Authors Notes: Hello everyone, Everett_Harte was the winner of my Drabble contest posted a couple weeks back with her piece "The Phoenix and The Dragon" from "Licorice Allsorts", this piece is her prize.

This story has gotten away from me a little bit, it's running around 10K and I really find it difficult to proof things that are too large so I'm posting it in two halves. The second portion will be up in a couple of days once I get the ending written and another proof or two done.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

NOT BETA READ

OoOoO

Chapter 01: Texas Hold'em

Will had never been an exceptional man at playing cards. Despite the tactics of card counting and a decent enough knowledge of probability to see the odds when he watched a pair of aces flip on the board, there was still a measure of luck necessary in order to win the game and luck was something he had hardly been known for.

The ropy scar on his stomach was proof enough of that.

But then again, wasn't that why he was there? It had taken the FBI years to track down Le Chiffre, an accountant and banker for international terrorists. There was no illegality to being a financer so long as he wasn't caught participating in any of the crimes committed by his clientele, or his own for that matter. It was thanks to his presumably clean hands that the man continued to enjoy his card games and freedom.

Le Chiffre offered the safety of an accessible bank anywhere in the world with no fee's so long as the clientele allowed him the use of their funds in stocks. Stocks he rigged to make his own fortune. It was in Will's belief that Le Chiffre was one of the bankers Hannibal had invested in to keep his money clear of tracking and in quick easy access.

Which meant Le Chiffre would be the only one with a trail on Hannibal. Every espresso he'd tried, every suit he'd bought, everywhere he'd been and the ticket sales for where he would be going.

Will needed that trail.

"Fold." He dropped his hand, loosing another ten thousand tax payer dollars to the financer of world terrorism. They'd been playing for nearly two hours and though Will had never been an exceptionally lucky man he had been cursed with a gift to read people and with that gift had been able to find Le Chiffre's tell, watch the way he touched his face and his broken eye seemed to twitch when he bluffed. It told Will when to play and when to fold and had kept him in the game for far longer than if he hadn't forced himself to look.

"Though you're not exceptionally skilled Mr. Graham you do still have a sense of how and when to play to keep yourself in the game." He smiled at him, wide and welcoming in all the ways a fox welcomed a chicken to dine at his table. "Did the FBI teach you that?"

He swallowed thick, his throat sticking as another hand was dealt as though he hadn't just been ousted, "No," he picked up his hand, glancing at the cards dealt him to toss another chip into the pot, "I learned how to play on the docks from some of my old man's fishing buddies."

Le Chiffre met and raised, watching Will with that tick that told him now was the time to add to the pot. He raised another hundred thousand and watched the pull of lips as Le Chiffre laid his hand to fold, letting Will gather his chips and earn back some of the tax payers dollars. "Is there a particular reason you thought to find your way onto my boat and play me Mr. Graham? A bet higher than chips you'd like to play?"

Another hand was dealt, another buy in at ten thousand and another shitty pile of cards for Will to play with. "I believe that you're the banker who handles the finances for Hannibal Lecter MD. I want to know where he's been and where he's going." He raised despite his playing cards of Jacks over deuces. It would keep Le Chiffre interested in continuing the game, perhaps put him in a better mood if he could win some extra money for the sake of negotiations.

"I'm afraid I don't sell out my clientele." His tipple aces beat Will's hand and he watched more money slip away. "Their secrecy and security is a part of my guarantee. If I start selling information to the government I would be out of a job." He didn't need to add that he would find himself very quickly dead. That much was more than known by both.

Will took the deck, shuffling cards smoother than anything he played with at home. His old deck lost somewhere in the back of a drawer and made ratty from years of solitaire. "You're a gambling man." He smiled, it wasn't his own, it was Hannibal's, the Rippers. A dark confidence that Will didn't have and wanted desperately to feel because he needed to win this, he needed to find Hannibal if it was the last thing he did.

He laid the deck of shuffled cards on the table undealt, popping the buttons of his shirt one by one to reveal the wire tapped to his chest. Neither man said another word until Will gripped the wire and pulled it free, snapping the cord from its box and ripping tape from his chest. It hurt like a band aid, leaving his skin pink where the adhesive had been as he laid the transmitter that had been clipped to his jeans on one side and the broken microphone on the other. "I knew him. He knew me and he knows I'm looking for him. Your name will never even come up." He pulled his cell phone from his pocket, powering it off even as the buzz of a call came through. "You put Hannibal on the table, I'll throw it all in and every ounce of information we have on you."

An eye the colored of dark brewed coffee and one the color of ice watched as Will laid himself bare, left completely vulnerable to Le Chiffre, his armed men and whatever he may desire in a gamble that the opposing forces had been removed from. "You're desperate." He observed. It was a foolish way to play, encouraged people to make careless mistakes.

Dangerous bets.

"I want Hannibal Lecter." He emphasised with a near grit of teeth.

A swell of blood pooled at the corner of Le Chiffre's eye, the crimson pearl rolling down his cheek in a bloody tear as he looked at the man not so many years younger than himself. "What did he do to you?"

Though it was known that Le Chiffre suffered from haemolacria, Will had never found any documentation dictating what had caused it or why, the condition itself filled with enough mystery it still had scientists turning heads with its four known cases. "He destroyed me." The purple flesh of a fading scare remaining thick and hard over his abdomen was only a physical scratch to the emotional destruction Hannibal had done to him. He'd broken him, rebuilt him and destroyed him again.

Will hadn't realized that he had actually fallen for the monster until everything was too late.

Until everyone else was gone.

The banker caught the bloody pearl on the corner of his handkerchief, dabbing away the run of blood as he watched the foolish agent lay himself out. "I'm afraid that you're offer isn't enough for me to put that kind of information on the table."

"What is?" Will was afraid of the figure. This man played for millions and Will knew his little farm house wasn't about to cover that bill.

"I will stake everything I know regarding Dr. Lecter, but in exchange you must put yourself on the table." He watched the flash of fear behind storm colored eyes as FBI's special agent Graham was gifted the only offer that would give him half a chance at catching the elusive Hannibal Lecter. "One hand," He took the deck between them laying two cards face down each, "Texas Hold'em," Five cards face down in the middle, "Winner takes all."

Will looked at the card, the set of nine spread out that could give him everything or take it all away. "Will you kill me if you win?" He didn't hesitate to pick up the cards. He needed Hannibal.

"No," he smiled, glancing at his own hand before touching a finger to the community cards, "if I win Mr. Graham, I'm going to keep you." He flipped the first card, a three. "You will work for me," the second a three, "you will live with me," a nine, "eat with me, "a seven, "and sleep with me."

His stomach dropped. The notion of complete ownership of his being given to this one man was enough to bring back the fear he thought he would never feel again.

It was hard to find things to be afraid of after you'd lived through Hannibal.

One last card, a three and Will felt like he could breathe again, laying down his own paired kings to match a full house against his competitor, "Agreed."

"Basil," He smiled, wide and thin as he rose from the table to collect a bottle of champagne from the bar fridge, "we'll be disembarking now, Mr. Graham with be staying with us." Will flipped the card as two flutes were laid on the table between them. Three and ten.

"Indefinitely." He pressed a kiss to the profilers jaw, pressing a glass into his hand in celebration.

Four of a kind.

He'd lost.

OoOoO

They'd taken dinner in their room, Le Chiffre having spared no expense in the celebration of Will's loss. The room was a penthouse suite, the dinner nothing short of what he would have come to expect from Hannibal's kitchen less the cannibalistic protein, and the champagne was probably worth a quarter of the room. Despite the cost Le Chiffre didn't seem to care. He was far more interested in paying attention to Will as they settled into their room.

"How are you adjusting Mr. Graham?" he was kneeling by him, adjusting the ankle monitor against his skin to tuck beneath the cuff of his pants. It wouldn't do to have his winnings running off.

"The cuff isn't necessary." Will told him even as the quiet click of a lock sounded for the metal ring to snap and stay. He'd had time to think during the hour long boat ride to the hotel and honestly things could have been a lot worse.

"I'm not going anywhere." Not for a while at least. Not until he got what he needed. What happened after that would be a different story.

Bicolored eyes turned up to find Will's focused on the space over his shoulder. Once he had won the profiler his gaze had begun drifting away, "Does it bother you?" They shifted again, focusing on his mouth.

"Does what bother me?" he was studying his face, picking out the thousand differences between Le Chiffre and Hannibal to press against the dozen similarities that seemed striking between them. Le Chiffre was younger for one, his age through appearance set closer to Will's own with only the very beginning of silver showing in his inky black hair. He was more open with his expressions than Hannibal once they'd finished their game of poker, his smiles more free to pull at thin lips too much like the doctors own and high angling cheek bones that he found his eyes lingering on with thoughts of another whose strong bone structure he'd studied before.

"You haven't looked me in the eye since losing our game." He brushed the dust from his pants, offering his ex-profiler a hand. Will stood from the couch on his own, feeling the shift of a weighted ring around his ankle as a dry cool hand took his own, bringing it up to lips to press against his knuckles.

It made something shift in his stomach he wasn't sure how to interpret. "I don't like eyes." He said simply, "The scare doesn't bother me." He tried to explain further, knew that he couldn't. He was to strange for most to understand. That was what had made Hannibal so good for him before everything had gone to hell.

"I see." He drew him closer, "I want you to relax Will," Lips brushed against his throat to make him shiver. "This will be your new life now and I would like you to be comfortable in it." A hand found his shoulder to slide the length of his back and settle above the swell of his ass, pressing their bodies together at last.

He was trying to ease him into it. "It's been a while." Will admitted, forcing the arms that hung by his side to slip around broad shoulders. If this was to be a part of his life then it was something he would have himself adjust to sooner rather than later.

"Do we need to wait?" He kissed his throat again, an offer far kinder than Will had been expecting. "There will be other nights Will. This doesn't have to be now." He owned him. There would always be other nights. He could wait if that was what his prize needed, time to adjust. It was a small price to pay for compliance. He wasn't looking for a victim.

"No," The answer surprised Will as much as it pleased Le Chiffre, the hand that had settled so low on his back sliding further down to cradle the mound of his ass, fingers sliding along the crease of him to squeeze the flesh there. It wasn't a bad feeling. "I'm fine with this." What was more surprising was that he really was. In fact, he wanted to.

Celibate for over a year, he hadn't been touched since the night before Hannibal had taken everything away. It was time to move on to better memories.

Different memories.

"If you ask, we will stop." He didn't nip like Hannibal had or suck any marks of possession into his flesh. His ownership was a heavy link of metal wrapped around his ankle, a reminder with every shift and movement to whom he belonged. Instead Le Chiffre kissed him, hands sliding beneath the fabric of the suit he'd worn as part of his cover to slowly strip Will of the coverings, his fingers dancing over the taught flesh of his still purple abdominal scar and old shoulder wound with the same gentle movements it skimmed over the smooth flesh of his back and thighs.

Le Chiffre could feel the ridged flesh and he didn't care. He didn't care to ask and he didn't care to know. Perhaps a respect for the privacy given to his own past, it was a reprieve Will was grateful for.

With a nervousness that came with too long without Will began to follow suit, pushing the fabric of an expensive suit jacket to slide off broad shoulders to the ground. "I won't ask." Will reassured Le Chiffre and himself, meeting unfamiliar lips in a kiss. He felt the smile and found himself oddly smiling back, enjoying the feeling of hands on his body as they began towards the bed.

Bare skin slid over the smooth fabric of Egyptian cotton, settling on the center of the bed as Le Chiffre removed the last of his clothing to fall to the floor, stepping out of his pants to get a tube of lubricant and crawl onto the bed to join him. "You're adjusting quickly. It won't get you what you want Will." He kissed his way up the too lean body, catching a pert nipple between his teeth to pinch and suck, making Will bit his lip with the unexpected attack upon his person and dig his fingers into soft sheets.

"It doesn't matter if I know or not now, I can't leave." He laughed with heady gasps as a hand skimmed his inner thigh, a cool dry hand cupping his cock to make flesh jump.

"You're going to have to earn my trust," He smiled into the crook of his throat, tugging the cock in his hand with rough little pulls that made the sweetest sounds part Will's gasping lips, "and that will prove to be quite difficult for you. I was warned months ago," he licked from collar to earlobe, taking the flesh between his teeth to tug as stormy eyes widened with realization.

"You knew who I was because Hannibal warned you I'd be coming." His breath hitched with anther beautiful pull on his hardening flesh and his legs were parted, Le Chiffre leaning back to grace him with the smile of a man holding all the aces.

Four fingers slicked with lube he pressed the first into Will's opening, making the lithe body arch for him as he took the first finger inch by inch into his body. "I was informed that there would be attempted contact at some point and offered photographs of who to be expecting." The second entered and Will had to focus on breathing, the slicked digits pushing deep within to touch his prostate with gentle strokes.

Will knew there would be money involved as well. An extra incentive from the doctor to keep himself safe, perhaps even something to let him know when the contact had been made and by whom.

There was a chance that he still might die yet. "How much did he pay you?" Will rolled his hips back against the onslaught of three fingers buried deep inside him. Shivering as he felt them move with such ease.

"I guarantee privacy and secrecy. He offered and I refused. It would be bad for business to start charging for what is already guaranteed." Will didn't doubt it would also be considered rude. He could easily see Hannibal dismissing Le Chiffre if he ever thought there may be a threat to his person from the man atop him.

Will couldn't help the groan that parted lips when fingers drew from him, their master quickly slicking the length of his curved cock before pressing the swollen head to Will's sodden hole. He arched, breath caught in his throat as Le Chiffre entered him in a slow push. Arms circled Will's waist, pulling his lithe body tight against his own, encouraging arms around his shoulders once more. "Will you be telling him of our bet?" Will gasped, feeling the press of a cock to his prostate.

"You don't need to concern yourself with Hannibal anymore, Will," he captured lips permanently colored a kiss swollen pink, "Hannibal is no longer your problem. He is the FBI's problem and you no longer work for the FBI." Will couldn't argue, not with the man finding his pleasure with ever other thrust, his mind wouldn't focus long enough to form words.

Le Chiffre, Will was learning, was thicker than Hannibal. A pleasant surprise to the ex-profiler who was canting his hips to meet each thrust to bubble moans from his throat.

More soft kisses danced across his skin, hands skimming his side as murmured words he didn't know were pressed into his skin. He wrapped his legs around the banker's waist, urging his thrusts deeper, faster. "Le Chiffre," He moaned the name, mouth finding his again to kiss him silent as he found his end with another well aimed thrust.

His breath was ragged when he came between them, body shivering as several hot spurts streaked his stomach white. "You're beautiful Will," He smiled, licking his way into Will's mouth as his tempo slowed, Le Chiffre finding his own pace within the profiler with a gentle rock that had him keening against the continued onslaught, gripping him tighter with hitching breaths and strangled cries of pain filled pleasure, each swallowed by the banker canting on top.

Le Chiffre counted Will's lose as one of his greatest victories. Face flushed with arousal and eyes blown with lust he was the definition of beauty, a delicacy more exquisite than Strawberries Arnaud, and entirely for only he to sample and claim.

Will was fighting his recovery not for the first time for a bed partner, feeling the forcing of a second arousal with every press against his prostate filling him with an intensity that made him reel, caught between pleasure and pain and just too much. "Le Chiffre!" He cried his name again, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood as a hand came between them to stroke Will's swelling erection back to hardened flesh, urging him toward his second peek.

His muscles jumped with each overwhelming stroke of head to prostate and hand to cock, a pleasure building pressure at the base of his spin making him cry with broken sounds of need.

His hips continued to move, filling Will again and again as he sought his own end, kissing Will into quite submission as he hit his prostate with uncanny accuracy and the younger man clenched his heat tight around him. Le Chiffre came with a moan, his pleasure found vocally as he seated himself within to be taken to the root, filling Will completely as his heat flooded his insides.

Will shuttered, wrapped around the broader man as he felt him reach his peek, the hand between them pumping his cock into a second orgasm that came too quickly since the last. He cried out as another wave of pleasure crashed through him with the finding of his climax, clutching to Le Chiffre as though he were the only life line keeping Will afloat in an ocean of pleasure.

He kissed him gently, light feathery presses of thin lips so much like Hannibal's to his face and neck, fingers gently combing through the satin curls of his hair as he was slowly brought down from the high of the orgasm that claimed him. "You're beautiful." He smiled, eyes looking for the elusive blue that continued to watch his mouth.

"I'm broken." Will grinned, fucked out and ready for bed. "But you have all the time in the world to figure that out."

OoOoO

TBC