what's up it's time for my favorite trope: caretaking!! for example consider:
stede comes home and is so tired and unhappy he can't even get himself out of the car and ed finds him there when he gets home fifteen minutes later and takes him inside and sets him up with a cup of tea and a weighted blanket and their cat
ed sits and waits with him, hands stede the box of tissues and waits it out with him until he can say what happened. maybe he never got away from his bullies. maybe his job means he has to see people be horrible to each other. but eventually he slumps into ed's side and breathes.
"all right, love?" ed will ask, and stede will say no, because he's working on his honesty. "that's all right. can you eat?" he'll order chinese, all their favs. too much food, it'll last them all weekend. makes stede a cup of green tea while they wait. lets him pick a movie.
they curl up together, sharing bites of egg roll, cashew chicken, lo mein. they've seen this movie a hundred times but stede laughs at the jokes, which is all ed could ask for tonight. halfway through, dinner spread over the coffee table, stede leans into ed and closes his eyes.
he's not asleep. ed knows he's not. but he holds stede like he is, knows there's safety in not having to answer questions. ed holds him like that until the credits roll and then he shuffles stede into the bathroom. washes his face with a warm washcloth, makes him brush his teeth.
tucks him into bed and curls up against him in the dark, kisses his forehead. lets stede feel the easy rhythm of his breath, his heart. "i'm with you," ed says. he doesn't say everything will be ok. maybe it won't. but: "i'm here with you."
that will never change.
