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

[suitably_heroic]

"Don't singe anybody's eyebrows off," Atton sighed, long-suffering, "That's the definition of conspicuous."

[myownface]

"It's not me doing it if they're the ones sticking their face in it," Sparkle pointed out. "Because that is the definition of stupid, and any court of law would agree they had it coming."

[suitably_heroic]

"I don't know," Atton mused. "Depends on the circumstances, really."

[myownface]

"Like, if I put a sign beside the big fire with an arrow that says, 'Hey, stupid! Come stick your face here!' You mean?"

Maybe it would work? Who knew?

[suitably_heroic]

"If they had reasonable cause to know what you were burning, maybe?" Atton said. "I dunno, is your neighborhood one of those 'don't set fire to things without a permit' things?"

[myownface]

"My neighbourhood is one of those 'don't breathe without a permit' things," Sparkle grumbled. "There is way too much 'not in my backyard' going on around there for anyone's comfort. It's just making people act shittier in retaliation."

Not just himself!

[suitably_heroic]

Atton hopped up the stairs into the Temple. "Well, try not to turn it into an army stand-off," he said, "That never ends well for anybody."

[myownface]

"I really don't think we're organized enough to pull that off anyway," Sparkle admitted. "Worst thing we're going to do is maybe egg somebody's house or something."

Which, again, they'd totally have coming, dammit.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton shrugged. "Probably not a smart thing to do while they're making their minds up about whether they want to throw you out or not," he said thoughtfully.

But Sparkle stealing cutlery was okay because it wasn't high profile. Sure, Atton.

[myownface]

"They've already made up their minds they don't want us around," Sparkle pointed out. "They knew that the day we were unpacking. Now it's a matter of whether or not they can legally make us go. Or if any of them have the balls to even try."

Which egging would probably help along, Sparks.

[suitably_heroic]

"Then don't give them a reason to find the balls," Atton said. "You can always save the petty revenge for when they've gone ahead and earned it."

Just no murder, please.

[myownface]

Sparkle was so not the murdering sort.

"Yeah, yeah," he sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "No egging, then. Like, I can't police the other people from the home or anything, but I solemnly swear to keep all egg cartons in the kitchen where they belong unless they're really asking for it."

There was always toilet paper.

[suitably_heroic]

You never knew who could turn out to be the murdering sort. As the murdering sort, Atton preferred to advise people not to go down that path. Fair?

"Good. Besides, if you save enough of those, maybe you can make us an omelette," he said. "I bet Brianna loves omelettes. They're just about plain enough for her not to complain."

[myownface]

That got a bit of a laugh out of Sparkle, who was now taking the stairs two at a time.

"One of these days, I'll find something that everyone else can enjoy that she won't bitch about," he decided. "It's a life goal of mine."

He dreamed big.

[suitably_heroic]

"I blame growing up with Atris as a quote-unquote maternal figure," Atton announced. "All that white and moral grandstanding can't be good for a kid."

[myownface]

"Pfff, morals."

That pretty much summed up Sparkle, right there.

"Like, what is so wrong with food that tastes like something, anyway? I don't get that part."

[suitably_heroic]

"Maybe spicy food killed her mother?" Atton suggested.

[myownface]

"And salt and pepper kicked her puppy," Sparkle agreed. "It's actually really super tragic. Now she cries every time she sees a curry."