This is brilliant! The intimacy that's fostered through understanding is right on and the fact that there is a physicality to it but that it's something so contrained is just how it should be (most days). You get Stannis' understated (and sometimes oddly backhanded) affection so right as well.

unlike his family and unlike the Night's Watch, Stannis truly wanted him. Jon was here because Stannis had chosen him, not because he had nowhere else to go.

Oh, hi perfection, how are you today? And, just yes, because this is what Jon needs: he needs to be valued by someone who actually sees his worth, he needs to be more than a problem people need to deal with (which is what he always was, really, even for Ned and even in the Night's Watch, to a large extent).

Also, shout out for the Bastard of Nightsong. The detail of his being there and of there being some muttering about Stannis' having raised bastards to his Kingsguard is wonderfully apt. I love that Jon finds it difficult because the dissent implies a criticism of Stannis because that is just so Jon, he can go beyond personal insult (he's grown well past that) but they are misjudging Stannis and that's what matters (and the fact that it is, in some way, his fault would only make it more frustrating for him).

But, yes, this is just wonderful. The surpressed smile and the 'Ser Jon' - which is just propriety, on one level, but, on another, is about Stannis saying that Jon belongs here. ;lfdhg;gfs