Sunderance - Chapter 12.1: Prima Sonata

    While not entirely sure what she’d expected when the offer of dinner somewhere outside of the office came, the building he brought her to hadn’t been on the top of Judy’s list of guesses. In fact, she was fairly certain she had never seen anything like it back home. From the outside, it looked like little more than a small brick building with an uninteresting brown door; a door that was topped by a surprisingly ugly yellow sign in the shape of a martini glass. It was what she would have expected from an unknown dive bar, the mental image of which was almost enough to have her asking if there was somewhere more grounded he could take her. But as she was coming to accept with everything that surrounded her guardian, the rough exterior was just that. It was what was inside that had her captivated.

    The sharply inclined stairs had given way to the warm glow of soft yellow light, the sort that wouldn’t be offensive to the eyes of its mainly nocturnal patrons. As the narrow stairway might have suggested, the layout was compressed. Yet somehow the spacing of the tables away from the stocked bar at the center kept things from feeling cramped. What charmed her almost instantly was the melody that drifted around her. Now clearly able to hear the piano, and remembering that Nick had mentioned live music, her ears perked to follow the sound until her eyes found the source. The raccoon, whose body and face mask was a lighter shade than she had ever seen on the species, played with a light smile on his muzzle as his fingers moved over the keys of the old piano. From the looks of him, she doubted he was even out of his teens yet. Unable to help herself, she found herself drawn towards the lovely notes.

    When jade green eyes raised to her as she approached, the surprise that crossed his face reminded her that bunnies were almost entirely unseen in Zootopia. To his credit, he never missed a key when his gaze darted behind her to the fox who had followed close behind. The smile that bloomed across his muzzle was one of recognition and welcome. Instead of speaking, the young raccoon simply nodded towards the tip jar on top of the piano he played. The amused grin on Nick’s face when she glanced back at him told her that he was familiar with the wordless greeting. So much so that he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet.

    Something about it was incredibly interesting to her. The normality of it, the proof that this fox did exist outside of his still well-kept secrets. It was a combination of multiple things, really. The wallet itself was obviously not cheap, though, in all honesty, she couldn’t have guessed if it was a cheap knockoff of something expensive or if it was an actual quality piece. His paws were quick to flip open the wallet and, as she watched this perfectly natural act with rapt fascination, he flipped through the surprisingly thick stack of bills inside before coming up with a one hundred Buck note. When he folded it quickly, raising his paw to drop it into the tip jar, the lack of surprise on the pianist’s face had a barrage of curious questions racing through her. He tapped the piano-top with one claw in response to the nod of appreciation from the pianist and turned, placing his paw against the small of her back to lead her towards a corner booth, causing those very same questions to run off with the sudden thrill of the touch.

    The reality of it didn’t fade, nor was it lost on her that his paw lingered far longer than normal. It wasn’t his normal ‘you need to move this way to stay safe’ guidance. It was intimate in a way that had him drawing her closer as they moved until they reached the booth. It wasn’t until she felt the slide of his fingers up the center of her spine, a sadly muffled sensation through the layers of her suit, that she allowed a little shiver to race through her. He was such a distraction that she wasn’t even aware that they had been followed to the booth until the large sea otter waddled up to the table with a beaming smile on his heavily whiskered, blunt muzzle.

    “Nick! Glad to have you back here so soon, m’lad,” he said in a thick brogue accent, the large, long-bodied mammal all but bobbing in place as he set some items on the table without being asked. The first to draw her attention was the familiar sight of a shot glass filled with deep amber liquid, which a quick twitch of her nose told her was scotch. Beside that he set a glass of ice water for Nick and one for her before he turned small, curious eyes to her with a menu held out in one webbed paw. “And you’ve a friend with you. A rather rare one, at that.”

    “She is,” Nick said, his voice even but friendly when she reached out to take the menu with a politely grateful smile on her muzzle. “Judy Hopps, this is Lochlann, the owner of this fine establishment.”

    “Fine establishment,” came the snort of reply, a grin that raised his whiskers high on his fur-bearded face given in reply as he popped a pad and pen out of his apron pocket. “You mean a hole in the wall. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Judy. I’ve read the reports of why you’re here in Zootopia. I hope this fox has been keeping a close eye on you?”

    “Yes,” she said, keeping her voice as even as possible even though a glance at the fox had heat rising along the back of her neck. “No one has managed to lay a paw on me so far.”

    “Sad times, when a bunny is attacked just for being in the city,” the otter commented, shaking his head with a sage sort of annoyance crossing his features. “But I know you’re not here to talk to this old otter. What can I get the two of you?”

    The menu was, as expected from a place as small as this one, not exactly extensive, though Nick had been right: the variety of dishes was obviously meant to cater to all types of mammals. From meals of fish and appetizers of deep fried pickles. It wasn’t until her eyes settled on the vegetarian Shepard’s Potato Pie that she realized how hungry she was. A realization that came with a growl of her stomach that had her trying to hide behind the menu for a second when both predators grinned at her. Once the orders were placed, with Nick seeming to know exactly what he wanted in his order of ‘Sea Bass and Chips’, the otter did his waddle towards the back room.

    “You come here often?” she asked, one brow raised as she took up the glass of water to take a sip.

    “I wasn’t expecting a pick-up line so early in the evening, Miss Hopps,” he quipped in reply, almost causing her to sputter into the water glass. Sending the chuckling fox a quick glare as she set the glass down, she leaned back into the comfortably cushioned seat. Because it was sized for a mammal comparable to a fox, she didn’t need to go out of her way to keep her eyes on him even if she had to make sure that the water glass was placed so it didn’t obstruct her view. “But yes. I am a regular here.”

    When no further explanation seemed to be forthcoming, even as she watched him expectantly, she found herself wondering if she was expected to ask. And moreover, found herself wondering if this was a date in his mind. When even thinking like that made her feel young and stupid, she raised one paw to her forehead to rub it for a moment before she waved the same paw in a lost gesture. “Nick, what is this?”

    “A restaurant,” he replied, reaching down to pick up the shot glass and raise it to his nose. She focused on him as he did so. She could see his eyes darken and dilate for a moment, what she thought had to be thirst clear there for a moment, before he focused themon her again and set the glass back onto the table.

    “You know what I mean,” she murmured, curious all over again. The reaction to the liquor, his obstinate refusal to drink it perplexed her. But even more intense was her need to understand why she was suddenly given this window into the real life of a male that she knew absolutely nothing about. “Why are we here? And if you say ‘to eat,’ I am going to throw this water in your face.”

    There was a long moment of silence that followed that. The loaded sort of silence that in court told her that the witness was trying to come up with the right answer when the questions had gone off script. He didn’t seem particularly disturbed, didn’t seem uneasy as emerald green moved over her face with a sort of curious indecision.

    “We should go see one of my friends after dinner,” he said easily, folding his paws on the table top and leaning in a bit as he lowered his voice. “If you need information, he’s on it. I’d bet he knows something about the Otterton case that you can’t find anywhere else in Zootopia.”

    “Don’t try to change the subject, Nick,” she frowned, while at the same time tucking away the offer of help for later. It wasn’t lost on her that it was the first time he had offered any sort of help aside from protection, and while she felt it might be important, she also knew that he offered it when he did specifically to avoid answering her question.

    “All right,” he murmured, rolling his eyes away from her to glance around the restaurant quickly as he feigned a tie adjustment to hide the fact. Being mostly empty aside from the still drifting melody of the piano beyond the bar, his expression hardened for a moment when he looked back at her. “I didn’t mean to bite you.”

    “Oh,” she managed, knowing instantly what he was talking about. Mostly because it caused a little spark of warmth down in her belly as the memory came to life in her mind. A memory so vivid that she found her gaze drifting to his muzzle. His mouth. Dark lips. Lips that currently hid the teeth that had grazed her flesh and made her legs feel like jelly. “Uh. It’s okay? But that still doesn’t answer my question.”

    “Doesn’t it?” he asked, one brow arching as he leaned a little further over the table. Her nose twitched as his did and she resisted the urge to lean closer herself, the impulse to do so surprising her enough to have her reaching for her water glass again. “I never intended to touch you at all, much less put my mouth on you. Your reaction was a little more eager than I expected, Carrots. After all, the entire point of that was to show you that I had no interest in you sexually, to remove that thought from our relationship.”

    “Well, that worked out well,” she laughed, not at all pleased with the note of panic in the sound. She covered her eyes with one paw for a moment just to block out the sight of him long enough for her to think, only to have that effort destroyed when she found him watching her like she was certain a predator of old would watch prey they intended to devour. The fact that she had never reacted so strongly to the advances of a male was a fact that was not lost on her at all. “It wasn’t like I could help it.”

    “Yes, and I didn’t intend to bite you,” he said again, leaning back in his seat without allowing his eyes to leave her. “I have spent years teaching myself to avoid dangerous temptations and it took less than a day for you to… tempt me.”