Archive of Our Own

The leathers don’t fit anymore.

Trying them on again is a lark. They sit at the bottom of a drawer, under other, more precious things, and Ed imagines them disintegrating with time. He had dreamt a pretty dream about the early days, the curiosity between the two of them and how every glance made Ed’s heart stutter. (That still happens. Ed is forever taken with him.)

Ed had woken and wanted to see how it felt. To don his old uniform, to look in the mirror and see a vision of days past, or whatever. Ed rolls his eyes in hindsight. It was a romantic idea. He can’t get them up over his thighs. 

Putting his feet into the legs is old hat. He has to curl his toes in (they cramp up a little. Jesus, he’s getting old), and then he’s through and he can pull them up. He gets them over his calves, and then his knees, and then there’s no more upward movement. He stares down at them. 

“Holy fuck,” he says. He lets them fall back over his feet. “What?”

He picks up the jacket, running on blind hope and adrenaline, and can’t get his upper arms in. “What the fuck.”

He glances toward the door. He knows Stede is outside, doing outside things. Soaking up the sun and the smell of nature. Ed’s nose tickles at the thought of it. He considers his options. He could put them away and never speak of them again. That’s a good one. He could totally do that. And Stede would never know. Or he could throw them into the ocean again. Bye, bye, Blackbeard for good. 

He wiggles his feet out of the trousers, feeling kind of upset. Ed hadn’t noticed, really, that he’d gained so much weight. It’s not a big deal. Ed keeps telling himself it’s not a big deal. He kicks them across the room. “Fuck you,” he hisses. 

And yeah, distantly he’s aware that this makes all kinds of poetic sense, that of course growing into this new life would mean growing out of the old one. That maybe being so comfortable here is in stark contrast to how uncomfortable he was before, both literally (try living on a pirate ship in head to toe leather and not getting swamp ass on a regular basis) and figuratively. 

There’s a mirror across the room and Ed staunchly doesn’t look at it. He feels ridiculous. He’s looked in the mirror plenty. Looked in the mirror yesterday, in fact. He’s a regular fuckin’ Narcissus. He likes the way he looks in his new clothes, likes the way Stede looks at him when he’s wearing his new clothes. Likes getting fucked up against the mirror in his new clothes and watching his dick drool onto the floor over the waistband and getting come on said new clothes and having to buy new new clothes. 

He’s become a bigger clothes horse than Stede. And that’s saying a lot. 

He pulls open the drawers to pick out something different to wear for the day and then gets overwhelmed. He had had the whole scene figured out. He would go surprise Stede in the leathers and maybe tie his hair up so his neck was super visible and put up a front about being scary and toppy and Stede would put him on his knees or up against the wall and treat him like a chew toy. And it would’ve been really nice. Ed would have been able to press his fingers against the bruises for the next few days and get a nice little maintenance dose of pain on command. Ed mourns the loss of a really good full circle moment and also how cute he would look out and about flaunting love bites.

He wants to get back in bed. He could fall back asleep and be woken with a kiss on the forehead and maybe a little bit of gentle pestering about how Ed really shouldn’t sleep so much during the day, that’s why he’s up half the night. And Ed could be all coquettish and give Stede some apology head and they could move on with their day. And it would be as if this little incident had never occurred. 

He looks at the leathers. Maybe he wasn’t sucking in enough. You can suck in your thighs, right? Ed tenses up his thighs and figures that, yeah, he wasn’t sucking in enough. He picks them back up and then feels stupid and then feels driven to keep going and puts them over his feet again. He pulls up, and up, and tenses his thighs, and keeps pulling up and manages to get them an inch higher than last time before they won’t budge. He lets go of them, and they pool around his ankles. He tilts his head back and stares at the ceiling, willing tears not to fall.

It’s not the weight gain. It’s the loss. He’s grieving. All of those years wearing the same fucking thing day in and day out with maybe a different t-shirt depending on his mood, and now he can never wear them again. He kicks them off viciously and picks them up, and storms into the living room. His eyes go to the hearth. He considers burning them, but then has a flash of rationality and thinks about how it would smell. They would stink up the house for an age. He turns and walks out onto the front yard. 

“Um, hi,” comes from behind him. He spins around and faces Stede, sitting on their porch swing with a cup of tea. “Are you okay, Edward?”

Ed drops them. “They don’t fit.” He steps on them with his bare foot and does a little twisting motion to really get his message across. That’s right, pieces of shit. Eat dirt. 

“Alright. Well, that’s no reason to turn them into worm food.”

“Yes, it fucking is,” Ed grunts. “They deserve to die.”

“I don’t think they’re alive, Ed,” Stede says, as if Ed is not aware of this and is not waxing lyrical to emphasize his point. He should be applauded.

“Clap for me,” Ed says.

Stede squints and then starts half-heartedly clapping. 

“I think I want to put them back in the ocean.”

Stede’s clap falters. “Back in the ocean?”

“Yeah, I drowned them the morning after we had sex. For the first time, I mean.”

Stede makes a face. “You did? How did you get them back?”

“That’s not the point,” Ed says. “It’s the end of an era,” he says, powerfully and poignantly. “It’s time to send them back where they came from.”

“I think that would be a farm, Ed, if you’re speaking literally.”

Ed can’t hear him over how shining and perfect his logic is. They gained their power at sea, so it’s only fitting that they meet their end in the same place. Fuck making them worm food. They’re gonna be fish food by the time Ed’s done with them. Shark food. Whale food. He’s gonna feed them directly to a piranha. 

“I’m not going to let this ruin my day,” Ed says. Or his week, or his month, or his year, or the rest of his life…

Stede straightens up. “Darling, you’re not actually upset about this, are you?”

Stupid question. “No,” Ed lies. 

“Good,” Stede says. “Because if you were, I would tell you that they’re just a pair of trousers and a jacket and that you could have a new pair of them made, if that’s really what you wanted.”

It’s not about having a pair of leathers, Ed thinks but doesn’t say because he feels a little bit silly. It’s about the meaning behind them. About how integral they were to who he was. He was Blackbeard. He wore leather trousers. He wore those leather trousers. They were the willing recipient of, like, copious amounts of his ball sweat. (He wore those trousers the day he met Stede.) And now they don’t fit.

Ed thinks about losing any of the other sacred items of clothing he has in his closet. The blue robe he wore the morning after Stede fucked him for the first time. The dress he stole from a guest back when they were doing the whole inn-thing that Stede fucked him in on a random Tuesday. Those panties he bought from the market that have basically turned into floss from how many times he’s been fucked in them. He can’t get those on anymore, either, as they are not fit to wear due to the flossifying they have undergone. But Ed digresses. It’s about the meaning. 

“I don’t want another pair,” Ed says, about a second away from balling his fists up and stomping on them like a petulant child. The second passes. He stomps. “I want these to fit.”

“I thought you were going to drown them,” Stede reminds him.

“I am,” Ed says, gathering them up into his arms. “Right now.”

“Well, wait,” Stede says. “Shall we be a bit more festive about it?”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, let’s get you dressed for one,” Stede says. Ed is standing naked — save for some skimpy shorts that he’s pretty sure his dick is peeking out from — on their front lawn. “And then we’ll go from there.”

Ed flounders once he’s back in their bedroom. “What if none of my clothes fit anymore?”

“Well, darling, you’ve been wearing most of your clothes pretty consistently lately. This is the first time you’ve tried the leathers on in, what, two years?”

Ed’s stomach swoops. Two years. “That’s kind of crazy.”

“Which part?” Stede asks, leafing through Ed’s clothes.

“That it’s been two years. I’m, like, well past middle-aged now.”

“Oh, I don’t know. You could live to 104,” Stede says distractedly. 

Ed grabs at his hairy tummy. He feels like he’s just now getting reacquainted with his body. He feels kind of embarrassed. Stede has put on weight too, of course, but it suits him. Looks natural. Ed’s looks out of place. “Twink death,” he says gravely.

Stede’s eyes dart to him confusedly before he turns back to Ed’s wardrobe. He doesn’t comment. Ed continues. “I used to be like 140 pounds and hairless, man. What the fuck happened?”

Stede sniffs and pulls a shirt from the rack, turning to hold it up to Ed’s body and then turns and hangs it back up. 

“You didn’t know me back then, but I was hot shit.”

“You’re still hot shit, honey,” Stede says indulgently, continuing to parse through Ed’s stuff. 

“People were lined up all over just to catch a glimpse of me.”

Stede laughs. “Oh, were they?”

“Yeah, man. Remember how I said people’ve got my face tattooed on their bodies?”

“Not just your face, you said,” Stede recalls. 

“S’pose those days are gone,” Ed says. “No one’s lining up to see a fat old man in linen.”

Stede clicks his tongue. “Here we are,” he says. He turns, holding a pretty blue blouse. “I’d like to see you in this one.”

Ed delights at this, loves to be dressed up like a doll. He lifts his hands over his head, tilting forward a bit to accommodate the height difference so Stede can slip the thing over them. It fits perfectly, if a little snug in the arms. 

“Oh, look at you. My beautiful man.”

Ed blushes a bit. His chest is lifted and pressed together. He stares down at his hairy cleavage. “Huh.”

“What?” Stede asks, having turned back around to pick out a pair of trousers. 

“My tits are out,” he says.

Stede glances back. “That they are,” he says, looking mischievous, like a little mouse who got the cheese, or a cat who got the cheese? Something with cream? Whatever they say. 

“You’re a lech,” Ed grins. “I look like a milkmaid.”

“Mm,” Stede hums. Ed watches his fingers linger on a skirt. Short skirt, too. 

“Jeez, mate.”

“Sorry,” he says flippantly. “I mean, it’s just the two of us.”

This is true. They stopped doing the inn after about 6 months. Too much work. And they couldn’t fuck in the kitchen, or in the dining room, or in the library, or on the porch, or on the beach in front of the house. Just after they closed up shop for the last time, Stede fucked him over the welcome desk. Ed had flung a hand out for purchase and it had landed on the bell. Stede had come as if on cue and Ed had teased him mercilessly about it until Stede tried to withhold his orgasm from him and Ed had apologized profusely and promised to never bring up the bell incident again. He thinks about it a lot but doesn’t ever bring it up because he is kind and considerate and wants to be able to come whenever he pleases.

“I mean, a long skirt would be more apt, right?”

Stede considers this. “I suppose.”

“And you could, like, ruck it up and fuck me like that.”

“That’s smart thinking, Ed.”

“But if you really wanted to do the short skirt thing,” Ed drawls.

“Would you try it on? For me?”

Ed nods, and then he’s wiggling the thing up over his thighs. He tries to button it over his belly but it’s too small for that. He buttons it under and looks… “Stede, come on.”

Stede might as well be drooling. He drops to his knees and shoves his face into Ed’s tummy, puts his hands on it too. Like he’s praying at an altar. “You’re so sexy,” he says, worshipful. 

“No milkmaid would look like this.”

“I wasn’t going for accuracy, darling,” Stede slurs into his skin. “You smell nice.”

“I haven’t taken a bath in like two days.”

Stede makes a noise like he is fully aware of this and stands by his opinion. 

Ed gets a little jittery with Stede’s hands on his stomach like this. “You’re not just, like, making fun of me, right?”

Stede peers up at him, face flushed and pupils blown. That kind of answers the question, but he speaks anyway. “Ed, that’s ridiculous.”

“But I was hotter when you first met me,” Ed says. It’s a fact. Stede is going to say some shit about how he would love Ed at any size.

“No,” Stede says, instead of what Ed predicted. “I think you’re the most perfect thing I’ve ever seen, right now.”

Ed purses his lips. He doesn’t sound like he’s lying. “What if I lost all the weight again?”

“Well, I’d think you were the most perfect thing I’ve ever seen, right then.”

“That’s not fair. You’re not allowed to have it both ways.”

“I love you however you’re most comfortable, Edward.”

Ed’s toes curl against the hardwood. He can’t even be mad because he feels the same way about Stede. He was hot when Ed first met him, in his frills and all, and then he was hot when Ed re-met him, in those drab beige things, and he’s hot now, wearing whatever the fuck he wants. He might even be the hottest he’s ever seen him lately, walking around all confident and sexy and going grey at the temples and squinting down at a book in his sexy reading glasses and now Ed is the lech. His dick hardens up against his thigh.

“Can I suck you?” Stede asks.

Ed blinks at him. “Uh, yeah. You want to?”

“Just for a bit,” Stede says, pulling Ed’s skirt up and tugging his shorts to his knees. Ed’s dick bobs a little. Stede lets the skirt fall back down. His cock tents it. “Hehe,” Stede laughs.

“You’re a fucking pervert,” Ed smiles, loving him so much. 

Stede leans down further and noses up the inside of his thigh. Ed lets out a strangled moan. He kisses the crux of his thigh and crotch, and Ed can feel him take a deep inhale. 

“Fuck,” Ed says, very simply, sounding completely put together and not at all seconds from collapsing.

“Ask for my mouth,” Stede says, voice rough. His face is covered by the skirt. 

Ed shivers. “Please,” he says.

Stede flips the skirt up and looks up at him. He looks a little crazy, like he’s gonna go rabid any minute and maybe bite Ed’s dick off. Ed feels a little crazy knowing that he’s the reason for that. “‘Please’ is good. I need you to be more specific, sweetheart.”

“Suck my dick, please,” Ed peeps. 

Stede laughs; a breathy, sweet thing. He leans in and takes Ed’s cock in hand and licks a stripe from the base to the tip before taking it in his mouth. His eyes stay locked on Ed’s, and Ed can basically hear the stream of filth that would be coming from him if his mouth wasn’t occupied. Things like how sexy Ed looks, how desperate, how good he’s being. Stede takes his hand from where it’s dangling at his side and puts it in his hair.

Ed whimpers and threads his fingers through it. It's as soft as ever. Maybe freshly conditioned. He only thrusts his hips a little, not wanting Stede to gag. Stede slips his hand up the back of Ed’s skirt and grabs his ass, pulling him closer, harder. 

“Fffuck,” Ed curses. 

Stede’s other hand slides up and grabs Ed’s belly. “Fuck,” Ed exclaims. The hand on his ass maneuvers to the side and then Stede’s finger is slipping up over his perineum and tapping against his hole.

It’s a miracle that Ed doesn’t immediately come. He bends at the waist, lets out what is probably the loudest moan anyone’s ever moaned, and Stede pulls off, leaving his extremely hard cock to jerk and drip both spit and precome onto the floor. 

Stede’s finger is still snug right up against Ed’s asshole and gives it a friendly little rub before pulling away. “Alright, darling?” he croaks. 

Ed can’t conjure words. He just stares at him open-mouthed and panting. 

“Broken you, have I?” Stede struggles to his feet, knees popping. “Alright. On the bed with you, then.”

Ed looks at the bed. He looks back at Stede. He feels kind of scared. “What are you gonna do to me?”

Stede snorts. “Come on, babe.” He nudges him forward. Ed scoots onto their bed, bare ass out, and sits politely. His cock tents the skirt again. “Now, I know we just got you all dressed, but I’d like you naked. Can you help me out?”

Ed struggles to get the blouse over his head and then throws it across the room. It lands on the spit and come spot.

“That’s a lovely garment, Edward,” Stede scolds. 

“And now it’s a lovely garment that has come on it,” Ed says. “Like most of my clothes.”

Stede grabs at the waistband of the skirt and tries to wiggle it over Ed’s thighs. It doesn’t move. He delicately unbuttons the button, pulls down the zipper, and then throws it across the room too. Hypocrite.

Ed sits on the bed, now fully naked, and feels a little weird, everything sagging down into the mattress. “I’m really fat, man.”

Stede hums and crawls onto the bed with him.

“You’re supposed to tell me I’m not,” Ed says.

“Why would I do that?”

Ed shrugs. “I dunno.”

“It’s not a bad thing to be fat, Edward,” Stede says, gently. “All that it means is that you’re comfortable, that you’re eating well.”

“Could exercise more,” Ed sniffs.

“You could, if you wanted to.” Stede gives him a soft smile. “But you don’t have to. We’re getting older, Ed. We’re retired. It makes sense that we would gain weight.” 

“You haven’t gained as much as me, though,” Ed says. 

Stede gives him a look. “Is it a competition, darling?”

“No,” Ed says, crossing his arms over his chest. “S’pose not.” He looks searchingly at Stede. Stede looks back, eyes soft. “What do you want to do?”

“I want,” Stede says, reaching to uncross Ed’s arms and lay him down on their bed, “to show you how beautiful you are.”

Ed looks away childishly, feeling a little bit flayed open and raw. “You’re a sap.”

“Hey, I never claimed not to be,” Stede laughs. He situates himself against Ed’s neck, planting kisses there. He sucks skin into his mouth and worries it between his teeth, no doubt leaving a mark behind. Ed is getting what he wanted without the leathers even being involved. Stede tries to pull away and Ed pushes him back against his neck. Stede giggles, continuing to nip at him indulgently. He manages to get away while Ed is indisposed with how horny he is. 

“You have to do the other side,” Ed says. “Make it even.”

“I’ll get to that later,” Stede says. He reaches up and drapes a hand lightly across Ed’s throat. “You have a lovely neck, do you know that?”

Ed blinks up at him, eyes wide. “Uh.”

Stede squeezes just a bit. “So beautiful. Statuesque.”

“Heh,” Ed chuckles a little hysterically. “It’s just a neck, mate.”

“Oh, but it’s not,” Stede says, thumb tracing his Adam's apple, the hollow of his throat. “I love watching you swallow. Have I ever told you that?”

Ed continues blinking, to the point where he is arguably batting his lashes. This is news to him. 

“It may have something to do with loving to watch you eat,” Stede muses. “The way you smile when you’re having something particularly good. I’ve even seen you laugh a few times.”

Ed purses his lips. He didn’t know Stede noticed that shit, the little things. He feels split down the middle, like all of his organs are on display. “If you’re gonna do this with like every one of my body parts we’re gonna be here for a long time.”

“Shall I move on?” 

“Could do, yeah.”

Stede huffs out a laugh and then dips down to kiss along his tits. He sweeps his tongue along the curve of one, up over the hair to his nipple, which he suckles on softly. Ed lets out little moans as he travels across his chest. He brings a hand up to cup the one that isn’t in his mouth, sliding his thumb across the nipple there. Then he brings his fingers together and pinches it. Ed whines. Stede bullies the one in his mouth with his teeth and then soothes it with his tongue. 

“Fuck,” Ed breathes. 

“How’s that feel?” Stede asks gently. 

“Good,” Ed sighs. “You play me like a fucking fiddle, babe.”

“Ha! Did I ever tell you I took violin lessons as a child?” he asks as he brings a hand between Ed’s legs to hold his cock in a loose grip.

“Uh,” Ed tries to remember. “I don’t think so.”

“I was just awful at it,” Stede muses. “I’m a quick study, you know that about me,” he says, stroking Ed’s cock slowly.

“Yeah,” Ed says, voice shaking.

“I just couldn’t grasp it, though. I think it was moving the hands differently at the same time,” Stede hums. He pinches Ed’s nipple as he slides his fist over the head of Ed’s dick. “But I’ve gotten better at that, don’t you think?”

“Fuuck,” Ed groans. 

“Same reason I could never master the piano,” he says casually, as if discussing the weather and not driving Ed out of his mind. “You’re lovely on the keys, though, my love.”

“Learned when I was young,” Ed says, feeling wobbly. 

“Such a talent,” Stede says softly. “You’re a marvel, dear.”

“I’m —” Ed starts, head tipping back, hips bucking a little into Stede’s grasp. “I think I’m gonna —”

“Oh, no,” Stede says, taking his hand away from Ed’s cock. “Not yet, I don’t think.”

Ed whines, breath coming fast. He’s not above begging. 

Stede puts a hand over his tit. He keeps it there for a good minute.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m just feeling your heartbeat,” Stede says, casually.

Ed moans, putting his hands over his face, absolutely despairing. He’s such a fucking romantic. Fuckin’ Romeo. Ed swoons.

“I love your body,” Stede says.

“You’ve said,” Ed says, weakly.

“Yes. I love the way it looks. I think you’re the most beautiful man alive.”

Ed takes his hands away from his face. “You haven’t seen many men, then.”

“I’ve seen plenty,” Stede dismisses. “But, I’m straying from my point. I love the way it functions, as well.”

Ed gives him a pitying look. “You’re in deep, man.”

“I am,” Stede laughs.

“You wanna cut me open or something? Go full serial killer on me?”

“No,” Stede shakes his head, smiling in a way that really communicates the opposite. “I’m just saying I’m glad your body is doing its job.”

“Be dead if it wasn’t, mate.”

“Mm,” Stede agrees. “Help me out of my clothes, will you?”

Stede’s still wearing his sleep clothes, so it’s easy. Ed, brain a little foggy from being so close and made to stop earlier, pulls his shirt over his head clumsily. Stede slides his pants down after. Ed takes the whole of him in. He has gained weight. Ed hadn’t really noticed, in the same way that he hadn’t noticed it in himself either. He’s pudgy in the belly, his thighs are thicker. He’s got a softer face, especially in his jaw. Ed wonders if his face might look the same under his beard. He brings a hand up to his face and feels along his chin. It’s as plush as the rest of him. 

Stede laughs. “I’ve gone a bit soft in the face, I know.”

“It suits you,” Ed says. He looks older, too. His neck hangs a little looser. He has deeper crow's feet. Distinguished. Handsome. He reaches up to cup his cheek. “Kiss me?”

Stede leans down and kisses him. It’s a sweet kiss, closed-mouth until Stede’s tongue pokes at Ed’s lower lip and Ed opens to receive it. They kiss until Ed feels like he’s on fire from how hard he’s blushing. His thoughts all swirl together.

“God, you’re lovely,” Stede says against his mouth, bringing his hand down again to wrap around Ed’s cock. “I can’t wait to be inside of you.”

Ed makes a noise that feels like it comes from his gut. Or, like, the tip of his dick. 

“Would you like that?”

“Yes,” Ed creaks. 

“Tell me what you like about it,” he says, jerking him slowly.

Ed feels insane. He can’t think straight. “You…” he starts. 

He watches a smirk crawl across Stede’s face.

“I,” he wipes a hand across his face. “I don’t know. I can’t — think.” 

“That’s okay, darling,” Stede says, clearly very proud of himself. “You don’t have to. I’ll tell you what you like about it.”

“Okay,” Ed says, helpless. 

“I think you like being full,” Stede starts. “I think it satisfies you, to have something filling you up, deep inside you.” 

Ed whimpers.

“I think… I think you like feeling owned. Is that right, darling? Do you like feeling like you’re mine?”

“Yeah,” it comes out high and thready. Ed’s cheeks burn hotter. He covers his face.

“You like being held down,” Stede states, knowing it to be true. Knowing Ed so well. He reaches up with his non-occupied hand to pull Ed’s hands off of his face. “You like being pinned. Oh, Ed, I would love to tie you up again soon. Would that be nice?”

“Yes,” Ed nods, eyes darting around Stede’s face, at his eyes, his nose, his mouth. “Please.”

“I can picture it. How lovely your skin would mark up,” Stede murmurs. His hand leaves Ed’s dick (Ed’s hips jerk up to follow it) and he reaches down to feel Ed’s thighs up. “Especially here.” He pinches Ed’s inner thigh and Ed gasps. 

“Stede,” Ed says impatiently. “I need you to fuck me. Like, now.”

“Oh, I’m getting to it, Ed,” he says, admonishing him. “I haven’t even gotten to your favorite parts.”

Ed tilts his head back and Stede tucks into his neck again. Ed laughs lightly. 

“You like coming with something inside of you,” Stede says into his skin. He noses against Ed’s soft jaw. Ed hums in affirmation. “ And you like it when I come inside of you.”

“Yes,” Ed moans. “I want it. I want all of that. Please, Stede.”

“As if I could ever deny you something you want, my love,” Stede says, voice low. “Spread your legs for me?”

Ed does, spreads them as wide as he can. Stede’s hand slips down over his chest, over his belly. He traces fingertips along Ed’s cock, teases at his balls, travels further down to press between his cheeks and against his hole. He rubs at it, fingers dry. Ed takes gasping breaths in and in and in. 

Stede smacks a kiss against Ed’s neck and then slides down the length of his body, hands touching and smoothing over body hair. He brings Ed’s knees up to his chest. “Hold them there.” 

Ed does. Stede’s hands move over his ass, getting a good feel of it, before leaning down and licking over his hole.

“Oh, fuck,” Ed grunts. 

“Alright?”

“Yeah,” Ed says. “More than fuckin’ alright, baby.”

Stede glances up from between his legs before planting a wet kiss there and digging in with his tongue. He eats him out methodically, gets him moaning and sighing and hitching his hips up against his face. He presses his thumb against the wet space, in and out just a little, lapping around it. “You’re delicious,” Stede says. “This is one of my favorite things to do to you.” He reaches up to wrap a hand around Ed’s dick, starting to leak now. Stede looks up at his flushed red face and smiles.

“I want you inside me so fucking bad, man,” Ed says, answering for how wet he is.

Stede kisses Ed’s hole one last time before crawling up his body. He sticks his tongue out and picks a pube off of it. 

“Sorry,” Ed says.

“Don’t apologize,” Stede says, kissing Ed’s neck again. “I love how hairy you are.” His hand travels down to dig fingers into Ed’s belly. “It’s sexy.”

“I can’t believe you really like that,” Ed says, glancing down at his stomach. 

Stede pulls back and gives him a questioning look. “Hm? Of course I do.”

“Tell me what you like about it?” Ed asks, echoing Stede earlier. 

“Well,” Stede looks up, thinking. “Hm.” He brings his hand up to Ed’s face and cups his cheek. “Do you remember when I had just found my way back to you?”

Ed makes a face. “You mean when I was dead?”

“Mm,” Stede hums sadly. “You were so thin, Ed.”

Ed’s brow furrows. “I was?”

“Yes,” Stede says, seriously. “You had lost so much weight. I suppose that made it worse, even, to see you lying there… and you hadn’t been eating well. I remember, when we were aboard the Revenge together, in the early days, how much you loved eating with me.”

“Yeah, that was because of the company, mate.”

Stede huffs a laugh. “Yes, but you love eating, too, Ed.”

Ed purses his lips. He’s not wrong. Good food had been one of his reasons to keep kicking.

“And even then, I saw you softening a bit.” He says it like he’s telling a secret. “It felt good, to do that for you. To be the reason behind your comfort.”

Ed listens carefully. 

“And then you got so thin while we were apart, Ed. And since then, I’ve been kind of… obsessed with softening you up again.”

“Done more than soften me up, man.”

“Mm,” Stede nuzzles into his neck. “Added bonus. You look so beautiful, Ed. You look… healthy. And happy. You look alive .”

Ed’s lower lip trembles. Stede looks up at him with watery eyes. They both laugh a little, tears spilling over. Stede pulls him into his arms and their bellies rub together as they hitch through quiet sobs. 

“Kiss me,” Ed says when they pull back. 

“Ed, I’ve just…” he looks towards Ed’s lower half.

“Don’t care. I want a kiss.”

Stede lets out an incredulous laugh. He leans in and gives Ed a soft, tender, closed-mouth kiss.

They wipe their tears, and then Stede pushes Ed’s knees back up and gives him his fingers. One, two, three into the clutch of his body, reaching and searching. He presses incessantly at his prostate, making him pant, making his fingers curl into their bedsheets. He murmurs sweet things about how well he takes him, how beautiful his hole is (“Christ, man.”), how he wants to be inside him so badly. Ed whimpers along with the praise.

“Ready?” Stede asks as he kneels between his legs, pressing the head of his cock up against Ed’s hole. 

“Yeah. Always,” Ed says, smiling shyly. It feels like their first time again. Ed feels grounded in his body for the first time in who knows how long. Stede’s long fingers press into his thighs as he pushes in. Ed’s head tips back on a gasp. 

“God, you feel like a dream, Edward.”

“I dreamt that we were back on the Revenge,” Ed says. 

Stede’s hips falter. “You did?”

“Like, early on. I had the long beard and all. Was wearing the leathers.”

“Ah,” Stede breathes, thrusting shallowly. “Hence trying them on?”

“Yep,” Ed says. He drapes his arms over Stede’s back. “Thought I could be that cool and sexy again.”

“You are that cool and sexy.”

“I’m a housewife,” Ed grumbles.

“If you’re a housewife, then I’m a househusband, darling. Neither of us do much work.”

“That’s true,” Ed says. His toes curl as Stede starts fucking him harder.

“What were we doing?”

“Mm?” Ed hums distractedly, fingers tracing the tops of Stede’s shoulders. 

“On the Revenge.”

“Oh, uh,” Ed tries to recall the dream. He barks out a laugh. “We were making out.”

Stede giggles. “Good dream, then?”

“Yeah,” Ed nods. “We were making out, but it was that first morning.”

Stede makes a surprised noise. “On the crow’s nest?”

“Yep,” Ed says, popping the ‘p.’ “You with your guts popping out, me being… the way I was back then.”

“I would’ve liked to kiss you with the long beard,” Stede muses. 

“Yeah, well,” Ed says. “I’m not growing it out again.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want you to. Look how handsome you are.”

Ed wrinkles his nose. “Alright, alright.”

Stede fucks in deep and does a clever little swivel of his hips that makes Ed moan. It feels good in a decadent, melted chocolatey way, like they could last forever. No urgency, just the push of their hips together. Ed’s asshole might get tired before they do. 

“Can you touch my dick?”

“Of course,” Stede says, wrapping long fingers around it. “Would you like to come soon?”

“Mm,” Ed hums. “You choose.”

Stede laughs. “Alright.” He jerks Ed’s cock a little. “I don’t believe I’ve spoken on this topic yet.”

Ed groans. “Come on, man. It’s nothing special.”

“It’s perfect,” Stede says, thumbing over the wet head. “You’re so sensitive, Ed.”

“Mmmrrr,” Ed grumbles. He looks down at his dick, red and wet and starting to pulse in Stede’s hand. “If anything I should be worshipping your cock.”

“Oh, you do that on a regular basis, darling. Every time you take me in your sweet mouth, I feel deified.”

Ed rolls his eyes. It’s accurate, for sure. Ed on his little pillow on his knees in front of him, hair wrapped up in a hand, taking him deep in his throat. It is a little bit like idolatry. “You’re a drama queen.”

Stede doesn’t disagree, just fucks him harder, faster, jerks his cock just right, squeezing just tight enough. Ed’s breath starts catching in his chest. “Stede,” he gasps.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” Stede says gently. “Come for me.”

Ed’s back bends, his vision whites out. It’s the whole shabang. He comes hard over Stede’s fist. When he returns to his body, he finds Stede giggling.

“Wha?” he slurs.

“I just love seeing you come,” Stede says.

Ed huffs out a laugh. Jeeeeez. “Hey, remember what you said earlier? One of my favorite parts is you coming inside me.”

“Impatient,” Stede says.

“Untrue,” Ed says.

“Patently true,” Stede argues. “I could list off some examples, if you’d like.”

“No, jesus,” Ed says, wrapping his legs around Stede’s waist. “Just keep going.”

Stede starts fucking him again, quick and hard and Ed starts to pant with overstimulation. He whines, cock jerking uselessly with every brush against his prostate. Stede’s breath starts to run a little ragged, and then he’s still and Ed (yessss) feels him come. 

“That is my favorite part,” Ed sighs. 

Stede collapses atop him and nuzzles into his neck again, this time the other side. He bites at him a couple times, evening it out. Ed feels thoroughly chewed up. He smiles, reaching up to play with Stede’s hair. Stede curls his arms around Ed’s sides and rolls them over, his dick slipping out with the movement. “Oof,” Ed grunts. He feels Stede’s come drip out over his balls. 

They hug for a while, chests rising and falling with evening breath. 

“That was nice,” Ed says. “You really like me, huh?”

Stede snorts. “Do you still want to drown the leathers?”

Ed shrugs. “Not especially. Might be okay to keep them around. Just for, like, sentimental reasons. Y’know?”

“I know,” Stede says. “I’ve still got the outfit you wore that evening, the morning after.”

“Hm? What outfit?”

“Y’know. The burnt orange trousers.”

Burnt orange. Ed laughs. “From the first day?”

“Yep,” Stede says, nodding against Ed’s shoulder. 

“Such a sap,” Ed says, loving him.

“I love you,” Stede says, as if reading his mind.

“Love you too,” Ed replies. “I’ve got to take a bath today, man.” 

Stede takes a long huff of his hair. “I reckon you could go a day or two longer.”

“That’s because you’re weird. You’re into me smelling bad.”

“Bad is subjective.”

“You’re subjective,” Ed says, reaching down to hold Stede’s love handles. Stede’s hands come around to rest on Ed’s ass. “Am I crushing you?”

“Oh, no,” Stede says. “You’re perfect.”

They do have a little funeral for the concept of the leathers. The idea of them. Ed imagines feeding them to a rabid dog, or to, like, a bear. Certainly they could find a bear to eat them. He’s comforted, though, by the thought of them in the bottom of his dresser drawer. If they disintegrate, they disintegrate, Ed thinks. Ed won’t be sitting and watching it happen. They sit side by side, holding hands on the porch swing, and lay the past to rest.