How should he look, then? This was the way he felt; he couldn't just shrug it off and change. But Tycho saying no was enough to pin him in the hallway, making no move to actually leave. For a moment he just lingered there, not having anything productive to say or do, until eventually the weight of their combined misery forced him to say something, just to break the silence into more digestable pieces.

"Your hair looks awful," Ford said, which wasn't true; Tycho could have made anything look good, especially if he was wearing it with the confidence he always carried with him. "I don't like it," he said, which was. He didn't like that it was different — the physical manifestation of the idea that Tycho was out in the world, separately from him, growing and changing in ways Ford was no longer privy to.

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

Tycho scoffed when Ford said his hair looked awful. ”Come now, don’t lie. I always look like a snack,” he stated, stealing from an expression that had been uttered in a far vision he’d had just the other week. More seriously, he touched a hand to his now shorter hair. ”I had to, it took some of the pain away.”

  

---

Can we dance like we're all alone
Stop the time and make it still
Hold you like I always will

Ford pressed his lips together. The moment was bittersweet. He felt a rush of fondness at Tycho's inexplicable joke — some things didn't change, like Ty using phrases that Ford had never heard before and probably never would hear from anyone else and leaving him to infer the meaning from context and tone alone. Some things did change: Ty's shorter hair, and the melancholic way he raised his hand to touch it. The mood was more jarring than the haircut; so very unlike the Tycho Ford had known when they were together.

He couldn't find anything to say. Eventually he took a step to close the distance between them again and wrapped his arms around Tycho tightly.

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

Tycho was mildly surprised when Ford came to wrap his arms around him. He did the same, burying his head into the crook of Fords neck. "Gods, but I even miss the smell of you," he whispered into the others ears before being unable to help but whisper an improvised poem about it that spoke of longing for it when his nose might soon forget it entirely.

  

---

Can we dance like we're all alone
Stop the time and make it still
Hold you like I always will

Ford tensed when he realized what Tycho was saying, knowing that any poem was bound to sting — but he drank it all in regardless. Delightful torment. Should he try and commit this one to memory and write it down when he got home, so that he could dig it out later when he was feeling especially self-pitying and torture himself more with Tycho's rhymes?

"I don't want you to forget," he muttered, with the tone of an admission of guilt. He squeeze Tycho tighter for a moment, then eventually relaxed his hold slightly but still didn't let go. "That's selfish, or stupid. Maybe both. I guess things would be easier if we both moved on, but when I think about it I just —" Ford shrugged. His mouth twisted down sharply. "— I don't want to feel like it's fading. I still want it to feel like it's — real, I guess. Even if it hurts, even if it hurts every second. I think I'd rather it hurt than feel numb."

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

Tycho smiled, finding Fords words so bittersweet. He had to agree, it was selfish and stupid but so was his actions earlier tonight. He supposed both of them were not as morally high ground as they had both hoped to be following Fords marriage. Not that he'd personally had many morals to begin with - but one of them had been respecting his lovers morals. And he had failed in that.

As evident by his next words and actions. "You can't say something like that and not expect me to kiss you," he murmured, a hand going up behind Fords head as he leaned in to glide his lips across the others like he had so many times before.

  

---

Can we dance like we're all alone
Stop the time and make it still
Hold you like I always will

Ford could not pretend to be surprised by the kiss, and could not keep from returning it. Kissing Tycho was instinctual. The rest of it was just as natural — leaning in until they were pressed together, moving his hip subtly against Ty's, letting his breath out in a wistful sigh. His heart rate was climbing. It would be easy to fall back into this; easier than pulling away. Particularly after everything Tycho had been saying and doing since Ford had arrived.

He gently bit Tycho's lower lip. Ending the kiss abruptly wouldn't gain him the moral high ground; he'd lost that long ago. When he did pull back from the kiss he stayed in Tycho's arms, pressed right up against him, and leaned his head against Ty's shoulder. "I should go home now," he said — because if he stayed, there was nothing else to do except this.

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

Tycho was hyperaware of everything going on right now. The movement of Fords hip, the wistful sigh.. his hand naturally came to rest on that hip, pressing it in closer. Kissing Ford came as naturally as breathing.

He groaned as Ford bit his lower lip and pouted when the other pulled back. "You should. Before I find a way to lure you into my bed to see how gripping much shorter hair feels for you," he managed to tease as he nipped at the others earlobe.

  

"Stop it," Ford responded, already smiling as he gently nudged Tycho away. His reaction was automatic, an immediate response to feeling Ty bite his earlobe, and when his brain caught up with him his smile fell and his stomach soured.

"Right," he said. All the playfulness in his tone was gone, replaced by a weighty disappointment (in himself and in his situation in nearly equal measure). He sighed and took another step away from Ty. "Going."

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

"Must you?" Tycho asked as Ford repeated that he was going. He was almost feline in his movements as he came closer to Ford, wondering if he should drop all his morals tonight and go all out in seducing the other into staying longer.

  

---

Can we dance like we're all alone
Stop the time and make it still
Hold you like I always will

"Yes," Ford said emphatically. He took another step back. "And you'd better keep back, or I'll end up splinching you when I leave."

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

Tycho didn’t answer but did step back, letting his robe fall to the floor as he did so. This left him in his half undone dress shirt and underwear. Even if Ford still left, he was content to leave the other with the sight of him disrobing and hopefully imagining him being naked in bed. He fully undid the shirt, his eyes keeping locked on Fords.

  

---

Can we dance like we're all alone
Stop the time and make it still
Hold you like I always will

Tycho's disrobing had an impact — the sort visible through his trousers.

"You're mean," Ford muttered. He teetered where he was for a second, then closed the distance between them again. He kissed Ty deeply and didn't hesitate to let his hands wander, but after a few seconds broke off abruptly and flitted back to where he'd been standing before. "'Bye."

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

Tycho was pleased with himself. He laughed when Ford called him mean before responding hungrily to the others kiss. He let his own hands wander and pouted as the other flitted back and bid farewell again. "You're meaner," he teased, waving his own goodbye.

  

---

Can we dance like we're all alone
Stop the time and make it still
Hold you like I always will