Chapter Text
Watching Will finally emerge into the world was a feeling unlike any other that Hannibal had experienced. He knew it was commonly held belief that he didn't have emotions, but the world was entirely wrong about that, and he had never been more aware of that fact than now, watching as Will finally broke free of all his decaying tethers and allowed his true self into the world.
Like any birth, there was blood, and there was pain, and it produced beauty, and love, and in that moment Hannibal knew there was nothing he wouldn't do for Will Graham. Everything he had done up until now had been with this end in mind, and now they were here. It was overwhelming. He took the hand Will held out, helping him to his feet. He wanted to pull him close, never let him go, but he let Will take the lead now. Hannibal would always be there to guide him, but from this moment it would be under Will's lead. Always.
“See? This is all I ever wanted for you, Will. For both of us.”
“It's beautiful,” Will whispered, and those two words nearly destroyed Hannibal where he stood.
No, you're beautiful, Will. I knew this is who you were. I knew you would not just tolerate, not just accept, but love this, if you only allowed yourself to.
Hannibal was overcome, one of those rare moments in his life when he not only could not find words, but didn't want them. He relished this silence, this intimacy of the type he had never known before. They clung to one another, Will's head resting on Hannibal's chest. He nuzzled those brown curls, still covered in the blood of his becoming, but did not go any further than that, instead cradling the one person he had ever truly wanted close to his heart.
The moment stretched out into an infinity, what felt to Hannibal like the final joining of their two souls. It was an exquisite pain. He wanted to push it away and never feel it again, and he wanted it to never end. He wondered if Will could feel how Hannibal was being rent asunder, simultaneously destroyed and put together again over and over. This was heaven, it was hell, it was all things that could possibly be.
He knew what Will was planning, yet it still came as a surprise. Not one he was willing to fight, not now that he was going to follow Will anywhere. As they fell, he held Will tighter, felt the way Will clung back, as though they could physically become one person if only they pulled a little closer. Only a few seconds more would tell him whether this would be their end, or a new kind of birth for the both of them.