Buildings Burn // Zach & Ryan
Smoke still rolled in lazy waves from the remains of the brownstone; thick clouds of gray and black clung to stone guts and broken windows while an optimistic breeze kept trying to pull the smoke free. Stripped out of his protective gear, Zach watched the building from a relatively protected spot upwind. There was still time before the drive back to the station, even if the situation was largely contained, and the couple minutes of relative quiet felt damn good. ‘It could have been worse,’ his brain said, ‘it could have.’ No one had died, not on scene anyway, and that had to be good enough.
Still, the blaze sat wrong in his stomach. He didn’t investigate--paperwork made him itch on principle, but the building had gone way too fast and way too much. Rolling his shoulders to get rid of the tightness, Zach stretched his neck and frowned at the vaguely familiar silhouette walking around the scene. Well, guess he wasn’t the only one twitchy about this fire. “Johns? Hey, what’re you doing in my neck of the woods?” He grinned, walking toward the detective with two sealed bottles of water.