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Title: Fated
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Will Graham/Sherlock Holmes
Fandom: Hannibal/Sherlock
Rating: PG-13
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.

***

Sherlock sat on the couch with Winston's head in his lap, smiling as he glanced towards the kitchen. Now that he and Will had finally told each other how they felt, he was much more comfortable being here, and he was sure that Will felt better, too.

Not that he hadn't been comfortable around the other man before; he'd not have wanted Will to move in with him if he felt uneasy around him. But now that their feelings were out in the open, there was a new level of ease between them.

Just sitting here sipping tea, and knowing that Will was right there in the next room, made him feel .... secure. More so than he had in quite some time -- possibly ever. It felt as though his future was assured, and that the future was full of possibilities.

He'd never considered anything like this before; the idea of making a life with someone he loved was new to him. He had long given up looking for love, or a relationship. He had simply accepted that he wasn't meant to be involved, and hadn't thought about it.

Being in a relationship was also something new for him. He was still trying to assimilate the fact that he'd had his first kiss earlier this evening, standing on the front lawn -- if it could be called a lawn -- of Will's house here in Wolf Trap.

It hadn't felt odd, or uncomfortable. It had simply felt right to kiss Will, to feel the other man's body in his arms, to have those soft lips on his. The kiss had been everything that he had ever hoped a kiss could be, and more.

He could still feel the softness of Will's lips on his own, could still taste the sweetness of that kiss. There had been passion behind that sweetness, a passion that he couldn't wait to explore. It still scared him a little, but he would get past that.

There was nothing to be afraid of. Not with Will. He was fairly sure that Will was a virgin as well; they would be exploring this new world of feelings and sensations together. He wouldn't be alone in this, his lover would be along for the ride with him.

His lover. Sherlock couldn't help smiling at those two words; they were words that he'd never thought he would have occasion to say. He had never thought that he'd have a lover; he had resigned himself to being a virgin for all of his life.

But now, he had found the person who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, the person who he wanted to love and make love to, and who he wanted to make love to him. It was as if a puzzle piece had quietly clicked into place, after a long search.

He had always felt like a lone puzzle piece, sitting on the sidelines but never fitting into the big picture. He'd thought that he would always feel that way, that he would never manage to fit in, that he'd always be on the outside looking in.

Meeting Will had changed all of that. He had known from the first time he'd laid eyes on Will, when the other man was still behind bars, that this man would be someone special in his life. It just hadn't occurred to him then how special Will would prove to be.

Will made him feel complete in a way that he never had before. He had never understood why people in love felt that their mates completed them; he'd never understood just how strong those emotions could be. Well, he most definitely understood now.

How was it possible that love could change everything for a person? He had never believed that he would find love; he'd never thought that he would want to be changed in so many ways, from the inside out. But, oddly enough, he did.

Finding Will had added a dimension to his life that he would never have expected it to have. He felt more fulfilled, more energetic; he felt as though he could leap to the top of the world and conquer any problem. Will made him feel .... invincible.

Of course, he knew that he wasn't. No one was invincible, not even the great Sherlock Holmes. But Will made him feel as though he could do anything; just knowing that someone cared about him and believed in him made his spirit soar to the clouds.

Will appeared in the kitchen door, a smile on his face. "I'm making a pizza," he said, indicating the kitchen behind him. "It's just a frozen one, but they're pretty good. I thought we might order out, but since I had this one, I figured we should eat it."

Sherlock nodded and smiled, not really caring what they ate. It was enough for him to be here with Will, for them to be together, and for him to feel so comfortable and at ease in this new situation. It wasn't as hard as he'd thought it might be.

No, so far, being involved with someone had been easy; it seemed to come naturally, as though he and Will had somehow been destined to do this. Was that possible? Could the two of them have been fated to meet, meant to be together?

Sherlock had never really believed in such a capricious thing as fate before, but now, he had to wonder if some sort of kismet might have had a hand in the two of them meeting. Had they always been meant for each other, without either of them knowing it?

No, of course not, he told himself firmly. That idea was silly in the extreme. But still, there did seem to be something outside of themselves that had brought them to each other, some plan that had been guiding their lives.

He could accept that. He could let himself believe that Will had been meant for him, and he for Will, that they were intended to find each other and be together. It wasn't a belief that he would usually ascribe to, but Will was changing a lot of things about him.

He had, after all, never believed that he would find love -- and yet, somehow, he had. For some reason, the man who he had fallen head over heels for actually felt the same way about him, which seemed like something of a minor miracle in itself.

Sherlock had never thought of himself as the sort of person who could inspire a great passion in anyone. He had always thought that if he ever did find love, it would be something that was steady and comfortable, not something passionate and overwhelming.

He'd been very wrong about that, he told himself with an inward smile. The passion he felt for Will was overpowering; for those moments when Will had been in his arms and they had kissed, he had felt more than passion, more than desire.

He didn't know how to put a word to those emotions; they were too new to him, and even a little confusing. But he knew that he wanted to keep feeling them, to let them grow and develop, and that he wanted this relationship with Will to flourish.

"What are you thinking about?" Will asked as he came into the room and sat down beside Sherlock. "So many emotions just flickered over your face in the last few seconds. It was like watching a movie playing out in front of me. It looked pretty serious."

Sherlock laughed ruefully, shaking his head and turning to Will. "No, it wasn't serious," he said softly, reaching out to take Will's hand in his own. "I was simply thinking about us, about the future we have together, and about how we seem to be .... fated."

Will nodded, a slight frown marring his brow. "I used to not believe in things like fate," he commented, twining his fingers through Sherlock's as they sat there facing each other. "But now .... I can't help feelingthat maybe fate did play a part in us finding each other."

"I believe that it did," Sherlock said, his voice very soft. "I don't believe that I would have been here in the States, and have been so readily available to help you, if fate hadn't brought me here and then steered me in your direction."

"And it's like everything -- and everybody -- else played their parts, too," Will mused. "It's almost like everything was .... arranged to perfection for everything to work out for us, doesn't it? Me needing help, you being there to give it --"

"And us falling for each other from the first moment we met," Sherlock finished for him. "Yes, we've all played our parts, even the people who put you behind bars." Sherlock's slight smile morphed into a frown. "I don't think their parts in our lives are done quite yet."

Will sighed softly, nodding in agreement. "I don't think so, either," he said, his voice barely audible. "They want to destroy me, Sherlock. I don't know why, but Jack and Hannibal want me to be under their thumbs. They want to control me."

"That's what men like them are always after. Power and control. And the more they have, the more they want," Sherlock said, his voice tight with anger. The way those men had treated Will made him furious; he wanted to see them pay.

He wanted to put the two of them behind bars, to treat them exactly the way they had treated Will. He wanted them to lose their autonomy, their freedom, to make them suffer. And he wanted to see their reputations destroyed -- again, as they had done to Will.

But this wasn't the time to think about taking revenge for the wrongs of the past, Sherlock told himself firmly. This was the time for the two of them to look towards the future, and to make plans for leaving Will's old life behind and starting a new one.

These remnants of Will's old life could be cleared up later, once they were safely in London and Will was ensconced in the flat at 221B Baker Street, once he had settled in. At the moment, Sherlock was more concerned with getting them to that point.

Yes, the men who had so shamelessly used Will and tried to take him apart piece by piece should be made to pay for what they had done. That was something else that he hoped fate would afford them -- the opportunity to see justice done.

"Maybe it was all fated to happen," Will said softly, breaking into Sherlock's thoughts. "Maybe I had to be in jail for you to be able to meet me, to help me. Maybe this was how it was all supposed to turn out for us, right from the beginning."

"You could be right," Sherlock answered, his own voice equally soft. "I hadn't thought of that, but it could be true, Will." He smiled at the other man, feeling his spirits lift. "Perhaps fate has its own plans for us, and this was how it chose to bring us together."

"I think you might be right about that," Will told him with a soft smile. "But it doesn't matter how fate might have chosen to bring us together in the end, as long as we're together. Whether it's fated or not, I'm exactly where I want to be."

"And when we're in London, then you'll be exactly where you belong," Sherlock added, his own smile mirroring Will's. "I think you're going to love London, Will. This will be a whole new life -- for both of us. Things will be different for me, as well."

When Will didn't say anything, merely smiling at him again, all he could do was gaze into those intensely blue eyes, knowing that he was lost. Yes, he had been fated to fall in love with this man. There was no way he could have avoided it.

Loneliness was the past. Will Graham was his future -- a future that he had been fated to find. And he knew in his heart that their future would be a glorious one. He could hardly wait to get to London and get started on that future as soon as possible.

***