23 February, 1894 — Tycho's House

Earlier that day Ford had been in Miss Farley's parlor playing suitor, and during the interaction he'd had a running inner monologue of things he would tell Tycho about it, when they saw each other. He hadn't realized he was planning to see Ty today until he'd been in the parlor with her and realized he couldn't possibly go from that to pretending things were normal at home without some kind of release in between. So he'd spent the afternoon rehearsing how he would recount it all to Tycho, and then afterwards he'd fled to Tycho's and not said a word of it. He hadn't had the stomach to talk about Miss Farley or the wedding to Ty since the day he'd first broken the news, and it turned out he still didn't.

He didn't have the words for much of anything, as it happened — not until after they'd been shut up in Tycho's bedroom for thirty minutes and Ford was contemplating the rise and fall of Tycho's chest while he caught his breath. And when he found something to say, it was once again nothing to do with Miss Farley, but rather with the unpleasant interaction he'd had with Broadmoor yesterday afternoon in Diagon Alley.

"When you start sleeping with other people," he began tentatively — and as much as it stung to use the word when he thought it would have been naive to do otherwise — "Do you think you'll tell them about me?"

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

Tycho was straight up not having a Good Time™ these days. He was in a pit of misery but had been doing his best not to make it too obvious when Ford was able to come be with him. He didn't want their last precious moments together to be marred by his crushing despair. Besides, it wasn't like Ford actively, passionately wanted to marry the girl - he wanted to be noble and honorable despite not having even touched her. Tycho believed that Ford had not but the rest of society did not share the same belief. And no matter what explanations came out now, a girl had been ruined.

Idly tracing figures onto Fords shoulder, Tycho was a bit surprised by the question asked. "If I start sleeping with others, I probably will but not by name and only if I am quite close to them. It would be impossible to not talk about you if I am getting very close to them and they wonder why I avoid doing certain things with them." It hurt to think of the after but as a Seer, he knew best that After always lay in wait.

  

---

Most of Tycho's response was exactly what Ford had expected. He had anticipated the gentle correction to if, and had already coached himself not to let too much hope spring from it. It was selfish to want Tycho to be alone, and he knew that — and hypocritical, given that he would be married — but thinking about Tycho in someone else's arms hurt too much. Despite knowing it was selfish, despite hating himself for it, there was still a small part of him that hoped Ty's bed stayed empty for a long time.

But he had expected that it wouldn't, and that Ty would have already thought about the eventuality where it didn't, which was why he'd asked the question. And he had expected Ty's answer; they had talked the same way about Ford's experiences with Macnair, because at least at the beginning it was a big part of his life and not easily avoided. Not by name was a good rule. Not ironclad, because if Ty said too much about the circumstances under which they'd been forced to separate someone could perhaps still guess who Ty was talking about, but a good start. The last thing that he'd said caught Ford off-guard, though, and rather than continuing on to talk about what Ty should and shouldn't share he tilted his head at the other man curiously. "Avoiding doing things?" he asked; he hadn't considered this kind of thought at all. "What sorts of things?"

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

Tycho was still grasping the entire situation so he had not thought too deeply on what he would eventually tell people. Williams hadn't seemed to understand, incensed as he was on Tychos behalf, and Tycho had not had the energy to fight him against it except to continue insisting Ford was not being wholly selfish.

"Like why I won't write poetry for them or take them up my observatory room, I suppose. That's Our Thing. Even when you will no longer be there to go up with me," Tycho said with a shrug.

  

---

The idea that Tycho would never write poetry for anyone else affected him so deeply that he had to immediately pretend he hadn't heard it. Instead he fixated on the other point, which still tugged at his insides but was much easier to pretend to be cavalier about.

"You're going to have a whole room of the house you lock off from other people? You'll be like one of those sulky rich people in gothic romance novels," he pointed out. Ford hadn't read many novels but he seemed to remember mysterious men in mansions who forbid guests from entering the west wing or opening the attic door or whatnot being a staple trope of the genre. "They'll be convinced you've got some dark secret. Maybe they'll think you're a werewolf," he half-teased. "And that's your full moon lockup space."

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

"Not everyone, just other lovers or potential lovers," Tycho said with a laugh. "The harder one will be the poetry because it is partly how I divine most of my visions and the more contact I have had with someone, the more visions I have that are connected to them." And it wasn't like his visions could just stop. They came whether he wanted them to or not. "A rumor about me being a werewolf would be interesting though. I could howl on my rooftop and see people scramble."

  

---

There was a fine line between lovers and potential lovers, Ford thought — in hindsight he didn't know exactly when he and Ty had crossed that line. He remembered their first kiss, obviously, and the night that had followed... but Ty had loved him before that, and sometimes it was easier to imagine they had never actually been just friends at all, even if it had taken Ford ages to realize it.

He was distracted from this train of thought by Tycho's comment about howling on rooftops, which made Ford giggle in spite of the seriousness of the underlying topic. "That would be a good way to clear the neighbors out," he remarked. He very nearly continued and then I could sneak over any time I liked without anyone seeing, but caught himself at the last second. Sometimes in the little moments when they felt like themselves Ford almost forgot that it was all going to come crashing down around them... but he could never forget for long.

"I love you," he said mournfully.

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

"Probably for the best if one of my inventions goes haywire," Tycho joked. As it was, they had yet to be scared off though he didn't think the occasional explosions from his abode had endeared him to any of them.

"I love you too, I always will," Tycho responded in kind. He knew himself well enough to know that even after years passed, if he moved on to someone else, maybe even loved this hypothetical new person - a piece of his heart and soul would forever have Ford etched onto them.

The following 1 user Likes Tycho Dodonus's post:1 user Likes Tycho Dodonus's post
   Fortitude Greengrass

---

Ford felt a rush of affection at the reassurance, because of course that was exactly what he wanted to hear: I love you too, and I always will. He smiled at Tycho wordlessly for a moment, until the memory of watching Ty and Cleon Broadmoor part ways in the street a few days ago resurfaced. His smile fell to a thoughtful frown.

"It's alright if you don't," he offered eventually, tone hesitant. "If you found someone you loved more, someday, I — I mean I'd hate it, but I could never hate you," he said with a sigh. "And I'd hate to think that I was the reason you couldn't be happy. One of us should be happy, someday."

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

"This is why I love you Ford," he said when Ford said it would be all right if he loved someone more one day. "I personally cannot fathom how I could love anyone more than I do you. You have brought me such happiness." And now he was being given sorrow to offset that, it seemed. But perhaps he would find some form of happiness again. But not the happiness he had experienced with Ford for almost two years - three if he counted from the very beginning of their friendship.

  

---

Ford couldn't help but smile again, and nestled down close against Tycho's chest. For a long moment he stayed like that, but of course the contentment of the moment couldn't last. It ebbed, eaten away by the sea of anxieties in his stomach. Eventually he admitted, without having moved from his position with his head leaned against Tycho, "I went to see her today."

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

A painful jolt went through his chest as the other mentioned having gone to see Miss Farley. At least that was the only 'her' Ford could be currently referring to. "....Oh." And then because he figured Ford was probably expecting more than that: "How was it?"

  

---

Ford didn't know why he'd brought it up; it wasn't as though he wanted to talk about it. He made a gesture that was half a shrug, still without peeling himself off of Ty. "It was fine. Awkward." He felt he probably ought to say more about it than that, but he was also very well aware that Tycho probably didn't want to hear any of the actual details.

"She seems... fine. Nice," he said. His insides squirmed a little trying to find an adjective for her that he wanted to share with Tycho. After a beat he added, "Sad."

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

Ford did not seem interested in moving off of him anytime soon so Tycho nestled in more. He listened as his lover spoke as his fingers traced different patterns across the others skin. He could see why it would be awkward. Two people getting married who hadn't intended for it. At least, Ford had not intended it, Tycho had no idea what Miss Farleys character was like and whether she had engineered this or not.

Sad. "Looks like we all are," he murmured. "I wonder if she has someone who is feeling like me out there?" Likely not if she had engineered this. But he couldn't help but be curious who else might possibly be forever effected by Ford marrying Miss Farley. He sighed but said nothing further.

  

---

Ford didn't know if that was a very useful thought for him to dwell on, given the circumstances. It would only make him feel more guilty about everything if she was in love with someone else, and it wasn't as though he knew her well enough to ascertain whether or not that was potentially the case. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility, and this wasn't the first time he had considered it. She had said she was engaged in December, and someone had undone her dress in the coatroom before Mrs. Dempsey had walked in on the pair of them. Really all evidence pointed to the idea that there was someone out there with some kind of a claim to her — or at least someone that she might have hoped would have made a claim to her.

"Maybe," he allowed. But supposing they existed, they hadn't stepped up to marry her. Ford could imagine that perhaps the delay of a day between the coatroom incident and Mr. Farley showing up to make demands was due to her parents trying and failing to pressure a more likely party into marriage — but he could not imagine what sort of man would have refused them, if he really had been responsible for ruining her. Another possibility was that her parents had spent a day trying to pressure the true story out of her, and Miss Farley had refused to tell them — protecting someone, in other words. He could maybe understand that, because at the end of the day he'd lied to Mrs. Dempsey to protect people, too — but if that was the case it didn't do him any good to try and puzzle it out now, when they were only two weeks away from a wedding that had already been announced.

"She didn't act as though she hated me," he said. "So that's something."

---

  

---

Set by Lady!

"Maybe no one in life is meant to be truly happy," Tycho mumbled. Logically, he knew that wasn't quite true. But with the shit he saw in visions and stuff that happened around him, it was sometimes hard to believe otherwise. This wasn't his usual life philosophy though so he blamed his current dreary thoughts on the situation he was facing.

"See? I told you. You are impossible to hate." She would fall in love with him. He felt it in his bones. Because who wouldn't fall in love with Ford Greengrass? Then again, he was quite biased.

The following 1 user Likes Tycho Dodonus's post:1 user Likes Tycho Dodonus's post
   Fortitude Greengrass

---