Nick Wilde was staring into his mirror. Admiring himself? Of course. But also trying to get his police uniform looking just right. Not by any uniform standards of course. He'd already known all of those, and he had already decided that he was done with trying to make his uniform absolutely top of the line as soon as he got out of the academy. No, Nick was going for a look that would give him a kind of roguish charm, something to show that he was a good guy in blue, but he was not exactly pocket-protector uptight. Like Chief Bogo was at times.

Part of the reason was that was just him. He couldn't exactly go around in his classic hawaiian shirt and tie anymore, and he still wanted to look like himself. But other than self-expression, there may have been a bit of a deeper reason. He, perhaps, had wanted to look good for Judy. As much of a sly, sarcastic, and easygoing fox he was, he did have to admit, something about that rabbit just… what was the word… dropped his defenses. He felt comfortable around her. And he thought she was a nice girl, very nice. She'd saved his life in more ways than one. Was he perhaps attracted to her? Beyond a reasonable doubt. And perhaps this rogue persona was his attempt to keep her attracted to him.

In any case, he'd unbuttoned a couple of the top buttons of his uniform, smoothed out his tail a bit, applied a little bit of cologne to his neck (as he still lived in the shoddy basement of a warehouse, and he still slept in a drawer, he needed some strong stuff to mask it), and walked into the service elevator and out of the hangar door of his warehouse with his uniform and weapon, stepping out of the complex into the sunny, warm, and dry air of Savannah Square, heart of Zootopia, putting on his classic mirrored shades, the final touch to his uniform, which masked those globes so crucial to figuring out one's true emotions, the eyes.

It was a bit of a walk from the run down warehouse he was living in to the bullpen, but Nick had gotten up early enough to make it into the station with about ten minutes to spare. Walking up to the front desk with that classic sly grin of his, he looked up to Clawhauser, who appeared to be eating a donut at the moment.

"Clawhauser, what's the breakfast today, man?"

"Mmh…" Clawhauser moaned, swallowing his doughnut before pulling one out of the box for Nick and tossing it to him. "Devil's Food chocolate, with rainbow sprinkles."

"My man!" Nick said, reaching on his tip-toes over the desk to high-five the cheetah. "Knew I could count on you to pick up a good breakfast."

Nick closed his eyes, about to take a bite into the doughnut, before he opened his eyes for a moment. "Hey, uhh, Claws? Is there anything in there for Judy?"

"Of course! Glazed vanilla. Why do you ask?" Clawhauser mused, before forming a smirk and leaning forward on his paw, grinning at Nick. "Do you have a thing for Judy?"

Nick had actually been asked this twice before. He basically knew by this point that there was a mutual attraction between the two, but he was already good at hiding his emotions. He just leaned up against the desk and took a bite of the doughnut. "Well, I can't have her going out on an empty stomach. I'd have to pull more of the weight than I already do."

"Oh, so you're the one who does most of the work now?" Judy said.

"Carrots!" He said, genuinely smiling, and taking off his mirrored shades. "Speak of the devil! Here. Take a doughnut" Nick said, tossing her the one Clawhauser picked up.

"Nick, always good to see you, the dumb fox pretending to be sly." Judy mused, giggling.

"Hmm, really? Because last I checked, you were the one who needed my help to crack the Nighthowler case." He said, grinning.

"Pure coincidence. Although, I'm glad I did need you."

"Oh, carrots. Always the heart warmer."

Clawhauser cooed at the two from behind his desk. "There is no way you two don't have something going on."

"We're just friends, Clawhauser, that's it." Judy said, before taking a bite of her donut with a free hand.

"Mhm, okay, then why are you leaning up against him like that?"

Judy looked to her side and realized that she was, in fact, leaning up against her partner. "Oh - I - Uh, It's not like- You know what I think I'll just go to bullpen now"

"Nah, I don't mind. You bunnies are just touchy-feely." Nick said, taking another bite of his doughnut, smirking a bit as his eyes lit up.

"Yes! That is it. I was just doing what I do with all my friends!"

Clawhauser wasn't convinced. "Sure thing, lovebirds. Don't worry, I won't tell."

"In all seriousness though, Nick, we should get going to bullpen. Announcements are about to start. Don't wanna make Chief Bogo mad."

"You got it, fluff" Nick said, following her happy, energetic stride with his own cool and sly one.

The bullpen meeting started out normally enough. Chief Bogo stormed in, slammed the door behind him, and complained about how the mayor was probably up his tail about something. He gave everybody their assignments, before Nick and Judy were left on their own in the room.

"Officer Hopps, Officer Judy. There's been a recent spike in vandalism along Sahara street. You patrol that area. Photograph any taggings you find. The analysts will scan through and see if they can connect the taggings to any sort of gangs. Arrest any vandals you see. Respond to any emergencies if you can. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." Judy said, moving to attention.

"You got it. Any places they seem to tag?" Nick asked, leaning against the leg of a table.

"No specific intelligence. Just reports. That's why you're being sent out. You two have good intuitions. If you think you find a connection, you have permission to radio me personally." Chief Bogo said.

Judy's ears perked up at this. It was incredibly rare when Bogo gave anyone permission to skip the chain of command like that and radio in Chief directly.

"Ah, come on now. It can't be that big. Couple of teens go around and tag a few places. It's a punishable offense, yes, and we will punish it. But, it probably isn't exactly 3rd Street Saints material" Nick said, putting his shades back on. "Besides, looking at this case file, they tagged a storefront in broad daylight. Clearly, these animals are amateur material. You never tag in plain sight or broad daylight. If they'd had more experience- wait..." Nick said before his voice withered away for a second, realizing that if he went any further, he'd be confessing some vandalism he'd done in his younger years.

"You do know you're in a building crawling with Law Enforcement, Officer Wilde."

"I didn't confess to anything, Chief. Anyway, Judy and I should probably get going" Nick said, grabbing Judy by the shoulder and dragging her out the door.

"One more thing, you two. Change out of your police uniforms. Wear a bulletproof vest underneath some civilian clothes. You'll be taking a disguised Crown Victoria onto Sahara Street. They don't exactly take kindly to police officers on Sahara Street. We've seen some very bad cases there. So yes, Nick-" Bogo said, laying down a five year old newspaper with the headline 'Three Cheetahs found tortured and near dead after brutal Prey Supremacist basement kidnapping'. "They're 3rd Street Saints material. I'd wager worse. You two watch your backs out there."

"Yes, sir" Judy said, taking the case file and walking out of the door, leaving Nick alone in the room.

"You got it, Chief" Nick replied, following suit.

"Not you, fox. I need to tell you one more thing" Bogo said, stopping the two before they got out the door. "I've been noticing the way you look at Judy. And the way she looks at you. Keep it strictly professional at work. As for what you do on your downtime, I don't care. Now get out."

Nick's eyes widened for a second from awkwardness. "Uh- no, sir, it's not at all like tha-"

"Out. Now. I don't want to dwell on that awkward subject any longer."

"Of course, Chief." Nick said, walking out the door swiftly.

Nick hopped into the passenger's seat of the plain white Crown Vic five minutes after Judy in his classic Hawaiian shirt and tie, bulletproof vest underneath.

"What did Chief Bogo want, Nick?"

"Old heartless back there? He didn't want much. Nothing worth talking about, anyway."

Judy could tell something was off about the situation. "Niiiiick" she sing-songed, leaning into him. "What are you not telling me?"

"Okay, sweet carrots, y'really wanna know?"

Judy giggled just a bit, punching his shoulder lightly. "Of course, you dumb fox!"

"Okay, don't say I didn't warn you, cottontail. Chief Bogo seems to think we are an item" Nick said nonchalantly, taking off his glasses, revealing his sly eyes.

"What! How did he know- Wait, that's not-"

Nick put a paw up to Judy's mouth as he grinned. "No need to try and hide it, Carrots. Remember this?"

The fox pulled out the carrot pen from one day earlier, and hit the play button on the recorder. "You know you love me." "Do I know that? Yes. Yes I do."

"You admitted it, fluff. I'm irresistable" Nick said, leaning his face up to her.

"I hate that pen. How'd you get a hold of it, anyway?"

"Basic patterns, cottontail. Whenever I'm being a dumb fox, you're being a sly bunny. And whenever you're being a dumb bunny-" He clicked the play button again. "Do I know that? Yes. Yes I do." "-I'm being a sly fox."

"Well then, sly fox. Do you know you love me?"

Nick didn't stop grinning, but handed the carrot pen over. "I'll give this one to you, carrots. Yeah. I do know I love you."

Judy leaned her face into Nick's and gave him a quick kiss on the nose.

"That… felt really good. But… That's what Bogo had me coming in about. He wanted me to keep professional at work with you. Speaking of which, I can hear Bogo coming in from a mile away, and we still have a case to crack on Sahara street, so we should probably get going before he kills us both."

Judy looked at the clock on the dash of the Crown Victoria, and winced a bit. "Ooh, yeah, we should have been out a minute ago."

"Don't worry, fluffs. It's an undercover patrol. We are supposed to be a little loose anyway."

With that, they pulled out of the underground garage of the police station, starting to make their way to Sahara street, getting their game faces on.