#twosavage

Nick was going through store after store; searching racks of clothing for a nice uniform he could wear. Each time he would enter another shop, cruel judgmental glances and whispers would follow; Nick however ignored the scrutiny and drew strength from one thought, the eyes of a vixen, that he pictured watching him, with care and grace.

He stood in front of a rack in K-9mart, a confused and frustrated look plastered to his face, he held a blue shirt in one paw and a black shirt held in the other, they were the exact same shirt apart from colour.

“Excuse me” he whispered gesturing a paw in the air to get one of the worker’s attention. He was ignored by the workers however a very fuzzy and well dressed she wolf noticed his pleas and smiled walking toward Nick.

As the wolf approached Nick her smile became concealing across her face; as if she recognised Nick. She was white as snow, with blue eyes and dressed extremely elegantly.

She promptly walked over “Hello, Maybe I can help?” she asked while chewing gum.

Nick went to reply but was taken off; he could see a sly smirk in the corner of her mouth, she was much younger then Nick, but her eyes danced over him.

Nick held both shirts out, “Which colour do you think would suit me?”

The she-wolf smiled taking a knee; grabbing both, placing them over his chest before changing to the other colour.

“Hmm” she began “Depends” she finally conceded.

“On what” Asked Nick

“What’s it for? I mean this one would be a good going out shirt” she explained holding up the blue shirt to his torso.

“It’s for a job interview” he confirmed.

“Doing?”

“Bar tending…hopefully”.

She smiled, “Oh, that’s easy, definitely the black”.

“You should try it on?” continued the wolf.

Nick felt self-conscious, he knew he stunk, he knew his clothes were tattered and old, and yet this she-wolf gazed upon him, with such admiration that it made Nick kind of uncomfortable.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” he quizzed abruptly; unable to take the odd behaviour any longer, looking around as if it was a big joke about to be played on him.

The she-wolf; had an all too bright smile, like she had been waiting for Nick to ask that question. The wolf went chest to chest with him before she knelt right next to him and put her muzzle to his ear “I know who you are Nicholas Wilde” she whispered with a cute, seductive wink as she pulled away.

Without another word, she reached her paw to her own ear and began to undo one of her love heart shaped earring.

“If you’re going to work in a bar, you’ll need an earring”.

Without any consent, she pushed the earring through Nick’s ear, who flinched back only a little. Before she licked his ear two or three times wiping away the blood, she stood back to admire her handy work.

“There you go, much better” she confirmed.

She placed her paw to the side of Nicks face “See you later cutie” she said kissing his cheek; as she slid her paw across his face and turned to walk away.

Nick stood stunned and completely confused, he gently moved his paw up, touching the piercing, his ear hurt only a little.

“Who the hell?” he spoke to himself completely at a loss of who the she-wolf was.

By the time Nick finished shopping and the she wolf was no longer in his thoughts, Nick had bought several loads of clothes, changing into a new shirt and pants and throwing the old ones away, although he had been scrutinised the entire time he was shopping, he was happy that he was refreshed.

He had bought a green shirt with leaves over it, as similar to his old clothes as he could get, and some generic brown slacks.

However, he did not wear these, instead he sported a black shirt and pants, thinking that, this uniform would be more proper to go to a job interview in. He was walking down the street, several bags of clothes in his paws, a bottle of aftershave, toothbrush and comb and his old tatty bag he had gone back to the park to collect; flung over his shoulders. He felt on top of the world with the little he had.

He got to the watering Hole and waited outside, it was only 2:00 and he knew he had to be there at 5. He had some money left and saw a small coffee stand just down the ways, he leisurely made his way to it and waited in queue.

He got to the front and there was a Rhino and a Buffalo both talking. “Hello sirs” he greeted.

“Oh great another fox” grumbled the Rhino, ceasing to talk and looking away while the Buffalo turned to Nick. “Hey can’t you-”

“See you were talking?” finished Nick, “perhaps you should be working instead” he snapped.

The buffalo pulled his head back insulted  “Excuse me?”

Nick pointed a claw; he knew the Buffalo and Rhino didn’t remember him, but Nick sure remembered them. They were the same two that had made Nick wait to speak to a manager when he had gone for a job once before. Only to find out he was being made to waste his time.

“You heard me” Nick growled “You shouldn’t be talking during work, you should be serving”.

“Oh yeah, or what?”

Nick thought for a moment before he remembered a very specific scenario that had worked a charm, in a similar situation.

Nick smirked dropping his ear to the side a sincere look on his face projecting his voice for all to hear.

“I’m so glad you asked! I mean are your customers aware you were found to be using stale bread thrown away by the bakery?” he explained walking over to a table and gesturing to an armadillo eating a sandwich. The Armadillo looked at the shop owner, opening her mouth so a slop of half chewed sandwich fell onto her plate; she placed the rest of sandwich down and walked away from their al fresco Cafe.

Nick flicked a claw in the air and took centre stage now that all eyes were on him; “Or how about the worse fact that this rhino” gestured Nick to the Rhino standing next to the owner, “is selling you homemade rhino milk to make your coffee…isn’t that against regulation? Section 12 of the food act clearly states you need to be buying from a pasteurised and certified business, not a friend” he accused.

He paused for a moment for dramatical effect, leaning against a table “And male rhinos for that matter” added Nick matter of factly, leaning casually on a table where other animals sat.

“Male Rhino’s don’t have milk” interjected one customer with a coffee in hoof.

Nick gave him a sympathetic glare; “I know…” he explained gently rubbing his claw across a table, a look of apologetic regret on his face.

Nick heard one customer who sat at a seat spit his coffee out; understanding what Nick was trying to say. Nick trying with all his strength not to blurt out laughter.

The Buffalo and Rhino stood shocked at Nick’s allegations.

“We’ll now that this is done, I bid you adieu” he confirmed saluting them before strolling off pleased with himself. He looked back to shout one last thing over his shoulder “I hope business goes well, hang in there”.

As he walked away he saw several customers also get up and leave. The Buffalo and Rhino yelling at him as he walked away, while simultaneously being swamped with customers demanding refunds.

Nick sat on a bench across from the watering hole, a gleeful feeling deep in his gut, this is the Nick he knew, this was the Nick he remembered. He had not felt so alive in so long that it was making him shake with happiness.

He checked the watch he bought, he had only fifteen minutes to wait, he thought he would head in early to show promptness and that he was keen.

Nick entered the pub the rickety door creaking open, inside the air was stale and smelt of old beer he poked his head in but couldn’t see anyone. A cool breeze seeming to be ever present in the waterin Hole atmosphere; likely because the air-con above the bar was always pumping.

“Hello” he whispered in a shout.

“Oh hey sweetie, come in” came a voice from seemingly nowhere.

Nick walked in, the door shutting gently behind him, from behind the bar stood Pricilla, a tray of glasses in her grasp.

“Hey stranger” she yipped gleefully placing the glasses on the top of the bar, before walking around and giving Nick the tightest hug he had ever felt.

“Hey” he nervously replied, hugging her back.

“Nickie” she sighed “what happened ta you? I never got a cawl? And now you show up oudda thin air, how ya bin?”

Nick didn’t reply he just shook his head.

“Dat bad huh? ere have a beer” she offered walking back behind the bar, she raised a glass and began pouring him an ale.

Nick was going to decline, he hadn’t drank beer in such a long time, but by the time he went to protest the glass was half full and he felt his throat beg for the cool indulgence.

The crisp white head frothed over the top sliding down the side of the glass and the glass instantly became moist with dew, the bronze colour and tip of the beer showed it was a perfect pour, obviously hours of practise, she placed the beer on a coaster and slid it in front of Nick, who watched as the bubbling carbon dioxide made its way from the base of the glass to the head of the beer.

“Thank you” he stated taking a seat at the bar grabbing his lower back as he sat, a slight nerve pain shooting up his spine. He grabbed the beer in the other paw and tilted his head back to let the moist beverage make its way down his throat, the tingling in his back slightly subsiding, he downed half the beer when he stopped to take a breath.

“Whoa, easy tiger, you might choke” giggled Pricilla.

Nick put the glass down and took an almighty huff to get his breath back.

Pricilla proceeding to only laugh louder as Nickie now sat on the bar stool with a foam moustache made from the froth of the beer.

Nick looked down at what she was laughing and pointing at, he rolled his eyes with a smile and wrapped his tongue around his lips to clear it.

They both chuckled and as the chuckles slowly subsided the conversation became more serious.

“What happened der?” quizzed Pricilla, noticing the pain inflicted on Nickie simply trying to take a seat.

“I got shot in the back” he explained coldly “three times…”

Nick wrapped his paws around the cold glass and took another swig, it had been years since he had a drink.

“So, whacha afta anywayz?”

“Just some work” explained Nick.

“Day shift, night shift?”

Nick laughed a little, he gathered that Pricilla didn’t understand that he was at her mercy, or perhaps she did realise and was simply being kind.

“Any shift”.

“Okay sweetheart, I’ll put tagether a rosta for ya and we’ll get ya started ASAP, Most likely night shift, cause you’re a fox and you’ll mainly be doing bar work, cause I don’t think youd be able ta do any security work wit dat injury you got, hows dats sound?””

“That’s the most amazing thing I’ve heard for a very long time” he confirmed. There was a paused, while Nick thought of one other thing “Pricilla?”

“Ye Nickie?”

“Do you guys have rooms here?”

“Coarse we do sweetheart, whys dat?”

Nick drank the rest of his drink; Pricilla had done right by him, the least he could do was let her know why he never called. Once he had finish his beer he proceeded to explain all that had happened to him to Pricilla, throughout Nick’s story her face went from horror to shock to anger to pity and by the end she simply reached into her apron and placed down a small keychain on the bar her eyes moist with tears.

“You can stay ere for as long as you need sweetheart” she confirmed with her hand over her mouth, she had never heard such dread from anyone before or seen a fox look so hollow.

Nick picked up the keys in his paws, holding them and just starring for the longest moment before he looked to Pricilla with reverence

“Thank you” he choked.

She just nodded, sniffing, trying to compose herself.

“You’re on the third floor, room 21”

“What about payment?”

Pricilla wiped her tears on her apron and feigned a laugh “Don’t be a dunce Nickie”  

Nick smiled holding the key close to his chest walking to the stair case and going up to find his room.

As he was about to be out of site Pricilla called out.

“You can do a practise shift on the weekend if you’d like?”

Nick turned poking his head out so only his shoulder and head were visible from the doorway and with a smile replied “That would be awesome”.

Nick went to leave when Pricilla called him and he poked his head out once more.

“I like your ear ring Nickie, it suits you”

Nick had completely forgot the earring and flicked his ear to bring it to eye level, starring at the love heart, he smiled at Pricilla putting his ear back in place, but then his thoughts became congested by the thought of who the she-wolf was once again as he headed up to his new room.

It was seven o’clock and Jack turned his computer off grabbing his coat and rubbing his red, sore eyes, his meds making him drowsy and the hidden bottle in his desk not helping by any stretch of the imagination.

“Long day captain?”

“Always” he confirmed looking up; only to see the room was empty.

“Nooo, Nooo” he grumbled, sluggishly making his way over to his desk, going to his top draw and taking out some more medication; taking three tablets. He walked over to the wall collapsing against it and placing his eyes in his paws.

“Just stop” he pleaded.

“Stop what?” asked a familiar voice.

Jack cautiously looked up, fearing he would see his haunting illusions; however he looked up from his paw to see Clawhauser standing in the room.

“How long have you been there?” asked Jack

“I just walked in?” confirmed Clawhauser.

“What do you want?” continued Jack; trying to sound professional, but realising he was sprawled out on the floor leaning on the wall.

“Aaare you okay sir?” questioned Clawhauser a little concerned. “Fine, just tired, what do you want?”

Clawhauser reached into a folder and pulled out a small booklet of papers stapled together; handing it to Jack.

“Is this okay?” he asked

Jack took the book, flicking through the pages, checking prices and what the place had to offer”

“If you want this one I need to lock it in, they need three months for a party of this size”

Without a thought, Jack just nodded handing it back to him “Set up for like 7:00pm, put on a bar tab, food, the works”

“Got it” confirmed Clawhauser going to leave.

“Oh, and Clawhauser”

Clawhauser stopped in the door; turning to listen to Jack.

“Try and keep the surprise party a surprise this year” chuckled Jack.

Clawhauser chuckled nervously and saluted “Yes sir, I’ll try sir”.

Jack dragged himself to his feet once Clawhauser had left, he took a few deep breathes, keeping his eyes poised on the exit, before heading for the door; ignoring the shadow that sat swivelling in his chair, in his peripherals.

Maria had finished four hours earlier then Jack and sat at home with Alison, they were on the sofa watching a movie together, ‘A fox tales”, Alison’s favourite movie.

They sat eating popcorn and Alison was quoting the movie word for word. Maria smiled, as her daughter sat in awe at the characters on the screen.

“You know, this was you fathers favourite movie and he use to do the same thing, he was able to quote every single word of this movie”

Alison, who was only partially listening, picked up the remote and paused the movie, a strange look on her face.

“What?” she asked, not hearing what her mum had said or thinking she misheard her.

“I said this was your father’s favourite movie, he loved watching this” repeated Maria with a deep smile, that was soon washed away at the look on Alison’s face.

“Dad HATES this movie” Alison confirmed.

Maria was confused for a moment before she realised her mistake, Nick loved a fox tales…. Not Jack.

Maria quickly giggled, slapping a paw to her forehead “Oh silly me-” she confirmed

“Must have been another movie similar to this that your father liked. Ha-ha popcorn?”.

Alison nodded reaching her tiny paw into the bowl; pressing play on the remote with her other paw, but felt something deep inside her guts twist.

Maria sat in bed once the movie was over and Alison had been tucked in. she was reading a new book that was on the top of the best sellers “A wolf in sheep’s clothing” it was about a wolf and a sheep who had fallen in love, the wolf having been killed by his pack for loving someone he shouldn’t have. She had gone through twelve pages when her eyes closed.

“Say slick” began Judy as she and Nick watched ‘A fox tales’ “what would you name your kids if you had any?”

“Oh you know me carrots, kids are annoying brats!” he confirmed; waving his paw at her dismissively.

“Naw, come on Nick, just imagine you found the girl of your dreams, what would you call your little Nicks?” she asked again as she walked off to make more popcorn

Nick sat starring at Judy as she danced around the kitchen; “Alison, I would call our daughter Alison” he whispered

“Huh?”

Nick shook his head with a laugh “My daughter, Alison would be her name and if I had a boy, probably Jasper” he explained with a nervous chuckle.

Judy sat placing the popcorn in the microwave, blushing; she had heard Nick the first time.

“What about you?”

“I would call our kids, anything you wanted” she whispered into the microwave.

Judy woke to the bed shaking and gently grasped her small paws around her head; only stopping when she saw a dark silhouette to the side of her, Jack was trying his best to sly his way into the bed without waking her. She glanced at the clock it was almost 10:00pm

As he was pulling the blankets up he saw Maria had her eyes open starring at him

“I’m sorry did I wake you?” he groaned, annoyed he was not able to slip in without annoying her and nervous she may smell the undenying scent of alcohol on his breath.

Maria was to sleepy to noticed and simply yawned, throwing her book to the ground and wrapping her arms around his waist snuggling close to him as he reached out to turn off the bedside light.

“It’s okay, I was having a nightmare anyway” she explained, placing her head gently between his masculine shoulder blades, spooning him and trying to get back to sleep.

However there was a pit in her stomach and although she tried with all her years of training to fill it with paperwork, family time and exercise, she knew it was the shape of a fox and could not be filled, no matter how long she was trained or how long she went to therapy to be convinced she was Maria Savage, some part of her would always be Judy Hopps, who fell in love with a dumb fox and left him for dead.