Work Text:
“Bye, Stede.” Lucius’ head popped into his lab from where he was hanging his lab coat.
Stede looked up confused, hands deep in a specimen jar. He wanted to change all the ethanol from these jars before getting on with his actual work.
“So soon?”
Lucius frowned, making a show of looking at the big clock on the wall.
“...it’s almost seven already.”
Stede checked the clock himself, because it couldn’t be–
“Ah.” The sunset shone through the window, he didn’t even notice.
“Yeah, so I’m heading off. See you tomorrow.”
“Bye, Lucius! Have a nice evening!” Stede waved, placing the young leatherback turtle back on its jar. The door to his lab closed after that, and once again, Stede found himself alone in his lab.
He sighed. It wasn’t a bad thing, being alone. Sure, he enjoyed Lucius’ and Oluwande’s company, his grad students were very bright and made things interesting around the lab. But sometimes Stede just needed time alone.
Just him, the white workbench and his turtles.
He delicately picked the junior leatherback turtle again from the jar.
“Sorry for that, little miss, I’m going to get your jar all clean now.” He placed her in the tray with the others and soaked them in ethanol.
He hummed to himself as he cleaned the jars, a small smile painting his lips.
Stede loved his job, loved turtles and everything to do with them.
Exquisite creatures, they were. From beak to shell to arms.
He placed the last fixed turtle on the tray, and filled all the jars back with ethanol. Working with fixed turtles wasn’t the highlight of his work, he admitted that. He much preferred live turtles than otherwise. Still, he took great care of all of them equally, even if some of these fixed turtles were older than Stede himself.
His favourite part, of course, were the field trips. Or better said: sea trips.
He never felt more at home than at the ocean.
It was just–
Stede didn’t realise a man standing on his doorway until an awkward cough startled him.
“Oh my goodness, yes, come on in.” Stede sat the ethanol down and took his gloves off, throwing them in the bin underneath his workbench.
He cleaned his palms excessively on his lab coat and made his way towards the man at the door. Stede faltered then, when he took a better look at his visitor. He had guessed one of his students had come to ask him about an upcoming exam, or a fellow professor had come to wish him a good evening.
But it wasn’t. It wasn’t anyone he recognised.
The man was handsome. He had long, grizzly black hair that fell over on his shoulders in soft curls, and a well kept beard that covered half his face, giving it a sharp angle. He had a frantic look about him that both intrigued and captivated Stede.
“Doctor Bonnet, I presume?” Stede could only nod, having lost his voice somewhere between his workbench and the doorway. The man visibly sagged in relief at that and finally came inside. He placed a cardboard box on Stede’s desk, one Stede hadn’t noticed him carrying at all. Still, his curiosity picked. “I’m from the wild animal rescue team. We’ve got something for you.”
“Stede’s… fine.” His brain was still catching up with the beginning of their conversation.
The man frowned. “What?”
“It’s just– I mean, you called me Doctor Bonnet–which is correct, yes, but you can call me Stede,” he blurted out. By the shocked expression on the man’s face, it seemed Stede was making a fool of himself. He blushed awkwardly and looked down at the box. “So what did you bring me?” He asked, trying to move past the embarrassment.
The man blinked and turned back to the box, tapping it with his index finger twice before making up his mind and looking at Stede again.
“I’m Ed, by the way. Edward Teach…” Ed cleared his throat and a faint blush appeared on his cheeks. “I just realised I didn’t introduce myself either.”
“Oh.” Stede smiled involuntarily. “Nice to meet you, Ed.”
Ed smiled back at him, a soft and shy thing, hidden beneath his pepper beard. Stede had to look away before he was caught staring.
“So…” he broke the silence, nudging his head towards the box.
“Oh, right.” Ed straightened up and began to open the box. “We found this little guy this morning.” He carefully placed his hand inside and fished out a small yellow and green turtle.
Stede gasped, “a T. dorbigni!” He cupped his palms together before Ed placed the turtle on top of them. “Do you know how rare it is to see one of these in New Zealand?” Stede didn’t let Ed answer that before he was cooing the beautiful specimen in his hands. “Hello little one, you’re so far away from home, aren’t you?”
The turtle sat down on his hands and looked at him, stretching its neck out. No doubt curious to know who was this new human handling it.
“Don’t worry, I’m going to take good care of you.” And addressing Ed, he asked. “Where did you say you found it?”
When Ed didn’t answer, Stede looked up from the turtle and caught Ed staring. “Ed?”
Ed startled. He cleared his throat and looked down at Stede’s hands.
“Oh, hm, it’s really quite sad, the situation. We found it on the beach, actually. Some rowdy kids had tied a knife to its shell.”
“What? What for?” Stede frowned, taking a closer look at the turtle to check for any injuries.
“It’s fine, don’t worry. I took it to a vet before coming here.” Ed stepped closer and gently scratched the turtle's head. “I received this call about an animal fight, but when I arrived at the scene, the kids had already dispersed. Only the turtle was left.”
“What was the turtle fighting?”
“A crab, it seemed.”
Stede nodded, smothering his anger and saving it for another moment. “Is this a common occurrence, you’d say?” His voice came out more clipped than he intended, but by Ed’s tired expression, the man seemed to understand.
“The animal fights? Yeah, unfortunately.” Ed sighed. He leaned back against Stede’s desk, and this man shouldn’t look so hot just by leaning against something, no, he shouldn’t. Stede focused back on the turtle as Ed continued on with the explanation, feeling his face grow hot. “There’s this man, Calico Jack. We think he’s responsible for most of them. He’s slippery, though.”
Stede already hated the man, whoever he was. But there was nothing he could do about it right now, and it seemed Ed and his colleagues were already dealing with it as best as they could. It calmed Stede a bit, to know this was being addressed.
“Thank you so much for bringing it to me, Ed.” He smiled at the man, who shrugged like it was nothing. “You said you took it to the vet– did they take blood tests?”
“Yeah, they did a bunch of tests on our little friend. It’s mostly tired from that right now.” Ed huffed a laugh, smiling down at the turtle.
“Right. So could you bring me the results when they’re done? I’m thinking a turtle this young could do well in its natural habitat.”
“You’re going to fly it all the way to Brazil?” Ed’s eyebrows shot to his hairline.
“Sure, why not?” He shrugged. He had money, he had connections. It all worked out, except… “The only thing stopping me from sending it right now is that we don’t know if the turtle has any sort of disease or parasite. We wouldn’t want to cause trouble now, would we, little one?”
The turtle didn’t seem interested in their conversation, and it simply hid its face inside the shell for a nap. Stede sighed, so cute.
Ed nodded. “There’s another thing I’d like to ask of you, if it’s not too much.”
Stede shook his head. “None at all. Fire away.”
“You’re responsible for the native turtle preservation unit, right?” Stede nodded. “Is there any chance you can take it to the unit? We have our hands full at the moment.”
Stede nodded eagerly. “Of course! Don’t worry about it. There’s an extra corner for exotic turtles when it's needed.” Then, to the turtle, Stede added, “no more fights for you, little guy. Just lettuce. And strawberries.”
The turtle seemed to understand that. It slowly blinked at Stede.
“Is that all, Ed?” Stede asked, placing the turtles back in its cradle.
Ed frowned, again, something in his expression made Stede think he was having conflicting thoughts. Debating something internally. Stede waited patiently.
“No, it’s–well, actually.” Ed straightened up. “Could I have your number?”
The air left Stede’s lungs.
“I…” he began, but Ed cut him with a stream of anxious words.
“I mean, to get in contact with you again, you know? It’s going to be easier like that, so I don’t have to come all the way to the campus.” Ed cringed at his words.
Ah. Stede didn’t let himself feel the sting of rejection.
“O-of course, that makes sense.” He faced away from Ed, searching for a pen and a piece of paper on his table to write his number down. A hand stopped him from reaching it out, though.
“And…” Ed was looking away from Stede as he said it, cheeks warming up. “I’d also like it for personal reasons, too.”
Stede’s eyebrows shot up. His heart leaped hopefully. “Personal?”
Ed squeezed his wrist and nodded. He met Stede’s eyes. “Would you mind?” He let go of Stede, the residue warmth tingling on his skin. “I know we’ve just met but… I’ve got this feeling…” his eyes turned pleading, embarrassed, and Stede understood. Of course he did.
He smiled. It was his turn to grab Ed’s wrist. “I think I know what you mean,” he admitted in a small voice.
The lab was empty aside from them, but this felt huge for some reason. Stede didn’t want to break it. But Ed felt it too, didn’t he? His eyes shone just the same, now, a mirror to Stede’s ones.
Stede wrote his number down, even added a little heart next to it.
Ed was gone a few moments later, but Stede didn’t feel alone anymore.
“What an unexpected turn of events, little one.” He petted the box lid twice before going back to the fixed turtles with renewed energy.