I Owe You Not a Kindness || Hannibal Rising AU || CLOSED

quitethehumanitarian:

       He wasn’t bothered at all - if anything, he was, for once, self-conscious of how troubling his silence must be. One might consider it rude, not being able to force out a word to the one person who’d shown him anything resembling kindness in his time at the school.

       But Hannibal couldn’t do anything about that.

       He kept to his nods instead, affirming that his sketchbook was running low on pages. It was his main form of entertainment, after classes were done for the day, and now that he had a place to go away from the other boys he could draw more freely without fear of being harassed while he worked. He could have peace and privacy as he drew pencil or charcoal over his pages, vague shapes forming into trees, buildings, mountains, curved lines becoming faces and figures.

       Mischa held place of honor most often, her round, cherubic face and blond curls on seemingly every other page. Hannibal never wanted to forget what she looked like - not that he thought he could. But he had to make sure, as the years went by. He wouldn’t disrespect her by forgetting the dimples at the corners of her mouth when she laughed, or the way her brow wrinkled when she was upset. He needed to keep every detail, even the ones the didn’t haunt his dreams. Especially those.

       He snapped out of that train of thought quite abruptly, something occurring to him. He approached his own desk, kneeling down to fetch one of the books from where he’d kept them underneath. It had been a gift from one of the youngest boys, a little one named Abel, as something of a Christmas present - or perhaps repayment for having given him his serving of stale Christmas pudding the night prior.

       A dog-eared copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in English. Something for Graham to read in his own tongue, since Hannibal had already read it several times over. He handed it to the other boy, that same half-smile on his face.

       Borrow it for as long as you like.

       Will watched the other boy’s eyes slide out of focus for a moment before he seemingly snapped back to reality. Deciding to keep quiet, he followed Hannibal’s movements, quirking an eyebrow when he went to his desk.

       He balked at the proffered book, glancing up at Hannibal’s face and meeting his eyes for a split second. “I… um, thank you,” he murmured, taking the book and studying it. He had never gotten around to reading this one before… before.

A sincere smile broke out on his face when he noticed the book was in English and he ducked his head out of embarrassment. “Thank you,” he repeated, clutching the book tightly. Who would have known that having a book in his own tongue would become so valuable when all the books at his disposal were mainly in other languages.

        Getting up to store the book in one of his desk’s drawers, he picked his glasses back up and settled them on his face. “A- are you going down to dinner? I heard the other boys saying that the cooks had managed to get some not stale food for once,” he said, heading back to the door. “We can sit together. O- or not. Whatever you want.” Alright, apparently he was desperate for company.