“Jeez, Carrots, you’d think someone would rob a bank or something, just to spice up the day,” Nick whined. “I’m dying here. If something doesn’t happen soon I’m gonna start snacking like Clawhauser just to get to quitting time.” As Nick Wilde complained to Judy Hopps about how bored he was, she nearly choked on her coffee, hiding a chuckle, when she heard him say “snacking like Clawhauser.” Knowing how small the fox was in comparison to most furs, she knew constant snack cakes like the ones their cheetah colleague ate would make Nick quite a tubby cop in a matter of weeks. She could see him now, popping the buttons off his uniform as his cream-furred belly plopped out on his lap, dominating his frame… “Carrots, you with me?” Snapping back to reality, not realizing how much the fantasy of a plus-sized vulpine cop would appeal to her, the rabbit blinked rapidly and turned to Nick, nodding at him. “Yeah, sorry, Nick, the coffee hasn’t kicked in yet,” Judy offered. “I’m so bored I spaced out.” Nick liked to be productive. Judy wanted to stop criminals and solve crimes. When there were no criminals to stop, no crimes to solve and no productivity to be found, neither of them felt satisfied, especially given that their only duty in those instances was paperwork in the basement. Both were filling out reports and getting files sorted, which was like pulling teeth. Especially given that just three weeks ago, they’d engaged in a 120-miles-per-hour chase when a gang of thieves led by a suave, white-suited gray wolf tried to rip off the Zootopia Art Museum. At the very last minute, just as the bad guys were about to get away with a few priceless paintings, Nick and Judy tricked the criminals into driving through sets of spike strips. Sure, the wolf and his friends were able to escape from the scene, flung into the distance after their car flipped three times, but the art was all recovered with only minor damage. Not even Bogo could complain about those results.” The thrills and danger of that chase were gone, replaced by hours of tedious busywork, and by the afternoon, Judy couldn’t take it anymore. She texted Clawhauser, and before long, the cheetah met the fox and rabbit, gushing about pop music to the bunny before telling them ‘he had it from there.’ Judy was thankful while Nick was confused, at least until he realized she’d traded him two overtime shifts that weekend, when the Gazelle documentary series came out, in exchange for them taking his place at the front desk for the rest of the day. “Smooth, Jude,” the fox said fifteen minutes later as he and Judy sat at the front of the ZPD, waving to passersby and their coworkers and handling a question every few minutes. “This definitely beats rearranging Bogo’s file drawers. Plus, who knows, maybe we’ll find a lead for a case. Something tasty, something we can really sink our teeth into.” “I thought you’d like it better than the basement,” she replied with a wink. “Even if it means I have to wait to watch “Gazelle: Story Of A Dream” until next week. That darn cat better be grateful!” They handled some minor emergencies - helping a group of wolf cubs charge their phones, helping a lost bear cub reunite with her mama, settling a parking dispute that spilled over into a full-on screaming match - that, while more engaging than paperwork, still didn’t seem thrilling. When Judy got a quick call - she needed to handle something quick for Bogo - Nick was left alone at the front desk, and when activity slowed to a crawl, he couldn’t help but pull out his phone. A few minutes later, a loud thud on the desk startled him, and the red fox looked up to see a red-furred wolf, a delivery guy, dropping a package in front of him. “Hey, officer,” the lupine said to the vulpine. “This is a free delivery from the new bakery down the street. They wanted to thank local law enforcement with a batch of treats. I assume I can leave it with you, sir?” “Yeah, that’s fine, thank you,” Nick replied with a smile on his face, accepting the package and bidding the wolf good day. The fox smirked to himself as he popped the package open with a claw and got blasted in the face with delectable smells. Once he recovered from an aural assault of blueberries and sugar, Nick was almost drooling by the time he feasted his eyes on the insides of the box: two blueberry-frosted donuts, one blueberry muffin and a blueberry danish, all with a welcome note addressed to the ZPD. The fox’s eyes darted across the lobby. Judy was still going to be gone for a while, and no one needed anything for at least the next few minutes. While his mind briefly flickered to that little joke he’d made about snacking like Clawhauser, it was quickly overridden by the sheer fact that he had his absolute favorite treats right in front of him, for free, and if he didn’t take advantage of this opportunity, he’d have to share. Hey, he was doing Clawhauser’s job right now, and if Ben was here, the kitty would be halfway through the second donut already. Even if the cheetah tended to overdo it on his diet from time to time, Nick couldn’t deny his coworker at least knew how to enjoy himself, so for once the vulpine let himself follow suit. Taking a big bite of the muffin’s top, Nick’s eyes watered - it was almost too delicious. The fox let himself chew slowly a few times to really savor the absolute deliciousness of this treat. The dough was chewy but wasn’t mushy, the top was firm but not brittle, the blueberries tasted fresh… before he knew it, the thing was gone, and he moved on to the danish, which was just as incredible, especially its huge pool of blueberry jam in the center that he couldn’t help but slurp from. Finally the donuts, their cake dough littered with specks of blue and covered with sky-blue icing, were some of the most incredible he’d ever tasted. In the span of five minutes, it all disappeared into his belly, which was uncomfortably stuffed given his unusually large binge, at least compared to his usual schedule. Judy arrived back from her errand just as Nick managed to wipe the last of the icing from his nose and clean some jelly from his paws, and to his relief, she was none the wiser about the now-empty box sitting in the trash. Wanting to complete his minor con, a throwback from the old days, Nick flashed the business card that came with it and innocently mentioned the bakery to Judy. “Oh, Carrots, we got a business card drop-off from a new bakery in town. They sent a delivery dog to drop it off. They seem like good people. Nice, at the very least! They told us to come by any time, and I think I might stop by tomorrow morning before work!” Judy fell for Nick’s faux-innocence. While she was a cardio bunny who treated carbs like criminals, the rabbit immediately saw the value of having a pick-me-up around the office. Hey, maybe even she would go for a muffin! Or a muffin top. As great as baked goods were, her mom always warned her that it all went straight to the rear for Hopps women and she really didn’t have any interest in needing to upsize her pants. But still, Nick’s idea was a good one, very sweet. She even made a mental note to leave a few bucks in his wallet when he wasn’t looking to help support the purchase, right before they left work to head home. That night, Nick went to bed early, which left Judy a bit bored and underchallenged. She decided to look up the bakery the fox mentioned, grabbing their card and researching the company’s name so she could see the menu. That way, she could go with Nick tomorrow morning and pick out the best stuff for the office - as well as her preferred baked goods. If they made a blueberry loaf cake even half as good as her mom’s, well, her waistline was done for. Happy Hutch Bakery, oddly, didn’t have any web presence. There was nothing on socials, no official listing, no website, nothing. She looked up the address on Zoogle Maps, and there was just an empty storefront there. Oh, that place, she thought to herself. It was an old restaurant that closed and hadn’t found another tenant for a few years now, largely because the owner charged a notoriously high rent, twice as high as the city’s standard, claiming it was prime real estate two blocks from City Hall. If something went in there, they must really be committing to the location, she thought to herself. As long as the city’s getting some new business, she couldn’t complain. The rabbit felt restless and decided to stay up a little longer, letting a sitcom lull her to sleep over the course of an hour. By the time she was ready for bed, Judy came into the bedroom to find her fox partner deep asleep, drooling into his pillow and happily mumbling. She smirked at him, happy to see at least someone was getting a good night’s rest, and set an alarm before laying down next to him. As she drifted off, he was locked in an incredible dream, one where he was the only animal in a field of blueberries. A farm stretched as far as he could see, bushes lining up for miles, and when he walked up to one, he found it didn’t just carry fruit but blueberry cakes and pies, too. The fox gleefully began throwing back muffins and donuts with vigor, not caring that he could feel himself get softer with every bite. Nick was thrilled as every snack tasted better than the last and threw himself fully into his fantasy, coming to with a start early in the morning just as he could feel dream-Nick grow enormously fat, filled to the brim with food. Judy had a rough morning. She woke up an hour after her alarm, finding Nick had already woken up and headed to work well before her (which was unlike the vulpine, who wished the ZPD took his species’ nocturnal nature into account when scheduling shifts). Late for work, and without a smiling fox to push out of bed, she felt anxious as she quickly showered, threw on her uniform and hopped on her scooter. Judy was only halfway through the trip to the office before Bogo hopped on comms, asking if anyone was out on patrol yet. A pipe had burst three blocks from the station, requiring a road closure and traffic diversion, and he needed a body who could respond immediately. Judy decided to take one for the team and drove her scooter right to Slater Street, where the first three hours of her 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. shift unfolded. By the time Judy made it into the ZPD headquarters, she was starving. Skipping breakfast and three hours of diverting traffic meant her already frazzled battery was nearly drained, and the rabbit hoped she wouldn’t have to get one of those dry, stale carrot cakes out of the break room vending machine. The bunny’s face fell as she walked into the break room for some coffee, lured by the odor of something sweet and fruity, only to find a completely empty food platter, blue smears here and there the only things remaining. She groaned and fished a dollar out of her wallet, pouring herself a cup of joe and grumbling as she bought one of the worse-than-mediocre treats out of the machine. Judy’s gaze narrowed as she dunked the cake into her coffee, knowing it would go from stale and brittle to nearly evaporating the moment it reached the liquid, and waited for an explanation from someone why she was apparently the only ZPD officer who didn’t get a blueberry treat. A moment later, Nick walked in with a few wolves from the force, clearly having set up a joke. “And I said I was a predator, not that I’d date her!” Guffaws from the canines caused Nick to flash his trademark sly grin, but when he noticed Judy eating a sad carrot cake, his ears fell as quickly as his smile. Judy stared daggers at him, which caused the fox to bid his colleagues good day and head over to accept his tongue-lashing. “So, uh, the platter didn’t last before you got in from traffic duty, did it,” Nick said with strong self-awareness. “Which is probably my bad. I told everyone to help themselves, and it looks like they did, huh?” “Looks like it, yeah,” Judy said, her expression softening as the coffee and cake hit. While it wasn’t what she wanted, it was still food, which meant she was not nearly as hangry as she’d been moments prior. “Sounds like it was a hit, though, right?” “Yeah, everyone’s happy, even the guys who haven’t smiled since the 90s,” the fox noted. “Seriously, half the department went back for seconds, and I bought Ben his own box so he could actually enjoy himself.” “And what about you, foxy?” Judy had to make the crack. “Did you finally realize why cops love donuts?” “I actually will have you know I only had one blueberry donut,” Nick blatantly lied through his teeth, since he spent most of the morning either eating from his own personal box of treats or staving off the food coma he threatened to put himself into on four separate occasions. “In fact, I exercised some incredible restraint. Now, if you’ll excuse me, the Chief told me to take over your traffic duty for the afternoon,” he drawled, heading for the door. Judy, at first, didn’t think anything of the comment, but by the time the fox reached the door, she realized what was up. “Hey, Officer Wilde, they fixed the leak an hour ago,” she called out to him. “Bogo said they had to repair a few more pipes,” Nick responded. “Call him if you need to.” Judy did as she was told, and when Bogo confirmed her partner’s alibi, she forgot anything had seemed suspicious, especially when the water buffalo stuck her on paperwork duty to cover for the fox’s absence. They effectively swapped jobs for the second half of the day, the rabbit cooped up in the basement working her way through a filing cabinet, the fox lazily directing traffic with a paw in one hand and a donut from the fresh box he’d bought from Happy Hutch Bakery on his way to traffic detour duty on Slater Street. Over the course of the afternoon, Judy played some music on her phone while she tried not to die of boredom, while he made his way through a dozen deluxe donuts, his gut churning by the time the pipe was actually repaired for good for the day. That night, Judy made a big heaping bowl of pasta to make up for her lack of enjoyable food the entire day, which Nick made sure to eat more than his fair share of, as complaining about a full belly would earn him his girlfriend’s ire. Having seen Judy chase down a perp on a motorcycle while she was on foot, he had no interest in hitting that tripwire. Instead, he headed to bed early again after forcing two portions of dinner on top of the day’s worth of blueberry sugar and cake that had disappeared into his stomach, leaving Judy to spend the evening browsing the internet and watching TV. By the time she got to bed again, later than she would have liked or expected to, Judy found that Nick had been sleeping rather restlessly, tossing and turning. The sheets were strewn across the bed and his t-shirt and shorts were rumpled and pulled on his arms and legs, which was when Judy noticed something different about him. Was the fox looking a little chubby? Her heart fluttered for a second as she stood over his sleeping, slightly snoring body and found a smirk starting to crawl across her muzzle. Nick was always so vain, so preening, high-strung about being his best fox, not a whisker out of place, and he loved bragging that he could eat anything and never put on weight. Well, she thought to himself, it was like he was snacking like Clawhauser, at least if the little round belly starting to show on his middle was any indication. She bit her lip as she thought about Nick’s uniform starting to get a little tight around his tum, the fabric cutting into his gut as it started to sprout and rise on his waist, the start of his descent into becoming the fatass donut-loving cop he loved to joke about. She wouldn’t really mind if he became the punchline of that joke, and not just so he’d get his comeuppance. The extra weight was a little flattering, actually. It made Nick look less wild, a little domesticated, a little like he was closer to settling down and leaving the days of scams behind for good. Sometimes, she felt the fox was one bad day away from going back to the Pawpsicles. She’d marry a fatass traffic cop if she needed to, as long as it meant she wouldn’t lose him. And, yeah, she was starting to daydream about stuffing that belly full until it sat heavy on his waist before climbing on top of it and kissing her fat fox. Since Nick was already eating himself into a bigger uniform without her meddling, she felt perfectly fine about it, too. So what if Nick was getting tubby? She was starting to enjoy the thought of a more robust fox, to the point that when she woke the next morning, he was already gone again. She knew exactly where he was, and she knew exactly what flavor he was probably stuffing himself with. Unfortunately for Judy, she was halfway to the ZPD when Bogo called out, this time just for her. He was much happier with her traffic work the prior day than her partner’s - Nick was getting a full day of basement duty with Clawhauser, while the rabbit would head to Slater Street, where those dang pipes had just sprung another leak and the fix was going to take three hours. Six hours later, an exhausted Judy, wilting after spending the majority of the day in the hot sun, slowly walked into the ZPD headquarters with her head hanging low. She didn’t raise it until she bumped into someone. It was Clawhauser, who sheepishly apologized for slamming his gut into her head, and as she took his offer of a helping paw back onto her footpaws, she started to notice something was off about the chubby cheetah. It was that same old Gazelle-loving, gluttonous feline she’d known for a while, but did he look… bigger? It was hard to tell, but while the cat was always on the bigger side, she could see white undershirt peeking through a gap in his uniform’s buttons, and that was Bogo’s biggest no-no for the front desk feline. His muzzle was also caked in blue frosting, making it obvious where he’d gotten his last meal. Once Judy waved Clawhauser off, insisting she was fine, a brief tour of the rest of the ZPD made it clear something was REALLY off. The jock tigers and lions on the rapid response team were sporting pretty sizeable pot bellies underneath their body armor, while the wolves from night shift seemed fluffier than usual, most prominently where their belts were creating fairly obvious muffin tops from their guts. The more furs she saw, the more confident she became that the average diet among Zootopia police officers required some pretty serious restraint. Which reminded her that Nick was on mandatory basement duty, which he’d been working all day with… Clawhauser… who was already big and sporting even more heft today… and the fox had already been putting on weight, and given that seemingly everyone in the department seemed to need to wear a size up today, Wilde was especially susceptible to potential danger… Judy sprinted down the stairs to the police file room, both anticipating and fearing finding Nick Wilde the size of a house, or at least the size of Clawhauser, and while what she found wasn’t quite as extreme, it did certainly lock in her paranoia that something wrong had happened. How else could Nick be standing in front of her sporting a true “fat guy gut,” one that had sprouted inches off his middle since she last saw him? The fox had dropped down to pick up a box of files when she rounded the corner and walked into the file room, and when she first saw him, his belly was big enough to brush against his thighs. His middle looked tight and heavy, the kind of packed-in fat from a newly chubby guy who’d been overeating constantly, but the weight was starting to creep to his arms, legs, chest, rear, anywhere it could spread. The new heft was clearly something Nick wasn’t paying attention to, though it was also visibly making him exert a little harder as he tried to do his job. He noticed her before she could say something and that gave him an opening to completely trip her wires. “Carrots, hey hunbun!” The fat fox dropped what he was doing and jumped to hug the rabbit, and when he pulled her into him, she felt his soft plushness and melted inside. The way his face had softened made him less threatening and more handsome, the way his arms and shoulders were rounding and the way his legs were thickening created a sturdier fox, the way his weight was redistributing made him look as sure of himself as Clawhauser… she was furious internally, having to deal with both this newfound revelation that a fat fox made her a happy rabbit and that she needed to start investigating quickly if she was going to stop whatever force had already started fattening up the entire ZPD within two days of business. She tried to think. Clearly, something was up with Happy Hutch, and it wasn’t restricted to just Nick. Every member of the ZPD - except her, thankfully - had fallen for their trap, and there was clearly an invisible timer hanging over her head before the entire building would grind to complete inactivity. That timer had a much shorter fuse for Officer Wide over there, too, the fox scratching his belly that threatened to pop a button or two off his shirt, a sight that left Judy conflicted. She knew it was wrong, but why did it feel oh so right? He’d put on close to half his body weight in such short time, and if she knew him as well as she thought she did, he was only going to get hungrier from here, so he was only going to get bigger, too. Nick sometimes had a bit of a gluttonous side, which, after all of his teasing about foxes being naturally skinny, made his newfound heft more satisfying for Judy to see. For the briefest moment, she realized a fat Nick would resemble a more suave, sophisticated, handsome Gideon Grey, hated herself for that thought, and tried to forget she’d ever thought it. Judy pulled herself together, returned Nick’s embrace and tried to hide that she was suddenly more attracted to her partner than ever before. As well as her surprise at the fact he had gained that much weight that quickly. Since he was either oblivious or uncaring about his newfound pounds, he was more useful to her right now if she could use him as cover during her investigation, and that required her to keep him in the dark about the conspiracy. Sure, Nick would keep getting fatter, but that just meant Judy needed to work fast. She made a mental note to check the trash cans around the office and count the number of Happy Hutch boxes she could find before faking a smile, which was much easier to hold when her eyes darted back down to his belly. Seeing it up close, she was stunned to see his uniform was taut, absolutely no slack to be found. Judy bit her cheek and looked back up at Nick’s dreamy face. “Hey, fox,” Judy purred. “How’s your day been?” Nick yawned, which only put more pressure on his shirt’s buttons as he stretched. Judy’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull. “Boring and sleepy, mostly,” the fox drawled. “Ben went to the bakery three times today and treated me every time. I take back what I said about snacking like Clawhauser. It’s painful trying to keep up, and he throws those sad kitty eyes at you every time you say you’re full… anyway, just paperwork and donuts, really. How’re you, Carrots?” “Tired,” Judy sighed. “I had traffic duty again today. It was hot, the sun was harsh… I’m happy to be indoors now, at least. I’m guessing the bakery’s a big hit around here?” “Oh, yeah.” Nick’s muzzle rose into a greedy smile just at the thought. “I don’t know how they keep getting better every day, but they do. You’ve gotta try them!” Judy smirked at that. “Sorry, Wilde, I’m just not in the moods for sweets,” the rabbit said, trying to mask that there was a reason for that. “But I’ll come with you next time you go, I’d like to see the place.” Nick checked his watch and it was his turn to smirk. “Well, Bogo had to leave early today, and Benny already took off, so let’s stop by on the way home,” the vulpine said. Judy was quite conflicted at that: she needed to case the joint and see if she can find any clues or leads, but if Nick ate another box of those donuts, he might burst right out of his uniform. So she stopped by the department barracks before she left and grabbed an extra uniform, making sure to get Nick one size up from his current outfit. It was a quick drive over to the bakery. Judy wanted to walk, but Nick said he was tired, so she shrugged her shoulders and hopped in the passenger’s seat. When he hopped in and pulled his seatbelt over his shoulder, she couldn’t help but glare at how it cut into his belly, the tightness with plush poking through making his rapid gains even more obvious. It was big enough to rest on the edge of his lap and bounce and jiggle when he hit pot holes, still tight but somewhat softer already. Whatever was happening to him was happening fast. Judy didn’t want Nick to get fatter faster, but she knew the bakery was the obvious problem here, and having him gorging might make it easier for her to poke around uninterrupted. The furs arrived at a bakery that wasn’t what Judy expected. It was far from a hole in the wall; someone had turned the storefront into something that looked like it belonged in the distant future, shiny and chrome, with see-through oven windows that showed off a steady conveyor belt of treats running through giant convection machines, cooking at a rapid pace. Nick rushed in as soon as he parked and turned off the car, leaving Judy to marvel at the place. A name like Happy Hutch Bakery implied the place would be homey, down-to-earth, maybe some granola crunchers or sweet old ladies; something closer to “the bakery of the future” wouldn’t have been her first thought. She took her time looking the place up and down as she padded in. To her surprise and horror, by the time Officer Hopps walked in the door, Officer Wilde was standing in front of her with two boxes of treats packed to the brim, and before she could even say anything, he plopped himself down at a table and got to work. “The manager gave it to me for free,” he yipped out between bites. “Said it was the last of the day and he was grateful to local law enforcement for keeping the city safe. Works for me!” Judy’s eyes scanned to the bakery’s counter, where a slim, tall tan maned wolf was closing up for the day. Other than the lupine, who wore a slick two-piece blue suit, every other person in the store, from the skunk and raccoon behind the counter mopping to the rabbits, horses and deer snacking away was obese. The fatter they were, the more they were eating; the fattest person in the room was a nearly spherical fennec fox in the corner devouring donuts like his life depended on it. She blanched when she looked back at Nick and her fox was doing the exact same thing. Judy let Nick blend into the crowd while she wandered around the edges of the bakery, looking for anything that looked suspicious. An empty container full of a green paste sitting near the bathrooms was unusual. So were some shredded documents that were poking out of a recycling bin. The rabbit was able to piece together a pretty cohesive hypothesis without too much effort; all that time without a case left her hyper-vigilant, especially given that the entire ZPD was at risk now, the fox a prime target for the worst of whatever evil plan he’d fallen into. Someone was making food at an impossible pace because they were using some kind of chemical to do so, and that chemical was either addictive, fattening, or both addictive and fattening at the same time. Probably both. Luckily for the ZPD, somebody had managed to watch their diet long enough to get down to the bottom of things. Just as Judy realized her little tour around the bakery might have raised some suspicions, she was proven right when the dapper maned wolf from behind the counter snuck up on her and caught her in a corner. He smiled wide, his teeth gleaming, towering over her, but kneeled and handed her a box, letting his tail wag slightly. “Good evening, Officer Hopps,” the wolf said, making it obvious that he was looking at her badge. “I’m Max, the manager of Happy Hutch, and I just wanted to thank you for your service to our community. We’re new here, and we make sure to thank every member of the local police for their efforts.” “Well, Max, thank you, but I’ve got some nasty food allergies,” Judy lied through her teeth. “But I’m sure my colleagues will be sure to enjoy them. I was just checking out what you’ve done with the place, I’ve never seen a bakery with interior design like this.” “Oh, thank you,” Max the maned wolf chimed back. “I’m so sorry to hear of your allergies. Is Officer Wilde your partner? We’ve noticed he loves everything we’ve got.” Judy looked over at Nick and groaned. After fifteen minutes of stuffing himself, the fox was sleepy and stuffed, breathing tight until a deep breath burst his belt and popped a button off his shirt, exposing white undershirt and a little cream-colored belly in the process under the failed fabric. He looked like he’d been driving his cruiser through drive-throughs for five straight years at this point, that dome of a belly now poking through whatever weaknesses in already encumbered fabric it already defeated. The vulpine’s frame was already wider than it had been a few moments ago, to an extent that would otherwise be impossible if not for compromised product. Judy had an angel and a demon on her shoulder. One told her to solve this problem as quickly as possible, before Nick’s weight loss plan would take half a decade, while the other said that slow-walking a solution at this point would only leave him bigger, fatter, more handsome… “Oh, that’s Nick, he’ll eat anything you put in front of him. Another one of our friends has rubbed off on him recently,” Judy offered innocently, “and it looks like it’s catching up with him. Oh well, as long as he’s happy, I’m not going to say anything.” “Well, we’re very supportive of the local law enforcement, and I’m so happy to see he’s enjoying our products. Please come back any time. Maybe we’ve got a gluten-free option, or whatever you’d need to get around your allergies. Believe me, we’ve got plenty for you to enjoy.” “And plenty of me, too, I bet,” Judy joked. “Donuts make my butt go bwoomph. Happens to all the women in my family.” The mention of her waistline in an innocuous joke, as she expected, caused the maned wolf’s expression to change for a moment. Max’s eyes narrowed and he adopted a wolfish glower for a few minutes, his muzzle starting to scrunch and snarl. While he might be onto her, she was able to further confirm her suspicions that he was up to something too. “Well, I’m very sorry to hear that, Officer, but I’m sure we’ll have something you’d enjoy,” Max managed to stammer, trying to hide any unnecessarily revealing reactions. “We’re wrapping things up for the day, but please feel free to take an extra box of treats home with you on your way home. I’m sure we’ll see Officer Wilde tomorrow, and we’d be happy to host you too.” Max shoved a box into Judy’s paws and pushed her and Nick out the door, leaving a huffing, stuffed fat fox cop to marvel at the treasure he spotted in her paws. “More free donuts? That’s incredible, I love these guys,” the fox said as they drove home, Judy having offered up the box to him the instant he asked. She knew that if she ate anything from the bakery, it would be game over, and even her horniest impulses registered that she wanted to stay slender, as the contrast between her fit, trim body and Nick’s bloated fatty mess was a significant draw for her. Nick devoured the whole box, popping off another of his buttons before he removed his uniform, and shortly after retired to bed, ready to sleep off yet another fattening food coma. That gave Judy the rest of the evening to do some research. It wasn’t long before she found a Max Williams online, a maned wolf whose online resume listed him as a former employee of HudTech Chemicals, which worked largely in food research and development. HudTech reported missing “sensitive materials” about a month after Williams left the company, which checked out, and Happy Hutch Bakery was the name of a business that just so happened to have shut down in Bunnyburrow two months ago. The pieces were starting to come together - Max must have stolen the chemicals he was using from work before he fled, and then used the name of a closed bakery to mask what he was actually trying to do. It made sense to fatten up the ZPD first, so anyone who might have suspected something was wrong would be made huge, slow and gluttonous by the time any real issues became apparent. She just needed hard evidence now, though she needed it quickly, before she would be the only mobile member of the force left. And if Williams managed to get one over on her and get her to eat anything, she could find herself staring down an unpleasant rabbit hole, one she wasn’t sure she’d be able to climb out of once all was said and done. It was enough work that she found herself exhausted, crawling into bed next to her partner and cozying up to him for comfort and support. She hadn’t quite realized how deep this was going to get, and despite the ridiculous trappings, the entire purpose and ability of the ZPD to do its job and uphold the law was at risk, which meant the entire city of Zootopia itself was at risk. And as she wrapped her paws around Nick - or tried to, as he was now too big to fully wrap herself around - she knew, despite her surprising interest in a fatter fox, that he was at risk most of all. Her research told her Max was her target, she knew most of what his plan was and she was getting closer to pinning him down. Judy just needed a smoking gun, which would most likely be one of those chemical containers she’d seen the previous night. She needed to escalate against the maned wolf, but she needed to do it right or he could get one over on her. Against her better judgment, Judy sighed as she knew the next morning would start bright and early at Happy Hutch, where Nick would add another thick layer of blubber to his frame. To be fair, Judy loved seeing Nick like this. He was all big and warm and plush and soft, exactly the opposite from his traditional lithe frame from years of scams and scurrying. He now sported a thick pillow gut that rose and fell a decent distance on his middle, his chest and gut resembling two small hills dwarfed by a larger dome under the blanket. She did love how he felt like a stuffed animal, not to mention that this relieved her concern that he could up and leave the force some day. He seemed domesticated now, which was advantageous to her in the future, if she could just solve this case and preserve his waistline from being completely obliterated. His love handles, his thick back and shoulders, the way his frame was just exploding in every direction, that he was very soon expected to be wider than he was tall… those factors were ones she accepted as collateral damage as she drifted off to sleep, the fox’s flab cushioning her as much as the mattress did. The morning came quickly, and a much-fatter Nick was largely filling out whatever extra space that one-size-up uniform provided him. However, it did serve as a competent replacement for his destroyed one, Judy thought to herself, so it would do for now. (Until he inevitably burst through this one too.) He stood heavy, his belly starting to smother his groin, his short foxy body not quite keeping up with all the new heft. He felt a little stiff in his shoulders, he said, though they were still able to drive to Happy Hutch without too much issue. Judy, against her better judgment, allowed Nick to bumrush Max and the store’s staff with her credit card, allowing his sure-to-be-a-disaster order to serve as a distraction while she slipped into a back room, wanting to grab hard proof of malfeasance before she could figure out what the maned wolf should be charged with. Creeping around the rear of the bakery was a lot easier than Judy expected, though she hoped getting a warrant could retroactively take care of the fact that she was technically trespassing right now. Not wanting to get lost in thought, she powered through a quick check of the stockrooms and the back offices before finding exactly what she wanted: a full vial of the odd broken container she’d found the previous day at the bakery. Judy was even happier to quickly research the type of material its label indicated it contained and discover, confirming all of her theories, that it was a failed experimental food supplement that was intended to improve flavors and instead made the fur consuming it addicted immediately. The more chemical consumed, as well, the more the fur’s metabolism would be impacted, causing them to rapidly gain weight at otherwise impossible rates. That kind of summed up everything that had been happening in the last few days, Judy thought to herself, as she pocketed the vial and scurried back into the bakery’s main storefront, hoping that the four minutes she had disappeared weren’t enough to cause suspicion. Everything was operating as expected, save for the fact that Nick wasn’t there and their squad car was done. Come to think of it, she wasn’t sure where Max had gone, either, but he wasn’t anywhere within eyesight. Those two factors combined were a little concerning to her, but she opted to hurry to the ZPD and get her warrant started regardless of whether what she thought might have happened did indeed happen. Judy rushed into the office, trying not to cringe at the sight of burst buttons and outright gluttony from pretty much all of her coworkers. A massive stack of Happy Hutch boxes stood in the lobby and everyone who walked by were helping themselves to a few, which meant everyone had already indulged their addictions to the point they were growing more obese. Clawhauser was waddling, his belly nearly brushing the floor at times, while everyone else had either sized up at least once or were actively bursting through their clothes. She kept her head down, dodged a couple of donuts offered to her and dashed to her desk. Judy called her boss, letting Chief Bogo know that she was filing for a warrant against a certain individual with proof that he was tampering with food products. She tried to keep the details light, but when he asked what she was talking about and her reply included the word “blueberries,” she could hear big, stomping hooves pounding down the hallway. She groaned as she looked up once a shadow entered her field of vision and discovered Happy Hutch Bakery’s products had not spared the water buffalo. In fact, Bogo was holding a box of donuts in his hooves as he glared down Judy, chomping one down between sentences as he immediately called her bluff. “Happy Hutch Bakery is not going to go anywhere unless you have an ironclad case against them,” Bogo yelled over his stuffed cheeks. “ZPD morale has skyrocketed ever since they offered to provide the whole building with free breakfast.” Bogo’s belly bounced with every bellow he boomed, his thick frame having bent and bowed around the edges with a cavalcade of baked goods streaming directly into his mouth like all the others. His face was completely filled out, his neck and shoulders having conjoined into one slab, with his chest looking more wobbly than usual, fat layered on his usually buff pecs. His gut bowed out and was at war with his shirt, just like all the other ZPD staff lately, and Judy was subconsciously ready to dive out of the way if one of his shirt buttons blew right at her. “I have direct evidence that the manager of Happy Hutch has been using stolen chemical products to serve compromised and spiked food to the people of Zootopia,” Judy responded with confidence. “Here’s the warrant. You can read it. Ironclad, as you said.” Bogo grabbed the report with a huff and scanned through it, growing increasingly frustrated that his favorite new bakery had clearly pulled one over on his entire department. And when the buck stopped with the Chief, this made him look bad. Especially since it would compromise his access to those muffins… Judy tried to hide her shock when the water buffalo tore up the warrant. “Not good enough,” Bogo lied. “You’ll need more than that to-” Judy reached in her pocket and grabbed that vial of chemical she’d procured at the bakery, which made her boss pause. She then opened the vial carefully, teased out a single drop in the cap and hopped on the desk, sticking that drop in Bogo’s mouth. He swallowed before he realized what he was doing, and within seconds, he felt a sudden pressure and burbling in his stomach. Bogo looked down to watch his uniform burst some buttons and seams as a fresh surge of weight spread and deposited itself on his body, undeniably so. “That’s been in every muffin you’ve eaten this week, Chief,” Judy said matter-of-fact as she stepped backward, able to predict another surge of fat pushing Bogo’s belly circumfrence into the desk itself. She then jumped back onto her chair, grabbed a second copy of her warrant from a drawer (she knew Bogo would rip the first one up) and stood in front of her boss, who was blocking the exit with his bulk. Faced with undeniable proof, not to mention embarrassment, the ashamed Chief simply moved aside. As Judy headed outside, she realized she’d been so laser-focused on the task at hand that she forgot to check on Nick. His absence at the department had gone unnoticed, and once she finished the warrant, the rabbit dashed outside with paperwork to find his car had never made it in that morning. Which meant, when she quickly ran to Happy Hutch, she found it having closed early for the day, though the staff was still working behind a locked door to frantically box up baked goods and throw them into a pile near the back door… and was that a certain maned wolf’s shadow on the wall, picking up boxes and rushing them out that back door? Judy sprinted to the back of the bakery, a tight alley, to find a Happy Hutch Bakery truck running, half-full of boxes of donuts, which Max was continually loading up further. Thinking quickly, she ran back to the ZPD, grabbed a cruiser and drove back to the bakery just in time for the truck to be pulling out of the alley. Judy trailed it for a few miles, staying four cars back to avoid raising suspicion, until the truck pulled into a side street in an industrial complex… not far from an auxiliary location of HudTech Chemicals. She drove past, planning to loop around, when she spotted Nick’s squad car parked ajar, poorly tucked into the side of the building. She immediately knew he was there, and that if Max had snuck into HudTech property, things had probably escalated much further than she expected. Every minute counted at that point, which was why Judy groaned as her attempt to loop around was slowed by senior drivers and road work, killing nearly 10 minutes that she knew Max was using to completely ruin Nick. Or make him perfect. But also ruin him. She needed to make sure the fox wasn’t completely immobile. Finally, once she could, she killed her lights and crept into the building’s lot, working as quietly as possible to sneak her way to Nick and rescue him before things got even worse. The first promising room Judy found herself discovering was one that appeared to be covered in security cameras, complete with 24-hour backups on each feed. Given that one was focused on the location where Nick’s squad car was currently parked, she started there, working her way through the footage backward until she discovered video from when Max and Nick seemingly arrived. It appeared the maned wolf was forcing Nick to drive and rewarding him with food, as when they pulled up, there was a stack of empty Happy Hutch boxes strewn around the squad car’s cab and the fox was visibly much fatter than he’d been when she’d last seen him, his shirt having torn in several places, unable to mask hundreds of pounds of fox flab as he continued to grow. Her heart soared for a second as, when they arrived, Max opened the door for Nick only for the fox to throw himself at the wolf. He managed to catch Max’s paws underneath his belly with a tackle, which caused the lupine to stumble and fall, and Nick fumbled as he tried to slowly crawl on top of his captor. The fox was fighting as hard as he could, his weight clearly putting a lot of strain on Max as he tried to pull himself out from underneath the fox’s sheer mass. Nick might have been trying to knock Max out by pinning him until he couldn’t breathe, but unfortunately for him, the maned wolf’s long arms were able to reach into a suit jacket pocket and pull out a green-hued syringe, one that Judy knew was full of that chemical. Once Max shoved it in Nick’s muzzle and plunged it all in, the fox’s hunger overpowered his mission and the obese vulpine got off Max, running back to the truck and shoving his jaws into his first box, then a second. It wasn’t long after that before the maned wolf lured Nick inside with stacks of treats… Having some clue about what was going on now, Judy quickly searched through hallways and around corridors until she heard commotion in the back, where there seemed to be a makeshift laboratory at first glance. As Judy poked her head around a corner quietly, she scanned all of the equipment before laying her eyes on a sight she knew she’d never unsee. In just the span of the last five hours, ever since Max had kidnapped Nick, the maned wolf had clearly been busy. Nick was fat now. Morbidly obese. His belly splayed thick and heavy past his knees as he sat in a recliner, seemingly pinned down by his own mass. He was more than twice the size he’d been that morning, and while he tried to pull himself to his footpaws every so often, he would fail, his legs unable to withstand his weight. He was trapped, which meant Nick grimaced every time Max placed another box of donuts in front of him; the fox would simply place the box directly to his muzzle and eat out of the container like a trough. Those were the boxes Max had brought from the bakery, and as Judy watched Nick’s belly and ass visibly lurch further outward by two inches once he finished guzzling down his latest box, she could tell Max had ordered all of the bakery’s latest products to be spiked with the chemical. How else could Nick have quadrupled his weight, his body unable to withstand exercise more intensive than lifting another box of treats to his muzzle, in such a short amount of time? The whole-body shock of seeing Nick in such a state caused Judy to stop in her tracks, in awe of the sight in front of her, before she was able to collect herself and proceed over to where a certain blue-suited maned wolf was turning her partner into an unrecognizable blob. The rabbit waited until she had the jump on the frenzied lupine, pulling her dart gun and holding up her warrant for Max’s arrest. The wolf responded to that by throwing another half-dozen boxes of donuts and muffins onto Nick’s shelf of a belly and walking toward Judy, clearly not afraid of her. “Officer Hopps, your partner here really seems to have a wild appetite,” Max said. “It’s a shame about your food allergies, I was really hoping you’d have joined him as a VIP customer of ours by now. But,” he said, flinging a fistful of icing at Judy, who barely dodged out of the way, “I’m sure you can be convinced just yet.” “Max, I’ve got a warrant for your arrest, don’t be cute and get yourself more charges,” Judy responded, firing a warning dart to show she was serious about taking the canine in. “I get it. You found this chemical and you’re trying to take over the entire food market with it, making everyone addicted blobs. That’s… illegal. In so many ways. Which I’m sure you’re aware of. Anyway.” Judy grabbed her handcuffs. “You’re under arrest, anything you say can be used against you, you know the rest.” “Oh, look, the law is going after a small business that’s only treated them well,” Max yelled. “It’s not my fault your fox over there is the size of a barn. He’s been eating it all himself. I’m only offering him food and making a handsome profit. Believe me, the stuff is just that good. Speaking of which, try it yourself…” Max pounced toward Judy, trying to shove a hyper-caloric donut into her mouth. The rabbit gasped and ducked out of the way, quickly lifting and firing her gun, hitting Max twice. The maned wolf winced a few times as he pulled the darts out of his haunch, expecting to pass out but, after a beat, growing increasingly confident that Judy was stil bluffing. “Now the officer’s shooting a small business owner to threaten him,” Max muttered, “and I’ll have you know I’m suing for this. Slander, libel, sullying my good name, I’ll make millions off Happy Hutch and millions more off your lies! You foolish cops are so lazy and greedy, you’ll eat anything in front of you, and I knew I could… I could…” Max doubled over and Judy smirked as an incredible growl rippled through the maned wolf’s middle. He yelped in pain and barked out as he grabbed his stomach, looking to Judy with fear in his eyes. She simply pulled the chemical vial out of her uniform’s pocket and dipped a third dart in it, loading it into her gun. The maned wolf gasped as he realized he was in horrible hunger and pain, with the only food within three miles being the pile of stacked, spiked donuts and bagels in front of him… and Judy simply fired a third shot into his haunch, causing his eyes to go wide with fear and realization that he’d been beaten. “Well, go ahead, wolf, you should enjoy your fair share of all those donuts and muffins you’ve been selling,” Judy teased as Max began drooling at the mere thought of food. “Eat up, Maxy!” As Max pounced on the large stacks of baked goods piled in the corner, Judy was amused as she watched him devour three boxes and immediately see the massive amounts of chemicals rippling through his body cause him to burst straight through his suit, his brown fur spreading like chocolate as he ate and grew at impossible pace. That turned Judy’s attention to Nick, who she realized hadn’t been able to stop eating the whole time she was facing down the maned wolf. The fox was now simply a series of piles of fat stacked up on top of each other to resemble an incredibly bloated and obese fox, one who clearly couldn’t move much more than his paws just enough to eat as he fought to bend his hamhock splayed fat arm against itself, boxes of donuts having been within reach for hours and causing his weight to skyrocket to the point where his muscles were unable to even function, buried underneath his mountainous blob frame. Judy marveled at him before she ran up and kissed him. While he was incredibly fat, she loved the new look, though she was upset that he would need to be a homebody for quite a long time, if not the rest of his life. He was twice as wide as he was tall if not more, his foxy frame having been buried ten times over under enough weight that he’d likely be immobile for life, his body straining to move itself whenever he tried to so anything more taxing than eating. Judy called for backup, though she waited a few minutes before Max had eaten himself past the point of no return before she took action. ___ Hours later, once HR determined that being immobilized on the job meant Nick earned hazard pay and extended leave to recover, most of the ZPD had descended upon the HudTech Chemicals to witness their colleague having grown into a near-unrecognizable behemoth of a fox. Not that many of them hadn’t already gained extreme amounts of weight themselves, most of them awkwardly standing around, realizing they’d been had by Happy Hutch’s addictive baked goods and not happy about the extended diets they’d need to start as soon as possible. Between Nick and Max, there were two fully immobilized furs who were too large to exit even the double-doors of the chemical building. While the maned wolf couldn’t fit in a jail cell right now, his immobility meant he was basically imprisoned already, and he was mostly just trying to fight off the urge to ask for more donuts. Nick, meanwhile, was in somewhat good spirits, cracking jokes and fully aware of how fat he’d gotten, though he too was visibly trying not to ask for more of the treats that had put him in this position in the first place. Freeing the furs, where Nick would be taken to the hospital for monitoring before being provided hippo-sized amenities while they assessed how much weight he could lose given that he’d been chemically drugged, and Max would be placed in a spare storage room of the nearby jail, required drastic action, and before long, fat-bellied wolves and lardy lions were attaching ropes to the building’s east wall, latching them onto police trucks in the process. Judy looked on as, after some troubleshooting, they were able to rev their engines just enough to tear down the wall, proceeding to lift Nick and Max onto separate truck beds and pull them out of the rubble carefully. As the dust settled and Judy basked in the glow of a successful case solved, she tried to hide her unexpected joy that her partner was now an immobile blob of a fox, one who was more like a cherry-topped melting ice cream scoop of fat now than his usual self. “Hey, Carrots,” Nick called out to Judy over the whirring and pinging of his medical equipment, noticing her wander into his room. Zootopia Medical’s finest were tracking and measuring every part of him, given that he now a medical unicorn, the guinea pig for an untested chemical that had never been administered to a fur in such high doses. (Similar tests were also being performed on Max, down in the jail’s basement, to see the unique impact of gaining a thousand pounds in two hours under extreme chemical exposure.) “Hey, sly fox,” the rabbit replied as she jumped onto Nick’s plush couch-sized belly and grabbed around where his neck would be had it not been buried with fat, kissing the side of his bloated muzzle. “I saw that footage of you trying to fight Max with your bulk. I was impressed. You’re more of a fighter than you look.” “Hey, when you’ve got it, flaunt it,” Nick replied. “Back when I could, you know, move, that took all my effort, but it was worth trying to get one over on that dirtbag. Good work taking him down, even if it took using me as bait.” “You were never bait! You were just, well, I needed cover, and-” “It’s fine, Judy, it’s fine,” Nick teased. “It was my fault anyway. I was greedy, and, well, now we know what happens when I snack like Clawhauser. Though, for the record, I did get to see the warrant since I’m a victim, and you could have given me a heads up two days before I lost the ability to move. Can’t feel a thing, everything’s misfiring, but hey, Hopps and Wilde saved Zootopia yet again. And now you’ve got a massive pile of fox blubber all to yourself, just the way you want him.” Judy stammered and blushed, which made it extremely obvious Nick knew what was up, but he smirked. “Hey, if I knew getting fat would have meant you’d want to lock me down for good, I would have done it a long time ago,” Nick continued to flirt. “Especially since I might not have ended up like this.” “You know,” Judy replied, “I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t my first choice, but you are quite handsome like this…” Their muzzles neared for a kiss, one that would overshadow everything they’d been through in the past days- “HOPPS! WILDE! You can’t wait until he’s out of the hospital?? They’re running tests, for cripes’ sake!” Chief Bogo, wearing the largest hippo-sized ZPD Memorial Run/Walk 5K shirt and athletic shorts available in the building’s lost-and-found, stumbled into Nick’s room, needing a mobility walker to keep himself upright for journeys longer than a trip to the bathroom or kitchen. Bogo himself could barely squeeze into the room, having more than tripled his frame in just a few days of devouring spiked snacks himself. “Hopps, I was meaning to thank you for solving this case, despite my… reluctance earlier. But please hold off from public displays of affection with your partner while on police business wearing your police uniform. Wilde, we’ve got you approved for personal trainers and more tests to check your arms and legs, but you’ll be on leave until further notice.” Judy nodded, while Nick simply smirked. “What, no work-from-home options? I could type Y on a keyboard if you needed me to,” the fox drawled. “Ha, funny one, Wilde,” Bogo shot back, unamused. “We’d like to have you back on the force at some point. Speaking of which, I hate to cut your time together short, Hopps, but as our… most agile member of the force right now, I’d like to have you on rapid response.” Judy’s heart soared and her face rose into a toothy grin. “DOES THAT MEAN-” “Yes, Hopps, you’re getting your speed scooter.” Judy cheered. The ZPD had tried, and largely failed, to use a high-powered electric scooter in recent police work as it simply was not fast enough for most officers. It had been decommissioned to Judy’s protests; as the lightest mammal on staff, she was able to zoom around Zootopia at 50 miles per hour on the thing. If she was getting it back, she’d be solving crimes before they even happened! “Please meet me back at the office-” “RACE YOU THERE, CHIEF! WINNER BUYS LUNCH!” Fully aware that her boss would need a half-hour to get back to the ZPD, Judy sprinted out of the hospital room, leaving an unamused Bogo and an extremely amused Nick to watch her go. She could hear the buffalo groan as he bid goodbye to Nick and turned to leave, his walker dragging on the ground. Judy was the most important member of the force, she was getting her speed scooter back, and her partner was now fat enough to fill a room on his own. She chuckled to herself at the thought. Hey, at least things had gotten interesting again around here!