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Will woke up in his room at Hannibal’s. He hugged his blanket as he sat up. Usually Hannibal woke him up in the morning, but he hadn’t today. It was light outside, so he knew Hannibal would be awake. Will rolled out of bed and went to search for his daddy.
Not surprised, he found him in the kitchen.
“Good morning, little lamb,” Hannibal said. “How did you sleep?”
“Fine. You didn’t wake me up today.” Will sat at the island. Hannibal was at the stove.
“I wanted to let you sleep in a little bit today.” Will had a busy week at work and he’d been having more nightmares again. “I was going to finish making breakfast, then come get you.”
Will tried to see into the pans on the stove, but was too far away. “What are you making?”
“Banana pancakes, scrambled eggs, and some breakfast sausage. I also have blueberry muffins in the oven.”
“That’s a lot of food,” Will pointed out. He never ate that much, especially not first thing in the morning.
Hannibal turned to the cabinet to take out Will’s sippy cup. “You just eat as much as you want, Will. What would you like to drink?”
“Apple juice, please. Is breakfast ready?”
“Almost. We’re going out today after breakfast.”
Will froze. He’s never gone out in public before while little. He could probably force himself out of his headspace, but he didn’t want to be big! He didn’t think Hannibal would mind if he was little when they went out. “Where?”
Hannibal wanted to surprise him, but after seeing how anxious he looked decided it might not be the best idea. “We’re going to the mall to go to Build-a-Bear Workshop. We’ll see Abigail there!” A few months after what happened at the Hobbs house, Alana suggested Abigail get a job, so she would at least have something to do since she wasn’t going back to school right now. She’d managed to get a job at Build-a-Bear. This was her second week there. “Have you ever been there before, Will?” Will shook his head. He was excited to see Abigail, even if he had no idea what they were going to do there. “When we get there you’re going to pick out a new stuffed friend. They have bears, dogs, cats, dinosaurs, and more. You can choose whatever you want. Typically at Build-a-Bear, you would then go to a worker and they would stuff it for you, then you’d get to pick clothes for it. Today, we’re going to bring your blanket with us.” Hannibal paused to analyze Will’s reaction to that.
Will hugged his blanket tightly, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t like to take his blanket anywhere. It moved between his and Hannibal’s houses and even that made him nervous! What if he lost it?
“Will, we’re going to stuff your new toy with your blanket. That way you will always have it inside of the toy. What do you think about that?” Hannibal took down plates to serve breakfast, but glanced at Will every so often, patiently waiting for a response.
Will stared at the blanket in his hands. He didn’t want to get rid of his blanket! Though...it wouldn’t really be gone . He wouldn’t be able to hold it anymore and feel the slightly rough fabric. But with the blanket being inside a teddy bear it would kind of be like he was hugging it....
“Why don’t you think about it?” Hannibal suggested. “You can decide if you want to stuff your toy with your blanket when we get there.”
“Can I still have a toy if I don’t put my blanket in it?”
“Yes, little lamb. Take your cup and go sit at the table now. Breakfast is ready.”
---
After eating breakfast Hannibal took out an outfit for Will to change into. Once he was dressed in a white t-shirt and a pair of overalls and Hannibal had packed a backpack with a spare change of clothes, snacks, and a few toys, they were ready to go.
Will was unusually quiet in the car. Usually he’d be telling Hannibal about his toys or what happened in his cartoons, but today he just stared out the window and pet his blanket. He didn’t even want to sing along to the Disney songs Hannibal put on!
“You don’t have to put your blanket inside of a toy if you don’t want to. I won’t be upset with you,” Hannibal reassured him.
“I know, Daddy,” Will whispered. He looked up at the mall when they parked. “I think…we can put it in a toy. That way I’ll always have it and I can still hug it and play with it, but it won’t get messed up anymore.”
“Are you sure, Will? I know how special your blanket is to you. If we put it inside a toy we can’t take it back out.”
Will swallowed thickly. “I’m sure.”
“Okay, elskede.” Hannibal kissed Will’s forehead before getting out of the car and helping Will out. Will shoved his blanket into the backpack so it wouldn’t get lost and nobody would laugh at him for carrying it around the mall. Hopefully nobody at Build-a-Bear laughed....
Hannibal, of course, had called ahead and made sure Build-a-Bear would be empty except for the employees. He wanted Will to be as comfortable as possible and being surrounded by screaming children wouldn’t help with that.
Once they got to Build-a-Bear Will’s face lit up. In glass stands on either side of the entrance were two giant bears waving. Will started tugging on Hannibal’s hand to get him to move faster. Hannibal chuckled and sped up.
The inside of the store caused Will to gasp in excitement. The first thing he saw was the stuffing machine. The stuffing turning inside the machine reminded him a little of cotton candy. Next he saw that the walls were lined with buckets of unstuffed animals. Above each bucket was a shelf with a stuffed version of the animal. The back of the store had a bunch of different outfits and some furniture for the animals.
“Hi, Will! Hi, Hannibal,” Abigail greeted. Will grinned and waved at her. “Take your time picking out what you want. I’ll be here to help when you’re ready.”
“You can get whatever you want, Will,” Hannibal said.
“I don’t know which one I want.”
“Take your time choosing. This is a big decision.”
Will slowly let go of Hannibal’s hand to walk closer to the shelves of stuffed animals. There were multiple bears, dogs, and cats, all in various different colors and different breeds. There was a red panda that Will thought was cute too. He was leaning towards a cocker spaniel toy, but it shedded a lot when he picked it up. Will was about to ask Hannibal for help choosing when he turned and another toy caught his eye. He looked closer and saw a white lamb sitting up and smiling at him. He shuffled closer to it and picked one of the unstuffed lambs out of the bucket, turning it over in his hands. It was so soft! And it didn’t shed.
“This one!” He decided, thrusting it towards Hannibal.
Abigail had been watching them, amused. Now she walked over to Will and Hannibal. “Are you ready to stuff your friend?”
Will hugged the unstuffed lamb. “Mhmm.”
“Can I see what you picked?” She sat at the stuffing machine.
Will held out the lamb.
“We brought something of our own to stuff into it, right, Will?” Hannibal asked.
Will frowned. “Yeah,” he whispered. He took his blanket out of his backpack and gave it one final hug. He’d never be able to hug it like this again.
“Are you absolutely positive you want to put your blanket in there, Will?” Hannibal asked. “There’s no turning back now.”
Will squeezed his blanket tightly, then shoved it into Abigail’s hands and turned to press his face against Hannibal’s chest. “‘M sure,” he said, muffled into Hannibal’s suit jacket.
Abigail smiled sadly at Will. She’s seen him little before and knew how attached he was to his blanket. She’s seen other people stuff their kid’s bears with old blankets and suggested this to Hannibal who immediately agreed it was a good idea. “Before I get started stuffing your friend, I need you to do something super important for me!”
Will slowly removed his face from Hannibal’s chest and looked at her, curiously.
“First, I need you to pick out a heart for your friend.” She pointed to a heart shaped container on the side of the stuffing machine. Will picked out a little red heart. “Good. Now, I need you to take that heart, and your blanket. I need you to rub them on your head so your lamb will be super smart!” Will looked up at Hannibal, who nodded down at him, encouraging him to do what she said.
“You do it too,” Will demanded.
“Okay,” Hannibal agreed. Will rubbed his blanket and the heart on his head, then on Hannibal’s. Hannibal was super duper smart so now his lamb would be too! Will giggled seeing Hannibal’s hair all ruffled up. He glared teasingly and smoothed his hair back down.
“Now I need you to jump up and down so your lamb will have tons of energy!” Will held his daddy’s hand as they jumped. “Finally, I need you to rub them on your heart so your lamb will love you forever and ever!” Will did so vigorously. “Perfect. I can take those back now.”
Will leaned against Hannibal, watching closely as Abigail cut up his blanket and put a piece in each of the lamb’s limbs.
“I need you to do one more thing for me, Will! Can you step on this pedal so I can finish stuffing your friend?”
Will pulled Hannibal to the pedal with him. They both put a foot on it and watched as the lamb started to fill out.
Once it was stuffed, Abigail handed the lamb to Will, asking him if it was stuffed enough. He said it was perfect.
Finally, she put the heart inside the lamb and sewed it shut. Before handing it back to Will, she flipped it over and sewed a heart-shaped piece of his blanket to the lamb’s chest. “There you go,” she said when she was done. “Your friend is all ready for you. Behind me you can go give it a bath, then pick out some clothes. When you’re ready, go to the computer and fill out their birth certificate.”
“Thank you,” Will smiled shyly and hugged his lamb tightly. “Let’s go give you a bath, Lamby.”
There was a tablet painted to look like a bathtub with a shower head that shot out air when Will stepped on a pedal. Will picked up a paw shaped bath brush and washed his lamb. Once he was satisfied that it was clean, he moved onto the clothes.
There were about 7,000 different outfits! There were t-shirts and jeans, winter jackets, swim shorts and bikinis, onesies, vampire costumes, pumpkin costumes, and about 500 different pairs of shoes.
Will held his lamb up to each of the outfits, asking what he liked best. Lamby told him he wanted to be dressed like him, so Will picked out a white t-shirt and a pair of overalls for him. He took him to the ‘changing room’ by the bath and dressed his lamb, handing Hannibal the hangers and tags.
“Do you want anything else, Will?” Hannibal asked. “You can get a few outfits if you want.”
“It’ll get expensive,” Will frowned. Hannibal could probably afford to buy everything in the entire mall and still have plenty of money left over, but Will didn’t like people to spend a lot of money on him.
“You don’t need to worry about that, elskede. Just get whatever you want.”
“Maybe one more outfit. Should get him pajamas.” Will settled on a blanket sleeper covered in dinosaurs. He had a similar pair of pajamas at Hannibal’s house. Maybe he could wear them tonight!
“Are you ready to fill out your lamb’s birth certificate?” Hannibal asked.
Will nodded and went to the computers. Hannibal sat next in front of one to do the typing for him.
“His name’s Lamby!” Will informed.
Finally, they went to check out. Abigail rang them up.
“Do you want a box to bring him home in?” She asked.
Will shook his head. “I can carry him.”
“Alright. Then here’s your birth certificate and you’re all set! Bye, Will! I hope you and Lamby have lots of fun together!”
Will smiled. “Thanks for helping, Abigail! See you later!” He waved as he and Hannibal left.
“Do you want to go home now or would you like to walk around the mall?” Hannibal asked.
Will yawned. “I think Lamby’s sleepy. Should go home and let him take a nap.”
Hannibal ruffled Will’s hair. “Home it is, then.” He took Will’s hand to lead him back to the car.
On their way out of the mall they were stopped by a man who looked to be in his 30’s laughing at Will for carrying a stuffed animal and calling him rude names. Will didn’t usually care about people laughing at him—they’d been laughing his entire life—but he was much more sensitive when he was little. Hannibal saw Will on the verge of tears and rage filled his body. He turned to the man and asked for his name. Not thinking anything of it, the man scoffed, but gave him his name—Eric Bronson. Hannibal filed the name away in his brain, then turned to comfort Will and finish bringing him to the car.
“There’s nothing wrong with you carrying your lamb around, elskede,” Hannibal said. “That man is clearly unhappy and just looking to take it out on others for being happy. Karma will get him.”
Will sniffled as he was buckled into the car. “I don’t like mean people, Daddy. Neither does Lamby.”
“Nor do I. Luckily we’ll never see him again.”
“How do you know?”
“Call it a hunch. Do you want a snack? There are grapes in your backpack.”
Will pulled out the bag of grapes to share with Lamby.
“I love you, little lamb,” Hannibal smiled.
“And little Lamby!”
Hannibal laughed. “Yes, little lamb and little Lamby.”
---
Less than a week later, Will was consulting on a case in the labs.
“The victim is Eric Bronson,” Brian said and started listing his wounds and noted that it looked like the killer had never done this before. His murder was very messy.
Will frowned. “Strange. This guy was laughing at me and Lamby when Hannibal took me to the mall last weekend.”
“That’s a crazy coincidence,” Jack agreed, then gave an awkward laugh. “I think if Hannibal Lecter ever murdered somebody it would be much cleaner than this. I don’t think the guy can get messy.”
“I can confirm that. I’ve never seen him get messy, even when I purposely picked games that would get us dirty. I guess Eric must have picked on somebody else and they snapped.”
