Chapter Text
“This isn’t very-“ Will fended off a hand trying to poke a needle into his arm, one tiny hand trying to push Brian’s away from him, “Stop trying to stab me!”
Hannibal made a tutting noise, his own larger hand closing around both of Will’s, holding them in place so Brian could finish putting in a butterfly needle. Hannibal would have taken over himself, but Will didn’t seem to be very corporative right now, attempting to wriggle out of everyone’s arms, and having already succeeded with everyone but Hannibal, who wasn’t afraid to use his own strength against him.
Will was just so tiny in his arms now. It was almost precious.
Except, Will was also acting very rude right now…
“William, stop squirming. You will be getting checked over, and so the more you corporate, the faster it will be over.”
Will looked up at him with a trembling lower lip, “’S scary though! Needle’s too big!”
Hannibal’s face softened, free hand coming up to frame the side of Will’s, marveling at just his small the boy was in his hands. Will let out a small sniffle, but didn’t try to squirm away from him anymore, burying his face in Hannibal’s tie while the man pet through his wild curls.
Jack let out a small sigh from the door while Brian finished putting a band aid over the small cut, looking at Will worriedly. “You know, I got turned into a dog my first year at Quantico. I’m still human though. It’ll fix itself.”
Will pushed his head back out, “What if the ageing solution wasn’t a temporary one?”
It was Hannibal who answered though, “Then, you will be forever a child. Though, you will grow up again. And further than that, I will make sure you’re taken care of.”
Will let his lower lip tremble again, “Hannibal. I don’t want to be taken care of, not by anyone but you. Are you gonna leave me if I don’t grow up again?”
Hannibal sighed, pulling Will closer, “I would never do that to you, sweet William.”
Jimmy and Brian made kissy faces at each other mockingly behind them before Jack lightly smacked them both on the back of the head, pointedly looking at the vial of blood they’d taken for testing. The two sighed and left to get to it.
Will seemed to have calmed down, two tiny hands fisted in Dr. Lecter’s clothes in a way that Jack assumed, coming from anyone else, would have made the man agitated and stiff. He seemed perfectly fine to let Will cling to him though.
Jack cleared his throat, feeling a tad bit awkward. “Dr. Lecter, I assume he’ll stay with you while like this?”
Hannibal turned, face impassive and nodded minutely, “Of course.”
***
Hannibal had taken two days off. He would take more, but, some clients do better with canceled appointments than others, and as their doctor, he still had to think of their mental well being.
But, he needed to get some things.
“Hannibal, I don’t want to go to a baby store.”
Hannibal gave him a blank look, “You’re wearing children’s scrubs and don’t have shoes on. You need some things.”
Hannibal got out and opened the back door, mentally reminding himself to put a car seat on the list. Will was fiddling with the seat belt, but let Hannibal take it off of him with minimal fussing, one hand coming up to fist in Hannibal’s collar when the man stood up with him. Hannibal sighed a little at the feel of it, but didn’t comment on it.
It wasn’t until they were both inside the store, William sitting on Hannibal’s left forearm, when Will made another protesting noise. “Hannibal, this place looks high end. I don’t know more than enough for a month or so, Jack said.”
Hannibal raised an eyebrow, “When have you ever known me to spare an expense for you, young one?”
Will scowled at the nickname, but didn’t say anything else, preferring to look around from his high vantage point in Hannibal’s arms.
He did sigh though, when Hannibal started holding clothes up to him to see what they would look like.
He never liked shopping.
***
“Where am I going to go when you go back to work?”
Hannibal looked in the rear view mirror, smiling back at his young charge, who seemed more bent on playing with the pacifier Hannibal had given him, than sucking on it. Hannibal would be damned if he let the little boy suck on germy fingers. “You’ll come into work with me, of course.
Will made a small noise, “I will? What about your patients?”
Hannibal turned into the driveway with a tight look on his face, “My office has a room in the back that used to be used for counseling small children. It has not been used in a while, but it’s clean. I can make it a habitable space for you by the time we go back.”
Will waited for Hannibal to come get him out of the car seat. His fingers didn’t seem to be able to figure out how to get himself out…
Hannibal grabbed him, and half the bags in the trunk before getting the front door open, setting him down in the living room and carrying the bags to the kitchen. Will thought about telling him for a moment that none of the bags had anything edible in them, but decided against it. His boyfriend thought best in the kitchen, maybe this was his way of sorting.
Will stood with his back to the couch when he heard the sound of the back door being opened to let the dogs in. Will smiled for a second before suddenly realizing how tiny he was.
Well, to be honest, that thought only lasted for a few seconds before it became an issue, Will suddenly finding himself under Winston, who was sniffing him all over curiously, obviously recognizing the scent.
“Winston, no!”
Will found himself being picked up to help back to his feet while Winston backed off, looking slightly ashamed. The other dogs were still curious though, pressing forward to sniff at the little boy too.
Hannibal waited until they had all settled down enough to not attack Will, before going back out to the car to get the rest of the bags. When he was back, Will was sitting on the floor, Buster in his lap, who looked very smug to be the only one to sit on Will right now, being pet.
Hannibal just smiled at Will and the dogs and went to go unpack things.
***
“I’m still sleeping in our bed.”
Hannibal raised an eyebrow at the grumpy looking little boy at the table, eating his dinner while giving Hannibal an upset look. “I would never suggest otherwise, William.”
William continued staring at him, in a way that would have made anyone else feel nervous, but Hannibal just stared back. Finally, Will looked back to his plate to spear another cooked carrot onto, shoving it into his mouth. “Good.”
Apparently, that was that.
***
Will dreamt that night, about something that happened so long ago, he wasn’t even sure he could remember, much less would.
There was a reason he had moved so far up north, to be honest. It was colder. He was much less likely to get heat stroke in the night, but once, when he was just a little boy down south, his nightmares and sweating had lead to one too many nights of screaming and burning up, feeling like he’d been fed to a hellfire. This was one such night.
Will had sat up in his bed, barely three years old, and swimming in the too big bed and sheets. He felt like he was drowning, and hadn’t even realized he was screaming until he heard the door open, his screams tapering off into sobs. His father came in though, looking concerned and scooping him up right away to take him out. He had seen this happen enough times to know his boy needed cooling off before he got sick.
The wet wash cloth served its purpose to cool him down and clean him off, but his father was still cooing at him gently, trying to get the little boy to calm down. “Come on, sweet boy, Mama’s sleeping. We don’t want to wake her up, now, do we? There’s a good boy, just take deep breaths.”
The back door was pushed open, but none of the bugs came in because of the sleeping porches screen going all around the back. There was a bed on the porch, but his dad ignored it in favor of the porch swing, laying down with Will on his chest so he could rock them on it. Several dogs were sniffing around them, worried at how upset Will was.
There weren’t many things that he would have called ‘nice’ about his life back then, but he’d have called that night, ‘nice.’
***
When Will woke up though, he was decidedly not feeling ‘nice,’ overheated and head throbbing, maybe, but not ‘nice.’
Hannibal seemed awake right away, as he always was when Will was upset about something. “William, what’s wrong, now? Are you alright?”
Will didn’t answer, just letting out a small whimper and reaching for him with tired arms.
Hannibal picked him up, tutting worriedly at the sweaty little boy in his arms, taking him to the bathroom to wash him off.
He couldn’t remember what he’d dreamt about, but while Hannibal washed him gently with a cloth and settled them both on a rocking armchair in a close by study, Will cuddled up to Hannibal’s chest on his stomach, Will felt very nostalgic about something. He wasn’t sure what, though.
***
When Will woke up again, it was quiet. He didn’t hear himself screaming, and he felt comfortable.
“I was wondering when you would join me.”
Will groggily lifted his head off of Hannibal’s shoulder, finding that they were in the kitchen, and something was cooking on the stove behind them. Will pulled the thumb out of his mouth with a small blush, pushing up enough to look around. “Why are we in the kitchen?”
Hannibal raised an eyebrow with a smile, “You seemed unwilling to let go of me this morning.”
Will blushed again, pushing his head back into Hannibal’s neck, “Sorry.”
Hannibal just hummed, swaying softly with the little boy in his arms still, “Do you need to go potty, William?”
Will blushed harder, pushing his head back into Hannibal’s neck and shaking his head, “No. Thirsty though.”
Hannibal nodded and went to get him something to drink. Will almost complained at the sippy cup he was handed, but shut up quick when Hannibal gave him a ‘behave’ look. Will knew that look fairly well by now. Besides, he didn’t want to accidentally pour juice all over them. “Thank you.”
“Of course.”
Breakfast was nice, though, it was also kind of weird. Will was sitting on Hannibal through most of it, but, Hannibal cut up the foods into animal shapes, and they were all bite sized, and that was kind of cool. It made eating his veggies a lot easier. Maybe he should ask Hannibal to do that when he gets bigger too…
***
“Don’t need that, Hannibal.”
Hannibal sighed. Will was a very picky toddler. “Yes, I think you do.”
“Doesn’t.” He mumbled out around the nib of the sippy cup, looking petulant.
“William, it’s not safe to suck on that if there’s nothing in it.”
Will pulled the nib back with narrowed eyes, looking suspicious, “Why’s that?”
“Because sucking the air through it will give you a stomach ache.”
Will pulled it out with a pop, sighing, “Not need pacifier, Hannibal. Not a baby.”
Hannibal raised an eyebrow, “No, not a baby, but very small. I won’t let you suck your thumb.”
Will gave an outright whine at that, looking more than upset, “No no no, Willy doesn’t need thumb either! Hannibal, don’t need anything.”
Hannibal stopped trying to clip the pacifier strap to Will’s shirt for a moment, (though, he would be getting Will to use it. Hands picked up too many germs for him to be comfortable with thumb sucking,) picking up the little boy entirely.
He grabbed a blanket off the couch (a soft, baby blanket that he’d just taken out of the drier half an hour ago) and swaddled the squirming boy in it as much as he could.
Will got like that sometimes. Of course he did, autism and empathy together generates a lot of reasons to be over stimulated by your surroundings. Though, he seemed to calm down when he was warm and cocooned in Hannibal’s arms, no longer causing a fuss. Still though, it was about ten minutes before Will came out of his hidey hole, looking a little lost, but kind of clingy. Hannibal accepted his ‘I’m sorry’ hug with a smile, pulling him and the blanket up so he could settle against his neck.
Will didn’t argue when Hannibal clipped the pacifier to Will’s tiny shirt without saying a word. “Hannibal?”
Hannibal ran one big, comforting hand, down his back, “Yes, dear William?”
“We let the doggies in now?”
Hannibal smiled, “Of course.”