fandomtownies | Demon Marcus, Sunday

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Demon Marcus, Sunday

Oh yeah, you could bet Sparkle was in a good mood today when he came in to open up shop. Sure, he had, like, all of the holiday undecorating ever to do, but at least most of the winter clothing got to stay out. It was just, like, the garlands and tinsel and blinky lights that had to get packed up and put away for another year.

... Okay, it was just the garlands and the tinsel. Sparkle kind of liked the blinky lights.

... And the tinsel.

... Maybe he'd just put away the garlands?

Look, sooner or later, Sparkle was going to have to put away the holiday decorations. But for the time being, he was quite happy to settle for just vacuuming the extra glitter off the floor. That was practically almost the same thing.

[OOC: Open! OCD-free!]

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It was finally done! Finally done! Alluka had thrown herself a tea party (she'd even eaten a bunch of cucumber, to make up for the chocolate) in celebration and then had bundled herself up (she'd borrowed one of Mabel's hats just because, but didn't think Mabel would mind) and trotted out into town on a Mission.

She still brought her giraffe with her though. She was getting braver about going outside, but no way was she going alone.

She needed paper! Shiny, pretty paper! And--ooooooooooooooooh, twinkly lights.

Alluka stopped dead and had to wander over to peer into the shop. Twinkly, pretty things!

And most of those twinkly pretty things were going to be a permanent fixture at this rate. At least until maybe Ada decided to be rid of it. Sparkle sure wasn't looking to, himself.

"Fa-la-la-la-laaaaa!"

He paused in his cleaning to glance over at the kid who was peering in. A kind of familiar face, even. Giving her a grin, he waved a cheerful hello.

Normally he wasn't so stinkin' festive, but Christmas had actually gone well for him. That was new and novel.

Alluka's eager wave back was more of a cheerful flail as she hit a bit of ice and went wobbly for a second. She beamed at him and then, since he'd been nice, she went looking for the door.

"Hi, hi, hi!" she chirped, hugging Mr. Bubbles in front of her, just in case he wasn't as friendly as he looked. He looked familiar though, and not in a bad way, so she was hopeful he'd be nice. "You have pretty lights."

"Hey, thanks," Sparkle replied, putting his hands on his hips and looking around the room. "They're up for Christmas, but I don't really have the heart to take them down, yet. Too twinkly for me to give up on them just yet, you know?"

Sparkle liked things that sparkled. Imagine that!

"How've you been, kiddo? Can I help you find anything?"

The implication that Christmas was over went right past her. Alluka hadn't yet given things, so it wasn't over, and that was how it worked.

... Right?

"They're the happiest," she said agreeably and then giggled. "Maybe? I was looking for shiny paper, and then your lights were pretty."

Alluka was a simple, and easily distracted soul.

Well, Sparkle could appreciate that, anyway. He might have been a little more grown-up, but he was just as easily distracted.

"I think most stores are probably putting their wrapping paper away for the year, if that's what you're looking for," he noted, thoughtfully. "But we do offer gift-wrapping for the season, here. And since I haven't really put anything away yet, I might be able to help you out, there."

Because she was cute and happy and Sparkle had a soft spot for the young ones. Especially the ones that were much more young than they probably ought to be.

There was almost always a reason for that. He tended to stick his neck out for those ones the most.

"Wha-?" she said, all big eyes suddenly. "Why would everything be going away? But, but not here?"

This was confusing! She was never, ever going to get the hang of all the things.

"Well, Christmas was a few days ago," Sparkle explained. "A lot of businesses like to put the Christmas stuff away so that they can start selling stuff for the New Year, instead. You know, party supplies, alcohol, silly hats, that kind of thing."

Sparkle, Alluka had probably never actually celebrated a New Year's Eve party in her life.

"I just haven't been in to work for the last few days, so I'm a bit behind. I have plenty of wrapping paper if you want to pick some, though. Free of charge."

"There's another party and I can have paper!?"

Her mind was completely blown by these revelations.

Sparkle, were you trying to destroy her with glee? It was working!

Sparkle was pretty awesome at bringing the glee on, wasn't he? He laughed and gave a nod of his head.

"Yeah, both of these things are true," he confirmed. "People throw big parties to celebrate one year rolling over into the next, and you can have all the wrapping paper your heart desires, because I'm not going to need it again until next year, probably."

You know, barring some island thing. It was hard to talk in absolutes around here.

Christmas in August would be the best. Make it happen, island!

"Can, can I look at the paper?" she asked hopefully. "And, and if there's a party, then that means I get to dress up!"

And oh, she loved dressing up!

"You can! And... you can!"

My, that was easy to answer, wasn't it? Sparkle gave a little laugh and then made his way for the counter, to pull the wrapping paper out from behind it. He set it down on the countertop for Alluka to peruse.

"What kind of stuff do you like wearing to parties the best, huh? I bet we have something like it. I mean, I try to have a little bit of everything in stock here."

Unless that something was terrible. Then they burned it.

She bounced along behind him and, when he set the paper out, she and Mr. Bubbles leaned over to look at the paper.

Hopefully he wasn't going to mind that this was going to be a joint effort. Mr. Bubbles had opinions on paper.

Alluka tilted her head at his other question. "I like dresses the best," she was wearing a dress today, like usual, "and ones with ruffles and lace are fun!"

It's okay, Alluka. Sparkle had a stuffed cat who was watching you and Mr. Bubbles from where he was peeking out from the top of Sparkle's backpack. Velcro Two and Sparkle totally understood how important it was to agree on things like wrapping paper.

"Oh man, I love ruffles and lace," Sparkle enthused. "I don't usually wear it myself, but oh my god it's fun, isn't it?"

And probably much cuter on Alluka than on himself.

Wrapping paper was serious and important business!

"It's so fun!" she burbled. "And then you can do twirls and get to look fancy and there's no reason to not always look fancy, right?"

She showed Mr. Bubbles one of the paper options and he studied it while she looked around the store curiously.

"There's no reason at all," Sparkle agreed happily. "If you want to look fancy all the time, why not?"

He noticed her looking around the store, and then broke into a little grin.

"If you want to, like, look around and try stuff on once you've picked the wrapping paper out, you're totally welcome to," he added. "God only knows I do it all the time. I'm telling you, I look killer in some of those heels."

They did awesome things for his calves, okay?

"If it's okay with you," she said happily, "then I'd love to try things on! What're your favourite pair of heels?"

She gave the papers another look and had a quick, murmured conversation with Mr. Bubbles.

"Can, can we have some of this paper, please?"

"Here," Sparkle said brightly, "I'll cut you out some paper, and then we can go on a tour of the shop. Including all of the heels. How does that sound?"

He was already reaching for the scissors.

"How much do you need, do you know?"

"Okay!" she said, and squinted thoughtfully at the paper. "Um. It's... It's about the size of a bottle?"

It wasn't a bottle, but it was sorta that size!

"Like a pop bottle?" Sparkle gestured with his hands to be sure, and then tried to eyeball about how much paper Alluka might need in order to wrap a bottle of Coke. And then he gave her a little more, just to be on the safe side. "How's that?"

She beamed at him.

"That looks about right," she decided, since it was an awful lot of paper to her eyes. It had to be right!

Juuust to be on the safe side, Sparkle was going to give her a tiny bit more. For good measure. He clipped the piece off of the roll, and then rolled it up again and put it into a bag so that Alluka could get it home safely.

"Then there you are! Do you want to carry it with you, or keep it here at the counter where it'll be safe until we're done trying stuff on?"

Oh! That was a good point.

Mr. Bubbles wriggled his head at her and she nodded.

"Here, please," she said, "so that I don't break the paper!"

"Here it is, then!" Sparkle set the paper neatly to the side of the counter, and then pulled Velcro Two out of his bag and, after a brief one-on-one with him, set him down next to the paper with strict instructions to keep it safe.

Because hey, if Alluka was cool with it, so was he.

"Now! Shoes?"

Alluka's eyes got big and, after a moment's consideration, she carefully set Mr. Bubbles down by Sparkle's friend, very seriously.

Maybe Mr. Bubbles and Velcro Two would become friends themselves!

Then she spun, flinging her arms out excitedly. "Shoes! And dresses!"

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