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"We could disappear now, tonight” Hannibal said almost casually. Will looked up, confused, the words not at all where he felt this was going. He couldn’t be serious…could he? Hannibal continued, “Feed your dogs, leave a note for Alana, never see her or Jack again. Almost polite." A flicker of a plea ghosted over his face and Will knew Hannibal was actually asking him to do this.
All the lies and the deals and the secrets. Jack’s fury if they went. Alana’s pain. His own pain, the reason he had embarked on this double life in the first place. Yet there had been increasingly more times when it wasn’t a lie. Times when Hannibal had - it felt - looked right into his soul as they talked in careful circles about their likeness. Will thinking he was playing up to it for the ruse but the words came so naturally. He had felt accepted and safe and….he had to immediately chastise himself for even thinking it. Constantly reminding himself it was a game and to pull back, when shouldn’t it have been the other way around? A small smile spread over Will’s face before he could help it.
"That'd make this our last supper." Will said, half as a joke, and he gave a short, incredulous laugh at how simple Hannibal made it sound. His mind raced with the tantalizing possibility.
So much of him just wanted to say yes.
Hannibal seemed to consider Will’s comment as a serious observation. "Of this life…” He conceded, his face for once open and his cautious hope that there would be a life for them afterwards plain to see. “I served lamb." He noted simply.
"Sacrificial."
"I don't need a sacrifice.” Hannibal said before taking a steadying breath, knowing that now they were no longer talking about dinner. He knew Will was hiding from him, that Freddie Lounds was alive and that he had been pinning his hopes on this man who had lied to his face. Planning his next life to include a companion, while that companion planned for his next life to be a cell. Yet he wanted nothing, NOTHING more than for them to be together. He saw the way Will reacted to him when he forgot himself. They needed each other. Given the choice he would rather they left than Jack die, “Do you?" Hannibal asked, keeping his voice controlled. He didn’t dare look Will in the eye in case he should betray how much he was hanging on the answer.
"I need him to know." Will said, though he didn’t really know what he meant - what exactly it was that Jack had to know. Or was he talking about his own needs? "If I confessed to Jack Crawford now...." He wondered aloud, the thought incomplete as he failed to imagine what that would even look like, let alone what would happen to him. Hannibal deserved a confession too. That seemed even harder to know where to start.
"I would forgive you" Hannibal cut in, finally looking intently at Will, assuring him of his sincerity. Playing Will at his own game of talking in circles he asked, "If Jack were to tell you all is forgiven, would you accept his forgiveness?"
As always, Will understood him, even if he didn’t want to. He slowly turned to meet Hannibal’s anxious eyes, frowning slightly as if he couldn’t believe he had just heard that. Hannibal would forgive him….but did he really feel ready to forgive in return?
"Jack isn't offering forgiveness. He wants…justice. He wants to see you. See who you are. See what I've become. He wants the truth." Will told him. He regretted saying it as soon as he closed his mouth. His heart was beating wildly at the thought of just telling Hannibal what he was clearly asking for, and of demanding the same. In his gut he ached for that forgiveness, but he was so mad at himself, at Hannibal, at Jack that the stubborn words had left him before he could think about them. He attempted a weak - even apologetic - smile.
Hannibal was crushed. The double blow of smelling Freddie on Will’s clothes, and now of offering him the chance to confess and be freely forgiven, only to have it refused, was too much. He tried hard to keep his devastation in. He was mildly irritated under his pain, as Will had no right to demand truth when he was demonstrably lying to him. Hannibal gave a shuddering sigh.
"To the truth, then…and all its consequences." he sipped his wine stoically. Will watched him longingly, unseen.
“Consequences.” Will toyed with Hannibal’s word, “What would be the consequences of running, Dr. Lecter?” He asked emphasising it again. His tone was flat but he was genuinely, reluctantly curious. Hannibal pressed his lips together, weighing the question.
“A different kind of truth.” Hannibal fixed his gaze on Will’s wide eyes, both with a glimmer of the same suppressed softness.
“A dangerous one.” Will dropped his gaze to his glass. He might have sounded pretty firm that they couldn’t leave, but he was torn and Hannibal knew it.
“More dangerous for Jack Crawford if we stay.” Hannibal felt that reminding Will again of the unnecessary murder they were planning might be the best angle, but Will’s deception was no small issue either, “I don’t doubt either of us could find ourselves in danger too, Will”
For Will, It wasn’t a decision as such, it was a thing in it’s own right, working it’s way under his skin to his mouth and pressing to be released. His conscience taking over, or his heart maybe? Hannibal’s liquid black eyes seemed to silently call the secret from him. Will knew the game was ending, he would cast an honest lure, and hope Hannibal would be honest prey.
“Jack….” Will swallowed a few times just in case he could swallow the truth with it. Last chance. Inevitably it was still there, ready to burst forth, “He thinks I’m his man. You think I’m yours.” He said shakily, echoing the conversation in the office. The moment seemed to stretch endlessly away as Hannibal stared unseeing at his place setting.
“My observations were correct then, that we each have the capacity to deceive and be deceived.” Hannibal saw all the pieces fit together and chastised himself that he hadn’t even considered this was Jack’s manipulation, playing on Will’s stubborn, fighting streak. “Which of us is fortune going to favour?” Hannibal asked without looking up.
Will watched him, his face intense and almost disbelieving that Hannibal may actually be hurt. Will let out a long breath, not wanting to have to say what he’d worked so hard to ignore. He could feel his answer in his mouth. He flicked hie eyes up to study Hannibal’s face, trying to gauge his reaction but knowing that when it came to Hannibal Lecter, that was futile. Seeing how his brow furrowed with a flash of genuine hope, was Will’s undoing. Hannibal needed him and although he had a multitude of feelings about it all, nothing else mattered in that moment.
“I’m not fortune’s fool,” Will breathed, “I’m yours.”
Hannibal managed to stay calm, this was a confession yes, but no more. He considered the small possibility that he had perhaps absorbed some elements of Will in all this, and the last few seconds were all in his head. Will’s worried face suggested it was real so he would operate on that assumption. He already knew he would keep his word to forgive Will.
“It would seem that the teacup can come back together…” Hannibal paused then, his mouth still open and an expression Will could not figure out, but then apparently thought better of continuing with that train of thought. He changed tack, “I have a house on the coast. I’m sure you’ll find everything you might want there, but I know you will have to….make arrangements.” He left all the things that would make it hard on Will unspoken this time.
Will was jolted back to reality, whatever had been fizzing up between them now dissolved. Practical next steps were admittedly a good idea, but Will was a little lost. Did he even explicitly agree to go? Even as he thought this, he knew he was going. Otherwise what use was all this? He tried to figure out what to do, playing with his spoon.
“I need to make some calls….” Will said, a tentative decision but a decision nonetheless. Hannibal had niggling concerns, but he didn’t want to shove Will off the limb he was out on.
“Feel free to use my room - it will take me a while to see to dessert.” Hannibal squeezed Will’s shoulder gently as he rose and left.
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Will closed Hannibal’s bedroom door quietly behind him and turned to lean back on it. He wasn’t sure if his heart trying to escape his chest was from panic or excitement. Both probably. They were going to leave this mess behind, together. Will took a few deep breaths - what was together going to mean when there were no eyes on them? No lies and nobody at all but them. He had no idea but he was sure it wasn’t his imagination the way their interactions made him feel like they might be flirting… He guessed now he would get clarity one way or another and it made his breathing quicken.
He raised his eyes to the ceiling as he idly pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped it against his leg. This was it, now or never. He would call his nearest neighbours, ask if their teenage son could feed and walk the dogs tonight as he was too far away to go home. Nothing out of the ordinary for him…until he never showed up tomorrow. He would go down to the study and write that note to Alana that Hannibal suggested. His own handwriting so she would understand, but no digital trail to follow.
It all sounded so goddamn simple. Simple but deadly, and there would be no going back.
He unlocked his phone, found the Cook’s home number and hit ‘call’.
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Hannibal was waiting for the oven to be done, sipping his wine absently. He could hear Will pacing around in his bedroom and it was making him second, third, and fourth guess him. Was he one of those people who unconsciously wandered when talking on a phone? Was he regretting their conversation? A hundred possibilities were tumbling through his mind, even if his face belied nothing.
Will could be on the phone to Jack, turning him in after all. He could be working up the courage to tell him he had changed his mind. He could be hoping that they would be leaving as friends…or maybe he understood that for Hannibal it was much more now. He sensed that may have been the most stressful outcome - Hannibal didn’t know how he would handle finally getting to be with him like that. It made his temperature rise just thinking about it.
All he had to go on was the steady creak back and forth of Will’s feet. Until it stopped and Hannibal’s heart with it. Footsteps down the stairs and then Will seemed to go into the study rather than join him. What felt like a long time passed and Hannibal was checked the timer - 14 more minutes - and his curiosity got the better of him.
Hannibal made a point of knocking on the already open door, “Will?” he was sitting at the desk, his hands on a folded note presumably for Alana. Will didn’t lift his bowed head.
“She won’t forgive me for this.” He said. Hannibal made his way over and perched himself on the desk beside Will’s hunched figure. He afforded himself a small smile at how this arrangement was a reversal of so many times in the office. Strange that here in his home, Will seemed exactly where he should be in Hannibal’s chair. Maybe it wasn’t strange at all. A sudden rush of fondness for the younger man overcame Hannibal, and he reached out to try and release Will’s hand from the paper.
“I have.” Hannibal assured Will simply, “I keep my word, Will, and I would no doubt do the same if you were….having second thoughts about coming with me.” Hannibal sort-of asked, not daring to breathe.
Will allowed his hand to be taken from the letter, and turned his face up towards Hannibal. The emotion he saw there was transfixing. It was as if all his confusion, his doubts and his wondering were only able to operate when Hannibal wasn’t there. As soon as their eyes met it was like a mute button had been hit on his anxiety. Will’s heart suddenly had the clarity it sought. There was only one answer to this uncharacteristically vulnerable supposition.
Hannibal’s heart thudded one extra loud beat, as Will used their joined hands to pull himself up to face him. He studied Will’s beautiful, slightly apprehensive face and reached a hand up to cup his cheek. Fingertips toyed with the curls at his temple. Will felt a clench in his gut - the ghost of something from another life. Pain never drawn. Another set of teacups. Will put it down to the tension, the fear of losing him, a dawning realisation that maybe he wasn’t wrong about all those odd moments between them. Hannibal shifted his legs so Will could stand between them.
Will licked his lip, a nervous gesture, but Hannibal’s gaze fell to it nonetheless. Will’s pulse quickened and he would never be sure if he leaned his head closer or it was coaxed. Their lips met and time stood still. Perhaps it shifted onto another course, one where all of their passion, their aggression, could be directed into this. Will slid his hands tentatively under Hannibal’s jacket and grasped at his shirt. He pressed himself closer as they kissed, both softly…lips asking, discovering. Forgiving.
Will pulled back and smiled shyly, before looking up at Hannibal from under dark lashes, “I told you before….where else would I go?”
Hannibal groaned at this, overcome with long pent-up desire, and rose to walk Will back a few steps into the wall. He cupped his face in both hands now, kissing him hungrily enough to convey how much he needed him, how many times he had wondered if Will would ever let him do this. Will let out a soft moan as Hannibal’s body pressed flush against him, and he felt his growing arousal. Shocked and impossibly turned on by it, he dug his fingers into the heated skin of Hannibal’s back through his shirt.
Will was dizzy with excitement, having only had the haziest of ideas before that this may be what he wanted. Dreams half-remembered and eye contact that subsequently made him blush for different reasons than with other people. Maybe it was that simple…
They kissed until they were high on it, Hannibal’s jacket shrugged off without really breaking away from Will, and his tie slowly undone by Will’s exploring fingers.
Hannibal moved to place slow, sucking kisses on Will’s neck, right down to his collar bone inside the open neck of his shirt. The scent of him, his more recent cologne and adrenaline and just plain Will, was driving Hannibal to distraction. He bit into the soft skin just enough to mark him but not draw blood and Will gasped.
“Will….” Hannibal murmured, breathless with arousal and the question unspoken, aching to go further but only if it was what Will wanted. Will pulled back to gaze up at him, his lust-blown pupils making his big blue eyes dark and shining as he nodded just a little. Hannibal drew his lip between his teeth at the sight of him, he had to have this beautiful creature right now. He claimed Will’s mouth again fiercely, Will matching his passion as their tongues fought for more.
Hannibal’s hands were all over him, pinning one of Will’s above his head and using the other to palm at the bulge in his pants. Will moaned, his cock was straining against his clothes at Hannibal’s touch, and he rolled his hips to feel the Doctor’s own hardness against his thigh. Will was impossibly turned on by this Hannibal - coming apart at his perfect seams because of him, and he needed it like air.
“Please….” Will breathed against Hannibal’s lips, quiet and shuddering, “I can’t take it, just fuck me. Fuck me right here.”
Grasping at Will’s shirt, Hannibal turned them both, pushing the younger man roughly back across the desk. Papers crumpled and pens scattered onto the floor as Hannibal ripped open Will’s shirt and moved to kiss and lick his way down his bare chest.
“Your things…” Will whined vaguely.
“Leave them!” Hannibal growled over Will’s nipple, and then sucked hard. The warm weight of Hannibal between his legs, combined with his licking and sucking was making Will squirm, arching his back off the hard surface to try and get some friction on his cock. He needed Hannibal to take him, so helpless was he with the need to be fucked – he had never wanted anyone this badly in his life.
Hannibal was in no mood to tease him until he cried – as much as that image made his dick throb – as there would be all the time in the world for that later. Tonight he just had to make Will his, his possessiveness over the young empath coursing through his body.
He undid Will’s pants and tugged them off, watching fascinated as Will sat up and got to work undressing him too. Will quickly pushed Hannibal’s shirt off and his pants to the floor and reached up, pulling him back down to kiss him hard. Hannibal curled his arms under Will’s shoulders and ground their erections together, making them both gasp in pleasure.
Suddenly Hannibal got up, pulling Will with him, turned him around and bent him firmly over the desk. Will exhaled harshly, his cheek on the cool marble and braced his hands against the top. Hannibal splayed a strong hand on Will’s lower back and rubbed slowly up and down his spine. He ran the hand down over the curve of Will’s ass and then dropped it away from him.
“Stay there.” Hannibal told him and Will heard his soft padding footsteps leading away, under the singing of his blood in his ears. He knew Hannibal must be going to get lube and his heart was racing out of control, the heat of the whole front of his torso pressing sticky onto the cool of the desk and he shivered in anticipation. He felt Hannibal’s hand on his thigh without hearing him return and flinched, his senses dulled and heightened equally in this position. Hannibal shushed him and gently pressed cool, wet fingertips to Will’s entrance. He stroked over it, up and down, savouring Will’s whimpering, twitching reaction to the sudden sensation.
Hannibal slid his other hand up Will’s body and grasped a handful of his dark curls. He leaned close enough that his breath tickled Will’s ear.
“Is this what you meant, Will? When you pleaded with me to fuck you?” His voice was low and dangerous and his words made Will ache for relief from the slow, circling torture of his finger. He had lost all his defences, there was only Hannibal and him now and he could voice what he had pushed so far down for so long.
“Y-Yes…oh my god…I need it Hannibal.” He pleaded, a whine escaping him at the end as Hannibal slowly pressed a finger into him. He probed him carefully, letting go of his hair to stroke his back reassuringly. The movement was simultaneously holding Will there as Hannibal fingered him, opening him up, and he was drunk on the older man’s combination of tenderness and control.
Hannibal added some lube and added another finger, his practiced hand preparing Will to feel no pain…although he sensed and smelled no fear, no resistance. He curled his fingers, hitting Will’s sensitive spot just enough, testing his response, and he cried out deliciously. Hannibal could see Will’s pliant form was nervous, but eager.
“Have you done this before, Will?” he asked softly, as the thought that he may have been overly concerned formed in his inflamed imagination.
“Mmhmmm,” Will moaned affirmatively, “Not for….uhhh….years though.”
Hannibal smiled to himself, pleasantly surprised, and thought about how much else there was of this amazing young man that he couldn’t have predicted. He stroked himself lightly, rolling on a condom and coating himself in extra lube as he worked Will open, basking in the impatient, greedy sounds he made. He removed his fingers and listened to Will’s fast, rasping breaths as he moved to place the head of his cock at Will’s opening. Hannibal pressed a little and Will’s fingers dug into the table top as he groaned.
“You have no idea how many times I dreamed this.” Hannibal said hoarsely as he sheathed himself painfully slowly inside Will’s tight heat, “I wished to bend you over my desk in the office every time I saw you.”
Will groaned at the words and the gorgeous fullness as the Doctor started to thrust into him; his thick cock brushing against his prostate occasionally and pulling words out of him from God knows where, “I think I’ve dreamed it too….mmm….but I told myself I didn’t remember”
Hannibal grasped his hips and increased his tempo. The sounds of their skin and their pleasure filled their ears as Hannibal shifted slightly, rolling his hips and pushing Will closer and closer to being his. Will was desperate for release, his orgasm curled deep inside him, and he was almost convinced that this man could make him come like this.
“Oh fuck, Hannibal….please.” Will wailed. Hannibal didn’t know his responses well enough yet to know what he wanted but he knew what he wanted himself at that moment. He pulled out to a frustrated sound from Will.
“Turn over and let me see you.” Hannibal said and helped Will get up on the desk with his shaking legs. Will leaned back on his forearms as Hannibal pushed his thighs up and back and pressed his throbbing length back inside Will. His ass was resting not quite on the marble, and he was helpless as the older man held onto him and pumped his hips harder. He twisted his fingers into his hair and gripped the desk’s edge with the other hand. Hannibal nudged his already sensitive prostate again, now from another angle, and Will arched his back as he cried out.
“So….good…..oh fuck….feels so good.” Will whined absently.
Hannibal bit his lip watching Will. His face and his sweet moans a delectable mixture of innocent shock and wanton need. He was like an angel that had been caught doing something naughty. Hannibal almost couldn’t handle the idea that driving this exquisite creature to screaming orgasms could actually be his life now.
“You are so fucking beautiful right now, Will.” Hannibal managed to articulate between thrusts.
Will was taken unawares by the sentiment - never hearing Hannibal talk like that before - and his body quivered for relief. His hand wrapped around his cock and his eyes fluttered shut. Hannibal snarled at the tremor that must have run through him with the friction. Hannibal leaned down over Will. He leaned on one hand while taking Will’s face in the other.
“Open your eyes….I want to watch you come.” Hannibal whispered into their shared breath. He brushed his lips over Will’s and fixed his dark, liquid eyes intently on Will’s baby blue ones. The rush of undiluted intimacy from their intense gaze ripped Will’s orgasm from his body with a force that consumed him. His body convulsed and his vision faded as it seemed to draw on forever, sending hot thick splashes of come onto Hannibal’s stomach.
Hannibal was similarly overwhelmed by Will’s violent response and his clenching muscles and followed him right behind, grunting in his native tongue into Will’s shoulder. Hannibal rested his head on Will’s heaving chest and listened to his heart trying to slow down. His own heart squeezed with something much more profound than adrenaline as Will’s arm draped over his back. They lay for a while, the air full of potential.
“We should maybe check on dessert.” Hannibal eventually joked.
Will sighed, his emotions raw and too close to the surface. He didn’t know what he expected but it wasn’t that. Perhaps some over the top sappy declaration that would make him shy. Or the truth he so compulsively sought….
Hannibal frowned as Will made to push himself up, forcing him to move and forcing a laugh. Hannibal could sense that unbelievably there was a barrier still up in Will, a tiny, faint hint of disappointment that could not have been from the mind blowing sex they just had. What did he need? Hannibal would give him anything, he knew that much.
They ate the albeit lovely dessert in bathrobes and then showered together, a good sign Hannibal felt, although he was containing his worry that he had messed up. Will was doing the same, unable to stop himself from empathising as always.
Hannibal’s face was unreadable as they made small talk and casually discussed the logistics of their departure and Will fought the usual rising urge to push him away. They dried and dressed in fairly comfortable silence and Hannibal realised he was going to have to ask – he couldn’t risk this otherwise.
Will stood frowning in the foyer for the last time. Hannibal joined him after arranging Alana’s note on the kitchen counter just so and turning off the last light, but seeing Will’s face made his worry spill over. This was too good to be true. He grabbed Will by the waist and chin and tilted his face up.
“Tell me what is plaguing your mind, Will.” Hannibal implored him, and pressed a hesitant kiss onto his parted lips, “Please.”
Will swallowed and dropped his eyes despite Hannibal’s grasp on his jaw, “I just need to know…”
The words so similar to those he had spoken at dinner and Hannibal suddenly understood.
Truth. Of course.
Bedelia was right about trust being difficult for him but Will had already confessed his sins. Hannibal knew Will liked them to be “even” and he took a deep breath. He nudged the finger under Will’s jaw to make him look at him.
“Will. You already do” He said with a tiny tinge of sadness over what he had put Will through to cover his crimes. There would be time to heal those wounds, he hoped. Will raised his eyebrows in calm recognition, his mouth open. This was more than vagary now but in a way, the fact he had always believed it meant the shock, the anger, the resentment that came with uncovering a secret had already been and gone.
Will felt nothing but relief. That and miraculous affection which was slowly unfurling, awakening and growing like a buried plant once the snow melts. He smiled that tremulous, incredulous smile that Hannibal could look at forever.
“You let me know you.” Will moved Hannibal’s hand and kissed it.
“See me” Hannibal added, watching Will’s actions reverently.
“A rare gift.” Will mused, gazing up at Hannibal’s shining eyes as he wrapped his arms around him and held him close.
“I wasn’t certain you wanted it.” Hannibal was close to tears and Will rested his palms on the older man’s chest.
“Neither did I.” Will whispered truthfully, looking down at his hands. “Until now.”
Hannibal looked up over Will’s head to keep the tears at bay, wrapping around him fully, and noticed the late hour on his ornate grandfather clock. He was positive that they could stay there in that house, falling into bed and pouring their unsaid words into each other forever, until Will was 100% on everything. Or he could tell him the one truth that would get him out the door.
He rested his head on Will’s, “I gave this gift to another who first doubted they had any use for it.” Will tensed in his arms.
“We should go now, Will.” Hannibal said, suddenly pulling away and savouring Will’s confused look, “She is waiting for us.”
Will’s confusion became shock and he searched Hannibal’s eyes for answers. He found only sincerity.
“Abigail?” Barely even spoken.
A brief, kind nod told him it was real and the breath left him, “Then I.…I have to forgive you too.” Will whispered, his voice cracking, into the front of Hannibal’s coat. There was so much more behind those words that one day they would discuss, but for now he wanted to see her face, “Take me to her.”
Outside, the empty house, Will stood while Hannibal fished in his coat for his car keys. The rain had started, drops falling large and quiet, tumbling like shattered glass. Will turned his face up to it and shivered. Cold perhaps, or maybe the dark and unsavoury flashes of consequences that might have been.