“Come on Wilde,” Fangmeyer purred against one of his ears, making it twitch a few times quickly before he rolled his eyes and turned them to her. The much larger mammal was crouched down beside him, her broad stripped muzzle curved upward in a grin as she gently squeezed his shoulder. Or held onto his shoulder to keep him from escaping, he decided as she continued. “It’s your birthday. You need to cut loose a little. Relax. You did admit that your last date was, what? Two years ago?”

    “We’ll cover the cost and we promise you’ll have a good time,” Grizzoli said, his throaty rumble of a voice close to his other ear. Personal space was clearly not an option to them right at the moment. “If you don’t, we’ll leave you alone and never try to set you up again.”

    It was this promise, which he only half believed but would still hold them to, that had him grunting slightly as he reached up with both paws and lightly shoved their muzzles away with a chuckle.

    “Clawhauser, I can’t believe that you’re in on this, big guy,” he commented, green eyes narrowing on the bubbly and bubble shaped cheetah leaning over the front desk. The hopeful look on the friendly face was actually a bit of a disappointment to the fox. The Cheetah hinted with constant little nudges towards Judy of all mammals, talking about how adorable they were together. Crazy as that might have been, it was still slightly annoying that the bubbly male had suddenly jumped on the ‘Find Nick A Vixen’ ship.

    Not that he had ever really considered anything more between himself and Judy than the friendship they shared. She was a bunny, after all. An amazing, cute (as long as he didn’t say it out loud, it was fine), motivated bunny who deserved to have an equally cute, motivated, no doubt much less amazing buck. Then they could have an amazing family and populate the world with what were obviously superior genes. As her best friend, he would be happy for her. He hadn’t given up on the possibility of finding someone to settle down with himself. He wasn’t all doom and gloom, after all. Not anymore. She had changed him, helped him realize that his dream of being a part of a pack had never been entirely out of his reach. Contentment the likes of which he had never felt was his because even if the work was hard and often dangerous, he belonged somewhere now. He had the best bunny in all Zootopia and Bunnyburrow as his partner and best friend.

    If he managed to find someone who he liked half as much as Judy, who also happened to be a vixen, he would be one happy fox.

    “You’ll like her!” Clawhauser gushed, his body all but bouncing over the desk as he rocked excitedly back and forth. “From what I hear, she’s been wanting to go out with you for a while. She’s cute and funny and nice and she’s talked about you before…”

    “Clawhauser,” the tigress chimed in just as the chubby officer went off the rails and had hearts form in his eyes. “He said yes already. There is no need to scare the poor male.”

    Talked about me before, huh? he thought, inwardly sighing at the idea of this date being with some vixen who was on the “Nick Wilde” fan wagon. The number of fans had grown since his graduation from the academy had gone public. Vixens from all walks of life calling, emailing, showing up outside of the station by ‘chance’ as he left with Judy at the end of the day. I guess I can’t avoid it now.

    “All right, all right,” he groused, hooking his thumbs into his belt as he wandered away from them a few steps. “Someone text me the restaurant, the time, and where I can get a cheap coffin for when my birthday dies a slow death. I’ll be there.”

    “All right!” Clawhauser cheered, then paused and frowned as Nick walked towards the exit with a slightly annoyed twitch at the end of his tail. “I think? Do you think we should have told him?”

    “Nah,” Grizzoli grinned, dark eyes sparkling as he watched the fox exit the lobby. “He’s going to have a very happy birthday, if she has her way.”

______________________________________________________________________________

    “Who goes on blind dates anymore?” Nick muttered to himself, swirling the glass of the rather good Rioja absently as he glanced around the restaurant again. It wasn’t high society, really, but it certainly was on the high end of what a cop could normally afford. Suit and tie not required, of course, but it did compel one to dress respectably. Which was why he was wearing the gray turtleneck and jeans, had combed his fur, and wore just a touch of scent under his ears. The starter of good wine did help ease the annoyance of being there in the first place, enough so that he was almost relaxed enough to believe he might be able to make an evening of it.

    If she ever shows up. And as long as my date doesn’t jump out in front of me and start screaming my name like a fan girl, he thought as he raised the glass for another sip.

    “Nick!”

    Of course, that particularly familiar voice shouting his name didn’t fill him with the dread he had expected as his eyes raised towards the entrance of the restaurant. The bunny had drawn a few other gazes with her exuberant shout, a fact that was completely lost on the fox as he stared at his partner with a glass of wine precariously close to spilling in his lap.

    While she was wearing a familiar shade of dark blue, the happily smiling and waving bunny certainly wasn’t in her uniform. The long dark blue dress was simple enough at first glance, but because he took more than a glance – hot bunny – he could easily see that it hugged every single inch of her like a second coat of fur. Maybe even a little tighter than that, which became apparent as she made her way over to his table with the same warm smile lighting her face. Because he had never seen her in anything other than her ZPD uniforms, casual shirts, and jeans, and her carrot farmer get up when she’d returned from Bunnyburrow unexpectedly, he was more than a little shell-shocked. And the shell that left him feeling dazed and slightly concussed was a rabbit. A rabbit with curves.

    He had to force himself to keep his eyes from drifting to the hips that the dress clung to, very nearly putting her already form-fitting uniform to shame by comparison. Maybe it was the lack of a duty belt that made the curvature of those hips even more noticeable. He was certain he imagined the way they swayed a bit when she moved towards him, but even if imagined he had to force his eyes from the hypnotic tick of them. Of course, lifting his eyes to her face didn’t help dispel the – hot bunny – running through his mind, either. Strapless and shoulderless, the dress allowed the gentle slope of white fur that ran down her throat to spread just before it vanished into the blue of a snuggly tied chest-line. The effect had him curious. Curious of what it might feel like to slide one finger down the curve of her throat so he could experience how soft the fur must have been.

    That she was close enough for him to do just that had him realizing that she was standing in front of him, her long ears high and the smile never leaving her muzzle as she watched him. He managed to right himself with a smile as he quickly set down the glass of wine. “Hey! Carrots! What are you doing here?”

    “Well, I was,” she began, and he watched as she paused before continuing. The consideration in her eyes as he stood to greet her lasted for a few seconds before her smile turned a little sly. “I was here for a date, but he never showed. You? Why are you here all alone on your birthday?”

    “Ah, well,” he said, ignoring the little pang of what couldn’t possibly be desire that warmed his blood. “Some of the guys figured that the bad cake and silly hats for lunch weren’t enough torture for me. So, they forced me to go out on a blind date. And as you can see, it is going very well. This date is so blind, no one can see my date.”

    He grinned when she released a titter of laughter, his eyes warming as he stood to move to the other side of the table. Pulling out the chair, he waved for her to sit. As she graciously accepted the invitation, his gaze drifted down her back slowly. A simple mental assurance that she was still his partner, even in the dress, was destroyed by the happy twitch of her tail above the tightly wrapped swell of a perfect rear. Feeling heat rush up the back of his neck, he averted his eyes and managed to have his typical smile in place when he returned to his seat. There was a sweetness to her scent, too, he realized. Something earthy, alluring, delicate, and enough to make his mouth water for a moment before he remembered that she had put the scent on to entice her absent date.

    His loss, he thought as he took his seat again, wondering what kind of idiot buck would shirk a date with the vision across from him. If he, a fox, was stunned by how she looked, he could only imagine how another bunny might have reacted.

    “I guess I can sit here and wait with you for a while,” she commented, her eyes reflecting her smile as she reached out and plucked the untouched glass from the table, holding it out and giving it a little wiggle. When he managed to smoothly pour her a glass, while acting as though he knew what he was doing by giving the bottle a little twist at the end, she lifted it to her lips with her eyes trained on his. “If she does show up, we’ll see if I feel like handing you over.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

    Said date never did show up, which he found himself grateful for as they decided to have dinner. So instead of an awkward evening of poorly pulled off small talk paired with quality food and wine, his evening was filled with easy conversation, laughter, and the warmth he always felt when he spent time alone with Judy. Paired with quality food and wine. And the presence of a particularly gorgeous bunny, who he could hardly bring himself to tear his eyes from for the entire evening, made losing track of time very easy. It hadn’t been until he realized that they were the only two mammals in the restaurant that exactly how long they had been there had become apparent. With a hasty apology to the wait staff, who remained professional through all of it, their exit was made.

    “Then the giraffe said to the hippo, ‘How did you get up here, anyway?’”

    The completion of the joke was met with a quick burst of snorting laughter from the bunny beside him as they climbed the stairs towards her apartment. Playing the role of the gentlemammal, his arm was held out a bit so she could hold onto it until they reached the top. Once they did, he never had the chance to withdraw it as she leaned into him. There was an oddly sharp skip of his heart when the soft bunny stepped closer to him and pressed into his side, her head tilted to rest against his arm for the few steps it took them to reach her door. The softly feminine scent still lingered around her, he realized. Perhaps even deepened when she chuckled to herself, rubbing her cheek against his sweater for a moment. The feeling of loss when she pulled away was enough to have him wondering about the validity of their being just friends, especially when she turned her eyes towards him. The look was a little shy, a little curious and – god help him – very sexy when she blinked slowly.

    “Have you figured it out yet, Nick?” she asked, reaching up to slide her paw down the front of his sweater slowly. The flicker of heat that the touch ignited in his gut caused a little twinge in his sheath and a dumbfounded look as he tried to process what she was asking. When he didn’t respond right away, she grinned slightly and turned away from him to unlock her door.

    With a brain that was working at incredibly slow speeds, he watched her as he tried to process the change in attitude. Surely he imagined the way her hips cocked to the side slightly, and it must have been a friendly look she shot him over her shoulder as the lock clicked, her ears down in a way that made her look supremely feminine. A friendly look that shot a sliver of lust down his spine when she pushed the door open and turned back to him. Trying to get his thoughts together only seemed to make it worse when she took his paw, placed something in his palm and used her paws to close it as she leaned up to peck a kiss under his chin.

    “Hold this for me,” she purred softly, the tone of her voice making his mouth go dry when she turned to walk into the apartment.

    Any idea that that was the end of it fled as he watched the dress she wore start to fall apart. Starting at the belly, it slowly began to unravel and slide jealously over the smooth curves of her body. He found himself envious of the silky material as it floated down her hips, swam loosely over the now mostly exposed curve of what he not realized was one fantastic butt before it slithered over her tail and floated to the floor. He followed it dumbly with his gaze for a moment, licking his lips when he realized that what she had pressed into his paw had been an edge of the dress itself. Green eyes, while still slightly confused, flared with lust as she bent down at the hips to pick the opposite side of the blue fabric. Bent down facing away from him, giving him a view that had his pants instantly tightening to the point of aching before she righted herself.

    “Now that you’ve unwrapped your present,” she said, tugging on her end of the dress until he felt the pull on his end. He was dumbfounded, but not a complete idiot. He followed the lead, stepping into the apartment as she reeled him in like a fish on a hook. “You have to play with her. If you’re interested, Officer Wilde.”

    “You’re my date,” he said weakly, disproving the idea that he wasn’t a complete idiot with the statement. To her credit, she only smiled. A slow, sultry smile that was just as hot as what he now he saw in her eyes. The affection was always there, but there was longing. Naked, basic desire which coupled with the slow twitch of her nose to tell him that he had obviously missed what had been there well before tonight.

    “Your present,” she corrected lightly, waiting until he was within arms reach to press against him with the full length of her now very naked body. He heard the door close behind him, swallowing hard when he realized that the deliciously sweet, feminine scent wasn’t perfume. It was her and it was getting deeper, noticeably so when he belly rubbed up and down over the bulge in his pants. Very intentionally. “Do you like it?”

    He didn’t know if love, lust, or simply enough time to process allowed his mind to start working again. But he knew it did, and his body followed as he ran one trembling finger down the curve of her neck. Just as soft as he had expected. Like raw silk, but warm and with the faint pulse of her heart right at his fingertips. It was so fast.

    “Hallelujah,” he said, a slow grin forming when she reached up to cup his muzzle and draw him down into a kiss.

    Best. Birthday. Ever.

Art by TheWyvernsWeaver of course.

Mature Content