[The real comfort in moments like this is the easy way Stede comes circling back. The man can flit away, absorbed in a task. Edward himself can drift slightly in the room, drawn to some previously unnoticed detail. None of that seems to get in the way of knowing that, the next time he looked up, his co-captain would be back just at his elbow.
The appearance of the familiar red housecoat puts a twitch in his fingers, flexing slightly in the effort not to reach out and test the feel of the rich fabric. Even the small movement brings the sensation of a cracking in the crusted muck on his hands and sends his breath out in a sharp huff. The glass is abandoned somewhere to begin the process of tugging off rings and peeling off gloves.]
Braid it? [There's Stede circling in again, briefly tugging Edward's attention up from his own hands.] Are we going somewhere?
[Surely they need an excuse for that much extended contact. Surely, at least, they need to have made the effort to make feints at an excuse before indulging in it.]
no subject
The appearance of the familiar red housecoat puts a twitch in his fingers, flexing slightly in the effort not to reach out and test the feel of the rich fabric. Even the small movement brings the sensation of a cracking in the crusted muck on his hands and sends his breath out in a sharp huff. The glass is abandoned somewhere to begin the process of tugging off rings and peeling off gloves.]
Braid it? [There's Stede circling in again, briefly tugging Edward's attention up from his own hands.] Are we going somewhere?
[Surely they need an excuse for that much extended contact. Surely, at least, they need to have made the effort to make feints at an excuse before indulging in it.]