MCA #4, Saturday Morning

[suitably_heroic]

So Atton was not actually used to having a roommate, unless you counted the military or the few month span of time he'd spent hiding out in the cockpit of the Ebon Hawk because Meetra kept filling the rest of the ship with angry malcontents with no sense of humor. There had been some adjusting involved, most notably in having to remind himself constantly not to leave the bedroom without his pants on, and also that there was now less pizza in his diet.

But he'd survived the situation thusfar. Things could only go up.

Of course, the moment that thought had crossed his mind immediately prefaced the all-hell-on-deck nightmare he'd had on Friday night, which had, as such things usually did, ended with him sitting on the floor of the living room with his legs crossed underneath him, furiously trying to meditate through the occasional fit of hyperventilating.

He was still there when the sun came up (wearing pants, thankfully), blinking blearily as the sun filtered through his eyelids. "Murgl."

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[suitably_heroic]

Atton leaned over slooowly to squint at the piece of paper. That was more legal language than he was usually inclined to deal with, but huh. "Maybe the former owner forgot to reroute the charges from their bank account?" he said. "Hey, does that mean you get to keep the profit?"

[myownface]

Sparkle blinked up from his coffee at that.

"... That's a good question. I don't know, maybe? Or at least put it back into the store or sit on it for a while until I know it's safe. I don't want whoever the hell owned the place last coming after me. I've got enough shit on my plate right now without somebody riding my ass over money they weren't paying attention to."

[suitably_heroic]

"Well, you can't keep putting in hours at the place and not get some kind of money out of it," Atton said.

He took another big sip of his - thankfully cooled - coffee and thought about it. "Maybe figure out how much each thing you sell is actually worth without the profit mark-up and leave that money sitting around?"

[myownface]

"Keep that set aside for wherever it belongs, and then start paying attention to where new merch is getting paid from? Like starting new and just using the markup to keep coasting? Or... Something?"

Ugh, he was going to need to use math for this.

[suitably_heroic]

"Yeah," Atton said. He shrugged. "That way, you can start paying yourself some money, and if someone steps in to complain, you can just point out you technically bought every item you sold and whatever missing money there is, is labor and upkeep. Which they've been neglecting."

[myownface]

"... I like that. It sounds, like... Legitimate. Official or something."

Like he could at least billshit his way out of a legal complaint if one came up. That was a good start.

[suitably_heroic]

"Right?"

Atton put his coffee down. "And in the mean time, you'll have money to pay your share of the rent, and you might even be able to finance doing something more with yourself than hanging around a clothing store hoping you'll get the opportunity to assault someone with mesh or something."

[myownface]

"... What's wrong with mesh?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Everything's wrong with mesh, Sparks," Atton said, fixing on him the look of a an angry, broken man who had once been forced into mesh by the person he was looking at.

[myownface]

Some scars never truly healed.

"That's such a broad answer I'm going to choose to ignore it," Sparkle sniffed, then looked back at the paper. "But... besides that, like... this sounds doable. That's... new."

[suitably_heroic]

"Is this you getting your life together?" Atton wondered. "Because I'm going to have to get used to that."

[myownface]

"Hey, I wouldn't go that far," Sparkle protested. "It's just... You know... Not immediately a shitty plan. Or something like that."

Maybe he was. Don't mention it or he'd chicken and run.

[suitably_heroic]

Atton shrugged. He picked up his coffee again. "It'd be better with bacon."

[myownface]

"Yeah..." Sparkle lifted his coffee cup up and took a swig before standing again to head back for the kitchen. "But then, isn't everything?"

[suitably_heroic]

"True, but I was hoping by bringing it up, I'd be invoking it," Atton said.

This whole cooking set-up was growing on him. If he wasn't careful he was going to get used to it. "Manifest bacon."

[myownface]

"Just the bacon?" Sparkle paused in the hallway again, just to look back at Atton and raise an eyebrow. "I think we have, like, eggs. Toast. I might be able to scrounge up a tomato and make a sandwich or something."

He was pretty sure he'd picked up a tomato while he was shopping.

"Or I could just bring out a plate of bacon and more coffee. I'm not too proud to eat half my weight in cured pork this morning."

[suitably_heroic]

"You're just kind of wired to suggest vegetables with everything, aren't you?" Atton said, squinting right back at that raised eyebrows. "You should work on that, Sparks."

[myownface]

"Hey, it's the easiest way to keep the sandwich from getting dry."

Nice try, Sparkle. Between the bacon grease and the egg yolk, the sandwich would be anything but and you knew it.

[suitably_heroic]

"You were also going to put an egg on it," Atton retorted.

J'accuse!

Well, okay. He sounded too mellow for that. Still.

[myownface]

"Yeah. But at least it isn't broccoli."

See? See? That part of their agreement still stood!

Maybe this was a part of that whole 'getting his shit together' thing, too.

[suitably_heroic]

"Ugh," Atton said succinctly. He dropped his head against the back of the couch. "Fine. You'll just find a way to sneak vegetables in there anyway."

At least tomatoes were vaguely inoffensive.

[myownface]

"Yeah, a tomato is pretty basic compared to what I could be doing." Sparkle vanished into the kitchen, cackling. "I could be buying the whole grain bread! With spinach baked right in! Lumpy green bread, Atton! Lumpy and green!"

There would be none of that here, don't worry.

[suitably_heroic]

"Why do you like torturing me so much?" Atton called after him. "What did I do to deserve this?!"

[myownface]

"You made feeding you green things so amusing!"

... Well, it was true. Much like saying, 'Noodles.' Anything that got a reaction out of Atton was the best thing ever.

[suitably_heroic]

"Maybe you're just a sadist!"

It was entirely possible.

Or maybe Atton needed to learn to stop freaking out so entertainingly.