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]

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."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton gave a theatrical shiver.

"The arts," he said solemnly. "Never heard a better reason for outlawing them than the bagpipe."

[myownface]

"The pennywhistle is a mercy," Sparkle replied with a sage nod of his head. "Seriously, the only thing a bagpipe is good for us convincing somebody that their cat is probably dying."

[suitably_heroic]

"I'm not sure that would be a con worth doing," Atton said. "I mean, it's bound to be traumatic, being that close to a bagpipe."

Yep. Traumatic.

[myownface]

"Man, you might not actually survive Canada. Bagpipe CENTRAL."

[suitably_heroic]

"What icy hell do you escape from every week, Sparkle?" Atton demanded. "This mad place with bagpipes and French and giant karking houses?"

[myownface]

"Also beavers. And moose. So many moose."

... Sparkle had never seen a moose in his life before Fandom.

"It's kind of like paradise. If you like hockey and good beer."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton considered making a crack about beavers, but decided not to. Be pleased, Sparks.

"And now you sound like you're trying to sell me a timeshare in an illegal maple syrup enterprise," he announced. "I don't trust that."

[myownface]

"I think Canada only had the one of those," Sparkle noted, thoughtfully.

It was sad because it was true.

"And there might have even been a cheese one, come to think of it."

You'd think that Canada, with as much farmland as it had, would at least be a country with affordable dairy products.

[suitably_heroic]

"You had a cheese cartel?" Atton asked dubiously. "Really?"

[myownface]

"Seriously," Sparkle agreed. "This is how Canada does crime rings, man. Selling American cheese to pizza joints at a profit that's still cheaper than the local going rate."

There was a little pause, and then a laugh.

"Cheese cartel."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton rolled that over in his head.

"Seriously?" he said. "Canadian pizza joints need to smuggle in cheese from across the border to make pizza? You're not really convincing me here that you didn't come crawling out of some dystopia, Sparks."

Said the guy from a universe embroiled in near constant war.

[myownface]

"Right, right, I forget sometimes how pizza is such serious business for you," Sparkle chuckled.

He was pretty sure Atton would starve to death without it on the island, so maybe that was a legitimate concern for him to have?

"Anyway, it isn't like the pizza joints knew the cheese was smuggled in. They just knew it was, like, gloriously cheap compared to the gold bricks they were used to."

[suitably_heroic]

Hey, hey, Atton knew how to order in from other restaurants! He just liked pizza a lot better than Thai food. Could you blame him?

"Did that cheese gang ever get rolled?" he said. "...And I can't believe I just said those words. Wow, Canada."

[myownface]

"Yeah, I think it was made up of, like, dirty cops or something. Dirty cheese cops."

Seriously, Canada. What even.

"But, I mean, food is stupid expensive across a lot of the country. And at the time, our dollar was actually worth something, even if prices weren't going down, so I can see how it would've made sense to buy cheap somewhere else and then make some fast bucks on the re-sale."

Not that he'd, like, been taking notes or anything.

Much.