Title: What He Doesn't Know
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Table: narrative_x_10
Prompt: Story 05
Author's Note: Sequel to "Win Or Lose." This was supposed to have been posted before "Quiet Resolution." Sorry, got ahead of myself there!
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 not pleased with this development. Not pleased at all.Hannibal stared at the door to his office long after Will had left and gone home to Wolf Trap for the evening. He had told his young lover that this probably wasn't the best night for them to spend together, as he had an early morning, and more than one patient to see tomorrow.
That had been a lie, of course. He hadn't wanted Will to see how agitated he was, and to guess that there was something more than disapproval coursing through him in regards to Will's plan to offer himself up as bait for a serial killer.
He couldn't tell Will all that he knew about the killings. If he did, then he would find himself behind bars, no matter how much Will loved him.
No, he couldn't take that risk. Will would never understand -- and neither would anyone else. He would simply be looked at as a cold-blooded killer; no one would be able to fathom his reasons behind what he had done. They might even fear for Will's life.
He would never hurt Will. Never.
Killing those other men had never been because he wanted to take Will's life, and killing them had kept him from doing so. No. He had done it to protect Will. He had hated those other men for their physical resemblance to his love, that was all.
How dared they look like Will in any way? How dared they try to be Will? They had no right to be on this earth, to taint his love with their similar looks.
Will was an individual, the one and only. No one else had a right to look like him in any way. No one else had a right to try to be anything like him. Hannibal wanted to preserve the unique beauty that was the Will Graham he knew and loved.
He wouldn't let anyone infringe on Will's existence.
No one would understand his reasoning. No one else could possibly know what it was like to realize that there were others out there who resembled the man he loved, making people think that Will wasn't unique and special. Hannibal couldn't have that.
Just the fact that they resembled Will in build or coloring was enough to make Hannibal want them gone. He wanted no one to look anything like Will, to remind other people of Will. His lover was his, and no one else should even think of him.
At least, not in the way that Hannibal thought of him. That seductive, abandoned of Will should be a side of him that no one else even guessed existed.
He hated the thought that anyone could take away from what he considered to be Will's unique qualities, a beauty that only he could encompass. That was why he'd had to kill those men. They had looked too much like Will, reminded him too much of the man he loved.
Others would say that it was obsession, not love.
And others would probably fear for Will's life if they knew just how much Hannibal loved him, the lengths to which Hannibal would go to ensure that Will's uniqueness was preserved, and that no one else could even remind anyone of the young man.
Those people would be wrong, he told himself firmly. He would give his life to make sure that no harm came to Will, if that was eventually required. But he could not live in a world that didn't contain Will Graham. He would never harm Will in any way.
Maybe others would see his love, his desire, as being harmful to Will. But Hannibal refused to believe that. He was saving Will. Not hurting him.
Anyone who thought that he was bad for Will would be summarily dispatched, especially if they intimated to Will that his relationship wasn't healthy. He would never let anyone talk Will into believing that the two of them shouldn't be together.
Will was his. Will would be his for all of their lives, and beyond.
He wasn't going to let anyone take Will from him -- or take him from Will, for that matter. They were going to be together, through all that life could throw at them. He would make sure of that. Anyone who tried to come between them would be dealt with.
The problem now, it seemed, was that Will himself -- unknowingly, of course -- was trying to come between them. He was trying to catch a killer, without realizing who that killer was.
If Will knew that it was him who had sent all of those young men away from this realm of being, then his love could turn to repugnance. And Hannibal couldn't have that. He couldn't let Will have any kind of inkling that he was the one behind this.
He wasn't going to take the chance of being discovered. So no matter how many times Will put himself out there as bait for a killer, no matter how hard he worked to catch this man -- he wouldn't be found. He wasn't going to go after Will, to put his lover's life at risk.
The killer would simply not take the bait.
It would be horribly frustrating for Will, of course. Hannibal almost felt sorry for him; he would feel that he was risking his life, that he was doing something incredibly dangerous, when there would be no danger for him at all. He would never be a target.
Will wouldn't be disappointed, Hannibal was sure of that. He knew his young lover well enough to know that Will was terrified of the plan he had concocted.
In a way, he wished that he could assure Will that he would be in no danger, that the killer would never lay a hand on him. But of course, he could never do that; he couldn't let Will have any idea that his own lover was the killer he was so desperately searching for.
He was sure that knowledge would turn Will's love to hatred.
Well, maybe not hatred, he amended, but surely it would tear the two of them apart as nothing else could. And he would never let that happen. He would never lose Will; that was unthinkable. Will Graham was his, and always would be.
He was never going to let Will go. And he was never going to give Will a reason for wanting to leave. He would continue to get rid of anyone who resembled Will, to protect the uniqueness of the man he loved. It was simply something he had to do.
Will would never know. He would make sure of that. This killer would never be caught, even though that would distress Will greatly.
His boyfriend would simply have to deal with the fact that this killer wouldn't be caught -- and that men who looked like him would continue to die. He would never catch the culprit, and he would never find out why this was happening. It would haunt him, but that couldn't be helped.
What Will didn't know wouldn't hurt him. It would keep him alive.
***
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