don't spoil our plan!"

Nick felt just as shocked at her comment on the inside as Jared did on the outside, visually appalled by this information. Locked in a loop of seesaw eyebrows, head turns and mental gymnastics, the poor landlord was slowly led into a stalemate after full minutes of standing there, engaged in a wordless conversation.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Jared questioned. "I don't...it must be a part of the whole thing you got here, or something."

"She's right," Nick supported, nodding at him. "We've gotta get going. I'll get the money, I promise, just give me some time."

"Fine," he agreed, sort of shrugging in defeat. Then he turned to Judy one last time. "How much more time do you need? I can hold off from telling my boss about this for a while, but...y'know, my job. The law. You'd know."

"I assure you, mister, all will be covered," Nick gestured his palm. "We'll be out and over this in a couple of weeks. That's all I'll ask for."

"Are you kidding me?" he fired back. "I ain't holdin' out for that long. Less than a week or nothing."

"Sir," Nick's voice intensified as he stepped forward, exposing his right furred thigh from behind the door, "I literally have to go to work like this. I need a lot of hours."

"I thought this was a part of the plan?"

"Yeah, it is, but-"

"Less than a week."

Nick sighed. "Five days tops. Please. That's all I ask."

Jared pursed his lips. "Make it two."

"Three," Nick concluded, crossing his arms. "Take it or leave it."

"Fine!" He was getting agitated from all the talk, having broken from conversation multiple times so far to quickly check his watch. "Look, I don't know what just happened, but I need to get back to my job. I'm dead if my boss finds this out."

He walked back over to his small, jaundice, green car parked just between two apartment driveways, then shot Nick an aggressive look from afar.

"If this is a game, you messed up, all right?" He called. "Three days. Don't forget."

Then he opened the vehicle, revved the engine until he backed into the center of the road, and just like that, was gone.

Nick stood there, haunted by those words. It reminded him of all the other times he'd heard that. But he shook his head when he realized who was still standing there.

"Shit, Judy, thanks," he mumbled. "I thought I was about to be homeless there. You saved my ass, big time."

"Did you just call me by my real name?" She chimed in. "Glad I was here. No problem, sweetie."

He looked down at himself. "Wish it helped with this, though."

"Let's just go to work," she insisted. "At the end of the day, people need us."

Gulping, he shakily replied, "C-can you find another way there?"

"Yeah, but it's through the park," Judy pointed out, grabbing him by the wrist. "C'mon! I know a shortcut."

Nick sighed as he closed the door behind him, his free hand over his twice exposed genitals, letting her drag him back to the outside, public world.

"Y-you're the boss."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The overhead clouds invalidated the summer day, leaving a humidified hotbox rather than a real morning for the two officers. Nick was already dreading combing out his fur after the day in this atmosphere, but not nearly as much as leaving the neighborhood again. he knew damn well what would happen. They'd see him in all his glory, face flushed with embarrassment as he paraded through the park, only to be seen by more once he reached the city. It made him take his hand back from Judy; everything counted. It caused a grumble in his stomach, like he was digesting the butterflies within them, as the quaint, suburban roads and empty sidewalks turned to an earthly atmosphere, slightly greyed from the clouds above.

It was like he was reaching into the future to borrow some of the embarrassment, pressing his hands further against his large genitals every time it struck a nerve, hardly opening an eyelid. An urge to run the other way grew inside him as they walked through the park, but for the sake of today, he'd have to dismiss it. Besides, Judy just looked so sure of herself. Every now and then she looked back at him with that same comfortable smile, assuring him it'd be okay.

"Don't worry," she kept promising again and again. But how could he?

Nick didn't know what face he was making as he trudged on, eyesight locked to the cobblestone pathways and wincing at the attention he was already getting. Thankfully it wasn't as full as before, as the weather wasn't as nice and it was simply too early. Yet his heart still pounded the more exposed he felt while his undisturbed friends walked beside him.

"Feelin' alright there, blushy?" she asked, turning her head to side eye him. Nick said nothing, though he was off put by her cheery tone. "Come on, babe, you look good."

Nick sighed frustratingly. "I'd be happier if it wasn't broad daylight."

She shrugged and turned her head back, face full of mischief. "'Least the sun brings out your fur."

Immediately after she said that, some suppressed laughs took place from under a tree where a couple sat together, seeming to be looking in his direction. Biting his bottom lip and arching himself over further, his face twisted with varying reactions, yet still stayed responseless. But the bunny kept her dimples on, perhaps more confidently than he ever had. But she wasn't the one trying to keep her decency.

"Why are you treating me like this?" Nick whisper-groaned after about half a mile of silence.

"Why am I not?" she replied, still walking with him. "I never get to do this with you."

"Do what?" he asked.

"Eh...just tease you a bit," she half shrugged, making it sound like it was obvious. "I love to see you confident, and I love to see you naked. I just wish I could see both at the same time, even here. And you love it when I tease you...I just feel bad, because I've never seen you this nervous in front of me."

"Wonder why," he rolled his eyes.

"I get that it's wrong, but seeing you like this just makes me feel like...how do I put this?" She put a finger to her lips. "Like I know a little bit more about you."

"For fuck's sake, carrots, look at me," his eyebrows furrowed, arms tightened and wincing from the sound of nearby chatter. "Does it really look like you're learning? I've never been so embarrassed in my life."

"Yeah, and that's why I feel so special right now."

"This isn't about you!"

"I know, Nick," she stressed, surprisingly relaxed, "but I finally get to be the one helping you, now. You've always been on that same confident stride, doing your own thing far away from any shifts I'm on. I just don't feel close like we used to."

"I don't need help," Nick shuddered. "And I don't need you to be 'close', either. I need you and everybody else to be far, far away."

"Look, acting like that isn't gonna get you out of this," she reasoned, finally giving him a straight answer. "It's just gonna make the problem worse."

"Are you saying I have a way out?" he asked, a glimmer of false hope in his eye.

"No, but I've got a couple solutions," she insisted. Then she changed the conversation: "What was that license plate thing all about from last night? I never got to hear."

"That has nothing to-"

"Shh! Just tell me."

"Fine!" he wailed, coincidentally at the same time the leaves ruffled above him. Once the last molecule of oxygen flowed from his respiratory system, he began the explanation:

"ELC-742," started him. "Teal stripe. Remember this like the back of your hand. They're not just evidence, they're exact coordinates for a plan. We don't know what it is, but we know who the plate belongs to."

"Who's that?" She sounded intrigued.

"Some abominable cunt named Zane," Nick coughed. "Thirty something year old fancy raccoon who likes to play dress up. Now, here's the part where you need specifically me. Listen up, because I'm only gonna say this once, and only to you." He leaned in closer while he walked. "This guy leads the most lucid gang in all of Zootopia called the Chorda gang."

She grimaced. "Never heard of them."

"Exactly," Nick emphasized. "They're so elusive and complex that they have a network of getaway areas all over the city without anybody knowing who they are."

"What?!" Her eyes widened as she turned around, looking furious.

"Shh!" Nick frantically whirled his head around at the multiple people staring him down, all looking varying levels of concerned. "Nothing to see here, folks! Police protocol."

"Police protocol?" Judy hissed through her teeth.

"I'm not lying," he proclaimed, much quieter now. "Look, I joined these guys when I was eighteen. Huge mistake. I saw things that nobody should ever see...but that's not important now. What _is_important is that I shifted around the hideout one day and found that plate in a box of a bunch of old items. Looked at the label; turns out, that was the remnants of his old identity. Ever since I saw it, I guess I acted a little too weird, because he was always suspicious around me."

"And...he never found out?"

"No. But if I say anything about it, I don't know what will happen. On the day of initiation, he told me to fork over all of my personal information. Never saw it coming."

"That's...," she trailed off. "Oh my god."

"Guess they like to pick on the stupid guys," Nick shrugged with a twitch in his eye. "Anyway, the license plate is still on the car, and I'm not putting a fucking finger on it. We've got what we need. Though I know it was Zane's before he left his old identity behind for crime, and it's strange that he'd leave it on someone old, rotting car given the circumstances...."

"Whoa, whoa, slow down..." Judy pleaded, speaking a little louder with the public attention. "What does all this mean?"

"Well...I think he's trying to tell the team something," he shuddered. "Some kind of...symbol."

"But what does this have to do with teal?"

"Maybe nothing. That's what I need to figure out...," he stopped dead in his tracks. "I don't know what scares me more...him, or the rent."

"That's the least of your worries," Judy assured, though he wasn't buying it. "But, if you don't get the money, I think I can help you pay. You'd need it more than I do."

"No, you don't have to..." Nick sighed. "You don't...."

Stuck in place, all reality all seemed to come back to him. Then he hung his head in resignation, breathing out a long sigh, followed by a whimper.

"I don't even know what's going on..." he said, solemnly.

Judy shook her head as she looked around. What little people there were in the park all seemed to trace their eyes towards him. They didn't care about the misery he felt, or what he just discussed; all they cared about was the shock value of it all.

"Nick...," she consoled and got closer, but not too close, speaking softly and pausing between each sentence, "you're so much more to me than this. Nothing will ever change that. Don't lose hope in this silly little problem. You're the best friend I've ever known, and that's saying a lot."

He lifted his head up just a bit, seemingly startled. Though all he could do was stare back in her eyes, he could tell that there was something twinkling in there. It became impossible to look away.

"A lot?"

She smiled calmly at him. "More than you could ever know."

It wasn't much, but he couldn't lie; it made him laugh a bit through the stress and embarrassment. More of an under-the-breath, painful way, but still joy, nonetheless.

"You're sweet," he admitted. "A bit fucked up, but sweet."

"C'mon, we're almost at the shortcut," Judy promised, holding her hand out. "You can hold my hand, if you want."

Nick glanced down a bit, slightly wincing. "Runnin' a little low on coverage, toots...."

Judy smirked again, now more seductively. "I don't mind seein' it."

He stopped for a moment, locked in her eye contact. She still had her arm outstretched.

"Come on!" she beamed. "Who are you hiding from, anyway?"

That got an exhale out of him. Damn, did she have a point - and a terrifying one, at that. But regardless, he stretched out an arm, finally taking her hand, snickering to himself a bit.

"Dumb bunny," he shook his head, smiling.

"Sly fox," she beamed, leading him down the alternate fork in the road while the park visitors watched them go.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The path led to a part of town Nick hadn't traveled before, mostly because of how unfinished and forgettable it was. The infrastructure of bricked buildings and graffitied walls had crumbled overtime, and nobody was fixing any time soon, leaving much of its space abandoned. It was still in the city, but it was just far enough away from the streets to lessen Nick's anxiety.

They were practically alone as they walked down the cracked, grey sidewalk, making it easier on Nick's senses. He had been walking for a solid fifteen minutes with just his left hand downwards, and the thought of it made him smile a bit. That was the thing he didn't get.

Judy noticed it before he did. She turned her head back to him.

"You laughing at these people's living conditions?" she grinned.

"Yeah, Hopps, poverty's hilarious," he chuckled with her. "No, it's just kind of hitting me how ridiculous all this is."

"I'm lookin' at something just as funny," she teased, as Nick noticed her eyes trace lower down his body.

"All right, what's the big idea?" Nick sputtered in amusement while he backed up, letting go of her hand. "Somethin' funny 'bout my outfit?"

"Oh, come on, look at you!" Judy teased further, gesturing towards his attire. "The hat? The belt? What are you, some kind of gay porn star?"

Mouth agape with possible rebuttal, he looked down at himself. A chuckle escaped from under his lips. The bulge of his thick snake behind his paw under the tough, black leather of his utility belt looked simply obscene. It wasn't any better that his handcuffs were dangling to his right side. He kept staring at himself until it fully corroded mind, reacting to every feature he noticed, corrupting his open face until it was bug eyed and silly. In moments, they were both laughing out loud, bending forward as their voices echoed throughout the street like a wind tunnel.

"Wait, wait!" she babbled radiantly. "Can you take out your nightstick and spin it around or something? I just -- I really want to see how this looks."

"Oh, what, you mean this?" Nick gave her a goofy, toothy grin as he looped his thumb and index finger around his penis and twirled it around in a circle, making Judy gasp hard before completely losing it. Her roars of laughter echoed off the empty walls as she ran out of air and they turned to soft wheezes in the back of her throat. He caught the virus, too, and started laughing at himself with his paws cupping his snout, shut-eyed and blushing hard as he turned aside. Meanwhile, Judy's face was a teary, warped mess, as she had to put both hands on her shins to keep herself from falling over, sounding like an engine failing to start.

He was flustered, yet oddly allured. This was finally starting to get easier.

"God, this is fuckin' ridiculous," he emitted, feeling the bashful heat across his skin.

She wiped a tear from her eye with a finger, still hysterical. "But...but seriously! Take out your nightstick!... The real one!"

"All right, fine, here," he expressed, waving his hand and closed face, smiling from ear to ear as he removed the blunt weapon from the belt. With a shy grin, he held it up in his right hand just in front of his chest, doing as she asked and spinning it around in the palm. The bunny's wholesome chuckles birthed from the mocking, now just laughing at how silly he looked.

"Nick...hey, big guy," she beamed, "I can still see your dick, dude."

"Oh! Um...," he looked down at the one hand hovering over his crotch, seeing how even with all his fingers outstretched, it hardly did its job. "Sorry, it's just...y'know, the whole public thing."

"You realize you just helicoptered right in front of me, right?" Judy put her hands on her wide hips and narrowed her eyes amusedly. "We're alone, Nick. It's okay."

"That was just a two second joke, carrots," he clumsily defended.

But she just snickered and reached a hand down for her own belt. "Am I gonna have to cuff you up for this?"

Tight lipped and defeated by her magic gaze, he instantly conceded his shame, letting his right arm hang to the side. The same simper spread further across his face with the hidden pink glow through orange fur as his flaccid cock and sizeable scrotum appeared before the impressed bunny. The nightstick spun in his palm as he froze in position, secretly serving as stress relief for him, expecting her to laugh at him again. Though, she instead went easy on him, as they were merely cute hums that crooned behind her palm covered lips, her glowing eyes scanning his body with immense interest.

A subtle purr escaped from her suppressed laughter.

"Damn, Nick...," she thought out loud, making a jump in Nick's heart. Whatever she was feeling in the air, he could feel it, too. Her eyes popped for just a moment before taking a phone out from her pocket. "Hey, here's another kind of weird question...." She paused for a long while as she excitedly looked at her camera. It was obvious she was nervous, and her next words made it clear why: "Mind if I take a couple pictures of you?"

That jump he felt from earlier seemed to multiply as his grin turned to stone. But he wasn't about to disappoint her.

"Hey, uh...sure!" The words flowed out of him like trying to speak with a mouthful of water. "Why not?"

They didn't really know where this was going, but they were doing it, anyway, defying all his prior impulses. In a second's time, he was trying out a catalog of erotic poses in front of the camera in between several faintly heard clicks from her phone. Once he was asked to put both hands behind his head and give a cocky grin to the sky as he buffed out his chest. Another time he was asked to flex his arms. She even told him to censor himself with his tail - that didn't work, for obvious reasons. In that moment, he was hers to exploit. And though he couldn't say it out loud, he loved the feeling of it.

The longer they went at it, the more Nick seemed to get into it, posing sensually for the camera like a pinup model. Her rabid eyes viciously surveying his nakedness in a place where anybody could see them excited him to his core. It was a feeling he never thought he'd have. Being exposed like this by a friend in such a dangerous area was so lavishly endearing, he couldn't help but find a passion in it. Eventually, even he was giving suggestions, grabbing his own penis and testicles with one hand as he beckoned a pointer finger to the camera with a masculine grimace. She was down for it every time, uninterrupted and horny for his devotion, snapping pictures like her finger moved on its own.

"Wait, Nick," Judy smiled. "Can you turn to the side in a Superman pose?"

"What's that supposed to mean...oh, this?" Nick placed his balled fists on his hips while he turned his full body forward to the camera, head pointed to the sky.

"Yeah, just like that!"

"Take it, babe."

"Wait...Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you?"

The camera snapped as he looked down. The stirring in his loins told no lies; his dick was hanging much lower, now. Instinctively, he wanted to cover up, but he pulled away, knowing it would only ruin the fun. In mere moments, his cock raised up to all nine inches in front of her, feeling the pillowy blade tickle his insides.

"Wow," Judy breathed as she put the phone away to get an eyeful. "Sometimes I forget how big you are."

"That's a shame," Nick articulated, eyeing her back. "I never forget how small you are when we have sex."

Maybe a bit inappropriate, but she snickered at it, anyway. Her eyes narrowed, and her tongue quickly drew across her lips. The desire in her form showed as clear as crystal the longer she looked at it in silence, until the implied lewdness of her act left Nick a throbbing, flustered statue in the middle of the sidewalk. Curiously, he craned his neck to peer down the street, only to find no one else, once again. Good...fine. But when his eyes traced back to Judy's position, he found her buoyant self nearly inches from his hard cock.

She stared at it hungrily and hovered her hands over its impressive length. His heart began to beat faster, as her presence screwed with his judgment like intoxication.

"Hey, Nick?" she crooned at him seductively. "You're not gonna go to work like this, are you?"

He smirked down at her as he hummed a laugh behind his curled lips, placing her small paws on his erection just to hear her tiny gasp in surprise.

"Babe, they probably don't even know we're coming," he remarked.

She chuckled to herself, already knowing this wouldn't take long.

"I think I know where you'll be coming," she quipped.

Nick breathed shakily, bending his back in an arch as he was worked by the horny bunny cop. Her fingers laced around his glorious length, stroking it up and down sensually as she stared up at him, big bunny ears up and attentive. The friction of her furry fingertips was like a cosmic embrace as they slowly pleasured his cock, all while her beatific expression coaxed him to let him express his gratitude.

As if she didn't know everything that made him lose breath in that delicious tone enough, the lukewarm summer breeze against their aroused bodies had only grew them further into arousal. They both knew damn well of each other's lust in those hungry back and forth gazes, Nick's body vibrating in her two handed grasp while her stroking became faster. She continued, and any time his sighs grew smaller, Judy began to edge him with one hand, stroking with the other. Every single goddamn time, that drove him to ecstasy.

Her right hand suddenly scrunched lightly around the head of his cock and twisted, sending a tight, warm spear of power through his pelvis and up his spine. Nick threw his head back and let a breathy moan through his barely open mouth, high pitched enough to even catch Judy off guard.

"Whoa there, buster," she giggled. "You're startin' to sound like me when we fuck."

"Yeah..." Nick sounded like he had just stubbed his toe.

She glowed with eroticism, ignoring that it didn't even answer her question. It didn't matter. She pouted her lips and gave a sexy shake at the waist, then asked another bombshell:

"How about I give a different type of head, hmm?"

Nick's mouth formed into a subtle "o", clearly okay with that.

"Out here on the street?" Nick whispered. "Well, we've gotten this far, haven't we?"

"Damn right, we have," Judy mused as she kneeled down so his length was pointing directly at her nose. "Now, I just want to see the look on your face."

Her tongue brushed across his shaft from the base outward for only a moment before she took the tip in her mouth. It wasn't girthy enough to fill the whole thing, but the way she enveloped it with her lips and drew it further felt like she was trying to make it happen. Nick groaned again as he felt that shock from her oral caress, mixed in with the full awareness of the danger they faced. What would they do if they saw two cops doing this on the sidewalk? It didn't matter. Not when Judy's head was bobbing up and down all the inches that she could, coating its first four with saliva as it returned and retracted while she fondled his testicles with her hands.

The sounds of passing traffic and angry horns were just background to the act as Nick began to breathe more rapidly, mind blowing in the rhythm of her skilled mouth. He had seen it a dozen times on drunk weekend nights, but the environment of choice make it twice as intoxicating, three times as enjoyable, and four times as sexy. His fingers played around the fur of her giant ears while his cock was a rock hard stand in an ocean of pleasure, slowly growing stiffer as Judy gave him those irresistible eyes, with an undeniable implication in its code.

Impatiently, she moved her paws from his balls to his thighs as she focused harder on his manhood. She couldn't say it, but he knew she wanted it. Her head bucked harder against his big erection and retracted, only to rush back in with the same force. She was trying to fit it all in. Choking a bit every time the head reached the back of her throat, her speed was quickening as she managed to fit in three more inches, threatening him for an orgasm. The fox was turned to a statue of lust as his whole body began to heat up like the oven his penis was trapped in, biting his lip while every inch of him tensed within her. There was nowhere to go. There was nothing to do, as he at last felt himself tense with impossible hardness.

"Oh...oh god!" Nick blurted. "I'm gonna cum! I'm gonna cum! I'm cumming...."

He shut his eyes close as it shot in full force, fully expecting her to pull away and let his semen spray across the pavement. But he moaned even louder when she kept in inside, coughing at each spurt that entered her esophagus, yet continuing with the greatest of intentions. The surprise made Nick moan unintelligibly into the sky, still trying to suppress the amount of pleasure he felt through gasps and extreme contortions as he came in ropes. It was like the world had molded into liquid as he turned to it in her throat. And in moments, all of it was over, leaving him breathing in that warm afterglow in the morning air while Judy cleaned up his shrinking girth below.

He hadn't even looked down yet. His eyes were closed shut, and his eyebrows were diagonal slants of sexual satisfaction while he felt her mouth work the last of him.

"God," he muttered, opening his eyes. When he saw the seductive rabbit fondling his softening package, he looked at her lazy-eyed and fully pleasured. But just as he was about to thank her, he saw the lens of the phone she was holding out, aiming at his chin and suddenly lost all the words he was trying to say.

"I told you," she beamed, tapping the button to end the recording.. "I wanted to see the look on your face."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

They call it a walk of shame when you make your way home from your mate's house dressed in their wrinkled clothes, sprouting your rustled fur and probably smelling like a warehouse of unrecognizable odors. What do they call it, then, when you walk to work naked after getting sucked off in the street? To Nick, it certainly wasn't shame. Or maybe it was? He didn't know. His frisky mind was a concoction of guilt and recklessness as he strolled with his favorite bunny down the busy streets, awake and aware of every passerby and stranger on the sides of the road.

Though his cheeks were flushed with humiliation amidst his lame attempts to conceal his shame from countless eyes, it was noticeably different. With every vulgar yell he received at random, Judy would tap him on the elbow to remind him how attractive he was. Sometimes she'd even get him to laugh at it; particularly the ones that called him a gay pornstar. Needless to say, this time, it was an easy walk.

It took forever to find the long way to work, but he wasn't about to wade through the marketing section again. Though they were late, Nick had shocked the squadron when he showed up beatific and lively, so the chief assigned him to his normal patrolling segments of town. The day had stayed consistently humid and cloudy. The walk wasn't much better, filled with obnoxious, often sarcastic catcalls from the sides of the road and early morning traffic jams taking a little longer than usual whenever he was around. A shrug and a sigh. One foot in front of the other. It'd never be as bad as before.

Not that he wasn't still embarrassed, though. There was always some easing to do. For example, since the fox didn't have a watch in fear that it would violate his punishment, he resorted to everyone else...and the flaws were pretty obvious. The task of walking up to random people naked to casually ask for the hour turned out to be as daunting as it was exciting. It also didn't help that keeping his genitals covered didn't exactly elevate the talking points.

But the more he did it, the quicker it became a game to him. The embarrassment of striking up any old conversation without any clothes became some kind of weird thrill. One moment he had he front to the brick walls with a hung head, urging himself just to give a simple parking ticket, and suddenly, he'd find himself asking for the time twice or thrice in the span of a few minutes, or even when the clock tower was in full view. Every now and then, he'd get himself to smile.

The image of his face - and inevitably, his erection - was all over the web, and he could feel it within every wisp of time and space. Whenever he didn't, there'd be a stray newspaper or a passing conversation that would remind him. To say this didn't humiliate him would have been a lie, and he often found himself walking straight back to square one, pacing himself before he continued the job. His excited grin depended heavily on those around him. And for whenever it was too much, he'd take to the alleyways and wait some time out in the shade.

It was 3 P.M. when Nick had resorted to this again; the ninth time today. There was nothing but a filthy dumpster under the harsh shade, but it'd have to do. The sedative shadow of infrastructure flooded the space between his eyelids while he leaned against the walls of the shady areas between buildings. He did nothing during this time. Soaking in the shade was much better than soaking in the eyes. So he breathed. Just long, slow, meditative breaths that echoed through the canyons between the strip club and the subway restaurant as the city bustled as usual outside.

"Heh...what I'd give to be one of those movie smokers right now. " he smiled awkwardly to himself. "I'd look fuckin' cool."

"I'll let you borrow mine."

The sudden voice knocked Nick straight out of his game, and with that, his feet. When his body was suddenly seized from the side with sudden force and strength, one hand sealed his mouth shut while the other was wrapped around his torso, dragging him further into the dark alley. It was a complete dead end as the light of the crevice through the two walls faded away from him quickly, coaxing muffled screams through the hand that covered him. His eyes peered downward to see a cigarette cradled between the pointer and middle fingers.

"I knew you'd make it far too easy to catch you, Wilde," the voice behind him teased in his ear. "Couldn't fuckin' believe what was in the paper."

"Nobody reads the paper anymore," Nick struggled, wrapping his hands around the man's right forearm. "Now, let go of me!"

"It's a lot safer than screens, these days," the aggressive man ignored him, cooed into his pointy ear. "You of all people would know."

The previously unscathed fox thrashed in the clothed elbows around him. White wool, sewn to perfection, not a stain of anything on it.

Oh god.

"And I have to say - you make me feel a little overdressed for this," Zane growled with ire while he fought him deeper into the alley. "'Little heavier than I remembered. I told you what would happen if I saw you again."

"No...no, god, please...," Nick pleaded.

The white arm around his chest suddenly gave way, as a small object rolled from his sleeve into his hand. Nick panicked, as it was the die he had seen in his nightmare.

"Ah, look at that," the shifty raccoon shrugged. "Must've left it in my sleeve. Ah, well...you know the rules."

"Get off of me!" Nick struggled harder. "Get off!"

"Come," Zane commanded, "I'm taking you back to the-"

"Let him go!"

The new voice came from outside the dumpster area. Standing in the one pillar of light available was Judy, armed with her army pistol out and aiming directly at Zane's face.

"You're under arrest!" she boomed. "Unhand the officer and put your hands behind your head!"

"Oh, darling, you know I have no time for those kinds of antics," he laughed, a smile curling across his mischievous face. "Maybe he'd like it, though!"

With no warning, he threw Nick out in front of him and dashed to the dumpster. Before Judy had a chance to react, Zane threw open its heavy door, scurrying inside and slamming with a force that reverberated like crazy off the walls. Nick collided to the ground as the criminal disappeared inside of the giant metal box. The bullet from Judy's pistol careened off the dumpster lid and into the air, off to nowhere. As the lid closed in momentum with its earlier crash on the wall, they heard him speak from the inside:

"Sorry, chaps, there's only enough room for one!" his cocky, muffled voice sounded from behind as the dumpster began to vibrate like a machine.

"Zane!" Nick scrambled to his feet, unhinging the pepper spray from his belt as he forced open the lid. But all that he saw was a hole that led to the dark abyss, which closed up just as rapidly as the raccoon had left into it.

Judy approached him, just as awestruck. "He can do that?"

Nick slowly rolled up as the look of terror on his face turned to a mix of disgust and acceptance.

"One thing I forgot to mention," he turned to Judy. "There's a rule he's got."

He paused dramatically.

"You see that die once, for any reason," he droned on, slowly and shaken, "there's no going back."

Judy gulped, a hint of disbelief in her eye that complemented her shaken persona. "And...did you see it?"

Nick nodded slowly, still looking dead eyed into the dumpster. "Yeah."

She gazed at him worriedly, unsure of how to react. "Think we should get the chief to overturn the rules?"

"Won't matter," he shook his head. It kept shaking side to side, angled down, while he walked with his hands behind his back towards the single column of light that stood in his path. The shaken fox strolled forward with no haste until he stood in the threshold between the cityscape and darkness, posing as a nude silhouette in the grey and white afternoon. Fur and tail in a mess, he showed all signs he had been in just the scuffle, yet none of the fear. And as he turned one right eye to Judy behind him while the first of the police cars skidded to a halt in the background, he showed a stone demeanor, only broken by an upward curve from his lip.

"Matter of fact, I think it'd help."