Cherish || BlackBonnet

1

Stede was hiding behind a folding screen, shivering as the cold air caressed his bare legs. Ed was reclining on his bed, waiting patiently for his "surprise." This was an awful idea.

With a sigh, he stepped out from behind with no grand flourish as originally planned. Ed dropped his knife. Stede was wearing nothing but a translucent dressing gown and his underwear. "Surprise?"

Ed fell off the bed in his haste to stand up, wrapping Stede in a pink bathrobe and hustling him into a chair. "Are you feeling ok? Feverish?" Stede clasped Ed's hand with a shaky smile. "No, Ed. We're going to have s- s... S-! S-s-se... You know!" Ed's face clearly conveyed that he did not, in fact, know.

"Intercourse!" Edward Teach, born on a beach, was lost for words at this moment. "What in the Devil's name are you talking about?"

"When two people love each other very much-"

"Not that! Why?!"

Stede paused here, tracing Ed's jaw fondly with his palm. "Consummation." Ed does not know what this large word meant, though he has a feeling it cannot be good. "And that means...?"
"The act of officiating a relationship through sexual intercourse!"
Edward dropped Stede's hand. "You want to have sex?? Why???" Stede flinched at the s-word, but continued on with a brave face. "I want to give myself to you fully, to have you understand I'll never leave you."

"Stede... Stede... You don't need to do that. You don't need to do any of this! I just- I- Give me a second." And with that, Edward left him sitting in his bathrobe, wearing naught but underwear, alone.