Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
🔥 Late 🔥
Hannibal's arms around his body, and the icy, cutting wind between the two of them. They rush to what Will believes will be his death. The wounds, gaping, aching as they fall.
And now, right now, Will sees more clearly than ever. Hannibal's strong arms bind him to the world, and Will would like to say so many things to him. Thank you for making me see who I am, thank you for being there for me all the way. Thank you, Hannibal, for never letting go.
- Hannibal...
A whisper that the wind carries with it to lands Will will never set foot on. That's as far as his name will go.
And Hannibal, without relenting in his embrace, accepts the destiny Will has wanted to give them both. To live with or for Will, to die with or for Will. There is no other choice since he met him. On Will's neck all the moments they've lived together as he buries his face in it, and a tear falls as he knows he's finally accepted by the man he loves.
- I love you, Will. I love you.
Words she should have spoken earlier. Dying now as he holds Will even tighter. The cowardice of a man who didn't know how to choose the right moment for fear of being too soon. I wish I could have taken Will to Florence, to Paris, anywhere in the world and started a new life with him. They both deserved it after so much suffering. What was left for him now? Why didn't he hold Will when he threw them both off the cliff? For love. Simple as that. He loved Will more than himself.
And Will regretting abandoning Hannibal for more than two years in that cell in the Psychiatric Hospital. And Will remembering how he had tried to have a life away from him, without success, because Hannibal was inside him, reminding him daily of who he should be. His voice, his hands on him the few times he had touched him. How they burned then, already turned into memories.
- I can't be without you, Hannibal. I am not me without you.
He knows that now. He should have thrown himself in alone. He must have kissed Hannibal as they murdered Dolarhyde together and dragged him into the house, to give himself to him as if for the last time. What would it have been like, his first time with him? Will will never know.
How cold it is, the water. How hard it is and how it separates them. Hannibal reaches for Will with his arms, not seeing, not knowing that a few metres away Will is doing exactly the same. The current sweeps them away in the middle of a night that has witnessed life and death: Will, rising like a phoenix from the ashes; Will, sentencing them both to the Hell that Hannibal knew he belonged in.
It all comes down to Will.
Will's last thought is Hannibal's lips on his. An illusion he hopes will be with him as he stops breathing. Hannibal's first thought is to bring back the man he loves, to fight the death that wants to take him away from him.
Deep in the water they meet, on the surface Hannibal knows they have survived.
- Come on, Will, come on .... don't leave me alone, not again, please.
He pounds Will's chest as he shares his oxygen through his lips. Hannibal cries, unable to count the ventilations he must do to pull him through.
- Please, Will, don't die. Please...
He is so tired, but so tired. He sits beside Will's frozen body, sobbing, his hands over his face unable to stop the pain that stabs him.
- Hann...
One body on top of another as Hannibal lunges at Will. The salty taste of his tears on Will's face as he fills him with kisses, and the inability to hate him even a little for being dragged into this.
- I'm going to take care of you. I promise.
He doesn't want to part. Will is frozen, like him, wounded and breathing hard. And Hannibal, despite everything, can't be happier than he is now.
Aware that, for both of them, a world with their names on it awaits.
