good morning i'm thinking about ed waking up early and watching stede sleep next to him and thinking, i'm allowed to kiss him. thinking, i'm allowed to want him. thinking, i don't have to fight to have him.
there's a simplicity to that, i think, that ed would appreciate. it's not about permission, just--understanding. ed doesn't have to pirate stede - to loot or threaten or steal what isn't his in order to pretend that it is. all ed has ever had has been things he's taken for himself, all his wealth and power are things he's fought for and grabbed with two hands when they didn't belong to him. even the scrap of silk from his mum, who probably snuck it away from the estate she worked on just to show him what existed in the world but couldn't ever really be his.
and after all that, all that fighting and stealing and taking, walking the line of blackbeard and pirating, negotiating what he's allowed to want with his social standing, with his abusive father, with pirate captains, with izzy--
stede just gives.
he gives ed his name. his secret wardrobe. something weird. marmalade. he gives ed protection, when no one in their right mind would think ed, blackbeard, needed them to do it. he gives ed forgiveness. he gives ed a friend.
maybe ed didn't need these things, maybe he did. i don't think that's the point. the point is that stede gave them because he looked at ed and saw someone worth giving them to. and while that worthiness also impaired stede's judgment in leaving ed or letting him go, depending on your angle, clearly stede is on his way back to ed again. to give himself.
his newfound love.
so yes. there'll be a time, a morning, when ed wakes up and stede is next to him. and ed will think about how easy it is with stede. to want him. to have him. to lean in and kiss him, and to know that it isn't a prize won or a battle fought. it's just a gift.
and he'll lean in, press his lips to the corner of stede's mouth, and give it back.
What are your favourite CM episodes? Buuut one episode per character!
OOOH fun
Starting off with our favorite, our boy:
Luke: Honestly, probably 16.10 "Dead End." For one thing, he made the Sicarius arrest!! Plus he found and saved Rossi, and I'm not going to soon forget "if we lean on each other" and "the heart wants what it wants."
And now I'm just going in order of what i think of
Penelope: 7.8, "Hope." That's the episode where she helps find a woman from her support group who was taken by the man who kidnapped her daughter, and was also at the support group. She was amazing in that episode
Tara: 13.9 "False Flag." My favorite episode, and Tara was so amazing and I love her so much
JJ: 7.24 "Run." I fucking LOVED watching her fight Izzy, and I loved the Willifer wedding. It's one of my favorite season finales (season 7 is probably my favorite as a whole)
Gideon: 1.14 "Ride the Lightning." Yes it makes me sob. Yes it's great.
Matt: 15.3 "Spectator Slowing." This is the one where he's at home with all his kids and plays games and cooks with them and it's so cute.
Reid: I'd say 11.11 "Entropy." That truly is a MASTERFUL episode.
Emily: It's a tie. 15.4 "Saturday." I love chill Emily. Also she was totally making eyes at Tara in that episode and I'm here for it. Also, 4.3 "Minimal Loss." The way she protected Reid and saved things from inside was so amazing.
Morgan: 7.18 "Foundation." This is when he befriends a victim, a young boy named Angel, who went through a lot of what Morgan went thrugh as a kid. Yes i cry but so what i love soft Morgan
Rossi: 14.8 "Ashley." This is the episode where he proposes to Krystall!! And it makes me so happy and it's great and he deserves happiness i'm so glad he and krystall are both alive and well
Hotch: 10.5 "Boxed In." This is when he meets the drag queen (?) friend of Penelope's and gets the Darth Vader costume for Jack. I love Dad Hotch.
Elle: 1.5 "Broken Mirror." She literally steps on a man. That's all I have to say.
Alex: 8.10 "The Lesson." This is when she has the "why wouldn't she like you?" conversation with Reid
Kate: 10.1 "X." Right from the beginning i loved her. She was so funny and badass and I miss her