#hi ...

Launching my new c0mms!!!! c:

The manor's quiet when Moran and Will make their way back, as it usually is these days now that the two of them have more or less got it to themselves. Will still hosts his brothers and Moran still hosts pretty much exclusively Fred, but it's become the sort of environment that's largely only shared between the two of them. And the large, empty halls aren't so bad when neither of them are particularly inclined to wander them alone.

There'd usually be more light conversation between them at a time like this—and there certainly has been light conversation passed between them on the way back—but Moran's mind is stuck firmly elsewhere.

It had been something Albert said.

Moran still doesn't particularly like Albert, and he probably never will, but the accord they've come to in recent times allows for at least begrudgingly polite conversation; Moran doesn't find excuses to make himself scarce the moment Albert shows his mug at any given setting the way he used to, nor does he fill their conversations with drinks. For Albert's part, he's deigned to sometimes engage Moran in conversations that are seriously worth having, instead of giving him a relentlessly difficult time over just about everything.

It's not friendship, but Albert must have been in a particularly good mood on this particular visit—or his choice of usual target had just magnanimously shifted over to Will, who's almost definitely none-the-wiser to the way he's been betrayed.

Albert, swirling his wine idly in its glass, had offhandedly commented about their relationship, in that tone Moran knew well enough by now due to his time spent on the recieving end of it. Moran had actually expected some jab directed his way, but Albert's gaze had instead shifted over to Will, who had been happily engaged in conversation with Louis at the time, and he'd said—

—I'm very happy to see the two of you together like this. I'm aware William has been carrying quite a large torch for you for about a decade, now.

Moran hadn't asked Albert to elaborate any further, having been caught in his own little reckoning. Certainly, Moran knew Will had been quicker on the uptake of his own feelings than himself, but he'd assumed quite short-sightedly that those feelings had come to light after everything, when Moran had committed himself towalking the same path of quiet absolution Will had paved.

But there wouldn't have been any reason for Albert to lie. And when Will had returned to his side, later, offering his usual contented smile when Moran routinely and still somewhat-awkwardly offered an arm for him to take, the reasons to doubt Albert seemed even slimmer.

It made sense, really. It made a lot of sense.

It's only when they're well and truly settled into the gathering's aftermath in the slightly-dim sitting room, Will using the nearby lamplight to read a book and Moran as a glorified pillow, that Moran decides he's let the matter stew for long enough to ask Will his questions directly.

"Your brother told me something interesting today," Moran comments, watching Will's lithe fingers smoothly and dexterously turn a page in his book. He'd been deliberately vague—it's not often, after all, that he finds himself with the upper hand over Will in situations like these. Even a shoddy tactician knows to make the most of their every advantage. "'About a decade', was it?"