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Title: Look Good in Orange
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Table: Table 2, 20 in 20 Challenge, tv_universe
Prompt: 6, Orange
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.

***

Will blinked as he walked outside, refusing to look behind him. He'd left that prison cell behind for good; he didn't want to look back at the past.

He didn't want to remember the time he'd spent behind bars.

It would be hard to forget those hours, those days, those weeks. Had it only been a matter of weeks? It had seemed like much longer. Each passing day had felt like a lifetime, and he'd been so sure that he would grow old and die there.

But he hadn't. He was alive, and he was free. He'd been proven innocent, ironically by the same man who had put him there in the first place.

Will didn't know why Hannibal had apparently decided that he didn't belong in jail. But he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hannibal had been the one to frame him. His emerging memories of what had been done to him were proof of that.

He would prove Hannibal's guilt to the world, if it was the last thing he did.

That wouldn't be easy to do, but somehow, he would manage it. He would find the clues that eventually led to Hannibal, and present them coherently.

That monster had manipulated him, lied to him, used him, played mind games with him. Never again, Will vowed. Never again would he let himself be made a fool of in such a way. Never again would anyone be able to pull the wool over his eyes so thoroughly.

But it hadn't been so thoroughly, had it? he asked himself. He'd always known that there was something .... well, not quite right about Hannibal.

Why couldn't everyone else see that?

Everyone else still seemed to think that Hannibal was a great guy, that he wouldn't possibly have framed Will for murder. No one saw behind the mask.

But he did. His memories were damning evidence; he knew what Hannibal had done. He might not have all the pieces of himself back yet, and he might not know the whole story. But he knew that Hannibal Lecter was the epitome of evil.

The man was a monster, and he was going to prove it. He didn't know how yet, but he would. He would make sure that Hannibal ended up behind bars.

That was where he belonged. He would be the one wearing that orange suit, the one who would be a prisoner for the rest of his life.

Will's lips twisted in a wry parody of a smile at the thought. He himself would have been given the death penalty if he'd been found guilty, executed as a murderer. But Hannibal .... no, he would live the rest of his life in prison, at the public's expense.

For some reason, he would be deemed as too "good" to execute, even though he richly deserved death for all the evil atrocities that he had committed.

He would wear that orange jumpsuit for all of his life.

Will smiled grimly at the thought. Hannibal wouldn't look nearly as good in that horrible orange color as he himself had, he told himself, in a rare moment of vanity.

But it was true. Hannibal wouldn't look nearly as imposing out of his expensive suits, and hopefully, the monstrous side of who he was would be on full display, front and center, once he was stripped of all of the civilized trappings that made people respect him.

Hannibal wasn't worthy of respect. The thought was venomous, but Will didn't care. It was the truth. There was nothing good or decent about Hannibal.

He was pure evil. And Will intended to prove it.

Only an evil monster would have done what Hannibal had tried to do to him. Only someone who had no redeeming qualities whatsoever would commit multiple murders and try to frame an innocent man for them -- someone who had thought he was their friend.

At least that monster was now under suspicion, which was a step in the right direction. He just hoped that his memory would come back and help to seal Hannibal's fate.

Without those memories, there would be no substantial proof that Hannibal had framed him. And even then, there would be a lot of people who'd insist that he was making it all up, and that Hannibal couldn't possibly be that devious, that evil.

But Will knew that he was. And somehow, he would prove that to the world.

He didn't know how just yet, but he'd manage to do it. Hannibal Lecter would be the one in the cage, in that orange jumpsuit, envying Will his freedom.

Hannibal could be the one to have long one-sided conversations with Chilton. He could try to play his mind games from a prison cell, try to manipulate people from there. He wouldn't be successful, and without that diversion, he would slowly go insane.

Will couldn't help but smile again at that thought. Hannibal would suffer the fate that he'd intended for Will. It was definitely poetic justice.

And he would grow to hate that orange jumpsuit just as much as Will did.

Will's spirits lifted as he took a deep breath of the fresh, clean air of the outside world. Hannibal wasn't going to look good in orange. That much, he was absolutely sure of.

***