A guest room in Glacia, Thursday night Fandom time

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal settled his things in the wardrobe and wandered about the room, familiarizing himself with everything in it. Karla's hospitality was as impeccable as he would have expected, even if he had been for all intents and purposes kidnapped. He wondered darkly for a moment if Glacia had an equivalent of the FBI to investigate such things.

Which naturally led to other thoughts. Of Jack, of Alana. And especially of Will.

He stood in the middle of the room, eyes closed, calming himself.

Jono	The equivalent of the FBI, in Glacia? Julian. Jono. How in the world did Hannibal keep befriending those types, anyway? To the point, in fact, where one of them was currently standing outside of the door to Hannibal's room, wondering if perhaps now was a bad time? //Hannibal?// It wasn't so much a word as it was a question, a light wash of inquiry, wondering if he was intruding. Maybe a sort of soft hint of, 'hey, I'm worried, I'm here if you need somebody' to go along with that.
Hannibal	Something about the violence and intellectual challenge of the job, maybe? Whatever it was, Hannibal had several fewer friends now than he had earlier in the day. He nodded, swallowed, and spoke just loudly enough for Jono to hear. "Come in."
Jono	Oh. Oh. That was a tone of voice that Jonothon had never heard from Hannibal before, and it had him hesitating at the door for a moment before reaching for the doorknob and letting himself in, pulling the door shut again behind himself. //Hey,// he said, tentatively. //Just wanted to check up on you, mate. Karla was in a hell of a rush to usher me away when you got in, and I never got a chance to ask if there was anything I can to do help.// But he had plenty of time to finish cleaning the canapés from the floor while Karla chased Hannibal up to the shower. So. That had been something.
Hannibal	And Hannibal would greatly appreciate that cleanliness once he got back home. For now, he turned to Jono and did his best to smile at him. It was a fairly credible one; he did have a lot of practice. "Thank you." He sat on the corner of the bed, and took a moment to think. "I don't believe there is, but I do appreciate your concern."
Jono	//Nah,// Jono replied, nodding once, //I figured that might be the case.// He'd danced this dance before. Though maybe with somewhat less murder than had been involved, not that he was aware of that much. //But I figured I ought to make the offer all the same. You don't have to force a smile for my sake, Hannibal. I'm not here because I think your pain is a spectator sport.//
Hannibal	That got a more humorous smile. "I hadn't thought it was. Although I wouldn't hold it against you to be a bit morbidly curious. It's human nature, isn't it?"
Jono	//Can't deny that,// Jono allowed. //We don't much care for mysteries, though if you're not feeling up to talking about what happened, I'm not going to push you for information. I know it wasn't your blood, I know you're more pulverized in an emotional sense than the physical one that Karla was letting on. And if there's anything you want to talk about, I'll listen. If you don't want to talk, I'm just fine with sitting here in silence, if that's what you want. Or leaving. It's your call, mate. No expectations, no demands. I don't expect you to perform, here. I just...// He shrugged. //... care.//
Hannibal	Hannibal waved Jono to sit. He wasn't sure if he could or should speak of what had happened, but perhaps the company would distract him.
Jono	Well, if Hannibal wasn't going to chase him out of the room, Jonothon was going to nod and take a seat in a nearby armchair. //Thanks,// he said, leaning forward a little. //... You know, I think this chair is actually more comfortable than the one in my room? There's how you tell Karla likes you, mate. You get the comfortable chair.// He... was rambling. Fabulous. //Hope she didn't put you out too much, kidnapping you away to Glacia like this.//
Hannibal	"I haven't ever missed a class before," Hannibal confessed. "I feel like I should be back there, doing something useful." Though given his current mindset, it was probably just as well that he not be around his students. "I feel..." he grimaced. "Like Sisyphus after his rock rolls back down the hill. I keep staring after it, wondering why it's fallen and how long until I have the strength to try again."
Jono	It was an interesting comparison. After all, Sisyphus' fate was a punishment devised to rub in his face that he thought he was more clever than the gods. //Your class will get on without you for a week,// Jono shared, //though there's enough of a connection to the island from here that you can contact somebody to take over your class if need be. As for the rock...// He shrugged his shoulders again. //I don't think you're damned to push it for eternity,// he offered. //And even if you are, you're certainly not required to push it alone. But...// His brow furrowed faintly as he tried to puzzle out how to say what he wanted to say. //That doesn't make it less brutal now. As much as 'this too shall pass' is true, that doesn't always make the here and now easier to stomach, does it?// This was heartbreak, wasn't it? Heartbreak was crushing.
Hannibal	"No, it doesn't," Hannibal agreed. "I still failed. I have still lost friends." Will had still rejected his friendship, rejected his own nature.
Jono	//I'm sorry,// Jono murmured, and he very much meant it. //It's the doubt afterwards, isn't it? When you end up asking 'what could I have done differently?' Picking apart every little aspect of what you've done, inspecting it in minutiae, after the fact.// And hindsight was always perfect, wasn't it? //Makes the loss that much worse.//
Hannibal	Hannibal clenched his hands around the edge of the mattress, his jaw set. "I trusted someone." Offered him my friendship. But he rejected it.
Jono	//Ah.// Jonothon's eyes rested on Hannibal's hands for a few moments, and then he looked up, trying to meet his gaze. //That's worse, then.// He didn't need to be a telepath to catch the undertones of betrayal and rejection in that statement. //Trust is a dangerous proposition.//
Hannibal	Especially for someone with Hannibal's secrets. "I told him I forgave him. I'm not certain if I meant it." Forgave him for putting him in a position to kill or be killed by Jack, certainly. Forgave him for rejecting both Hannibal and his own nature? Possibly not. Or possibly he still held out a tiny ember of hope.
Jono	//Do you suppose you'll ever be able to mean it?// Jono lingered awkwardly in that seat for a moment, and then nodded to the spot next to Hannibal on the bed. //May I?// This just seemed like it had evolved into the sort of conversation you didn't have from opposite ends of the room.
Hannibal	Hannibal nodded to the second question. To the first... "I gave him more than I've given anyone in a very long time. He turned it down. I don't know if I can easily let that go."
Jono	Jono stood, making his way over to sit down beside Hannibal, his gaze falling back to the floor once he was there. //And when you've been that closed for that bloody long...// Ouch. //Serves to reinforce why you don't open up in the first place. Rough bloody reminder of it. For what it's worth, I don't think anybody's going to expect you to give more than you feel you're able. Especially not in the wake of something like that.//
Hannibal	"Bloody in more than one way," Hannibal acknowledged with a grim smile. It wasn't as if Jono were going to forget the state he'd been in when he'd arrived home.
Jono	//Bloody in more than one way,// Jono agreed, glancing sidelong at Hannibal, at that. //Care to talk about that, at least? Or is that something you'd rather not discuss?// He wouldn't deny his curiosity on that front. It wasn't as though he could pretend he wasn't—Hannibal would know better just as well as he did, after all. It was human nature to want to know.
Hannibal	"I..." Hannibal tried to find some words to say that would be descriptive without being damning. He pictured the scene that he'd left at his Baltimore home, and nearly vibrated with grief and frustration. He swallowed and consciously tried to relax himself again. "Not now," he answered a bit curtly, trying to smile to soften it. "Perhaps when it isn't so close." When he could think about it more objectively, speak of it without the danger of losing control.
Jono	//Not now,// Jonothon echoed, nodding again. He hesitated for a moment before leaning sideways just a little, just enough to kind of bump his shoulder lightly against Hannibal's, filling his next words with as much patience and reassurance as he could. //Not ever, if you never feel up for sharing it. I'm not going to press.// Much as he wanted to. His curiosity wasn't worth endangering a friendship over.
Hannibal	Sharing. Hannibal nodded again, then all but threw himself off the bed, unable to sit still any longer. "Thank you," he managed, squeezing Jono's hand for a moment before he stalked away to pace.
Jono	Ah, pacing. Jono knew that urge well enough, himself. He sat silently for a minute, just watching, before pulling himself to his feet. //Anxious, mate? Want a hand working some of that frustration off?// Sometimes it helped to just hit things.
Hannibal	It did. And sometimes it helped to carve things up. But even if Jono wouldn't actually be harmed by that, Hannibal doubted that was what he was offering. He flicked a glance over at Jono. "What did you have in mind?"

[OOC: Preplayed with the wondermous furnaceface and continued in comments! NFB]

[ETA: Now very firmly NSFW!]

Comments

[furnaceface]

Jono held on to that moment for as long as he could, tried to let it stretch into forever, if at all possible. Forever, unfortunately, wasn't actually all that long at all, and soon that triumphant grin and predatory kissing was fading away until Jono was left in their wake, sprawled out with his eyes half-lidded, calm blue flames spilling out from wrappings that were holding him down quite well, but weren't doing much at all to actually cover him, anymore.

//... Wouldn't be adverse to more of that.//

Just, you know. Putting that out there.

//Good lord...//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal chuckled. "Not just now, I think." He took a moment longer just to breathe in the calm and triumph that still lingered, then slid aside and started untying the leather wrappings with one hand, the other stroking idly over Jono's back more gently than before.

[furnaceface]

//Not just now,// Jono agreed, content to lay there bonelessly while Hannibal untied him. //Right now, this is good...//

See, he was a fan of Hannibal being gentle, too. Perfectly fine with that.

//S'very good.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Mm," Hannibal agreed. He freed one arm and reached across for the other, petting Jono's hair in passing. "Thank you. I do feel much less like pacing now," he added, amusement and appreciation mingled.

[furnaceface]

There was a faint glimmer of amusement dancing about in Jono's voice as he replied to that.

//Told you a spar would do you some good.//

Totally called it.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal laughed. "So you did." He stretched a bit, then gave Jono a thorough once-over and reached under the bench. "I don't suppose you'd mind staying still a while longer." He pulled the sketchbook and pencil out and flipped to a blank page.

[furnaceface]

Drawing him like your French girls, Hannibal?

//I'm not going anywhere any time soon,// Jono replied, needing a moment to register that the sketchbook and pencil were even a thing in the first place. //Sketch all you like.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Somehow, Hannibal thought few French girls could match the picture here of power, sex, and blood.

Though since he and his mun was one of the five people who'd never seen Titanic, the reference would have been lost on him anyway.

He smiled and started sketching; he could have done it from memory later, but this would help to cement the memory more clearly, and it really was a lovely picture.

"Do let me know if you're becoming uncomfortable." He lay down the stark line of a leather bandage across the white of Jono's skin. "Are you susceptible to infection?" he asked as he eyed the bloody smear across one shoulder.

[furnaceface]

//Not usually,// Jono replied, relaxing against the bench, //but then, this isn't a frequent enough occurrence for me to really know. Normally when I get hurt, it's deep enough for the fire to scour anything nasty away.//

Or he was being scratched up by a healer. So.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded. "We should probably put a bit of antiseptic on those, then, to be safe." Not that he was moving to do that just yet; it would wait a little while.

He filled in a bit of the bench and kept working. "The vision of yourself at the end - is that what you would look like, if your skin were whole?" It was a curious but undemanding question; he was more interested in what the answer would say about Jono's self-awareness than in his actual looks.

[furnaceface]

//At the end?// Jono paused for a moment before answering, thinking back to the heat of the moment. Of course he'd been whole, there in their heads. There had been kissing, and grinning. He nodded, just a little, not wanting to move too much while Hannibal was sketching. //That's... that's me, in my head. That much has never really changed. I don't really think of myself that way as much anymore, not consciously. But once my focus lapses and my subconscious steps in...//

He was staring at the floor, brow slightly furrowed.

//I have no idea how it would compare to the reality, now,// he admitted. //I don't have much left to go by, when I look in the mirror, to see if I've actually aged or not between one body and the next. That's just the face that I remember from three lifetimes, now. It seems like the closest fit.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"It isn't a bad face," Hannibal answered. And the fact that on some level Jono still identified a face as his was at least one fewer stumbling block toward building it again. But that could wait.

He'd almost finished the first outlines now. The flames were inexact, but as they weren't still, he could finish them later. Maybe work them into a symbolic shape.

"What was it you did there?" he asked instead. "Was it building an illusion around us, or sharing your thoughts as an image, or something else?"

[furnaceface]

//Something a little like the second,// Jono replied, his shoulder twitching up just slightly before settling back into place. //More like... opening up a mindscape, of sorts, between us. A little place to settle in, in my head. That's up there on th'list of things I don't do often.//

Because it was in his head. A person could dredge up some interesting things, if they cared to go wandering.

//There was a psionic link, there. You probably could've contributed to th'scenery as well if you'd cared to, but that's something I would've needed to stop and explain. And, well...//

Stopping hadn't been super high on Jono's list of priorities at the time.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal smiled. "I rather enjoy decorating, but there is a time and place for it." And wandering would just be rude!

...and possibly informative and fun.

"I had no complaints, at any rate." He had all the particulars of the image down now, and took just a moment to close his eyes and ensure it was beautifully, vividly intact in his memory palace before sliding back closer to Jono.

He settled a hand on his head and carded lightly through his hair. "How are you feeling? Would you like to move, or stay here for a while?"

[furnaceface]

Jono had been contemplating moving, but then Hannibal was there again, toying with his hair, and suddenly relocating didn't seem very high on his list of priorities, either.

//Here's good,// he murmured, leaning his head into Hannibal's touch. //If you're comfortable here. Or we can go somewhere else. But. I mean. I don't mind here...//

What were they talking about, again?

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal chuckled at Jono's dazed response. He thought for a moment, then squeezed Jono's shoulder. "One moment."

He stood and quickly dressed, then brought Jono's clothes back. He draped his coat over him and coaxed him to curl his legs just enough to keep them covered.

[furnaceface]

Jono blinked as he watched Hannibal dress, and then looked a little confused when he returned with his own clothes, but he didn't question it. Having his coat draped over him was odd, too, as was curling in his legs. But he'd been instructed to do stranger things before, and was mostly just thankful that Hannibal had come back after dressing.

It was possible that even he was starting to recognize just how starved for touch he was.

//Like this?//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Just like that." Hannibal looped Jono's wrappings around the outside, included his pants and boots in the bundle, and twitched the collar of the coat high enough that when he picked him up he was just a shapeless black bundle that might have been a body.

[furnaceface]

//... Well, this is new.//

It was not really a complaint. Granted, Jono certainly hadn't expected being princess-carried while wrapped up in his coat to be a thing when he'd suggested a spar, but there was something oddly comfortable about it, and if he leaned a little that way...

What? He could be a friendly shapeless black bundle if he wanted to be, and Hannibal was still warm.

//Not bad. But new.//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal patted him and hurried out; Jono was fairly light and reasonably inconspicuous like this, but it wasn't as if it would fool anybody for long.

Fortunately, they made it back to his rooms without meeting anyone, and Hannibal was able to set Jono on the bed and unwrap him.

[furnaceface]

The look on Jonothon's face was nothing shy of amused as Hannibal unwrapped him again, and he leaned back a little, propping himself up with his hands on the bed behind him.

//My hero,// he quipped lightly, and then rolled his shoulder a little to remind him of the sting. Right. Leaning forward, then, so as to not drip blood on the bedsheets. //Pretty sure I haven't been carried like that since...//

He thought for a moment.

//Blossom did, once.//

And Mira, before her. He allowed himself a pang of heartache at that, but he didn't bother to share it, or even let it show outwardly. That was an old hurt. A lifetime ago.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal thought he noticed something off for a moment, but he let it pass. "At least I'm in good company, then. It seemed the most expedient solution."

He retrieved the first aid kit he'd stowed under the bed and set it by Jono's feet, then took a bit of time to carefully fold both his clothes and Jono's onto a chair nearby before climbing into the bed behind him.

[furnaceface]

//Saved me from having to get the blood cleaned out of some things,// Jono replied easily, glancing back over his shoulder with the hint of a smile at the corners of his eyes. //Not that I'd mind terribly, granted.//

Most of his things were bloodstained, by this point. At least it didn't exactly show up on the dark leather.

[sharp_as_knives]

At least this was blood in a good cause?

Hannibal smiled back. "Still, it's cleaner this way." He opened the kit and took out the antiseptic cream; he didn't bother with gloves, though. They seemed rather pointless, given there were sufficient amounts of Jono's blood on his chest already.

He put a hand on Jono's shoulder and took a moment to enjoy the sight of his back again before he started.

[furnaceface]

//Yer so proud of that,// Jono murmured, amused, leaning his head to the side as Hannibal's hands moved over his back again. //Must've done quite th'number back there, mm?//

He was still amused. He approved. And the fact that Hannibal was still touching him now didn't hurt.

Well, it stung a fair bit. But that was different.