Chapter Text
Ever since their kiss on the beach, Stede’s realization thanks to Mary, and his and Ed’s subsequent reunion, fight, and makeup, Stede has been feeling...
...Strange.
There’s a heat in his chest when he sees Ed. It swells up like a blooming flower, like the sun rising over the ocean, warming his heart and spreading under his skin like spilled tea.
He supposes it’s probably love, isn’t it? It’s something he’s only ever felt around Ed, and now that he knows how he feels, he knows it must be love.
It is terrifying.
Being in the same room as Ed makes his heart go out of control, makes him sweat, makes him feel — giddy.
They have breakfast together every morning, and dinner together every night, and every day, Stede feels the urge to do something, perhaps take Ed by his hair and bring him in to kiss again, and every day, Stede sits in terror and doesn’t do anything.
Dinner tonight is no different.
They’ve gone from sitting across from each other, at the short ends of the table, to sitting perpendicular and making themselves a corner, to lean close and talk soft. They sit close enough that sometimes, if Stede is lucky, he can feel Ed’s body heat drifting into his space and warming him from the outside in.
This is one of those nights, and Stede suppresses a shudder when he feels that aura press into his space. Ed has such a presence to him in the first place, it doesn’t seem fair that he can also carry a field of warmth like sunshine in his palms.
Stede takes a sip of tea, and chokes.
There’s a tickle on his leg. Down his calf, and to his ankle, there’s a repeating pressure trailing up, and down, and up again.
Oh. Oh.
Stede straightens up in his seat. What was he saying? He doesn’t remember. Blush creeps up his neck and into his cheeks as his suspicions are confirmed by the sly, shy smile on Ed’s face.
“Is this okay?” Ed asks, soft as can be.
His ankle rubs down Stede’s leg again.
“Yes,” Stede practically yelps. “Yes, this is — it’s lovely,” he admits. He nudges his leg closer so Ed is rubbing his whole shin against Stede’s whole calf, and it is. Wow.
Ed smiles wider at him and takes a long sip of his drink. His foot hooks around Stede’s ankle and locks them together, heel to knee, and they stay that way for hours.