WALKING DEAD DAY 5 EVENING | TRUTH OR DARE & STARGAZING | RATING PG-13
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PAST REFERENCES TO KIDNAPPING, MURDER, AND ABANDONMENT; PLATONIC CUDDLING.
VISIBLE TO VOID RESIDENTS / DERLETH TV
ED & CHRIS HAVE A GAME OF TRUTH OR DARE.
WHICH IS REALLY JUST TRUTH OR TRUTH.
WHICH TURNS INTO TALK IT THROUGH AS A CREW
WITH A DASH OF STARGAZING & CUDDLING.
CONFESSIONS ARE MADE
Chris was on the roof of Butler before the sun set, watching it dip below the horizon as the stars and a few planets started to become visible. As the sky darkened, he stretched out, tucking his gold shirt under his head and staring up at the sky. Although this world was a “post-apocalyptic hellscape” in many ways, its dystopian aspects at least meant little light pollution from the city. It was funny how calming the stars were for him, despite how awful the world was around them. Clad in his black undershirt and pants, he turned his head when he heard the door to the roof open.
Smiling at the long haired man, Chris nodded his head in greeting. “Hey Ed. Survive the day?”
After leaving Jim in Luz’s enthusiastic hands at the edge of campus, Edward made his way to Butler Hall, stopping in his bedroom first to drop off the drawing she’d given him. He still had a few minutes before he was due to meet Chris upstairs, and he desperately needed that time to decompress. The last thing he’d been expecting when he left Derleth was to come face-to-face with his past. He hadn’t even been here a week but his previous home already felt like it was a lifetime ago – at least it had. It was a lot harder to compartmentalize when there were other people around to remind you of what you’d done to survive.
Or what he thought he’d done to survive. With the benefit of space and hindsight, it was so obvious he’d just been reacting to the loss of Stede and the threat of losing Izzy too. If it had been about his life, he could’ve just thrown Izzy overboard. He could’ve made a million different, better choices, but he hadn’t. And now he had to live with that.
Ed set Luz’s drawing down gently on top of his pillow, scrubbed a hand over his face, and slipped back out of his room, making his way up to the roof, where he found Chris waiting for him. He couldn’t help snorting at the irony of the other man’s question. “Mate, just barely,” he groaned as he crouched down to take a seat beside his friend.
Chris arched an eyebrow at Ed, sitting up and resting his elbows on his knees to give the other man his full attention. He studied the other man closely, looking for signs of injury - or worse, a bite mark.
“What happened? Did you run into zombies? You didn’t go after them alone, did you? Or try to get more loot from the mall?”
“No, no, nothing like that. I’m fine, don’t worry.” Ed slipped out of his leather jacket and set it on the floor behind him. “Just, uh, met up with someone from home, actually. They just got here… and they weren’t exactly thrilled to see me.” With a heavy sigh, he settled back against his coat and looked up at the sky.
“Always going to worry about you, Ed.”
People from home? Well that was new. Chris knew it was possible, after all, Sam, Bucky, and Steve were all from the same universe, but other than the group of kids that had all come in all at once on the green, it was still a bit new to him. Spock had appeared - but it wasn’t his Spock.
Ed didn’t talk much about home, so the fact that there was someone here from his home intrigued Chris. And judging from Ed’s reaction, there was definitely more to the story than he was saying. Chris stretched back out on the roof, gazing at Ed more than the sky. “Want to talk about it?”
Although he didn’t take his eyes off the sky, Ed couldn’t help smiling a bit at Chris’s words. He just hoped they’d still be true once Chris knew the truth about who he was.
“Mm… nope. Mostly just want to get blackout drunk and sleep for three days straight, but since that’s not an option…” He shrugged, and ventured a glance at the other man. “We could play that game though. Truth or dare? I assume it’s as straightforward as it sounds.” He’d played similar games with Calico Jack, although the truth part admittedly didn’t play a huge role back then.
Chris chuckled. “We’ve all been in that place at least once or twice.” It had been his desire after learning his future on Boreth. But of course, there had been other things to worry about then with the Discovery. Of course, after being debriefed, he did spend several days drowning his sorrows at the ranch.
“Truth or Dare?” Chris smiled. “Yeah, one person asks ‘truth or dare,’ other one chooses and you go from there. Sometimes there’s a punishment if you don’t do what you were dared to do, but we can skip that part. Usually you play it as a drinking game. So, truth or dare, Ed?”
It was probably better as a drinking game, but alas, even if Ed could get his hands on any alcohol, he definitely owed that to Jim as a ‘welcome/thank you for not stabbing me’ gift. So he’d have to do this (painfully) sober. “Fuck it, truth.” He wasn’t sure what the dares were like in Chris’s day but in his, they got pretty rowdy, and he just didn’t have that in him at the moment.
Chris wasn’t sure what sort of dares they could do here that wouldn’t seriously endanger them so truth was probably easier. He gave Ed an encouraging smile. “It’s all right if you don’t want to answer something. I’m not going to push. But.. who’s the friend from home who showed up?”
“Friend might be a bit of a stretch, but – their name’s Jim. We used to work together.” That was one way to phrase it, anyway. “Actually I was their boss. One of their bosses.” That felt a little more truthful, and as such, made Ed feel a little more uncomfortably vulnerable, so he didn’t wait for a reaction from Chris before continuing. “Your turn. Truth or dare?”
Chris intended to hold to his promise of not pushing, but he was curious as to what type of work Ed did back home, given how much he seemed to know about sailing and the hints that Chris had been trying to string together to get a better picture of the other man. There were more questions he wanted to ask to follow up, but he’d hold off on those until Ed chose truth again.
“Truth,” Chris said easily. “Not sure what type of dares we’d be able to do anyhow.”
“Maybe we should be playing Truth or Truth. Otherwise known as Just Ask Some Fucking Questions,” Ed remarked, stretching his arms over his head before tilting it to look at Chris with probing eyes. “What was the last lie you told someone?”
“Probably what this is going to be until we get sick of questions and just enjoy the stars,” Chris said. He let out a soft breath. The last lie he’d told someone? He tried not to lie, when possible, but that didn’t mean he always told the whole truth. “What are we talking about? Outright lie? Little white lie? Withholding the truth?”
Ed shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, mate. Outright, I guess? The last lie about something that actually mattered to you.” Maybe Chris didn’t tell lies, at least not important ones. Maybe that was just something they didn’t have in common.
“Probably telling someone I was fine,” Chris finally answered after a long pause. He didn’t try to lie most of the time but sometimes it couldn’t be avoided. “I mentioned the nightmares… it’s more nights than not. Went through some stuff not long before we came here … still pops up a lot. When you’re captain, you’re supposed to be fine, no matter what.”
That made Ed wonder for a moment if Chris had an Izzy back home – someone who pushed him to man up and play the part of fearless leader – or if he’d just internalized that message from elsewhere. “You know,” he offered quietly, “one of the best captains I knew always said that you should talk that sort of thing through… as a crew.” As complicated as his feelings toward Stede were these days, it wasn’t a lie that he was the best leader Ed had ever known. He made everyone around him better, too.
Chris smiled at Ed. “Sounds like a pretty good captain.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Usually I’m pretty good at that. It’s a little harder when you’re the captain though - crew usually expects the captain to have it all together. I talk to some of my senior crew about things - but mostly when it influences the ship. My Number One would probably say that anything that influences me influences the ship - although she’s not always the most forthcoming.”
Chris glanced at Ed, not sure exactly where to start. “Nightmares aren’t uncommon among captains - there’s almost always something you think you could have done differently, wondering if you’d been a second faster would less people have died. It’s different lately. Before I came - I had to watch one of my good friends from the academy sacrifice herself for our ship and mission. She wouldn’t let me do it. And there was this thing where I experienced my future - and it’s not great - in order to say our galaxy. There’s an accident several years in the future myself. It ends my life as I know it - I end up locked in a chair on life support and only able to communicate in beeps. And the worst part, I’m trying to save these cadets - kids - and I get most of them out, but not all of them.”
Chris snorted. “What’s the point of sacrificing yourself if you don’t save everyone?”
Ed wasn’t exactly a stranger to having nightmares, although his were less about his mistakes and more about what some would consider his victories: killing his father, setting a ship full of people on fire, maiming and torturing others before they could maim and torture you. He couldn’t really relate to someone whose job was to save other people rather than destroy them.
And yet, being a pirate captain was complicated. You won fame and fortune by being a ruthless predator – but nobody actually wanted to work for a ruthless predator. So you had to take care of people too. There was a reason folks lined up to work for Blackbeard, but not for Izzy Hands. It wasn’t just his affable personality, either; it was the fact that his crew tended to survive their raids.
He’d grown to resent that, of course, because it made said raids so boring, but that was back when he thought you needed violence to have fun. Working with Stede had shown him otherwise. At one point he even could’ve imagined a future where they remained co-captains, running a sort of Robin Hood operation not unlike what Frenchie & Olu did on that Prussian couple’s ship, stealing from aristocrats (and rich merchants) to redistribute their wealth among the more deserving.
His future had seemed wide open, then, for the first time in ages. He could only imagine how awful it would be to actually witness your future, knowing for a fact that it would happen that way. And at the same time, not even wanting to change it because then other people you cared about would die instead.
A year ago, Ed wouldn’t have been able to understand that urge, mainly because he didn’t have anyone he truly cared about. But now he did.
“Counterpoint,” he mused, “you can’t save anyone if you’re dead, or locked in a chair for the rest of your life, or even just burnt out ‘cause you kept pretending to be fine when you weren’t. You know?” Then he added with a rueful smile, “But who the fuck am I to talk? I lie about everything.”
“People keep saying that, but it never stops me from running into danger,” Chris said with a shrug. Maybe some self-preservation wouldn’t hurt, but it wasn’t in his nature. “Can’t ask my crew to do anything I’m not willing to do. And that I know how my career ends, well, makes me a little more reckless. If it’s written in stone, then I won’t die before that, right?”
Ed’s last statement caught Chris by surprise. He’d noticed that Ed was holding back some things, but he didn’t give the impression of someone who was lying to manipulate or deceive. More like the injured coyotes that he sometimes encountered on the ranch. He gave Ed a soft look. “Do you lie to keep people away? Can’t get hurt if you don’t let anyone in?”
Ed didn’t know how to answer that question. There were probably a lot of reasons, some of which he didn’t even consciously recognize. How could he explain why he lied, when half the time he was lying to himself? “Self preservation, I guess?” Of course, saying he lied about everything was an exaggeration – a lie of its own – but sometimes it felt that way, especially when it was about the very core of who he was.
He gave a small sigh of frustration, struggling to find the right words. “You know those survivors we saw? Maybe they were decent people before… whatever happened to them here. But now, this is who they have to be. Even if it feels like locking themselves up in a box.”
“I’m not a good person, Chris,” he added, squeezing his eyes shut as tears threatened to fill them. He hated that this was happening again, it was so stupid, hadn’t he learned anything from his time with Stede? “If you knew the things I’ve done – you’d know I don’t belong here. I want to belong here, but I don’t. I belong out there.”
Whatever Chris had been expecting, it hadn’t been ”I’m not a good person.” Without thinking, he slid closer to Ed, drawing Ed into his arms and hugging him tightly. “First off, that’s complete and total bullshit, Ed. A bad person doesn’t save a new friend from zombies, or buy cat ears for a kid.”
Chris’ arms tightened around Ed. “Everyone deserves a fresh start, a second or third or hundredth chance, Ed. You’ve been here several days and haven’t killed anyone. You’ve helped people without thought of reward. I don’t care about your past, I don’t care what you’ve done. If you want to tell me, I’ll listen, but you don’t have to.”
He pulled back just enough to rest his forehead against the other man’s. “Part of me thinks you belong on a wooden ship from what you’ve told me, but if you want to be here, then I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you feel that you belong here. Are we clear on that?”
That definitely wasn’t the reaction Ed had been expecting, and it took him a moment to process what was even happening before he could hug back, gripping Chris tightly. He hadn’t realized just how badly he needed this — both the physical touch and the kind words — and a shuddering sigh escaped his lips as tears spilled down his cheeks. It was difficult for him to believe that he deserved it, but he was going to try.
“We’re clear,” he squeaked with a feeble little nod, finally daring to open his eyes just a bit so he could look at Chris’s face. “I’m sorry I haven’t been honest with you. You- you asked me if the stories were true… about Blackbeard…” Ed closed his eyes again. “That’s me. I’m Blackbeard.” The name felt almost foreign on his tongue, now. He’d hoped to never have to hear it again, but he should have known he couldn’t run from his past forever. All he could do was try to make peace with it.
“Good.” Chris confirmed, feeling even more protective of Ed than he had previously. Whatever Ed had down or experienced in his past, it was clear it had done a number on him. And Chris was no stranger to trauma or what it could do to a person.
“You don’t need to apologize to me,” Chris said softly. “You’re in a new place with new people, didn’t know who you could trust and it’s clear that it's not a pleasant thing for you.”
Blackbeard. Well, Ed was just surprising him left and right today. Chris raised an eyebrow at Ed, eyes soft and understanding. “So, before you came here, you were Captain Blackbeard, fearsome pirate?” If Chris tried, perhaps he could see it, but it didn’t entirely mesh with the man he’d come to know over the last week. “Not going to stop being your friend, if that’s what you’re afraid of. You’re stuck with me, Ed.”
“Think I can live with that.” Ed cracked a tiny smile, wiping his eyes with the back of a hand. “You might take that back though. I don’t know what stories they tell about me in the future, obviously – a lot of it was just smoke and mirrors, but not everything. I hurt people. Stole from them. Did a whole bunch of maiming. Like way too much maiming. And I was ready to give it all up… But then I lost someone. A friend.” Was that the right word? They’d barely gotten the chance to be more.
“And I thought I was gonna lose everything else, too, if I didn’t take control. So I betrayed people who cared about me. Like Jim. I – I killed someone, and left others to die.” His voice was quiet, his eyes downcast in shame. He didn’t want to be saying any of this, but he knew he had to. Chris deserved to know what Ed really was, even if it ended their friendship. “And that’s when I came here.”
He couldn’t bear to look up and make eye contact, as he asked dryly, “You still want to be friends with a monster?”
Chris rolled onto his back and pulled Ed with him, letting the other man rest his head on Chris’ shoulder if he wanted. Phil had held him like this, back when Chris was overburdened with the weight of the captain’s chair or reeling from the experience on Talos IV. Whenever he’d been ready to throw in the towel, Phil had been there - usually with a Martini and a grounding presence. Maybe he could be that for Ed.
“I’m sorry you lost your friend.” Chris could tell this person had been incredibly important to Ed. “It’s terrifying to feel out of control, to feel you’ve lost everything you care about, everything you’ve dedicated yourself to.”
If Chris’ words rang a bit too true, well, they could talk about that later. “You’re not a monster Ed. Doing bad things in the past doesn’t make you a monster. Maybe I would have made different choices in your position, but maybe not. I don’t know. We don’t know what we’ll do in any situation until we’re in it. You don’t seem happy about what you did, though, and that says something.”
Chris squeezed Ed’s shoulder. “You’re not a monster in my book, Ed. Pirate or not, I still want to be your friend.”
Ed willingly moved with him, curling up against Chris’s side as he rested his head on the other man’s shoulder. He wasn’t sure how Chris knew he needed that, but he did. Maybe starships and pirate ships had similar cultures of physical affection so this was natural for him. Or maybe Ed just gave off touch-starved vibes. At any rate, he wasn’t going to question it.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “I want to be your friend too.” He couldn’t help flashing back again to the last time he’d told a person that, which sent a tiny wave of terror through his chest, but Chris wasn’t Stede, and Ed refused to let this end the same way. He had learned some lessons, after all, hadn’t he? Like, for example, don’t kiss someone unless you’re 100% certain they’re into you too. That one was easy enough to internalize.
“I don’t know if Jim’ll ever feel the same way,” he admitted, “but all I can do is try, I guess. To do better – to be better.”
“Friends then,” Chris said with a smile, squeezing Ed’s shoulder with his arm. At least Ed seemed a little calmer now, more relaxed. Chris wondered just how long this had been eating Ed up inside. Chris was just glad that he could help, and that Ed trusted him enough to share this with him.
“Was Jim a pirate then too? You can’t force anyone to forgive you, Ed, but I’m sure if you give them a chance to get to know you here, they’ll see that you’re a good man.”
Ed nodded against Chris’s shoulder. “I was their captain. Well, co-captain. Kind of an unusual situation, but we were trying it out. That's the, uh, the friend I mentioned. His name was Stede.” Just saying it out loud made his heart hurt. “But he left me – us – and that's when things went bad.” The more he talked about it, the easier it got. Almost like Stede had a point with that whole ‘talk it through’ thing.
Chris found himself rubbing Ed’s back as he talked. “I’m sorry, Ed. It always hurts to lose someone you care for. So Stede left, you felt lost and betrayed, and then betrayed the crew? Not going to say that killing people because you’re hurt is a good thing, but I can understand the desire to hurt people when you’re in pain. That’s a pretty human thing.”
Chris was doing his best to channel Katrina, after all she was the one who was an actual counselor. He was just muddling through this. “You’re going to get through this, Ed. And I’ll be there at your side.”
“There was also a whole thing with my first mate, Izzy, where he kinda threatened to kill me if I didn’t start acting like a real pirate again–” He said all of that alarmingly casually, but it felt so stupid now that he had some space from it. Izzy would never have gone through with that threat, if only because he knew he couldn’t win a duel between the two of them. Ed had felt backed into a corner, yes, but the only thing that was really threatened was his pride, the only real wound, to his heart. He had to take responsibility for that.
“--But it doesn’t matter. Long as he doesn’t show up here, anyway.” The possibility sent a shiver down his spine, but what were the odds? Probably not that high. And besides, if it did happen – like Chris had said, he wouldn’t have to face it alone.
That thought lifted such a weight from his chest, he couldn’t help closing his eyes and nuzzling closer to Chris. “Thanks, mate, again. I’m glad I ended up here. Though I’ll probably be gladder once there’s decent food and running water.”
Chris hugged Ed closer, murmuring “I’ve got you” against the other man’s hair. “And I promise you, if Izzy shows up, you won’t have to deal with him if you don’t want to.”
Chris made a mental note to himself to keep an eye out for a pirate named Izzy. Or really, any other pirates. And maybe to talk to Jim, just to make sure they wouldn’t accidentally (or intentionally) try to hurt Ed. “I’m glad you’re here, too.”
The comment about food and running water made Chris laugh hard enough that his chest shook as he grinned at Ed. “Few more days, and if Derleth behaves, we’ll be back in a world that has food and running water - including hot water from a tap. Planning to hit that kitchen as soon as I wake up. Make some pancakes for breakfast. And eggs and bacon if we have it. Maybe some pastries too.”
“Aww man,” Ed groaned, “that sounds fucking amazing. I can't even remember the last time I had bacon – I mean, good bacon.” It wasn't unusual for a pirate ship to have salt-cured pork in its stores, but the best cuts got saved for special occasions, and even then, like all their food it was usually a little bit rotten. Some ships brought live pigs on board, but that seemed a little too close to having pets for Ed’s comfort. Or Blackbeard’s comfort, anyway. Ed reckoned he might actually like a pet some day. He liked Luz’s furry tail, after all.
“How early do you wake up? Not that it matters, I'll be up anyway.” His worst nightmares tended to happen in the early morning hours, so he tried his best not to be asleep then. Which would be really easy once there was new stuff to discover.
“No promises on the bacon. The pantry in Derleth leaves something to be desired - kind of short on fresh ingredients, but can at least manage pancakes. And I make damn good pancakes.”
Chris ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Er, depends on the night? If I’m someplace with a sunrise, usually an hour or so before dawn - if there aren’t too many nightmares. That’s my ranch schedule - got to do morning chores early. Onboard ship, it’s usually a few hours before the first day shift starts. I like to cook breakfast and get some work done before the day starts. And coffee. Need coffee.”
He shrugged. “It’s weird here. Varies depending on the world. Not usually one to sleep in too late though.”
“‘Morning chores.’ That's adorable, I love it. I wish I had morning chores. I guess maybe I could, here. Fold some clothes, wash some dishes…” Ed couldn't help grinning a bit, his chin propped up on Chris’s chest. He thought he'd missed his opportunity to be anything close to a normal person. Granted, nothing about this place was really normal, but that just meant he didn't have to worry about getting bored with his life again.
“Well if I'm up first, I'll get the coffee started for you.” He paused for a moment. “That might be a bad idea actually. I don't even know how you make coffee in the future.” To be honest he wasn't entirely sure how it was made in his time either, it was still such a rarity in the New World. But he figured it had to be pretty similar to tea, just grind it up and put it in hot water. Who knew what kind of coffee witchcraft they had nowadays?
Chris laughed again. There was an ease to Ed’s physical closeness that reminded him of some of his Captains With Benefits as Una called them. “Well, if we ever find ourselves on a ranch again, I’m dragging you out at 0500 with me to muck stalls and feed animals.”
He didn’t know how coffee was made in the 1700s, but probably similar to how he made it on the ranch sometimes. “Well, in my time we have replicators - which you can just tell to give you a cup of coffee and they’ll make it for you. They have machines here I think. Water, coffee grounds, push a button and wait. How about this - I’ll get you when I wake up so you can help me in the kitchen.”
“Sounds like a plan. Even I probably can’t screw up pushing a button.” Ed imagined there would be a pretty steep learning curve for him elsewhere in the kitchen, not to mention the rest of Derleth once it was fully functioning and non-apocalyptic. But he was still looking forward to it. He was a quick learner – he’d figured out the basics of using a phone all by himself his first day here – and Chris seemed like he’d be a good teacher. That was part of a captain’s job, after all.
At this rate he might be too excited to get any sleep the night before reset, but right here, right now, Ed was as relaxed as he’d felt in ages, and he couldn’t help closing his eyes and letting his thoughts drift back to the mention of Chris’s ranch. “How many horses did you have, on your ranch? Any other animals too?”
“Usually at least six. Sometimes as many as two dozen or more. My mom was a vet, she took care of injured animals, and I had a tendency to bring home strays… so it was sometimes more like a zoo? We had chickens for eggs, goats for milk, some barn cats, and occasionally dogs. And the dog-coyote cross I rescued as a kid. My parents weren’t too thrilled about that,” Chris said with a smile, remembering fondly. “I called him Achilles.”
“Achilles. I like it.” Ed didn’t have much knowledge of Greek mythology, of course – growing up poor he’d been lucky just to learn how to read and write – but Stede had told him a few stories, including comparing the two of them as co-captains to Achilles and his fellow warrior Patroclus. He tended to zone out when Stede talked about books, but he remembered that one for some reason. “I’ve never really spent time around animals. Other than eating them… or making them fight. Which… was kind of fucked up now that I think about it.”
“Well, I imagine there isn’t much room for animals on a ship. That’s the one thing I miss about the ship. Not quite feasible to have horses on it,” Chris said with a wistful sigh, staring up at the stars. “Hey, I eat animals too. Which is probably weird to some folks.”
He nudged Ed. “Look! Shooting star.”
“Yeah, but you don’t put knives on the backs of a crab and a turtle and make them stab each other. Least you don’t seem like you do. Maybe you just hide it well.”
Ed opened his eyes, tilting his head a bit so he could look up at the sky. “Supposed to make a wish now, right?”
Chris knew he shouldn’t chuckle at that, but couldn’t help it. “No. I mean, I pulled the legs of spiders as a kid and tried to make scorpions fight, but who hasn’t done that?”
It was one of those funny things, even knowing the stars were just flaming balls of gas and shooting stars were meteors, it didn’t take away from the magic of them. He squeezed Ed’s shoulders. “That’s the tradition.”
Ed hadn’t been expecting that, and he snorted with laughter. “Scorpions? That’s pretty impressive, actually. I wouldn’t even want to get that close to one.”
He, of course, had no idea that shooting stars weren’t exactly what the name implied, but he did know they were pretty magical looking, and that was all that mattered. “Hmm… Kinda feel like most of my wishes have come true already,” he admitted, resting a hand on Chris’s stomach. “So I guess I just wish it doesn’t end.” He couldn’t imagine getting sent back home now, to live out whatever his future was going to be there.
“Hey now, in the desert you get used to scorpions and rattlesnakes.” It also gave him a very strange sense of what was normal. And a love for things that were not always as high tech as the ships he commanded.
Chris couldn’t help but flush a little at the statement. His free hand found Ed’s, intertwined their fingers, and squeezed. He didn’t know what this was, but sometimes things didn’t need to be defined. It grounded him and seemed to be helping Ed as well. “I can get behind that wish. But I might have wished for my ship, so you can see the stars up close.”
“And you’re supposed to get used to flies in the tropics, but I never did,” Ed said with a shrug. “Or snakes. Just gonna let you handle any of those we come across in the future.”
He glanced down at their interlaced fingers and smiled. He didn’t know what this was either, exactly, but it wasn’t the first time he’d found peace in just letting things happen, and not trying to control or define them. Maybe that was the mistake he’d made with Stede; he’d tried too hard to course-correct with the whole running away together idea. Better to just enjoy the moment – and this was a pretty wonderful moment. “Aww, now that’s a good wish, mate. I approve.”
“I’ll be your snake charmer, snake wrangler, whatever. Might even cook it up for you,” Chris smirked, only half joking. After all, sometimes rattlesnake was one of the few things available to eat in the desert. He chuckled and nuzzled Ed. “Glad my wishes meet with your approval. Get some rest, Ed.”
“Well now you’re just spoiling me.” Ed smiled, closing his eyes again as he nestled himself comfortably against Chris’s body. He didn’t have to be told twice to get some rest; it had been an emotionally draining day, but he couldn’t have wished for a better end to it.