A/N - I might be a bit late on the Zootopia bandwagon, but I hope you like this nontheless. Btw, there will be a sequel. I had more ideas for that before I started working on this one lol.

Disclaimer - I do NOT own Zootopia or any of its characters!

1

It had been a rather chaotic week, and it was only Wednesday.

That's what Judy was thinking as she marched into the ZPD that morning, as bright eyed as she always was. Nick trudged behind her, yawning widely as he pushed his way through the revolving door.

"Ooh! Well if it isn't my favourite bunny and fox!" The large cheetah behind the desk leant forwards, his long tail swishing excitedly behind him. "How are you two this morning?"

"Very well, thank you, Clawhauser!" Judy quipped.

"She can speak for herself," said Nick as he looped his shades through a button hole on his shirt. "I was up most of the night and she wouldn't let me stop for coffee on the way."

"We were going to be late!"

"Late night. Sleepy fox." Nick's eye went down to the box of donuts on the cheetah's desk and he pointed. "May I?"

Clawhauser nodded and opened the box for the fox as he picked one out.

"Ooh, jam!" Nick took a bite out of his chosen donut and a huge smile spread across his face.

"You're gonna need the sugar," said Clawhauser. "Chief Bogo showed up early this morning. It doesn't look like things are going to calm down for you, at least not today anyway."

Judy's ears drooped slightly at the thought of what else could possibly have gone wrong. "Oh dear."

She sped off towards the bullpen while Nick casually strolled along behind her.

They were amongst the last there and quickly took their seats as they waited patiently for the Chief. Nick was noisily licking sugar from his paws when the water buffalo entered and eyed each of the filled seats in turn.

"I'm afraid I don't exactly have good news," he said flatly. "As you have probably heard, there's been two more mammals gone missing. A pair of angora rabbit twins."

Judy's breath caught in her throat as she watched Chief Bogo pin the photo to the map of Zootopia, just outside the city's centre. Two angora rabbits. From the looks of it, they were only around five or six years old, and amongst the pictures of the other missing mammals which mostly consisted of sheep and alpaca, they seemed oddly out of place.

"Add this to the ever increasing reports of 'fur fondling' and we're in for another busy day. I've already got one victim lined up for interview and it isn't even nine a.m." He frowned and crossed his arms as he looked over at the silent room. "Well. At least we won't be bored."

Fangmeyer let out a small laugh from the back of the room, which was met with strained, nervous laughter. Bogo didn't so much as flinch. Truth be told, if you didn't laugh you'd cry, and right now, as Judy stared at that picture, she did indeed feel like crying. She could practically feel Nick's eyes boring into her from his spot beside her.

"Hey, Carrots, are you okay?" he muttered.

"So here's what I want you to do," Bogo went on. His voice boomed through the room shouting out orders, and Judy was rather surprised that she was one of the first he addressed. "Hopps and Wilde, I want you two to interview the parents of the angora twins. See what you can find out about the incident."

There was something behind the buffalo's eyes that told her there was a reason he'd picked them for this particular task. Maybe he'd noticed the worry she'd expressed that members of her own species had been kidnapped. Or maybe it was just something as simple as realising small animals would appreciate a police officer not much bigger than them showing up on their doorstep.

She gave the large rhino beside her a friendly smile as her and Nick slipped off their shared seat and made for the door.

"So we get the bunnies," said Nick. "I guess I'll need to turn on the charm that won you over, hey Fluff?" He gave her a wink.

"Don't get cocky, Slick," she said. "It wasn't your charm that won me over."

They stopped beside the front desk to grab the case file on the missing twins. She had to go through the filing cabinet herself since Clawhauser was currently in conversation with a brown alpaca.

"Could you please tell me when I'm being seen?" the alpaca asked.

"I can assure you Chief Bogo will be right out," Clawhauser said with as much cheer as he could muster.

"I'm telling you, I'm deeply distressed!" said the alpaca. "That cat just... came out of nowhere and stroked my fur!" He shuddered.

Nick glanced back at the alpaca as they moved away, his mouth turned into a grimace.

"You know, I just don't understand this new fad," he said.

"I don't think any of us do," said Judy. "However, you did once touch Bellwether's wool."

"I was curious. I don't have wool. Besides." He cast a quick glance back at the alpaca as they left the building. "It's not just woolly animals complaining about this. It's all mammals."

"I'm aware of that," she said as she read over the file. It was small. Just a photo of the twin angoras stood between their parents and the date and time the twins were found to be missing. Twelve hours ago.

She'd just arrived home at that point. She'd been making herself some supper after working late and was about to go to bed, while some other mammal was out targeting these poor bunnies.

That was something else she didn't understand. Why, over the past five days, had twelve animals gone missing?

...

The little house wasn't that far from Little Rodentia. It was a low building with a rounded roof and cute little topiaries trimmed into cones around the edge of a tidy garden. The pink mail box had the name 'Twitch' printed on it.

Judy strolled up to the front door with her partner and put on her friendliest smile as she tapped the brass knocker against the wood. The door opened silently and a pretty, round face peered out at them around the crack.

"Mrs. Twitch?" she asked. "I'm Officer Judy Hopps and this is my partner, Officer Nick Wilde."

"Pleased to meet you." The fox offered his paw, but the rabbit just stared at it while her nose twitched beneath her locks of long, silky white hair. He retrieved his paw and clasped it behind his back, instead offering her a friendly smile.

"We're here about your missing children," Judy explained. "May we come in?"

The angora rabbit remained silent as she looked from the rabbit to the fox and back. The door opened wider and a chubby gentleman rabbit stood behind her, his long fur trimmed into a basin cut around his ears and topped with a bowler hat.

"I'm terribly sorry," he said. "My wife doesn't trust foxes. Never has. Doesn't trust any canine predator. I beg your pardon, Officer." He took Nick's paw in both of his and shook it energetically, making the fox's jaw drop with surprise. "My name's Edward. Edward Twitch. So glad you showed up, and with good time too. I'm so sorry to have to put you out like this, you look like you've not slept in weeks. Oh it's awful. Truly awful, all this with the kidnappings. I can't believe our little twins have got caught up in this. Oh, I didn't sleep a wink last night."

Nick retrieved his paw again from the seemingly endless handshake and laughed nervously. "I... I can imagine."

"Do come in. Do come in. Poppy, please put the kettle on for our guests? Follow me, Officers. Follow me."

The female angora gave Nick a nervous glance and waddled away into the kitchen while Edward led them into the living room.

"I hope the sofa is big enough for you, Officer Wilde." Edward gestured to the sofa which Nick took up most of the space on. Judy hopped up beside him while Edward slumped into an arm chair beside a dormant fireplace. "Poppy won't be too long with the tea. I'm so sorry, again! She goes mute around canines. We weren't expecting a fox to show up on our doorstep!"

"That's okay. I'm used to rabbits not trusting me." He gave Judy a sly smile while she elbowed him discreetly in the ribs.

"Is there anything you can tell us?" she asked Edward. "We know the twins were last seen in the park, but the information we have so far isn't very clear. It says you have a vague idea of the suspects?"

"Oh, I'd take that with a pinch of salt, Officer," said the rabbit. "My wife gave the information in a fit of panic. She's convinced she saw foxes hovering around the park. Thinks they took our Clover and Lily, she does. I just remember looking out of the bedroom window and seeing the park empty before she screamed the house down."

"I saw them." The small voice from the door drew all three pairs of eyes.

Poppy stood there with a tray rattling in her paws. Edward stood up to take the tray from her and placed it on the coffee table.

"I saw them," the angora said again. She dived towards Judy and took both her paws, keeping one eye on Nick. "You can't trust foxes! You can't!"

Judy felt her own nose begin to twitch as she suddenly felt very uncomfortable for her partner. Nick shifted in his seat and cleared his throat as he took a steaming cup of coffee from Edward's outstretched paw.

"I've told you, Poppy. You didn't see any foxes at the park."

"I did! They were there, with their bushy tails and pricked ears. I can recognise a fox, Edward! There were two of them, sat on a bench. Talking. While our children played in the park. The next time I looked, they were gone. And so were our babies!"

Nick sipped at his coffee and looked over at the quaking rabbit. "Why didn't you bring them inside if you were worried about their safety?"

Poppy clasped both her paws over her mouth and crouched down on the floor beside Edward's arm chair, her wide blue eyes fixed on Nick and glistening with tears.

Edward looked from her to the two Officers and gave a sad sigh. "There's a perfectly valid reason for that, isn't there, love?" He placed a paw on her shivering shoulder. "It's because she doesn't want them to grow up terrified of canines like she did."

...

"Terrified of canines." Nick crossed his arms as he followed Judy across the park. "I must admit, I commend her for not wanting her children to grow up with her fears, but..."

He trailed off and Judy's ears flicked back expectantly. She peered at him over her shoulder as she came to a stop at the bench Poppy had pointed out to them.

"But what?" she asked.

Nick scratched behind his ear. "I'm just not sure she actually saw what she thought she saw."

"Neither am I." She eyed the bench, scanning for any evidence whatsoever. There was no fur stuck to the wood. It was much too smooth a surface for that. It had also rained that morning, so any scent would have been washed away. Droplets still clung to the metal seat. "But she's convinced she saw them, and if she's right then we might have a massive lead on twelve missing mammals."

"I'm just not sure what ties in rabbits, a squirrel, a badger and a polecat with sheep and alpacas. They're not all children, and they're not all prey," said Nick. "What if they're not even linked?"

"Then we'll have a lead on some of them."

"It's still completely perplexing." He stooped and picked up a thick piece of wood, turning it around in his paw. "What, has there been a beaver in here or something?"

Judy pulled her head out from beneath the bench to look at him, her eyes widening briefly. "Where did you find that?"

"On the floor." He nodded to a spot beside the bench. "It's full of teeth marks."

She stood up and took it from him, scanning her eyes over the surface. "They're not left by a beaver, that's for sure. They're too sharp for that."

"You're acting like it's evidence."

"It is. It was found by the bench Poppy pointed out to us."

"Come on, Carrots. You're not honestly saying a chewed up piece of wood is -" Nick watched Judy stuff the item into a clear, plastic bag and rolled his eyes. "Yup. She is. She's claiming it as evidence."

She ducked back beneath the bench, pawing through the sparse grass.

"I'll go look for more evidence then, shall I?" Nick shrugged as he turned away. "Never know, I might find something as exciting as chewed up wood."

He moved away, looking back at Judy with a small smile, not failing to notice the playful roll of the eyes she gave him.

There wasn't much else to note on the ground. The odd crisp packet that had blown free of the park's trash can fluttered across the ground, and a swing creaked lazily in the wind. At this time of day, there were no children playing. They were all at school. Something caught his eye and he paused by the gate and looked out at the road. There, on the tarmac.

"Tyre marks," he said, loud enough for Judy to jump beneath the bench creating a loud clang.

"What?" she asked, rubbing her sore head.

"Tyre marks," he said again. "Someone was trying to get away pretty fast to leave marks like that."

Judy joined his side, pulling out her phone to take a photo of the road.

"I think Mrs. Twitch might be right after all," said Nick. "Someone did indeed take her kids from the park, and they did it with wheels." He paused and gave her a sideways glance. "But I still don't think it was a fox."