Thread by @mooshishoomi

#hannigram
TAGS- domestic fluff, humor, pets, pre-established relationship.

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Will yawns, eyes squeezing shut and his jaw clicking with the force of it. He’s still half asleep, in that hazy space between actually being awake and still dozing in and out of consciousness.

The smell of fresh coffee is the only thing really making his feet move forward, shuffling along the cool hardwood floors, dressed in one of Hannibal’s robes that hang a little too big off of his lithe frame.

He scrubs the sleep from his eyes, trying in vain to wake up fully.

For all he slept last night-because he did sleep-they spent more of it fucking, and now Will’s sore and tired, and really needing some coffee in him.

Hannibal isn’t in the kitchen when he finally makes his way into the room, but there’s a fresh pot of coffee waiting for him.

Will pours a steaming, almost dangerously full cup of coffee into his mug before taking a large sip. It’s still hot, steam rising from the cup, and it’s just bordering on burning his mouth, but he swallows the mouthful with a grateful groan and follows it closely with another.

After he’s taken a few generous drinks, he fumbles over to one of the open dining room chairs, sitting down and tucking his chilled feet up onto it, too. He sets the mug down into the windowsill next to him where gentle sunlight is filtering in, coating everything in soft yellow

He nearly jumps out of his skin when something in the window moves, in the corner of his vision.

As it is, he almost sends the chair and himself tumbling backwards, and very nearly takes the steaming cup of coffee with him.

He braces himself against the wall to rebalance himself, cursing under his breath as he looks at the intruder, currently sitting completely unbothered on the outside ledge of the window.

It’s a cat, large and grey, and fluffy, with a white muzzle and ears.

It’s eyes are a rather piercing green, and it’s watching Will with unconcealed disinterest, licking its paw lazily while it watches him.

From what Will can tell, it doesn’t have a collar, but it’s hard to be certain with all of its fur. Still, it looks well taken care of.

There’s no other houses for miles and miles, and the sudden intrusion of a house cat feels more unsettling than when they’d found an honest to god Grizzly Bear taking a liking to their shed during the winter.

“Right, who are you, then?” Will asks, eyebrows raised.

He pulls his coffee back into his clutches, nursing it as he eyes the cat with equal measures of enthusiasm.

The cat continues to groom itself, pink tongue struggling through its obscenely long fur.

Obviously, it offers no answer.

It keeps watching him, though, from the corner of its vision, and Will finds himself doing the same.

“You might wanna make yourself scarce there, kitty,” Will drawls. “I’m not sure you’re the kind of guest that would make it anywhere but a diner plate.”

He doesn’t mean it, really. Mostly. He doubts Hannibal would have interest in eating a random domestic cat, anyways.

The cats ears twitch, though, and Will snorts a laugh into his coffee.

Hannibal finally reappears from wherever he’d vanished to, looking far more put together

He’s wearing sweats and a plain, long sleeve shirt, but his hair isn’t a disheveled mess like Will’s is, and he looks far more awake, too.

“Good morning, Will,” Hannibal hums, placing an array of vegetables down onto a readied cutting board. He was in the garden, then.

“Morning,” Will says around another generous drink of coffee, peering at the cat. It’s watching Hannibal with rapt attention. Rude.

“Talking to ourselves this morning, or am I unaware of a guest?” Hannibal says teasingly as he begins to slice the vegetables with precision.

Will hums, glancing between the two. Hannibal’s back is turned to them both, but the cat is still watching eagerly. “Definitely not my guest.”

“Oh?” Hannibal says, turning. Will sees the moment Hannibal’s eyes meet the cat’s because his face does an odd little twitch.

Recognition? Fondness, maybe?

“Ah,” Hannibal says, simply, nodding. “Indeed, not your guest then.”

“Allowing trespassers, Dr Lecter?” Will asks, leaning back in his chair as he sips at his coffee, eyeing him over the edge of his mug.

The corner of Hannibal’s mouth twitches up before he turns back to his food. “I don’t consider her a trespasser,” Hannibal says casually, shrugging a shoulder as he turns on the stove. “More of an infrequent visitor.”

Will blinks. “You know the cat?”

Hannibal clicks his tongue. “She’s been coming here for a while, I’m surprised you haven’t noticed before now.”

“She?” Will says flatly, balking.

“Yes, it’s a female cat,” Hannibal says in that false irritated tone he only ever uses with Will.

“And how did you find this out, exactly?” Will asks, looking back at the cat who’s finally deemed her paw clean enough.

Will watches Hannibal pour a dash of oil into the pan before tossing some vegetables into it, sizzling away instantly.

“The general anatomy of a cat isn’t that unlike a dogs, Will.” He can hear the smile in Hannibal’s voice.

Is he-?

“Oh, fuck off, you know what I mean,” Will snaps, grinning into his quickly emptying cup.

“When I picked her up, that’s when I found out,” Hannibal says.

Somehow the idea of Hannibal just scooping up a stray cat is an image Will can’t summon to his mind, and he raises an incredulous eyebrow, even though Hannibal is still turned away.

“I merely fed her a few times over the summer,” Hannibal sighs. “She used to stay by the shed.”

Will looks at the cat now basking content as anything in their window.

“And now it comes to the house,” Will says, clarifying more than anything, amusement bubbling up.

“Yes, well…”

“Are you still feeding it?”

Hannibal doesn’t answer immediately, instead busying himself with breakfast. Eventually he offers, “when she comes by, yes.”

Will can’t help the snort of indignant laughter that he lets out at that, earning him a sharp glare over his shoulder from Hannibal.

“Would you prefer I not?” Hannibal asks, amusingly defensive and attempting to play at nonchalance.

“No,” Will says, waving a hand at him. “It’s fine, Hannibal- it’s fine.”

A moment of awkward silence passes between them before Will has to stifle more laughter into his hand.

“What?” Hannibal sighs, defeated.

“I just can’t believe you got yourself a pet,” Will snorts.

“I di- it’s not my pet, Will.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“What’s her name?”

Hannibal pauses, folding his arms. Finally, “Not another word, Will.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

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