Disclaimer: I do not own Hannibal (the movies or the series or the books)

-This is the second (and possibly final) installment of my Baudelaire In Braille series. I may write more, no sure yet.
-THIS IS MUCH DARKER THAN THE FIRST PART, PLEASE READ ALL THE TAGS ON AO3 FOR REFERENCE
-If you haven't read the first part, you may not understand what's going on here.
-Links to images will be available in the AO3 upload.
-There is a bit more language switching in this part of the series.
-I hope everyone who reads will enjoy.

What is annoying in love, is that it is a crime in which one cannot do without an accomplice.

-Charles Baudelaire

Italy, Livorno - Tuesday – 20 Sep 2022 – 4.55 PM

They were driving on a long straight road that led from the city of Livorno through its countryside, which was more than just open stretches of bland flat land, but rather, beautiful rolling green hills boasting large estate homes every few miles, and everything in between was healthy green forestry, large farms and vineyards as well as distant mountain landscapes.

Will hated it. It kind of reminded him of when he'd been driving in the countryside of Lithuania to where Hannibal's family estate had been. Except out there in Italy, none of the estates looked like imperious castles that housed blood sucking vampires or something else equally deranged and ominous...like a future serial killing cannibal.

He snorted to himself, smiling slightly at the thought, because Hannibal was technically 'Count Lecter' and that was such a vampire name. The noise did not go unheard, even with the lilting classical sounds of Rachmaninov playing from the car's CD player and Hannibal glanced over at him briefly before turning his eyes back to the road,

"Something funny?" he asked just loudly enough to be heard, flexing his long fingers on the steering wheel as he drove them smoothly along the narrow countryside road.

Will was sitting with his head rested on his hand, knuckles against his temple, his hand was curled into a loose fist and his elbow was hitched up on the door's window ledge, his other hand was settled idly on his thigh and he'd been staring out of the car window at the boring scenery. He didn't look over when Hannibal spoke, he just raised an eyebrow,

"I was just thinking about how creepy your estate in Lithuania is." he paused and his smile broadened, "With the mist and the cemetery, the forest and disused fountains with large mossy statues in them…I'll bet you probably had a maze too." Will snorted again and rolled his head against the rest so that he was looking at Hannibal.

Hannibal was dressed in all black, he had on a V-neck cashmere sweater with long sleeves that reached as far down as his knuckles, complimenting the slender lines of his hands and long fingers. He wore it with a formal flat-front pants and leather Chelsea boots and because the interior of the rented Mercedes C Class was black and the weather was heavily overcast and gray outside, his skin looked unusually pale. Will trailed his eyes over Hannibal's sharp side profile and the sleek brush-back style of his hair and watched as the man's lips curved up into a slight smirk,

"Labirintas, in Lithuanian." Hannibal said with a raised eyebrow and glanced at Will again.

"Labir-in-tas." Will repeated, trying to roll the word on his tongue like Hannibal did, and the word amžinai popped into his thoughts, making him grin as he watched Hannibal, "So you did have one, a labirintas…a labyrinth?" he frowned lightly, venturing a guess, because the words sounded close enough to one another.

Hannibal smiled wider now, so Will knew he'd guessed right,

"Yes, we had a labyrinth, but it was part of a series of regularly used gardens…it wasn't anything quite as sinister as old folktales would have people believe." his tone was laced with humor as he slowed down around a curve in the road.

Will raised his eyebrows,

"Still though, you had an actual maze…" he mumbled and then pointed out, "…and in the condition the estate was in when I saw it," Will shook his head, "I doubt it was anything but overgrown and creepy." he looked at the road ahead and his eyes scanned over the extensions of farms and hills they passed.

Hannibal's voice was low and curious when he asked,

"Did you go into the main house?"

Will nearly scoffed at the term 'house' as he looked at Hannibal again,

"You mean the main part of the mansion?" he raised an eyebrow at the older man and Hannibal's eyebrows bobbed slightly in acknowledgement of the clear difference, and Will smirked, amused, "No, I didn't. I…" he closed his eyes for a moment and remembered his short time spent in Lithuania, "…I illegally trespassed by scaling the gate, camped in the forest of the grounds below the mansion…and eventually," he opened his eyes again, "I made my way up to the east wing, where I found the entrance to the, uh…oubliette." Will's smirk wavered, "And that was where I had my first encounter with the…lovely," he said the word like a question, "Chiyoh…at the business end of a double barrel shot gun." he finished dully, shifting idly in his seat.

Will kept his eyes on Hannibal, watching the man as he drove, the lilting sounds of piano relaxing him further into the leather seat. Hannibal's hand slid down to the side of the steering wheel as he slowed the car down to an approaching turn and his fingers stretched out to switch the right indicator on as his gaze drifted from the cloudy, gray skies on the horizon back to the road ahead of them. They barely stopped at the crossroad turn before Hannibal rotated the steering wheel right and switched off the indicator again, and only once they were on the new road steadily gaining speed again, did Hannibal speak,
"You told me once that she pushed you off a train," he glanced at Will with an amused expression, "is the reason for her having done that connected to your mutual dislike for one another?"

Will frowned lightly, and then raised his eyebrows, bringing a hand up to adjust his thin frameless spectacles on his nose before he rubbed his hand over his mouth and off his chin,

"She hasn't already told you this story?" he was surprised by that. During their recovery after Dolarhyde, Hannibal and Chiyoh had spent hours talking to one another when Will had been awake or asleep, pretty much whenever they were alone or he was out of earshot. Although he'd never been intentionally excluded from most of the conversations, he'd simply chosen never to join in. But finding out that she hadn't told Hannibal anything about how she'd come to know Will surprised him.

Hannibal shook his head lightly,

"Not in detail." he brought his other hand up onto the steering wheel, idly flexing his fingers on the leather, "She told me that you went to the estate looking for me and after you set her up to kill her charge, the two of you left Lithuania to find me." he glanced at Will again.

"Together…we left together, at the same time, with the same goal in mind." Will clarified calmly, with only a hint of bitterness in his tone after all the years passed, for having been pushed off a train for very little good reason. Really, everyone Hannibal had known had always been so excessively violent, long before Will had caught up.

"And how did she come to push you, completely unsuspecting, off of the train?" Hannibal sounded equal parts amused and curious.

Will inhaled slowly and worked his jaw for a second, glancing at Hannibal and debating how best to say exactly how Chiyoh had caught him off guard. She obviously had elected not to reveal the particulars of their time spent together to Hannibal and now Will wondered if it was a calculated precaution on her part to avoid Hannibal's wrath. Would Hannibal be angry? Chiyoh wasn't really Hannibal's family, and sure he valued her, but Will had often wondered how expendable Hannibal considered her in the end.

And he couldn't say it'd particularly bother him if Hannibal killed Chiyoh…but it might bother Hannibal if he killed Chiyoh. Hannibal may not often indulge in regret, but Chiyoh wasn't just anybody to him, so there was a chance he would regret it. Still, he couldn't lie to Hannibal, so he decided to tell the tale as lightly as possible,

"I'd just woken up in our shared cabin on the train…from a…grim dream, and she wasn't in the cabin." Will began, glancing at Hannibal just when the older man glanced at him,

"Were you anxious, Will?" he asked with a knowing humor in his voice, "Because you'd dreamed she was dead, and that you'd killed her?" he continued to sound amused.

Will inclined his head, glancing from Hannibal to the road and then back,

"It wasn't as vivid as all that, and I wasn't anxious, I simply…didn't trust her out of my sight." which was true, and was the very reason he felt like such a twat for letting her kiss him, "But in my dream I had killed her." and his recent -though rare - dreams of doing so since then were far more pleasing and graphic anyway.

Hannibal gave Will a prompting glance, urging him to go on, and Will scratched idly at his collarbone beneath his ribbed, slate gray, Henley shirt before he continued,

"I went looking for her, and I found her at the back of the train, on the platform." he paused and then shook his head, "We talked for a minute…and one second I was on the train, the next I was on the tracks." he added with affected nonchalance at the end, his nerve being lost at the last second, telling himself it didn't matter how he'd been caught off guard.

Why would it matter? That flimsy little kiss…was it because Chiyoh was Hannibal's and Will was Hannibal's?

Will felt a seepage of jealousy into his consciousness as he thought again of how Chiyoh was not related to Hannibal and that they had grown up around one another, spent years in the other's company through adolescence. He found himself unhappily curious then about whether or not Hannibal had ever had a non-platonic experience with Chiyoh.

"Pardon my skepticism, Will, but I find it hard to believe that Chiyoh was able to push you off a train while you had your wits about you. Were you perhaps still half asleep, partially medicated?" Hannibal asked, and he didn't sound mocking, he sounded like he thought it might have been a possibility, and Will could have taken that excuse and ran with it.

But if Hannibal eventually somehow learned what had really happened, Will knew his little omission would not be well received. So with his eyes averted to the windshield, he just said it,

"She kissed me…and then she pushed me."

Ill timed, the music track playing came to an end, leaving the car silent in the wake of that statement. When a few seconds passed, the next track easing into the silence with a string quartet, and Hannibal still hadn't said anything or even moved, Will felt compelled to look at him.

The first thing Will noticed was the stretch of Hannibal's skin over the ridges of his knuckles, he was gripping the steering wheel very tightly, which made the tendons and veins in the backs of hands protrude.

Right, so…Hannibal was pissed.

Looking at his face next, Will saw that his expression was severe, his eyes set dead ahead on the road…a road that was leading them to Chiyoh's countryside villa, where she was waiting to meet them to discuss the upcoming abduction and murder of Alana and Margot. And now Hannibal was pissed at her. Or was he pissed at Will?

When the high falsetto of the singing began in the music, Will reached up to the dash console and switched the CD player off, casting them into silence again, which was presently better than the ominousness of operas and orchestras and daunting singing in foreign languages. Hannibal glanced at his hand when he did so, but not at Will himself, and Will decided to just address the unwelcomed elephant in the car,

"You're mad," he sighed, "don't be mad…" he added and pursed his lips, shaking his head, "…she did it deliberately to get my guard down, because I'd basically told her...that I was going to find you so that I could kill you." he looked at Hannibal, "I had no idea she was so protective of you…a lesson learned the hard way, twice." he mumbled the last part with a huff of laughter, glancing at the windshield when rain droplets started to appear.

Hannibal didn't seem appeased by the explanation and so Will decided to just change the subject,

"Is the villa we're going to Chiyoh's, or is it yours, but she lives in it?" he asked neutrally as the rain started to fall more consistently. Hannibal switched on the windshield wipers, glancing in the side mirrors as he spoke,

"It's mine, she is living there as my tenant, legally."

"But she doesn't pay you." Will guessed.

"No, she doesn't." he answered evenly, flexing his hands around the steering wheel again.

Will sighed and shifted again in his seat, wishing Hannibal would stop with the stony tension,

"How much further?" he rubbed a hand over his forehead and Hannibal took a beat to respond with,

"Fifteen minutes." just that, curt and flat.

Will got fed up then,

"Seriously, Hannibal, you asked how she managed to get me off my guard, I tell you and now you're going to be upset about it?" he confronted it head on, turning his head to look at Hannibal more directly, "Childish." he added and shook his head, taking his glasses off his face and sitting back again, looking out at the rain drenching the open land.

After some silence, in which Will sat irritably staring at the rainfall, Hannibal spoke,

"I am aware that my…displeasure," he chose the word carefully, "is misplaced and unnecessary, for that reason, I feel it's best if I refrain from discussing it further." he said evenly, no inflection in his tone whatsoever.

Will huffed,

"But you're upset…or displeased, anyway, right…so, is this…what…are you…" Will didn't know how to ask if Chiyoh's wellbeing was in danger, "…Chiyoh isn't, she doesn't have to…" Will sighed, "…Hannibal." he finished, stressing the man's name and hoping his exasperated tone conveyed his question.

Hannibal glanced at him and then back to the road and slowly, he smirked,

"You're concerned I'll do something to harm Chiyoh, Will?" he asked and what Will distinctly noticed was that Hannibal didn't say 'kill' her, just harm her.

"I wouldn't use the word concerned," he said in a bored tone, "rather, that I have…reservations, about you doing something to harm Chiyoh." he clarified.

"Well you needn't have reservations," Hannibal said calmly, "I have no ill intent toward Chiyoh, even if I find her method used to distract you to be rather…simple minded…on both your parts." his lips twitched down again in displeasure, "A sadly predictable type of deception."

It was Will's turn to be annoyed and he laughed humorlessly,

"Yeah, well, it wouldn't be the first time a woman's gotten one up on me, so forgive me my fallibility, Hannibal, sadly, I am only human." he said the last part in a quiet but clipped tone and glared at the now pouring rain, coming down in sheets and making the side landscape indiscernible.

"And what am I?" Hannibal asked, curious, amused.

Will despised his tone and as usual, he was the one to raise his voice, if only just,

"You? You…Hannibal, are an asshole." Will said plainly, and Hannibal raised an eyebrow, "You're upset by the fact that Chiyoh and I kissed for like…a few seconds, years ago, with the ulterior motive of her trying to kill me, and instead of just owning that, you turn around and insult me." Will was pissed off because the insult was justified, he'd been so stupid, latching onto any modicum of affection he'd been able to find, rather than having just accepted it from the most earnest place it'd been offered…by Hannibal. It was shitty enough living with it himself, remembering how pathetic he'd been, but knowing Hannibal knew just made it worse.

"I already admitted I was displeased."

Will laughed humorlessly again,

"Oh yes, you did, right before you saw fit to point out how simple minded I was for letting a beautiful woman kiss me without first assuming she was going to shove me off a moving train." he sounded appropriately sarcastic.

Hannibal sighed, eyes focused on the road as he clenched his jaw,

"Will-…"

"I'm well aware of what an idiot I was. I know I let bad things…terrible things happen to and around me because I was determined not to accept what I knew was inside me," Will really wanted to shut up, but feeling like Hannibal looked down on him just rubbed him all kinds of the wrong way, "It has been established many times that I was too scared and too weak and too needy, wanting normalcy for too long,"

"…Will…" Hannibal tried again.

"I fucked up time and time again, I wasted years-…"

"I apologize." Hannibal said audibly, still not raising his voice.

"…-that we could have been together, instead I was trying to live a maddeningly pol-…" Will blinked several times and turned to look at Hannibal again, "…what did you say?" because Hannibal's tone had been sincere, his voice a bit tense, but his words totally honest.

Hannibal glanced at Will, his expression unguarded and as soft as Hannibal was capable of appearing, which wasn't much physically but meant so much for Will emotionally,

"I said, I apologize." he repeated and Will's mouth closed as he frowned lightly. Hannibal removed his right hand from the steering wheel and held it out, palm upturned between them. And in the few seconds that Will stared at his hand, he heard Hannibal's throat click on a tense swallow, before Will quickly raised his hand and slid it into Hannibal's and interlocked their fingers.

Hannibal closed his fingers into the spaces between Will's and squeezed lightly, his eyes still on the road,

"I did not mean to upset you, or to insult you." he wet his lips slowly, his single hand steady on the wheel, "I have little experience with managing personal jealousy, it was a foreign concept to me...before you." he confessed, glancing at Will.

Will stared at Hannibal, completely thrown by the random apology.

He swallowed lightly and squeezed Hannibal's warm hand in turn, feeling the older man's smooth skin underneath the pads of his fingers as all of the anger he'd been letting seep into him immediately drained away.

He hated arguing or fighting with Hannibal anyway.

Will scratched the nails of his other hand into the denim of his blue jeans as he stared at the dashboard, choosing to be quiet for a few minutes. When Hannibal withdrew his hand to indicate left and was taking the next turn into a road more densely lined with trees, Will took in a breath,

"Yes." he said quietly, noticing that it was marginally colder in the car, the rainfall having dropped the temperature outside. Hannibal glanced at him with raised eyebrows,

"Yes?" he repeated in a questioning tone.

"To your initial question, yes, Chiyoh's reason for pushing me off a train is connected to why we don't like one another." he clarified. Hannibal smirked slightly,

"Because you told her you were going to kill me?" Will nodded, glancing at Hannibal, who continued to smile,

"She must have really believed your conviction to do so, to have made such a blatant attempt on your life," Hannibal commented casually, "although, I don't think she necessarily expected you would be killed by the fall." he added.

"Incapacitated, paralyzed, comatose," Will stated with a false curving smile, "if I'd hit the tracks in the wrong position I could have been any one of those, including dead."

Hannibal acknowledged the fact with a subtle tilt of his head,

"You awoke a darkness in her, Will, as I had awoken it in you." he pointed out.

"Yeah…" Will snorted, "…unlike me though, she hit the ground running. It was less than 48 hours between her first murder and her next attempt at it."

Hannibal's smile slanted wider,

"Chiyoh always was a fast learner."

Will huffed a sarcastic laugh with a 'you don't say expression' and he settled on a frown as a thought occurred to him,

"It didn't make sense to me though, that she didn't just shoot to kill, when she shot me outside the Uffizi Gallery." he commented.

"Have you never tried to assume her point of view?" Hannibal asked, curious.

"It didn't seem important…considering everything that took place following that." he said off-handedly, which was truly something of a feat in the face of what had happened in the days and years after.

Will had come a long way.

Probably on purpose, Hannibal remained quiet, knowing that Will would take the time to think on it, to analyze Chiyoh's actions and try to make sense of them. And Will did, he let his eyes close briefly as he backtracked to that day in the Uffizi Gallery, back to the warm feeling that had settled throughout his body at seeing Hannibal after so long, to have heard his voice, recalling his first words to Will; If I saw you every day, forever, Will, I would remember this time, and how Will's heart had felt constricted, his chest full and sore at hearing them.

He fast-forwarded in his mind then, through the rest of their conversation, to Hannibal's question, his answer, his next move in the game; Now is the hardest test, not letting rage and frustration, nor forgiveness, keep you from thinking.

Because Hannibal had always been playing...

Even in that moment when they'd been reunited after so long, he'd been pressing Will's buttons, pushing him in the most honest direction, poking at his feelings, advising him not to let his forgiveness for Hannibal interfere with his determinations. Essentially having urged Will to try and kill him, to see if Will would, if he even could…only to turn around and be admonishing about it afterward, to take an electrical bone saw to Will's head with the intention of eating his brains…

…but wait, Will had skipped Chiyoh in the scenario, she had to fit in somehow.

She'd been perched on the roof of the Uffizi with her rifle, she'd been waiting, watching, somehow knowing, up there at exactly the right time, in exactly the right place, almost as if she'd been expecting…

"Ah…" Will said when it hit him, opening his eyes as he laughed a breathy, amused and wholly unsurprised sound, "…she told you I was coming, she made it to Florence first and found you, you'd already seen her. She was waiting for me to make my move." he sighed and leaned his head back on the rest, "That's why she didn't kill me, because you told her not to."

"She wasn't pleased. She thought I was being careless." Hannibal responded, indirectly confirming Will was right.

"Until you told her that you'd kill me yourself?" Will asked with a lazily raised eyebrow.

Hannibal glanced at him but didn't answer right away, because he was slowing the car down and turning onto a sand coloured gravel road which, after a few turns up the inclining stretch, led to a large, secluded and fenced off property surrounded by trees, the gate of which was slowly rolling open. Hannibal drove into the property, past the front of the double story, rustic-stucco finished villa and he parked at the side of it, behind the single other car parked there, a black Jeep Grand Cherokee. And somehow it made so much sense that a deceptively slight and dangerous woman like Chiyoh would drive an imposingly large car.

Once they were parked behind the SUV, Hannibal killed the engine and sat back before looking at Will,

"Much like yourself with regards to me, Will, I had resolved to kill you when next we met again, had it been in Florence or anywhere else." he confessed evenly. Will didn't look at Hannibal, pursing his lips for a moment before he spoke,

"Actually, I hadn't resolved to kill you, I was still conflicted about it right up until the moment Chiyoh shot me." he confessed as well. There was a moment of silence and rainfall before Hannibal said,

"I suppose we owe Mason a measure of thanks. Technically, he saved your life." with the wipers off there was no visibility through any of the windows and Will just watched the water cascade over the glass.

His voice was neutral when he said,

"By that reasoning, we owe Alana thanks as well."

They'd had that discussion a long time ago. Will had been told of the bargain struck between Alana and Hannibal whilst the older man had been restrained in the pigpens of Muskrat Farm. The bargain of Alana having asked, with the terms of setting Hannibal free, that he would save Will's life as well as take the blame for Mason Verger's murder. Hannibal had reminded her of his promise to kill her at the time, that one day he would fulfill that promise and even after that, she'd agreed to cut him loose anyway.

And Will was well aware of what Alana had put on the line to save his life…but he hadn't explicitly asked her to. And it wasn't his fault that when she'd made the decision to help him, she'd still been clinging to a version of him that had already been waning, struggling to hold on, playing Hannibal's games. And when Will had urged her to spill blood that night, he'd just been doing what she'd said she was doing at the time…he'd been putting an emphasis on self-preservation.

Hannibal was looking intently at him, probably trying to assess Will's feelings on the matter of Alana now that he'd brought her up, and Will turned his head to look at Hannibal, initiating and holding eye contact, and when it dragged on for too long, he raised an expectant eyebrow at the older man. If Hannibal was looking for cracks, for tells of oncoming betrayal, he would find nothing, because there was nothing to find.

Hannibal smirked then and reached out, lightly touching the side of Will's face, his thumb stroking over Will's left cheek, his fingers grazing Will's neck,

"And we will thank her, when we see her again." he said slyly.

Will returned the smirk and leaned in on instinct, just as Hannibal did, their lips coming together for a few brief kisses and light touches of their tongues before they drew apart and moved to unclip their seatbelts.

"I don't suppose we have an umbrella?" Will asked, grimacing at the heavy rainfall outside the windows.

"No, I don't believe we do." Hannibal answered with a short sigh, also glancing at the rainfall through the windshield, "We'll bring the luggage in when the rain stops." he decided.

Will nodded in agreement, sliding his spectacles back onto his face before he opened his door, followed by Hannibal, and the two of them hurriedly shut their respective doors and ran around the corner to the front of the house as Hannibal locked the car and the lights of it flashed behind them.

At the front door, Hannibal didn't knock, he simply opened the door and let Will go inside first, before he followed and shut the door behind them. In the foyer, Will cuffed a hand through his nearly drenched hair, his clothes were no better, shirt and jeans clinging to him, made darker by the water. He removed his water spattered glasses so he could see Hannibal properly, and while being dressed in all black made the fact that he was wet not immediately noticeable, the older man's hair was obviously wet, plastered to his head and dripping.

They looked one another over in the silence of the foyer, the heavy rain trapped outside, water dripping off their hair and when their eyes locked, they both just smiled, Hannibal's a soft upward curving of his mouth and Will a flash of teeth and a soft exhale. Hannibal stepped closer then, so that their wet clothed chests were just short of touching, his hand sliding up into Will's wet hair and his eyes falling half closed before he dipped his head and kissed the side of Will's neck, lingering there with his warm lips pressed to Will's cool skin. And Will's eyes drifted shut, his free hand coming up to hold the side of Hannibal's neck just a moment before the older man trailed his nose along Will's jaw and then brought their slightly parted mouths together.

Will sighed contentedly into the kiss, their lips sliding together as their mouths opened and closed almost in sync, their tongues crossing into each other's mouths slowly and sensually. And Will might have moaned after too long, forgetting where he was with Hannibal kissing him like that, but the sound of steady, clipping heels approaching at a slow gait on marble tiled floors brought him back to where they presently were…in which person's house.

Ugh, Chiyoh.

At the sound of her approach, Hannibal didn't pull away abruptly from the kiss, or even really at all. Will's back was to Chiyoh and when he opened his eyes to the sound of her footsteps, it was at the same time that he returned another slow slide of his tongue into the kiss, matching Hannibal, who had opened his eyes just then as well, having settled them on Chiyoh standing somewhere behind Will.

He drew back only then, with a slow drag of his lips from Will's, a soft smack sounding, and Will didn't doubt that he kept his eyes on Chiyoh all the while, even as he pressed another light kiss just near Will's ear.

Hannibal eased off then, his hand sliding from Will's wet hair and down over his shoulder as he stepped to the side and around Will, smiling at their host, his tone pleasant when he spoke,

"Chiyoh, I'm pleased to see you looking well." he sounded sincere too.

Will, after licking his lips and taking a deep, quiet breath to calm his racing pulse, turned around to face Chiyoh.

She was watching Hannibal as the older man approached her, but her eyes cut to Will when Hannibal leaned in and gave her a cheek to cheek kiss, and then she immediately looked back at the older man when his fingers came up afterward to feign touching her face, a light implied gesture of affection not carried through, but Chiyoh looked pleased all the same,

"And you as well," she said to Hannibal, and then glanced at Will, "no new wounds to treat."

Will was surprised by the fact that Hannibal had made any kind of physical contact in greeting her, but then he recalled that he'd either not been present or had been unconscious each time he and Hannibal had been around Chiyoh at the same time, so he hadn't ever seen just how they greeted one another in the first place.

When she looked at him though, Will kept his expression indifferent, even as Hannibal looked amused, apparently fully recovered from his jealousy of earlier.

"Chiyoh." Will said blandly, necessarily civil.

"Will." she responded likewise, standing ramrod straight just beside Hannibal. And she was dressed in clinging all black clothes, just as Hannibal was, wearing a fitting turtleneck, tight jeans and a pair of calf high, leather boots with heels that leveled her at about Hannibal's height. She had always been reasonably tall, Will's height in low heel boots, now with the boots she presently wore, she would smugly stand that one annoying inch taller than him, looking as svelte and condescending as ever, with her hair tied back neatly in a low ponytail.

She looked over him, taking in his wet clothes and then she turned to look at Hannibal, from the bottom up, over the length of his body, up to his hair and then finally she leveled her gaze with Hannibal's before she stated,

"I'll fetch you both towels," she paused, considering before she added, "and then I'll fetch an umbrella and I'll bring your luggage in, so you can change your clothes."

"Fetch two umbrellas," Will said immediately, and they both looked at him, "I'll help you." he added curtly and slid his eyes to Hannibal, who inclined his head agreeably before tossing the car keys to Will, who caught it easily.

Chiyoh stared at Will for a moment, and then she looked at Hannibal who met her eyes with a level gaze, and after a moment of silent communication between them, the tension lessened in Chiyoh's shoulders and she turned gracefully and walked away, her heels still clicking audibly even after she'd disappeared out of sight.

A half hour later, after Will had helped Chiyoh bring in their luggage, in absolute silence, and she'd shown them to the guestroom room they'd be sharing, he and Hannibal had changed their clothes, unpacked what was necessary and then made their way back downstairs to find her.

She'd been waiting for them in the large living room of the villa, standing at the windows, cutting a stark figure of black against the soft interior décor and white-gray overcast light streaming in from outside. The furniture, walls, fittings and finishes of the villa were all done in soft light colors, the walls were beige stucco and the ceilings all exposed maple wooden beams, the floors were salmon colored marble tile, all except for the bedrooms and upper floor, which had wooden floors. The furniture was in white and brown woods, the sofas were white leather with blue covers, the drapes all white…and just in general, the décor seemed like a direct contrast to Chiyoh in every way. But then, the décor contradicted Hannibal too.

Presently, Hannibal also stood out against the coloring of the villa, having changed out of dark colors into more dark colors, he was now wearing a dark purple button down shirt under a black cardigan, with black formal pants and his Chelsea boots. Will was more neutrally dressed in a sand colored, shawl-collar sweater over a white T-shirt with a fresh pair of dark gray jeans and tan, suede, lace up ankle boots.

Despite the villa actually being his house on paper, Hannibal was politely treating the space as Chiyoh's, because it was her home, even if the place didn't seem remotely lived in as far as Will could see.

"How long…have you been living here?" he asked, finding it hard to believe that she stayed in one place for too long, especially after having been stuck in Lithuania for so many years.

Chiyoh had offered them something to drink when they'd returned downstairs a little while ago and Hannibal had asked for a specific red wine, which –obviously- Chiyoh had, while Will had asked for a double shot of whiskey. At the moment, they were all in the living room, Hannibal having taken a seat on one side of the double couch while Will remained standing on the open side of the lounge where he was able to see them both.

Chiyoh had just settled on the three seat couch when Will asked her the question, and after she crossed her legs and sat back in a relaxed but formal position, just as Hannibal was, she sipped from her dry white wine and then glanced at Will,

"About six months." she answered in her usual apathetic, accented tone.

That wasn't very long at all, which got Will thinking,

"And before this?" he asked another question, his mind feeling restless now that they were about to discuss business. Chiyoh looked at him for a longer moment before she turned to look at Hannibal, who simply raised an eyebrow and sipped his wine, curious probably too see where Will was going with his questions. Polite small talk or…?

"I've lived in many places." she answered as she slid her gaze back to Will.

"Yeah, but specifically before you came to Italy, where were you?"

Chiyoh narrowed her eyes at him,

"Japan." her tone was clipped, irritable, so Will moved on to voice his point,

"So far away, nowhere near Europe…" he said against the rim of his glass, but he didn't drink and instead he lowered the tumbler, "…so how did you find out Alana was in Florence?" he asked curiously, frowning.

Chiyoh didn't miss a beat,

"Because I was always looking for her." she stated firmly and looked at Hannibal, openly unimpressed with Will.

So Will's suspicions had been right all along, Chiyoh had been actively searching for Alana all these years.

"Will was aware that I had someone looking for her, but until you called me two days ago, I don't think he had been certain it was you." Hannibal clarified to her, glancing at Will who just blinked and averted his gaze to the windows. Will inhaled quietly before he continued with his train of thought,

"Still, though, I'm curious to know how you found her." he reiterated with a frown, "Because I, for one, find it hard to believe…that after all these years, Alana, suddenly just popped up on anyone's radar so specifically." he pointed out. Hannibal lowered his eyes in thought for a moment before he glanced at Chiyoh, but his eyes settled on Will when he spoke next,

"You suspect that it's a trap?"

"Do you really think I would contact Hannibal, if I thought for a second that it was a trap?" Chiyoh looked pissed off now, glaring at Will, her fingers lightly clenched around the bowl of her wine glass.

"How did you find Alana, Chiyoh?" Hannibal asked that time and Will sipped his whiskey to keep from smiling.

Chiyoh slid her cold glare from Will to Hannibal, but it neutralized when she was looking at the older man,

"Alana Verger and Margot Verger are not stupid. They would not be found, they would not make a mistake, they would protect their interests, their family, to the very best of their abilities and in whatever way their wealth could afford them. It is likely the reason they sold the Verger meat business, so that they would no longer be in the public eye anymore. At one point I had even begun to believe that they may have changed their names in order to remain so well hidden." she acknowledged the difficulty of her task before getting to her point, "So perhaps, to say that I found Alana specifically, was too direct."

Will frowned at the lack of explanation and Hannibal titled his head slightly, watching Chiyoh expectantly as she sipped her wine, the rain still pouring down outside filling the silence until she spoke again,

"But by finding the boy, I was able to find Alana...specifically." she half-glanced at Will on the last word.

"You found Morgan Verger?" Will asked, taking a slow step forward.

Chiyoh nodded once, placing her wine glass on the coffee table in front of the couch before she stood up and walked across the living room to where there was a large distressed white wood bureau,

"He attended a birthday party of a child friend just three weeks ago. A newly turned six year old boy, and for children in normal, happy homes, it is customary to make a big deal about such a thing." she sounded quite detached from the concept, Will was not surprised, "At these gatherings, there are always parents attending with their invited children to supervise, overcompensate and show off." she opened the top drawer in the bureau and took out a white A4 envelope from inside, closing the drawer again before walking back to the couch, passing Will with deliberate dismissal to hand the envelope to Hannibal.

As his eyes followed her, Will imagined many scenarios in which he retaliated to her subtle provocation quite violently, but of course, he would not follow through on any of the spontaneous fantasies, instead he just inhaled a calming breath and sipped his whiskey.

Hannibal uncrossed his legs and sat forward as he took the envelope, setting his wine glass down on the table before he flipped open the unstuck seal and reached in to pull out a few sheets of printed paper. Will walked around the table to stand beside where Hannibal sat, looking at the papers over the older man's shoulder as they both skimmed over the first page. When Hannibal flipped to the next page, he only glanced over it briefly before he handed the second page to Will, who removed his free hand from his pocket and took it to look at it more closely.

Will snorted, half disbelieving and half amused,

"You found him on Facebook?" he asked, looking at the page he held with raised eyebrows.

Chiyoh swallowed another sip of wine,

"Yes, I screen grabbed it so you could see the date of the post for yourselves, the photographs have since been removed, taken down within an hour of being posted that same day."

Will stared at the printed computer screen grab of a photograph from the child's birthday party. Someone, likely an attending, overcompensating, show off of a parent, had uploaded a picture of five children; three boys and two girls, who looked to range between the ages of 5 and 9. They were wealthy children, wearing expensive clothes and fancy party hats and they'd been grouped distractedly into the photo, not all of them even interested in the camera. In the background Will could see elaborately laid out food catering tables and more balloons and decorations than necessary for a private children's party, and in the distance of whatever large property they were on, he could see what appeared to be an enclosure with pony rides. And rather blatantly, above the posted photograph in the caption, it clearly read the names of the kids in the picture.

Morgan Verger's name among them.

"How did you come upon this?" Hannibal looked amused as he handed Will the rest of the pages with photos.

"I…employed someone about two years ago, someone who is discreet and works untraceably and only corresponds anonymously with whoever seeks their services. This person uses illegal software designed to track and search the internet for hits on key words. Everything and anything is filtered, from content on privately hosted websites, to blogs, emails, instant messengers, comments across the internet, passwords, usernames…and so on." she glanced between Will and Hannibal.

Will was preoccupied with staring at one of the photos, one of just the three boys that time and he was trying to decide which one was Morgan Verger since he didn't know if the names were typed in according to the order of the kids in the picture. He was listening as she went on though.

"Originally, I had sent a hit search list compiled of over 11000 singularly listed words and names, completely randomized. I made sure to mix in many names that were similar to Alana, Margot and Morgan along with their actual names and several names similar to that of Verger as well. Once a week I was sent results, thousands of hits at a time which I would personally narrow down to what I was specifically looking for and if any of them turned out to be actual possible leads, I'd follow it as far as it went." she kept her eyes on Hannibal.

Will lowered the pages he held to his side as he looked at her, impressed with how dedicated she had been to her task, just as always, where Hannibal was concerned. Also, the extent of her searching brought to light the fact that finding Alana had been something Hannibal considered to be at the top of his itinerary.

"Using a thing so vast reaching and unpredictable as the internet…clever girl." Hannibal praised her with a small smile, and though it was subtle, Will noticed Chiyoh's gaze warm slightly as she looked at Hannibal, she was pleased by the compliment.

"All of the leads I'd found had been dead ends, up until this one." she gestured at the pages Will held, "When I followed up on it from the Facebook user's name, I was able to find out a great deal, particularly that her child, who is one of the boys in the photos, attends a private school in Florence. And once I knew of the school, I was able to find out that the Verger boy attends there as well. After that, knowing the Verger's were in Florence, finding Alana was very easy." she finished and the drained the last sip of her wine.

Hannibal's smile was still present as he retrieved his wine from the table and sipped from it, licking his lips after and turning them slightly red. Will was watching him closely, waiting for whatever came next.

Hannibal's gaze drifted to the view beyond the windows as he contemplated whatever his plans would be now that they had Alana in their sights. After some silence passed, he slid his gaze back to Chiyoh and asked lightly,

"So, where in Florence is she?"

Chiyoh set her empty glass on the table, raising a delicate eyebrow,

"A penthouse in Signoria Square."

Will scoffed, eyebrows shooting up and Hannibal smiled properly then, with a quick flash of teeth,

"What an arrogant girl she is." he said sounding vibrantly delighted as he looked into his wine before finishing the last sip.

Will definitely agreed that Alana was far too arrogant. Clearly she had a death wish, because while it was smart in the sense that it was the last place Hannibal had thought she'd be hiding, in the end, living in the heart of the city of Florence was not only an insult to Hannibal directly, yet another reason for him to make her suffer, but it had also been his hunting grounds for years. Hannibal practically breathed Florence, it was his home away from every home. It was as if she was purposely traversing around in his territory in some sort of misbegotten act of spite.

And more than once, Hannibal had told Will how disappointed he was that he'd never have the chance to show Will Florence in detail, for its beauty and richness of culture and atmosphere. He'd talked about its appeal, the city's hold over him at length to Will, with such an honest smile and a wistful tone every time that Will was often able to imagine it as vividly as if he'd been there with Hannibal, sometimes able to feel the way Hannibal felt about the city. So for Alana to have set her new roots in Florence…well…Will just couldn't bring himself to feel at all bad for her, even though he barely had before.

After the information had settled in, Will picked up the conversation,

"So, how do we get to them? Surely they have body guards by the dozen." he pointed out, sliding his eyes from Hannibal's dark visage to look at Chiyoh. Chiyoh nodded in response, acknowledging Will's words as truth,

"I have been spending a lot of time in Florence since finding her, following her and Margot's patterns and observing their comings and goings and you are right, they are always surrounded by body guards and with someone I assume to be Morgan's nanny. So if we were to attempt to take any one of the Verger's by force, we would not succeed."

Will noticed that she used the words 'by force' and also how she said 'we', which meant she had a plan and was going to be actively involved in whatever went down. So really, she had come a long way from the woman who Will had tricked into killing someone. Much like Will himself, she was very dangerous.

"How else would we take them?" he frowned at her, absently gesturing with his unfinished drink.

Chiyoh looked at Will for a moment, a hint of irritation in her expression telling Will that she wished she weren't having the conversation with Hannibal and Will, and that just pissed him off, making him clench his jaw and return the look, because it was high time she got the fucking message that there was no longer Hannibal without Will.

And in that moment, Will thought of the engagement ring and how much weight, meaning and influence something so tiny could hold. He imagined Chiyoh would take him far more seriously if she knew just how permanent a fixture he was in Hannibal's life. For right then though, only the fact that Hannibal sat quietly, leaving Will to ask and speak, gave Chiyoh the indication that Will had an equal standing beside Hannibal, that what he said and asked mattered and was important.

He knew it wasn't enough though, Chiyoh still didn't consider him permanent and it irked him endlessly.

"I suggest," she said to Hannibal, "that we don't take Alana and Margot at all."

Hannibal had placed his empty glass on the coffee table and was sitting back again, legs crossed, arms folded over his lap, a picture of casualness, but his eyes narrowed slightly at Chiyoh's words.

Still, it was Will who asked,

"What do you mean by that?" and he projected false calm, because by his empathy he thought he already knew what she was saying, and he felt little snaps of tension move all along his spine at the idea as he regarded her.

She didn't even look at Will, kept her eyes on Hannibal only,

"The best chance we have of getting Alana and Margot with very little hassle, risk and no police involvement, is through the exact same means I managed to find them in the first place." she said calmly, quietly.

Will was starting to seethe, because while the disrespect she was carefully showing was bad enough, hearing her suggest that they use Morgan Verger as bait just unsettled him further.

Hannibal swallowed lightly and raised an eyebrow, speaking before Will could,

"You suggest we use the boy as leverage?" he enquired neutrally and Will kept working his jaw quietly.

"It is the safest and cleanest way. Morgan Verger has never been printed in the media except for when he was a toddler. He has been hidden away and sheltered very excessively, has had limited social interaction outside of people his parents permit him to be around. And so not only is he little more than just another face in a crowd, he is also likely very unassuming of danger, unaware of compromise in his surroundings. And a boy with a permanent false sense of safety would be an easy target." she answered evenly.

Clearly she'd given it a lot of thought.

And Will was ready to start spitting venom for how calmly she suggested kidnapping a child, a boy who wasn't even six years old yet, but rather, he decided to wait to hear what Hannibal had to say. Hannibal was very quiet right then though, he appeared to be thinking about it, genuinely considering the idea and Will started to feel worry and nausea, because if Hannibal changed his mind about not hurting Morgan Verger, Will would feel let down…betrayed, Hannibal would be going back on his word and he didn't even know how he'd deal with that…

Will was staring down at Hannibal, and when the older man looked up at him with a hint of resignation in his expression so subtle Will was only just able to see it, he held his breath,

"It's up to you, Will." was all he said, completely serious, trusting Will with the important decision.

Chiyoh looked surprise, her gaze haltingly shifting from Hannibal to Will, her eyes just a fraction wider than before, and Will was as surprised as she was, but he didn't show it, he just stood carefully still, face as unreadable as he could manage.

He recognized that Hannibal was essentially putting the choice into his hands of whether or not all three of them would risk their lives in an unnecessarily dangerous attempt of physically acquiring their targets, over the simpler method of abducting Morgan Verger. So Will had to think carefully about it, properly consider the option and the kidnapping and all of its implications, of exactly what it would entail.

There was silence then as Will dropped his gaze to the liquid in his glass. Chiyoh got up, disappearing into the kitchen with her and Hannibal's wine glasses. Hannibal sat patiently and quiet, thoughtfully staring across the lounge, out through the windows. When Chiyoh walked back in with the wine glasses refilled, Will sighed and closed his eyes, retreating into his imagination so he could mentally play out the various scenarios of how to go about capturing Alana and Margot without hurting Morgan. And when none of those seemed advisable or survivable, Will resigned himself to contemplating different scenarios of Chiyoh's idea, and the best ways to do it.

When a certain scenario prevailed over all the others, he accepted it with a mixture of unpleasant feelings, because it wasn't ideal in any way, having to kidnap a child, but it would still work, they could make it work. Will finished his whiskey then and stepped forward to place the tumbler on the table, and still holding onto the pages in his one hand, he folded his arms across his chest and looked at Chiyoh,

"Morgan Verger doesn't get hurt," he said firmly and she looked at him slowly, "we'll take him because it's the cleanest way, but we'll only use him insofar as telling Alana and Margot that we have him so they come to us willingly. Aside from keeping him from his parents until this is over, the less he knows or understands of what is happening, the better." he honestly thought it was the best option, so long as Morgan came out totally unharmed.

Physically at least, considering that he'd be an orphan and there was no way around that.

Chiyoh blinked at him placidly,

"Are you hoping he won't notice he's been taken by strangers, or after, when he is returned to a world in which he no longer has parents?" she asked blandly, so deadpan that Will wasn't even sure whether or not she was being sarcastic. He offered her an expression that was, for all obvious intents and purposes, minatory in nature as he spoke low and even while staring unblinkingly at her,

"Our only other options besides keeping him the dark are that we tell him, or perhaps, show him what we're going to do with Alana and Margot…or, that he dies too," Will shook his head slowly, "and the latter is not something I will be a part of." he said surely, and he meant it.

Didn't he?

Of course.

But shouldn't he have said that he wouldn't allow it?

Will felt it was too late to reword that, and anyway, he was confident that Hannibal knew Will wouldn't forgive him if anything happened to Morgan Verger.

Chiyoh looked at Hannibal then and raised an eyebrow and Will looked at Hannibal too, frowning slightly.

Of course the final verdict would come from Hannibal, who slid his eyes from Chiyoh to Will and then lowered his gaze to his hands, and after he placed his wine glass on the table, he slowly shifted his hands so his fingers were interlocked, his lips parting on an inhale before he spoke,

"No physical harm will come to Morgan Verger," Hannibal said evenly, blinking his gaze up to Will, "but I cannot promise the same for his state of mind." Will clenched his jaw and drew his eyebrows together, displeased but not interrupting as Hannibal went on, "I will take steps to assure that he is exposed to as little as possible," he said still looking at Will, "but it is not guaranteed that he will come out of this mentally and emotionally unscathed, and I need to know that you understand that, Will."

They stared at one another for a moment, and while it was a hard pill to swallow, Will did so with only a silent sore catch in his throat before he nodded. He did understand. And at least Morgan would be physically unharmed, Will would just have to try and manage everything else as it happened and deal with his feelings about it.

Satisfied that Will understood, Hannibal looked at Chiyoh again,

"How will you acquire the boy?" he asked seriously, his tone firm and all business.

Chiyoh shifted, setting her wine glass down before sitting back and folding her arms over her chest,

"The only place I could get to him that he would not be under professional guard, is when he is at school. His day starts at eight and ends at two-o-clock, and he is walked into and out of the school by Margot every day, in the mornings at ten minutes to eight and in the afternoon she fetches him at approximately five minutes after two. She is very punctual about it, and so the only windows of opportunity I have will be narrow and risky. For that reason, I suggest sedating the boy so I am able to move him quickly and without hassle."

Will swallowed tensely, but said nothing.

"Can you manage it?" Hannibal asked.

"I can help her," Will offered quickly, wanting to be there to make sure the boy would be okay, and when Hannibal looked at him to immediately say no, Will quickly elaborated, "obviously I would remain completely out of public sight, but, Hannibal, I can at least be in Florence in case she needs any kind of back up." he unfolded his arms, gesturing to Chiyoh, who did not look even remotely amendable to the idea.

"I'd rather you didn't." Hannibal stated plainly.

"Hannibal," Will walked around the older man's legs and sat down on the edge of the empty sofa seat next to him, facing him, close to him, "to this day, I am still considered to be only 'allegedly' involved in your escape, and that is only in America. In Italy my picture didn't even make the papers, my name was printed here and there in Florence, but overall, I am generally assumed dead and the chance of someone recognizing me or even looking at me twice are ridiculously low…" he took a breath in the face of Hannibal's unwavering resolve, the man staring at him with an unchanging expression of adamancy, "…and again, I swear, I won't take any chances, I won't even be out in public."

"I work better alone." Chiyoh interjected stonily and Will raised his eyebrows as he turned his head to look at her before smiling humorlessly and holding the papers up,

"I don't know which one of these distinctly Caucasian boys is Morgan Verger, but…I do know that if something goes wrong and Morgan Verger's kidnapping is on the news before we make it out of Florence,it'd be far less suspicious to appear as a mixed family leaving the city with a sleeping child, than it would for a frosty and austere Asian woman to be leaving with a white kid in her backseat."

Chiyoh's eyes narrowed, probably because Will had used the word 'frosty'. It had been a direct insult.

"Will…" was Hannibal's quiet reprimand for his unnecessary remark.

Will closed his eyes for a moment and sighed, taking his spectacles off his face and pressing his fingers into his eyes as he mumbled out an apology to Chiyoh. Jack had once told him that fear made him rude, and while he wasn't exactly afraid right then, he certainly was scared for Morgan Verger.

Chiyoh seemed marginally appeased by the apology and Hannibal continued to stare at Will,

"You are worried that Chiyoh will not handle the boy with the necessary sensitivity?" he asked knowingly.

Will put his glasses back on as he looked at Hannibal again,

"She doesn't have any experience with children, does she?" he glanced at Chiyoh, "Do you?" he asked her.

She remained stony and silent, while Hannibal said mildly,

"But you do."

Will felt an unwelcome tension settle in his gut and he didn't look at Hannibal when he answered confidently,

"Yes, I do." he pursed his lips after he said it. Anytime Molly and Walter came up it just annoyed Will, because Hannibal would give off a distinctly unpleasant vibe, no matter how many times Will told the older man that his former family no longer mattered to him, it never helped to ease Hannibal's grudge about it.

"I work alone." Chiyoh repeated firmly and then looked off to the side at the windows, seemingly uninterested in trying to be convinced otherwise. Will frowned, and he was about to try again to stress that it would be better if he helped, but then all at once, he understood what was happening…

Will's frown deepened and he swallowed tensely as he turned to look to at Hannibal, who was watching him evenly.

'They don't trust me.' he realized with outward calm, but inside, he felt a dull ache, real hurt, at knowing that Hannibal felt that way, that he still didn't believe Will meant what he'd said in their kitchen two days before, that Hannibal still believed Will would turn on him.

He kept his feelings off his face like a pro though, schooling his features into a mask of annoyed resignation,

"Fine…" he nodded and stood up, "…excuse me." he said only to be sarcastically polite, and he dropped the pages onto the table untidily as he walked away, heading straight to the staircase and going upstairs.

Will closed the bedroom door behind him and stood with his hand pressed to the light wood for a moment, still swallowing down hurt, but he barely had time to process the feelings running through him when he heard the sound of steady, even footfalls coming down the hall toward the bedroom.

He knew it was Hannibal coming to talk to him, and Will stepped back from the door and shoved his hands in his pockets as he turned and walked away from the door just as it opened behind him,

"Couldn't give me five minutes alone?" he asked in an irritable but quiet tone as he walked to the closed balcony doors and stood there, staring out at the gray rain-blurred landscape.

Hannibal shut the door and then sighed softly,

"Something upset you, I-…"

"Something?" Will cut him off with raised eyebrows, snorting and then closing his eyes and taking a quiet breath, "You would have both saved me a lot of wasted words down there if you'd just said…from the very beginning," he opened his eyes and feigned a glance over his shoulder, "that I'm considered a liability and that I require a level of containment." he glared out at the rain again, jaw lightly clenching, shoulders tense.

Hannibal was silent, standing somewhere behind Will, not close enough to smell his cologne, but close enough that he was able to speak relatively quiet and still be heard as he said,

"Can you blame Chiyoh for not trusting you?"

Will half rolled his eyes,

"No, I don't blame Chiyoh, she and I have a…" he made a face to himself, "…mutual disdain for one another," he sucked in air through his teeth, "but you, on the other hand, extended me insincere trust apparently." he bit out.

Hannibal sighed again, but it was exasperated that time,

"I could say the same about you-…"

"What?" Will half turned, eyes on the ground, frowning.

"…-you have such a unique gift to read peoples intentions and see their perspectives, and yet instead of applying that gift to me, you immediately revert back to our old dynamic, Will, wherein you mistrust me first and ask questions later." Hannibal stated calmly.

Will turned around properly then and looked at the older man, and Hannibal looked just a little annoyed, which in turn annoyed Will,

"So you're saying, what? That you do trust me, that you do want me to go?" Will asked questions rather than tried to read Hannibal, because Will didn't want to go through their relationship trying to be in Hannibal's head all the time, it was exhausting. And when he could actually manage it, it felt dishonest and too intrusive.

Whether Hannibal understood that, Will wasn't sure, but he answered the question without making Will insist or fight for an answer,

"I do trust you, yes…but no, I do not want you to go." he clarified honestly, concern etched into his features.

Will felt his edges softening, tension leaving him as he sighed,

"The chances that I get caught, Hannibal, are….so minimal." he truly believed it too, Will knew how to go unnoticed, he'd done it for most of his goddam life.

Hannibal stood a few feet away as his eyes tracked over Will from head to toe and back again, before the older man took a deep breath and then approached Will, coming to stand close against him. He took Will's head into his hands gently and looked over his face, his eyes slowly settling on Will's mouth, their breaths mingling for long seconds as they said nothing and just shared each other's space.

After a while Hannibal slowly wet his lips and then he carefully removed Will's glasses while he spoke,

"I cannot tell you what to do, Will, you are free…free to stay, free to go." he said quietly and Will exhaled in relief when the ache in his chest eased and he raised his hands to settle on Hannibal's sides, clutching handfuls of the older man's soft cotton shirt, "I'll be here regardless, beside you or waiting for you to return," he paused, inhaling slowly before he spoke again, "I only ask…that you do in fact return." he finished.

And that last thing he said, it could have meant that Hannibal wanted Will to come back, to not get killed or apprehended, or it could even have meant that he hoped Will didn't chicken out and run off, whichever it was, the request was sincere.

Will leaned his weight into Hannibal's firm body so they were standing with their fronts flush. He knew at least that the latter concern was completely out of the realm of possibility because he would never run off and leave Hannibal. With his own hurt eased, he sought to relieve Hannibal's concern, pressing a kiss to the older man's chin as he smiled softly and looked straight into his red-brown eyes,

"When are you going to realize that I'm here to stay?" he whispered his question just there between them, before pressing his face into Hannibal's neck, inhaling the heady and comforting scent of the older man as he brought his arms up to settle around Hannibal's neck, pulling him close.

In turn, Hannibal pressed his mouth to Will's hair and circled his arms firmly around Will's waist, holding their bodies tightly together in a close hug, the sort that held a perfectly soft and sincere kind of intimacy, a genuine intimacy…the sort of hug that before one another, neither Will nor Hannibal had ever experienced. They stood like that for a long minute, just holding each other close with their hearts beating steadily, just out of sync, their bodies warm and fitting, receptive of one another in every way.

At length, Hannibal spoke against Will's hair,

"Perhaps never, I still have trouble believing you are here with me most days as it is." he sounded amused at his own terribly sweet confession of his feelings. Will smiled, his body completely relaxed against Hannibal's,

"So what's it going to take to make you believe me?" he mumbled into Hannibal's neck, and for a fleeting second he considered making the suggestion that they get married, but before he could say such a dumb thing, Hannibal answered with a kiss against his just about dry curls,

"I think just…time." and it was a serious answer, one that suggested that maybe even getting engaged or married wouldn't be enough.

But the commitment of choosing to marry Hannibal, Will knew, would be significant.

And when the time came, Will would say 'yes' for sure. There was no doubt in his mind.

So Will smiled wider and held Hannibal tighter, closing his eyes and again he inhaled the pleasant scent of Hannibal's skin and his cologne and his shampoo before he said very quietly,

"We've got time." while thinking, 'We've got the rest of our lives.'

Thanks for reading!