"I know all the possibilities. I've memorised every word and every possible gesture. I've lived that instant so much that sometimes I doubt if it's only real in my mind. Your beautiful smile, your voice in my ears. My heart pounding as I hold you in my arms. I feel you at last."
🔥 Don't I already occupy part of your dreams? 🔥
Hannibal knows he's afraid. That he's been afraid since he started to be, and even more so since he started to be with him.
- He won't hurt you," he whispers in his ear. He's yours as much as mine, Will.
The profiler leans back against the maw of the black stag he's seen so much of in his dreams. It's as real now as the breath on the back of his neck and the caresses on his skin.
- What is love if not adventure? - asks Hannibal.
- Certainty?
- Only if you walk through the door. Look," he says, taking her hand, "it's alive. More alive than he had ever been before.
What Hannibal was offering him was the totality of his being, and Will was overwhelmed that it wasn't enough. The warmth under Hannibal's heart that caresses through the deer floods all his senses.
- Does it hurt? - he asks, referring to love.
- Sometimes - Hannibal's words crash against Will's neck -. But before it hurts it is poetry. It's shared melody and little stories that form a whole.
The deer lowers its head, slowly, surrendering to Will. The body follows. Hannibal smiles at the sight.
- See, it's as much yours as mine, my dear.
Will kneels before the magnificent animal and Hannibal feels the same fire in his chest that the profiler transmits through his hands. Love me, he says behind his back. Try it with me. What have we got to lose but ourselves?
- I don't know if I'm ready, Hannibal. I don't know if I want to.
Kneeling with him, he takes his hand and together they caress the deer. The peace it conveys surrounds them both as Hannibal ponders the right words.
- Don't I already occupy part of your dreams?
- You know that - Will, sweet Will, sometimes told him.
- You never explained what was going on in them - a light kiss, almost a whisper, that makes Will's skin tingle where it's been placed.
The profiler tenses. Is it true about the seven words?
- We have each other," Will relents, his gaze fixed on the animal's face. You beg me to be yours as I look down on you and cherish the moment.
- And your answer? - Hannibal, excited and gasping for breath, relishes.
- It's always yes.
Will turns and kisses Hannibal as if he can never do it again. As they kiss the first few times and it's all teeth, tongues mingling and bodies that don't want to part.
The deer lifts his head briefly, closes his eyes and disappears. Now he is no longer alone, his existence begins to be after so long asleep.
- Stay - Hannibal asks him, not caring about the vulnerability he gives off -. In me you will find the certainty to fight and, for you, I know I will do it effortlessly.
Will stands over him - what to say when there are too many words? He unbuttons Hannibal's shirt and, behind it, everything else.
