@rhxge continued from here
IT IS IMPROMPTU, this method of communication. He could pick up the telephone and call, he could get on a computer and message him there.
But there was something so authentic about the pen and paper, the pen to the page, of the written word - an old-fashioned courtship in the midst of a burning world, a world smeared with technology, the old ones could not comprehend - in a day and age where INSTANT GRATIFICATION had run amok.
Hannibal Lecter runs his hand along the letter once and his eyes catch glimpses of specific words that came upon that flutter of bright beryl-light and he looks at those words with a softness in his eyes that replaces the earlier weariness that settled itself, like an unwelcome stranger, on his features.
He lifts the letter and speaks to it and he wonders if it is a conduit between the two of them and he is all mouth and shining eyes made bright with the truth of wisdom gained from transformation and at the last, a desperate clutch at HUMANITY.
“Usually, it is I who confesses first - you have broken my personal record, beloved.”
Beloved. How many can he attest to calling such sickeningly sweet sentiments? None - all.
“If you would allow, I can visit - if you hear this. I wish to speak to you in person, to respond to you with my words. My pen, though mighty, cannot match what I can say to you in real time.”
They have always been balanced between arrogance and informality, he, an old and aching thing that has become more HEART than stomach and this being…
Reid Lockheart. A locked heart. This he understands.
He smiles and feels - young, cleaved through, open - rejuvenated.
“Allow me to take you on a proper date, beloved. You are not Erik.”
An old confession, one that was sure to break off uneven pieces, to create something new.