Work Text:
"Say, Ed?"
Ed mumbled out a sound of acknowledgement.
"You've been... pirating longer than I have. Have you... ever heard of a thing called... matelotage?"
"Have I ever heard...? Yeah, I've heard of it." Ed shifted and the bed shifted with him. "Why?"
"Oh, no reason!" Stede squeaked. "A few of the crew were... That is, I was asked if I could... perform a ceremony for them."
"Why?"
Stede wasn't immediately sure how to answer that question. "Well... they are... adults... who understand that life is a temporary state... and that terrible losses can happen to any of us with no warning. And having someone who will... share in your victories and..."
"Mate, I said I know what matelotage is," Ed said. "I'm asking why they want a ceremony for it." Ed cleared his throat. "Never heard a good reason for having a ceremony, me."
"What's to make it official, if not a ceremony?" Stede asked. "One could just go around saying 'oh, all his stuff's mine, now he's dead. I was his matelot after all, we just didn't tell anyone.' Then someone else might say they were his matelot, and then you have a big mess and next thing you know, the whole ship is on fire."
"I suppose you could... sign a document."
"But what if neither party can sign their name?"
"You sign with an X," Ed said.
"But that X could be anyone's X."
"Do you... want to perform a ceremony?"
"Oh, I don't know," Stede said. "Could be fun, I suppose. But like I said, I don't know as much as you do, and..."
"Ohh, no, mate, I'm not a ceremony person."
Stede was silent for a while.
Ed looked over at Stede. He looked like a scolded puppy.
"Oh, all right, fine. You don't have to look so pathetic about it."
Stede looked over at him.
"I'll perform a ceremony for... Who's it for?"
"Ah. Jim and Oluwande."
Ed nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense. Jim's made a lot of enemies, and Olu seems the sentimental type." He cleared his throat. "Makes sense that they'd want to make it official."
"Precisely," Stede said.
Ed watched Stede, waiting for him to spill whatever else was bothering him.
"Stede," Ed said quietly. "What's wrong, love..."
"Nothing! Nothing at all wrong," Stede said.
"That's a lie."
Stede sighed. "I..." He paused, then sat up. "I need to know that you will let me say this without it affecting our relationship. It's just my feelings, not..."
Ed sat up as well, putting a hand on Stede's back. "I promise," Ed said, "that whatever you're feeling right now... I refuse to let anything you say... come between us. I've already lost you enough."
Stede nodded. "I acknowledge that you just said that you have no interest in ceremonies. However... I asked you about matelotages because... I was hoping to hear that you... were interested in maybe someday... having one of your own."
Ed snapped shut his slack jaw.
"And I'm already married, legally speaking, even though my wife's legal status in that regard is widowed..."
"Spanish Jackie had twenty husbands," Ed said. "At once."
"I don't want another marriage," Stede said. "But I want... something." He looked over his shoulder at Ed. "With you."
Ed felt like he had been run through, dead center of his chest, but... in a good way.
"I don't want you to feel obligated in any way, though, and now that I've said it, if you say you want to, after you just said that you hate ceremonies, then I'll feel like you're only doing it out of obligation. And..."
Ed pulled Stede back enough to kiss him.
Stede kissed him in return.
"Who needs a ceremony?" Ed said. "We can just tell Lucius to mark it down in the ship's record as if it happened. Boom, there's a record of it, official as anything else out at sea, and you don't have to worry that I'm only doing it because you asked, and not because I want to do it. Although, if you had started this conversation with 'I think we should get pirate-married,' I would have had a very different reaction."
"Yeah?" Stede asked.
"Yeah! I don't like ceremonies because I don't like talking fancy, mate. Ceremonies are always such..."
Stede interrupted him with a kiss, longer and deeper and more passionate than the one Ed had interrupted Stede with.
"Should we... consummate it, then?" Ed asked once they had satisfied themselves of kissing.
Stede smiled. "I think first... we should exchange rings."
Ed let his confusion show on his face. "Why?"
"Because I like wearing your things," Stede said. "And... I like when you wear mine."
Ed smiled and slipped off the ring that had a big red gem on it. "Will this one fit the right finger?"
"I don't care which finger it's on," Stede said. "Could be on a chain round my neck for all I care. Point is, it's yours."
"In that case... can I wear your green one?"
"This one? It's blue, isn't it?"
"Nah, green, just like the sea."
Stede's smile cracked into a chuckle. "Whatever color you wish to call it." He pulled it off of his finger.
They swapped rings and spent a few moments figuring out which fingers they felt best on.
"Do we have to tell Lucius... before we consummate the union?" Stede asked.
"We're pirates, sweetheart," Ed said. "We make our own rules."
Stede grinned and turned around, climbing into Ed's lap. "Suppose you're right." He reached up one hand and stroked the side of Ed's face. The red gem on his finger caught the light, and Stede's smile grew softer. "And what will we call each other? Husband? Matelot?"
"I think just... calling you my Captain is... Well, that's what makes me happiest. For now, at least."
Stede nodded. "My Captain," he said. "Has a nice ring to it."
Ed smiled up at him. "I agree... My Captain."
They kissed again.