Chapter Text
The sky was soft and pillowy as the soft waves of dawn hit the horizon. It was a sharp morning with a stiff breeze, but the revenge bobbed happily in the water as the crew bustled around the deck, singing lightly with the tide as they tried to clear up the day's jobs early.
Somewhere below deck Ed was pacing quickly, heels planting as his body whipped in circles, trying to decide what to do.
As quickly as he’d been walking, Ed flew out onto the deck, almost running into Fang as he did. Righting himself, Ed surveyed the deck and upper deck, no Stede. Good.
“Gather round” he beckoned for the crew to join him, “I need your help.”
The crew slowly moved towards Ed and gathered in a semicircle shape around him, “What’s this about captain?” Fang asked as he put down the barrel he’d been carrying.
“Look” Ed whispered, fearful Stede would hear from the cabin, “You can’t tell Stede.”
“Nope I’m out” Lucius began to back out of the circle, “Do you know how difficult it is to keep stuff from him. The sad eyes always work, can’t do it.”
“Look, he’ll love this. It’s a surprise.”
Shuffling a little closer again, Lucius whispered “What kind of surprise?”
“I need a ring”
The crew exploded into excited chatter at that, looking at each other’s fingers as they tried to decide who had the best jewellery.
“You're gonna ask him to marry you?” Lucius smirked, but Ed couldn’t tell why.
“You think it’s a bad idea”
“No, no. I think it’s a great idea. Where are you gonna get this ring from?”
“Well. We either set sail for a close pirate port and I’ll see what I can find, or we see if we can raid a ship. Either of those will probably do.”
As Ed said that Buttons returned to the helm, he’d been eyeing up Frenchie’s ring and had intended to bite the poor bard and gift the ring to the captain as an engagement present; suppose he would just have to go with plan B and offer to teach the two captains how to curse their enemies.
“Aye Cap’n there’s a ship on the horiz’n if ye’re interested” Button’s shouted from the helm, making the captain jump.
“Good plan” Lucius called as the crew dispersed back to their duties.
Descending the stairs to the captain's quarters, Lucius knocked on the door and was answered by shuffling and a bang before a cheerful, “Come in” greeted him.
“You alright captain?” Lucius said as he entered the cabin, noting how Stede appeared to be organising the bookshelf again.
“Yes Lucius, I’m fine. How goes the ring search?” Stede beamed at Lucius before turning back to the bookshelf that was currently empty as he stood surrounded by piles of stacked books on the floor.
“Good” Lucius answered cheerily, “Ship on the horizon”
“Oh brilliant” Stede stood from the piles, they would probably get messed up in the raid anyway, “I’ll get my coat”
Lucius just nodded and left the quarters, chuckling to himself as he left. Gods his captains were so helpless.
The raid was successful. The ship turned out to be another pirate ship that had recently looted a merchant vessel, so the bounty for the revenge was plentiful.
The fighting had been a bit intense, the enemy being other pirates and all, but they had managed fine.
At one point, Ed and Stede had both ended up fighting the captain of the other ship who wielded dual blades and was able to fend off the pair successfully for a few minutes before the co-captains overpowered him with a smooth bullet to the shoulder blades. In the fighting, however, Stede had spotted the perfect ring for Ed; it was some sort of gold with two red stones slightly off-centre that supported a beautiful clear diamond right in the middle. It was perfect.
Coincidentally, during the chaos of the fight, Ed had spotted the most beautiful ring for Stede. It was something gold with two green stones that stood either side of a sparkling clear diamond. It was perfect and Ed intended to cut it off the finger of the captain as soon as he was able.
Weirdly, when Ed went to grab the ring from the captain's lifeless body, he couldn’t find the bloody thing or its lovely red counterpart that he’d hoped to nab for himself. He would have to go interrogate the crew and force the thief to give them back.
Coincidentally, when Stede went to grab the ring, it was gone along with its green counterpart. Shame about the green one, he’d hoped to grab that one for himself so he and Ed could have a matching set. Oh well, he would have to go and see which member of the crew took the rings and beg to get them back.
Lucius just stood in the chaos of it all with a smirk on his face, Gods it was difficult being the most emotionally intelligent person on board sometimes.
As the night settled and the burning ship smoked in the distance, Ed paced the deck thinking about the ring. Where had it gone? It was perfect and Ed wasn’t sure there would be anything else that Stede would like as much.
He grumbled a bit as he moved to the wheel, passing a very amused Lucius on the way.
“You looking for something captain?” Ed knew that tone, he turned on his heels and glared at the scribe.
“What do you want for it?” Ed grumbled as he waited to hear the price.
“Nothing, just that you promise that you’ll propose tonight.” Lucius grinned evilly as Ed thought it over.
“Deal” Ed put out his hand to shake Lucius’s but instead found the green and gold ring being placed carefully into his palm as Lucius sauntered away in the direction of the captain's quarters.
Rapping his knuckles on the wood of the cabin's door, Lucius waited for Stede’s voice as he fiddled with the one remaining ring in his pocket. Gods this was going to be easier than he thought.
“Stede, can I come in?” Lucius called after he didn’t receive a response.
“Yeah, just mind the mess” Stede’s voice rang as he answered.
“I’ve got something fo- what are you doing?” Lucius looked upon the scene, flowers strewn about the place like a field had been blown to smithereens. Stems and petals and leaves abandoned on every surface Lucius could see: Petunias on stacks of books, forget me knots on the bed, poppies lining the coffee table, Daffodils in the fireplace and, Lucius suspected that if he looked in the bath he would find armfuls of blooming daisies.
“Oh” Stede blushed a little bit “Well, they had flowers aboard the ship, and I thought it had just been so long since I made a flower crown, and they would all go off by the time we made it to port anyway. What do you think?” Stede placed the flower crown on his own head tentatively, careful not to knock the blooming bluebonnets out of place.
“And look” Stede continued, “They had loads of daisies so I made this daisy chain for Edward and thought I would make some for the crew as well.”
Stede beamed as Lucius looked at him with a fond smile, spinning the ring in his pocket.
Walking over to his captain, Lucius pulled him to his feet, and looked him dead in the eye, “Captain, you are going to go up to the quarter-deck. Pull out this ring” Lucius pulled the ring from his pocket as Stede’s eyes went wide, “and ask the love of your life to marry you, ok?”
Stede beamed, blushed, and nodded. Not bothering to take the flower crown off as he went.
“Oh” Lucius chimed in once more before Stede left the room, “and take the daisy chain with you.”
Ed was stood on the quarter-deck looking out at the calm waves that gently caressed the side of the revenge.
He heard gentle footsteps and felt the gentle placement of something on his head before he turned to Stede and gasped.
Stede stood next to him, silhouetted by the moon, wearing a white poets shirt, blue breeches, and a flower crown of bluebonnets, forget me knots and white ivy, smiling at Ed like he was the one who brought the whole world to life.
It was then that Ed realised the thing on his head was a daisy chain as he saw a rogue petal flutter into the strands of hair around his face. Before he could react to it, Stede had brushed the hair and the petal behind Ed’s ear, tucking it securely before beaming at Ed once more.
“Hi” Stede whispered, trying to preserve the feeling of seclusion they’d made for themselves.
“Hello” Ed whispered just as sweetly, trying not to stare too intensely into Stede’s eyes.
Not wanting to draw all this out, Ed leaned in to capture Stede’s lips in a sweet kiss.
When they pulled away, Stede looked brightly into Ed’s eyes and, closing the gap again so that their foreheads were touching, gently whispered, “Will you marry me?”
Ed’s mind stuttered for a minute, wasn’t he supposed to say that part.
Once Ed’s brain stopped kicking itself to reboot, he realised Stede was still waiting for an answer and, before he could stop himself, he just muttered “What?”
Stede’s face fell, and he stepped back, breaking their little circle.
“Sorry” he started, “I shouldn’t hav- sorry”
“No. No, I was going to ask you.” Ed rushed to clarify as he began fishing through his breast pocket.
“What?” It was Stede’s turn to be a little confused, but it all cleared as Ed pulled the gold and green ring out of his pocket.
“Oh” was all he could get out as Ed approached him, this time holding the ring up for Stede to inspect.
Tears welled in Stede’s eyes as he held the red and gold ring up for Ed to inspect as well.
They looked at each other for a moment before the tears spilt down Stede’s face and both captains began to laugh.
“How’s this?” Stede began again, “Edwards Teach, will you marry me?”
“Of course I will you idiot.” Stede beamed as he slid the ring on Ed’s finger.
“Stede Bonnet, will you marry me?” Ed looked to Stede as he wiped tears from his cheeks.
“Yes. Ed, of course I will.” Ed got the ring on Stede’s finger as Stede launched himself at Ed, pulling himself close around the man's neck and kissing him silly.
After a few minutes of cuddling and passionate kissing, Stede pulled away slightly and whispered, “You know Alma and Louis will be upset that they weren’t here? I wouldn’t be surprised if we receive a very strongly worded letter about this.”
Ed beamed at the thought, “I’m entirely sure we will never hear the end of it from them. Louis still insists he practically invented marriage; he asks us every time we go.”
The water lapped happily against the side of the ship as the two captains held each other close on the quarter-deck, full moon outlining their bodies as the stars twinkled in the background.