Chapter Text
Spring 2002
If he stared at the clock hard enough, surely the seven minutes standing between now and that moment when he could start shutting the machines down would fade into nothingness. Ed Teach could do anything he set his mind to, right? Well, apparently breaking the laws of the universe might be a bit beyond his capabilities. Still, he squinted his eyes a little extra, scrunched up his nose, and concentrated. Glancing back up at the clock, he sighed. Six minutes.
Turning to his right, he stared down the aisle towards the pharmacy. There wasn’t anyone in line back there and one of the pharmacy techs grinned at him as they went about their tasks. He lifted a hand and shifted his face into some semblance of a smile. While he recognized everyone that worked in the pharmacy by sight, he didn’t really know any of their names. The pharmacist with long shining pigtails and her brigade of chaotic crew usually stayed in their little corner of the store. He didn’t often venture out from his corner either though, so he understood.
Glancing up at the clock, he had four minutes. Another sigh escaped and he turned to his left just in time to see the front door slide open and a whirlwind of blond hair and long legs come tumbling through. A whirlwind which paused, looked around the store and was suddenly heading straight for him. Ed definitely wasn’t going to be shutting the machines down in—he turned and looked at the clock—two and a half minutes.
“Oh, thank god you’re still open!”
A breathless voice with a soft Kiwi lilt filled his ears and Ed suddenly forgot every negative thought he’d been conjuring up seconds before. A handsome blond with wide eyes looking at him like he had personally saved his day AND he was from Aotearoa? Yeah, this was probably the one exception to pretty much any and every rule Ed lived by.
“Yeah, mate, you slid in just in time. Whatcha’ got for me?” Ed nodded his head to the right and started moving towards the drop-off stand.
“A fellow Kiwi! There aren’t many of us in these parts! Kia ora.”
“Kia ora, mate! Are you looking for ‘one hour’ or ‘next day?’ Though technically ‘next day’ will be ‘day after tomorrow’ since those get processed outside of the store and won’t go out until tomorrow since it’s so late...” He trailed off, knowing he was rambling.
“I was hoping I could pick these up tonight…?” The blond’s face scrunched up adorably, like he knew he was asking a lot and while Ed didn’t usually have a power kink, he didn’t mind the way those hazel eyes framed in blond lashes were looking at him pleadingly.
Ed grabbed one of the 1-hour envelopes and a pen, raised a brow, and released the full power of his own smoldering gaze right back at him. “That depends on what you have for me?”
The blond opened his mouth to respond but looking up from where he’d been reading all of the information displayed on the kiosk, he made eye contact mid-smolder and froze. The man stared back, a bit like a deer caught in headlights, and Ed smiled to himself. A couple of seconds passed, but it might have also been an hour, or even a lifetime, as they continued to make eye contact. Perhaps he’d been going about his earlier attempt to warp time the wrong way? Apparently he could bend the rules of the universe to his will. Another small but genuine smile crossed his face as the blond shook off the spell he’d been under and pulled a canister of film out of his (sinfully tight) pocket.
“Oh, I just have the one roll!”
The grin that crossed the man’s face lit up Ed’s little fluorescent corner of the pharmacy as he brandished the film and waved it about like he’d discovered a treasure map.
“I was on a hike up in the mountains earlier today and discovered a little area north of Clayton where a plant that I’ve been studying, that has been facing extinction, seems to be flourishing!”
And he was off, explaining things about botany and climate change that were well above Ed’s pay grade and well beyond his usual interest in the local art and music scene. But the sheer joy and enthusiasm left him hanging on every word like it was the most fascinating topic imaginable, and the more he listened, the more he realized that thought wasn’t exactly hyperbole.
As the man trailed off, they were both left grinning at one another, though for entirely different reasons. He was clearly delighted with his discovery and Ed was just enamored with watching someone share their joy.
“Well, anyway, here you go.”
The blond ran one hand through his hair and held the other one out to pass his film over. As their hands connected, a thrill ran up Ed’s spine and his grin became something softer.
“I’ll have these done in about 30 minutes if you want to stick close by?”
Stede looked at his watch and bit his lip. “I’ll run over to the Mexican place around the corner and grab a bite to eat.” He turned to head out back towards the door and only made it a few steps away before Ed remembered the envelope he was holding in his hand.
“Wait!” He waggled the envelope about as the man turned around. “I need your name and number.” He paused. “For the form.”
“Oh, of course! I’m Stede!” Another sunlit smile spread across the man’s face. “Stede Bonnet, two N’s, one T.”
Ed jotted his name down and handed the envelope over to Stede. While Stede wrote down his phone number Ed gave him another once over. Fluffy blond hair, a snug athletic shirt showing off a strong chest and a soft tummy, and sinfully tight cargo shorts that did wonders for his shapely legs. Ed wondered what sort of treasure Stede had collected on his hike that he deemed worthy of stuffing into those pockets. Or was he a “take only pictures, leave nothing but footprints” sort of guy? He definitely had taken pictures though and Ed shook himself, realizing that he probably needed to get started on developing those instead of staring at the man, wondering what other treasures were hidden in Stede’s shorts.
Stede handed the envelope back over and made his way out of the store while Ed turned to get to work. He tossed the envelope to the side and pulled the film out of its canister. Grabbing one of the plastic sheets that threaded the film through the developing machine, he attached the tip of the film and sent it through. It took several minutes for the film to wind its way through the machine so he busied himself with tidying up the counters and contemplating Stede: in nature, surrounded by plants, enthusing over things Ed had never taken the time to notice. And his arms. That tight shirt had made his biceps look incredible.
As the film finished its journey, he slid over to the photo processor and sat down. His store prided itself on offering quality prints and part of his job involved color correcting every photo that passed through the lab. Since he had to look at every single photo, he knew more about the photo lab’s clientele than he ever imagined when he’d started working there years earlier. He’d witnessed weddings and births and deaths. He saw children grow up, vacations taken, homes made. Tears and laughter and everything in between passed before his eyes on a daily basis.
As he threaded Stede’s film into the photo processor, he leaned a little closer, watching as a colorful forest landscape unfolded itself before his eyes. Stede was a delightful photographer and obviously had a decent camera. He didn’t need to make too many adjustments as he flipped through the roll, following Stede’s hike through the mountains. About halfway through the roll, Stede started taking pictures of the same plant, peppered across a small field, again and again. This was apparently the special little guy who’d gotten him so worked up earlier. Ed smiled and took note of the number on a particularly lovely picture to make a 5x7 print. Part of his job duties included attempts to upsell his customers and while he usually avoided actually following through with this at all costs, this time it felt like a gift he could offer instead of some sort of store-enforced, capitalistic BS.
As he reached the end of the roll, the last couple of pictures took Ed by surprise. Everything he’d seen so far had been nature shots. He was more than a little surprised when a picture of a woman showed up on the screen. A pretty brunette with bangs and a ponytail was smiling into the camera, though the smile didn’t seem to fully meet her eyes. Ed could feel the exasperation coming off of her even though there wasn’t anything particularly grievous in her overall expression. The next picture was of Stede, positively glowing. He was a man made to spend time in nature and the hike had breathed life into him in ways that Ed couldn’t begin to articulate. Without even thinking about what he was doing, he printed two copies of that picture. He then quickly changed out the photo paper so he could make the 5x7 print, scooped up the stack of photos, and slid them into their envelope. He sat and looked at the extra print he’d made of Stede’s smiling face for a moment before deciding that he shouldn’t have done that and slid it into the shredder. Then he turned and finally started shutting the machines down for the night.
Stede returned about ten minutes before Ed was set to leave. They exchanged smiles as he jogged back up to Ed’s counter and Ed handed over his photos.
“You can look through your prints before you buy ‘em. If anything didn’t turn out, you don’t have to buy it. I’ll subtract it from the price.”
Stede pulled out his prints and started flipping through them, smiling and murmuring about various vistas. When he reached his little field, that megawatt smile turned even brighter. “Look at these! They’re beautiful!”
“I enlarged one of them for you if you want that? It was a gorgeous picture and I thought you might want to frame it or something?”
Stede’s eyes widened a little as he looked up at Ed and whispered, “I would love that!”
Ed smiled, pleased with his decision.
When Stede reached the last two photos, he paused and muttered, “Oh, Mary won’t like that.”
Ed watched him set that photo to the side, wondering all the while who exactly this Mary was to him.
That left one last photo, the picture of himself and Ed bit his lip, waiting to see what he thought of it. It was a striking photograph of a handsome man and he assumed that this Mary he’d gone hiking with had to have taken it. While Stede’s nature photos were incredibly lovely, this was taken by someone who obviously had an incredible artistic eye.
“I look—” He paused and seemed to flounder for the right word.
“Like a wood elf?” Ed helpfully supplied and then closed his eyes. It wasn’t really his place to comment on people’s photos like this. What was he doing?
Stede looked up at him and for a moment Ed thought he might be offended. Hey, it was 2002 and gay rights might be light years ahead of where they had been just a decade ago, but this was still the American South and referring to another man as “elven” might end poorly for him.
But Stede just smiled again as his eyes lit up and he laughed, “I’m like Legolas!”
“You should grow your hair out to really pull the look together, mate.”
“I don’t know if I could pull that off,” he returned with a silly scrunched face. “Though your hair is quite dashing—”
Stede lifted a hand and looked like he was reaching out to twirl a lock of Ed’s hair between his fingers before he remembered himself and jerked his hand back.
“Well, it’s a lovely photo, but I’m going to leave it behind too. I can turn in the receipt for these photos to the university since they’re related to my research. I don’t think I can justify a self portrait, no matter how nice it is.”
Stede slid the photo across the counter so it sat alongside the one of “Mary” while gathering up the stack of his other photos and dropping them back into their envelope.
As Ed rang up his purchase they made small talk about how short spring had seemed and how soon summer would be upon them. Normal retail small talk. But there was nothing normal about how Ed was feeling about this man. Nor was he feeling normal feelings about how that photograph that he’d found so endearing was once again staring up at him.
With a flourish, Stede was off. Ed sat back down in the lab’s chair and glanced back up at the clock on the wall. He should have clocked out five minutes earlier. With a sigh, he picked up the two pictures Stede had left behind, dropping one in the shredder and sliding one into his pocket. It was time to go home and sleep.