The Causeway and Beyond, Friday Afternoon

[myownface]

Hannibal set the last of the pasta makings out, checked his watch, and nodded. Still plenty of time to cook and eat before the opera.

He grabbed his jacket and drove out to the causeway to pick up Sparkle.

Sparkle	It wasn't that Sparkle was, like, super excited about this or anything. Really. It's just that his shift at Dite's had let out early for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he didn't have a boss on the island to tell him not to close up before the usual time, and he had nothing better to do, so of course he was waiting there right on time for Hannibal to come pick him up. He'd even dressed for the occasion, wearing his least ratty clothing and opting out of the usual eye makeup this evening. When the Bentley pulled up, it took Sparkle a moment to realize that that was the ride he was supposed to be climbing into. "....." Please hold, Hannibal. Sparkle needed to take a moment to gawk shamelessly at your car.
Hannibal	Hannibal waited a moment, then rolled down the window and looked out at Sparkle, smiling faintly. "Are you coming?"
Sparkle	"Huh?" Wait. Right. Getting into the car was a thing that people did, wasn't it? Sparkle cleared his throat, and then he nodded, hurrying over to the passenger's side and kind of lingering there at the door for a moment before getting into the car. "Sorry, I was just looking at your car. Nice ride." He wasn't a car person, really, but this one was worth noticing.
Hannibal	"Thank you." Hannibal nodded. "As you may have guessed," if you weren't blind, "I'm rather fond of luxury." He shrugged. "If I were to psychoanalyze myself, I'd say it comes of not having much as a child." Which might or might not be actually true, but would be what most psychiatrists would say.
Sparkle	"I don't think I'd know what to do with it all," Sparkle admitted, taking a moment to get a good look around the interior of the car, too. "I mean, the food is obvious. You eat it, you enjoy it. Hell, you even have it elevated to an art form. I'm still kind of getting my head around the fact that between two jobs, actually wearing new clothes doesn't mean I'm living outside my means."
Hannibal	Hannibal hummed in sympathy, then grimaced. "I'm afraid I generally plan better than this. You don't have a tuxedo, do you?" There was no accusation in his tone, but maybe just a touch of ruefulness. Because really, "I can dress nice" should not have been interpreted as "I own black tie clothing."
Sparkle	"...Uh." Did that answer that, Hannibal? Sparkle gave him a bit of a side-eye at that, and then gave his shoulders a helpless sort of shrug before shaking his head. "Never really needed one before." And there wasn't really a market for hand-me-down tuxedos in the Toronto group home circuit.
Hannibal	"I'm very sorry." Enjoy that, Sparkle; it was even sincere. Nobody got that very often. "I should have anticipated that." He thought for a second. "One moment." He pulled to the side of the road and took out his phone, dialing quickly. "I suppose this is where I ask you if you know your measurements?" he noted wryly. At least there were fewer sharks today.
Sparkle	Days without sharks were the best days for talking measurements, it was true. "Of course I do," Sparkle replied, as though everyone knew that sort of thing. "What kind of clothing store employee would I be if I didn't, right?" He even rattled them off then and there, because why not?
Hannibal	Hannibal chuckled and spoke rapidly in Italian into the phone for a moment, then handed it to Sparkle and went back to driving. "Tell him."
Sparkle	"Uh." That was going to be the height of his vocabulary for the day. "Right, so..." He rattled them off again, and then gave Hannibal a kind of helpless look before holding the phone back to him. His Italian was more or less summed up in the names of pastas and Adolescent Mutated Samurai Frogs. He was more a French-through-osmosis kind of Canadian. "Who's that?"
Hannibal	Hannibal smirked just a little. "A very good tailor." He kept driving. Having been caught out not accounting for something so basic, he wasn't above being a bit of a brat himself.
Sparkle	So help Sparkle, he couldn't help but grin a little at that. The bratty reply, that was. Not the tailor part. "Seriously? What, they have, like, emergency tailor services in Baltimore for when you really just need a last minute tux?" ... Sparkle would be surprised.
Hannibal	"You would be surprised." Hadn't the meta just said that? "Yes," Hannibal conceded after a moment, "there are emergency tailor services. I have an old tuxedo I can sacrifice; they'll send someone to pick it up, and alter it while we take care of dinner."
Sparkle	"I'm trying to picture myself in a tuxedo," Sparkle replied, blinking. "Jeez, we're going to be sitting in the dark for like half the night, people really dress that fancy to go watch a show?" Sparkle had not been to many operas. Read: any.
Hannibal	"Of course." Hannibal smiled at him. "It's as much an event as a show. People generally mingle before and after and during the intermissions. There will be drinks and some food as well. Which is lucky, as I doubt we'll have time to eat our dinner beforehand."
Sparkle	There was a certain level of dubiousness playing over Sparkle's face, now. Mingling? As in, like, actually standing around shooting the shit with the sort of people who would happily don a tux just to go see some people singing for three hours in a language they probably didn't even know? And Hannibal trusted him to actually do this and not get them chased out? There probably wouldn't even be anywhere in the tux to stash pinched hors d'oeuvres. "What do these people talk about? Just, like, the show?" Sparks was pretty sure he could bullshit about the show.
Hannibal	"You're giving them far too much credit." Hannibal shook his head. "This is a group of people who largely know each other from other opera seasons, who either are important in their own little circles or who wish to be, and who have a love for the dramatic. "Add to that the fact that this particular opera is in Washington DC, and there is one thing that city runs on, which is definitely not politics," he added dryly. "What do you think they talk about?"
Sparkle	"Hell if I know," Sparkle replied, shrugging his shoulders. "Themselves?" If there was one thing most rich people liked, he figured, it was probably 'giving themselves lip-service.'
Hannibal	"And each other," Hannibal agreed. "Gossip raised to an art form."
Sparkle	"Huh." Sparkle pursed his lips slightly, and then shrugged his shoulders. "Makes sense, I guess. I mean, it's not like everyone else doesn't talk about everyone else, either. It's just, usually people like me don't bother getting all prettied up in order to do it." There was a moment's pause before he wondered, "How bad am I going to stick out, anyhow?" He'd be dressed the part, maybe. That didn't mean he'd fit it. Not that he was too worried. It wasn't like these people were his peers or anything. But he was curious.
Hannibal	"You may be younger than most," Hannibal admitted. "But believe it or not, you have better manners than many. You'll be fine." "Other than that, it depends," he continued. "How badly would you like to stand out?" He arched an eyebrow at Sparkle. "Generally if I bring someone with me, I simply introduce them by name. My private life is none of anybody's concern." He shrugged. "However, I'm sure you can imagine what conclusions some will draw if I arrive with a much younger man and introduce you only as Sparkle." Yeah, his tone probably said what he thought of the people that would draw such conclusions. "Would you prefer I introduce you as my student, or leave them guessing?"
Sparkle	Yeah, Sparkle on his own kind of left people asking that question. And then throw in the ridiculous name... He laughed for a moment, shaking his head. "Doesn't matter to me either way," he replied. "I mean, it's not my reputation with the opera crowd that's going to suffer. I'm not really a regular to this sort of thing, you know." As could be evidenced by the whole 'needing a tuxedo' thing.
Hannibal	"Well, perhaps we'll see who we meet," Hannibal answered, smirking a little. He was hardly above stirring someone up if they needed it, but there were some people whose opinions might matter. He pulled up in front of his house and saw the courier the tailor had sent was already there. He nodded to the man as he stepped from the car. "One moment, please."

[OOC: Yes, we preplayed a car ride. For Hannibal, this cooking party and opera night to be continued in the comments!]