Do you have any fic recs that are like heart wrenching? I'm talking like life destroyingly painful but absolutely gorgeous at the same time?
We both have been blessed with a fandom populated by talented, cruel writers, whose art can inflict as much pleasure as pain. I’m fascinated by the way the same author can move me to tears in both cases :) so to answer your question, I think I do have what you’re looking for, but before we begin, let me remind you to always. check. the. warnings. They are there for a reason and while I’m confidend you’re strong and ready, you may suffer a lot without even realising what’s happening if you don’t prepare yourself. Please, read responsibly.
A State of Constant Departure by @solitary-sister
Summary: Four years after the fall, Will leaves in hopes of growing into someone who can be with Hannibal.
Mature
Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Will Graham, Hannibal Lecter
This is admittedly more nostalgic than heart-destroying, but I personally think there’s more than one way you can interpret the sounds that lets you presume your heart is in pieces. It can crash, of course, but it can also be slowly suffocated under a pillow, just to be rescued at the last moment, before the bitter end. In this case, I’d say the blissful sufferance is not fatal, but a sweet indulgence for your appetite of sorrow and ache.
Carmen Cygni by @slineq
Summary: Will Graham and Beverly Katz are partners running a Private Investigator bureau. Will Graham’s reputation brings Agent Jack Crawford of the FBI to his door, seeking his professional touch in proving that Dr. Hannibal Lecter is the notorious Chesapeake Ripper. Apparently, that involves Will dating the man. Will is not thrilled, until he is. Then everything goes to hell in a handbasket.
Explicit
Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Will Graham, Hannibal Lecter, Beverly Katz, Jack Crawford, Bedelia Du Maurier, Franklyn Froideveaux, Will Graham’s Dogs
This is not strictly going to tear your heart with a powerful move, like other works in this list will, but instead slowly reap your hopes until you think you and Will Graham both didn’t deserve this. It’s a very efficient revisitation of the first season in an alternate universe where Will is a private investigator and Hannibal is partnered with him in the capture of the Chesapeake Ripper. To be fair, you won’t have to worry about not having a happy ending.
Each man kills the thing he loves by @mazephoenix
Summary: Hannibal Lecter killed Will Graham, everyone knows that. Clarice Starling finds out why.
Mature
Major Character Death
Hannibal Lecter, Clarice Starling, Will Graham
This is a very excruciating story from a very interesting writer, who has the tendency to write short stories that leaves you wonder what they could have done to you if they produced more. Hannibal has to announce Will’s death to the rest of the world and to undergo the most terrible sentence: to once again survive his beloved and to live longer than his dear ones, like Mischa before anyone else. Their tags are not particularly specific, so the research might take a while, but this writer produced other works on the same sad lines, if you’re willing to delve in.
Enlightenment by @luvkurai
Summary: Hannibal Lecter claims Will—and broadcasts it to the FBI.
Explicit
Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jack Crawford, Brian Zeller, Beverly Katz
This work has a bit of the taste which I imagine the first works in this fandom shared. The thrill of Stockholm syndrome, so difficult to mask when you finish the first season and you want to see Hannibal and Will in a relationship. Fortunately we had the second to answer our necessities, but before we could enjoy that, I envision many writers creating works with this kind of atmosphere, where Hannibal is in control, Jack is powerless and Will is letting himself slowly transition from one man to the other, letting himself be controlled by a different manipulator. It’s a painful but necessary passage, an enlightening take on their twisted personalities.
Here With Me by @halotolerant
Summary: The little candles illuminating the bathroom are there because the power’s out. The scent of expensive perfume is because Hannibal can’t wash properly with the bandages still covering his healing wounds – or that’s what they’re saying, not that he won’t even begin to try - and his body odour has gone high and thick, past musk and into something rougher.
Teen And Up
Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham
This is another kind of heart-shaking altogether. It keeps you still, fearful to even move, because you perceive the danger and you know better than to escape. The atmosphere is almost lazy, if not for the evident uneasiness in the air. As a reader, you’ll experience here a deluded heart not from the perspective of the sorrowful one, not experiencing first-hand, but instead witnessing the misery of someone affected by such emotion. It certainly is an experience to behold.
Housekeeping by @metaphorgoneawry
Summary: Marriage is a creature living separate from its components. Yet it requires attention, tolerance and care. Have you seen it? Could you recognize its deep wounds - and which one of you inflicted them? And are they ready to heal? What do you really know about this illusory animal?
Explicit
No Archive Warnings Apply
Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Dr. Frederick Chilton, Kade Purnell, Beverly Katz, Jack Crawford, Bella Crawford, Brian Zeller, Jimmy Price, Freddie Lounds, Bedelia Du Maurier, Abel Gideon, Alana Bloom, Matthew Brown; Hannigraham, ChillyWilly
If you want to suffer, you can let this awesome writer tear your mind and soul apart with one of their works. One at random, they’re all valid alternatives. I arbitrarily choose this one because I always concentrate on Hannigraham works and this contains other interesting pairings as well, while still fundamentally remaining Hannigraham. This story treats the theme of conjugal infidelty with elegance and cruelty, in a small reality where marriage is maybe more important on a social status than it is in relationship to two persons loving and respecting each other. A work that makes you reflect on the true value of your everyday life, as you requested. I suggest you don’t seek salvation for your poor soul in other works of this author, once you finish this. I did and I lived to regret it.
if you will come all the way down with me by @coloredink
Summary: “This is important to me,” says Hannibal. “You will have to know how to do this, if we are to be together.”
Mature
Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Abigail Hobbs
This author uses the fanciful tag “Nothing is Beautiful and Everything Hurts,” which perfectly fulfills its task. You will cry so hard when you finish reading something tagged as such. But it’s ok, you’re here for this. In this very case, Will undergoes an interesting apprenticeship under Hannibal’s tutelage, which mostly envisions touching moments of intimacy and the experience of transforming something beautiful into something edible. An author I would recommend all-round, one of my favourites.
Je me souviens by @avegetariancannibal
Summary: If it meant keeping someone forever, how far would you go? How long would you live?
Explicit
Major Character Death
Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham
I have fat tears and wavering lips while I type, after having finished reading it again, so when I say this is a very sad and realistic story I’m probably being reductive. Hannibal has great faith in his memory palace and this story challenges its limits. You may have recognized this author for their previous works, very crack, very funny, very hot. If you read this, you’ll know they’re capable of all that and so much more.
Kiss Me, Liar… by @phenobarbitalfiction
Summary: Hannibal would never again let Will see him, because ultimately, his ability to forgive was finite and he was, intrinsically, sociopathic.
Explicit
Major Character Death
Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jack Crawford
I started reading this without checking the tags and I certainly didn’t expect such a painfully plausible, vivid scenario, especially considering the other works of this very writer. And their personality. I was so shocked it took me some time to start speaking to them again, I’ll admit. This is short, compared to their normal wordcount, but heart-rendering none the same. Will and Hannibal have finally found their happiness far from Jack’s control, but if Will survived the fall, he didn’t his guilty feelings.
Mouth Guard by @cinnamaldeide
Summary: There were technical devices to ensure the canine growth wouldn’t remain unnoticed in werecreatures and, specifically, werewolves. When their teeth would cyclical lengthen and sharpen, mouth guards were supposed to restrict them, as to give the nocturnal creature the chance to take precautions; one last glimmer of sanity before irredeemably losing control. Will Graham, at one point, lost his own.
Mature
No Archieve Warnings Apply
Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jack Crawford, Alana Bloom, Will Graham’s Dogs, Abigail Hobbs, Donald Sutcliffe
Because what’s the fun if you can’t sneak a self-rec in your own long multiple rec post? When you asked for painful yet beautiful stories, I admittedly didn’t think about mine, but this one in particular has been considered not entirely far from depressing, so I guess you can try and see if this is something you can enjoy. Will becomes a werewolf and Hannibal seems eager to help him settle in his new exciting life.
Time Has Told Me by @zigzag-wanderer
Summary: This was kind of for Halloween? Kind of a vampire fic? Maybe?
Explicit
Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jack Crawford, Alana Bloom
It would have been so hard to recover from this story if the ending hadn’t been so merciful, so sweet. An incredibly apt work for Halloween, it certainly gave me the chills. Of course, that didn’t stop me from reading, as it shouldn’t stop you. Hannibal has a mighty hunger, an unending crave, and only the suffering of other people seems to relieve it. Meeting Will is only slightly an improvement of the situation. You’ll love it, as you would the rest of this writer’s production.
Warrior by Becks
Summary: After the Minnesota Shrike, Will Graham needs someone to hold him together. Hannibal Lecter steps up for the job – with a few conditions.
Explicit
Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jack Crawford
This work is part of a two-works serie, which in its ensemble could probably stand as the missing connection between the cruel beast that is Hannibal in the books and the aesthetical creature we learned to love in the show. It’s both and the same, and it doesn’t leave you bleeding on the floor, but with an unrecovering mind and no desire to live the rest of your days, which is arguably worse. If you can manage the first work, you should already be craving for the second in any case, but if you still hunger for angst even after that you should start on their incomplete amnesia fic and receive my compliments if you survive.
We, the Common by @thelongcon23
Summary: Hannibal has several trains of thought regarding Will Graham – launched at different velocity - with alternate destinations in mind, and the longer he knows the man the greater the underground network becomes. He starts to regret the first hasty departure (the set-up) but he can’t bring himself to derail it – he’s curious to see how it will end, where those wheels will take him. Humiliation, friendship, matters of family, self-preservation, deception, knowing, acceptance, they all overtake each other - even the black thunder of sadism - but one carriage is light and airy in its tireless journey, always set to Hannibal’s amusement. Come hunt me, he cajoles, watching Will on the podium. Come find me, if you can.
Explicit
Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Jack Crawford, Alana Bloom
This work is not here because it’s omegaverse. It is here because it utterly destroyed me in the best way, because sex is here not an instrument of pleasure, but a means to torture, to exert your power on a vulnerable creature, to bare yourself in turn and see your efforts wasted, to humiliate and to submit. Hannibal is an indomitable omega, as expected of him, and Will is at his mercy as much as Hannibal should be at Will’s. Fortunately for my mental sanity, and probably your own once you finish the first chapter, there’s a second one waiting for you to get back up on your feet.
These are of course not all the authors capable of destroying you with their beautiful words, and I’d encourage you to explore their other productions to thoughfuly benefit from their potential. If you’re like me, you won’t be disappointed. Please remember you literally asked for all this beautiful suffering and don’t be mad at me. It’s all in the name of good reading.Don’t forget to leave kudos to every story you read and to comment them, since the authors very much deserve to know they’re profoundly loved for having decided to write their wonderful masterpieces, losing time and energy out of selfless masochism love for us readers.It has been a while since I last created a multiple fic rec, and this one in particular contains an impressive amount of Major Character Deaths and other interesting warnings. It has been unhealthily fun. I hope this is an adequate answer to your question ^^ thank you so much for asking your request, be sure to tell me if this post has been helpful to you! :*