So yeah, I'm in deep denial of the finale at the moment so I wrote this cause murder husbands made me do it. Or insomnia. Let's blame insomnia. Or whiskey. Lots of whiskey.
So long story short, you get another chapter cause fuck hiatus.
Not beta read cause I am a terrible person, lacking responsibility. And puppies. I have no puppies.
OoOoO
To screw with Chilton, they started speaking to one another in French. Will's version of it was rough from lack of use and origin, the Cajun sounding almost vulgar comparatively to Hannibal's own polished version of the language. Hannibal seemed to take great satisfaction in improving upon Will's dialect though so they kept with it until the language of love could flow off their respective tongues with ease.
In the course of their conversations, it was discovered that Will could speak better Spanish than Hannibal, his urban lingo fair more current due to his former professions, something that Will gloated openly about. That simply didn't sit well with Hannibal of course, so they switched off until both were fluent, satisfied, and could tell people who annoyed them to fuck off in colorful ways. To his delight, Hannibal discovered that Will had a talent for languages in general as well as accents so he launched into teaching Will Italian with little hesitation. Normally Will would have been resistant to someone trying to change him whether it was for the better or not, but since there was little else to do, Will allowed it.
That and Hannibal could be very persuasive. If Will didn't interceded, Miggs would have killed himself several times over. In his defense, it wasn't because Will had any love for the masturbating loon, he just didn't believe one should convince others to commit suicide to alleviate their boredom. The bizarre outcome to that was a game of wit and philosophy between Hannibal and Will who played the roles of God and the Devil. Hannibal would wickedly whisper to Miggs, telling him to end it all, and with a serenity that he never knew he had, Will would convince the man to step away from the edge of infinity. Gideon thought it was all in great fun though he was always disappointed when Will technically won, Miggs living to smack the monkey another day. It was almost enough to make Will reconsider his position.
Once Hannibal was confident Will had a secure grasp on all three languages, they began to mix French, Italian, and Spanish together seamlessly so it was harder for other, name Chilton, to follow and translate. Chilton fumed about it in private or at least tried to. He found it rather hard to hide anything now that Hannibal and Will started to tag team him. Where one man left off in eviscerating observation, the other simply picked up, like the pair shared the same headspace. Their visitors, few and far between as they were, found it particularly disconcerting, though Freddie Lounds held the record for lasting the longest.
It was when Hannibal started to teach Will Lithuanian and Japanese Chilton got fed up enough to take action, and move Will to a completely different level. That proved to be a welcome mistake. Security was more lax there. It was the easiest thing in the world for Will to neatly break a guard's neck and don the man's uniform with all its pass cards and keys attached to it. As he dressed quickly, Will was thankful that it was Barney's day off. The older black man who tended to watch over their cellblock had a gentle touch and had always been kindly polite to people who really didn't deserve it.
An unexpected ally served Will well, a nurse doing his part to aid in this impromptu escape effort. Matthew Brown was a fan of Will's work, though he gave far more credit than where credit was due. It hardly mattered to Will, the strangely obsessed man doing more than his fair share by ruining the security system so that Will walked in and out of wards like a ghost. In Will's opinion, it was really Chilton's own fault for not doing a better background check on his employees. Will gave Matthew the dead guard as a parting gift, telling him to put it somewhere, and tried not to visibly cringe at the gleeful look in Matthew's eyes like Will was Father Christmas. Will got the bad feeling that the guard was going to be displayed rather gruesomely somewhere to be found soon enough by some poor person who would need a lot of time off afterward.
A quick shave and a buzz cut later made Will almost unrecognizable to himself and others, the man taking a page from Superman's book by going all incognito as Clark Kent with a spare pair of reading glasses and a clean cut look. Being an empath helped as well, the man mimicking the body language of a bored, slightly put out guard flawlessly down to the rolling, flat footed walk and tired slump of shoulders. It also didn't hurt that Chilton was more focused on himself than efficiently running a medical facility. With a tepid cup of coffee in hand and a bored expression on his face that proclaimed he had a severe case of the Mondays, Will used normalcy to sequestered himself back down to the bowels of a manmade hell to release devils from their cells.
"Hello, Mister Graham. You're looking particularly dashing today, but you know what they say about a man in uniform." Gideon grinned as his door was swung open. "Is that a baton or are you just happy to see me?"
"Try not to make too much a mess of things before leaving here." Will sighed. Letting Gideon go was like opening a bag of rabid weasels. It would be good distraction, but there was always the danger of being bit in the ass.
"I don't suppose you have anything sharp I could borrow?" Gideon said as he stretched. He was a different sort of predator than what Will or even Hannibal was, but he was quite dangerous in his own right. Gideon had a bad tendency to forgot who he was and imitate other people. Will didn't want to see a version of himself being worn by the man.
"I might. Who do you intend to use it on?" Will answer carefully. He had picked up plenty of weapons along his way here. It was amazing what people just left lying around in a mental hospital.
"I plan on castrating Miggs, and then looking dear Frederick up. We haven't had a session in a long while. He never calls, he never writes. It's terribly depressing. I've been fucked over, and I'm tired of feeling as used as an unpaid two dollar whore." Gideon drawled, already holding his hand out for whatever weapon Will planned on blessing him with. He didn't disappoint, Will gifting the madman with a rather large pair of scissors he had procured along the way, the tool made of heavy metal and basic in design.
"Crude but effective. I'll make do." Gideon grinned, enjoying the weight of the iron in his hand. They walked together to Migg's cell, its sole occupant screeching unintelligibly as a howler monkey at them. Will didn't stay to watch though, and he was done with games. He had other things on his mind, namely the resident of the last cell in the row.
Will hadn't known what to except. He had never been one for the news or tabloids or people who were still breathing in general before his incarceration. Apparently if he had bothered to pay attention to Baltimore's more prominent newspapers, he might have seen a picture of Hannibal from time to time in the arts section. The man had a deep love for opera and fucking with the elite, his favorite trick to play upon them was throwing lavish dinner parties and feeding his sounder of victims to the ignorant wealthy.
The monster pretending to be a man sat regally in his cell, somehow managing to pull off the issued jumpsuit like it was this season's latest. He was older than Will expected, his brown hair graying from tones of golden wheat to bright silver. His bearing was still impressive though, with intense maroon eyes and cheekbones sharp enough Will wanted to press his lips to them to learn their angles intimately.
"You're not what I expected." Hannibal voiced their shared thought. The voice matched the body it came from. Poise, elegant, and somehow utterly inhuman.
"Sorry to disappoint you." Will licked his lips, his eyes following Hannibal's attention to the gesture. The human veil gave nothing back yet Will could discern that whatever Hannibal was, it was intrigued with Will, by his abilities and voice alone at first. Now that Hannibal had seen Will, that curiosity was taking on a life of its own, manifesting into something completely unexpected.
"I never said I was disappointed. Far from it. I just envisioned you differently is all. The reality of you makes my previous assessment pale in comparison though." Hannibal openly studied Will like he half expected him to disappear, and Will let him. Apparently, the monster in its cage liked what it saw, a beast finding its beauty.
"Don't get used to it. I'm not usually so clean cut. Improvising was called for. We all wear our masks." Will said by way of apology as he ran a quick hand over his face and coarsely cropped hair. He knew he looked younger than his years, his face retaining its boyish qualities especially now that all his scruff was gone.
"We all do." Hannibal said, making no move toward his cell door. Neither did Will for that matter. They kept to their positions like they had all the time in the world to make small talk and stare at each other. In the background, Miggs screamed as his meat was brutally taken from him in small snips. He had kept Gideon up too many nights in a row, chanting to himself as he worked his length over with spit and old cum. Gideon was going to take his time letting Miggs know just how much he had not appreciated that. It was a shrill constant sound, but ignorable.
"Some better than others, but I see the cracks in yours, what lies beneath." Will mused, titling his head back like he was actually trying to peek through the stitching and fractures in the lacquer.
Hannibal rose from his bunk then, the movements graceful and fluid as a dancer's own. Hannibal had not idle in his cell, letting his body go to waste like some people would have. His middle still carried some softness from his former life, but the rest of him was lean and hard, holding a menace and a potential for true violence about it. Will knew his pupils were dilating as Hannibal drew close, Will mirroring his movements step for step.
"What do you bear witness to when you look at me?" Hannibal asked, close enough now to the glass his breathing produced condensation. Will could tell he was scenting the air, remembering belated that Hannibal had told him about his sensitive sense of smell.
"Quid pro quo, doctor. I tell you what I see. You tell me what you smell. Does that sound fair to you?" Will offered up, moving in so that he could fog up the glass as well. He wanted to do more than just smell Hannibal. He wanted to taste that tanned skin losing its golden tones down here in the dark, lick his way past thin lips to run his tongue over a cannibal's teeth and test their sharpness.
"You smell of petrichor, the scent of rain striking earth, of unsettled dust opening up to life giving sustenance. The odors of iron and ozone cling to you as well, mingled with the more mundane scents of sweat and chemicals most humans stink of." Hannibal sighed out the description as he closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. "You are the coming storm caught in a butterfly net of feverish flesh and blood."
"That is some disturbing imagery. You make me sound almost beautiful despite it all." Will said, resisting to urge to sniff at his stolen clothing. Instead he leaned up against the glass to give the man on the other side a better whiff.
"Almost beautiful? Hardly." Hannibal said as he ran his tongue over his teeth before sucking his bottom lip. Will could tell it was a habitual gesture whether Hannibal admitted to it or not. It was also one saturated with hunger in one form or another. "You are exquisite. I will bathe you in milk and honey to remove the foul stench of mundane from your pores."
"Kinky. We haven't even had dinner yet, and you already have me naked in your mind." Will teased, letting the tip of his tongue flick out to touch the glass. He wondered if Hannibal could smell arousal and what that smelled like.
"Would you still dine with me, knowing what I am and who I serve up as the main course?" Hannibal asked, his strange maroon gleaming with pinpoints of scarlet. They looked like blood sprayed over fertile earth and Will couldn't tear his stormy own away even if he wanted to.
"Some people deserve to be bacon and others art. I am well aware of your design, though I'm still learning to appreciate the finer details of it. We have had a lot of time to talk, and you are the Devil in the details, smoke that fogs the mind." Will told the monster pressing itself against the glass, its eagerness for him becoming apparent as finger curled into claws from impatience and want. "When I look at you, all I see it beauty in motion, dark and fathomless as a pool of ink sinking into paper to settle, dry, and mark, moved around by a brush of your own making."
"Will you let me mark you? Make you mine?" Hannibal asked, his eyes brighter than they had any right to be, lit up from within with an excitement that Will felt himself deep down. It warmed him from tips of toes to top of head. It was nice to be in the company of another who saw him, really saw him for what he truly was. He didn't need to hide himself here anymore.
"Only if you let me return the favor." Will murmured, his lips close enough they grazed the glass. The chapped flesh made raspy sounds against the barrier between them, not that they were heard it over Miggs's sobbed out screaming and Gideon's disparaging remarks. Will was pleased to note that Hannibal and him were about the same height, the Chesapeake Ripper only an inch or two taller. Hannibal lips brushed against the glass on the other side of where Will's own had been, an indirect kiss. Will decided he needed to fix that.
"How do you feel about Paris?" Hannibal smiled slow and wicked as the door of his cage swung open, pleased that Will was tired of this foreplay.
"That it's a lazy choice and I expect better from you. Don't start to disappoint me now." Will matched the expression with his own, the show of teeth all allure and menace. Just because he was all for this, whatever this was between them, didn't mean he was going to make it easy for Hannibal.
"Fair enough. Florence it is then." Hannibal decided, leaning in to finally make contact with Will's flesh. The kiss was achingly chaste but they both knew they really didn't have time for more. A lot of events had to occur before they reached that sort of point or soft beds to fuck in. Escapes and departures still had to be accomplished but for some reason, Will wasn't worried about any of it. He wondered if this was what zealots felt like, wearing invincibility like armor because they believed that a god walked with them, had their back.
"Tell me, do you believe in love at first sight?" Hannibal sounded genuinely curious, enough so it made Will regard the man openly enough with a quirk of lips.
"You would be a romantic at heart." Will snorted, shaking his head but allowing Hannibal to catch and tangle their fingers together. "No. I consider the notion trite. I'm more inclined to believe in folie à deux."
"A madness shared by two?" Hannibal mused, not bothering to deign a glance over at what Gideon was continuing to do to Miggs to get that sort of terrible sound from him. The two left unhindered by their former cellmates, Hannibal casually murdering a guard along the way to steal his uniform. "There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."
"You're quoting Nietzsche at me? Let's not start that. It won't end well for anyone." Will grunted as he shoved the corpse and Hannibal's old jumpsuit into a handy closet. He was not above looking though, just as Hannibal was not above flaunting his nude physique.
"Does love ever end well? The Greeks certainly didn't think so." Hannibal pointed out.
"Is this love? A little sudden, don't you think?" Will shot back, unable to keep his hands off of Hannibal as he linked their fingers back together. Imprisonment had relieved Will of all his blue collar calluses, earned from being a boat mechanic's son. In comparison, Hannibal's own were finely made things, gracefully curling around his own.
"Would you deny that there is a connection between us?" Hannibal asked, glancing down at their grip before following up his question with a knowing smirk.
"No, but call it something other than love. I feel like we will be doomed to fail if you don't." Will resisted the urge to roll his eyes and reclaim his hand. They would have to part soon enough to exit this place on their own terms whether other people wanted them to or not.
"How about devotion then?" Hannibal said as he was passed a spare baton and a couple of scalpels, the likes of which were tucked up his sleeves for safe keeping.
"A calling. We sense our own kind." Will corrected, taking a moment to straighten their uniforms before they took to the halls. Hannibal followed his example beautifully, mimicking body language and attitude of an underpaid working stiff. They were just another pair of guards making the rounds, ready for their break and some much needed caffeine to stay alert. No one in passing gave them a second look.
"A yearning to connect with one another. Will you stay with me, by my side?" Hannibal asked as they made their way to the back through employee exits, little places that remained hidden behind the curtain that were seen as 'safe'. No one would look for them here, not right now anyway. They had two set of car keys to choose from, the madmen hitting the keypads to see whose vehicle lit up first or was closer. Both were near to one another so Hannibal chose the model he preferred while Will changed out a series of license plates.
"Until you dissuade me from it. I have to warn you though, I can be a stubborn ass, and oblivious as a stump from time to time." Will warned as they settled in, Hannibal choosing to be behind the wheel instead of riding shotgun. By the time the alarms sounded, their former prison was miles away. It's far too late for any sort of justice to find them. Baltimore was Hannibal's hunting grounds and home for many years. The authorities only have themselves to blame for keeping the monster prisoner in his own backyard.
"We all have our faults. I'm endeavor to accept who you are if you do the same." Hannibal said as Will put his seat back and pulled his borrowed guard cap over his eyes. He was unused to seeing sunlight but certainly enjoyed the sensation of it on his skin. He knew that Hannibal already had a plan, if not several already in motion, so he could kick back and relax for now.
"Yeah, some could see habitual cannibalism as a big one. You'll forgive me if I skip out on getting blow jobs from you for a while." Will chuckled, sighing in contentment as the wind from the cracked window and sunlight made his skin tingle. It felt good to be free.
"Don't be rude, my dear Will. I find discourteousness unspeakably ugly." Hannibal tutted. Will could feel the sharp look the cannibal was giving him for putting his feet up on the dash.
Will lifted up his cap to wink at Hannibal, confidant about his safety with the cannibal and cheeky in his rebuttal to the underlying threat. Chesapeake Ripper huffed out amusement in answer before letting a smile tug his lips free from their taunt misgivings about his unique company, the empath's somewhat surreal yet precious to him. It took being caught to discover what he wanted most in the cell next to him.
"What's to be done about that?"
OoOoO
the end
dun dun dun...