fandomtownies | Covent Garden Flowers, Saturday

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Covent Garden Flowers, Saturday

Seivarden had listened to the radio, and by now she had figured out that something bad was going on. She wasn't sure if she should be worried, but since she had been warned that bad things happened regularly, all she had done was to get herself a gun and shoot some slugs on the way to the flower shop.

No, she didn't expect anyone to buy flowers today. In fact she would be suspicious if they did. But at least she could keep an eye on what was going on, and spend the day shooting whatever slugs that were slithering past on the street, a cup of tea standing next to her. It was good practice too. She needed that.

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There had been a little... green...

Well. Sparkle wasn't entirely certain what she'd been, but he'd run into her not long after he'd escaped from Hannibal's house. After all, Hannibal had only taken his weapons, not his lockpicks, and even his telepath husband had to sleep eventually. The little green whatever had squinted at him with empty eyes, and then had given him a list of ingredients. Something about the ritual.

He'd liked the sound of that. The ritual. It sounded so scintillatingly final that he'd taken the list with a grin, and was now walking toward the flower shop, heedless of the slugs and the gunfire both, looking down at the list and quietly murmuring each and every ingredient.

The gunfire stopped. Seivarden lowered the weapon when she saw Sparkle, walking down the street reading something, paying no attention to the...

"Sparkle!" she called. "The slugs!"

She raised the weapon again and shot the one closest to Sparkle.

Sparkle blinked up at that, and then frowned down at the body of the slug in question, quietly watching it writhe on the ground, its life oozing away.

Well. There hadn't been any call for that. He looked back up at Seivarden, still frowning. And then shrugged and finished closing the distance between himself and the flower shop.

"There wasn't any call for that. It wouldn't have hurt me."

"Of course it would have hurt you. Didn't you see the teeth?"

She stepped aside to let Sparkle into the shop.

Something felt a little off. Yes, Sparkle could be unpredictable, but not caring about dangerous creatures wasn't what Seivarden would have expected.

"Would you like some tea?"

"Plenty of things have teeth," Sparkle pointed out, and then flashed a grin. "Gimme a smile?"

That... was not a particularly sane sort of grin.

"Tea? I suppose I have time for tea," he said after a moment's pause. The little green thing hadn't given him a deadline, exactly. "But then I really need to get what's on this list."

Something was definitely wrong, and Sparkle didn't get a smile in return. Seivarden took the list and began reading it, with a short break for pouring Sparkle a cup of tea.

"Why do you want this? What are you doing?"

Sparkle shrugged his shoulders easily.

"Somebody asked really nicely. Said it was important. I like feeling important, don't you?"

Seivarden offered Sparkle the teacup.

"It depends," Seivarden said. "On who thinks it and what I'm supposed to do."

She put the list down on the counter.

"We don't have any of these things."

That wasn't quite true, but she really didn't want to let Sparkle have anything on that list, even if she didn't know what it was for. Actually, especially not since she didn't know what it was for.

Sparkle reached for the teacup, though his attention was completely on Seivarden. He tilted his head. Pouted a little.

"Not a single one of them? Are you sure?"

He could see the forget-me-nots from there, Seivarden, and had a growing suspicion that perhaps he was being lied to.

"None of them," Seivarden said firmly, putting the list in her pocket, then reaching for her own tea.

"Where are you supposed to take them?" she asked. "I might help you."

Help Sparkle get somewhere safe, although Seivarden didn't know where that would be. But Sparkle had helped her, and she wasn't going to just throw him out in this condition. Was it some kind of drug?

Sparkle opened his mouth in protest as the list vanished away, and then sighed and settled back with his tea. He had it committed to memory anyway, and could probably find the items on it elsewhere if it came to it.

... Or maybe he'd just break in to the flower shop after hours tonight. He smiled faintly at the thought, bringing the teacup to his lips and drinking.

"That would be telling," he chided.

Seivarden took a sip from her tea. She raised one eyebrow. "You don't trust me?"

There might be reasons for Sparkle not to do that even in his usual state, but still.

"I don't trust anybody, as a general rule," Sparkle replied easily.

His life would be so much easier if only that were true.

"That's sad," Seivarden said, not that she was overly trusting either. "I hope you have someone who cares about you, though."

Someone whom Seivarden could call and ask to pick Sparkle up.

"Of course," Sparkle agreed easily, and then leaned in conspiratorially, "I don't trust them either."

Not today, anyway.

Ok, so that didn't work.

"Well," Seivarden said. "Even if I had some of those things on that list, why would I let you have them? It would mean I had to trust you after all."

"... Because it's a flower shop, and that is, like, literally your job."

Couldn't pull a fast one on Sparkle, there.

"I could be very bad at my job." Seivarden took another sip of tea. "You might even have to complain to my superior."

She didn't expect Sparkle to do that, but if he did Peter would probably know what to do.

"You're welcome to buy any of the seasonal plants though," she added, gesturing towards the display.

"Any of them, huh?

Sparkle looked in that direction and grinned a little. Hey. Mistletoe. Maybe not on the list, but delightfully poisonous.

"Actually, since you're being so helpful, maybe I will." And maybe he'd shoplift sprigs of any plant he recognized as he made his way over there to peruse the holiday wares.

He was a very good shoplifter.

Seivarden wasn't generally good at noticing shoplifters, which might be because she wasn't used to working in a shop. Still, that grin made her suspicious, so she followed Sparkle, keeping a sharp eye on what he was doing.

"I didn't know you're interested in plants."

At least that wasn't only this strange Sparkle, but Seivarden didn't know that.

"I'm just full of surprises, aren't I?" Sparkle's grin didn't waver at all as he spun on his heel to face Seivarden again, fingers reaching out to brush some random leaves as he went, but not actually taking any. Distractions were great. Challenges were better. Stealing shit right from under a suspicious clerk's nose? That was something he hadn't done in way too fucking long.

He'd missed it.

"I have, like, a whole windowsill of plants back home. My roommate freaks out over pets, so that's about as close as I can get. That and a fish."

But you couldn't really cuddle a fish. At least you could sort of pet a ficus.

Seivarden looked suspicious, and glanced at Sparkle's hand. Even though he wore no gloves.

"I remember you telling me that I shouldn't always believe what you said." Seivarden spoke lightly, and she cared less about Sparkle possibly being interested in plants than what he was up to right now.

Because this was definitely strange.

"Well, yeah. You don't even know me," Sparkle replied. "It's just stupid to take a stranger's word at face value, don't you think?"

Did he just palm a foxglove flower in his other hand, the one that wasn't currently making a show out of reaching out and touching things? Yes, yes he did.

"Especially when you're getting them drunk."

Seivarden was looking at the wrong hand. Not surprising, as Sparkle was a lot more experienced at shoplifting than Seivarden was at working in a shop.

"You didn't seem to complain about getting drunk," she said, her eyes still on Sparkle's hand. The wrong one.

Oh, Seivarden was making this too easy. The green one hadn't specified full plants, he had to assume that bits and pieces would do. So he was going after a daffodil while he was at it.

"Come on, I'm paranoid, not stupid," Sparkle snorted. "I kept an eye on the bottle the whole time, it wasn't like you had time to slip anything in. Who's going to say no to free drinks?"

"Oh, if I'd had anything to slip in I'd have kept to myself, you know that. Or not asked you how to get it. I was relying on you to get me home, unless you didn't notice."

Would talking distract Sparkle? Probably not, but Seivarden kept trying.

"Stop that!" she said, thinking that Sparkle was actually trying to grab something with the wrong hand.

"Stop what? This?" Sparkle held his hand up- the one Seivardan was staring at, and waved it around. Empty. And, since he'd already tucked his ill-gotten gains safely into his sleeve, he held up the other hand, too. "I'm just fucking with you, you know that? You said I could have anything in the seasonal section. I want the mistletoe."

A parasite. One of the items on the list hadn't much cared what it was, so long as it was that.

"That's all. Just something pretty to hang in doorways so I can get free kisses from all the hot boys."

Seivarden had spent mistletoe day alone in her room, so she didn't get that last part, but she recognized the name from the list. She considered just letting Sparkle have one and leave, but she was a little worried about his lack of concern when it came to the slugs.

"I'm sure you can get free kisses without it," she said while desperately trying to decide what to do next.

"I mean, yeah," Sparkle replied easily. And there went a good handful of forget-me-nots as Sparkle lowered his hands again, now that he'd held them up sufficiently long enough to prove that he was totally innocent. "But kisses under mistletoe are tradition this time of year."

He paused, and then broke into a sly little grin.

"Unless you were interested."

Because catching people off-guard with a shameless flirt in order to distract from what he was up to was a tried-and-true strategy, too.

Seivarden wasn't stupid enough to buy the flirting, and now she was really fed up with this. Sparkle wasn't her responsibility after all, no matter how bad she'd feel if he got killed by a slug.

"Fine," she said with a sigh. "Take the mistletoe and enjoy your tradition."

She was fairly sure Sparkle had other plans for it than kissing.

Sparkle, brat that he was and would always be, grinned and made a reach for the mistletoe. The easiest part of the whole ordeal, really. And then he held it up over his head, winked, and blew Seivarden a kiss.

He couldn't resist.

"So, how much does this cost me?"

It was always so much easier to get away with the rest of the shoplifting when you took the time to be totally honest about paying for something.

She was sure Peter wouldn't mind giving away a mistletoe. She hoped he wasn't going to be upset by her abandoning Sparkle in this way.

She shook her head and turned away, then hesitated and looked back.

"You said you had drugs. Find me something and you get the mistletoe."

Seivarden knew that Sparkle might just bolt and that it was very likely that he would find her anything anyway. She knew that this was completely inappropriate. She wasn't even sure why she was asking.

Sparkle raised an eyebrow at her, and then shrugged.

"Sure," he replied. "When this whole thing is through, I'll get you your drugs."

They'd all be dead by then anyway.

"And why should I trust you?"

Seivarden was mostly just stalling now. She knew she would have to let Sparkle go, even if he got killed.

Sparkle rolled his eyes.

"Because if you do or if you don't, I'm your only hope of getting any," he pointed out. "So you can take my word for it and maybe get some, or you can fuck around with me right now, and not get any, ever. Your call."

Sadly, Sparkle had a point. Seivarden considered this for a moment. It wasn't just about the drugs, she told herself. She wanted to protect Sparkle, from... well, that line of reasoning wasn't going anywhere.

She shrugged. "I guess you're right."

"So," Sparkle said lightly, holding up the plant. "Mistletoe now, drugs later?"

He wasn't going to ask again before he just took off with it. He didn't have time for this.

"I suppose that's the deal."

Seivarden didn't think she would end up getting any drugs, and she felt vaguely uncomfortable, regretting that she didn't have anything stronger here to drink than tea.

She shrugged and turned away.

And with her back turned, Sparkle just smiled, deftly plucked the last few leaves he needed from the list, and then headed for the door.

"Great doing business with you, Seivarden. See you 'round."

Seivarden didn't respond, but she locked the door after Sparkle had left and changed the sign to 'closed'. There was no reason to stay here today, and she would rather not meet someone else she knew in a state like Sparkle's.

Besides, she really needed something stronger than tea to drink.

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Covent Garden Flowers, Saturday

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