MCA #4, Friday Morning

[suitably_heroic]

You know what was a pain in the ass? A move that dragged out for multiple weeks. Having your body just up and turn around on you overnight while you were supposed to be trying to get plugged into the Force. Did you know how hard it was to be a Jedi when your balance was off, half the island was either grumpy, panicking, or banging, and every part of you was cramping?

... Okay, that last part had been the exercise routine Atton had gone through on Sunday night. But still!

Either way, on Friday morning, Atton finally slithered out of the blankets of his bed and away from the tablet screen with the Netflix and stalked into the living room. Squinted at the incoming sunlight, let out a gutteral noise he was extremely grateful for being able to make right now, and then wandered into the kitchen for some steak.

Yes, for breakfast.

Why?

Shut up.

[[ open ]]

Comments

[myownface]

Sparkle had slept in today. Sparkle had very pointedly slept in today, because the week had actually been kind of great, and waking up this morning with a weird sense of loss and a whole lot of Toronto bullshit to look forward to had left an uncomfortable sort of wrenching disconnect in their chest.

Their chest?

Well, publicly test-driving 'they' had worked out pretty nicely for them this week, having a new body had made it almost a seamless slide from one to the next, but being out as anything more than what Lew had already blurted to the media with what was coming up was a dangerous proposition, so there were a lot of twisty thinks happening in that thinker, and Sparkle was going to stay in bed sulking forever if they didn't get out and actually interact with the world today. Which was why they were kind of oozing into the apartment not long before noon, bearing two coffees from the perk. Two utterly ridiculous, slightly glittery, vaguely nutmeg-flavoured coffees from the perk.

"... I smell steak."

Right. Breakfast was probably a thing that should get done.

[suitably_heroic]

"I am cooking," Atton called, "...Steak."

Beat.

"Thanks for noticing."

[myownface]

"I'm... you know, super observant," Sparkle intoned, peering into the kitchen and waving one of the cups around in case Atton hadn't had a coffee hit yet today. "Seasonal midday caffeine hit? I got two."

And would not object to drinking both if 'pumpkin spice' was not the done thing this year.

[suitably_heroic]

"What did you have them put in it?" Atton asked, sounding... suspicious, yes.

[myownface]

"The pumpkin spice syrup, some shiny sugar stuff," Sparkle rattled off. "Cream. With like some whipped cream on top and cinnamon and more of the shiny sugar stuff."

Sparkle had a brand, here, people.

[suitably_heroic]

"Oh space, you brought us a sugar bomb," Atton said, pulling a face. "I'll have you know I'm a manly guy who drinks his coffee black and I'm only going to throw myself on this grenade because I don't want you to get diabetes."

Sure.

[myownface]

Sparkle couldn't help but grin at that, holding out that sugar bomb in Atton's direction.

"See, always looking out for my well-being. I knew you'd save me from my own terrible decisions."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton took it. Gruffly.

"Someone should probably stop you from ever entering a coffee shop again," he said. "One day, you're just not going to come back."

[myownface]

"Hey, there are worse places to become a permanent fixture than the Perk," Sparkle pointed out. "I'd never have to worry about where my next hit of caffeine is going to come from again, you know."

And there was the whole 'the Perk wasn't prison' thing, that wasn't too terrible either!

[suitably_heroic]

"Oh, now you're shaming me about not buying more coffee this week?" Atton retorted, taking a big sip of that--

Oh, hello, sweet sugar hit.

... GRUFF FACE.

[myownface]

"I will never shame you about the coffee situation," Sparkle said with a sort of playful mock serenity. "That's what broccoli is for."

[suitably_heroic]

"There's no shame in not eating broccoli," Atton said, leaning back against the wall. "Broccoli is terrible. I don't know why you people even grow it."

[myownface]

"Because it's awesome cooked with cheese, even better raw with ranch dip, and the most important thing?" Sparkle stuck their nose into the air. "It makes you, personally, complain."

Thousands of years of selective breeding of brassica oleracea all culminating in this, Atton's suffering.

[suitably_heroic]

"Why do you hate me," Atton told him, "When I personally make sure there's weird alcohol in here for you every other week?"

[myownface]

"Hate? Pffff. This is how I express my love," Sparkle declared. And then ambled right on into the kitchen to inspect the contents of the fridge. "My super pushy, 'eat healthy dammit' love. Hm, I need to get some spinach in here."

[suitably_heroic]

"I keep telling you, if the Force hasn't killed me yet, not eating my greens isn't going to do it," Atton said.

He turned back to the stove to flip the steak.

[myownface]

"The Force is not rich in potassium or vitamin C," Sparkle countered, pulling out a carton of juice and waving it at Atton. "Not even the Force is going to save you from, like, scurvy."

That was what orange juice was for.

[suitably_heroic]

"Why are you always so obsessed with scurvy?" Atton asked. "Do you not want steak? Because this is how you don't get steak!"

[myownface]

Sparkle considered Atton for a moment, contemplated five or six stupid pirate-related replies that were summarily dismissed, and then shrugged, buried their reply under a thick veneer of snark, and said, "Because you see the fallout of a lot of shit that has no business happening in first world fucking countries when you grow up in group homes."

Toronto and all that entailed was looming too close, there was going to be too much ugly out in the open. There wasn't much point in skirting around any of it now.

They lifted their chin toward the stove and said, "Never said I didn't want steak."

[suitably_heroic]

Atton sighed. "Fine, if you want to drag everyone's trauma into it," he muttered. "Steak it is, for the kid from the group home with the attitude."

[myownface]

Sparkle and their attitude were sticking out their tongue in Atton's direction before leaning back against the wall and just kind of mulling on that for a moment in silence.

"... Sent off the last of the paperwork the other day. To kick things off. Just waiting for dates to firm up. And then, like... that's going to be everything for a while, you know? Stupid shit from the home and trauma and there won't be any just pretending it's not there when the line of witnesses starts. It's gonna suck."

[suitably_heroic]

"You got any idea what those dates are going to be?" Atton asked, moving the steak around. Thought about it, too. Didn't say anything else. Yet.

[myownface]

"As early as next week," Sparkle replied. Swallowed. "I won't know until at least Tuesday, Monday's a holiday in Canada. You'll know when my lawyer calls, you'll probably hear me screaming from pretty much anywhere on the island."

[suitably_heroic]

"Yeah, well, mind my eardrums," Atton said.

He flipped the steak. One more time. "I'll let Mical know I'm officially on leave."

[myownface]

Sparkle gave a small nod, kind of numb. This was... really a thing. A thing that was going to be a thing. People were planning around it and everything.

"He gonna be okay with that?"