"To love each other while being aware that perfection is not perfection. That we are human, flawed, and that in the differences we find the way to reach ourselves, not let go, and keep dancing."
🔥 The cage 🔥
The cage had no bars. It wasn't cold, nor was it far away from everything. For not being it wasn't even a cage itself. Will called it love, it couldn't be anything else, for he had chosen it as his home since that night.
He had been swallowed up by Hannibal and what he had left of his own since then was very little. What had happened to the rest he knew: Hannibal had given him a new form, like clay, shaping a new self that was still discovering whether he was akin to him or not.
- I love you - he always told him.
- Why do you love me? - Will would ask.
Each time he got a different answer. He thought, maybe, maybe at some point one of them would satisfy him.
- Look at you, you are everything you were meant to be by my side.
Will nodded each time, and added nothing more. He felt comfortable where he was, but he also missed being able to breathe in his old essence. What has become of his dogs he doesn't know, that Alana has taken care of them is what his heart tells him to soothe him.
- Are you happy, dear?
Will smiled, implying that he was. It had all been so rushed. The hug. The fall. The pain and the cold all at once, and then the will to survive with him. That had been the reason for Hannibal's existence, so Will had made it his own. They had both made it by fighting for what they believed was each other's dream.
- You can leave, if you want to. Nothing ties you to me, mylimasis.
And Will, with just enough oxygen in that non-existent cage he had chosen to live in, clenches his fist slightly, knowing that maybe Hannibal is aware of everything. He was taking too big a risk.
- Everything ties me to you, Hannibal.
- Explain yourself.
I'm more lost now than I was then, he wants to tell him. My new self is indifferent to me and I don't know if one day I'll be able to love it like you do.
- I only recognise myself because I see myself through your eyes," he replies. To what extent am I more yours than mine?
Hannibal drinks from the glass of wine he holds in his hand, and Will feels as if he himself is soaking in it. Was he crying, or was it the taste of that wine on his lips?
- You've always been a bit of both. It's the same now. Is it because of all the deaths?
Will nods. He doesn't want to look him in the face because if he does he'll have lost before he's even started.
- Will - he holds his chin - you're not my prisoner.
- It could be different. We could be different, Hannibal.
- You ask me not to be me and yet you beg me to be more you.
- You owe me, Will replies. I've been living in what you built for the two of us and I've nearly drowned. You owe me," he repeats.
Hannibal hugs him and Will feels his heart in his chest over his. He returns the embrace and the cage he calls love envelops him, fanning the flame he thought was extinguished.
- It will be as you wish. I love you. Create the world you long for both of us and I will do everything in my power to be happy in it, my dear. I owe it to you to at least try.
