Work Text:
Stede and Ed, for a while, never did get time to explore one another beyond presses of lips, explorations down necklines cut short by interrupting crew or otherwise.
Those kisses do mean the world to Stede, of course, who scarcely has felt happier. They mean even more, every one of them, whether a peck or minutes of sharing spit and air, when all they had for weeks was the one shared at the beach of the Academy.
That very kiss was all Stede held out for as he rowed, bedraggled with his equally sullied crew, in search of the man he left behind to make amends at home.
And they reunited, rather explosively, with shouts and sobs, with death threats and frantic apologies, and eventually, with a proper talk-it-through.
That was at the imploring of their weary crew, at the insistence of Lucius, especially, who grew impatient quickly with the yells.
Since then, things have been better than Stede could’ve imagined, but he’s scarcely had a chance to smell the roses; they’ve had to cover their tracks quite thoroughly to avoid British detection, and with that alongside their gory forays, Stede and Ed have been kept busy.
Only now will they finally have enough time alone, the crew all tuckered out after a bedtime story, no chance at interruption. They’re sailing the same tack for a long ways yet to put distance between themselves and the scuttled vessel they’d last burnt up. Truly, Stede's glad.
And Ed’s fairly swift about it, too, and takes him in his arms once he’s past the doorway to their shared quarters.
With a rushed-out, “hello, handsome,” his lips meet Stede’s fervently. Brushes of tongue, hints of teeth, Ed bleeds something carnal into him, gets him writhing.
"Hello to you too, handsomer," Stede returns, smiling beguiled until Ed's hands find his hips, until Ed presses closer and he feels, through fuchsia silk patterned in birds and flowers, what is undeniably Ed's erect penis, and his mouth parts just in time for Ed to swoop back in.
When Ed's hand starts rubbing the band of Stede's breeches, though, his heart sinks, because he's reminded then of one factor he's not yet told Ed, one factor that largely made up his reason for granting Jim their own room.
Rationally, he thinks it won't be a dealbreaker.
Irrationally, he thinks Ed may be repulsed by his body, disgusted at an unpleasant surprise.
"Ed-" Stede says between Ed's hungry kisses, dragging his chin up to take in a breath and relishing the rugged chafe of Edward's facial hair. "Ed, there's something I've not told you-"
"What, you secretly packing?" Ed asks, though his fingers go up from Stede's pants and curl around the small of his back instead. Stede sighs his relief, soft, against Ed's cheek. "Or is it the opposite? You got a little dick, Stede? I can work with either, y'know."
Stede lets the words you got a little dick roll around his mind for a moment, notes the pulse between his legs, the heat he feels, but eventually focuses on the dilemma that he’s surprised Ed hasn’t noticed with all his grinding. “No, that’s the problem. It’s, ah. Neither?”
“Neither? So you’re average?” Ed leans in and presses a tickle of his lips to the curve of Stede’s jaw, makes his jaw tip back. It’s really quite tempting to let Ed find out on his own, especially when he adds, “that’s not a problem, mate.”
But Stede feels a bit too sick with nerves to let him and says, “that’s not what I mean.”
Ed pulls his head back and stares at him, quizzical, squinting, looking him up and down. Clearly, he reaches no conclusion, because the perplexity on his face only deepens. “What?”
“I’m not- I don’t have… what you have,” Stede says, picking his words particularly, but the reminder of his unseemly genital situation makes his stomach turn no matter how he words it.
“What, a dick?” Ed’s head tilts forward, comprehension dawning on his face.
Stede’s face must give away his answer, because Ed speaks before Stede even conjures a response, a sympathetic litany, “hey, that’s fine, I don’t really- hey, man, it’s okay.”
Stede wants to believe it, but the words go in one ear and right out the other, his breathing shallow.
Ed had dalliances with good and proper men, men with bodies that fit, so he really shouldn’t have ever let himself believe that Ed would want anything to do with him, shouldn’t have ever let Ed fall under the impression that they're alike under their trousers.
“Stede.”
Stede blinks, eyes burning with tears unshed. “I’m sorry.”
Edward doesn’t look angry. He doesn’t look upset at all, save for the concerned scrunch of his brows. “You don’t have to apologize. It’s- you’re a man, Stede. That's got nothing to do with your junk.”
“Does it not?” Stede asks, voice dropped to a whisper, bracing himself for Ed to change his mind.
“Nah, man,” Ed says, voice as soft, “not at all.”
“So, you’re not bothered that I can’t-”
“Fuck me?” Ed finishes his question for him, amused. “Not exactly where I was taking this, mate.”
“Oh,” Stede says, then straightens. “Right. So you were, um. You were going to penetrate me then?”
“Yes,” Ed laughs, fond as it is exasperated, bringing a hand to his own face, then resting it on Stede’s shoulder.
“And did you...” Stede starts to smile. “Is that still on the cards ?”
“Fuckin’ shit it is,” Ed’s face suddenly drops, every drop of arousal returning in his expression tenfold. “Can’t fucking wait to feel you around me.”
“God, Ed,” Stede rasps, the hard line of Ed’s cock on his thigh making his heart beat in his throat, his voice crack with need. Ed leans back in, hair tickling Stede’s neck as he rucks his shirt up enough to rub his thumbs over Stede’s abdomen, over the scars opposite each other.
“What?” Ed starts mouthing at his neck and it’s comfortable, familiar; Ed’s left his love bites plenty of times. “You’re the hottest guy I’ve ever met, Stede.”
“Wha- really?” Stede’s brows scrunch together. “That’s a strong way to put it.”
“Yeah, really,” Ed presses a kiss far closer to chaste on the side of Stede’s neck. “It’s actually an understatement. You’re fucking wonderful. You’re a delight. If I could, I’d- I’d fucking eat you, mate.”
“Would you?” Stede laughs quietly at that. “Not sure I’d like that.”
“Me neither,” Ed agrees, but then leans his head back just enough for Stede to catch sight of his grin, a coruscating beauty that melts his heart a smidge, “but don’t forget, I did eat a man, once.”
“Oh, quiet, you!” Stede chuckles, rolling his eyes back. Ed’s grin fades as his palm slides down Stede’s bicep toward his forearm.
“Is there anywhere you don’t want me to touch you?” Ed’s eyes squint at Stede’s chest. “I’ve never even, uh. You don’t-?”
“No,” Stede says quietly, feeling somewhat embarrassed at the scrutiny. “I’ve been under the knife for that. A while ago, actually. Quite expensive, too, for how much scarring there is,” Stede sighs, “I’m sure you’ve seen it, when you were at my bedside, but it got the job done, I suppose.”
“Right,” Ed nods, eyebrows raised in a dramatic show of comprehension, “so, uh. Anything I shouldn’t say?”
“I don’t care much for the… technical terminology of it all,” Stede says, waving a hand, “but I’ve never really been in a, uh… situation, where I’d have heard anything else, so…”
“So, if I told you that I want to bend you over the table and fuck your cunt messy,” Ed rumbles, eyes drooping as Stede’s go huge, “would that be okay?”
“Yes,” Stede answers breathlessly, eyes flitting to the table a few paces from them, then back to Ed. “God, yes. Fully okay. Entirely-”
“Good.” Ed’s hand on Stede’s wrist tightens, and then he’s dragging him to the table hurriedly, Stede nearly tripping over himself until he’s pushed into its wooden edge, baubles atop it rattling in threat of toppling to the floor.
Stede takes a moment, as both of them breathe, to really look at Ed.
His curls splay over his shoulder, gray spilling onto the bright fuchsia hue of his robe in resplendent juxtaposition. His stubble of a beard sharpens his face as is, but the light from the windows only makes this harsher, visage hauntingly shadowed. Dark eyes with moonglow reflections keep Stede pinned in place, transfixed, anticipatory as he awaits Ed’s next move.
“Can I take your clothes off?” Ed asks suddenly, zealously, and Stede’s heart races.
“Yes,” Stede answers, sounding unduly strangled for a man with an open airway.
“Yeah?” Ed’s hand wind around Stede’s back and he fully untucks his shirt. “Fuckin’ great.”
Warm hands roam over Stede’s back before Ed commits to his task, pulling the shirt over Stede’s head, taking him in a moment.
"God, it must've fuckin' hurt, man," Ed rubs his thumbs over the scars on Stede's chest. "Always wondered how you got these. You're more of a man than any for this, y'know. Takes some balls to get all sliced up like that."
Stede had never really thought about it like that.
“Maybe,” he says sheepishly at the praise. “It was a very painful recovery, I’ll tell you that. I was alone.”
“God,” Ed repeats, bleeding heart, hands coming down to Stede’s waist. “That’s fuckin’ awful, man.”
“I’m still here,” Stede says to shed a more positive light on things, uncertain what to do with the sympathy otherwise.
“Yeah, you are,” Ed runs his hands up Stede’s ribs, up Stede’s back, before sliding back down in place, “and you’re fucking beautiful, man.”
Stede doesn’t reply, doesn’t know what he could say, but he’s sure the way he stops breathing a moment speaks for him better than he could manage. Ed’s hands come to rest on his waistband.
“These too?”
“Those too,” Stede assents, smiling at Ed’s caution. He thinks this sort of prudence he’s being treated with might bother him if it were from anyone else, but as it stands, it’s Ed who takes far too much care in unbuttoning Stede’s trousers, Ed who slides them down far as his arms stretch, then kneels, slowly.
Stede doesn’t see how all of that is necessary but slips his shoes off and steps out of his trousers anyhow. Ed exhales sharply and frowns at a knee surely giving him trouble for the deck’s merciless wood.
“Ed, darling,” Stede says, “if your knee’s bothering you, then please-”
“Owe me one,” Ed shrugs, his hands gliding over the length of Stede’s legs, taking hold of his hips like an instinct. “One, in this case, is one of those massages. God, you’re good at those.”
“Of course,” Stede agrees warmly. The beginnings of a smile fall right off his face when Ed’s fingers trace lightly over his abdomen. A trail of horripilation follows his touch and Stede shivers at the gentle brush of it, at that look in Ed's eyes, dark and promising under beautiful eyelashes, eyelids that dip low even as he gazes up.
Stede’s lips part, nails digging into the table, when Ed’s fingers duck under the waistband of his briefs, only to skirt back up. Stede huffs his dissatisfaction.
“What?” Ed leans forward and kisses Stede’s thigh, his hands holding Stede’s hips. “Cool it, man. I’ll get there.”
“Well what else have you got to- oh my God,” Stede gasps, toes curling and stretching his stockings, as the flat of Ed’s tongue presses to his underwear, right where he’s undoubtedly soaked them through. “Ed, that’s- fuck.”
“Mm,” Ed hums. It’s not exactly words, but Stede gets the message from the admonishing pitch of it anyhow and quiets.
Ed laps at that spot repeatedly in long strokes. The warmth, the pressure, the feeling of the damp cotton pressing where he's already dripping, have Stede struggling to breathe.
“Ed,” Stede says after a minute of this, a beat after Ed’s eyes have fluttered shut like he’s truly devoted himself to the task. Ed opens his eyes but doesn’t stop, only tips his head further back and presses the point of his tongue right over Stede’s cock.
He swirls his tongue in torturous circles around it with a precision that has him grasping at the nothing under his hands, rocking his hips down onto it to try and get more pressure. “Ed. Edward, please, come on–”
“Uh?” Ed gives a departing lick that Stede presses into helplessly, then moves his head back. Stede chases it despite himself. “What?”
“I need more than that,” Stede pants. Ed grins something wicked and, finally, his fingers hook themselves again with true promise and slide Stede’s ruined briefs down.
Stede feels insecure at once and kicks them off as fast as he can so he can close his legs a bit, but Ed’s hands slide down to his thighs before he can manage it, groaning a sound carnal, animalistic, and truthfully flattering.
“Can’t believe I’m only doing this now,” Ed says, adjusting his sit and stretching out his knee.
Stede grimaces at the sound of it popping loudly, but Ed seems unphased, entranced as he coaxes Stede’s legs to open wider with presses of his palms.
“God,” Ed croaks, staring wide-eyed and reverent as if he’s just found gold between Stede’s legs, as if his genitals are a bounty, a prize, and Stede lets out a tittering laugh. Ed leans back forward and licks at Stede’s cock, then pulls back to say, lascivious, “you’ve just got the cutest little dick, mate.”
“Fuck,” Stede hisses, then looks away. “You can’t talk like that, Ed. That’s…”
“Perverted?” Ed offers, grinning. “I dunno, man. Seems like you like it.”
“Yes, alright, maybe." Stede tries to flap a dismissive hand, but the dramatic gesticulation makes him one arm short in holding himself up, and he’s weak-kneed stumbling until Ed wrenches his wrist back onto the table. Stede hears his own heartbeat, the roar of blood in his ears.
Then Ed’s sucking those same love-bite bruises into Stede’s thighs, pale and glowing in the dark of the cabin, flesh notably darker as Ed goes up, then around to the other until Stede’s shifting impatiently.
“Ask for what you want,” Ed murmurs into a fresh mark on Stede’s inner thigh.
“Really?” Stede, admittedly, has scarcely ever had to. Anything he doesn’t already have, he can usually get, whether by means of purchase or plunder.
“Yeah, mate,” Ed nips his skin, temperate, “want to hear how bad you want it.”
“Ed, please,” Stede says, voice strained as Ed puts his mouth a hairsbreadth away from Stede’s cock, hot breath making him squirm.
He doesn’t expect Ed’s hips to buck, the silk of their shared robe swishing over his stocking, but it seems to be an ideal reaction.
“Please,” Stede repeats, trying to keep his prissy impatience out of his voice, hones in on the need he feels, the throbbing of his cock as Ed presses the tip of his tongue over the hood that falls over it. “Please, do more- I, um. I want to feel your mouth on me. Please?”
“Perfect,” Ed whispers, then lays his tongue over Stede’s folds, wet with need, and licks between them. Stede trembles as Ed teases like he’ll push his tongue inside, muscle catching on Stede’s hole before he swipes up to lick at Stede’s cock.
Stede makes the mistake of closing his eyes, then, and they snap right open once Ed slips a thick finger inside him in one slow, easy glide.
Ed smiles, open-mouthed and panting, gives enough pressure that Stede moans, and then asks in a purr, “you ever felt anything like this, Stede?”
“No,” Stede divulges forthwith, his breath coming in short bursts, then stopping altogether when Ed laps languidly at him again, slips in another finger, “nothing like it, no.”
Ed’s fingers curl in as soon as Stede gets his words out, washing away anything else he might’ve said as he starts to push and crook them in rhythm with the persistent little laps and glides of his tongue.
He uses his thumb to pull back the hood and presses the point of his tongue against his cock directly, then wraps his lips around it, the small nub of it hardly fitting between them as he suckles at him, humming gently, pleasured even as his hands remain on Stede’s hips.
Stede jerks at the sensation, feeling like he’s been struck by lightning out in a squall, and he holds Ed’s heated stare as he pleads, urgently, “please, keep going.”
Ed only nods, beard scratching at Stede’s cock and sending him lurching forward again until it’s soothed by circles of Ed’s tongue around it, flicks of his tongue over it that make Stede twitch and gasp.
His hands grasp at nothing until it’s Ed’s curls fisted in them, wound between his knuckles, Ed’s index slipping in among the middle and ring fingers, then Ed’s mouth slipping away, his fingers stretching him with zero stimulation otherwise. That’s hardly fair. “Ed?”
“What? My jaw’s tired.” Ed runs his tongue over him once more; Stede’s cock throbs with the threat of impending orgasm. “And I wanna taste you when you cum, but,” Ed’s fingers slide out as he stands, wincing, “I want, even more, to fuck you when you cum.”
“That’s- oh!” Stede’s startled as Ed manhandles him again, twisting his body and pushing him against the table, then making a sound most comparable to a growl as he grabs the flesh of Stede’s ass and spreads him open. “God, that’s…”
“Sorry,” Ed says, clearly not sorry because he slips his fingers in again, even when Stede can feel the press of a dick he’s sure is massive against his rear. “You’re a sight for some sore ass eyes, mate.”
“Ah.” Stede’s somewhat glad that his face is obscured like this because it burns hot enough that Ed would likely tease or laugh about it, if he were to see. “Thank you, Ed.”
“Don’t- what’re you thanking me for?” Ed splutters, followed by a laugh. “Thanking me, when you’re the one lettin’ me fucking bend you over a table like this.”
Stede just scoffs in lieu of having to gather enough of his mind together to form a sentence, trying not to make sounds as embarrassing as he had with Ed’s mouth on him. He’s still dripping, cool air hitting the slick spit Ed left behind, when Ed shows clemency at last in removing his fingers.
“God, fuckin’ look at you,” Ed rubs his palm up Stede’s back, pressing him down into the table further, “you’re the most handsome man I’ve ever fucking seen in my life.”
Stede flushes red hot and arches his back into Ed’s hands. The action seems to have its intended effect, Stede notices; something blunt, warm, and wet presses up to his entrance, far too big to be an inhumane reintroduction of Ed’s digits.
“Ed, can that really fit, you’re sure?” Stede questions, somewhat uncomfortable with the stretch as Ed grunts and presses forward to no avail.
“Sure it can,” Ed declares, tracing ingratiating shapes with calloused fingertips over Stede’s back, “just relax, alright? And tell me, if it’s too much.”
“I think it might- oh,” Stede groans and Ed harmonizes as his cock slips inside, valiant pushing driving him a few inches deeper than he might’ve gone otherwise, as deep as his fingers could reach, and Stede’s glimpsed him enough to know there’s more where that came from.
“Fuckin’ shit,” Ed wheezes, then silk’s wrapping around Stede’s midriff as Ed’s chest is pressed flush to his back. His cock slides the rest of the way in with the movement, nestled warm inside Stede and making him pant in discomfort. “You okay?”
“Yes,” Stede chokes out, the word ripping its way from him ungracefully at the feeling of Ed’s balls brushing his cock. “I think I might need just a minute, though. You’re quite big.”
“Yeah, fuckin- you’re quite tight, so I think we can agree on that,” Ed amends. His voice is gravelly and jagged as the rocks Stede embracingly cracks up on, warm as the blood spatters of a dead rabbit, headily sweet as the flowers Stede would pick and receive great abashment for. He cranes his neck, just slightly, just enough to meet Ed's eyes. “Look really fucking good like this, y’know.”
“Do I?” Stede smiles something small, laughs something unconvinced, but then Ed moves a little, playing it up like he’s adjusting how he’s standing, and any rumination in Stede’s mind is pushed away into the background to be dealt with at a later date.
“I barely fit,” Ed speaks low, drawing back excruciatingly slow until Stede thinks the tip might slip out with him. Stede squirms and tries to push back with no luck, then Ed pistons his hips firmly, meets him halfway with a diabolical little laugh that steals all of the air from Stede’s lungs.
“That feels- ah. It’s a lot, Ed,” Stede says, stringing words together with no small amount of effort. The pace set is gentle, merciful on Stede’s awfully tense body, entangled knots of nerves wrapping his limbs as he dutifully ignores them.
Ed’s being so good to him, compassionate with the unhurried movements on his hips. It’s evident in the feeling of his nails in the flesh of Stede’s hips, the hitching breaths of a man struggling, holding back a storm surge with his arms alone.
“You okay?” Ed asks, somehow, for some reason, when it’s very evidently him suffering with this arrangement. Stede nods, quick, not trusting his stupid blabbermouth to give the right answer.
He must still have given the wrong answer, because Ed stops a minute, traces those idle sigils into Stede’s skin. Stede wonders if he could ever get him to draw how his steward boy does.
“You’re not relaxed,” Ed points out, rubbing his hand up Stede’s back, then down again, soothing balm to Stede’s coils of anxiety. “What do you need?”
Stede chews his lip, tries to rid himself of the feeling that he’s buggered everything up, tries to only focus on finding an answer to Ed’s question.
“I want you to do what you want, Ed,” Stede says with decisive finality. “I can take it.”
“Are you sure?” It’s sort of funny, the way they have this conversation with Ed still inside him, and Stede’s only growing more sure at the feeling, what was before too much now not enough.
“Yes,” Stede assures, low-self esteem taking hold as he adds, “I don't want you to hold back on my account.”
“‘M not.”
“Well, don’t lie about it, Ed,” Stede huffs. “I know you just want to- to take hold of my hips, and-”
Ed’s cock twitches inside him.
Stede's breathing stops a moment, his heart flutters, but still he's far more certain as he says, “and that's what I want, Ed. For you to just... take. To say all those perverted things."
Ed's staring, dark-eyed. "You sure?"
"Please, and- um. I want you to touch me while you do.”
As if he’s been waiting for Stede to ask, he brings his hand down, between his thighs, and as soon as he’s touched, Stede drops his head, holds back sound.
"Those perverted things," Ed repeats. "'s it perverted to say I love that your dick is small enough to fit between only two of my fingers?"
"Quite," Stede gasps, shame and lust mixing, swirling in his gut. He hoped that the lack of stimulation meant he could come back down from how close he was before, but he’s right back on that edge again, shaking like a leaf in a storm for it.
He presses his sweat-damp forehead to the back of his hand and hopes the skin there will absorb the sounds that leave him at the feeling of Ed’s thumb.
And maybe it could’ve, if not for how Stede’s breathy gasps turned to startled, pleasured moans, if not for how Ed started to fuck into him in earnest, passion in every snap of his hips.
Worse, Ed starts talking, that delightful, unspeakably arousing gruff voice of his in Stede’s ear, “you feel so good, love.”
It’s unexpectedly sweet and Stede whines.
“You’re so good,” Ed praises, almost experimental, thumb flicking over him faster.
"Oh, God." Stede shudders, body twitching in enthusiastic reaction to the praising words, and he hopes them to be true as he rocks back into every pounding thrust.
He’s devolved into a mewling stream of words he can hardly keep track of, thank you s and please s that seem to fuel him as he adds, "you're amazing, Stede, I love you."
"I love you," Stede replies feverishly, lifting his head, trying to see Ed.
Ed meets him halfway with a kiss equal parts conquering and soothing, Stede moaning inconsolably into Ed's mouth until he's free again and able to focus on barreling toward his own orgasm.
Ed’s touch is positively hedonic, tragically exquisite, and he's in ruins for it.
He might be saying it out loud, too, but his mind is foggy with it all, and he doesn't know for certain.
“You’re doing so good, I’m not gonna fucking last like this, mate.” Ed says, voice low in threat as he bites harshly into Stede's shoulder, leaves his brand in teethmarks. “I’m gonna cum inside you if I don’t pull out right fucking now, fuck- do you want me to? Do you want me to pull out, Stede?”
“No, no, no,” Stede cries, the idea of being empty sounding like torture when he's this close to the pinnacle of it all. “Please, Ed, I’m yours, just-”
“Fuck yeah you are,” Ed bites the skin of his neck hard enough that Stede yelps, then kisses it rough, messy, “gonna take you for good, Stede. You’re fucking nonesuch, only fucking thing in the world I want, I could give up this pirate captain deal, 'cause you’re the fucking treasure.”
“Ed,” Stede’s heart nearly explodes in his chest, “please, don’t stop.”
“I’m not,” Ed rushes out, talking over Stede’s stream of right there right there right there, “couldn’t if I tried, not when- fuck, you’re so fucking tight, I can’t, you’re fucking- strangling my dick- oh, shit, there you go, love.”
Stede’s body has locked up, cock throbbing under Ed’s thumb and forefinger as he jerks him off, and his shout is muffled around his forearm as he cums. He hopes, distantly, only one thing, one selfish thing: to be this nonpareil focus of Ed's infatuation, to remain his treasure.
“That’s it, Stede, want to feel- oh, fuck, there you go, fuck!” Ed’s thrusts stutter to a stop, wavy hair wet with perspiration tickling Stede’s skin as it tips forward, the table creaking under them as he drives in deep, powerfully, to the hilt. “Stede, shit!”
He doesn’t know how long it is that he lays his full weight on the table, marmalade for bones, and he’s only brought back to the present by the uncomfortable departure of Ed’s softening cock.
“You’re fucking insane,” Ed says. Stede lifts his head, smiles, and tries to stand on wobbly legs, only to fall back into his silken boyfriend.
“So I’ve been told, I’m a fucking lunatic,” Stede reminds him, smiling, “and you like it.”
“Oh, man.” Ed presses his forehead to Stede's shoulder and pulls him closer. “You’re doing sentences already.”
“What?” Stede tilts his head. “So are you.”
“Nnhgh,” Ed groans eloquently in denial, holding Stede in his arms, his breathing soft and quiet, but enough to bring Stede a feeling of tranquility, enough to have Stede winding his arms around to feel the fine softness of the robe Ed adorns in his hands, the serenity of his Co-Captain in his arms.
“That was good, then?” Stede asks in hopes of ridding himself of his qualms, vestiges of insecurity prickling at his skin like sand; the devastating wave that hit him undoubtedly washed him up on this shoal as it brought staggering pleasure alongside incandescent fondness.
Ed pulls back and takes Stede’s face in his hands as he says, “yes, Stede. Fuckin- it was- God. Better than I imagined,” Ed avidly assures him, shaking Stede’s head in his hand as Stede looks away bashfully, “and I’ve fucking imagined.”
“Alrighty, then,” Stede says, nodding his head briskly, now consciously having to overlook the feeling of Ed’s cum dripping from him.
“What’s that face for?” Ed frowns.
“What face? I’m not making a face,” Stede lies, knowing he was very likely making a face. “Um.”
“What?” Ed squints and as Stede shifts his footing in a way he thought subtle, he grins. “Oh. Sorry, yeah, I usually have a lot to give, but I’m sure that’s, uh. Not comfortable, huh, is it?"
Ed’s hand dives between his legs suddenly.
The breath he sucks in as he cups Stede in his hand is rattled, finger pressing it back in as it leaks out, making futile efforts to keep it all inside Stede, who finds his breathing as uneven as it'd been with Ed splitting him open.
Stede, who throbs around Ed's fingers. "Ed?"
“Yup.” Ed heaves a shaky breath as he tears his hand away, tawny face flushed deep with brilliant color that Stede misses as soon as Ed strides off in a swirl of hair. The feeling of Ed’s fingers pushing his seed back inside still lingers, still makes Stede’s heart pound in want. He breathes it away, gradually beginning to feel only fondness for the voice that calls, “Gonna get some water and a cloth or somethin’, alright? Clean you up real good, okay?”
“Alright,” Stede calls back, smiling wide and besotted at the flash of brown skin between curly silver strands as Ed disappears around the corner, feeling silly for having worried at all that Ed wouldn’t like him.
Ed, who has accepted him for every idiotic mistake he’s made. Ed, who meets every shortcoming with unconditional love. Ed, who returns quickly and stares affectionately at Stede, at all of Stede, sprawled in their bed naked to revel in the fine fabric around him.
Stede doesn’t think he’s felt warmth so soothing anywhere but Ed’s eyes, his touch, his back to Stede’s chest, the tired murmurs of promise, of love, of exploration that Stede hopes they’ll share until they die emblazoned in the vitality, the vigor with which they lived.