"Nothing to do with you," Ford reiterated, at the look that passed over Tycho's face. He understood the concern; had their positions been reversed, he'd be going through the exact same mental hoops himself. Explaining how it had come out without being about Ty was going to take a bit more, and Ford couldn't help but hesitate before he continued. He needed to tell Ty, of course, but he didn't want to. It felt like an admission of guilt, or like a betrayal. Ford reached out and caught one of Ty's hands, twining their fingers together before he spoke again. Tycho had said he was here for him. "He, uhm. He found these letters I had, from someone else. Well, not from someone else, but, uhm. Letters that I'd written. To someone else. From a long time ago."

Letters that he should not have kept. Ford's face was red. Don't hate me, he thought desperately. "I don't — keep your letters, or anything, so it's not like he would ever see. It was just — a really stupid thing I did, after this relationship ended, where I wrote these — really, really stupid letters that I knew I wasn't ever going to send, and — I don't know why I kept them so long, but I was going to get rid of them, but then he found them, and... So we had to talk about it."

---

  

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Set by Lady!

Tycho waited for Ford to answer his questions. Ford kept insisting that it had nothing to do with him which was starting to make him feel a little off kilter. Ford entwined their fingers and Tycho reflexively gave it a squeeze. Tycho could not help the wave of petty jealousy flowing through him as Ford told him Noble had found letters. Not his, but from someone else.

Then again, he supposed it was a good thing it wasn't his letters. He didn't know how explicit Fords letters had been but Tycho's tended to be downright smut sometimes.

"Probably a good thing you don't keep mine but slightly saddening that the limerick I wrote about the gloriousness of your buttocks was not preserved," Tycho couldn't help but murmur. He could understand why Ford might have kept the letters from his past lover despite the petulant feeling it was causing him to feel. Just because things ended did not immediately mean the end of feelings. "So now he knows that you have an interest in men. Did he hurt you?" He didn't take either of the Greengrasses to be the sort of have physical altercations but he knew now emotionally sensitive his lover could be.

  

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

Ford glanced up at the comment about the limerick, surprised into a smile. He took half a step towards Tycho with the thought to curl into him and reply you could write me another one, but Ty's next question stopped him in his tracks. The smile fell; he was entirely caught off guard, and looked it. When Tycho had asked earlier if Noble hadn't reacted well, Ford had been ready to answer that of course he hadn't — but even in the worst moments of the actual conversation itself, it had never even crossed his mind that Noble could hurt him.

"No, no," he said quickly. "He wouldn't. He just wanted to talk. But he didn't understand," Ford continued. "He kept saying that; he didn't understand. And then I've been so paranoid since then because he doesn't know about you, and I kept thinking — I don't know what he would do if he did," he admitted. "Not — he couldn't hurt someone, never. Nothing like that. But I just don't know what he'd do. So I couldn't let him figure it out, so I couldn't see you, and — it's just been awful."

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Set by Lady!

Ah, he managed to get a smile out of him. That made him feel as victorious as it always did. Then the smile disappeared but Tycho felt that was understandable given what they were talking about. Tycho also was not sure how he would feel if they were ever discovered by one of their respective family members. "Aw, darling. And you have been spiraling all alone in these thoughts, haven't you?" Tycho said as he closed the distance between them to wrap his arms around the other.

  

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

Yes, of course he had, because spiraling was all Ford ever did when left to his own devices with too much time to think. He was not used to being called out on it so blatantly, though, and felt the absurd desire to defend himself.

"I've been managing," he said. His actions gave him away; when Tycho put his arms around him Ford collapsed back against his chest as though drawn in by gravity. "I'm holding together, it's just — I've missed you. And I was worried," he admitted. "That you'd be upset."

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Set by Lady!

"I was a little but I knew you would only stay away from me if you absolutely had to do," Tycho assured. "I suppose we will need to be a little more discreet around him." Well, he supposed they should be in general. But people already knew he was exuberant when it came to his friends no matter where he was. He did know how to be discreet when it came to his lovers, at least. Not that he had any besides Ford for a long time now.

  

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

On the one hand: yes, being discreet was always important for people like them, and even more so now that someone had reason to be suspicious of Ford's interactions with other men. On the other hand: Ford had never thought discreet and Tycho in the same sentence before, and he had no conceptualization of what that might mean, if it wasn't just what they were already doing. Ford didn't think they'd done anything wrong so far... and Noble didn't know that he was seeing someone now. The confrontation could have been much worse if they hadn't already been careful enough, he realized. If Noble had enough of an inkling to guess that Tycho and he were involved in some way, Ford didn't think he would have been able to deny it — at least, he wouldn't have been able to deny it well enough that Noble would have actually believed him.

"If you start being discreet, that'll tip him off faster than if you'd sent flowers straight to my door," Ford pointed out, with a fond (yet faltering) smile. "He knows you. But he doesn't know that I'm with anyone," Ford continued. "So I think we'll be alright, if we just... don't give him any reason to think about us, for a while."

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Set by Lady!

Ford had a point there, Tycho supposed. The other Greengrass brother might notice something off if Tycho suddenly changed the way he greeted Ford. Even if Noble ended up just assuming that they'd had a tiff, it would still raise questions.

"So no bending you over the banister at the next ball, got it," Tycho couldn't help but quip. "I think I might need to buy you a new arrangement. Some of these are crushed." He tried fixing a couple of the blossoms that had been victims to their embrace.

  

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

The remark made Ford break into a laugh despite himself, with hints of water at the edges of his eyes as he grappled with too many emotions at once. He leaned up against Tycho's chest with an indulgent expression, crushing the bouquet between them once again.

"I love you," he murmured into Ty's chest.

---

  

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Set by Lady!

Tycho smiled as Ford laughed. The poor flowers were once more victims of their embrace. "I love you, too. Everything will turn out all right," Tycho said, pressing a kiss against the other mans temple. "And even if it doesn't, you will always have my support." Hopefully, it would all be fine though. Tycho knew how much Ford cared about his family.

  

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