Necessary Claiming

	"To our probation!" declared the vulpine tod.
	"Justly deserved due to our vigorous efforts to right a great wrong!" the lapine doe added.
	The pair, seated side-by-side close to one another, clanked their glasses together in salute and then took the obligatory sips from them.
	"Nice of Liz to give us this," Judy said as she eye the bottle of good wine sitting on the table.
	It, like so many other luxury things, was hard to come by due to the ongoing war.
	"I think she and George had it stashed back for some special event," Nick said.
	The special event the pair was celebrating was a six months of probation that they had "earned" for an attack on a logistics officer at the supply depot.  The guy had given them a partial load of substandard gas for a coast watcher delivery mission and that resulted in delaying them, at the drop off point, for more than an hour while they pulled out fouled spark plugs to clean them.  That put them well within enemy airspace when light dawned.  In flying low, about a couple of hundred feet off the water, they had flown almost over an enemy merchant ship who had, then, sent out a report indentifying them and giving their heading and speed.  Once well and goodly out of sight, Nick changed course.  Just as they had sighted a large island that he used as a way point, Judy saw some glints of light high over them; two fighter planes.  Nick headed for the mountainous island and the fighter crews, then, spotted them and came down to give chase.  In the ensuing pursuit, Nick managed to fly their plane through a seemingly impassably narrow opening between two peaks and the enemy pilots, their attention focused on getting the kill, failed to see their danger until too late.  Both crashed into those mountainsides and a shaken Judy and grimly determined Nick made it home with only a few hundred bullet holes in their aircraft.  The props on their plane had barely stopped turning when Nick and Judy bailed out of it and bee lined straight for the supple depot.  When the sheep ram supply guy saw the grimly determined expressions on the flyers' faces he immediately protested that it wasn't his fault, that he had been ordered by two of his superiors (he named them) to foist the fuel onto them.   His words shot the fury levels of both fox and rabbit off the scale!  Though bigger and heavier than Nick and Judy combined, he was little match for the boiling mad duo!  It took several mammals, each, to pull the infuriated pair away from him!
	"I've heard of mammals going savage but this is the first time I've ever seen it!" stated some who were there.
	The ram was rushed to the infirmary where his injuries, including a number of bite wounds, were treated.  An investigation ensued; the officials in question hadn't wanted to turn the substandard fuel back in (they had accepted it without doing any test on it) because it would affect their evaluation ratings.  In truth, they didn't see that there was any problem, outside of some extra maintenance.
	"It isn't our fault that they got caught by an enemy long range fighter patrol," one pointed out.
	As far as anyone knew, Nick and Judy made nothing but routine supply deliveries (and they made more than then their share of those to maintain that image).  Only a few knew about their coast watcher delivery and other deep in missions.  In the end, all three officers were convicted of willful negligence and a few other more minor charges.  The two higher ups were stripped of their ranks and sent home.  The lower ranking officer was busted to private and sent to the front, very front, line as an infantry troop.
	"While we understand your...justifiable anger at having your lives put at such risk, the court cannot allow anyone to assault others regardless of provocation!" the justice stated.  "Therefore, you, Nicholas Wilde and Judith Hopps are hereby placed on six months’ probation!"
	And the gavel came down.
			*	*	*	*	*	*	*
	"I wonder if anyone noticed that Reginald didn't mention any specifics for our probation," Judy said.
	"One or two may have.  Don't know that it really matters, in the end," replied Nick.
	"Being indispensable has some advantages," observed the bunny.
	"Weellll, when most of the coast watchers figure that they owe you favors...." Nick said as he held his glass out to her.
	"True, true," said Judy, tapping her glass to his.
	Leaning back in his chair, Nick did a lazy scan of the room.  It was evening meal time and most of the fifty some tables were occupied as well as nearly all the seats at the bar.  Most of the cliental was male, and, over the next several minutes, he noticed more and more looks from a lot of those guys coming their way.
	"And I doubt they are enraptured by my good looks and charm," he thought.
	Nick hoped Judy had noticed those looks coming her way.  He thought it likely that she had, she was too good of an observer not to.
	"Might think that if she ignores it...."
	Pause.
	"Carrots, I need a really big favor from you," Nick said in a low voice as he set his glass on the table
	"What is it?"
	"All I need for you to do is relax and just sit there and not move," he said.  "No matter what happens, remain absolutely still!"
	"Okay, but why d...."
	The next instant, Nick swung himself around towards her and then clamped his open jaws down on the sides of her neck.  Judy felt sharp tooth points dig into the skin beneath her fur and, then, the bunny's eyes widened when those points broke through her skin.  A sudden burst of instinctive panic flared up in her, a desire to try to fend off this attack, but she remained in the grip of a freeze.   A strong tongue licked twice across the front of her throat, and then, she was free.  Nick resettled himself in his seat and retrieved his glass from the table.  A few heartbeats later, Judy's freeze melted away and she was able to move once more.  Just on the edge of her senses, she felt the blood slowly oozing from her small wounds.
	"Don't reach for your neck," Nick whispered.  "Let the blood soak through your fur so that it becomes visible."
	He, then, held his glass out to her.  Judy, unthinkingly, extended her own and tapped it to his.  Covertly scanning the great room, the rabbit woman noted that the eyes of nearly everyone there were on them.  Some patrons looked surprised or confused, most looked interested, and a few, all males, showed expressions of displeasure or disappointment.  Her eyes picked out Liz and Judy saw a look of utter delight on the proprietress' face.
	"Wow!  He drew blood!  They are serious!" Judy heard someone close by comment.
	"She's got more nerve and trust than I ever would!  No way I'd just sit still with a pred. type chewing on my neck!!" she heard a gray squirrel fem state.
	"I'm not sure I would have if I'd known what was coming!" Judy thought, dazedly.
	A few more minutes went by and then Nick suggested that they head upstairs to retire for the night.  Still in a slightly foggy state, Judy let the fox guide her to the third floor.  The next thing she knew, a door opened and she found herself propelled into Nick's rooms.
	"Head into the bathroom and shower," he instructed while handing one of his clean shirts to her.
	Once under the spray of water the mental mist that had clogged Judy's mind faded and her intellect came back to full.

	Nick looked up at the sound of the door to the bathroom opening.  In the doorway stood the well-groomed Judy with his shirt on her.  She had buttoned the bulky, on her, garment all the way up and the lower hem stopped just a couple of inches above her ankles.  Thing was, she wasn't just standing in the open doorway; she leaned against one side with her arm raised and laid on the frame and effecting a sleepy eyed sultry expression on her face.
	"Hellooo there, big guy," she said in the husky voice of the 30s movie femme fatalles.
	"Ohhhh, sweetheart, don't tease me like that!" he replied in his best Bogart voice.
	They both snickered and then Judy came to the bed and hopped up on it to seat herself beside him.  A silence went on a moment, then....
	"You claimed me," Judy said, at last.  "In front of all those mammals down there, you claimed me."
	Her voice was calm and neutral as she made the statement.
	"Sharp as ever!" Nick complimented.  "Now, can you tell me why?"
	Another minute passed.
	"Huff, I'm an unattached female in a war zone where there is an overage of males and too few females," she said.
	"And?"
	"And, sooner or later, it is highly likely one or more of those males is not going to take 'No' for an answer to their...proposition."
	Pause.
	"Unless, unless my 'unattached' status changes," she finished.
	"Bravo, bravo, the bunny is not dumb!" Nick cheered as he applauded.
	Finished with his clapping, the vulpine effected a sober attitude.
	"As you said, we are in a war zone.  And for all of our evolution and intellect there are primal, some call them dark, even savage, instincts that get...magnified in the presence of death and probable death," he said.
	"'The need to create, to reproduce, in the face of death and disaster.  If this cannot be done with species member that can conceive then the act with, mainly, other species females will suffice'," Judy quoted.
	Nick arched an eye ridge at her.
	"Something my psyche instructor told us at one time," she provided.
	"Darn good instructor!" Nick complimented.
	"Soooo, how...serious, is this?"
	"Claiming fits in between passing informal couples to just below formal matehood.  The show of blood plus your not putting up any resistance puts this one on the high end of the scale."
	"And you did it in the presence of a group of mammals for plenty of witnesses."
	"By now, the word on us is out all over town.  This time tomorrow, it'll be all over the island.  And by the end of next week...."
	There was another long pause.
	"So, this claim is not...final," Judy said.
	"Oh, by the Great Maker, no!" Nick said.  "Best way to think of it is as a trial matehood to see how things work out before going to full formal matehood."
	"A marriage with a relatively easy out," Judy said.
	"Yes," he answered.  "You and I have been together, flying and here, enough that a goodly number of people are of the belief that we are already lovers.  This cements that impression for them.  As such, those males that are intending to have you will, hopefully, be discouraged from doing so.  Plus, since so many know about this and its meaning, they'll be more willing to look out for you and render you more protection than you might get if you were still unattached."
	"And now, we're here, in your rooms, to reinforce things."
	"Yes.  After such a showing, it's expected that the couple involved get together for some...intimate time," Nick said.
	The tod looked to the room's big closet.
	"I've got a cot and spare blankets stashed there.  I'll get them out and sleep on...."
	A finger pressed to the front of his muzzle lips silenced him.
	"Your room so you sleep in your bed," Judy said.
	"You're going to take the cot?" Nick asked, quizzically.
	That comment earned him a dirty look!
	"We're supposed to get intimate, you said!  That means, morning shower or not, that your scent should be pretty strong on me!  And..."
	She ran her eyes up and down his form.
	"...mine on you!  That's not going to happen if we sleep apart!" Judy pointed out.  "So, my vulpine partner in crime, get in the bathroom, do what you need to do, and come out in just your under shorts!"
	"Yes, ma-am!" Nick said as he got up.
	When he came back, he found Judy already under the thin covers.  Nick slid onto the bed, raised the covers to get under them...and stopped.  Judy was down to only her panties.
	"Getting daring or just wanting to tempt me?" he said as he pulled to covers over himself.
	"If I really wanted to do the latter I wouldn't have anything on at all!" she said as she snuggled herself up against the front of Nick's body.
	"Ahhhhhh, you test an ole fox's meddle!" he sighed as he put one arm around Judy.
	"Cuddles and snuggles for now," the bunny said, sleepily, into his chest fur.  "The more intimate things will come soon enough."
	And with that last comment the pair dozed off.