Neph's promise rings through him. Neph doesn't usually go for direct statements of loyalty, she isn't firmly planted in anything that way. But then there's 'I'm not gonna leave you' while she digs fingers into his flank like a feral thing, someone possessed. It's a language Hannibal responds to immediately, one that snaps through him, breaks right through any other thoughts and leaves them contentedly cut off.
It makes the conversation after, the part where Neph lays out that Will isn't like her, a little easier to bear. And she isn't wrong. Will's not like either of them - Will's extremes are his own, but they don't include killing people in self-defense. They don't include threatening people to stay with him. They don't include this hip-bruising grip on the things he wants.
At least not yet, which is what this blossomed friendship between himself and Neph has taught Hannibal. That he can want things and not lose them, sometimes.
"We're monsters that would protect him, though." Hannibal says, and Hannibal doesn't flinch at the name. "And he knows that now. That will matter to him." But it might not matter enough, it might not be the whole picture. Will's stubborn and Will is...surprisingly moral. Hannibal has already hit up against that wall once or twice, the way Will can see and feel and empathize with terrible things but how hard he fights to swim above their currents.
"...I was very certain he would stay." Which is as sneaky as Hannibal can mention that Neph has got doubts swirling back up from where Hannibal had happily pushed them aside. Will's been sharing a living space with him, but of course, he's had to. He's still healing, he's got nowhere else to go. As Hannibal examines the past five days, he sees more and more how Will has had no choice but to stay in place. What if he could leave?
"I think we should call him." Hannibal says all at once. The certainty that Will won't think it was funny not to tell him that Neph awoke settles on Hannibal's ribs just as surely as Neph's arm does. "Tell him that you are alright." He'll have to move to go get his phone, of course, considering he's naked under that towel. And moving doesn't sound like the most appealing prospect right now, concern or no concern.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2017-09-03 11:13 pm (UTC)It makes the conversation after, the part where Neph lays out that Will isn't like her, a little easier to bear. And she isn't wrong. Will's not like either of them - Will's extremes are his own, but they don't include killing people in self-defense. They don't include threatening people to stay with him. They don't include this hip-bruising grip on the things he wants.
At least not yet, which is what this blossomed friendship between himself and Neph has taught Hannibal. That he can want things and not lose them, sometimes.
"We're monsters that would protect him, though." Hannibal says, and Hannibal doesn't flinch at the name. "And he knows that now. That will matter to him." But it might not matter enough, it might not be the whole picture. Will's stubborn and Will is...surprisingly moral. Hannibal has already hit up against that wall once or twice, the way Will can see and feel and empathize with terrible things but how hard he fights to swim above their currents.
"...I was very certain he would stay." Which is as sneaky as Hannibal can mention that Neph has got doubts swirling back up from where Hannibal had happily pushed them aside. Will's been sharing a living space with him, but of course, he's had to. He's still healing, he's got nowhere else to go. As Hannibal examines the past five days, he sees more and more how Will has had no choice but to stay in place. What if he could leave?
"I think we should call him." Hannibal says all at once. The certainty that Will won't think it was funny not to tell him that Neph awoke settles on Hannibal's ribs just as surely as Neph's arm does. "Tell him that you are alright." He'll have to move to go get his phone, of course, considering he's naked under that towel. And moving doesn't sound like the most appealing prospect right now, concern or no concern.