[there's a fic version of this up now if you'd like to read it! @n3ptoonz on tumblr <3]

Three hours until your shift ends. You were lucky you're a bartender veteran at this point because of all the personalities that walk through that door. You knew summer was about to begin with the sounds of motorbikes speeding through nearly every road in Baltimore. It was a custom, really. The second that air went past 68°, here came the loud engines coming to a halt right outside the bar you work at. Thank goodness this was the county and not the inner city, so the patrons were a little more diverse than groups of noisy, weed smelling rascal teenagers trying to impress grown ass women.

You're wiping down the bar counter when you look out the window and see the evening coloring the skies. It was gorgeous. Nothing beat watching the sun go down through the fingerprint-smudged glass you told your younger coworkers to clean up six times today. There were still some stragglers who were either alone or small groups of two or three hanging out by the jukebox.

When you started to organize some of the bottles behind you, in came that recognizable sound of the lively Baltimore County police unit that didn't go a day without stopping by. You gave them a smile as they greeted you--first name basis, some nicknames here and there--when your eye caught the newbie. You didn't recognize him but you made eye contact like you knew him for years.

"Alright, boys," you tapped the counter as they congregated in front you like anticipating kids, "who's the hotshot tonight?"

The new guy stood in between two of them before pulling out a hundred dollar bill and sliding it towards you with a smile.

"That would be me."