Work Text:
Stede taps his pen against the blank page of his notebook, thinking. Ed's out running errands and Stede is using the time to think about his vows for their wedding.
He doesn't want the traditional vows, for all that he knows he'll love, honor, and cherish Ed until the end of his days, and probably after. He's just already promised that, once.
He thinks he's held to that, even if it's not in the form any of his guests would have expected that day. But he still loves her as one of his best friends, honors the support she gives him, and cherishes her as the children's mother.
That line of thinking has him chasing rabbits, thinking about the other oaths he's made in his life.
But these vows will supersede all of those. Already do, if he's honest. He hasn't even made them yet, and he knows, down to his bones, that these words will be engraved on his heart until the end of time.
"We've written our names on each other in permanent ink." He writes down. Literally, in Ed's case. Stede isn't quite ready for a tattoo, yet, still afraid of the pain and the healing time. He's getting there, though.
And Ed understands. "You're wearing my ring, love." he's said, time and again. Stede thrills a little at the possession Ed puts in that 'my' every time. Ed usually continues the thought with, "More visible than a tattoo, anyway, when we're all dressed up."
"I love everything about you." Stede continues to write. "Just being near you."
He pauses for a while, glancing at their photos, remembering the weeks together in the orbiter. "Breathing the same air."
He taps his pen against the page again. He adds, "You're my home when the outside feels like it's storming."
Maybe that's too much? Stede leaves it in, anyway.
"I was told that love is easy. I didn't believe it, until you." He writes, then sighs.
He's got time. He can finish them later. And the dishes need doing.
Ed's got some time alone while Stede is with Alma for a daddy-daughter thing at her school. He's got his tea with plenty of sugar, he's got his blank sheet of paper, his pencil, and a completely blank mind.
Stede really wants them to write their own vows. In theory, Ed agrees. In practice . . . Well, Stede's scientific papers are quoted as much for the beauty of their prose as for the science. Ed's go through Lucius.
Lucius did offer to help with this, too, but that just doesn't feel right.
"We spend a lot of time talking about what makes us happy." he starts. "And I've realized that what makes me happy is you."
"From the moment I saw you, until just now, seeing your smile. Knowing that life will be one long 'Wanna do something weird?' with you - I can't wait to start our forever." Well, that's a good ending. Now to fill in the middle parts.
"Traveling with you - orbiting with you, was the most fun I've had in space in ages." Yeah. That's a good line. Ed writes a 2 next to it, then stops, and writes 'end' next to the line just above.
He pauses again. "Everything about you is golden. Your hair. Your smile. You remind me of a mermaid, maybe. All orange and sparkly." Ed considers, then crosses that out. That's more for at home talk, not in front of their friends and family.
"You make me believe in myself again. In what we do again. When it seemed dull and boring, you came into my life and showed me another way to see it." That line stays in and gets a 3 next to it.
"I'm all in. Today and always. Have been since the first time I saw you." Ed sets his pen down as the dryer buzzer goes off, stretching before he stands. He'll come back to it.