fandomtownies | Fandom Counseling, Thursday

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Fandom Counseling, Thursday

Since he was going on the school trip next week, Hannibal had a few days of making sure all his ~~NPC~~ patients were taken care of in the interim. Which made a busy day or two.

Mostly of researching current Paris fashion trends, but there were actually still a few patients to see. And cats (and one neurotic flamingo) to reassure that the suitcases making an appearance did not mean anything bad.

The doctor was in!

[Open post, no OCD]

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Eventually, Prompto was able to pull himself away from the Photo Hut to let Liz get back to work, and he was planning on heading out to the preserve to try and get a few good shots in and maybe make sure that Gladio hadn't been eaten by alots (at an alot of handwavey) while he was out there, but, passing by Hannibal's sparked his memory that he had been meaning to drop in on the good doctor, and now was (hopefully) as good a time as any, lest he forget again or it got lost in the shuffle.

(There was, after all, a lot in the shuffle right now).

So there he was, changing course and somewhat awkwardly knocking on the door and immediately worrying that his time, actually, was terrible and he'd just be bothering the guy...

Hannibal checked his watch - that probably wasn't a scheduled client - and answered the door. "Prompto." He smiled and stood aside. "Please come in. Can I get you tea or coffee?"

Prompto's doubts and concerns about bothering Hannibal or interrupting something had him just about ready to leave, so the invitation in threw him probably more than it should have, but, then again, his social skills had really gone down the toilet these last ten years, too.

Survival mode was a helluva drug.

"Ah, h-hey, Dr. Lecter," he managed to get out. "Uh, no, that's...that's okay, I don't want to bother you or anything, I can come back later? If this is a bad time?"

Prompto, he literally just invited you in.

Yeah, but he could also just be being polite.

"Not at all. Please." Hannibal ushered him in. "I'm always happy to see a friend." And he was going to go ahead and start making tea anyway, so there. "Sit wherever you're comfortable."

"No, really," Prompto insisted, although he didn't really have much of a choice in the matter of following Hannibal in now. "I'll only be a moment. I just...I just wanted..."

Well, now he was making tea, and this was important enough that Prompto really didn't want to say it while Hannibal was doing something else, so he just kind of stopped, let out a breath of a laugh, and rubbed the back of his neck a little in acceptance.

"I....guess I'm having tea, then," he said, looking around a moment before dropping onto the edge of the closest chair. "....thank you."

"You're welcome," Hannibal said, handing over a cup of mint tea and picking his coffee up off his desk to bring it to a nearby chair. "I appreciate the consideration, but if it were an imposition to have you here, I assure you I would tell you."

Prompto took the cup with a nod of gratitude, wrapping both his hands around it and looking into it as Hannibal settled into his own chair.

"I know," he said. "It's just..." See, and now that he had something in his hands, he was just going to look at it instead of him, and his fingers were going to start tapping nervously on the side of th cup. "Well, I don't really know if making a whole visit out of it's really necessary...."

He drew in a breath, let it out as a small sigh, and reminded himself to actually look up.

"I just wanted to come by," he said, "and say thank you, that I really appreciate...everything you've done for Liz. While I was....when I couldn't..."

The pause after that was a little longer, a little more strained, but he continued. "I know it's important for her...to her....to have a good....support system. So I'm really grateful she had someone like you looking out for her, helping her out. Because I....couldn't..."

Aaaaaand now it was out there and he had to sit with it through a whole cup of tea.

Which he seemed to finally remember was for drinking, so he ducked his eyes as he lifted it up to blow on it a little before taking a tentative sip.

"You're both welcome," Hannibal said. "May I ask you to do something in return?"

Prompto lowered his cup and blinked over at Hannibal. "Y-yeah," he said. "Of course. Anything."

Well, maybe not anything, but it was a pretty broad range.

"Remember two things for me: that you did not intentionally stay away, and that you have been dealing with this for much longer than she has. You didn't abandon her for years, you went missing for months."

Prompto breathed out a soft laugh, looking into his cup. Grinned faintly.

"Hey," he said. "You said do something, that sounds like two things, technically."

But he knew what he was doing, and who he was talking to, so he sighed a little, shook his head.

"But don't worry," he said. "I can definitely do that."

It would be impossible not to remember, when he was constantly reminding himself that every day.

"Good." Hannibal smiled. "I'm pleased to hear it. I am glad I could help Liz, but the more people there are, the better. And you hold a special place in her heart."

"Well, yeah,." There was another small breath of a laugh, a long drink of tea. "I sure hope so..."

With another awkward pause, he followed it up with a sincere look up.

"I really mean it, Dr. Lecter. Thank you."

"You're welcome. How are you doing?" Hannibal asked. "It must be quite an adjustment to be back."

"It is."

Which felt like a severe understatement, and truth enough for comfort.

"But it's good. I'm good." A soft, complicated smile. "Great, actually. It's just kind of a lot, sometimes."

"I can imagine. It sounds like you went through a lot while you were gone."

"Oh, you know," said Prompto, shrugging a shoulder, finger tapping a little against his cup again. "Just a temporary apocalypse, no big deal..."

"How temporary?" Hannibal asked. Fandom, after all, had had a few that lasted a weekend or a week or two.

"Ten years?" Prompto offered. "Nine and a half, probably, technically, but who's counting, right? But it's all fixed now. We fixed it, right before I wound up back here."

Like, literally right before.

Hannibal winced in acknowledgement. "What happened? If you're ready to talk about it."

"Oh, well," Prompto huffed out a laugh, shook his head. "That's a whole stort, Dr. Lecter. I just wanted to swing by to thank you, not get you stuck in a whole thing..."

Hannibal's face softened. "I have the time if you want to talk. It might do you some good."

Prompto opened his mouth, looking ready to object, but, before anything got out, he stopped, closed his mouth, and settled back in his chair. He looked over at Hannibal as he considered it, considered what even could be said, and how even to say it.

"I guess," he started, "maybe there's really not that much to it. Just your good, old thousands-yearzold prophesy culminating in the end of the world that your best friend has to sacrifice himself to fix...."

"Tell me about him, then. Your best friend," Hannibal prompted.

"Noctis?" Prompto laughed a little, shook his head, buried a sigh in his tea before continuing. "We really would be here all day if we go into that. He was great, though. It took a lot, doing what he had to do..."

"Tell me three things, then," Hannibal suggested. "If you could sum up three important things about him that would explain him to me."

"He was a prince...well, a king," Prompto offered, talking a long time to think about it, leaning forward now in his chair, elbows on his knees, teacup resting carefully in his hands dangling between them, "but he hated the idea that that meant he should be treated any differently than anyone else. He didn't care about any of that, or where you came from, or who you were...He loved fishing and he loved his friends, and he may have saved the world, but it's a much...emptier place, without him..."

"Did he take his friends on fishing trips?" Hannibal asked.

Prompto snorted. "Entirely against their will," he said, grinning faintly, "but yeah..."

The grin softened again as he added, "Gladio and me are actually going this weekend. It was something we still kept doing, even after....well, he was gone. For most of the time, after....it's complicated. But we still went fishing, without him, especially on his birthday. I mean, sometimes, we had to, we needed the food, but we mostly did it for him."

There was another odd pause.

"Oh, shit, I wonder if his singing fish survived the siege..."

"It sounds like a good tradition to keep up," Hannibal said. "Are singing fish a species in your home world? And do they actually sing?"

And now Prompto really couldn't help grinning, shaking his head with a faint laugh. "No," he said. "They're not, but...have you ever seen those novelty wall-mounted plastic fish that sing when you push a button? There was a whole thing about one, once, during the summer shenanigans that Bus Dean....er, sorry, Dean Skywalker...does? Nina and I got one of those for Noctis for his birthday....or maybe it was Christmas...once." His grin went a little softer. "He said he hated it, but he put it right there up on the wall in his apartment, so I don't think he really did..."

"I remember that year." Hannibal shook his head. "Whether he hated it or not, I'm sure he appreciated the humor in the gift."

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Fandom Counseling, Thursday

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