New York City, New York | Saturday | December 31

[decoder_rings]

It was the last day of the year and Hannibal wasn't doing a damn thing. Abigail had tried to get him to come out with her earlier but he'd begged off and just said he wanted to spend the day at home, thinking. Thinking had turned into sleeping and moping and all the other activities he'd gotten used to doing for the last half a year. It was

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[vanillajello]

Well, it was what he thought he was going to do. Because Kate had other ideas, see. Ideas she'd stumbled on while her mind had been a whirwind of thoughts about various things last night.

In addition to said ideas, she also had a bag over her shoulder, and a paper bag in her arms. And she was at Hannibal's door, now. Or Abigail's, technically. Whichever.

She was knocking on it all the same.

[decoder_rings]

Abigail wouldn't knock on her own door so Hannibal warily went to the door and pulled it open the slightest bit so he could see who was out there. He frowned at the familiar person because he was surprised.

"Kate? Your parents kick you out or something?"

[vanillajello]

"Nope," Kate announced, "I'm here to have fun."

Because it was just that easy.

"Also don't frown at me, it's impolite."

[decoder_rings]

"Fun?" That was such a foreign word to him lately. "Why are you here if you wanna have fun? I'm not much fun anymore."

[vanillajello]

"Yes, I know that," Kate replied, because she did. "I'm here to do something about that because I'm so fucking sick of the way things are between us. Now are you gonna invite me in or not?"

[decoder_rings]

"Do I have a choice?" Hannibal wondered, raising an eyebrow. She seemed pretty determined, after all. "I might just ruin your New Year's Eve."

[vanillajello]

"No, you don't have a choice," she informed him, "and no, I'm not going to let you."

Besides, he'd ruined her previous New Year's Eve so badly that there was no way he could possibly top that. But she wasn't going to say that.

She was just going to look expectant.

[decoder_rings]

After seeing that she wasn't gonna give up, Hannibal sighed and opened the door further for her so she could come inside. He wasn't sure what she was expecting from him but he could let her in, at least.

[vanillajello]

"Thank you." Yeah, Kate was just going to smirk smugly at him as she moved past him, because she was determined, dammit. This would work out okay because she said so.

She glanced around, not having been here before. "Kitchen?"

[decoder_rings]

Hannibal pointed wordlessly down the hall before just beckoning her to follow him. He still wasn't sure what she was hoping for but whatever, he couldn't say he hadn't missed her because he had.

"Don't you have a boyfriend to spend today with?" he asked curiously.

[vanillajello]

"Well, yeah," she replied, following him. "But time's all wacky back home, so I just promised I'm gonna spend the New Year's in my world with him."

[decoder_rings]

"Ah." Hannibal stepped into the kitchen and gestured at the things a typical kitchen had. "You gonna cook or something? You're carrying everything but the frigging kitchen sink."

[vanillajello]

"Hey, I just brought essentials!" she exclaimed, setting the paper bag down on the counter. "I couldn't count on you having anything necessary for a celebration."

[decoder_rings]

"I wasn't really planning on celebrating," he said mildly, leaning against the counter. "I didn't see any real reason to celebrate."

[vanillajello]

"Yeah, I know," she replied with a glance and an eyeroll, unloading some of the moddable snacks out of the bag. "That's why I'm here. I'm hijacking your evening, because this moping and sulking is getting really old."

[decoder_rings]

"Sorry," Hannibal said, shrugging and looking down at his feet. "It's not something I have a lot of control over."

Or he did and he just couldn't manage to get himself back on track.