(AN/ Hi it's Garouge here with a brand new Zootopia/Robin Hood Crossover fan fiction, now this advanced preview you won't get chapter 2 for a while, I still need to finish Pearl VS Life. This chapter does not have any Robin Hood characters in it but later ones will. I hope you enjoy and please review. UPDATE: I've added a extra scene at the beginning introducing a OC and I want to thank Ziegelzeig for the cover art, he is awesome!)

Chapter 1- Honesty

The Fox kit ran out of Jumbeaux's ice cream parlour with tears soaking the red fur of her cheeks, Judy was close behind running after the kit and catching up to her easily "Sweetie stop." Judy pleaded tears in her own amethyst eyes, putting a paw on the kit's shoulder.

The kit came to a standstill but was still sobbing heavily "I'm sick of this!" the kit shrieked, tears falling onto her flowery summer dress "I just want things to go back to normal."

"I know it's hard at the moment but we can get through this." Judy assured in a motherly tone, pulling the little girl into a hug.

"Tell me it's going to be ok!" she cried.

But Judy couldn't lie to the child, she knew the truth hurt but she couldn't shelter her forever all Judy could say was "I'm sorry Luna."

TWO WEEKS EARLIER...

"Ugh, I thought that shift would never end." Judy groaned as she pulled into the underground parking lot of ZPD's precinct 1.

"Do my ears deceive me? But did officer fluff just say she disliked serving the mammals of Zootopia?" Her partner, the ever charming Nick Wilde, teased from the passenger seat "For shame, Carrots, for shame."

"Very funny Nick," Judy brushed off as she parked the squad car "but even you have to admit today's patrol was boring, actually this last week has been a complete snore."

"It just means the ZPD is good at it's job, I mean aren't you always saying we should make the world a better place. News flash Carrots; it's a better place." Nick replied, taking off his aviator sunglasses and tucking them into his breast pocket.

"Yeah but I miss the buzz of chasing after a crook or looking for clues." Judy responded, switching off the engine.

"Well you've jinxed us now." Nick sighed playfully as he unfastened his seatbelt and got out of the car.

"Oh really?" Judy smirked dubiously as she hopped down from her specially elevated seat.

"Just you watch sweetheart; come Monday morning Bogo's gonna' swamp us with a mountain of case files." Nick smiled, walking towards the stairs with his shorter partner following beside him.

"That sounds like heaven." Judy said with a hopeful voice.

Nick let out a little chuckle before saying "You and me have very different ideas of heaven Carrots."

It had just been over a year since Nick had graduated the academy and already he had become an integral part of precinct 1. Nick was a joker and a trickster but he had a big heart, he was never too busy to help a fellow officer. He had the charms and intelligence that fresh rookies looked up to and street wise experience cops respected; Judy was absolutely right when she said Nick would make a good cop. Judy's mind wandered as they made their way up the concrete stairwell up to the ground floor Has it already been a year? Wow; where did the time go? Oh yeah now I remember; working, exercising and hanging out with Nick…but just hanging out Judy glanced up at Nick briefly as her mind continued it's wandering Stop it Judy, he's your best friend and your partner, don't screw it up. Besides you don't even now that he's into interspecies dating and even he is, is he into me?

She was brought back out of her thoughts when Nick asked "So are you coming out with me and Clawhauser for a drink?"

"Sorry but I've already got plans, it's Francine's bachelorette party tonight." Judy replied with a little flicker of excitement in her voice.

"Oh yeah I remember you saying, how many of you are going again?" Nick asked, as they made their way their through the main lobby.

"Nine of us from the precinct and her two sisters, we're hitting the clubs downtown, should be a good night." Judy answered, smiling.

"Just go easy on the booze will ya'? You can be a little crazy on a big night out." Nick cautioned.

"Pfft, when have I ever gone crazy whilst I was out partying?" Judy scoffed.

"Clawhauser's birthday last month." Nick reminded dryly.

"That was one time." Judy played down.

"New Years Eve." Nick pointed out.

"Everyone else was drunk to." Judy made an excuse, the skin on the inside ears blushing slightly.

"The night I graduated from the academy." Nick added with a grin.

"Well…Ok I admit I can go a little overboard." Judy reluctantly admitted.

"Just promise me you'll eat something before you go hitting the vodka," Nick said, noticing the night shift cop was at the front desk, meaning Clawhauser was probably in the locker room "and drink a bottle of water between every three drinks."

"Yes Dad." Judy replied jokingly. "Say you doing anything tomorrow? We could catch a movie?"

"Maybe in the evening, I got to go see someone in the daytime." Nick answered.

"Anyone I know?" Judy asked, a little curious.

"Nah you wouldn't know her." Nick replied absentmindedly.

Her? Judy thought with a little pang of jealousy hitting her in the stomach "Oh." She sounded as she stopped in her tracks.

Nick turned and noticed the strange look on his best friend's face for a few seconds and was about to say something when an excited shrill of "Judy!" could be heard across from the precinct lobby, the pair turned to see a gleeful lioness officer jogging over to them.

"Hey Nala." Judy greeted, glad of the feline's interruption in the awkward moment.

"Me and the girls are getting ready to prank Francine in the locker room, you coming?" The giddy Lioness asked, Nala Priderock had graduated with Nick and had been assigned to Francine as her partner, the 28 year old was competitive and a trickster like Nick so when she heard Francine was getting hitched she had been concocting schemes to prank her partner with.

"Sure," Judy replied before turning to Nick and saying "I'll text you tomorrow."

As Judy made her way to the female locker room Nick shouted after his partner "Remember Carrots; food before booze." He got no response as Judy and Nala entered their locker room, Nick let out a worried sigh and made his way to the male locker room What was with that look she gave me? Nick thought as he opened the door to the locker room Did I say something to tick her off? But his train of thought was broken as he came to his locker to see Benjamin Clawhauser on the bench beside the lockers with his head in his paws quietly sobbing. "Spots?" Nick asked, his voice concerned whilst making his way over to his friend.

Clawhauser looked up from his paws with big watery eyes and sniffed "Nick?"

"What happened?" Nick asked in a soothing tone, he really was worried; he had never seen the ever happy cheetah so upset before.

"It's nothing." Clawhauser tried to brush off, wiping away his tears.

"You can't kid a kidder, Benny my boy." Nick called on the fib.

Clawhauser gave a defeated grunt before saying "Fine I'll tell you but first I need drink."

000

Twenty minutes later Nick and Clawhauser were sat at the bar of the 'Champion' pub, a sports pub not far from the precinct that was a favoured watering hole for Zootopia's finest. Clawhauser and Nick were out of their uniforms and in their usual duds; the cheetah dressed in a black t shirt and jeans whilst the fox was in his trademark green Hawaiian shirt, purple striped tie and beige trousers. It was only 7pm so the place wasn't lively yet, the only other people in the bar was the owner Gina 'Gompers' Ramirez, a goat with brown fur and too many ear piercings and her faithful bouncer William 'Waddles' Pines, a tough looking pig was hanging around by the door texting on his phone.

"So are you going to tell me what's eating you Spots?" Nick asked, taking a swig from his pint of pilsner.

"I just had a rough day." Clawhauser tried to dismiss, nursing his own beer.

"But you love your job on the front desk, what happened? Did a perp say something to you?" Nick asked, trying to figure out what had made he friend so depressed.

"It happened before work, before I even left the house." Clawhauser sighed before taking a small sip of his drink.

"Come on Benny, you can tell me and if I can help; I will." Nick offered.

Clawhauser gave a sideways glance with his sad eyes and muttered "I appreciate the offer Nick but I don't think anyone can help."

"Try me." Nick gave a reassuring smile.

Clawhauser knew his friend wasn't going to drop the issue so he decided to spill the beans after another sigh "I broke up with my boyfriend this morning."

Nick saw the pain on Clawhauser's face and replied sincerely "I'm sorry."

"So am I." Clawhauser responded before taking glug of beer.

"I mean me and Judy guessed you were dating someone but you never said anything about this guy." Nick continued.

"Believe me, I wanted to tell you and Judy, I wanted to tell all of my friends and my Dad but I couldn't" Clawhauser regretted.

"But why?" Nick asked, perplexed.

"This guy wasn't public about his sexuality, I was his little secret." Clawhauser replied bitterly.

"Why did you even go out with a guy like that? I mean you've always been open about who you are so why'd you date someone who wasn't even honest with himself?" Nick asked, feeling the urge to punch the guy who hurt his friend.

"Because I had a crush on this guy for two years before we started dating," Clawhauser answered, ticked off at himself "when we started out I thought I was the luckiest mammal alive and now I feel like the unluckiest."

"I'm so sorry Benjamin." Nick apologised.

Clawhauser turned to look at the fox, knowing it was rare for Nick to call anyone by their first name it was always a nickname, Clawhauser cracked his first smile of the day and said "Thanks Nick."

"So who is this Cheetah?" Nick asked with curiousity.

Clawhauser looked uncomfortable for a moment before answering in a quiet voice "He's not a Cheetah."

"Ok." Nick reacted, not surprised which in turn surprised Clawhauser.

"That doesn't shock you?" Clawhauser asked, a little confused.

"You're not the only one who dates people outside their species." Nick assured with a grin, taking another sip of beer.

"Glad to know I'm not the only one at ZPD, well at least publicly." Clawhauser commented.

"A-ha! That means your ex boyfriend is a cop." Nick deduced, smug as ever.

"…Dang it." Clawhauser grumbled before trying to change the subject "So you're an 'Inter' to huh?"

"What's an 'Inter'?" Nick asked, letting Clawhauser play his hand.

"That's what we call ourselves and the media have taken a shining to the name to. So are you dating some pretty lady that isn't quite vulpine?" Clawhauser asked with a slightly teasing voice.

"Nah, not at the moment and my last girlfriend was a Fox but that ended very, very badly. But my first few girlfriends weren't." Nick commented.

"And you're open with being an 'Inter'?" Clawhauser asked.

"Yeah, I saw no reason to hide it. My Mom was cool with it, I got teased by friends for a while but that died down." Nick explained.

"Does Judy know?" Clawhauser asked further.

"She never asked." Nick shrugged off.

"Nick." Clawhauser huffed with disappointment.

"What?" Nick sounded but he knew what the feline was hinting at.

"Don't you think that's something you should share with her? I mean if she knows you're into different species you two could be together." Clawhauser pointed out.

"And here I was thinking we were talking about you and your mystery ex." Nick gave a sly smile.

"Stop dodging the topic." Clawhauser said, sounding serious.

"You first." Nick rebuffed, the two stared at each other for ten or so seconds before Nick stole a look at the clock above and idea popped into his head "Hey Spot's see that clock?"

Clawhauser looked up at the clock, that read 7.09 pm and said "What about it?"

"I'll make you a deal, when the clock hits 7.10 you can ask me whatever you want until 7.15." Nick offered with his usual charm.

"But?" Clawhauser sounded, knowing there was a catch.

"Then until 7.20 I get ask you anything, ten minutes of honesty. What do you say?" The ex-conman smirked.

Clawhauser weighed up his options as he watched the seconds tick closer and closer to ten past seven before finally submitting "Deal."

"Ok, shoot. I won't hold back." Nick grinned.

"Do you like Judy romantically?" Clawhauser went straight for the juicy question.

Nick predicted he would ask this but still begrudgingly answered "Yes."

"I knew it!" Clawhauser squealed with delight, finally sounding like his usual joyful self. "WildeHopps has hope!"

"WildeHopps?" Nick queried, signalling Gina to pour them two fresh pints.

"Yeah that's what your shippers call you." Clawhauser purred, finishing off his pint "Well me and Nala call you two that."

"So Nala wants me and carrots to hook up to?" Nick was little surprised, the lioness didn't seem like a romantic.

"Don't distract me I have more questions," Clawhauser replied "So why haven't you asked her out yet?"

"A few reasons," Nick admitted "I guess the number one reason is I don't know she's into other species."

"And?" Clawhauser pressed, knowing there was more.

"There's the age gap; I'm thirty three and she's twenty five." Nick answered, picturing Judy's youthful face.

"And yet she's so more mature than you." Clawhauser teased. "So what's the third reason?"

Nick paused and thought about his answer before saying in a vulnerable voice "She's the best thing in my life, she changed my life…I'm scared that if I make a move she'll disappear from my life completely or even worse it will be this constant awkward air that hang around us forever."

"Yeah that would be awful." Clawhauser sympathised before adding another question "So when did you know? That you liked her?"

"Liked or Loved?" Nick asked back

"You love her!?" Clawhauser gasped, nearly spilling his beer.

"Come on Spots, of course I love Carrots." Nick tried to calm his friend down, the sudden outburst from the feline caused a puzzled look from Gina behind the bar.

"So when? Come on I need details!" Clawhauser encouraged.

"It was whilst I was at the academy the day before the final exam," Nick recalled, smiling at the memory "I was in my bunk nervous as hell and too worried to fall asleep that's when I get a text telling me to look outside my window, I peek outside and there's officer Fluff in the parking lot. I go out to meet her and she leads me to the obstacle course and we just talked, she calmed my nerves and that was it. I saw her eyes, those purple, no, amethyst eyes look at me with such kindness I never got from anyone outside my family. I always had a crush on Carrots but at that moment I knew I was doomed; I had fallen in love."

"Awwww." Clawhauser cooed "But you're not doomed Nick."

"I'm in love with my best friend and I'm terrified if I make one move she'll disappear from my life forever so I reiterate; I'm doomed." Nick hammered home.

"Judy likes you I mean it's so clear to see." Clawhauser reasoned "I mean you fight like a married couple, you talk like best friends, you flirt like first loves, and protect each other like siblings, obviously it's meant to be."

Nick gave a frown and replied "You got that from the internet."

"It doesn't make it any less true." Clawhauser grinned.

Nick looked up at the clock and let out a little chuckle when he saw it read 7.15 "Time's up Spots; time for me to interrogate you." He sniggered.

The Cheetah let out an audible 'Humph' and said "Go on then." Knowing the first question that was going to come out of Wilde's mouth.

"Who's your mystery ex boyfriend?" Nick asked taking hold of his fresh pint that Gina just put in front of him before giving Clawhauser his beer.

"Mason." Clawhauser said, his voice soaked with sadness.

"Who the heck is Mason?" Nick asked, sipping his beer whilst trying to think of a cop called Mason in the precinct.

"Mason Bogo." Clawhauser revealed, looking into his drink.

Nick's eyes grew wide with shock, he spurted the beer he had his mouth all over the bar and barked with disbelief "The Chief!?"

"Nick what the hell?!" Gina chastised grabbing a washcloth and began to wipe away the spat out beverage "I just cleaned up this place."

"Sorry Gompers, I just got surprised is all." Nick apologised and defused before turning back to Clawhauser and harshly whispering "You were dating Bogo?"

"Yeah." Clawhauser answered in tone which was both shy and woeful.

"He's gay? He's Inter?" Nick asked quietly with a shocked voice.

"He's in the closet." Clawhauser pointed out the obvious.

"No shit, so why the hell were you with him?" Nick asked wondering why his friend would ever be in a relationship with someone who wasn't open about their sexuality.

"Because I was in love with him long before we started seeing each other." Clawhauser let the truth come to light.

"But how? When?" Nick asked in quick succession, hungry for answers.

"Just over a year ago at the Gazelle concert, do you remember seeing me and Mason there?" Bogo asked, his eyes staringinto space as he envisioned Bogo and him dancing together.

"Yeah but I thought it was just a coincidence." Nick figured.

Clawhauser let out a tiny smile before recalling "I was at the front desk back at the precinct, Bogo walked by the front desk and dropped off some case files for me to send down to archives but as flicked through them I found a ticket for the Gazelle concert with a post it note on it saying 'Dance with me - M.B', I thought I was dreaming, that night I went to the concert and I spotted him right away, he looked at me and smiled…he smiled Nick, do you know how special that made me feel?"

"You must have felt on top of the world Benny my boy." Nick guessed, noting the mournful tint in his friend's voice.

"I was, we both were. We danced through that whole concert and afterward…." Clawhauser drifted off, growing shy.

"And afterward?" Nick pressed.

"We went back to my apartment and we spent the night together." Clawhauser sheepishly confessed.

"So what happened? If you both liked each other why did you have to split up?" Nick asked a question he knew would hurt Clawhauser but he needed to know.

Clawhauser let out another loud sigh before elaborating "He always stayed at my place, never at his to avoid the media getting wind of our relationship, it had been like this for year. Secret dates, sneaking off during lunch hour and staying at my place…I was getting sick of it. I wanted Mason to meet my Dad, I told him my Dad was supportive of who I was and wouldn't care about me dating a buffalo but he didn't see it the same way."

"What happened?" Nick asked, needing to know.

"He laughed at me." Clawhauser whispered letting a tear fall from his eye.

"He did what?!" Nick let out a quiet growl, baring his fangs.

"Mason…Bogo laughed at me, he said that our relationship wasn't serious that it was just sex, that there was no way he'd ever go public about being with me." Clawhauser revealed.

Nick was silent for a few seconds, letting the rage burn for a moment before saying in a still but angry voice "That bastard, what happened next?"

"What did you expect to happen I marched over to him and said 'Either we go public or it's over' and then…t-then…." Clawhauser began to choke up with tears.

"Then what?" Nick asked with strange combo of sympathy and simmering anger.

"He threw the spare key I gave him on the kitchen table and left without a word, he just left." Clawhauser sobbed quietly before taking another glug of the pilsner.

"Benjamin look at me," Nick instructed, sounding serious, the spotted cat proceeded to look at him and Nick continued "that pile of crap isn't worth your tears, you are an amazing guy and out there in this crazy city is a man you deserve; not Mason Bogo."

"But I love him Nick," Clawhauser choked "it hurts so much."

"Love's a two way street Spots, it feels great while you're driving along but it can hurt like hell when you hit oncoming traffic." Nick tried to be poetic.

"Not your best analogy." Clawhauser let out a sad smile.

Nick proceeded to raise his glass and announce "To love; the biggest punch in the gut you can get."

Clawhauser raised his own pint and gave a woeful grin "To love."
000

Nick and Clawhauser had three more pints after that, not enough to be drunk but definitely not safe to drive. Clawhauser caught a cab home, whilst Nick walked back to his bachelor pad getting a cricket burger along the way; the long work day had finally got to him and he decided to brush his teeth and head straight to bed where he slept soundly like a little fox kit….until 5.13 am. KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK. The unmistakeable sound of his apartment door knocking shocked Nick out of bed, Nick quickly put on his trousers he left lying on the wood flooring rushed out into the hallway to the front door, he looked through the peep hole to see a familiar face, it was Officer Delgato a big burly Lion from the ZPD, Nick remembered he had been assigned to night shift this week. He quickly opened the door to his colleague and asked with yawn "Delgato? What are you doing here?"

"Sorry Wilde," Delgato opened before looking down "but I can't throw in her in the drunk tank." Nick followed the Lion's gaze and felt a mix of amusement, embarrassment and worry all in one second. Handcuffed to Delgato's wrist was Judy, her eyes barely open, swaying to and fro, reeking of alcohol, she was dressed in a black skirt with a pink t shirt with the words 'Francine's bachelorette entourage!' and to top it off there was a small orange traffic cone placed on her head.

"Heeeeey N-nick, look at me I'm the vodka wiiiiitch!" Judy slurred, flaying her hands like she was casting some spell.

"Oh what fresh hell is this?" Nick groaned.