Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“Sure you don’t want something to drink?”

Ed looks at Stede over his shoulder from where he has one hand on the handle of the fridge.

“Uhm. Maybe just some water?”

Stede has been wanting this ever since the first day at Blackbeard Solutions Group—showing up at the sleek, shiny office building and discovering that not only was his mentor to be Edward Teach, the CEO himself, but that Edward Teach was the most attractive man he’d ever seen in his whole entire life, and he’d be working with him every day for six months before being rotated to another department as part of the graduate program he somehow got accepted for. But despite how he’s been staring dreamily at his boss for weeks like a schoolgirl, he’s starting to feel a little unsure that this was a genuinely good idea.

Nerves jittering, cheeks hot, hands trembling, he unscrews the cap on the cold bottle Ed hands to him, the condensation nearly making it slip out of his grip. It was so much easier hiding behind blue and yellow text bubbles from the safety of his bedroom, only faced with a small icon of Ed’s leather-clad chest instead of the man himself, in the flesh, hot and real and next to him, looking at him with an unreadable gaze. Being the sole object of Ed’s attention is already wrecking him.

Why did Stede think he’d be able to act casual—even just normal—in front of Ed when he gets flustered if he so much as walks by his desk at the office? Stede is hopeless, pathetic, so fucking obvious with his hopeless, pathetic crush on his much older boss. The fact that Ed would ever look at him in a way that would make him message him on Grindr was already unfathomable. The fact that he invited him over feels like a dream, or more like a dirty fantasy, one of those he sometimes allows himself to have when he’s spilling over his fist imagining getting bent over his desk after hours.

But his motto has always been fake it till you make it, mostly because that’s what he’s always had to do to cover for being a perpetual disappointment. So, he takes a drink of his water, blissfully cool as it wets his throat, which he plans to use a lot if all goes well, and leans into the strong, tattooed arm Ed has casually slung over the backrest of the black leather couch.

The cautiously stunned look Ed gives him makes him momentarily panic that he has misinterpreted this whole thing, that Ed didn’t ask him over for sex at all, maybe just to talk about work or—or to hang out, if 40-somethings still did that, and that it just happened over Grindr because it was a funny coincidence to find him there. After all, they never laid down any expectations or ground rules between “Yes, it’s me. Ed?” and “Yeah, just text me your address,” between which there was only one other message (“yup. wanna come over?”).

But then Ed smiles and leans closer, cups his cheek gently and runs his thumb over his burning cheekbone as if he’s something precious and says, “You’re really pretty, you know that?”

Stede doesn’t know that. Whenever he was called pretty before, it was always in a mocking tone, just another way for his childhood bullies to call him soft and weak and unmanly when they started getting in trouble for calling him worse things. But on Ed’s lips, pretty sounds sincere, like something worth being, worth admiring, something Stede could actually believe if he heard it again, which he’s suddenly craving. He’s not proud of it, but he doesn’t know what else to say anyway, so he fishes.

“Am I?”

Ed chuckles. “Fuck yeah, you are, look at you.” He thumbs over Stede’s mouth, over the dimple on his cheek as he smiles bright and shy, cheeks flushing. “Is this okay?” Ed’s voice is barely beyond a whisper. “Just because I saw you on Grindr doesn’t mean I assume—”

Stede moves without thinking, sliding to his knees on the floor and settling between Ed’s thighs, faking confident determination in the hopes of making it, keeping eye contact despite the nervous fluttering in his chest making it difficult. Ed’s mesmerizingly deep, brown eyes darken, his lips parting as he cups Stede’s chin and tilting it up with the same big, warm hand that was just caressing him so gently.

Stede’s hands are resting on Ed’s thighs, feeling the heat of him through his slacks—the comfortable kind that might as well be sweatpants, which Stede has also started buying and wearing, not to purposefully copy Ed but maybe a tiny bit inspired by him—itching to move further up and explore everything Ed will let him.

He still doesn’t quite believe that this is really happening, even as he finally drops his gaze to the growing bulge between Ed’s parted legs. He licks his lips as he looks up again, surprised to see hesitation on Ed’s face. He’s the one who invited him over here, the one usually in charge, but now, it feels as if they’re both teetering right on the edge of their sepia world, scared that once they’ve seen life in technicolor, there’s no going back.

But the one thing Stede knows it that he can’t let this chance go by, no matter the consequences, so when Ed asks, “Are you sure?” in such a soft and careful way that it makes Stede’s chest tighten, he nods with a confidence he no longer has to fake now that he’s made it this far.

He’s reaching for the button on Ed’s pants with shaking, eager hands when Ed stops him, a soft, warm palm on his wrist halting his movement. Then, he finally voices the thing they’ve carefully avoided since Stede got the first, thrilling Grindr notification—work.

“Stede. I won’t be mad, I won’t treat you any different at work if you decide to back out, I didn’t invite you over as your boss, but as—what I mean is, if you don’t want to, we can forget about all of this.”

“I don’t want to,” Stede says, voice hoarse. “Forget about this, I mean,” he adds when Ed’s face does something complicated. “I—I want you so much, it’s all I’ve been thinking about. Sorry, is that weird?”

Ed takes a moment to process, and then he laughs, light and airy, tipping his head back as he threads his fingers through Stede’s hair. Stede leans into the touch, wishing he could purr.

“Fuck, no, ‘s not weird, I’m just surprised, is all. Don’t even go for guys your age, usually—never thought a fancy, pretty boy like you would be interested in a guy my age.”

There it is again, pretty, making a whine climb its way out of Stede’s throat against his will. Still, he furrows his brow.

“You’re not that old, and you’re—you’re hot.” His voice trembles on the last word. It feels like crossing a line, but not one more momentous than the one Ed has already jumped right across with pretty. “Were you never into older guys when you were my age?”

Ed pauses, staring blankly into empty air. “You make a good point.” He blinks, focuses on Stede again. Smiles. “Alright. If you really want it.”

“I want it, I want it so much, please. Would’ve been on my knees for you that first day in the office if you’d asked.” Maybe he should feel embarrassed by begging so shamelessly, laying it all out on the table, but he’s past the point of no return, and frankly, he is too out-of-his-mind turned on to care about any kind of shame. “Please, just wanna make you feel good.”

Ed leans back, giving him a slow, appraising look as he spreads his arms over the back of the couch. Cocks his head, takes his time watching Stede squirm under his gaze before finally speaking.

“Show me.”

Stede doesn’t need to be told that twice. His mouth is flooding already as he unbuttons Ed’s pants with impatient hands. He isn’t wearing underwear, a fact that threatens to fry Stede’s brain. His cock is half-hard, hot and swelling in Stede’s hand as he strokes experimentally a few times, in awe of being allowed this.

Ed does a sharp intake of breath as he thumbs over the head, and Stede looks up to see him gripping the tops of the leather cushions. Stede half-smiles before engulfing his cockhead in the heat of his mouth, filling on his tongue as he sucks around it, his moan echoed by Ed’s.

He spends some time there, just savoring the taste, stroking him slowly. Ed shifts as if restraining himself from bucking up into his mouth, the leather making a noise under his ass. Stede pulls off, licking broad strokes up the shaft instead as it hardens fully, slicking it up with his spit, making his hand glide smoothly.

Growing frustrated with Ed’s pants limiting him, he tugs at the belt loops, and Ed gets the message, quickly shimming them down his thighs and kicking out of them. Stede immediately pushes up his shirt and nuzzles into the strip of coarse, dark-gray hair trailing from just above his navel to between his legs. He licks and kisses his way down until he can nose into the space where the hair is coarsest, right at the base of his cock, moaning helplessly as he inhales him, buckthorn and musk and man.

God, he’s so fucking lucky.

Ed makes a noise not too far from a cut-off whine as Stede gives loving attention to his balls while still jerking him, thumbing through the beading precum at the tip. He doesn’t want this to be over too quickly now that he’s finally here, but still, he fucking loves sucking cock, and Ed’s is begging him to be swallowed down.

So that’s what he does, swirls his tongue over the tip to taste the salty bitterness that just makes his mouth water even more, then takes as much of him into his mouth as he can.

This time, Ed does fully whine.

Stede hums in agreement, in fucking bliss, feeling the cockhead bump against the back of his throat as he starts bobbing his head. This is what he loves, the way he can feel that he’s pleasuring a man, not a disappointment, not a failure.

He glances up to see Ed biting his fist. When he sees Stede looking, he rubs his short beard instead, then shakes his long, silver hair back.

“Jesus fuck, you’re good at that. So gorgeous down there on your knees. Keep going.”

The words run warm and fuzzy down Stede’s spine, making him let out a happy little noise that gets muffled by Ed’s cock in his mouth, his throat. Ed’s gaze is burning with lust, dark and dazed as he looks down on him, still gripping the couch cushions as if to keep himself from gripping Stede, which he wouldn’t mind very much, actually.

He pulls off in a frothy mess of spit, dripping down the shaft and slicking his hand still wrapped around the base, a string of it connecting his lip to the tip.

“You can pull my hair if you want. I like that,” he says breathlessly, already missing the taste of Ed on his tongue. Ed lets out a groan, threading his fingers into the curls at the back of Stede’s head, nails grazing his scalp and making him shiver with delight. He licks a stripe up the underside of Ed’s cock before swallowing him down again.

“Bet you do,” Ed growls, “Bet you love getting your pretty curls all messed up, don’t you?”

Stede whimpers, working his mouth and hand faster as Ed gets a proper grip on his hair, tugging in a way that sends jolts of heat to his gut, making his cock throb in the cruel confines of his pants.

“God, yes, just like that, fuck.” Ed tilts his head back, mouthing curse words at the ceiling. Stede nearly chokes trying to take him deeper but doesn’t let it falter his tempo.

“So fucking eager, so good for me, aren’t you? Needing cock in your mouth so badly.”

Stede lets out a desperate sound, looking up pleadingly just as Ed looks down at him again, raking through his hair, twisting, pulling.

“Fucking look at you, such a good boy, so hungry for it.”

Stede nods around him, head spinning and brain melting, yes, he wants it, he needs it, wants to be good for Ed, wants it all.

“Gonna come,” Ed slurs, clearly lost in it, bucking his hips. “Gonna make me come so good with that pretty mouth.”

Stede hums eagerly just as the first spurt of come hits the back of his throat, thick and warm on his tongue, Ed pulling his hair hard and letting out a long, rough “fuuuuuuck.” It makes his gut do a heavy flip, his cock leaking a wet spot into his underwear. He bucks his hips into nothing, a broken whine leaving his throat as he swallows a mouthful before pulling off, jerking Ed off onto his waiting tongue, his cheek, his chin, closing his eyes to revel in it, like Ed is writing his name on him, claiming him with his DNA.

It’s only when he feels the tension go out of Ed’s muscles and he hears him take a deep sigh that he blinks his eyes open, both dazed and urgently aware of his own need.

He presses the heel of his hand to the bulge in his pants for a little relief. Maybe Ed will give him a handy if he’s lucky, though he’s already more than grateful that he got to suck his cock. He’s still astonished that it happened, thought it was an impossible fantasy, yet the lingering taste of Ed on his tongue proves otherwise.

Ed smiles lazily at him, scratching lightly at his scalp, and Stede once again wishes he could purr. He nearly says that out loud because he has a feeling it’s something Ed might like to hear, but he doesn’t get to, because right then, Ed uses two of his fingers to wipe the come from Stede’s face, coating them and pushing them into his mouth.

Stede makes a surprised noise but sucks eagerly, Ed’s smirk stirring up something terrifyingly new and untamed inside of him. Ed removes his fingers messily to wipe up more come from his cheek, smearing spit over his face in the process, then fucking his fingers into Stede’s mouth, rubbing slickly over his tongue.

Stede can’t take his eyes off him, still half in disbelief that this is really happening, that Edward Teach, his boss, is really looking fascinated down at his spit-wet fingers moving between Stede’s lips. Moaning, Stede rubs his palm over his clothed cock.

“Fucking hell, you’re so hard just from sucking my cock? C’mere.” Ed pulls his fingers from Stede’s mouth and hoists him up, guiding him into his lap. Stede’s legs feel like jelly but with a little help, he manages to climb up and straddle Ed on the couch.

Ed crashes their lips together in a dirty kiss, all spit-slick lips and tongues. This is what Stede has dreamed of more than anything, even more than getting railed on the daybed in Ed’s office. He dreamed of it being more romantic, perhaps, because he’s both hopeless and pathetic when it comes to Ed, but the messiness of it drives him out of his mind in a brilliant, all-consuming way, like kissing is fucking and fucking is breathing, like he needs it to fucking live.

He groans into it, hugging his arms around Ed’s shoulders while Ed’s hands are everywhere, all over his back, in his hair, squeezing his ass. Stede humps into the air between them, whimpering when he finds pressure by grinding against Ed’s stomach.

“Want me to take care of you, baby?” Ed mumbles against his lips, and Stede’s brain promptly turns to mush. He nods, chasing Ed’s lips, then moving on to sucking kisses down his neck when Ed keeps talking.

“You did so good for me, so pretty with my cock in your mouth, bet you loved it, hm?”

“Yes,” Stede breathes, rambles on before he can stop himself. “Yes, loved it so much, thank you, thank you, god, you taste so good, wanna do it all the time.”

“Yeah?” Stede feels proud at the slight tremble in Ed’s voice, how affected he is, the effect Stede has on him. “Polite and good at cocksucking, you’re just perfect, aren’t you?”

Stede preens, drawing a shaky breath, nose nestled into the hair behind Ed’s ear.

“Bet you could fuck me real nice too.”

Once Stede presses into the tight grip of Ed’s body, his mind finally stops spinning and comes to a wondrous, grinding halt, the whole world coming to a stop with it.

With Ed spread out under him, a pillow stuffed under his lower back and his hair splayed in an otherworldly silver halo, grinning at him in that devastating way, it really feels like there is no way back from this, the world bursting into vibrant colors despite the night starting to creep in from outside. It feels appropriate how much kneeling he’s doing for Ed, first on the floor in front of the couch and now on his bed, Ed’s strong, tattooed legs hooked over his arms. He’s made to worship him.

“Fuck, I’ve been trying not to think about what you’d feel like inside me, but I knew you’d be fucking perfect,” Ed drawls, shifting a bit, making Stede do a sharp intake of breath and close his eyes, because he can feel every tiny movement around his cock.

He was already so wound up from sucking Ed off that he has to actively fight off his orgasm already, afraid that he’ll come as soon as he moves even a little bit.

Ed digs his heels into Stede’s back briefly as if urging a horse to walk. “C’mon, baby, fuck me.”

Stede’s cock throbs at baby, still wrapping his mind around the fact that Ed has apparently been thinking about this, about Stede in his bed, inside him, fucking him. Slowly, he pulls halfway out and pushes back into the tight burn, having to pause again immediately to collect himself.

“Anything wrong?” Ed’s tone is light, but there is genuine concern right under the surface. Stede takes a deep breath and opens his eyes.

“I just. I’m so close already,” he says, blushing. “Won’t last long, I’m afraid.”

“Is that all?” Ed says with a smile. “Doesn’t matter, just wanna feel you move inside me. Even if it’s only for thirty seconds.”

“It’ll be more like five with the state I’m in.”

“Oh? That good, huh?”

Stede kinda wishes he had the stamina to fuck that self-satisfied smirk right off Ed’s face, but instead, he has to look away, or it will make him come in minus-five seconds.

“Yup,” he grinds out, heat coiling tight in his abdomen as Ed shifts again, this time purposefully clenching around him in the process.

“Then give me those five seconds, baby.”

Stede manages eleven whole seconds, actually, before spilling deep inside his boss, who was apparently counting too.

“Performing above expectations, I should note that in your monthly evaluation.” His tone is teasing, his fingers gentle as he winds them through Stede’s hair as Stede is catching his breath, resting his head on Ed’s chest.

“Just gimme a moment.” Stede rubs his cheek on the silver hairs dusting Ed’s chest, coarse against his skin in the most glorious way. “I’m not done.”

Ed lets out a breathless laugh. “Jesus, I miss being twenty-five. Think you can go again?”

“Mhm.” Stede’s lips find a pierced(!) nipple, brushing over it, pushing slow, open kisses around it before sucking it into his mouth. Ed’s breath catches and he arches into it. Stede works his tongue over it, the hard metal and the pebbled flesh.

Ed says soft little “ah!”s as Stede moves on to his other nipple, tightening his grip on his hair. Stede’s cock is still half-hard, slipping out of Ed in an obscene mess of lube and come as he kisses down his front, inhaling fresh sweat and sex.

“It’s okay if you can’t, you know. You already did so good.” Ed’s warm voice pours like honey over Stede, pooling at his hips. He’s not ready for this to end, can’t imagine walking out of this apartment into the cold, misty spring night just yet.

Having reached the spot right below Ed’s belly button, he places a long, wet kiss there before looking up at Ed, flashing his best puppy eyes, which he’s been told are quite effective.

“Can I suck your cock again?”

Ed pauses his petting of Stede’s hair, raising his eyebrows. “Listen, I need a little more time than you before I can get it up again, no matter how cute you are.”

“I don’t care. I wanna suck you while you’re soft.” Saying it so directly, voicing exactly what he wants to do would usually be mortifying for him, but here between Ed’s legs, he feels brazen, even as his ears turn red. And Ed is always emphasizing clear communication at the office, so there is that, too.

Ed huffs with a small shake of his head, smiling in a way Stede would describe as fond if he dared let himself believe that. “Alright, ‘m not gonna stop you.”

As Stede licks messily up the underside of Ed’s soft, spent cock, he can taste his own dried-up saliva from earlier, the evidence that he has already sucked his boss’ cock once, making his vision blur. He licks until it’s all covered in fresh spit, wet and slick as he wraps his hand around the shaft, rolling the foreskin down to expose the head, shiny and darker than the rest of him. It’s warm and spongy as he takes it into his mouth and swirls his tongue over the crown, rubs his lips right under the edge.

“Jesus fuck!” Ed writhes under him, fingernails digging into his shoulder. Stede quickly lifts his head, wiping drool off his chin.

“Is it too much?”

“I—no, not too much, just—a lot. In a good way. Fuck, you really like that? Sucking my soft cock?”

Stede nods. “You taste so good. God, just—just getting to do this, it’s—fuck, so hot. And this way, I can take all of you.”

To demonstrate his point, Stede wraps his lips around the head, then moves down, fitting his cock into his mouth and throat until his nose is nestled in the thick thatch of hair at the base. He inhales deeply through his nose, looking up to try and catch Ed’s reaction, but it’s hard to read until he blinks and shakes his head in disbelief.

“Fuck. Not gonna stay soft for long if you keep going like that. Fucking hell, look at you.” He cups Stede’s cheek, tilting his head a little to the side. Stede pulls halfway off, Ed’s cock pulsing and leaking precum on his tongue. He swallows, then sinks down again, sucking greedily, proudly, moaning around him.

It gets a little hazy after that as Stede gets lost in it, lavishing attention on Ed’s most sensitive part in its most sensitive state, feeling oddly powerful as Ed curses and arches his back. At some point, he starts playing with the mess of his own come at Ed’s hole, which turns to playing with Ed’s hole, fingering him clumsily until Ed starts giving him instructions.

And oh boy, the instructions.

Something about Ed telling him exactly how to please him, and more importantly, telling him that he is doing it well, is making him so turned on he can hardly stand it, like there’s fire under his skin, heat pulling at his core.

He’s achingly hard again in a very short time, of course, but having Ed writhe and clench on his fingers while that honey-warm, rumbly voice orders him to crook them just so and use juuust the right amount of pressure rubbing over just the right spot—well, it doesn’t leave much brain-space for him to think about his own pleasure, and in a way, this is his pleasure.

He thinks he’s doing something right when Ed’s instructions go from being specific to repeats of “yes, keep going, right there, like that,” and he knows he’s doing something right when Ed’s cock starts leaking a steady stream of precum onto his belly, plumping up even though Stede had to take his mouth off him, needing to concentrate on working his fingers.

Resting his head on Ed’s thigh, he can almost see both his fingers disappearing into Ed over and over, lubed up with his own come, and Ed’s beautiful, bliss-stricken face at the same time. Stede can tell he’s doing something really right when Ed tenses up, convulsing in waves, gripping and twisting the sheets and painting his own abdomen in pearly streaks that Stede laps up immediately.

By the time Stede has proven that he can in fact fuck Ed with his cock for more than eleven seconds (this time lasting until Ed says his knees can’t handle being on all fours much longer, and telling him to fill him up ‘just as good as you did the first time, baby’ along with a bunch of other stuff Stede doesn’t quite catch because he’s already coming), it has gotten dark outside.

At first, Stede is too happy and sated to worry about the fact that he should be taking his leave soon, that it’s late and he has work tomorrow (fuck, they both have work tomorrow, together) and he’s starving because he rushed over when Ed invited him without thinking a single thought about dinner. He’s covered in sweat and spit and come and he’s never felt more perfect in his life, the two of them making out lazily while their bodies cool down in the crisp breeze coming through the gap in the window Ed just cracked open.

Stede wants this to last forever.

But of course it can’t, just like he won’t be working with Ed forever either. And once he’s rotated to another department, as is part of the program, he won’t be seeing Ed every day, and Ed will surely lose all interest in him, both professionally and physically, since he is entirely unremarkable once he no longer has the allure of forbidden fruit.

And if this, this, is a one-time thing, if it won’t even last beyond tonight, a one-and-done type of deal just for the thrill, the novelty of fucking his mentee, or maybe not even that, in case this is something he does all the time despite what he said while Stede was begging to get his mouth on him—that’d be unbearable, never to have it again after tasting it just once.

He almost manages to make himself sad while being in Ed’s arms, which shouldn’t be possible. Ed, who is placing slow, hot kisses to the nape of his neck after Stede turned to make himself the little spoon while his treacherous mind races.

“What about tomorrow?” Stede blurts out, his voice cutting through the silence.

“Hm?” Ed props himself up on his elbow, strokes Stede’s cheek with his fingertip. “Oh yeah, you should come over tomorrow night, I gotta have my turn sucking your cock.”

Stede’s stomach does a heavy swoop, heat rushing to his cheeks. He bites his lip, a stream of light brightening the gloomiest corners of his mind. Not one-and-done, then.

“I’d very much like that,” he says in a small voice, oddly shy at the prospect despite how much time he’s spent with Ed’s cock in his mouth tonight. He clears his throat. “But, uhm, I was actually thinking more about, like, before that. At work, I mean.”

“Right.”

When Stede gathers the courage to turn his head and look at Ed, his brows are knitted, a worried little wrinkle between them that Stede aches to kiss.

“Okay. Obviously, we can’t let anyone get suspicious. Gonna have to keep it secret. If that’s—how’s that?” Ed actually looks nervous, as if he isn’t the one who could fire Stede at a moment’s notice, or fuck up his entire career.

But then again, this would be just as much of an HR nightmare for Ed, if not more, now that Stede thinks about it.

“Yeah, agree. Obviously,” he says quickly.

“So, let’s just… act normal. Casual. No hanky-panky at the office.”

Stede snorts. “Hanky-panky?”

“Is that not what the kids are calling it these days?”

“Have the kids ever called it that?”

“Dunno, maybe just the cool kids.”

“So I’m not a cool kid, is what you’re saying?”

Ed grins and brushes their noses together, then nips at his earlobe. “You’re in a league above cool. Maybe that’s why you don’t know all the slang.”

Stede rolls his eyes. “Nice try. You’re just saying that because my come is still in your ass.”

Ed squeezes his waist. “Careful, I know how to put that pretty, filthy mouth of yours to good use now.”

Stede hides his smile in the pillow. Ed sits up, drawing a deep breath.

“Right. We should clean up, though. You hungry? I can grab us some food.”

“Yes, please.”

Ed dips down to kiss his cheek. “So polite. Be right back.”

Taking the towel they fucked on with him, Ed saunters out of the bedroom stark naked. Stede admires his form as he disappears down the hall. Once he’s alone, he realizes he’s actually quite cold, now that the sweat on his skin has cooled in the night air and he no longer has someone wrapped around him.

The sheets are not nearly a good enough substitute for the heat of Ed’s body, but they’ll do for now. Though as far as sheets go, they are excellent—like the ones Stede used to have in his childhood home and deliberately didn’t take with him when he moved out in a delusional bid to make it on his own, although he’s very aware that without his father’s business connections, he would never have gotten into the graduate program at Ed’s firm, and he kind of hates that he has his fucking father to thank for any part of this. On the other hand, his father would hate it even more if he ever found out. The thought of that cheers Stede up a bit.

Ed comes back a while later to get a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt out of his dresser and pick Stede’s clothes off the floor, folding them in a neat little pile on the bed, placing his phone on top. It must’ve fallen out of his pocket somewhere along the way. Ed winks before leaving again.

Very slowly, Stede puts on his underwear, making a face at the cold, wet spot created by his precum. He doesn’t bother with the rest of his clothes, pulling the sheets up to his chin instead. He checks his phone while listening to the clatter of dishes and the beeps of a microwave. His roommate, Lucius, has left him approximately fifteen texts asking for details of his escapades, with the last ones asking whether he’s coming home tonight at all. He sends off a short “Yes, not sure when,” then stretches out like a starfish, feeling like he is really, truly in his own body for the first time in a long time, maybe ever.

When Ed comes back, he is balancing two bowls of what looks like chili, a bag of tortilla chips, and a small tub of sour cream on a tray.

“Had some leftovers, luckily.” Ed sets the tray down on the bed as Stede scoots up to sit against the headboard.

“Should we really eat in here? What if I spill? You know I can be a bit, well, clumsy.” Stede has a tendency to drop stuff when Ed is around, and although Ed is kind enough not to comment on it, Stede is sure he has noticed.

Ed very carefully climbs into bed next to him, leaving space between them for the tray. It smells delicious, and Stede’s stomach growls.

“I’m gonna change the sheets anyway. Besides, you’re cute when you’re clumsy.”

Stede curses himself for blushing so easily. Ed must have seen his cheeks flushed red more often than not tonight, but he keeps saying things like that, making him melt as easily as a popsicle over hot coals.

Afterwards, when Ed has put the empty bowls aside and licked up the bit of sour cream Stede spilled on his chest, Stede cuddles up to Ed’s side while trying to convince himself to get up and go home like he’s supposed to. It’s really fucking difficult when he is actively living the dream he’s had since he started working under Ed two months ago, feeling the warmth of his body against his own, inhaling the flowery scent of his body wash, having him trace feather-light circles over his back with his fingertips.

Ed clears his throat, seems to hesitate, then clears it again.

“I know I probably shouldn’t offer this, but, uhm.”

Stede lifts his head, brushes his lips over the scruffy corner of Ed’s mouth. “But what?”

Ed hugs him a little closer. “Do you wanna stay over?”