At the age of thirty five, Stede Bonnet could count the number of times someone had hugged him on one hand. His mother, before leaving for boarding school. His teacher, who found him crying and homesick. His aunt, at his mother’s funeral.

Touch wasn’t something Stede associated with happiness - the embraces in his life had been associated with melancholy and lonely memories. More reminders of how alone he was, than of the connection he had to others.

Stede could count the number of times he’d been held on any number of hands. Because that number was zero.

Stede had all but resigned himself to a life without intimacy of any kind until he comes across an article about professional cuddlers. Upon finding an all-male group of cuddlers called Blackbeard's, Stede books an appointment with a cuddler named Ed that will change his life in more ways than one.



This story is based on real-life professional cuddlers - I wanted to create a universe full of gentle, non-toxic masculinity, a space for queer men to be soft and intimate and express themselves without judgement. Inspiration taken from Cuddlist.com and this article - https://gcn.ie/cuddle-club-gay-men-creates-intimacy/ Thanks to my amazing betas lookinglass, AO3Bendifferus, NifaFifa, and Dr CF for your lovely comments and gentle fixing of my run-on sentences, and to my irl bff who was kind enough (despite being very confused about the concept of fandom) to provide sensitivity reading for this fic. You are my ride or dies and I don't know what I would do without you!  Note: There are consent issues in this kind of relationship! In preparing for this story, I interviewed the CEO of a cuddling agency, to learn more about the profession and how they handle complex situations like these. I have their internal policy for when cuddlers and clients fall in love, and am following it closely so that our boys can have a healthy and enthusiastically consensual experience 🥰  Title is from "Hold Me", by Fleetwood Mac

Come On and Hold Me Ch 1 - To Have and to Hold

Just want to create and chat on discord with friends

I draw, mostly, but I'm currently learning how to do podcasts and audiobooks and stuff 💪
Just *slightly* obsessed with OFMD, find me inhaling all the podfics on this platform

IG: akantorrr
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Twitter: @caprimais_

Come On and Hold Me Ch 1 - To Have and to Hold

weonlyhavethisonelife