Work Text:
The Elegy of Ed and Stede
Stede Bonnet didn't think of himself as a particularly observant man, but he was still the first to notice that something was wrong with Ed. Little things at first. Oddly placed items. A vacant stare here. A weird outburst there. Stede didn't know if their crew didn't notice or just chose not to say anything, but it was Ed himself, who first found the courage to say something.
"Something is wrong with me, Stede.", he whispered one night, as they lay in their bed, the soft moonlight from outside the only source of light.
"Nothing is wrong with you, my love."
"When I woke up this morning, I didn't know where I was."
Stede closed his eyes, his last shred of denial, or hope or… whatever it was, gone.
"There is nothing wrong with you. You are just… getting on in years."
"Are you calling me old?", there was no bite in Ed's voice, just resignation.
"Have you looked at yourself recently? Or at me, for that matter?"
"I don't know what you are talking about. You look the same to me."
He didn’t, though, he was going bald, but it was a nice thing to hear anyway.
Ed pulled him close, resting his head on Stede's chest.
"It just means you've lived quite the life, you know? Seen so much, experienced even more. Maybe your brain is just full. So it occasionally forgets where the soap is. That's not a bad trade, is it?"
"Mh. Many things I wouldn’t mind forgetting. Many things I would."
It was almost two years to the day later that Stede woke up to the yells of their crew and stumbled out on deck to find one of the dinghies and four members of their crew several yards away, trying to pull a struggling Ed on board. They managed it with far more roughness than Stede would have liked, but finally a soaking Ed was dragged back onto the deck, cursing most colourfully.
"Ed. Ed, look at me!"
The moment Ed's eyes found his face, Stede could see the recognition there and took a deep breath of relief.
"Heat up some water for the tub.", he ordered the gathered crew at large, "And get yourself warmed up, too."
He maneuvered a now compliant Ed to their bathtub, helped him out of this soaked sleep attire and into the tub, once it was comfortably warm.
No one spoke. Not the crew. Not their captains. Someone handed both Stede and Ed a hot cup of tea, then they were alone.
"I thought I was captured by the English.", Ed explained quietly and turned his face away, but Stede could hear the frustrated tears in his voice.
"So you jumped off board instead of taking a boat. Now, that sounds like you."
Ed chuckled a little, before he turned to finally look at Stede, who was surprised to see shame in his eyes. Carefully he cupped his cheek, even after all these years, still not completely used to a soft stubble instead of a full board.
"There is nothing to be ashamed of, my love. It happened and no one was hurt."
"Next time I might kill someone."
"Do you want to leave? Find a place, maybe on a beach?"
"I… the sea is all I know. I don't know if I can leave it behind."
Stede spoke to the crew that day and explained. Told them they were free to leave and that he would pay them a handsome sum to start a new life elsewhere. No one took him up on the offer.
Stede weaved little bells into Ed's hair, so they could hear him approach.
Less than a year later Stede walked into their space, to have Ed angrily throw a book at his head, his face covered in dark grease.
"You left me!"
"And then I came back."
"You think you can just walk back in here like that? No one treats me like this. No one."
"Ed…"
"It's Blackbeard!"
Stede sighed. He had dreaded this day. Had known deep down that it would come.
"No. I'm talking to Ed. Not Blackbeard. Ed. Look at me. Do I look like the man that left you on that pier?"
"You look the same to me."
"Ed. I came back, remember? I promised you then that I always would. I promised. And you forgave me. We forgave each other. Please remember, my love."
Carefully Stede walked towards Ed and cupped his cheek. It was like Blackbeard melted away at his touch and there he was: Ed.
"I think this time I have no choice about leaving you.", Ed told him quietly and sank down on the floor.
"Well, then you'll just have to be the one to come back this time."
"That's not what I meant."
A shiver ran over Stede's neck at those words.
"Don't you dare."
"I'm a danger to all of you."
"You are family to all of us."
"Most days now I'm not even me."
"And every day is worth it."
Ed nodded, but Stede wasn’t sure he believed him. Not fully. And as the bad days became more and more, he began to worry what Ed might decide on a good one.
Ed woke in the middle of the night with the terrible realization that something was wrong. He didn’t know what, but something terrible had happened. Slowly he turned his head, resting on Stede's chest like most nights, accompanied by the soft ringing that was kow part of his life.
"Stede?", he whispered into the dark, but there was no response. The arm around him stayed in place.
"Stede?"
And then Ed realized what was wrong: there was no steady heartbeat soothing his sleep. Stede, who promised to always come back, had gone to the one place from where he could never return.
Carefully Ed sat up and pressed a kiss to Stede's forehead. Tears streaming down his face he just sat there, holding Stede's hand like the lifeline it was and waited for dawn to come. And the crew to find them.
Later that day, they held a small ceremony on deck. Lucius read a passage from Pinocchio, about the little boy that was finally real and as they lowered Stede down into the water, Ed struggled up the railing, covered in his findest clothes and shoes filled with lead.
"You know I need to follow him.", Ed told the crew and although they all looked sad and defeated, no one stopped him as he did.