Chapter Text
"No! Absolutely not! That is utterly prosperous and I will hear nothing more of it!"
Okay. That...didn't go as planned. Hannibal stormed out of the bedroom as Will realized he'd never actually heard him yell before.
The conversation had been about a year in the making. They were coming up on two anniversaries. Only one of which Hannibal wanted to acknowledge. It was soon to be a year from the cliff fall and several more from that dreadful night in Hannibal's kitchen. It was one of those conversations (or fights, now, apparently) that was about one thing but really about everything. A big mountain under the rug that they'd been stepping around finally spilling out into the living room. Will knew this was dangerous territory to go stomping into but he really hadn't thought it would turn into this. Hannibal had the air of someone planning to give him the silent treatment for at least the entirety of the next day. They had their well practiced routine for fights, they had plenty of them of course, but this felt different. He'd never seen Hannibal that upset, at least not since...well that was the crux of it all wasn't it?
Will threw himself backwards onto the bed with a frustrated groan. He could hear things being slammed in the kitchen and cringed instinctually. As much as he was in a completely different place emotionally, not necessarily "over it" but wistfully affectionate towards everything that brought them together, his body still distinctly remembered what usually followed that particular facial expression from Hannibal and his adrenaline jumped in response. He laid there, staring at the ceiling, replaying the conversation and everything leading up to it in a hopeless attempt to locate the problem and fix it before Hannibal killed half the town they were currently residing in. The thing is, he'd been trying to figure out the mountain under the rug for a year and had apparently been unsuccessful.
He eventually fell into a fitful sleep on top of the covers with the overhead light on. He woke what felt like just minutes later with a raging headache and even more muddled thoughts, now with the added anxiety of Hannibal being upset with him. One of the more surprising experiences that came with being truly in love for the first time was this terrible feeling that followed upsetting Hannibal, even when he was sure he wouldn't retaliate. Just the fact that they weren't okay with each other set a heavy weight in his chest and even after all this time he hadn't gotten use to that. He sat up with a wince, his head and eyes protesting and going fuzzy for a second. After finding and guzzling water, he was decided on finding Hannibal and apologizing (though he didn't think he'd done anything wrong) and coaxing him to dinner and bed where, between the two, he'd hopefully fix whatever riff had formed between them, at least for the short term. That was usually what happened when they got cross with each other.
When he padded into the living room, assuming he'd find Hannibal in the kitchen, he found the house dark and the fancy Godfather clock in the corner reading 2:37. He briefly panicked, thinking Hannibal had gone out to blow off steam and hadn't come back. The reality was almost worse, because at least he would've known what to do if his first assumption was the truth. Hannibal was curled up on the couch with only the light living room blanket that was more for show than warmth. He was fast alseep with the cat draped protectively over his feet, also asleep. The dog was on the floor in front of them, just awake enough to give Will a judgmental look.
"Really? Both of you?"
Ropa sniffed him and turned around with his fluffy tail over his nose.
"Traitor. Well despite what he probably told you, it wasn't my fault!"
But his heart ached looking at Hannibal's cold uncomfortable position. He thought about waking him and taking him back to bed, but something stopped him. They'd never done this. Not ever. Not after the worst fight or most violent nightmare, not sick or injured, not on the run in any crappy motel that Hannibal hated or that one unfurnished house that only had an twin air mattress. They didn't sleep in separate beds. Ever. Maybe it was the sheer amount of time they'd lost together, because he knew normal couples often banned each other to the couch after fights, but they didn't. It was an unspoken rule. One he didn't even consciously realize until now. He knew this one was bad, but for the first time ever Hannibal was so angry he couldn't even sleep next to him.
Will felt a tightening in his throat and fled to the office before he started crying. He threw himself into Hannibal's chair, spinning around once with the force. He didn't need superpower empathy to understand this one. He hadn't just made Hannibal angry, he'd hurt him. He just didn't understand how or why. But he had to fix this. It would be helpful if Hannibal would use his words, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. But the pattern of their fights displayed a clear theme and he was pretty sure the first item placed under the proverbial rug was put their a year ago.
He had known what he wanted for a while. He had thought long and hard, imagined extensively, even Googled as much as he dared considering they shared a computer for those first few months on the run. It had been on his mind for much longer than he'd like to admit, long before the cliff if he was honest. Which he wouldn't be, because even after "Becoming", he had to draw a line somewhere right? And he knew distantly that this...fantasy, was somehow more of a statement of his inner world than most of the other ridiculous things that had transpired in their relationship. But nonetheless he knew what he wanted and by the time they were healed from the fight with the dragon and were moderately safe, he was over feeling ashamed for it. At the time he was certain Hannibal would be down for it anyway, so why not? But despite all his planning, what he didn't plan, of course, was how he was going to bring it up. You can't just cold open this kind of thing. And him being himself and Hannibal being Hannibal and them together being the way they were, Will of course wasn't gonna just ask. And anyway now he'd finally broken down and had asked, and it didn't go well.
So, he first thought he'd take a page out of Hannibal's book and subtlety orchestrate and manipulate the situation into happening by itself. This ended in a near-miss with law enforcement, a fight and almost burnt dinner. That was almost a year ago.