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Title: Moving On
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Will Graham/Sherlock Holmes
Fandom: Hannibal/Sherlock
Rating: PG-13
Table: writers_choice
Prompt: #98, Moving on
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.

***

He was finally doing it. He was moving on.

Will leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes. The plane had been aloft for a little over an hour, and they still had quite a long flight ahead of them. But he didn't mind that; flying had never bothered him. He just felt relieved to be on his way to a new life.

He was glad to be leaving Wolf Trap behind. He'd had a good life there -- at least until Hannibal had come into it and everything had been turned upside down -- but it was time to leave that life behind. It was time for him to look forward, not back.

And not only did he have a new life, but he had a relationship with someone who loved him. That was an unexpected gift, one that made his heart sing and his soul soar. He had never expected to find love, but he had, against all the odds.

It was past time for him to move on. If he'd had the courage, he would have left Wolf Trap when Hannibal had first come into his life and he'd had the feeling that there was something ominous about the man, something dangerous that he should run from.

But no, he'd been stupid and had stayed there, and had let Hannibal draw him into a web of danger and deceit. That had been his own fault; his instincts had told him that Hannibal was evil, but he hadn't listened to them. He'd never make that mistake again.

The next time his instincts screamed at him, he'd pay attention.

He didn't need to think about that now, he told himself firmly. It was water under the bridge; he was leaving all of that behind him. His life would be in London now, with Sherlock. He would have a whole new place to explore and learn, a whole new life to get used to.

It wouldn't be that hard, Will told himself. Not when he had someone by his side who knew the city well, who would be able to show him around and help him to get acclimatized. He hadn't had that when he'd first moved to Wolf Trap.

He would still remember how lonely and scared he'd been when he had first come there, living in a hotel room until he'd found the house. It had been everything he had wanted at the time, and he'd jumped at the chance to buy it and fix it up.

That house had felt like his safety net, his refuge, for so long that it had been a wrench to leave it. But he knew that he would no longer feel safe there. Hannibal would always be around, and he would never feel that he could trust anyone connected with his former friend.

Which was pretty much everyone he knew. He had to let them all fade into the background of his life, along with all that had happened in the past. They were no longer a part of his life; that chapter was a closed book, one that he didn't want to read again.

London would be a new experience for him, and even though he wasn't entirely sure that he was going to like living in a crowded city, he'd get used to it. Maybe he and Sherlock could take weekend trips into the country to get away from it all.

He was going to look on the bright side of things.

There was no reason not to do that, Will mused. He was, after all, a very lucky man not only to have his freedom, but to have found love along with that. He was lucky to have someone like Sherlock in his life, a man who loved him and believed in him.

He turned his head to look at Sherlock, a small smile on his lips. He knew that his boyfriend didn't sleep much, but the last few days had been exhausting for both of them, and Sherlock was asleep now, his head turned slightly towards the window.

Will loved how Sherlock looked when he slept; he was somehow vulnerable, younger. Not that he didn't already look young, Will thought to himself. It was hard to believe that Sherlock was in his early thirties; he didn't look like a man who had lived for that many years.

He was a fascinating mix of young and old, experience and innocence, sweetness and cynicism. And Will loved him. It had been hard for him to admit at first that he'd fallen in love so quickly and so completely, but he had. And there was no reason to deny it.

Wonder of wonders, Sherlock actually felt the same way about him. That was the hardest thing for him to believe; that someone like Sherlock could actually love him, could care about him so fiercely and want to protect him.

No one else had ever felt like that about him. No one had ever wanted to protect him, to keep him safe from anyone and anything that would do him harm. No one else had ever wanted to be his shield, to stand as a sentinel between him and whatever fate threw into his path.

He loved. And he was loved.

Will was still trying to wrap his head around that; it felt so new, so different from anything he'd ever known before. But he wasn't going to let go of this feeling, or give it up. It was part of moving on, of starting a new life and carving out a new niche for himself.

How was it possible for someone like him to find love? He'd never believed that he would; he had resigned himself long ago to spending his life alone. By the time he'd met Sherlock, alone hadn't seemed like such a bad thing -- but then, he hadn't thought that he had much of a future then.

Sherlock had not only given him love. Sherlock had given him hope, a hope that he'd thought he would never feel again. Sherlock had thrown open the windows of that dark place he'd been in and had let in the bright light, brought sunshine and joy into his life.

The first time they'd kissed, all of that darkness had melted away into the background as though it didn't exist. Sherlock had opened up new doors for him; it was thanks to this man that he was finally able to move on with his life, to look forward to the future.

He would share that future with Sherlock. He couldn't wait for it to start; it seemed bright and shiny, and he had no doubt that the two of them would be happy together. He was going to make sure they were happy, that they had love and laughter in their lives every day.

It had been too long since he'd laughed, too long since he had let himself feel unadulterated joy. Hannibal had taken all of that joy from his life -- if much of it had even been there. He'd been a living a dark, uninteresting, grey life for what seemed like ages.

Well, that grey life was gone now. It had been replaced by happiness.

He was moving on, from darkness into light. He had left that long tunnel behind him now; he had made it through to the other side, and Sherlock was his reward for all that he had been through. Sherlock was his light, his hope, his future.

He was going to hold on to that future with everything he had, Will promised himself. He didn't know just how things were going to work out, but he was going to believe that they would. Whatever he ended up doing in London, he would throw himself into it completely.

He was moving on, in the best way possible. He was going to love the life that he and Sherlock led together, and throw himself into it with all the passion that he'd expended on the cases he'd worked on with the FBI. This would be the same in some ways, and different in others.

There was no reason why this life that he and Sherlock were moving into wouldn't work for them. They loved each other, and they wanted a life together, as a couple. Neither of them had lived a life that included any significant others before, but they could do it.

He could do anything as long as the man he loved was by his side, Will told himself, gazing lovingly at Sherlock. This man had given him the gift of a new life -- as well as giving Will his heart. He would keep that heart safe, and cherish it always.

Will closed his eyes, settling back into his seat with a smile on his face.

***