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Title: Only An Illusion
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,084
Author's Note: Sequel to "Time For A Change."
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Will Graham or Hannibal Lecter, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

"What do you mean, you don't want to see Max?"

Will couldn't believe what he was hearing. He thought that Hannibal had agreed to this, that he was going to take Max to obedience lessons to make him behave more respectably.

After the lessons, Hannibal was supposed to give Max another chance, not simply say that he wanted nothing to do with the dog and that Will had to make a choice.

"I mean exactly what I've said, Will," Hannibal said, scowling. "I have put up with enough from that beast of yours. I do not want to see it, and I will not allow it into my house. I suppose that if you decide to have it off of its leash, it will more than likely try to bite me. It has before."

"But Max has been going to obedience classes," Will said, hearing the pleading note that had come into his voice, and hating himself for it. "He's improved a lot. He'll behave now."

Hannibal shook his head, his scowl growing more ferocious. "I don't see how you can be so sure about that," he said, backing away from WIll. "That animal is a danger to people."

Will shook his head, a frown forming between his brows.

"Max is a decent dog," he said, taking a step back from Hannibal, towards the front door. "The only person he seems to have a problem with is you. Maybe you're the problem, not him."

Hannibal's face didn't change, but Will could see his dark eyes growing colder, as though there was a film of ice between the two of them. He'd never seen Hannibal look so unapproachable.

"If you truly believe that, then you have made your choice between me and that .... animal," Hannibal said, his voice cold and steely. Will was sure that if anyone else had been speaking, they would have spit the words out like evil-tasting pebbles. Hannibal, however, stayed calm and cool.

The other man's calmness sent a chill down Will's spine. He couldn't help but be struck by one thought: Was this the first time that he was actually seeing the real Hannibal?

How could his boyfriend be so cold? He knew how much Will cared for all of his dogs, and he had to know that Will wasn't going to simply get rid of any of them.

After all that they'd shared, he didn't want to think that his boyfriend would simply act as though Max wasn't welcome here without giving Will a chance to prove that his pet could behave well. He felt as though Hannibal was reneging on a bargain they had made, and slamming a door in his face.

If Hannibal could do this, then maybe the two of them weren't meant to be together. Maybe he'd made a mistake in giving himself to someone who was apparently so different from him.

"If there's no room for Max in your home or in your heart," then there's no room for me there, either," Will said, his voice just as cold and abrupt as Hannibal's had been.

He waited to see if those words would have any effect on the other man.

Hannibal shook his head, the coldness in his eyes not changing. "Then, sad to say, you have made your decision, Will. I told you that you had a choice between your animals and me."

Will could hardly believe what he was hearing. Hannibal was willing to throw what they shared away simply because Will wouldn't do something he demanded, something that wasn't right?

He took a long, hard look at the man who he had been involved with for the past few months, the man who he had thought he was in love with. Did he really love Hannibal? Or was he just settling, telling himself that this was his only chance to have any kind of romantic relationship?

As he thought back over the last few months, he realized that he had given up a lot for Hannibal -- and that the other man had given up nothing for him. Nothing at all.

Hannibal still kept his secrets. He only told Will what he wanted to hear; he didn't bare the depths of his heart and soul the way Will did. He didn't open up about himself in any way.

What he'd thought he loved was only an illusion that was crumbling into dust.

This was their first fight, Will told himself. And it would be their only fight. It was obvious that their relationship wasn't going to stand up to him disobeying Hannibal's orders.

And he wasn't going to be involved with someone who expected him to obey those orders. He was his own man, who made his own decisions. He wasn't Hannibal's servant.

"If that's the way you feel, then I'm not welcome here any more than Max is." Will turned and walked toward the door, yanking it open and stepping out onto the front porch of Hannibal's home, letting the door slam shut behind him with a satisfyingly loud bang as he walked down the steps.

For a moment, just a moment, he hoped that Hannibal would come out of the house behind him, say that he was sorry and that he hadn't meant it, and invite both him and Max back inside.

But that didn't happen. The door stayed obstnately closed as he walked to his car, got in, buckled his seat belt, and started the engine. There was no movement from the house as he drove away.

Will looked over at Max, still sitting in his dog carrier, and sighed softly.

"So that's the end of it, Max," he said, his voice very low, though it sounded loud in the quiet of the car. "That's how it ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper. And without a goodbye."

It had all been an illusion, he told himself as he headed for the entrance to the freeway that would take him back to Wolf Trap. And now, it was time to wake up and live in the real world.

***