![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
An Abandoned Warehouse, Thursday Morning
Sparkle wasn't usually the sort to play the Good Samaritan card or anything. Hell, he'd be the first person out there to vehemently deny that he ever did. But he'd gotten a note with his radio stuff today that had worried him more than a little, about a little kid who was sleeping in the freaking warehouses, and if he was going to be getting notes about this, with squirrels expecting to tell the population of the island that some little kid was totally sleeping alone in a place that was easy to break into, he couldn't just ignore that.
Fucking island.
So he'd taken it upon himself to check out the situation, his backpack slung over his shoulder with a spare winter coat in it that he'd grabbed from the kids section at Demon Marcus, and a bag of takeout from Moobyland crammed in there along with. And, stuffed down the front of his shirt and peering out from under his shirt collar, his secret weapon, Velcro. Because kids liked kitties, right?
It hadn't taken him long at all to find little footprints in the snow, or where the boards had been kind of jimmied free. Took him even less time to pry a couple more free and set the cat loose inside, first.
Because kitty.
[For one!]
Fucking island.
So he'd taken it upon himself to check out the situation, his backpack slung over his shoulder with a spare winter coat in it that he'd grabbed from the kids section at Demon Marcus, and a bag of takeout from Moobyland crammed in there along with. And, stuffed down the front of his shirt and peering out from under his shirt collar, his secret weapon, Velcro. Because kids liked kitties, right?
It hadn't taken him long at all to find little footprints in the snow, or where the boards had been kind of jimmied free. Took him even less time to pry a couple more free and set the cat loose inside, first.
Because kitty.
[For one!]
no subject
Right. So now he was sounding crazy again.
"If you don't believe me, that's cool. You'll probably think I'm crazy until the first time you turn into a cat or something for a few days. It's a thing, here."
no subject
“I woke up here without ever coming here on purpose,” she shared, wondering if that counted as weird enough. “Do you think being a cat would be warm?”
Priorities!
Also, she didn’t believe him.
no subject
Hence Velcro.
"He's really good for keeping warm, too. Not too big, but his body heat's nice like that. Plus, I dunno. Something about a purring cat, I guess."
Which Velcro was doing now. A lot.
no subject
Warm, cuddly, and a kitten. There was no way she'd have not liked him.
“Were you really a dog?” Or was he just a crazy person?
no subject
Of course, he got a lot of cuddling time in through the whole ordeal, but...
no subject
Part of her was beginning to believe he was as nice as he was acting.
She chewed and swallowed and said, "Why does that happen?"
no subject
Sparkle had been here a while. He was allowed to say that.
"Usually people are pretty okay about feeding people when they turn into animals, though, so it's not all bad."
no subject
She liked being herself, even if was a grubby, exhausting existence.
no subject
A beat.
"There should be a chocolate bar in the front pouch of the bag, if you want it. My caretaker back in Canada sent it. Caramilk? Messy, but fucking awesome. I can get more."
All he needed to do was suck up to Lewis enough.
no subject
Amelia would figure out what to do with the chocolate bar once she was done her burger. If it kept, she could have it for a few days, just in case she needed something to eat later...
no subject
He wrinkled his nose a bit.
"They... don't really have anything like that, here. Another reason this place is so screwed up, I guess." He considered for a moment, and then sighed and gave his shoulders a shrug. "Sucks either way, in the end."
no subject
And Midgar hadn't been much better, come to think of it.
Were there really places where there weren't so many?
"I'll be okay," she said, wanting to reassure him since he'd given her things and hadn't had to. "I'm tougher than I look."
no subject
Not that he wasn't still worried about other people, of course.
"Look... I've got some more stuff I can bring here for you. More blankets, some heat packs for keeping your hands warm. I could probably pick up a cooler or something to keep food safe from mice or whatever, too. It's not much, but it's all stuff I would've killed for when I was on my own." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I could see if I could find a working power outlet somewhere, too. Bet we could get a heater in here for you, if there was one."
no subject
Even if it would help. Even if she probably would need that stuff soon. Amelia hadn't lived through a winter on the streets yet, and he had. She knew she should probably listen to him.
But there was a limit to the amount of charity she wanted to accept. It was one thing to accept a meal, or even a coat that she hadn't known about until he'd given it to her. That was different, right?
Her thoughts chased themselves in circles. Half of them reasonably pointing out that the things he was offering would be useful. The other half of her thoughts loathed the very idea.
"I don't know," she said mulishly.
no subject
And if he left it at that, it neatly skirted around how he had no intention of taking back the cooler or the blankets.
no subject
Amelia couldn't kill most of the monsters in Midgar, though she was very good at running away. But she was even better at scavenging for the things they left behind.
In Midgar, and Edge, she managed okay.
no subject
For some reason, they only occasionally dropped useful items.
no subject
Amelia drooped a little.
"That made it easier."
no subject
"Never had anything quite like that," he admitted, frowning a little. "There was a place to bring in cans and bottles, though, that would give you money for them. Never a lot, but if you went digging around in garbage cans and things on a Saturday morning, there were usually enough beer cans to buy a warm lunch, that always kind of kicked ass."
He wrinkled his nose again.
"They don't even have that here."
no subject
"How are people supposed to get food, then?"
no subject
He pursed his lips, thinking it over.
"I know you don't want more charity, and I don't blame you," he noted, "but like I said, they feed me, there. It's not like they'll miss some extra food. I can just, like, pack food up to bring to you until we figure out something better for you. It's, like, literally nobody's food. They'd probably be throwing a lot of it out anyway."
no subject
"They'd just throw it out?"
no subject
Hadn't stopped Sparkle from having a scrounge through the trash once or twice growing up. He wasn't hugely keen on repeating the experience.
no subject
So gracious, Amelia was.
She dropped her eyes to Velcro. "If that's okay?"
no subject
"Yeah, I don't mind at all," Sparkle replied. "I'll grab some extra food tomorrow at breakfast and bring it here for you. I gotta work through the day, but if I bring enough, you can ration that out, too, until I come back with whatever the cafeteria made for supper, right?"
She was a smart kid. She'd made it this long, after all.
no subject
no subject
He drummed his fingers against his ankles.
"Probably should figure out other places to meet, to, so I'm not leading people right to your front door or anything."