"So…what is it like?"
Will looked over at the Beta walking beside him through the scrub fields outside of his house in Wolf Trap. Alana smiled sweetly back at him with her pretty blue eyes that somehow always managed to look more warm than their cool color should allow sparkling with something skin to glee. One didn't need Will's gifts to know what she was asking about or more accurately, who. She was inquiring, not to be nosy or judgmental, but as a friend, but Will never liked making anything easy for others, even for people he liked. Life wasn't fair so why the hell should he be.
"What's what like?" Will puffed out white air to watch it dissipate. His dragon breathing acted as a trigger, his mind wandering to the ravenstag. The creature loped on the edges of his perceptions, staying in the lands that lay between his woods and sea, and Hannibal's scrawling castle made entirely of black stone, the ones Will deemed as the mated pair's neutral territory. Even now he could feel Hannibal shifting somewhere behind his high walls, his Alpha states away in Maryland. Their bond had only strengthened after Hannibal had marked Will's neck quite recently one memorable night, the scar still shiny as new plastic and the bright pink of healthy healing. Soon they would be fine, bone white brands, satiny soft and slightly raised to the touch. Will kept them covered until then with a wide collar make of soft braided leather, ignoring how the distance between Hannibal and himself felt wounding. Try as he might not to, Will wondered if Hannibal felt the same way as well, like part of self was missing.
Rolling her eyes at the Omega, Alana playfully bumped Will's shoulder with her own when he suddenly got too quiet. "Don't be like that. I know you want to talk. You wouldn't have invited me over just to walk your dogs." she said, bending down to toss a stick to one of his many mutts, the larger members of the pack taking off after the flung offering. Winston chose to remain by Will's side though.
"Maybe I like walking my dogs with you." Will teased, still avoiding the question.
"Are you really going to make me say it?" Alana sighed, kicking at some snow. The fields were dusted with just enough of the cold stuff to make the dead grass stiff and slick all at the same time, but not enough for the dogs to really play in.
"Yes. Yes, I am." Will nodded solemnly, managing to keep a straight face.
"What is it like to live with Hannibal?" Alana finally broke down, crinkling her nose at Will for making her plainly ask.
"Why do you want to know?" Will found that he enjoyed playing hard to get. He had never really been in the position to do so before.
"Because I can't imagine it, and I can imagine a lot. I don't think anyone can actually. He's always carried a certain air of mystique about him, one that he has chosen to encourage rather than dispel." Alana admitted. "And it's not like you ever dated before all this. Suddenly living with someone, especially someone like Hannibal, must be jarring."
"Fair enough, but I was too broken to date." Will self deprecated, mockingly placing a hand over his heart. Alana wasn't about to let him off that easily though.
"You're not broken. Never were." Alana laughed low and sweet, shaking her head as she studied Will from the safety of her peripheral. She knew how much the Omega disliked direct eye contact or being stared at for too long, but she was pleased to note that Will looked….good. Healthy even, for the first time in a long time.
"Yeah? What's your reason?" Will shot back, noticing and not liking the scrutiny as little as it was. Defensive or not, He felt he had a point though. The Beta beside him was lovely inside and outside, and to most other people's surprise, completely unattached to anyone.
"For not dating?" Alana's brows shot up at the change in subject. "I think too much."
"So what are you going to do about that? Stop thinking?" Will grinned, the expression not pained or forced like it usually was in front of other people.
"I haven't thought about it." Alana shot back. "But I do think that you are avoiding my question."
"It's complicated." Will answered with a slight shrug.
"That would be a given. Anything else?" Alana pressed, rubbing her arms to get some feeling back into them. As sunny as it was, the great outdoors today was brisk. Her fingers were starting to get numb in their gloves.
"Are you trying to ask about my sex life, Doctor?" Will quirked a smile at her from the corner of his mouth.
"No, but it's obvious that you've figured it out." Alana noted in a dry tone, making Will flush as she nodded toward his throat and the vivid bite marks placed upon it. "I'm more curious about your day to day interactions, and so on. I've also heard Hannibal is closing down his practice to go work full time at the FBI. That's a big step, for the both of you."
"It's complicated. That's the long and short of it." Will repeated with a sigh. "I didn't ask him to do that."
"Hannibal has never struck me as the type of man to do anything he didn't feel like doing, asked or otherwise. You can't define your relationship by his decisions alone." Alana said. There was a warning there, the Beta obviously feeling protective of her friend. Part of it was biological. The genetic middlemen of the genders, Betas wanted to follow an Alpha, but support an Omega.
"I can't define our relationship because I don't know how." Will admitted, shoving his hands into his pant pockets to keep from gesturing helplessly about. "Hannibal is…."
"Complicated." Alana finished for him.
"Yes." Will grinned ruefully back at her.
"He is that. Always has been." Alana sighed. "Hell of a cook though."
"Yes, he is that." Will agreed. "He speaks at least five different languages" he added, finally giving Alana something she really wanted. "At least five that I know of. His library hints that it could be more though."
"Does he? That must make things….." Alana bit her bottom lip to keep from smirking.
"Interesting." Will finished for her with a dark chuckle.
"Do you love him?" Alana asked in that candid manner of hers.
"You know how to bury the lede." Will looked at her with raised brows. Alana had always been honest with him though. It was one of the traits he loved most about her.
"Well, do you?" Alana stopped, Will turning to face her. Will smiled, the expression almost sad.
"It's complicated."
OOo
"I hate being this neurotic."
Through great but well practiced effort, Hannibal held back a sigh, not wishing to seem unprofessional, or maker forbid, rude. The thought of relieving himself of patients was becoming a sweeter notion with every passing day, especially now that he had a taste for crime scenes and delving into Will's mind during them. Everything else seemed mundane in comparison.
"Franklin, if you weren't neurotic, you would be something much worse." Hannibal stated instead, offering the sobbing man a tissue but refusing to relinquish the box.
"Thank you." Franklin wiped his face off and blew his nose to deposit the soiled tissue on the pristine glass side table, validating Hannibal's decision to hoard all the tissues on his side. "Maybe if I wasn't this way, we could be friends."
A lack of dignity made Hannibal want to shudder out of disgust at the very idea. Surpassing the urge, he managed to hold himself regally posed while still coming off as calming and patient as Franklin worked on collecting himself.
"I have a lot of respect for you. Since we can't be friends, or you're not comfortable with that, I found myself looking at my friends through your eyes, imagining what your diagnosis might be." Franklin sniffled, looking to his therapist for a reaction. Good or bad, it didn't really matter. It all translated to attention and focus from the object of his desire.
"So you become a psychoanalyst?" Hannibal wasn't sure whether he felt annoyed or amused by this.
"I become you." Franklin said magnanimously, like it were some kind of gift. Hannibal decided that he definitely was not amused. Seeking some sort of distraction to keep from harming Franklin, part of Hannibal sunk back into his skull, entering mind space. He could feel Will there, moving about off in the distance, the Omega presence there soothing even if it were far off.
"Who are you psychoanalyzing?" Hannibal made himself ask.
"My friend Tobias." was enough to break Hannibal out of his mind palace and give the annoying Beta his full attention again. "I googled 'psychopaths' and went down the checklist. I was surprised to see how many boxes I checked off."
"Why did you feel inclined to do this? I thought Tobias and you were becoming a bonded pair. That requires trust. What has he done to make you believe otherwise?" Hannibal lied. It was obvious to anyone that they were not, but it was enough to throw Franklin off completely, the Beta already sputtering in disbelief and impressive amounts of awkwardness.
"T-tobias and me!? B-bonded!?" Franklin stammered. "No, no. Um, no. Sorry, I don't mean to come off as defensive, but he's just not my brand. I'm looking for someone a little bit older…more refined…"
"My apologies for the assumption." Hannibal steamrolled over the Beta's clumsy hinting and weak attempts at flirting. "That does explain why you are jumping to these conclusions about Tobias."
"He's been saying some very dark things and then saying 'just kidding' afterward. It's starting to come off as a little…strange so I was just wondering what your diagnosis would be in this case." Franklin's brow furrowed as he leaned in. Hannibal couldn't press himself back more into his seat without coming off as undignified so he gave blank face back at Franklin. "Perhaps you can help me analyze him."
"I am not analyzing your friend. I'm only analyzing your perception of him." Hannibal clarified. "It may help you know yourself better. You could be projecting onto him what you consider to be your flaws."
"But if I think Tobias is a psychopath…Oh god, does that mean I am a psychopath?" Franklin said with a scared, baffled expression.
"You're not psychopath, although you may be attracted to them." Hannibal said softly, already beginning to lose interest again. If he were capable of such emotions, Hannibal supposed that at this point, he would start feeling somewhat bad for the clueless Beta. He really couldn't find Franklin a referral fast enough.
Once more, Hannibal shifted back into his memory palace to look out across the fields there that lay far beyond his high black walls. He wondered if he were to shout out if Will would hear him echoing through their minds and in their bond. After being alone for so long, the notion of an answer, even the remote possibility of one, was almost terrifying.
oOo
The concert hall was impressive, Hannibal noted, even while fully lit with its stage strip bare and empty. Well, mostly empty.
Under a spotlight that was doing nothing good for the smell as it slow cooked its occupant, a man sat in a chair, dressed up formally in black and white. He was quite dead, obviously so, the corpse pressed back over his seat with the neck of cello shoved down his exposed throat. There, the skin was pulled back in morbid display of a talented touch, treated vocal cord standing out glossy white against the aging meat. It was picturesque, and though it was not Hannibal's style, he could still appreciate it the craftsmanship that went into this art.
"The victim is Douglas Wilson, a member of the Baltimore Metropolitan Orchestra. Brass section, a trombone player." Jack growled out as he circled around the victim. "He was killed shortly after his last performance. Blunt force trauma to the back of the head."
"Do you think it was the Ripper?" Hannibal poked the bear, enjoying the show of watching anguish and disappointment ripple across the agent's face. Hannibal was careful to keep his tone as neutral as possible to hide the fact he was mocking Jack.
"No. There was no organ removal or surgery performed on the body other than the front of his throat." Jack gritted out between his teeth.
"Serial killers on the Ripper level rarely change their 'style' this late in the game. Escalation is more typical. Though staged and ostentatiously so, this killing, the style of it, would be considered a step back for the Ripper." Will explained as he stared the dead man down, looking for answers and filing away details. "His killer brought him here to put on a show."
"A show needs as audience. Who is this targeted at?" Hannibal mused, wanting very much to touch those glimmering gut strings, to pluck notes from them.
"I don't know but I feel bad for them. Not my idea of an appropriate way of getting attention." Will shook his head at the ridiculousness of it all. This corpse was like a poem turned into song, and left for another to find like some dark, twisted valentine.
"Will…it is me, or is it becoming easier for you to look?" At the agent's warily spoken words, Will turned to look over at Jack with an brow arched high in question at him.
"I tell myself it's purely an intellectual exercise." Will sighed, fiddling with his glasses to hide his eyes and discomfort. Jack never seemed to be happy with him in that regard. It was confusing.
"In a narrow view of the field, that's exactly what it is." Jack insisted, trying to keep his focus mainly on Will much to the empath's discontent, and ignore Hannibal's existence.
"A very narrow view indeed." Hannibal remarked, earning himself a glare from the other Alpha.
"It's not any easier, Jack." Will tried to defuse the air of alarm between the two Alphas. It wasn't helping him that Hannibal disagreed quietly with that sentiment, the Bond thrumming from it. Ignoring it, Will pushed forward. "I shake it off. Keep on looking."
"Good. You shake it off. Get to work." Jack snapped, looking like he wanted to get closer to the Omega to enforce that feeling, but Hannibal was blatantly in the way, calmly staring Jack down with flat eyes that brooked no argument. "We'll come back in when you're ready for us."
"We'll let you know." Hannibal shot in parting at Jack's back, watching the muscles tense there.
"You're only going to make it worse, you know." Will groaned to find his personal space suddenly invaded, the Alpha taking off his glasses for him.
"He needs to understand that you're mine." Hannibal murmured, close enough to be heard well enough by Will as he carded his fingers through dark chocolate curls. Trailing downward, Hannibal left off of Will's scalp to run his fingers along Will's collar. "You know you don't have to wear this anymore. Your throat is marked well enough for it now."
"Maybe I like them." Will muttered. He didn't like to think they were having a tender moment in front of the dead. Stepping away from Hannibal, Will closed his eyes. The pendulum swung gold thrice, the thrum from it all encompassing as Will slipped into his own head space to find himself on stage facing the dead man turned cello. Walking backwards, Will jumped off the stage gracefully until he hit the seating. Plopping down, Will spread his legs and arms out comfortably wide, waiting for the show to begin until he remembered something. Lolling his head to the side, Will looked to the stage's shadows, his eyes trying to pick out anything lurking there.
"You can come on out. I know you're there." Will called to the wings. He watched in near amusement as the ravenstag came out to walk across the stage, its hoof steps sounding hollow and heavy all at once on the polished wooden surface. The creature paused to sniff at the dead man, looking over at Will with dark, wet eyes and blood encrusted antlers. Emerging from the curtains, Hannibal followed behind it, the Alpha looking around with a mild curious expression like he did this sort of thing every day.
"Have a seat. The show's about to begin." Will said gesturing to the spaces beside him in the front row.
"You're different here." Hannibal observed, watching as Will relaxed back into his seat instead of hunching over. The Omega snorted in response with a wary grin.
"It's my head. Why wouldn't I be?" Will grinned, gesturing helplessly to himself before leaning in. "A little crazy to hide from yourself in your own head, don't you think?" he whispered conspiratorially low to his mate.
"You do that enough in waking." Hannibal nodded.
"It strange though. I'm not used to having company here. Is this normal for bonds? Are you even real?" Will said, poking Hannibal in the shoulder to be given a look in return. Ignoring the other's mild ire, the Omega rested his head casually on Hannibal's shoulder. "Or did I make you up?"
"Very real. Can't you feel it, feel me in this place with you?" Hannibal asked, resting his neatly groomed own against Will's curls so that they could both comfortably look at the meat instrument propped up.
"Yes…No…kinda? It's strange." Will mumbled. "The woods and ocean are mine?"
"Yes, they are." Hannibal confirmed, studying the macabre instrument of meat and lost life.
"And the castle? The hedge maze?" Will asked questions he already knew the answer to. Hannibal could feel the Omega smile.
"That is all mine." Hannibal admitted, wondering what Will felt about it all.
"Figures." Will snorted, breaking off their contact as he started to shift away.
"I could show you how to make your own if you'd like." Hannibal offered, watching the ravenstag with renewed interest as it jumped off the stage to wander up the aisle past them. "May I ask you a question?"
Will shrugged in answer. The Omega was studying the ravenstag as well with furrowed brow.
"What is that creature?" Hannibal asked, nodding toward the strange animal who regarded them coolly before leaving their company stage left.
"I don't know. I thought he was yours." Will's brows shot up in dismay. That was worrisome discovery.
"I have never seen a deer with feathers in its fur before. Have you?" Hannibal mused. The ravenstag had been quite helpful to him so far, always guiding the Alpha through the Omega's headspace to find its owner.
"No." Will sighed as he waved his hands in the air. "Yay. Insanity."
"You're not insane." Hannibal shook his head.
"You say the sweetest things." Will chuckled sadly as he looked away.
"I could if you let me, beloved." Hannibal said, cupping Will's cheeks with his hands to make the Omega turn back to him again.
"Shhhhh…" Will whispered, pressing shaking fingers to Hannibal's lips. "The show is about it begin." Hannibal would have said more, not caring for being denied, but Will was suddenly not there beside him, the Alpha looking to the stage to find the Omega standing behind the corpse with bow ready in hand. Making himself comfortable, Hannibal sat back in preparation for what was to come, curiosity and excitement sitting side by side with him in the rows.
Gripping the neck of the makeshift cello, Will leaned into the man as close as a lover, tightly gripping the instrument to run the bow across the exposed vocal cords. The music of the dead was low and deep like the cello it came from, the sound reminiscent of its source but not. The notes resonated through the flesh to rattle the bone within.
Relaxing back into his seat, Hannibal closed his eyes as the music washed over him, his mate and Omega playing their song.
TBC