The Perk, Thursday morning

[future_sandworm]

Yesterday had been Leto's and Ghanima's birthday, and what better way could there be to handwavily celebrate it avoiding ceremony at court and spending the time in Ghani's room eating take-out food. Why the island had seen fit to offer its residents Santa hats on this particular day, was as usual a mystery, but Leto had decided not to take it personally. Sadly, there had been no hats left to take home to Irulan.

He would catch a portal later, but there was time to stop by the Perk before than, enjoying a cup of coffee before returning home. Outside the window a polar bear waved cheerfully at him, holding up a bottle. Leto just smiled and shook his head. At least Fandom didn't change.

[Open!]

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[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo usually did her serious AT runs in the afternoon, but Thursdays she didn't have any classes, and she really felt like she could use a change of pace, so she'd gotten up early and headed out.

Of course she hadn't gotten far before her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten yet, so clearly she should grab some carbs to fuel all the exercise she was about to do. Fortunately, The Perk had pastries.

So a short Japanese girl with pigtails stepped carefully through the door of the coffee shop, then slowly glided over to the counter, the soft, high-pitched whine of AT motors accompanying her movement. Then she proceeded to order four or five pastries before looking around for somewhere to sit and eat them all.

[future_sandworm]

The noise made Leto turn his head, looking towards the counter. First polar bears and now girls with rolling shoes buying lots of pastries. The lack of predictability was enjoyable, and he smiled, mostly to himself.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo's eyes swept past him in their search for seating, then snapped back. She rolled over toward his table, then hesitated, looking a bit awkward.

"Um. You wouldn't happen to be related to Lady Ghanima, would you?" The eyes were kind of hard to miss.

[future_sandworm]

"She is my sister," Leto replied. "Are you one of her students?" He added: "That's a lot of pastries."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Oh!" Ringo smiled. "It's nice to meet you, then. And, yes, I took a class with her over the summer."

She flushed a bit, but shrugged. "I'm going to be pretty active this morning, so I figured I'd better fuel up, you know?"

[future_sandworm]

He laughed. "That makes sense, then. And have a seat if you like, unless you prefer eating those standing." Leto gestured towards the chair opposite his own. A conversation was always enjoyable, especially with one of Ghani's students.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, I could," Ringo allowed, but she sat down anyway. "But this will be easier."

She cocked her head. "I haven't seen you around before," she admitted.

[future_sandworm]

"I'm just visiting Ghanima," Leto said, sipping his coffee. "I am Leto, by the way. And your name?" He had lost the habit of introducing himself.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Oh, sorry!" Ringo set her pastries on the table and stood up again. She'd loosened up a lot since coming to Fandom, but introductions always seemed to throw her back on formality. "My name is Ringo Noyamano." She offered him a short, polite bow. "It is very nice to meet you."

[future_sandworm]

"It is nice to meet you too," Leto said inclining his head slightly in response. "Where are you from?" A more formal culture, at least.

[soniaroadsqueen]

She nodded her head again, and then sat back down. "Tokyo." Wait, Lady Ghanima wasn't from Earth. "It's in Japan. Um, on Earth." Just in case!

[future_sandworm]

"A place I've never visited. I'm not sure what Ghanima told you, but in our time humanity abandoned Earth millennia ago. Which of her classes did you take?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Physical Education," Ringo answered. "And I don't think I knew that, though I knew she had to come from somewhere very different."

[myownface]

Sparkle was looking kind of bemused as he made his way into the Perk, a bottle of Coke in one hand. He had been on his way to get some coffee before going on a grocery run, but one thing had led to the next, and the next, apparently, involved... a lot of Coke.

"I'm going to be bouncing off the walls by noo--Leto!"

See Sparkle. See Sparkle break into a broad grin. There was a pleasant surprise. Right up there with not being eaten by the large bear who'd given him his drink.

"Hey! What brings you to the island?"

[future_sandworm]

A smile like that just had to be returned. "Sparkle. It's good to see you." Leto leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. This was a pleasant surprise for him too, and what was better than pleasant surprises?

"My sister and I celebrated our birthday yesterday," he said in response to the question, then added: "And I see you are brave enough to accept drinks from bears."

[myownface]

"Heeey, birthday boy," Sparkle replied, smirking and tilting his Coke at him in a little toast. "I'm not usually the sort to take offers from bears, but I've been around the block a few times. They come here like every December, you know? And they don't give up so easily."

 In the grand scheme of things, Sparkle would rather take free pop from a bear than piss one off by saying no.

[future_sandworm]

"I don't remember them from my time as a student." Leto sipped his coffee, looking amused. "But I assume they are not likely to try and poison you." Life at the court of Arrakeen made that sort of danger so consider seriously, not that Leto himself was vulnerable to it.

"And preferable to the hats. Even my stepmother would have disliked those."

[myownface]

"Well, I haven't died from Coke before," Sparkle mused. "I mean, if anything about this stuff'll kill you, it's the high fructose corn syrup. I miss Canadian Coke. They actually use sugar."

 He was picky in that regard, so sue him.

"And the hats are... festive, I guess. I dunno, even the really stupid ones only last a day, so at least there's that, right?"

[future_sandworm]

Not having considered that there were different kinds of Coke, or the types of sweetener available in this time, the interesting point Leto got from that was: "Canada? Is that where you're from?"

They hadn't exactly got to that kind of conversation last time they met.

"As for the hats, I suppose the island could have offered worse things for my birthday." He said that with a laugh. The complaint hadn't been entirely serious, although it had been funny to make a fuss about it yesterday.

[myownface]

"Yeah," Sparkle replied, and then, with a shrug, he added, "Toronto."

In case that made any difference or anything, one way or another.

"And man, the island is really good at badly-timed offerings. But at least this time of year, it's all mostly harmless, festive stuff, you know?"

[future_sandworm]

Canada and Toronto was little more than places on a map for Leto. "Close to this time, and similar to this universe?" That was just a guess. For all Leto knew there might be a place or a decade where everyone had hairstyles similar to Sparkle's.

"Do you plan to return?" he asked. "Last time we met you seemed unsure about your situation. And I didn't see you at Homecoming, so I thought you might have left."

Which was Leto's way of saying 'yes, I did notice'.

[myownface]

Sparkle was maybe fidgeting a little at the mention of Homecoming. If he'd thought Leto might be there, maybe he would have at least made a cursory appearance just to say hi. Dammit, missed opportunities.

"Close to the here and now," he replied, "but... pretty sure I'm not going back. Things are still pretty messy back there, and I don't think they're going to just blow over on their own. Not this time."

That kind of happened when you burned down a house and then skipped out on your own trial, Sparkle. Yes.

[future_sandworm]

Sparkle's uneasiness about it was obvious, and Leto debated with himself whether to ask more or shift the topic in a different direction. He shot a glance out the window, where another polar bear walked past with a bottle, then looked back at Sparkle, raising an eyebrow. "Messy?"

He added, should Sparkle choose not to elaborate on that: "So, are you still working at Demon Marcus?" If there was the slightest hint of a smile, it was Leto thinking back on their meeting there with fond memories.

[myownface]

"Legal stuff messy," Sparkle sighed, pursing his lips and looking with interest up towards the ceiling. "Kind of a fugitive now, I guess, messy."

You know, no big deal, right?

He was grinning a little when he looked back down, at least. Especially when he caught sight of that hint of a smile on Leto's own face when he did so.

"And yeah, I'm totally still working at Demon Marcus. I might actually be the only one working there. I might have to, like, start hiring people or something."

[future_sandworm]

"What did you do?" Leto took a sip of his coffee. He had given Sparkle opportunity not to talk about it, so a direct question shouldn't be surprising.

"I am sure some of the new students arriving after New Year will be in need of work." Leto kept his gaze on Sparkle, the smile not really fading.