Chapter Text
It was unusually cold that night. Will had to sleep tucked under two extra blankets so he wouldn’t freeze. He’d cover his head with all of them, trying to sleep. It had been an awful day; his father had been more nervous than ever. He was tired. He closed his eyes and waited for sleep to come to him.
Tic toc, tic toc.
He couldn’t help but hold his breath. He was too aware of even his own breathing. He suddenly felt trapped, like something was crushing his lungs.
He heard a muffled whisper he couldn’t decipher, breaking the silence for a second, a small crack, and then nothing.
He felt like he was going to throw up. He knew he should hide; something wasn’t right. Instead, he peeled off the covers and stood up on unsteady legs, walking slowly, careful to not make a sound, outside of his room. It took him a whole minute to open his door, doing so carefully so it wouldn’t make a sound. He slid outside, walking on his tiptoes, still holding his breath. He thought he could hear someone breathing. He couldn’t recognize the scent that lingered on the air around him.
Dad? He wanted to ask, but no words came out. Instead, he walked towards the stairs, peeking down to see what was going on.
He saw nothing for the next two minutes. Maybe his dad’s nerves had just gotten to him; maybe nothing was wrong. He allowed himself to breathe.
His breath got caught on his throat when he saw the shadow of a man, holding something Will couldn’t recognize in his hand.
The man looked at him, and Will looked back into his dark eyes. Alpha. The scent on the air was the scent of the Alpha downstairs.
The Alpha smiled at him briefly, and Will smiled back. “Are you going to kill me too, Mr. Alpha?” he whispered.
For half a second, a shocked expression crossed the Alpha’s face. It was gone before Will could catch it. Instead, the Alpha’s smile widened. “No, little boy,” he replied, his voice a whisper Will could vaguely hear. “Not tonight. Go back to bed.”
Will nodded, but didn’t move for another minute. He stared at the Alpha, feeling calm. In the back of his mind, he knew he should be freaking out. He knew he was in front of a killer. He didn’t care. He understood the man. He understood, in that moment, why he had done what Will knew he did.
He didn’t know why, but he understood.
“Goodnight, Alpha,” he said finally, standing up and going back to bed.
The next morning, when he went downstairs to prepare to school, he wasn’t so shocked about what he’d found. Or so he’d told himself, despite the turn his stomach made at the picture in front of him.
*
Another failure of a session.
Even 10 years after the incident, Will still was wandering from therapist to therapist. They all had the same reaction; they just couldn’t handle him. This time, it hadn’t been any different.
The Alpha who had attended him questioned him about suppressants, and when Will said he wasn’t on them, the man seemed to understand immediately.
“Leave,” he said, voice harsh. “I can’t treat someone like you.”
When Will had tried to protest, the Alpha had punched him. Once in the jaw, then again in the ribs. Twice. Will had left panting, his breath getting caught in his chest every time he would try and inhale to calm himself down.
He left in a hurry, not so sure where he was going. He had nowhere to go, nowhere to protect him. Laws didn’t even offer protection to someone like him; he wasn’t an alpha, nor a beta, nor an omega. He was a freak. He was something no one wished to face.
He hid behind an alley, trying to recover his breath. He winced every time he tried to breathe in deeply. He winced with every harsh exhale. He could feel bruises forming, and he asked himself vaguely if perhaps he had broken a rib.
His back against a cold wall, he let himself slid down onto the ground, closing his eyes to try and deal with the pain. It wasn’t too much, perhaps, but he was fragile. His body thin from malnourishment, skin pale from barely going out.
“Are you okay?” he heard a voice whisper above him.
“N–No…” he tried to get away, flinching away from the touch in his arm. It hurt too much to even move, but he had to. The man reeked of Alpha. He didn’t want to get hit again. Not again.
“Who did this?”
“Alpha…” he muttered. He looked at the man, who was now kneeling next to him. His sharp cheekbones made him smile, a memory he couldn’t quite place right now. “Go away,” he said, finally.
“Let me help you,” the Alpha replied, reaching out for his shoulders. Will tried to flinch away, but cried in pain as the movement seemed to crush something in his torso. “Please.”
“I’m fine,” he said. “I’m fine, it’s… nothing. Go away.”
“Just let me check if you have broken a rib,” the man said, trying to get a hand to Will’s torso. The closed position Will was in made it difficult. “Please, I’m a doctor.”
“You’re an Alpha,” Will replied.
“So I am,” the man nodded. “But I am also a doctor. I won’t hurt you, I promise.”
Will believed him. He wanted to believe him; his scent was soothing, for some reason. He nodded twice.
“Can you stand up?”
“I can try.”
The man nodded, and drew one of Will’s arms around his broad shoulders. He grabbed him by the other arm and helped him stand up, slowly. Will leaned into the man’s shoulders, despite himself. He felt too tired to stand by his own.
“Let me take you home,” he asked. “My car is just around the corner. I’ll get it here quickly.”
“No,” Will managed to mutter, clutching to the man’s shoulders. “Don’t leave me here.”
“I won’t. I’ll just get my car.”
“No.”
Will heard the man chuckle. “Alright, but you’ll have to walk with me, then,” Will nodded. “Can you?”
“Yeah, yeah. Just… slowly.”
The man nodded. He started dragging Will along the street. “What’s your name?” he asked, clearly trying to distract Will from the pain.
“Will,” he said, trying to walk by his own, and failing miserably. He let himself be dragged by the man’s strong arms. “Will Graham.”
“Nice to meet you, Will,” at that, Will chuckled. “My name is Hannibal Lecter.”
“It sure must be nice,” he mocked. He wanted to ask something else, but he felt no strength in him to do so. He waited until the man –Hannibal– announced they had arrived to his car. He got dragged to the passenger’s seat, the door shutting as soon as he sat in. Hannibal followed him shortly, starting the car.
It was so nice and comfortable, Will thought. He tried to remember the last time he had gotten into a car, but he couldn’t. It must have been more than ten years ago.
“Where do you live?” Hannibal asked him, but Will could no longer hear him. He had fallen asleep.
*
When Will opened his eyes, he was met by a white ceiling. His breath got caught on his throat as he wondered, for a second, if someone had gotten him to a hospital. He hated hospitals. The people who worked there loved to poke him everywhere, just to see what was wrong with him; why a man on his early twenties hadn’t presented as an alpha, beta, nor omega.
Will wondered how odd did he look. It wasn’t something about his appearance, was it? He looked like quite the average guy, he thought. So it had to be the scent. He didn’t smell of anything, not even the slight smell a beta gave off. If anything, he smelled like dirt.
He tried to move, look around where he was, but everything hurt. He vaguely remembered being beaten up.
The smell of Alpha reminded him of what had happened, exactly. That scent in particular made him feel just a little bit better.
“Hannibal?” he asked, his voice sounding weak.
He heard footsteps, and then a door being opened. “Will?” he heard the voice of the Alpha. “Are you awake now?”
Will nodded. Then, thinking about it twice, he tried to talk. “Yeah,” he muttered. The footsteps got closer. He saw Hannibal’s worried look, and felt strange. He tried to think if that sort of look had ever been directed to him.
“I need to know,” the man said, touching Will’s forehead to check his temperature, “Are you on suppressants? I apologize for the intrusion, but I need to know so I can medicate you safely.”
“Medicate me?” Will frowned. “What? Why?”
“You’re in pain,” Hannibal pointed out.
“Uh,” Will hesitated. He wasn’t so sure he should tell the man. What if he got beaten up again? But his presence somehow calmed him down enough to think about it twice. Hannibal didn’t seem like the kind of Alpha who would beat him up just because he wasn’t an omega.
Then again, no one else seemed like the type until Will had their actual fist against his face.
“I can take painkillers,” he said, finally. “It’s okay.”
“Are you sure?” the man insisted. “It would be better if you were as specific as you could be. I need to be sure it won’t interfere with anything.”
Will made a little annoyed noise. “How could it interfere with anything?” he said, and regretted it immediately. He knew nothing about suppressants. What if he was giving himself away? “I’m sure it’s okay,” he said, trying to sound confident.
He heard a sigh before a pill was extended to him. He took it, and swallowed it down before realizing Hannibal was offering him a glass of water as well.
“Sorry,” he apologized, taking the glass and chugging the water down. “Thanks,” he offered the glass back. He tried to sit up, but a sharp pain stopped him. He hissed.
“I checked your ribs,” Hannibal informed him, a hand over his chest so he wouldn’t try to get up again. “They’re not broken, but you still seem quite weak,” he sounded worried yet again. Will was starting to like the sound of that. “Have you been eating well, Will?”
He considered telling the truth for a moment. Then, it occurred to him that would only bring him pity. He didn’t want the Alpha’s pity. He nodded.
“You don’t seem very well,” Hannibal argued. “You’re quite pale, and thin. I hate to bring it up again, but maybe your suppressants aren’t working quite well.”
“I’m not on fucking suppressants,” Will finally spat, forcing himself up just to prove a point. He regretted it as soon as the sharp pain made him moan.
Hannibal was cautious the next time he spoke. “Have you not presented yet, Will?” every word said slowly, like he was afraid of offending him.
Will looked at him, trying to determine whether he was getting kicked out or not. He saw pure curiosity in the man’s eyes.
Fuck it. “Yeah, I haven’t,” he admitted. “That’s probably why I’m weak, or something,” he lied.
Hannibal nodded slowly.
“Are you going to beat me up?” Will asked, looking down at his hands.
“Is that why the other man did this to you?”
“Yeah,” Will sighed. “It happens surprisingly often. You’d think I’d be used to it already.”
“No one should be used to being treated so awfully,” Hannibal told him, sounding just slightly angry. “Do you happen to know the name of the man who did this?”
“Why? You gonna beat him up?” Will chuckled. “I mean, I’m sure you’re probably disappointed you didn’t just rescue an omega in distress, but this isn’t any better either. I don’t need you to defend me.”
“I merely wanted to suggest pressing charges,” he said, calmly. Will noticed an emotion cross his eyes for a second. He couldn’t recognize it.
“Yeah, like that would help,” he rolled his eyes. “The law doesn’t care about you if you’re a freak like me.”
“You are not a freak,” Hannibal assured him. “There have been two other cases, just like yours.”
“Oh, wow, two. Quite a lot,” he joked. “What happened to them?”
“I’m afraid they’re not happy endings,” Hannibal admitted. “Perhaps you won’t want to hear about them.”
“I’m asking.”
“One of them got cancer, after repeatedly trying to force a heat,” Hannibal said, expression stoic. “The other one killed herself out of despair.”
“What a bright future awaits me,” Will grimaced. Before Hannibal could reply, he continued. “Anyway, thanks for, uh… Not letting me die in the streets, I guess. But I should go,” he tried to get up, but both the pain and Hannibal stopped him.
“You have to stay, at least until your bruises have healed.”
“Yeah, sure,” Will wanted to laugh, but barely managed to chuckle again. It hurt too much. “That would take some time,” he tried to prove his point by lifting his shirt up slowly, trying hard not to touch any skin. “See?” he asked, his ribs exposed. “The bruise under the recent one,” he said. “The one that’s just a little bit lighter.”
“How often does this happen?” Hannibal sounded truly offended for a moment.
“That’s the issue,” Will replied. “This is from a month ago,” he covered himself. “They won’t heal in quite some time. It’s better if I go now.”
“That isn’t normal.”
“No shit.”
Hannibal sighed. “Please, I must insist. At least, stay here until you can move freely again.”
Will thought about it for a moment. “Okay,” he nodded. He hoped it would only take a few days.
Hannibal smiled at him, reassuringly. “I’ll bring you more water,” as soon as he got away, Will missed his scent.
He really hoped he could get out of there soon.