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Title: One Perfect Diamond
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham
Fandom: Hannibal
Rating: PG-13
Table: writers_choice
Prompt: #587, Diamond
Author's Note: Sequel to "Keeping Things To Himself."
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Hannibal Lecter or Will Graham, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***


Will would never understand why he was doing this.

Hannibal sighed softly as he went over everything that he and Will had discussed, coming to some conclusions that he knew Will wouldn't like.

It had been obvious that his young lover was trying to hide something from him. Hannibal didn't know exactly what that might be, but he could make an educated guess.

Will and his team had probably already realized that the man they had arrested for the murders wasn't the person who had actually committed them, and for some reason, Will didn't want him to know that fact. Will wanted him to think that they believed the man to be guilty.

Why would his boyfriend hide that from him? Hannibal frowned, reluctant to admit that he knew the only reason for WIll to do something like that.

Will might suspect him. Will might have some inkling of what he had been doing, even though Hannibal was sure that he couldn't know the reasons why.

How could he? Will couldn't see into his mind.

Even with that marvelous empathic ability that Will possessed, he couldn't see everything. Hannibal knew that he wouldn't want that -- and neither would Will.

It was hard enough for Will to control the empathic ability that he had, and to keep himself sane. Hannibal knew that there were times when it tore him up inside, and he was truly sorry that Will had to deal with such stress. But at the same time, he found it utterly fascinating.

He was sure that at some point, Will was going to unravel. He couldn't get into killers' minds the way that he did, on a nearly daily basis, and not lose a part of himself.

He wanted to be there for the young man when that unraveling happened -- so that he could guide Will down a new road, give him a place to go where he could discover himself, discover facets of who he was that Hannibal thought were only now starting to come to the surface.

Then, and only then, would he be able to tell Will what he had done, and who he really was. At that point, Will might possibly be able to start to understand him.

Even then, he wasn't sure that Will would fall in with his plans.

He had it all worked out -- but Will's reaction was the one thing that he couldn't count on. He didn't know how his lover would react to discovering everything about who he was.

Would Will still want to stay with him? Or would he be repulsed and pull away, leave him and turn him in to the FBI and Jack Crawford? Those were questions he couldn't answer.

Hannibal knew that there was no way he could anticipate Will's actions; as well as he knew the young man, he also knew that Will could be unpredictable. He had a strong sense of honor and justice, and he would cling to that, no matter how Hannibal tried to make him see another direction.

He wanted Will to fall in with his plans, but his boyfriend was an unknown factor. Hannibal knew that he would have to ease Will into the idea slowly and carefully.

He wanted to make Will his one perfect diamond, wrought in the image of himself. He wanted Will to open himself up to the darkness that was hidden in his soul, to embrace that darkness fully.

That wasn't going to be an easy feat, and he knew it. Will had always pushed that darkness away, fought against it, believe that it was wrong and that he wanted no part of it. Hannibal wanted to show him a different path, to make him realize that the darkness could be a good thing.

After all, he himself had embraced that darkness within himself long ago. He had let it take him over, and he was now completely comfortable with it.

In fact, that darkness was so much a part of him that he couldn't imagine any other way of life now. And he wanted Will to come to that point, as well. He wanted to share that darkness.

It could be such a beautiful thing. Will just had to realize that fact -- and embrace it.

The two of them, working together, with Will being shaped and formed int othe perfect diamond that Hannibal knew he could be. For him, it would be a dream come true.

Until he had met Will, he'd never thought that he could have anyone in his life who could become the image of himself, who could be shaped into what he wanted them to be. He had thought that he would always be alone, doomed to never find anyone who could understand him.

But once Will Graham had burst into his horizons, Hannibal had realized that Will was exactly the person he'd been looking for -- and he had begun to act accordingly.

He'd had to kill those other men, and he would keep killing them. They resembled Will, even if it was in some oblique way. They took away from his singularity; they marred Hannibal's image of his perfect diamond. No one could be allowed to look like Will, or to be anything like him.

Those people had to be obliterated, taken out of the big picture. They had no right to infringe upon Will's uniqueness, and they had to be dealt with.

Though of course, it would be much harder to do that now.

He would have to find someone else to take the fall for him, someone who wouldn't be as easily seen through as this last fellow. It was obvious that Will knew he wasn't the one.

Will's empathy had probably led him to that conclusion, Hannibal thought with a frown. He would have to figure out a way to beat that sixth sense of Will's, to lull it into complacence.

His one perfect diamond had a few flaws, and that was one of them. Will had a conscience, one that would never let him follow the path of darkness that Hannibal wanted to send him down. That conscience would have to be quieted, made to see that it didn't always have a place in Will's life.

Could that be done? Hannibal had to wonder if it was possible. Will was such a good person, and maybe that was one of the things that made Hannibal want to control him.

Yes, it was. He wanted to see that goodness turned to the dark side; he wanted the satisfaction of knowing that he had done that. He wanted to know that he could subvert Will.

If he could do that, then it would be a great achievement indeed.

But he would have to do it without destroying the perfection that he saw in Will Graham. That, he had to admit, would be harder than he might have first envisioned.

He would achieve that goal, Hannibal vowed to himself. He already had a plan forming in the back of his mind, and it wouldn't be long before he would put it into motion.

***