Demon Marcus, Sunday

[myownface]

"Adorable. Fucking adorable."

So, Sparkle was still an obnoxious teenager this weekend, doing all those things that he usually did, being an obnoxious teen. Going to work, pretending to want to be at work for all of fifteen minutes, and then deciding to just wander around, poking at whatever the hell the island had done to the merchandise.

And what merchandise had grabbed his attention today? Onesies. Cute little animal-hooded footie pajamas, to be more accurate. In sizes ranging from devastatingly adorable newborn baby to what Sparkle could only guess was something intended to be worn either by a very, very large adult, or maybe a silverback gorilla. One of those.

"Why is everything so fucking cute?"

Because of what weekend it was, Sparkle. Because of the weekend.

[OOC: Open and OCD-free!]

Comments

[nottrivial]

And then there was a tiny customer.

Though his pants and shoes fit, he was basically drowning in a too-big ugly sweater that Sparkle might have seen before. Fandom hadn't shrunk all of Alec's clothes down to fit, it seemed, and it was very annoying.

He started browsing the racks by himself, not wanting to inconvenience whoever worked here, but then he almost walked into Sparkle as he rounded a corner. "Oh," he said, very, very quietly. "'Scuse me, sorry."

[myownface]

Sparkle recognized the sweater before he recognized the kid, blinking down and wondering for a half-second if some little turd had gotten into Alec's room and made off with his clothing or something. And then he realized what had just happened here, and found himself torn between hating everything in the whole damn universe ever, and... actually pretty thankful.

For a start, this was already about ten million times less awkward than he'd figured his next time talking to Alec was going to be.

"Hey," he said, casually, as he crouched down so that he could look the kid in the eye on his own level, "don't worry about it. Nobody's perfect, right?"

That was only kind of an underhanded dig at Shadowhunters in general. Because sometimes Sparkle was petty even while he was trying to be decent.

"Can I help you with anything, Squirt?"

[nottrivial]

Alec looked a bit like a deer in the headlights, but he nodded. "Kids' clothes, please?" he asked in a tiny voice.

He tugged his own sleeve unhappily. This sweater did not fit him at all.

[myownface]

"Yeah, you're kinda swimming in that old thing, aren't you?" Sparkle smirked for a moment, before nodding over his shoulder toward the kids' section. "C'mon, I'm sure we've got something that'll fit you better. You want something in particular? Another sweater? It's starting to get chilly out there."

November kind of did that.

[nottrivial]

It wasn't that cold to a Shadowhunter, but, "Like sweaters," Alec affirmed in a whisper as he shuffled after Sparkle. Gracefully, but still. It was still shuffling.

Congratulations on being privy to the knowledge that Alec had been a really, really shy kid, Sparkle. Use it wisely.

[myownface]

Hey, if Alec had ever met Sparkle as a kid, he'd know that Sparks had been the sort who watched his food like a hawk lest someone run away with it, and who steered clear of anyone over four feet tall on the grounds that he probably couldn't hold his own if they tried anything funny. And then they'd be even.

As it stood, Sparkle was going to use his powers for good instead of evil, and lead Alec over to a sweater rack that was full of stock decidedly more his size.

"We have a few that'd probably suit you," he noted, rifling through the selection without really thinking and pulling one off the rack, holding it up against Alec to see if it was about the right size. "See, personally, I'd stick you in a dark blue, maybe deep green, but you strike me as the kind of kid who prefers black, am I right?"

Call it Sparkle intuition. Really.

[nottrivial]

"How'd you know that?" Alec asked. He crossed his arms, not because he was sullen, but in order to pull his sleeves tighter around himself. The surplus fabric was flopping around and it was undignified.

[myownface]

"Lucky guess," Sparkle replied, smiling and plucking a black sweater from the rack. "It's a good colour, you know. Goes with everything, harder to stain, lets you blend in easier in the dark. I mean, grey's a little better for the blending, but who's keeping track, right?"

He palmed the price tag as he pulled the sweater from the hanger. Only a quick rustling sound, which could just as easily have been the fabric itself shifting around, and then he was handing the sweater to Alec, price-sticker free.

"Here. Try this one on. Looks your size."

[nottrivial]

"Thank you," Alec said politely, shuffling in the direction of what he assumed to be the dressing rooms. The part about blending in in the dark stuck with him - that was, Alec was pretty sure, the main reason that Shadowhunters dressed in black, but he didn't know that was something people talked about. Especially mundanes.

"Um, what's your favorite color?" he asked as he slipped into a dressing room stall, sweater in hand.

[myownface]

Well, most mundanes didn't spend as much time outside after dark as Sparkle did, either. He did enjoy his late-night walks around whatever neighbourhood caught his eye, after all. He liked late-night window inspections even more. Who knew when you'd find one that wasn't locked?

"Yellow," he replied, maybe a touch ruefully as he watched Alec slip into the dressing room. "Not all that good for blending, but... you know. It's happy. Sometimes it's good for you, just being around something stupid like yellow that makes you happy. Black's my second favourite, though. It makes sense."

[nottrivial]

"I don't like yellow," Alec confessed softly as he changed. "'s too bright."

That would probably change in a few years. When he met his tawny-eyed new best friend.

"Do you like bees?"

[myownface]

"What's not to like? They're small and fuzzy, they make honey, the boys just stay home and do nothing-" except have sex, but he wasn't saying that to a little kid even if he did know what that little kid would look like naked in another ten years, "-all their lives, and they'll literally die in order to totally ruin someone's day if you're not careful with 'em. And, I mean, they can fly. That's pretty cool."

Sparkle thought bees were awesome. On the other side of the spectrum, wasps were assholes, and he'd stand by that opinion until his dying day.

[nottrivial]

Now cozily wrapped up in his new sweater, Alec slipped out of the changing room, feeling much more comfortable. "'Cause bees are black and yellow," he explained. "I like them too. They work really hard."

Well, if Sparkle had had any doubt about who this tiny child was, which he obviously didn't, that would probably have cleared it up for him.

[myownface]

Yup. All doubts? Banished forever. And ever. And ever.

"Yeah, there's something pretty awesome about something so tiny being able to do so much. Flying around, collecting pollen, building the hive - they have to make the wax themselves - protecting the hive, making the honey... Did you know honey is bee puke? And it'll last literally forever without going bad? So you know bees have an eye for quality if even their puke is so perfect it never spoils."

And now it's time for science hour with your host, the punk guy who works at the clothing store.

[nottrivial]

"I didn't know that," Alec said slowly, but he didn't look grossed out. Just thoughtful. "They're also, um, they work in teams. Like an army." Or like a team, Alec. "I like that better than flies and wasps."

[myownface]

"Wasps are jerks anyway," Sparkle replied, nodding knowingly. "And, okay, so they make paper, but they don't have that teamwork thing going for them. Except yellow jackets, they have like huge colonies that'll pretty much destroy you if you trip over their nest. We don't like yellow jackets."

Wasn't it good to be informed of that, Alec?

[nottrivial]

"You know a lot about bugs," Alec said, blinking seriously. "I've never seen a yellow jacket nest. Did you trip on one?"

Even as a kid, he was a little hyper-literal, yes.

[myownface]

"Not me, nah. But you hear stories. How's the sweater fit?"

Sparkle would be way, way less casual about yellow jackets if he had tripped on a nest. They were assholes when they weren't given a reason to be angry. Imagine four-thousand of the little fuckers chasing you down with murder in mind.

Sparkle maybe needed to watch less Discovery Channel.

[nottrivial]

"It's really comfortable," Alec confessed shyly. "Thank you for helping me. How much is it?"

[myownface]

"Wouldn't you know it? There's a big sale on black comfy sweaters that look exactly like that one, today? So it's fifty cents. Do you have two quarters? Or ten dimes, that's fine, too. I'm not picky."

He'd even take a combination of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. Because today was crazy like that.

And he'd float the rest of the fifty dollars himself out of his next paycheque. Because there was no way in hell he was charging a little kid that kind of money to keep warm in one of Demon Marcus' stupidly overpriced articles of clothing, miniaturized ex or no.

[nottrivial]

"Oh, okay," Alec said after a moment of squinting suspiciously and deciding he'd accept that. He reached in his pocket and came up with a fistful of coins. As he handed them over, he pointed out in an almost-whisper, "Just so you know, fifty cents is five dimes, though."

[myownface]

Dammit, little Alec. You were a quick one, weren't you?

"Well, yeah," Sparkle replied, looking at the ceiling like he'd totally meant to do that. "I was going to make change in quarters so you didn't have to haul that much coin around, you know? It gets heavy after a while, you're welcome."

Yep. Totally welcome to be all smart at him any time Sparkle flubbed up basic first-grader math.

[nottrivial]

"Oh." Alec smiled. "Thanks."

Tiny Alec was entirely too gullible.

"You're nice," he said, but it didn't have the cadence of a compliment. It was more just stating a fact.

[myownface]

"I can be nice when I want to be," Sparkle agreed, shrugging his shoulders. "You're a good kid, so I'll be nice to you. Sound fair?"

Look, Sparkle didn't want to garner a reputation as the sort of guy who gave a shit. Especially the sort of guy who gave a shit even when it was Complicated on Facebook.

[nottrivial]

"I think 'fair' is where I do something to help you out too," Alec said. He bit his lip. "Do you need any help in the store?"

[myownface]

"Nah, I think I'm good. There's not much to do in here on Sundays, anyhow. I don't have to sweep or anything until it's time to close, and that's not for another few hours."

... He said, realizing only a half-second later that he'd just passed up a golden opportunity to make someone else do his work for him.

[nottrivial]

"Okay," Alec said, agreeably enough. "If you're sure, 'cause I don't have anything else to do. I can't find my sister and I did all my assignments already."

[myownface]

To Sparkle's credit, he didn't make a face at the mention of Alec's sister. Did that get him a gold star? He wanted to think it did.

"And you don't have, like, any books to read or anything like that?"

Just checking.

[nottrivial]

"I already did my readings," Alec assured him. "This morning. It wasn't too many chapters. Does that mean you want me to help?"

[myownface]

"Nah, that's fine. But you can keep me company if you want to," Sparkle decided, gesturing back toward the counter so that he could drop Alec's fifty cents into the till. "Tell me about the readings you did, talk about more bugs or something like that. Help pass time."

Shut up. Maybe he didn't want Alec to leave just yet.

[nottrivial]

That was fine. Alec didn't really want to leave either. Talking wasn't his strong suit, generally speaking, but he was determined to try.

"Um," he said. "I like spiders. Even though they're not bugs. Do you?"

[myownface]

"Sure do," Sparkle replied. "Anything that eats mosquitoes is okay in my books, you know? And I, like, always wanted a tarantula. But I wasn't allowed to keep one before, and now I have a cat who might get into the tank or something, so that probably won't ever happen."

Plus, even though he thought spiders were awesome, there was no way in hell he was going to keep crickets, too. There was such a thing as too many bugs.

[nottrivial]

"I have a cat too," Alec shared. "But not here. I think they're better than tarantulas. Actually. So you're lucky."

[myownface]

"I'm super lucky," Sparkle agreed. "Velcro's a good cat."

Or at least a clingy one.

"What's your cat's name?"

Because Sparkle was nosy, and 'Alec has or once had a cat' was news to him.