Chapter: Full Reign
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….. Few Days Later: …..
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Loud alert barking from Hades causes Anastasia to look up from grading her students' mid-term exams and she stares towards her study room door.
Setting the quill tip pen down, Anastasia pushes herself out of her seat and she walks around her desk to head out of her study room. From there, she makes her way towards the foyer to see Hades standing before the front door, loudly barking.
"Hades, enough." Anastasia tells her three month old German shepherd.
The loyal companion bows his head and backs away from the door to stand beside her. Anastasia walks forwards, unlocking the front door then cracking it open a little to see who it is. Automatically, she throws open the door when she finds herself staring into the familiar face that she swears been stalking her.
"Lunch or dinner?" Anastasia simply asked, stepping aside to let in her guest.
"What about both?" Hannibal replied, holding two brown paper bags in either of his arms. Both filled to the brim of various ingredients for both day meals.
Shutting the front door behind him and locking it up, Anastasia steps to Hannibal and takes on of the bags from him before leading him down the hallway and to the kitchen. Hades trotting alongside the two of them like a guard.
"I suppose that I'm going to be helping you with making all of this?" Anastasia asked as she sets the bag down onto the kitchen breakfast island. Hannibal stands besides her, setting down the bag he is holding too.
"Yes." Hannibal answered while he already starts to dig through the bag before him and pulling out containers and vegetables.
"Right. Do you mind starting whatever you're planning to make while I have to finish up grading the last few papers?"
"Not at all." Hannibal looks up at her with a grin making her to nod before leaving the kitchen.
Hannibal looks around the kitchen to map it out and he went to step forwards to begin searching all the draws and cabinets for certain kitchenware when he felt eyes on him.
He looks down to see maroon brown eyes staring up at him in this 'I'm-watching-you' manner.
"Hades."
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It had taken about twenty minutes for Anastasia to finish grading the last few papers. She packs her work up and slides it into the backpack before she gets up and returns to the kitchen. Before Anastasia starts to help Hannibal, who is bustling around the kitchen, Anastasia washes her hands.
In the wall ovens, Anastasia can see that there is some sort of roast in one of them. She glances over at Hannibal, who is standing at the butcher block countertop of the breakfast island. He holds out a chef knife to her as she steps over to him.
"Roast for lunch?" Anastasia nods her head towards the oven then looking at Hannibal with raised eyebrows.
If they are going to have roast for lunch, she can only imagine what dinner will be like.
"Sandwiches. Slice the meat into thin strips. Something simple."
"Right. Something simple." She sarcastically said to which Hannibal pauses in cutting up lettuce and he turns his head to look at her with raise eyebrows at her sarcasm.
"Why say it like that?"
"Because nothing is simple when it comes to you, Anni. I found that out." Anastasia points the chef knife at him as she said this.
A feral smirks appears onto his lips and he went back to slice up the lettuce head in precise slices.
"True." He said after a few seconds causing Anastasia to snort before she gently laughs. Hannibal cannot let out a few chuckles of his own.
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The set up outside was pleasant and relaxing.
Through their lunch, Hannibal will ask Anastasia about who designed her backyard as he enjoys the patio layout that they are eat it and their surroundings.
The backyard is an eye-catcher, especially the trees. First, there is a short stone walkway to larger stone slabs that has the iron patio set in the center of it. There is a few Japanese Maples and Cherry Blossom trees surrounding the area and around the yard. There is ground lights near the walkway and stone slabs to light up the patio/sitting area.
The yard brought this peaceful atmosphere and it is a lovely feeling as the two ate while Hades is lying underneath the table, near their feet.
"Tomorrow night, I wish to invite you to dinner."
"Something is telling me that it is for a special occasion."
"Good guess. You can say it is."
"Who is it?" Anastasia asked, picking at the garden salad that is a side dish to their homemade roast beef sandwiches.
"Will, Abigail and…Ms. Lounds."
Once the last name had been stated, Anastasia hand pauses in stabbing at her garden salad. Slowly, she sets the fork down beside her plate and she stares right at Hannibal with a sly grin. Leaning back in her seat, crossing her right leg over her left and arms crossing over her chest, she is all business.
"Oh? Really now?"
A sly smirk cannot help but appear onto Hannibal's lips while he brought his glass of water up to his lips to take a few long sips before they get into this conversation. His eyes staring at her over the brim of the glass, liking how Anastasia eyes went animalistic for a few seconds. Then there is a mischievous smile on her lips now. Hannibal definitely wants to know more about her to figure out why she is innocent one moment then a vicious dark individual. But also, how she is can portray herself as an innocent woman when in fact she is far from being innocent.
The thought of innocent until proven guilty echoes into Hannibal's head making him to mentally snort in amusement in his head. That statement can be made about him too.
"Yes. Abigail wants her story to be told."
"If that story ever gets out, it is going to have more negative reviews then positives. You do know that, right? And why the hell Lounds of all people? She would probably make the story a fiction more than non-fiction."
"I do have to agree with you on that. But it is Abigail's choice. I do remember about you saying that she is eighteen and you have no reign over her."
"I don't. She can do whatever she wants. If she thinks that this is going to gain her some popularity or some sort of nice attention then she can have fun. She won't listen to us even if we yell it to her through a megaphone." Anastasia told him, standing up from her seat to begin cleaning up their plates.
Hannibal stands up also and begins to help her clean up their mess.
One of the fork's got knock off the table, but with quick reaction, Anastasia left hand shot out and caught it by the teeth. Hannibal froze in cleaning up, noticing how Anastasia eyes are dilated then relaxing, but he is a bit impress at how fast she move. He didn't even have time to react like the way she did; definitely showing him that she has quicker reflexes than him.
"You have very fast reflexes, Ana."
"Hmm, one of the great things about being trained as a child in fighting and using all senses."
Anastasia decided to let another secret of her childhood out of the bag, knowing that Hannibal is dying to know more about her. With him asking her many times about her past and wanting her to express things, Anastasia knew that Hannibal is trying to lure her into his webs. She knew that he is trying to figure her out as he enjoys solving a new toy before tossing it aside when he figures it out and gets bored with it; thus, tossing it away.
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The new information got Hannibal eyebrows to raise as Anastasia gives him another piece of her past to him. Seeing her smirking at him then sent him a wink before she walks off into the direction of her home with Hades trailing behind her, Hannibal knew that Anastasia knows that he is trying to solve her.
He shakes his head, picking up the plates that she left behind and he follows after her and into her home. He stares at her, knowing that he is caught red-handed about digging into her to get information. However, he doesn't know for sure if Anastasia knows that he is trying to solve a way to bend her to his will; to be like him and do his ways.
While they clean the dishes, glass cups and utensils, Anastasia had went to grab another kitchen cloth to dry the plates off when she takes notice of one of her fears.
A huge spider.
The sudden scream escapes her and she chucks the kitchen cloth at the ugly eight-legged creature.
The sudden scream causes Hannibal to be startle and jump a little. His widen eyes instant and he quickly looks over to Anastasia to see what is wrong. However, she just brushes past him and she is waving her right pointer finger at the counter where a kitchen cloth is thrown.
"What's the matter?"
"Spider."
Hannibal cannot but to owlishly blink at Anastasia saying this and then seeing the terror on her face because of a spider. There is no way this is the innocent yet vicious woman he seen many times with a sharp tongue. A chuckle escapes him as his disbelief look towards her disappears and replace by amusement.
"Are you serious, Ana?"
"Just kill it."
"What is the magic word?" Hannibal asked, stepping towards the counter and he begins to pull the kitchen cloth off the spider that she threw it on.
"Please." Anastasia said, taking a few steps back away from him as she doesn't want him to do anything mischievous, such as, throw the spider at her for laughs.
Her hands clench the breakfast island countertop edge as she watches Hannibal find the spider, brush it on the floor then steps right on it. Grabbing paper towels, Hannibal cleans the spider off his shoe and floor then crumbling up the paper towel and throwing it into the trash.
When Hannibal looks over to Anastasia with clear amusement still in his eyes, Anastasia glares at him.
"Don't you even say it."
"You are afraid of spiders? I would have never expected that." Hannibal said anyways.
"I just don't like them or insects for that matter. But spiders just give me the chills and…" She didn't finish her sentence as she shivers at the thought of spiders everywhere.
Hannibal shakes his head and he went back to washing the last dish and utensils.
"Sooo, you never answer me about you letting me have full reign of being myself when I come face to face with Ms. Lounds." Anastasia brings back up, wanting an answer.
"Only if you tell me why you had to see a psychiatrist as a child?"
A sigh escapes Anastasia as she knew that she would have to pay a price when it comes to Hannibal. Walking back over to the sink, she stands beside Hannibal and watches him finish washing the dishes and places them into the drying rack.
"A trade in a way?"
"Yes, Ana, a trade, or rather, a deal."
"Well, I guess that I can tell you. As a child I was trained to defend myself. My uncle had wanted me to be emotionally and mentally fit. He didn't want me to go crazy or lose my mind thanks to some of the intense training that he had put me through. Therefore, I had to go to a psychiatrist to keep me in check. Though, there was times when I would go into this dark thinking mode and I held nothing back when expressing such feelings in that dark mode. That psychiatrist had actually got freaked out by me. Thus, they did call me psychotic at times." Anastasia explained, shrugging her shoulders as if this information is no big deal.
"Interesting. Intense training and mental and emotional training." Hannibal replied, taking in all this new information like a sponge.
"In a way, yes."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I think that my uncle just wanted me to be able to defend myself. He told me that he was raised up the same way. But the training had been intense making me to wonder if our ancestors were warriors or something." Anastasia muttered the last part, shaking her head.
"Maybe your uncle was a hit man or something of some sorts."
"Maybe. Better watch out, doctor." Anastasia winked at him.
"You are an interesting woman, Anastasia. I'm happy that you have shared this information with me." Hannibal told her with an appreciated smile. Now, he knew that she can stand up to him physically and mentally too.
"Yes, so…"
She didn't finish her sentence and just got this innocent look upon her face, knowing that her expression and few words would make a statement to Hannibal that he will surely understand.
Getting what she is getting to once again, Hannibal chuckles and steps closer to her. He reaches out, brushing a few strands of her hair out of her face and behind her right ear. Dropping his hand to his side, Hannibal did make sure that he let his fingertips brush against her jawline.
"You may have free reign."
"You won't get mad at me for making comments and you won't attack me afterwards once everyone leaves?" Anastasia asked.
"No."
The sly smile is once again on her lips as she takes a step closer to Hannibal that they were actually press chest to chest now. Her right hand is now near his chest, fingertips trailing down his tie before dropping her hand away from him.
"Dress or slacks?" Anastasia questions, wondering what type of dress code is Hannibal's dinners.
"Dress."
"Hmm, I think that I'll wear a lace one." Anastasia told him before standing up on her toes and she lays her lips against his cheek. She stays on her tiptoes, keeping her lips brushing against his cheek, hoping that she is getting to him.
"We are going to have a very interesting dinner time, Hannibal. If you don't take my fun away tomorrow night, Hannibal, maybe I might show you how vicious I can be after dinner." Anastasia purred to him, pulling away from him but quickly a gasps escapes her when he grips her chin in his left hand and keeps her staring into his darkening eyes.
"You ever play with fire, Ana?"
"Yes, many times, Anni." Anastasia lowly replied.
"And what happens?"
"You get burn. But know this, Hannibal, you may be comparing yourself to a flame, but trust me, I know how to handle and stroke it very well." Anastasia slowly told him towards the end with a sultry look.
His eyes dilated, a feral look glisten in his eyes and a dark smirk could not but grace his lips.
He is deeply enjoying this seductive dark side of Anastasia.
Very much.
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Hi Everyone,
Here's another chapter!
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