The closer that Judy shuffled towards him, the less anxious Nick seemed to feel. Though he felt nervous and ridden with stress after that cinematic experience, and there was no way he was going to forget about it any time soon, he still felt a sense in comfort in having her close by. Besides, it was kinda cold, and Judy was always cuddly and warm. Hooking his chin over the top of her head, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in for a cuddle, lapping up her body heat and enjoying the warmth that spread through him. Burying his face in her hair momentarily, he left a fleeting kiss to the top of Judy’s head, before pulling away and making his way down the street.
“C'mon, Carrots, it’s… cold, and, y'know, dark…” he called out, opting for an anxious glance over his shoulder. As nervous as he felt, he’d still never leave Judy behind, so he made sure she was still close behind him before he completely abandoned her.
As soon as his best friend came jogging towards him, eagerly trying to keep up as he strode away from her, he breathed out a sigh of relief. No matter how nervous he was, or how ridiculous she was being, he was happy to have her back at his side. Even if she was talking complete nonsense.
When the two of them stopped, standing stock still in the middle of the street, Nick twitched uncomfortably, his bones itching with discomfort at still being out in the open. There was no real, justifiable reason for him to be afraid – not that he was, of course – but that didn’t change the way he felt, and he couldn’t escape the flashes in his vision as he stared around him, convincing himself that he could see dear ol’ Bill Skarsgard lurking across the way in some dimly lit alley, all decked out in his Pennywise getup.
“Judy. He ripped his arm off within the first ten minutes of the movie!” he cried out, his tone coming out in a far higher pitch than he’d anticipated. Shaking his head, squeezing his eyes tight shut momentarily, he blew air from his cheeks in a petulant huff. “I’m just sayin’, Hopper, even if he was keeping Georgie in some kinda underground circus, like you say, he still ripped the damn kid’s arm from its socket.”
Even uttering the words aloud made him feel sick to his stomach, and he cringed at having to make himself and Judy relive it, but he didn’t have time to dwell on it. Not when Judy was accusing him of being scared.
“Wh– what? Scared? You think i’m scared, Hopper?” he scoffed, shaking his head wildly in protest. Looking at her with complete, and total utter disbelief, he whirled on the spot, turning his back to her. What a ridiculous notion. He wasn’t scared, not by a long shot. Nick Wilde did not scare easily.
Before he knew it, though, Judy was slipping her hand into his own, and he let out a childish groan at the action. Shooting her a sidelong glance, the ghost of a smirk playing on his lips, he shrugged, before giving her hand a tight squeeze in return.
“Whatever, c'mon. It’s cold, and we’d better get in out of it before we catch something,” he insisted, still sticking to his halfassed story. Besides, the idea of even so much as the sighting of a red balloon made his whole entire body shiver. Shaking a little, he edged in closer to Judy, dropping his head against her shoulder momentarily, and nuzzling his face gently against her neck. “See, told you. I’m cold.”
The two of them kept walking, Judy keeping up a constant stream of conversation where Nick scarcely could, before eventually coming to a halt outside of his tiny bungalow. More often than not, he opted for heading home and helping his mom out where he could, knowing that she liked the company, as well as wanting Nick to keep an eye on Todd where he could. Even so, he liked the privacy of having his own home, and he didn’t like traipsing guys and girls into his childhood home after a late night out, so it was nice having his own space. Even if it meant Judy showing up whenever she so wished, befriending his one night stands, and fixing things that were perfectly fine.
“Alright, uh… home sweet home,” he muttered, furrowing his brow as he stared around him. With his free hand, he fished his keys out of his pocket, never wavering or releasing his hold on Judy’s hand. Awkwardly hovering, he finally dropped her hand, if only to wrap an arm around her waist, reeling her in and pulling her alongside him as he strolled towards his front door, Judy firmly pressed into his side.
“Y'know, it is late… And cold… and dark… You sure you wouldn’t prefer to just stay over?” he mused, his key dangling from the lock as he made no real attempts to turn it, his gaze on Judy instead. “I don’t want you walkin’ home on your own, y'know, it’s late, and…”
He trailed off, realising it was much too late to bother elaborating. Judy wasn’t an idiot, she knew him better than most. Not to mention, she’s a cop, and walking into far more dangerous situations than Cherry Grove on a school night kinda came under the job description.
When Nick attempted to reason with her rose-tinted view of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, Judy nodded consolingly. Evidently, the movie had shaken up her best friend more than he had initially let out, and who would she be to tells him his fears weren’t valid?
“That’s true,” she said, wincing a little as she recalled the way the evil clown’s teeth had clamped around Georgie’s arm and ripped it off. She lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “I just thought that maybe it was some sort of optical illusion and when the Losers Club found Georgie again, he’d have both of his arms! And everyone would be really happy and maybe there’d be a musical number.”
She really did need to broaden her cinematic genres. It was hard for her to process what was happening when the ensemble cast of these new movies she found herself watching didn’t join forces with a number of animated fluffy animals to finish off the movie with a razzling, dazzling, show-stopping number. She had a distinct feeling that Nick would probably prefer those movies as well though, but made sure even the slightest inkling of that didn’t show on her face. She knew that Nick’s masculinity was very important to him and, as a good best friend, she wasn’t going to be the one to put a dent in that.
Instead, she swung their hands side by side before rolling her eyes at Nick’s dramatic outbursts and absently picking his hand up between both of their own, still keeping their fingers linked as her other fingers traced over the small cuts and scratches and whatnot littering Nick’s fingers. She knew they were probably the result of animals from the clinic scuffling around in his gently cupped palms, or papercuts he’d scored from rummaging through different patient files in a hurry on the days he helped his mom out. She let out a small ‘hmm?’ of acknowledgment at Nick’s question and looked up at him.
“You are acting a little scared, Nick,” she told him. But she didn’t think there was any shame in that, really. Her reassurances that Pennywise wasn’t real but it would still be perfectly alright if Nick wanted to sleep with a nightlight on died away when Nick pressed his face against Judy’s neck and she let out a peal of laughter. His cheeks were pretty cold, she’d give him that, and she pretended to wriggle away only to swing round in front of him and gently headbutt his chest; a weak attempt to halt him in his path that was soon deemed unnecessary given that they were outside of Nick’s house anyway. She smiled at the sight of the homely little bungalow and hoped that Nick wouldn’t be too freaked out now that she had to leave him, when Nick’s offer resonated with her.
“You want me to stay?” she echoed, nothing in her tone that suggested this was out of the ordinary. She figured Nick was pretending that this was for her sake even though she was one of the toughest cops around who could definitely handle herself on a dimly-lit walk home. Part of her, the more challenging and competitive part of Judy Hopper, half wanted to call his bluff and walk away just to see if he’d admit to needing her company because he was the scaredy-cat. But as she pictured herself walking home in the dark, passing sewage drains were anything could lurk in the darkness, she realised that she’d prefer to stay over at Nick’s.
“You sure?” she asked then placed her hands on her hips. “I should definitely be flattered, shouldn’t I? I mean, I’m one of the lucky girls who gets to stay over at Nick Wilde’s house? This is insane! Except, you do realise you’re not getting lucky tonight, right, mister?”
Her teasing ceased when a cold gust of wind blew by them and she shivered, still grinning as her teeth chattered. Gently elbowing Nick with her elbow, she nodded towards the key in his hand, signalling for him to open the door so they could both hurry inside.
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