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“I miss my dogs” Will said looking to the empty “beds” all over the house, and then looks back to Hannibal. “I'm not going to miss you. I'm not going to find you. I'm not going to look for you. I don't want to know where you are or what you do” he takes a deep breath. “I don’t want to think about you anymore”
Hannibal looks away, before answering.
“You delight in wickedness and then berate yourself for the delight.”
“You delight.” – Will corrects. “I tolerate. I don't have your appetite.”
The words just came out; because he felt the need of free himself from Hannibal, once for all. That man, seated right in front of him, had completely changed his life. They were obsessed with each other. All of it, because they understood and accepted the other, in the way that nobody else in the world was capable of.
Separated, they were miserable. Both passed too much time roaming the Earth, alone. Because they were too unique, and they had such specific and high mentality. For Will, it's like for his whole life he's been not only a great chess player, but in fact the only person in the whole world who knows the rules of chess.
Then another person walks in the room, who's also a genius chess player and that sense of relief and gratitude and recognition is powerful. And everything makes sense. Well, for a while.
Hannibal wasn’t good for him. Will knew it. He brings out the dark side of Will, that one he wanted to hide. Even the darker parts of him, some that he didn’t even know, they appear when he was in the presence of the psychiatrist.
With heavy eyes, and irregular breathing, the words came out, hurting more than he would ever imagine.
“Goodbye, Hannibal”
Hannibal was surprised. Because Will had this ability, since the first moment they met, he always surprised Hannibal.
To Hannibal, people were always like puzzles, too easy for him to solve. Usually, with one conversation he deciphered the most of them. Even when he found the more complicated ones, he never takes so long to understand the person. But Will was different, and a side of him, liked it. The way he could never entirely predict him.
Besides, Will was able to understand him. And as hard it was to believe, even if he could see behind the mask, through Hannibal’s dark soul, knowing all the worst in him, Will was able to ignore all that, and accepted him. And who among us doesn't want understanding? And acceptance? In other words, who among us doesn’t want an unconditional love? Although, it was more an unhealthy love, when it comes to Will and Hannibal.
After look to Will one last time, Hannibal left the room, where he had spent hours watching his precious Will. He had saved him from Mason, because he promised Alana, and because he cares too much to leave him behind.
He carried him, changed his clothes and took care of his injuries. Hannibal put him in bed, and watching him for a long period, until he decides to talk to Chiyoh.
Chiyoh. She was waiting Hannibal outside, and when she noticed his distant and sad eyes, seeing that Will didn’t come out with him… She knew, and she wanted to push Will from a train again for that.
“You’re not coming”
“I haven’t decided yet” he answered.
He really could leave and lose forever his bond with Will? He could get away so much to this point? He feared that wouldn’t be able to.
“If you stay…”
“I know what happens if I stay” he smiled. “But how could I leave him?”
She sighed heavily. She couldn’t understand how Hannibal, from all people, had been driven because of feelings. Moreover, she met Will, and he was a pain in the ass.
Part was jealous, part was protection, and part was anger because Will freed her from her prisoner. The life outside her old house, the world out there was not the way she wanted. It was cruel, and she would eternally blame him for having to meet that place again.
“Why, Hannibal?
“We all do stupid things for love. Even the smartest of us”
Chiyoh left him behind. She would keep watching from distance, because she needed seem with her own eyes that he would actually do it. Hannibal was hoping that she wouldn’t kill Will for that.
He closed his eyes, and went to his mind palace. Walking in his office, where he didn’t step for months, walking in Florence… Everywhere he went, even in his head, he felt Will’s presence.
He didn’t understand why, but even when they were separated, he took some of his time to imagine Will seating in his armchair, right in front of him, talking and laughing, about the inside jokes only Will would find it funny. They were conjoined.
The noises of the cars waken Hannibal from his thoughts. He saw Jack leaving the car, and Will going to the porch to say “He’s gone, Jack”. Will was wearing his glasses now. Hannibal asks himself what that supposes to mean. He takes a deep breath, before he lift and start walking until the cop’s direction.
"Jack, I’m here" He said out and loud, making everyone fixed the eyes on him. Walking with the hands behind his head, he knelt in from of a Jack looking really surprised, still avoiding look at Will. "You finally caught the Chesapeake Ripper, Jack"
"I didn't catch you." said Jack facing him, though he still sounded victorious "You surrendered."
"I want you to know exactly where I am…" he said, and then completed looking directly to Will. "And where you can always find me. "
Will was surprised, obliviously. He would never imagined that the fact he break up with Hannibal would make he turn himself in. He really was mad enough to this point? It was in this moment he realized the effect he had over Lecter.
He couldn’t be there staring Hannibal being taken by the cops. Then, he turned and step into the house again.
While Hannibal was taken, with Will’s voice echoing in his head. “Do you believe you could change me, the way that I changed you?” “I already did.”