Ford woke with a start, and knew immediately that something had woken him but took a second to realize what. Cash, he thought immediately. The last time had been Cash. Noble off the rails again was his second thought, although that had happened during broad daylight and Noble was (probably) chastened enough not to do it again so soon. Gradually, groggily, he became aware of a repetitive noise at his window. He stumbled out of bed without pausing to think through what it might be, off to investigate and resolve whatever the issue was. He was anticipating something mundane... maybe a shutter that had just lost a hinge. To anyone else a bird on the windowsill might have been in the category of mundane. To Ford it was anything but.

He stepped back from the window. He took a breath and ran his hand through his hair, waiting to see if he would wake up. It was far more reasonable to believe that this was a dream than to think that Tycho was actually showing up in his room again, months after they'd called everything off.

He didn't wake up. Tycho remained on his window. The raven seemed to be looking at him disapprovingly, if that was an expression ravens were capable of making.

"No," Ford said through the shut glass.

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