The Shooting Range | Tuesday Afternoon

[nottrivial]

It was a mark of Alec's truly impressive disinterest in Fandom goings-on that he'd managed to miss the arrival of the new students without even knowing the picnic had come and gone. He had spent his break week preoccupied with what he considered more important things. Training, mostly. There had been a couple trips to the mainland for patrolling and the like, but for the most part he'd been at the gym and the range.

And the start of the new term of classes did nothing to interfere with that routine, because here Alec was again, halfway through a quiver of arrows that certainly wasn't his first of the day, face glistening with sweat as he fired off one after another. Arrow after arrow pierced the target, forming a tight, compact cluster around the bullseye.

You might even say Alec was working through something.

[[open!]]

Comments

[myownface]

Wasn't everyone working through something, these days?

Sparkle wasn't under the assumption that Alec wouldn't see him coming, but that wasn't going to stop him from stepping up behind him and quietly watching him shoot for a moment.

"Figured I might find you here," he noted, after Alec's quiver had emptied. "You look like there's something on your mind, handsome."

So sue him, he'd missed the guy.


[OOC: Slowplay is going to be the order of the day, but I couldn't help it. <3 I've missed these two.]

[nottrivial]

"Hey," Alec said, but his voice came out sounding scratchy so he tried it again. "Hey. What're you doing here?"

Sparkle in a room with weapons was, well, a surprise, but Alec was pleased to see him, too. It felt like it had been a while since they'd last seen each other.

[myownface]

"Just... thought to myself, 'hey, know who I haven't pestered at the range in a while? My boyfriend.'" Sparkle shrugged his shoulders and attempted a little smile. "Figured I'd watch a master at work. Maybe pick up a few pointers."

Try not to flail at him too much about Isabelle...

[nottrivial]

Yeah, about that... the funny thing was, Alec had no idea that she was even here. At least, for another few minutes.

"That sounds like a valid reason to me," Alec decided, but his 'firm' declaration came out more, well, cute than seriously approving. "Educational. Practical."

Likely to lead to kissing. That one he didn't say, but he took a moment to lean in and demonstrate it clearly enough.

[myownface]

Well, Sparkle wasn't going to refuse a kiss, especially if Alec was the one hinting toward it. He leaned in, kissed him full on the mouth, and...

Well, if he was a bit clingy afterward, arms around Alec's middle and not about to let go, he figured, if nothing else, that Alec probably wouldn't mind.

"Best education."

[nottrivial]

He definitely didn't mind, though the bow occupying his hands made it difficult to completely reciprocate the gesture. Alec did his best, though.

"Are you okay?" he checked, just because the clinginess was kind of new.

[myownface]

Wasn't it, though? Sparkle was... not much of a clinger.

"Of course I am," he mumbled, even as he kind of planted his face in Alec's shoulder and stayed there for a moment. "You know, mostly. Kind of."

Ish.

"Sunday sucked."

[nottrivial]

Alec blinked, and drew back enough to glance at Sparkle's face. "Don't tell me I missed another invasion."

Well, something like that.

[myownface]

"Mmmm-n." That was supposed to be a no, there. Sparkle glanced up at Alec, frowned, and looked back down again, falling into a grumble. "Not really. New kids are on the island, that sort of counts."

It really did count, around here.

"Had a few visitors I could've done without at work on Sunday, is all."

Interestingly, the visit from the teacher who was secretly a cannibal had been the highlight of his day.

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle was not the least bit surprised that the first place on her mental list of Find the Predictable Big Brother turned out to be the right one. Not at all.

She entered quietly, because she could be like that. It'd been a while since she'd last seen him training. Or doing much of anything, really. So she was stealing a bit of a moment of that.

Or just waiting to really surprise him. One of those.

[nottrivial]

Alec's reaction to that was a highly embarrassing thought along the lines of 'Do I need to go scare someone?', but he had more than enough self-control to keep from saying it, thank you.

"What happened?"

[myownface]

"You want me to tell you about the person who showed up specifically to terrorize me a little," Sparkle ventured, not entirely certain how Alec was going to take the knowledge that it was his sister Sparks was referring to, "or the one who had no freaking clue what was going on when I started freaking the fuck out at her, first?"

Yeah. There were options. Variety was the spice of life.

[nottrivial]

Yeah, Iz was definitely quiet when she wanted to be. A lot of people probably wouldn't have turned.

But Alec -- who normally prided himself on his ability to focus and not be distracted by background noise -- was not one of those people, and he turned as soon as the next arrow left his bow on a perfect trajectory toward the target and it was safe for him to look away.

"Iz?"

[nottrivial]

Wow, that was quite a pair of options, yes. They both sounded so fun.

"Um." Yeah, Alec had to think about that one. "Let's go with the second one."

[myownface]

Honestly, Sparkle had kind of hoped Alec was going to go for that one. After all, he had no idea how he was going to get into, 'so, your sister is still a psycho' without it getting... messy? Messy seemed like the word for it.

So he cleared his throat and embraced option number two with a gusto. Or, at least, with a resigned sigh as he leaned back against the nearest wall.

"So, you... uh... remember the dungeon and all that mess, right?"

He suspected that would be difficult for Alec to forget.

[nottrivial]

Alec shifted on his feet - not a typical habit of his, but he was defaulting to it now more because he'd spent four hours exercising than anything.

"Vividly," he agreed. He wasn't sure he liked the sound of where this was going...

[myownface]

"Right. So... reminders of that thing kind of suck, am I right?"

Sparkle was not doubting his rightness. But being casual about this whole thing was a bit of a coping strategy, so that's just how he was going to be.

[seveninchmotto]

Isabelle grinned at him.

And preened a little bit. She didn't even need a real reason.

"In the flesh."

[nottrivial]

Alec set his bow down before he hurried over to hug her, since that was obviously the thing to do here.

"I didn't know you were coming," he said, though that was obvious. Because she hadn't told him and all. "Is it another visiting weekend?"

[nottrivial]

"I'd say so, yes," Alec said quite firmly, then added a little more gently, "Sparkle, I'm not going to judge. What was it?"

[seveninchmotto]

She snickered as she hugged him. Tightly.

"No, it's not, Alec."

[myownface]

"Look, it's not really- I mean, it was just a stupid fucking... It was her, okay? The one that bit me, she came into the store while I was working."

Well. Ish. She hadn't been a vampire when she'd come in or anything. But it was still her.

[nottrivial]

"Then why..." Alec gave her another tight squeeze, then let go. "You enrolled here?" Not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but that was not something he'd expected from Isabelle. Like, at all. Ever.

[nottrivial]

"Oh, Angel." That was a typical Alec swear, not a term of endearment, sorry Sparks. Though the tone, and the fact that he'd surely said it in front of Sparkle before, probably made that clear. "Is she still-- I mean, she didn't attack you again, did she?"

Not that he was rapidly looking for bite marks or other signs of injury, or anything...

[seveninchmotto]

Why not? Was she supposed to be the only one (apart from Max) to just stay back at the Institue forever? No, thanks. She'd wanted to see the invasions and things for herself!

"Yes," she said, smiling like that was hardly a big thing at all. "I've been here since Saturday, for the record. You don't keep a very keen eye on things."