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"Was it hard to become a doctor?" Will asks, leaning back into the plush cushion of the couch.
Hannibal responds, "It was just a matter of remembering the vast amount of material."
Will ponders the statement for just a moment, a sinfully delightful plan forming behind his eyes.
"Could you help me learn?" Hannibal tilts his head with a small smile, likely determining Will's true intent behind such a question.
Hannibal hums. "I know very little about how you learn best, Will."
"I'll give you a hint," Will challenges, "It's very hands on."
"To become a doctor, one must first become familiar with the basics. Anatomy and its physiology must become your new air," Hannibal explains, laying Will down on their bed with a gentle thud, "Many studying start with the practice of Histology— the study of cells that cower underneath the naked eye— but it's quite a chore to teach. As your teacher, I'm electing for you to skip that unit." Will nods politely, not all too interested in what he's not learning.
Hannibal continues, "The next focus of anatomy is the study of the skeletal system— both the micro and macro anatomy." As he continues to give a lengthy explanation to the difference, Hannibal starts to slowly unbutton Will's shirt and tugging off his belt.
"I'll start with differentiating the different types of bones in your body."
"I wish there was a bone in my body already," Will says teasingly, drawing a grin from Hannibal.
Hannibal reprimands him, "You said you wanted to learn, you're going to learn at my specialized pace."
Running his fingers along his upper arm, Hannibal narrates, "This is your humerus. It connects to your shoulder blade in a place called the glenoid cavity," he runs a finger down the length of the bone, stopping at the elbow area. "And connects to your ulna and radius. I don't expect you to know the bones yet, but I'd like to give you an example of a long bone."
"I wish I had a—"
"—A long bone is any bone that is longer than it is wide. It has nothing to do with its relative length, just the difference in length and width," Hannibal explains, touching numerous parts of his body that contain long bones. His hands deftly massage the femur, the ulnar, radius, tibia, ulnar, and even the metacarpal bones.
Moving to Will's hand, Hannibal runs a thumb over his carpal bones. "And these are called short bones. They're cube shaped."
"Flat bones… these are all quite self explanatory, aren't they, my dear?" Hannibal muses, "These can be found in the skull, the sternum, and the scapula. A flat, thin, and slightly curved bone."
Hannibal suddenly grabs Will's hips, pulling their pelvis's flush. "And this bone here is called the os coxa. It's an example of an irregular bone. Irregular bones are just irregularly shaped." Will swallows thickly, hand moving to touch Hannibal before it is quickly slapped away.
"I'd prefer you in anatomical position, dear." Hannibal begins to position him with palms facing upwards.
Hannibal starts to massage his arms and legs and explains, "All bones in the body fit into two large groups. The axial bones and the appendicular bones. The ones i'm massaging are the appendicular. See, these are your appendages. Appen-dage, appen-dicular.
The axial bones are found on the axis of your body. These start at the skull and end at the os coxa." Will nods, willing every inch of his body to stay in the pose that Hannibal selected.
"Now," Hannibal begins, "No matter the bone type, all of them have similar functions. Bones store minerals and hormones, they serve as protection for any soft organs— like your beautiful mind— they provide levers for muscle action— their strong foundation allows muscles to contract— surprisingly, they aid in the production of hematopoises— that's red blood cells— in marrow cavities, and they're a source of triglyceride, which is energy, in short." Will preens as Hannibal cards his fingers through his curly hair, giving his scalp a soothing massage.
Hannibal grabs his humerus once more, licking a long stripe up the skin. "All your bones have a composition of two different textures. These are compact bone and spongy bone. Even from afar, the difference between the two is quite stark. Spongy bone looks as though it is littered with holes. These holes are reffered to as trabeculae— though in flat bones, this structure is called diploë— and in between the structures is where you would find red marrow."
"So, when do I get to learn about my favorite bone, you know, the shaft?"
Hannibal kisses Will's chest. "Actually, it's called the diaphysis. It's the compact coller that surrounds the medullary cavity in a long bone— a cavity that holds the yellow bone marrow, which is also called fat.
On each end of the diaphysis— or shaft, you little minx— is an epiphysis. These are rounder bulbs that contain the spongy bone in long bones. In the superior epiphysis, there is something called the epiphyseal line— which is the matured version of an epiphyseal plate. You can tell if it's mature by the substance of the epiphyseal line/plate. A plate would be composed of cartilage and a line is made of compact bone."
In a swift motion, Hannibal is straddled on Will's chest, his phallus finally freed from its confines. Obidently, Will opens his mouth, keening when Hannibal's thick cock pushes into his cheek.
"I hope I may keep your attention for a little longer," Hannibal says, thrusting lightly into Will's pliant mouth, "Since your interest in bones only seems to go so far. We'll be covering the bone membranes next.
There are two membranes— though some argue that there are three— the Periosteum and the Endosteum. The periosteum has two layers— an outer fibrous layer and an inner osteogenic layer. The Endosteum only has one layer which lines the medullary cavity— that was where the yellow marrow was, remember?"
Hannibal allows his cock to slip out, allowing Will to string together a few incoherent words before he's able to speak. "A-And this is all just the l-long bone structure?"
"So you have been listening," Hannibal chuckles, "Yes, this is only the long bone microanatomy, but, please, Mylimasis, ease your brow. The rest of the bones have relatively the same microanatomy.
Flat, irregular, and short bones all have a layer of the periosteum coating the exterior of the bone and the endosteum coats the spongy bone— or diploë." Slipping his hardened cock into Will's mouth, seemingly lost in thought.
Hannibal speaks again, clearly thinking of something else. "All bones have organic and inorganic compsition. The organic contents include the typical osteo cells such as osteoclasts, osteoblasts, osteogenes, and osteocytes. As for the osteoblasts, they secrete the osteoid— or the bone matrix. This matrix is constructed with collagen fibers and ground substance."
Hannibal's face betrays his unsatisfaction, though Will cannot possibly understand what Hannibal is upset about. "And the… inorganic matter of bones includes hydroxyapatites—mineral salts— which is composed of calcium phosphate crystals. These account for the hardness of bones."
At another lengthy sigh, Will taps Hannibal's thigh and shoots a questioning glance.
"I feel as though this lecture is the bane of creativity, Mylimasis," he pouts, "You must be getting irreparably bored with how uninformative my lecture is." At this, Hannibal leaves the room, leaving his beau hard and confused until the man returns with a heavy weight over his shoulder.
A body.
"Now, dear, where have you been keeping this?" Will asks, a disappointed look evident, "I don't recall going hunting with you recently."
"It was a gift. But gifts can be replaced. You'll get a better one," Hannibal reassures him, instantly winning Will's favor with a sweet look. Placed side by side, Will locks eyes with the dead man, smiling as the corpse's eyes stare back unflinchingly.
Hannibal brandishes a bone saw, looking into Will's eyes as he simultaneously saws into the man's flesh and continues his lecture. "This man is ideal. Completely average structure with no diseases to damage his organs or bones."
"Your ideal? Now careful, Hannibal, I might get jealous," Will teases.
Pulling the man impossibly close, Hannibal whispers into the shell of his husband's ear, placing his hand onto Will's throat and squeezing gently, "Anatomically ideal. He'll never be enough to take my cock and look picturesque while doing so. He'll never outsmart even the cleverest of men. He doesn't have your mind. Your body. He doesn't have me. Only you do, Mylimasis."
Slowly pulling away in a show of utmost control, Hannibal returns to the corpse. In just a few moments, Hannibal holds a perfectly intact femur.
"This bone is under incredible stress all the time. Do you wonder how it doesn't snap? Well, I suppose it would be better to start with how a bone forms rather than how it remodels," Hannibal decides, turning the femur over in his hands.
With a sinful grin, Hannibal circles the rim of Will's asshole with the head of the femur, delighting in how Will shivers with a mix of fear and anticipation.
"Osteogenesis is the term for bone tissue formation. There are three stages, bone formation, postnatal bone growth, and bone remodeling and repair. Now Osteogenesis is also called Ossification— the two types of this are Intramembranous and Endochondral ossification.
In the intramembranous ossification process, membrane bone begins to form from fibrous membrane. This process forms most flat bones. The endochondral process forms the rest of the skeleton and involves cartilage bone replacing the hyaline cartilage." The head of the femur slips in, drawing a sharp scream from Will. God, it feels like that time they tried anal beads but way too fucking big.
Hannibal twists the bone, relishing in the way it destroys Will. "Endochondral ossification needs hyaline cartilage models— this requires the breakdown of hyaline cartilage beforehand.
"After those bones are fully grown, they go through a process called remodeling until they die. This growth can happen either interstitially— growing along the length of the long bone— or appositionally.
Interstitial growth in the epiphyseal plate— remember, beloved, that is found within the spongy bone in the epiphysis— happens in four stages, the last two of which are quite difficult to differentiate, so for simplicity, I will only describe the order for steps 3 and 4."
Slipping more of the neck of the femur into Will's hole, the man feels his breath speed up as they reach the trochanteric crest— a crescent moon shaped bone marking on the posterior face of the femur.
Hannibal mourns quite dramatically, "It appears this bone mustn't go any farther. But which one shall replicate such an ilicit response from you, Mylimasis?" The sadistic man starts listing off any possible bones to use. "The humerus would do well, but it's such low hanging fruit— I would hate to bore you with my repetitiveness. The ulna would make for an interesting phallic replica with its unique base that much resembles a saddle. I do wonder if the sternum body is too sharp for you…"
As if struck by a most marvelous idea, Hannibal gasps and moves back to the body with his saw. Watching the doctor cautiously, Will notices that the man has pulled out a rib. Then another. Then he's pulled out an entire half of the ribcage— true, false, and floating ribs all together.
Almost immediately deducing Hannibal's plan, Will feels his hunter's instinct. He feels as though he is about to be hunted. Because Hannibal is going to try and fit as many of those ribs as possible into his hole.
The first one slides in quite easily after the femur is pulled away with a pop. As does the second. The third. Eight whole ribs is when it starts to stretch.
Ever the focused one, Hannibal muses, "Right, the four stages of interstitial growth. Proliferation, hypertrophic, calcification, and ossification.
In proliferation, cartilage cells begin to undergo mitosis to grow the bone. In turn, the older cartilage cells begin to enlarge. During calcification, matrix does as the step suggests— it calcifies— as matrix begins to deteriorate. And finally, the ossification stage where a new bone is being reborn."
Will has lost count of how many ribs are splaying him open, but he can tell that Hannibal isn't finished yet. Another bone squeezes in his hole, drawing a drawled moan out of the back of his throat.
"I believe that's all for the interstitial growth…" Hannibal ponders, "Bone deposits are next. Bone depositing happens when a bone is in need of extra strength— this is going back to how a femur holds so much weight. To acheive this, one must keep a balanced diet rich with minerals and vitamins. That is why you musn't ask me for any of that dreadful fast food and simply allow me to fill your body with whatever I wish. You would become weak and invalid without my meals, I assure you. Your bones would creak at your very weight."
With a start, Hannibal says, "Though that isn't such a horrible fantasy. To have you too weak to escape, too weak to rely on your own body so you must only rely on mine."
"Y-You're already the only one I rely on. I am wholly yours."
Hannibal groans contentedly, "A serpent's tongue that flicks such sin at me… how did I get so lucky?
"Bone resorption is all thanks to the osteoclasts secretions of both lysomal enzymes— which function to digest organic matrix material— and acids to transfer calcium salts into a much more soluble form. These dissolved matrix molecules are effectively transcytosed across the osteoclast which enters the interstitial fluid and, eventually, the blood stream.
"Both these deposits and resorptions are occuring simultaneously to keep the body in a pleasant homeostasis. This deposit and resorption cycle is typically referred to as a process called Bone remodeling.
"Do you recall that the femur doesn't break just from body weight alone? You may still think it odd as it is under such immense pressure every moment of the day. This remodeling process is constantly depositing and resorbing the highest areas of stress to keep the bone stronger. When we grow old and grey together, my dear, these processes don't function as pristinely as they should. Even a miniscule fall puts our bones into peril as they are no longer primed to withstand the force."
With another rib inserted, Will's mind refuses to think, all coherency geared towards thinking about getting his ass pounded into the mattress.
"But, wait," Hannibal says as if he's presenting a great deal at a furniture store, "Your heart is burning with the desire to know what controls this process in the first place. Well, Mylimasis, it all has to do with hormones and the mature bone cells— osteocytes. Hormonal mechanisms work to keep a level amount of calcium in the blood and the osteocytes monitor the pressure and gravitational mechanisms which regulates how quickly and where the bone should begin to remodel.
The calcium ions are essential in transmitting nerve impulses and the contraction of muscles, you know. Calcium deficiencies, however a quite preventable due to the human body's ability to produce a hormone called the Parathyroid Hormone, or PTH. Mimicking the pattern of a negative feedback loop, when the blood calcium ions drop, the Parathyroid glands begin to release the Parathyroid hormone. The hormone then begins to stimulate the osteoclasts which degrade the osteoid— remember, that's the bone matrix— which, in turn, increases the level of calcium ions in the blood. When the blood has stabilized to its homeostatic state, the parathyroid gland reduces the production of PTH."
Will bucks his hips harshly, a hoarse whine escaping his throat. "H-Hannibal, I can't handle any more."
"I don't believe that. You know, the entire body is built to withstand so much stress. When it undergoes a repetitive stress, the body eventually models to withstand that stress," Hannibal lectures, looking adoringly at his little pet and how his body is forced to endure such strain, "That's why exercise is essential, dove. Your bones feel the need to get stronger when you consistently push their limits. When you're older, your bones will be stronger. It would be my pleasure to hunt with you for as long as our bones would allow."
With a decisive tug, the bloodied ribs are out of Will's ass, forcing his toes into a curl. He's unable to stop his hands from shooting out to grip Hannibal's shoulders, tearing a crimson line into the stratified squamous epithelial tissue.
Sucking air in through his teeth, Hannibal groans at the sight of his lover so pitifully destroyed.
His familiar urge of snapping the man into two pieces, then three pieces, really just breaking every part of him, and finally piecing him back together resurfaces. In his defence, he promised the man a lesson.
With a grin that makes Will squeamish, Hannibal starts feeling different parts of him. Finally grabbing his forearm with two strong hands, Will doesn't even realize that his arm has been snapped by Hannibal until his throat tears from the scream he lets out.
"There are quite a few ways to classify your fractures. These are typically either/or statements that decide the type.
"Displaced or non-displaced is rather simple. If the bone stays where it was after the fracture, it is non-displaced. If it moves, it has been displaced.
"What I've just performed on you is called a complete break. Your radius and ulna have completely snapped thanks to my ministrations. Had they not, they would be considered incomplete fractures.
"Now, if a bone is split parallel to the direction of the bone, you have a linear split. If it is perpindicular, it is transverse. If it is on an angle, it's oblique. I can't exactly tell how I've split your bones, but the force I exerted was quite diagonal, so I assume the bone fractured the same way.
"The final way to categorize a fracture is if the bone is showing on the external layer of skin. Compound is when the wound is open so the bone penetrates the skin. A simple fracture is when it doesn't," Hannibal explains, taking great joy in how Will writhes below him.
The man gasps, "Hhh-Hannibal it huuurtss."
"I'll try to finish quickly so your bone doesn't fuse incorrectly. It would be a shame to keep you only partially invalid— a missed opportunity, really," Hannibal teases, resuming his painful ministrations of the fracture, "There are, inevitably, too many ways to classify fractures. The comminuted, compression, oblique, epiphyseal, greenstick, and transverse are described as follows:
"Comminuted have fractured the bone into three or more pieces, compression is the crushing of spongy bone, oblique is when the break is caused by a twisting force, epiphyseal seperates the diaphysis from the epiphyseal plate, and the greenstick fracture occurs in younger children where the bone is hanging off by a thread of bone."
Hannibal huffs impatiently, "Dear, you're being a bit dramatic. If you are concerned that it won't heal, I assure you it will. It's a lengthy process to those that believe time is so little for them. I will make sure that your time ticks blessedly far into the future.
"When a bone begins the repair process, it forms something called a hematoma. The prefix hema- means blood and -toma is, simply, a growth— similar to a tumor. When this is formed, torn blood vessels start hemorrhaging and beginning the inflammation process.
"After that, a soft— or fibrocartilaginous— callus forms. Internally, spongy bone begins to form as well as new blood vessels thanks to the osteoblasts, and the fibroblasts begin to secret collagen fibers to connect the bone ends.
"The hard callus begins to form which is when spongy bone begins to transform into a harder, compact bone state.
"Then, when your arm has been weak long enough, the bone remodels to mimic its past form. See? You will be just as strong when the bone reaches this stage."
After thinking for a moment, Hannibal hesitates, "Well, unless you were to develop osteoporosis. Bone resorption starts to outpace the bone deposit and the holes between trabeculae begins to gape— much like you- well, nevermind. This, of course won't happen with me as your personal dietician."
Will grits his teeth, "Well, thank God I have you to attribute for my p-perfect health."
"Yes, yes, you're livid, I imagine. Your lesson needed something more personalized— and perhaps I entertained the idea of your helplessness too much. But, Mylimasis, your lessons are not yet through," Hannibal soothes, placing a loving kiss to Will's forehead.
Hannibal says, "It would be a good idea to move onto joints, I think. The three ways a joint can move is categorized by siarthroses, amphithroses, and diarthroses, which are, respectively, immovable joints, partially moving joints, and freely moving joints.
"But that, my dear is not the only way to categorize a joint. There are unique structural differences that we classify with the terms of Synovial, Cartilaginous, and Fibrous.
Hannibal massages Will's chest lovingly, says, "Fibrous joints are bones that are joined together by dense fibrous connective tissue. These don't have a joint cavity and are typically rendered immobile. Of these fibrous, there are three types.
"First are the sutures." Hannibal traces seemingly random lines across Will's scalp. "These contain connective tissue fibers that are tightly interwoven. Some you would know are the sutures in your skull such as the coronal and lambdoidal sutures."
Moving his hand to Will's fractured arm, Will groans in pain as Hannibal pushes at the skin where his radius and ulna meet. "Another type of fibrous joints are the syndesmoses. These are bones connected by ligaments. These have a range of motion that can be found between immovable and slightly moveable— synthrotic and amphithrotic, remember?"
"The last type of fibrous joints are gomphoses. These can be found right…" Hannibal lifts Will's upper lip and traces his blunt nail over where his teeth and gums meet. "Here."
"Now, the cartilaginous joints are bones that are held together by cartilage. Similarly, they don't have a joint cavity," the man says, running his fingers along where the clavicle meets the manubrium.
"Synovial joints are the most common in the body— most joints are synovial— and all are diathrotic. Synovial joints are the only joint types to have joint cavities— such as the joint that connects the acetabulum and the femur— they're the only ones to have outer fibrous capsules of sense irregular tissues and an inner synovial membrane of loose connective tissue, and they're the only joint to have synovial fluid. Remember how I told you that cartilage doesn't have any blood vessels? Well, synovial joints have a large amount of articular cartilage that require nutrients and a place to dispose of waste. That is the function of synovial fluid— to provide those things. This is a consistant lubrication also known as weeping lubricant," Hannibal explains, smiling immaturely at the word 'lubricant' as he drags his finger through the dead man's blood and pushes it into Will's hole.
At Will's groan, Hannibal redoubles his efforts to increase Will's pleasure to the point of overpowering the pain in his arm.
With a soft moan, Hannibal whispers into his lover's ear, "To reduce friction, the body has bursa sacs— which are lined with synovial membrane and filled with synovial fluid. It somewhat resembles a balloon. Similarly, the tendon sheath is, essentially, just an elongated bursa that envelops a tendon." At the word 'envelops', Hannibal's finger slips inside Will, drawing a pleased— though slightly pained— sigh.
"I imagine you are desperate to know how I'm able to carry such large men without dislocating my arms," Hannibal prompts.
With a deadpan voice, Will drawls, "Hannibal Lecter, are you calling your loving husband fat."
"Of course not, I was referring to our third party," the doctor chuckles, "While the shapes of articular surfaces and the number and location of the ligaments have a role on stabilizing joints, muscle tone has the greatest effect. The tone of muscle reinforces shoulder, knee, and arch of the foot joints."
With a pleased hum, Hannibal leans in. "And now it's my favorite part of the lecture. Range of motion."
"And that's…?"
"The range of motion of synovial joints. There's non-axial, which allows slipping movements only; uniaxial, which allows movement on one plane; biaxial, movement on two planes; multiaxial, which is fully rotational.
"Now there are some special ranges of motion in the synovial joints. These are the easiest to teach a student such as yourself," Hannibal remarks, taking both of Will's hands in his and turning his palms upward, grinning like a cat when Will yelps at the jarring movement to his broken arm.
When Will's cries diminish, Hannibal says, "Supination. It's when your palms face upwards. Pronation is the opposite.
"Dorsiflexion." Hannibal takes his foot and tilts it up. When Will chuckles at the sensation, Hannibal flexes it down. "Plantar flexion."
Will smirks, "Are you sure this isn't just an excuse for you to touch my feet? I didn't think you were that kind of man."
"I like touching every part of you, my beloved. I am about to manoeuvre your feet again, however. Inversion." Hanninal tilts his feet inward— which hurts a little— then tilts them outward. "Eversion." Which hurts much more.
Hannibal suddenly presses much closer, the heat of his pelvis flush with Will's hips. With a firm grip, Hannibal pushes one of Will's legs into an extended position.
"Extension," he says pushing it far beyond comfortable, "hyperextension." Will groans, trying not to jostle his arm as he's bent fully in half.
With an increasing desperation at being teased for so long, Will practically whines, "Jesus, Hannibal, I got the gist! Please hurry up!"
"What an impatient student i've found myself with," Hannibal admonishes fondly, "If you are so concerned with the end of the lesson, I suppose we've learned enough for the day. Though, I was just about done with my favorite special movements…" At his faux forlorn expression, Will feels his resolve crumble.
"Finish the special movements, then," Will whispers.
Hanninal's smile creeps onto his face. "There's protraction." In a fraction of a second, Hannibal is buried inside of Will, punching the air out of his lungs with a moan.
"And retraction." He pulls out, smiling. "And that's all I have to teach you for this unit."
"What?!" Will sputters, "W-Wait, Hannibal!"
"Yes, beloved?"
Will stutters for a moment, "I'm- I'm still a little confused… on… on the last two special movements. I think I need another example." He look up bashfully through his long, thick eyelashes, tears hidden at the corners of his shining blue eyes.
"I could never deny you knowledge, my love," Hanninal reassures him, pressing back inside.
"Protraction." Pulls out. "Retraction."
Will smiles. "Repetition is the best teacher, Hannibal."
"You wound me, I thought I would take the title of best teacher," Hannibal pouts, brushing the curls off Will's forehead.
Teasingly, Will responds, "You will be once you finish our lesson."
"I suppose I'll have to drill this lesson into you until it clicks," the doctor says darkly, entering once again. The pressure on his cock feels heavenly, even more so as he thrusts in and out with a vicious rhythm.
With a pleasured scream, Will allows himself to be completely taken by his lover.
Hannibal growls in his ear, "What are the special movements I'm teaching you, Will?"
"I d-don't— uhn—! I don't remember," Will claims, head going fuzzy from the rough treatment.
Hannibal accelerates, fucking Will into the mattress, placing a passionate kiss on his chest. Will throws his head back into the pillow and draws lines of red down the man's back with one of his arms.
With a deep groan, Hannibal thrusts in one last time, spilling his semen deeply into Will. Pressed firmly against each other, sweaty skin against skin, Will kisses Hannibal sweetly.
"How do you feel about it now, beloved?" Hannibal asks, cradling his lover's face in his hands.
Will hums as if he's pondering the question. "Perhaps a review session is in order."
"Oh, you terrible boy," Hannibal says fondly.
Written by a human in Ellipsus.