Chapter Text
Ed, 9
Ed was running . It was late. It was dark. Tears were streaming down his face as he dodged cars along the busy stretch of coastal road. The restaurants were packed, the bars were loud, and the drunk tourists were too caught up in themselves to notice a little boy ducking around them and vaulting over the edge of the boardwalk to get down to the sand.
“Stop fucking crying, boy, I can’t stand looking at you.” his father had slurred before the bottle crashed against the wall behind Ed’s head. He couldn’t stop though, not this time. So he ran. He ran to the one place he felt safe.
The water.
It was low tide, so he could hide under the boardwalk for a while. He could sit in the cool sand, he could listen to the waves, and he could look up at the stars and dream about being almost anywhere else in the world.
Louis, 9
It was a busy Friday evening at the restaurant, and Ed was tucked into a corner of the walk-in putting the finishing touches on the charcuterie for his date that night with Stede. It was his restaurant, and he could do what he wanted to, but crafting roses out of prosciutto to charm the pants off of his boyfriend during dinner service seemed a bit rude, so he was trying to stay out of the way.
As he looked at a jar of garlic stuffed kalamata olives, wondering if Stede actually liked them, his phone rang. He smiled when he saw the skrunkly-faced photo of Stede pop up, and quickly answered.
“Babe? Do you like kalamata olives?”
“Uh…sure.” He answered, sounding a bit tinny and distant. He was driving.
“Great! Where are you?”
“On my way - I just - Ed, I’m so sorry .”
Ed set down the jar of olives and straightened up. “What’s up?”
“I’m uh - I’m still coming. Or, well, I can still come. If you want me to. If not, that's totally ok and I understand and we can reschedule…”
“Stede?”
“I’m on my way to Mary's to pick up Louis. I’m sorry. She just called and asked if I could take him for the night.”
Ed took a deep breath. Dating someone with young kids had certainly been an adjustment, but he’d been doing his very best to be flexible and supportive and remember that sometimes things just came up . It was no one's fault, and Stede wasn’t using the kids to avoid him, shit just happened. And that was ok. He loved Stede, and Stede loved him, but Stede also loved his children very much. “Is everything ok?”
“I don’t know, he’s having a complete meltdown, apparently. Mary’s sisters are in town and they were all supposed to go to dinner and see The Nutcracker again and Louis is just not having it.”
Ah, The Nutcracker .
Alma had been cast in a professional production in the city. They hired a few dozen kids every year, and after several attempts, she’d finally made the cut. Everyone was very excited, of course, but it had been a lot. The show was in the full swing of things with performances now, but prior to that there’d been rehearsals and costume fittings and photoshoots and performances at Christmas markets and on the local news, many of which Louis had been dragged along to as well.
Ed and Stede had gone to see it last weekend, with Louis once again in tow, and he’d fallen asleep on Ed’s shoulder about 10 minutes in.
“Yikes. How many times has he seen it now?”
“Between dress rehearsals and opening night and everything else I think this would’ve been his 4th or 5th time. I should’ve just taken him tonight anyway, but Mary wanted the family together. I feel awful though, Ed. I know that I’ve not given him enough attention the past few weeks. No one has. I don’t think we realized what this was going to entail when Alma was cast.”
“Well, now you’ll know for next time?” Ed offered as he picked up the jar of olives to get back to the task at hand. “And hey! He’s your little star-gazing buddy, right? Maybe this’ll be good.”
“So it’s…it’s ok if I bring him along?”
“Stede, of course it’s ok.”
“All right, thank you.” Stede said, and Ed could practically hear his smile through the phone. “I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
“Looking forward to it, but it’s not a big deal. Does he need dinner? I take it he wont eat kalamata olives, right?”
Stede laughed. “Oh god no, I’ll get him something on the way.”
“Please, I have an entire restaurant at my disposal. Is a cheeseburger all right?”
“Actually no, he’s off the burgers again.”
“Huh, all right.. What’s he eating, then?”
Stede was quiet for a moment, thinking.
It still blew Ed’s mind how different the two kids were sometimes. Alma was willing to try almost anything you put in front of her. Hell, just last week they’d destroyed a whole plate of uni together while out for sushi. Louis, meanwhile, cycled through a handful of safe, simple foods every few weeks.
“Chicken nuggets? Not tenders, has to be nuggets. Butter noodles with a bit of parmesan. Uh…oh! Grilled cheese! He’s been into those lately too. He’s a big fan of cheddar.”
Ed smiled. “I can make him a grilled cheese. Are french fries ok?”
“Yes, as long as they're not the crinkle ones. And if you’re able to put something with half a vitamin on the plate, I’d appreciate it, but if not it's ok.”
“Will he eat grapes?” Ed asked, looking down at the few bunches delicately placed on the charcuterie, one of which he could certainly sacrifice so that kid didn’t get scurvy.
“He should, thank you. I’m sorry if this has thrown a wrench into anything.”
“Stop apologizing, it’s not a problem at all.”
“Ok, sor - I mean, thank you. I’m turning onto Mary’s street right now, we should be there in like 15 minutes.”
“Ok. Just come down to the boat when you get here, yeah?”
“Will do, I love you.”
“Love you too.”
—
“Welcome aboard!” Ed said brightly as Stede hoisted Louis onto the boat. The kid looked miserable, and his eyes and cheeks were still red and puffy from tears and frustration.
“Thank you! Happy to be here!” Stede replied cheerfully as he climbed on himself. He came over and gave Ed a quick, chaste peck on the cheek before turning his attention back to Louis.
Ed cleared his throat as Louis took a seat behind the container of food on the table. “Well, we’ll be heading out in just a few minutes, but I thought you might like to eat while everything was still warm. You’ve got a grilled cheese, fries, grapes, a coke, and an Edward Teach special, tomato soup. If you don’t like tomato soup that’s fine, but personally, I can’t eat a grilled cheese without it.”
“It’s really good when you dunk it in the soup.” Stede said, giving Louis’ shoulder a squeeze as he slid in next to him.
“Ok.” Louis whispered as he started picking at the fries.
Stede looked up and mouthed a silent thank you, and Ed just nodded and leaned against the side of the boat, watching their interactions. Stede was very gentle with Louis, very patient. He was such a good father to both of the kids.
A while back, after trauma dumping about their shitty fathers, Ed gushed for a while about just how good Stede was. Stede still had trouble believing that he actually was a good father, but he said that whenever he wasn’t sure what to do he’d try to guess what his would have done and then do the exact opposite, which seemed to be working.
Ed thought about that for a moment as Louis tentatively tried the soup. If Ed ever showed any sign of being sad or upset his father always told him to suck it up or get the fuck out of his face, so what was the opposite of that?
“Hey, Louis?” Ed began, and both Bonnets snapped their heads up to look at him. “After you’re done eating, do you want to help me uh, help me with the boat and stuff?”
“What?” Louis asked, confused.
Ed wondered if this was a silly idea, but he figured the opposite of telling someone to go away was to get them as involved as possible. “Well, it’s a big boat and I need some help. You could be like…oh! My first mate! Yes! Do you want to be my first mate tonight? Help me get it untied, help me navigate? Maybe even do a bit of driving?”
Louis’ expression seemed to soften a bit, but he still seemed unsure. Stede, however, had a huge smile on his face.
“Don’t you want dad to be your first mate?” Louis asked around a mouthful of grapes.
“Nah, he’s the cabin boy.” Ed teased as he sat down across from them. “Listen, we are heading out pretty far so I’m going to need someone to be my second pair of eyes.”
There was a full moon tonight, so the plan was to cruise out into open water, away from the city lights, and lay underneath it for a while.
“And…and I can drive?”
Ed chuckled. “Yeah kid, of course.” Once they were away from anything he could run into, Louis could drive for as long as he wanted.
“But it’s getting dark, how do you know where you’re going?” Louis asked, suddenly interested and shoving fries and grapes into his mouth.
“We’ve got GPS, don’t worry. I’ll show you everything, all right?”
Louis nodded enthusiastically before turning his attention back to his food, and Ed looked up at Stede and gave him a wink.
Once Louis was done eating he started eagerly following Ed around the deck, apparently interested in everything . Ed showed him how to properly coil rope, how to start the engine and check all of the instruments, how to use the radio, and how to maneuver through the channel markers as they made their way out of the marina. Stede was snapping a bunch of photos with his phone, but mostly staying quiet while Louis asked questions about every switch, every knob, every blinking light.
When they were finally out in open water Ed slowed down, dropped a waypoint on the GPS, and then let Louis take control. He stood behind him for a moment, just to make sure that everything was going well, and then sidled up to Stede, who was taking a video.
“And here we have First Mate Louis at the helm of the Tomorrow. Ed will be out of a job by morning.” Stede narrated while Louis drove. The kid turned and waved at the phone with a big smile on his face, and Ed’s heart melted .
He still felt completely out of his depth with the kids, but god he was trying.
Once Stede was done with the video he tangled his fingers with Ed’s and pressed a kiss to the back of his hand. “I love you so much. Thank you.” He whispered as he leaned his head against Ed’s shoulder.
“You’re welcome.” Ed answered, quietly.
A while later, after reaching their destination and after Ed showed Louis how to drop anchor, they were all sitting on the bow of the boat, looking up at the sky. Ed and Stede were having some wine and digging into the charcuterie while Louis sipped on a bottle of water and ate the occasional grape or piece of cheese. The moon was massive and bright and every so often Stede would drop an obscure bit of trivia about it.
“Ed?” Louis asked after a stretch of silence.
“What’s up?”
“Dad told me once that like - like back in olden times? That like pirates and explorers would use the stars to figure out where they were going.”
“That’s true.” Ed said as he set his glass down.
“How’d they do it though? Because like, the stars move, right? Or, well, I guess we are the ones who are moving. But how do you follow them? Do you know?”
Ed chuckled. He did know, actually. “Just a sec, I’ll show you.” He smiled as he stood up and made his way inside. He ducked down into the cabin and into the storage closet by the stairs. Under all of the extra life vests and safety flares and flags there was an old, heavy cardboard box which he pulled out and brought up on deck.
Louis was absolutely rapt with interest as Ed unloaded the maps and the almanacs and books full of charts, and his eyes widened when Ed set down a wooden box on top of everything.
“This is a sextant.” Ed said as he opened up the box.
“A what ?” Louis snickered.
“Ha ha yes, a sextant. Sex means the number 6 in Latin though, all right?”
Louis was still laughing, but nodded. Stede had joined them now too, though he already knew what it was. Learning how to use one was something that Ed always taught in more advanced sailing lessons.
“So, the pirates you’re thinking of probably used something called an astrolabe, but this thing replaced those and it’s super accurate if used correctly. They still have these on huge vessels like cruise ships and container ships and aircraft carriers, just in case of GPS failures, but I think they’re important to have for anyone doing any lengthy Ocean sailing.” He explained. “One of the first things I tell anyone learning how to sail is to not be scared of the open water. I know it’s intimidating and I know it’s easy to get turned around, but if you’re lost you’ve just got to stop, take a deep breath, and look up. All of the information you could ever need to get you home is there, and once you know how to interpret it, it’s easy to find your way.”
Ed could get super nerdy about all of this, so he had to keep reminding himself that he was talking to a 9 year old. “Basically, you can use this to measure the position of the moon or planets or stars and if you know the date and time you can use these books and a map and figure out exactly where you are. Then you just need a compass and you can point yourself in the direction you need to go.”
“Cool.” Louis said, and he seemed to mean it.
“Very cool. Be careful with it, ok?” Ed handed the sextant to Louis, who nodded as he took it.
“What do BH and ET mean?” Louis asked, taking note of the two sets of initials scratched onto the side of it.
“Oh those are just initials. ET is me, but um BH…that’s for Ben Hornigold. He uh - he owned the marina before me, back when I started working there in high school, and this sextant was his. He always marked everything, afraid that someone was gonna steal it, paranoid old bastard.” Ed chuckled.
Stede shot him a look. Right. Maybe don’t say bastard in front of the kid. Louis seemed unphased though.
“Ben taught me about boats and the ocean and how to sail and how to do this - “ Ed motioned at the sextant and the pile of books. “And after he was gone it was mine, so I carved my initials into it too.”
Louis seemed satisfied with that answer, which was good, because Ed had been known to get a bit weepy when talking about Ben. Time to move on.
He did his best to explain how everything worked without overwhelming a kid who hadn’t even learned about angles yet. Louis did all of the work with the sextant while Ed and Stede did the math and flipped through the books. Eventually they were able to pinpoint a location on a map, and once Ed showed Louis just how accurate it was with the GPS, his mind was blown .
“That’s so cool!” He squealed while flipping through the big book of charts.
“I’m glad you think so.” Ed said, feeling very proud of himself, as he settled back in next to Stede. “So now you know how to drive the boat, how to coil rope, how to navigate. I’m just gonna sit back and let you handle everything from now on.”
Both Louis and Stede were beaming, and Ed was just happy to have found something to make the kid smile.
Louis continued pawing through the books and looking up at the stars while Ed and Stede chatted. Eventually Louis curled up next to Stede, yawning, and not long after that Stede took him down into the cabin to set him up on one of the beds with his iPad. Ed was packing away the sextant and the books when Stede came back upstairs.
“We can head back in whenever you want, if you need to take him home.” Ed offered.
Stede just waved him off. “No no, he’s fine. He’ll be asleep in like 15 minutes anyway. Come here.”
Ed crawled on top of Stede to give him a proper kiss, finally.
“Thank you, again, for being so good with him.” Stede said after they broke apart. “I know this isn’t how either of us intended the evening to go, but I really do appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. Honestly it’s kinda fun being able to show him this stuff. He's a good kid and it’s nice to see him smile. Plus, I know the last few weeks have been rough on him.”
“They’ve been rough on me too.” Stede laughed.
“Well, as soon as your child is not like directly underneath us, I promise I’ll help you relieve some of that stress.”
“Deal. Until then, tell me more about the history of celestial navigation. You’re hot when you’re excited about something.”
Ed giggled as he ran his hands through Stede’s hair. He could talk about it for hours.