Hannibal's house, early Wednesday

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal would be heading for Kaeleer later on, but for now, he did still have some gifts to give. And a cat that would need feeding while he was away.

So, a very nice Christmas brunch it was.

[OOC: Expecting one, but open to anyone who wants to drop by. If you drop by, Hannibal will have a Christmas present for you (not people)! Standard SP warning, though.]

Comments

[myownface]

Sparkle was sort of just kicking around town, having gotten back in from Coruscant yesterday, and... well, he didn't bother with Christmas, because Christmas was stupid, but if he did, he'd be looking to maybe at least say hi to people or something. So.

It looked like maybe there was still somebody home at Hannibal's, and he hadn't visited in a while. Why not?

Knock knock?

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal answered the door and smiled. "Hello; it's good to see you." He ushered Sparkle in. "I had thought you might be in Toronto for the holidays."

[myownface]

"Nah," Sparkle replied, shrugging his shoulders and ambling in. "Lewis had to take some extra kids in over the holidays, so there's no room for me for another few weeks. But it's okay, 'cause I've got, like, friends here."

Who had all gone home for the holidays. Except for Atton, who didn't celebrate Christmas.

"Quiet Christmas. Some people would kill for that, right?"

[sharp_as_knives]

"It has its benefits," Hannibal said. "Please, come and eat." He waved at the moddable because I'm googled-out brunch.

[myownface]

"Oh, uh, thank you," Sparkle replied, grinning a little and making his way to the table. "I swear, I didn't time it like this on purpose, but I'm not going to complain."

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal chuckled. "I was hoping somebody would stop by, and I like to be prepared. How have you been?"

[myownface]

"Oh, you know... not bad. Went to Coruscant with Atton for a few days to check out the temple there, and... mostly I've just been bumming around the island, besides. Dealing with... all the weirdness that involves."

He hadn't been a fan of the holiday hats, no.

"Bored, I guess. Everyone's gone home, you know?"

[sharp_as_knives]

"I do." Hannibal agreed. "And unfortunately, I'm leaving myself to visit friends later today, though I doubt I'll be gone longer than a day or two."

[myownface]

"Oh, yeah?" Sparkle nodded, pursing his lips and reaching up to run a hand through his hair and shrugging a bit. "Sounds cool. Holiday travel and all that? Hopefully the portals aren't too crazy."

He kind of hoped the portals were crazy. Not out of spite. More out of loneliness.

Shit Sparks would never admit to for 100, Bob.

[sharp_as_knives]

BOB WASN'T HERE, OKAY?

"A day or two there means I'll probably be back tomorrow evening," Hannibal clarified. "Would you like to stay here for the night? It might feel less empty than the dorms, and we can have a Christmas dinner." He might even be bringing home extra meat!

[myownface]

Sparkle bit his lip and tried like hell not to look too hopeful about that one.

"... That sounds... good, actually. Like, it beats the hell out of crashing in the dorms. They're too quiet this time of year, you know? It's freaky."

Quiet houses were a different matter entirely. They weren't supposed to have dozens of people in them at any given moment.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I do," Hannibal said. "Stay here, then. Bring Velcro. I've any number of guest rooms, and plenty of food." He gave Sparkle a wry grin. "I should warn you, I do have a bit of a favor to ask in turn."

[myownface]

"A favour, huh?" Sparkle blinked, but hey... favours were probably doable. "What did you have in mind?"

Because for a comfortable place to crash on Christmas eve, Sparkle was pretty okay with the idea of doing a favour or two. Within reason.

Not that Sparkle had a normal human being definition of the word 'reason,' mind.

[sharp_as_knives]

Fortunate, as Hannibal didn't, either. In this case, though, it was probably reasonable by normal human definitions, too.

"I seem to have acquired a cat of my own," he confessed. "I've food for him in the refrigerator." Nicely ground up meat. "If you could give him that and clean the box, I'd be grateful."

[myownface]

"You have a cat?"

Sparkle needed to process that, first, grinning a little bit.

"Yours didn't fall out of the sky too, did he?"

He might as well have done, Sparks.

[sharp_as_knives]

"He did not," Hannibal answered. "A friend brought him to me. He's old and completely deaf; I've named him Beethoven." He was also a bit...opinionated, but Hannibal had little cat knowledge to compare to.

[myownface]

Cats were cats, at the end of the day. If they weren't opinionated, they were probably actually very well-disguised dogs.

"Beethoven?" Sparkle grinned faintly. "Okay, that's an awesome cat name if I've ever heard one. I'd say it beats Velcro, but... His name was kind of inspired, too."

So said a host of tiny claw-marks all over one of Sparkle's shoulder at any given moment.

"Yeah, I can feed him and scoop the box, no problem. If I have Velcro over too, I'll be cat-feeding and scooping anyway."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Thank you," Hannibal said. He poured himself some coffee and sat at the table. "You will be taking my baking class next semester, I hope?"

[myownface]

"Already signed up," Sparkle agreed with a nod. "I figure if it's my last chance to take one of your full-semester cooking classes, I better not miss out, you know? And it's something new."

And, no offense meant to Derek or Pinkie, but he could probably make more use out of one of Hannibal's baking classes in the long run than something with 'friendship' in the name.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I'm pleased to hear it. I'll still need an assistant, if you like."

And dear lord, Hannibal hoped so. Pinkie was amusing enough, but if he couldn't teach something more relevant to the average person than she could, he might as well give up.

[myownface]

Plus, Hannibal's would look way better on a college application. Maybe. Something. If some hypothetical Hannibal student actually was considering going to college.

"... I think I'd like that. I mean, you know where I'm at when it comes to cooking. If you think I can do it, sure. Like, happily."

Seriously, happily. Not that Sparkle was tripping over himself to express joy or anything, but it still felt good to be needed.

[sharp_as_knives]

Purely hypothetical. It wasn't as though Hannibal would write letters of recommendation or anything, after all.

"Thank you again." Hannibal smiled at him. "I think you'll do splendidly. I hope you enjoy it."

There was a thud on Hannibal's leg, and he looked down to see Beethoven head-butt him again and give him his all-but-silent meow. "Apparently it's time for another meal. Would you like to see which food is his?"

Because this was Hannibal. It was as nicely ground and put away as any of his own.

[myownface]

"Oh, man. He's a cranky looking guy, isn't he?" Sparkle was grinning as he crouched down to let the old man cat sniff at his hand. "Awesome."

A moment to scratch behind the old man cat's ears, and then Sparkle was standing up again and nodding.

"Sure, let's see where you keep it."

[sharp_as_knives]

Where he kept it? In the refrigerator, of course! Where else would you keep something that was mostly meat? Hannibal led the way into the kitchen and took out a sealed container, showing it to Sparkle. Then he took a small bowl down from the cupboard and spooned in a bit of meat.

Even Hannibal wasn't going to bother much with presentation for this.

Beethoven waited with grumpy-looking patience for him to set it down so he could deign to eat, then sniffed it almost suspiciously before starting in.

[myownface]

"Cats," Sparkle laughed, grinning down at Beethoven before making sure he had which container the food was in all figured out. "He's probably eating better than any other pet on the island, jeeze. I guess it's better for them, though, huh? The raw meat diet for a cat, instead of kibble..."

Velcro clearly loved when Hannibal cat-sat him for a reason.