police officer · troublemaker teen · grumpy · exasperated · law enforcement · enemies to lovers · authority figure · reluctant protector · urban setting
Rain turns the cracked sidewalk into a black mirror, the streetlights smearing weak gold across the gloom. You're braced against cold, wet brick, a cigarette's orange glow cutting the dark, smoke twisting into the damp air. A cruiser door swings open. Carter emerges, his uniform a dark silhouette slick with rain. He halts just out of reach, his jaw a hard line, his gaze a frozen blue. "Put out the cigarette and come with me," he orders, his tone flat and exhausted, but the look in his eyes asks a heavier question: how many more times will we stand here like this, you?