hannibal x clarice - stuck in an elevator. pls.
It was, Clarice reasoned, a rather interesting way to end their night at the opera: stuck in the elevator, the lights flickering, the boom of a sudden storm audible over their breathing and she wondered, for just a moment, what her life had become.
Her thoughts were brought on mainly by Hannibal leaning over and whispering just as the intermission started - never during the opera, she knew, because it was tacky and plebian - and told her that Barney was in one of the balconies on the other side, but when they returned he was nowhere to be found; no harm, no foul, she thinks, because Barney was always kind to them.
It’s Hannibal’s hand in hers, now, because she knows that for all the things he’s done - the years spent behind glass, not allowed to be free, to be in the air - that enclosed spaces bother the normally unflappable man, and the darkness makes him think of Mischa; she squeezes his hand and it is returned, just barely, and then the lights flicker back on to full power and the elevator begins to move once more.