Fic Preview
Check out a sneak peek at an upcoming chapter in my fic Growing Sideways
Ed knew he was being a pretty shitty passenger right now, legs bouncing incessantly as he barely managed a series of short noises in response to Kiri’s seemingly never ending chatter – he really couldn’t give a shit about the new scrub tech who managed to piss off the entire night-time nurse rotation. He would make it up to her later, all he could focus on right now were the signs counting down the kilometers to the airport; the steady shortening of distance only expanding the growing lump in his throat that threatened to constrict his airways if let go for much longer.
Stede had been texting him since he left Mary’s last night, updating him on his travel status, quippy observations about the absolute lawlessness of people in airports, telling him how much he loved him. He’d also called when he could – during layovers and inbetween way too many bloody security checks and passport control.
At some point last night Ed had fallen asleep, a few hours into Stede’s 9 hour trans-Pacific flight – Stede had paid for wifi on that one to keep messaging Ed, even after Ed had fallen asleep.
After Ed had managed to get several not-so-helpful hours of sleep – not like he’d been having any particularly restful nights lately anyway – he’d woken up to half a dozen voice notes waiting for him. By that point, Stede was already half an ocean closer, waiting for his too long layover in Tahiti. Ed had immediately called him, desperate to just hear his voice.
They talked the rest of his layover, until an absolute monster of a flight attendant made Stede put his phone away for his second to last flight. Wifi apparently wasn’t available on that one as Stede went radio silent for close to six hours until he landed in Auckland.
Ed had been absolutely useless the rest of the day, not being able to sit down for more than ten minutes as he moved through the motions of waiting, impatiently, desperately, for five pm to roll around. The hours seemed to take their sweet, excruciating time to roll through the day, seemingly taunting him every time he checked his phone to find it was decidedly not five pm, because the universe definitely hated him.
He was pretty sure that at some point Kiri had pressed a breakfast pie into his hands around two pm, realising that he had definitely not eaten anything that day in between waiting for updates and texts and phone calls.
Now, from the passenger side of Kiri’s truck, his thumb swiped his phone open every thirty seconds, anxiously waiting for any update from Stede after his last text an hour ago saying that he’d boarded his final flight. The flight was a short one, less than an hour, Ed knew, so he should have landed by now. He should have landed and disembarked and be there waiting. Waiting for him.
After another excruciating three minutes, his phone buzzed on his thigh, lighting up with Stede’s face. Ed almost dropped the phone with how quickly he moved to answer it, cutting Kiri off in the middle of some new story (he really would make it up to her).
“Stede,” Ed barely managed to choke out, voice cracking and tinged with a desperation he couldn’t even bother to be embarrassed about right now.
“Oh sweetheart,” Stede soothed, concerned, his voice a balm against Ed’s fraying nerves. “I’m here, my love, ready for you.” Ed was barely keeping it together, chest tight with a thousand emotions that threatened to burst if he didn’t get Stede in his arms in the next ten minutes.
“Well, I’m ready for you, they are taking quite a while to unload the baggage despite the fact we’re quite literally the only flight here.” Stede addendumed, in his little bitchy tone that Ed was desperate for right now.
“Okay, yeah, okay, we’re, um -” he looked back at Kiri, who held up four fingers as she mouthed “minutes” – “4 minutes away.”
Stede gave a pleased little hum, a sound that spread through Ed’s chest as it warmed him from the inside out. “Oh, fab.” There was a pause where neither of them said anything, listening instead to the other breathing.
“Do you want - ”
“Please keep talking - ”
They spoke over each other, Ed stumbling over his rushed words to get them out before Stede could even consider hanging up. Not to be dramatic, but Ed was pretty sure that if Stede hung up now, he would actually combust before making it to the airport.
“Please, love, just keep talking. Anything. Just need to hear you.” He managed to mumble out, trying and failing to clear the ache in his throat.
