Prompt 23 - "Wait a minute, you're not ticklish, are you?"
A/N: they are too cute omfg
…
“Wait a minute, you’re not ticklish, are you?” Stede asked, smiling incredulously.
“Ticklish?” Ed scoffed. “Yeah, no. I don’t think so, mate.”
“Are you… absolutely sure about that?” Stede raised an eyebrow at him. “Because it sure looked to me like–”
“Pff. Well, try it if you don’t believe me!” Blackbeard held his arms out to the sides, looking at Stede expectantly.
This was certainly a surprise. “Well…” Stede’s smile softened into something that made Ed’s insides tighten. “Alright then.” He stretched his fingers slowly, then brought them around just beside each of Ed’s sides. “How about here?” He prodded gently, watching the spots as Ed’s eyes watched him.
A few pinches, and Ed’s gaze snapped down to where the hands were on his sides. What the hell was this feeling? He squirmed slightly, tensing up.
“You…sure this doesn’t tickle?” Stede asked slowly, poking a finger into the front of his lower ribs and getting a startled intake of breath in response. “It … kind of seems like it does.” He pressed in harder, and Ed’s arms flinched in protectively.
“Well you’re- you’re doing it weird!” Ed responded, grumbling and a bit frazzled.
“What d’ya mean?” Stede asked, softening his touch to try to ensure he wasn’t harming his pirate companion.
Ed hissed. “All light n’ shit like that. Feels weird.” He flinched backwards.
“Ah.” Stede observed. “Well, that is still tickling.” He squeezed Ed’s sides a bit more harshly with forefinger and thumb. He didn’t so much as flinch at that. “Are you more used to harder tickling? Doesn’t work on everyone, I’d say.”
Ed watched him, listening. These lighter, more gentle tracings of fingers were tingling and distracting, nothing like the rare harsh grabs for his ribs that he’d had in his mind whenever someone brought up the idea of tickling. He’d been quick to overcome reacting to those. But this… this was different. Stede’s fingers brushed against the skin peeking out at the bottom of his shirt and Edward nearly leapt backwards from his reach.
“Alright!” He said, higher than usual. “I guess maybe. A little bit. Whatever. Doesn’t matter.”
“It’s quite alright.” Stede smiled at him, steady and gentle, reassuring. “I’m rather sensitive to both, I’m afraid.”
“Oh really?” Ed asked, eyes snapping back to the other captain.
Stede looked away bashfully, and something in Ed’s stomach tightened again. “Well, since I let you try it out on me, I think it’s only fair…”
Stede’s eyes widened, shooting back to Blackbeard. “Wait- but I– oh dear!” He brought up his hands with a wide, nervous grin on his face. “Edward! P-Please take it easy on me! Wait–!”
Stede clambers back toward the window, his elbows and knees frantic as a scuttling crustacean.
“No, no,” he scolds, like Ed’s a dog he’s bopping with the daily paper. “This is not what we’re doing.”
“Yes it is,” Ed says simply. And he grabs Stede’s ankles and yanks.
Stede yelps, wriggling in a futile swim against Ed’s riptide. His calves get dropped over the edge of the bed and he hasn’t a prayer of being fast enough to stop Ed from heaving down on top of him to pin him at the thighs. The man is a hound chasing a scent, and the deceivingly dead-eyed hunger in his face promises only defeat.
“I’m just gonna rub ‘em, okay?” Ed asks, in a question that’s not really a question, because he’s a horrible miscreant who offers kindness and relief but delivers torment.
“You are not—!”
A yip snags Stede’s words in his throat, and then he’s giggling madly as Ed’s knuckles roll firmly up the wide muscles atop his thighs. He heaves upright to shove Ed away, but Ed’s hand darts up to his chest and unceremoniously plows him down again. The knuckles transform to lobster claws, kneading the meat of his thighs. Stede cackles as the bedframe thumps under the drumming of his uselessly dangling heels. He tries to sit up again. Ed’s chuckle is as rough as his shove back down.
“This will not make me less sore, you menace!” Stede chokes out. His vision is starting to blur with laughter-driven tears; he pushes and bats but Ed’s hands are undeterred in their bloodlust.
“Sure it will. S’called a ‘mess-sage’ for a reason. Makes you a mess first but everything’s fine afterward.”
Maybe Ed’s right, though, because Stede loses all cohesion when the knuckles reassert themselves in the extra-soft thigh flesh just below his groin. Slamming his knees towards each other doesn’t even help because the horribly ticklish pressure is still there. He rolls his torso to one side, wailing with laughter and clawing at the bedding in a weakened attempt to crawl away and, of course, accomplishes nothing but bringing handfuls of blanket somewhat closer to his face.
When Ed’s weight lifts from his legs, Stede gasps in anticipated reprieve— but the weight returns just as quickly, this time behind his knees when Ed pushes him the rest of the way over onto his front. The sudden pinching fingers nibbling their way up the backs of his thighs are even worse torture than everything before, and Stede’s pillows will surely be soaked with tears before his treatment has run its course.
A/N: hiiii this is my first fic i’ve ever written cause i just NEEDED to play out this scene of ed wrecking stede cause it’s what these two deserve and i hope i did okay by them!
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Pairing: Blackbonnet, Ler!Ed, Lee!Stede
Word Count: 3.5k
Summary: Stede said he could take it, but Ed...er, Blackbeard...will see about that.
.....
Ed skillfully tied the last silk knot, the sound of Stede's anticipatory giggles adding fuel to his fire and the strong desire to immediately dig in. But he wanted to start this off slow. Ed took a step back from the bed to admire his work. Stede was stretched out, all four of his limbs going in oppsite directions, his nearly naked body looking like a ticklish feast ready to be devoured. Ed intended to do just that.
With Ed's eyes scanning over his body, Stede could hardly contain himself. The tingling heat of his blush felt like it was plunging all the way down to his feet. He was tied up, he couldn't move, and he was going to be tickled by Ed. The swarming thoughts already had him feeling like he was about to combust and Ed hadn't even touched him yet. Oh, he was so screwed.
"So..." Ed's voice cut into the tension, "...where shall I start first?"
Stede bit his lip trying to suppress a squeak, unsure if he could say anything even if he tried. His eyes stole a look at Ed's hands, the fingerless gloves seeming to add a menacing element all on their own. Stede watched as the fingers curled into a fist before unfurling out to a stretch, as if Ed was getting them warmed up and ready to torment. Stede's breath hitched in his chest as it was almost too much to handle for how much it excited him.
"Got nothin' to say?" Ed sauntered to the foot of the bed and, using one finger, took a quick swipe at the pad of Stede's big toe. Stede gasped, a ticklish zip going all the way up his leg.
"Hmm. I think I'll start down here then." Ed climbed his way over Stede's leg to situate himself in between the pair of feet. Taking that same single finger, Ed started to lightly stroke the sole of Stede's foot up and down. Stede jumped and a stream of breathy giggles easily flowed from his mouth as Ed's finger strolled heel to toe, over and over, his leisurely speed never changing. Not wanting the other foot to get jealous, Ed took to doing the same on the other side, matching the pattern.
Stede couldn't believe how much it already tickled. It felt like electric zings were reverberating from Ed's touch and pulsating up his legs. And the longer it went on (up and down, up and down,) it seemed that the ticklish feeling grew more and more with each stroke, the muscles in his legs involuntarily clenching with each pass. Stede started to wiggle his feet back and forth as much as he could.
Ed's fingers were on their upward glide when they decided to continue on with their journey and went up around his toes, skating down the tops of his feet, and started to travel their way up his calves. Stede's legs started to bounce as the teasy tickle climbed further and further and he let out a little high pitched whine of ticklish glee, knowing where it was headed next. When the fingers got to going up over the humps of his knees, Stede squealed, earning a rumbling chuckle from Ed.
"Bad spot?"
"NEEEEhehehehhehee!"
Wanting to give them some extra attention, Ed traced around the knee caps for a few revolutions before then gathering all his fingers atop the centers and slowly fanning them out, over and over again. Stede shrieked and his knees were desperately trying to contract as if it would make the ticklish feeling go away. But Ed and Stede both knew that Stede wanted this, no matter how much his body was protesting.
Wanting to keep the anticipation building, Ed switched back to his single-finger adventure on both sides of Stede's body. At this point, he started to loosely zig-zag his fingers, slithering up Stede's thighs like a snake. Like the tentacles of the Kraken.
The wave-like change of motion sent Stede into a fresh bought of laughter, the sounds getting more high pitched the higher up his thighs the fingers got.
"Ohohohoh shihihi- AH!" He shrieked as they followed up along the crease of his thighs where leg meets torso.
"Don't worry, love, I'll make sure to come back down here." Ed was taking notes, taking in every twitch, every squeak, as he continued mapping out all of Stede's worst spots to the exact point. He had taken to tickling Stede quite often ever since discovering he was ticklish (and that they both liked it,) but Ed had never had Stede laid out flat in front of him like a map on a table before. It was like going a treasure hunt, but pertaining to Ed's interests and much more fun. This was a type of treasure hunt he enjoyed.
Following the landscape of Stede's body, Ed's fingers curved inward down the dip of Stede's hips, causing him to buck in response. Not wanting to lose pace, the devious fingers followed along the waistline until they met in the middle just a little below Stede's bellybutton before tracing their steps back the way they came. The quivering of Stede's lower belly and the sound of his growing giggles had Ed's fingers going about in such a jagged manner, like tiny jackhammers set loose.
"You're throwin' me off my path here, mate. Gonna need you to stay still."
"Ihihiheeee- I caahahahaan't!"
"You're gonna be trouble for me, huh?"
"Heeheheheeee!"
Returning to the outer edge of Stede's hips, Ed's ticklish touch began to slither it's way up his sides, taking mini detours to swirl inward to his belly. Each time, Stede tried to suck his tummy in as a form of defense.
"Now, do you really think that's going to stop me?" Ed took a moment to flutter both fingers on either side of his bellybutton.
"Neeeeeeehehehee! N-no it juuuhuhuussst ti-hihihihihiickles!"
Ed chuckled with a smirk, "Oh, good. It's supposed to." He swirled his fingers back out and up to Stede's ribs. He started tracing around the bones like a maze, up and down, back and forth, making Stede gasp with breathy giggles until the fingers found their way out of the hedge and reached the finish line. As a celebratory victory lap, the fingers trailed up and started circling around the outer rims of Stede's armpits. Once, twice, three times they went around as Stede let out a squeal with each orbit.
Circling out, Ed's fingers snaked up Stede's arms, moving side to side allllll the way up to his wrists where the tied silk had made a restrictive residence against his skin. Ed’s movement stilled once they reached the dead end, giving Stede a little bit of a break. But just for a moment.
"Aaaaand now we go down."
"Naaahahahahaaa!"
Down the arms, around the armpits, back through the rib maze, swirling sweeps from tummy to sides, trailing along the pantline, surfing the scoop of his hips, down the 'V' of his thigh crease, slithering down his thighs, fanning at his kneecaps, tracing around his knees, sliding down his calves, climbing up the tops of his feet to his toes, and skiing down the soles. Everything like a ticklish rewinding replay in his mind, Stede couldn't contain his laughter, his sensitivity heightened from the slow continuous tease of just two fingers.
Making it back to the start of the journey, Ed finished with a swipe of his nails off the heels of Stede's feet before letting his arms fall to his sides. Stede started to catch his breath, giggling all the while.
"Ooohohohoooh, that tihihickled so muhuhuhuch!"
"Well, you better buckle up then. Cause I haven't even really started yet..." Without warning, Ed suddenly grabbed just above Stede's knees and planted a few killer squeezes.
Stede yelped in surprise, "AHHAHAHA! ED!"
Keeping his hands poised on Stede's knees, Ed slowly leaned forward, looming over Stede with a smirk growing on his face.
"Mmm? No...I'm Blackbeard."
"Nohoho!" Stede shrieked and his eyes went wide, his anticipation jumping up ten-fold.
An evil, rumbling chuckle left Ed's chest. "Shhhhhh..."
Ed jumped back into squeezing Stede's knees with renewed vigor, causing Stede's limbs to flail about as much as the silk ties would give.
"OHOHOHOH GOOOHOOHOHOD!" Stede wailed as the merciless squeezes attacked his knees, causing him to thrash about. With the pulsating ticklish jolts making themselves at home, Stede could hardly take it. And Ed was just starting? Oh, he was really in for it, wasn't he?
A minute had passed when the squeezing fingers started to slowly creep their way up his thighs, inch by inch, making sure to spend a few seconds at each spot. Once Ed's hands reached the upper thigh creases, Stede screamed, his laughter already slipping little by little into full hysterics.
'IT TICKLES, IT TICKLES, IT TICKLES, SHIT!' was the only thought swirling around in Stede's mind like a tornado, the repetitive squeezes in one of his most sensitive spots were like ticklish shocks to his system, sending him into a frenzy. With each squeeze, the feeling became more and more unbearable and the longer it went on, the more his desperation became apparent. And that absolutely thrilled Stede. But before it got to be overkill, Ed suddenly stopped and moved his hands to gently rake up and down Stede's belly. It still tickled and sent Stede's stomach muscles into spasms, but it was enough of a drop in intensity for him to collect his breath.
"Thahahat...was...SO bahahaad!"
"Awwrrr, c'mon, you can take it can't you? It's just a wee bit of tickling."
"Eheheheeed!"
"Muahahaha...okay break time over!"
Ed started suddenly scribbling his fingers back and forth along Stede's waistline, from hip to hip, ramping up Stede's laughter again. Sporadically, Ed's hands would jump to both hips to give them a few quick squeezes, making Stede buck and bounce around before continuing his back and forth spidering.
"EeeeheHEEEeehheeeee! AHHahahaha!" Stede's torso rocked side to side as if trying to evade Ed's tickling touches and escape.
Ed raised an eyebrow. "You trying to go somewhere, Stede? You got some place to be?"
"Eeeheheheeedd, nooooohoohoooo!"
"Cause you seem to be a bit stuck at the moment. A little "tied down" if you will."
"ShhhuuhuhuhutUUHUHUP!"
Ed playfully scoffed. "Ooooh ho ho, the gentleman pirate is getting brave now, are we? Telling Blackbeard to 'shutup?' Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you're in any position to tell me what to do."
Like lightning, Ed's hands suddenly shot up into Stede's armpits, thumbs digging into the centers, while his mouth came down into contact with Stede's belly, blowing a raspberry.
"NAAAAAAHHHHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!! NOOOO!" Stede was completely caught off guard from the ticklish zing under his arms and the tingling vibration on his belly, coupled along with the exhilarating fact that Ed's mouth was on his skin. And Ed was using it to tickle him.
Stede was lost in his cackles as Ed started manically laughing into his belly, which tickled enough itself, but then Ed started moving his jaw up and down in a chewing motion and that sent Stede flailing. Ed's beard, his lips, and his teeth were grazing all around Stede's tummy in the most ticklish way, as if Ed was a hungry animal that was just given it's dinner.
Trying to tug his arms down and his hips thrashing, Stede cried out in laughter. "EEEHHEHDDD! BAHAHAHAHAHA!" He never realized mouths could be so tickly, especially when accompanied with a big bushy beard and mustache like Ed's. Motherfuckin' Blackbeard.
Ed continued nomming all over Stede's belly, as well as his hips, while his hands switched to spidering down to his ribs and sides, climbing up and down the outer edges of his torso. Keeping that tickling combo up for another minute, Ed could tell Stede was in need of another break and lifted his hands and his mouth away from Stede's sensitive skin.
Stede gulped in a few needed breaths as Ed started to shuffle back a little further down the bed. Feeling the movement, Stede lifted his head to look down and see Ed lifting a leg over to straddle his right leg. Ed looked up to lock eyes with Stede and gave him a mischievous eyebrow raise and a sly smile.
Eyes going wide, Stede couldn't help but watch as Ed once again started to lower his face down to Stede's skin, but this time going for his inner thigh.
"ED NOOOOOHOHO! NOT THE BEARD! NOT THERE!"
Ed stopped just a couple inches from his leg, looking back into Stede's eyes again. "Blackbeard will do as he pleases."
"NAAHAHAHAAAAAAAH!" Stede squealed as Ed's beard and mouth started nuzzling into the vulnerable soft skin of his inner thigh.
Ed was absolutely delighted with the high pitched sound he was churning out of Stede. The gentleman pirate's laugh sparkled bright and joyfully, like the glistening of the sun on the sea. And it just made Ed want even more of it. He nuzzled his way up and down Stede's thigh, taking a few nibbles here and there earning himself extra shrieks. It was so addicting.
With his hands not wanting to miss out on the fun, Ed decided to take it a step further and latched crablike claws around both the inner and outer crease of Stede's thigh and started to squeeze. Stede went ballistic.
It was like an explosion of ticklish proportions overtook Stede's entire being. The feeling of Ed's beard and mouth meandering around on his thigh combined with the electrocuting squeezes making him jolt about was just so much.
"FAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAA EEEEEEEEHDHDHDDD NONONONONO STAAAAHAHAA NAAAAHAHAAAA!!" Stede couldn't form words. He tried to kick his leg, but there was very little give with the way Ed had it pinned down. He was completely at Ed's mercy and that thought made him start to lose control and dissolve into hysterical silent laughter. Everything was just 'tickle' and nothing else existed.
As Ed kept nuzzling and squeezing, he could hear that Stede had become nothing more than a wheezing blubbering mess. Shifting his eyes, he looked at Stede's other leg jostling about next to him and was hit with a curiosity that he needed to have answered.
The tickling came to a sudden halt and Stede's body fell limp, in desperate need of a break, when he felt the tie on his left ankle being undone. As he started to come back down to earth, Stede looked down to see Ed facing away from him with his hands working at the tie on his ankle. Stede couldn't help but suddenly feel a small pang of disappointment. 'Oh, it's over? Just like that?' Sure, Stede was fairly worn out, but Ed had just stopped and took to untying him so abruptly that he suddenly worried that something was wrong.
"...Ed?" Stede called out to him through his huffs. Ed didn't respond, focusing on pulling the last slip of silk and letting it fall to the bed. Stede's ankle felt cold from the absence of the silk it suddenly missed.
Stede was about to try getting his attention again when, in a flash, Ed moved to straddle his waist and faced toward his feet. Stede's leg was then being lifted and bent, positioned to hook his calf around the back of Ed's shoulder while Ed's upper arm crossed the back of the knee and pressed against the outside of his leg, keeping it firmly nestled between Ed's arm and side while completely exposing the back of Stede's thigh.
Oh, it wasn't over.
Once Stede registered Ed's plans, he let out a gasp.
"Oh! Oh no. Oh no no nonononono, Ed, noohoohooOOOO!" Stede couldn't help but already start to giggle as if the air alone was already starting to tickle the hypersensitive, rarely touched skin.
Ed turned his head back towards Stede. "Well, I couldn't leave this other leg out, now could I? And, with your legs being soooo ticklish, I just want to make sure that I explore every inch...and I realized...I hadn't tried back here yet."
"Shhhiiihihiiiiitt!"
"Seems like it'll be a good spot, yeah?"
"NO!"
"No? You don't think it'll tickle?"
"EHEHEDWARD!"
"Yes?"
"NAHAHHAA!"
"Laughing already? But I haven't even tickled yet. Besides, I thought you said you didn't think this would tickle."
"STOP IHIHIHHITT!"
"Stop what?"
"Neeeehehehee...TEASING!"
"Oh! So you want me to tickle you? So you are ticklish here then? Were you lying to me?"
"NAHAHAHAAAAA FUCK OFF!"
"Wow, Stede. Lying to me AND telling me to fuck off? Not very gentlemanly of you. But, if that's the way you want to be..."
The sound that came from Stede's lungs can only be described as a screaming tea kettle. His laughter reached new heights in pitch as Ed began scribbling, tasering, poking, and squeezing the back of his thigh in such a chaotic frenzy that Stede could hardly tell what was happening, but just knew that it tickled terribly. His calf that had been slung behind Ed's shoulder was frantically kicking as the rest of his body was attempting to twist and turn in any sense to escape, but with the way Ed had his leg pinned in position and the rest of his limbs still tied down along with Ed's warm weight on his torso, it was impossible. And just brutal.
Ed proceeded to tickle the back of Stede's thigh, zipping around, making sure to get at every little bit of skin. Periodically, he reached one hand around to also pinch at Stede's hip at the same time, which drove Stede up the wall. Stede was starting to crumble and just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, Ed moved both of his hands to lightly skitter all ten fingers at the upper back of his thigh, nearly reaching his ass. With Ed deciding to linger there, Stede started to break into shrill begging giggles.
Tears formed in Stede's eyes as he became incoherent, shrieking out a bunch of unintelligible giggly pleas, and Ed could sense that Stede was truly reaching his limit. But, wanting to try one last thing, Ed dipped his head down to nuzzle and nibble his way from the back of his knee to the hypersensitive upper area while maintaining the skittering of his fingers.
Stede's laughter went silent aside from a few squeaks that broke their way through. Holy hell, Stede had never been tickled this bad before. Ed tickled him frequently, but this? This was a whole new level of being tickled and Stede felt like his soul had been projected into a different dimension. Nothing else was real. Just Ed and tickles. And as unbareable as it was, it was wildly invigorating. But, now he was also getting to a point where he really needed it to-
"STAAAAAHAHAHAHHAAAAAP!!"
"Say the magic woooord..." Oh, just evil.
"PLEEEEEHEEEEEEEEAAAAASSEEEEEE!!"
In an instant, all the tickling stopped. Ed gingerly unraveled Stede's leg from behind his body and set it back down on the bed.
With lingering laughter and tingles all over his body, Stede felt like he was floating, the smile never leaving his face. Relishing in the after effects of the diabolical euphoria, he felt a soft, tender hand pushing the disheveled hair back away from his forehead. The hand continued to glide across his hair, petting the top of his head in a caring and comforting manner. This continued on for a couple minutes as Stede was slowly coming down from his tickle high and his body became relaxed, but the happy feelings stayed. In that moment, post tickle and Ed's hand lovingly running through his hair, he felt like the luckiest man in the world.
Ed leaned his head in close. "Hey, how ya feeling?"
"Mmmm..." Stede was completely blissed out, "...amazing. Can we do it again?"
That got an amused chuckle out of Ed. "Shit, Stede. You are quite a tough little pirate, aren't you?"
"Mmmhmm, I'm a fuckin lunatic, remember?"
Ed laughed again. "Yeah, you are. And it's still one of the things I love about you." He kissed Stede's temple and then began to untie the rest of Stede's limbs. Once Stede was free, Ed climbed onto the bed and wrapped him in a hug.
Cuddling up to Ed's chest, Stede closed his eyes and let out a content sigh, drifting off into a tickle happy slumber.
Rubbing a hand up and down Stede's back, Ed felt his breathing even out as he fell asleep. Looking at his face, Ed couldn't help but feel overcome with emotion for the love he felt for this man. Here was this frilly, book reading, fabric loving, fashionista, bizarre, weird little gentleman of a pirate snuggled up against him with nothing but love and trust for Ed. How is this real? Ed didn't know, but all he knew was that he felt like the luckiest man in the world.
Tickletober 2023 - Our Flag Means Death - lee!Stede, lee!Ed
[see my other tickletober 2023 fics]
[read on AO3]
A/N: Happy season 2 premiere day! Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!
Words: 784
—
Stede is nearly choking with laughter on the sofa, squirming and kicking as Ed tickles his way down his sides. In desperation for a break, or at least a breath, Stede reaches out wildly toward Edward’s nearby sides. He squeezes.
Ed lets out a little, curious grunt, but he doesn’t flinch away or laugh. “No ya don’t.” He stops tickling briefly to tug Stede’s wrists out of the way. “Won’t work anyway. I’m not ticklish.”
“What?”
“Yup.”
“No way, everyone is somewhere.”
“Not me.”
“You’re serious? You’re telling me you’re not ticklish?”
“Nope. Not in the slightest.” Edward assures Stede, leaning over him with a smile as the gentleman pirate catches his breath.
“Are- are you kidding me? That hardly seems fair.” Stede complains, smile plastered to his face. He pants, trying to get in a deep breath without laughing it out halfway.
“Don’t know what to tell ya mate. Just ain’t me.”
“Oh, surely at some point- somewhere-”
“Nope. No chance. Never been. Never- am? Was? Never…” Edward trails off, looking up as he tries to think of the proper wording. He closes his eyes and takes a breath, pinching his nose. “Look, bottom line. Blackbeard is not ticklish.” He goes for the most serious tone he can for the conversation they’re (somehow) having.
Stede can’t hide the quirk of a smile on his lips. “Perhaps Blackbeard is not…” He leans forward, feeling bold. “But what about Ed?” Stede clocks the slight falter in Ed’s confident expression and wiggles his fingers in a tease. “Hmm?”
“Same difference. Won’t work.” Ed shrugs - so nonchalant, extremely casual. He definitely does not look at Stede’s hands.
“You don’t mind if I give it a try, then?” Stede grins wider.
Ed snorts at that. He rolls his eyes and purses his lips when he finds Stede watching him with a devious grin. “Be my guest.” He gets up from the couch, standing beside it with his arms outstretched.
Stede rights himself on the couch and sits before him, moving a cautious finger forward to poke at a few different spots along his sides, ribs, belly. The firm touches don’t seem to illicit much of a reaction, just a smug little smirk as he watches Stede’s attempts.
Stede thinks he sees something - or, almost something - when he spiders a hand curiously over Ed’s middle. But, it’s gone just as quick, hidden beneath a veneer of smug stoicism.
Stede complains the whole time. “Not even here?” “Seriously?” “Come on, there has to be at least one spot that will get a laugh out of you.” Each is met with a snarky response.
“Are you done?” Ed asks with a bored shrug.
“No.” Stede demands. “Sit down.”
Ed gives him a weird look. And then, his smile is back; he laughs a little, “You’re so fucking odd, mate.” He sits down obediently on the couch next to the other man.
Stede reaches down and scoops up his ankles, teetering Blackbeard back haphazardly onto the couch, terribly off-balance. “Hey!” Ed shouts, accusatory.
Stede ignores him, fiddling with his boots. Ed kicks a little, indignant.
Stede turns to look at his disheveled face, lying back on the couch. “What, are you worried about these?” He taunts with a smile.
“I didn’t know you were gonna fucking throw me- but, no, like I said-” Ed banters back. He tries to recall a situation in which someone had ever tried to tickle his feet. Hmm. Plenty of people had tried plenty of times to grab at his sides. He knew the tiny zing to expect and could block it out quite easily. He didn’t really have anything to go off of here.. “I’m not fucking ticklish, so you might as well-”
“Might as well try, hmm?” Stede grins, slipping off one of Ed’s boots.
Fingers zip down Edward’s socked foot experimentally as Stede watches. Ed’s eyes flick straight to his foot, his foot that just twitched under Stede’s fucking touch. Shit.
It’s hopeless to block the bark of a laugh that Ed lets out when Stede flies in with both hands wildly, chasing the tiny flinch in search of further tickle spots. Ed can hear Stede laughing too, triumphant, pleased.
“You’re such a liar!” Stede chastises with a tease. “You know what we do with liars on this ship?” He’s down to one tickling hand as the other holds Ed’s now captive ankle as it squirms.
“Nohoho-” Ed cackles as fingers scribble under his toes and down the ball of his foot.
“No? Well, I’d be happy to show you.” He tugs Ed’s sock off in a quick motion, then dives back in to give the laughing captain a taste of his own medicine.
“Mister Blackbeard?” A child’s voice rises from the small crowd of observers. “What’s that?”
Ed finds the kid, throws her a wink. “That’s Captain to you, lass. And these–” he pats the top of the hardwood structure– “are called stocks. Used for public punishment of filthy criminals, like pirates, or aristocrats. You’re not a criminal, are you?”
The girl giggles and shakes her head.
“No? You sure?” Ed squints out at the crowd, scanning the faces. “I bet we could find one.”
The audience for Medieval Crime and Punishment (1pm, 2:30pm, and 4pm daily) has all the usual suspects: kids with plastic swords, parents in street clothes with tote bags, one guy with a huge Viking axe on his back, a handful of reasonably-costumed enthusiasts. There’s a blond coiffure towards the back corner that catches his attention.
“You there.” He points, catches the man’s eye. The man glances back over his shoulder, but Ed doesn’t mean anyone else and keeps his finger extended until the man, looking surprised, points to his own chest. Ed feels a slow grin growing. He nods, turning his finger to curl it into a beckoning gesture.
“Yes, you, with the fancy coat.” Ed keeps the narration going while the man slips down front through the crowd. The coat does look like a period piece, nicely cut with a matching waistcoat beneath. “That is a very fine garment you’ve got there. Too fine, I think. Where’d you get it?”
The man stutters over an explanation, something about a gift– Ed largely ignores it, instead focusing on guiding the man’s momentum cleanly into the seat of the stocks.
“Mhmm, likely story. Say, what’s your name, scallywag?”
“Scallywag?” The incredulous pitch of the scallywag’s voice nearly makes Ed snort as he lifts an unresisting ankle into the open stocks. “I’m a– a respectable gentleman!” Second ankle. “But, ah, my name is, um. Steve.”
Ed raises an eyebrow while he closes the stocks. “Steve? You sure about that?”
“Of course I’m sure about my own n– oh, what… what are you doing?” He’s pretty cute when flustered, this Steve.
“Taking your shoes. You won’t need ‘em.” Ed sets each one carefully to the side. The stockinged feet left behind wiggle uncertainly. “Most folks don’t stumble when asked about their name, see. Makes me think we’re not really on the level with each other. And I’m really having a hard time believing that a jumpy fellow like yourself came by all this finery legitimate-like.”
Ed straightens, and puts on his projection voice for the crowd. “What say you? Is this man innocent, or guilty?”
A smattering of responses sprinkle in, but the girl near the front excitedly shrieks, “Guilty!”
“The people have spoken.” Ed pivots back to face the unwitting defendant, and he really can’t help the smirk. “Are you prepared to confess to your thieving crimes?”
“I haven’t stolen anything!”
“Your funeral,” Ed says with a shrug. He cracks his knuckles (the fingerless leather gloves of his costume lend to the intimidating vibe, he’s found), laces his fingers together and pushes them out in a stretch, then drops one wiggling finger onto the center of one vulnerable sole.
“Wait, wai-haait!”
Ed keeps it going and begins his spiel on typical town square “corrective” behavior, while a verse and chorus of giggly protests pours from the seat behind him. He keeps an ear out for genuine distress, like always, but everything sounds bright and bubbly back there.
“…even throwing rocks, but often the punishment of choice is tickling the feet. Harmless, but persuasive. Isn’t that right, Steve? Why don’t you tell me who you robbed blind for that fine outfit of yours?”
“Please, oh it tickles, you scoundrel–!”
It’s Ed’s turn for incredulity. “Scoundrel? Mate, you’ve got this sorely backwards. You’ll address me as Captain Blackbeard, Sir and you’ll speak the truth when I ask you a question.”
It’s time for the first little ramp-up of the demonstration. One tickling finger can only entertain the crowd for so long, after all.
“Fang, would you come give me a hand, please? This deviant needs a little more convincing.”
There are eyelets installed at the top of the tall backrest, with shackles dangling from them. Not quite historically accurate ones, but what here is? (Fang’s choice of headwear is particularly egregious – but the studded pleather does give him a junkyard dog look, and since he’s the assistant muscle instead of the main presenter today, it works.) Ed abandons the foot he’s been gently tormenting and moves to crouch by well-dressed-Steve’s side as Fang lifts the man’s wrists to the shackles. The audience is starting to titter with sympathy.
“I’ll ask you again, Steve. Where did you steal this coat from?”
“I, I didn’t, I promise! It was a very nice present from, from a friend– oh god, ahah!”
Ed’s got a hand slipped inside that fancy coat, tickling now at a helpless armpit. It’s very warm up in there; the autumn hasn’t cooled quite enough to make this many layers necessary yet, and Steve’s body heat has been trapped inside. Ed bets it just feels that much more intense, so he makes sure to keep his touch lightly teasing – even though there’s an urge coiling inside him to really make this man scream.
“Only the guilty laugh when confronted with their crimes, mate.” He addresses the crowd again. “As you can see, we’ve got more than just feet to work with. Everything from legs to stomach, ribs to armpits can help extract a confession. In fact…”
Ramp-up number two. He reaches behind the backrest where his favorite theatrical aids have been hidden, and nods for Fang to do the same.
In tandem, they both reveal large ostrich feathers with a flourish. The crowd laughs and cheers in surprise.
“Usually these are reserved for the damsels and wenches, but you look soft and sensitive enough, my friend. They’re torture for the neck and ears, I’m told. What say you? And address me respectfully, if you please.”
Ed dusts his plume at the crook of Steve’s neck. Fang mirrors on the other side, and oh it’s adorable how their victim erupts with pitchy, snorting giggles while he tries to retract his head like a turtle. His wrists swing in the shackles, fists balling, biceps straining.
“I have nothing to confess!” the accused cries out. “Please, Captain, plee-hee-heese!”
The third and final ramp approaches. Ed guns it.
He drops down on his good knee, keeps the feather dancing, and lobster-claws down the meat of Steve’s thigh. He spiders wickedly around the kneecap before delving beneath to the unprotected, stretched-in-midair knee pit below and, mm, there it is, the scrumptious sound of a scream-laugh. Ed pushes its pitch by continuing down Steve’s leg to his foot once again, where there’s no single-fingertip teasing this time; he rakes the open sole with scrabbling, ruthless fingers while the feather fluff-fluff-fluffs across ear and jaw.
“NO! No, no, nooo-ho! It’s the truth! Please, Ed, stah-haaahp!”
And just like that, everything stops.
Ed creaks his way to standing – feels like it gets harder every season – and regards the sagging, panting man with resignation.
“Maintaining your innocence even in the face the worst torture, eh? Perhaps you’re not a liar after all.” He sighs. “Welp. Disappointing, if you ask me.”
—
It’s barely four minutes after the crowd has dispersed and Ed’s plopped himself into a breakroom chair when Stede barges in to find him.
“You.”
Ed takes a glug from his water bottle, swallows it down. “Hey, Steve.”
“Steve nearly died today, I’ll have you know. Bastard.”
Somehow it sounds like a term of endearment, even as Stede collapses dramatically into the chair next to him. Ed grins.
“Not my fault Steve is so ticklish. Pick a different character next time. I quite liked Reed, though he seemed to have the same problem.”
Anybody else would probably flip Ed off, but Stede just waves a hand like Ed’s a buzzing fly.
“You, just– just shut up.”
“Don’t worry, babe, I’ll make it up to you,” Ed promises. “When the last bus heads out, you and I can hang back to close the torture museum.” He leans toward Stede expectantly and waits for him to sigh and tip his head close enough for Ed to kiss it. “I promise nobody will be around to hear you beg me to tickle your tummy while you’re on the rack.”
Stede swipes the water bottle from Ed’s hand and drains it before settling back with closed eyes and a tiny, tired smile.
Ed woke up slowly, which wasn’t usually the case. He was used to plunging out of sleep, alarmed, on alert, trying desperately to get his senses to perk up so that he could figure out where he was and if there was any imminent danger.
Things had changed since he started sharing Stede’s bed. It brought him comfort, which was slightly alarming when he thought of it too hard, but most of the time it just had him thinking that he’d not been this well rested in years.
He woke up shivering that day, as he did most days. The more they shared a bed, the more he found Stede hogged the blankets. It was as if his body gave them two weeks of peace before deeming it safe enough to take and take and not give back.
Yeah, he was being dramatic. It was fucking freezing that morning.
“Stede.” He nudged him blindly, feeling his elbow collide with something soft and fleshy. “Covers.”
Stede mumbled something incoherent. Ed was too tired to turn around and look at him, but he could imagine him curled up, all happy and cozy beneath the blankets.
He huffed. “Stede.”
No reply at all this time.
Ed sighed and reached behind him in an attempt to grab the blanket, hoping to pull some of it over him. The room wasn’t pitch dark, but dark enough to tell him he still had a couple more hours to sleep and he was going to take advantage of that, dammit. Once he found the fabric he started pulling, but found that Stede was probably lying on it and he finally rolled around to glare at him. Naturally, he felt his gaze soften at the sight of Stede sleeping soundly, all but smiling in his sleep, but the previous day’s activities had left him exhausted and therefore impatient, and so he grabbed the blanket again, this time trying to tug it out from beneath him. Stede was fucking wrapped around this thing.
“Stede,” he said, louder now. “Wake up.” He poked his arm. “I’m too tired for this.”
“M’sleeping,” was the reply, and Ed nearly laughed.
“No shit.” He poked his arm again. “And you’re hogging the blanket.”
No reply other than a demonstrative, smug tightening of the covers around his shoulders, or so Ed felt in his somewhat delirious state.
“That’s it.”
Ed had no mercy left in his body and grabbed Stede’s wrist, which he found tucked beneath his chin, and rolled him over onto his back. Stede only had time to blink up at him in confusion for a second before Ed, who used to do this to Izzy way back when, untangled his arm from the covers, pulled it up and pinned it to the mattress, his other hand digging into Stede’s armpit, which was the only ticklish part of him that wasn’t covered by the blankets. Well, that and his neck, but Ed would play extra dirty only if he needed to.
“Whatareyoudoing?” Stede slurred out, his body reacting before his mind as he started weakly pulling at his trapped arm as laughter started pouring out. “Ed!”
“Stop hogging the blankets,” Ed said, grinning despite himself now. A giggly Stede was one of his favorite things, and luckily for him Stede giggled often.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realiz-ah!”
Ed swirled over the skin once, twice, before switching to clawing over it repeatedly, making Stede try to roll to his side in order to stop it. He was kicking his feet, although they were trapped in the blankets and were little to no use. He did manage to free his other hand when Ed started stroking up and down his arm, but whatever he was trying to do made little difference and it was mostly just flailing in front of Ed’s face like an annoying fly.
He stopped only because Stede managed to get close enough that their faces were touching, and Ed couldn’t resist kissing him. Had he not been so visibly dazed Ed might’ve thought he did it on purpose.
“Covers,” he said when they pulled apart. “Share.”
“Of course,” Stede said, panting. “Really, you could’ve just asked.”
Summary: A certain ticklish discovery leads to Stede running away from Ed, who naturally catches him anyway.
A/N: So this is not the best thing I’ve ever written, but I wanted to test the waters and write for this fandom since I finally watched the show today. Not sure if I’ll write anything else, but feel free to send in prompts anyway and I can try!
Also for some reason I keep mixing up Stede and Ed’s names and while I read and reread the fic I might still have missed a point where I’ve used the wrong name anyway, so just ignore that lol
Words: 766
It was one thing sparring with Ed and a whole other thing to be running from him for your life.
Or well, running away from his wiggling fingers, at least.
“Can’t we talk about this?” he asked, rounding a corner (and there weren’t that many corners) and nearly crashing into a very perplexed Oluwande. “Oh, sorry! Oh, god.” Stede hid behind him and peeked out at Ed.
“Talk about how adorable your giggle is?” Ed replied, his grin big enough to swallow the ship whole. “Gladly. I’d love to hear it again first. You know, to ensure what I say is accurate.”
“First of all, I do not giggle and it is in fact not adorable-”
“That makes no sense,” Ed said.
“That does make no sense,” Oluwande agreed, stepping aside to free up the space between them. “Sorry, Captain. I better not get involved in whatever this is.”
Ed’s grin miraculously grew once Oluwande left. “Alone again.”
“Oh, god, Ed, please.”
Ed took a step closer. “What are you afraid of, Stede? Just how ticklish can you be?”
A sudden touch had caught him off guard, and so a sudden noise had left his mouth. Ed had looked alarmed, and then so smug it had kind of terrified Stede. That had been when he’d started running, only a couple of minutes prior. He wasn’t sure what he even thought Ed would do, but something about him made Stede believe it would be unbearably ticklish and last for too long than he’d be able to handle.
“Enough to rather not be tickled, thank you,” he answered now, and something in Ed’s face softened.
“I’ll be gentle.” Another step closer. “I’ll be so very gentle.”
“That’s not reassuring- no.” Ed attempted to grab him, and Stede somehow dodged, only to be cornered against a wall and a whole deck between them and the rest of the crew, unless any strays were wandering around. “Ed, please.”
“I’ll be so very gentle.”
Stede opened his mouth to plead again, but was interrupted by his own rather obnoxious laugh that Ed’s hands on his ribs coaxed out of him.
“Too gentle!” he cried instead, succumbing to the laughter that kept pouring out as Ed kept prodding at his torso. His own hands flailed around uselessly. Stede had never been the best at using his body. He could admit that.
“How do you expect to be a pirate if the enemy can bring you down this easily?” Ed asked, one hand attempting to worm itself into the incredibly ticklish skin under his arm while the other was doing god knows what to his side and making him squeal.
“I think they could probably bring me down just as easily in other ways,” Stede attempted to say, though he was sure none of it was coherent anyway. Ed seemed content enough in torturing him anyway. It made little difference what Stede said.
He started sliding down the wall when Ed left his underarm alone after another failed attempt and instead started toying with his neck. It all happened rather quickly, he would later realize. A race of a dance with Ed only going for a handful of spots in barely a couple of minutes before backing off.
“Are you done?” he asked when Ed never returned, his words laced in a laugh that was slowly dying down. He was full on sitting on the floor now.
“For now,” Ed said, sitting down beside him. “That was fun, but I know when to stop.”
Stede huffed. “But not when to not start I see.”
“Oh, come on. You enjoyed it.” Ed nudged his side. “Admit it.”
“I positively did not.”
“You could’ve run when Oluwande was between us, but you didn’t.” Ed grinned. “You stayed.”
“Perhaps I was only indulging you,” Stede replied, although he knew the blush that was creeping up his face was very much visible even in this lighting. “Was my giggle adorable then?”
“I would more say you were shrieking just now, but yes, still adorable.”
“Well, at least that’s something.”
Ed let out a laugh. Stede briefly wondered what it’d be like to hear him giggle hysterically. “I still haven’t tried your legs or feet.”
“And you will keep it that way,” Stede said, pointing at him.
Ed held up his hands. “For today.”
“Perhaps I will get revenge.”
“Well good luck ‘cause Blackbeard’s not ticklish.”
“Maybe not.” Stede tilted his head at him. “But I’m sure Edward is.”
That did earn him another tickle to the neck, but it was worth it just to see Ed nervous.
