Hey. I'm alive. My new job just doesn't let me write while working. Also, I'm woefully behind on this project, and I've only just finished January.
Originally posted to tumblr 2016-01-03.
/ Day 3 (2016.01.03)
/ 1. adj. that impresses favorably; engaging or attractive:
/ a confident and prepossessing young man.
Hannibal has built himself to be noticeable, subtly so. He demands attention and respect, both when he speaks and when he is silent. It's in his clothes, his posture, his expression; the cut of his nails and his hair, the twitch of an eyebrow and an eye.
In complete juxtaposition, Will has built himself to be completely invisible. He deflects attention with the slump of his shoulders, the down-angle of his chin, his frumpy clothes, his closed-off expression, his refusal to make eye contact. But Hannibal has always been able to see what others could not. What Will hides, how he hides it, is exactly what draws Hannibal to him.
He draws Will to him, dancing around him, teasing him. He knows it leaves Will confused, wary. However, he knows it also intrigues him. It helps when Hannibal is the only one who can truly understand him, and it helps that Will is the only one to understand him, even if he doesn't realise that he does.
Though Will has a core of steel when it matters, he craves understanding, companionship, love. Hannibal can provide understanding, he can provide companionship, and he can even provide a form of love, though not what others might view as so. It is these cravings that let Hannibal devour him, that drive Will to allow Hannibal so much closer than he should ever be allowed.
There is a certain intimacy in allowing Will into his bed, in Will joining him and staying with him. Even when he's dressed, Will is never so naked and vulnerable than when he's between Hannibal's sheets, squirming and stilling in turns, eyes quickly squeezed shut when he accidentally meets Hannibal's.
Will's deceit has saved him from the attention of colleagues and peers, family and strangers, and he may have been thankful for it, but it has put him in the beast's sights, and for that, Hannibal is the one who is thankful.
FINIS
2016 10M WotD Master Post (themadkatter13fanfiction tumblr, /10M-WotD-2016).
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