Demon Marcus, Sunday, All Day

[myownface]

Sparkle was having another slow shift at Demon Marcus. Everything that needed to be put out was out, everything that needed to be chucked into the back room and hidden away from humanity for the sake of good taste was hidden away... Hell, Sparkle had even swept and mopped the floors early out of sheer boredom

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[not_trivial]

In case Sparkle wasn't aware, Alec did not love being at this store. But he had told Izzy that he'd try to have a conversation with Sparkle, and although he didn't know his boyfriend's work schedule by heart, this was his best guess as to Sparkle's whereabouts, and it turned out to be right.

He had a shopping bag in one hand and a tray with two coffee cups in the other, but Shadowhunter coordination meant that he managed to open the door without spilling or dropping anything.

"He-- oh, I should have gotten you a drink that comes with a straw." Oops.

[not_trivial]

Alec felt a twinge of irritation at the vagueness, so his tone was a little sharper than he meant for it to be when he asked, "And did anything happen that you want to tell me about, or...?"

[myownface]

"If I wanted to tell you about it, you don't think I would have?"

If you were going to get sharp with Sparkle, Alec, he was going to get snippy right back.

"She doesn't fucking do anything, if that's what you want to know. She comes in, she makes damn sure I know she's here and she can snap my neck if she wants to, and she leaves again. I'm not really your sister's biggest fan, for some reason."

[not_trivial]

Alec blinked once. And then a second time.

"I don't get it," he said.

And because he recognized that that statement was just as vague as anything Sparkle had said, he clarified, "I get why she would... alarm you, and I talked to her about that," because he knew his sister and the intimidating air she could project, "but you're describing her being protective of me, when the other night you accused her of poisoning me on purpose."

[myownface]

"No," Sparkle snapped, "the other night I accused her of being an irresponsible bitch who wasn't paying attention to what she was doing, and yeah, maybe it was a coincidence that you turned into a panther at the same damn time, but maybe her cooking was just that fucking nasty, I don't know."

He shoved the scarf back across the counter toward Alec. Trying to bribe him into playing nice with a pretty present was a shitty move, anyhow.

"Either way, I don't like her. I don't have to like her. I've been given no reason to like her, and I don't have to play nice with someone who gets her kicks out of coming in and playing 'intimidate the mundie' whenever she feels like I might need the reminder."

Weirdly, Sparkle didn't take well to being bullied.

[not_trivial]

"Well, she told me she wouldn't do that as long as you don't insult her," Alec paraphrased. "But I don't know what to say, since you don't seem to be willing to... not do that."

He crossed his arms over his chest, and he didn't touch the scarf. "She's really important to me. And I know you know that sometimes the island just turns people into animals for no reason that's anyone's fault. Blaming her just seems like..." He trailed off, shaking his head to abort that line of thought.

[myownface]

"So," Sparkle ventured, "she comes in here and makes sure I know my place as the lesser life form on this planet's face. It's happened more than once, even. But I'm the one being unreasonable for getting pissed off at her over something that's, yeah, stupid, fine, but what do you expect me to do? Make nice, pretend everything's okay? It's great she's told you she's not going to come in here and make me a-cute-ly aware that she can powderize my bones with no effort at all, but it really doesn't change the fact that she already has."

... Made him aware. His bones weren't powder quite yet.

"Maybe there's some kind of magic Shadowhunter brother-sister bond going on that I don't grasp, here, but I'm pretty sure there are ways to stand up for your brother that don't involve making pit-stops to terrorize the boyfriend before he's even done anything, too."

[not_trivial]

Alec kind of hated this conversation. "Honestly," he said carefully, after a longish pause, "I don't know what she said to you exactly, but if Isabelle was dating someone right now whom I didn't know, I can't tell you that I would do anything differently."

It was just how they were. Not Shadowhunters in general, but Lightwoods for sure.

"I am sorry that she threatened you, or did whatever it is that she did. But protecting each other is all we've done for our entire lives, so I can't blame her for looking out for me when she didn't know anything about you."

[myownface]

"So, like, learning about me wasn't an option? Fucking seriously?"

Ugh. Sparkle didn't even want to be near Alec or his stupid scarf just then. He pushed himself away from the counter, throwing his hands into the air.

"Jesus, Alec, you don't know what the hell happened, but you know you'd do the same thing. That's great. It's okay because it's Isabelle, right? She can't do any wrong, and I'm the irrational dick here."

Sparkle was thinking right back to the reunion weekend too. And how the same sort of bullying had gotten so bad that he had just decided it wasn't worth it anymore, and had taken off back to Toronto.

[not_trivial]

"That's not what I said," Alec said calmly. "I told her to stop what she was doing, and she agreed. I'm talking to you second, Sparkle."

Suggesting that this was the less pressing of the two issues. But now that Sparkle was getting so worked up about it, while Isabelle had required much less persuasion, Alec was wondering if he'd underestimated how easy this would be.

"To Isabelle," he said, "and to me, approaching a greeting like it's a confrontation is a way to learn about someone. I don't... I don't know how to explain that any better." Which he sounded slightly apologetic about, actually.

[myownface]

"Well, it's a fucking shitty way of doing it," Sparkle growled, leaning back against the wall with his arms firmly folded across his chest. "There's this thing called first impressions, heard of those? I managed to shake the one I got of you back in Skywalker's Ethics class, but then, you weren't threatening me or just outright treating me like dirt."

That sort of impression kind of stuck.

[not_trivial]

That stung, actually. Not the mention of the first impression -- the first part. "You know what we're trained to be," Alec said, almost coolly. "And you know that we weren't raised in an environment where we went and made friends with mundanes. Or anyone."

If Sparkle didn't see how that kind of training would lead to taking a hostile approach with new people and regarding them as threats, Alec didn't know how to explain it. It was his worldview; it was pretty hard to step out of it. Especially since he would have thought that Sparkle would understand that, at least.

[myownface]

"Yeah, well, I wasn't raised in a fucking environment where I was taught to be terribly forgiving of people who come in here, fucking corner me, and make me feel like something subhuman. She gets her kicks off of it, Alec. She mentions you, but it's not like she's not enjoying herself when she does it!"

He wanted to start grabbing things and throwing them. He wanted to start screaming. He wanted to just walk out of the fucking store and not look back.

"It's like cat and fucking mouse, and I am so fucking tired of everyone making me into the vermin and then calling me a fucking worthless punk for not liking it! That's how I grew up, Alec! Remember that?"

[not_trivial]

It was getting hard to stay calm when Sparkle was like this, and Alec really wanted to stay calm. He exhaled slowly, shutting his eyes for a moment.

"You're blowing it out of proportion," he said finally -- aware, in fact, that that was probably the last thing Sparkle wanted to hear. "And you're -- she's never spoken about you the way you've been speaking about her. I'm not okay with you talking about my sister that way."

His back was perfectly straight, his chin upright. He felt awful. "I don't know what you're looking for from this conversation, but I don't think I can give it to you."

[myownface]

"Then get out," Sparkle growled. "Get out of my store. Get out of my face. I hope you and Isabelle are super happy together, Alec."

He was going to get completely fucked up on something maybe seventy or eighty proof if he could get his hands on it. Today seemed like a great day for horrible life choices.

[not_trivial]

Alec didn't say anything else. What could he say? He'd come in here to ask Sparkle if he could agree to an olive branch from Isabelle, and it had turned into a lot of shouting and insulting Izzy. Alec knew he let himself be led around a lot by the people in his life, but that was well over a line that he had convinced himself he didn't have.

He took his coffee with him when he turned on his heel and exited the store without a word, but he left the scarf.