six sentence sunday

[kindkit]

The WIP is still IP; turns out I was a little optimistic about timing. But it's being beta-read right now, so maybe it'll be ready to post next week.

For today, a little moment of happiness for Ed and Stede. Not untinged with some of Ed's trauma, because nothing is.



Stede's hands were in his hair again, working at the ribbon. "There," he said, and pulled it free. "The first time I saw you, it was loose."

"You have a thing about hair, don't you?"

"Your hair. It's stunning. No one else has hair like yours."

"My nan did. Hers was a little grayer, but I'll get there."

"She must have been beautiful."

Ed could still picture her clearly the way she was that day on the hill, with the wind pulling her hair free of the fancy knot she wore it in. The sun bright on her dark, wrinkled face and the fading lines of her moko kauae. Maybe she was beautiful. Stede might have thought so. "I'll wear it loose if you like."

Comments

[delphi]

This is so lovely. I'm a sucker for Stede loving Ed's hair, and also more generally how hair ties in so personally to childhood, culture, and self-expression.

[kindkit]

Thank you! Stede really adores Ed's hair in this fic (and Ed adores Stede's, in part because Ed is a magpie for bright shiny things), and as it started to take up more narrative space, its meanings expanded in ways I like.

Actually you've made me realize I should put in a reference to when Ed started growing it long, because it's shortish in the childhood scenes we get in canon.