Work Text:
Ed comes inside of him with a grunt, and Stede shudders at the sensation.
Sometimes he thinks he’ll never get used to the feeling of Ed’s strong arms holding his hips so carefully, of Ed’s look of concentration when he fucks into him so gently, barely holding himself from thrusting faster and rougher, and then the sudden release when Stede gets filled with Ed’s come. He certainly will never get used to the fact that it is him that brings Ed such intense pleasure.
Ed pushes in a few more times, savoring the high of his orgasm. Then, he pulls out as carefully as he can, though it still makes Stede wince, and sprawls on top of him, landing right in the mess that Stede made just a few minutes prior. Stede holds onto him immediately, and makes sure Ed’s head is resting in the crook of his neck.
They lay together in a comfortable embrace, while Stede listens to their gradually calming heartbeats and breaths, his new favorite melody. There’s a pitch-black ocean out there, just outside the windows over Stede’s bed, but Ed’s comforting weight is enough to make Stede fearless. It’s nighttime and Ed’s gorgeous naked body is illuminated by a few lanterns. Stede could watch him like this forever, tracing the tattoos with his fingers, and playing with his wavy hair.
“Fuck, why do you feel so good?” Ed’s hoarse voice so close to Stede’s ear feels sinful. And then Ed is leisurely kissing the side of his neck, like he can’t get enough of Stede, has to have more of him, always more, even though he just had him.
Those tender after-sex kisses and touches feel overwhelming, maybe even more so than the actual act. Stede thought his heart would stop aching once they’d finally got together, but it hurts in different ways now. There’s a bone-deep pain he can’t begin to explain. It’s born out of lust, affection, trust, devotion, and most importantly the feeling that he got incredibly lucky. Maybe that’s what it feels like, to be with the love of your life.
He turns to Ed and holds him closer and with much care, as if he’s afraid that the magic of this moment can shatter at any time. But it’s been a few months, and they’re still here, Ed in Stede’s arms, and the blinding love Stede’s feeling increasing day by day.
Stede thinks he can read the same kind of love in Ed’s eyes, especially when they share breakfast on the maintop and watch the sunrise, or when Stede picks out luxury silks for Ed to wear and compliments his sharp looks, or when Stede reads bedtime stories to the crew, and of course, does the voices. But then, during other times, his old anxieties resurface, bringing alongside uneasy doubts.
What if Ed gets bored of him? It’s what Stede dreads the most. Ed might slowly get annoyed by Stede’s quirks that he used to find endearing. He could probably grow irritated whenever he teaches piracy tricks to Stede and finds him doing things entirely in his way, as if he didn’t listen at all. And, first and foremost, Ed would definitely get bored of the sex…
Just last night, Stede walked in on Lucius and Fang, and wasn’t Lucius with Pete before? It seemed like they were an item. Did they already get tired of each other? He remembers the flexible position he saw Lucius and Fang in, something he never even thought possible to achieve physically. In that moment Stede realized with horror that Ed could just as easily get bored of him, and find someone else he might fancy, someone who was far more exciting, experienced, adventurous, and, well, cool. Sadly, that would be understandable, as Stede had no real sexual experience whatsoever. Also, he had no idea why Ed was so attracted to him. Surely it was some kind of mistake, and Ed would realize it any moment now.
“Sorry, uh, if sex with me is a bit, you know…” Stede blurts out, suddenly. He was never good at keeping his mouth shut, and it only got him into trouble. He does shut up mid-phrase, but it’s too late.
Ed stirs a little. The wonderful moment is ruined, and why does he always have to ruin everything?
“What?” Ed asks, still a little dazed from his orgasm.
“Nothing, forget about it.”
“No, you were saying something about sex.”
“Isn’t it a bit vanilla with me?”
“What’d you mean?” Ed gets up on an elbow. His eyes are on the same level as Stede’s, and they’re really intense. Stede desperately wants to hide.
“Well, you know, we always… We always do it the same way,” Stede says.
“Do you not like how we do it?”
There’s a little frown between Ed’s brows, and Stede wants to kiss it away. Immediately.
“I do! Oh I do, Ed, love,” Stede rushes to explain, “I never even knew it could feel like this.”
“Me too,” Ed says simply. “I love making you feel good. And the way you make me feel.”
“But isn’t it a bit plain compared to what you’re used to? You must have had plenty of experience.”
Anything goes at sea. Calico Jack’s face appears in Stede’s mind, and a pang of jealousy pierces him, sharp and quick. Dalliances , he said. Stede couldn’t erase it from his memory, no matter how hard he tried. And his overactive imagination filled in the horrid gaps.
“Pfft! It doesn’t matter at all, Stede,” Ed brings a hand to cradle’s Stede’s face, and makes him hold the gaze of Ed’s earnest eyes. “I’m with you now.”
Ed takes Stede’s hand in his own, and traces his knuckles one by one, a soft smile illuminating his whole face. Stede’s heart squeezes with that familiar honey-sweet pain.
“And I don’t care about having sex in the same way for a fucking eternity, as long as you’re enjoying it,” Ed whispers, never once looking away, and Stede honest to god melts. What did he do to deserve such an amazing man?
“I want to make you feel good, Ed.”
“You already do.”
“I’d like to… I want to try it differently some time. But I’m overwhelmed just from this. And I’m scared,” Stede confesses. It feels good to be so open with Ed, and knowing that he will listen to Stede and try to understand. Being so honest and vulnerable with each other — it’s exhilarating.
“Why are you scared?”
“That I’ll disappoint you. I don’t know what I’m doing, honestly,” Stede resists the urge to bury his face in a pillow.
“Stede. You could lie there like a log of wood, and do nothing at all, and it will still be the best sex of my life,” Ed says, and Stede doesn’t miss how his hand is now caressing Stede’s pecks and playing with the hair on his chest. “Cause it will be with you.” These touches and words ignite something warm in Stede.
“Thank you, dear. Though I find it hard to believe. Lucius has been explaining, uh, things to me, and showing them, accidentally, and there is so much stuff we aren’t doing…”
He’s rambling, and his face is flushed, goddammit. But Ed doesn’t say anything. He’s usually more of an action man, Stede learned.
Ed’s hand sneaks lower and barely grazes Stede’s spent cock, but it still shuts Stede right up. The hand reaches down below past his balls, to the place where he’s still hot and slick with coconut oil and Ed’s come.
“Do you know what vanilla is?” Ed’s eyes are back to watching him intently.
“A s-spice?” Stede shivers, as Ed’s finger pushes in gently.
“It comes from a tropical flower,” Ed whispers, and grips Stede’s neck with his other hand. The one down below is working Stede open, again, and the sounds are so obscene, they set Stede’s skin aflame.
“Ed, ah,” Stede gasps, hips automatically following the movement.
“Shh,” Ed kisses right behind Stede’s ear, a sensitive spot. Sucks a little, no doubt intent on leaving a bruise, and oh how Stede will grumble tomorrow when facing himself in his hand mirror, trying to disguise it. They both know he’ll be secretly pleased with it though, especially when the crew will see it, and know exactly that Blackbeard claimed the Gentleman Pirate as his own last night. Again.
“It’s an orchid. Yellow and delicate. The only one that bears fruit,” Ed gently kisses Stede’s nipple, barely a touch, but it makes him arch his back nonetheless, trying to push against the tight wet heat of Ed’s mouth.
“This flower blossoms only one day per year,” Ed is finger-fucking him in earnest now, adds another one, and Stede pushes back the best he can. Stede’s hand instinctively finds Ed’s hip, holding on to it for dear life.
The sounds alone are enough to harden Stede’s cock. It must be a miracle, or a compensation for all the years he spent celibate, all that time he was unknowingly saving himself for Ed, but getting hard so fast makes him dizzy.
It’s a sight to behold: Ed’s tattooed hand moving in a steady rhythm, and Ed biting from time to time at his own lip with how turned on it makes him. At the same time, his eyes are mischievous. He watches Stede’s reaction closely, and pushes further.
“Whenever me and the boys robbed a food merchant, uh, and found vanilla spice, we’d be over the fucking moon.”
“Oh, Ed, love,” Stede moans, reduced to an incoherent mess in mere minutes.
“It’s the second most expensive spice in the world. After saffron. Shit, you’re so good. But who gives a fuck about saffron, right?”
Stede surely doesn’t. He doesn’t care about anything in the world, all he cares about is Ed working him open so well, his hot body so close to Stede’s, and so turned on because of him. It’s one of the best feelings in the world.
Indeed, Ed’s dick is rock-hard too, and is rubbing against Stede’s hip, and Stede can’t help but reach down to touch it, making Ed gasp a little.
“Please, love,” Stede begs against his lips, and strokes Ed’s cock for emphasis. He can’t say it, he will never say it, but he needs Ed’s cock inside so badly. Needs to be filled right that instant.
“In some ports we could make more gold selling vanilla than jewelry,” Ed continues his sweet word torture, and Stede is on edge.
He jerks his dick some more, nudges his hips in Ed’s direction, hoping he’d get the hint.
“Ed, don’t tease.”
Seeing the state Stede is in, Ed smirks. He stops momentarily to give Stede room to breathe, and coats his cock in more oil, then gives it a few quick pumps, making it fully hard. Stede admires the full length of him, curved up and leaking at the head, the most tempting sight in the world, and craves it like he hasn’t craved anything before in his life.
“Oh, and another thing.”
Ed gets up and settles between Stede’s legs, in that familiar place. And maybe doing it the same way has its benefits, because Stede already shudders in anticipation of how good this will feel, because he knows it drives him crazy every single time.
“Vanilla is used in aphrodisiacs. So, specifically to make people horny as fuck.”
Stede blushes, as Ed grabs Stede’s legs where he’s used to holding them, right under the knees, and it’s good to feel the support, always there for him. In one careful movement, Ed pushes against his rim, and slips inside with ease, considering that Stede was already a ruin from round one.
“You feel so good,” Stede mumbles, closing his eyes and surrendering to the feeling, arching his back again.
Ed starts moving, and Stede grips the pillow behind him, and brings one hand to his own, abused dick, which is desperately twitching, while Ed devours him with his gaze.
“Look at you, a fucking feast,” Ed groans, fucking Stede in gentle thrusts and never looking away. Stede feels so exposed and vulnerable under that powerful look, but at the same time it fills him with unspeakable power, “All for me.”
“Oh god, yes,” Stede’s toes curl as Ed lifts him a little and starts hitting that perfect spot inside, fucking against it with intent, “I’m not gonna last.”
“Don’t last then,” Ed grins, working his hips nice and thorough, making sure Stede feels every slap of skin against skin, every grazing of Ed’s nails on his sensitive thighs, every gasp and moan that accompanies them.
Stede feels the build up in his lower belly, his balls tightening. He’s working himself furiously, so close he’s aching.
“If you call this vanilla, mate,” Ed manages between moans, “then it’s my- ah, favorite, ah, fucking, uh, spice,” Ed emphasizes each word with a thrust, and Stede cries out, his orgasm drowning him like a powerful wave.
Ed reaches his peak too, hands sliding down to grab handfuls of Stede’s ass, and burying himself deep inside of Stede. His blissed out expression, with scrunched up brows and open mouth, is divine, and Stede will never get tired of the sheer amount of pleasure on Ed’s face whenever he comes.
It’s not long before Ed pulls out again and collapses to the side, breathing fast and hard, still shivering from the pleasing aftershocks. Stede is well fucked-out, but he wants to kiss Ed some more. He thinks this desire of his will never be quenched.
“Do you understand now, how fucking hot you are to me? Twice in an hour, at my age,” Ed grins, “And I could go again. I could go all fucking night. I’ll never get tired of it.”
“Ed,” Stede turns to him, lost for words. He buries his face in the crook of Ed’s neck, inhaling his familiar, masculine scent. Once again, he feels utterly ravished by this man, body and soul. His heart can’t take so much love.
“I fucking love vanilla sex with you,” Ed says again, because Stede sometimes really needs to hear things spelled out.
“I do love it too,” Stede says, kissing Ed’s neck gently.
“Give me fucking, I don’t know, vanilla pancakes. And biscuits. And ice cream. Vanilla is the best, mate,” Ed mumbles, eyes sleepy.
“There must be other spices too,” Stede giggles, a knot inside his chest unraveling.
“Give me those too, I don’t care. Fucking cumin or nutmeg. Bring them on. As long as it’s you bringing them.”
“You’re ridiculous, dear,” and Stede’s laughing.
“Your influence,” Ed pulls Stede closer, and yawns.
“All this talk of flavors makes me hungry. I'll make Roach cook us those vanilla pancakes for breakfast,” Stede murmurs, settling in the comfortable embrace.
“I’ll have you, for breakfast,” Ed kisses Stede one more time, before falling asleep in his arms.