Icehotel, Christmas morning

[sharp_as_knives]

Christmas hadn't dawned yet; dawn wouldn't come until late morning. Meanwhile, Hannibal had manged to finagle some nice, hot coffee from the restaurant and was enjoying it from a thermos as he contemplated the day before them.



[OOC: For the partner! Open for calls or whatnot.]

Comments

[furnaceface]

Jono stared down at his, ah, his breakfast, just a touch bemused.

//Perhaps next time I'll try for invisible,// he ventured, picking up a spoon and poking at it. //What am I supposed to do with this?//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Make yourself invisible, and you'd be likely to be sat upon," Hannibal pointed out. He picked up his own spoon and started eating. "Act as if you're eating," he suggested. "Stir the spoon around a bit. The less you have to alter perceptions, the easier it should be."

[furnaceface]

//Right. And nobody's going to be heartbroken if a dish of porridge goes back to the kitchen mucked around with but otherwise untouched. They'll probably assume it was somebody's child or--//

Something made a plink sound in his saucer, and Jono raised an eyebrow, looking down at it.

He scooped at the saucer again. And if it was possible for Jonothon to go paler than he already was, he probably would have.

//Ah...//

There appeared to be an almond in his spoon.

//Haaaannibal?//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal looked over, then down at Jono's spoon. Then he smirked. "Oh, dear. You seem to have found something in your porridge."

[furnaceface]

//There's not supposed to be something in my porridge! There's not even supposed to be porridge,// Jono was mostly managing to not flail by virtue of the fact that flailing would wind up with porridge everywhere. //I can't even eat the bloody evidence!//

Maybe he could put it back in the porridge, and then just bury it again...

[sharp_as_knives]

Or maybe one of the waiters would see him with it and start cheering. That could happen, too.

And did.

Hannibal smirked. "Congratulations."

[furnaceface]

//I hate everything,// Jono muttered, still managing, by some miracle, to not flail. //I hate everything so bloody much.//

All of the things, Hannibal. Jono hated them.

//Ugh, and I'd be a sodding arsehole if I were to tell them I'm allergic or something, too.//

Yes, Jono. Somebody could lose their job for putting an almond in front of somebody with a nut allergy. That would definitely screw up somebody's holiday, wouldn't it? You were going to have to suck it up.

And maybe shrink under the table a little. Suck it up and shrink under the table.

[sharp_as_knives]

"You're not allergic," Hannibal said. He grinned at the waitstaff as the cheering spread, then took slight pity on Jono and plucked the spoon from his hand. And slowly sucked the almond off of it.

Well, perhaps it was a little bit of pity and a lot of smug mischief.

[furnaceface]

//Huh? Oh, thank y--//

Jono looked up from where he'd been staring stupidly at a spoon that was now no longer there, to see Hannibal, doing... doing that with his mouth. And if his ability to process things had left a few minutes before, it was back now, full force, helpfully providing Jono with all sorts of fun suggestions for things to do with somebody who was doing that with their mouth.

//-you. You brat,// he said, fondly, even as a wry smile sat in his eyes and he reached to take Hannibal's hand. //I believe that was my wedding almond you just stole.//

What? He didn't want it, but that wasn't going to stop Jono from teasing, now that people were putting two and two together and figuring out who the couple was, here. Not that this was stopping the cheering.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I do hope you aren't planning on leaving me within the next year," Hannibal said. There was possibly a thread of darkness in that, just a touch of seriousness despite the fact he was joking. "Which would make the fact of whose almond it is immaterial."

[furnaceface]

//I can't see the future from where I'm sitting,// Jono replied, lifting his head a little bit in a sort of teasing nod, //but I can assure you, I have no plans to go anywhere any time soon. I'm willing to split the difference and say it's our almond, though. Seems fitting.//

If only because Hannibal was the one who was capable of eating almonds.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Our almond, then." Hannibal ate it, then raised an eyebrow at Jono. "Unless of course we choose to defy the prediction."

[furnaceface]

Jono blinked a few times at that one.

//And... not marry before the next year is through?// And oh, he was reaching up to scratch awkwardly at the back of his neck. //Why? Were you thinking about proposing, Hannibal?//

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal thought about it for a moment. "Certainly not consciously." He chuckled. "I've never particularly seen myself as the marrying type." His smile turned pensive. "Then again, until a few years ago, I was certain I would only ever be alone. That nobody could see me and understand."

He'd been proven wrong twice since then. One of those people was still with him.

[furnaceface]

//Life's full of surprises,// Jono noted, nodding a little. //I never really thought of myself as the marrying type. But I've been surprising myself quite a fair bit, even in just this past year.//

Dating anybody else again, let alone a guy. Starting to come to terms with the shadows in his head. Agreeing to go back to teach for Logan. Spending more time at home with his face showing.

Spending any time in public with his face showing...

[sharp_as_knives]

"The glimpses of my future that I had this weekend held no surprises," Hannibal answered. "Myself dead, or in prison. Alone either way." He smirked, and there was a edge of grim determination to it. "That's one prediction I'm of every mind to defy."

[furnaceface]

//Mine weren't much better,// Jono noted, drumming his fingers on the tabletop. He'd seen himself die, more or less, over and over, and never once quite stay that way. And never quite completely come back from it the same, either.

He'd seen a lot of himself alone.

//Seems to me like we're doing a decent job of defying those things, so far. Fandom's futures are... suggestions, at best, I've found. Warnings, maybe.//

[sharp_as_knives]

"Possibilities," Hannibal agreed. "The worst ones, in this case. And ones I have no intention of allowing to become real." He smiled. "I much prefer the almond."

[furnaceface]

//I could handle anything along the lines of the almond,// Jono decided. //I mean, I don't exactly have any plans to go anywhere, you know.//

Slowly taking over Hannibal's house by moving his own things in would have been a somewhat backwards way of going about that, if he did.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I know." Hannibal laughed. "Have we just become engaged? I should have bronzed that almond."

[furnaceface]

//I am not wearing an almond instead of a diamond,// Jono countered, because that seemed easier than processing the first question right up front. //And it's a little late for that now, anyway.//

Okay, right. Back to question number one, then.

//... Have we? Do people usually get engaged without actually realizing it? Or are we just that special?//

Because, ah, if they were, Jono was actually sure he was quite okay with that. But he was still going to need some time to wrap his head around it, because that was also sort of a big deal.

[sharp_as_knives]

"We are unique in many ways," Hannibal said, still smiling, "why not this?" He raised an eyebrow. "Although I'm willing to be wrong, if you prefer."

[furnaceface]

//I... I don't think I want you to be wrong,// Jono replied, after a moment. //But I do think I want to hear you ask.//

Because... because. Because accidentally getting engaged because of a rogue nut was a cute story for later on, but somebody asking, and somebody saying yes, that was something to hold on to.

And, let's face it, Jono was secretly a bit of a shameless romantic, hidden somewhere deep down.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal set his food aside and took up Jono's hand. "It's quite a promise, agreeing to marry. Particularly for us."

[furnaceface]

//Particularly for us,// Jono agreed, looking down at their hands. This was when his heart was supposed to be thumping in his ears, right? Here? Now? He was pretty sure. //But not a bad promise. Not really.//

Hannibal had been Jono's stable ground going back a good while, now. He couldn't imagine life without him.