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In the corner of the hallway, Will recognises Hannibal's silhouette. He sighs in relief. As he moves forward, he quickly discovers that his friend is sitting in front of Botticelli's Primavera. He breathes heavily, limping, his whole body still hurting from the train's fall off. He isn't afraid. He's rather happy, actually. He had missed his reassuring presence.
Hannibal stops drawing as he feels Will coming towards him. He doesn't even need to turn around. He would know him blind.
Will sits gently next to Hannibal. He sighs and groans, puts both of his palms on his tighs, but doesn't look right away at Hannibal. He wants him to see that he's standing on his own two feet ; that he rose from the death. Hannibal nodds. He knew what he was doing one year ago. He knew Will wouldn't die, because he made sure he'd stay that way. Just a little cut, he thought, enough to let him understand ; and he did.
"If I saw you every day, forever, Will, I would remember this time." Of course he would, Will assumed. He softly laughs ; Hannibal smiles back.
"Strange seeing you here in front of me. Been staring at afterimages of you in places you haven't been in years."
Hannibal gently claps his hand on his sketchbook. He knows what Will's implying ; he figured he hadn't come all this way from Baltimore just to have a little trip. Will searched for him, all over Europe, and had met people that helped find his way to him. Somewhat, he feels peaceful at that thought.
Will looks back at the painting, as well as Hannibal does.
Botticelli's Primavera is facing them. Venus, in the center of the painting, holds her round belly while dangerous wind and clouds come from both sides. Of course, the Goddess of Love is accompanied by her angelic son, Cupid. His bow and arrow are turned towards three dancing women, the Charites.
Hannibal sings an old nursery rhyme ; this makes quietly laugh Will. He always has the right words, hasn't he, he thought.
"I wanted to understand you before I laid eyes on you again", said Will. His scars match Hannibal's : they reside on one of their face's half. As they look at each other, they're mirrored. Will had learnt to understand Hannibal. He searched for reasons that would explain all they had lived, together, throughout the years. "I needed it to be clear, what I was seeing." Will whispered this last sentence. He swallows ; he has a hard time admitting that, before everyone else, he fathomed who Hannibal really was. Nobody believed him.
They both loose themselves in each other's gaze. Hannibal still feels guilty about framing him for his own crimes. He had realized way to late that living without Will wasn't living at all.
They don't look at the painting anymore. But She still does. The Charites are about to be hit with Cupid's arrow. They are about to be struck down by a heavy and flaming love. The one who gives, the one who receives, and the one who renders : all three of them will love fiercely.
"Where does the difference between the past and the future come from ?"
Will frowns at Hannibal's question. "Mine ?", he asks. "Before you and after you." He shakes his head and hardly swallows ; his mouth feels bitter. Sometimes, he misses his quiet and easy life. But Hannibal makes him feel like his true self. "Yours ?", Will continues, "It's all starting to blur." He looks away. By his side, Hannibal keeps his eyes on him just for a little more seconds. Then, they both turn towards the painting.
Which one of the Charites will be hit first ? In the order of things, it's the woman who gives love ; she's the original. She feels it ; she's consumed by it, like a fire that's fed. She becomes a living and burning flame, and when it becomes overwhelming, she shares the love with her middle sister. This is when the middle sister becomes the one who receives it : the Debt. She may not feel the love as strong as her older sister did, but she will continue feeding it. She may be hurt and feel it painfully ; but she will be the reason why Love is real and alive.
Hannibal's kitchen, about one year ago.
Will completely crumbles to the ground, covered in blood and rain-soaked. He's moaning and groaning, holding his wound Hannibal gave him seconds ago. He can not stop shaking and is in complete shock ; he barely breathes. Hannibal is standing right above him, also covered in blood from head to toe. He's still holding the kitchen knife he used to cut through Will's stomach in his right hand.
"I let you know me, see me." The words spit angrily from Hannibal's mouth. "I gave you a rare gift, but you didn't want it." Between two heavy breaths, Will replies. "Didn't I ?"
Hannibal is hurting, like he never has before. His whole chest, throat, body hurts. He feels completely crushed, yet it's Will who fell appart bleeding.
"You would deny me my life", he continues, a snarl forming around the corners of his mouth. "No..., no, not your life", whimpers Will. "My freedom then, you would take that from me." He answers at quarter turn. He can not bear to hear Will's cries, he wants him to stop. He wants to shut him up forever, but he just can't. He can't kill his only friend ; his only lover.
"Do you believe you could change me, the way I've changed you ?" Will does not hesitate. "I already did."
The noise in Hannibal's mind stops. He steps back and lifts his head, still looking at Will. He softens. Will is right. He did change him. He had discovered that he couldn't live with him, that he couldn't live without him. He hates him as much as he loves him. He wants to hurt him as much as he wants to protect him. His love for Will is ugly and beautiful at the same time.
Opening Will's stomach wasn't an act of hate ; it was an act of love. He did it because his love for him was so intense, so consuming, that he was obliged to share it. Hannibal benefited from Cupid's arrow first, then gave it to his loved one.
From this moment, Will had become his debt.
Back at the Uffizi Gallery.
"You and I have begun to blur." Will sighs, Hannibal nodds than looks down at his feet. "Isn't that how you found me ?" he asks.
Will could laugh : of course it is how he found him. When Hannibal left him to die in his kitchen, he also left a part of him within Will. This made it easier to look for him all over Europe. "Every crime of yours, feels like one I am guilty of." They're looking at each other now. Hannibal hesitates. "Freeing yourself from me and... me freeing myself from you, they're the same." Will offers him a warm smile. "We're conjoined."
Botticelli's painting and the two men can not stop staring at each other. As soon as Will pronounces his last phrase, something magical happens under the paint. While the Benefit and the Debt sisters continue dancing around love, the youngest joins the ballet. And that is when the circle is complete. She's the last piece of the puzzle, the Recognition ; she recognizes the gift which her older sisters shared with her, and she renders it with her youthful sweetness and innocence. These three women will dance until the end of worlds, in unity.
In this gallery, at this moment, Will and Hannibal became one. They became whole. Their love had been fed with understanding, gratitude ; but also with betrayal and forgiveness. They had been able to realize that one can't live without the other. They've loved each other so much, painfully and effortlessly, cruelly and harmlessly ; they've broken and fixed each other. It's a beautiful and ugly love. They can't deny their need for one another.
They had been hit by Cupid's arrow, and became the Dancing Charites. They will dance forever around their love, feeding it with wounds and healing kisses.