The Perk, Thursday Morning

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden had decided she really needed to get out of the apartment. At first she had thought that there was nothing strange going on today, but then, as she found, that there were snow creatures outside that wanted to hug her, she really wanted to kick something. And there was something that came in handy for that. She had kicked a few snowmen, punched a few others and finally made it to the Perk where she had ordered a large pot of tea. She wasn't going outside again for a while.

[Open!]

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[myownface]

Hey, guess who else had needed to get out of the apartment that morning. Sparkle's sense of self had come back to him, but that didn't mean the twitchiness in the wake of the weekend had gone away. And finding several upset snowmen with fist-shaped dents in their faces on his way to his morning coffee hadn't really helped the twitchiness. He'd been a little later than usual getting into the coffee shop because he'd stopped for emergency snowman repairs, and he was a little soggy and cold when he stepped into the Perk because they'd wanted him to hug it all better.

And, well, Christmas wasn't Sparkle's thing, but he had nothing against snowmen. Or hugs.

Seivarden, on the other hand?

"Should've fuckin' known," he muttered under his breath, and then made his way to the counter to order his coffee. Nothing sugary sickeningly sweet today. He was drinking his coffee black and bitter. And then he was going to take a moment to talk himself out of dumping it across Seivarden's lap.

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden wasn't in a mood to have coffee dumped in her lap, so that was probably a good choice.

She looked up from her cup of tea, wondering what it was Sparkle should have known.

[myownface]

Sparkle stood at the counter for a few more minutes, just quietly sipping his coffee and chatting amiably with the barista for a bit. Thanking her for pointing him at food and something warm to drink on Monday, offering to pay for both, reassuring her that he was fine, it was some stupid island thing. He was over it.

When he realized Seivarden was looking at him, he gave the barista an easy smile and asked her to hold his coffee for a minute. And then he made his way over to where she was sitting.

"Hey."

And then he was going for the sucker punch, right to the jaw.

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden had expected Sparkle to be in a mood. What she had said on Saturday hadn't been entirely appropriate, and she had figured out by know that Sparkle was a bit sensitive.

She hadn't expected to be punched in the face. And while her instinct from thirty years in the military made her try and block it, Sparkle's fist landed on her jaw right before she reached to grab his arm.

She got to her feet, her cup of tea ending up broken on the floor.

"What the fuck... Aatr's tits, are you insane?"

[myownface]

"No," Sparkle ground out. "That was Saturday. And it took me like three fucking days to get back into my right mind, but thanks for your concern."

He still had his hands up, his face twisted in anger. The barista was staring in their direction, stunned, not sure what to do.

"You asshole. Just couldn't fucking resist, could you?"

[1000yearstoolate]

"What? You stole things! Don't think I didn't notice the plants afterwards."

That was probably avoiding the issue a bit, but Sparkle was overreacting. Seivarden wasn't going to be reasonable after being punched in the face without a warning, for no reason.

[myownface]

"That wasn't me and you fucking know it," Sparkle snarled. "But if you want to play that way, I stopped by the shop yesterday and offered to pay up. The difference is, it wasn't you I was stealing from, and I respect Peter too much to rip him off. Did you even stop to think for a half a moment that it was possibly wrong to try to coerce somebody for drugs when they clearly weren't acting like themselves? Did that keep you up for even two extra minutes before you went to sleep that night?"

[1000yearstoolate]

She had actually felt bad about it. It had been most of the reason getting drunk later that night. But Sparkle had punched her in the face, which was completely unreasonable.

"What do you know about that?" she snapped back. "What do you even know about me? Did you even bother to ask before you punch me in the face?"

[myownface]

"Oh, I need permission to punch you in the face?" Sparkle almost laughed, his tone incredulous. "Did you think to ask before trying to take advantage of the fucking armageddon-plague I was infected with? Your fucking jaw will heal, unfortunately. But you?"

He shook his head and kicked at the broken glass, lip curling.

"You think I don't fucking know what it's like? The whole world is too heavy and you can't stand up without wondering where your next hit is going to come from? And then you do anything, you do stupid shit and you burn bridges behind you and what does it matter? Nobody fucking understands how hard it is for you, right? Life was unfair to you, so you're entitled to it. Everybody fucking owes you. It's the only peace of mind you'll ever get, right?"

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden stared at Sparkle for a moment. "Thank you for your insights," she said, not sounding grateful at all. "And I'm really sorry for asking, because it was pointless anyway, wasn't it."

She looked away. "I let you get away with that plant for free. Do you think I even expected you to come back?"

It didn't really made sense, but the situation in itself hadn't.

[myownface]

"You're trying so, so hard to make me out to be the bad guy, here," Sparkle said, just kind of staring right back. "I'm going to spell it out slowly, because apparently you're hell-bent on pretending to be an idiot today. That. Wasn't. Me."

He wrapped his arms around himself.

"I spent days just... just running around wanting to end the goddamn world, because it would give me some quiet. But it wasn't me. I knew it. You knew it. And even though I have an excuse, I'm still trying to make it right. I did things that hurt people. I'm going to make it right. But you..." He shook his head. "You don't have that excuse. That was you, choosing to take advantage. You knowing exactly what you were doing when you tried to get me to do something you know I wouldn't have done in my right mind. And it's you right now, acting like you don't know damn well what you did. I don't think you're that stupid, Seivarden. But I guess you really are that selfish."

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden found she really didn't have much more to say. She rubbed her jaw.

"If that's how you feel." She shrugged. "I didn't mean to upset you."

[myownface]

"But you did," Sparkle replied, shaking his head. "You did, and you know you did, and you won't even cop to that."

He broke into a little laugh, turning to look away. Now it was him reaching up to swipe at his eyes.

"Fuck," he muttered. "Serves me right. Of course nobody's going to be more important to you than your next hit. Especially not some stupid kid you can take advantage of."

[1000yearstoolate]

"How did I take advantage of you?" Seivarden said with a sigh. "You offered to help me, and I still don't know why. And maybe asking you for drugs on Saturday wasn't... but even I know that was pointless."

[myownface]

"Knowing it was pointless doesn't mean you didn't do it."

And that's what it boiled down to, right there. Whether or not Seivarden thought it would work, she'd tried.

"And I offered to help you. You know that's not what I meant. But you know what? If it's that fucking important to you?" He shrugged his backpack off his shoulder, reached a hand into it, and surfaced with a little plastic bag of weed and a pack of papers to roll it into. He slammed it down on the table. "Fucking enjoy. It's not what you're looking for, but it's the best I've got right now, and the last thing you're ever going to get out of me. Now, if you'll excuse me, my coffee's getting cold."

[1000yearstoolate]

Seivarden looked at the plastic bag on the table, and then at Sparkle. After all this, he gave her the drugs he had been talking about. He really made no sense.

Seivarden wasn't going to complain though. She picked up the bag and put it in her pocket, then headed for the door.

Sparkle had mentioned smoking it, other that that Seivarden didn't know much about this drug, but she suspected she would find out what to do with it.

[myownface]

And Sparkle... was not crying as he went to collect his coffee from the barista.

Shut up.