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Report:

Case File - The Savage Dark

Reporting Agent: Code Name - Jack "Savage"

Affiliation: Unknown

Current Whereabouts: Unknown

Agent Status: Unknown (Active)

Recording Continues:

"You think you know the reason I call the two of them happily insane, but you would be wrong. This was just the beginning. As someone who had read the case file for the Night Howler Incident, I came into this case with an understanding that at least one of them was unstable. My money was on Judy, personally. Swinging from vines in the Rainforest District, riding on the top of a train, only to later crash that train in a way that caused a considerable amount of damage to a luckily unpopulated station, and bringing down the mayor. Twice. And marrying a fox, which was another example of the two of them catching me off guard on what should have been a nice, relaxing drive.

"Of course, the choice of Bunnyburrow for our vacation was not random. It goes without saying that Judy and myself, being bunnies, were still unique at this point. While it may have been obvious to the three agencies that bunnies could not be discounted for field work, it was still a rather new revelation. In my case, a lifetime of training is not something that can be quickly replicated. And while Hopps herself did start a trend of new lapin recruits being accepted in the ZPD, there was zero chance that any other agency had recruited them without The Agency knowing.

"Which leads to the exact why. Bunnyburrow's population is approximately %96.8 bunny, which sounds rather silly when you say it. 'Bunnyburrow' after all. The mammals who live there are, understandably, aware of anyone who is not a bunny, specifically when they have never seen this new mammal before. An example being, it would be impossible for an unknown wolf or panther to wander around unnoticed. There would be no mysterious vehicles parked on the side of the road for hours without someone wandering over to ask if they needed assistance. Just as the abundance of small, friendly, and often obnoxiously energetic mammals can be a little much for newcomers, the appearance of a stranger causes talk, strange looks, and curious stares from young bunnies.

"This sort of attention is easy to track by random observers scattered across the burrows. Whisper stations would pick up mention of strangers, which would allow us to check for new numbers running on the cell towers. There is more to it, but I think I've made the point clear. We were going to Bunnyburrow because it was the best place to hide in clear sight. Not hiding in a way that would prevent them from finding us, but hiding in a way that would make it impossible for anyone to reach us without encountering a wall of resistance first.

"That being said, I was also very aware that this was Judy's hometown. And, because Judy was my responsibility, I was fairly certain that I was in for some interesting moments of familial drama. Which is why it was no surprise when they decided to delay their honeymoon to pay her family a visit and clear up some misconceptions.

"Thankfully, I wasn't asked to come along. Family matters are not my area of expertise." ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

---

"You can take them off, Nick," she said, her voice surprisingly calm considering what she was asking her new husband to do. "It's not like you can wear your sunglasses indoors all the time without someone wondering if you're a douchebag."

"I'm nocturnal," he huffed slightly, causing her to grin slightly even though they were sitting on a little couch across from her clearly confused parents. Even with the explanation, which she had never really bought into even when he'd used it in the past, he reached up to remove the sunglasses as requested. "I was hoping we could try a little harder to find a working antidote before we started to parade me around your parent's house like this."

While her parents had reacted well to their arrival at the family burrow sans the male bunny her father had been expecting, their reaction to the slitted-green eyes of a fox was about what anyone might expect from bunnies when faced with an apparent savage. Both pairs of ears dropped back as they visibly jolted, and Stu's nose went white around the fur line as his eyes widened, his paw fumbling as he crossed his arm in front of Bonnie as if to shield her from an oncoming attack. Her mother was fairing only slightly better. Her eyes were wide, her nose twitching furiously as she stared up at Nick with a fearfully befuddled expression.

"Oh, Holy Carrot! Judy, he's gone savage!" her father stammered, jumping to his feet in front of Bonnie while looking as if he was trying to decide if he could make a break for the next room to reach the Fox Taser she knew he always kept in the main room without leaving his wife and daughter to become fox food.

"No no! It's okay," she soothed quickly, her only motion being to wrap her arms around one of Nick's as she looked between her parents with a pleading look. "It's fine. He's not savage!"

"Well, you could've fooled us!" he blustered, though he made no move to rise or run out of the room. She had to wonder how close he was to doing just that. Rush out to warn the family to lock their doors to protect them from the vicious predator, even though there hadn't been a fatal predator attack in the Burrows in her lifetime. "Judy, why did you bring him here? Why does he look... like that? And where is the handsome buck you were with earlier today?"

She was a little impressed with how quickly the questions came. She had expected a lot more 'Run! It's a savage fox!' before they reached this point in the conversation. Not that either of her parents looked ready to forget that fact just yet, with wide eyes and twitching noses, tension in every inch of them. She knew they were ready to bolt or fight if he made so much as a move in their direction right now. Which was one reason she kept an arm wrapped around Nick's. His natural hustler instinct to charm them might have terrified them just then, so she did her best to keep him in place.

"I wanted to introduce my family to my husband," she said at length, forcing her ears erect even as the fox beside her leaned back with a little sigh. She couldn't mistake the sound as anything other than contentment brought about by the word 'husband', a feeling that she mirrored even when faced with her still confused parents. Or one confused parent. Her mom stared at her silently for a long moment before like-colored purple eyes turned up to Nick curiously, and then again back to her with what just might have been the start of a smile on her muzzle.

"Your husband? That's what I was asking about! Where is this buck?" Stu asked, a frown creasing his muzzle as he turned his head towards the door for a second. His eyes shot back to them and widened. "Oh, no! The fox didn't eat him, did he?"

The sharp elbow to the ribs had him jerking in place, his baleful glare turned to his wife, who simply gave him a long-suffering but patiently affectionate look. "Stu, sweetie," she soothed, reaching out to take his paw to give it a pat. "Don't be dense."

"Well, I think it's a perfectly acceptable question given that she says she's married, but the only one here is..." His words, and the animated wave of his free paw, were both cut short when he looked up at Nick with an expression that was a mix of fatherly horror and shock. "Oh, sweet cheese and crackers! He's your husband!"

"Yes, daddy," she said, refusing to allow herself to show her real annoyance when her dad quite literally looked ready to faint. He even swayed a little in place, his eyes turning to his wife as if looking for help only to find that they were focused on Nick. They all looked at Nick, who had raised his paw to scratch under his chin slowly and in doing so was making point of showing the golden band that circled his middle finger. She struggled to muffle the chuckle at him, focusing on her parents again. "He's not savage. At least, not savage like you're thinking. Okay, look, it's complicated. All you need to know if that he's not going to run around eating anybody."

Her assurances combined with the fact that he had done little more than sit quietly while she explained seemed to calm them, if only enough for them to lose the look of rabbits about to bolt. "What about the buck I saw on Muzzletime?" Stu asked finally, scrubbing his paws through the fur of his face for a long moment before he focused his uncertain eyes on her. "Who was that?"

"The buck you saw earlier today is our... hm. What would you say he is, Nick?"

"A pain in the ass?" he quipped, giving a little snicker when she nudged her side against his with a chuckle. "Associate? Boss? Ew, forget I said that last one. We have a temporary working relationship."

"We're helping him with a case," Judy added, then raised her paw as she fixed both of her parents with a firm expression. "But about Nick. You have to be okay with this. You have to accept it."

"Judy, sweetheart," Bonnie began, casting a quick glance at her own husband before turning her roundly-cute face back to her daughter with firmly raised ears, "Of course we want you to be happy. You know that. We just never expected, well..."

"Him," Stu finished for her, waving a paw towards Nick without looking at him. It might have been her imagination, but it seemed to her that her that they were both avoiding the use of his name. Or referring to their relationship. "Carrot Cake, we just want you to be safe. I mean, look at him. You said it's complicated. How do you know he won't snap?"

"It wouldn't matter if he did snap. It wouldn't matter if he went fully savage," she said, a warm little smile gracing her muzzle when she saw the perplexed expressions on the faces of both her parents as they glanced at each other and back to her for answers. "I know he would never hurt me. I'll tell you why, as long as you understand that I'm only telling you to ease your minds. I need you to understand and accept him, because nothing you do - nothing anyone does - will change a thing between us."

---

"I suppose we should start clean up," she heard Jack say as she crouched over the unconscious wolf, her paws patting his clothing in search of the keys. Other officers might have noticed her as cruisers started to form a protective ring around the armored car, but even if they did they likely thought she was feeling a lot more rational than she really was. She found the keyring, which only held two keys, and snagged them before dashing around the truck to keep herself from being seen by the distracted Jack and Bogo. She already knew that they wouldn't let her in with Nick, just like she knew it would be the only way to calm him down.

"We'll need a containment team to get Wilde to a safe location," Jack continued as she jumped onto the rear bumper and shoved the key into the lock. Luckily, it was the right one and turned easily. "I'm afraid he's gone full-savage. He may need to be sedated so he can be..."

Her heart jumped into her throat when the spill of light into the back of the armored car revealed the lone figure within. The vicious snarl that rose from the shadowed form caused a shiver to race through her even as it drew the attention of the two males nearby. Left with no choice, she turned and yanked the door closed without a glance at them.

Cut off from the outside, she quickly turned to face the interior only to be met with pitch black. Sensory deprivation was a common method of suppressing the savage, she knew. The belief, and sometimes fact of it, was that a lack of light could convince the savage mind that it was night and that it was time to sleep. Of course, this didn't really apply to a nocturnal animal like Nick. Her heart hammered in her ears when she searched the absolute dark for any sign of movement. Maybe just a flicker of the luminous eyes that she so often saw in the dark now, eyes that made her heart race for reasons that had nothing to do with the fear or panic that surged through her when the growl sounded again. Quick huffs of breath preceded the rattle of... chains? Her paw scrambled for the phone on her duty belt, almost fumbling it before she tapped the light icon on the screen. Wincing at the sudden flare of white light that filled the previous dark, she squinted as she swung the light into the bed of the armored car.

"Oh, Nick," she whispered, her voice choking a bit when she saw him in the center of the truck.

They had made it nearly impossible for him to move more than his head, no doubt using his previously unconscious state to make quick work of strapping him into a fox-sized straightjacket that pinned his arms around his chest. His legs were pinned together with leather straps, pulled tight enough that she worried instantly about blood flow. The jacket and the leg straps were both attached to four chains that stretched out to either side of the van and pulled taut, allowing at most the writhing motion that she saw as he struggled against the bonds. But worse than all of this was the muzzle. The cage that kept his mouth mostly closed and his teeth guarded was not unexpected, but the blinders were. The heavy leather hood was strapped over his eyes and ears both, leaving him blind and deaf to the world around him, causing him to constantly toss his head as he tried to shake it off.

Tears formed in her eyes as she took the few steps to close the distance between them. Now understanding that the quick, desperate breaths were his attempts to see the world around him with scent alone, she was almost overcome with the desire to march back outside and pummel the arctic vixen. Beat her until she woke up, then beat her unconscious again. The more pressing matter was Nick, though. She placed her cell phone on the floor in the center of the bed, light facing up so she could see what she was doing when she reached forward. His muzzle snapped towards her so suddenly that she flinched but didn't pull away when his nose twitched behind the cage of the muzzle, desperately searching for the source of the light touch to the straps of the blinder.

"Shh," she murmured, knowing he couldn't hear her but hoping he could at least feel the gentle hum of her voice through her fingers as she tugged at the buckle on the back of his head. He tried to twist away from her, his growls deepening to a threatening tone when she managed to free the strap and pull it free. "It's all right, it's all going to be all right, Nick."

She carefully pulled the blinders away, shushing him as she did so until she could see green eyes staring up at her wildly, the green nearly swallowed by the black of his pupils for a moment before the light hit them. The shrinking of his pupils was her focus as she tried to calm him, a focus that prevented her from noticing that the cage of the muzzle itself came off at the same moment as the blinders until his muzzle was free.

The snap of his head, the flash of white and pink, was followed by a blinding flare of pain when his teeth sank into her forearm. Even as the tears of pain blinded her when his canines sank through the fabric of her uniform, she dropped the muzzle and clamped her paw over her mouth to prevent her scream from traveling when he jerked her towards him sharply. The last thing she wanted was someone from the outside trying to breach the doors, likely making things even worse.

"N-Nick," she whispered, gulping in air through hiccuped sobs as he tightened his grip and narrowed his eyes on her. "It's okay, it's okay partner. It's me. See? It's Judy."

It seemed like forever that he held her arm like that, crimson staining his teeth as he snarled at her. Her voice caused his ears to tremble, then lightly twitch while his nostrils flared and his eyes adjusted to the dim light and focused on her. She didn't see Nick in those eyes. Not calm, smooth Nick. Not even the sub-savage fox, the one who had been so passionately protective of her, was in those eyes. They were feral and toneless, as if all intelligence had fled to leave behind a fox that might well have hunted rabbit for food thousands of years ago. Still, she talked to him, reached out to him with her other paw even though the sudden jerk of his head caused a fresh flare of pain. She remembered how he had come for her, stumbling and weak from an injury that she had given him when her own mind had been savage. And she would do the same. She couldn't do anything less.

"I'm here," she murmured, her voice trembling slightly as she pressed her palm lightly against his nose. She could feel the puffs of breath as he sucked in her scent, and she gentled her fingers as she stroked the dark tip of his nose softly. "Please, please remember. Let me go so I can get you out of this, Nick."

Whether it was the sound of her voice or the scent of her, she wasn't sure, but even though the eyes of a savage didn't change, he eased the pressure of his bite as he continued to breathe her scent. The low-toned growls faded and, even as she felt his teeth slide free in what was both relief and white-hot agony, faded into a light whimper. His ears vanished against his skull as she withdrew her arm, his eyes falling to the bleeding wound with another whimper as he started to struggle against his bonds again. Relief that he at least seemed to understand that she wasn't a threat to him caused her to sag where she stood. With a grunt of pain, she rubbed her bloodied forearm for a moment as she glanced down at the dual rows of the bite mark and rotated her wrist slowly. Sighing in relief when she found that she could move her wrist freely, which meant he hadn't severed any tendons with the bite, she tried to forget about it when she turned her attention back to him.

"I've always sort of wondered what it would feel like if you really bit me," she murmured softly as she started by unhooking the chains that held him. Once they were done, he slumped to the floor with a whine. His trapped legs still preventing him from standing, and she gently caressed the side of his muzzle while making soft shushing sounds again. Once he settled enough for her to start working on freeing his legs, she continued, "About as bad as I expected, really. Okay, that's a lie. That really, really hurt, Slick."

She worked as quickly as the throbbing ache in her arm would allow her to, soon tossing the leg restraints aside before she turned her attention to the straight jacket. He made it difficult, though he didn't become aggressive in doing so. In fact, it almost amused her when he realized that he could use his legs again and he tried to roll into all fours. This only trapped him again when he found himself chest down with no arms to hold him up, his rear legs kicking helplessly as he tried to right himself. When he gave up with a huff, she leaned over and started to unbuckle the straight jacket with a small grin on her muzzle.

"You don't like this position as much I do, I take it?"

His distressed whine was disappointing. Hell, some part of her had hoped that a dirty joke would get something more 'Nick' from him. Instead, she paused for a few seconds on the last buckle before she slipped it free. The sudden slack in the jacket wasn't lost on the fox, who quickly backpedaled away from her and started to thrash violently to get it off. About to try to calm him, she was instead forced to jump out of the way when he flung himself past her. The savage fox she loved finally broke free of the jacket by taking the lose corner in his muzzle and tearing it from his shoulders, vigorously shaking the offending article with a vicious snarl. The whipping motion struck the phone on the floor near him, sending it skittering across the ground as he flung the jacket out of the way. The bright green, fully-feral eyes of her fox trained on her just as the phone hit the wall, plunging the compartment back into inky darkness.

The blackness came far more suddenly than when she had first entered the truck, leaving ghostly afterimages floating in front of her as her mind tried to process the sudden lack of all visual stimulation. Even with ears as acute as a bunny's, audible illusions began almost instantly with the lack of sight. She could hear him in the dark around her. The subtle sound of his breathing came from all around her, louder than it should have been as she turned her head in an attempt to decide where he actually was. Knowing he was scenting her. Stalking her. The pace of the breathing was uneven; quick one moment, deep and long the next. It caused a shiver to race through her as the combination of the sound and the darkness made her feel as though running and finding her way out of the armored car was the best option.

But that was the rational part of her mind. Reason wasn't her strong suit when it came to Nick.

"I can't see," she whispered, keeping her voice as low as possible as she lowered herself to the floor and knelt there. Even so, the sound was almost offensively loud in the sightless world around her. Unable to keep the quiver out of her voice, she reached into the dark with one paw outstretched. She hadn't even realized that it was her injured arm but the fresh flare of throbbing pain was a stark reminder. Still, rather than withdraw it, she kept it reached out towards what she thought was the last place she had seen him. "Nick, I can't..."

Words stammered to a stop when she felt the rush of breath against the fur of her palm, just a light whisper of it at first. Then a series of strong huffs. When the sensation vanished along with the sound of him, she felt the stirring of panic as she pushed herself forward and reached blindly towards the sensation. When she found nothing there, heard nothing else, she almost called out again only to freeze. The scent of fox was all around her, but now it was hot and close. There was a part of her, deep down, that still wanted to run when she felt that same warmth against the back of her neck. But the far larger part of her, the same part of her that had overcome her own savage instincts to trust the fox she loved, had her tipping her head forward when she felt the touch of his nose again. This time it remained, quick, warm snuffles rooting through the fur along the back of her neck for a long moment before moving on. Upward, over her ears. She couldn't identify the sensations that rolled through her, really. A combination of fear, a spark of eroticism, contentment, and hope.

The sudden wrap of a large paw around her chest dragged her towards him before she was shoved down onto her back. She released a sharp cry of surprise, one that was responded to with an odd series of chittering barks that had her blinking blindly as she was pinned by the same paw. Then laughter bubbled up from her throat, unbidden, as her face was slathered by a long, wet tongue in a series of rapid-fire licks by her unseen assailant. The giggles that escaped her were unstoppable as the assault continued, the steady vibration of the body that pressed down over her familiar enough to tell her that his tail was wagging. The tears came as suddenly as the laughter as a sob of relief escaped her, mingling with the continued laughter as she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck.

"Oh, Nick," she murmured, finding no resistance when she pulled him closer. Burying her face into the scruff of his neck, she tucked her muzzle under his until she was lost in the scent of fox and the warmth of his fur. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry we didn't stop them."

Not entirely sure if the soft whine that escaped him was a reply to her words, she simply held onto him, not even minding when he dropped most of his weight onto her. When he squirmed his muzzle around, switching it so that it was his muzzle pressed into her neck, she released a low sigh as he rested his head there and grew still aside from the soft swishing of his tail in the dark. When the light nibbles and softer licks rained along her throat, she released a heavy sigh and arched her head back further as she slowly relaxed under him. The dull tingle of pleasure and contentment that it caused eased her, even as she tried to focus her mind on how to bring him back into his right mind, even as exhaustion slowly started to drag at her.

Three sharp, spaced knocks on the side of the armored car snapped her blurred mind back to reality as they both jumped slightly, bleary eyes blinking at the darkness they simply couldn't penetrate. The grumbled growl from the male on top of her rolled through her as he lifted his nose from the fur of her neck. It took her a moment to realize that she had started to doze off with him on top of her and if the blast of fox breath in her face when he yawned was any indicator, she hadn't been the only one. She shoved at him lightly, relieved when he allowed himself to be moved off without resistance. Reaching out towards the source of the sound, she sighed lightly when her paw connected with the wall. She returned the three knocks at the same pace, letting those outside know that she was alive and well.

_For the most part, _she thought, wincing as the throb in her forearm made itself obvious again. The ache was dull but constant now and when she reached down to touch the tender flesh around the wound, she found the blood sticky and partly dry, making her wonder how long she had been out.

"All right, Nick. Let's find my phone so we can get out of here," she muttered, partly to herself as she dropped to her knees and started to feel along the floor with one paw while using the wall to guide her. She had no idea where her phone had ended up, but she was at least halfway sure it had ended up towards the back of the truck...

The flare of light caught her off guard, the blinding glare of it forcing her to close her eyes as she almost lost her balance when she turned. It took a great deal of squinting through watering eyes before she could focus on the source of the light: the cell phone in the fox's paw.

"Sorry, Caaarrots," he said, his voice a little rough and colored by an odd inflection on the word as if he struggled to speak at all. "Didn't... know they left my phone in my pocket."

"Oh, thank god," she breathed, not even bothering to pull herself to her feet as she crawled over to him and threw herself into his arms. He wrapped them around her, releasing a soft rumble as she trembled and clung to him. She just held on for a long moment without a word, placing kisses into his neck fur, along the sides of his gorgeous muzzle and finally finding his mouth with hers. Her fingers gripped his cheek, digging in almost desperately as she drew him into a deep kiss that filled her senses with the taste and scent of him, allowing her fears to gradually scatter as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

"Took you long enough," she said when the kiss broke, her still twitching nose pressed against his as she stared into his eyes. The fact that they were still savage didn't bother her. She could see the intelligence in them again, the warm and welcoming love looking out at her in the now-bright green.

"I was kinda hoping you would give me a pawjob," he explained, his tone playful even though his words were still unusual. It reminded her of someone speaking a non-native dialect. His grin was soft when she looked up at him with a raised brow and a smirk. "What? I did it for you when you were savage."

"I'll do better than that," she murmured, leaning in close to nuzzle her nose under his chin softly as she ran her paws slowly up the side of his neck. She could feel his instant reaction as his paws slipped down to grab her hips, the nudge of his sheath against her rear when she pressed down against it apparent. "I do have the keys, after all..."

---

"I think you can stop there, Fluff," Nick cut in, shifting uncomfortably beside her as he did his damnedest to keep his eyes on anything in the room except her parents. They had such lovely wallpaper! And he was going to need to have a serious conversation with his wife about not telling her _parents _the details of how she'd made good on that promise. "And you could have excluded the pawjob joke, too."

He wasn't sure if he was relieved or shocked when, as he finally did glance at her parents, they didn't seem nearly as embarrassed as he was. In fact, that two of them were sitting on the couch, holding paws with looks of interest on their cutely-plump faces as they looked between the two of them.

"Right. Sorry," Judy said, casting an apologetic look at him before she snuggled into his side. He was grateful that bunny noses were not as acute as fox noses, otherwise, her parents might have realized that retelling that memory had affected their daughter in very un-daughterlike ways. He cleared his throat slightly and decided to take over the telling before her current change in _mood _caused her to continue spilling details anyway.

"From the moment I realized that I was slowly being driven savage, my biggest fear was hurting her," he said, drawing their gaze to him fully. "I was afraid that it would reach that point. The point where I was fully out of my mind, unable to control myself. I was afraid that I would see her prey, because she is. It's not a secret that before we became more civilized, foxes and rabbits were not exactly bosom buddies."

"But you didn't" Stu interjected, though he frowned a bit when he turned his eyes to his daughter's still-bandaged arm. "Except for the bite."

"My brother bit me harder than that, and he comes over once a week for carrot cake," Bonnie reminded him, to which he gave a reluctant nod.

"That was a moment of blind panic," Judy reminded them as she squeezed up against his side. "Really, blind panic. Nick was blind and scared. I shouldn't have pulled the muzzle off as soon as I did, but I couldn't just leave him like that."

"It was reflexive, mostly," he said, crossing one leg as he leaned back and wrapped an arm around her shoulder to pull her closer. "I recognized her scent as soon as she was close enough, but I was confused. Couldn't see, couldn't hear. Everything was threatening. It wasn't what I expected at all, really. Once I could see again, could hear her voice, I knew she wasn't food. It took my mind a minute to wrap around who she was, but 'mate' came quickly enough."

"So, now you're not afraid of hurting her?" the older buck asked, clearly still trying to work all of it out in his mind as he looked between them.

"That was the worst-case scenario, dad," Judy said, her head resting on his arm as she looked at her parents. "He was fully savage. I could see it in his eyes. There was very little Nick in there, except for instinct. But just like when I went savage, his instincts told him that I was his."

"Now wait a minute," Stu piped up, his paws raised as he looked at them with fresh curiosity and fear. "When did you go savage?"

"Oh, right. I never told you about that. It's complicated," she said at length, drawing his gaze when she sighed slightly.

"Well, dinner will be ready in a few minutes," Bonnie said before another story could be told, gently patting her husband's paw before he helped her to her feet. She looked between the two of them with an expression that Nick couldn't really read. The moment was weighty, but at the end of it, a smile grew. Whether it was genuine or not, he wasn't entirely sure but she still offered her paws to the two of them. "Nick, if you're going to be a part of this family, you have to set the table."

"Oh, but we weren't going to stay for dinner," Judy protested, but he hushed her by taking her mother's offered paw and pulling himself to his feet.

"Nonsense!" he said, giving the older doe a closed-mouthed smile. No need to press his luck after that story, after all. He placed the paw on his arm and allowed the now smiling bunny to lead him out of the room. "We would be glad to stay for dinner. And I would be happy to set the table. Did you know Judy hasn't once cooked for me?"

"Oh dear," she replied, not noticing when Nick cast a grin and wink over his shoulder at his mate. "Well, she never was the domestic type. Obviously. One time, she tried to bake an apple pie and didn't even bother to remove the cores!"

His tail wagged behind him in amusement when he heard Judy groan 'Mooom' behind them, following Bonnie into the kitchen. From the quiet sitting room to the chatter of a literal legion of bunnies, curious eyes, and the smell of freshly cooked home cooking. All in all, a better ending to this first meeting than he had expected.