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Hannibal and Will wore matching green carnations on the lapel of their suits as they stood before the quaking priest. They smiled like sharks who just smelled blood in the water, watching with open dark amusement as the priest's knees barely kept from buckling. The priest, Ercole Pullara, then finished speaking and, still frightfully shaking, waited for Hannibal and Will to recite their own written wedding vows to each other. "Will, you know I love you," Hannibal began. His eyes gleamed dangerously in the light of the altar candles. "You know I loved you before I met you. You know that my heart belongs only to you." Will nodded, trying to ignore the way his stomach felt as if it were made out of butterflies. "I do." "You have given me everything that makes life worth living," Hannibal went on. He placed a hand over one of Will's where it lay on the pew in front of him and gently squeezed. He continued. "Before you, life had become too stale to me. Rote. Banal. Toying with people and killing them alone dissatisfied me. But then, Jack Crawford came to my office to write up a profile for you. Then I became your unconventional therapist and your friend. I then hurt you by being scientifically curious by you, I know; And i hurt you worse when I moved Abigail off the board. After that, there were many hurtful courtship rituals between us. And still, we've arrived here, mutually forgiving and mutually loving each other. Marrying each other, now, in this moment. This is what true friendship means to me."
He drew Will's hand away from his and pressed a kiss onto it. "And what you mean to me, Will. We have been friends forever, after all. If we hadn't been in that office together the day we met, if we didn't share the bed, the same sofa, the same room, would we be standing here now?"
Will could feel tears pricking at his eyes again but forced himself not to blink. This was real. It was happening. "Of course we would!"
Hannibal raised an eyebrow. "Would we?" he asked, his voice almost a purr. "If our paths had never crossed? Would we have ever become friends? Had we never slept next to each other on the couch? Did we ever spend a night in the same bed? How long did we stay awake talking until one of us fell asleep first? Or did we both eventually fall asleep at the same time?"
"Yes," Will said, feeling more confident than he'd expected. "We would have gotten along fine."
"But I'm not asking how well we would have gotten along, my vicious little mongoose. I'm asking if we would still be friends today. Would we have spent every waking hour together? Would we still sleep together? Would we even be here now?"
"Yes," Will repeated.
Hannibal smiled, his lips stretching wider than any smile Will had seen on the murderous psychiatrist's face before. "Then what are we waiting for, Mr. Graham-Lecter? Let's get married. Now."
There was a small round table set up at the back of the church, surrounded by the same green carnations that matched the ones on their lapels. The priest stood in the center, his face pale and sweaty, staring down at his Bible. Hannibal and Will had asked him to officiate but he had refused at first.
That's when Hannibal and Will intimidated Father Ercole Pullara into marrying them. Frightened beyond belief, the Father agreed. Here they are now, reciting their handwritten vows to each other. It was Will's turn.
"When I met you that day," Will said quietly, gazing straight into Hannibal's eyes. "Everything inside of me wanted to run, to hide. Because I was too afraid to look. Too wary of people back then and of their wariness of me. But then, you showed up at my hotel room with a protein scramble you prepared by yourself at your house for us to share in my hotel room. From that moment on, I was so drawn to you, Hannibal. Like a moth to a flame. Like Icarus and the sun. Yes, we hurt each other over the years, but we've forgiven each other. We still loved each other. We still love each other, even now. That's why I say here and now: Yes, Hannibal Lecter, I will marry you. I do."
As Will read aloud the words inscribed upon the paper, he heard Hannibal whisper, "I am yours, to do with as you wish." As Will looked up, Hannibal leaned down and captured Will's lips in a soft kiss.
"Now, let us seal this marriage with holy wedlock and good fortune!" exclaimed Father Pullara. "And may God keep you two together always, whether it be in Heaven or the fiery pits below! Kiss now, husband and husband!"
Will kissed Hannibal briefly. "By the power vested in me by the State of Florence, I thee wed," he said, as he put the ring on Hannibal's finger.
They exchanged rings, then sat down at the altar to receive congratulations and blessings from the congregation. When the blessing was done, Hannibal kissed Will once more before he and Will, always in sync with each other, pulled out a pocket knife from the inside pockets of their suits.
Hannibal slid the knife slowly across the throat of Father Ercole Pullara, while Will plunged his own pocketknife into the priest's guts and dragging the knife across Ercole Pullara's stomach, gutting him. Father Pullara stared down at them in disbelief, his mouth agape, but no sound came out. Will grabbed a handful of Father Pullara's hair and dragged him closer to himself and Hannibal.
And as one, they tore at Ercole Pullara's throat with their teeth. Blood spurted everywhere, soaking Will and Hannibal, splashing into their faces and hair. Finally, they stopped eating, though there was a large pool of blood around them where their meal lay, abandoned.
They rose, kissing and licking Pullara's blood from each other's mouths. Hannibal held his arm out and Will took it without hesitation.
Together, they walked out of the church and down the steps to a waiting car. Hannibal climbed into the front seat and drove them quickly away from Florence, Italy. On the way to the airport, Hannibal and Will held hands over the console. Hannibal smiled lovingly at Will, kissing his knuckles while staring deeply into Will's dark blue eyes.
"Watch the road, Han," Will chuckled. "Don't want to crash us into a tree."
Hannibal smirked slightly as he drove. "Of course not. My apologies, my beloved. You're just too beautiful not to stare at."
A small, knowing smile appeared on Will's face. "I love you," he said softly.
"I love you too, my Will," replied Hannibal. "More than you can possibly imagine, even with your gorgeous pure empathy."
"Good," replied Will. He shifted his hand so that he could lace his fingers with Hannibal's. "Because I also love you that much."
The two men shared another kiss before turning away from each other, staring out the windows, truly content and happy for the first time in a long time.