Kiss Me - Part 1 | An Ed Sheeran Fanfic

It had been such a warm day, and so you had changed in the tent before bed, quickly while Ed was still out by the campfire with the others. You were normally fine to sleep in a sweatshirt and leggings because the nights were still cool even when the days burned warm. But Ed was apparently a living, breathing furnace - having him in the tent had made last night uncomfortably hot. Luckily, you'd packed a pair of sleep shorts just in case, as the weatherman had warned you were getting a bit of an Indian summer. The air was thick; muggy - even now after the sun had long gone down.

You slipped into your sleep shorts and an old battered t-shirt crumpling up your clothes and tossing them in the general direction of your duffel. The gang was still loud outside, and you contemplated heading back out there to sit with them... but the truth was, you were pretty knackered, and your makeshift sleeping bag bed looked pretty darn good to you.

It was still too warm to get into your sleeping bag and so you nestle in over the top of it, the cool polyester material soothing your sun-kissed skin. You cozied into your two huge down pillows - looking over at the single pathetic lump of a pillow Ed had brought, lying above his sleeping bag, stationed nearly right next to yours.

Sleep came swiftly as you settled in, and you were woken some time later when Ed came back to the tent. He was doing his best to be quiet, but struggled with the zippered entrance a bit. You could see the fire had died down to a soft glow and the lack of voices told you that the rest of your mates had turned in, too.

You heard Ed shed his t-shirt and crash on top of his own sleeping bag, listening to his breathing until it slows and steadies out, as you faded back off to sleep, overcome by a sense of longing. He's so near, you could just reach over and touch him... but you flip onto your other side, facing away from him and burying those silly thoughts, the same way you'd been burying them for years.

*

You stir again, later that night, waking to the sounds of Ed softly snoozing beside you. The temperature had swung, a bite of chill in the air. It's refreshing for one, after such a suffocatingly hot day. But it sends a trail of goosebumps down your legs, and you're just about to shimmy inside of your sleeping bag when Ed abruptly turns over, cuddling up to your back, a heavy arm swinging around you.

It feels like you're paralyzed; your heart jumping up into your throat as you blink, anticipating what comes next. The moon is bright in the sky, directly over your tent, beaming down onto you as if it were a spotlight, and you on a stage for everyone to see.

He's still snoring lightly, so he isn't awake. Do you gently push him aside? Friends don't spoon. He'd probably be embarrassed if he woke and realized what he had done. You'd be lying to yourself if you hadn't fantasized this exact thing for... well, a long time. But you didn't want it like this, just an unconscious move because he was probably feeling just as chilled as you were.

Or was it something more? True to your hyper-critical nature, you'd analyzed every small interaction you'd had on this trip - the first time the two of you had spent any real time together since his last relationship had crashed and burned in the spring. Usually it was just a barrage of emailing silly memes back and forth, or stopping out for a pint with the crew on the rare nights he was back home.

But this trip, this time spent with him and your whole group of friends... it had felt different.The rest of the gang had opted to stay in the cottage here on Ed's property. There was plenty of room, sure, but you had always loved sleeping outside. While the rest of the group got to work setting up the makeshift bar inside, Ed had come out and helped you put up your tent. "Is there room for one more in here?" he had asked, grinning like a damn fool when you told him 'of course.' He'd run right inside and brought his duffel and a sleeping bag out, setting his makeshift bed up directly next to yours.