prompt: digestivo setting. after hannibal has brought will home and they've both changed and bandaged, will wakes sometime in the middle of the night while hannibal is keeping an eye on him. something quiet and private and personal. a last connection before will sleeps again and the inevitability of morning's events happen.
Will wakes to the sound of rustling paper. Uncertain where he is, his heart begins to race, his last memory before the world faded to black the cold press of Cordell’s scalpel into his flesh.
Grounded by familiar surroundings, he realizes he is back in Wolf Trap, back in the comfort of his own bed. Through the dimly-lit dark he sees Hannibal seated in an armchair at the foot of his bed, pencil gliding smoothly over paper.
Hannibal’s hand stops, dropping his pencil and pressing it between the pages of the notebook. He places it on the floor when he catches Will’s gaze, quietly standing before perching on the edge of the bed.
Will flinches only slightly when Hannibal touches his cheek, then his forehead, inspecting his wounds. The touches are clinical and tender, but if Will had more energy he would be tempted to lean into the warmth of his hands.
They don’t speak. Hannibal gazes into his eyes and Will doesn’t know if he wants to laugh, or cry, or scream at him to leave and never come back. He is so very tired, so he settles for silence instead.
Hannibal takes his hand, gently cradling it in his own. Will is too weak to pull away, is uncertain if he even wants to, something inside him still reaching out for the attentions of the monster who left him bleeding on his kitchen floor. The beast who wanted to devour him. The man who saved him when someone else dared to try and take his life.
The soft glow of lamplight forms half a halo around Hannibal’s head. In Will’s mind’s eye the other half takes the shape of claws and teeth, twisted antlers suspended on a sunbeam.
In Will’s mind’s eye a teacup gathers itself back up again, the sound of hooves on pavement rattling inside his head. The kettle sings, a raven-black stag snuffing at his neck as sleep pulls him down again. Hannibal’s warm presence remains beside him, enveloping him in the safety of the dark.
Safe, for now, deep inside the belly of the beast. Safe, for now, tucked tight inside the coil of Il Mostro’s tail.