𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲

𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗱

"You want a Chickenburger with fries or without?" Rakim asks his friend as he's opening the door of their car.

Symere blushes. He's trying a new diet and although he told Rakim a hundred times about it, his partner still can't wrap his head around the fact he doesn't eat meat anymore.

"Can you just buy me a vegan burger or something? No fries, please."

"Weirdo." Rakim mutters as he shuts the door close.

Symere watches how he walks over to the entry of the KFC whose parking lot they're currently staying at.

It's located in a quite dangerous and highly criminal zone of Atlanta, which is also the reason Rakim is going in alone.

Him and Symere are on duty and despite wearing civil clothes, he doesn't want to risk anything and advised his friend to stay in the car, ready to call help at all times if they would need it.

Being a cop, on top of that a black one, is hard.

Symere probably thinks about quitting his job maybe once a week. But it's also what he always wanted to be since he was a little boy. Memories of watching NCIS and the likes with his dad when he was younger made being a cop a dream to him.

The hard reality hit him one year ago when he first had to do patrol service. What you see on tv is not comparable to real life at all. Especially not in Atlanta.

If it wasn't for Rakim, he would've left their department a long time ago.

This part of the city is runned by gangs. No hour passes by without a call that there's been a new shooting or armed altercation they get ordered to go look after.

He should probably be used to it by now, but whenever they get a new call, Symere's anxiety is out of control. People don't really take him seriously because of his small stature unless he's pointing at them with his Glock 19 duty weapon.

Even getting into the police academy was a struggle since he doesn't meet the height requirements by one inch.

Only thanks to the help of his grandma, who used to work as a secretary for the chief of police for over thirty years, he was able to get into the program.

Sometimes he thinks it would've been better if he just went to college and studied something normal instead.

Rakim is returning with two paper bags in his hands. Him and Symere met during their last year at the academy and have been friends ever since. It was honestly just luck that they ended up being partners but Symere wouldn't change that for anything.

They're a good team and complemment each other perfectly. Rakim has a very strong and intimidating aura, that makes everyone respect him when they meet him and Symere is warm and friendly, which makes him gain people's trust easily and often leads to them confiding in him. A typical good cop, bad cop duo. Over the last year, they solved around 200 cases successfully together and made themselves a name among peers.

Of course they're far from perfect. Both Rakim and Symere have some serious weaknesses. But what makes them special is, that they manage to balance each other out.

Rakim tends to get irritated fast and sometimes crosses the line with his aggressiveness towards suspects while Symere can get overwhelmed with fear in certain situations and just freezes.

The only person that can calm Rakim down when he's throwing a tantrum is Symere and the only person that can make Symere feel less scared and more powerful is Rakim.

"Here you go" he says, as he hands Symere one of the bags.

"Thank you" Symere gratefully returns. He's very hungry since he hasn't eaten breakfast in the morning and it's nearly 3 pm now.