As the sun began to set on another day in Clint City, there was no better place to watch the sunset than on the sturdy, metal bridge that connected the city to the roads that led to elsewhere; the two officers on said bridge having had the same idea to watch the glowing, warm sun sink into the night sky, Katja and Valentina were simply talking amongst themselves. Well, Katja was doing most of the talking whilst Valentina pretended to listen.
"So I said that if he wasn't prepared to show me a little respect, I wasn't prepared to not tell Copper that he'd been using his parking privileges to...well, it doesn't matter if he's been reprimanded now."
"That's nice and all, blondie, but it don't really help me so if youse could just, you know...shut it?"
"What are you doing, by the way?" Katja then asked, genuinely curious as she noticed her fellow policewoman holding her phone at an odd angle.
"Trying to get a signal, what's it to youse?" She replied, sounding a little irritated that the blonde had opened her mouth in the first place. "Damn it! Ash's little salesman pally said he'd fixed this. Stupid piece of crap!"
At that moment, Valentina threw the phone off the bridge with one big throw; the coursing river then gaining a splash and a friend, the two Sentinel simply stared on in silence though it wasn't long before Katja's curiosity broke the tension once again.
"You know, that wasn't really necessary."
"Youse ain't really necessary!" The taller female snapped, beginning to walk away as she felt a frustrated sigh escape her. "What did I do to get paired up with such a snot-nosed, goody-goody polisher?"
"Polisher?" Katja retorted, her curious tones now slightly hurt.
"Youse know, apple polisher. Because youse is always sucking up to teacher, well,Copper."
"Valentina," the blonde began, sounding rather serious. "There is nothing 'polisher' or 'sucking up' about working hard, doing a good job and following the police chief's orders. Harvey does all that and no one calls him out for it."
"Harvey doesn't make himself look pettishly desperate," Valentina retorted, smirking a little as she knocked the shorter female's cap off her head. "And even if he did, no one would dare say anything."
"I can understand why, he can be pretty unnerving when he wants to be," Katja said, sounding a little intimidated as she picked up her hat. Her mind traced back to all the times that she'd said hi to him or given him a smile and all he'd done was look back in that serious manner of his, not saying a word; his lack of words so prominent that she actually couldn't remember what he sounded like, currently or before his burns. Katja, alongside a lot of her fellow Sentinel, wished that Harvey, the pre-burns Harvey, the Harvey they knew and loved, would return. He still wasn't the most talkative of the bunch but you'd been able to talk to him and know he'd genuinely been listening to you and taking in your every word. He still did that now, but it was just plain creepy.
Katja's prolonged gap of silence caused a smirk in Valentina, who was suddenly yet gently prodding the blonde in her shoulder blade.
"Wakey wakey, Clint City to polisher," she said, her smirk turning to slightly snide chuckling. "Plenty of time to think about Harvey in the car. But pretty disrespectful to ya fatso boyfriend, ah?"
"You call Kamakura fatso and you call me disrespectful," Katja commented, raising an eyebrow as if she really couldn't believe what the dark-haired was saying.
"Just calling them as I sees them, blondie," was the playful reply, with Valentina knocking the hat off her clanmate's head once more before she began to approach the police car. "Does blondie hurt ya feelings less? Don't want youse to start crying on me, s'all."
"Well I think Ash is a conceited, weak, pathetic excuse for a man if there ever was one."
At that moment, Valentina stopped as if frozen by her words; her fist suddenly clenching as her body began to shake in stifled rage, the dark-haired turned around to face Katja with a rather dark look in her eyes.
"What did youse say, blondie?"
Her words sounded calm, yet also forced as if she was not only doing her best to not lose her temper, but daring her clanmate to repeat her speech.
"You heard me," the blonde then said, rather adamant in her words but hesitant to repeat. It wasn't often that Katja stood by her ill speech of others, and in all honesty she thought Ash was what they called 'a bit of alright' in the tougher parts of the city, but at that moment it had felt like her best way to get to Valentina, to show her that the little polisher could give as much as she got.
Feeling her stomach tense as she continued to watch the look on her fellow policewoman's face, Katja was almost sick with relief when she saw Valentina suddenly begin to laugh.
"Oh man, youse could not sound less insulting if youse tried," she began, having to pause once or twice through her laughter. "Conceited? Pathetic excuse? I'd have taken youse more serious like if youse had called him a fucking asshole. Honestly, I can't believe that even trash talk from youse is sickeningly sweet. Come on blondie, Copper ain't gonna be happy if I come back without a partner!"
Approaching the police car with Valentina, the blonde couldn't help giggling to herself when she heard the other female's cocky yet pleased muttering of 'heh, my partner grew some balls." She felt a little awkward about Valentina's free use of the word 'balls' but she understood that her partner now realised she was dealing with a tough cookie underneath the sweet exterior.
"Say," Valentina then began, facing Katja as they both sat in the car's leather seats. "Youse were just messing when youse said that stuff about Ash, yeah?"
"Of course," Katja replied, calm in her honesty. "What right do I have to 'call' him?"
"Only if he upsets youse," the dark-haired female said, with a cheeky grin on her face. "But then he'll have me to go through aswell."
With that, Valentina turned the key to start the car before she began to drive up the street that would take them back to the Sentinel HQ. They hadn't managed to gather any intel or reprimand any petty criminals but then that hadn't been the day's aim; their aim having been to grow closer, even if only by a little, and it was an aim they felt they'd smashed. Next time Copper called on Clair and Noble, things would be different...
