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For the final time, all characters belong to Disney. Please do not sue me and take all of my money.

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Lawful and Indecent

Epilogue: "Lawful and Indecent"

Several months later....

"Everything."

That smirk behind the cards could've killed a man. So could his green shirt, saturating in the lavender overhead lights of the casino, elbow down on the green, fuzzy poker table while he stared to the other side. There sat the fat, pink pig in the violet suit, snorting into the end of his cigar while the ash piddled over his Taj Mahal stacks of chips. Everybody eyed the pot towards the center, a silver key on top with a red, glistening paw print keychain.

"You better not be serious," he chortled.

"Yup," Nick nodded. "Everything. House included. Your call."

Still unconvinced, the pig gave a meaty laugh. "How do you expect me to match this? My houses cost a fortune."

Nick chuckled and jutted a finger at him. "They all do, buddy. You got a beach house?"

The pig's nose wrinkled. "A few."

"I want the best one you got."

The room was tense. A crowd was beginning to gather, shading the table. The pig, himself, was lost in thought.

"What do you say, big guy?" Nick crooned, "You still want in?"

The pig drew a business card from his pocket protector, citing an address to a beach house hundreds of miles away and shuriken-tossed it to the pot. Nick's heart leapt, while the crowd gasped collectively.

"You're on."

Everybody's eyes were on the cards: an ace of hearts, the rest: a queen, a king, and a jack, all in spades. The fox grit his teeth as he watched the albino rat dealer wipe his brow and flip a card into the burn pile, overturning the next one.

An ace.

Nick's smile exploded as he slammed his hand over.

"Four of a kind! Boom. What do you got?"

He could almost feel the ocean breeze on his fur. Only for a moment.

As the pig chortled, he flipped his cards over and watched those fox ears flatten back down. There stood a king and a ten of spades. Oh God. That meant a-

"Royal straight flush!" he yelled triumphantly, raking in the mighty stash as the crowd erupted. Though, Nick stood his ground. He smiled and reached his paw across the table.

"Good game, pig!" he said, throwing the house key and the wallet on the table.

"Not so fast, fox!" the pig replied, the crowd quieting down as he eyed the fox's clothes. His eyebrow twitched. He seemed lost in thought.

"What is it?" Nick asked.

After a long pause, he grunted and leaned back. "Nothing. Nevermind." He took a smoke. "Good game."

Nick nodded, himself. "Well, all right, big guy. Take all your money and run."

With that, Nick took a measly stroll across the casinos and machines, bathed in their neon, flashing lights. One even got a jackpot. And he sighed calmly as none of them turned to look, already feeling the cool night air smack his cheeks to a neutral blue.

He made it out without the cops intervening, though it could've been on purpose. Neither of that mattered. Now he was back outside, smiling like he'd never smiled before, because it felt as though he'd left something behind. Cicadas rang. Every sound was in place. All he needed was his short, big-eared friend to come and pick him up.

"So," Judy beamed, "I take it you lost?"

Nick shrugged happily. "I didn't win, that's for sure. I gave it all to the meanest looking aristocrat in the house. Guy's gonna take forever to figure out he has some old throwaway key I bought at the convenience store."

"Now, that's a story to be jealous about! And if he ever uses the counterfeit bills in your wallet, we've got a trace right back to him!"

"Bingo. Good times. All it took was a little sleight-of-hand to make it out with a valuable lesson: don't gamble too much, no matter how good the hand. Also, casinos might be a pretty good place for sexy time. All in a night's work!"

She beamed and hopped instinctively. "Now, that's a story to be jealous about!"

"Damn right it is."

"Justice is served!" they said together, high fiving each other and laughing. Turns out, there were some aspects of humiliation Nick liked quite a bit. Just most of them he was too afraid to act upon. Judy then pointed her car keys out to the shadows to show her car.

"Hey, Carrots, I gotta thank you for all this, once again."

"Babe, please! You've thanked me a thousand times! We both needed to get away from that place for a long while. I don't mind taking the world's longest road trip to do it."

"No, but I-"

"It's okay! It's okay!"

"Wait, wait, I just..." He breathed. "I just gotta say. If you ever really kidnapped somebody, they'd never find 'em again."

Judy snickered and rolled her eyes. "Stop."

"So, what next?"

"Well, I booked us a rows-of-wheat motel out in Bunny Burrows. Should be good for a couple weeks, but if you're up for it, I wouldn't mind a couple months."

Nick half-smiled. "I'm flattered, Carrots."

"You don't know what that means, do you?"

"What?"

"Rows-of-wheat."

"I could take a guess."

"Nope. It's slang for 'Sex Hotel.' You're allowed to have sex anywhere you want."

"Oh, well," he laughed. "Well, I could, uh..." Shook his head. "Maybe."

"You don't have to. It's just an option. But I figured if we're gonna tour as much land outside of Zootopia as possible, I'd save the best for last."

Nick frowned. "Oh, right, I gotta go back after that, huh?" His ears folded down, then back up. "Wait, how are the protests going?"

"You sure about this?"

"Yes."

Judy confirmed it, then cleared her throat.

"Okay. Well, a lot of animals were furious when they found out what happened with you, and with others, and...that wasn't good. The protests lasted about a month, and that left a lot...to be...cleaned up. That was back in August. For now, there's a law that's passing that gives a better check for malicious activity inside of the Z.P.D."

Nick nodded slowly. "Okay. That's good." And it was good.

But Judy wasn't convinced, so she softened and said, "I know. I know we can't redo the past. But, at least the results were unanimous. Everybody can't stand who's running the police, and even with all the misinformation floating around, everybody wants to just forget what happened. Animals are calling upon Bogo to step down, and with enough support, it might happen." She paused. "Is...that better?"

There was something Nick couldn't put his finger on. An urge to reel back and disagree. Even with all that good news on the doormat, it was rather a friendly package than a demon at his feet. As time would tell, trading a loss for a victory was a mangled eye in the rust, and Zootopia was a picture frame of truths and meanings simply too unbearable for the task. So the day she hung up her hat was the day she took him out, through every little space outside the city. Their road trips were long and fruitful-despondent by the distance, but necessary all the same. The rural buckwheat cavalcades mounted in place of sidewalks and public parks, sun-touched hills of a green ocean on pause, and the castles and decrepit buildings they saw of history lost forever would leave its inevitable imprint. They stopped when they could, meeting strangers with holes in their teeth, dust in their fireplace and bruises like natural dark spots in oak furniture. The longer he looked-and at times, he had to squint-the more he discovered something new. Something special. Quiet, and tearful. The story under the story they'd only tell over a drink and a dim light. She held his paw through it all, violet eyes shiny in the painted sunlight, blooming of wheat and carrot aromas that only flourished when they chose to make love in the fields. "Now, that's a story to be jealous about," is what he said in their afterglow. One of those days, that's when it hit him. Stories we share in the dark should be kept there. And here, everybody knew his-whether they liked it or not. As said earlier: no demon, but a package. Inside was a word that read, "Tomorrow."

"There was a guy I talked to on that first incident," he said. "We were at the crosswalk, and I asked him, 'what's the time?' He said, '8:50'. And then I said, 'Thanks.'"

The wind howled.

"That's it?"

"Yee-up. That's it."

She chuckled. "I don't get it."

"Well, I think about that guy, sometimes. How many thoughts and feelings do you have to go through to see something like that and shrug it off like overcooked toast? I bet he felt nothing. But for a split second, because of him, everything didn't seem so bad. I couldn't tell you how much I needed that. Couldn't even if I tried."

The pace in him shifted. As he walked closer, the starlight gleamed in his eyes. In one move, he was a board against the casino wall, paws in both pockets next to the brilliant, cycling red-pink-yellow-green lights flashing in the window.

"I thought the world was out to get me. And you know what? I was right, kind of. But then I think about that guy, and all the animals we've met. They've all got one thing in common: nothing. So I think maybe everybody's got their own little world, built from a thousand little quirks and tragedies. You'd never know the rules unless you'd talk to them. It's funny, Carrots. It's funny how the only one who knew the truth was the one we paid the least attention to. Bogo. The truth always matters, but here-in the quote-unquote real world-it was built to be hidden. Imagine that."

There was a long silence.

"So," she said softly, "what do you think it means?"

"Well, I'll tell you. There is no 'real world.' It's all from our perspectives we have on the inside. And whether we like it or not, that has an impact on everybody. That's why I can't lash out. Because we all deserve something better, even if they don't think that I do."

He paused, his expression becoming more intense.

"Maybe it doesn't make sense now. Maybe it never will. But all of us break eventually. And the biggest strength of all is believing, despite all the pain-despite all the horrors we bring-the good in this world is still there. Maybe we're all going to wake up and see the problems of the past for what they are. And we're all going to agree that this was all very silly. We are a silly bunch of animals. And for that reason, it should never happen again."

Beyond the shadows, Judy hugged him tight. He hugged her back and stayed put like a cold statue. From the reverie, a tear dripped off his cheek and nurtured the grass below him.

"I'm glad you came out the other end," she said.

Eventually, she pressed unlock on the van in the shadows. She walked towards it and up the steps.

Halfway up, she turned, looking for her fox.

Instead, he was distant. Not quite to the stars, but not quite to the woods, either. He checked his side to see no one coming out. Without a single word at all, he sighed, hesitated, then took off all his clothes. Judy was in shock as each article hit the ground, but stopped when she saw his calm demeanor. Each star fought for his blissful distraction. His stomach ballooned as he seemed to suck in all the night's air and breathe it out, the world now feeling a little bit warmer.

"Feels lovely out here," he muttered. "Nudity can be so peaceful."

Silence, for several minutes. Light as a ghost, he climbed inside the van to the passenger's seat, Judy firing the ignition. The wheels turned on the rocks underneath, like each one was a new leaf.

And off they went, on their wildest adventure yet.

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I'm just as shocked as you. After 2 years, starting on May 14th, 2019, my first long-form story is now complete. After two hiatuses, several real world tragedies and month after month of self doubt, it's finally come to a close.

Creating this series taught me an incredible amount about style and taste, to the point where it acts as an unintentional catalogue of my evolving skills. I hope that it continues to inspire those who read it in as many ways as possible. I really don't think I'm stressing this enough: I have no fucking idea how this project is actually done.

Honestly, what can I say but thank you? Thank you to everybody who stuck with me since the beginning. Thank you to those who hated it for giving me another reason to get better. Thank you to all my friends for all the proofreading and editing. And if you somehow read the whole series front to back, thank you, too. I hope you enjoyed it.

And hey, stick around for the near future! I'll be launching another short Nick Wilde fic, along with my Patreon.

Once again, thank you all so much, and have a happy new year!

• Marcus Heckinberry