Friday, Toronto, Sparkle's world
Sparkle
Okay, Sparkle was not nervous. Sparkle, nervous? That would be crazy. Sparkle was not a nervous sort of guy even a little bit. At all. Never mind that he'd gone pretty much crazy making sure his hair was just right for his arrival in Toronto and he hadn't done his make-up for fear that he'd get recognized and...
Okay he was totally nervous. You could tell he was nervous because he was chewing on one of his fingernails, looking around as though trying to figure out how in the world he'd even gotten here.
Parker
The trip into Toronto had been fine, but now Parker had to grab for Sparkle's arm before he went up to the door of the shelter that Leverage had helped set up for Raine and the other foster kids. The place looked good, busy and cleaned up, with new murals on the outside, but.
"Look," she said, jerking her chin over her shoulder, then stepping in front of Sparkle so as to block anyone else's view of him from the other side of the street.
Sparkle
"Look at-- Oh." Sparkle followed Parker's gaze, then hissed between his teeth a little. Here he'd been hoping he'd get to stop by and at least make sure Raine was doing okay, something easy before the big going-to-find-his-sister thing that they had planned for tomorrow. And of course there was a patrol car parked outside.
He could only guess at whether they were here looking for him and time just hadn't gone nearly as fast as it had on the island, or if one of the kids who lived here had fucked up, and the cops were here to ask questions about them, instead.
Either way, he kind of casually shimmied around so he was standing behind Parker, anyway.
"Shit," he muttered. "Shit shit shit. Now what?"
Parker
Parker hummed, unhurried, and tilted her head, considering the possibilities. "We don't have to visit. Or we can wait a while." But there was no way to know when or if the police would leave, or if they'd be staking out the shelter this weekend. Calling Raine might not get them any more information, and Sparkle looked ready to vibrate out of his skin. "But we can figure out a way in, if you still want to see them tonight."
Sparkle
Sparkle fidgeted, then shrugged his shoulders, his back to the cop car, looking really interested in... the sky. Which was silly, since there was too much light in the city to really see much in the way of stars, no matter how clear the sky was otherwise.
"I mean, I dunno. I'm probably not going to get the chance to come back here any time soon, you know?" He huffed a ragged little laugh. "I guess we could, like, sneak in a back window. There's a tree back there. Looks sturdy."
Raine would be used to that kind of thing from him, anyway.
Parker
Parker nodded thoughtfully. "We could. It'd probably work." She paused. "Of course, it could get Raine and the others in trouble if we're spotted going in that way, for not calling it in." She gave him a mysterious smirk. "I have a plan, though. Trust me?"
Sparkle
Sparkle blinked over his shoulder at Parker, one eyebrow raised, and then he shrugged.
"I mean, you're here for this, right? That seems like trust to me."
Because one way or another, he was going to be super vulnerable tomorrow.
Parker
"Cool. We're going to need T-shirts. And caps. Also, pizza. Where's the best pizza place near here?" Parker grinned. "C'mon."
Sparkle
"Uh..." Sparkle blinked, and then shrugged. "There's a place a couple of blocks over. Good stuff. Cheap, too."
If nothing else, Sparkle knew where to get half-decent pizza.
He was pretty sure he knew where Parker was going with this.
Parker
Less than thirty minutes later, they were driving up to the shelter with about twenty pizzas in the back seat, wearing the hats and shirts of your friendly pizza delivery people. Parker grabbed five pizzas from the back, and staggered theatrically up to the door, Sparkle toting an armful too.
Sparkle
"This is insane," Sparkle laughed, hiking the pizzas up a little. He'd managed ten, but that might have been a little too ambitious, so he hiked his leg up to rest against the side of the building, set the pizzas down on his raised knee, and then reached to ring the doorbell, hoping that somebody would answer fast.
From inside there was the telltale thump-thump-thumping of a few of the littles making their way for the door, hell-bent on being the first to answer. The door opened, and a little kid around twelve with messy pigtails and a missing front tooth squinted first at the pizza, then at the pair delivering it, and gasped. She didn't say a word, just turned and ran back inside, leaving Sparkle and Parker standing there with the pizza.
Parker
"PIZZA DELIVERY!" Parker yelled, and then said in a slightly more normal voice, "Just so you know, keeping us standing here doesn't mean you get anything free, and we have sodas with ice melting in the car."
Sparkle
Sparkle kept quiet, mostly because he hadn't gotten a good look at the cops in the car, yet, and wouldn't know if they would recognize him if he tried. A moment later, it was Raine arriving in the doorway, being tugged along by the kid who had run off.
"Okay, okay, look, we didn't order any piz--Sparkle??"
Sparkle gave Raine a wry smile.
"Hey. Miss me?"
Parker
Parker grinned, and put her pizzas down. "I'll just go get the rest of the pizzas."
On the way back, she veered off to talk to the cops. "Everything okay, officers?"
One of them looked surprised, the other one just sipped her coffee. "Yeah, no problems. Just keeping an eye out. We've had some break-and-enters in the area." The younger guy shrugged, and his partner gave him an irritated look.
"Oh, gotcha. Hey! We had an extra, why don't you guys take it?" Parker said, offering them a small pizza box. "We'll be in there for a little bit, settling the bill. Back out in a bit."
The Bank Shot Job was giving her an idea for making this even easier on Sparkle.
"Sure," the younger cop said, as his partner sighed. "Thanks!"
She came back in and grinned at Sparkle and Raine. "Surprise. We've got some of our stuff in the pizza boxes. Is there anybody here who can go out in these T-shirts and hats, and drive our car around?"
Sparkle
Raine looked thoughtful, and then waved the two of them inside.
"I have my learner's permit," she offered. "And one of the new kids is about the same build as Sparkle. I bet he'd agree to come along for free pizza. Anyway, he doesn't get out much."
Sparkle grinned a little. It looked like Raine was taking over for him as chief dragging-people-out-of-their-shells kid, around here.
"Well, then you better get on that, Rabbit," he drawled. "Because I'm not saving any for you if the rest of the kids fall on this pizza like a pack of sharks."
Raine laughed, then punched Sparkle in the shoulder before heading off to find the new kid.
[ooc: Preplayed with the effervescent myownface! To be continued tomorrow. NFI, but OOC welcome.]