#thomas hamilton x james mcgraw

[k-wame]

I rather envy you. I remember what it was like the first time I met him…It's something quite indescribable. I imagine you're having it as we speak. ↳ BLACK SAILS | S2.E1 · IX

[zairaalbereo]

~ Thomas Hamilton and James McGraw ~

What can I say? I’m a sucker for an angsty, gay origin story, and even more so for a beautiful, gay happy ending. These two deserve one, and I will die on the hill that they got one. That’s the true story.

This is a homage to their beginnings, though, and in a way, to their tragic separation. Maybe I’ll do another one for their reunion.

Because this wasn’t insane enough.

(In any case, I have been putting way too much time and roughly 60.000 pencil strokes into this, and if I don’t post it now, I will keep obsessing about it or ruin it, so I just need to let it go lol.)

For those interested, there are prints of my art available on redbubble.

[matan4il]

On this Pride Month I would just like to say that Black Sails really made all of its four seasons and 38 episodes into an expression of gay rage against homophobic brutality and the unbearable loss of love, especially in that tragic context, and that’s still one of the most breathtaking things that any TV show has done, ever.

[queershippingpolls]

Do you ship them?

[queerstudiesnatural]

Happy Pride!! 🏳️‍🌈🏴‍☠️

feel free to use as icons <3 credit is appreciated but it's whatever

more black sails pride icons here

[coffeedrgn87]

Lament

Fandom: Black Sails

Pairing: James/Thomas

Notes: Earning, Lost Love, Drunken Dreams

The cabin stank of salt and blood and the sharp, heady scent of rum. The spoils of victory lay in careless heaps—bloodstained coin, broken jewellery pried from dead men’s fingers, bolts of silk cut ragged where swords had slashed through cargo. The candlelight caught on the filigree of stolen trinkets, gold and silver glittering in the low, restless glow. The ship rocked beneath him, slow and heavy, its hull groaning with the weight of plunder and the distant thunder of waves breaking against the bow.

James sat hunched at his desk, shoulders rounded, the ghost of old wounds pressing deep into his flesh. The rough grain of the wood dug into his forearms, the heat of his own skin feverish against it. His coat had long since been tossed over the chair, his shirt unlaced, exposing the salt-stiffened scars that curved over his collarbone, down his ribs—scars that told a story of a man who had learned to endure, and to survive, no matter what it cost him.

The rum burned its way down his throat, sharp and acrid, thick with the aftertaste of oak and sugar, but it might as well have been seawater for all the warmth it gave him. His grip was slack around the bottle, fingers gone numb from too many hours curled around a sword, a pistol, a throat. The calluses on his palms scraped against the glass as he tilted it back again, his stomach turning even as the liquor pooled hot in his belly.

Somewhere beyond the cabin door, the crew celebrated, their voices rising in drunken revelry. Laughter, coarse and wild, the sound of fists hitting tables, the slosh of ale spilling over tankards. Their victory. Their spoils. Their world.

His prison.

The walls of the cabin closed in around him, thick with the weight of heat and sweat and the cloying sweetness of rotting fruit left too long in the corner. A ledger lay open before him, the ink smudged where his hand had strayed, his own writing a blur in the low light. The words swam, but he didn’t need to read them. He knew what they would say. The weight of profit and loss, the cold, merciless arithmetic of blood and coin.

Thomas would have found it amusing, once. Would have leaned over his shoulder, lips curled in that quiet, knowing way, and said something insufferably clever about it—how James McGraw, a man of honour, had learned to balance ledgers just as well as he once balanced justice.

James could almost hear his voice now, the warmth of it curling through the dim, smoke-choked air. Could almost feel the ghost of fingertips skimming over his wrist, the brush of breath against his ear.

“When this is over, come back to me.”

His chest clenched.

The candle wavered, its flame guttering low, and the shadows in the corners of the room seemed to shift, to reach. He could see him now, if he let himself. Thomas, standing just beyond the light, half in darkness, half in memory. The curve of his jaw, the sharp, clever cut of his mouth. His hands—God, his hands—strong and sure, hands that once steadied James when he threatened to fall, when the world seemed too much.

His vision blurred. He wasn’t drunk enough for this, and yet too drunk to stop it.

He pressed the heel of his palm against his eye, as if he could smother the image there, press it back into the deep place where he kept it buried. But it was no use. The taste of Thomas still lived in his mouth, still lingered on his skin, beneath the salt and sweat and years of blood.

James let out a breath, ragged and raw.

His fingers clenched around the bottle, the glass cold and wet with condensation. For a moment, he thought about throwing it. About shattering it against the wall, letting the rum spill across the floor like blood, like memory, like something he could drown in.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he sat there, staring at the candlelight as it flickered across the desk, feeling the weight of the past pressing against his ribs like a knife slipping between them.

The sea whispered against the hull.

And somewhere, in a world he could never return to, Thomas still waited.

[nooowestayandgetcaught]

Behind Closed Doors

read on AO3

~1k, Miranda Barlow/Captain Flint | James McGraw/Thomas Hamilton, Captain Flint | James McGraw/Thomas Hamilton, E-rating, Season 2-centric Summary: It's human nature to give into the pleasures of the mind and the heart. The three of them deserve so.

[bullet-prooflove]

Know No Shame - Thomas Hamilton x James Flint (Black Sails)

There are many things that Thomas loves about James McGraw. One of his favourites, perhaps, is the way that James’s bronze hair cascades around his commanding features.  The way his untamed mane glints in the candlelight of their bedroom, threaded with shades of gold and copper. It gleams like the most precious of metals as Thomas runs his fingers through it.

By day his lover is unrelenting ; straight laced and buttoned up in the uniform of the British Navy. It is after dark that Thomas gets to see the real James, the man underneath the polite armour and rigid social standing.

When Thomas starts to undress James, he always begins by loosening his hair. The simple act of untying that navy blue ribbon seems to undo James. Thomas runs his long fingers through the loose strands, his fingertips massaging James’s scalp. Those broad shoulders of his begin to relax and a low moan exhales from his decadent throat. It is a simple pleasure. One that Thomas is happy to give.

The scent of the sea clings to James skin, entangling with the heady masculine essence of his body. Thomas finds that salty tang intoxicating. He had never been with a navy man before James , and he knows he never will again. With James he has fallen so perilously. He is confident there will not be another after him.

James’s cleanly shaven cheek brushes over his own, his clever lips seeking out the hollow of Thomas’s throat. Thomas finds himself surrendering as James’s hardened body covers his ; the fresh linen embraces them like old friends as they tumble down amongst the sheets.

Thomas’s hands come to rest upon James’s shoulders, his fingertips playing over the russet flecks that mar the pale flesh. He allows it to move lower as James hovers over him, covering the place where James’s fragile heart resides. His thumb strokes over the fine, auburn dusting of hair that covers steely muscle and parts for silver scars. His body is a stark contrast to Thomas’s leaner form, his aristocratic proclivities have made him slender and lithe.

James’s teeth grazed that sinful spot on the curve of his neck. Thomas arches at the sensation, wanting and breathless. That familiar flush of heat gallops through him, chased by the intense yearning for intimacy, to connect with James after his three-month voyage.

“Look at me James.” He whispers.

It sounds like a plea, instead of a request. James seemingly catches the tone and complies. He fixes Thomas with those vast blue eyes of his. In them Thomas sees a fathomless sea, he allows himself to get swept away by the waves, to be cast out into the tide with no hope of returning to the shore.

“Don’t ever doubt how much I feel for you. How much I love you.” Thomas utters the words like a secret, the most intimate one he has ever told.

James silences him with a kiss. The urgent press of rough lips and a tenderness that he would never have expected when they had first met. It is full of longing and heart.

There are words that James will not dare speak but Thomas has learned to read the man through his gestures.  Desire, need, passion. Once again, he is swept under James’s spell as his strong hands trace over Thomas’s form like a map that has yet to be explored.  

This is the James that Thomas loves.

A man that knows no shame.

[noenoaholi]

soft husbands

i hate that i'm always late to the party... is this fandom still alive?

[panicroomsammy]

It’s always “I can imagine a life with you” and never “I love you because you care about things and I will care about those things too. If you are presumed dead I will fight to bring about the reality you wanted even more so than I did when you were alive.”

[anybofemotions]

[yo-hannia]

I— am still able of drawing in traditional

[thestagthatlovedthewolf]

I'm pretty sure James' moon tattoo is actually Toby Stephens’ real tattoo, so there's no actual canon background, besides coincidences :) But let’s ignore that because I have an headcanon about the tattoo!!!

So I’ve seen Thomas, James and Miranda described as the Sun, Moon and Stars, which makes PERFECT sense!!!

Thomas being the Sun is rather obvious - it fits him so well!!!

James being the Moon as the partner of the Sun, its other face - one and the other are always together. But the Moon is darker like James and his moods and his anger, and then Moon being the one responsible for the tides of course is another point on its connection with James - people (aka Silver) don't think he controls the seas for no reason!!!

Miranda as the Stars also makes a lot of sense!! The sun itself being a star, the Stars and the Sun being of the same cloth, and then the Stars come out with the Moon, they’re shown in that darkness as well, but they don’t overwhelm - their light (or you know their anger) always overshadowed by the Moon. Now with this in mind, James gets the Moon tattoo, because he knows Thomas is the Sun, that light that illuminates everyone and how people just have to look at him and can't look away (that was one of the first things Miranda spoke to him). James is Thomas' partner, his other face, the darkness. But also his lover - I know I’ve seen the idea of the Sun & Moon as a pair in myths before.

So with the tattoo done, probably after Gates and the rest crew made him do it - it's the way of piracy - he comes home, Miranda of course notices it and asks him what he did, and he tells her the truth, he tells her his reasons, probably cries of his love for Thomas. Jokingly Miranda asks him what does that make her, she doesn’t expect an answer, but without even thinking he says the Stars. He hadn't thought of it before, but it comes to him as she utters the question, because the Moon is never without the Stars, and he needs her; the Stars are also the ones who lead you home in the sea, she's the reason he comes home - besides even in London I think she was this strong force, that held them together, that looked after them.

After the next time at sea, James comes home to her and she got some stars tattooed on her body (not sure where - the arm doesn't really feel right...). He first yells of course - it’s then after all - about the risks of going to Nassau, how she could have gotten hurt, and he can't lose her, but she calms him down, after all it was already done. He probably cries as Miranda tells him she needed it, she wanted Thomas on her skin too. They hold each other that night, and for all the years to come, James loves tracing the Stars when they lie in bed together, just quietly seeing each Star on her skin.

Years later, after he and Thomas are reunited, Thomas asks him about the Moon tattoo - he tells him the story and the Stars on Miranda’s soft skin. Thomas insists that they find a place for him to get his tattoo, a Sun, he wants to close their trio.

Maybe in a modern AU, they can actually get the tattoos all together!!!! Imagine them in the tattoo parlor together, trying to picture which one would be more nervous (I did just read a fic that Thomas as a tattoo artist which was so good!!!)

Also my brain who loves the ot5, that includes these three plus Silver and Madi, wonders what tattoos they would get fitting themselves into this family as well!!!

[captainflirt]

Feelings...

[bluearrow126]

Yet another reminder that I miss Black Sails

[tallariawalker]

LGBTQ Meme: [4/10] Relationships

↳ James/Thomas/Miranda (Black Sails)