From Sparkle's Toronto to Atton's Coruscant, Saturday

[myownface]

Sometimes, Sparkle did stupid shit. Sometimes he did it knowing full well that it was stupid, and really, he didn't care. Why the fuck should he care? There were already murmurings around the neighbourhood, around the high and poncy Mapleview Lanes about the no-good group home teens who were living there, about property values and bad influences on their kids and number 459 was empty and it wasn't like it was even hard they were practically asking for it.

Raine couldn't believe it when he came back into their room in the dead of night and started to tally off the most useless shit from his backpack. She'd stared, sat in shock, told him that this was exactly what they expected them to do.

She didn't get it. Of course she didn't get it. One of her best friends on the street was the same wrinkled old bat who had started the shocked murmurs along the local phone tree about how much trouble they were going to be, and maybe Raine would get it eventually, that you couldn't trust that type and they didn't fucking deserve a shred of the respect they pretended they were owed, and when she did it was going to suck to be her, he guessed.

She'd asked him why he'd done it. She tried to make him promise not to do it again.

She mentioned that Lewis would be mad at him. And that, Sparkle couldn't leave alone.

"Ohhh, 'Lewwwisss' is it?" He laughed. "It's so obvious you have a big wonking crush on him, the way your voice sort of wavers when you say his name."

"Mr. Chance?" Raine sounded perfectly incredulous in turn. "Are you kidding me?"

"It's okay. Everyone has a crush on him."

"Well I don't. I think he's an asshole."

"Yeah?" Sparkle snorted at that. "If you think he's such an asshole why do you stare at him?"

And then he grinned in victory as Raine blushed. Blushed a lot.

"I stare at Mr. Chance?"

"You can't take your eyes offa him," Sparkle agreed, bolstered by that reaction. "Anyway, darling, he's taken."

"He's married?"

"Hah!" Yeah, that was a good, hard, long laugh. "Hahaha! I think he was, actually, so some shopgirl from New Brunswick with too much lip liner and a name like Sherry Lynn when he was like in high school. But not now, silly. Now he has a boyfriend."

"He's gay."

"Well duh." Sparkle snorted. He was testing the waters, now. See what her reaction there was. It was... incredulous, maybe. Weirdly flat. And Sparkle felt an irresistible urge to dial his own reaction up to fifteen to compensate. It had been a long, long time since someone had that look, that processing look like they were trying to make a decision about someone based on something like that, people on the island never did and he hated - hated it. "Dozy head. DUH--"

"Why are you being--so--"

"He doesn't like girls," Sparkle stressed. "Is that clear?"

"Sparkle." Raine sounded more than a little on the exasperated side, now. She couldn't often tell when Sparkle was cranking up the bullshit to try to deflect, but this time, she seemed to have it figured out. "I am not in the least interested in Mr. Chance. It has never occurred to me, actually, and I resent you implying that I--"

"Yakety yakety yak." Sparkle pulled his cigarettes and lighter from his pocket. "You talk too much, girlfriend."

He was quiet, then, as he lit his smoke.

"I think you're the one with the crush on Mr. Chance."

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck, too much, he'd pushed too much. Fuck.

"Who, me? Please. He is totally not my type. He is so lower middle. I mean his shoes? Did you happen to notice his shoes?"

There was nothing the matter with his shoes. Maybe they didn't go with the blazer he sometimes wore, but otherwise, they were perfectly acceptable shoes.

Sparkle found them kind of charming, on Lewis.

"I still think you have a crush on him."

----

As Sparkle stepped through the portal into the Portalocity lounge on Coruscant, he was feeling a bit better. Nobody had mentioned the break-in the day after. The family who had been away clearly wasn't back yet, hadn't noticed. And Raine wasn't even awake and out of bed yet by the time he slipped outside to go.

Sure, there was still a bunch of random shit in his bag. An actual sterling silver fork, and a spoon and a knife to go with it, because if he was taking one he had better get place settings for one to match, right? And two five dollar bills, which he'd tucked away into that girly-girl's flowery pink diary, which was going to be the best book he'd read ever. But he'd brought the necessities, too. Pop Tarts. Taco seasonings. Garlic. Sparkle was convinced that Atton's entire galaxy was suffering horribly for lack of garlic, poor things, and he'd snagged a few cloves from that fancy-assed house while he was there, too, because of course it was the sort of rich snob family that had fresh everything just sitting around even when they were going to be gone for a week and they'd come home and it would all go in the fucking garbage and he hated them.

Hated them. Them and their fancy house and their overabundance of crackers in like sixteen different flavours and the jewelry and the Siamese cat that had reminded him of Velcro and had rubbed against his leg the whole time he was there. He hated them. And liberated their garlic. Maybe he'd plant some while he was here. You're welcome, Coruscant. You're welcome.

[OOC: A bit more canon catchup sandwiched in with the usual 'Sparkle visits Atton' Saturday post! The Toronto parts are taken from Habitat, and slowly plunking along toward... more bad life choices, mostly. Sparkle no. For that guy!]

Comments

[myownface]

"No more shitty than I usually am," Sparkle replied.

As if that was somehow a good thing.

"Oh! I bought garlic!"

This was both completely related, and meant to be a change of topic.

[suitably_heroic]

"I'm going to lose you to the kitchen again for at least an hour, aren't I?" Atton grumped.

He was still squinting at Sparkle, though. So squinting.

[myownface]

"Only if you want to eat today," Sparkle decided. "We still have like a shitload of nerf to go through, you know."

And it was important that it didn't go bad, because nerf.

Was he being squinted at? Sparkle totally didn't notice. Honest!

[suitably_heroic]

Atton chewed on that for a moment or two. Figuratively speaking.

"Okay," he said, in that tone of voice that made it clear he wasn't sure he was even in a position to judge of any kind but he needed to ask anyway, "Sparks, what did you do?"

[myownface]

Sigh. Busted. Because of course he was. Because even if Atton wasn't a Jedi, the guy knew him well enough.

"Broke into a house," Sparkle admitted. "Like, there was nobody home, they had been gone for like a week and it isn't like I took anything worthwhile. I have a new fork for the collection, and ten bucks and some teenage drama queen's diary that talks all about how tragic it is that she likes chocolate bars. It's no big deal."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton was quite for a minute.

"They won't miss the fork, or the ten bucks, that's no big deal," he said. "Now the diary, on the other hand..."

That was bad, Sparks.

[myownface]

Sparkle shrugged his shoulders a little.

"So I keep it for a week and put it back some other time, or like leave it in their backyard and the kid thinks she dropped it somewhere. She's a stupid teenage girl, maybe she misplaced it."

Said the stupid teenage boy, who was the reason it was misplaced.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton shot him a dry look.

"She'll know," he said. "Teenage girls remember that poodoo. You could break in right now and put it back where she left it and she'll still be able to tell you put it in, like, upside down, and somebody smudged the papers. And then she'll go crying to mommy and daddy."

[myownface]

"Then I read it, I get my laugh, and I burn it. Whatever." Sparkle shrugged, though now he looked a little bothered by it all. "I won't have it, they won't be able to connect me to it, and who the hell breaks into someone's house to steal a diary but leaves the fancy jewelry behind? Nobody's going to believe someone took it except her."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Seriously, Sparks?" he said. "C'mon. What rich parents do you know who wouldn't bend over backwards trying to make things good with their spoiled teenage offspring?"

You could misplace a fork, or a ten dollar bill. It was a whole lot harder ghosting out with a diary.

[myownface]

"Raine's," Sparkle replied, not missing a beat. "Her mom's dead, but her father is alive and well and just completely stopped bothering. Shitty rich parents are also a thing. Just makes it easier to throw money at whatever is wrong to make it go away."

In fairness, Sparkle's experiences with any sort of parent generally began and ended with the crappy kind.

[suitably_heroic]

"And right now, 'what is wrong' is you," Atton said, also not missing a beat. "Fantastic."

[myownface]

"Okay, fine!" Sparkle threw his hand up in a gesture of surrender. Or frustration. Maybe both. "So I put it back tonight! Blame it being not to the exact right angle or something on the cat. Cats knock things out of the way, and their precious little spoiled shit of a princess will have her diary and it won't be an issue."

[suitably_heroic]

"Don't give me that whole dramatic--" Handflapping! Handflapping! "You know, I don't care if you steal anything. Steal all you like. Just steal smart, not stupid. Space, Sparks."

[myownface]

See? Space as a swear word!

"Stealing smart would be stealing something that is worth something, and then getting the fuck out of there before anyone knows I was around in the first place."

Which maybe was a better idea than sticking around Toronto, at this point. But hey.

[suitably_heroic]

"If you weren't too fussed about where you live, sure," Atton said, rolling his eyes, "But for some reason, you've got laser-brained focus on Toronto. So I'd settle for you not stealing anything that draws attention to yourself. Because this has 'self-destructive behavior' written all over it."

Take it from the expert.

[myownface]

Sparkle was quiet for a few seconds, just sort of staring incredulously at Atton at that.

"... No shit?"

Self-destructive? News to Sparkle for sure.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton stared right back. He was more than happy to take this one, thanks.

"Are you seriously telling me you're not trying to get caught, or at least trying to make damn sure they knew someone was there?" he asked flatly. "Stealing personal items? Really?"

[myownface]

"I'm not going to get caught stealing," Sparkle grumbled, shaking his head. "Like, I know how to break in to somebody's house without leaving a trail back to me. Sure, they'll suspect it's someone from the home if they decide, like, a fork and some kid's high school drama are worth reporting, but I'm not, like, going to let it get that bad."

Less B&Es for a bit. Big deal.

[suitably_heroic]

"Oh, yeah, because you control that kind of thing," Atton said dryly. He rolled his eyes. "Look, do what you need to do," because that was what this whole stealing thing was about, right, "but stop drawing unnecessary attention to yourself. All right? You're not as invincible as you think you are."

[myownface]

"Trust me, I've gotten killed enough times to know I'm not bulletproof, here," Sparkle pointed out. "But if it'll make you feel better, no more diaries. I'll stock up on napkin holders and penny rolls instead."

[suitably_heroic]

"Just stick to the things people won't miss, you'll be fine," Atton said, sounding mollified at last. "Maybe buy something stupid off that ten bucks."

[myownface]

"I'm going to get a new pennywhistle," Sparkle replied. "I'm saving up. And with what's left over, I'll get a pack of gum or something."

Because pennywhistles weren't exactly expensive. And really, he still had money saved up from his two jobs on the island.

[suitably_heroic]

"One of those fiddly tiny flute things?" Atton said. "Do you have someone inside that house whose eardrums you want to murder, or something?"

[myownface]

"Hey! I'm actually good at that one," Sparkle protested. "So long as you don't make it, like, squeak, it's not a bad instrument. Just be happy I'm not a bagpiper, man."