Chapter Text
Sparkling’s blinks at the sight in front of him and almost can’t help the smile that makes its way onto his face.
“Vampire,” he calls, and the man looks up from his seat on a pond bench, the ducks in the pond swarming towards the edge for the oats they seem to be receiving from him. “Did you make some new friends?”
“Heeey Sparkling,” Vampire says, drawled and lazy as always, “done with work?”
“Yes, it was rather hectic today, so I closed early,” he replies, and the ducks in the pond quack when he passes by them. “I didn’t see you at the bar.”
“Yeaaah…” Vampire sticks his hand into a paper bag full of oats for the ducks and throws it out to feed, and the ducks continue to make happy quaking sounds. Seems Vampire’s bag of oats is almost empty. “I figured I’d try to do something productive, or whatever.”
Sparkling’s eyes shift over to the closed umbrella by Vampire’s side; his favored one that he brings around whenever Alchemist isn’t around to give him his ‘sun-defying sunscreen,’ as Vampire likes to call it. “That’s good. Did you have fun?”
“Not really.”
“Ah… I see.”
Silence envelops the space between them, and Vampire begins to ration out the food he throws at the ducks. When Sparkling chances a glance at his face, he looks a little downcast; solemn, almost. Like he has something on his mind. Being around Sparkling isn’t very productive, is it? Not that he’s allowed to feel saddened by that, since it was his choice to be a bartender. Maybe asking how his day went was a wrong move. He should probably just leave. Leave, rethink his life choices, because he can’t possibly be doing anything right if he can’t even treat a friend right, make him comfortable—
“Sparkling,” Vampire calls, breaking him out of his self-induced trance, “you look like you’re spiraling again.”
Ah. There he goes again. Sparkling shakes his head and puts on the most reassuring smile he can muster. “Sorry, I didn’t realize. Thank you.”
Vampire offers him a closed mouth smile. “No problem. Do you wanna talk about it…?”
“No— no, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about me.” Sparkling gives Vampire a smile and hopes that he doesn’t notice the way he taps his fingers against his knee nervously. “Ah… what about you…? Do you have anything on your mind?”
“Um… you sure you don’t mind if I vent a little…?” Vampire asks, and it’s one of the few times Sparkling’s really seen Vampire so hesitant about something. “It’s a little stupid.”
“I’m sure it isn’t, please go ahead."
Vampire blows out a breath of air and his hand goes still in his bag of oats. “Alright, so, um…” He runs a hand through his bangs and taps his leg against the stone path impatiently. “I feel like I’m not… doing anything important. I mean, I like it that way,” Vampire quickly reassures, “but I feel like I should be doing so… so much better than this. I shouldn’t always be so tired and drunk and…”
He trails off at that, and Sparkling watches in concern as Vampire hides his face into his hand and sniffles. He’s hesitant, but when Sparkling wraps his arms around his friend’s back, he’s quick to lean into the hold.
“I should be a better friend. I should be a better brother to Alch…” Vampire sniffles into his sleeve, duck food forgotten in his lap, and Sparkling listens to him sob with a crease in his brow as he tries his best to comfort him with a hand circling his back.
“I just wanna be better… why’s it so hard?” Vampire sobs, and Gods, Sparkling wishes he knew the answer, too.
Sparkling wishes he knew, but he doesn’t have the answer to his questions, so he sits there and listens as Vampire cries into his hand.
The bag of oats in Vampire’s lap begins to fall, and Sparkling takes it into his own gently. The ducks continue to quack despite Vampire’s sniffles, and passersby give them odd looks, but Sparkling pays them no mind.
Vampire’s sobs begin to fade into softer sniffles, and he lifts himself off of Sparkling’s side to wipe at his face. “Sorry, um… Thanks for dealing with that. That was weird,” he says, and Sparkling shakes his head.
“It wasn’t weird, Vampire. Thank you for telling me this.” Sparkling passes the bag of oats back to Vampire, and he gently takes it back into his hands and turns back to the ducks, but he doesn’t extend his arm to feed them. “How are you feeling?”
“Like shit,” Vampire spits, but it isn’t out of anger. “Shit, but better.”
Sparkling smiles. “That’s good…” he says, and he resolves himself to continue when Vampire turns to him to mirror that smile. “Bad habits are hard to get rid of, but you can unlearn them, you know? You’ll get better, Vampire.”
“You think?”
Sparkling nods. He speaks from experience, from the knowledge that he’s getting better, too, slowly but surely, when he says “I know so.”
Vampire smiles at that, and though his eyes are still puffy, Sparkling can tell it’s real. The ducks quack happily, as if to reflect the mood, when Vampire gives them the last of the oats left in his paper bag.
Habits, intrusive thoughts… those are things that get worse if you feed them the wrong things, aren’t they? Like when people feed ducks food they don’t realize is bad for them.
Sparkling laughs at the comparison. People are like pond ducks, huh? Vampire gives him an intrigued raise of a brow at the chuckle he lets out, but he brushes it off. He’ll keep that thought to himself for now, but he lets it simmer in his head as he sits in silence beside Vampire until the sun sets completely and the street lamps begin to turn on.
He’s glad he closed the bar early today.