sharp_as_knives | Hannibal and Jono's house, Thursday

Jono wasn't pacing around the living room, exactly.

The correct word would be stalking. Jono was stalking back and forth, less like a man in thought and more like a caged wildcat. There was a sort of feral edge in his eye as he looked up at Hannibal, then tilted his head a bit, hiking his shoulders up in a shrug.

//Figured I can do it on Sunday,// he said. //For th'band. Got nothing planned today, really, and I'm not exactly in a theatrical mind today anyway.//

Hannibal's lips quirked; to his mind, Jono was looking very theatrical.

He wrapped his arm around Jono's back, willing to walk with him if he insisted on continuing. "And what sort of mind are you in?" Not that he didn't have some very good guesses.

Jono paused; not in his stalking, but a brief hesitation before replying, glancing Hannibal's way as he picked through his thoughts for words.

//Anxious,// he settled on. Because it had a good many meanings, especially where he was concerned, and it didn't involve just flat-out saying something like 'predatory.' //A very anxious mind.//

"Anxious about anything in particular?" Hannibal asked.

This was what you got for marrying a nosy psychiatrist, Jono.

Okay, now Jono stopped his walking, shoulders rising and falling a little in something that was less a shrug, and more a vague approximation of an inhale and exhale.

//The usual suspects crawling around in my head,// he muttered. //The Boards are a fine hobby, but they don't mean anything. I'm not making a difference. I'm not even doing what I was made for, here.//

What he was best at?

What he was pushed to become?

Hannibal raised an eyebrow at that, and came around to face him. "You were made to be yourself; you owe it to yourself to do just that. Nothing more, nor anything less. What do you want to do?"

He wanted to kick up hell and light fires, but he wasn't about to say as much. Hannibal came around to face him, and Jono looked off to the side, brow furrowing a little.

//I need to move,// he settled on. The prowling around the room had probably attested to as much on its own, granted. //I need to challenge myself, make a bloody difference, something. Not sit around in an office in a theatre waiting for some kind of muse to descend to whisper in my ear what musical I should try to direct next.//

With an exasperated noise, Hannibal nudged Jono's face back to his. Did Jono honestly think he would judge him for this?

"So, what shall we do, then?" he asked. "I have several suggestions, from chess to visiting Logan and many things in between."

//Not much for chess right now,// Jono muttered, eyes finding Hannibal's again. //And I probably should care more about what kind of work Logan would put me to, but so help me, I don't think I'd be able to stop myself if some bigoted preak were to utter the word 'mutie' within earshot.//

His hands clenched a little just thinking about it.

It was one of those days.

//Probably should take to a punching bag or something and work some of this off.//

Hannibal nodded. "In that case, I have another list of suggestions, if you would like."

Jono blinked. Not a confused blink. Not even just a natural blink that came from being more or less human and just happening to have eyes. A slow, deliberate, thoughtful sort of blink, a kind of 'tell me more' and 'I think I know where you're going with this,' all in not quite so many words. It would have been best accompanied by a slow inhale, but Jonothon was working with what he had, here.

//A list,// he echoed, and then cocked an eyebrow upward. //Do tell.//

Hannibal smiled. "It's quite a long list. It starts with a man become rich from trading in the misery of children, and currently ends with a tailor a little too free with his pins."

He expected never to reach the end of the list, what with all the people at the top, but that didn't mean he wasn't remembering them.

Jono rolled his eyes a little at that last one, because honestly, Hannibal, but tilted his head slightly all the same.

//Find me a challenge, out of that lot.//

He needed to do something. Needed to... do...

He was itching to bloody his knuckles up somewhere.

Hannibal hummed in thought, then smiled again. "I have just the thing."

//Have you?//

Well, then Jono was going to smile right back, a slight uptick in what was left of one cheek, a little crinkle around one eye. It wasn't necessarily a pleasant smile, even by Jonothon's standards.

//Do tell.//

"The third one on the list," Hannibal said, "deals in distributing drugs. He orders his men to dilute the product in a way that several of their customers have died painfully."

He shrugged. "I had him much further down the list until recently, but he's decided to run for Congress. He's hypervigilant to threats, and has a number of bodyguards."

//Bodyguards are easy, unless they're superhuman,// Jono replied, waving a dismissive hand. //They don't even need to know I'm there.//

Though if they knew they were complicit in the man's crimes, Jono might have to make sure they did.

Yeah, he was in that sort of mood, today.

Hannibal's smile was not remotely pleasant. "The drug in question has a psychic effect on its users. Most of the population of this particular world is telepathic to at least a minor degree. The bodyguards have been chosen for their offensive abilities."

He'd chosen some individuals for this list with hopes for future partnerships.

Jono looked thoughtfully at Hannibal, at that.

That did sound like a challenge. It sounded, in fact, like exactly the sort of stupid thing he'd be thumped for doing by anybody from Emma to Karla, and most people in between.

//Is this the world where we were doing the summer reading, by any chance?//

He was kind of fond of that one.

Hannibal was, too.

"I liked that world; I've been keeping tabs on it. But this individual is in Florida, not Colorado."

//Well, there's half your problem,// Jono muttered. //Bloody Florida.//

Even Jonothon had his biases.

//Bodyguards with psionic abilities aren't even going to be new for me,// he added, //though it'll be interesting to see the differences between these and the Blood.//

"It will be," Hannibal agreed.

"I had determined the best way to approach him would be to offer a business proposition," he said. "That would necessitate meeting without bystanders. He'll probably insist upon his own place, but that shouldn't prove a problem."

//Business proposition?// Jono's eyebrow inched upward slightly. //I don't exactly look the part of a businessman, myself. Would I be playing bodyguard as well, then?//

"If you like," Hannibal said. "Although not all criminal businessmen wear suits, after all."

Jono raised an eyebrow, allowed himself a moment of vague amusement at that.

//Well, did you want to be my bodyguard, then?//

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject