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“Stede?” Ed asks hushedly, peering around the door of the cabin.
“One moment!” Stede rushes out from behind his dressing screen, clad in a baby-pink robe over his long cream nightgown. “Is something wrong?”
Ed can’t stand to see that worried look on Stede's face, the same one he’d worn when he’d frantically enquired after his crew while he was about to bleed out from a stab wound. “Nah, mate,” he soothes. “Just got something for ya.”
“Oh?”
How does he manage to widen his eyes into near perfect circles? Fuck. “Yep. It’s, uh. It’s dumb, but. You know how we just crossed the equator?”
“We did?”
Ed smiles a little, hoping it’s hidden beneath his beard. Christ, Stede’s helpless. What kind of pirate doesn’t know they’ve crossed the equator for the first time? Then again, it’s just a fuckin’ line on a piece of paper. It doesn’t really matter, doesn’t change anything about their course. Maybe there’s no point in it, really.
But, there’s tradition.
“Yeah, mate,” he replies after a beat, sure that he can’t hide the smile from his tone. “Big deal for a pirate, when they cross the equator for the first time.”
“Really?” Stede’s face lights up. “When was the first time you crossed the equator?”
Ed has to think for a moment. “I was a lad- maybe 18, 19? Anyway, your crew’s s’posed to pierce your ear the first time ‘round. You don’t have to, but I thought maybe-” He thrusts out his hand, uncurling his fingers to reveal a little golden hoop with a sapphire embedded in its apex.
Stede gets far closer than strictly necessary to peer at the trinket. “This is meant to go in me?”
Christ, Ed can’t deal with that. He just stares, eyebrows raised, an unspoken question he hopes is clear. Stede looks only at the earring. He takes a deep breath, then raises his eyes to Ed’s. “Alright.”
“Alright?” Ed echoes.
“Alright. Let’s do it. Let’s put it in me.”
Stede has to know what he’s doing, doesn’t he?
Well. Knowing him, he probably doesn’t. But Ed needs to let him know sooner or later, or eventually Stede’ll end up accidentally seducing some bloke who will be all too happy to take advantage of him.
𓊝
Ed doesn’t think it’s taking advantage of Stede to rub his shoulder while holding a cloth, damp with storm-cool saltwater, against his left earlobe. He doesn’t think so. And if it is, well. He’s got a long list of sins. What’s one more.
He’s sitting atop Stede’s desk, legs spread wide, with Stede positioned on the chair in front of him. Ed takes advantage of his proximity to stroke a finger down the shell of Stede’s ear to his earlobe, which is- quite frankly- delectable.
“Will it hurt much?” Stede sounds hesitant, but his head is tilted into Ed’s touch.
“Far less than a stab wound, ‘n you’ve had that twice, so. You’ll be fine.”
Stede twists his hands anxiously. “I didn’t really enjoy those, though.” He gives a shuddery breath, turning his frenzied eyes toward Ed.
“Shh,” Ed murmurs, pressing his fingers into the cord of Stede’s rotator cuff and admiring the feeling of all that brawn under his fingertips. “It’s worth it. No scar this time, just a flashy gem to pretty you up.” Not that you need it, he thinks. He feels Stede relaxing beneath the pads of his fingers. “And all you gotta do for this one is keep it clean with that pretty soap of yours. No stitches or bedrest required.”
Stede’s eyes flick away, then he nods adamantly. “Okay. I trust you, Ed.”
Ed feels a chuffed little smile tugging at his lips. “Take a drink, Stede,” he says, gesturing to the full snifter by his elbow.
“Are you certain I should? Doesn’t alcohol thin your blood?”
Ed can almost hear the unasked question- Will I bleed out from an ear piercing? He snorts. He doesn’t mean to, but he does.
“You’ll be fine, mate. Dulls the pain a bit, it won’t hurt ya. Thought you trusted me?”
Stede gives a meek grin and picks up the bottle. Once he's taken a swig, Ed hands him the earring so he can examine the miniature hook and latch while Ed prepares the supplies, holding the needle above a candle until it glows red-hot.
The earring is worth a pretty penny, which he knows for a fact. He’d picked it up the day after their treasure hunt in St. Augustine, when he’d stumbled upon a market stall with all sorts of glitzy little baubles.
He’s rarely ever bought anything unnecessary- don’t need to, when you can just steal whatever shit you want. And pre-owned stuff’s always got more character to it. But Stede doesn’t need more character- he deserves this pretty thing that Ed picked out specifically for him.
“What’s the gem?”
“‘s a sapphire,” Ed tells him. “Wards off melancholy. And if you ever get poisoned, pop it out and swallow it. S’an antidote.”
“Oh, but what a shame it would be to swallow!” Stede says, still marveling at the earring.
Bugger. Ed burns his finger as he pulls the needle back and wipes it down with a bit of rum. “I’ll replace it for ya.” They both fall silent, and Ed regrets opening his mouth.
“Earrings protect you from drowning, don’t they?” Stede asks abruptly, inexplicably.
“Fuck no, man, where’d you hear that?”
“One of my books mentioned it.”
“Your books are fuckin’ wrong,” Ed grumbles. “They should’ve asked a professional. Of course they do keep you from gettin’ seasick, and make your night vision better, but they’re not gonna fucking stop you from drowning."
He doesn’t mention to Stede the other reason pirates wear earrings- an insurance policy of sorts, a last little will to their families if they’ve got ‘em. Enough to give a man a paupers’ grave, at least, enough to deliver their bodies back to their family if the ship's not too far away.
Everyone else gets dumped in the sea, which. Well. Ed doesn’t really give a shit if that’s what they do with his body- once he’s dead, it’s just a body. He won’t have any use for it anymore. But as Blackbeard, he’s sure he’ll get a plethora of pomp and circumstance no matter what.
Shame the plan he and Iz had made didn’t work out, really. He would’ve loved to see his own funeral. Too bad Stede was actually someone he wanted to keep around, not just a poncy dick.
“And you don’t think I’m a bit…old, for a piercing? I won’t look stupid?”
“We’re the same age. You think I look stupid?” Ed asks, raising a hand to sweep his hair behind his ear and display the little silver hoop in his tragus. He doesn’t bother putting in earrings all that often, but this one always stays.
“No!”
“‘course not. I’m a fuckin’ silver fox, mate.”
“You are,” Stede says plainly.
Ed didn’t expect that. He’s used to gassing himself up to combat the insidious ways other people try to tear him down. He’s heard enough about how his beard is hardly even black anymore, how his hair makes him look like a schoolgirl, how his tattoos make him look like he let his drunk friends draw on him (that one’s pretty much true). Stede is only ever genuine with him, though.
Ed tosses him a wink, along with a taste of his own medicine. “And you’re a dashing pirate.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Fuck I don’t! Have you seen your bloody hair?”
“Ahaha. Well I do try.”
Ed can’t help himself. He fingers a curl at the nape of Stede’s neck. “Look at this shit, man. Fuckin’ golden ringlets.”
Stede turns his face, visibly blushing.
“Get back over here,” Ed says, pressing his fingers into Stede’s neck and tilting his head back. “We’re not old, man, we’re seasoned. Big fuckin’ difference.” Ed readies the needle while speaking, not giving Stede a warning. He’s sure Stede wants this, but he also knows he’ll back out if given just one too many moments of hesitation.
“If you say s- AAH!” Stede nearly screeches, as the needle enters the fleshy bit of his earlobe.
“Shh, shh, all done now,” Ed soothes, holding the back of Stede’s neck to keep his head steady while he pulls the needle out. He doesn’t warn Stede before he presses the earring through the newest puncture in his body, quick as he can. But he presses the cool damp cloth back to Stede’s ear as soon as he can, cradling his head against his pec as he tries to abate his pain with a lullabying tone. He gets an odd urge like he’s comforting a child, not because Stede is one, but because he feels like he’d give anything to keep him from suffering. Even if he’s technically the one who caused it, this time round.
He wonders if Stede has ever felt that about his kids. He wonders if it matters.
“I thought you already said it was over?” Stede says in a wavering voice.
“It is now, love,” Ed says, still holding him close.
“Promise?” Stede asks in a whimper.
“Promise you,” he says, and suddenly feels daring enough to press a kiss to the crown of Stede’s head. His hair is soft like down feathers and fragrant under his lips, and he feels a thrill run through him. It’s not unlike the blade Stede ran through him, but this one is a lot closer to that beating organ on the left side that he’s never given much thought or import to.
When Stede’s breath evens out, he reaches (away from Ed, no more warmth against his breast, no more bergamot and sea salt inhaled directly from the source) for the looking glass placed on the escritoire near them. He admires the gem adorning his earlobe with the kind of joy Ed thinks a bird would feel upon being released from its cage for the first time.
“Oh, Ed,” Stede whispers. “It’s lovely.”
You’re lovely, Ed thinks.
“You did well, mate,” he says out loud.
Stede turns, grinning at him.
Ed hadn’t considered, before he made this dumb (rash, stupid, fucking dumb) decision, that putting a piece of metal through Stede’s flesh would only make his inconsolable lust for the man a hundred times worse. He can barely take in a breath and compose himself in the face of Stede’s earnest expression.
“You really think I pull it off?” Stede asks, turning his head this way and that to see the glint of the light against the facets of the blue gem.
“Yeah you fuckin’ do,” Ed mutters. Stede turns his grin towards him, and Ed just barely resists the urge to grab his perfect face in his hands and kiss the shit out of him.