these are our streets

Victoria

"Don't look suspicious, Punkface."

Blue looked up at Rizzo's comment, his blue eyes scanning the busy downtown street. Don't look suspicious?? Blue thought. I'm not suspicious.

Rizzo looked up at Blue, his dark eyes coming off as a little bit frazzled. Lifting his sleeved arm, he smacked Blue across the chest of his leather jacket.

Blue turned to glare at Rizzo, even with the wind knocked out of him. He tried not to breathe in too much city exhaust as he tried to get his air back.

"Don't give me that; I said don't look suspicious. There's fuzz here." Rizzo turned his head down, eyes on the sidewalk as he kept pace with Blue. His hood was up, and the brim of his tattered ball cap was pulled down, hiding a lot of his face. Blue noticed how Rizzo sounded like a frightened child by the end of his sentence.

Blue lifted his eyes, and immediately saw it: the cop shop. It took up an entire city block on Victoria Street, and looked like it was more of a fancy library, or art school, than a damn cop shop. Like this piece of trash city has money, Blue thought with poison. If this city has money, where's mine?

Blue shoved his hands into his pockets, hunched his shoulders up a bit more. He tried to appear like the people him and Rizzo passed by on the street: determined on a location, living with purpose. Not just no good hoods, slinking around the downtown sector of the city.

Rizzo kept his eyes down. Blue knew how Rizzo felt about cops, and didn't push him. Rizzo once told him, if he knew what was good for him, he'd be scared of cops, too.

Rizzo never said why he hated cops, just that he loathed all of 'em.

Blue wasn't sure what was good or bad for him. He knew what he liked, and what he didn't. And if Rizzo didn't like cops, he trusted Rizzo.

Blue watched as a shiny cop cruiser pulled away from the curb with speed, and whipped past them; the lights weren't on, and the cruiser almost cut off a minivan. The van held back from honking, but judging by the look on the van driver's face, it looked like she really wanted to, while using every cuss word she knew.

After the cruiser had passed, Rizzo let out an exhale, his breath steaming in the early autumn air. Blue turned to him, surprised to hear Rizzo make a noise that wasn't cocky, or some sarcastic comment.

Rizzo's head lifted up as they crossed the street at a light, and got another full block away from the cop shop. He took a long, deep breath, and let it out, his breath creating steam in the cold autumn air. Passersby looked at Rizzo and gave him a dirty look; They probably think he's smoking some, Blue thought. He knew the look all too well.

"C'mon," Rizzo said with one of his signature charming smiles, his dark eyes turning toward Blue. His hand slapped Blue's upper back in a gesture Blue took as Rizzo coming back down to earth. "Let's go grab something to eat. Or, at the very least, try to."