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When Mischa is born, six year old Hannibal Lecter screams. Suddenly, above his heart, her name appears. Mischa is born with his name above her own heart. The count and countess are thrilled their children will have their soulmate by their side from the beginning and on forever. Hannibal adores his Mischa, dotes on her, clings to his mother or the wet nurse when they hold her. He shows remarkable instinctual care for her at such a young age. Soulmates, after all, know how to hold and love each other without a word between them.
Then the soldiers invade the castle.
When the soldiers find the Lecters hidden in their cabin exile, Hannibal holds two year old Mischa tight in his arms under the bed and covers her eyes with his hand, but his own remain locked and unblinking at the scene in front of him. He’d never seen so much blood.
The children, now orphans, become hostages, kidnapped in their own home. But the snow that fell softly on the soldiers’ arrival turns furious, and they become just as trapped as the children. For months Hannibal and Mischa feed on scraps left by the men who raid and ration the food in the house and occasionally manage to hunt. The snow is devastating, wildlife is scarce, provisions are gone. Mischa falls ill.
Hannibal, now nine, though when his birthday had passed he couldn’t say, awakes one morning without Mischa in his arms and a burning pain on his chest. He looks down- his soulmate tattoo is now an open wound in the shape of Mischa’s name. A soldier offers him some stew and as soon as Hannibal tastes the meat the wound pulses, and he sobs.
Completely on his own in the world, young Hannibal, devises a plan. The snow begins to melt, the sun begins to shine, Hannibal begins to transform.
He escapes the cabin leaving one soldier dead and partially eaten in his wake. When he is safer, when he is stronger, he will find the others and make them suffer the same fate.
The orphanage in Russia is cruel but it is warm and there is food. That is all Hannibal needs for the time being.
When he is ten he awakes with cramp in his abdomen and finds that on his stomach, above his belly button, the word “Will” has etched itself into his skin. Hannibal has a second soulmate— a rare but not unheard of occurrence— and he is livid. How dare the universe think anyone can replace his Mischa? How dare this boy's name appear on his belly where he keeps her, the only place he could make for her in his world? When he finds his “Will,” he will eat him too.
For the rest of his life, Hannibal claims to have no soulmate mark at all.
Will Graham never developed a soulmate tattoo in his infancy, nor in his childhood, nor in his adolescence. Always the new boy at school anyway, moving around Louisiana wherever his father can find work, he gets used to solitude. He figures he’ll be one of those rare people without a soulmate. That is, of course, until he is eighteen and vomits off the side of the boat he is working on. He excuses himself to the tiny cabin bathroom and lifts his shirt to find on his abdomen above his belly button- “Mostro.” He pulls his shirt down quickly. Either he has a large age gap with his soulmate whose parents have an odd choice in names, or this person has done something to earn the name “monster.” He decides then and there he will maintain his claim that he doesn’t have a soulmate at all. He will never meet his monster if he can help it.
In Jack Crawford’s office, Hannibal Lecter meets Will Graham. Lecter does not flinch when he hears the name. Any hope Hannibal had for a life with his second soulmate had died with Mischa. “William” isn’t a rare name, Hannibal had met a few and none of them had been his Will. Surely Graham isn't either, no matter how understatedly beautiful and intriguing Hannibal finds him.
“Have you ever been a father?” Will asks.
“I was to my sister. She wasn’t my child but she was my charge. Mischa. Abigail reminded me so much of her.”
When Jack pulled Hannibal down from Matthew Brown’s noose, he’d unavoidably seen the scar on Hannibal’s chest. The tattoo on his stomach Hannibal kept covered with strong holding makeup that mostly survived the attempted murder. Hannibal had politely explained that he knew his soulmate but she had died before her time and the memory was painful, which was why he lied that he had no soulmate mark. He gave Jack that information and no more. But now, he's letting Will in, letting him piece together the puzzle and see him. Gears in Will’s mind click and he finds himself feeling sorrow, pity, betrayal, and anger both for and against Hannibal. Unbeknownst to each other, both of their abdomens ache in that moment.
It occurs to Will as Hannibal drags a knife through his gut, that Hannibal knows about his soulmate mark. When he wakes up in hospital, the name “Mostro” is distorted by the wound, the stitches pulling at the letters, and the scabbing obscuring them.
Will sails to Palermo and finds Hannibal’s broken heart. In retrospect, he had felt it at a base, subconscious level for quite some time. That doesn’t stop Will’s world from crashing down when all the puzzle pieces finally come together as Officer Pazzi says it: “Il Mostro.”
Will’s head spins and he collects himself on the steps of the Norman Chapel. His life since meeting Hannibal flashes before his eyes.
“You and I are exactly alike”
“You’re just as alone as I am, and we’re both alone without each other”
“You’re alone because you are unique”
“To the truth then, and all its consequences”
“I wanted to surprise you”
“A place was made for us”
Will sits down in the uffizi gallery with a sigh and gazes at the Botticelli.
“If I saw you everyday forever, Will, I would remember this time,” says Hannibal. Will looks to him and smiles for the first time in eight months.
“Strange to see you in front of me. Been staring at afterimages of you in places you haven't been in years.”
“Where does the difference between the past and the future come from?” Hannibal asks.
“Mine? Before you and after you. Yours? It’s all starting to blur.” He takes a deep breath, “You and I have begun to blur.”
“Freeing yourself from me and me freeing myself from you, they're the same.”
“We're conjoined,” Will chuckles in disbelief. He furrows his brow. “How long have you known?”
“A long time,” Hannibal admits. “Since you killed Garrett Jacob Hobbs.”
“And you said nothing?” Will asks. Hannibal says nothing now in return, just turns his gaze back to the Primavera. Will knows why. “Mischa,” he whispers. Hannibal closes his eyes.
“The many things we have said to each other echo in the halls of my mind, a sweet and haunting melody.”
“Even with the sour notes?”
“I am comfortable playing between conventional notes. I once saw a pianist play the strings of her grand using only her pearl necklace. It was cacophonous and a thing of beauty. We make our own song as one blurred being, as fate and circumstance have determined for us.”
“Even as the possibility of free will dissipates, my experience of it remains the same. I continue to feel and act as though I have it. No matter how we try, neither of us can survive separation.”
“Then what’s left to do? Death by each others’ hands?” Will considers this for a moment.
“Consume each other, I think,” he says finally.
“A kiss is the beginning of cannibalism,” Hannibal quotes. Will turns to find Hannibal’s face close to his own. He loosens his grip on the knife in his pocket and moves his hand to cup the side of Hannibal’s face— a mirror of Hannibal’s touch in his kitchen many moons ago. Will closes his eyes and the space between their lips. They hold there, unmoving for could have been an eternity. Hannibal’s hand draws up to cover Will’s as they part, holding him close so that they might breathe the same breath.
“Jack Crawford won’t be far behind now.” Will swallows. His eyes still closed.
“Come with me,” Hannibal whispers into the space between them.
“Where?”
“Anywhere,” Hannibal places another kiss on the corner of Will’s lips, “everywhere,” and another.
“Yes.” Will kisses Hannibal back, deeply. They kiss until they’re unsure where either of them stops and the other begins. Two bodies, two souls, forever entwined, just as fate and circumstance intended.