Unpleasant Revelations - DPxDC Ficlet Idea for the Stillborn Au
"Have you met my youngest, Damian, Mr. Masters?"
Its only from twenty years of long, hard experience and practice that Vlad doesn't increase the room temperature from 'borderline uncomfortably cool' to 'unbearably hot' the moment Bruce Wayne pulls his youngest and "only" biological son out in front of him.
He puts only in quotations because twelve year old Damian Wayne looks scarily, uncannily like one Daniel Brown. Jack and Maddie's foster son, second victim of their foolishness, and only other halfa in existence. Second only to him.
It's nauseating how similar they look. From the scowl and terrible glare on the young boy's face, to his brown skin -- which was only a few shades lighter than Daniel's, the shape of his nose, and even the strange winged edge of his eyebrow. Something that Vlad has long since come to find endearing on the child he considered a son of his own. The only difference was that Damian had dark, sharp green eyes.
Daniel's eyes were blue. The same glacier shade as his father's, who stood behind Damian with a proud, oafish smile on his visage.
It was infuriating how similar they look. Vlad might not have rapidly swung the room temperature from one extreme to the other, but he can't stop himself from letting the fury burning within his core from slipping out and raising the temperature up a few degrees.
Because it really only meant one thing.
Damian Wayne and Daniel Brown were related.
Damian Wayne and Daniel Brown were brothers.
Standing in front of him, it was clear as day. He can already picture a phantom image of Daniel standing beside Damian, the same scowl written on his face, the same glare carved into his eyes. The only difference being the dark, exhausted circles beneath them that seemed to be permanently painted onto his skin. The only thing missing being the permanent loneliness and vigilance permeating his being like a scar.
This, if revealed, would be enough to ruin Bruce Wayne's reputation. Or, at the very least, darken it quite a bit. The great philanthropist Bruce Wayne with another secret blood child? One related to his youngest? One that had been put into foster care? Seemingly thrown away?
It would be a firestorm.
One that Vlad is not keen on starting.
It would ruin Bruce Wayne's reputation, yes. But it would hurt Daniel in the process -- the harassment he would face alone might just be enough to break that fragile child completely. That was just not something he could allow. Or, even worse, bring him into his biological father's care and custody -- something Vlad was even less willing to allow.
It's not out of kindness to Wayne that Vlad will keep mum about this.
His grip on his champagne flute tightens, just a bit. He's still aware enough of the world around him to not let it shatter in his hands. His plastered, pleasant smile tightens around the corners, and he forces his focus to slide from Damian to Wayne.
"The resemblance is uncanny, Mister Wayne." He says, slanting his smile to the side slyly. Although he's not talking about the resemblance between Wayne and his son. Rage simmers beneath his skin, burning coal and embers in the core of his chest, nestled between his lungs, as he meets the man's eyes.
Wayne swaggles his head proudly, his ditzy smile widening as he squeezes his son's shoulder affectionately. Bastard, Vlad wants to spit.
He breathes in through his nose, and exhales out through his mouth. The champagne in his hand cools, and stops its unusual bubbling.
The Damian boy scoffs under his breath, his mouth still coiled upward into a scowl. With the revelation of his blood relation to Daniel evident, Vlad's not sure if he should find it endearing or not.
He is not Daniel, so he decides that it's just simply irritating. He decides to ignore it.
"And you said he was your only biological son?" He asks, voice lilting and head tilting. He knows its a suspicious question at worst, insulting at best. But considering Wayne's past proclivities, he can hardly call it an unexpected question.
Damian puffs in great offense, face twisting angrily. It reminds him of Daniel when Vlad insisted that he was wrong about something or other, and for a moment his heart swells, fond.
But this is not his child, and so the feeling quickly crashes and burns, simmering back into rage. This was not Daniel -- this was his replacement. A replacement that Wayne was free to keep.
Wayne chuckles, idiotically, as if he'd said some funny joke. Vlad's other hand, the one gripping his cane -- something he's required ever since he was dispatched from the hospital all those lonely years ago -- tightens instead. He grinds his teeth -- him and Jack Fenton would get along like a house on fire, he hates it.
"I can understand why you'd ask that, Mister Masters," Wayne says, squeezing Damian's shoulder again, "but yes, Damian is my only biological son. Although that doesn't mean I don't love my other children any less."
Bastard.
For all his posturing and flouncing about caring for his city and his children, Vlad never would have thought the Prince of Gotham capable of abandoning one of them.
But, well.
They all have their dark secrets.
And what one man throws away, another man picks up. If Bruce Wayne didn't want the treasure child that was Daniel Brown, then Vlad Masters was more than happy to take him instead.
"I see."
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A compilation of my favorite hannigram quotes, related lines or conversations throughout the series.
— Uhm... Just because?
S01E01: Apéritif
Hannibal: "God forbid we become friendly."
Will: "I don't find you that interesting."
Hannibal: "You will."
S01E04: Oeuf
Hannibal: "Feeling paternal, Will?"
Will: "Aren't you?"
Hannibal: "Yes."
S01E09: Trou Normand
Hannibal (to Will): "Who knows Abigail better than you and I? All the burden she bears. We are her fathers now. We have to serve her better than Garrett Jacob Hobbs."
S02E01: Kaiseki
Hannibal: "I miss him."
Bedelia: "You are obsessed with Will Graham."
Hannibal: "I am intrigued."
Bedelia: "Obsessively."
S02E09: Shiizakana
Hannibal (to Will): "No one can be fully aware of another human being unless we love them. By that love we see potential in our beloved. Through that love, we allow our beloved to see their potential. Expressing that love, our beloved’s potential comes true. I love you, Will."
S02E10: Naka-Choko
Hannibal: "Stay with me."
Will: "Where else would I go?"
–/–
Alana: "It's just hard to know where you are with each other."
Will: "We know where we are with each other. Shouldn't that be enough?"
S02E12: Tome-wan
Will (to Hannibal): "You're right. We are just alike. You're as alone as I am. And we're both alone without each other."
–/–
Will (to Hannibal): "I bond with Abigail, you take her away. I bond with barely more than the idea of a child, you take it away. You saw to it that I alienated Alana, alienated Jack. You don't want me to have anything in my life that isn't you."
-/-
Hannibal: "Achilles lamenting the death of Patroclus. Whenever he's mentioned in the Iliad, Patroclus seems to be defined by his empathy."
Will: "He became Achilles on the field of war. He died for him there, wearing his armor."
Hannibal: "He did. Hiding and revealing identity is a constant theme throughout the Greek epics."
Will: "As are battle-tested friendships."
Hannibal: "Achilles wished all Greeks would die, so that he and Patroclus could conquer Troy alone. Took divine intervention to bring them down."
S02E13: Mizumono
Hannibal: "We could disappear now. Tonight. Feed your dogs, leave a note for Alana, and never see her or Jack again. Almost polite."
Will: "Then this would be our last supper."
Hannibal: "Of this life. I served lamb."
Will: "Sacrificial."
Hannibal: "I don't need a sacrifice, do you?"
–/–
Will: "You were supposed to leave."
Hannibal: "We couldn't leave without you."
...
Hannibal: "Time did reverse. The teacup that I shattered did come together. A place was made for Abigail in your world... You understand? A place was made for all of us, together. I wanted to surprise you. And you... you wanted to surprise me. I let you know me. See me. I gave you a rare gift. But you didn't want it."
Will: "Didn't I?"
...
Hannibal: "Do you believe you could change me, the way I've changed you?"
Will: "I already did."
Hannibal: "Fate and circumstance has returned us to this moment— when the teacup shatters. I forgive you, Will. Will you forgive me?"
S03E02: Primavera
Will: "A valentine written on a broken man."
–/–
Will: "I do feel closer to Hannibal here. God only knows where I'd be without him."
Abigail: "What did you see?"
Will: "He left us his broken heart."
Abigail: "How did he know we were here?"
Will: "He didn't. But he knew we'd come."
Abigail: "He misses us."
S03E03: Secondo
Hannibal: "He said he forgave me."
...
Bedelia: "Betrayal and forgiveness are best seen as something akin to falling in love."
Hannibal: "You cannot control with respect to whom you fall in love."
–/–
Chiyoh: "How do you know Hannibal?"
Will: "One could argue intimately."
Chiyoh: "'Nakama'? It's a Japanese word for very close friends."
Will: "Yes, we were 'nakama'."
–/–
Chiyoh: "Why are you looking for him after he left you with a smile?"
Will: "I've never known myself as well as I know myself when I'm with him."
–/–
Jack: “Will Graham understands Hannibal. He accepts him. Now, who among us doesn’t want understanding and acceptance?”
–/-
Bedelia: “What your sister made you feel was beyond your conscious ability to control or predict."
Hannibal: "Or negotiate."
Bedelia: "I would suggest what Will Graham makes you feel is not dissimilar. A force of mind and circumstance.”
Hannibal: “Love. He pays you a visit or he doesn't.”
S03E04: Aperitivo
Jack: "You remember when you decided to call Hannibal?"
Will: "I wasn't decided when I called him. I just called him. I deliberated while the phone rang. I decided when I heard his voice."
Jack: "You told him we knew."
Will: "I told him to leave. 'Cause I wanted him to run."
Jack: "Why?"
Will: "Because... because he was my friend. And because I wanted to run away with him."
–/–
Dr. Chilton: "Will Graham is alive because Hannibal Lecter likes him that way."
Jack: "Maybe it's one of those friendships that ends after the disemboweling."
Dr. Chilton: "I would argue, with these two, that's tantamount to flirtation."
S03E06: Dolce
Jack: "Hannibal will slip away. Will you slip away with him?"
Will: "Part of me will always want to."
–/–
Hannibal: "If I saw you everyday, forever, Will, I would remember this time."
Will: "Strange seeing you here in front of me. Been staring at afterimages of you in places you haven't been in years."
...
Will: "I wanted to understand you... before I laid eyes on you again. I needed it to be... clear. What I was seeing."
Hannibal: "Where does the difference between the past and the future come from?"
Will: "Mine?"... "Before you and after you."
...
Will: "You and I... have begun to blur."
Hannibal: "Isn't that how you found me?"
Will: "Every crime of yours, feels like one I'm guilty of. Not just Abigail's murder, every murder. Stretching backward and forward in time."
Hannibal: "Freeing yourself from me and me freeing myself from you. They're the same."
Will: "We're conjoined. I'm curious whether either of us can survive separation."
–/–
Hannibal: "I would've liked to show you Florence, Will."
S03E07: Digestivo
Hannibal: "Do we talk about teacups and time, and the rules of the disorder?"
Will: "The teacup's broken. It's never gonna gather itself back together again."
Hannibal: "Not even in your mind?"... "Your memory palace is building, it's full of new things. It shares some rooms with my own. I've discovered you there, victorious."
Will: "When it comes to you and me, there can be no decisive victory."
Hannibal: "We are a zero-sum game?"
Will: "I miss my dogs. I'm not going to miss you. I'm not going to find you. I'm not going to look for you. I don't want to know where you are or what you do. I don't want to think about you anymore."
Hannibal: "You delight in wickedness and then berate yourself for the delight."
Will: "You delight. I tolerate... I don't have your appetite."
Will: "Goodbye, Hannibal."
–/–
Hannibal (to Will): "I want you to know exactly where I am, or where you can always find me."
S03E09: ...and the Woman Clothed with the Sun
Hannibal: "Is there a child in your life, Will? I gave you a child, if you recall."
–/–
Will: "You called us "murder husbands.""
Freddie Lounds: "You did run off to Europe together."
S03E10: ...and the Woman Clothed in Sun
Bedelia: "Have you been to see him?"
Will: "Yes."
Bedelia: "You haven't learned your lesson have you? Or did you just miss him that much?"
–/–
Bedelia (to Will): "My relationship with Hannibal isn't as passionate as yours. You are here visiting an old flame. Is your wife aware how intimately you and Hannibal know each other?"
S03E11: ...and the Beast from the Sea
Will (to Hannibal): "I'm not fortune's fool. I'm yours."
S03E12: The Number of the Beast is 666
Will: "Is Hannibal... in love with me?"
Bedelia: "Could he daily feel a stab of hunger for you and find nourishment at the very sight of you?... Yes. But do you ache for him?"
S03E13: The Wrath of the Lamb
Hannibal: "When life becomes maddeningly polite, think about me. Think about me, Will. Don't worry about me."
–/–
Will: "I knew you wanted me to know exactly where I could find you when I needed to."
Hannibal: "And you did."
Will: "I need you Hannibal." ... "Please."
–/–
Will: "It really does look black in the moonlight."
Hannibal: "See? This is all I ever wanted for you, Will. For both of us."
Will: "It's beautiful."
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