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Savage Foxes, Awkward Conversations

"Well, not exactly everything," he amended, keeping his distance with the gun trained on the snarling fox only feet away. It was only training that kept that paw from shaking, or high ears from falling flat as the desire to run filled him. He had never faced anything like this, never anything so unusual. Those infected with this particular toxin? Certainly. But a fully cognitive fox that showed all of the signs that he should have been a slavering savage, including the temperament, while still holding a conversation with his lover? This was entirely new and it had begged him to enter the room, to see it. To verify what he had heard said through the paper thin walls of the apartment next door. "I'm afraid I don't know everything. But I know a great deal about what is happening. Miss. Hopps, you may want to calm your partner. Though I would prefer not to, I will shoot him."

The bunny looked about as pleased as the fox, especially when the threat seemed to settle over her. Her reaction was far calmer, and he did have to give her credit. She didn't seem the slightest bit disturbed by the fact that she was currently, and very clearly, locked hip to hip with the fox. She reacted quickly to his words, likely because she understood that he meant them. He watched as she slipped her arms under the fox's shoulder, looping them around so she could slide her fingers lightly over the base of his ears and down the back of his neck. The effect was very nearly instant, particularly when she spoke in a sweetly soothing tone that only trembled the faintest bit.

"Nick. Nick, you need to calm down. Please. If he wanted to hurt us, he would have already."

She didn't sound convinced of that, which was perfectly fine. Staying alert was a good sign. Though even as the snarls died down to low growls, the fury in the wild green eyes didn't dim in the slightest. The predator started to move, one arm wrapped around the very naked bunny to keep her close as he backed away and turned to the side, putting as much of himself between her and the gun as he could without actually turning his back.

"Tell him that I am not going to hurt you, Miss Hopps," he said in a moment of inspiration. "You, specifically. If it helps, I have no intention of harming either of you."

She handled herself with a great deal of grace, given her situation. Grace that was no doubt difficult, given the fact that she was being handled in a very ungraceful manner; legs and arms were now wrapped around her lover, allowing him to carry her wherever he seemed inclined to without any attempt at all to steer him. It could not have been any more comfortable than it was dignified.

"Nick, he's not going to hurt me. Did you hear him? He's not going to hurt me." The paws on the fox's ears tightened as he watched, and she dragged the drawn and tight muzzle towards her, until green eyes turned to lock on her. "Shh. That's it. Calm down. Look at me, Nick. Look at me. I'm fine. I'm safe. You have me."

The transformation was remarkable. The curl of the snarl started to ease, his lips dropping to hide sharp white teeth before the long muzzle smoothed out and relaxed. Because he was naked, the rabbit could see every tense muscle slowly relax as well; a relaxation that seemed to come more quickly as she eased her grip on his ears and brushed her palms over his shoulders easily. Even as he lowered himself into a crouch beside the bed, almost kneeling as he kept the attractive bunny held close to his chest, the eyes softened for her. Calmed for her as she continued to speak soft words to him until she leaned up and placed a trail of soft kisses down one side of his mouth until she reached his neck. And as he had seen in the Rainforest only slightly more than twenty-four hours ago, she showed no fear of him. Her nose didn't even twitch when he lowered his muzzle to her throat and drew his tongue slowly over the fur there. She actually tilted her head back, and allowed him access, making his own insides twist in what was almost panic when the predator parted his muzzle and slide long canines through her fur. The action, he quickly realized, was not only harmless but loving and only managed to draw a silent smile from Hopps.

And for a moment, he could have sworn that they forgot that he and his gun even existed. In fact, that seemed to be exactly what was happening as she ran her fingers over the fox's muzzle, and then down to dig her fingers into the fur of his chest as a visible shiver raced through her. Of all the things he had seen in his life, of all the dark things he had faced... He had never been forgotten.

He was a little insulted.

With a slow roll of his eyes, he tucked the gun into the shoulder holster under his suit jacket and stood there with his arms crossed over his chest. He was feeling a bit like a voyeur, especially when Wilde's hand moved to slide up and over one long ear. His own ears twitched a bit, as he watched the slow sensually charged touch travel down her ear in such a way that his thumb pad slid along her inner ear before it stopped at the base. There it lingered and gave a half scratch, half massage that had his claws digging into the fur until they touched skin. Knowing exactly how good that felt himself, he wondered now who was calming who as Hopps released a little whimper. And shifted her hips, tightening her thighs around the predator's hips in a motion that caused a growl to rise from Wilde as he returned the intimate motion with a slow forward thrust.

Oh, come on. Rabbit with a gun? Not alone? A little self-control.

"Ahem," he cleared his throat, loudly. The bunny tensed as if she _had_forgotten he was there, her fingers sliding to a more manageable and innocent grip on the fox's shoulders as she turned her eyes towards him. Embarrassed now, maybe because she saw that he no longer held the gun and she was able to focus on the fact that there was a strange rabbit in the apartment with them, she turned and hid her face in Wilde's shoulder.

Wilde, on the other hand. Wilde took his time, and even while she struggled with the embarrassment, he nuzzled his nose into her shoulder and breathed in the scent of her fur. The tip of his nose rooting around to find flesh with an audible huff, a huff that was followed by a quick lap of his tongue over the juncture between neck and shoulder. Even embarrassed as she was now, it caused a noticeable shiver to race through Hopps. Only then did those green eyes raise to him again, narrowed but focused as his muzzle curled; a curl that was almost a grin. A savage sort of grin, one that showed a great many teeth, managed to look dangerously challenging and not in the least bit friendly. And like all of his actions since she had drawn his attention to calm him, it looked like it was given to send a message that the striped rabbit could see clearly as he held green eyes:

Mine.

Possessive. Territorial. Showing no signs at all that he was aware of the state of mind, or that he minded it even if he did. It left him to wonder how much of it was the savage, and how much of it was Wilde himself. But it made little difference at the moment, because the message was received and accepted.

"What do you know? What's happening to me? Did you cause it?"

The questions were all easy to answer when taken at face value, but it still sent a chill through him when the fox spoke, caused the fur on the back of his neck to want to stand on end as he stepped further into the room. Even though he had heard it through the walls, actually seeing the eyes of a savage and hearing the words of a perfectly intelligent mammal was not something that anyone could have been prepared for.

"Astounding," he murmured as he slowly swung the door closed and turned the light off without letting his eyes leave the fox. The moment the room was shrouded in near dark, he could see the glow of luminescent green eyes watching him as the pupil's dilated. Being in a very small, dark room with the glowing eyes of a predator watching him was pushing his instincts to their limits. Even beyond the civilized there was always that layer of instinct when faced with a real threat. And the bunny that he was by nature? That deeply hidden, trembling prey animal that his training and centuries of evolution tried to suppress? That part of him wanted to bolt from the room and get as far away from those watchful eyes as possible. Of course, the scent of a female bunny in heat meant that the primal side of him also wanted to get a piece of the pretty gray bunny which was a perfectly natural and reasonable reaction.

He had no intention of indulging in either desire.

"The change in the eyes," he said, speaking in a calm, conversational tone as he reached over and flicked the lights on again. The soft light that filled the room caused the slits of Wilde's pupils to contract again, and narrow in annoyance. "We've found that it works something like the fur on the back of your neck standing up, or moving around on all fours. These are physical aspects that we no longer need in our everyday lives, and thus only use when pressed. The change in the eyes takes that to another level. The primitive mind causes a physiological reaction, taking what most consider a useless trait that has almost left our evolutionary path and making it relevant again. I assume the world looks different to you right now?"

"Yes. There is a... Dark ring, like a shadow all around me. Even past the walls. When you move, it reacts."

Now the fox sounded curious, interested, but still cautious and irritated, on edge, even frightened. His grip on the bunny did not relax, nor did the fact that he was keeping her as out of sight as he possibly could now. For her part, Hopps was stroking her partner still, paws running down his neck and shoulders slowly even as she rested her head on his chest. Purple eyes were watching him carefully, curiously, and angrily enough to make it clear that she did not like being caught in this situation. He decided to push his own curiosity to the side for now, and focus on given them exactly what he had promised: answers.

"My name is Agent Julius Lapin, ZIA," he began, even though he detested using the ZIA as a cover. It was possibly the only agency that would regularly work within the ZPD, and he had decided that his instincts had been correct. He needed to stay close to them. "We have been investigating cases of savage mammals throughout Zootopia; cases that started to appear three months ago."

"If it started three months ago, then why haven't we heard anything about it?" questioned Hopps, her gaze turning to him with a frown creasing her muzzle. "Savage cases fall under the ZPD's jurisdiction."

When he turned his eyes to her to reply, it seemed that Wilde had taken just about enough of some buck getting an eyeful of his very naked and vulnerable partner. The sudden and vicious snarl that escaped him proved once again that he was not dealing with a fully sane fox, and caused his eyes to snap up even as Hopps reached up to place her paws on either side of the long muzzle. How she trusted him so completely, that she did not hesitate in the slightest to place her paws less than an inch from exposed and flashing teeth, was something he was certain he would never understand. But the touch did calm him, even if he did get a word in on the subject in a voice that was half growl and all furious.

"Eyes on me, Stripes," was the warning, his ears pinned back so far that they almost vanished into the orange fur on top of his head. "You're already unwelcome here. And I _will_eat you."

"Nick," drawled the softly feminine voice of Hopps, and though he heeded the warning and kept his eyes away from her, he still heard a note of humor in it.

"What? I will," Nick looked down at her, and his muzzle curved into a smirk now. He had seen that smirk before while watching them over the past two days. Amusement, charm, a teasing edge. Even his voice was almost normal. Trying to get a handle on whether or not the fox was more savage than sane was giving him a headache. "Well, maybe not eat him. My tastes turn more towards..."

He stopped when she slapped her paw over the tip of his muzzle, but that only caused his grin to grow. "Focus, Slick. And get the blanket off the bed. It would be very awkward if Agent Lapin had to talk to the top of my head every time I ask him a question."

"It's already very awkward," Wilde grumbled, but did what she requested as he reached over to the bed and dragged the blanket from it.

At her direction, he didn't immediately wrap her in the blanket. He held it out in front of him, blocking his view of Hopps entirely. Which he didn't mind in the slightest, because from the look of concentration - which could have been taken for either pleasure or discomfort - and the little grunts from Hopps herself, he felt he didn't want to see what was going on behind it. The fact that he heard her whisper 'First time I wish this would shrink faster' and then Wilde's reply of 'You haven't complained yet' had him wondering if he should just step outside and come back when they were less attached to each other. The thought was interrupted when she shushed the fox again, and the blanket was flipped over lowered to wrap around them both. Now she was facing him, her face took on a more serious expression.

"You were about to explain to us why the ZIA has been keeping reports of savage attacks secret from the ZPD?"

"Because things are more complicated than a power hungry sheep darting individual predators at random to spread panic," he replied as he took a step back to the door, leaning against it with his arms folded over his chest, a neutral expression on his face, and his ears laid back as he watched the two of them. He waved one paw towards them, or Wilde to be more precise. "This _is_the result of Night Howler, but a far more refined mixture than the simple extract that Bellwether was capable of producing. And more complex than Feral Blue, the unofficial street name of the drug that Officer Hopps was exposed to. We believe that Feral Blue was one of the initial test stages of the toxin that Wilde has been exposed to, because they are both refined into a similar crystalline base."

"So this is Night Howler," he heard the fox grumble, though he didn't seem surprised. Perhaps it was the lack of surprise that kept his tone calm; or the fact that his partner was wrapped up and unseen under the blanket. "Why am I being affected now? If I was exposed to Feral Blue, then why didn't I go savage in the Rainforest when Judy did?"

"You misunderstand," he said with a sigh, shaking his head before he met Wilde's eyes. "What is happening to you is the result of a toxin more advanced than the one that affected your partner. The entire reason you were not affected by Feral Blue when you carried your partner out of the Rainforest is because your body had already started to produce antibodies against the more potent toxin that was already in your system."

"Wait," Hopps interrupted, and he had the feeling that if she had not been... Stuck as she was to the fox, she might have walked right up into his face. "You mean Nick was exposed to Night Howler before the drug? How long? How is that even possible without him showing signs of anything being wrong until now? And how the hell do you know about it? And when were you planning on warning us? After he went on a bloody rampage through the streets of Zootopia?"

"Officer Hopps," he began, and because she was glaring daggers at him with violet eyes that were filling with a building fury, the striped rabbit considered his words carefully. "As far as we can tell, he was exposed over forty-eight hours ago."

"Oh, you are under arrest!" shouted the tiny gray rabbit, who was obviously in no position to arrest anyone. Though that was not the case for long when Wilde winced as she tried to lurch forward, his hands coming to rest on her shoulders to hold her back a little too late. The rabbit could see the hot blush rise through her ears, and became aware of the sudden increase in mobility when she reached back to snatch the blanket from around the fox as she stood on her own. That one brief flash of every white and grey inch of her had him quickly averting his eyes under Wilde's watchful gaze even as she wrapped the blanket under her arms and tied it off in front of her chest. Then she stalked the three steps it took her to reach him, standing up in his face with all of the authority that a cop could manage with one paw holding a sheet in place to hide her nudity.

"Obstruction, withholding information on a Night Howler case, endangering an officer, breaking and entering, unlawful voyeurism!" She jammed her paw into his face, one finger extended so that he had to cross his eyes to see her claw touching the tip of his nose. "And anything else I can find to throw at you."

"Miss Hopps," he began, starting to lean away from the door only to be silenced when she pressed her paw into his chest and shoved him back.

"And I don't care who you are, who you work for, or what kind of good you think you're doing," she said, her sweet voice somehow coming across with all the strength of iron as she kept him pinned where he was. "I'll have your tail in an interrogation room for the next forty-eight hours and I'll pin your ears to the wall until you tell me everything. Starting with how to fix my fox!"

He was impressed more than he was intimidated. The situation didn't exactly scream authority from his perspective, but she managed to exude enough of it to make him understand how she had become the first bunny on the previously speciest ZPD. It was almost a shame that she hadn't been recruited for the agency.

"Believe it or not, I am here to help," he began, keeping his voice calm even as he gentled it a bit. "Officer Wilde's situation is unique, which is why I am here now. The other mammals that were exposed to this toxin went savage within half a day at most. Full savage, the sort of savage that everyone expects from exposure to Night Howlers. But something has been slowing the process, preventing him from losing himself fully. And I believe that something is you. This is why it took me so long to decide the best way to approach you both. Because he is reacting differently, whoever is exposing mammals to this toxin might be interested in finding out why. The agency hoped that this might draw their attention, and draw them into the open if they made an attempt to take him. But I..."

Perhaps at any other time he might have seen the fist coming. But the fact that the entire situation was awkward, and that she smelled distractingly appealing to the buck as close as she was, left him a little more open than he would have been under normal circumstances. And she punched hard, that balled and well trained paw slamming into the tip of his muzzle with enough force to drive his head back into the door with a solid smack that had him seeing stars and a sheet of black behind them for a moment. Falling on his ass with about as much grace as one could manage with the taste of blood in his mouth and a hell of a headache in his future, he covered his nose with his hand as he glared up at her. He realized then that the only reason she hadn't hit him again was because Wilde, who at some point had put his pants on, had moved wrap his arms around her and hold her back. Actually, he was holding her off the ground as she squirmed to get away. She still struggled to kick him, even as he pulled the paw away and calmly looked down at the blood soaked into his white fur.

"You used my partner as bait?" she yelled, twisting more violently as she tried to get away from the fox holding her. "Let me go, Nick! I'm going to interrogate him right fucking now!"

"All right, Carrots, calm down," he soothed, keeping his arms wrapped around her and drawing her back towards the bed. Which he was only able to do because she let him, the rabbit had no doubt. "As satisfying as that would be to watch - nice punch, by the way - I don't need you getting into a fist fight when I'm finally starting to calm down. And things are looking normal, so if everyone could calm down, it would be fantastic."

This caused her to stop struggling, her ears dropping back as she turned her gaze to look up at the fox. She likely saw it in the same moment that he did: the vertical pupils of the savage were gone, replaced with round and calm greens that relaxed further when she stopped struggling against him.

The striped rabbit, despite his already aching head and the harsh throb in his muzzle, drew himself to his feet slowly, adjusted the line of his suit, and rechecked the gun in its holster as the clearly relieved rabbit slid her paws over the fox's muzzle gently. He gave them a moment to do their 'we're stupid in love, and will forget the rabbit at the door' routine again as he checked the status of his muzzle. Luckily, nothing seemed to be broken and the bleeding had already stopped. He was fairly sure that she could have hit him harder, if the information he had gathered of her time in the academy and as a police officer were accurate, so he was at least grateful for that much restraint.

Even if they weren't showing the slightest bit of that restraint _now._He released a low sigh as he watched the two of them lock muzzles and sink into a kiss that made his ears quiver in something that wasn't entirely frustration. Thankfully aware that Wilde was wearing his pants, and that the blanket had managed not to fall even after she had slugged him, he counted down fifteen full seconds - more than enough by his reasoning - before he cleared his throat loudly.

"As I was saying before you interrupted me and attempted to mangle my nose," he said once the two had turned their gaze to him. This time neither one looked in the least bit apologetic, Wilde in particular; with his muzzle resting on top of her head and his arms still wrapped around her even as she turned to face him again with a frown. Everything about his posture - from the half folded ears, to the direct focus of green eyes on his own blue, and the way he seemed intent on making it clear that she wanted to remain close to him - screamed possessive and territorial on an instinctive level that he wasn't even sure the slightly grinning fox was aware of. "The plan to follow Wilde in an attempt to apprehend someone associated with our primary target, that target being whoever is producing these different variations of the Night Howler toxin, was not one that I agreed with. Which is why I took the assignment of watching you while I formed my own plan."

"Annnd part of your plan was to walk in on us while I was not only savage, but knotted to my mate? You're lucky you only got a punch. I was ready to tear you apart."

The ease with which the fox talked about being savage was bravado, and did not fully hide the disquiet in his eyes. This was easy enough for the bunny to see, just as the chosen wording told him that there was still something feral lingering just below the surface.

"No," he drawled easily, feeling more comfortable in his own skin now that the urge to run and hide from the savage predator was no long pressing at the borders of his mind. The ache that had settled was actually preferable to that. "Not directly, and it certainly was not expected. When I heard the two of you talking, I was able to focus in long enough to get an idea of what was happening. I needed to see you, Wilde, under control even with the toxin working on your system. Now that I have seen with my own eyes that Hopps is the reason you haven't gone fully savage, I will be able to use that information to prevent the unfortunate measures that were suggested."

He saw Hopps' eye twitch at the mention of 'unfortunate measures', and wasn't in the least but surprised when she asked, "Unfortunate measures? What were you going to do? Tranq him? Lock him away in a cage? Kill him?"

The last was said with such an 'Over my dead body' tone that his couldn't resist allowing his muzzle to curve into a slow grin as he spread his paws in front of him a bit. "The former, of course, not the latter. I don't work for savages, Officer Hopps."

"Har Har," she said with a roll of her eyes that ended with those violet pools resting on Wilde again. "There are two smart asses in this room, and I only like one of them."

"Yes, well," the rabbit said, clearing his throat as he drew away from the door. "I am afraid you'll be seeing a great deal of me until all of this is sorted out. Just because Wilde doesn't seem to be a danger doesn't mean I can let him run around the city unchecked. Least of all as a member of the ZPD. The stress, and the risk to you, could easily trigger another... Let's go with episode. Anyone caught unaware would be in danger."

"And what exactly do you expect us to do, then?" Wilde questioned, dark tipped ears flicking once as he focused his gaze. "If you were going to lock me up, I doubt we would be having this unpleasantly awkward conversation. But you can't possibly expect us to leave the ZPD. I just got my badge back, and if you think I'm just going to give it up again without..."

"No, no. Of course not," he interrupted, raising his paw to the base of his muzzle and lightly rubbing at the throb that was spreading. Being checked for a concussion was now on his list of things to do before getting some sleep. "I can arrange for a temporary transfer to my agency, under my command where I can keep a direct eye on you. Another reason I decided on contact rather than containment - aside from Officer Hopps' likely reaction of a citywide foxhunt - is your experience with Night Howlers in the past, and your capabilities as a team. If, for the sake of argument, you can manage to keep your paws and various other parts of your bodies off of each other long enough to actually work."

"Isn't he cute?" Wilde snorted derisively, making the striped rabbit smother a surge of annoyance at the term. "He thinks we're going to work for him."

"The alternative, Nicholas," he ground out, his stance stiff and face cool, ears erect as he looked at them. "Is a nice, small apartment with glass walls, an uncomfortable bed, and scientists poking needles into you every time you slip into a less than civilized state of mind. I don't think any of us want that, do we?"

He wondered for a moment how much of the calm Wilde kept on that vulpine face was due to the fact that his partner, who now watched him with a tiny hint of fear in her eyes, was constantly stroking her fingers through the red fur of the arms around her. If she did that intentionally, to keep him calm now that she knew she could, he had to give her credit for her ability to adapt quickly. When she turned her gaze up to the fox, they locked eyes for a moment before she gave a tiny nod. A nod that was responded to with a roll of green eyes before they settled on him again.

"All right, mom, since only my mother ever calls me that. What exactly do we need to do?"

"We will meet at the ZPD tomorrow morning. I will arrive before you to clear it through Chief Bogo, with the needed paperwork for your temporary transfer to my command," he informed them, glad to finally have some cooperation. He slipped his paw into the inner pocket of his jacket, taking out the simple white card with his number printed on the front and placing it on the table next to the door. "I will give you all of the details on the investigation thus far once we reach that point. This number will allow you to contact me if needed, through the agency. Please, only use it in case of a true emergency; once the number is used, it will no longer exist."

"Uh huh," Wilde said, his gaze shifting to the card for a brief glance before it returned to him. "I have one more question for you, then."

Turning to open the door, the rabbit paused just inside as he turned to look back at the pair. "All right. Ask it."

"If we do need to call, do we ask for 'Agent Lapin,'" Wilde asked with a wave of his paw towards the card. His face suddenly filled with everything that was smug and superior. The face of someone who knew a secret and was about to tell it, and the grin that spread over that red and cream muzzles was filled with almost child-like delight. "Or Jack Savage?"

It took real effort to keep the shock from showing, which he knew meant that at least for a moment it was clearly written all over his face. Once he did manage to control it, he simply stepped out of the apartment and closed the door behind him. Rubbing the base of his skull with two fingers, both because of the punch and because now he had to figure out how Wilde knew his damned code name, he started down the hall. Even as he reached the stairs, he heard the fox's amused tone.

"What? I told you, I know everybody."

_These two are unbelievable... _