fandomtownies | Demon Marcus, Sunday

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Demon Marcus, Sunday

Deep breath.

Exhale. Okay. Sparkle could do this. When he arrived at the Demon Marcus, he took a minute to pull the clothing racks outside, and set up his chair and made himself comfortable for the sidewalk sale while the contractors continued working inside. He'd throw himself into debt for this if need be; repairs needed to happen, and whether he could get the insurance company to cooperate with him or not, Demon Marcus needed to be repaired.

Still, he was going to spend a good chunk of the morning arguing with a rep on the phone. Because he'd rather not pay out of pocket if he could manage it, thank you. It was going... marginally better than it had the last time he'd called them. Even if conversations like this still freaked him the hell out.

[OOC: Open!]

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It was absolutely not coincidence that Ino happened on by with two drinks in hand.

Hot chocolate, despite the weather, since sometimes it was what was needed and, hey, they were going to pry her favourite drink out of her cold dead hands and Sparkle could just deal.

Since he was on the phone, she didn't say anything. Just smiled at him, set the drink down by him, mouthing that it was for him, and then wandered to look at the clothing racks.

Not that she bought much these days, but hey, adding to Sparkle's problems wasn't a thing she had in mind.

Sparkle was going to need another minute or two in order to finish up on the phone, but so help him, he was totally blowing Ino an over-acted kiss to show just how much he appreciated it.

And then, when the conversation was through and he finally managed to end the call, he was slumping down in his seat and muttering, "God, next time sharks fall down on the island, remind me to, like, put up iron sheeting around this place or something, okay?"

"I can do that," Ino said easily, holding a cute as hell shirt up to herself thoughtfully. She wasn't sure it was her, honestly. "Though maybe better to get iron sheeting installed before that."

"No kidding," Sparkle said, making a reach for the hot chocolate. Yessss, good. She was currently his favourite in the world because of that. "While the contractors are in there putting the place back together, I should ask about that. Ada did an awesome job boarding up in preparation for the storm, but it isn't like we could have predicted sharks."

...

"Again."

He wouldn't make that mistake a third time.

Ino grinned at him as she put the shirt back. Not her thing, really, though still cute.

She wandered over to him, sipping on her own drink.

"Maybe with enough wheedling you could get a shop that, like, turns into a metal shelter and dives underground in times of danger. Bet someone 'round here knows how to do that."

She didn't, it should be noted.

"I mean, I bet with enough wheedling I could just get a shop that blinks into another reality when the island is actively trying to kill us all," Sparkle snorted. "God knows I don't want to go underground, either. That's where all the freaky machinery shit lives, isn't it?"

He did not want to be the one to accidentally trigger a spontaneous field trip to Mars all because he didn't want to get attacked by lava labradoodles or something.

"Maybe?"

Ino had missed most of the underground machinery bits, honestly. It had been years since she'd been on the island, after all.

Also lava labradoodles would be super cute.

"Maybe something to shrink the shop down, instead? So you can stuff it in a pocket and then go hide in the dorms or Caritas or something. They're usually safe from most things."

Not always. But usually.

"I think both the dorms and Caritas got smashed in by sharks this last time," Sparkle noted, "but most of the time, yeah, you're right. But I mean, I think in all my time here, this is the first time I've ever actually seen anywhere take on any sort of serious property damage, either."

"So shrinking to pocket-sized is totally the best idea," she said, studying the storefront.

It was probably too big for her to stuff into a scroll.

Though now Ino was tempted to try.

"You okay?"

"You know..." Sparkle looked down at the drink in his hands, wrinkled his nose, and sighed. "Funny you ask that, you know? It's been a weird couple of weeks, and I'm somewhere near the end of my rope when it comes to cope."

His cope rope was unwinding.

"Basically, this hot chocolate has the best fucking timing ever."

Yes, well, Ino always did better when she was badgering someone else about their lives rather than focusing on her own.

"Ouch," she said, grimacing. "Did you want to talk 'bout it, or did you want me to go get more chocolate?"

Sparkle pondered that one for... all of about two seconds, honestly.

"... Is both a thing? Can I, like, be totally greedy and say both?"

"Both is totally a thing," Ino assured him. "You want anything in particular or should I just grab whatever sounds good?"

"I'm so willing to trust your judgment," Sparkle decided, keeping his tone lofty and his chin up. "I mean, anyone who knows that there are absoltuely situations where hot chocolate is the right choice in August is already the best."

She saluted him with her hot chocolate.

"Aye aye, Captain! I'll be back in a few then."

With reinforcements in the form of delicious snacks. Could not go wrong!

Sparkle smiled a little, pointing at her with his drink and mouthing the words, "You? Actual hero," as she went.

And then he busied himself with re-hanging a few shirts that had been rifled through over the course of the day.

Ino wasn't really gone all that long, though she didn't bother to cheat and use jutsu or chakra to get around faster. The island wasn't that big and it wasn't a life or death emergency or anything.

Honestly, the longest part of the trip had been deciding what to buy.

She wound up with cookies, M&Ms (since they were superior to Smarties in basically every way, in her opinion), a bag of chocolate covered cashews, pretzels dipped in chocolate, in case chocolate was temporarily not wanted, she also grabbed a bag of chips, and since this was likely going to need something to drink to go along with, she also brought soda.

Ice cream was a traditional thing but, after a long look at the selections, Ino decided against it. None of what she'd bought would go bad if they didn't eat it all, and none of it would really melt either. That was much better.

"I come bearing food!" she announced. "Also the question was asked about if I was holding a party or not."

Which, really now. If she'd been holding a party she'd have needed way more.

"Oh god, is it a pity party? Are we throwing my own pity party and I didn't even know?"

Because hey, if pity parties came with this much chocolate, Sparkle was totally on board. And looking over the selection with wide eyes.

"Holy shit, you went all out."

Heh.

"I mean, like, if chocolate is needed it's best to get an assortment, right?" Ino felt no shame about this. "I weren't going to come back with just one thing to pick from."

"I mean, I'd eat pretty much anything you put in front of me so long as it was chocolate," Sparkle decided. "Except for those malt ball things. Those are nasty."

He was already making a reach for whatever fell closest to hand, yes.

"This is awesome. How'd you know today was a hocho day?"

Ino let him have the bag of stuff as she set out the soda and rescued it from being further shaken around. It gave her time to think about her answer.

She could be flippant but, like, if she was going to get anywhere in the long run with him, she thought it was probably best to be honest.

Ew, honesty.

"Every day is a hot chocolate day to me," Ino admitted, since that was true. "As for you, well, did I ever mention I'm a telepath? Weren't spying on your thoughts but you pinged as not doing super great on my... radar, I suppose, so I figured I'd come bug you."

"I... don't think you mentioned it," Sparkle admitted, blinking up at her from the bag. "But... hey, not like there's anything especially interesting up there anyway."

... Well. It was true to a point. He fidgeted a little.

"Either way, I appreciate it."

She rolled her eyes expressively.

"Look, 'less you're trying to kill me I ain't going to deep dive into your thoughts. Most of the time it's like I'm just keepin' a map in my head of where everyone is. Call it professional paranoia. Only reason I noticed you were down was 'cause I like you and you weren't 'round for the last week, so when you showed back up I was all 'hey, you okay?' and the tenor of your thoughts was like 'hell no'."

Sparkle scuffed his toe against the cobblestones a bit awkwardly.

"Didn't mean to sound like I was accusing you of digging," he mumbled. "But... yeah, been better, I guess. Been worse, too. But the right now is sort of a good time for chocolate."

Sort of a lot.

“Hey, no worries,” Ino said, smiling. “I’ve had worse reactions than yours to it, believe me. Eat your chocolate. If you feel like talkin’, talk. If not, we can go back to figuring out how to shrink the building.”

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