Warning: This chapter contains an explicit BDSM sex scene (though a very short one).

Chapter 2

The couple spent nearly the entire day preparing salads and small spits with cheese, grapes, and olives. They had recently spent a holiday in Latvia and had brought all sorts of delicacies from there. Of course, they had done a detour to Lithuania, but the souvenirs from there were for their eyes and stomachs only.

At half past three they went to the small park a few hundred yards from their home. Half the neighborhood was already there, chatting, BBQing, and the children were playing on the playground that Hannibal had helped paint last year. They had moved here nearly exactly one year ago, and Will was surprised that they had not packed their things yet in a cloak-and-dagger-operation and fled. Not that they would have had to flee in the past years. Their cover was quite good and Hannibal had lots of money that helped them obtain valid passports and identities.

"Ah, Mister and Mister Leuchtenberg," they heard the voice of Mrs. Sarandon far before they spotted her in the crowd. The Sarandon family lived in the biggest house very close to the small lake and they were also the most active people in the neighborhood – be it founding a neighborhood watch when wolves had been sighted in the forest, be it a local flea market when one of the elderly neighbors had died, or be it – as today – a BBQ.

Will finally spotted Mrs. Sarandon in the crowd. She was a tall and slender woman with her blonde hair neatly put in a bun. She was accompanied by a smaller, more corpulent woman with shoulder-long brown hair.

"This is Mrs. Carrington. I think you haven't met yet. Her husband owns the butcher shop in Nightingale Street," Mrs. Sarandon explained. "Sarah, these are Gilbert and Bill Leuchtenberg. Gilbert is an Italian and Russian teacher at the local high school. Bill works at the local animal shelter with Mrs. Surrey. She is so lucky to have him. You have also adopted a dog, haven't you?"

"Yes," Will answered shyly while they were placing their salads on the long tables. "His name is Chester. He is very timid, so we haven't brought him today."

Luckily, they were saved when one of the kids asked Mrs. Sarandon for sweets, and Will and Hannibal quickly retreated to the other side of the event. They mingled a bit with the husbands of the neighborhood who used to be less judging than the wives. They hadn't experienced any homophobia here, but sometimes it was the glances they got. They never kissed in public, and they never held hands. Not that either of them would display any such behavior in a more tolerant community either. Hannibal was a very private lover and Will respected that. It meant that Hannibal was even the more expressing and affectionate in the four walls of their house.

They finally sat down to eat.

"What types of salads have you prepared?" Mrs. Surrey asked.

"Well, let's see," Hannibal started, "this one there is a normal green salad with apple-balsamic dressing, that one is a German mayonnaise potato salad but without sausages, that one is an Italian noodle salad, and the one over there is a red bean salad."

"Are all your salads vegetarian?"

"Well, yes. We try to reduce our carbon footprint and we help others to reduce their carbon footprints, too."

"…which is why we prepared vegetarian salads, but we are more than happy with the grilled meat," Will intervened and took a steak from the middle plate. He knowingly ignored the look that Hannibal gave him, which said Will, they have no idea we are cannibals, so allow me a cannibal joke or two.

But Will would have none of it.

"So, Gilbert," Mrs. Sarandon said. "You are quite the language talent. You teach Italian and Russian. I believe you have learnt it both in high school? Is Russian similar to German?"

"I do not know German," Hannibal responded.

"Oh, I thought that with a German name and Russian knowledge, you must have lived in the Soviet Union at times."

"I'm not German," Hannibal said.

"The last name is actually mine," Will jumped in to save his husband again. It was obvious that Hannibal was not American, no matter how much he had trained his pronunciation with Will. And in fact, Hannibal did speak German, but just like his native Lithuanian, he preferred to keep it a secret. "My paternal grandfather fled Germany in the first world war. We came to the US, but I have never learnt German."

With that Mrs. Sarandon did not seem very happy either. "And you have mentioned to my husband that you met over ten years ago in the north, is that right?"

Of course Mrs. Sarandon had interrogated her husband after every conversation they had had with him. She was the type of unnerving neighbor who needed to know every little detail about everyone.

Hannibal only nodded, realizing that Will was close to withdrawing him any right to speak in this conversation.

"I was trying to explain to these Russian tourists the way, but there was a language barrier. Gilbert happened to pass by, and he was able to resolve any misunderstandings," Will lied. They had practiced so many different versions of how they met, and this by far was one of the boring ones.

"Isn't it a bit strange for you to be married to a man still being in his 40s?" Mrs. Sarandon turned to Hannibal.

"Isn't it a bit strange for your son to still be in 9th grade?" Hannibal replied and Will died on the inside. Of course, Mrs. Sarandon wanted to poke them, and Hannibal should just take it. But he was nothing like Will, no matter how much social training he was getting.

Mrs. Sarandon, whose 15-year-old son was still in 9th grade after having stayed down twice, was left with her mouth open while Hannibal simply continued eating. Mr. Surrey two seats to his left tried not to choke on his water and Will noticed that it was the first time he had seen Theresa laugh. Theresa was a young woman in her thirties who was an assistant teacher at Hannibal's school. At first, Will had thought that she had been into him, but he had quickly noticed that she was just nice to everyone – even though she always looked sad until you talked to her and she had a way to be distracted from whatever pain she was feeling on the inside.

Will knew that once they returned to their house, he would have to keep Hannibal from killing and eating Mrs. Sarandon.

The rest of the BBQ was rather uneventful, which was mainly due to Mrs. Sarandon sitting down somewhere else after getting another sausage from the grill. When they arrived home, it was exactly as Will had expected.

"Will?" Hannibal asked while emptying the leftovers of the salad bowls in the trash.

Will did not respond while he was taking the bowls and spraying them with water before putting them into the dish washer.

"Will," Hannibal started again. "There have been a lot of different types of murder in the surrounding suburbs and downtown. Wouldn't it be weird if there was no murder here?"

Will stopped mid-movement and simply stared at Hannibal with a NO-look on his face. He then proceeded to put the bowl into the dishwasher.

"It could be a mugging gone wrong," Hannibal suggested and closed the dishwasher. "Or a murder-suicide by the entire family."

"Hannibal," Will muttered and sighed. He put his hand on his shoulder. "We cannot afford to have the police turn up here. Especially not for homicide."

"We are not even sure whether they are looking for us. We died."

"They never found our bodies and the fact that Jack is so close–"

"Will, we have been covering our tracks for a decade now and we have never been in the slightest trouble. You are just very paranoic."

"And whose fault is that?"

Hannibal stepped closer and put his hands on Will's waist. "Mrs. Sarandon is like that to everyone. She bullies Theresa for being unmarried in her 30s and living with her father. She bullies Mr. Harris for being the only male teacher at the kindergarten. She is mean to Mr. Rodriguez and I am not sure whether this is racism-based or because he brings his pet parrots to the park instead of dogs like everyone else. She is rude."

"I thought we were over eating the rude."

"Will, what are we doing on our weekend trips?"

"We find criminals and bring them to justice. Being rude does not fall under being a criminal. She is just a very conservative, uptight and righteous mother in an American suburb."

Hannibal laughed. "Aren't ordinary people ugly?" he asked.

Will sighed. "Promise m–"

"I promise I won't kill her," Hannibal said and moved his lips closer to Will. "But I have fantasized about it."

"Your mind is evil, Dr. Lecter. You should not be that hungry. Just two weeks ago, you already killed a woman."

"Who had let her daughter starve."

"You still killed a woman. That is evil."

"Then I might need to be punished for that," Hannibal whispered.

Will loved it when Hannibal's deep voice fell into whispering. "You must be punished for your thoughts, Dr. Lecter. I will punish you."

Hannibal leaned forward and kissed Will. "How will you punish me?"

"Go upstairs," Will said with played distaste in his voice.

Their bedroom was on the first floor, but they had a second bedroom on the second floor of the house. When you climbed up the ladder, there was a tiny corridor which led to three distinct rooms: a bathroom, a bedroom where Will and Hannibal lived out their fantasies, and a kitchen where Will and Hannibal lived out their fantasies. There were an additional fridge and freezer and a long table to prepare their meals into… bite-sized pieces. The actual cooking would be done downstairs. However, now Will would follow Hannibal to the bedroom.

Will breathed calmly a few times. He loved Hannibal, but memories of his past would often come back to him. Memories when he was still whole, or memories of the time that Hannibal had hurt him. Now it was his time to hurt Hannibal. Of course he had done this before. They had tried to kill each other in the past. And he had broken Hannibal's heart more than once. And reciprocal payback was now what they often did in this bedroom. Or punishment when either of them had had thoughts that the other did not approve of.

Will climbed up the ladder and pulled it up. Now, they were entirely undisturbed. Now, they had shut out the world. When Will entered the bedroom, Hannibal was wearing only leather underpants. Will had gifted them to him when they had moved in here. Hannibal lay on the bed, arms spread out, legs close together. Besides him lay two pairs of handcuffs and the gag with the red ball. Will walked over and put this one over Hannibal's head first. Now he was unable to backtalk. Then he took the little bell from the table and put it into Hannibal's hand. Whatever they did, murder, cooking, sex, safety was Will's top priority and Hannibal accepted that. Even when they reversed the roles.

Without a word, Will closed the handcuffs around Hannibal's wrists and the bedposts. Hannibal looked at Will expectedly while Will only gazed on Hannibal's bare body. His chest hair had become grey, and the marvelous cooking had given them both a little bit of a sexy belly. Will did not know how he could resist this body for a long time. But still, without a hurry, he slowly unbuttoned his shirt. He could see Hannibal's chest heaving and lowering in an increasingly rapid pace. He pulled down his trousers and saw that he did not even need to work much on himself. The bump in his underwear gave away his readiness for Hannibal.

When he had stripped entirely naked, Will sat down on Hannibal's own bump and moved around a bit, while touching his erect penis.

"You have been bad, Hannibal," he said, switching now back to his first name. He could not maintain the "Dr. Lecter"-teasing while having sex. It felt too weird to him.

Hannibal nodded. His eyes seemed pleading. Will loved it when they looked pleading. Every last bit of arrogance gone. Now Hannibal was completely at his mercy. If Will wanted, he could call the police right now and hand them in. And a very silent voice in Will even screamed this. It was his voice of reason and Hannibal knew that. Letting Will be in charge was a risk, a risk he got off on.

"You have been thinking about killing again, Hannibal." Will said and SMACK – a slap landed on Hannibal's cheek. Hannibal had not expected it and the pain burnt in his skin. His erection pressed against Will's butt.

"You swore to me to not kill anymore unless I allowed you to," Will continued. "Your thoughts alone have betrayed that and now you must be punished for your thoughts." Another slap made Hannibal's cheek take a slightly rose color. Will bent forward, his balls now touching the bump in Hannibal's leather underwear. "You have been very, very evil, Hannibal," Will whispered and hovered his lips over Hannibal's. Hannibal was reaching up, but Will lifted his head, denying Hannibal the pleasure of a kiss. Instead, he moved his bottom down and up on Hannibal's underpants, teasing him even further.

"And now, I have to punish you," Will whispered and pulled down Hannibal's underpants. He threw them onto the floor and reached for the lube on the nightstand. He pushed a bit of the transparent, viscous liquid out onto his fingers and wetted them. He then slid his pointing finger slowly into Hannibal's ass. Even though he was widened by the training, Hannibal enjoyed the intimate touch and closed his eyes. His legs relaxed and Will grabbed one of the pillows on the floor to put it under Hannibal's behind to ease the entry. He then moved the finger out and in again, very slowly. He joined a second and a third finger, and each time, he looked at Hannibal for his response of pleasure. Then Will applied the lube to his penis and at first rubbed it well with his hands. Watching Hannibal watching him please himself was so satisfying. Hannibal expected the treatment and Will loved denying it to him. But then eventually, he shoved his penis into Hannibal's widened asshole much faster than would have been good for him. The unexpected fierceness after the gentle widening made Hannibal moan.

"Did that hurt?" Will asked.

Hannibal moaned again.

"Good," Will said and pushed his dick in again and again, increasing in force. He didn't really want Hannibal to feel too much pain, and his penis was too small to make actual damage – in contrast to when Hannibal had a dominant day. Hannibal was holding back less, and sex with Will being submissive always felt like giving up on your life and letting the homicidal maniac lover either bring you to the best orgasm you have ever had or kill you. And Will was totally loving that risk every single time. But right now, it was Will's move to punish Hannibal and he was doing his best to show to his husband that he was not okay with his urges to kill their neighbor. Another slap on Hannibal's prominent cheek – they would not be able to show themselves to the neighbors tomorrow. Will played a bit with Hannibal's penis but did not allow him to come so far as himself. Will finally released into Hannibal and slowly moved out and sunk down between his legs like a defeated animal.

Will's hands glided over Hannibal's legs until they ended up at the still erect penis of his. He then bent forward and began playing with his tongue around the tip. He loved hearing Hannibal's increasing moans. When he looked up, he saw that his husband had his eyes closed and was simply enjoying the moment of helplessness. Will then finally granted him his release and sucked faster and wetter. Hannibal's eventually came in Will's mouth and on his belly. When Will had tasted enough, he licked off the rest of Hannibal's sperm, released Hannibal from his gag and gave him a long, wet, and semen-filled kiss. Then Will lay down on Hannibal's bigger body and simply enjoyed the warmth on his skin, the heaving chest on his chest, and the breath of Hannibal on his hair. Will realized how fortunate he was that he had decided to run away with his lover after these turbulent years of hating, games, and denying their true feelings.