(romantic blackbonnet pwp ft. stede’s first time eating ed’s ass, explicit, 4k words, i couldn’t help myself with the title ok, also on ao3)
Of course, it had never been about the wealth.
Stede Bonnet didn’t get into pirating for loot or to enact violence.
He got into pirating, though he hadn’t quite known it at the time, for purpose.
And he knows now, with full clarity, that he’s found it: in the devotion of the rest of his life to making Edward Teach as happy as he possibly can.
It’s like being drunk, almost, the way making him smile makes Stede go fuzzy, except it feels far superior and without the headache the following day. Doting on Ed comes naturally, it has from the start, and Stede adores discovering new means by which to please his lover.
He’d been anxious about sex at first, having had precious little experience doing it to any degree that could remotely be described as successful, but that, as is everything, is different with Ed too.
Stede has never felt hunger like this. He’s never wanted anyone, anything, so badly in his life. He finds himself needing to shake himself a bit sometimes, remind himself that this is really happening, because the whiplash is rather extreme, honestly, to go from no one needing or wanting him around very much ever in his life, to—
“Don’t stop!” Ed whines it as he arches his back, muscles rippling beneath his sweaty, tattooed skin. “Stede—Stede—oh God, there, oh please, just like that, fuck, just like that—”
“You take me so well,” Stede murmurs, sharpening his thrusts. Ed wails at the praise, knuckles white on Stede’s silk sheets and his face buried in a pillow as he bears back to take Stede as deep as he can. “You’re so handsome like this, you know that?”
Ed’s beyond words now, making the little, punched-out, obscenely sexy sounds he makes when he’s close, his body stiffening, and God, it’s a blessing beyond Stede’s wildest imaginings to know him so well.
“You want me to fill you up, don’t you?” Stede’s grip tightens on Ed’s hips, and Ed makes a soft, helpless noise of assent in the pillow. Stede grins, leaning forward, and though Ed can’t see it, Stede likes to think he can hear it in his voice. “Hands on the headboard, darling,” he commands, gentle but firm.
Ed’s moan is cracked right through. He complies, effortfully, and they both groan at the shift in angle. He’s so close Stede can feel it, and being the cause of his pleasure is so intoxicating it intensifies Stede’s own a thousandfold. The confidence barreling through him, the certainty that this is exactly where he was meant to be. Finally, something he knows he’s good at.
“There we go,” Stede murmurs, nuzzling the sweaty crook of Ed’s throat. He drapes his body over Ed’s, reaching around him to take his throbbing cock in hand. Ed makes a high, strangled sound. He rocks on his knees, fucking himself onto Stede’s cock and thrusting into Stede’s palm. His breathing goes ragged, and he goes tight.
Stede moans as pleasure sparks through him in waves of sweet intensity. He yanks Ed back on his cock with the hand on his hip, burying his release deep into his lover’s ass. Ed goes mad with it as he always does, sobbing Stede’s name and rocking harder and harder until he cries out, clenching spectacularly around Stede’s length, spilling all over his hand and the bed.
“I love you,” Stede whispers, when he draws out at last. Ed mumbles the same, collapsing onto the mess of sheets.
Stede likes to draw them a proper bath when they’ve gotten this sticky, but they’d already taken one together prior to the night’s activities, and Ed is in no fit state for anything but sleep at the moment, so Stede goes to fetch a few cloths to get them clean enough for bed.
“Fucking hell, Stede,” he groans, and another flare of hot pride surges through Stede. Ed’s voice is hoarse with sex, crushed velvet in shaky satisfaction. I did that, Stede thinks in wonder. The sight of Edward Teach, sprawled out and wrecked for him, by him, feels like a goddamn dream again. “That was a good one.”
Stede chuckles as he wipes himself up, heady with the praise.
“As opposed to?” he teases lightly, gratified when Ed gives a weak laugh back, muffling it in the pillow.
“Yeah, all right, fair enough,” he concedes. “You don’t want me to stop saying it though, do you?” Ed stretches out his tight muscles, splaying his knees and twisting his back. Stede bites his lip. He’s thoroughly spent for the evening, Ed evidently more so, but still. The man exudes sex, even and perhaps especially when just fucked out of his mind.
“Certainly not,” Stede says. Ed tilts his head to look at him and smiles, eyes crinkling at the corners, and Stede’s heart squeezes. He rushes to kneel at the bedside and kiss his sweet mouth, because he can.
They get a bit lost in the kiss in the warmth of the afterglow, until Ed nudges him with his nose.
“How come you’re not in the bed properly, then?” He yawns. “Don’t I get a cuddle?”
Stede grins, shaking his head.
“Obviously,” he says. “Let me just clean you up a bit, darling.”
“Oh, right.” Ed wriggles his hips sleepily. God. “S’pose I am still a bit of a mess.”
“Yes,” Stede says, “and as it’s my fault—”
“Goddamn right is.”
“—I’ll take care of it.”
Ed cracks a shameless, sleepy smile and arches, sticking his ass up.
“Get on with it, then.”
Stede gives him one last kiss and then settles between his thighs with the cloth and tries rather desperately not to lose his entire mind.
It’s quite the job not to, with Edward sprawled out before him, his messy, well-fucked hole dripping with Stede’s spend. He’s shiny and loose, clenching weakly as Stede carefully cleans him up with a dry cloth first, then a damp one, and another pass with a dry. Ed hums at the intimacy and the attention, giving a little gasp when Stede traces his thumb over the puffy rim when he’s done.
“Fuck,” Ed hisses, and Stede has to push down his own half-rising erection with the heel of his hand.
“You’re so pretty here,” Stede murmurs. Ed makes a helpless sort of sound, bringing Stede back to himself. “Ah. Goodness. Sorry, dear—how does that feel?”
“Good,” Ed says, his voice gone raspy. “Really, really good.” He tugs Stede in for a kiss and a proper cuddle, and Stede lets himself sink into the haven of his arms at last. But he can’t stop thinking about the way Ed felt under his fingertip, how fucking inviting he’d been—and from the way Ed squirms for a good while before falling asleep, Stede suspects he’s not alone.
***
There’s no time to dwell on it the next two days, which consist of a rather swashbuckling supply run that results in a thrilling swordfight and several furious parrots. They spend the evenings unwinding on deck with the crew, and tumble into bed too tired to do anything but sleepily rut against each other and kiss until they fall asleep tangled together, Stede massaging Ed’s bad knee.
The following day dawns calm though, the promise of a relatively relaxing day at sea. Ed clears his throat over breakfast.
“Thinking I’d, ah. Have a bath this evening,” he says, cheeks going pink over his teacup. It’s become a bit of a common euphemism, though Stede is more than happy to have him in any state, soap be damned. They’ve experimented quite a bit in the bedroom since this stage of their relationship began several months ago, and Ed is comfiest getting fucked after a thorough washing, which Stede is perfectly delighted to oblige him.
“That sounds lovely,” Stede says, trying and failing to keep the grin off his face. “I’ll get the tub sorted after dinner.”
“Yeah, you will.” Ed flashes him a wink and then busies himself at once with his jam, as if embarrassed at his own brazenness.
“God,” Stede says suddenly, dropping his own jam-knife with a clatter to lean over and kiss him. “I love you so much.”
Ed grins at him, that beautiful, trusting, daybreak of a smile that Stede will do his damnedest to deserve for the rest of their lives.
“Yeah?” he says, biting his lip.
“Yes.”
Ed arches a brow.
“You gonna prove it to me tonight, then…Captain?”
Fucking goodness. Honestly, how is a man meant to get anything done?
“I’ve half a mind to fling you onto this table, tea set be damned, and prove it to you right here and now,” Stede says hoarsely. Ed makes a soft sound, eyes fluttering, and it’s lucky for the tea set that Roach bangs on the door with a question about spoons, or else Stede truly isn’t sure he would’ve contained himself.
“Tonight,” he promises, and Ed squeezes his hand.
“Tonight.”
***
Stede got the sense Ed wanted some privacy with his bath tonight and grants it, setting him up with all the bubbliest soaps while he listens to Pete and Jim’s increasingly ridiculous ghost stories out on deck. By the time he says his good nights to the crew, Ed barely waits for Stede to shut the door before slamming him up against it. He’s naked but for a towel around his waist, his mouth is hot and slick and he smells like jasmine and want and Stede is so in love it genuinely hurts.
“Had a good bath?” Stede mumbles into the kiss. Ed groans, yanking at Stede’s clothes.
“Stop with that, you had me waiting long enough, lover.” His eyes gleam with hunger. “Thought you had something to prove?”
“Do I really?” Stede says between kisses. He switches their places, shoving Ed back against the wall and slipping his thigh between Ed’s, giving him something to grind onto. Ed whines, fingers tangling into Stede’s hair, “Do you actually not know how much I adore you?”
“Nah,” Ed grins breathlessly. “‘Course I do.” He takes Stede’s lower lip between his teeth and gently tugs. The scrape of it goes straight to Stede’s cock. Ed licks where he’s bitten and looks at Stede with those big doe eyes. “Fuck me anyway?”
Stede makes a rather embarrassing sound and manhandles him to the bed, ripping off his towel.
It’s been months and most of the time it feels like Stede’s entire life began the day he met Ed, but sometimes it feels like no time at all. His heart still twists at the sheer handsomeness of this man spread out just for him, the love in his eyes and the way he wants Stede, truly, obviously, aches for him and only him.
Stede devotes himself to worshiping him, squeezing his thighs as he sucks deep, possessive kisses into Ed’s throat. He takes a stiff nipple into his mouth until Ed’s shaking, blowing lightly before turning his attentions to the next. He kisses his way down Ed’s chest with torturous patience, thumbing the inner crease of his thigh all the while. By the time he reaches Ed’s cock, it’s already made a mess of his stomach. Ed watches him with parted, desperate lips, half fucked-out already. He swears when Stede drags his tongue through the precome on his stomach, and Stede only makes him wait a moment before taking him into his mouth.
Ed cries out as Stede sucks him, his fingers clawing the sheets. Stede loves doing this. He’d been worried that he’d be shit at it from lack of experience, but Ed has proved quite the teacher, and Stede quite the natural.
There’s something so right about the length of Ed’s cock in his throat, the heft and salt of it. The smooth skin, the firm shaft, the sweet way it beads for him. The thatch of dark gray hair at its base, where Stede works his fist over the part of him his mouth can’t reach. Best of all, the way it drives Ed mad. That’s what Stede likes best about sex always, no matter what shape of it they’re having. He gets to hold Ed down and give him pleasure and make him take it until he can’t anymore, and if there’s a greater joy in this life Stede Bonnet has no need for it, because this is better than his wildest dreams.
Ed writhes, heels scrabbling fitfully on the bed in a way that tells Stede to slow down, else he’ll spill before Stede gets inside him.
Obediently, Stede pulls off with a lewd pop. He gives Ed’s shaft a reassuring stroke as he shifts lower, to lick his balls.
Ed chokes out a laugh, flinging his arms over his face.
“Yeah,” he mumbles, his thighs falling open, “yeah, God, Stede, that feels—fuck, yes—”
Stede hums happily, sucking Ed into his mouth and pressing his tongue against the sensitive skin there. Ed twitches, cock throbbing in Stede’s palm, and Stede would stay here forever if he could. On a particularly deep pull, his tongue flicks just beneath and Ed jerks, a gasp caught in his throat. Stede moves off his balls to give an experimental lap over Ed’s perineum, and Ed goes taut, nodding. Stede does it again and again, pleased with his new success, and then his tongue catches just on the very edge of Ed’s hole and he realizes in this moment that while he’d never even thought of the act before, he’d like nothing more than to—
“What about here?” Stede asks, panting. He touches his thumb to Ed’s entrance. “Could I lick you here?”
Ed makes a sound Stede knows he understands, but the look on his face is a bit more complicated. Stede sits up, his heartbeat pounding through the haze of his arousal.
“Sorry—was that—I certainly don’t need to—”
Ed flings out a hand at once, propping himself up on his elbows.
“No, no—”
“All right, no is fine!”
“No, not no, definitely not no, I just—it’s been, ha.” Ed chuckles, dragging a hand over his face. “A good long while since I’ve done anything like that.”
Stede licks his lips, a thrill churning low in his gut.
“So you have, then. And you liked it?”
Ed flashes a crooked smile, and Stede’s cock throbs almost painfully.
“Yeah. I did.” Ed shakes his head. “Christ, I thought you needed me to teach you this stuff.”
“You still probably will, I’m afraid.” Stede gives Ed’s erection a lazy stroke, keeping it interested in the proceedings while they talk things through. Ed’s hungry look is firmly back on his face. “I’ve got nothing to go on but intuition and the sheer desire to do it.”
“I reckon I speak from experience when I say that’s all you need,” Ed says weakly, watching Stede work his cock.
“So…I can have a go?”
Ed swallows, the heat in his gaze making Stede flush all over.
“Yeah. God. Yeah, mate, if you’d like.”
Stede surges forward to kiss him, and Ed moans, opening his mouth to welcome the taste of himself on Stede’s tongue.
“If I’d like.” Stede shakes his head. “Edward. You are the most—God. The most incredible thing that’s ever happened to me.” Ed blushes, tilting his head in a nahh way, so Stede cups his cheek and makes him look into his eyes. “I mean it,” he says quietly. “You are. And I love you, and I love fucking you, and I want to make you feel as good as I possibly can, because you deserve it.” He grins. “And because I love taking you the fuck apart.”
Ed’s eyes have gone very wide.
“You’re very good at it,” he says, his voice cracking.
“Nothing’s ever felt as good as making you feel good,” Stede says simply, and Ed gulps.
“Fuck, man,” he says, in something like awe, and Stede can’t wait anymore.
“Tell me to stop,” Stede whispers, “if I’m getting it wrong. And I’ll do something different.”
“I know,” Ed says, his chest heaving. “And you stop if you hate it, all right?”
“I know.” Stede smiles. “Turn over for me, would you?”
And then there he is. Stede exhales hard through his nose. His hole is, obviously, tighter then when Stede had just fucked it, a tight, dry little thing between his cheeks. Stede is well-acquainted with fingering him open, but this feels different and they both know it. The intensity of this intimacy feels like the air before a storm.
On instinct, Stede reaches for Ed’s shoulders first.
“I’m so lucky,” he murmurs, massaging the lingering tension there. “That you want me how I want you. You, the cleverest, most dashing man I know…good lord, love. What a gift you’ve made of my life.” Ed melts into the praise and the touch. Stede keeps it up until Ed’s settled in a state of familiar, anticipatory arousal.
“Do it,” Ed whispers hoarsely, and Stede kisses him on the cheek before shifting between his thighs.
All right, Captain. Time to formulate a plan of action. Ed doesn’t usually like touches too gentle during sex, says it tickles, so a good, hard lick is probably the way to begin.
He spreads Ed’s cheeks and gives him just that with the flat of his tongue.
Ed swears colorfully, the sheets twisting in his fingers. Stede does it again, licking a stripe from the base of his balls to his hole, lapping firm against his entrance.
“Is this all right?” he asks.
“Please don’t stop.”
And oh, that’s new, that particular tone of voice. Fresh heat floods through Stede like a dam breaking.
“Oh,” he says, and licks him again.
Ed cries out, spreading his thighs wider, and Stede groans into him.
He eats him out with vigor, trying different techniques, alternating the tip of his tongue swirled around his rim with the blunt pressure of the thick of it. Ed pants for him, sweat beading at the base of his spine, and Stede could stay here forever.
“I like this,” Stede rasps, just to ensure Ed knows. “A lot.”
“Thank fuck, because I think I’m gonna want you to do it all the time,” Ed groans.
“Good.”
Stede wants to do this all the time, he already knows he doesn’t want to stop. This was the last secret part of Ed he hadn’t got his mouth on, and now he has and it’s goddamn perfect. He’s soft and hot here, the taste of his arousal so strong and specific. The thin skin so tender, the clench of him so tight. He tastes of sweat and Stede’s soap and his leather and him, and Stede’s never been more in love than he is now.
Ed is always so responsive and he’s the same here, opening beautifully for Stede with each lick. Stede gets bolder, lapping at him harder and harder until his tongue catches and he realizes Ed’s gone loose enough for him to actually work it inside. The scream that Ed lets out when he does, fuck. It’s long and drawn out, rising as Stede buries himself deep. It’s a strange sort of pressure around his tongue and Stede adores it, adores the familiar weight of his lover clenching around him in this new way, intoxicated with this newfound method of fucking him senseless. Because Ed does seem well on his way to senseless, as Stede thrusts his tongue as deep as he can, lapping into Ed’s smooth channel. Ed’s yanking at the sheets by the fistful, jerking his hips as Stede buries his face in his ass, alternating hard thrusts of his tongue with messy kisses and pointed licks on his softening rim. And then Ed flings a hand back. Stede seizes it, threading their fingers together. Ed sobs, squeezing his hand in pulses as the sensations intensify, and Stede’s never known anything so powerful in his life, to coax his lover to pleasure with his mouth like this, hand in hand.
“Stede,” Ed moans, writhing. He’s lost his shame properly now, grinding back against Stede’s jaw, and Stede is filled with feverish pride. “Your fucking mouth, man…”
Inspired, Stede sucks his own finger between his lips, and pushes it deep into Ed’s spit-slick hole.
Ed shakes. A wail rips out of him and he cants his hips higher as Stede laps hard at his rim, working his finger into Ed’s welcoming heat.
“Fuck me,” Ed gasps, “fuck me, fuck me, I’m ready, I’m fucking close, man, fuck! Wanna come on your cock, please, please—”
Stede chuckles into him and Ed whines. With one last deep push of his finger, he returns to licking Ed’s desperate hole hard as he fumbles a handful of oil onto his own throbbing, neglected dick, and then he sinks inside.
Ed’s incoherent now, his body strung tense, his hands braced on the headboard as if in prayer.
Stede bows over Ed’s back, yanking him back onto his cock with every rough thrust.
“Hi there,” Stede murmurs into Ed’s ear. Ed gives a weak, punched-out laugh between gasps.
“Hi—oh!—your fucking self.”
“You taste good,” Stede tells him, tightening his grip on Ed’s hips. “I could eat your ass all fucking day if you’d let me, you know that?” Ed whimpers, his pretty mouth gone slack. “You’re so good for me. My perfect, delicious darling.” Stede brushes Ed’s sweaty curls back, tugging just hard enough on his hair to make Ed twitch, clenching around him. He sucks a kiss into Ed’s throat and takes Ed’s dripping cock in hand. “You’re going to come for me, aren’t you, love?” Ed jerks his head in a taut, breathless nod, and Stede’s heart sings. “Mm. Good boy. Go on. Let me see.”
It only takes a few strokes before Ed cries out. Hoarse with it, bucking in Stede’s arms, he comes and comes in hot pulses, going so tight around Stede’s cock Stede nearly loses his rhythm.
“Fuck,” Ed whines, arching his back. “Fuck, yeah.”
Stede diligently fucks him through it until Ed’s shivering with aftershocks. His own orgasm races up his spine. Ed wrenches off him with a rough little sound and hurries to arrange himself on his back on the bed, tugging Stede up by his thighs so he can straddle Ed’s waist. With a blazing look in his eye, Ed opens his mouth.
“Oh my,” Stede says. He strokes his cock once, twice, and then he’s spilling across Ed’s tongue, his chest, the perfect cut of his jaw. Ed beams at the taste of him, eyes closed and fluttering, squirming indulgently as Stede marks him as his.
The moment Stede catches his breath, Ed yanks him into his arms, mess be damned.
“You’re too fucking good at this, y’know that, mate?” Ed brings their mouths together in messy, sweaty, exhausted kisses, and Stede never wants him to stop.
“At what? Eating you out? Making you come?” Stede grins, running his hands through Ed’s hair. Ed shakes his head.
“Loving me,” he says quietly. His eyes are shining again. “All of it. Just…loving me. Fuck.”
Stede blinks.
It’s all rather a lot, is the thing. For so long, nearly all his life, in fact, Stede Bonnet didn’t feel very good at anything at all. No one ever wanted him around, really. And now he’s got this whole full life ahead of him, and an armful of love. He belongs, so much so that his absence nearly wrecked everything. So maybe it wasn’t that he was terrible at everything he tried. He just hadn’t found the right version of himself to be or the world within which to be it, and now he has. It’s a man who does his best by his lover, for the rest of their lives.
Purpose can be a gentle thing, after all. A cuddle on a quiet evening, shared soap, bringing him to orgasm in a new, exciting way. A cup of tea made just as he likes it. This is what life can be, and it’s never felt so beautiful. So alight with possibility.
“Edward,” he says. He takes Ed’s hand in his, brushes a kiss to the knuckles. “Right back at you. I mean it.”
And the way Ed smiles at him, he knows Ed understands.
number 13 "can you stay, just for tonight?", for blupjeans :)
13. “Can you stay? Just for tonight, please. I don’t want to be alone with my thoughts.” “‘l’ll stay for as long as you need.”
--
"I made tea," Davenport said, pressing the tray of food into Barry's hands. Sure enough, there was a large mug on the left side, still steaming. "And it's not much, but I know she likes pasta, so I made some spaghetti. It's not as great as it would be homemade by her or- or Taako, but-"
"Dav," Barry said. "I'm sure she'll appreciate it."
"Just..." Davenport paused, sighing. He took a step back as if he had only just realized how overwhelming he had been. "You're the only one she's letting in right now. If there is anything the rest of us can do to help you and- and her by extension, let me know?"
"Will do," Barry said. Davenport nodded, moving from his side to the kitchen door. He held it open as Barry passed through.
"Let me know how she is," he said, "when you're done."
"Course," Barry said. Magnus and Lucretia were laying on the couch. Barry caught of peek of Lucretia's journal and found her adding details to an older drawing of Taako. Barry's heart clenched slightly, but he didn't say anything. Lucretia looked up as he passed and gave him a soft smile. Barry tried to return it and hoped it didn't look as grim as he felt.
Past the common room and down the hallway, Barry stopped at Lup's door. Well, Lup and Taako's door. He shifted to hold the tray with one hand against his hip and used his now free hand to knock.
"Lup?" he said gently. "Can I come in?"
No response. Not unexpected. After a moment, he knocked again.
"I've got food," Barry tried.
There was a click as the door unlocked from the inside. Barry took that as an invitation to step inside, so he did so. The room was dark, which probably wasn't even an issue for Lup, considering her dark vision. Enough light came through the curtain for Barry to see the vague outline of Lup on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed. She wasn't under any of the covers, just laying face down on top of them. As Barry closed the door, she set her wand on the bedside table and a mage hand retreated into it.
How to comfort someone who just lost their only family member, even though that family member would be back within the five months? There wasn't much he could think of that didn't sound hallow. Barry came further in, sitting down at the edge of the bed, and setting the tray next to him.
"Pasta," Barry said. "Dav made it. I know it's not gonna be as great as if you or- or Taako made it, but I think he'd appreciate it if you left a review."
Lup lifted her head up very slowly. Her eyes were red and she was still wearing the same clothes she had come back in. It had only been a day and a half, but Barry honestly felt like a lifetime had gone by since he last saw Lup.
Everyone else had tried to talk to her yesterday, or earlier this morning. She had only really responded to Barry and that was to take water from him. But it was something. When she met Barry's gaze this time, her lower lip was trembling. Barry didn't comment on it, instead pushing the tray towards her. She looked down at it and sniffed.
"All these noodles are different sizes," Lup said after a second. Barry shuffled forward to see.
"Yeah, they sure are," Barry said, because they were. "I'm sure it's still edible, though. You wanna have Magnus taste it first?"
"No," Lup said. She picked up the fork, twirled some spaghetti onto it, and took a bite. Barry looked away, not really sure what to say. Lup took her time taking a few more forkfuls of the spaghetti. At long last, she said, "it's not too bad."
"I'll let him know," Barry said. "D'you, uh. D'you want me to go or can I just... chill here for a bit?"
Lup shook her head, which didn't really answer Barry's question, and had another bite. She took a sip of the tea. Barry twiddled his thumbs, looking around the room. Not that he could see much with the lack of light.
"Can you..." Barry looked back over to Lup when she spoke. She took a deep breath, which made a little shuddering sound. "Can you stay? Just for tonight, please. I- I don't wanna be alone with my thoughts."
"Like a sleepover stay?" Barry asked.
"It's a stupid idea-"
"No! No, I mean- sure, yes! Yeah, I can stay." He wiped his hands on his jeans. When did he get so sweaty? "I can stay. D'you mind if I go get like, a blanket, or?"
"Feel free," Lup said, twirling more spaghetti on her fork. Barry stood up, the bed creaking behind him. He made his way back over to the door before Lup spoke again. "Can you... send Davenport in here?"
"Yeah," Barry said. And then, in a ditch attempt to see her smile, he added, "Is his pasta that bad?"
It worked. A little, at least. The side of Lup's mouth quirked up in what could be considered a smile, if it didn't leave her face just as quickly as it had come.
"I've had worse," she said.
"I'll be back soon," Barry said, opening the door. "I'll tell Dav you want him."
"Thank you," Lup said, quietly. Barry nodded, closing the door behind him. Time to find the Captain. And his blanket.
There's a click of a door. A rustling of leather. A soft, bitten-off swear and a quiet thunk of a boot hitting the floor, and finally a quick burst of cool air as the blankets lift and someone slips carefully into the bed behind Stede.
The weight of that second body in the bunk is such an instant comfort that Stede can't help the relieved exhale, the way his body tips back to find it under the covers, but then--
"Christ, is that your hand!"
The icy block flings itself away so fast that it nearly takes the rest of Ed with it, tumbling out of the bed, but Stede is already searching again for him, rolling over to catch him by the shoulder before he can fall.
"Sorry, sorry," Ed whispers, wincing, "it's cold as tits up on deck tonight."
Stede sets his jaw against the gasp that wants to break free when he finds Ed's frozen fingers, follows the chill up his arms, pulls the whole of him a little closer. He's cold all over, from his fingertips to his exposed, wind-blown cheeks. "Don't apologize to me," he whispers back sternly, "apologize to these poor hands! You couldn't have come and got a blanket?"
He knows Ed wouldn't. Ed wouldn't come look for a blanket the same way Ed refuses to take himself off the middle night watch, slipping out of bed in the dark and then back again a few hours later, refusing to sleep in a little in the mornings or to go to bed a little earlier the way any other sailor with the middle watch would. It's half self-punishment, half duty-driven, the Captain's responsibility and the monster's penance, and Stede knows Ed would never think to take a little comfort for himself.
He knows Ed wouldn't, not for himself. But he also knows that Ed would--that Ed will--for Stede.
"M'fine," Ed says, squirming in the blankets, trying to take his hands back. "Just a bit of a chill, I'll warm up in a second--"
"Nonsense," Stede tells him, and before Ed can get the upper-hand, as it were, Stede has both icy extremities shoved into his armpits where the heat is best. "Come and get a blanket next time. Are your feet all cold too?"
The pause is just a beat too long. "No."
Stede sighs. "Give them here, then."
He pulls Ed a little closer yet, encourages those absolutely frozen feet in between his own calves. The leather is fine and all, terribly cool and so on, but it really does nothing to keep Ed warm. He needs wool socks in weather like this, with the spring chill still strong in the Virginian overnights. Soon the heat will come, and they'll be all muggy and humid day and night, flopping sweat-soaked and exhausted around their linen sheets, but it's not quite here yet.
"How was the watch?"
Ed shrugs, allows himself to scoot in a little closer. Satisfied that the hands curled up under his arms have acquiesced to their fate, Stede takes the opportunity to gather up the rest of him. "Fine. Night watch is night watch."
"You don't have to, you know."
"I know. It's fine."
"Mr Buttons likes the night watch. The moonglow, he says."
"Mr Buttons likes to be bare-arsed, and unless you're offering to warm up his bits after a shift, I think he's better off in his bunk for now."
Stede laughs, low and gentle, and noses at Ed's cheek, at the short beard that he keeps insisting he's going to grow but which he also keeps trimming up once a week in Stede's tiny toilette mirror. "I'm afraid I'm rather busy with my bits-warming-up duties as it is. Hands full."
"Mm. Nothing else for it then," Ed says. One of his hands slips out from under Stede's arm to curl around his waist, tentative-like; Stede shifts onto his back at the cue, pulling Ed over him to settle more on his chest. He kisses Stede's chin, and after a moment, offers quietly: "I could sleep somewhere else, you know. If it bothers you that I'm up and down in the night."
"Don't you dare, Edward Teach," Stede tells him, and he looks down at what must surely be an unattractive angle in order to glare. "Don't you bloody well dare."
Ed meets his gaze. Those big, earnest eyes in the dark. The uncertainty is still so solid in them sometimes, so tangible, but Stede meets them and doesn't back down. Don't you leave me, Edward Teach, he thinks. Don't you think for one moment that I want you and your mess and your fucking cold hands to be anywhere but here.
"All right," Ed finally says. That uncertainty crumbles; he smiles a little, a promise. "I'll--I'll get a blanket, next time."
His nose is cold. Stede kisses him until it isn't.
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