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Title: Bittersweet Coda
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Table: Personal Challenge, 1drabble
Prompt: 20, Bittersweet
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Hannibal Lecter or Will Graham, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Hannibal smiled as he reached down to stroke his fingertips along Will's cheek, their gazes meeting. Neither of them spoke; Will swallowed hard as a realization came into his mind, crystal-clear, as though a photograph of the future had been revealed to him.

This was going to end. He didn't know when, or how, but it would end. As close as he and Hannibal were now, they couldn't stay that way.

At some point, they were going to part -- not drifting apart, but ripped asunder by a sudden tear in the fabric of their relationship. They would end up being pitted against each other -- their enmity would be as bitter then as their intimacy was sweet now.

He didn't want that time to come.

He wanted the two of them to stay as they were; he wanted them to be even closer, for them to become lovers in the fullest sense. He wanted all of the walls that they each kept around themselves to come crumbling to the ground, for them both to let each other in.

But it could never happen, and a part of him knew that. They were both far too secretive, holding those secrets close. They were both far too protective of themselves, neither of them trusting anyone enough for any kind of full disclosure, not even to their lovers.

The day would come when they'd part, and they would become bitter enemies. He could see it now, as clearly as though it had already happened. He didn't know when that day would arrive, but he had the dreadful feeling that it would come more quickly than he thought.

The idea of it made his heart clench in his chest; the last thing he wanted was to lose the lifeline that he was clinging to so desperately. He didn't want to believe that the closeness he had with Hannibal could turn to enmity, that he could lose this forever.

The thought was almost too painful to bear.

Will closed his eyes, turning his face to the side, into Hannibal's palm. He couldn't stand to lose this; if he didn't have Hannibal in his life, then he had nothing but his work, and that would be cold comfort indeed. It wouldn't be enough. It never had been.

Maybe he would still have Hannibal in his life in some way, in a bittersweet coda that would leave a faint but visible bruise on his soul.

That bruise would never heal. It would always be there, as a bittersweet reminder of what Hannibal had once been to him, and all that he had lost. He could already feel it forming, in the region of his heart -- a darkness that would mark him for the rest of his life.

***