Work Text:
After a raid Ed is still riled up and full of energy. Which means she is pacing the deck shaking her arms next to her when Steph comes out from the cabin all cleaned up and ready for the rest of the day. Steph goes up to Ed and wraps her arms around her from behind, Ed doesn’t flinch, much.
When she realizes that the arms wrapped about her middle and the warm chest pressed up to her back isn’t someone trying to stab her, she relaxes. The energy still buzzing through her doesn’t let her feet stop from twitching.
‘You could use that energy elsewhere my dear’ Steph whispers in her ear, nosing the tiny dagger shaped earing she wears on her lobe. The warmth of Steph’s breath on her ear and the gentle sway of her nose at her face relaxes her and she melts into the touch of her lover. Ed raises her hands to rest atop Steph’s delicate hold on her. She rubs small circles onto her thumb as she hums.
‘You just cleaned yourself up and you know how much I like to make you a mess’ Ed whispers back as she leans backwards into the embrace of the smaller woman. She's not wearing heels right now, and hasn’t for a while, Ed defiantly isn't complaining about the height difference. It makes her feel more powerful which, with Steph she knows isn't the case, but being able to look down on Steph has its perks. Namely two of them.
‘Yes, that would be a shame’ Steph hums. She nudges the tiny dagger out of the way and feather light kisses Ed’s neck, right on the pressure point she knows sends shivers down Ed, all the way down. Ed leans her neck more open for her, Steph needs to tip toe to get a good kiss on her neck. As she bounces back onto the balls of her feet her breasts bounce and grace Ed’s back. She isn't wearing her leather jacket since it was too bloodied, the purple cotton is enough to feel the heavenly heaving of Steph's breasts. Ed moans, which turns more into a sigh of frustration. Ed needs to strip the damned stays and far too many layers are skirts from her Steph as soon as she could.
Ed turns in Steph's embrace she doesn’t let go but loosens her grip to hold onto Ed’s hips as she looks up at Ed with the most innocent doe eyes she could pull. Ed doesn’t wait for her to make any comments, her eyes burning with passion and love for this small golden angle. Ed smashes their lips together, not too forceful thankfully, and kisses Steph with a passion only she can bring out in Ed. Steph lets out little sighs of moans as she pushes up closer to ed. Ed reaches up behind Steph, her fingers just find the strings of her stays when a small but cough interrupts her work to get her lovers breasts in her mouth.
Steph pulls away first and looks towards the sound, eyes dazed and lips a beautiful flushed.
‘Yes Oul?’ she murmurs. Ed’s fingers slide down to Steph's hips, she doesn’t even take her eyes off Steph's body, planning her next move. The red dress she's wearing is only two layers, get the stays off and she could pull the whole thing off in seconds.
Oul shifts awkwardly ‘Erm we are close to Barbados and we need some provisions, so we could pull into the port and sell some of the stuff we don’t need for stuff we do?’ he awkwardly scratches at the side of his neck, a bruise showing where Jim decided to make their mark.
Sighing Steph says ‘okay, how long do you think it will be until we get there?’
‘I'd say a couple hours, depending on the wind of course’ Steph looks at Oul thoughtfully, then turns to Ed. Whose face has fallen, she knows that with that time limit she wouldn't get Steph naked, maybe just the stays? Steph looks up at Ed and smiles that bright smile, that says sorry and later at the same time. Ed lets go of Steph as Steph lets go of her. Ed turns to Oul ‘I don’t stop you two when you're busy’ she mumbles at him. Oul just gives an apologetic shrug and turns to go back to where the Swede and black Pete are loading things into bags to take to the port.
Ed turns to Steph ‘quickie?’ Steph giggles and that does so much to Ed it's not fair.
‘no, I'll need to save my strength for lugging that stuff around’ she sags with the sigh, thinking of who to take with her.
Ed takes the sagging as concern for being in Barbados ‘you don’t need to go into port, you are supposed to be dead remember’ Ed wraps her arm around Steph's shoulder and leans into her girlfriend.
‘Oh yes! I totally forgot about that’ Steph balks, her eyes going wide. ‘I've changed so much though, I'm sure no one would recognise me. And I could always pretend to be a ghost’ she giggles and Ed chuckles at her affectionately.
‘I'd be all like’ Ed waves her free hand outwards ‘Steph? Who's that? I'm alone right now’ they both descend into laughter, Ed pulling Steph closer to her and Steph putting her forehead to Ed’s collarbone.
Steph stepped out of the dingy and slung a bag over each shoulder, they contained such things as clothes none of them fit into and books Steph had read over and over. Ed ambles up to her with her own bags, they had a few bottles of rum and Knick knacks no one wanted. Steph had stopped wanting to keep everything a month after she came back, after she realised that they are of more importance as rations and gun powder. Buttons, Jim, Lucius and Izzy follow them up the port to the market place. They were to split into groups of twos and sell as much as they could, if they found things, they needed they would also buy any rations they needed. Izzy sighed dramatically as he was paired up with Jim. The most successful pairing Ed thought. Once they got within the area of the main market place they split up, Izzy and Jim going to the back alleys of the market, since they had the most expensive items. Luci and buttons sped off in front of Steph and Ed to target the stalls and venders in the actual buildings of the market, Buttons didn’t like the idea, preferring to be outside at most times. Luci looked back at Steph with a please safe me if he does something weird look at her. Steph just nods with an amused smile on her face. Ed and Steph decided to take a slower walk to the outside stalls, stopping at stalls they thought would buy their wares, making out that they were customers at first. Ed was a good enough haggler but Steph was in her element. Items that shouldn’t have been more than a few coins ended up being taken for double or triple what they needed. Ed had a big smitten grin plastered to her face for the most part, and let Steph just do as she did best. Steph stepped back from a stall towards the most built up area of the market and turned to Ed. A sly and proud grin on her face, they had only a couple of books and garments to get rid of, Steph was excited to get back to the ship and show the rest how much she had got for items they all thought would make nothing back.
‘Only a few more bits to sell and we can go back to the dock, wait for the others’ Steph said to Ed, she shouldered the one bag now and went to step around Ed to go to the next stall she spotted. Ed span around to follow her and was smashed into by something big and flat.
‘Shit! Sorry’ the male voice came from the other end of the canvas. It was a plain canvas, ready to be painted on. A brown haired head popped out from around it. The man’s eyes grew ten times as large and his mouth hung open a little. Ed decided it was time to leave now, Blackbeard and all that. But it wasn’t her he was staring at, that’s when Ed turned to Steph. Steph looked just as shocked. Shit its someone who knows her!
‘mark’ Steph breaths out, barely a whisper. The man puts the canvas down, and placed a hand on top to keep it there.
‘hello’ is all the man says. He shrugs and looks around to see if anyone is looking at them. They are not.
‘I didn’t think we would...’ Steph is lost for words. Mark wouldn’t rat them out, wouldn’t let them get caught, but seeing him after the months gone is still a little shocking.
‘You doing that thing where you get double the price again?’ he asks Steph. Ed stands up straighter and glares at the mark guy. She doesn’t like him.
Steph giggles, a bit relived ‘Yeah, you know it’s my talent’ Steph steps closer to mark, mark smiles and they slowly embrace. A tight hug with smiling faces. Ed coughs.
‘Oh Ed’ Steph exits the hug and turns to Ed ‘Ed this is mark’ Steph gestures to mark. Mark has a shit eating grin on his face.
‘Ed?’ Mark says, he looks Ed up and down, taking in all the leather, tattoos and clearly female figure. Ed feels anger and a bit of disgust at being ogled.
‘Yes, I am’ she barks out, the grimes plastered to her features.
Steph steps up to Ed and places a hand on her shoulder, a feeling of calm washes over Ed. ‘Oh Ed, darling, this is Mark, my husband, well, my ex-husband technically.’ Ed’s mouth falls open and she stares at Mark. This man had Steph, had a literal angle and didn’t worship her? from the top of her golden curls to the pretty little feet she glides on. Madness.
‘Yeah, I'm your widow remember’ Mark remarks. It was at that point when Buttons and Lucius came over to them, fearing some sort of trouble starting. ‘I think if you want to, we could take this to a more private place?’ Mark asks Steph.
‘Oh yes, this is my-’ Steph is interrupted by Jim and Izzy also joining the little gang in the middle of the very public market square. ‘crew ‘
‘More the merrier, Alma will be beside herself if she knew real pir... people were here with you and you didn’t let her ask all her questions’ Steph full out laughs, face scrunching up with the mirth. She nods and gestures for Mark to lead the way.
‘What the fuck?’ Izzy mutters from the back of the line.
‘detour’ Lucius says back.
Mark takes the canvas straight to the shed, and they all follow behind him, looking around suspicious or in wonder. Steph stands looking at the house she gave up for Ed and for herself. It really does feel like I don’t belong here.
‘Right, so come on in then’ Mark says walking over to the back doors of the house and opening them up for them to go inside. Steph is the only one to follow Mark at a normal pace, the others slowly creeping into the well-lit hall way. Steph looks back at them to see how they are doing.
‘There is nothing here that can hurt us, I promise’ Steph adores them. ‘And even if there was, we are more than capable to get away’ she adds, holding out her hand for Ed to take. Ed takes her hand and lets Steph lead her more fully into the house. From another room a female voice calls ‘Mark, do we have guests?’
Mark calls back ‘Yes, 8 for tea dear’ a couple clanking sounds of China and cupboards are heard from the direction of the female's voice. Mark and Steph lead the rest towards the dining room, and they all sit around the table. The awkward silence drags for a moment until Steph says ‘So, how have you been?’ Mark takes his eyes off of Izzy and looks at Steph.
‘We have been fine, not much has changed, apart from Doris and I are now married’ he shrugs.
‘Oh, congratulations!’ Steph gushes at him. since Steph and Mark had their night time chat where Mark tried to stab her, they have become much happier being friendly. ‘Will the kids have siblings?’ Steph asks.
Mark shakes his head ‘god no, those two are enough for both of us, and we have both agreed that we don’t need to have children, so no’ Steph sighs a little in relief.
‘I didn’t mean to be rude. It was just something on my mind you know’ Steph explains, Ed grabs her hand on the table.
‘I know that’s you, so this is Edwina’ Mark says, nodding towards the two of them. Ed sits up a bit straighter, fluffing her feathers a little, to show off to Steph’s ex-husband.
‘Isn’t she just darling?’ Steph blurts out, then turns to Ed with the most admiring expression on her face. Their eyes meet and it feels like only they are in the world, they have lost full hours just staring at each other, the crew tends to just leave them be for a bit when that happens knowing that disrupting them makes them both a little dazed. Mark looks at them both and melts.
‘I’ve only seen you look a little like that before and that’s when you first saw the children after they were born, it’s so nice’ he remarks. Steph turns bright red and whips her head towards Mark.
‘We both found real love, eh?’ Steph asks him, Mark laughs and nods. Ed squeezes Steph’s hand a little in a show of appreciation for this woman. Lucius hums in agreement.
‘Took them long enough to get down to it though’ Lucius comments. Mark laughs out louder at Ed and Steph’s bright faces.
‘Was a pain in the ass watching them dodge each other’ Jim adds in. Mark chuckles and adds, ‘Didn’t take me long after, sorry Steph.’
‘I mean I always wondered why you looked at the maids a little too closely’ he winks at Steph and Steph looks like she will faint at any moment.
‘Oh! and do any of these maids still work here?’ Ed asks in a joking tone. Mark shakes his head with a chuckle.
‘No, but I’d be careful with the woman in the bakery’ Ed balks and whips his head to stare at Steph in mock fear. Steph starts spluttering and tears start to form in her eyes.
‘Oh dear, sorry, sorry! I didn’t mean anything by it I know I shouldn’t be worried’ Ed reassures her, Steph leans into Ed and just shakes her head on her shoulder. Luci and Izzy share a look of sudden hatred for Mark, he should know what happened with Steph leaving. Probably not how bad it was but it’s still sort of raw for Steph especially. The female they heard earlier comes through the door carrying a tray with 8 sets of tea, she stops abruptly at the sight of 5 pirates at the table with Marks dead wife. Even though she knows she didn’t actually die, she was still shocked to see her sitting at the table she left them with.
‘Hello Doris’ Steph says, all smiles and still puffy eyes. ‘This is Edwina, my girlfriend’ she raises the hands linked together ‘And this is Lucius, my scribe of sorts’ Lucius I waves ‘Buttons and Jim’ Jim and Buttons shrug at her ‘And finally Ed's first mate Izzy’ Izzy gives a sort of smile, the best Izzy could give ‘I know they seem a little rough around the edges, but they are all lovely people’ Doris lays the tray on the table.
‘Hello all’ she says with a smile. ‘Do we need more sugar?’
‘Oh defiantly’ Ed says, she hums and shuttles out of the room to grab another sugar bowl, she sets that one straight in front of Ed. Ed grins at Steph as Steph lets out a little giggle.
‘Are you eating well? Not been in too much danger?’ Doris asks Steph.
‘Oh’ she shrugs as Ed passes her, her teacup and then goes back to empty the sugar bowl into her own. The rest of the tea party start pouring teas and sipping on cups.
‘I’ll take that as a no’ Mark says, ‘Do you need anything?’ his face pulling into a suspicious emotion.
‘No, no. Everything is fine.’ Steph comments. Izzy snorts.
‘Yeah, she’s really gotten good at being a pirate, only gets stabbed once a week at least.’ the rest of them giggle, including Steph. The other two look mortified at them.
‘That’s why we came into port to be honest, to sell stuff we raided to get supplies’ Ed supplies.
‘Though if you want to give us anything’ Jim adds with a chuckle. Mark laughs and goes to stand up. ‘I was joking’ Jim murmurs after him.
He comes back after a moment with two children in tow. ‘You can have these if you want’ he laughs. The small boy is clutching to the back of his father's legs, peeking out from them to stare at them all. The bigger girl is stood next to him straight backed, confident face. They both glance over the crew at the table and then fall on Steph's face. Steph smiles at them and they both shout ‘MAMMA!’ they both come running over to Steph the girl getting there first, Steph just had time to lay the cup down on the table before she bounces at her side. The boy comes up behind his sister and wraps his tiny arms around the both of them. When Steph came back both of her children hated her, until the last few days, when they seemed to form a stronger bond than they ever had with their mother. Alma thinking her mother is the most exciting person she’s ever witnessed and louis just happy to be able to hear his mother’s stories. Steph holds onto her children and snuggles into their hair.
Alma pulls back to look at her mother ‘I have the orange next to my bed, I tell it what I've been doing every day!’
Louis leans around his sister ‘I like your shiny hair mamma’ Steph reaches up to the braid in her hair that fang put in last week, it has silver rings hooked into it. Steph giggles ‘Thank you Louis, and I have the other half on my nightstand too!’ Ed and the rest just look on at the scene, feeling a little out of place.
Alma and Louis turn to their father and Doris and both ask ‘Can we play with the pirates?’ mark looks at Steph, Steph looks at Ed, Doris sighs.
‘I mean sure little ones, we can be your crew’ Ed leans over to talk to them, they both turn to her and beam, Louis has missing teeth. They pull away from Steph, alma grabs Ed's hand and pulls her up and Louis pulls up Izzy, who was next to her. The rest decided that they should probably get up too and follow the two children.
Luci is sat down across from Doris and Mark, who are sat on the sofa in the main room. They got to talking about drawing and Mark commented that he couldn’t properly draw the two of them together and didn’t feel right asking his artist friends to draw them. So, Lucius sat them down and started to sketch them before they could protest, in the way only Lucius could.
‘We have to give you something for doing this’ Doris says, Lucius shrugs.
‘Nah, I’ve drawn everyone on the ship and you're like family so’ Mark grins at him.
‘We are family’ Lucius looks up at him, his mouth a little open. Technically yes, it’s true, Steph is like a mother to him, and since he is the father of her children then yes. They are family.
‘Also, I’m not the actual violence type of pirate’ Lucius laughs and goes back to sketching. Outside in the garden the screams of terror and laughter floats into the room with them and they all smile at the love they feel for the pirates, playing pirates and the children. Alma has a wooden sword pointed to Izzy’s neck. Izzy kneeled down on the grass.
‘Where is the loot you scallywag!?’ she shouts at him. Izzy snarls.
‘I will never tell you, you will have to kill me first’ Alma tuts and turns to shout at Ed
‘Blackbeard, this one is not doing as he’s told’ Ed looks over at Alma from the wall she is stood on, trying to look like she’s steering a ship.
‘I’d say they should walk the plank’ they are all playing up the child friendly version of piracy, silently cringing in their heads but loving every moment with these two small humans. Buttons has Louis on his shoulders with an eye glass he shouts.
‘Captain! The English!’ they all stop still and look over to where Louis is pointing for a second in fear, but when they don’t see anything and realize it’s part of the play they go back to what they were doing.
‘Oh no!’ Alma shouts. Jim jumps into the scene knife raised.
‘I’ll be taking over this rotten ship’ they shout, cringing. Steph steps up behind them and pretends to draw a sword.
‘To the gallows dogs’ Steph shouts. Jim cringes again. Louis taps Buttons on the shoulder and he lets them down, he and Alma scream and start running towards Jim and Steph. Jim quickly throws their knife into the nearest tree, so they accidently don’t stab Steph’s children, Alma stops in her tracks. her mouth hangs open and she mouths ‘wow.’ Louis continues to run up at Steph and Steph turns and starts to run away from Louis, Ed jumps down from the wall and runs after them both, both of them screaming and roaring at Steph.
‘Come back here you coward’ Louis shouts, Ed runs up behind him and scoops him up in her arms ‘Faster Blackbeard she’s getting away’ he states. Ed giggles and hold Louis close. They had been playing this game for over an hour, and every time the children let Ed pick them up or hold them, all she wanted to do was never let them go.
Jim is sat on a short wall, with Alma next to them. Alma is gushing about how exciting it must be to be a pirate, Jim didn’t want to discourage her, but also never wanted to see this little girl on a ship.
‘Can I hold your knife?’ Alma asks them. Jim balks at first, then decides Steph wouldn’t be too angry if she lets her hold it, she would draw the line at teaching her how to throw it though. Jim hands Alma the knife handle first. Alma takes the knife and holds it up to the light, making the light shine around.’ this is so pretty’ Jim looks at her and decides that she would protect this little girl with everything she has. Alma tries to hold the knife in her two fingers like Jim did earlier, and drops it to the floor. Jim bends to pick it up again and puts it away in their belt.
‘I really like your coat mister’ Alma says when Jim looks back down at her.
‘Oh well, I’m not a mister actually’ Jim tells her.
‘But you look like a man’ Jim shrugs.
‘I’m not a man’ Alma creases her little brow and says ‘Okay’ and goes back to swishing the wooden sword. Jim beams at her, then looks over to Steph, who’s pinned under Louis and Ed. Louis is sat on Steph’s chest and Ed is pointing a tiny wooden sword at Steph’s neck. Steph has a massive grin on her face, and Ed is trying to hold in a laugh.
‘Mamma, you're supposed to surrender’ Louis says.
‘But I have a special trick’ she says and lifts up her arms and starts to tickle Louis, the little boy falls into giggles as Steph rolls him over and pins him down with more tickles.
‘I’ll save you red hand’ Ed gasps and bends down to tickle Steph. Louis joins in with Ed and Steph is soon crying with laughter. Izzy comes over and grabs Louis from behind and starts to throw him up in the air, the little boy giggling and shouting ‘Higher’ Izzy has the most genuine and happy face Steph had ever seen on his face. She turns to Ed ‘This is nice; she whispers to her.
‘I love you’ Ed whispers back, Steph beams and kisses Ed. Short and sweet. Alma jumps up and walks over to her mother.
‘Mamma, can I come and see the ship?’ Steph looks down at her and sighs.
‘No dear, one I think it’s a little too dangerous for you at the moment, and two your father will really kill me’ Alma pouts and Ed can’t stand that. She thought Steph’s pout was difficult to say no to. Almas is so much harder to even look at. Alma recovers quickly and beams up at Ed.
‘Can I hold your gun?’ she enthusiastically asks her. Ed's eyes widen and she looks at Steph.
‘It’s not loaded right?’ Steph asks. Ed shakes her head. ‘Sure’ Steph says. So, Ed un-holsters her gun and hands it to Alma with shaking hands. It feels weird giving a child a gun. Alma turns and points at Izzy and Louis and shouts ‘BANG!’ at them. Izzy puts louis down and then grabs at his chest and moans. He falls over dramatically and lays on the floor sticking his tongue out staring up at the sky. Alma gives the gun back to ed and runs over to Izzy, nodding at Louis. They both jump on Izzy and start shaking him. He suddenly wakes up with a shout and grabs both of them. They shout and giggle and Izzy rolls around with the two of them. Steph actually cries with happiness. Ed pulls her into her arms and holds her close stroking her hair. ‘I’m just so happy right now’ Steph says in her chest.
‘Me too’ Ed tells her.
When it comes to them leaving Alma grabs hold of Jim and says, that she wants to keep them as a nanny. Jim laughs and tells her they would be a terrible nanny. Louis on the other hand has Olivia on his head and asks Doris if she knows what moon bathing is, and if he can have a bird. Doris just stares at him with a long-suffering look.
‘Sorry for exciting them’ Steph says to Mark.
‘They will not stop talking about this day for years, I know so, so I’m not bothered if they don’t sleep tonight, gives me an excuse to open that run you gave us’ Mark chuckles. Steph grins at them.
‘Just make sure they don’t tell anyone we were here’ Ed adds, Mark just nods at her.
‘I think they know not to tell anyone. they love you a lot more than that.’ Louis comes up behind Steph and pulls at the skirt of her red dress. Steph looks down at her son ‘Yes dear?’ he holds out a book, well-loved and instantly reorganizable by Steph.
‘Mr Buttons was telling me that you tell the crew bed time stories, and I thought they would like ours’ Steph bends down on her knees and takes the book from him, she wrote this herself for her children and told it to them every time she added more to it. She tears up ‘Yes I’m sure the crew will adore this, thank you Louis, but won’t you miss it?’ he shakes his head.
‘No, but I added more to it with Alma when you were gone’ Steph grabs hold of her son and hugs him tight, tears streaming from her eyes. She kisses the top of his head ‘Mamma, it’s okay’ Louis murmurs. Alma comes up to them. Mark walks over to Doris.
‘Ed gave us some rum’ he tells her. Doris just grins at him.
‘I like my pirate mamma’ Alma says and looks up at Ed. ‘You better look after her!’ she adds. Ed grins down at her and nods her head confidently.’ and you have to give her lots of good night kisses from us!’ Ed then bends down and hugs Alma.
‘I will look after your Mamma. I love her very much’ she tells her hair.
‘Good’ Alma says parting from Ed to stare in her eyes. Then she switches from serious to the cute little girl again and says ‘Next time bring me a knife’ she tells Ed. Ed stares at her, and doesn't give any answer. I’m defiantly not getting her a knife. She pats her on the head as she gets up, Steph stands up and throws a confused look at Ed.
‘I’ll tell you later mate’ she chuckles.
They walked back to the ship with high spirits talking about what they would bring to the children next time they came to see them and how cute they were. Izzy kept gushing about Alma and how she would make a fantastic diplomat someday.
‘She’s a miniature Steph already’ Lucius says as they get in the dingy. Jim and Buttons taking up the ours since Steph looked like she would burst into tears at any moment and Ed was using all her energy to keep Steph from crying.
‘She’s a lot stronger than me already you mean?’ Steph comments, Ed takes up her hand and gives it a small kiss. ‘I like your emotions’ she tells Steph. Steph smiles at her and scrunches up her face trying even harder to not cry. Steph was emotional, but seeing her children and them being so happy with her made her even more emotional. Leaving them behind was hard, but she knew that, that was where they should be, and she should be here. Steph wasn’t the best pirate, but she was a damn good mother on that ship.
When they finally get onto the deck Oul and black Pete scramble up from their seats on the deck floor. ‘Where have you been?!’ they both shout at them all. Jim walks up to Oul and places a hand on his chest ‘I’ve spent the afternoon with the most adorable child in the world, she wants a knife the next time I see her’ Oul looks at her with confusion, but melts at the wide grin on their face.
Luci comes around buttons and Izzy to go up to Pete ‘Steph’s ex-husband bumped into us and we went to tea, I ended up drawing Mark with his new wife Doris, they are really nice actually’ he tells him. Pete smiles at Lucius, ‘I’m just glad you’re okay’ he says before Lucias smashes his lips to Pete’s.
The rest of them start taking the bags of things they didn’t sell and the bags made up by Doris, she had filled it up with fruit and veg. Steph grabs the book out of one of the bags. ‘Guys, my son gave me the bed time story I wrote for them’ she holds up the book to a choir of awes. ‘They even added bits themselves, I can’t wait to read it to you all, but damn it’s been a long day’ she sighs.
‘I can bring you some tea?’ Roach asks her.
‘And I can draw a bath for you’ Frenchie says.
‘Thank you to both, but I don’t need either right now’ she gives a tired giggle. Steph heads for the captain's cabin, Ed stays behind to sort through the gold and divide it up into the right amounts for everyone, with Izzy.
‘So, what were the kids like then?’ Frenchie asks Ed when he comes to get his share. Ed thinks for a moment then says. ‘They were loud, and too cute. They were Steph in a smaller version’ Frenchie laughs and pats Ed on the shoulder. The crew slowly dripped down into the rec and Ed went around lighting some of the lights ready for the night, since she knew for a fact Button’s wouldn’t light them. She left buttons at the helm, gave him a small salute as she went to go to the cabin. Buttons nodded back. Izzy caught up to Ed before she could get inside.
‘Are you okay?’ since Steph had come back and the ship had gone back to the way it was before. Izzy was the last to adopt the ‘we talk it through’ attitude, but he had come around to the fact that the way he was before was only existing and not actually living the life they have.
‘Yes Iz. Just,’ Ed pauses and sighs. ‘Being with them made me want kids, and I know I can’t have kids, kinda made me upset mate’ Izzy pats her shoulder. He doesn’t need to say anything, he knows that having a kid would make Edwina teach. But Blackbeard, most feared pirate could never have a child. Could never have that weakness, Steph was a weakness, but she could fight for herself, wither that was with her smart mouth or the sword lessons Izzy was giving her. Ed sighs and smiles at Izzy. They nod at each other and Izzy walks off to his room. Ed watches him go with a small smile on her face. It’s been tough for Izzy to not let his fears, jealousy and anger get to him, but he’s a lot better now, no more toe removing, thankfully.
Ed opens the door to find Steph sat on the couch bent over the book crying softy. She walks over to her and sits down next to her. it pulls Steph out of her trance. She looks over at Ed blank expression. ‘Hi’ she whispers.
‘Hi’ Ed returns.
‘I can’t read it’ Steph says. Ed puts her arm around her shoulder and pulls her closer.
‘That’s okay, you don’t need to read it now, or at all if you don’t want to sugar’ Steph leans into Ed and sighs. ‘Thank you’ she whispers.
‘For what?’ Ed asks ‘For letting me go to see them, for treating them like you did, for being with me’ she lists off. Ed smiles down at her.
‘Come on let’s get you into bed, eh?’ Ed leans down and kisses the top of Steph’s head. Steph looks up at ed. ‘I’m not tired though’ she pouts. Oh no, not the pout. Ed smiles at her, and kisses her softly on the lips. Quickly the kiss turns from soft to hungry as Steph pulls at Ed's shirt trying to either get herself on Ed or Ed on her, either would work right now. Ed pulls away a bit.
‘You want to talk instead?’ Steph shakes her head.
‘I want to feel’ Steph begs. And who would Ed be if she didn’t give Steph anything she asked for. Ed takes no time in lifting Steph onto her lap and resuming their kissing. Before long Steph is rutting on Ed's hips. Ed puts her hands up to Steph’s stays and quickly undoes the strings at the back, without breaking the kiss or her rutting Steph pulls her arms out of the stays. Ed lifts it over her head and sighs at the sight she’s welcomed with. Steph's breast instantly sag, with no support anymore.
‘You have the most gorgeous tits, Sugar’ Steph giggles and leans down to kiss at Ed's neck, making her moan with need. She grabs Steph’s tits in her hands, squeezing and pressing. Through the fabric she can feel Steph’s nipples grow with the attention. She gives them a small nip and locks her lips onto Steph’s. Steph likes Ed to take the lead, she likes Ed to be slow and commanding. But right now, she was such a mess, needing to release all the tension in her body. Ed understands that Steph needs Ed, she needs her the most right now like this.
She pulls down the dress and the shift giving herself access to Steph’s nipples, she laps at the right one and pays with the left one making Steph moan deep in her throat. ‘Ed’ Steph couldn’t deal with any other words at that time. She switches her hand and lips and lowers her other hand to hitch up Steph’s dresses trailing her hand up to Steph’s warm core. ‘Fuuuck, Yes' Steph mutters. Ed loves it the most when Steph swears, it makes a warm feeling bloom in her middle no matter when Steph does.
She moves up to Steph’s neck sucking little bites up from her breast. She took great joy in knowing her mark will show up on the flesh of her lover. That Steph lets Ed mark her. Kissing her neck Steph opens up her body to Ed's hand moving on her thighs. Ed uses her fingers to slowly circle Steph’s clit, knowing that Steph was sensitive below, much more than Ed. She had two children after all, two beautiful children Ed loved. Steph rocks with Ed's hand on her clit, slow and hard pressure. Steph was filthily moaning Ed's name and small soft ‘fucks’ truly falling apart.
It didn’t take very long at all, just a few circles and flicks. Steph came moaning Ed's name into Ed’s mouth. She only had been touching her for a moment or too. Steph must have been needing this more than Ed thought. ‘FUCK, Ed’ Steph sighs when she finally came down from the high. Ed just stared at the beautiful woman undone on her lap.
‘You are far too beautiful Stephanie bonnet’ Ed whispers. Steph leans her forehead to Ed’s.
‘Thank you, should we move to the bed now?’ Ed nods and just stands up with her in her arms. If Steph’s legs were not noodles, she would have wrapped them around Ed to keep her up right. Ed just scooped her up bridal style and walked them over to the bed nook.
Steph was obviously tired, emotionally, and physically. She laid there looking up at Ed, her eyes drooping ‘What about you?’ she asks.
‘You can sort that out later, for now I wanna snuggle you till we fall asleep’ Steph gives her a dopey grin and puts her arms out for Ed to lay with her.
Before Ed can do that though, she helps Steph out of the dress and pulls up the shift again. By help Steph wasn’t much help. Ed shimmied out of her leather trousers and climbed into the bed with Steph. Even though Steph was nearly asleep, she leaned over and kissed Ed softly. Ed kisses her forehead and carefully turns her over to spoon her.
‘Love you’ Steph murmurs.
‘Adore you’ Ed mutters back into her hair, putting her leg over Steph and her hand around Steph’s middle, holding her close and safe. All Ed will ever need is right here, wrapped up in her arms.