[If Sparkling had enough spare brainpower to think harder about what Spike is telling him, then maybe he'd be picking up on the fact that there's maybe some more experience in those words than what can be seen at a surface level. Sparkling very easily could have turned into a hermit immediately upon arriving here and finding out that he had to start from the ground up all over again, with no notoriety and no friends.

But Spike is right. It wouldn't be very Sparkling if he did that.

He coughs, every breath still just as pained as the last because even as the carnations and apple blossoms wither, the roses remain strong. They don't seem interested in letting him go at all, but at least some relief is better than none at all.]

Being lonely is hard. I don't like it very much at all, I'll admit. I'd stay at work longer just to avoid it if I knew Horatio wouldn't run me out before I stayed until morning.

[At work, Sparkling gets to be around people. That's where he thrives, extroverted as he is.

His brows upturn for a moment as he goes silent, because he can feel the roses in his lungs moving again. Growing ever further outwards, straining against the walls of his organs as they threaten to eventually burst through. So he has to just sit there and will himself to sit through the pain, refusing to let that be what breaks him down in front of someone else.]

Nnh. These flowers...they just won't leave us alone, will they..?