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Title: Signs of Change
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1drabble
Prompt: 7, Change
Author's Note: Sequel to "Never Be Like You."
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 studied himself in the bathroom mirror, not sure if he liked what he was seeing.

So Hannibal had wanted to remake him, turn him into a killer, make Will into his own image. Will knew that he had indeed changed, but he hoped those changes weren't irreversible.

He didn't want to believe that he could have become a killer. Yes, he had killed before -- but he had only done it to save an innocent victim. He'd done what he'd had to do, and he couldn't feel guilty about ridding the world of a monster like Garret Jacob Hobbs.

He wasn't at all sorry for delivering the bullet that had ended Hobbs' life. That monster hadn't deserved to live, any more than Hannibal Lecter did.

They were both monsters, both hideous, twisted parodies of human beings.

Neither one of them deserved to breathe the same air that decent people did. Will was just glad that one of those monsters was dead, and the other locked away.

And he himself was a free man, but he had changed so much in the time that he'd been unfairly jailed. Not just in the time that he'd been behind bars, Will told himself. He had changed irrevocably in the time that he had known Hannibal.

All fo those changes had been for the worse. He had learned to be more cautious, more wary of people, to lock himself behind barriers and to trust no one.

That was what Hannibal lies and manipulations had done to him. They had made him a man who would have an even harder time functioning in the world than he already did.

Which was what Hannibal had wanted, Will thought with a sigh. He'd wanted to have Will dependent on him, completely under his control in every way. He had wanted Will to turn to that darkness that every person harbored within themselves, to embrace it.

That was probably why Hannibal had framed him. The bastard had wanted prison to change him to the point where there was no turning back.

Hannibal had expected him to embrace that darkness completely.

Well, he hadn't done it, and he was proud that he hadn't. He had managed to hold on to himself, to the best part of what was within him.

He hadn't given in to the darkness, hadn't changed so much that he couldn't recognize himself within his own reflection. Yes, there were changes within him. After what he'd been through, there couldn't not be changes. But he was still essentially himself.

Hannibal hadn't succeeded in changing Will in the ways that he'd wanted to. It had been a narrow escape, but he hadn't become the evil monster that Hannibal wanted him to be.

No matter what he had to do, he would be sure that change never took place.

***