Hannibal's home, Baltimore

[sharp_as_knives]

After the rehearsal, Hannibal headed home and brought up a copy of the script on his tablet. Really, a play? What had he been thinking?

Well, that he'd have two fairly dangerous people in his debt, naturally. But still. He poured himself a nice glass of wine, put on some music, took off his jacket and shoes, and sat down with his tablet to go over both the script and the latest local news.



[OOC: expecting one, open to calls or whatnot!]

Comments

[myownface]

Yeah, Sparkle had no idea what to make of this, but he was pretty sure that this was the opposite of what usually happened when he got caught breaking into someone's home while drunk.

"Cheers," he echoed, a little warily, before downing the contents all in one go. Because he could be wary and ridiculously stupid all at the same time if he wanted to be.

[sharp_as_knives]

The kettle in the other room whistled, and Hannibal set his wine down and held out his hand for Sparkle's empty glass. "One moment."

[myownface]

The glass was empty, but Sparkle clung hard to it for a moment all the same before relenting and holding it out toward Hannibal's open hand.

"Tea?" He glanced toward the other room curiously. Tea was so not beer, Hannibal. Sparkle wasn't drunk enough to not know that much, yet.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Tea," Hannibal answered with a little smile. He headed back to the kitchen, raising his voice in case Sparkle didn't follow. "You seemed to be in the mood for something strong; this is the strongest I have."

Plus it had the advantage of not making him nauseous or putting him to sleep immediately, like alcohol would.

[myownface]

There was a long, thoughtful pause after that statement, while Sparkle drunkenly considered the implications of what Hannibal was saying. And then when he finally spoke, it was with a somewhat perplexed, "The fuck kind of tea is that?"

Stronger than whatever other fancy shit Hannibal had in that no-doubt super expensive liquor cabinet of his? Sparkle had to see this.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal poured the water in to steep and carried the pot back in on a tray with a cup. He set it on a little table that he pulled closer, but just out of the reach of Sparkle's elbows. "Would it help if I pointed out it's made from mushrooms rather than tea leaves?"

[myownface]

So, Hannibal was moving straight up to the top of the 'best teacher ever' list. Ender had been pretty high up there for a while, but Ender had never offered him magic mushroom tea, so...

"Yup," Sparkle decided, without really needing much time to stop and think about that. "Yeah, that would pretty much say everything that needs to be said, right the fuck there."

[sharp_as_knives]

"It will need a few minutes to steep, though." Hannibal sat and looked at Sparkle. "Meanwhile, do you feel like talking about whatever brought you here?"

[myownface]

Sparkle continued sitting, looking right back.

"'S stupid teenager shit," he warned. "Fucked-up messy breakup crap, or something. I don't even fucking know."

At least Sparkle understood 'teenage drama' when he was right in the middle of it and kind of smearing it all over other people.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal spread his hands. "Messy breakups are in no way exclusive to teenagers, I can assure you. If you want to talk about it, I'm a very good listener. No judging."

Well, not that he wouldn't, but he wouldn't tell you unless you asked.

[myownface]

"Promise?"

Yeah, Sparkle felt stupid about asking that question pretty much the second it left his mouth. But as it was, his brain-to-mouth filter was shot already. Alcohol tended to have that effect on him.

"Because, I dunno, for all I know I'm the fucking crazy ex here and I'm halfway to being totally smashed and I just broke into your house and at this point, I mean, no offense, but most people would have started totally judging already."

[sharp_as_knives]

"You're right; I do judge," Hannibal admitted. "I judge you to be very troubled by something and in need of a place you feel safe. I judge you not to be in the mood for being told what to do or how you should feel." He eyed Sparkle. "So. If you like, you can tell me what's happened, and perhaps I can help you to make sense of it. Or, you can talk about how it makes you feel, and I will listen. Or," he leaned forward and poured out the tea, "you can drink, and say nothing, and I'll simply make sure you don't walk into traffic."

[myownface]

It was entirely possible that Sparks had walked into traffic a few times on his way here already. Oops!

"I just... I mean, is it so fucking much to ask that maybe when I say someone's been a crazy threatening bitch to me, instead of saying 'oh that's how we were raised in our perfect fucking Shadowfucker family and she was just protecting me,' I could get some sympathy or understanding or like maybe 'damn, that sucks,' or 'I understand why you would be fucking upset about that,' or anything? Yeah, I'm not some kind of super-powered demon-hunting whatever, but I don't need anyone's sister making pit-stops while I'm at work to point that out to me. Great, I'm not good enough for him, I get that. I fucking get that. Of course I'm not. I'm human. How fucking dare I."

He'd breathe eventually. Give him a moment.

"And I'm overreacting and totally being fucking unfair not liking her and calling the bitch names and oh, I was so, so mean to the chick who can grind me into pulp without thinking, sure. It's me. Tell me all about how fucking hard it was growing up with your rules and your family structure some more, Alec. Go on, because obviously I don't understand. How the fuck would I?!"

He had to stop talking now, because if he kept going he was going to start choking on it. He wasn't going to cry over this bullshit. Nobody deserved his tears that way.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal took a moment to piece everything together.

"Isabelle was threatening you, because she doesn't think you're good enough for Alec. She's stronger than you, so you struck back with words instead of violence. And Alec feels this is unjustified. Have I got it right?"

[myownface]

"Yyeaaahmostly?" Sparkle needed to take a moment himself, now, to gulp in a few deep breaths and just get his head on right again. "I wasn't... standing up for me so much, to her. I just kind of blew up. But I don't need to be nice to anyone who tracks me down just to intimidate me, either. Alec doesn't get that."

Sparkle was actually proud of himself for getting that many words out coherently. And without sniffling. Ugh.

[sharp_as_knives]

"No, you don't," Hannibal agreed. "It might be politic to be polite to them, but there are limits, I'm sure."

He took a sip of his wine.

"Did you explain as much to Alec?"

[myownface]

"Tried to," Sparkle grumbled. "He figures I should play nice because she's his sister. I don't care whose sister she is, she's a bitch."

He still had yet to be given any proof to the contrary, anyhow.

[sharp_as_knives]

"You seemed to be behaving quite courteously to her in class the other day," Hannibal noted. "Has anything changed?"

[myownface]

"Well... her brother was a panther," Sparkle replied, shrugging a little lamely. "And I wasn't going to start shit in the middle of class or anything."

He appreciated that Hannibal trusted him enough to let him TA way too much to risk screwing that up.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I appreciate that." Hannibal nodded. "But I'm guessing that something came to a head after that to bring you to my window."

[myownface]

"Yeah," Sparkle mumbled. "Alec came to the shop today and told me to be nicer to his psycho sister."

... Paraphrased somewhat. But more or less what had happened.

[sharp_as_knives]

Interesting. "Did he give a reason for that?" In Hannibal's experience, bullies rarely complained about people needing to be nicer to them.

[myownface]

"Honestly, I think he cares more than she does. Figures she gets a free pass on bullying because that's how they were raised to be." Sparkle wrinkled his nose, stuck out his tongue, and then contemplated pulling his jacket over his head. "He actually used that as a fucking excuse, like, I should know better, because that's what they are, and it didn't matter for a second what I was, just, I was saying things about his sister he didn't like hearing, and it was unreasonable of me to get... to get upset that she came after me first."

He fidgeted a little. There was a pack of smokes in his pocket he wanted to pull out, but even if he'd attempted to break into the place, he respected Hannibal too much to just light up in here.

"Why does how she grew up give her the free pass? But when I-- I fucking pointed out how I did, and he got angrier and said he wouldn't try to fucking understand and I kicked him out and threw his goddamn suck-up scarf at the door."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Has either of them made the effort to understand your point of view before?" Hannibal asked. "Are they aware of the problems you might have with bullies?"

Hannibal appreciated the not smoking. Smoke in his upholstery was much harder to fix than scraped window paint.

[myownface]

"Yeah, no," Sparkle scoffed. "I mean, she hasn't. She doesn't give a shit. I've been dating her big brother and I'm like the crap she scrapes from the bottom of her boots or something. Alec... Alec's tried, but he has, like, trouble comprehending 'human' sometimes."

And if it meant choosing between taking his sister's side or making an effort to at least understand what was pissing his boyfriend off so damn much, apparently his sister won, hands-down.