So, I was writing a fic for OF/MD, when all of a sudden, intrusive thoughts of angsty!Ed hijacked my brain.
There is sick!Ed (no snz, but coughing and fever) and a worried Stede. It is really just a tiny snipped of angst, but it wanted out so here it is :D
Somewhere past re-union, but please be gentle if anything here is not in accordance with S2 because I haven't seen it, yet, and only live on spoilers ^^
It's very vague, so could be at any point after their reunion.
***
The darkness was everywhere.
So heavy that Edward's eyes hurt from its pressure. An all-encompassing, deep, thick black leaden fog. Engulfing him. Choking him. Its pressure spread from his eyes to his head, and chest, invisible hands closing around his neck. He tried to get up, but the darkness sat so heavy on his chest that he could not move. His limbs were weighed down by the leaden darkness and he could not breathe. Could not move. His heart was racing, thumping hard against his rib-cage, urging him to fight, and rid himself of the darkness' crushing weight. He tried to scream – perhaps some of the guys would hear him, someone, anyone!
But as soon as he opened his mouth, the darkness streamed into it like thick black smoke, coiling into his mouth and throat like an angry black snake. He writhed restlessly, trying to push the weight off him with all his might, mouth agape in a silent, choked scream no one would hear.
I'm gonna die here, Ed suddenly thought. I'm gonna fucking die and no one will know. No one was here. No one cared. He was alone. And Stede was gone.
Ed tried to call out for help again. Tried to call out for Stede, but the weight on his chest became so heavy that Ed had to cough, his body shaking violently, beads of sweat dripping down his face, as he writhed, twisted, tossed and turned, fighting the darkness with all his might.
He coughed again, his lungs burning like someone had stabbed his lungs with a thousand tiny knives, each wound bleeding and hurting with every cough. By now, he had no idea if he was standing up, or lying down, floating or falling, Everything hurt, and it was so fucking hot in here... Too hot. Too dark. Too much.
And yet, he was painfully aware that something was missing... Something was not there. Someone... Stede! Stede was not here.
Stede...
Some time ago, he'd dreamed about Stede coming back. Of soft, blond waves of hair next to him on the pillow, close enough for him to touch and rake his fingers through. Of Stede's warm body next to his. Of tender kisses and of falling asleep in his arms, head resting against Stede's chest.
“Stede...”
Dry, cracked lips, barely moving, breathing Stede's name out into the stillness of the night between rattling coughs.
Stede had just gone out to the bathroom for a few moments, but Ed's harsh, labored coughs had called him back with urgency.
“Ed! I'm here. I'm here, love!”
Stede hurried over, his dressing gown fluttering behind him. Hand outstretched, he reached the bed and clasped Edward's hand, while he tried to pull him up with the other.
“Ed, please, try to sit up for me so you can breathe.”
Suddenly, Ed's eyes were wide open, staring at Stede with anxious fury, so painfully intense that his fear burnt through the darkness of their quarters.
“Stede..?,” Edward asked, a quiet sob that rang through Stede's very core. “You... You're here? I though you were a dream... I thought you wouldn't come back...,” Ed choked out between coughs, damp hair plastered to his feverish brow, brown eyes swimming with tears.
“Yes, Edward, I'm here..” Stede clasped Ed's hand a little tighter, greedily gathering Edward's in his grasp. “I'm sorry, I just went to the bathroom for a moment.”
Stede's chest ached with the all too familiar feeling of losing the one person he wanted to spend his life with. The one person who made life worthwhile. That very ache was staring back at him out of Edward's eyes. Seeing it there, knowing that he had put it there, was agony.
Stede helped Edward sit up, who was still wrecked with harsh coughs, his entire body trembling from the effort of choking out those coughs because he was so weak from fever.
Unable to do very much else, Stede just held him and rubbed his back in soothing circles, steadying his beloved, while the savage coughing fit ran its course. It was one of the worst yet, and Stede prayed to all the deities who cared to listen that they would soon arrive at Barataria Bay, where – at least according to Jim – a former nun with special healing powers had found shelter and a new home after being expelled from her convent.
As the heavy darkness slowly let off and gave Edward's lungs free, the coughing began to subside. Stede gently tightened his arms around Ed, as if he could absorb him into his body if he'd only tried hard enough.
“There we go... you'll soon be able to breathe better, Ed. Just let it out... take it slow.. one breath after the other.”
He rocked their bodies in a gentle, soothing motion, kissing Ed's hair, and damp forehead, doing anything he could, really, to show Ed that he was here.
“Stede... I thought you were gone?,” Edward sobbed, “I... I was drowning, choking, and you weren't there...”
“I know...” the knowledge of it would forever haunt Stede. He had been too afraid to stay. Too afraid to disappoint, blind enough not to notice that leaving was the biggest disappointment he could ever have put Ed through. The worst possible mistake.
“But now I'm here and I will never leave you again, Edward. I'm sorry... This time, me leaving was just a bad dream. And it will always be never more than a bad dream because I will never leave again – unless you tell me to.”
Edward violently shook his head and buried his face so deep into Stede's chest, that Stede could feel hot tears soaking through the fabric of his nightshirt.
The two men held each other for a long moment, soaking in each other's presence, until Stede could feel Edward become heavy in his arms, as Ed's meager well of strength ran dry.
“You should lie back down and rest, my love. Here.. we'll prop you up against these pillows so you can breathe a bit more easily.”
Edward still clawed at Stede's dressing gown, unwilling to let go.
“What about you?,” Ed rasped, but the intensity, which was lacking in his voice lingered in his gaze. Glassy eyes searching Stede's, their deep, dark color gleaming with the fear of being alone.
"Okay well…don't be alarmed… but I may or may not have just been shot," Edward chided, his eyes half closed as he leaned heavily against the desk for support, his hand clenching the black undergarments tightly. "You….what?" TW: Blood/Gore, Bullet Wound
Hello again. Today's little ficlet was inspired by Sicktember prompt 19: Curled Up With a Pet.
Fandom: OF/MD
Characters: Sick!Ed and fussing Stede with a side of grumpy Izzy.
No snz, so more of a general sickfic. Slight fever, a cough, and dubious medical treatments. And some sappy fluff, because apparently that's how I roll these days.
***
It was the year of our Lord 1717, and Blackbeard the scourge of the seven seas had come down with a cold.
Well, technically, Edward Teach had come down with a cold, which had put Blackbeard on an unprecedented hiatus. The hiatus was mainly forced on him by the Gentleman Pirate Stede Bonnet, who had insisted that Ed should rest.
It had taken some coaxing and well-meaning threads from Stede to get him that far, but now that Ed was resting comfortably in Stede's bed, a cool compress on his forehead, wrapped in a robe which smelled of Stede and lavender, and covered with layers upon layers of the finest blankets, while a steaming mug of tea with a tooth-rotting amount of sugar sat right next to him, Ed was grateful that he had been persuaded to take a break. Just like Ed had learned about the concept of „retirement“ from Stede, Stede had also introduced him to the term „sick leave“. A time of rest and recuperation for the illness-vexed body.
There was just one more thing missing for Ed to reach peak levels of comfort.
“Steeede? What's taking you so long, man?”
Calling out for Stede had not been the best idea, since it launched Edward into a chesty coughing fit.
“Just a second longer, Edward,” Stede replied from the other end of the room, where he was rummaging through his shelves and cabinets, fluttering from one spot to the next like an oversized butterfly. “I'll be with you before you can say 'Tell me where the loot is or you'll be skinned alive!'”
“Well, you just said it and you're not here, yet, so... “
“Psshh... I never had you down as the nit-picky type, Ed,” Stede waved Ed's objection away with his hand as if it were a pesky insect, his long, lacy cuffs dancing around his wrists. “You are quite moody when you're sick, aren't you?”
“Moody? No!,” Ed protested, crossing his arms in front of his chest, sounding decidedly moody as he did. Stede just shot him a look. “And besides, I'm not nitpicky. I'm a perfectionist. You don't achive my level of piracy and fuckery by doing things half-arsed.”
“Fair point,” Stede conceded as he approached, a vision of soft pastels, gold embroidery and white lace.
He was pushing a tea cart with ridiculously intricate gold-plated acanthus-carvings towards Edward. It was laden with various little bottles and vials of medicine and spirits, a stack of handkerchiefs, and books. The cart had been part of their latest loot from raiding a French ship and it was Stede's newest obsession. He loved pushing it around the captain's quarters to transport things, but in this case, it actually came in quite handy as an additional side-table for Ed's sickbed.
“What the hell is all of this stuff?”
“This,” Stede declared with a dramatic flourish, “is an assortment of things that will make you feel better in no time. Especially curated for you by me.”
Ed took a jar from the cart and peered into it, moving careful so the cool compress on his forehead would not slip. Inside of the jar were a bunch of leeches writhing and winding against the glass.
“Eww, come on Stede, you can't be serious! I hate those fuckers!” He hastily put the jar back down, staring at Stede in horror. “There's no way in hell I'll allow you to put one of those on me, man! I'd rather die than have my blood sucked out of me by some disgusting vampire snail!”
“Well alright, alright! No leeches,” Stede agreed and put the jar onto the lower shelf of the tea cart. “But perhaps I could interest you in this soothing balm for your chest..”
“Look, Stede,” Ed began softly, interrupting the blonde before he could rattle on about whatever ointment he was about to suggest, “I appreciate that you compiled all of that stuff to make me feel better, but I don't really need any of it.” As he spoke, Ed propped himself up on his elbows, taking off the cool cloth. His eyes were much more intense like this. Their vast, dark seas gazing at Stede, deep and mysterious like the ocean at midnight. “There's just one thing I need to make me feel better.”
“And what's that?,” Stede asked eagerly, curious blue eyes scanning the room to find the object in question before meeting Edward's eyes again, lips parted, muscles tensing in anticipation as Stede readied himself to go and get whatever Edward desired.
“It's you, you nut!,” Edward chuckled. “I need you. Right here next to me. That's all it takes to make me feel better.”
Stede's face glowed, his chest swelling with pride.
“Well, in that case...”
In one swift motion, Stede shrugged off his Jacket and kicked the shoes off his feet before he hopped onto the bed next to Edward. Their bodies met in a long, warm kiss, and soon the tea cart was forgotten as the two men melted into each other.
***
Some time later, Izzy made his way to the captain's cabin. He had not seen Edward all day and he did not like that his captain spent more and more of his time with the pompous colorful canary that was Stede Bonnet. Izzy could not allow that his cut-throat, menacing soul-as-black-as-hell Blackbeard fell more and more under the spell of the would be captain Bonnet.
Besides, the rest of Blackbeard's crew was itching to get news from their captain. It was all nice and dandy to spend some time aboard the Revenge, but it had been a while since their last raid and the men were itching for their next adventure.
“Edward?,” Izzy demanded, his voice as loud and assertive as his knock at Stede's door. “Edward, you need to come out, I need to talk to you!”
He was not getting a response, but Izzy was was tired of waiting, so he just opened the door and barged in – only to be aggressively shushed. Stede was sitting in bed, Ed's head resting peacefully in his lap, his body curled around Stede like a black cat.
“What the fuck?!”
“He's asleep,” Stede mouthed. “Come back later.”
“But...,” Izzy huffed, but Stede shooed him away with his hand.
“Not now!," Stede hissed, "We'll be up on deck AFTER Edward's rest.”
“Fine,” Izzy pressed out through gritted teeth, then turned on his heel and left for the main deck, his mood as dark as as a thundercloud.
“Where's the Captain?,” Fang asked as soon as Izzy set foot on deck.
“Below deck, curled up with his pet,” Izzy replied with a growl. “Stede fucking Bonnet!”
Edward rolled over onto his side curling up into a tighter ball beneath the thick duvet that was wrapped around his little form, the occasional shiver would come from him, his body complete with chills from cold however the redness of his face said different story, it was a unhealthy red colour that was deep in heat, his golden hues clenched shut trying to put a finger on his temperature…
He was hot…no cold, hot..cold…definitely col- not he was hot.
The sheets rose and fell unevenly and quite hastily in breaths to calm his high fever but it was in vain, even the cold sweat on his forehead was doing him only little good that he couldn’t even feel, What the hell was…w-wrong with him? He’s been like this for god knows how long, the feeling was unbearable and felt like he’s been like this for hours, his achy joins just wouldn’t let him get comfortable, the strong sense of malaise kept him up all through the night…
