Chapter Text
When Hannibal opened his eyes, the sudden clarity of both his sight and mind felt as sharp as a knife. His mind palace appeared ghostly and trembling in the wind… There had never been any weather in his mind before. It made the whole construction more fragile, less firm, less reliable. It stretched in perfect lines, endless and old, known and new at the same time, but… it was fragile. That fragility was menacing. It could all collapse again, even if the worm had disappeared without a trace other than the aftermath of its intrusion, and even the aftermath was uneasy and eerie in its ghostliness.
Hannibal's eyes landed on a pile of books on the bedside table. He sensed Will breathing into his neck, Will's arm around his waist.
Without any idea of how long this state might last, Hannibal thought that he had to do something. He'd hardly ever felt any urgency about a thing, but now it was important, it was crucial to make haste.
He carefully stood up and made his way to the bathroom.
He knew where he was and what it implied, he remembered, however blurrily, everything that had transpired. He would have congratulated himself on making a trip to the bathroom without Will dragging him there. However, there was no time for that.
He returned to Will, awake and confused, staring at the empty half of the bed.
"Hannibal?" He called when he spotted the older man. "You… You've gone to the bathroom. Great news." Will smiled. He was so soft and so determined and so firmly kind. It wasn't Alana's kindness, always coming with a price, it wasn't an easy kindness, or kindness as a ruling principle of one's life. Will's kindness was only for Hannibal, his dogs and maybe Abigail.
Hannibal recalled Will telling her off with awe and surprise and so much love that he had to, absolutely had to do something.
He sat next to Will and caressed his ear.
"I don't know how long it will last, this clarity," he began.
"I'd like to know what made it go away," Will said softly. He covered Hannibal's hand with his and pushed it closer, firmer to his ear. Now Hannibal's touch begot waves and whispers of Will's innermost sea.
"I think it began after Matthew Brown. It began because I love you and missed you and was so proud of you."
"You're a mess. I don't think I'm sorry for sending him after you. I'd have been sorry if he had succeeded…" Will sensed Hannibal's worry about the longevity of his lucid time and moved forward, tilting his head, holding his breath. "Can we..? Should we..?"
"We should," Hannibal rasped. "Please. I want to be fully aware of it."
It started off tentatively and slowly and didn't stay that way for more than a moment. Very soon they fell back on the bed, lost in their shared embrace.
"I want you, Will."
"I've noticed."
Will moved to straddle Hannibal and Hannibal moved to sit up and they chose to ignore the fact that they knocked their heads together in favour of Hannibal pulling Will's underwear down just enough to be able to grab a handful of Will's arse and gently take Will's cock in his hand.
"Fuck, Hannibal… foreplay maybe?"
"I don't know how long it will last," Hannibal replied, kissing behind Will's ear and down his neck and licking his scruffy beard. "I want to be aware, I want to keep it."
"Mischa's teeth are in your bedside table," Will reminded him.
Hannibal surged forward for another kiss, loud, sloppy, entirely inelegant. "You're my breath and my life, my equal, my partner, my everything…" He spat into his hand and returned it to Will's dick. "I'm sorry… I'd love it to be better and softer…"
"Shut up… shut up, this is perfect." Will held on to Hannibal's shoulders and pushed into his hand more frantically than he'd like, but oh, who knew how long it will last.
"If… if you retreat back to your shell… can I… I'd love to… Do you even… Ah, Hannibal, please, so good. You're brilliant, so brilliant…"
"Never let me go, Will."
"Or you'll eat me. I know. Love you. Please…"
Hannibal slid down and took Will into his mouth just in time to catch his release. He sucked a bit longer, making sure to clean it all and push Will a bit, just a sharp pin head bit, into oversensitivity.
"Stop… stop…" Will pulled Hannibal back, face to face, so that they could kiss. "I want you to come too. What do you want?"
"Just look at me," Hannibal asked, lying down. "If you look at me, I… I won't go back inside."
"You're still there, no, here. You're here with me."
Will's face hovered over Hannibal's, eyes glimmering and naughty and too serious a face to be trusted. He pleasured Hannibal with an easy, lazy rhythm of his hand. "Baby, you're wet… fuck, I love it when a dick is wet…"
Hannibal growled possessively.
"Yours is the prettiest and the wettest. Don't be like that, it's a dick, and yours is the most important and precious because it's attached to the rest of your prickish personality, you one giant prick!"
Hannibal had to admit that laughing during orgasm made for the best orgasm. He said it to Will.
"Suck it, Alana!"
"I wouldn't want her to."
"You're a giant stupid prick!" Will leaned down to clean Hannibal with kitten licks. "Let's sleep some more."
Will curled around Hannibal, going on forever about Hannibal being every bad thing in the world and somehow the best thing in Will's life. Hannibal pressed his face into Will's hair and tried to hold on to wakefulness and lucidity.
It didn't help, he wasn't a master of his body at the moment. But that sleep was dreamless and overall just that, sleep. A peaceful little nap next to Will.
Somewhere in the house Abigail was making a lot of noise. She loved being alone but she wanted to know what the plan was and how she could help or avoid helping so as to ensure that everything happened as it should have. And she wanted to apologise to Hannibal too.
She'd have to wait, however. Everything and everyone would have to wait.
For now Will and Hannibal basked in the tender sun of their own making and astronomy. For now, they were both asleep and happy.
Soon they would have to wake up and go about their day. Maybe Hannibal would be silent again. Maybe he'd talk too much. Maybe something else entirely would happen, but there was no doubt in any of the cliff house’s current inhabitants that it all would be good, at least for them. For everyone else… probably not so much. But everyone else wasn't there, had no place in their astronomy. So, either no one else had been made or everyone else was pseudoscience. Both options seemed comforting.