Outside a Metal Bar and Beyond, Baltimore, Thursday Evening

[suitably_heroic]

"Okay," Atton said, staring back at the door he'd just been thrown out through. "Okay, that could have gone better."

One of these days he was going to charm his way back into Linda's good graces. Damn it all. She'd yelled at him some more about being a jackass when he and Sparkle'd tried to come in acting like nothing had ever happened (what? It worked with Sia), but that clearly hadn't worked out for him all that well.

And okay, he did have some more aces up his sleeves if he wanted to use them, but he was... kind of trying not to do that.

"But hey, the night's still young, right?" Right.

The night was young! And cold. Very, very cold.

[[ for sparkle and misadventure. ]]

Comments

[suitably_heroic]

"If I didn't have one, I wouldn't be able to get anywhere in this town." Actually he had like three. No such thing as overkill if you didn't have an actual identity around here.

Atton followed right behind, hands shoved in his pockets, shifting his body language - or rather, he just suddenly felt like his arms weighed more and he didn't want to take in quite as much space and Sparkle took such big steps compared to his all of a sudden, wonder what that was.

[myownface]

Sparkle wasn't exactly hugely aware of that shift in manner, since his back was turned, but it was hardly his first time playing up a different role, or even sneaking back into a bar he'd been chased out of. His strides were a little more confident, his own posture was a little better. And he was giving the bouncers an easy smile like he belonged there.

Which, you know, he did. He wasn't the one that had gotten his dumb ass kicked out of the club, Atton.

"Hey guys. Having a good evening?"

The bouncers gave noncommittal grunts as they checked the ID he handed to them, and waved him by.

Your turn, Atton.

[suitably_heroic]

"Hey," Atton muttered, shoving his second fake ID their way.

He made very skittish eye contact with one of the bouncers.

The bouncer gave a similar grunt and shoved his ID back at him. He walked on.

[myownface]

"So." Sparkle was waiting just inside the door, a smirk on his face and his hands shoved into his pockets. "Worth the makeover?"

They hadn't been ID'd by the guys that had just chucked them out the door, after all. Sparkle was calling that one a win.

[suitably_heroic]

"Depends on whether Linda is going to have me thrown out on my ass the moment I say word one to her," Atton said. "...I should've brought something. Flowers? Do Earth girls like flowers?"

That was his special way of saying thank you, Sparkle.

[myownface]

Sparkle would take it.

"Flowers, chocolate, puppies - Don't get her a puppy, Atton - drinks. Buy her a drink. Maybe throw an apology in along with it. What the hell did you do to piss her off so bad, anyhow?"

[suitably_heroic]

"She offered a pity fuck, I said no," Atton said.

And then it kind of snowballed from there in the way only Atton could really accomplish. "Don't know why she's still upset about it." ... and snowballed again, and snowballed again.

Gave him this weird feeling in his stomach--

Actually, wait, scratch that. His eyes shot away from the bar and the pretty girl tending it to the shape of some burly man-thing vanishing through a door in the back.

[myownface]

"Yeah, well... Girls. There's a reason I don't go for that kind of..." Sparkle trailed off as he watched Atton's attention shift. "... thing. See something interesting, pal?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Just thought I saw someone heading in the back," Atton said. "Nobody heads into the back around here."

He shook his head and dug around his pocket until he managed to find a couple of dollar bills. "You know, forget it," he said, "Just grab some drinks, will you?"

[myownface]

"Yeah, yeah," Sparkle replied, waving his hands and turning toward the bar. "Beer? Something harder? I'm flexible, here."

He also kept looking toward the back room, now. Dammit, Atton. Go on and bring his attention to something, and then he was going to be stuck on it for hours.

[suitably_heroic]

"Just get me some whiskey," Atton said, shoving those dollars at him.

Eugh. It wasn't just a sense of malice turning his stomach upside down - someone out there was in pain. Whiskey? Whiskey would help.

[myownface]

"Whiskey," Sparkle replied, shooting Atton a salute as he took said dollars and made his way over to the bar. He ordered, got himself something good and stiff too since it wouldn't do to let Atton get too drunk without him, and a few minutes later he was on his way back to Atton with a bottle in each hand.

"Didn't feel like sharing," he explained, offering him one of the bottles.

[suitably_heroic]

"I can hardly argue with that," Atton said, grabbing the bottle and taking a swig without looking twice. "I can figure this one out when I've had a few drinks..."

[myownface]

"Which one was that?" Sparkle raised an eyebrow before taking a mouthful of his own whiskey. "The mystery of the guy that used a door?"

[suitably_heroic]

"No, Linda," Atton muttered. "I swear, doesn't matter where you go, women..."

He'd just take another swig.

And maybe eyeball that door. Ugh.

[myownface]

Seriously, put an idea in Sparkle's head, and the guy wasn't going to let it go.

"Well, like I said, start by buying her a drink," Sparkle reasoned. "I can play wingman or whatever. I mean, it can't be that hard."

Helping straight guys pick up chicks. Had to be easy, right?

[suitably_heroic]

"Well, she's not Sith or anything, so I probably won't lose any limbs," Atton mused. "Probably."

A pause.

"What are you bringing the door up for again?"

[myownface]

"Nothing," Sparkle replied, wrinkling his nose. "You just looked like it was all weird that someone was going back there, when it was probably just that a bouncer needed to take a shit in a private bathroom or something."

All class, that Sparkle.

"What did you say to her to get her so pissed off? It wasn't, like, 'no thanks,' I'm gonna guess."

[suitably_heroic]

"That's not a private bathroom," Atton said distractedly. "Private bathroom's on the other side of the room."

Don't ask him how he knew that.

"And I told you, I don't know. I just explained to her that I like this bar and I didn't want to ruin it by sleeping with her."

[myownface]

"... You didn't actually phrase it like that, did you?"

See, Atton. There was your problem.

"Offices or something behind the door, then? They gotta do payroll or whatever somewhere, right?"

And yes, now Sparkle was completely fixated on that damn door.

[suitably_heroic]

"I said I didn't want to dump the bar." Because that made it better! Somehow!

The second comment... kinda threw Atton out of his whole distracted spiel there. "Uh, what? The door? I have... absolutely no idea. Seems too crowded to just be a broom closet."

And that was a whole different brand of 'don't ask him how he knew that'.

[myownface]

"What, you see more people walk in while I was getting the drinks?" Sparkle, Sparkle honey, don't ask. "... Anyhow, you know you, like, insinuated that her presence here was gonna somehow fuck up the whole bar from here on out, right? Please tell me you caught that?"

[suitably_heroic]

"It was a joke!" Well, sort of. Coming here would've been awkward after banging Linda. "And yeah, sure, I saw them head in."

That was a lie, but he was going to bury it with some whiskey.

[myownface]

Sparkle eyed Atton for another moment at that, and then he shrugged and took another swig from his own bottle.

"Well, doesn't sound to me like she took it as a joke. Maybe you weren't clear enough about that part?"

[suitably_heroic]

Or maybe Atton'd just made it worse by avoiding her for a few weeks, then trying to act like nothing was wrong. Whatever, it had been a weird day, what with Si going all funny on him.

"Yeah, sure, maybe," Atton said. "Damn it, now you have me wondering about that door. Maybe it's like in one of those movies-- you know, a poker room for bad guys."