Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The white mark on his ring finger and a whole world separating them. Will's return was what Hannibal had longed for for too long, and now that he was here, a half-blurred mark was pulling them apart again.
Maybe to someone else it would have gone unnoticed. But not to him. He knew Will's body by heart, etched as it was in his Mind Palace. At least the parts of him that were visible to him - hopefully, he thought, also the parts he'd barely shown anyone and Hannibal had imagined so many times.
That finger. That ring removed before entering his cell. That smell of cheap aftershave that turned him on so much.
Why did you do it, Will, why didn't you wait for me? The words rush through Hannibal's mind, hurtful.
- Hello, Dr. Lecter.
- Back to the formalities, Will?
- We should never have gotten away from them.
Hands behind his back, clenched, Will unaware of his anger.
- It suits you - Hannibal lies. Marriage.
Unconscious, Will brushes his finger as he smiles. How could Hannibal not notice. How stupid of him to try to hide it.
- It couldn't have been otherwise," Will replies. It's been a long time.
- It could have, Will. But you weren't ready to find out.
The two men together in Florence. A reunion and a range of possibilities on the table. Hannibal closes his eyes for a few seconds, back there, remembering all the plans he had for the two of them. A future together, his beloved partner.
- Are you happy, Will? - He doesn't even know why he's asking.
- Does it even matter?
- They say ....
- People say a lot of things about marriage. All untrue.
Hannibal smiles, his gaze fixed on Will's ring finger. If he had given her a ring he would never have let her take it off.
- Always adopting those in need. Some things never change.
Will rebuilding his pack by not wanting to be a lone wolf along with Hannibal. And Hannibal feeling a little twinge in his heart knowing he was a little further away from Will.
- I need your help, Hannibal.
- What's her name?
- Molly. She's... a good woman.
- And unhappy. As are you. Why...?
Hannibal wants to know why you're still with her. Will's not that kind of person, conformist. His Will has always been defiant. What's happened to him?
- It's none of your business. I came here for Dolarhyde...
- Not with me, Will. I'm not your Molly. Not me. You're not here for that Red Dragon.
How many times had Will repeated such a fallacy to himself?
- Look at me - he asks.
That ocean in which Hannibal sinks every time he returns to Will's eyes, willingly. That ocean in which he lets himself go and doesn't bother to swim in any way, in any direction. That ocean is Will, and Will to Hannibal means home.
- I know what you want to hear, Hannibal. And I don't want to answer.
- You shouldn't put it back on. Let that mark disappear, a few days and no trace of the big mistake you've made.
- I'm not getting a divorce. He doesn't deserve it.
- Since when do you matter any less?
Will looks at Hannibal and sees the pain in his heart. He had wanted to spare her this but now he had failed too.
- I love her.
A half-truth, which in the end is a lie. Affection is a valid form of love for many. But not for Hannibal, he's always needed the fire and all that goes with it.
- Not like me, Will. Not like us together.
- There never was an us.
Will steps away from the glass that separates them and Hannibal knows he has won this battle.
- Where's your fire, where's your life force, Will?
Hannibal closes his eyes and breathes in, filling himself with Will, further imbuing his Mind Palace with him.
- There are more important things...
- You're not dead but you act like you are. You've thought of me as often as I've thought of you. That... Molly... Shadows get left behind, Will, or they end up swallowing you up.
Will, furious at being an open book to Hannibal, walks over to the glass and rests a hand on it.
- I'm not getting a divorce," he repeats.
- You're here, with me. You always come back to me and I always hope you will. The sun is all-consuming, Will, and that's just what you're doing to your dear Molly right now, coming here. Every minute that passes, every word with me gives you more strength and takes it away from her. You should definitely let that mark go.
- I have no reason to.
Hannibal burns. Hannibal wants to scream at him, hit him. Kiss him to his heart's content.
- I love you. It's not something you don't know. That's reason enough to do it.
- What about my feelings, don't they count?
- That's what I'm asking myself. Do they count for you, Will?
Damn Hannibal and damn the night he decided to come back. He'd never forgotten him, his voice echoing in his head even on the rare occasions he lay naked with Molly.
- Dolarhyde. Help me, Hannibal.
- No.
- I can get a better cell for you, with a view. I can get you moved where you choose. I can ....
- I can leave here whenever I want. If I was here it was only because you knew where I was and I was waiting for you to come back. But now... - Hannibal smiles - I'll find out where you live, and I'll go and do what I should have done long ago.
- Kill me?
- No, my dear. Devour you. Help you get rid of that part of you that, unbelievably to me, you work so hard to hold on to. Love you, Will. To love you. That's all I've ever wanted.
A white mark on Will's ring finger that separates them. An invisible ring whose reminder compels Hannibal to act. Pillars held in the sand, which is never quite stable. And Hannibal willing to do many things to get Will for himself.
