A big 'Thank you' to Phantom Cleric, for the kind, gentle Review xD Also, thanks to those who have taken their time to read Chapter One. Hopefully, you liked it at least a bit.
Chapter Two
Hannibal entered the Leet Gallery. He paused just as the doors closed behind him. Again, the familiar scent of peaches reached his nose a moment before he noticed the girl. Blonde hair swished gently as she turned to look at him with those eyes. He once tried to draw her eyes, the same day he had first seen her. The drawing was lying beneath his other sketches, beneath the sketches from the Luxemburg Gardens and Lady Murasaki.
Monsieur Leet had chosen this moment to interrupt.
"Ah, good evening, monsieur Lecter! Very good to see you. I am hoping that you're well." He said in his fake silky voice. He took Hannibal's drawings, then turned abruptly towards the girl, who apparently lost interest in both of them and started tracing the outline of a copy of Caravaggio's 'Basket of Fruit' delicately with her finger "Miss Kanzaki, please do not touch unless you're buying something!"
Miss Kanzaki. The Orphan Kanzaki. Hannibal still hadn't gotten her name. He will.
-
Monsieur Lecter. Hannibal. Hannibal Lecter.
Celeste withdrew her hand without looking at Leet nor the boy. She continued to study the rest of the paintings, aware of Hannibal's eyes on her. Soon, the boy transferred his attention elsewhere, choosing to stare intently at the paintings as well. He was searching, but for what, Celeste couldn't tell. The Gallery became as quiet as it was before, with monsieur Leet returning to his previous tasks of reorganizing the sculptures and such. She went further. Ah. Paintings showing meadows, hills, forests. Nice paintings, all copies. Her eyes set on the next one and she froze. A dark blue, almost black sky. A few dark grey clouds. No stars. A silver crescent moon in the middle.
Celeste took an unconscious step back, accidentally bumping into a small table; a light red vase with dark red roses which was standing on top of it shook and was pulled down by gravity.
-
Monsieur Leet looked up to see his expensive vase falling down. Hannibal watched also, paying more attention to the girl. She jumped on top of the table, where the falling vase had been standing a millisecond ago, and managed to take hold of the object mere inches above the floor. Red roses fell to the ground in silence. The girl jumped back, her feet meeting the floor as silently as the roses, the vase back in its' original position, no damage visible.
"I'm sorry, monsieur Leet," she uttered in a voice stripped of sincerity. She bent down, gathered the roses and put them in the vase. She looked up to meet the man's gaze "See, nothing happened."
"You…" Leet was speechless, but not for long "You nearly broke it! Do you have any idea how much it would cost you?! I bet you've never even seen such amount of money!"
"I said I was sorry for rising your blood pressure, monsieur Leet, for nothing more." The girl replied calmly, though with a hint of impatience "No damage is done."
"Monsieur Leet, may I get my money already?" Hannibal cut in before the angry owner of the Gallery could shout at the girl more.
"Of course, of course, monsieur Lecter." Lee threw a warning glare at the blonde "And if I see you touching anything, I'll throw you out of here! Literally!" and he disappeared to get Hannibal's money for his drawings.
The girl let out the air through her mouth. "I should have let it break." She said to herself. Hannibal heard.
"He really might've throw you out of here." He paused slightly, then added "I doubt he would manage to do it literally, though."
She looked at him, eyebrows raised in amusement. "Why do you think so?"
"Am I not correct?"
"Yes." she smiled, a small, genuine smile "Yes, you are, monsieur Hannibal Lecter."
"You have unusual eyes."
The smile vanished in an instant. "I've noticed."
"You know my name. I wish to know yours as well."
The smile returned for a brief moment. "My mother liked the color blue. She could spend countless hours lying on the dirty soil, dusting her clothes, just to watch the sky. She loved the color so much that she decided to pay her respect by giving her first child the same name as her favorite shade of blue." She tapped her finger against one of the paintings, the one showing a light green meadow under a clear blue sky, with a simple wooden hut in the corner.
Hannibal stared. He compared the blue on the painting, underneath her finger, and the blue of her right eye he couldn't see at the moment, yet had perfectly memorized. Almost exactly the same. A deep yet light color. Cerulean. Azure.
"Monsieur Leet told you not to touch anything, Celeste Kanzaki."
Her back was facing him, so he couldn't see her smile. "I usually don't follow orders from strangers, monsieur Lecter. Hannibal. Whichever might I call you?"
"'Hannibal' would suffice, since we're the same age."
"That's nice." She turned to look at him, the shadow of her previous smile still visible on her face "See you later, I hope, Hannibal."
She passed him, shoulder touching his lightly. The door closed behind her quietly. The smell of peaches lingered in the air for a few seconds as Hannibal gazed at the painting with the meadow and the sky. 'Tranquility', by an Italian artist Luca Bellusci. Hannibal stared at the clear blue sky on the painting. It was tranquil indeed.
-
Celeste was scanning the boxes filled with vegetables, looking for some clean and fresh ones. Monsieur Meyer, a cook in a local restaurant she's been serving for two years now in exchange for money, ordered her to pick up only the nicest looking vegetables. The man was quite rude towards her most of the time, and he would rather bark orders than speak to her normally, but the girl could easily sense fear coming from him whenever they were completely alone in the kitchen. It was obvious that the cook was afraid of her constantly indifferent façade, her eternal calmness, the way she handled knifes and, most of all, her eyes. People fear of the unknown, as Kyohei-sensei had told her once. Celeste wasn't sure whether she enjoyed being feared or not. Kyohei-sensei had said that she should be feared only during a battle.
Then again, Kyohei-sensei was now dead due to the illness that overcame him a month ago. Celeste was left alone again. She had no one. No one but herself.
Celeste spotted a big, fresh carrot and reached out to grab it. Her hand compressed around the orange vegetable just as another hand touched the other end.
"Oh, excuse me,"
Celeste looked up to see a beautiful Asian woman with silky black hair made in an elegant bun and dark eyes. A Japanese woman. Celeste was sure she'd seen her before.
"You can have it, Madame." The blonde let go of the carrot and tore her gaze away from the woman's curious stare.
"Thank you, young lady," the woman smiled "I believe I've seen you somewhere before. Had we met?"
"No, I don't think so," Celeste looked around the market. The man selling meat oppositely looked up and shot her a friendly smile. He had dark brown eyes which looked maroon in the sunlight. "I do remember seeing you with Hannibal a couple weeks ago, here."
"Hannibal?" the Japanese woman raised her eyebrows in polite curiosity "Have you two met?"
"Yes, a few days ago, in the Leet Gallery." Celeste wanted to ask if Hannibal had said something about her to this woman, but stopped herself just in time. The woman seemed to read her thoughts.
"He never mentioned making any new friends, Miss…?"
"Celeste Kanzaki." Celeste supplied.
The woman looked even more surprised. "Kanzaki? That sounds like a Japanese name. Are you from Japan?"
Celeste hesitated. "My mother was Japanese. She gave me a contrasting name to partially wipe out her memories of Japan."
"I see. Well, I believe Hannibal hadn't told you about me. My name is Murasaki Shikibu, I'm his aunt."
"Nice to meet you, Murasaki-san," Celeste said in flawless Japanese while bowing deeply in respect. Lady Murasaki nodded her head gracefully in return.
"Likewise."
Celeste glanced discreetly at her watch. "I have to go now, I still have plenty of work for today. It was a pleasure to meet you, Murasaki-san, goodbye!" the girl bowed again.
"Goodbye, Celeste," Lady Murasaki watched her run off. She held the fresh carrot between her fingers gently before putting it back to the box.
Author's Note: As promised. Expect the next one this Friday. Oh, the painting and the artisrt ("Tranquility", Luca Bellusci) are made up. I don't think a painting like the one described in this Chapter, or the artist, exist.