Noble squeezed Daffy's hands. Of course she noticed; she knew him better than most of his siblings did, and now-Noble was different than he'd been a year ago.

"I know," he admitted, "It's just - my sisters, probably, they sometimes make me go a little mad." But it was his sisters, and his mother, and the family's finances. It was everyone under one roof and the marriage time crunch and the knowledge that maybe, possibly, probably - his ability to provide for her, to marry her, was up in the air.

They might not even have the option anymore.

Noble couldn't verbalize it, though; he was sure he would find a way to pull through.

"I'm sorry if I'm off," he said.

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set by Bee

She could certainly sympathize with sisters, she had six of them after all. Although only three of them were home currently, they did all work together, too. Though they generally got along well, and the pressure on them was not as high to marry, Daffy knew she, Zinnia and Thistle were on the edge of knowing they should be looking. Making sure seven girls would be taken care of down the line was a lot of work.

"Don't be sorry," She smiled softly at him, reaching up to smooth an errant tuft of his hair back into place. "Can I help at all?" Daffy wasn't even sure what she could do to help ease the burdens on his shoulders, but she would do anything for him if he needed her to.

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Noble smiled back at her, mirroring Daff's expression without really intending to. "Nah," he said, because she really couldn't help - and he certainly could not get into things beyond the surface, lest they give up on the plan entirely. "You help more than enough already, just by being you." Being around Daffy reminded Noble that he was not dour all the time, nor had he always been - it was just this situation, with his family, that had him feeling like he was up against the wall.

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Daff couldn't help the following smile, but she couldn't shake the feeling. Looking up at him, her expression a mix of concern and affection, she cocked her head to the side a little. "I don't like seeing you like this." Daffy wouldn't press any further than that, but she had think inkling that there was something he wasn't telling her. She'd never been one to push, especially him, but she didn't have a filter either.

Leaning into him and wrapped her arms around him and squeezed tight. "Won't you tell me what's really wrong?" She mumbled into his shirt.

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He couldn't tell her the truth; or at least he could not tell her all of it. It was hard to lie to Daffy, especially when her arms were twined around him and this was the first time they had been alone together in ages. "Ford and I," he said, because it was as close to the truth as he could get, "I don't think either of us were really ready for the responsibility." It wasn't really his job, it was Ford's - but he could not in good conscience abandon him when their sisters' futures were at stake.

He pressed his face into the top of Daff's head, and inhaled the lavender-scent of her hair.

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There really wasn't anything Daff could do for him and that was worse than seeing him so out of sorts. "I'm sorry, Love." She whispered, tightening her grip on him.

Losing his father so early was devastating on its own, Daffy couldn't even imagine losing her father now. Then becoming responsible for the whole family practically overnight was another matter entirely. They were still so young, it wasn't supposed to be quite this hard. Fortunately, at least on her end, she could wait for him as long as possible. With seven girls in the family, it wasn't forever, but seeing as that she was on the younger side, she could stall for a while. Unfortunately Thistle looked ready to forego marriage altogether and Daff wasn't sure if or how that changed anything.

Looking up at him, she knew their time now was running short, but couldn't find the will to say so just yet.

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There was something about Daffodil feeling sorry for him, sorry about the situation, that made it sting anew. The person Noble talked to most often these days was probably Ford, and all of their conversations were focused on Getting Through It - on all of the steps they needed to take to get the girls set up so that they could all survive this. There was only so much that feeling bad about it could help, and they had passed that already.

Noble didn't want to talk about this anymore; not when they only had a few moments left of plausible privacy, anyways. He cupped Daff's face with one hand, and leaned to kiss her.

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The last thing she wanted to do was to add to his stress and so that was all she'd say on the matter tonight. They got such precious little time together, there was no need to mar it with concerns beyond their reach.

He seemed to realize the time as well and so when he leaned down, she let her lashes flutter closed, meeting him in the middle. Even though she felt unsettled, at least in the moment, they could pretend everything was fine. Carefully she brought her hands to his shoulders, leaning into him, knowing that she couldn't muss up his smart attire. It was far to easy to get lost in him and the moment and forget the outside world even existed. At least that hadn't changed.

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Noble drew the kiss out as long as he could, keeping his hands on Daffodil's shoulderblades. He wished they had spent more of their time in here kissing, instead of talking or thinking about his sisters. No matter now, though - and they already had a plan to see each other next, and even if he could not get away with kissing her at her family's ship, at least they had a plan.

Finally, he straightened. "We should probably head out," Noble said, "Do you want to go first? And - if the coast is clear, knock twice on the door?"

It was harder for Noble to justify being in a powder room if he was spotted, after all.

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It was over far too soon, as always, and the dreamy sort of smile on her face could only last so long when the next step was to part ways once more. Sighing softly, feeling the flush that no doubt graced her cheeks, Daffy pouted just a little. He was right, but she didn't have to like it.

"Good plan," She teased, pushing up quickly to press one last kiss to his cheek. "Just give me a moment to get up the stairs before you come out." This was always the tricky part. Not that they met in theater powder rooms often, but they had become pretty efficient at sneaking moments together where they could. "I'll see you next week at the shop then." Hopefully nothing in her appearance couldn't be blamed on one too many glasses of champagne or could be easily seen in the dimmed lights of the theater itself.

Smoothing out her skirts, Daff flipped the lock again and stepped outside. Fortunately, their time meant everyone was still enthralled with the first portion of the performance and there wasn't a soul in sight. Gently she reached back and knocked twice on the door and made her hasty retreat down the hallway and up the stairs once more.

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