Sparkle On 4

As Madeira trotted through the crowds, Mauritius did his best to keep up with her. It really felt like it should be easier - he had longer legs in doll form, he was taller… but Madeira just moved so fucking fast. He had no idea how she did it, either, or how she had learned to do it. She just... did.

He wished she would move just a little bit slower so he would be less at risk of losing her in the crowds.

Honestly, he didn't even know where they were going. Madeira had said she was taking him to a party for Mochi Moon, and then they'd set off from her condo and arrived here... and then she just kept moving. He'd thought the crowded streets were the party, but now, he really wasn't sure. Maybe the crowded streets were a separate party?

At last, he saw her stopping, and hurried to catch up to her.

If it was a separate party, he sure could not tell where one party ended and the other began. Madeira was just... standing in front of a doll with a bunch of boxes.

"Could we get a lot of sparklers, please?" she asked them. "About fifteen."

"Yeah, course," they replied, going to dig out a bunch of ...sticks? and hand them over.

"Thanks!" She turned away from him, handing over one of the sticks to Mauritius.

"...what is it?" he asked, investigating it. It sure did not smell edible.

"You'll see," she told him, and took off back into the crowds.

He sighed deeply. This was all way too much work... but he wouldn't know what the hell this dumb stick was if he failed to follow her. So back into the crowds he went as well.

Her destination this time seemed to be a group of her friends. The cluster of dolls and buns with gluttony horns was unmistakable - Madeira had a type, and the type was definitely gluttonies. (Considering her cooking, Mauritius supposed he could understand why that was the case, though he was mystified by what, exactly, she got out of it - he wasn't going to pry, but he did wonder).

"Hi Madeira!" Hops' voice was unmistakable, though it took Mauritius a moment to locate the bartender. She had a drink in one hand and was clinging to the waist of one of Madeira's other friends with the other. (What was her name... Kasa? Casa? Quesadilla? Well, he didn't have to remember the name if he just didn't talk to her...)

"Hi everyone~" Madeira greeted. She started passing out the sticks to the other buns, letting them take them in hand or hoof till she was left with only one. "Ready for lights?"

"Definitely," the one bun said. (At this rate, Mauritius really was going to call her Quesadilla, he really needed to make his own friends instead of just always tagging along with Madeira to hang out with her friends... It was just so much easier...)

The blue bun dug out a lighter and began putting it to the ends of the weird sticks.

And what happened, Mauritius could only consider magic!

They didn't burn like a normal stick - little blue sparks lit and jumped off of the ends, and danced there. He had never seen anything like it! And the more Madeira lit, the more magical it felt!

"Oooooh!" When she lit his, he was even more entranced by it - how did it work? Did he even care? This was so amazing! "Are these available every Mochi Moon?"

"They are," Madeira assured him, grinning. "They're one of my favorite parts of the holiday!"

Looking back at his sparkler, Mauritius couldn't help but think that they were definitely going to be one of his favorite parts of the holiday too.

Though they probably wouldn't beat out the mochi the holiday was named for...

The party and the night wore on, and if Mauritius kept ducking away from Madeira's friend group to get more sparklers so he could watch them light and dance, well, nobody mentioned it, not even the buns whose job it was to hand them out. Apparently, their instructions didn't include keeping him from getting more sparklers.

It was a good night.