Archive of Our Own ^beta

Stede had been taught to follow the profit margin, not his nose. His father had likened the pursuit of money to a hunt, as if ink in a ledger was as gory as blood. With how he ran his business, Stede supposed it was. Generally he just spent hours in the shops fantasizing about being anywhere else as he stroked the exotic imported cloth before his father cuffed the back of his head. He never learned how to chase the money as it were, and he never really developed the habit of trusting his nose, as the things he went after tended to end in him getting punished. At first he hadn’t even been sure why he had been willing to trust Buttons with the Revenge, aside from the simple fact he seemed the only one willing to work under a captain who had never set foot on the deck of a ship before. It wasn’t until just before the first full moon that he realized what Buttons had known about Stede since their first meeting.

Stede had most certainly never been taught to bask in moonglow, and honestly after hastily averting his eyes, wasn’t entirely certain it was something he was ever going to pick up. It was nice, however startling, to learn he wasn’t going to be alone out here, however.

“Doesn’t it ah, cause a bit of a fuss? Every so often. Wolf onboard a ship.” His father’s lessons had always been about control. Dominance. Letting nothing slip between your fingers, self included. There was never a whisker on the elder Bonnet’s face that he didn’t intend to be there.

“Not really.” Buttons held his arms back up, for maximum coverage, he had explained. “Why? What did you think was going to happen when you came out here?”

“Well I uh, had a lot of extra spaces. Built into the ship.”

“You’re just planning on hidin’?”

“If it comes to that. I don’t really...you know, generally. Change.” Stede never had a whisker on his face that he didn’t intend because he stuffed a whole portion of himself into a box and ignored it. He also shaved a lot.

Buttons' head didn’t look like it should bend the way it did as he tilted it back to look him in the eye without turning his body away from the moon. “Oh laddie, there’s no hiding from her. Not out here.”

Stede looked up at the moon. It wasn’t full, not yet, but it would be soon. He had felt so light, sailing out with his new ship. Stepping out of the shackles of the life that had held him down, he had figured. Finally able to breathe. He hadn’t considered the moon a factor in that euphoria. The moon did not generally engender positive emotions in him. He was scared. He was also excited. That was rather the whole point of this, wasn’t it? “Is it going to be particularly bad?” He whispered.

“Oh there’s a merchant ship chasing the winds out there, riding low with a fat hold. We’ll catch up to her and have her in our teeth before the big night. Plenty of sailors to feast on, don’t you worry.”

“What?” Stede squeaked. “I’m not going to- Mr. Buttons, I think you and I have very different understandings of what is going to happen here. I’m not eating anyone.” He’d run from geese as a pup, for Christ’s sake. He wasn’t about to eat a person.

He sniffed, head turning back the right way round as he looked away. “Fine. But she’ll be calling for more than blood if you don’t sort yourself out, laddie. And the crew will need their fill of plunder soon, too.”

Dizzy with worry, Stede hurried back to his cabin and pulled the covers up over his head, trying to block out the gentle glow coming in through his windows. It was one thing he had absorbed perhaps a little too well from his father, how to push everything aside. Control. Show nothing, be nothing, and go unnoticed as a result. That wasn't what his father had intended, but it was what Stede had taken to heart. He just wouldn't change, and everything would be fine. That was how he had lived most of his life, anyway. It had been easier to fail strictly as a man and not worry about failing as a wolf too.

Of course, Mr. Buttons ended up being right. There was no ignoring her, not out here.

“Ship’s haunted.”

Stede blinked at Frenchie’s simple proclamation. Wee John nodded, and even Oluwande looked like he was in agreement. The Swede was rocking back and forth, and Roach was wearing a new necklace of onions, which even with the open air of the sea was quite pungent on Stede’s nose. They had just resupplied and most of their food stores were fresh at the moment.

“Uh,” he looked hastily towards Buttons, who didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. Stede actually hadn’t asked the man how he managed to get by unnoticed by the crew. Stede himself had gone into his auxiliary closet, and well, howled himself silly. It hadn’t been a full change, but he had needed to let something out. “Why uh, why do you say that Frenchie?”

“You didn’t hear it?” Black Pete spat on the deck, his generally confrontational hunched shoulders now seemed defensive. “The wailing all fuckin’ night?”

“Sounded like a ghost to me.” Lucius nodded. His knuckles showed white with how tightly he clutched the log book.

Jim picked their fingernails with their knife. Stede looked back over at where Mr. Buttons was stationed on steerage. “Oh,” Stede said, rather lamely. “I thought that was just... The wind.”

“The wind?” Frenchie squinted at him.

“Yes! Or maybe a seabird. Were you hearing Karl?”

The crew turned to look at Karl, who screeched at them.

Wee John scratched his chin. “I suppose it might have been Karl.”

“Karl... makes sense,” Oluwande said, though it sounded like he was trying to just convince himself.

“Well whatever it was,” Stede said. "I'm absolutely certain whatever it was won’t happen again tonight.” If he couldn’t stop himself from falling into long ignored instincts, he was planning on stuffing his face into a trunk full of spare table linens to muffle the noise. It hadn’t occurred to him just how echoey secret passages in a ship could be. “Now that that’s all settled, who’s ready to get some pirating done?”

Good thralls were hard to find, and Izzy had been dedicated to Blackbeard for years. Before they had worked out the whole smoke screening business, he had really been important for a lot of the daytime raiding, as well as the general shopping. He still took care of the general shopping, Ed had gotten sick of land a long time ago, it was why he was out here. The ocean was supposed to be a new experience.

It had been, for a little while at least. Things were all getting rather dull again, though. Izzy was doing more and more of the work while Ed rolled over and slept in his pile of grave dirt. Izzy had even started asking about when the bite might happen. Ed honestly just hadn’t felt like it yet. Perhaps the man would come to his senses and realize what a bore it all was after the first few decades. It was the little things that built up over time that you realized you lost, so you just fell into an endless cycle of trying to find something better. Maybe he would bite Izzy, just for spite, and then just roll over and take a nap for a century or two until things got interesting again.

Then one day Izzy had walked into his cabin smelling like that and suddenly things were on the verge of exciting again.

“Tell me,” he said, slowly and carefully, “what happened on that isle that you only brought me one hostage?"

Stede Bonnet, an idiot leading a band of idiots if Izzy's stung pride could be trusted. It wasn't a name he had been expecting to be attached to the smell of a wolf. Maybe it was just a member of his crew? Either way, Ed wanted to find out. Maybe he would go out in a flurry of fang and teeth. It sure beat standing on the deck of his ship and thinking about waiting for the sunrise.

There was a heavy scent in the air, like gunpowder and old wood smoke. Almost acrid, but there was something pleasantly earthy underneath that. Like a recently dug garden bed. Mary had never had much interest in gardening, and the children hadn’t enjoyed getting dirty since they were toddlers. Stede had tried gardening once, on account of his fondness for flowers. He had just ended up burying his rings, getting annoyed with himself, and reburying them somewhere else in the yard. The smell of the healthy dirt had been nice, though.

Now it was here somehow, which was incredibly odd because aside from their haul off the fisherman’s boat, Stede was pretty sure there was very little earth on board the Revenge , let alone enough for this smell. Had he died then? Was the afterlife actually… pleasant?

He cracked open his eyes, and a hand that had been resting on his arm pulled back.

“Easy mate, you don’t want your insides spilling out all over the place.”

Oh right. He had been stabbed. Shit. What was a person supposed to do when they got stabbed? Moan in pain a lot? It had certainly hurt, the getting stabbed part, but Stede knew that injury wouldn’t linger. He opted to stay laying back, and tried not to move. “My crew-”

“They’re fine.”

Well, someone had come to the rescue, after all. Someones. In a flurry of dark smoke that blotted out the light of the sun, and with a heavy tang in the air that was remarkably similar to the scent he was picking up on now. He blinked up at the figure leaning over his bed. They were the source of the much pleasanter smell underneath all that gunk. “Who’re you, do you- do you work for Blackbeard?”

While the man puzzled over this question, Stede began to wonder just how exactly he was going to have to fake his injury. Maybe he could ask for Buttons to come to his side, but what if the crew insisted Roach see to him too? Who had dressed his injuries in the first place? Had they noticed anything? How long had he been asleep? Should he have slept longer? Less?

“I’m Ed.”

“Stede.” When he shook his hand, his skin was pleasantly cool despite the heat in the cabin, and he had to resist the urge to bury his nose against the nape of his neck to get a full breath of him. Stede was very grateful that the stab to his gut gave him a reason to lean on the man.

A lighthouse. A fucking lighthouse. Stede Bonnet was a mad fucking dog, and for the first time in a long while, Ed had a reason to get out of the coffin at night, so to speak. Izzy wasn’t thrilled, but Ed had a good contract with the man, and Izzy wasn’t about to risk it over this. It wasn't like a wolf would make a good thrall, honestly, Ed had only ever met ones that were trying to kill him. Whatever was going on with Stede was different, new. Agreeing to help the man learn pirating for an update on what the world at large was up to these days was just an excuse to stay aboard his ship. Stede fascinated him in a way no human or wolf had the past, the way he denied the commonalities of both.

The bird guy might actually try and dredge up the old feuds, though. Ed had overheard him pulling his captain aside to caution him away from this deal. Keen hearing meant Ed got an earful of everything on a ship, wanted or not. It had helped to scare the shit out of people when he had first started, him mysteriously knowing their private conversations, but now he wanted a damn break from everyone else's private lives. Unless they were discussing him, that was.

"We can't be entering into a bargain with a Devil, Captain." Mr. Buttons said. "The nose never lies. They are something foul."

Stede sounded like he was doing his best to stay polite, which was also something new out here. "Well Mr. Buttons, no nose knows no- wait, what was I- nevermind. Look, I think they smell fine. Wonderful even, and we owe him and his crew our lives. They're staying."

Stede thought he smelled good? Well, that would explain him trying to discreetly sniff Ed's leathers when they had swapped clothes. Very odd behavior from a wolf. All the ones Ed had met before likened his smell to a bloated corpse before trying to rip his head off.

It was a distinct possibility that Stede didn't know what he was.

In fact, it became increasingly clear that Stede had zero fucking idea that Ed was a vampire. Had he truly never run into one before? Not been taught that old hatred? He considered the importance of telling him before Buttons could state things clearly, but just as being known as Ed rather than Blackbeard was refreshing, so too was being a man and not a vampire. An eccentric man who avoided direct sunlight and prowled around at night, but still. Stede didn't seem to find his behavior odd in the slightest, or more accurately, he didn't care.

It was that blase openness that nagged at Ed's conscience. This man was trusting him with his crew, his life, his closet, surely he was supposed to extend some trust in turn? It had been a long time since Ed had trusted anyone, and sure, Stede was interesting, but did that really warrant honesty?

He needed a clear head to think this through. He needed a proper meal.

Feeding off those they raided was difficult with Stede watching his every pirate step, and with Izzy pressing the issue of the bite, feeding off him was a no go.

Luckily Sir Godfrey Thornrose had just been invited to a party.

Stede couldn't fathom why Ed- oh, er Jeff- had wanted to come to this thing. He had only seemed passingly interested in aristocracy, and their, according to him, ever changing trends. The thought that the two of them might face the event together had been a pleasant one, though. To have someone stand at his side during one of these events was a strange sort of wish fulfillment, but Stede would take what he could get. Let people wonder what he and Ed- Jeff! Jeff- were whispering about in the corner for once. To play the part of conspirator rather than outcast.

Of course, Stede had failed to account for the fact it was a full moon. He was so distracted he lost sight of Ed- Jeff, fuck! - and had to excuse himself from the grating gossip out into the halls to get away from the noise. He glared through some lacy curtains towards the night sky. It was like she was a wide, open face, laughing at him.

"Why are you ruining this for me?" He hissed. Ed didn't need to know Stede was a monster who howled himself hoarse in linen closets, and this boat full of people definitely didn't need to know any of his private business.

He grasped the thin window frame, the tension in his arms causing his whole body to ache. Things had been going so well. Of course it couldn't last. Of course it was all going to come crumbling down. What had Stede thought? That he and the wonderfully smelling pirate would just sail the seas together forever and the damn full moon problem would never come up?

He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to breathe, deeply and evenly. He was in control. He was in control. He-

-could smell fresh blood. An awful lot of fresh blood.

Worried now, for Ed and his two erstwhile crewmen if not their obnoxious hosts, Stede hurried down the hall towards the source of the smell. It was much easier than tracking two pissed soaked men through the jungle. Buttons had been trying to encourage him to tap into his natural senses more, but he had also been pretty big on eating some people, so Stede was generally very take it or leave it with his advice. He had also insinuated that Ed was some sort of Devil, which was nonsense. The man deployed a smokescreen as a scare tactic on his enemies. That was just a brilliant strategy, nothing supernatural about it at all.

Stede reached the source of the smell, and when he found the door was locked, shoved his shoulder against it to force it open. It was easy to muscle through things when the moon was full. To be honest it was easy most days, but when the moon was full he was actually willing to do it.

He blinked, a little dumbfounded at the scene in front of him.

"...Ed?"

"Oh. Stede. Uh. This guy here, he just uh, fell over and punctured his neck and all of his blood fell out."

There was an aristocrat slumped on a small settee, blood all down his front. There was blood all down Ed's front too, mostly around his mouth and soaked into his beard. Ed… Ed was… Ed…

After staring at them both for a moment longer, Stede hastily stepped into the room and tried to close the broken door behind him. It shut most of the way, well, enough of the way that he was certain no one in the hall would be able to quickly ascertain what was happening.

A pathetic little whine built up in the back of Stede's throat. Or maybe it was more of a growl? Oh, who was he kidding, he was whimpering. Ed was… Ed….

"Stede? You alright, mate?" Ed looked incredibly concerned for a man covered in blood. Generally being covered in blood was a cause for concern, but Ed looked it in a way that seemed more concerned for Stede than Ed, or the body between them.

Stede squeezed his eyes shut. "Moon. Full moon." Now Ed was going to think he was babbling nonsense. This was not how he had planned to tell him. He hadn't planned to tell him at all, really, but this still counted as a way he hadn't wanted to do it. "Full moon, and you- you just ate a man for God's sake!"

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. Underneath all that blood, he could still pick up on that earthiness of Ed.

"This isn't how I wanted to tell you-"

Stede's eyes flew back open as he realized his voice had overlapped with Ed's. Ed had stepped around the body, getting closer to him, arms outstretched as if to touch him. He had stopped once he saw Stede was looking at him again.

"Tell me what?" His question was more breathless than he wanted it to be.

"That I'm a vampire."

"Oh!"

"What did you think was happening here? That this guy's neck burst open and just happened to bleed out into my mouth?"

"Well, you did just say exactly that, but… not exactly. I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt." Ed was a pirate, but that didn't mean he was a wanton murderer. "Mr. Buttons has been trying to get me to eat someone since I came aboard, I thought maybe it was some pirate thing I hadn’t really heard about before." Stede was just rambling now. Oh God, Ed was going to think he was totally fine with people eating each other. Was he fine with it? The people here were real dicks.

"No shit? And he called me the Devil." He hummed. "Do you want some of this guy? Might be a little dry now, but uh… less clean up."

"You know I think I might actually like that?" The words were out of Stede's mouth before he could stop them. He squeezed his eyes shut again and whimpered. When he banged his head back against the broken door, he almost fell out of the room.

Ed's hands caught him before he could go anywhere. "Hey now, take it easy."

Stede buried his face against Ed's neck and clung to him. It was easier to smell him that way, even if he was getting blood smeared on his clothes in the process. "I'm a monster," he gasped against his skin.

Ed's arms were around him, and he could feel his body shake as he chuckled. "Mate, I just told you I'm a vampire who ate a guy, and that's what you're going with?"

"I'm a werewolf." When Stede spoke his lips brushed against the skin of Ed's neck and he had to resist the urge to lick him. This was so much better than some partially eaten body.

"I know."

Stede very reluctantly pulled away from the embrace. "Since when?"

"Since before we met, actually. I could smell you on Izzy."

"Oh." Stede nervously plucked at the fabric across Ed's shoulders.

Ed didn't quite meet his gaze. "I didn't say anything because, well…. It didn’t seem important."

That was a great big lie, and Stede knew Ed knew he knew that, but he understood why he said it. "I've been lying to you too, it would be preposterous if I held this against you."

His eyes returned to him at that. "People tend not to think clearly about these sorts of things."

Stede's grip on him grew more firm as he stared him in the eye. "I am not, in any way, mad at you Ed. A bit surprised, I suppose. I never met a vampire, at least, I don't think I have."

"Yeah, I gathered as much." A smile flickered across his face before quickly settling into a frown. "Weren't you all 'argh, full moon' about to transform a minute ago?"

"The smell of you relaxes me," Stede admitted.

"Oh." His smile came back.

It was a lovely smile, blood and all, but Stede was having a hard time focusing on it. “The smell of the blood is a tad distracting, though.”

“Right,” he pulled back and looked awkwardly down his front. “Well, normally I just sort of torch the place for clean up, so…”

Frenchie and Olu didn’t have nearly as good night vision as he and Ed, so Stede felt pretty good about the row back to the Revenge while the vessel burned behind them . Most of the blood was well absorbed into Ed’s dark hair, which had just left their clothes in need of cleaning. Or destroying, as the case was. It was a shame they lost Ed’s jacket to the blaze though, he had looked quite smart in his outfit.

Talking to Stede about being a vampire was honestly kind of nice. Somehow all his questions sounded so different from the way Izzy had asked his. Of course, Stede was just curious about him, while Izzy had been contemplating a very personal life change. Still, there were only so many times he could answer how fast he would be, or how much he could glut himself on blood, before it got dull. Stede just wanted to know if he was getting on and if he was doing alright. He was genuinely impressed with the smokescreen, Ed’s whole show of fuckery delighted him.

“As long as it isn’t direct sunlight, you’re fine?” There was a lot of concern packed into the tone of his voice.

He and Stede were on his couch, enjoying a night cap. Stede had just about completely become nocturnal since the party, in deference to Ed’s sunlight allergy. It was also good for the crew to be able to get some work done without a massive cloud of artificial smoke hanging over them and choking their lungs. “Yeah, pretty much. The right kind of clouds, a thick enough fog.”

“A lot of gunpowder,” Stede teased.

“Yeah, that stuff is really handy. Blowing things up really wasn’t a thing before.”

He swirled his brandy, asking his next question slowly. “I hope it’s not rude of me to ask, but just how old are you?”

“Don’t mind at all. Not that old, really. Not even three hundred. Bloke who bit me would be about… a thousand around now, I guess.” After all the basics were covered, the two of them hadn’t really stayed in touch. Ed liked to roam, while his sire had been perfectly content to never leave his hunting grounds.

“Remarkable.” When Stede spoke, it sounded like Ed was remarkable, not just the number attached to him, though Ed wasn’t sure why the distinction mattered so much to him at the moment. It almost made him feel warm, and not in a burning alive kind of way.

“What about you? When you’d get bit?” Ed was very curious how a man like Stede Bonnet had handled being a werewolf.

“Born this way, actually,” he said softly.

“No shit?”

Stede slumped a little on the couch. “I know, absolutely pathetic.”

“What?” Ed set aside his drink. Stede had graciously allowed him to dirty one of his fine glasses with blood so Ed didn’t have to drink out of a flask he had filled up at the party.

“You’re a genius, off inventing fuckeries so you can get about, and here I am, just… ignoring everything about what… what I am.”

“There’s no time like the present to get into it.”

Stede looked at him like he thought Ed was just trying to humor him. A sardonic twist of his lips, and a heaviness to his eyes. Liar , his gaze seemed to say.

“That’s it,” Ed jumped up off the couch. “Up.”

Stede blinked at him slowly, as if he no longer understood his words. “What?”

“I said up. I’m not going to see you fucking... wallow.”

Rather than rise against this accusation, Stede seemed to fold further in on himself. “All I’ve managed since coming out here is to hide and get stabbed.”

Ed realized he needed to change tactics, and quickly. He wasn’t really sure what methods there were besides yelling at someone or hypnotizing them. He might have, at some point, but that had been a long time ago. Didn’t this crew have all sorts of weird ways of dealing with shit though? What were they?

“You were a lighthouse,” Ed reminded him, softening his voice though he still stood above him next to the couch. He had a bright smile to match the show they had put on when they met, and watching him frown instead seemed a waste.

“That was just as much your idea as it was-”

Ed held up a hand to stop him, or well, that was his initial thought. What really happened was that he reached out and cupped Stede’s jaw in his hand. He could feel a tremor in his warm skin as he drew in a sharp breath at the contact. He locked eyes with him, not letting him turn away in any capacity. “You’re brilliant, Stede Bonnet. A fucking lunatic, remember? Know how I know that?”

Stede’s mouth shifted as if he planned to respond, but Ed’s thumb brushed against his lip and he simply shook his head.

“Because you’re here, right now. Out on the ocean, leading a band of pirates.” Sort of pirates. “Because you saw something that needed changing, and you changed.”

Stede’s hand came up, sliding over Ed’s as he continued to hold his face, a sad smile curling across his lips. “That’s rather the problem though. I don’t change.”

Alright, that was even more to unpack later, but first thing was first. “Do you want to?”

He worried his lip with his teeth, and Ed had to resist the urge to brush against them again. Slowly, finally, Stede nodded. “I think I just might.”

Stede was still somewhat reluctant to bring his whole crew into the mess, there was something special about planning everything out with Ed. With the thought that Ed would be the first person who saw him. Who he wanted to see him. He still probably should have warned them about the incoming smoke cloud, he had needed Ed up on deck with him to fine tune a few things.

After only a few days without it, the crew of the Revenge had been a little spooked by its sudden return. There was a great deal of shouting that he had to leave Ed's side to investigate. Lucius was cursing, Buttons' eye on him as he cradled his hand.

It didn't take long to put two and two together, and Stede's heart sank. “Oh Buttons, you didn’t bite Lucius, did you?”

“I may did, a wee bit. The Devil smoke was most unnatural, and my keen instincts locked in on the first thing that moved.”

"Shit." Stede looked around quickly, glad the rest of the crew were obscured through the smoke and back to going about their duties.

"Oh god," Lucius moaned. "Am I a cannibal now?"

"What? No. That's not contagious. At least I don't think it is." Stede frowned.

"Not helping.”

"Right, sorry." Stede lifted a hand and pat Lucius' shoulder. "Everything is going to be fine."

"Just telling me to stop freaking out is really not helping either. What is going on?"

"Well…"

"You're a werewolf now, laddie."

Stede nodded. "That about sums it up."

Lucius stared at the both of them. " What? "

"Mr. Buttons will explain everything, I've got a fuckery to finish."

Lucius just whimpered. Either at the news or from the thought of being left alone with Buttons, who had already wanted to eat him when they had run aground.

Stede hesitated. "Alright. I guess, I can explain."

Stede had been thrilled once things had gotten underway. Ed was more than a little excited himself. Mostly because Stede was excited, but also because he had never had an occasion to look at a werewolf when they weren’t trying to rip his head off. Once they were dead they reverted back, so it wasn’t like he really had a great picture of them in his head aside from the snarling and the teeth. They had a bit of a fuckery to get together to keep the crew distracted so they could have a moment, which of course was when things went to absolute shit. While Stede had gone to soothe his jumpy crew, Izzy had insisted on speaking with him. Ed had reluctantly had him join him in the captain's cabin, figuring Stede would be able to come and get him out of this boring conversation if Izzy carried it on too long.

Turned out he wasn't really interested in talking.

“Izzy, what the fuck are you doing?” Ed was staring at the blister on his hand more than the man he was addressing. Silver. When the fuck had Izzy gone and gotten himself a silvered fucking blade?

“Two decades,” he hissed, “two decades I’ve served you.”

Ed bared his fangs in response, but the gleam of the weapon between them kept him from lunging.

“And then Stede fucking Bonnet comes along and skips the line. I won’t fucking have it.”

Shit. Izzy thought he had bitten Stede? Ever since the party, Ed didn’t think Stede had been out with the sun, not unless he was accompanying Ed under a smokescreen. “This is a misunderstanding, Izzy, put that fucking thing away before you make an irreparable mistake and I rip your fucking throat out.”

Izzy didn’t seem to hear him. “ Decades. Every fucking whim. Every service. You picked me .”

Ed closed his wounded hand, and the pain that laced up his arm was almost novel. Unless he soaked the injury in fresh blood soon, it was going to actually scar. Izzy had been in his service long enough, he knew what it would take to kill him. “Think this through. If I’m gone, who’s going to bite you?”

“Jack.”

“Oh.” That was actually a good plan, Calico would be enough of an asshole to just bite some random human because they insisted enough. It was also very likely he would kill Izzy in the process, but if Izzy was smart enough to get his blade silvered, Ed was willing to believe he had contingencies if Jack tried to drain him dry. The only thing that had probably kept him from going to Calico sooner was the prestige of being bitten by Blackbeard.

“Were you ever planning on honoring our deal?”

Until right this moment, Ed thought he had been. He took too long to answer, and Izzy’s face twisted up in a snarl. "You will rue this day."

Ed squeezed his burned hand again, taking in the rush of pain. "Not a lot of time to rue anything if I'm dead, and you're going to have to fucking kill me if you plan to walk out of here."

An unhappy smile cracked Izzy's face. "I think you'll find I have other plans for you."

Stede hadn't found Ed where he left him, and ran smack into Izzy before he could begin his search. He looked sweaty and unhappy, which wasn't all that different from normal. He smelled strongly of salt. Unlike Ed, who had no body heat, the others on his crew tended to stink in their dark clothes and leathers after too long.

He tried stepping around him to go about his day when he caught his arm.

"Wind is changing."

"Uh. Yes?" Stede tugged out of his grasp, looking up towards the thick smoke that was just beginning to dissipate. Ed wouldn't be out here without a new layer of cover, Stede's conversation with Lucius had gone longer than he intended, he had probably just gone below deck. 

"We should have clear skies again soon."

Izzy knew what Ed was, Stede wasn't sure if this was some sort of warning about the coming sunlight. "Yes, we will. Now if you'll excuse me-"

"You're staying here."

Stede frowned at Izzy's tone. "Look, I don't know about you, but I am actually busy-" He stopped himself, nose itching. Izzy stank of salt, not sweat. It was water clinnging to his hair. "Where's Ed?" He spoke before the words even fully registered to him. Something was wrong.

Izzy plucked the dagger from his side and flipped it into the air before walking towards the center of the ship. "Crew of the Revenge ," he called out. "Come witness the downfall of your captain."

The crew on the deck slowly stopped what they were doing, the odd spectacle drawing their focus. Did Izzy really think he was going to successfully fight through everyone? Well, Ivan and Fang might be on his side. And Stede couldn't find Ed. Why couldn't Stede find Ed? He had said Izzy was a bit intense, but he was still his right hand man. He hadn't… ordered this, had he?

"What are you talking about." Stede felt himself growing cold as Izzy smirked back.

Frenchie and Black Pete looked nervous, while Wee John barely looked up from the stitches he was working on. The Swede seemed torn between his mop and keeping an eye on the unfolding drama. Only Olu and Jim seemed to be tensing up, ready to jump into action.

"See him for what he really is," Izzy continued. "A monster."

Stede laughed nervously. "Now, I don't know what-"

Izzy threw his dagger. Stede screamed as it pierced his foot, pinning him to the deck. The crew leaped forward, bless their hearts, then all immediately froze as smoke began to rise from the injury. Well, he couldn't expect everyone to just roll with it. He hunched, intending to pull it out, when the gleaming end of a blade smacked his chin. Stede jerked back from the heat of the contact, two silvered blades, what the fuck was Ed doing keeping a man like that around, and nearly split his foot in half falling backwards.

"Ah, ah ah," Izzy said, rapier outstretched, "you're staying right where you are."

"What the fuck is happening right now," Black Pete muttered.

Stede tried to choke down the whimpers piling over themselves in his chest from the pain in his foot. His eyes darted nervously around towards his crew, who were all staring at him in various stages of disbelief, well, his foot at least. "I can explain everything," Stede panted, "if you would just put that away."

No one moved, and Stede wasn't sure if it was because of him, or Izzy. Fuck, his foot really hurt.

"I think the captain deserves a chance to explain himself."

"Thank you Olu!" Stede reached down for the dagger pinning him once more only for Izzy's sword to swat at his face again. The pain was one thing, but this man on top of it all, forcing this situation- Stede snarled. It wasn't a trifle annoyance, he felt it in his bones as his ribs ached from the gravel of it spitting past his lips. The crew he could see took a step back and even Izzy leaned away a moment. He licked his lips, trying to smooth the snarl off his face. "Now look here-"

Izzy lifted up his arms as the wind picked up, ruffling his damp hair. "There it is," he cooed.

Stede squinted up towards the sky, wondering what could possibly be about to happen to make this situation worse. There was no way Ed was a part of this, not when there were silvered blades involved, right? He wasn't mad. This wasn't the culmination of some fuckery. Right? The blue sky through the clearing smoke could have been pleasant if he didn't have a smoking hole in his foot and the nervous ache in his heart. He slowly looked back towards Izzy as silence stretched out across the deck.

Izzy looked dumbfounded as the sunshine bore down on them all. "What are you?" He demanded.

Stede's brow furrowed. Why had he attacked with a silver weapon if he hadn't known? If this was orders, wouldn't Ed have told him? Where the fuck was Ed? Why the fuck did Izzy look like he had just gone for a swim? Stede considered how much worse a blade to the gut would be if it was silver rather than steel, but he was about ready to test it to get some answers of his own.

A howl broke out from below deck. Buttons hadn't been able to calm down Lucius then. Probably had actively encouraged him, if anything.

Stede smiled thinly, struggling to stay calm. "Does that answer your question?"

"He's a ghost!" Frenchie exclaimed.

"What? No, Frenchie. Though, that ghost you all heard that one night, that was me."

"So… you are a ghost?" Wee John said.

"No, no, sorry, let me rephrase. The sound you heard that night wasn't a ghost, it was just me."

"You can be in two places at once?" Roach asked.

"No, right now that's Buttons. Or Lucius. Or both." Hopefully no one else was going to get bitten.

"So you just get stabbed, spew smoke, and yell a lot?" Jim said.

"Wow, I am really not explaining this properly." Stede frowned.

"Enough of this!" Izzy shouted. "Whatever the fuck you are, it ends now."

Which was when a long, brown furred arm reached up from the hold, very quickly followed by a lanky wolf body half-stuck in a familiar striped shirt.

"Lucius?" Black Pete's voice wavered with confusion.

The long ears perked up at the sound of his name. Izzy turned towards the new threat, and as he was between Lucius and Black Pete, that was a very bad idea. Stede ducked, glad to finally pull the dagger from his foot, and to avoid any severed limbs flying through the air.

It had been a long time since Ed had seen the sun. Nearly three centuries, in fact. Oh sure, there were drawings, and paintings, and outfits woven and stitched with all kinds of imitations, but it wasn't the same. He told himself the diffused light through his fuckeries was close enough, and went on about his un-life. Ed hadn't ever thought he missed the sun. He got plenty done without it, after all. More than when he was alive, at any rate.

Still, it had been a long time since he had laid eyes on it, and it was incredible. He was supposed to be terrified, wasn't he? This was the end of undeath. Not that there weren't a hundred different ways to kill a fucking vampire the way there was to kill a person, really, when you got down to it. He kinda wished Izzy hadn't thrown that silver dust into his fucking face so he could see it properly. The sun. What a way to go, rays of golden light streaked with red, and fucking gorgeous. He had thought it would hurt, the way the silver had hurt. It just got brighter and bigger and–

–fuzzier?

Ed reached out and grabbed fur rather than sunlight. It was dense and warm between his fingers. Stede? He opened his mouth to speak and water rushed in. It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't the death sentence it would be for someone who needed to breathe. The salt from the ocean and the flecks of silver that had dusted his eyes made everything difficult to put together, but for some fucking reason he thought he saw a red robe trailing in the water. It was wrapped around him, and he struggled against the swaddling, but the large clawed hands, though gentle, were insistent. Ed decided to trust whatever Stede had in mind, even if it meant he couldn't move.

The chains that were wrapped around him bent and fell away. Ed wished he had been able to see it, but he was beginning to appreciate his red cocoon as it became apparent he was heading back towards the surface. There was noise as they broke the surface, mostly shouting, but Ed didn't pay it any mind. The sun was out, he could tell even through his covering, and every instinct in him should have been screaming in terror, but he was oddly calm. Stede was holding him, and all he had to do was wait a little longer until he could see him properly. He was going to see the sun again.

Ed coughed up a truly alarming amount of seawater onto Stede's rug. He tried not to think about it too much, caught up in the joy that he had been right, he had found Ed. Even if finding him tied to the anchor chain had been unsettling. He wasn't sure if it was the shadow of the ship or his depth that had kept the sun from reaching him before Stede had.

He patted Ed's back as he seemed to finish expelling the ocean from his lungs. He shoved his soggy hair from his eyes and pulled the drenched patterned red robe back around his shoulders, though it was little more than a soggy second skin over his leathers at this point. He squinted at Stede.

"Are you naked?"

"Er, yes." There hadn't been time to grab something to cover himself. Getting Ed out of the water and into his cabin had been more important, and he hadn't wanted to leave him through his coughing. "How- how are you?"

"Fucking Izzy threw silver in my face."

While now less nervous about his state of undress, he felt worry for a hundred new things. Stede reached for him and then paused. "It's just me."

Ed nodded, so he rested his hand on his cheek, Ed leaning into the touch. "You're very warm."

"Everything is warmer than you," his teasing came out a bit awkward, and he coughed to cover his sudden nerves. "Will you– are your eyes going to be alright?"

"Yeah, it'll take awhile, but yeah. It'll go quicker once I rip Izzy apart."

"Ah."

"Ah?"

"Already taken care of."

"You ate Izzy." His brow lifted with surprise.

"No, no. Buttons and Lucius did."

"Lucius?"

"Recent convert."

"Huh. Wish I coulda seen it."

"I can tell the crew to stop mopping up if you want-"

Ed put his hand over Stede's, as if to keep him in place. "No. S'fine."

Stede smiled, relishing the touch, before he noticed the reddened flesh on Ed's hand. "What happened?"

"Iz thought I had bit you."

"That explains it. He seemed to think the sun would hurt me."

"What did he do, exactly?" There was a dangerous growl to his voice.

"He is dead," Stede reminded him.

"Right."

Stede brushed his thumb over Ed's cheek, and his eyes closed in response, expression softening. "I should let you rest, or drink blood, or-"

"You aren't going anywhere."

"I'm not?"

"Tonight's the night, we had a fuckery planned."

"You're half-blind, soaked, in need of a change, and I'm naked, and- and I already did it." It was best to just admit to it. "I'm sorry Ed. I really wanted to show you first, but with everything that happened I had to go get you and it was the most sensible thing to do."

Ed chuckled. "Sensible. Turning into the sun and swimming after a vampire is what's sensible to you."

Stede wasn't sure if he was supposed to be offended, delighted, amused or scared, "the sun?" He asked, voice wavering.

"Got a glimpse. Hoped you would show me again."

The words nearly stuck in his throat, though they were lighter than anything when they left his mouth. "I'd love too."

"Stede?"

"Hmm?"

"You going to keep holding my face or are you going to kiss me?"

He hadn't realized just how long he had been touching him, and he smiled through his sudden embarrassment. "Certainly." Ed tasted like salt after his recent plunge, and his tongue swept past Stede's lips as he moaned against his mouth. He was naturally cold and his current dampness wasn't helping with that fact, but it was the first time Stede had ever wanted to kiss someone, so he decided it was wonderful. He would have plenty of time to warm Ed up in the future.

"Gorgeous," he sighed once they parted.

"You're blind right now," Stede demurred, though the compliment made him flush.

Ed's eyes flickered up and down his naked body, smile crooked across his face. "Not that blind."

Stede's first instinct was to find something to cover up with, but he shoved aside the impulse to pull Ed into another, sloppy kiss.