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The rapier fell out of the boy’s hand and scattered along the deck with a clang and the crew erupted into a cheer.
Miguel - Edward remembered his name now - looked after the weapon as it was sailing away as if he could call it back by sheer force of will, then turned to his new captain with an expression of devastation. Ed gestured for him to go pick up his weapon and the boy trudged off with drooping shoulders.
They were currently anchored in Nassau because Izzy had insisted that they needed a few more men to properly man the Queen Anne’s which they had picked up after Stede’s return.
Edward noticed that the thought of Stede’s return and the time before and after that didn’t cause a pang in his heart like it usually did. Instead, he noticed that for the first time he could look back at the events with fond amusement.
Izzy had spotted the dinghy from quite far away and had alerted Blackbeard, probably for fear of being punished if he didn’t ask before he killed them. So now, the Kraken stood at the railing and watched the dinghy approach slowly but surely. It lay deep in the water and every now and then a wave would splash in, wetting the passengers and causing them to scramble to scoop the water up and out of their boat.
“The canons are aimed, Blackbeard,” Izzy reported. “One word from you and we’ll blast them to hell.”
Blackbeard shook his head. “That would be too quick of a death. Let them come aboard. I want to tear that vermin into pieces. I want to hear them squeal.”
Izzy only gritted his teeth and nodded.
An hour later, the dinghy reached them. As soon as Stede’s feet hit the deck, Izzy was upon him and pressed one of his knives to his throat. Instead of struggling, Stede stood tall and started talking, keeping his eyes straight at Edward as if Izzy wasn’t holding him at knifepoint. He talked about how Chauncey had abducted him and how he had to attend to some unfinished business and that it had been utterly wrong of him not to tell Ed why he wasn’t coming. He said that he loved Ed and kept repeating it, even while his voice was drowned out by Izzy’s yelling. When he just wouldn’t shut up, Izzy pressed his knife even tighter to his throat to stop the talking. The force he used caused the knife to nick Stede’s throat and Edward stood in a frozen stupor as he watched a small trickle of blood run down and soak into Stede’s shirt, which, as Edward noted, was not as white as it used to be. Stede looked utterly unafraid and just kept talking over Izzy’s threat of cutting out his voice box if he wouldn’t shut up, seemingly ready to face death if only he could make Edward listen before he died.
In the end, Ed couldn’t kill Stede. Couldn’t even allow Izzy to kill him, even though he repeatedly asked for the honour to make the kill for Blackbeard. “You don’t need to taint yourself with that scum’s blood,” he had said. But still, Edward couldn’t. Instead, torn between rage and longing, he had them all thrown into the bilge.
Obviously, Izzy gave him hell for it, nagging him to decide on how to dispose of Stede and his people before they needed to waste more food and space on them. In the end, he told Izzy that he wanted to sell them into slavery at the slave market, asking him to set sail for the nearest port. Izzy left, seemingly satisfied with the thought of making money by selling these poor souls off, but warned his captain to stay away from the bilge. Edward nodded, feeling slightly relieved at the knowledge that the nearest port with a suitable slave market was at least one week away if the winds were fortunate.
Edward tried to stay away. He really did. He drank until he couldn’t walk, until he blacked out. But, like a moth drawn to a flame, he still gravitated towards the bilge, even in his inebriated state. The first time he stumbled into the bilge, drunk off his ass, he yelled at Stede until he couldn’t anymore, voice drowning under a sea of tears. Stede, who desperately had tried to get a word in but never had managed to, tried to reach through the bars towards Edward who had curled up in the farthest corner, silently sobbing. When he couldn’t manage to reach, he simply fell into a litany of “I love you” and “I’m so sorry” and kept repeating it over and over again until Ed fell asleep.
When he woke up in the morning, he was so embarrassed by his own display that he immediately withdrew to his cabin to nurse his pounding head, but not before threatening the prisoners to never breathe a word about it to anyone. Especially not to Izzy.
Edward knew that Izzy wouldn’t approve of him seeing Stede on his own. If you listened to Izzy, Stede might as well be a sorcerer, able to cast a spell on Ed and put him under his thrall to do his bidding without any sense or shame. But Izzy never had understood what Stede was for Edward - a ray of sunshine after weeks in the bilge, a breeze of fresh air after being becalmed for too long.
Izzy and Edward knew each other for what felt like a lifetime by now and Edward trusted him. The trust was indeed so great that even Izzy’s betrayal couldn’t shake it. Still, Edward didn’t feel seen by Izzy anymore. To him, it seemed that Izzy only cared about Blackbeard. And no longer about Edward. He missed their quiet nights on deck or their nights getting drunk together. Somehow, sometime, Blackbeard had gotten between Edward and Izzy and the rift seemed too wide to cover it.
Maybe Izzy was right and Stede had indeed cast a spell on Edward. The first drunken night, he had come to taunt Stede. He wanted him to see The Kraken and make him realise that his betrayal had birthed the monster he was witnessing. But every night after that, it had become a little less about taunting and a little bit more about understanding each other. Edward regretted having to keep this a secret from Izzy. Still, he had seen Stede again, heard his love confession and the seed had been sown. The need to talk to him soon grew larger than his resentment. So Edward sneaked into the bilge every few nights, during Izzy’s night watches, making sure that none of the other crew saw him. Stede’s secret passageways helped a lot with that.
The bilge saw a lot of emotions these days. They fought and cried and hurt each other. Stede blamed Ed for marooning his crew and almost killing Lucius, who had been fished out of the water by Stede. Ed blamed Stede for never meeting up with him after he had promised to do so. But in the end, they couldn’t stay away from each other for too long, like a ship couldn’t stay away from port forever.
They made up with each other, agonisingly slowly and always under the cover of the night, finding forgiveness from each other. Stede’s crew, who was an unwilling or all too willing witness to their reunion, depending on who you asked, also found it within their graces to forgive Ed or at least tolerate him again.
Ten days after Stede’s return and only two days before they would have reached the slave market, Ed released Stede and his crew from the bilge.
Izzy took it remarkably well. He disapproved of course, but Ed knew him well enough to realise that it was only for appearance. Instead, Izzy seemed too tired and weary to make a fuss. Maybe he had already known of Ed’s nightly visits and had already had time to come to terms with the fact that Stede and Ed would be together once again. Maybe he simply had resigned himself to the fact that there was no Edward without Stede anymore. Maybe he didn’t care anymore.
The crew was happy to be able to reunite and things should have returned to normal. Except they didn’t. The relationship between the crew and Izzy remained strained. The crew kept mocking Izzy, seemingly having lost most of their fear and respect for him, now that Stede’s presence kept them safe again. Well, they had any right to be angry, Edward thought, and let it go.
Izzy himself kept complaining to Edward about Stede and the incompetence of the crew. Ed thought it was just him being a sourpuss. Izzy always found something to complain about, right? Ed was so caught up in the haze of Stede’s return that he hadn’t realised the danger they were in until it was almost too late.
Five weeks after their reunion there came a storm. Edward had felt it roll towards them for hours. He had told Izzy about it, who, to Ed’s amusement, burst into a frenzy of activity, checking the whole ship over.
“Izzy, relax, mate,” he called to Izzy from where he was perched on the railing, having tea with Stede, “this is not the first storm we have weathered!”
“But it’s the first fucking storm we’ll be weathering with these imbeciles as a crew!” Izzy shouted back.
At his response, Stede and Ed laughed about Izzy being dramatic, a fact Ed would come to regret deeply.
A few hours later the storm hit. Ed, who somehow had felt an itch after Izzy’s words earlier, stood on deck, keeping an eye on everything, not even sure what he was looking for. Quite a few of the crew had to be sent below deck because they turned out not experienced enough to safely work in that kind of weather. In fact, Lucius had almost toppled over the railing while puking his guts out and he would have gone overboard again - this time totally by accident - if Izzy of all people hadn’t grabbed him and bodily tossed him towards the stairs below deck, shouting all the while about fucking landlubbers, who should rather stay at home than go and play pirate.
Stede held himself remarkably well during the storm. He was pale but determined to stay and learn what he had to do during such weather. Ed always kept an eye on him, making sure that he was not in danger among the towering waves and strong gales. At one point he grew so fascinated by Stede’s wind-tossed hair that he almost missed the moment when the accident happened.
A part of the rigging hadn’t been tied properly, maybe it was the wrong knot, maybe it was too loose, and - with a particularly strong gale - a rope came swinging down on the men who stood on deck, dashing about wildly, threatening to take an eye out or sweep the legs away from under some unfortunate sailor.
This was one of the worst mistakes that could ever happen on a pirate ship and so far Ed had prided himself on the fact that it had never happened on one of his ships. But now it had and, in a moment of sudden clarity, he knew it was his own fault. Izzy had told him time and time again that the ship was not being maintained properly because of the laziness of the crew. And, time and time again, Ed had put him off. When had he started to see his first mate as an annoyance instead of an essential part of his life? Ed decided to contemplate that question later as he ordered the men to stay back while he and Izzy climbed into the rigging to catch and secure the loose line. It was a dangerous job. They had to make sure not to get hit by the wildly swinging rope while also staying close enough to be able to grab it when it was in reach. They managed in the end, although they got a few bruises and rope burns for their troubles, but Ed considered that a small price to pay in exchange for the life of everyone on board. Accidents like these had been known to maim or kill men or even wreck a whole ship if she became uncontrollable because of the loose rigging.
Once the weather had calmed down, Ed had threatened his weary and slightly grey-looking first mate into eating and sleeping, making sure that he knew that he wasn’t supposed to show his face until he looked a little bit better. While Izzy rested, Ed took it upon himself to check the whole ship over.
Ed found so many things lacking that he considered it a miracle that they were getting by so well. He also questioned the crew who, after a bit of intimidation and a bunch of disappointed looks from Stede, admitted that they had refused most of Izzy’s orders.
“He was only bullying us! Like he did when the English gave him command over The Revenge!” cried Lucius, which earned him a scolding “tsk” from Stede.
The rest of the crew seemed at least a little aware that Izzy might have actually given sensible commands but they took issue with his way of doing so.
“He only ever yelled at us,” claimed Oluwande, “nothing wrong with a little please and thank you, is there?”
Jim nodded. “He never really explained what we were supposed to do, either.”
Ed began to see that Izzy had been faced with trying to teach a group of less than experienced people how to sail a ship or try and do the work himself. Apparently, he had decided to follow the latter option and Ed couldn’t even blame him. It probably took less time and effort. There was a reason a ship rarely took on more than one lad as ship’s boy to teach since it meant extra work until the boy would know enough to be really of help. Ed couldn’t even imagine what it must take to teach several people and still make sure that all the work was done properly. The man clearly was overworked, which hadn’t improved his already lacking communication and teaching skills. Ed couldn’t blame Izzy for his failure to make things work. But he could and did blame Izzy for not bringing this issue to him.
When Izzy was called to his captain later that day, he was met with a very volatile Edward, who kept apologising to him only to turn mercurial the next moment, demanding to know if Izzy had lost his trust in him. Was that why he hadn’t talked to him?
Izzy, still tired and weary, even after his rest, finally snapped. “I’ve been fucking talking to you all the fucking time, Edward! But you only have eyes for fucking Stede Bonnet. Oh, go on, Izzy! It can’t be that bad, Izzy! I’m sure you’ll manage, Izzy!” he hissed in a perfect imitation of Edward that left even Stede impressed. “Face it, Edward. You have your shiny thing back and you’re no longer interested in anything else! Unfortunately, we don't have the fucking time to wait until you decide to join us in fucking reality again! Do you even realise that we have a fucking ship to run? You used to trust me! And now? Do you even see me anymore?”
And, in an unusual display of utter disrespect, Izzy turned around, walked out and slammed the door behind himself.
There was silence in the cabin until Stede’s voice, quiet and shaky piped up: “I’m really keeping you from your duties, aren’t I?”
Ed wanted nothing more than to tell him that wasn’t true, but, unfortunately, Izzy had made him see that it was very much the case. “Yeah,” he said instead, still shaken from Izzy’s outburst. “But that isn’t your fault. Izzy is right, this has happened before. Whenever I find something new and interesting I will forget everything around me until it isn’t new and interesting anymore.”
Stede got a sad look on his face, so Ed hurried to continue, “But with you, it doesn’t look like it’ll go away. So I guess I’ll have to find a middle ground.”
They talked some more about it and much to Stede’s chagrin, Ed decided that they needed to be more strict with the crew and make sure that everyone did their job. Unfortunately, by then, the relationship between Izzy and a good part of the crew had been so damaged that any disagreement escalated into a shouting match or a fight. In the end, Stede proposed an idea and Ed agreed, reluctantly, tired of having to settle fights between Izzy and the crew all the time.
They went back to pick up the Queen Anne’s, which Blackbeard placed under Izzy’s command - raising him to the rank of a captain - and splitting the crew between both ships, making sure that each crew was a healthy mix of Stede’s people and Blackbeard’s people, in the hopes that they would temper each other out. Ed also made sure that Izzy knew that this wasn’t a punishment aiming to remove him from Ed’s side, but instead a long overdue reward for his competence and service. Still, Izzy looked like a kicked dog when he took up the helm of the Queen Anne's.
The Revenge remained under Ed’s rule. Ed had wanted to continue as co-captains but to his surprise Stede had refused steadfastly, saying that he had realised that he needed to learn first and foremost how to be a proper captain and how a ship was working before he could take up such a responsibility again. Thus, his status had been reduced to a “guest” on the ship, freeing him of any duties unless he wanted to perform them. Mostly, he tagged along with Ed, working hard on learning what it took to actually sail a ship. Still, his “management style” could be felt all through the ship and the crew sometimes called him “captain” although they were getting better and better at just calling him “Stede”.
This arrangement they had found seemed to work quite well, even though both ships basically ran with a skeleton crew now. They had made sure to place the more sensible members of the crew with Izzy but kept Fang and Oluwande, who was raised to first mate, on the Revenge. Izzy got on remarkably well as a captain of his own vessel and his relationship with Ed improved, now that he was of equal rank. He started to joke with Ed once more as if he suddenly dared to do so again. And he started to tolerate Stede once he realised that he was making an effort to actually learn how to run a ship.
Ed himself was still getting used to the fact that Izzy was now on a different ship, even though it still belonged to Blackbeard’s fleet. He had never realised how much he had relied on Izzy until he suddenly was no longer around all day. He missed him like a severed limb and often found himself unconsciously looking for Izzy when he needed advice or a helping hand. Whenever Izzy was over at The Revenge, Edward struggled to find reasons to keep him, even though they grew increasingly obscure.
The day he asked Izzy to draw up a schematic of The Revenge’s rigging - “No one knows the rigging like you do, Iz, mate!” - Stede drew him aside after Izzy had left.
“Ed, darling. You should tell Izzy that you want to spend time with him instead of assigning him unnecessary tasks. You could have a drink and a talk instead!”
“I’m not sure what you’re referring to, mate,” Edward tried but was interrupted by Stede.
“Sweetheart, you know that there’s a perfectly detailed plan of the rigging in our cabin. You just looked at it the other day, when that rope came loose again!”
“I could’ve forgotten it?”
Stede sighed and smiled at him fondly. “Darling. This is between you and Izzy and I won’t interfere. But please consider that you’re allowed to love more than one person in your life. After all, the Sun is not enough to navigate a ship. Once it goes down, you need the North Star to keep going.”
“He’s not interested, mate. Believe me, I’ve tried for years,” Edward said as he watched Izzy board The Queen Anne’s Revenge with a frown on his face. There was no point in trying. Navigating by the Sun would have to be enough to see Edward through his life.
The thought of Izzy, who was still there and still so far away, finally managed what the thought of Stede’s return couldn’t do anymore and Ed’s lips thinned as his heart clenched.
Right now The Revenge and Queen Anne’s Revenge, which now made up Blackbeard’s fleet, laid next to each other in the port, softly swaying. On the beach, the huts and houses that made up Nassau could be seen while the smell that usually accompanied it was thankfully driven away by the breeze coming in from the sea. They’d been here a few days while Izzy had sat in a tavern, working his way steadily through an ever-increasing number of men who wanted to work for the infamous Blackbeard. Izzy had his pick among them and hired several ex-Navy sailors as well as a few seasoned pirates who were looking for a new crew. Most remarkably among them was a man who called himself “Black Caesar” and claimed to be an African tribal war chieftain who had been seized into slavery before a storm wrecked the slaver’s ship and consequently turned to pirating.
Today, Izzy had finally taken his last pick: Miguel, a boy of barely 16 years, even though he kept insisting that he was already 20 years old. At first, Edward had had his doubts, considering that they needed experienced sailors and not even more people to teach. But Ed trusted in Izzy and if Izzy wanted that young boy, then Edward wouldn’t refuse him. As with every other new member that Izzy had recruited, he had taken it upon himself to test the new boy, making him climb the rigging and challenging him to a sparring match. He knew that it was unnecessary, Izzy knew what he was doing, but the image had to be upheld. If he was to be the primary captain of both vessels, he had to act like it. Thankfully, with the help of Stede and Izzy - who would rather bite his own hand off than ever admit any participation in it -, Ed had learned to find a balance between the captain he needed to be and the man he was at heart
And so, with an elaborate flourish of his rapier and a bow, Edward faced the applauding and cheering crew who congratulated him on his victory. Stede was cheering the loudest, crying “Good job, Ed!” and “That’s our captain!
The boy came shuffling back just then, dragging his rapier and looking as if he was expecting to be dismissed or even executed on the spot.
“Cheer up, boy! You’ll do!” Ed laughed and gave him a hearty pat on the back, which made the poor lad, who seemingly couldn’t believe his luck just yet, stumble a few steps forward.
“But I lost,” the boy said as he turned his wide eyes at Edward, then struggled for the right words until he finally settled on, “Sir?”
“I didn’t expect you to,” declared Ed. “No one has ever won a duel against the infamous Blackbeard!”
The crew who had fallen silent started to talk over themselves again.
“But the cap…. Stede… once stabbed you!,” Buttons called.
“You also lost against Jack, quite a few times,” supplied Fang helpfully, ignoring the glare Izzy threw at him.
Ed glanced over them, then at Stede who looked back at him quizzically, clearly not understanding where Ed was going with this. Had he really never realised? Well, they needed to remedy that. Right now. Ed grinned at him, then addressed the roundabout thirty people who now made up the crew of the Revenge and the Queen Anne’s.
“Yes, that’s all true. Stede stabbed me. I lost against Jack. But shall I tell you all a secret?” he asked conspiratorially as if he was asking each and every one of them alone, instead of a whole crowd.
The crew cheered and a chorus of “Do it, do it,” erupted.
Ed silenced them by a wave of his hand, basking for a moment in the power he had over them, and continued in a secretive voice, “I’ve never lost a match or got hurt during one unless I wanted to-”
“But why would you want to lose a duel?” cried Frenchie, who was clearly bursting from curiosity.
“Because-” Ed made a pause for dramatics, something he had picked up from Stede, and he could see Izzy rolling his eyes at his antics where he stood with his new men, “it is the best way to flirt with someone. Pick a fight with a guy and lose. The tension, when he has his sword at your throat or right above your heart, there’s nothing better. Breathing into each other’s space. Or, when they have stabbed you into the guts, right where you want ‘em, real close and intimate. I’m telling you, it’s the best. Okay, except maybe dispelling the tension together, afterwards, if they’re amenable,” he added with a shrug.
The crew erupted into shouts, talking over each other like the group of maniacs they were.
“So, if you’re losing we’ll know you’re into that guy?”
“But what if he kneed you real hard during the match and you can’t get it up?”
“That’s why you let Stede stab you!”
“Yeah, that’s why I let Stede stab me,” Ed turned with a smile back to Stede, who looked rather dumbfounded, “and he didn’t even realise what that meant. I was pretty disappointed that night, you know?”
Stede blushed and started to stutter, “Well, I say… how was I supposed to know that you considered stabbing each other as a kind of foreplay?!”
The crew turned onto Stede as one.
“You stabbed him and didn’t even know?!”
Ed nodded, grinning. “And cleaned and bound my wound afterwards. Touching me all the time, gentle as he is, but he failed to notice the raging hardon I had the whole time. Back then, I thought you were teasing me, mate, you know?”
Stede blushed even deeper and only stood gaping like a fish while the crew teased him mercilessly about having completely missed the fact that he could’ve had Ed that night.
“Okay, the time for fun is up!” shouted Izzy suddenly over the clamour, sounding angry as he clapped his hands. The crew fell silent as one, afraid of invoking the second captain’s wrath.
“Blackbeard has seen what a bunch of imbeciles we have acquired, now get back to work! Fun is over and there are important things to discuss now!” The crew obeyed, grumbling at Izzy for being a spoilsport.
Izzy glared at the crew until each and every man had taken up his assigned job again, then walked over to Edward to follow him to the captain’s cabin to discuss their next steps. Stede, as usual, was tagging along under the pretence that he needed to learn, but within moments was all over Ed, lamenting about the fact that he really should have made himself clearer back then because then they could have avoided a lot of trouble. Izzy rolled his eyes again. Did none of them realise that Edward was having them on?
Izzy held his tongue for another few moments, but once they were down the stairs and safely out of the earshot of the crew, he pushed Stede out of the way, took Edward by the shoulder and smashed him up against the wooden walls which gave a satisfying crack.
“Edward,” he hissed, “stop telling the crew such crap! You’re ruining your reputation! You’ve lost countless matches against me. Now the crew will think that you want to fuck me the next time you’ll lose against me! And dare I remind you that you still keep fucking losing against me, even after all those years!?”
Edward looked away, seeming ashamed, then looked up again, seeming pained, and said hesitantly, “You really had no idea, Iz?”
Izzy blinked at the question, confused. “I only know that this is the worst fucking excuse for bad swordsmanship I have ever heard and I would like you to shut it before the rumour mill sets in! After all, we both know that you don’t want me, now that you have your precious Stede back!”
Edward frowned and he looked almost sad. But why? For once, Izzy failed to read him like he usually could and it made him feel as if he was lost at sea without a compass. Then, for a moment, Edward’s eyes flitted over Izzy’s shoulder to Stede, who stood behind them. Whatever he was looking for, he must’ve found it, because he suddenly smiled at Izzy, dazzlingly bright and almost maniac, and lifted his hand to cup Izzy’s cheek. Izzy froze at the unusual contact and his thoughts stuttered to a screeching halt.
Edward rubbed his thumb across the mark on Izzy’s cheek, a mark he had placed there himself so many years ago. “I think we’ve both been idiots, Iz.”
Izzy squinted his eyes at him. That didn’t make a lick of sense. “What?”
“You don’t navigate a ship only by the Sun. You also need the North Star, Hezekiah,” Edward whispered, his voice wrapping around Izzy’s given name like a warm blanket. There was no one alive who remembered that name, except Edward and the intimacy of it took Izzy’s breath away. Before he could protest or even ask what was going on, Edward’s lips were suddenly on his, gentle as anything.
It only took a second and it was over before Izzy’s brain could even process what was happening or he could kiss him back. Izzy immediately missed his warmth and the touch on his face as soon as Edward stepped back and out of Izzy’s now slack grip. He opened the door to the captain’s cabin for Stede, who stepped inside and then Edward turned back to Izzy. “You comin’, mate?”
Izzy, still dumbfounded, stood frozen, his thoughts picking up again and racing to make sense of the words that had been spoken and the actions that had happened. Did this mean that Edward hadn’t known that he had owned Izzy’s heart and wretched soul from the moment they had met? Did this mean that maybe, just maybe, Izzy was owning part of Edward’s heart as well? And where did that leave Stede fucking Bonnet? So many questions to ask, so many answers to be had.
But first, he had a captain to set right.
“Edward,” he said as he entered the cabin, “your method of flirting is shit if your intended targets don’t realise that you are flirting with them!”
Edward had the decency to look slightly embarrassed, so he continued, “And the next time we have a sparring match I want you to put your fucking back into it, is that clear?!”
Edward only laughed and grabbed his wrist to pull Izzy next to him onto the settee before taking Izzy’s lips in another, much longer kiss. Izzy’s eyes fluttered close but he managed to catch one last glimpse of Stede Bonnet, standing there, looking at them and smiling like the Sun.