Chapter Text
"And cut!" Bryan yelled, "That's it guys! That's the finale!"
Hugh and Kacey gave a celebratory shout as they jumped up from the pool of stage blood and gave each other a hug.
"Oh my God, I can't believe we finally done it!" Kacey was practically sobbing.
"All the long hours and sleepless nights led to this," Hugh said as he pulled back from Kacey and gave her a smile, "Something we can all be proud of."
With all the shouting and laughing from the production team, Hugh and Kacey didn't notice Mads sneaking in through the stage entrance that served as the back door for Hannibal's house. As he got closer, Kacey noticed him first, but Mads gave his head a quick shake and motioned for her to be quiet.
Hugh noticed Kacey wasn't looking at him, "What is it?"
As Hugh turned to see what had caught her attention Mads picked Hugh up and spun him around, laughing at the relatively high pitched shout Hugh gave.
"You fucking Danish pastry! You scared me." Hugh said as he was placed back on the floor. He tried to sound pissed, but the smile that spread across his face gave him away.
"Sorry, Wee Man. But since I am a Danish pastry, you can eat me any time." Mads said with a smirk.
Kacey rolled her eyes at the poor excuse for flirting, "How about you save the cannibal puns for the Doctor. Besides, Bryan writes them better."
Mads laughed and reached out to give Kacey a hug, but a loud crash stopped him.
Laurence stumbled out of the wine room, the shard of plexiglass that was in his neck now in his hand, "Working seventy-two hours at a time on five hours of sleep is not a good idea"
Kacey gave a worried glance to Mads and Hugh as Laurence limped off the stage and towards his trailer.
"Don't worry, he's a tough old man." Hugh said as he gave Kacey one more hug and left to find Bryan.
Kacey turned to Mads, "Speaking of old men, how are you holding up?"
Mads scoffed, "You insinuate that I am not physically capable of sustaining myself, Ms. Rohl? How very rude."
Kacey knew he was trying to be funny but she couldn't bring herself to laugh, "I think spending so much time as Doctor Lecter is starting to affect your brain. I mean, now that the season is over, are you gonna be okay until we come back?"
Mads smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes, "Kacey, you know me. I'm always okay."
Kacey returned his smile with a half-hearted one of her own. She watched as Mads left to join Hugh, who was in the middle of celebrating with Bryan and she figured that was her cue to leave the set as well. Maybe Caroline had gone back to her trailer and she could hang out there for a while.
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He wasn't okay. He hadn't been okay in a long time. Mads let out a sigh as he made his way to Hugh's trailer, walking slowly to try and gather his thoughts. He knew he loved Hugh, he had known it since they first met on the set of King Arthur. But he always assumed that his love for Hugh was only as a friend. He was even willing to say it was deeper than that, maybe the love for a brother. It wasn't until he started seeing Hugh every day on the set of Hannibal that he realized just how much he had missed the warmth that spread throughout his chest as he listened to the Englishman go on about something that happened to him at an airport, or how Hugh's face would light up as he talked about Cyrus.
The thought of Hugh's son sent another wave of disgust through him. Hugh had a son, a wife. Hell, he had children and a wife of his own. A wife he thought he loved more than anything. But whenever Hugh was around, he felt his heart gain a piece of something that he didn't know was missing.
He started to express his love for Hugh through Hannibal. He would talk to Bryan about Hannibal and Will's relationship, how to make it deeper, more romantic. Not sexual, per se, but a love that was honest. Or at least as honest as a character like Hannibal could be. Kacey was the first -and luckily for Mads- only cast member to notice how Mads would suggest scenes where Hannibal and Will were intimate. Whether it was through words or gestures, Kacey finally pieced it all together.
"You know, you are an amazing actor. Trying to meld yourself with Hannibal is dangerous. What if you get lost?" She had said.
Mads expected her to be angry, yell at him for falling for a man with a family while he had one of his own, but he was relieved when she shown nothing but understanding.
"I won't get lost, I just need to do this. I have a way of expressing myself without hurting anyone. It's better this way." He had told her.
Suddenly, Mads tripped and landed on his hands and knees on the first step of Hugh's trailer. He had been so distracted that he didn't see that he had reached his destination. Fast footsteps echoed through the trailer and the door swung open as Mads righted himself.
"Jesus, old man! Be careful, you don't want to break a hip."
That wasn't Hugh's voice.
Mads looked at the man in front of him in shock. It looked like Hugh but it sounded like-
"Will?" Mads asked, a little breathless from his fall.
Hugh gave him a confused look, "What? Oh, right! Sometimes I keep Will's accent going. Easier to transition on set," Hugh had returned to his normal British lilt, "Well come on in. I want to celebrate!"
Mads followed Hugh inside. He would much rather go to his own trailer, get drunk, try not to think too much about how much he wanted to hold Hugh and never let him go. Try not to think about how much Hannibal wanted to hold Will and never let him go. But as Mads entered what passed as the living area of the trailer, he saw that Aaron and Scott were already there. And they had already started drinking beer.
"Hey, Mads! Join the party. Gillian is gonna be here soon!" Scott said, a slight slur to his words.
Mads looked at Hugh with a slight smile, "I didn't realize you were throwing a party."
Hugh returned the smile before switching his voice back to Will's, "I know it isn't wine, Doctor Lecter. But the Chesapeake Ripper owes me a date. "
Hugh then switch back to his normal voice, "You will stay, won't you?"
"Yeah, we can't celebrate the finale without the good doctor himself!" Aaron yelled.
"Of course," Mads said with a smile as he took the beer that Hugh offered him. But as Hugh passed the beer off to him, Mads noted how Hugh refused to keep eye contact. Mads tilted his head slightly, trying to catch Hugh's eyes again before Hugh walked towards the small table that Aaron and Scott took for themselves, leaving Mads to follow and talk to his co-stars or stay by himself.
Mads decided to sit on the sofa that was tucked away into a corner. Maybe Gillian would come in soon and he could focus on something other than how Will was making him feel light-headed without even drinking anything.
It wasn't until he was three beers down and engrossed in a conversation with Gillian about the possibilities of season three that he realized he meant Hugh.