Room 324, Tuesday Late Morning

[vanillajello]

This was the first time Kate actually stopped to look through the cards on her Valentine's Day flowers. Sure, she'd glanced at them yesterday, her attention grabbed mostly by the one that made her mutter "No, Hannibal, you are" to herself, but now she actually took the time to see who they were from, and what they meant

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[decoder_rings]

Hannibal didn't have a class today so he didn't really need to be awake but he was and since he was heading out, stopping by Kate's room wasn't too out of his way.

And since that door was open, it made it even less so of an out of the way thing. He stopped in the door and said, "Hey, daydream believer. Thinking about anything good?"

[vanillajello]

Kate turned to face him, raising an eyebrow. "One of my cards has a false accusation on it."

[decoder_rings]

"Does it?" he asked, feigning innocence. "Someone falsely accused you of something? Why haven't you kicked their ass?"

[vanillajello]

She snorted and shook her head. "Probably because I haven't seen you since I got back before now?"

[decoder_rings]

"Now, now, Kate, is that anyway to greet a friend who sent you flowers?" he asked, tsking lightly. "Such violence. If I weren't so masculine, I'd be running away with tears in my eyes."

[vanillajello]

"What about my feminine frailty, huh?" she returned, mock-hurt. "Is 'dork' any way to call a friend? There's no way for you to know I didn't just cry when I read that."

[decoder_rings]

"Dork is an endearment!" Hannibal insisted. "Besides, I still see the flowers. If you'd been too upset, those things would have been trashed or thrown out the window. And you know I'm right."

[vanillajello]

"You are not right," Kate told him firmly. "And I might've been too distraught to do anything about them." She turned to poke at the flowers some more.

Not touching that one red rose, though.

[decoder_rings]

"Were you too distraught to do anything about them?" he asked, glancing at her flowers. "Nice haul."

[vanillajello]

"Nah. Haven't been distraught in days," she said. "I was kinda surprised to get this many flowers."

[decoder_rings]

"Why?" Hannibal wondered, inviting himself in because he could. "There are still thoughtful people in the world."

[vanillajello]

Kate shrugged. "I guess I just forgot that it was still a possibility even though I didn't get any for anyone."

[decoder_rings]

"Kate, don't worry, I know you love me and flowers aren't needed," he joked, hand over his heart. "But seriously, most people don't need to get to give. Give people some credit, here."

[vanillajello]

"I'm not trying to... take credit from people," Kate said with a little snicker. "Just that I wasn't expecting it. Hadn't thought about it. And I'm happy to be surprised."

[decoder_rings]

"Now, if you let my flowers die," he said, flicking one set of her flowers lightly, "then I'm gonna be pissed and we're gonna have to throw down. So, treat that flower like it was your kid."

[vanillajello]

"You do realize that those flowers are going to die pretty soon, regardless of whether I read them bedtime stories and tell them not to take candy from strangers, right?"