mmminty! ╰[ ⁰﹏⁰ ]╯

Hannibal POV: meeting Will for the first time

These are little canon fill-in writing exercises for me to try and get into writing for Hannibal.

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Hannibal has an eye for beauty. Will Graham may have perfected the look of the slightly ratty, antisocial professor plagued by nightmares, but he is objectively undeniably beautiful; Renaissance virtues begging to be framed. 

An unfortunate, generic aftershave aside, the smell of coffee and the outdoors lingers on him, and, prominently, dog — strong enough that Hannibal suspects more than just one, maybe more than two. 

When he opens his mouth, the sound of his voice is pleasant, though his words are acidic and brimming with wits for days. Based on what Jack Crawford had told him, Hannibal knew to brace himself for high intelligence, a keen intellect, but also a personality that may be challenging. 

Hannibal doesn’t, in general, find intelligence an acceptable excuse for rudeness, but as something about the surly professor has his interest piqued, and getting to know him bears the potential of providing him an in with the FBI as well as getting a closer look at their inner workings, he is open to giving Will Graham another chance or two. 

To start off, something simple, innocuous enough: pointing out the avoidance of eye contact, which could have a number of reasons. Will explains, but doesn’t excuse, confirming it to be neither a sign of weakness, nor disrespect. Instead, more fascinating insights. 

An impulse begins to seed in Hannibal’s mind, a desire to poke around inside Will’s head. He is certain he’ll be delighted by whatever he may find. 

So he prods. It’s curious to see Will bare his teeth, verbally, and their little spar takes on a delightful rhythm. Hannibal pushes, and pushes, until he hits a boundary. Will catches on quickly, and doesn’t accept his deflection dressed up as an apology. Hannibal is sad to see him go, but fascinated with what he has uncovered so far. 

I've been thinking about posting them on here or maybe on AO3 if I can manage to edit them into something decent... I haven't really posted writing directly here on Tumblr in a while, but they do seem a bit too small for AO3... (Although I guess it would be "going back to the roots" in a way, considering some of the things I used to put up on there for DSC.)