Who: Leon and Peter What: Peter runs into his arresting officer When: Today Where: The police precinct Ratings/Warnings: Low/none, other than some strong language Status: Complete
“Yeah, yeah, see you next Tuesday,” Peter mumbled, giving a half wave behind him. Fucking parole officers. One of the terms of his early release was seeing a parole officer. He had hoped to have one who was old, tired, and burnt out from the system. Those guys were the best. Instead, he walked in to see a bright eyed, fresh out of college peppy lady and he knew he was fucked.
An hour later, he’d been subjected to every mental health test in the world, was filled with pamphlets (“there are resources to support you! Take advantage of them!”) and now had a weekly appointment to go and see her. Ugh ugh ugh. All he wanted was to get through this and move on with his life, was that too hard to ask?
Still grumbling to himself, he turned a corner and froze. As if this day couldn’t get any fucking worse. There, standing not even a few feet away, was his arresting officer. Peter could still remember every detail of that day, of all the ‘injuries’ that he apparently caused himself and the rude comments. The officer’s face was etched into his memory, and here he was. Fuck. All Peter could hope for was that Leon wasn’t paying any attention.
It wasn’t very often that Leon got downtime in a place like this. On top of the usual cases, the OC always seemed to be throwing something at its residents which, of course, Leon had to deal with. But he had some time now, which meant that he had time to chat with some of his colleagues in other departments.
Unfortunately, it just reminded him how much his life had changed in the last couple of years when he had to turn down drinks after work. If Alex had still been around, he might not have had to, but Alex had left weeks ago. “Sorry man,” he was saying. “I’ve gotta pick Chris up from schoo-” he stopped, catching sight of the man who’d just turned the corner.
He felt a sense of recognition nearly immediately, though it took him a moment longer to place exactly where he’d seen that face. The last time he’d seen him, Leon had been on the prosecutor's stand, helping throw that low life behind bars. Sure, these days the scumbags he was locking up were doing far worse than robbery, but that didn’t mean that he’d warmed up to the less violent offenders.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” he barked, surprised enough that he didn’t quite make it to the obvious conclusion before the words were out of his mouth.
Normally, Peter would have answered with a ‘what do you fucking think?’ and to be honest, he almost did. It was only because he realized where he was that he didn’t. Instead, he simply raised his eyebrow and gave Leon a ‘are you kidding me?’ look. That worked just as well. “Trying to be a productive member of society, officer,” he said. “Learned my lesson and now I just want to live my life quietly and away from you. Is that so hard to ask for?”
There was something about Peter’s answer that set Leon’s teeth on edge. It was probably that damn look. That, and Peter’s tone of voice didn’t sit right with Leon.
Still, there was nothing objectionable to what Peter said that Leon could latch onto. That was the point of prison, wasn’t it? Throw in criminals with the hope that it would be a productive member of society that came out the doors at the other end. Though, that happened rarely. More than three-quarters of inmates found themselves behind bars again within five years, and it wasn’t like Peter had gone in with an otherwise pristine record.
“You’d better,” he said after a moment, and then pointed a finger in Peter’s direction. “Don’t think I won’t come after you if you break the law again, even if it is below my pay grade.”
This time, Peter didn’t resist the urge to roll his eyes. “Whatever, officer. You think what you want to think, but guess what? I live here now, and I’m going to be here for a while.” A flash of anger crossed his face, and he found himself started a good ramble. “I have a pretty damn good support network here, and you’re never going to have to deal with me again. And if you do? If I fuck up? That’s okay too because everyone’s allowed to fuck up. You hear me? We’re all allowed bad days and bad choices, and fuck if I’m going to be defined by one stupid day. So just stuff it, alright?”
For a moment, Leon looked as though he wanted to say something, to continue this fight. But there wasn’t much he could say. He wasn’t about to tell some guy that he was bound to end up back in prison again. He definitely wasn’t going to argue about it, as if encouraging him to try. As much as Leon liked a good fight, there wasn’t anything worth starting one over in what Peter had said. Maybe he was right. Maybe he really would be on the straight and narrow. Who the hell was Leon to say?
“Just make sure your fucking up doesn’t involve another heist and we’ll be golden,” Leon said gruffly, seeming almost disappointed.
Peter glared. That stupid fucking heist. It was the dumbest idea he’d ever had, and he didn’t even know why he went along with it. From the beginning, it was clear that the team didn’t have the skills, and yet with his big ego (and them fawning all over him), he let himself think he could do it. He could do it.
And they almost did too. There was a reason pirates killed their accomplices. Frickin’ big mouths, all of them. If it wasn’t for the fact that snitches got stitches, Peter would have probably sold them all out. As it was, he kept his mouth shut, maintained his story that he was just contracted to create the tech, open the safe, and be the getaway driver, which was basically the truth anyways.
“Yeah. Golden.” Peter stood his ground and continued his hard stare.
The fuck was this kid (nevermind the fact that Peter was probably older than Leon) staring at? There was, obviously, a reason that Leon had come to this end of the precinct, but right now that was entirely forgotten as a primal need rose up inside of him. He glared back. If buddy wanted a staring contest, well, he’d find that he was very outmatched. There was no one more stubborn than Leon freakin’ Orcot.
After a couple of moments, Williams, the officer that Leon had just been talking to, awkwardly cleared his throat, and then cleared it again. Finally, he said “Hey, Orcot.” Leon didn’t break his stare, and Williams, shooting an uncertain look at Peter and then back at Leon continued “Aren’t you supposed to be meeting with the Captain right now?”
Leon blinked, and then glanced at his wrist watch. “Shit,” he swore, and then, without another word, he turned on his heel and headed back down the hall.
Peter almost pumped a fist in victory. Almost. That Williams guy didn’t look any more friendly than Officer No-Balls Leon. Yup, he totally won that staring contest. With a big grin, he gave a mock salute to the officer and happily strode out of the parole office.
Putting his ear buds in, he hit shuffle and had to laugh when the first song that popped up was “Born to Be Wild”
Get your motor runnin', Head out on the highway, Lookin' for adventure, And whatever comes our way. He mouthed the lyrics to himself as he started the walk back to Yondu’s. Maybe this town wasn’t that bad after all.