Demon Marcus, Sunday

[myownface]

Sparkle was actually hard at work today. You could tell by how he wasn't actually draped over the counter for once, and instead he was dancing around the store, singing around a Tootsie Roll Pop that he'd stuffed into his mouth before he got to work... tidying? Putting stock out on the racks? Who knew? The only really important thing here was that

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[suitablyheroic]

Yeaaah. Atton'd been glad that Sparkle had cleared out of town last weekend, but there was definitely an eau d'not-okay still hanging around the kid.

So he was showing up to Demon Marcus bearing lunch in a bag. Thai food, specifically. "Hey, you're gonna break something like that," he called on his way in.

[myownface]

Oh, shit. Thai. The Thai smelled amazing, and Sparkle kind of had to pause in his dancing to lean in Atton's direction for a better look at the bag.

"What, like, something on me, or something in the store?"

Either would probably suck, Sparkle.

[suitablyheroic]

"Both," Atton said. He held the bag up higher. "You calm yourself down, you get fed."

[myownface]

"... I could probably sit still long enough to eat food," Sparkle mused, eyes following the bag like a hungry dog. "Is that Thai food?"

Look at that! No more dancing, like magic!

[suitablyheroic]

"Yep." Atton walked up to the counter and set it down, then started unpacking boxes. "I ordered enough to feed a small army, so I think you should be able to burn through the rest of the day on this."

He shot Sparkle another glance. "Or at least you'll be able to survive that sugar crash that's going to hit you any minute now."

[myownface]

"We are literally parked in Candyland," Sparkle protested lightly, grinning as he shoved his lollipop harvest to the side of the counter to to help Atton unpack. "I'm going to sleep good tonight, sure, but hey, it's better than glitter, right?"

He was just sad that his glitter stockpile was gone now.

[suitablyheroic]

Atton sighed, giving him some grumpy side-eye. "Look, how about we don't pretend I don't know what you're doing," he said, "And I won't dig."

[myownface]

Sparkle took that side-eye in stride. He really did. For about... thirteen seconds.

And then he sighed and frowned down at the countertop, making a snatch for a carton of pad thai. Something to do with his hands, mostly.

"... There are worse coping mechanisms than lollipops," he muttered.

This was true enough. He'd gotten totally hammered and lit things on fire when he'd gotten the video, after all.

[suitablyheroic]

"Yeah, I know."

Atton tore the lid off of something that looked like it had pineapple in it. "I'm not judging the actual coping mechanisms. Actually, I'm proud of you, this has got to be the healthiest way you've ever done it."

[myownface]

"I haven't burned a single building down since I got the news," Sparkle half-snarked, stabbing at his noodles a few times with the pair of chopsticks he grabbed at next. "I mean, Minako kind of played damage control there, though. I was ready to go on a bender with matches and dollar store pyrotechnics once I ran out of Uno cards."

[suitablyheroic]

"Eh, you didn't try to set the apartment on fire," Atton said, poking at his rice with his chopsticks. "Progress."

[myownface]

"Hey, I wouldn't burn down the apartment," Sparkle muttered, maybe a little sourly. "I still live there. I don't burn down buildings I still live in. They have my stuff."

It seemed like a smart policy to not actively do things to make oneself homeless after so many years of being just that.

[suitablyheroic]

"So basically keeping your stuff is my best protection against arson," Atton concluded. He shoved some rice in his mouth. "I need to remember that."

[myownface]

Sparkle was not going to throw food at Atton by virtue of the fact that he was actually really grateful that Atton was bringing him food in the first place. He'd been... not too great at remembering to feed himself, this week.

"Yeah," he sighed. "Yeah, that'll do it."

He poked at his noodles for another couple of moments, and then made a derisive noise deep in his throat before just putting the chopsticks down again.

"Fucking heroes."

There was the crux of it, there.

[suitablyheroic]

"Fucking heroes," Atton echoed.

There was a bit of a question in his tone, though not completely. Atton had his own experiences in that arena, after all, so he could guess.

[myownface]

Sparkle wasn't going to look up. Sparkle was going to stare into his noodles for a bit longer before making another little sound in his throat and looking up at the ceiling, instead.

"Zombies, you know? Just... Zombies, and no fucking sense to keep enough distance to not get bit by them or to get the fuck away from them and she lives in Los fucking Angeles so you just know it was a losing battle from the goddamn start. From the goddamn start. And what can she do? What's her fucking superpower? She bounces. But of course every goddamn person around here needs to be so fucking noble..."

When did he pick up the chopsticks again? Didn't matter. Those noodles were going to get brutalized all the same.

"I helped her make that first stupid costume of hers! I sewed on the rainbows right, because she was too fucking hopeless to even do that and she figured she could bounce at some fucking zombies and it'd be okay!?"

Stop yelling, Sparkle. The pad thai didn't do anything to you.