Ed crossed his ankles on his desk, taking a draw off of his pipe. He was in a sedate mood, lulled further by the mixture of herbs burning hot in the bowl. He exhaled the smoke in a gust... and made an effort to mask his cough (unsuccessfully) by clearing his throat into the crook of his elbow.

Ely was in the cabin with him, cleaning up. Ed had a habit of collecting things that equally had a habit of collecting dust. It made for good busy work. That, and Edward's habit of discarding things that bored him or that he ceased to have a use for. Like the burned up remains of matches.

Voices in My Head by Falling In Reverse || X || Starter Post || X || @swallowsandamazons

"The voices in my head keep telling me I'm not okay It's feeling like a hurricane in my brain Dark clouds, hard times, bad weather Please don't make this last forever"

ᒥ🐙ᒧ—        He'd only gotten worse as time went on, the spirals of his mind leading him further down his dark, irredeemable path. The amount of raids increased, and so had Edward's anger. He'd kill anyone that stood in his way, mercilessly. It wasn't uncommon for Edward to return aboard The Revenge soaked in blood after a raid, and this time was no different. He wordlessly goes to his cabin, slamming the door shut behind him once inside.

Edward doesn't notice Ely in the room, his gaze vacantly staring off somewhere as though he wasn't fully there in his body. He approaches his desk and picks up a bottle of rum, popping it open and chugging as much as he can from it in one go. The man then slams down the bottle after and leans over the desk top, his hand coming up to cover his kohl and blood spattered features.

"Oh, Ely! I was looking for you." The blond man said in a cheerful voice. The youth was up on deck, nibble fingers working the thick rope of the sails. Seemingly out of nowhere Stede produced a book from somewhere in his silk waste coat. "It's a first edition of that book I was telling you about!" He said with glee, holding out the red-covered edition with large gold lettering.

"NO. What?"

"Lookit me in the face, you little shit."

Such harsh words, said so lovingly.

"Ely, I never said you were soft. And I never would. I value your tenacity. But while you may have experience, you are, in fact, still a child."

Stede's brows furrow over brown eyes that betray his anxiety.

"I need someone I trust to stay behind with the ship. Frenchie is staying behind, too. Please, no more arguments."

Sat in an armchair, reading, Stede listened to the rumble of thunder outside. They escaped the worst of the storm, the Revenge staying afloat to sail another day. The Captain was left in his cabin, scrambling to save his books from bruised and battered binding. He got the crew to help him come up with a system, rudimentary at best, ropes to prevent falls and netting to soften the fall of any books that did manage to slip through. 

With the easing of the tides Stede returned the fallen books to their shelves and settled, knowing and trusting the crew had things handled. Flipping to the next page, he was surprised to hear the door to his rooms opening. A questioning gaze found Ely lingering at the threshold.. His eyes softened at the request, Stede offering a smile and a nod.

‘You don’t have to be a boy if you don’t want…. Or a girl, actually. You could be neither or both!’

It takes Ed a couple of seconds to process this, his head cocked in curiosity. The idea that he just doesn't have to somehow hadn't occurred. Despite the fact that's he's a whole pirate, and a damn good one at that. He just hadn’t thought of not following the rules. 

" Holy shit, "   Ed whispers, and suddenly all of the pieces are falling into place. He can just . . . stop. Do whatever the hell the kid is doing with the theys and them. He could . . . they could?

. . . Holy shit.