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Title: Utter Clarity
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: Sequel to "In His Own Skin."
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.

***

Hannibal was going to kiss him.

It was as inevitable as the tide rolling in to the beach, as night following day, as the sunrise coming up every morning. It was simply going to happen.

There was no way for him to stop the kiss, and he wasn't going to wish it away. Will knew that he could do nothing but surrender to the inevitable, and let events take their course. Sooner or later, this had been bound to happen. There was nothing he could do to stop it.

This was the moment of truth, when he finally found out what he would do if his relationship with Hannibal took a more personal turn.

He had wondered idly about this, wondered how he would feel, how he would react. Well, now he was going to find out --- and once it had happened, there would be no turning back. He and Hannibal woulld never be able to go back to where they had been before.

This would turn a corner in their relationship; it would signal the beginning of an entirely new chapter in their lives, forever changing the way they saw each other.

What happened now, in the next few minutes, would change everything.

The two of them leaned closer to each other; Will could feel his eyelids closing as he raised his face, his breath catching in his throat.

He waited for the tingle, the feel of Hannibal's lips on his -- and when it happened, it didn't feel strange or odd at all. It simply felt .... inevitable, as though the two of them had been heading towards this ever since their first meeting, their first handshake.

At first, Hannibal's lips on his were gentle, searching. The kiss was like the softest breeze, only a caress, the slightest, barest touch.

Then, as the two of them moved closer, the kiss became harder, more demanding. Hannibal's arms slid around his waist, pulling him closer to the warmth of the other man's body; those lips slanted across his, coaxing his mouth open, his head falling back.

Will gave himself up to that kiss, to the pleasure of being in Hannibal's arms, the feeling of being taken, of being surrounded. He surrendered to the sense of inevitability.

He hadn't expected a mere kiss to feel like this.

He hadn't realized that a kiss could feel like this. He was shaken to the core; he could feel that kiss all the way from his head to his toes.

The feeling reverberated through his entire body, leaving him trembling like a plucked guitar string. For a few moments, Will felt as though he didn't know which way was up; if he had tried to stand on his own two feet, he would have fallen to the ground.

Everything felt as though it was turned upside down; there was no right or wrong, no light or dark, no up and down. There was only Hannibal, and those lips on his own.

Those lips were so soft, so gentle. He had never suspected that Hannibal could kiss like this -- or that he could so easily let himself fall into that kiss.

Will wanted the kiss to last forever, to stay here for the rest of his life, locked into Hannibal's embrace, that kiss sundering his senses, never-ending, moving in an infinite circle. But he knew that couldn't be; sooner or later, they would have to move forward.

That would be the moment of truth for both of them, when they faced each other and made decisions about where their relationship was heading.

Everything was moving so quickly, changing in the blink of an eye.

He wasn't ready for this. He wasn't ready to face the future, to make decisions about just where they were going. He needed this to slow down.

But as Hannibal slowly pulled away from him and those dark eyes gazed into his own, Will knew that he wasn't going to be given time to acclimatize himself to how quickly this was moving. He had to make those decisions on his feet, rather than take his time.

He wasn't going to be given the luxury of time. He had to decide what was right for him and what he wanted in the snap of a finger, at a moment's notice.

Panic rose in him at the thought; he wasn't prepared to make personal decisions that could affect the rest of his life, not now. He needed time to back away, to survey the situation, to think about what he was doing and what he wanted from the future.

This wasn't just something that affected the moment. This would affect the outcome of his life, and how he would handle his future -- with or without Hannibal in it.

He couldn't make those decisions without seriously considering the possibilities.

But he had to, didn't he? If he waited, if he backed away, he might lose the one chance he could have with the man he wanted to be with.

He had to force himself to take the proverbial bull by the horns and make those decisions on the fly, in the blink of an eye, and trust that he had done the right thing for himself. He had to face that moment of truth and then move forward with confidence.

Pulling back slightly, Will gazed into Hannibal's eyes, almost mesmerized by those dark depths. What he saw there made his heart flutter, his breath stop for a moment.

He saw desire written in those eyes. Hannibal hadn't come here today out of mere friendship -- no, this man wanted him, and all of this had been a seduction, a buildup to what Hannibal wanted to happen between them.

Will wanted it, too. In a moment of pure and utter clarity, he saw what he had been missing from his life, and he wanted nothing more than to reach out and grab it.

He wanted Hannibal. More than he had ever wanted anything.

There was no sense in holding back any more, not now that he knew what he wanted. The moment of truth was upon them, and he was embracing it.

This time, when Hannibal moved towards him and their lips met again, Will met that kiss with a desire of his own, a desire that was growing stronger by the moment.

***