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Chapter Text

Will sighed, looking down at the paper in front of him, how the hell was he supposed to know when Germany invaded Austria? And besides, why did he even need to know? He wasn’t from either of the countries anyway. Will let out a groan, rubbing his hands over his face before tilting his chair back. What did he even need history for? 

The bell rang and he quickly scrambled to his feet, slightly panicked as he realized that the only thing he had filled out on the paper, was his name. 

Will plopped the paper on the desk next to Ms. Crawford and hurriedly tried to leave the stuffy room, before she could make any rema- "William Graham!" Will sighed and turned around "Yes Miss?" He asked with a slight smile, hoping that showing the pearly whites, may brighten the teacher’s anger.

"Why is your paper empty?" Ms. Crawford angrily held the paper up, "This is the THIRD test where you've handed in nothing but your name! You didn’t even put the date this time!" Will looked around the classroom, trying desperately to avoid eye contact with the disappointed teacher. "I just don’t get it" He mumbled, hand fiddling with the metal in his septum. The pearly whites didn’t help this time, maybe they weren’t even that pearly white either.

The teacher sighed "What don’t you get Will?"

"Any of it! I just can’t get it to stick in my head y'know" He still didn’t want to look at the teacher in front of him.

"Have you considered a tutor?" With that Will's hand fell from his piercing, eyes snapping directly to the teacher's "I am not getting a nerdy little brat, who thinks he's better than me, to tutor me!" He said sharply.

"I’m afraid it’s that, or I have to fail you, three tests and five assignments is a lot, Will."

The boy groaned, running a hand over his face, he was already failing math, he never showed up to PE and he had barely passed sophomore year. He couldn’t really afford to fail yet another class. 

Rubbing the back of his neck, Will huffed a "Fine" and in exchange, got a small smile in return from Ms. Crawford.

"Meet me back in here after school, I’ll find someone for you" The teacher then nodded towards the door, letting Will leave, and realize he was severely late for his next class.

-

"Where the hell where you?" Zeller whispered, leaning slightly towards the other boy, as Will slumped down in the seat next to him.

"Shut the fuck up Z" Will groaned, throwing his head back. "I’m getting a fucking tutor in Ms. fucking Crawford’s fucking shitfuck of a fucking class."

Zeller snorted and Will glared angrily at him. 

Will knew that it was probably for the best that he got a tutor, but it would mean a lot less free time, which he already had very little off.

The rest of class passed by slowly and Will couldn’t wait to get the fuck out of that place with its stupid teachers, and shitty plastic chairs.

-

Will ran a hand through his poorly box-dyed hair, making a mental note to get Price or Zeller to dye it for him again soon. Before entering the classroom, Will took a deep breath, preparing himself to meet the new snotty nerd, he would be forced to spend time with.

As he entered the classroom, he saw Ms. Crawford standing beside his new tutor, as he looked at the boy standing there, Will's mouth fell agape.

Standing before him was a boy, wearing a fucking suit. On a good day he could've dealed with the typical 'glasses and way too big front teeth' nerd, but this? This was next level nerd type of shit. Will let out a snort at the sight, but quickly collected himself when he caught Ms. Crawfords angry eyes staring into his soul.

"Will, this is Hannibal Lecter, Hannibal, this is Will Graham. I expect you two to learn a lot from each other" The other boy looked nervously from the teacher, to Will, then back. He stepped forward, towards Will, then held his hand out, "Hello.” 

Will glanced up at the teacher with a 'Are-you-being-fucking-serious-right-fucking-now?' look, Ms. Crawford nodded down to Hannibal’s hand, indicating that Will should pull his ass together, and just shake the damn hand. 

With a sigh, he complied and reluctantly gripped the sandy haired boy's hand, and shook it, slightly surprised at the strength of the grip.

Hannibal looked down at their clasped hands, noticed the chipped nail polish on the other boy’s hand, and quickly snapped his eyes up to meet Will's.

"What?" Will snared in a slight mumble and yanked his hand away.

Ms. Crawford laid a hand on each boy's shoulder, squeezed slightly, and repeated; "I expect you two to learn a lot from each other" And with that she gave them a smile, and left the room.

After a few seconds of silence between the two boys, Hannibal opened his mouth, but Will interrupted him before he had the chance to mutter a word. "Absolutely fucking not" And with that, he turned on his heel and left the room, leaving the sandy haired boy in a fucking suit, alone in the classroom.

-

Chapter Text

BEEP BEEP BEEP-

Will groaned, trashing around his bed. BEEP BEEP BEEP-

Yelling angrily at the poor clock just doing its job, Will slapped the top of it, quieting the noise.

The boy sat up at the edge of his bed, looking down at his feet which he had oh so conveniently, placed in an open chips bag that laid on his floor. He groaned and picked up the bag, attempting to throw it in the trashcan, but missed by a few centimeters. "Great start" he muttered while rolling his eyes.

After a few more seconds of just spacing out, he finally found the motivation to actually start this shitshow of a day.

Kicking his way through the mess of clothes and moldy food on the floor, he finally found a semi-clean shirt, a black Misfits t-shirt, and the jeans he wore every day. He didn’t really bother showering, as he determined he probably didn’t smell too bad.

Stumbling into the kitchen with a yawn, he reached for the packet of bread on the counter, only to huff a sigh of anger, when he realized it had gone moldy. "Shit's only getting better" He grumbled as he decided on a breakfast-free morning. (Not really ideal, but what was he going to do about that)

Will slouched against the doorframe to the living room, looking tiredly at his dad, passed out on the couch. Careful as to not wake his dad, Will sneaked his way to the table besides the snoring man, and quickly snatched the slightly crumbled packet of Marlboro cigarettes and stuffed them in his pants before hurrying off to school.

Walking out the door, he lit one of the cigarettes, and popped in one of his earbuds.

-

While nearing the end of his nicotine breakfast, and kicking a particularly ugly stone around, Will spotted a familiar head of sandy hair in the distance.

He was suddenly reminded of the fact that his tutoring started today, and on top of this very shitty morning, Will didn’t really feel the urge to greet, or even acknowledge, the boy. Will kicked the stone one last time, and drew one last breath from his cigarette, before throwing it to the ground, and turning on his heel. He still had lessons he needed to attend, but the very thought of that wierdo Hannibal even trying to strike a conversation with him, exhausted the very last will to live he had.

Instead, he opted for crouching behind a bush for the next 10 minutes, he was slightly early anyway, so sitting here wouldn’t make him that late.

"What the fuck are you doing" Will's head snapped up, quickly hurling his newly lit cigarette away.

"Fuck you Z, you scared the shit out of me you cocksucker" Will sighed, looking for his abandoned nicotine stick, only to realize he had tossed it in a muddy puddle.

Will grabbed two fistfuls of his hair and yanked it slightly before muttering something about Z being a bitch and owing him a fucking cigarette.

Zeller crouched besides Will and looked at him questionably "Your dad again?" Will grunted "That, and this day is just already shit man."

"Wanna skip? Your skateboard is still at mine y’know" Will liked the idea, but ultimately had to refuse "I have Ms. Crawford, and I’m pretty sure she's gonna slaughter me if I don’t show up" Zeller shrugged and picked up the cigarette from the puddle beside them, Will gave him a disgusted look, "What? I can just dry it and re-roll it dude."

-

Will was already slightly late when he entered through the school doors, and he had to half sprint to get to Ms. Crawfords class on time.

Slightly out of breath, will made his way to class, and slumped down in his usual seat in the back.

When lunch came around, Will was frantically searching for an empty table, before giving up and, once again, accepting that this day was just shit upon shit.

"Hello" Will's heart did three fucking backflips and catapulted out his ass, at the sudden voice behind him. Clenching his chest at the surprise, he turned around to face the boy with sandy hair. Hannibal’s suit looked almost identical as the one from the other day, except this one was a tad bit greyer. Will groaned and rolled his eyes "What?" He tilted his head slightly in annoyance. 

"Do you need somewhere to sit?" Will thought that question over, and glared at Hannibal, why the fuck would he sit with him of all people? did this wierdo really think will had sunk that low, that the only choice he had was to sit with the wierdo wearing a fucking suit?

Will laughed to himself "Nah I’m good dude" He snared before making his way out the cafeteria and plopping his earbuds in. Will made his way through the hall, deciding that since Zeller decided to be a prick and skip, he might as well do the same. Screw Hannibal, and screw Ms. Crawford for giving him such a wierdo for a tutor.

-

"weren’t you supposed to have like a tutor or sumthin' today dude?" Price asked, as he and Will sat on a bench, watching Zeller attempt to do a new trick on his skateboard. 

"I was, but the guy is a fucking wierdo, wears a fucking suit to school?" Will snorted, and Price let out a laugh, "You got Hannibal Lecter as a tutor?" Will raised an eyebrow, not knowing why Price knew who Hannibal was. 

Price sighed "That guy is a fucking wierdo, there's all kinds of rumors goin' around man" Will had expected that, but still, he was curious, "Like?"

The blonde guy slipped a cigarette in his mouth, and lit it while mumbling "That he’s a fucking fag" Will's head whirled towards the other guy "For real?"

He hummed while blowing out a puff of smoke "And apparently his whole family is dead or sumthin' I dunno, people are saying it’s his fault ‘n all that" Will had a harder time believing that, than the other rumor.

"But good luck dude, just make sure to keep your dick out of reach, you never know, maybe that little wierdo will start grabbing at it" Price laughed, Will punched him and joined in on the laughter.

-

*

By the time Will made his way home, he knew that his day was gonna end even shittier than it started. His dad's car held parked in the driveway, and Will cursed under his breath, knowing that he let time run from him, and therefore didn’t get home in time to do his chores.

Before entering the house, Will flipped up his septum, fluffed his hair to hide the metal in his eyebrow, grabbed his wallet and the pack of cigarettes and threw them in the bush for later. He took a deep breath and cranked the door handle, ever so slightly, in the hopes that his dad was already passed out.

But as luck had it with Will, his dad stood in the doorway with a stern look, and arms folded over his greasy blue overalls. 

"Where the hell have you been?! You better have a good fucking reason" Will avoided eye contact with the man looming over him.

Before Will could utter a word, he felt calloused hands grab him by the shoulders, and smack him up against the door, doorhandle digging into Will's back. The boy let out a yelp "Did you knack my fucking cigarettes as well? Huh? Open your mouth boy" Will hesitated, but when the man slammed him against the door once again, Will complied and open his mouth.

The grip on his shoulders tightened, fingers practically impaling him to the door. Will let out a cry "You fucking-" Will felt a hand slap him across the face, the wind of the slap blowing a lock of his dyed curls back and revealing the new shiny metal in his eyebrow.

The grip on his shoulder tightened even more, Will opened his eyes, just enough to see his dad's disappointed and disgusted face.

Will pulled his hands up to try and explain, defend himself, anything, but as he did, he realized he had made yet another grave mistake. "Painting your nails like a fucking queer again?" Before Will could react, he felt a blow to his face, then his stomach and let out another yelp as he fell to the floor by his dad's feet.

"Get. Out." Will shakingly looked up at his dad. "Get. Out." He snarled, looking down at the boy at his feet.

Will scrambled to his feet, and fled out the door as quickly as he could. He bent down beside the bush, groaning slightly at the pain in his stomach, he picked up his wallet and the pack of smokes. He held an arm tightly around his stomach as he stumblingly made his way out in the night once again.

*

-

His stomach still hurt like shit, and his nose kept bleeding, as he slumped down on a bench in a park. He sighed and leaned his head back, looking up into the night sky. 

"Hello" Will snapped his head back to a normal position, hearing a slight crack in the process. Standing in front of him was Hannibal fucking Lecter, Will groaned loudly "What the fuck do you want from me" he said as he starred at the boy in front of him. Hannibal’s face grimaced slightly as a drop of blood trickled over Will's lip and dripped down.

"Are you okay?" Hannibal asked, ignoring the rude answer from earlier. Will rolled his eyes.

"Does it look like I’m fucking okay" Hannibal shrugged at that, and sat down besides Will on the bench, pulling out a tissue from his pocket. "Let me." Hannibal grabbed Will's face softly and turned it towards himself, Will flinched away at the touch, but Hannibal just grabbed him again.

"The fuck are you doing" Hannibal looked concentrated as he examined the other boy's face. He then ripped a bit of the tissue off, rolling it up and stopping it into Wills nose. Will furrowed his brows and yanked his head away, standing up. Rubbing slightly at his nose, to make the paper sit better against his septum.

He then walked away, leaving Hannibal sitting on the bench "Where are you going Will?" The curly haired boy didn’t even bother turning around as he muttered "I’m getting something to fucking drink."

Hannibal stood up from the bench, and hesitantly followed the limping boy.

-

Chapter Text

"What do you want?" Will didn’t look at the boy, just kept his head slightly tilted up as he walked.

"Well, it seemed rather rude to just leave you alone, in the state that you’re in" The sandy haired boy shrugged slightly.

"I don’t want your help dude, I’m fine." 

Hannibal just kept following Will in silence.

Eventually the two boys reached a corner store, the light from inside lit up the otherwise dark street and fell on Will's face as he stood outside it. Still clutching his stomach in agony, Will wiped his face with the other hand, trying to clean the blood on his lip. The doorbell chimed as the two boys made their way into the store, much to Will's annoyance as he didn’t really want to spend any more time with the other boy. Will wandered around the store, picking up a chocolate bar, examining it, and putting it back. He looked at the cashier, a pimple faced teenager, who clearly didn’t want to do anything, other than go home.

As he walked towards the cashier, he grabbed a pack of gum and slapped it on the counter, "That and these" Will held up his arm, revealing a six pack of beers. The cashier looked tiredly at Will, scanned the stuff, and sighed "That'll be 7.99$" Will fumbled around in his pocket, hissing through his teeth as he felt the pain in his shoulder. Eventually he managed to fish out a crumbled bill and threw it on the counter. 

Walking out the store, Will grabbed one of the beers and cracked it open with his front teeth "you’re not old enough to buy or drink that" Hannibal stated, brows fused together.

"And you’re way too old to be giving a shit man" Will glared at the boy, downing the beer in his hand while keeping his eyes locked on Hannibal’s.

The two boys kept going in silence, Will leading the way, again, much to his dismay as he still didn’t want to spend time with Hannibal.

"Who beat you up?" The question caught will slightly off guard, and he coughed against the can held to his lips.

"What the fuck does that have to do with you?" Will grumbled, Hannibal just shrugged "You were supposed to meet me in Ms. Crawfords class today at 3, but you never showed up. Did you get beat up when you left the cafeteria?" Will didn’t answer, he just turned the corner down into an alleyway, Hannibal hesitated but eventually followed.

After a few seconds Will found what he searched for, stuffing the last three beers into the pockets on his jeans, he grabbed the metal ladder hanging on the wall, and climbed up. 

Hannibal glanced up at the other boy, before digging out a pair of gloves from his pockets, and shrugging them on, following the boy up the ladder.

Will was already sat, knees bent and back against the railing that framed the otherwise open rooftop. He emptied his pockets, placing the beers on one side of him, and the packet of cigarettes, on the other side. "I didn’t show up because I don’t wanna be seen with a wierdo, who wears a fucking suit to school" Will tilted his head, looking up at the other boy, putting on a sarcastic smile. 

Hannibal’s brows furrowed for a second before he looked down at the toes of his shoes. "Like honestly, what? Who does that? And who the fuck puts on gloves to climb up a ladder?" Will laughed to himself, looking at the boy in front of him.

"The ladder was rusty and dirty, I don’t do well with bacteria" Hannibal huffed, looking up from his shoes and making a brief second of eye contact with Will, before looking at the packet of cigarettes next to the boy. 

Will snorted a laugh.

"Still doesn’t explain the fucking suit" He cracked open his 4th beer and gulped some down "Its honestly weird."

"I could just as well say the same about you" Hannibal scoffed, eyeing Will's pants and wrinkly t-shirt, "I get that you’re angry at whoever beat you up, but that’s no excuse to be mean to me" 

"Oh my god just shut up! There’s such a big difference between me wearing this, and you wearing that" Will hissed, fishing out a cigarette from the pack beside him. Hannibal grimaced slightly at the smell, as Will lit it up.

"Pussy" Will mumbled under his breath as he took a drag.

A few seconds pasted in silence.

"You keep ignoring the topic when I mention you getting beaten up" Hannibal still stood, looking down at Will. "Because it doesn’t fucking concern you what happened" Will flicked the butt of his cigarette towards Hannibal’s legs, making the standing guy jump to the side. "Just leave me alone dude, I’ve told you so many times" Hannibal just stared down at Will, letting the man continue "it’s actually really fucking weird, you’ve followed me around for the past-" Will flicked his wrist to look at the time "-hour and a half, and I’ve made absolutely no indication that I wanted you around" The sitting boy was getting more and more agitated, because why couldn’t that prick just leave him alone?

"Was it your dad?" Will's eyes turned dark, his mouth forming a tight line as he desperately tried to get rid of the urge to rip the other boy in half, stomp on him, and throw him off the rooftop. Hannibal continued "Usually kids experiencing childhood abuse, or abuse in general, turn out like their parents, picking up their bad habits-" Hannibal nodded down at the beers and cigarettes beside Will "-and they’re more prone to anger management issues, Oh! And, they’re more likely to adapt a uncommon sense of style and attitude" He eyed Will's dark clothes, and smiled to himself. 

Within a matter of seconds, Will picked up the last full beer to his side, stood up, and hurled the can towards the prick in front of him. Picking up his cigarettes, he stormed over to the ladder, and left, leaving the sandy haired boy bend over in agony, holding his shoulder.

-

Will walked along the patchy road, angrily blinking away the tears forming in his eyes, who the fuck did Hannibal think he was? What kind of fucked up shit was that to say to someone? Slightly wheezing from the bruises on his back, Will arrived at a familiar house, and knocked on the door.

Zeller opened the door while rubbing sleep out the corner of his eyes, he looked at the boy standing hunched slightly over, clearly not as sober as someone should be on a Tuesday night. Without any of them muttering a word to each other, Zeller let Will in.

As they made their way through the house and into Zeller’s bedroom, Will threw himself down on the bed with a slight whimper escaping his throat against his own will. "Absolutely not, you are not sleeping in my bed, it still smells like puke form last time man" Zeller left the room, and Will was left on his own, starring up into the poster covered ceiling of his best friend’s room. Gruntingly, Zeller came back into the room dragging a mattress after him.

"Maria isn’t home, so I knacked her mattress, now don’t you fucking dare throw up on it, she'll kill me" He let the mattress plop down on the floor beside the bed "Get changed and shut the fuck up, I’m tired" Zeller grunted.

Will stood up and pulled his t-shirt over his head, threw it to the side and laid down on the pink sheets next to Zellers bed.

Behind him, he heard Zeller sigh before turning off the lights.

Sleep didn’t come easily to Will, for some reason he couldn’t get Hannibal’s words out his head, the hell did he know about Will's dad anyway? Will wasn’t like his dad, Will cared about people, and he had more sober days than non-sober days, his dad was always angry, but Will was able to be happy at times. Or at least, he thought so.

Fuck Hannibal, fuck his weird suits, fuck his weird words and fuck Hannibal again, because why the fuck did he have to be right. Will sighed, curled himself into a ball, and tried his best to stop thinking so much, and just sleep instead.

-

Zeller nudged Will with his foot, trying to wake the poor boy, but ended up getting a slap on the foot instead. "Arh, damn dude! That hurt! There’s breakfast in the kitchen, get your ass down there or my mom will be up here soon" Zeller left the room, and Will sat up running a hand through his curls. He really needed a haircut soon. 

He looked around the room, trying to find his shirt, only to realize it was covered in blood. He let out a groan and started another search, this time looking for one of Zeller’s shirts (Preferably one people hadn’t seen Zeller in much). Will spotted a navy-blue shirt with a skeleton ridding a skateboard on it and shrugged, it was better than nothing.

Will knew that it was rude to come unannounced all the time, but Ms. Zeller had assured him plenty of times that she didn’t mind. Will and Zeller had been friends since either of them could remember, so he knew that Ms. Zeller meant it.

Making their way to school, Zeller held out a pack of cigarettes towards Will "Smoke for story?" Will sighed and grabbed one and lit it, passing the lighter to Zeller.

"Came home too late, dad got mad and kicked me out the door-" Will took a drag "-I went down to the park to be alone for a while, and guess who fucking shows up dude" Zeller raised a brow as to ask him to continue, "Fucking Hannibal Lecter! Dude just kept following me around, it was weird as fuck, then he started talking shit, and I threw a can at him" Will shook his head as the other boy snorted.

"Fucking wierdo" Will nodded in agreement.

The boys parted ways when entering the school, not having the same classes. As Will was walking through the emptying hall, he spotted a familiar color of hair walking by.

By the looks of it, Will did quite a bit of damage to the boy, a blue sling holding the boy's arm up in a 90* angle, but it wasn’t the sling that made Will stop in his tracks, right in the middle of the hallway, it was the fact that Hannibal wasn’t wearing a ugly suit, instead, he was wearing a plain t-shirt, neatly tucked into a pair of slightly baggy but ironed jeans? Mouth wide open, Will's eyes followed Hannibal through the hall. He didn’t really want to admit it right there, but some place very, very, deep down in his heart, he felt a pang of guilt. He shook his head, he didn’t care for Hannibal, why should he? The boy was a prick.

The feeling lingered for a few seconds, but eventually Will realized he had a class to attend.

-

Chapter Text

Will was close to flunking history, he knew that. He also knew that if he didn’t get his shit together and actually have a session with Hannibal, there would be absolutely no way in hell, he wouldn’t flunk it. 

Will also knew that he (personally), wouldn’t help someone who hurled a beer can at his shoulder, and fractured the shit out of it. 

He sat, hands to his head, slightly tugging at his hair, and sighed. what the fuck was he gonna do? He could ask for a different tutor, but what would Ms. Crawford say? She would probably want to know why, and Will couldn’t really say to the teacher that he physically fucking assaulted the guy.

Will groaned, why was this so difficult all of a sudden?

"Graham!" Will raised his head to look up at the teacher "Do you mind repeating what I just said?" He sat up slightly in his chair, hand finding its way up to his nose, to fidget with his piercing.

"Idunno" Will mumbled, his hand slurring his words even more. "I can’t hear you, speak up Graham" Will felt the eyes of everyone turn his way and bore into him, holding back their snickers. suddenly the world felt so very small, and Will felt like he took up all the space available. Bringing a hand to his nape, he began tugging at the small hairs.

"I said I don’t know" His clothes felt way too tight, like he had put on a child's outfit. "I still can’t hear you" He took a deep breath, trying to collect himself, but where air was supposed to come out in his exhale, a sickening feeling crept its way up his throat. "Answer me Graham, what was I just saying?" Will heard the buzzing of the air conditioner, the tapping of a pen, the bouncing of a foot, the breathing and blinking of everyone as they stared at him. 

A hand flung its way to Will's mouth as he stood up in an instant, leaping for the door. He ran through the corridors, trying to find somewhere he could just breathe. 

Eventually he came across a door to the outside, once out, he slumped against the grey wall and exhaled.

he closed his eyes and let his head rest against the wall, attempting to get the coldness of it to reach his brain.

What the fuck was wrong with him.

-

The bell rang, waking Will from his accidental nap against the wall, he looked at the scratched watch on his wrist 12.15 it read, and Will sighed, he had only been asleep for a few 20 minutes or so. As he went inside again, the halls where already emptying, filling up the cafeteria instead. He wasn’t really in the mood to sit in yet another stuffy place, so instead he popped his earbuds in, and turned left towards the restroom.

With his earbuds still in, he went into the restroom and opened a stall, plopping down on the closed toilet seat. Hugging his knees, he sat listening to whatever song came up.

-Charades, pop skill / Water hyacinth / Named by a poet-

Taking one of his earbuds out, Will heard the door to the restroom open with a thud, he shrugged to himself and put the music back in his ears.

-Imitation of life / Like a koi in a frozen pond / Like a goldfish in a bowl-

Thud, Thud, Will turned the volume up slightly.

-I don’t wanna hear you cry-

Thud, Thud, this time mumbled voices followed the thumping.

Will stretched his legs, standing up and once again taking an earbud out.

"Fucking wierdo" Thump, laughter followed, Will carefully opened the stall door, just a few millimeters to peak out.

-That sugarcane that tasted good / That's cinnamon, that's Hollywood-

Will saw the backs of two guys looming over a third guy on the floor, he couldn’t make out who.

The kicking and laughing continued. In the mirror on the wall, Will could spot a familiar face with blonde hair, Price.

He furrowed his brows, who was Price beating up now? Will put his earbud in.

-Come on, come on / No one can see you try-

He paused the music.

Knowing Price wouldn’t do him anything, Will cranked open the stall door and stepped out. 

Price and the other guy kept kicking at the boy laying below them, as Will made his way to the sink. He didn’t really want to be involved, so he made no attempt to stop them, or find out who they were beating up.

If it wasn’t for a few huffs of air escaping his nose and a tiny whimper every now and then, Will might’ve thought the boy on the ground had passed out. But he hadn’t, so Will continued washing his hands, and left.

-

The last class of the day was history, which Will dreaded, he knew that Ms. Crawford would probably ask how the tutoring went, and Will would have to either lie or tell the truth, none of which he was in the mood for.

He was the first student to arrive in the classroom, which was on one side good, he could choose whichever seat he wanted.

The bad thing was, that as soon as he sat down, Ms. Crawford emerged from the doorway, holding a stack of papers. Will tried his best to crumble into nothing and disappear before she could see him. "Will!" He heard the tapping of her shoes coming closer "-how’s the tutoring going?" She stood in front of him, smiling a genuine smile. 

"it’s whatever" He avoided looking at her, propping his chin up on his hand and starring at a spot behind her instead.

"How are you and Hannibal doing? I know you might think it’s a weird fit, putting you two together-" Will shrugged, still not looking at her "-but I think you guys will find you have more in common than you think, plus, I’m sure you guys can teach each other a thing or two." 

Other students started filling up the classroom, Will let out a sigh of relief, thinking the worst was over,

"Oh! Can you give this to Hannibal for me? It’s quite important that he gets it" She placed a white envelope on his desk. Will huffed, apparently the worst wasn’t over, now he actually had to meet up, or at least give the envelope to Hannibal, both scenarios being dreaded.

-

Before turning the doorhandle to the classroom, they were meant to meet at, Will took a deep breath. it’s only an hour, he thought, besides, if Hannibal became too unbearable, he could just leave.

Entering the classroom, Will had expected to see the sandy haired boy sitting at the desk, books and notes folded out on the table, but...nothing. The room was empty, Will checked his watch 3.20 he furrowed his brows, weren’t they meant to meet here? Whatever, he was probably just running late from a class. Will shrugged off his backpack and slumped down into a seat.

3.30 Still no Hannibal.

3.50 Where the fuck is he?

4.00 No way Will was going to spend any more time waiting for this idiot.

As he bend down to pick up his backpack, the door opened behind him "Sorry I’m late" A quiet voice muttered.

"Fuck you dude I’ve been fucking waiting f-" Will had turned around and finally seen the boy. Arm still limp in the blue sling, the other hand held lightly over the hurt shoulder, rubbing it slightly. The boys made eye contact, and Will finally figured out who Price was beating up in the restroom. 

Hannibal’s face was bruised, lip cut and cheek red. His hair which was usually combed back, hung lazily over his forehead, covering one of his eyebrows.

Will didn’t know what to say, so he continued the sentence from before, "I’ve been waiting for fucking ever, times up now and I don’t wanna spend another fucking second here" He put on his bag and walked towards the door. As he passed the older guy, his shoulder jerked into Hannibal’s, pushing him slightly to the side.

Will walked out the door, once again leaving Hannibal clutching his shoulder in agony.

-

Chapter Text

When will finally arrived home, he was greeted with the pleasant sight of an empty driveway. Will loved Thursday afternoons, as his dad usually worked night those days, which meant that he was able to do whatever for the next many hours.

He went into the garage, stood on his tippy toes, and grabbed the key from the top shelf. Will threw off his shoes and went into the kitchen, looking around for something edible. The choices weren’t all that great, some ham slices and milk in the refrigerator, and some stale bread on the counter, he sighed and rolled his eyes at the thought of having to go out again.

Might as well make a trip out of it, and get his things from Zeller’s.

Will spent a few five minutes trying to scavenge the house for some forgotten dollar bills, and eventually he threw on a jacket, grabbed his backpack, and went out the door once again.

Ding

Will walked into the store and started looking for something to eat, he didn’t have that much money on him, but eventually he left with a prepackaged ham and cheese sandwich and a cold beer, only having paid for one of the items. Lighting up the last of his stolen cigarettes, he made his way towards the Zellers’ house.

Will knocked on the door and waited, finishing the rest of his beer, and throwing the empty bottle in one of the bushes.

“My dad isn’t home-” Will said as he and Zeller made their way to the poster filled bedroom, “-wanna come over?” Zeller raised an eyebrow “You really walked all the way to my house, to ask if I wanna go to yours?” Instead of answering, Will just looked at the other boy, put his thumb and pointer finger together, and pressed the side of them to his lips.

“Fine” Zeller said as he rolled his eyes.

Will retrieved his shirt from the room, and the two boys made their way back to Will’s.

The sun was going down as the boys walked in silence, Will liked nights like these, peaceful and calm, not having to worry about his dad.

-

Zeller had always been Will’s best friend, he was there for him when Will’s mom died, and Will was there when Zeller’s parents got divorced. They knew everything worthy to know about each other, and when Will’s life was getting a little too shitty, he always knew that he had somewhere to go.

Normally Will won’t let anybody go home with him, in fact, he can count on two fingers how many of his friends had been over to his house. But Will knew that Zeller wouldn’t judge him, he wouldn’t judge the mess of clothes, bugs and moldy food on his bedroom floor, he wouldn’t judge if Will’s dad busted the door down, yelling at Will in slurred and drunken words, and he wouldn’t judge when Will would sometimes want to hang out, just for them both to sit in silence for hours on end doing nothing.

When everything became too shitty, he always knew that there at least was someone who cared for him.

Will sat in the messy bed, head tilted against the wall and thought about how lucky he was to have someone like Zeller in his life, because honestly who the fuck would willingly sit on the floor in a bundle of dirty clothes and crumbs, and roll Will a joint, if not Zeller. He snorted at the thought.

“what’re yuh laughin’ at” Zeller asked, joint between his lips, slurring his words. Will shook his head, dismissing the question.

It had been a few weeks since Will last was high, they both realized that when Will stood, wheezing with laughter, over a bug laying on its back.

-

Will laid, starfish position on his bed, just starring up into the ceiling, trying to win a starring contest with a certain 8-legged beast.

“How’s your thing with that suit wierdo going” Zeller asked as he stood scavenging Will’s cd rack before finding one that piqued his interest. Will swayed his foot to the rhythm of Saturday Night by The Misfits, as it filled the room.

“I think I’m gonna flunk history mate-” The other boy sat back down on his assigned seat on the floor. “I haven’t had a single fucking session with the guy” Will smiled a toothy grin, he didn’t really find what he said funny though, actually, it was really fucking irritating and Will deep down felt the urge to just rip his skin of in frustration.

Planting his elbow in the bed and hoisting his body to the side, Will remembered the envelope from Ms. Crawford was still in his bag. Reaching for his bag, he pulled out the slightly crumbled envelope and held it up to show Zeller, the other boy raised his brow in confusion.

“Ms. Crawford gave me this, saying something about it being important that I gave it to Hannibal I dunno” Will shrugged and began opening the letter.

Inside where two pieces of paper, unfolding one, he read the first sentence, but quickly tossed it to the side, way too many words for his stoned ass to read. As he opened the other piece of paper though, that’s when he started laughing, Will turned the paper around to show his friend on the floor.

The second piece of paper was a copy of a pencil drawing, depicting two males, one laying flat on his back with his eyes closed, and the other leaning from the side over the laying man.

Zeller broke out in a fit of laughter and Will joined.

“Knew he was a fucking fag” Zeller coughed out, still laughing.

Looking at the picture once again, Will couldn’t help but notice how the two males oddly looked like him and Hannibal, he shook his head, he was probably just too high.

-

Will woke up and checked his watch, 3.25 he sighed and tried to sit up, needing to take a piss. A heavy weight kept him pinned down, and in the darkness of the room, Will came to a terrifying discovery.

Laying halfway on top of him was Zeller, one arm slung around his waist, and one leg on top of Will’s. Zeller’s face was nearly nuzzled into the crook of Will’s neck, he could feel the damp breaths, signifying that the other boy was, thankfully, still asleep.

Now, this wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened to Will, he and Zeller had had plenty of sleepovers, as kids and teens, and countless of times they had woken up tangled together in one way or another. The first time was weird, yes, but they ended up getting used to the closeness, and not paying attention to it anymore.

The terrifying discovery came when Will realized, he was rock hard.

Will held his breath, counted to 10, thought of cute puppies, thought about his deceased grandma, anything to get this thing down again. He felt as if whoever distributed luck to the people of the world, may have forgotten Will a few times over.

Zeller twitched in his sleep, causing his leg to momentarily make contact with Will’s boxers, making him have to stifle down a whimper, this was bad, very very bad.

He could leave the bed? But the rustling would most likely wake the other boy up. He could just go back to sleep, but the thought of Zeller waking up and seeing this? Not a chance in hell.

Instead, Will opted for the solution he deemed the safest; staying up and waiting for Zeller to either move or wake up so Will could hurl himself out of bed, before the sleeping boy would see anything.

He had hoped that at some point his body would calm the fuck down on its own, but the heat of Zeller’s bare torso and legs, against Will’s own, didn’t do wonders for that.

Will looked up at the ceiling, and desperately wished for the house to collapse on top of him as soon as possible.

At around 4.30 Will’s heart skipped a beat, and his eyes widened enough for his eyes to be able to pop out at any moment. Through the cranked window, Will heard the sound of a rusty old pickup truck, pull up into the driveway.

His dad was home.

Assessing the situation, Will knew he was borderline fucked if- no when - his dad would climb up the stairs and look into his room.

Laying half naked with an erection, tangled with a boy, in a room still slightly smelling of weed and cigarettes, Will knew that if he didn’t do something very soon, he wasn’t really sure he would live to put on socks again.

Zeller wasn’t really a problem, his dad of course knew Zeller and had met him plenty of times, it was every other aspect of this shitty situation Will was concerned about.

Quickly forming a list in his head of things he needed to get done within the span of 1 minute, Will sighed.

He cringed as he reached down, tucked his very much still a hard-on, into the hem of his boxers, and prayed it was enough. One thing, sort of, off the list.

He turned his head, whispering at Zeller and slightly shaking him, trying to wake the boy, all he got in return was a grunt and a mumbled “Shut up” Frustrated, Will shook the other boy a bit harder “Get off dude, my dad’s home” At this, Zeller’s eyes shot open, and he peeled himself from will’s body in the matter of seconds.

“The room stinks dude-” Will stood up “-he’s usually home way later” He was stressing out. The other boy took a deep breath, grabbed the ashtray, and flicked the ashes out the window, throwing the cigarette bums out too. Will starred at him in horror, as the realization hit Zeller too.

There was very much a joint bum in the mix of ash and cigarettes as well, currently laying on full display in the driveway. Will rushed over to the window, making sure that his dad had gone inside, and for once in his life, luck was on his side.

“Put your fucking clothes on and jump out the window” Zeller nodded and complied, the jump wasn’t the worst, he could climb some of the way, but it was still on the second floor. The banging of his dad’s footsteps haunted his ears as they came closer.

He picked up a can of deo from his nightstand and sprayed it around the room as Zeller got dressed. Just as the doorhandle lowered, will had laid back down in his bed, back facing the door, and Zeller had made the climb out the window.

“What’s Brian’s jacket doing in my house” Will’s heart was beating a little too fast,

“He was over earlier, must’ve forgotten it or sumthin’” Will mumbled, trying to act sleepy.

“And he just left without his shoes or what?” fuuuuck.

“Yeah, you know him, he’s weird n’ all that” He so desperately wished that his dad would be tired enough to ignore, that it in no way made sense that the boy would leave without his shoes and jacket.

“You need different friends, son” His dad grunted and closed the door.

As soon as the door said a click Will stood up and looked out the window, trying to see if Zeller had done his job, neither Zeller nor the bums where in sight, and Will could finally breathe.

-

Chapter Text

Will sat in the middle of his room and starred. Nothing in particular cached his eyes, other than a very specific spot on the wall just above his bed. If he had to be honest, he didn’t actually know how long he had sat there, but something about that very specific spot had entranced him.

Still sitting and starring at the spot, he fumbled with his hands around the floor for his cigarettes, instead feeling a piece of paper scrape his hand, finally he yanked his eyes from the spot on the wall.

He looked at his finger, and stuck it in his mouth, cleaning the papercut. Turning around to find the idiot of an assaulter to his finger, he spotted the drawing from the other day.

Will had forgotten everything about the drawing, and everything about having to give it to Hannibal.

The piece was slightly crumbled after laying on his messy floor, Will cringed as he saw the line from one end of the paper to the other, neatly making a crease that severed the leaning man’s head off. Will remembered the other piece of paper, and frantically eyed his whole room trying to spot it.

He, of course, couldn’t.

Ms. Crawford would beat his ass. In a desperate attempt to not get too much on the teachers’ bad side, Will flipped his whole room around looking for the damn paper. Still no sign. After an hour or so, Will gave up and sat down near his window, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.

-

Monday morning came around and Will wanted to do everything but get out of bed. Not only was it Monday, but he had history in first period AND he was supposed to have a session with Hannibal today.

3 strikes, Will. Is. Out.

He died a little more inside when he realized he couldn’t skip today, he had to give poor Zeller his shoes, so he didn’t have to turn up shoe-less to school. As much as he dreaded the thought of living, he knew he couldn’t let Zeller go without his shoes.

…

A very groggy and displeased Will knocked on the other boy’s door, and was let in.

Will was still half sleeping as he and Zeller made their way towards the school, Zeller ranting something about a new video game. He just kind of wished the ground would eat him up soon.

And as if it wasn’t a painful enough Monday, Ms. Crawford handed each student a sheet of paper and announced that they would be having yet another test today. Slumping his head down on the table, Will groaned.

He was so very screwed.

Ms. Crawford thought that Will and Hannibal had had at least 4 sessions by this point, they’d had absolutely none. Turning his paper around, Will scribbled his name, the date and then began bullshitting his way through the test, desperately searching every corner of his brain for at least something that made sense.

Ms. Crawford had received Will’s test with a smile, which quickly disappeared at the very first glance at his paper.

“Will, why did you write that Hitler died in 1987? -” He sighed, looking at the toes of his shoes “-I thought you and Hannibal had studied?” Will didn’t respond, just stood there in silence waiting for the ground to crack, and the whole building to fall down on him.

“We have! It’s just, like a said, I’m bad at remembering this shit.”

“Don’t you guys have a session today? Ill come along for a little while of it, just to see if it’s the tutoring there’s something wrong with, or if you need some kind of different help” Will looked up and into the teachers’ eyes, before sighing and turning away “Fine”.

-

As the last lesson ended, Will got more and more anxious, what if Hannibal told on him? Or what if Hannibal didn’t show up, and Will had to tell on himself? Slowly he made his way towards the classroom and opened the door. Inside sat Hannibal, books and notes already laid out. His arm was still in the blue sling, but his face looked a little better, the only sign of the beating being a tiny blue spot on his cheek. He was back into his stupid suits again though. Will rolled his eyes and sat down opposite Hannibal.

“Hello” Will just nodded in response. “How was the test? Hope our studying has been helpful, did you get past only writing your name? Or did you add the date this time?” Hannibal didn’t smile, but Will could see his eyes crinkle at the corners.

“How’s the shoulder? No wait, how’s the face? Got the taste of shoe out your mouth by now?” Will glared at Hannibal, what a fucking prick.

The older boy was about to open his mouth to answer Will but was interrupted when the door swung open, and Ms. Crawford’s heels made their signature taptap sound across the floor.

“Hello boys! -oh, you’ve already started? I’m sorry, I won’t be here for long, just checking up” She sat herself behind a desk and began grading some papers.

Will looked at Hannibal, who smiled back at him.

And thus began the most boring and infuriating forty-five minutes of Will’s life, he had to sit there, and pretend to like Hannibal and pretend he knew what the fuck the dude was talking about.

Hannibal was talking about something Will hadn’t quite figured out what was, when Ms. Crawford’s phone began ringing, she picked it up and left the room.

Will resumed his angry starring at Hannibal, and Hannibal returned the favor by giving Will a very fake smile back.

“Fuck you, I’m leaving” Will gathered his things, dumped them in his bag and began leaving.

“No thank you, but I’m coming with you” Did Hannibal fucking Lecter, just make a fucking joke?

Will ignored it “No you’re not” The sandy haired boy had already packed his stuff and was walking after Will “Well, it seems I am, as you have something of mine-” Will turned his head to look at the other boy in confusion “-Ms. Crawford mentioned she gave you a letter addressed to me, and since I haven’t gotten it yet, I’m assuming it’s at your house” Will froze, he still hadn’t found the second piece of paper.

“Can’t I just give it to you tomorrow” Hannibal shook his head “No. I need it now” The shorter boy had to desperately fight the urge to hit Hannibal in his shoulder once again.

Will knew that Hannibal would follow him around, weather he liked it or not, he had proved that before. So, he sighed and started making the journey back home, Hannibal following beside him.

-

“I don’t want you to step a fucking foot in my house” Will looked at the other boy, Hannibal had walked right beside Will for most of the way, but when Will lit up a cigarette, Hannibal had stepped to the side, leaving a bit of room.

“Too bad, should’ve given it to me when you were asked to” Will once again, had to resist his urge to hit the other boy. “Stop being such a fucking prick, or ill kick your fucking shoulder off.” Hannibal snorted “I would like to see you try, to get your leg all the way up in my shoulder height” Will flicked his cigarette at Hannibal’s face, missing him by that much.

As they approached Will’s house, Hannibal began putting on the gloves from the other day, Will tried to not seem too offended.

This was the third person Will has ever had over, and it was against his will, and very much not someone he wanted over.

Entering the house, Will began fidgeting with his piercing, even though he hated Hannibal, it was still such a uncomfortable thing for him to have people over.

Will walked up the stairs, a slight shake in his legs as they neared his bedroom. Why did he care so much about what Hannibal would think?

He opened the door and went in, kicked a few things to the side and opened his window.

Hannibal stood in the door and looked around, taking in all the small knickknacks around Will’s room, Will could swear he saw Hannibal’s face twitch in disgust when he saw the floor. He felt as though someone just stabbed him in the guts.

“It’s you who wanted to fucking come here!” he snared.

“Not really, I just wanted my letter, so give it and I’ll leave” Hannibal held out a glove covered hand.

Will looked away “I can’t really find it” he mumbled, the hand fiddling with his piercing dampening his words.

“What do you mean you can’t find it?” He sounded stern and brought his hand back down by his side. “I said I can’t fucking find it! -” he opened his arms gesturing to the mess on the floor “-its somewhere, I don’t know where.” The boy in the doorframe closed his eyes, meditating the anger away.

“Then we’ll just have to find it” A scream was clawing its way up Will’s throat. Not only did he come uninvited into his house, but now he wanted to clean Will’s fucking room?

Hannibal shrugged off his jacket, looking around for a place to hang it. “Let’s go.” He gave Will an annoying smile.

-

At first Hannibal was very hesitant to touch anything, carefully picking up dirty clothes, but leaving plates and moldy cups to Will. Will was absolutely, over the moon, furious and sat on his bed in protest, Hannibal could clean all he wanted, but he couldn’t force Will to.

But when Hannibal started getting a bit deeper in the mess, Will began cringing when Hannibal would pick something up that Will didn’t want him to see, so eventually he decided to help.

“Where do you want this” Hannibal would ask, Will would shrug, and Hannibal would find a place for it. Will would start getting angry and snappy, and Hannibal would allow him to go outside for a smoke break (eventually Will was snappy so much, that it was a waste of time to go outside, and Hannibal allowed him to sit by the window instead)

Slowly but surely, they began to be able to see the floor of Will’s room. It was only the corner, but it’s the thought that counts.

Hannibal checked his watch, “I have to go, but I will go home with you again tomorrow, and we will finish this.”

Will sighed “Can’t it wait like a day or something? -” he wiped sweat off his forehead “-I’m dying over here.”

In just a second, Hannibal had walked over to Will, and held his hand against the sweating boy’s forehead “You seem fine to me.” His hand didn’t move from Will’s head, and as they stood in silence, Will looked at Hannibal’s features up close, for the first time.

He hadn’t really noticed the other boys’ eye color before, always too busy looking away or too angry at the guy to pay attention to it, but right there, in that very moment, Will looked into Hannibal’s eyes, and felt like they could swallow him whole. He couldn’t explain it in any other way, but that it just felt right to look into those eyes.

“Get off me” Will turned his head, and Hannibal’s hand fell back down. The older boy turned away and walked out the door “I still need my letter.”

Will flipped the guy off behind his back.

-

Chapter Text

Hannibal had insisted that if they weren’t going to have real, sit down and learn, sessions, then Will should at least listen to him as they were walking towards the house, and Will had agreed to that.

And so it was, that every day at 3.20, Will would start walking home, Hannibal would catch up within a few minutes, and he would spend the rest of the walk lecturing the boy on history, and surprisingly, it worked? Maybe that had something to do with the fact that every time they would arrive at Will’s house, Hannibal would force the other boy to repeat whatever he had talked about for the past 35 minutes.

Will was still displeased with the fact that someone was in his room every day, cleaning and touching his stuff. But the good thing about this whole thing was that Will didn’t feel the need to stab Hannibal that much anymore. And maybe somewhere, very very deep down, the tiniest bit of Will, might’ve considered Hannibal a friend. But not he close kind, just the, talks with every now and then, friend.

-

“Do you want to help me dye my hair?” Will was looking in the sticker filled mirror on the wall, inspecting his outgrowing roots, he looked at Hannibal through the mirror. Hannibal thought about it and nodded. Will shrugged, he hadn’t hung out much with Zeller lately who usually dyed his hair, and he had proven himself very bad at dying his own hair.

He searched around the room for the box dye he bought a few days ago and handed it to Hannibal.

Will stood with his back facing Hannibal, and took of his t-shirt, he could feel the other boys eyes stick to him, and for just a second he felt a pang of insecurity, but as he turned around to face Hannibal again, he didn’t see the look of disgust in his eyes he expected, the moment lasted a split second and Will couldn’t pin point what the other emotion was.

Mentally, he shook his head, shaking his feelings off and continuing with the task at hand.

“Have you ever dyed someone’s hair before? I take it you haven’t” Hannibal shrugged.

The older boy neatly took off his jacket “Do you have any clean shirts, emphasis on clean, that I can borrow?” Will flipped him off and began digging through his drawers, pulling out an old Rob Zombie t-shirt that was a bit bigger than the shirts Will normally wore.

Will tried his utmost best, to keep his eyes to himself, but when the other boy unbuttoned his shirt, and put on the t-shirt? Will couldn’t really stop himself.

The boys made their way to the bathroom, where Will sat down on the chair they brought with them, and started mixing the various dyes, he tried not to let out a laugh when Hannibal’s face scrunched up in disgust at the smell of the bleach. After a few minutes of Will explaining how the other boy should do the job, Will closed his eyes and let Hannibal do his part.

Will discovered two things very quickly, one being that Hannibal is such a fucking perfectionist, all Will wanted was for him to bleach the roots and dye them green, and then dye the ends black, but Hannibal had taken so long to only part the hair, that he was about to fall asleep.

When the older boy had finally come to the part of actually dyeing the hair, Will discovered the second thing; he, for some reason, really liked the feeling of Hannibal’s fingers in his hair.

He also found out that Hannibal’s concentration face looks really dumb.

-

“Do you want a beer?” Will walked into the partially cleaned room, still drying his hair.

“No thank you, I don’t drink.”

“How are you 18 and still doesn’t drink? Wierdo” he walked over to the mirror and looked at his hair, not too bad.

“I don’t drink beer, it tastes…wrong” Hannibal tried to explain “But I do like wine.”

Will snorted a laugh “Thought you were 18, not 50-” Hannibal furrowed his brows at the remark.

“-Honestly, can I finally get a fucking answer soon? -” Will turned and looked at Hannibal, resting his weight on one leg, placing a hand on his hip.

“-what’s up with you and the stupid suits? You must know what people think.- ” He eyed Hannibal, who still sat in Will’s t-shirt “-I mean, you look so much better in normal clothes-“ he gestured to the t-shirt with his head “-I actually thought you looked friend-able in that outfit you had on a while ago” Will bend down and picked up a hoodie from the ground, putting it on.

It was only as his head popped through the neck hole again, that Will saw the look on Hannibal’s face.

He didn’t look sad he looked annoyed, but with the tiniest brim of tears forming in his eyes.

He stood up “Why is it that its perfectly normal that you go around in your weird clothes, with your weird piercings and hair and its okay that you paint your nails like some girl?” Will took a step back, Hannibal wasn’t yelling, but the words coming out his mouth felt as though if Will stood too close, they would scratch him up “-why is it perfectly okay for you to be a fucking freak, but I can’t wear a suit? At least my clothes are normal” Hannibal snarled.

Will looked up at the other boy, furrowing his brow, he let every single word sink into his brain, before Will could stop himself, he took a step forward, leaning in close to the boy, he licked his lips and in a near whisper he said;

“At least I’m not a fucking faggot” Will let his breath linger near Hannibal’s ear, before he took a step back, and looked at the speechless boy in front of him.

Hannibal’s lip twitched at the same time as his brow, and without warning, Will felt a hand make contact with his throat and push him into the wall behind him, for a split second, the only thing he could see out of his squinting eyes, was a figure oddly resembling his dad.

Will knew Hannibal wasn’t weak, but the amount of force that hurled him into the wall, was way stronger than Will had though possible. “Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” Hannibal had one hand around the other boy’s throat, the other hand grabbing a fistful of still damp hair and yanking it up, forcing Will to look back at him, Hannibal’s body was pressed up against Will’s, keeping him fully in place.

Gasping for air, and tears briming his eyes from the hair pulling, Will muttered to the best of his abilities “Knew it.” A smile crept its way up his lips and his eyes darted as far down Hannibal’s body they could, landing at the lower part of his stomach.

Realization hit, and stepping half a step away from Will, Hannibal let his grip from the boy’s throat go, and instead connected his now free fist, to Will’s cheek. Will groaned, the hand in his hair gripping tighter around his curls, as he turned his head from the blow.

For good measure, Hannibal landed one more blow to Will’s cheek, before letting go of the boy, grabbing his things, and fleeing out the door.

Holding a hand to his cheek, Will slumped down against the wall.

For once, Hannibal was the one to leave Will physically hurt.

-

Chapter Text

Will decided that not showing up to school, was better than showing up at school with a face that’s all bruised up. So, when morning came around, Will put on his jeans and a hoodie, and walked out the door, but instead of turning right like he normally does, he turned left towards Price’s home.

The walk wasn’t far, but it was far enough that Will could get what he wanted and come home after his dad had left for work. Price was a bit older than Will, he had retaken senior year, and way before that he had retaken 2^nd grade, but none the less, he and Will had been friends for some years.

It was Zeller who introduced them, one day in the beginning of freshman year, people had picked on Will for his bright dyed red hair, and as they were about to drag the boy to the bathroom for a beating, Zeller stormed after them with the tall blondie following.

Will still had no idea how Zeller and Price met, but he didn’t really care either, all Will cared about was the fact that Price had that sweet piece of plastic, demonstrating he was old enough for whatever Will wasn’t.

Price had told him about a year into their friendship that if Will ever needed something, whatever it was, he could show up at Price’s house and he would help him. Mostly Will used the offer to buy weed, or get Price to buy him cigarettes or the type of alcohol that Will didn’t even bother trying to buy without an ID.

Will knocked on the door, and a few seconds later, a blond-haired guy appeared through the crack in the door.

“Sup dude-” Price yawned, “-what’d you want?”

Will tugged at the small hairs on his nape.

“You got like, 5g or somethin’?” Price let out a breath in the form of a laugh, and checked an imaginary watch on his wrist.

“Yeah man sure, but not before 10, remember that.” The blondie turned around with a laugh, left for a few seconds, and came back with a little ball of aluminum. Will reached into his pocket, searching around for the crumbled bills, and handed them in exchange for the ball. Price saluted Will and closed the door.

Walking home again, Will grabbed his cigarette pack, and dumped the ball into the packet, before getting out a smoke and lighting it.

-

Will sighed away all the tension in his shoulders, when he saw the empty driveway. Still thinking about that time with Zeller, Will decided that, even though his dad isn’t home, it probably wouldn’t be that smart to smoke at home, so he continued walking, this time towards the skatepark.

Arriving at the empty park, he looked at his watch, 9.45 still 15 minutes till he could smoke. The after 10 rule was the only criteria Price had sat for Will and Zeller. If he was to deal them that stuff, they had to wait till after 10 to smoke it. They still didn’t really know why, but they had both kept up the promise, not wanting to lose the only guy in town, willing to deal to them.

Will kicked around a stone, hands in his pockets, for the next few minutes until the time on his watch showed 10. He went over to the abandoned shed in the corner of the park, and kicked away some leaves, before sitting down and rolling a smoke up.

After a few hits, Will disappointingly remembered his lack of breakfast, he reached into his pocket, trying to see if there was enough money left to buy him something. Finishing his smoke, Will shakingly stood up and wobbly made his way out the park again.

Will was over the Finding-Everything-Hilarious part of his highs, those only last a few sessions, and then being high just feels a bit unstable, but everything usually becomes a bit more bearable. The walk to the store felt unbearably long though, being high and walking isn’t really Will’s favorite thing.

Walking into the store, the ding of the bell above the door felt a bit louder than usual, and Will could hear the beep-beep of the register. Picking up the pre-packed ham and cheese sandwich, Will was about to scream, it was as though every single one of his five senses had quadrupled within the past 20 minutes.

Looking around, Will put back the sandwich, and folded one of his hands into a spiderman position, and thrust it forward, just to check. But nothing happened and Will frowned slightly to himself.

He had to pop his earbuds in, just to have a barrier between his ears and the constant noises around him, before he went to the register and paid for his stuff.

Walking out the store, Will nearly screamed, and his heart flew right out his ass for a second. Standing right there, on his way into the store, was fucking Hannibal. As Hannibal passed the frozen-in-place boy, he jammed his shoulder into Will’s, making him stumble out Hannibal’s way.

Ex-actually-fucking-cuse him?

Will’s ears rang as his brain replayed the excruciatingly loud sound, of Hannibal’s shoulder crashing into Will’s. What the fuck was in that shit weed. Holding his hands over his ears, Will crouched down near the wall of the shop, and hid his face in his knees.

The ding of the door brought back the ringing, and Will snapped his head up, looking for the idiot who fucked with his head again. Out stepped Hannibal, holding a bottle of water. Will stood up and rushed over to the taller boy.

“Fuck you” Will hissed, trying to not speak too loudly, for his own ears sake, though his voice vibrated his brain in an uncomfortable way.

Hannibal turned around to the boy, glanced over his head, shrugged, and turned around again continuing his walk.

Is he honestly in the 3^rd grade? Will took a breath and followed after Hannibal. After a few minutes of silence, or, silence on Hannibal’s part, Will had grumbled a lot under his breath, trying to find the right insults to throw at the boy, to make him fucking look at him.

Why the fuck couldn’t Hannibal just look at him?

Will searched around his foggy and loud brain, trying to sort through everything Hannibal had mentioned before, that Will could use against him. Biting the inside of his cheek, he felt a pang of pain, and then the right idea slotted into his brain.

As they neared a small forest, Will ran up, so he was right behind Hannibal, and, in an attempt much weaker than he had hoped, he pushed the taller boy, at the push, he clenched the open water bottle he was sipping from, making half of the contents squirt right into his face.

“Listen to me you fucking homo!” Will snarled, and finally, the older boy snapped his head around, and looked Will right into his eyes. Some of Hannibal’s hair was sticking to his forehead, water dripping down his face, his marron eyes were fixated on Will’s own, and Will couldn’t help but feel like a deer who just spotted a hunter with a loaded gun.

Hannibal still didn’t say anything, he just grabbed Will’s hoodie with one arm, with the other, he emptied the last bit of water in the bottle, onto Will’s green and black curls.

Will had to take a second to collect himself as he felt the cold water run down his face, still feeling each and every sense a hundred times worse than normal.

Hannibal still held onto Will’s chest by his hoodie, as Will scrunched up his face and spat right on Hannibal’s cheek.

The boy opened his eyes in shock and disgust, using his now free hand to wipe the spit off, and transfer it onto Will’s shoulder. Will trashed against the older boy’s grip but was once again shocked over the sheer strength this asshole had in him.

Hannibal loosened his grip with a push, and connected a fist to the boy’s face, which send Will tumbling backwards into the tiny forest behind them, and made him crash right on his ass.

Will laid on his back, holding onto his elbow which had crashed directly onto a root sticking out the ground, the fall had made Will’s stomach turn and he was pretty sure that the slightest bit of movement would make him throw up his non-existent breakfast.

The older boy stood looming over Will, scrunched his face up, and spat right below Will’s eye.

“Fucking faggot” Will hissed through his teeth, trying to keep in a whimper from the pain forming in his elbow.

Hannibal crouched down, one leg on each side of Will’s torso.

“I thought I told you to shut the fuck up.” His face looked neutral at first glance, but when Will looked a bit closer, he could se the slight furrow in his brow, that matched his lip.

“Well at least I’m not getting hard, when beating up a boy, you weird fag” Will laughed, keeping one eye closed so the spit wouldn’t roll into his eye.

A fist connected to Will’s face once again, and Will could feel the trickle of blood run from his nose, down his cheek.

Hannibal then grabbed two fistfuls of Will’s hoodie and pulled their faces close together. Licking his lips, he held his breath before whispering very softly into Will’s ear.

“At least I’m not the one getting hard, while being beat up, by a boy.”

Hannibal let his eyes travel all the way down, stopping when he came to Will’s crotch.

He snapped his eyes back up and looked into Will’s terrified eyes, amusement clear in his own.

He cocked his head and smiled at Will before he crashed their lips together. Pulling apart again, Hannibal resumed the eye contact, and let Will’s hoodie go, making the other boy slump down on the ground again. He licked his lip, licking away the blood from Will, and left.

Will propped himself up on his good arm and wiped away the blood on his face with the other, wincing a bit from the pain.

-

Chapter Text

As Will was walking home, his high was beginning to wear off, and the pain in his elbow became near unbearable. Before he went home, he passed through the skatepark and rolled another smoke, partially to quiet the pain. Partially to quiet his mind.

But his brain wouldn’t shut up, it wouldn’t stop talking, and the higher he got, the more voices appeared in his mind, one deafening voice after another, each saying the exact same sentence.

He tried putting in his earbuds, turning the music up as far as it could go, but after a few seconds, the lyrics had changed and became just another voice. Then he tried covering his ears, trying to block out the sound, but the only sound that got blocked out was that of cars passing by.

In one last desperate attempt, he started just screaming, trying to make his voice louder than the one pocking his brain. All he got out of that was angry stares and barking.

As Will stepped through the door, the first thing he was met with, was a slap to his face.

Everything in Will’s stoned mind became a daze, running in slow-motion, Will couldn’t hear a word his dad said, everything in his mind was occupied by the gnawing voices, eating away everything and every thought in the boy’s mind.

His dad’s beating may as well have been on a corpse, Will just stared into the nothingness, not even a flinch coming from him or his face.

Finally, when his dad grabbed Will’s arm, Will’s eyes snapped up to meet his dad’s own. Making a face of pain at the pressure on the hurt arm.

“Get out of my house you fucking stoner.” His dad snared, voice barely escaping through his gritted teeth and thick beard.

Will’s eyes widened as his dad increased the pressure on the weak elbow, making the boy yelp in pain.

Scrambling to his feet, Will ran up the stairs, grabbed some stuff from here and there, stuffing it into a bag.

It was as he bent down under his desk, to retrieve a pair of jeans, that he accidentally bumped his head. In his anger, Will was ever so ready to beat the shit of a desk up, but as he looked closer under the table, he saw it.

Taped with four pieces of tape, one in each corner, was a piece of paper that Will recognized immediately. Yanking the paper off the underside of his desk, he turned the paper around, and sure enough, on the other side of it, in a neat and leaning text, stood the following words;

To Hannibal Lecter

-Ms. Crawford

Crumbling the paper in the process, Will stuffed it in his bag.

What a fucking cunt.

-

Will slung his bag over a shoulder and lit a cigarette. Holding it in his mouth, he grabbed the windowsill and whipped one, then two legs over it, stopping to take a drag, then jumped the rest of the way down.

It was quite the struggle to walk while high, wearing a shitty bag that was falling apart, and smoking, but he managed and eventually he stood in front of Price’s house.

Knocking on the door, Price barely had time to open the door for Will, before he pushed the door open by himself, and went in.

“Explain before you just storm in here mate.” Price crossed his arms over his chest and starred at Will.

“Needa crash” Will turned, just enough for the other boy to see some of his face, and without another word, Price had let him crash.

The sofa Will was offered wasn’t that bad, just a bit disgusting and Will knew that Price has had at least a few girls in it. But he didn’t mind and was thankful that the warm sofa wasn’t a cold bench.

Holding his elbow, Will curled into a ball on the ugly sofa, and only after a few sobs, had he fallen asleep.

-

Not wanting the school to start calling home, Will woke up and got to school.

First, he rolled just a tiny smoke though, Price had allowed it, even though the clock on the wall only said 7.20.

He wasn’t high he was just, existing a little easier. Or that’s how Will tried to explain his current state to Zeller, when they met just before the bell rang.

Fluffing his hair a bit, just enough to cover some small part of his eyes, Will made his way into the first lesson, then the next, the next, and soon, Will found himself standing in the middle of the cafeteria. Out the corner of his eye, Will spotted the suited boy, siting in the far corner of the room.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the crumbled paper, and walked towards Hannibal.

With no clear expression on his face, he sat down at the nearly empty table, opposite the sandy haired boy.

Will slapped the paper down, making the other boy look up from his homemade lunch. He spotted the paper and looked at Will, a smile clawing its way up his cheeks.

“You found my letter.” Hannibal reached his hand out to claim the paper, but Will’s hand was faster, yanking the paper to his chest. His face crumbled, and he let out a mostly silent scream, at the sudden movement from his arm.

Hannibal cocked his head in confusion.

“Roll up your sleeve, Will” Hannibal commanded.

“Fuck you”

“Roll up your sleeve” Will was cradling his elbow close to his chest.

“I said roll up your sleeve.”

Will rolled his sleeve up and flipped Hannibal off.

Rolling the sleeve up, had exposed the heavy bruising that had formed throughout the night.

“You need to put that in a sling, or it will just get worse.”

Will ignored him.

“Why did you tape the fucking paper to my desk” Will snared, still holding his elbow, but flaunting the paper in his hand.

“I’m serious, put it in a sling” Hannibal resumed his lunch.

Will felt the anger swell and bubble inside his stomach, everything from the past few days was way too much. With his good arm, Will snatched the other boy’s lunch, and took a bite.

“Do give me my lunch back, taking it without asking is very rude.” Swallowing his bite, Will threw the open lunchbox back in Hannibal’s direction, and threw the paper the same way.

Laughter erupted from the nearby tables, as Will stood up and left, leaving Hannibal covered in various foods.

-

Price had forced Will to the ER, and sure enough, a sling was recommended. Will absolutely hated the way Hannibal was right, and had protested against the sling, but Price had offered to buy Will some new piercings if he wore the sling, and Will had complied. (Maybe a threat of not allowing Will to sleep on his couch had also appeared in their conversation, but Will knew that price wouldn’t do that to him)

So, on their way home, Will had picked up some new studs, and Price had bought some needles.

Price was a good piercer, licensed even, and usually he would take money from rebellious freshmen, to pierce their ears or septum, which was how Will got his septum.

But price had offered to do it for free and Will wasn’t one to turn down a free piercing.

Will smiled as he looked in the mirror but stopped mid-smile when the pain of the newly pierced snakebites hurt.

He had wanted them for a long time, but the thought of getting such an obvious piercing while living at home, had halted the process of getting them slightly.

The same applied to his ears, which where now also pierced, a single black stud was now placed in each earlobe.

-

“What happened to the arm?” She nodded her head towards Will’s arm in the sling.

Ms. Crawford had asked Will to stay behind after class, wanting to discuss the tutoring.

“I fell” Will’s teeth were fiddling with the new metal in his lip.

She hummed a reply.

“How’s the tutoring going?” She gave him a smile, Will’s eyes darted around the room, catching anything but the eye of the woman opposite him.

“Yeah, it’s fine, or whatever.” He shrugged, eyes fixed on a poster with obnoxious words and ugly children on it.

“Hm, how many sessions have you guys had? It should be around…8 or 9 now?” He nodded in response.

“Okay, it’s just because, Hannibal said you guys haven’t had any sessions in the past-“ she checked her watch “- week and a half.”

Looking up into the ceiling, Will let out a sigh,

“We can’t together, it’s not working.”

She shook her head in disagreement “You scored 40% on the last test. Will, that’s an incline of 39%.”

“I don’t like him, he’s annoying, weird, and a pain in the ass to be around.” His eyes finally fell on the teacher’s, trying to show her that he is serious.

“I’m afraid I can’t do anything, there isn’t any other tutors available, and every other help I tried to give you, failed. This is the only one that’s worked.”

Wil grabbed his bag and stood up, going for the door.

“I’ll join in on a session again, tell Hannibal that your next session is in here tomorrow.”

Will left the room with a groan.

-

Chapter Text

Will usually didn’t dream. His sleep consisted of him closing his eyes, a few hours passing by, and him opening his eyes again.

But this night, when Will closed his eyes, instead of darkness Will was back in that forest, at the very moment his and Hannibal’s lips had met, only this time it lasted longer, and instead of a fight, they were just hanging out. The sky above them was pretty, with clouds hanging ever so softly, putting shapes into the otherwise emptiness. Will had blinked and the moment was gone, instead replaced with a black and blue room.

Will was sat on a hard metal chair, fingers locked between each other in a prayer, looking at the man opposite him, he saw his father, faced bloody and bruised, he felt his hands run warm, and as he looked back down at them, they were holding a bat, both the bat and his hands were stained red.

He shook his head, stammering some kind of apology, but the man opposite him had disappeared and been replaced by an empty chair. Looking around, Will saw his reflection in a two-way mirror, his hair was longer, the bright colors he normally wore in it, were faded and back to normal. His piercings were gone, replaced by empty holes.

He looked deranged and sweaty, but what Will noticed the most, was how his normal dark clothes with rips, had changed into an orange jumpsuit, blinking again, the room around him disappeared and shifted into his own room.

He was shaking now, the space around him was disgusting and felt way too small for him to fit in it.

Someone knocked on the door, and Will stood up from his chair, to open it. The person standing there was Zeller, he was yelling something, but Will couldn’t make out what.

“I don’t know what you’re saying, what are you saying?” Will cocked his head at the boy, but instead of explaining what he said, Zeller just yelled louder.

Will shook his head “nonono, I don’t know” he opened his eyes to find Hannibal standing where Zeller just had.

This was getting confusing.

Hannibal smiled, and Will was scared.

Hannibal reached his hands out, and placed them gently around Will’s neck, he wondered if Hannibal could feel how sacred he was.

He slammed Will into the wall, hands still holding his neck, the pressure was increasing, chocking out cries and pleas from the boy.

His vision blurred, and Hannibal’s faced morphed into Will’s own, as if it was a reflection in the mirror.

“I hate you.” The reflection whispered, and for some reason those three words felt like a stab in Will’s heart. The chocking boy furrowed his brows, when the refle- no- Hannibal started crying- no- sobbing?

The grip on Will’s throat loosened as the taller boy slumped to the ground. Will followed and looked at Hannibal in confusion.

“Why do you hate me?” Hannibal had whispered, this was getting more and more confusing.

As Will was trying to find the words, he heard someone call out for him.

It was Price, shaking Will awake, a look of confusion and worry on his face.

-

Will dreaded a lot of things in his life, generally he was just a quite negative guy. But this? This was a whole ‘nother level of dread for him.

Last time he had spoken (besides the awful time in the cafeteria) with Hannibal, he got spit on, his elbow got busted badly, and well, the other thing happened.

Sitting at his usual desk in the corner, Will ran a hand over his face, fingertips lingering a bit by his lips.

Will was not gay. He liked girls. He liked long blond hair. He liked small hands with cute designs on the nails. He liked long lashes hiding pretty eyes. He liked the curves of chests and hips. He liked soft lips. He liked girls.

But for some reason, he couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss, and he couldn’t stop thinking about how Hannibal looked as he stood over Will, licking the blood away from his own lip, and he couldn’t stop thinking about his dream.

Everything in the classroom suddenly became unbearable and hot, sweat began forming on his forehead, and Will felt his stomach turn.

Ignoring the teacher’s yelling after him, Will ran out of the classroom with a hand over his mouth and made his way to the restroom.

Will isn’t gay.

-

Will stood cleaning his mouth piercings by the sink, looking at the bruises he had acquired over the past week or so. They didn’t look like abuse, which he was thankful for, they looked like typical beatings from a fight. The teachers used to ask him about his homelife, but over time they just assumed he was in some weird fight club or something and stopped asking.

One thing he liked about himself was how quick his body healed from small wounds, the bruise on his cheek from Hannibal had already entered the yellow/greenish phase, and the rest had followed the same way.

Worst was his elbow though, it had only been three days since he got a sling on it, but stretching his arm still hurt, and it was quite the inconvenience to have Price roll all his smokes.

“Finally took my advice?” Rolling his eyes, Will starred into the mirror, and spotted Hannibal behind him.

“No, I was forced by someone else” Hannibal didn’t respond, just looked at Will’s face.

“New piercings?”

“of course, they’re new you fucking idiot, I didn’t have them last time we spoke now did I?” He turned around and glared at the other boy.

Hannibal held his hands up “I was just asking.”

“What a dumb fucking question”

Will dried his hands and left the restroom.

-

As 3.20 rolled around, Will remembered he hadn’t actually told Hannibal about the session, and he was simultaneously happy and stressed, happy because that meant he wasn’t stuck with the boy for the next one and a half hour, stressed because Ms. Crawford was coming.

Will decided that if he showed up and Hannibal didn’t, then Hannibal would be the one getting the blame, and that sounded like a lovely thing to Will.

But when Will opened the door to the classroom, he was greeted by, of course, Hannibal, sitting ever so annoyingly with his books and notes out, and a sly smile.

“Hello again”

Will felt the anger from the past few weeks, well actually 17 years, bubbling up and over in his mind, he decided to just, let it out.

Slamming the door shut, Will stomped over to where Hannibal was sitting.

“Why are you so fucking annoying -“ He smacked his bag down on the table and opened it “-you’re everywhere! -” grabbing the books from his bag, Will started throwing them towards Hannibal on the table, not making them hit nearly as hard as he wanted them to, with his dominant hand currently resting in a sling.

“- fuck you! You fucking cunt.” Tears began rimming his eyes, without his consent. Taking a deep breath, he tried to get the tears to stop.

Hannibal didn’t say anything, just let Will ramble on, not taking offense to the clearly very disturbed boy in front of him.

After a few minutes of Will just spewing words, he had run out, and sat down in the chair in defeat.

“Are you ready?” Will leaned his head down on the table with a sigh and nodded slightly against the desk.

The rest of the session carried on slowly and Will wasn’t really mentally there.

Ms. Crawford had arrived at some point and had sat down a bit away from the boys, mostly observing, but also clearly confused by the redness of Will’s under-eyes.

At some point, she had left, telling them that it looked like they had figured whatever out.

-

“Why did you hide the paper?” Will half whispered as they were packing up.

Hannibal hadn’t answered him, just kept packing his stuff. Will didn’t feel like asking again and accepted the silence.

As they were parting ways in the parking lot, Hannibal had stopped up, making Will turn around and look at him.

“I found the paper the first day I was over at your house, it was covered by a rather dirty hoodie.” Will tsk’ed, rolling his eyes.

Hannibal shrugged “I hid it because I thought you needed some help with the cleaning-” he shrugged again, avoiding eye contact, he resumed “-and because, well, I liked hanging out with you I guess.”

Will huffed “I can clean my room on my own.”

Hannibal walked over to the curb, and sat down, Will followed.

“Maybe I just wanted an excuse” Hannibal fumbled with his hands, twirling his thumbs.

“From what?” Will hugged his knees, the bad arm folded between his stomach and thighs, the other fumbling for a cigarette.

The other boy looked at his own hands.

“My house.” The curly haired boy snorted a laugh “What could you possibly need a break from, Mr. fancy suit?”

Hannibal furrowed his brows.

“Did you know my parents are dead? They died when I was 8, and I’ve lived with my uncle ever since? Did you know that my uncle has major OCD, and he has all these rules that I need to follow, and I have to do this and that and everything? -”

he sighed “-just because my family is rich doesn’t mean I can’t have it hard-” he turned his head and looked at Will.

“-I’m allowed to be sad, and frustrated, and angry, just as well as you’re allowed to. I know its not his fault that he is how he is, but it’s just, it’s just so frustrating.”

“Are you sure you don’t want a beer? Or like, I don’t know, two?” Will looked back at Hannibal and saw tears threatening the other boys’ eyes ever so slightly.

Hannibal huffed a small laugh and nodded, Will sprung up and offered Hannibal his good arm, cigarette hanging from his mouth.

“Come on.”

-

Chapter Text

Hannibal and Will walked side by side, not saying a word. The silence would normally kill Will and eat him away as he would try and find something to talk about. As he walked with Hannibal though, the silence felt right, and he found himself enjoying it.

They ended up at a corner store, and while Will had persuaded Hannibal to finally drink beer, it still took Hannibal 10 minutes on deciding which beer he wanted, before Will grabbed one of each and stuffed them in the other boy’s arm.

As Will’s arm was fucked up, Hannibal ended up carrying all the beers. Making their way out the store, Will cranked one open and took a sip, extending his arm towards Hannibal as to ask if he wanted a taste.

They stopped up and Will held the can to Hannibal’s lip, tilting it a bit to let the other boy taste, he grimaced, and Will laughed.

Finally, they arrived at the rooftop Will usually goes to drink, Will grabbed a few of the beers from Hannibal’s arms, and stuffed them in his pockets, before making his way up the ladder.

Hannibal had insisted that they didn’t have to drink there, seeing as Will’s arm was messed up (and Hannibal didn’t like how dirty it was up there) but the curly haired boy surprisingly made his way quite easily up.

The taller boy sighed, put down the beers, put on his gloves, picked the beers up again and made his way up the ladder.

Will slumped down against the wall, like he had so many times before, and looked up at Hannibal.

Hannibal stood, beers in his arms, and eyed the ground with a semi-disgusted look on his face, Will snorted and took of his hoodie, to let the other boy sit on it.

“You do know that your hoodie is probably just as gross as the ground right” Will responded by flipping him off, and Hannibal grinned, showing slightly crooked teeth.

Will placed all the beers in front of them, making Hannibal choose which one they should taste.

And so, they spend the next 2 hours, sharing a beer, rating it, and moving on to the next.

-

“Do you every miss your parents?” Will was laying on his back and starred into the night sky, Hannibal sitting next to him, head tilted back, looking in the same direction.

“Sometimes.” he sighed “Sometimes I just miss not living with my uncle.” He huffed a laugh, and tilted his head down to look at Will.

“Do you miss your mom?” Will shrugged “Never knew her, but from what I’ve been told, I probably wouldn’t miss her if I knew her” Hannibal hummed and looked back up into the sky, silence falling between them again.

They still had a few beers left unopened, but none of them felt the need to drink anymore.

Hannibal’s hand was swirling circles on his own leg, slightly catching a few of Will’s curls every now and then by mistake. Will found himself slightly hoping that Hannibal would just swirl the circles in his hair instead.

“Why did you kiss me that day” Will had whispered, the words barely escaping his throat.

“It was mostly to annoy you.”

“Mostly?”

“Yeah.”

Silence fell on them for a second.

“I’m not gay” Will murmured.

“Okay” Hannibal looked down at Will again, the alcohol in them was making them both drowsy and tired.

“Are you?” The curly haired boy tilted his head up slightly so he could catch Hannibal’s eyes.

Hannibal thought about his answer for a while. “As much as you are.”

Will sighed and looked away again.

He pulled himself up from his laying position, sat up next to Hannibal, and lit up one of his cigarettes.

-

As Will was butting out his cigarette, he felt Hannibal’s head drop down on his shoulder.

He huffed a quiet laugh, because of course Hannibal’s first time getting drunk should end up with him falling asleep instead of doing something reckless.

Slowly, Will tried his best to cub the other boy’s head and move it from the uncomfortable position on the shoulder, down to Will’s legs.

Through the quietness of the night, the only sounds around them where that of cars passing by in the distance, and that of Hannibal’s breath, escaping in almost silent snores.

-

Without knowing he had dozed off, Will woke up to his back and ass hurting, and his watch telling him the time was 11.46.

He shook the sleeping boy, slightly amazed that he hadn’t already woken up from the cold ground beneath him.

Hannibal grunted and sat up holding his head.

“Everything hurts” he complained, and Will laughed softly.

“Let’s get you home in a proper bed.”

Will had never been in the expensive part of town before, other than to piss on some mailboxes when he was high with Zeller.

“What do I tell my uncle?” Hannibal had a hand planted on Will’s shoulder as they were walking, to stabilize himself.

“Just tell him you were tutoring or something and time ran late” Will felt like an ice sculpture, that was melting aggressively at the spot on his shoulder.

“That doesn’t explain the beer stank, or the very late time” Will snorted.

They made their way towards Hannibal’s bedroom window, and Will helped open it so Hannibal could crawl his way through.

All things considered, Hannibal being drunk and all that, he actually made his way through the window relatively quietly, and Will couldn’t help but wonder if Hannibal may have had some experience in sneaking in and out of that window.

Hannibal closed the window behind him and waved at Will with a playful smile.

Will waved back and made his way back to his part of the shitty town.

The silence wasn’t as comforting as it had been before, it was all consuming and Will popped in one of his earbuds to tune out the gnawing silence.

-

Now that Will had found out Hannibal wasn’t just a snobby little know it all, he actually found himself looking a tiny bit forward to his sessions, and Ms. Crawford had begun praising his bettering grades.

It wasn’t that often, but occasionally, Will and Hannibal would decide on cutting a session short, and going for a walk instead. By some miracle, Will and Hannibal actually started getting along.

“Do you really want to wear those suits, or is it like, one of your uncles’ things?” Will took a drag of his cigarette, it was one of the days they had decided on cutting a session short, and they had gone to sit on the rooftop instead.

They sat side by side up against the wall like they usually did.

Hannibal stretched his legs, a few days ago he had brought a plastic bag with him to the rooftop, containing a blanket, annoyed at the dirty ground they usually sat on and the coldness of it.

Will was pleased about the blanket as well, not having to offer up his jacket for the other boy all the time anymore.

“I would say its probably a good mix of both-” Will snorted “-I mean, at first it was rather annoying, seeing everyone else be able to wear normal clothing, but I’ve grown to not care that much.” The curly haired boy nodded in understanding.

“You can borrow some of my clothes if you ever want to like, not wear a suit and be normal for once” Will avoided eye contact, focusing on a loose piece of thread in the hole of his pants by his knee.

“If it fits, you’re quite on the short side” A smile spread out on Hannibal’s face.

“Fuck you” Will laughed and kicked his foot against Hannibal’s.

Silence filled the tiny space between their bodies.

“Can the next session be at your house?” Will blurted out, his mouth once again moving before his mind could stop it.

Hannibal thought about it for a little while.

“Why?”

“I don’t know, it’s just, I guess you’ve been at my house, now it’s my turn, plus I’m curious on how our room looks-” Will eyed Hannibal “-considering your aesthetic.”

The other boy chewed the inside of his cheek before answering.

“Okay then.”

-

Chapter Text

Will was on the edge of his seat, both figuratively and literally. He was excited to see Hannibal’s house, mostly because one of Will’s favorite things ever, was to look at people’s rooms. The most personal space for someone, and Will would be allowed into it, he would be allowed to see the place where someone could truly be themselves.

He loved looking at the small nicknacks, posters, the mess and everything one could fit in their room, slowly piece by piece, Will could find out everything he needed to know about someone. Safe to say, he was very excited to see how Hannibal’s room would look.

It was the last lesson of the day, and the time was moving way to slow for Will’s liking, not only because he wanted to get the hell out of there, but his nicotine craving was also on the line here, he hadn’t had a cigarette since this morning, and it was beginning to wear him down.

Will was sat fidgeting with everything in his reach, to try and calm his cravings, leg bouncing, hand playing with his septum and his teeth biting the piercings in his lips. Looking at the watch on his wrist every three seconds wasn’t helping his fidgeting, why was it moving so slow? Was it even moving at all?

When the bell finally rang, he was the first up and out, barely having time to zip up his bag.

Will didn’t really know if he should be moody because of the lack of nicotine in his blood, or if he should jump on the walls of excitement. He decided on being moody on the outside and mentally jump around.

Walking around to the side of the school, Will heard a voice.

“Smoking’s bad for you little boy” Will scoffed and flipped the guy off.

“Fuck you Price, give me one of yours, I don’t got a lot left” Price grinned and offered out his pack for Will.

“Skipping sessions with Mr. Fancy Suit again?” The older guy blew a breath of smoke near Will’s face.

“Nah, we’re just going to his place instead.” He shrugged and returned the favor of smoke in Price’s face.

Price scoffed his shoe against the gravel “Be careful, he might turn you into a queer and grab your nono parts” he joked, but the words made Will pause for just a second longer than Price wanted him to.

“you’re not a fucking queer already, are you?” His playful smile dropped and got swapped for a disgusted look. Will mimicked Price’s face in a panic.

“No, the fuck I’m not? What’s wrong with you? Fucking bitch.” He looked away and took a deep breath, disguised as a drag of his cigarette.

“Just makin’ sure dude” Will scoffed, threw the butt of his nicotine on the ground, and left.

As he turned the corner, he bumped into someone, and just as he was about to give the guy a punch for not looking out, he saw it was Hannibal.

“Thought you might be here” Hannibal gave Will a small smile, which Will was in no mood to offer back, instead he grabbed the sleeve of Hannibal’s suit and dragged him away.

The walk back to Hannibal’s place was long, and Will’s lungs were about to give out at least three times.

The only times Will had been to the richer part of town, was at night, when the smell of dinners was faded, and when the darkness had swallowed everything. This time though, Will could see all the tall, three stories high houses, he could see all the fit mothers in their tight pink jackets running with the dogs, and he could hear the conversations of people arriving home.

Everything was bigger and so very different from where Will lived. Where he lived, the houses where beat down, the sidewalk was chipped all over, and the only thing you could hear was dogs barking and angry dads yelling.

 The pang of difference swelled up in his stomach, but he pushed it down and instead decided on starting a conversation to keep his mind of the thought.

“Is your uncle home?” Will cocked his head to look at the other boy.

“I don’t think he is no, why?” Hannibal tried to catch Will’s eye, but the curly haired boy had redirected his eyes.

“Nothing, just curious.”

Soon enough, they arrived at the house, and Hannibal had to use the next five minutes explaining that Will had to do this and that to his shoes, before going in, where Will then had argued that if his uncle wasn’t home anyway, then why do it. Hannibal had then explained that, yes, his uncle wasn’t home, but he would most definitely know if they didn’t do it.

Even though Hannibal also found the whole thing pointless, he reminded Will that his uncle wasn’t a perfectionist, but that this was a disorder that was just as annoying to the uncle, as well as everyone around him.

Will surrendered and in they went, Hannibal grabbing some slippers for himself and dug around to find a spare pair for Will.

The house was clean, really clean, every little nicknack had their own place, and was tilted at the same angle throughout the whole house, every carpet somehow looked cleaner than if someone were to buy it brand new.

Walking up the stairs, Will feared even touching the railing, as that would most likely leave a smudgy fingerprint.

“Anyhow, this is my room” Hannibal was done with the brief tour of the house, and they were currently stood outside of a white door, not a dirty spot to be seen.

The excitement was bubbling slowly in Will’s mind.

As Hannibal opened the door, Will’s jaw fell to the floor.

The room wasn’t all that big, maybe a tad bit bigger than Will’s.

His bed was neatly made, two pillows fluffed to perfection, covers and blankets laid without a single wrinkle. A bookcase stood in the corner of the room, filled up with antique and vintage books, a shelf occupied another part of the room, in the middle of it stood a record player, records stacked neatly to the side.

A few posters were scattered around the room, R.E.M, The Doors, and The Rolling Stones where the ones Will first noticed, he snapped his head towards Hannibal.

“Why do you actually have a semi respectable music taste” Will half whispered in shock, eyes wide.

“Well, it’s not all I listen to, I enjoy classical music as well, but they’re a lot more expensive to buy on record.” Holding a finger up to Hannibal’s mouth, Will shushed on him.

“Don’t ruin this groundbreaking discovery, with your classical music crap.”

“you’re one to talk with all your angry angsty music” Hannibal laughed, and Will pretended to be offended.

“The Misfits just understand me like no one else!” Dramatically, he threw his head back, one hand on his forehead and one on his chest.

Hannibal smiled, showing those crooked teeth that Will had started to enjoy seeing.

“You’re free to put anything on, but we do also need to study Will” he rolled his eyes, and made his way towards the record player, putting on one of the R.E.M ones.

Hannibal left the room to retrieve a second chair, and Will was left standing in the room alone, too scared to sit down.

Grunting a bit, Hannibal came back with a chair and proudly sat it down next to the other chair in the room.

Usually in their sessions, Will would sit opposite Hannibal, but this desk was facing the wall, so instead they were sat side by side, knees touching every time Will’s leg bounced too much.

“Oh yeah, do you want anything to drink? We have… uh well we have water? Tea? Do you want tea?” Will snorted a laugh and nodded.

Back in the kitchen, Will stood and watched as Hannibal grabbed the kettle and everything else, himself being stuck in place, still too scared to touch anything.

Hannibal slid a mug across the counter, a blue one with small wiener dogs on it, Will laughed and looked questionably at Hannibal.

“Doesn’t really fit the rest of the house, does it?”

“That’s my cup, I insisted on at least having one cup I wanted” Hannibal opened the cupboard to show that the rest of the mugs where all the same design, shape, and color. Beige and boring.

Will laughed and sipped his tea.

“Sorry, no food or any beverage outside the kitchen or dining room” The older boy shrugged “Uncle’s rules.”

-

The rest of the evening passed peacefully, after they drank their tea, they went back to the tutoring, and Will went back to bouncing his leg, only this time, he swore that Hannibal would sometimes move his own leg, just a smidge closer, so their knees would touch a bit more.

“How’s the arm doing?” Will had moved down to sit on the floor and against the bed, after Hannibal had asked him to stop chewing his fingers so loudly, as it was ‘quite an unpleasant sound’.

Will looked up from his book and shrugged “There’s no need for the sling anymore, so that’s something I guess” The older boy slid back his chair and made his way over to Will and crouched.

“Can I see?” His hand gestured to the arm, and Will offered it up.

Hannibal grabbed it ever so lightly, just below and above the elbow, carefully twisting and turning it to get a good look.

“Does it still hurt?” Will shook his head “Not really, it did the first two weeks, but now it’s only if I throw something.”

The sandy haired boy looked at the elbow and frowned slightly.

“I’m sorry” Again, Will shook his head “It’s okay, I deserved it, I’m sorry for saying all those things, and also fucking up your elbow.”

Hannibal huffed “Yeah that one was quite tricky to explain” He looked at Will and smiled, and Will returned it.

He slumped down next to the curly haired boy.

“I actually did quite a good job on the hair dye, if I must say so myself” He lifted his hand and messed Will’s hair up a bit.

Will smiled a semi sad smile “You know, I’m like really sorry for all the shit I said right?” Hannibal nodded “You’ve mentioned it, yes. -” He nudged Will’s shoulder with his own “-Me too, sorry for all the hitting, but you did deserve it.”

Will tsk’ed and grinned, continuing his studying.

After a few minutes of silence, Will heard a soft thump, and the heavy breathing of the other boy’s soft snoring.

Over the past few days, all the pent-up anger and hate towards Hannibal that had previously sizzled and bubbled, had turned into something softer and more delicate. As if he had to break both him and Hannibal open a few times, like a matryoshka, the anger like the paint, slowly becoming more and more unclear and slurred.

Will looked down and saw Hannibal’s hand facing up, laying gently on his own lap.

He could see the slight smudge of graphite on the side of his hand and smiled at the thought of Hannibal sitting concentrated in silence for hours, trying to get every pencil scratch right.

Without having time to react to his own body, Will reached out for the inviting hand, and grabbed it in his own, slowly stroking the slightly curled fingers.

Hannibal’s hands were soft, but still the hand of an artists. He traced circles in the other boy’s palm and zoned out from the peacefulness of the situation.

The tracing stopped, as Hannibal’s hand closed on Will’s fingers, momentarily startling Will, until Hannibal squeezed slightly on the other boy’s hand.

Without a single world exchanged between them, Will stretched out his fingers, intertwining their hands. Hannibal tilted his head down on top of Will’s and Will dumped his head on Hannibal’s shoulder.

-

Chapter Text

Will woke up on the scratchy sofa in Price’s living room, kicked a few empty beer cans to the side, and made his way to the kitchen. It was Sunday and Will could feel his brain pulsing from yesterday’s drinking with Price.

A loud yawn startled Will and made him drop his toast on the crusty floor, frowning slightly, he bent down and picked it up.

“Mornin’” Price said as he reached for a bowl.

Will responded with a hum and got started on another toast.

“What’re you doing today?” Price shrugged and lit up a cigarette as he poured milk in his bowl, one thing Will absolutely hated about Price was the way he made his cereal, like who the fuck pours milk first?

“I’m going out in a bit, might be late.” He took a bite of the non-floor toast and left the kitchen.

“Hanging out with that suit-fag again?” Will stopped mid bite and turned to look at Price “I already told you he isn’t gay, he’s just weird y’know.”

Price snorted “fuck yeah if he’s weird” He mumbled, cigarette bobbing up and down as he talked.

The younger boy angrily ate his toast, trying to redirect his mouth from saying something that would get him kicked out of the only place he could sleep currently.

Will snatched his pants of the floor and put them on, dusting crumbs off them, before looking around for his shirt.

“Where’s my shirts dude?” He stood in the doorframe that separated the kitchen and living room, one hand on his naked hip, the other gripping the doorframe.

“I don’t know man, tried asking your boyfriend?” He didn’t even turn around, just stood with his back facing Will, munching on his cereal.

Frustrated, Will ran a hand over his face, groaning “I am not gay.”

“wha’ evr.” The younger boy was seriously contemplating hitting the other guy. Instead, he took a deep breath, and scratched the pad of his thumb with his index finger.

He decided that the weather was somewhat okay and left the house without a shirt. The walk from was Price’s to his dad’s was only a tiny walk away anyway.

Quietly he unlocked the blue front door, his dad’s truck was in the driveway, but Will knew that he was most likely asleep at this hour.

He made his way to his room and searched around for a shirt. The floor was still only partly cleaned, they hadn’t had the chance to thoroughly clean the whole room, only barely scratching the surface.

Will picked up a shirt from the bundle on the floor, sniffed it, and threw it to the other side of the room, he then continued that cycle a few more times, thinking really hard over when the last time his shirts were ever cleaned, because holy shit they all stank.

As he picked up a navy-blue shirt, a piece of paper followed along, and Will picked it up.

It was a drawing of two males, one leaning over the other that was laying down, last time Will had looked at it, he had thought about how it kind of resembled him and Hannibal, but looking at it in better lighting, and not as stoned, the resemblance wasn’t there as much.

Anyhow, Will now had something to do on this boring Saturday.

He folded the drawing and placed it in his back pocket, picking up a hoodie on the way out his room.

Before leaving the house, Will snuck into the living room and picked up the half empty pack of cigarettes that laid beside the snoring man on the couch. As he stood there looking at the sleeping bastard, he couldn’t help but think about how much they resembled each other.

Gowing up, Will was always told that he looked like his dad, and he did. His nose crooked in the same places his dads did, the curls that covered and stuck his dad’s forehead, were the same one’s Will so desperately tried to dye. Their eyes shared the same color, and the places Will couldn’t grow a beard, matched his dad’s.

The thought was annoying, sure, but the worst part? The worst part was, that the physical wasn’t the only resemblance the two men shared.

Will had inherited the anger, the addictions, the hate, and the violence. Every punch Will would throw, resembled the ones his dad threw at Will. The reflection in every beer can, was the one of his dad’s.

He hated it. He hated it so much.

He hated it, because he knew what the future had in store for someone like him, the future him, was currently snoring loudly on the couch, drunk and gross.

Who could ever love him if that were his future? Could he even love himself if that were his future?

It took everything in Will to walk out the door, instead of leaping forward and strangling the future that laid so sadly on that old couch before him.

-

The walk towards the richer part of town, didn’t lighten his mood at all. What kind of fucked up shit did he do in his earlier life, for this to be his fate?

Lighting up a cigarette, he tried to let the nicotine overtake his brain and his thoughts.

The anger was swelling up and he was tired of it, nothing in his life gave him even a second of peace.

*

Rolling up his sleeve, the chilly air exposed three round scars scattered around his arm. Taking one last drag, Will pressed the lit-up end against his arm, hissing slightly at the pain, the tears stinging at the back of his eyes.

*

He took another drag, and dropped the cigarette on the ground, stomping it out.

-

Will knocked on the big wooden door, and took a step back, fixing his hair.

A man opened the door slightly, only enough for himself to peep out.

“What do you want? Who are you?”

Will coughed “I uhm, I’m Will Graham? I don’t know, I’m being tutored by your s- I mean uh Hannibal?” He brought up a hand to fidget with his septum.

“Hm.” The man shut the door and left Will standing nervously at the doorstep.

A few minutes passed, and Will considered multiple times to just leave, and give Hannibal the drawing Monday.

The door opened and Hannibal stepped out, closing the door behind him.

He looked questionably at Will, non-verbally trying to get the boy to tell what the hell he was doing here on a Sunday.

Will pulled at the hairs on his nappe, and reached the other hand into his back pocket, retrieving the drawing.

“I found this” Hannibal took the paper and nodded “Thank you.”

He turned around to go back in

“Uh, do you maybe like wanna hang out? I don’t know? Uh.” Mentally he rolled his eyes, because why couldn’t he just form a normal sentence.

Hannibal hesitated.

“Uhm, I can’t really. My uncle wants stuff like that planned out at least a day before, plus we’re cleaning” Will snorted.

“Isn’t the house clean enough?” Hannibal shushed him, indicating that his uncle was very capable of hearing them.

Hannibal furrowed his brow.

“Is that a new piercing?” Will mimicked the furrowing of his brows, and reached his hand up, to feel for a new piercing. Sure enough, above the stud, sat another piercing. Will let out a shocked ‘huh’ and then remembered “I was drunk yesterday, probably got it there.” He chuckled.

The older boy reached out his hand to touch Will’s ear, feeling the piercing. The touch sent shivers up his spine.

“I like it. It suits you. But I don’t think people are allowed to pierce someone that’s drunk?” He cocked his head and looked confused at Will.

His ear was running warm, and Will could feel how red it was getting.

“Yeah well, uh, it was Price so uh, not professionally done, or well, he does have a license y’know?”

Hannibal blinked, and the hand fell away from Will’s ear.

“Oh, I didn’t realize you were friends with Jimmy Price.” Realization hit Will, and flashbacks of quite the beating, came back to him.

Will tried to defend himself and explain that he and Price weren’t actually that good friends, and Will was actually starting to be annoyed by the guy, but he was interrupted by Hannibal’s soft smile, a hint of hurt lingering in his eyes.

“It’s okay, I just didn’t know.”

“I’m only friends with him because he lets me sleep on his couch.”

“I don’t need an explanation; I don’t choose your friends.” Guilt beginning to burn its way into Will’s stomach, he looked down at his beat-up converse.

“Sorry for not doing anything that day.” As he looked up, he cached those dark eyes, with his own and Will could feel his stomach turning a bit.

“See you tomorrow.” Hannibal squeezed Will’s shoulder, turned around and closed the door, leaving the boy once again on the doorstep.

Fucking Price.

-

Anger was swelling up in Will, and he tried to let it out by scratching furiously at his thumb, dirty nails scratching the first few layers of thin skin off.

He tried to resonate with himself; why was he angry? There wasn’t a reason? He and Hannibal weren’t actually friends, they had quite literally beat each other up 9/10 times they had been alone.

Why was he angry at Price for beating Hannibal up? Price wasn’t wrong though, the guy was weird, and the suits are weird. And maybe the gay part wasn’t all that off.

But wait-, what the fuck did Hannibal mean when he said, “As much as you are”? Did he call Will gay? Or was he saying he was straight? The questions were piling up.

Will wasn’t gay. He knew that. He had always been straight.

Even if he was gay, Hannibal wouldn’t be his type.

But then again, why did it feel right when they held hands? Like their hands were some kind of two-piece puzzle that fit so well together, each finger of Hannibal’s fit so well with each of Will’s.

Why did Hannibal even intertwine their fingers? That was weird? Was he actually gay, and had actually called Will gay that one night?

But when Will thought back to that afternoon in Hannibal’s room, some part of him remembered the fact, that it was actually himself that intertwined their hands. Hannibal had just squeezed his hand; Will was the one to put the puzzle piece of their hands together.

When Will was finally able to escape the questions flooding his mind, he realized he was back in front of Hannibal’s house, apparently a good few hours later.

Blinking away the tears, tears? from his eyes, he took a deep breath, and went around the house to the window that belonged to Hannibal’s room.

Knocking softly at it, he waited patiently for the other boy to open the window.

“What are you doing?” Hannibal whispered through the open window.

Will stood there, in the middle of the late afternoon, dark sky and streetlamps surrounding him, and started sobbing.

Hannibal bit his lip and looked around, opened the window fully and hinted for Will to crawl in.

It took him a few minutes to be able to actually see what Hannibal was trying to make him do, tears blurring his vision.

The older boy shushed him as he let out croaked sobs.

As they stood in the dark room, the only light came from a streetlamp just outside, lighting up their bodies, but not their faces.

Hannibal reached out his arms and curled the younger boy into him, one hand tracing soft circles in the back of his head, the other wrapped around Will’s shoulder blades.

Will sobbed, and he sobbed, and he didn’t know why, he had all the reason in the world, but he couldn’t pinpoint which particular reason made him sob so much in this dark room.

After a little while, the sobs turned into more silent tears, and Hannibal moved his hands to each of Will’s shoulders, pulling the boy slightly away from him, so he could look properly at him.

“what’s wrong?” He whispered.

Will just shrugged, the light from the streetlamp lit up Hannibal’s body, and Will let out a slight chuckle at the sight of the shirt the older boy was wearing.

“you’re wearing my Rob Zombie shirt” Hannibal huffed a soft laugh.

“Yeah, sorry, its more comfortable than my other shirts”

“I was looking for that.”

Hannibal shrugged, he squeezed Will’s shoulder and sat them both down on the edge of the slightly messy bed.

“Sorry for waking you” Hannibal shook his head “I wasn’t sleeping, but anyway, what’s wrong?”

Will hesitated, because why was he crying?

“Just everything I guess?” The older boy cocked his head “Doesn’t really explain anything” Will took a breath.

In something way lower than a whisper, nearly so low that one could brush it off as just a breath of air, Will let out a “I’m not gay.” Tears briming his puffy eyes again.

“Okay” Hannibal nodded understandingly.

“I’m not. -” he turned his head slightly to the side, to look at the other boy.

“-Are you?” He chewed his lip piercing, trying to get the tears to stay behind his eyes and not flow over.

“As much as you are.” Hannibal caught Will’s eyes, as much as he could in the darkness of the room.

Will opened his mouth a few times, nearly saying a million different things, but his vocal cords stopped him until he found the right thing to actually say.

“I don’t know what you mean by that.” He let out in a whisper.

Hannibal turned his body to face Will, and the other boy followed suit.

The older boy reached out and grabbed Will’s hands, cupping them with his own, he looked down and played around with the fingers, studying them in the semi-darkness.

Will waited patiently for Hannibal to explain himself.

The matryoshka Will had created of Hannibal and himself, was coming more and more apart, soon Will knew that he was to open up the last layer and find the true design of them.

“It just means that, I’m as much as you are.” Will blinked hard, and stood up, letting Hannibal’s hands fall back down in their own lap. “And I don’t understand what you mean by that.” he flailed his arms around “what’re you saying? Are you calling me gay? Or are you just in some weird way saying you aren’t gay?”

Hannibal stood up from the bed, cupped Will’s face, thumbs stroking away tears.

He leaned in slightly, only a few centimeters, as if to study Will’s face better.

Will was the one to close that gap and connect their lips together, tears from his cheeks sticking to Hannibal’s.

The moment was quiet, as if the only sound in the whole world, was the small breaths and sounds coming from them, everything else muted and thrown away, no longer existing.

Will placed his hands on each side of Hannibal’s neck, thumb caressing the jawline.

They pulled away after a while, catching their breaths, foreheads pressed together.

“As much as you are.” Hannibal looked at Will and connected their lips again.

-

Chapter Text

Will isn’t gay.

He isn’t.

But as he stood there in that dark room, it felt right.

It felt right to stroke his thumbs over that rough jawline, it felt right that the other boy’s hands were rummaging around in Will’s hair, tugging slightly at the hair on the nape, it felt right having Hannibal’s lips to his.

Their bodies were like made for one another, fitting perfectly together like a two-piece puzzle, where Will’s body bent, the body in front of him, slit perfectly in place.

Hannibal licked softly at one of the piercings on Will’s lip as they pulled apart, their foreheads pressed together. Will could feel as their breaths met in the air, he could spend the rest of his life breathing in the other boy’s used up air, and not complain once.

Hannibal wiped away a tear from Will’s cheek, eyes still fixed on the damp lips in front of him.

“I’ve never kissed anyone with those piercings.” He whispered, their faces so close that they could practically hear each other’s thoughts if they listened carefully enough.

A smile tugged slightly at Will’s lips, and he finally opened his eyes to look at Hannibal.

Will had kissed a few people before, but never in his life, had he looked at them, like he stood looking at Hannibal in that very moment.

The light from the streetlamp still didn’t reach their faces, but Will could see. He saw the calmness in those brown eyes, he saw the way Hannibal’s teeth didn’t sit perfectly, but still fit perfectly in his mouth, he saw the slight wrinkle that formed under his eye, he saw everything he had seen before on so many occasions, but right there, he saw them so differently.

And Hannibal saw Will, right back.

The eye contact that Will so often ignored and avoided like the plague, felt so natural and right as they stood there holding each other.

The world seemed to fall away and disappear, the only part of it remaining, being him and the other boy.

But the world cannot disappear just like that, and Will knew, he so painfully knew. And as that realization dawned on him, the world came back, and the streetlamp light finally hit their faces, and Will saw.

Will saw, that in front of him, stood a boy.

Of course, he knew Hannibal was a boy, but when the light beamed in on that masculine face in front of him, Will saw and realized that he had just kissed a boy. And it felt good.

The tears were brimming his eyes again, and they were met with a concerned brow from Hannibal.

The fingers in Will’s hair travelled down to his shoulders and pushed him down to sit on the edge of the bed again. Hannibal sat down beside him as the tears began flowing just as heavily as they had before the kiss.

The older boy wrapped an arm around Will’s shoulder and cradled the crying boy in his arms, rubbing soft circles on his back.

And Will cried. And oh, how he cried.

-

The exhaustion of crying had tired Will out, and when Hannibal went to make some tea for the boy, he had laid down and fallen asleep on the soft and slightly messy bed.

Hannibal had come back to get Will, as tea still wasn’t allowed outside the kitchen, but as he saw the puffy eyed boy asleep in his bed, he decided against waking him, and instead sat down on the floor against the bed.

At some point he had dozed off but was woken by a lazy hand twisting around in his hair.

“Can you come up here?” He had whispered in a raspy voice, and Hannibal had complied.

Will felt as an addict, always telling himself to stop, but never having the guts to actually do.

Hannibal slid down next to Will under the covers, their bodies turned to each other, face to face.

“I don’t know what to do.” Will looked helplessly at Hannibal, as if he should know the answers. The older boy reached a hand up to lay on Will’s face, carefully tucking a curl behind his ear.

“Me neither.” He leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to Will’s nose, their faces now so close that their breaths were mixing and exchanging again. Under the covers, Will grabbed a fist full of Hannibal’s t-shirt and pulled the boy even closer.

He nuzzled his forehead against Hannibal’s before connecting their lips again. As if trying to morph the two of them together, Will pushed his leg over Hannibal’s and pressed his whole body as close as he possibly could to the other boy, Hannibal following suit.

As they pulled apart again, Will looked at Hannibal.

“Do you wanna skip today?” Confused, as it was a Sunday, Hannibal looked at his watch.

4.36 Monday.

A surprised huff left his lips at the late hour and no sleep.

“I think that would be less embarrassing than falling asleep at the desk.” He chuckled and Will returned the laugh.

-

Will never slept as comfortably as he did with his body pressed against Hannibal’s.

He woke up in the bed, to the absence of said body and sat up, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

The smell of breakfast was what had woken him, but Hannibal had warned him the night before, that he wasn’t allowed to go out the room, as Hannibal’s uncle would throw a fit if he had people over without his knowledge or agreement.

So instead, Will ignored his protesting stomach, and decided to snoop around in the empty room.

Everything on the surface looked as it did last time, much to Will’s disappointment, until he remembered the room held various drawers and cupboards.

The first thing he opened, revealed all of Hannibal’s suits, hung neatly and color sorted, nothing exciting. The rest showed the same result, just a few drawers with socks and t-shirts.

Moving over to Hannibal’s desk however seemed a bit more interesting.

Opening the first drawer, various pencils, markers, and charcoals laid, of course, neatly and size sorted. The second provided Will with a few sketchbooks, three different sizes; one pocket sized, one a bit bigger, and lastly a big one.

The smallest one held single figure drawings of a bird or a leaf, or even a face here and there.

The bigger one held drawings of buildings and more people, this time there being more space to draw out landscapes and bigger pictures.

The biggest one, was the one Will liked the most.

In that one, Hannibal had redrawn different famous paintings, but this time with people Will could recognize from school and around various places in town.

The details were amazing, and Will found himself more impressed each page he turned.

Will’s favorite, quite egoistically so, was one Hannibal had drawn of Will.

He was sat against the wall on the rooftop, cigarette in his hand, and a beer can in the other.

Will normally hated being photographed or drawn, but when he saw himself drawn by Hannibal’s hands, everything changed. He actually looked genuinely good in the drawing. Flipping the pages onwards, more and more drawings of Will started appearing, until the latest one in the book.

It was still in a semi sketch phase, but Will knew exactly what it was.

It was a drawing of him and Hannibal, backs against the bed, fingers intertwined and heads resting against each other.

He closed the book and put it back as he heard soft footsteps approaching.

“My uncle is out the door now; we just need to wait a bit longer- “Hannibal closed the door behind him and saw Will standing by his desk.

“What’re you doing?” Will looked around the room before answering.

“Just looking around” He walked over to the bed and sat down again.

Hannibal sat beside him.

“What do you wanna do today then?” Will looked at the other boy.

“Actually, I don’t really know, I’ve never skipped school before really, the most I’ve skipped was a lesson.” Will cocked an eyebrow and laughed “What a rebel.”

The other boy returned the laugh, and laid down on his back, hands folded on his chest.

Will followed and laid beside him, looking up into the ceiling. “Sorry for last night, I didn’t mean to turn up so late, or at all.” The sandy haired boy shrugged beside him “I’m glad you turned up." He unfolded his hands, and grabbed one of Will’s, intertwining their fingers again.

Will scooted closer and rested his head against Hannibal’s shoulder.

The silence between them was peaceful, and soon enough, they both drifted off, tired from their lack of sleep.

Will knew he had a lot to work on and figure out, but right now, all he needed was the stillness of this moment between them, and he would be fine.

-

Chapter Text

Will woke up to the feeling of a warm breath to his neck. Hannibal laid halfway on top of him, one arm slung over Will’s torso, hand laying softly on the shoulder, and a leg trapping Will’s own.

Will sighed and brought a hand to the back of Hannibal’s head, swirling around the short hairs on the nape, turning his head, he looked at the ticking watch that hung over the desk.

11.55.

His stomach growled.

After a few minutes of just soaking up the comfort of the bed and warm breath to his neck, Will decided it was probably time for them to eat something, especially himself, seeing as his last meal was over twenty-four hours ago.

The hand swirling the boy’s hair, twisted up to poke at Hannibal’s cheek softly instead, annoying him to wake him. Hannibal blinked a few times in confusion, but eventually looked up at Will, hair falling softly over his forehead and eye bags clear in the daylight.

Will huffed a quiet laugh at the sight of the messy boy, used to seeing him dressed perfectly and neatly. This Hannibal that laid next to Will in that moment, was not the same he had seen on so many occasions. The other Hannibal was rough, back straight, and neatly sculptured by the hands of his uncle, this one, this one Will liked more. This one was soft, like the clay he was sculptured out of, was softening at the edges, his hair was floppy and soft, eyes calm and peaceful, his clothes were relaxed and comfortable to look at, Will’s oversized shirt and some boxers. It was the complete opposite of Will’s image of the boy.

“What are you laughing at?” Hannibal had said in a soft and raspy morning voice, the vibrations from the raspy voice, traveled through Will’s body and made him shudder a bit.

“Nothing, I’m starving though.” He nuzzled his head in the other boy’s hair, and his stomach growled in agreement, making Hannibal snort out a laugh.

After a while, they dragged themselves out of bed, and made their way to the kitchen, the house was quiet and calm, and Will soaked up as much of that feeling as he could.

“Do you wanna go out?” Will had asked as they sat at the table, eating eggs and toast that Hannibal had cooked up.

The older boy coughed and nearly choked on his eggs as he looked at Will with surprised eyes.

“Uh, what do you mean?”

Will looked confused “Like, out? Outside? Grass, asphalt, and sky you know?” He waved his toast around, the realization hit him a few seconds later and he felt his ears go red.

He broke a small piece of his toast off, and threw it at Hannibal, making the older boy laugh at the bad aim.

“Sure, we can go out, but if you want, I’m not opposed to the other ‘out’ either.” He bent down and picked up the toast piece from the floor, making his way to the trashcan to throw it out.

Will sat and fiddled with his septum as his teeth were tugging on his lip.

“I don’t really know if uh, you know, if I’m ready to make it official-” Will looked up from his eggs and made eye contact with Hannibal as he was sitting down again “- Especially because of all the very obvious hate we had for each other.”

Hannibal looked down at his plate, fork playing around with the eggs “I didn’t hate you.” He had said in a near whisper.

“You didn’t?”

The other boy shook his head “Did you hate me though?”

Will sighed and looked around the dining room.

“I don’t know, I guess? Maybe in the beginning, but it just turned to annoyance I think, because you kept showing up everywhere.”

Hannibal remained silent for a while.

In silence, they finished eating, and it was only as they stood and washed the dishes that either of them spoke again.

“I’ve liked you since that night on the bench.” He had said, ever so casually, but still ever so carefully. The words made Will nearly drop the cup he was drying off.

He turned his head and looked up at the boy “But I’ve been such a prick.” He whispered, Hannibal shrugged at that and continued the washing, not looking back at the boy beside him.

Will put down the cup and placed a hand on Hannibal’s shoulder, making him turn and face him, as he did though, he saw the tears brimming the other boy’s eyes, and the way he was clearly biting his cheek, trying to make the tears stay there and not swell over.

His hand fell from the shoulder it was placed on “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” he let out in whisper.

They finished the dishes and got ready to go outside.

The sun was out and at its highest of the day, which made the walk slightly unbearable, but the conversation between them, had faded out the annoyance and exchanged it with peaceful laughter and small talk.

Soon enough they had made their way to the destination in Will’s mind, the rooftop. The walk was quite far, but this had become his favorite place, both in general but also whenever he skipped school.

-

They were sprawled out on the blankets, Will just listening to his music, and Hannibal tracing circles in the curly hair.

Will didn’t know how to love, not people at least. Sure, he liked people, people like Zeller, but loving? He didn’t know if he was capable of that feeling.

And if he had to be honest, he didn’t know if he even deserved to be loved, or even liked by anyone. He knew his future, and what it had in store. He knew that at some point Hannibal would most likely realize how weird and unlikable Will actually was, and he would leave, he would leave like everyone else.

But laying there with Hannibal felt right, it felt as though he, even just for a short, tiny bit, would be able to be loved. When he laid there, and tried to imagine his future, he for once in his life didn’t imagine a reflection of his dad, this time, he saw himself.

He saw himself.

Maybe the future he was so scared he would create for himself, would only happen if he kept being scared.

Will opened his eyes and looked at the boy looming over him “Please don’t leave me.” Hannibal dipped his head, lips connecting with the other boy’s forehead.

“Okay.”

The curly haired boy sat up, crisscrossing his legs to sit in front of Hannibal. He grabbed Hannibal’s head and pressed their foreheads together.

“Your suits are fucking ugly dude.”

“Fuck you.”

Hannibal smiled, and pressed his lips to Will’s, teeth clanking slightly against the piercings on the younger boy’s lips. They pulled apart, and Hannibal started placing small kisses on Will’s face, one on each cheek, one on the nose, a few on the forehead, on the chin, over each eye, a single one on the right jaw, and lasty one on the lips.

Will smiled and pushed Hannibal down onto the blankets, not once breaking the contact of their lips. He sat with a leg on each side of Hannibal’s hips, cupping his face softly.

Skipping school was a lot more fun with Hannibal, than alone.

Will felt his stomach bubble and his cheeks were noticeably more read than usual.

-

“I’m sorry for all the anger.” They were sat side by side, hands intertwined. “It’s okay, I’ve already told you that.” Hannibal had whispered back, but Will shook his head.

“No, I’m sorry that I let my anger out on you.” The older boy didn’t respond, just squeezed Will’s hand softly.

“Where will you sleep tonight?" He pressed a kiss to the black curls, slightly sniffing the shampoo smell.

Will thought about it “Probably Zeller’s, I’ll have to get my stuff from Price’s first though.” Hannibal nodded against the boy’s hair.

-

Will felt the emptiness eat him up as he made his way to Price’s house alone, Hannibal returning to his own home again. He lit up a desperately needed cigarette, turned up his music, and tried to drown out and replace the noise of nothingness that flowed around him.

Before stepping into the house, he bummed his cigarette and flicked it away, Price was home and he knew that, he also knew that Price knew, what Will didn’t want him to know.

“Sup little queer” Price was sat in the armchair next to the sofa and smoked a blunt.

The words that Will had thrown around with so much hate before, were now turned around to him, stinging like a thousand needles.

Will ignored him, and reached under the sofa for his duffel bag, and began stuffing his belongings in it.

“I said ‘hey’ you fucking fag.” Price laid his blunt down in the ashtray on his thigh and sat the tray down on the floor “Quite rude you don’t answer, considering I’m letting your little gay ass stay here for free.”

“Fuck off I’m leaving anyway.” As Will bent down to pick up a sock, he felt a blow to his hip, making him stumble and fall on the sticky and disgusting floor.

Price continued to kick at him, throwing around whatever words he could come up with.

“Did you take it up the ass? Huh?! Did you take it up the fucking ass by Hannibal fucking Lecter?! Fucking queer!” Will kicked at the blonde boy’s knees, making him take a step backwards and giving Will a chance to stand up.

He curled his hand and connected it to the side of Price’s face “Shut the fuck up!” Price was now the one laying on the ground, and Will sat down on top of him, holding the way older boy down.

His fist was beginning to ache, and his knuckles were bleeding.

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up” Will grabbed him by the collar, and Price spat a bloody mouthful of spit up at Will.

“Knew you were a queer from the day I fucking met you.” Tears were brimming his eyes, slowly dripping down and onto Price’s face.

Will smacked the boy’s head down onto the ground “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re running around doing to the freshman girls, don’t know how well the cops would look at you fucking them huh-?” He smacked the head down again “-at least I go for people my own fucking age you creep.”

He stood up, kicked his foot into Price’s side, picked up his duffel bag and made his way out that shithole.

-

Will hadn’t spoke to Zeller the past week or so, so making his way to the boy’s house, he felt a pang of anxiety, did Zeller know? Had Price called him? Told him how Will was a dirty and gross queer? That feeling faded when Will rang the doorbell and was met by a concerned Zeller in the doorway.

“What the hell dude?” He yanked Will’s arm and dragged him up into the poster-filled bedroom.

He sat Will down on the edge of the bed, and stood in front of him, one hand on his hip, mirroring how Mrs. Zeller looks when she’s about to yell.

“You beat up Price? The fuck were you thinking dude?!” Will fidgeted with his thumbs, twirling them around.

“He was being a prick.” Zeller sucked his teeth and rolled his eyes.

“When the fuck ain’t he? What happened?”

The curly haired boy tugged at the hairs on his nape, suddenly missing the comfort Hannibal gave him when he was the one tugging at those short hairs. “He kept calling me queer and faggot.”

“And? You literally call everyone that yourself man.” Will sighed and looked next to Zeller, at an Iron Maiden poster on the wall.

“It’s different now, it’s different when he calls me it.” He looked down at his socks, desperately wishing that he wouldn’t have to spell it out for the guy.

“Why?”

“Because I kissed Hannibal Lecter.”

Zeller opened his mouth, and just stood there, looking Will dead in the eyes.

“You kissed what? Who? What? Now you said?” Will ran a frustrated hand over his face, groaning.

“I said, I kissed Hannibal Lecter.” Each word pronounced slowly and clearly.

The brown-haired boy blinked, torso leaned slightly forward in shock, hand still on his hip “you’re gay now then?” Will rolled his eyes “That’s not how it works you dipshit, but I don’t know? I mean? I like kissing him, a lot, it feels right, but I don’t know if I’m gay.”

Rolling his eyes, Zeller replied “If you like kissing him then you’re fucking gay dude.” Will groaned and threw himself back on the bed, hands tugging at his hair.

“I don’t know!”

“Well okay, let’s try this; kiss me, and see if you like it, if you do, you’re gay.” The curly haired boy propped himself up on his elbows, laughing “You’re really fucking dumb, aren’t you? That’s not how it works you idiot, being gay isn’t just liking every dude in existence.”

Zeller thought about, then nodded “Hm, yeah, okay.”

“Anyway, can I crash here? I don’t think Price wants me it his place anymore.”

-

Will likes music. He likes skateboarding. He likes smoking. He likes dying his hair funky colors and he likes piercings. He likes folding airplanes out of school paper whenever he’s bored in class. He likes that one black and red pencil that he’s had for the past 5 years in his pencil case. Will likes a lot of things.

But one thing he really likes?

He really likes kissing Hannibal Lecter. He really likes the way his top lip sticks out a bit more than the bottom. He really likes the feeling of his breath mixing with Hannibal’s as they pull apart. He really likes looking at Hannibal’s face.

The way his eyes are slightly sunken, the way his cheekbones stick out and the way his teeth aren’t perfectly placed, but still looks so perfect behind those soft and slightly damp lips.

And if he had to be brutally honest, painstakingly honest with himself, some small part of him absolutely loved the way Hannibal looked in those stupid and ugly and weird suits.

Will knew perfectly well they weren’t made for one another, because how can one be made for another person? But he also knew that whenever they laid together, be it the blankets on the rooftop, in Hannibal’s bed or even if they just sat together, they fit so perfectly together. Whenever they kissed, Hannibal’s lips fit so perfectly with Will’s own.

Hannibal knew him, Hannibal saw him, Will knew Hannibal, and Will saw Hannibal.

The hate that Will had been bubbling at the fists with, had been used to beat up Hannibal, because deep down, Will didn’t know what to do. Hannibal saw in Will, what Will couldn’t even see in himself; a possibility to be liked and loved. Beyond a destroyed future and anger, Hannibal could see him.

From an early age, Will had been accustomed to not let people close, the ones he did, always left, so growing up had been lonely and hard. The feeling of nothing around him but a drunken dad and a single friend had eaten him up, spat him out and eaten him right up again.

So, when Hannibal kept showing up, when he kept trying, when he kept seeing, Will did the opposite, in fear of building a friendship that would end within the matter of whenever.

But Will had finally accepted Hannibal, he accepted the way he saw Will, and the way it made Will feel both completely naked, but also known.

“I like you.” Will had whispered in Hannibal’s ear as they laid close together on that slightly messy bed.

“I like you too.” He had whispered back and placed a soft kiss on Will’s brow.

The pure euphoria that flowed through the veins in Will’s body every time Hannibal kissed him, was enough for him to feel safe, it shut off his brain, and he, for just a moment, could forget how shit everything else was.

A soft clank could be heard as Will pressed his lips, to the lips of the boy who could see him so clearly, without even trying.

-