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Will stood in the middle of a tumultuous ocean, the waves wreaking havoc on his balance. Foam crashed against his body, his muscles no match for the unending pressure of Nature. Just when he began to steady himself, another irresistible force would cause him to stumble. It was torture. It was Hell.
His body was falling apart.
With each wave, another piece of himself came unglued and tumbled into the water. The unforgiving sun charred his skin, and he felt every nerve sizzle away as his skin turned black and molted. Underneath the discarded layer was nothing but rotting, decaying moss that was home to dozens of flies and parasites. They burst from inside of his body, chewing away at more of his skin - a constant cycle of destruction.
Each part that fell away caused more unbearable pain. It was a mixture of ferocious burning and an agonizing stab. His wounds were crusted with sand and salt, and the sun baked his fragile insides. His chest began to glow, a bright variety of jewel tones emerging from inside of him. With each beat of his heart, the glow spread, taking over his veins. He resembled broken pottery being patched up with molten gold, and the pain was enough to make him collapse into the water.
He tried to shout for help, but his throat merely gargled. He was full of rancid saltwater. Tears streamed down his face and dissipated into the ocean as he choked.
Help. Help me. Help me. Help me.
Help - Will - please - Will, it's me - help me -
Will opened his eyes.
He was curled up into himself on the damp grass, teeth chattering in the cold. The afternoon was dark gray, and it was pouring rain, cold water splashing onto his barely covered skin. His T-shirt and boxers were soaked. His hands and feet were approaching purple.
The ground shook as footsteps ran toward him.
"H-H-Han," he managed through chattering teeth. "I'm..."
"Oh, Will, you poor thing. You poor, poor soul." A warm jacket fell over his shaking body. Hannibal scooped Will up into his arms with ease, and a strange weight caught the wind and tugged at Will's back. His wings. He was out here in the middle of the day with his wings exposed.
"Hannibal..."
"You had a nightmare. I got here instantly when I felt something was wrong. You were sleepwalking again, I'm afraid."
Will turned his head, burying his face in Hannibal's abdomen. Hannibal's button-down was soaked - all of him was - but he didn't seem to care. Will was his only worry.
"You weren't out there for long," Hannibal reassured him. "No one could have seen. We're in the middle of nowhere, remember? The worst that could happen is you catch a small cold."
"I...I'm sorry."
"Hush." Hannibal opened the screen door, taking them back into the warm house. Will's muscles relaxed. "A nice warm bath should do the trick."
"Do- do you have to go back to work?"
The hard pattering of rain on the roof halted in its place. As they passed the grandfather clock in the hallway, the pendulum stopped swinging in midair.
"Not for a long, long while," Hannibal replied. "You are my priority."
"So can you just go anywhere you want at any time?" Will asked, wanting to think about anything but the dream that had just ravaged his brain. "Your body is human."
"This body has been connected to me for too long for it to adhere to typical rules. It belongs to me. It does what I ask."
They reached the bathroom, and the tub was already filled with water exuding a gentle steam. Will smiled softly.
"How'd you do that?"
"What is the saying about magicians?" Hannibal smiled in return, setting Will down and making sure his legs were steady before removing his clothes bit by bit. Will shivered from the chill of the tile floor.
His wings still stretched outward, silvery wisps of feathers and fog that somehow drew the steam from the bath into them. Warmth flooded through him, and he closed his eyes. His body was finding refuge without him needing to try. The world was bending to his desires.
"Your body likes your wings," Hannibal said. "You keep letting them out without realizing it. You're getting used to them."
"I wouldn't know how to release them if I was trying to," Will admitted. "It only happens when I'm asleep."
"That's common. They don't like to be caged up, so times of distress are even worse. Body temperature increases, muscles cramp...it's not a good environment for them, so they seek to escape it."
He led Will to the tub, and as Will sank into the water his troubles all melted away. His wings fluttered excitedly, feathers ruffled in the steamy environment.
"Do you want to talk about this current distress?"
There it was. The reminder of the torture that had brought him here in the first place. He sighed, knowing he would have to talk about it eventually.
"It was another dream about my body. My...transformation." He glanced back at his wings. "I was shedding my skin. The sun was burning small parts of me away little by little. My insides were full of rot and insects." He shuddered, even in the warm bath. "My soul lit up. I fell, and I started to drown."
"You were clawing at yourself," Hannibal remarked, pointing to red slashes on Will's shoulders. They hadn't hit the water yet, and Will made a note to avoid that. They would sting otherwise. "That's likely where the pain came from. That, and the memories of what happened to you. They will stick with you forever." He paused. "Unless, of course, you want me to do something about them."
He'd brought this up before, and Will's opinion hadn't changed. "I still don't want that. I'm not going to change my mind." Will averted his gaze. "As horrifying as it was, I want to keep that memory with me. I'm never going to feel anything like that ever again. It was a once-in-an-eternity experience."
"Correct. You'll never go through pain like that again, not on my watch." Hannibal stood, retrieving a bundle of washcloths from the cabinet. He ran two of them under cold water and kept the other one dry. "It was a beautiful thing. Like the dying days of a star."
"I didn't die."
"No, but neither do stars. Not entirely." Hannibal lay the two cold washcloths on Will's scratched shoulders before dipping the dry one in the bath. He ran it through Will's hair as he spoke. "They may abandon their usual state, but their explosions become supernovae. Billions of times brighter than the sun, supposedly."
He leaned in to kiss Will's temple. "That's what you are."
"Don't be corny." Will blushed. "You're the real star. That's what people call you, isn't it?"
"They're not correct. Lucifer is more of a descriptor, not a name. It's a Latin word, and it means 'the morning star.' But Lucifer is not my name. It never has been."
"I can't say your name with this tongue." Will smirked.
"Not with that attitude. You'd better start training that tongue."
"Don't say it like that. Please."
Hannibal laughed, a rarity from him. Will basked in the sound.
"...Thank you for coming home," Will said. "I could have gotten up on my own."
"What sort of soulmate would I be if I felt your distress and didn't come to help?" Hannibal touched Will's bare chest. His heart had stopped racing by now; the beat was calm, at ease. "Any pain you feel, I feel with a thousand times more strength."
Will blinked. "Why is that?"
"You agreed to give me your soul. It is under my care now. When you began to transform, and it was clear you were in pain, I...I extracted most of your pain from your soul and absorbed it into my own."
"What?" Will furrowed his brow in concern. "You..."
"It's likely the reason you're doing so well now." Hannibal paused. "Well, given the circumstances. I expected you to be in a lot more pain, so I did my best to take it all away from you."
"Does that mean you took all the pain for yourself?"
"My soul is larger and stronger. I can handle it better than yours could."
"Hannibal." The blood slowly drained from Will's face, and when he opened his mouth to speak Hannibal's expression hardened.
"Please, do not try to fight me on this. You know full well how your transformation went. You've had endless nightmares about it. Your body quite literally split apart at the seams."
He placed his palm on Will's cheek, which was wet from the water dripping from his hair. "I saw it unravel before my eyes. A human body would not have been able to handle that."
"But yours can?"
"It didn't affect my body. I was not meant to transform. It merely absorbed into my soul and remains there."
"But it's causing you pain."
"Nothing terrible. Nothing I cannot handle."
Will stared down at the water. The backs of his eyes stung. "What would have happened if you didn't do that?"
"Your body would have certainly died. That transformation you experienced was only around a tenth of what it was supposed to be." He ran his thumb along the apple of Will's cheek. His touch was comforting. "When stars die and create a supernova, what remains at its core is often a black hole. I couldn't have that happen."
"I wouldn't have died entirely, though."
"No. Your celestial body would remain, but you needed this body. It...it was the only thing you had left. I wanted you to have that stability."
"You took on all that pain just so I could have something familiar?"
"And to alleviate your suffering."
Tears began to run down Will's cheeks. Hannibal wiped them away with his thumb. "Oh, there's no need for that," he said. "I hardly feel it. Like I said, my soul is much more resilient than yours."
"How much are you going to take on before you collapse, Hannibal?" Will shook his head. "How many more days of this can you take? You're taking pain from me, but what about you?"
"I'm alright, angel. I'm resilient. I can take care of myself."
"Can you? Is that pain going to destroy you?" Will's face flushed. "I need you, Hannibal. I need you. You can't be reckless like that."
"Oh, Will, it was far from reckless." Hannibal kissed his forehead. "I have been waiting for hundreds of thousands of years to do this for you. I have spent all this time carving out space for you in my soul. I've been preparing for this since the moment we were separated. Have faith in me."
"You're the only thing I have faith in."
"As are you. My purpose is to provide for you. That is all I've ever wanted to do."
"You're suffering, and it's my fault." Will sniffed.
"No, angel. I chose this. You would have survived had I not done anything, but I couldn't stand by. Again," he kissed Will on the lips, "what sort of soulmate would I be if I felt your distress and didn't come to help?"
"What kind of soulmate am I, then?" Will let out a pained laugh. "I've done nothing for you."
"When I lay eyes on you, it requires all of my strength to not weep with joy. Even now, after knowing you are safe and you are not going anywhere, I am beside myself. Without you, I was in endless distress." Hannibal smiled. "And you came to help. Fate found us here, at this moment in time. Some small decisions in your life led to our meeting, and now you are free. We both are."
"I never would have let you take my pain for yourself if I knew you were going to do it."
"Exactly why I didn't tell you." Hannibal's smile turned into a teasing smirk. "And aren't you glad I didn't? You wouldn't have a body to take a bath with otherwise."
"I wouldn't be pruning." Will held up his hands, showing off his wrinkled finger pads. "I should probably get out."
"Are you warmer now?"
"Definitely. Thank you."
"Anything for you. Anything at all." The love in Hannibal's eyes was so strong it nearly melted Will's heart.
Will got out of the tub, wrapping a towel around his waist. His wings seemed to move on their own, fluttering and spraying water in various directions. Will flinched.
"Do these things have a brain or something?"
"Muscle memory. Even if you don't know them well in this body, your soul knows them." Hannibal ran his hands along the base of the wings, smoothing the feathers. A warm wave of pleasure ran across Will's gut. "Let's get you back in bed."
Will dried himself off and put on a new set of clothes. Even with Hannibal's help, taking away most of the pain from his transformation, his body only had the strength to get out of bed for short periods of time. He'd hardly eaten, and he'd spent most of the past three days since the ordeal sleeping. He couldn't imagine what it would be like if Hannibal had left even another tenth of the pain.
Hannibal eased him into bed and helped him put his wings away. He still struggled to control them consciously; Hannibal told him it was a skill that would improve with time.
"My fallen angel." Hannibal took Will's hand and kissed his knuckles. "I love you. Is there anything you need?"
"No. Thank you, though. I'm sorry."
"Stop. I'll always take the opportunity to come see you." He tucked Will under the blankets. "I'm probably going to set something up outside the door to wake you up in case you start sleepwalking again. Is that alright?"
"Yeah, anything you think will work. Thank you."
"I won't be gone much longer." Hannibal glanced at the clock, temporarily frozen at half past three. "Just a few more hours, alright? Then you and I can have the whole evening."
"Be careful." Will squeezed his hand.
"Of course." Hannibal brushed away the curls on Will's forehead and gave him one final kiss there. "Rest well."
Will watched him go. Even with him out of the house, Will sensed his presence: the devil himself, a guardian angel on his shoulder.
He was loved.