She watched as he seemed to anchor himself into a steady upright position and kept her hand on his shoulder just in case. She'd be able to feel if he was going to wobble again, she reasoned. As strange as it was to feel this sense of ease and familiarity slipping in between them it was also... nice? By joining in her unmarried joke the way he did, he passed a test she hadn't realized she was laying out, and she smiled all the wider for it.

She could feel him searching her face as much as she had his. After an abrupt end and all these years were they really exchanging candid jokes and looking for silent shared understanding?

"Oh, I should think so." She said seriously. "As I recall you are quite a prospect. For some." The sentence finished with an unplanned and unnecessary qualifier that came just a hair too late to be as nonchalant as she meant. She winced.

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