Fortune's Fool (Hannibal Fanfiction)

XVII: A Quintessential Experience

The funnel cake was delicious and just as Will remembered it: straight out of the deep fryer and hot enough to burn his fingertips, blanketed in powdered sugar, and filled with a warm, sugary sweet raspberry jam. It was perfect.

Hannibal's face as Will dug into the funnel cake was just about perfect, too. Will had grabbed plenty of napkins so that he could eat it properly with his hands, but Hannibal had insisted on asking the bored cashier for a plastic fork and even more napkins. Now they stood off to the side of the food stands, Will pulling the fresh funnel cake apart with his fingers while Hannibal looked at a loss for what to do.

"Come on," Will said as soon as he had swallowed another mouthful. He held out the funnel cake. "One bite won't kill you. You were a kid once, right? You weren't born a middle-aged man in a three-piece suit?"

The corner of Hannibal's mouth twitched as if he were trying not to show his amusement. Will triumphed inwardly; he knew he had won as soon as he saw his lips twitch. He nodded to Hannibal's ridiculous plastic fork and moved the funnel cake closer to him. "Just pretend you're a kid who's dying to eat something unhealthy and have a bite."

When Hannibal continued to look at it without moving a muscle, Will rolled his eyes and added, "Part of the 'quintessential American carnival experience,' remember?"

Hannibal did smile then, a barely there thing, but Will counted it as a victory. Reluctantly, Hannibal moved closer and held the stuffed dog well out of the way of the copious amounts of powdered sugar and sticky red jam. Then he speared a piece of funnel cake on his fork and tasted it. Usually Hannibal was the one who watched people eat, but now it was Will's turn. It felt weird. Almost too intimate, somehow. Will looked away, back at his funnel cake. Hannibal dabbed at his mouth with a napkin.

"So?" Will asked, when Hannibal stayed quiet. "What do you think?"

Hannibal folded up the napkin far too neatly. "It's been a long time since I put that much grease in my mouth."

Will couldn't help it. He laughed. "You don't indulge yourself much, huh?"

"On the contrary. I find the occasional indulgence quite pleasurable."

"'Occasional' does not equal 'much.' And that clearly does not include greasy food."

"We all have our unique forms of indulgence. Yours happens to include funnel cake. Mine..." Hannibal eyed the final pieces of fried dough on Will's plate. "...does not."

Will snorted. "Your loss."

Even though he tried to wheedle Hannibal into taking another bite, Will ended up finishing the funnel cake by himself. He didn't actually mind; he hadn't had funnel cake in ages, and one bite was more than he had expected from Hannibal, anyway. Even just buying it was worth the look on the doctor's face.

After Will finished the funnel cake, wiped his fingers, and threw away the mess, the men resumed their slow, appreciative sweep of the carnival. Time had passed more quickly than Will had initially realized. It was late afternoon now, nearly evening, and though the sky would be light for a couple hours more, it had deepened into a bruised ripe blue color, the bellies of the clouds painted in shadow. The carnival was much fuller than it had been when Will and Hannibal had first arrived. That was both a blessing and a curse: a larger crowd meant that the killer was statistically more likely to be counted among the masses, but paradoxically, it also meant that he would be harder to find.

At this point, Will highly doubted that he and Hannibal would find anything to point them towards their killer. They didn't have enough information about who they were looking for to be able to do anything truly useful. Still, something held Will back from suggesting that they give up and head back to the hotel. This was the most relaxed he had felt in a very long time, and Hannibal seemed to be enjoying himself, not to mention that Hannibal had never been to a carnival before. If they were walking around New Orleans on the FBI's dime, they might as well take their time.