"It was good to have yours," Sparkle replied, nodding a little. "I mean... I felt safe, this weekend. It was pretty cool of you to take me under your wing like that."

It left his heart aching for his siblings, Carla especially. But even just for the sake of the weekend, it was... had been... something familiar. His friendship with Atton hit similar beats, with him clearly playing the younger sibling role more often than not. But he was less scared, these days.

Generally.

It had been a bad year.