Hannibal's house (where Jono has been spoiling children all weekend), Monday

[sharp_as_knives]

With all the extra guests in the house this weekend, it was a good thing they had so many bedrooms. And this morning, most of them would undoubtedly be taken up by disgruntled and/or embarrassed teens and adults. There was only one thing to do for it, really.

Make breakfast again.

Fortunately, Hannibal tended not to sleep much.


[Open to anyone who wants to say they stayed over, and anyone who wants to drop by!]

Comments

[myownface]

Sparkle had a stuffed cat.

And a real cat. Sparkle was hoarding cats, apparently, not that Joni seemed to mind all that much that she was sharing real estate in Sparkle's arms with a stuffed toy.

Sparkle was also going to have to relinquish the real cat if he had any hope in hell of writing a note to say thanks for looking out for him all weekend and then sneaking out unnoticed so that he'd never have to look at anybody again. But this point was rendered moot by the fact that he wasn't the first one awake, and Joni could smell bacon. Her mew of pleading came before he was even aware that she was demanding to be put on the floor so that she could go beg, and he sighed and did just that before going to peer into the kitchen about as quietly as he had yesterday.

God, he hated this island.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal looked up from the eggs he was beating and gave Sparkle a mischievous smile. "Which is your right?"

[myownface]

Sparkle took a moment to run through a number of answers, most of which involved making rude gestures with the hand in question.

"It's the one I'm totally not going to throw a stuffed cat at you with," he muttered instead, hugging the cat snugly in the crook of his right arm. "C'mon, I've had a bit of time to figure that one out."

[sharp_as_knives]

"I'm pleased to hear it." Hannibal's smile relaxed into something friendlier. "Coffee? There are waffles and bacon, and I hope to have the eggs finished shortly."

[myownface]

"Coffee, please," Sparkle agreed, nodding a little. "I was up half the night playing with Joni, I'm going to need something to help me wake up, I think."

Having an actual cat around had been novel. He wasn't going to hold it against tiny-him at all. Tiny him had had it rough.

[sharp_as_knives]

Adult him had continued that tradition, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

"I doubt she minded." Hannibal eyed the tiny cat that was mewing at him pitifully, shook his head, and gave her a tiny piece of bacon before getting down a cup for Sparkle.

"Would you like to feed them again?"

[myownface]

"... Yeah. Yeah, I kinda would."

Look, just because Sparkle was annoyed and mildly ashamed of tiny-himself and his inability to tell left from right didn't mean he was going to pass up the opportunity to feed the kitties.

"And this time I won't even need somebody to walk me through it."

[sharp_as_knives]

"I should hope not; you've sat with them enough by now."

As witness the fact that Beethoven had walked in and was now eyeing both Hannibal and Sparkle with the mixture of hopeful and suspicious that meant he wanted food but wasn't about to beg for it, being far too dignified.

"If you would, I'd be grateful," Hannibal said. "And I will stick to feeding the two-legged ones."

[myownface]

"Works for me," Sparkle replied, tucking his stuffed cat toy out of the way on the counter before making his way to the fridge to fetch the cat food. "I'll even put it into the right bowls this time around, how does that sound?"

Fancy, Sparkle. Fancy.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Positively decadent. I know they'll appreciate it," Hannibal said.

Probably not so much.

[crimson_sister]

Lucille hadn't wanted Dr Lecter to meet her younger self, and she certainly hadn't wanted Sparkle to. She guessed, partly on the fact that they had quickly made friends in the park, that he felt the same, and so she glanced awkwardly in his direction.

Perhaps the could just forget this? She had guessed before that he had things in his past that he preferred not to talk about, and she was fairly certain he suspected she had to.

[myownface]

Sparkle met Lucille's glance with an awkward sort of look of his own, and then fidgeted for a moment or three before venturing, "Thanks for looking out for me this weekend."

It was easier to talk about than mouldy food and abusive parents, anyway.

[crimson_sister]

It was, and Lucille was relieved that they seemed to silently agree on that.

"Of course I would. You were younger." Sparkle could probably figure out himself that she wouldn't have looked after any younger child. There had been an understanding of how the world worked.

[myownface]

Sparkle knew perfectly well, yeah. He was inclined to do the same thing, himself.

"Was I ever," he sighed, shaking his head. "I want to think I'm a bit better at fending off strangers these days, at least."

Not much better. His life was still in danger on a regular basis. But at least a little.

[crimson_sister]

Lucille was yet unaware how often Sparkle managed to get himself into danger.

She was about to say something sarcastic about this island, but stopped herself. There was no point, it was too obvious. Instead she asked Sparkle something neutral:

"Does red tape exist or was that only something you had made up?"

[myownface]

Sparkle blinked, and then laughed a little.

"It's a bureaucratic thing," he explained. "It's like... all the paperwork and stupid pointless-looking stuff that people in government or business or whatever have to do before they can get anything worthwhile done."

There was a lot of it in the foster care system, surprise, surprise.

"As a kid, I didn't get that it wasn't literal. I guess at some point or another, it probably was."

[crimson_sister]

The corner of Lucille's mouth curved. "Hardly a red ribbon, then."

[myownface]

"Hardly a red ribbon," Sparkle agreed, smiling wryly. "Just a turn of phrase."

Though there had been plenty of times through his life where he could have used a red ribbon that was capable of scaring off the bad guys.

[crimson_sister]

Lucille thought about how they would have had to resort to drugs, had their enemy actually existed. She had been resourceful as a child, not one to hold back from what was necessary.

"It was good to have your company." To have someone to protect had been familiar.

[myownface]

"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.

[crimson_sister]

"I think... you reminded me of my brother. It was so strange to be alone. At that age I wasn't used to it."

Lucille looked down. "Saying something about how it's good to be my usual self is rather unnecessary, is it."

[myownface]

"Completely unnecessary," Sparkle promised. "I'm not exactly too keen on re-living childhood experiences, either."

Or the traumas that came with them.

"You reminded me a bit of my sister," he added with a tired sigh. "She used to stick her neck out for us the same way."

[crimson_sister]

Lucille felt silent. Anything she could say seemed silly, as if words could make those past events less painful.

"I would like some breakfast."

That would at least make things better in the present, especially when prepared by Dr Lecter.

[myownface]

"Yeah, me too," Sparkle replied, latching on to the change of subject. He used to be much, much better at grabbing on to those himself. Funny that he couldn't quite muster it these days. "But it looks like Dr. Lecter has that part covered."

[crimson_sister]

Lucille almost smiled. "I would be more surprised if he hadn't. I wonder if there are waffles or if those are only for children."

The waffles had been delicious.

[crimson_sister]

Unlike Sparkle Lucille didn't wake up with cats. She woke up with a pile of medical books with illustrations. Her younger self had been quite absorbed by them and fallen asleep with the books on top of her.

She sat up, pushing away a strand of hair from her face, and looked around. She wouldn't leave without thanking Dr Lecter for his kindness, and he did know more about her past than anyone else here, but she would have preferred him not to meet her younger self.

At least she hadn't tried to steal medical supplies.