myownface | An Airbnb in Baltimore, Tuesday Afternoon

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An Airbnb in Baltimore, Tuesday Afternoon

Sparkle had given the island's weirdness one night! One.

One was enough. The message that he'd left for Atton in the wake of that night was dubiously coherent and had been left without a single breath taken between words, and Sparkle could not get off the island fast enough after being caught out after the airhorns sounded, thank you very, very much. Sparkle had put up with years of Fandom horror, but very little could prepare a guy for the things he'd seen, stabbed, and screamed at while trying to make his way to somewhere that didn't involve...

... those.

It was a frazzled, tipsy Sparkle, wielding a tupperware container with a fish in it in one hand and half a bottle of Fireball in the other, who made his way up to the Airbnb that Hernando had booked and who knocked on the door. With his face.

There might have been sobbing involved? Or it could've just been frazzled ranting in between bouts of quiet screeching. It was hard to tell.

Sparkles were not made for Silent Hills.

[OOC: For the one, or for texts and/or phonecalls! NFB for distance!]

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Sparkle's shoulders hiked upwards a little bit. A shrug. Not because he didn't know, necessarily, but because he did know, but didn't want to admit that it'd be a while still before exhaustion won out over nightmares.

"S'dumb," he muttered, eyes half-lidded as fatigue warred with stubbornness and then called for reinforcements from Hernando's relaxing hands. "M'fine. By now? This many years of stupid? Should be fine, you know. So, s'dumb."

Yeah. You tell 'em, Sparkle.

"It is not dumb," Hernando said quietly, "This many years of stupid is not fine nor should you be fine with it. I do not expect you to be fine right now, baby. You're still coming off the adrenaline. You are not dumb." He eased Sparkle's head back into the spray to rinse the suds out, stroking his fingers through the wet hair. To ensure all the suds were gone, of course.

"You've mentioned before," Hernando began hesitantly while reaching for the conditioner and working that between his hands, "that sometimes getting high helps. Would that help now or would it make things worse?" He didn't really know how pot worked but had also never heard of someone having a case of the screaming jeebies from it.

And Dani had sent him home with something she thought was a joke for Hernando.

Sparkle shrugged a little.

"Kinda depends on the pot, I guess," he mumbled. "Kinda wanna smoke my fucking brain right out right now but the last thing we need is, like, somebody bitching about the smell." He paused a moment. "I might've shoved some gummis into my bag, maybe. Kinda just... like... grabbed shit on the way out."

Mmm, edibles. All the THC, none of the skunk smell.

Hernando's smile was wry, "Baby, Dani sent me home with things I have no reason to take. I can guarantee it would be well-sourced and probably very potent. I was, I guess, a little more anxious than I thought I appeared and she suggested I chill out." With a recreational form he had only ever rarely used. He'd kept them because Sparkle was a not infrequent recreational user.

"But I don't want you taking it if it will do anything bad."

"I mean..." Sparkle leaned back a little to look at Hernando, mulling that over. "... After we get out and dried off, lemme take a look at it? I don't figure Dani would give you something that'd freak you out and tell you it's meant to do the opposite."

Heck, maybe it was clearly labeled or whatever. Hernando was talking about weed, right? Could be just about anything, he realized.

Hernando worked the conditioner in and answered, "She would not. Dani would never do that, not even as a prank. She has.." He paused and sighed, "Dani has a very wide and very large experience with drugs, especially cocaine and marijuana. Her father is in the import/export business. One of the largest in Mexico. And she knows I will not touch cocaine. Nor would she send me on what she thought was an airplane with it."

So that should answer the unasked question.

Sparkle nodded a little. Gave a soft, thoughtful hum.

"I mean, I'm sure America doesn't love if you're flying in with pot in your bag either," he noted, "but ahahahaha fuck, at least one will fuck you up significantly less than the other, and fucking up Hernandos is bad. Hernandos are for fucking, not fucking up..."

There was a lot of incoherent mumbling going on, again.

"... I mean, maybe if I can't sleep, we can break it out and see what it's about."

He wouldn't be able to sleep.

Hernando listened to the babbling, still playing with Sparkle's hair and asked even more carefully, "Baby? Do you need fucking tonight?"

He had zero illusions that Sparkle would be able to sleep on his own. He knew that wasn't going to happen. If Sparkle needed to be fucked to falling, it wouldn't exactly be a chore.

Hernando wasn't in that particular state of mind at that exact moment but that could be changed very, very quickly. He'd assumed Sparkle needed care and comfort.

But there were many forms of comfort.

"I need..." There was a long pause, there. And then, tentatively, as though there were just enough critters crawling around in his brain that he worried about any negative reaction to a 'no,' Sparkle shook his head. "I don't know what I need," he murmured. "But sex is the last thing from my mind right now, babe. I'm sorry."

What was he apologizing for? He didn't know. Seemed like the thing to do.

He'd blame being Canadian.

Hernando immediately shook his head and kissed Sparkle. "The comment made me ask because you're sometimes very bad at asking for what you need. I think you need to be carried into bed so you can rest, that is all that is on my mind." Rest. Not sleep. He knew that was unlikely for a long while.

Tipping Sparkle's head back again, he rinsed the conditioner, working his hands through.

There was another pause, shorter, before Sparkle hummed a little, more or less in agreement.

"That sounds about right," he admitted, replying to the whole of it. "Should eat, too. Haven't yet today. But..."

No appetite to speak of, and not so sure anything would stay down, either. But he'd been doing a lot of drinking! He was totally fine, honest.

"That too, yes. It can wait until your stomach has settled a little," Hernando agreed, all too familiar with Sparkle's heave reflex. "There's ice cream in the freezer if we need to get your blood sugar up, but after Fireball, more sugar may not be wise."

Thought about it and said, "Toast and tea, maybe. Something without caffeine."

Sparkle tried to gauge just how much of either he'd be able to get down, and then shrugged and nodded. At least the toast was relatively inoffensive from pretty much every angle, and tea came with water, water was good...

"Sounds like a plan," he agreed. "Toast and tea. No sugar."

"Mmhm," Hernando agreed as he turned off the water. "First, though.." Snaking a hand out the shower door, he grabbed a towel. Sparkle was wrapped and gently guided out. "Let's get you a little dryer before I carry you off to bed."

And if you thought he wasn't going to princess carry you, think again.

Sparkle nodded a little and leaned hard against Hernando.

"Should prolly get some gunk on my arms and wrap 'em before bed, though," he murmured as he let Hernando guide him along. "They're still..." his brain muddled through a haze of words and alcohol before settling on, "sticky."

... Which wasn't quite right, but he figured Hernando would know what he meant.

"I will gunk your arms," he promised, "but they are already starting to scab so we might want to let the air so it's thing." A beat. "Unless you want to cover them." So he didn't have to see them.

"... Whatever you figure's best," Sparkle said after a pause to process. "But cover before bed so I don't get... like... linty or... whatever?"

Having bedsheets stuck in scabs sounded like an ungood time.

"We'll see if they're dry by the time you are ready to sleep and if not I will wrap them," Hernando compromised. Keeping one arm around Sparkle, he caught up one of the fluffy robes and began gently manhandling Sparkle into it. There was executive function failure going on and this wasn't something he needed to focus on when Hernando was right there.

"Arms around my neck, baby, and prepare for liftoff."

"Heh," Sparkle said, a little exhale, a mostly put-on laugh, and he was reaching up and doing as he was told. "Five, four, three..."

Really, if it hadn't been for just how desperately Sparkle had needed to not be on the island, he probably wouldn't have made it this far. Could very well have found his way to the bathroom, to still be there, sobbing in the tub. Maybe he would've gotten the water running, eventually. He'd managed that before, at least.

"..Two, one," Hernando finished and on cue scooped Sparkle up. Adjusted his weight and carried him to the bed. Where he set him down and collected a kiss as toll who while working the covers out and up. He didn't lay him down but rested him against the headboard. "I will be right over there where you can see me making you some tea," he told him.

And yes, he was still naked and the only dry areas were where Sparkle's towel and robe had been. Enjoy the view.

Sparkle was so not going to complain about the view. It made for a much needed distraction, really.

"Thank you, babe," he murmured, kind of grabbing for a corner of the covers and clinging to them. Literal security blanket. He couldn't bring his knives to bed. "... Thank you. I. Yeah."

Wanted to scream and cry about those things again. But maybe not. Maybe he'd just... just be okay with being not okay for a while.

That was fine. He was allowed.

Hernando saw the detritus of Sparkle's arrival when he turned around and with a small frown, he detoured from tea and toast to take care of Milady and Pauline. He opened the lid of the tupperware and added a little of the tank water to it before setting it to float and acclimate. Pauline, he put nearby so she could have the light.

The rest of it.. that frown grew. Two knives that needed to be cleaned, and he would do that in a bit. For now.. he kicked them into the bathroom with Sparkle's clothes. Found two that were clean in the pile and idly counted several more just to make sure they didn't get lost under a couch or anything. Brought them to the nightstand on Sparkle's side and set them there, collecting another kiss.

He was moving almost lazily. He was anxious, sure. He wasn't going to show it because it would set Sparkle off and right now, Sparkle needed to just.. exist. Returning to the kitchen, two pieces of bread were popped into the toaster while the kettle was set to boil. He had several teas with him because of course he did. He selected a nice light tisane, chamomile and lemongrass and mint. Nothing red, nothing spicy. "Do you want butter or peanut butter or cheese on your toast, baby?" Beat, "You can have butter with either of the other two but I am not putting all three on the same slice of bread for you."

Mostly teasing. He absolutely would put all three on the same piece of toast if Sparkle would eat it.

Sparkle paused for a moment, and then noted, mostly just because there was a certain amount of banter he had to keep up in order to convince himself that he was a functional human person, "I bet peanut butter and cheese would be a legit good combination, though. I've seen it on hamburgers before."

There you go. Legit.

Hernando gave the obligatory shudder. "It was processed American cheese, wasn't it?" He sighed theatrically, "Of which I have some Kraft Singles in the fridge." For all he teased Sparkle, he still bought things that Sparkle ate.

He got out the peanut butter and the cheese. "You'll have to let me know how it tastes. I do not, I tell you this now, want a bite." Yup. He was going to make at least one horror toast for his boyfriend.

Sparkle stuck his tongue out.

"It was a gourmet burger diner in Toronto and it was aged cheddar, thank you."

So there! Ha! Not every cheese Sparkle put in his face was horror cheese! Only most of it.

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