Casanova "Caz" was a Jet without a title. She didn't have the title, any of them. Jet, a Jet's girl, and hell she wasn't even as high as Anybodys. Well officially speaking. Unofficially, she's the best informant a gang could have. You were in good with Caz, you could control the streets. Currently the only gang who had learned this was the Jets, due to Caz having known Riff and even Tony for quite some time. Some sources dated it back to before the Jets, some dated it to just after the gang had started. Whatever the case might be, she had been in good with Riff for a long time. So it wasn't surprising when Riff found her leaning against a wall, lost in her head, in his territory. She was pretty, Riff wasn't blind to not notice that. Auburn hair pinned up out of her face, she had thrown it down for him once, it was a mess and she couldn't run or see; blue eyes shining, and a look on her face that had given away that she was out in la la land. Caz was a neutral party, allow to wander the territories as she pleased, even the Sharks knew that and accepted it, no matter how begrudgingly they did so.
"Cazzy, my beautiful wildflower, what've you got for me?" Riff asked with a smirk on his lips as he joined her in leaning against the wall. He offered her a cigarette which she declined. She tried to not to get wrapped up in his smirk as she retorted.
"Really Riff? You forgot your "charm" never works on me." Caz said putting air quotes around charm a smirk on her own face, which he always fit her features more than anything else. Riff sighed but kept his smirk on.
"It always worth a try Cazzy," he said. Caz rolled her eyes at the gang boy. Riff was the only human being on the face of the planet who called, and could call her, Cazzy. Otherwise it was Casanova or Caz. No ifs, ands, or buts. "The question still stands." He said, taking a drag of his cigarette and effectively dragging Caz out of her head and back to the subject at the hand.
"A dance at the gym, Sharks are planning on going I hear." She said. Riff smiled.
"Perfect place to challenge them to a Rumble, don't you think?" He said. Caz shrugged but chuckled to humor him.
"Sure, perfect place." She said. Riff noticed her noncommittal response and raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, you okay? Seem like you've been hangin' with Tony with that attitude." He said. Caz chuckled.
"It's nothin' Riff, go tell the boys about the dance. I'd look at your west border also if I were you, heard the Sharks talkin' about creepin' in later." She said with a small smile. Riff nodded once and pecked her forehead.
"Thanks as always Cazzy, hey, come to the dance." He said as he walked out of the alley.
"Can't gotta keep Schrank off your tail don't I?" She said with her shoulders hanging loose and Riff took note of her biting the inside of her cheek for some bizarre reason.
"Fair enough, you wouldn't happen to know where Tony is would ya?" He asked.
"Where is he always? Doc's, think I saw him painting something…" She said. Riff nodded and jogged over to her again and kissed her forehead once more. Caz looked up at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Someone's overly affectionate today," she stated.
"I gotta good feeling about today, mark it Cazzy, today's gonna be good."
"Will do Riff," she said. He disappeared out of the alley and Caz had to stop herself from running after him. So she simply slinked back into the shadows.
The rest of the day went without incident and Caz managed to keep herself out of too much trouble, so much so that she hadn't seen Schrank or Krupke all day. Which was surprising, usually one of her rounds coincided with one of their beats, if not the both of them. So night fell, and while Caz nearly talked herself out of it, she decided to at least make a small appearance at the dance. She found her best, which wasn't much if she must admit. Just a little blue number that she'd had for a while. She decided she wasn't going to do anything major with her hair, continuing to keep her bangs out of her face and she kept her Chucks on, which were a gift from Tony a long time ago that still fit her. She grabbed her jacket and jogged to the gym. The band was swinging and making noise. She admired the Jets and the Sharks and walked in. She was hoping to just appear, catch a conversation or two and then duck out. That didn't seem to want to happen when a couple of Jet girls noticed her appearance and strode over to her. Caz didn't recognize them, but hell, she'd stopped trying to keep track of the boy's girls' when Riff let go of that sweetheart blonde when they were 14. One of them glared at her, probably noticing her color.
"Who are you?" One asked. She looked to be the leader, looking Caz over with a disapproving glare.
"Caz, but to you? It's Casanova." She said, a bitter tone rolling out unintentionally. She wasn't going to be disrespected on neutral territory.
"Whose girl are you?" Another asked though this was more out of curiosity than actually trying to be rude.
"Manhattans," she said with a smirk, "I belong to the city and the city belongs to me." She said with the confidence of a woman not to be messed with. Caz's second name was always "She- Wolf" which she could be when pushed. The leader rolled her eyes.
"What kind of answer is that?"
"A smart ass answer from a smart ass, now if you'll excuse me," Caz said trying to move past the girls, who wouldn't let her through. Caz's shoulders slumped and she rolled her eyes. "Look I'm not a problem, I'm here to meet someone and then I'll be on my way." She said. The leader stepped forward again.
"Who?"
"Riff, now where is the numbskull?" Caz demanded. She was getting impatient and if this girl pushed her buttons anymore, she might start knocking heads.
"Don't call my boyfriend a numbskull." The leader said. Caz blinked once. Then again. She bit back a laugh and rolled her eyes at herself. Of course it fucking was.
"I'm an idiot, I'm such a fucking idiot!" She shouted. The girls now were getting worried. No surprise really, Caz did seem like she was going crazy. "And here I thought… you know what, forget it, forget it! Pass the message along, if Riff wants to find me, look toward the western sky!" She shouted. She had gotten the attention of some of the Sharks and some of the lower Jets. Caz's head shot between both groups and then she ran, she ran and didn't look at the scene and didn't listen to the noise. She didn't stop running until she hit the rooftop of an apartment on the very edge of Jet territory. She had hoped Riff took her message seriously. Though she doubted it. I'm so fucking stupid, why did I even think that Riff, Riff, for god's sake, cared about anyone like me. Caz was wrapped up in her head so much that she didn't hear him scale the fire escape and she didn't notice him watch the worry lines on her face, and the glares at the ground, and the few, very few, tears escaped.
"And what's got your pretty little head doing worrying?" Riff said announcing his presence to the lone occupant on the rooftop that ever since they were kids had been called for times of desperation. "You haven't told me to look to the western sky since we were 16 Cazzy, what's wrong?" He said. Caz finally addressed him with some tears still streaking, and a look that looked destroyed, betrayed, and angry.
"When were you gonna tell me about the girl?" Caz asked. She knew she was being irrational, but she didn't care, she had let a wall get low and it was being built back up. "Sorry, no, bad, just..." She started but couldn't get the words out. Riff didn't know what to do as Riff the gang leader. But right now, Caz wasn't Casanova the Informant, she was Caz: the girl who traded her name for a title so she could slip into the shadows. She didn't need the gang leader, she needed the boy who taught her that the light wasn't all that bad. So he walked over and held his arms out. Caz bolted to them and she wrapped her arms around him. Riff held her just as tight as he had when Caz had told him how shit she was at making human connections and how she might never actually have friends and he had offered her to be her friend. He would kill to see that grin, not her smirk, not her smile to pass as a girl every once and awhile, but her grin.
"I'm sorry Cazzy,"
"We only say goodbye with words," she started to say. Riff sighed, she had come up with this when she was younger and he never understood it.
"I die a hundred times," He muttered into her hair, taking in the smell of roses and vanilla. Nothing like Graziella's hair, just nothing like her.
"You go back to her,"
"And I go back to black." He whispered again. He started to finally get it. He let go of her and looked at her, really looked at her, Caz's dark blue eyes, the freckles that graced her nose and her cheeks, and how much he really had wanted to kiss her when they were younger. He guessed that urge had never really disappeared. So he gave her a look, and she immediately understood, nodded once. The next thing they knew, their lips were together and who knows what might've happened in that moment, the duo sure as hell didn't care. When they separated, Caz nodded once.
"You have a girl to get back to,"
"And you have a city to own." He said. He kissed her forehead one more time. "To you my wildflower." He said with a small smile, one Caz could count on one hand she had seen.
"To you my Jet." She said. Riff started to walk backward.
"Hey, you could always be one too,"
"I thought my nonpartisan was always the best for the both of us." Caz called back.
"Maybe not Cazzy," He called. Riff then disappeared down the fire escape and out of view.