REC: my beloved has come home with the rains

[silverusagi]

my beloved has come home with the rains (25299 words) by lucifucker
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet, Black Pete/Lucius Spriggs, Oluwande Boodhari/Jim Jimenez
Additional Tags: too many tags to copy paste, so check the AO3 link

A great take on 'Stede comes back to the Revenge.' Ed is angry after Stede leaves and devestated after he hears of Stede's death. He drinks and sleeps and sometimes talks to the ghost in the walls. Then Stede comes back. Major props to the chaos of Stede's moment of return and the way Ed absolutely loses his shit when he realizes Stede's alive but Izzy is about to kill him. After that of course, Stede stays and Ed just kind of drifts, not knowing what to do with himself or with Stede. It's a lovely story of them coming back together, as well as a picture of what their lives look like once they and the crew are back to how they were before.

“What if I told you the Edward you loved died on that dock?” He asks, a frightened animal, biting, growling. “That Blackbeard’s all that’s left, now.”

“I’d say they’re one and the same and I love them both.” He can feel Stede’s tears dripping onto his skin and they burn like candle wax, like hot oil for all they pain him to feel. “Even if they hate me.”

“What if I sent you away?”

“I wouldn’t go.”

“What if I threw you in the brig?” Ed tries again, but something in him is giving way. He feels it and Stede does too, he must, for how he’s leaning into him, how his hands flex at his sides.

“This ship doesn’t have a brig.” Stede offers, and shuffles closer. Slowly, he slips a hand up around Ed’s waist, giving him plenty of time to pull away.

“The ball room then.” He says, but he doesn’t push him off. Stede’s arm settles around him and pulls him the few centimeters back until his chest meets Ed’s back.

“Not hard to break out of the ball room. Lots of heavy things in there, great for knocking the pins out of barrel hinges.” There’s that little ring in Stede’s voice, that little bit of mirth and cunning that Ed felt so drawn to from the moment they met. He feels his lips twitch in spite of himself.

“What if I threw you overboard?” He asks. He can’t keep the lightness out of his voice.

“Well, I’d just swim behind you, wouldn’t I?” Stede replies with a playful lilt. It tugs Ed’s chest just the same as it once did, making him want to meet the other man halfway, like he always does. To spin some bit with him that’s got everyone else rolling their eyes, but something in the back of his mind whispers you can’t trust it . Then Stede’s voice softens. “I’d follow in your wake across the seven seas.”

“That’s unrealistic.”

“That’s love.” Can he? He can’t . Maybe.

“I did hate you.” He hisses, testing. Stede winces but doesn’t move back, doesn’t pull away from the beast’s teeth as they snarl and snap. “I hated you so much I wished you’d die.” The grief, the pain, the loneliness, they twist and writhe within him like they always do. But this time there’s more, there are cracks in the foundations and the walls are crumbling. Ed takes a deep breath before continuing again. “Then you fucking went and did , you mad bastard, and it was like I was dying, too.”