Chapter Text
Saturday morning Will woke up to someone gently shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes and smiled at Hannibal.
“Hi,” he greeted sleepily. He felt groggy and strange in a place between headspaces. He always felt that way when someone woke him up early.
“Happy birthday, darling,” Hannibal said softly, stroking Will’s hair.
Will beamed. It’s his birthday! He can’t believe he actually gets to celebrate it now that Hannibal got rid of the curse for him. “ Now will you tell me what we’re gonna do today?” He must have asked 50 times in the past two days, but Hannibal hasn’t told him anything yet.
“No,” Hannibal said and kissed the top of Will’s head. “What would you like for breakfast?”
“Cookies!”
“Hmm. What about nutella crepes instead? You can have cookies later.”
Will bounced excitedly in his bed and nodded. He loved nutella crepes! Hannibal made his own nutella and it was amazing!
“Alright. I have an outfit for you to wear later, but for now, you can wear whatever you’d like.”
“Can I stay in my pajamas?” Hannibal never let him stay in his pajamas.
“For now, but if you want to take the dogs to the park later you’ll have to put daytime clothes on.”
“Kay! Come on, Lamby, we gotta go take care of the dogs, then watch Blue’s Clues.”
After eating breakfast Will was starting to feel big again. Hannibal was happy to sit on the couch with him as they each read their own books. He’d already done most of what he needed to do in the kitchen last night. The rest he would do while Will took a nap later, which he definitely would after taking the dogs to the park. Will always got tired after playing outside with the dogs.
“Hannibal, can I have a glass of juice?” Will asked. Hannibal said he wasn’t allowed to go in the fridge today. He assumed he’d already made his cake and it was in there. Will couldn’t remember the last time he had a cake on his birthday. Has he ever had one?
Hannibal placed his book down and stood up. “Yes, Will. Do you want to take the dogs out after you finish your juice?”
Will nodded. “I’ll go get dressed real quick!” He grabbed Lamby’s paw and ran upstairs. He dressed himself in a pair of sweatpants and a fuzzy sweater, then put Lamby in jeans and his own sweater. Even when he wasn’t little he made sure to take care of Lamby. He changed his clothes, gave him air baths, fed him, and made sure he was always comfy on his pillow at bedtime.
Once they were both dressed, Will went downstairs with Lamby. Hannibal handed him a glass of apple juice. He put Will’s hat on for him while he drank his juice. Will playfully glared at him. He didn’t mind when Hannibal did things for him while he was big most of the time, but sometimes he pretended he was angry about it. Hannibal would just smile and kiss his forehead and thank him for letting him take care of him. As much as regressing helped Will, taking care of him helped Hannibal.
---
Will giggled as he felt a small fluffy dog jump on his chest as he was making a snow angel. He wrapped his arms around Ellie and stroked her fur.
“You wanna make a snow angel with me, Ellie?” He asked and put her in the snow next to him. He went back to moving his arms and legs while Ellie wiggled on her back. Hannibal, who was standing nearby with Buster in his arms, (Buster was the smallest of the dogs and the snow was so deep that he could barely walk in it) took a video of Will and Ellie.
Will finished his snow angel and got up, stepping away and smiling at it. He looked over at Hannibal to make sure he saw it.
“That looks great, little lamb,” Hannibal told him. “Are you ready to go home? I think the dogs are starting to get tired.”
Will looked around at his dogs. Max and Jack were sleeping cuddled up together and all the others seemed sleepy too. Will wouldn’t admit it to Hannibal, but he was also starting to get sleepy.
“Yeah, let’s go home,” Will said. He called over the bigger dogs and attached their leashes. Hannibal would walk Ellie and Winston and would carry Buster.
Once home, Will made sure all the dogs were dry and warm before going to take a hot shower and put on some fuzzy pajamas to sit on the couch. He asked Hannibal again what else they would be doing that day, but Hannibal just winked and handed him a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows in it. Will fell asleep within a few minutes of finishing his hot chocolate.
---
When Will woke up he was in his bed with Lamby in his arms and his dogs on the floor by his bed. He sat up, yawning, and patted Winston’s head when he jumped onto the bed and leaned against him. Will rubbed his eyes with his fist. When he could see clearly, he saw an outfit with a note on top of it on the chair next to his bed.
Will,
Put this on before you come downstairs.
-H.L.
Will looked closer at the outfit and bounced once excitedly. There was a light blue t-shirt with “Birthday Boy” written on it and a dog wearing a party hat underneath the words. The dog had a bone with his name written on it, so that meant Hannibal had his clothes specially made for him! Along with the shirt was a pair of jeans. On the hem of one leg was the same dog from the shirt (but without the hat) and on the other leg was a pink cake with candles in it.
Will excitedly put the clothes on, then turned to his dresser and opened Lamby’s drawer to find an outfit for him. Will liked to wear matching outfits with his lamb, but it wasn’t Lamby’s birthday, so he couldn’t wear a birthday boy shirt. Will found a blue shirt with a bear on it and put that and jeans on Lamby. That would be the closest to matching they could get today.
“Ready to go downstairs, everyone?” He asked, looking at the dogs and his lamb.
One of the dogs huffed at him.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He opened his door and the dogs ran downstairs. Will followed them, frowning when he saw the light was off. Did the power go out? But it was working in his room and in the hall....
“Daddy, the light’s off!” He called, assuming Hannibal was in the kitchen. He walked to the lightswitch and flipped it on.
“SURPRISE!”
Will yelped at the loud voices that surprised and jumped out at him. All of his ‘aunts and uncles’ were hiding behind furniture. Hannibal walked over to him and enveloped him into his arms. Will hid his face against his chest. He was both excited about celebrating his birthday and anxious about the party aspect. He hadn’t been expecting everyone to come over today! They’d all texted him to say happy birthday earlier (of course Hannibal had told them about his birthday), but he had no idea they were going to come celebrate with him!
“Are you okay, elskede?” Hannibal’s question was only audible to Will.
“Surprised.”
“Was it a good surprise?” Will nodded. Hannibal pulled away to put a Blue’s Clues party hat on Will’s head. “Go greet your guests.”
“Lamby needs a hat too!” Hannibal placed a hat on Lamby’s head too. Will beamed and turned to his aunts and uncles.
“Happy birthday, squirt,” Jack said.
Will smiled and thanked him. He wasn’t super cuddly with anyone except Hannibal, but today he went around the room and hugged everyone as he thanked them for coming.
“Who’s ready for some games?” Hannibal asked after everyone had a chance to wish Will a happy birthday.
They played musical chairs and pin the tail on the puppy (of course Will won every game), then Hannibal said it was time to eat. He’d prepared a variety of foods. He made mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, and two pizzas. He also made a honey roasted ‘ham’ with mixed vegetables if anyone wanted to eat something a little more grown up than Will’s tastes.
“Daddy, you can’t force me to eat vegetables on my birthday! That’s mean!”
Hannibal ignored the child’s words and scooped some mixed vegetables onto his plate. However, he pretended, for once, not to notice Will sneaking his vegetables to the dogs under the table.
“Can we play more now?” Will asked after everyone finished eating.
“Don’t you want to open your presents?” Hannibal asked.
Will gasped. He completely forgot about presents! “Yes, please!”
“Everyone go sit in the living room; I’ll be right there.”
When Hannibal joined them in the living room he had a mountain of presents in his arms.
Will’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected that many presents! He thought he would get two presents at the most! He could count at least 7 things in Hannibal’s arms!
Hannibal placed the presents on the floor in front of Will who immediately joined them on the floor. Winston, who was also wearing a party hat, curled up on the floor next to him. Will scratched his tummy.
Finally, he turned his full attention to his presents. He could tell clearly which ones were from Hannibal. Hannibal’s wrapping job looked much nicer than everyone else’s. He decided to start with the smallest present first and move to the biggest one, then open Hannibal’s presents last.
Will started with a card not attached to anything first. He opened it and a gift card fell out. The card was signed by Brian.
“I didn’t know what to get you, so I figured you could pick something out yourself,” Brain shrugged.
“Thank you! I’m gonna buy more toys for my doggies!”
Brian ruffled Will’s hair. The kid bought more toys for his dogs than he did for himself.
Next up was a tiny gift bag from Jimmy. Will pulled out the tissue paper and tossed it at Hannibal. Underneath the tissue paper was a green and red crocheted dragon. Will picked it up and hugged it. It was so soft!
“Can I put this on my desk at work?” He asked, looking up at Jack. Jack told him he could.
Will got a new case for his tablet from Alana that was Blue’s Clues themed, and a soft teddy bear and a beanie with dogs on it from Jack. From Beverly, he got a dark blue t-shirt with a yellow cape decorated in stars attached to it. There was a matching one for Lamby too!
“Thank you! Me and Lamby are gonna wear these tomorrow!”
Beverly smiled at him. “You’re welcome, buddy. Happy birthday.”
Finally all that was left were the presents from Hannibal. There were a lot .
“I suggest opening this one first,” Hannibal said, pointing to a gift bag. “You’ll be least interested in that one, so your gifts will just get better.”
Will took his advice. He pulled out a bunch of nice long sleeved shirts. How boring. Useful, though. Most of his shirts were beat up, full of holes, covered in sweat stains, or all of the above.
“Thanks, Daddy. The rest of my presents will be fun, right?”
Everyone snorted in laughter at Will’s question.
Hannibal hummed, amused. “I believe you’ll like all of your other presents, little lamb.”
Will reached for the other gift bag. Inside was another piece of clothing, but this one was much more fun! A totoro onesie! He loved My Neighbor Totoro! It was one of his favorite movies!
“Can I wear this later?!”
“Of course.”
Next up, Will picked up a long, thin, wrapped box. Inside was a brand new fishing pole. He gasped. “Thank you! Can we go try it out tomorrow?”
Hannibal chuckled. “I don’t think so. It’s cold out, Will.”
“So? There’s still fish in the water.”
“Maybe I can take you fishing next weekend,” Jack suggested. He sincerely doubted Hannibal wanted to go fishing, even if it was warm out. He probably would for Will, but he wouldn’t be happy about it.
“Okay!”
The next thing Will opened was a Blue’s Clues silverware set.
“You should have given him that earlier, so he could eat his dinner with it,” Alana said.
Hannibal shrugged. “He can eat his cake with it.”
Will’s head shot up. “Cake?”
“You still have one more present to open. We’ll have cake after.”
Will tore the wrapping paper off his final present. He got a set containing all of the dogs from Paw Patrol, along with their vehicles. It even came with a garage for the vehicles. Will stood and made his way around the room, thanking everyone for their presents once again. He got to Hannibal and climbed onto his lap, hugging him tightly. Hannibal hugged him back.
“Are you ready for your cake?” He asked. Will nodded against his shoulder. Hannibal could tell he was getting sleepy. He wasn’t sure he’d even finish his cake before he fell asleep.
Hannibal brought Will to the dining table, placing him in his seat. Alana followed him to the kitchen so she could wash the fork from Will’s new silverware set and bring plates and forks to the dining room while Hannibal took out the cake and put the candles in it.
As Hannibal carried the cake over to Will everybody sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him. Will was tempted to hide behind his hands, but was too busy being amazed by his cake. There were little cartoon dogs decorating every inch of the cake! 5 rainbow candles were evenly spaced on top of the cake around the words “Happy Birthday, Will” written in cursive.
Hannibal set the cake down in front of Will as everyone finished singing. Will leaned forward and blew out the candles.
Will ended up falling asleep while eating his slice of cake. Their guests were quick to finish their cake and leave so Hannibal could get the kid to bed.
“Daddy?” Will yawned. He was being tucked into bed alongside Lamby. The dogs were on the floor next to his bed. As soon as Hannibal left the room they’d join him in bed.
“Shh, go back to sleep, elskede.” Hannibal moved Will’s fringe out of the way and kissed his forehead.
“I had a really good day today. Thank you for making my birthday not cursed anymore.” He’d been a little afraid when everyone surprised him that maybe the cure hadn’t really worked and his birthday would still be cursed. What if someone got hurt? As the night progressed he became more and more convinced that the cure really did work. Nobody got hurt!
“I’m glad you had a good day. Thank you for allowing me to celebrate your birthday with you, Will.”
“Maybe next year we can have a party at the park!”
It pleased Hannibal to know that Will was thinking of future birthdays with him. He hummed. “Maybe. Now go to sleep. You had a long day and you need energy to play with your toys tomorrow.”
Will yawned and cuddled deeper into his bed. “Night, Daddy. Love you.”
“I love you too, elskede.”
