Black Sails + Ladies
Tag: this is so good!
If you want an angstier prompt: Thomas and Miranda getting engaged/married. Thomas knows that he’s gay. It’s up to you to decide whether Miranda knows it or not.
They are to be wed tomorrow, he and Miranda. They will be joined in the eyes of God and the law and Thomas’ heart is pounding. His breath is catching in his throat and there is terror, real terror creeping through his veins.
She knows what he is, who he favours, of course she does, how could he keep that from her? He trusts her with his life, his reputation, his soul and yet… there is a small part of him, the coward and the child the part that has been sneered at and cajoled, which tells him thusly:
She will announce it. You will stand there, hand in hand, and she will turn to the crowd and say “Look, gaze upon this sodomite, a man who’s proclivities are base and foul. See him for what he is, a monster, and cast him into hell where he belongs!”
He would die if she did.
He hears that voice and knows, knows, it is his own but cannot help the tears that prick at his eyes.
Thomas loves her as much as he loves any woman. He loves her with his whole heart and soul and yet-
Will he ever be enough? Will he ever be able to make her happy, the way she has made him happy?
Questions fly through his mind as he lays in bed. The candles are still lit, their faint illuminations casting shadows on the walls and Thomas thinks he sees demons there.
He trusts her, he trusts her, he trusts her.
The mantra is calming. He repeats the words, begins to say them aloud, and is startled into silence by a soft rapping at his door.
“Thomas?” A voice asks.
Miranda.
It isn’t usual, her staying at the estate, but the wedding is out of town and he had insisted she stay nearby.
Miranda is beautiful in the dark, as she is in the light, and he beckons her in. If she sees the wetness on his cheeks she says nothing. She simply slips under the covers and lays against his side, shivering.
“You won’t leave me at the altar, will you?” She asks in a broken voice.
The question is- it is unexpected, to say the least. He makes a sound in his throat and holds her tight. “Never, love, never in life.”
She relaxes against him and kisses his shoulder. “I had thought not, but…”
“But we both have demons we cannot purge,” he finished for her. She nodded. “You have such power over me, Miranda, moreso than any other living being. I give it to you unreservedly and I would not leave you alone to carry the weight of that power.”
“Thomas,” she buries her face in his neck, the next words muffled. “I’m sorry it has to be like this! I’m sorry you can’t be open about yourself and I’m sorry that-”
He hushes her, holds her tighter, kisses the soft near-black tresses of her hair. “I know. It’s alright.”
“I love you,” Miranda whispers. “I love you, Thomas.”
“And I love you,” he responds, “more than life.”
so that whole miranda+window post is a heartbreak in a cup bUT when i read your tag about miranda and thomas gossiping about their affairs i just smiled so big please elaborate on that if you want to because that’s the cutest idea omg
OH BOY DO I EVER WANT TO – but first things first, I cannot take credit for the idea! I believe I first accepted this image into my heart ‘n soul after reading this tremendously nsfw and most excellent fic by azarias. (basic plot is that Miranda tells Thomas all about her, ah, encounter with James in the carriage and they both get off it’s amazing would highly recommend)
just. this is my ideal dynamic for them. married best friends checkin’ out guys together. like just imagine: they’re at some Society Gathering, and Thomas pulls Miranda aside and points out some young noble with sharp brown eyes who looks very good in that blue coat and tells her like “Miranda he and I just had a wonderfully lively conversation about de Cervantes and he’s an avid fencer with arms to prove it you should definitely seduce him”. Or Miranda pulls him aside to whisper that she’s heard that lord so-and-so of such-and-such over there shares his inclinations so perhaps they ought to have a chat?
picture Thomas waiting up for Miranda after some tryst, like he’s sitting there reading, then he looks up when he hears her come in, and he smiles and puts his book down and asks “so how was it?” and she grins and grins and runs over and plops down next to him and gushes about how romantic he was, Thomas, and oh, his hands, or she mentions how nervous he was, because wouldn’t her husband notice her absence? and they both laugh and laugh and Thomas kisses her forehead. similarly, imagine Thomas coming home late after some Very Innocent Meeting with lord so-and-so of such-and-such, and Miranda asks “So, was I right?” all eager, and Thomas just grins coyly, so she gasps and says “I was, wasn’t I? Tell me everything.” so he laughs and tells her all about how it took him so bloody long to get the hint (”I brought up The Symposium three times, Miranda”) but once he did –
and James. James. oh my god when James enters the picture. they would both be so excited. the second they’re alone after James leaves that first time Miranda would just be like “so, we’re keeping him, right?” “I certainly hope so.” and they’d Appreciate his hair and his uniform and his everything. (“Miranda I made him laugh today” “oh my god go on”) and listen. we know Thomas knew they slept together. there is no way she did not hook her best friend up with those details. (”When he kissed me, I expected he’d be shy, but then he used his teeth” “Oh my god” “I thought I would die – and he’s covered from head to toe in those freckles” “Oh my god” ) and oh god when Thomas began to properly fall in love with/pine for James, Miranda would Be There. like whatever the 1700s equivalent of arriving on the scene with ben & jerry’s in hand is. she’d have his back. and ahhhhhhhhh once Thomas and James got together, Thomas would be so happy and Miranda would be so happy for him because they’re best friends and this is what they do and neither of them would trade it for the world.
“I don’t believe you.” Flint said, though his tone was not nearly as sure as his words. John didn’t have time to argue, he reached for a small looking mirror left on a decrepit vanity and passed it to Flint.
There was no denying the ten years Flint saw on his face, the face he likely hardly recognised as his own. John felt cruel, for making James face Flint, but he didn’t have time for his disbelief. John waited as Flint stared at a stranger’s face in the mirror.
soldier by chance
The truth comes to him all at once
out of the darkness of a moonless sea night two weeks back on the
account.“You never cared about the gold in
the first place, did you?”He watches Flint blink at the
bookshelf in the cabin for a moment and then turn to him, face
quirked in inquiry. His reflexes are a little slow, expression
blurred by the rum Silver had produced earlier in the evening with an
accompanying smile that said come, we deserve this.“Has the guilt hit you at last?”
“No,” Silver says honestly, and
breathes through a smile when Flint laughs in response. Once such a
laugh might have terrified him, and the fact that it now only elicits
a feeling of warmth within his chest is the source of no small amount
of wonder. Of all the transformations he has undergone, this may be
the most unexpected.
Meg's Mumbles 