WHO ARE YOU REALLY: A Hannibal Fanfiction

Defy

N/a

Hannibal wasn't really certain why did he decided to visit his unconventional psychiatrist again.
It's been a month since he last visited Madame Du Maurier, yet again he felt like he needed a person to talk to. One, who would lead him to the right direction. Someone as professional as himself. This is why, after all, Dr. Lecter was standing at the front door and ringing the doorbell, waiting for the woman to answer the door and permit him to enter. He stepped inside as she opened the golden designed door and let his lips curl into a light smile at the soft symphony, which filled the house. He glanced over his shoulder at her and sighed, shutting his eyelids for a moment to take in the artistic train of sounds and instruments that strung together a perfect piece. "Fryderyk Chopin. Feeling sentimental today, doctor?" he asked without frankly expecting to get an answer from the her, taking few more steps inside, putting his coat on her coat rack himself.

She could perfectly feel a typical breeze of the man's sharp smelling aroma he usually carried with himself. Her nostrils were placatingly filled. She wanted to take his coat but apparently he decided to do this by himself.

Through the entrance to the kitchen, Hannibal's eye caught the 'crime scene' and he couldn't help but raise the corners of his lips a bit more. "Care to explain?" a playful taunt, turning around to face the woman again. She sighed a little, disregarding his remark with a miniscule grin of approval.

"If I didn't know you any better, I would have said that you might have had a falling out with one of your patients-" he allowed the unfinished thought drift weightlessly in the air, making a short pause and once again glancing at the crimson wine on a pallid white stained carpet "-However, I can never be to sure..." he mused aloud.

At the mention of the accident with a patient, She stopped immediately. Her yellow curls swayed slowly back and fourth in the air until it slowed down to a stop "I assure you Hannibal, the crime was not illegal."

She didn't dare take a glance at Hannibal, he could read too much from her facial expressions no matter how cyclical she projected herself to be to him.

With a faint and subtle sigh, Du Maurier took a few steps backwards as Hannibal spoke. At his words, a shadow of a bemused expression danced across her face. If it wasn't already flickering behind her eyes "Rather a return to an old friendship."

"I should have gave you a scarf on your eyes." The doctor squeezed her hands passive aggressively as she spoke, walking without even an excuse. "Should we begin then?" With a vanilla colored finger she pointed to a living room where two chairs and a sofa appeared present "Will you excuse me a brief moment doctor?" her silhouette appeared next to an iPod, turning it off. "Please, take a seat won't you?" She spoke more assertively than if she had been requesting him to do so.

"Tell me about what's bothering you Hannibal," she began crossing her legs in a comfortable posture. He moved the bottom of his jaw around swishing around the thought of India in his mind. "There's this woman." He began but was cut off by a chuckle "Hannibal Lecter, I would never see you, as one with women problems." Belinda sniggered subtly. He looked at her, she swallowed "Please go on."

"She is afraid of men yet, she sees me as her doctor. I'm not certain how to connect with her." He said quietly 'tell her how she won't look at you... Tell her.' "That's really all my worries are currently." He murmured "Well by the sounds of it you seek a more personal relationship with this woman, correct?" She asked "In a way, yes. Yes I believe I do."

"Is she aware Hannibal?"

"No she is not."

She furrowed her brow and thought a moment "Well I would make it aware to her,"

Hannibal wasn't sure he wanted that, but... even if he didn't tell her he would be able to find a way to speak to her on a personal level sooner rather than later. Anyone knowing of Will in any way had been a spark of interest and this woman certainly was sparkling. "Tell me more about her Hannibal." Du Maurier said leaning back in her chair. The man looked down at his hands which had rested on his lap, this was in some way breaking patient doctor confidentiality...

"I'm not entirely sure I want to continue conversing over the subject" he deciding to carry on with his few minutes of time. She gave him a hard stare, he was avoiding having to look at her "Of course you're not sure. That's why you have me in front of you, doctor." She shook her head in becoming irritation. "You can avoid this subject but you won't get rid of its shadow." Her voice was flat. Expression rigid "No, no.. You're right, of course..." he looked up, hands grasping his kneecap.

Truth was there, "Yet people will do anything, no matter how ridiculous, to avoid confronting their own worries and problems."

"Yes, definitely. People will but... what about you, Hannibal?" She bit the inside of her left cheek "Are you willing to do all you could avoid facing your own dilemmas?"

"Am I not part of the collective?" Hannibal asked bringing his fist to his mouth and resting his chin on his knuckles "Do you see yourself as part of the collective few?" Bedelia turned her head on a slight quizzical decline. The doctor leaned in and his eyes still searching, he spoke "Not when I'm in the kitchen." He was simple speaking as he responded, accent noticeable with each syllable "Do you wish to move our conversations into the kitchen, then?"She smirked slightly.

"I would prefer my dinner table, but you keep refusing my invitations. If I wonder, if I ask you again, will your answer change?" Hannibal asked

"Hannibal, We are not here for your invitation. You are my patient, not my friend." Du Maurier repeated feeling akin to a broken record. "Is the idea of friendship such a wayward impossibility, Doctor Maurier?" The cannibal inquired, not letting go the idea. "Don't divert our conversation off course Hannibal. Tell me more about why you might feel this way?" The woman said with a exasperated exhale.

"I don't wish to speak further on this," He said quietly. She looked at him with closely knit brows "Very well.. A drink then?" She asked getting up "That would be simply wonderful, good Doctor." He said, defeated. "Red or white?" She asked fleeting the room, the clicks of her heels following "I believe red today would be suiting."

†††

It had grown dark and stormy, the sounds of icy droplets of rain smacked against his window with a relentless force. The pane of glass, when he got closer was beginning to show signs of knicks and minor cracks only seen by someone with acute eye sight. In awe he stared as the cracks moved gracefully throughout the pane, never shattering the glass due to it's being much too thick. He would have stared for a while but...

A knock was heard at Hannibal's door. He was hesitant at first. He wasn't expecting anyone? Will wasn't expected for another couple hours at most. The Doctor stepped away from the window and strode to the door, clutching the doorknob and turning. Surprise then interest flickered through his eyes, India, sopping wet from the rain.
"I'm s-s..so sorry." she chattered "I'm so sorry-"