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“So what do you think, Captain?”
“In my…still somewhat inexpert opinion?” Stede squinted at the horizon, then looked slowly away in each opposite direction and back again, noting the clouds and the tint of the sky. “I think there’s a storm gathering to the southeast,” he said, his tone measured. “I think it’ll produce some thunder and lightning, but no heavy wind. Anyway, on our current bearing, I think we’ll avoid it.”
Ed raised an eyebrow, clearly impressed. “I think you’re right. Not bad, not bad at all. You’re getting better at that.”
Not very long ago, Stede might have scoffed, waved away the compliment. Today he grinned like an imp and leaned toward Ed to confess, “I’m getting better at lots of things, these days.”
Ed’s response was an appreciative little growl. When Stede said things like that, he wanted to pick him up and spin him around, or just plain grab him and kiss his face off. There was rather a lot of crew around at the moment, though, so he settled for bumping Stede’s hip with his own.
Stede laughed and bumped back, and they fell back into companionable silence, gazing at the sky. “I think you’re right about the lightning,” Ed said. “Been so humid. Glad we’re not sailing into it.”
“Mmmm. Say, do you have anything pressing to do this evening?”
“Reckon whatever you’re doing, mate,” Ed said fondly.
“Ah, good. Wait for me up here after storytime, will you? I’ve just had an idea.”
*~*~*~*
Ed stayed put when the crowd thinned out after the customary bedtime story; Stede squeezed Ed’s hand and scurried off with a promise to be right back. When he reappeared, he was beaming and carrying an armful of what looked like bedding.
“Will you join me on the foretop, darling? I’ve got it on excellent authority that there's to be quite a good lightning show tonight.”
A short time later, as twilight slipped into full darkness, Ed and Stede sat together on the foretop of their ship, shoulder to shoulder, with a blanket wrapped around the two of them against the cooling breeze.
“Now if I’ve figured it correctly, it should start any minute. Right over…there.”
He gestured at the horizon, which was barely visible. But there was a thick swath of cloud discernible there, and as if on cue, it lit up with a silver-blue flicker of lightning.
Ed laughed in surprise. “Unreal! How did you do that?"
“Magic,” Stede smiled. He turned to Ed and before he could blink an eye, Ed leaned in and kissed his smiling mouth.
“I think maybe you are,” Ed mused. “Hey, c’mere. Come on.” He tugged the corner of the blanket, and with a certain amount of giggling and maneuvering, moved Stede from sitting next to him to sitting in between his outstretched legs, so Stede could lean back on Ed’s chest.
Stede rested his head on Ed’s shoulder, felt Ed nuzzle his hair. The sky lit up again, a patchwork pattern of light and dark, the flashes coming a little more frequently now.
“How lovely,” Stede murmured. “I think it looks like stained glass.”
“Mmmm...I think it looks like a bird’s wings, fluttering.”
The first rumble of thunder came a short while later, and Ed’s arms tightened around Stede as the sound unfurled through the darkness.
“Ed!” Stede exclaimed, delighted. “You’re not frightened of thunder, are you?”
“Pfffff, no . But, you know, I wouldn’t judge at all if you were.”
Another peal of thunder, louder than the first, rang out, and Ed squeezed Stede again, even as he drew in a sharp, quick breath.
Stede tilted his face up, devilish and sweet. “Oh dear, Ed, I think I might be a teensy bit frightened.”
“Cheeky,” Ed huffed, and kissed him again, on his jaw, his ear, the corner of his mouth.
Stede settled back happily against Ed’s body. I’m surrounded , he thought. The blanket was soft and Ed’s chest and shoulders were strong and his embrace was warm and sure.
“It is rather thrilling, isn’t it?” he said, as thunder once again cracked and splintered the sky.
“It is that.”
“Hold me closer?”
Ed gathered the blanket back up where it had slipped a little, and obliged.
The storm wore on, the thunder like warning shots, like cathedral bells, the lightning in fierce slashes and delicate lacy arcs.
Eventually Stede dozed against Ed’s shoulder, and one of Ed’s hands found its way under the hem of Stede’s shirt to trace tender shapes on Stede’s skin.
Long after the storm blew itself out, the air continued to crackle.