avegetariancannibal:

After dinner, they went for a stroll through the Lions Square, as everyone in Heraklion called it despite any official name. The street was packed with tourists and locals alike, and music poured out of little cafes and bars until no single one of them could be heard. Hannibal had said it would be easier to hide in bustling cities and towns than in quiet villages. Their faces would go by in a blur along with everyone else’s. Like the different strains of music, nobody would be able to pick them out among so many others.

Will was just pleasantly tipsy and warm-faced, and feeling somewhat daring. So he asked, “How old were you when you lost your virginity?”

Hannibal pursed his lips and seemed to be deep in thought for a few moments. “What are you defining as virginity?”

“The first time you had sex with someone,” Will said.

“What are you defining as sex?”

Will rolled his eyes. “This isn’t a Congressional hearing, Hannibal. Just think back to the first time you felt like you were having sex with someone.”

“I suppose that would be when I was sixteen. A boy one year ahead of me used his mouth on me, under the table, as I was sitting in the library. I was reading the treatise On Ancient Medicine.”

Will stopped in the middle of the street to gape at him. “In the library?”

“It was a quiet place to read,” Hannibal said.

Will gaped harder at him. “I’m talking about the blow job, not the treatise! Did you get in trouble with the librarian for making noise?”

“I didn’t make noise,” Hannibal said with a shrug. “It wasn’t an unpleasant experience, but neither was it an occasion for fireworks. I returned the favor with my hand later in his dorm room, because it seemed like the accepted thing to do.”

“Leave it to you to think of manners above all.” Will laughed.

Hannibal walked closer to him, not quite looping their arms together but making sure their elbows bumped one another. “And you? Was it a tender romance?”

Will snorted. “Hardly. I was nineteen. She was my anthropology professor and I’d handed in an essay late because my dad was ill. I put on a bit of a show about it, turned on the water works thinking I’d get an extension, but ah…well…”

Hannibal gasped in exaggerated outrage. “Will! Your professor!”

“Did it right there on her desk. I barely even got, you know, in her before it was all over. I was so embarrassed, I practically flew out of her office. Thank God it was the end of the semester.”

“Do you regret it?” Hannibal asked.

Will shrugged. “I suppose it would have been nice to have my first be someone I loved, but I’m not sure I even really believed in that kind of love until—” He cut himself off and glanced sideways at Hannibal.

Hannibal gave him a small smile. “I feel just the same. On both counts.”

They stopped at the fountain in the square. Hannibal launched into its history and something to do with aqueducts, and the figures depicted in the fountains multiple sides, but Will was just watching his face in profile. He thought he would like to kiss Hannibal, right there in front of everyone, but didn’t dare draw the attention from the crowd. There was only so much hiding in plain sight they could do.

Hannibal plucked a coin from his breast pocket. “The god Apollo,” he said, showing the face on one side of the coin. “An ancient priest named Chryses prayed and asked him to kill the Greeks.”

“Why do you know so much about people who want to kill Greeks?” Will asked.

“I spent a lot of time in libraries,” Hannibal said with a small wink.

Will rolled his eyes. “Did Apollo answer the priest’s prayer?”

“In spectacular fashion,” Hannibal said, and flipped the coin into the fountain.

“What did you wish for?” Will asked.

Hannibal reached down and squeezed his hand before letting go again. “If I told you, it wouldn’t come true.”

(tbc)