Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ed is fucking thrilled that Jack came by for a visit, he hasn’t seen the bastard in years and he hadn’t been all too sure that he was still kicking. He didn’t heard anything about his death or capture but that didn’t always mean anything in this line of work. Governments bragged about the pirates they put to death, but the ocean and storms didn’t, and they claimed just as many lives.

Of course it sucks for Jack that he got mutinied on again, but it happens to him pretty often. Often enough that even Blackbeard the king of fuckeries can’t fake surprise at the news, he manages a sympathetic pat on the back before he’s trying to change the subject.

Because Jack doesn’t need sympathy anyway, what he needs is to take his mind off it and have some fun before he has to put in the work to find a new crew. It must be getting harder each time, sure there is always young blood that you can pick up at any port, stupid kids wanting to go out and find their fortune at sea. But you can’t run a ship with only greenhorns, and the experienced sailors that haven’t heard of Jack's lackluster leadership are becoming few and far between.

Jack has his work cut out for him, but that's later, for now they're gonna have some fun and If there's one thing Jack knows its how to have fun. He always has the best fucking ideas when it comes to shit to do, coconut fights, blowing shit up, whippies, today has been one fan-fucking-tastic day.

Its even a good pirate lesson for Stede, this is what all the violence and stealing is all for, sure there are some sadistic shits like Low, but for most, what would be the point if you can’t get drunk and fuck around with the crew after the raiding's done.

speaking of fucking around, they are most of the way to Izzy’s cabin. This is the best idea out of all the best ideas Jack has had all day. Ed feels stupid for not thinking of it sooner.

Iz must have been right, Stede was a bigger distraction than he first thought, while he was sure that he and Stede had something growing, it was no excuse for neglecting Izzy.

It was a shame that things pittered out between them when his head was fucked but it wasn’t that surprising. He couldn’t gather the effort it took to do anything whether it be fun or the running of the ship and Izzy in turn had to pick up the slack. But now, now that the fog in his head has lifted and he can see the stars again, he should have been making Izzy see stars too.

He wasn’t worried that Stede wouldn’t go for it, despite the fact he could get a little puritanical, he was a pirate captain, and Izzy was catnip to pirate captains. Spanish Jackie has been offering him a husband spot since her harem was in the low single digits, and while he pretended not to notice he wasn’t actually blind to the fact that most of Jack's visits included a threesome.

There also the fact that you could cut the tension between the two with a cutlass, a bit more antagonistic than the tension that was between him and Stede, but tension none the less

Ed had high hopes that he would be going to sleep tonight in a bed overly stuffed with both feathers and buff men. something that could become a regular thing if his luck holds.

Safe to say he was thrumming in anticipation when he threw open the door to Izzy's room

And Izzy wasn’t there, It shouldn't have been as disappointing as it was. Just because it was Izzy's room doesn’t mean it always contained an Izzy, like a bathroom always contained a bath. He had gotten himself pretty wound up, but now he, Stede and Jack were standing in the hall like a bunch of idiots. Only him and Stede were able to see into the room due to the cramped size of the hall.

But there wasn't just no Izzy in the room, sitting on the bed was a packed bag. The question on the next place to look for Izzy bouncing around in his head was interrupted by the realization of what a packed bag means. The realization felt like going over the side of the ship and hitting the cold water, it sobered him in a second, but as soon as the blurry haze of drunkenness was gone a new haze of anger replaced it.

A packed fucking bag, Where in fucks name did Izzy think he was going. Better yet who told him he could leave. Last he checked he was still the fucking captain, in control of the ship including the crew and most definitely his first fucking mate.

The feeling of Jack trying to squeeze his way past Stede gave him what felt like a pretty fucking likely answer to where his first mate might go and who gave him the fucking idea in the first place, Jack was always full of good ideas.

It was with false lightness that Blackbeard called over to Jack “Hey calico hows gathering crew going. You planning on poaching this time round?”

“Yeah of course, can’t get any sailors worth a damn any other way, What do you wanna talk about that boring shit for tho, thought we were looking for sweetcheeks?

By the end of his sentence Jack had managed to wedge himself past Stede far enough to see into the room, and more importantly close enough that when he turned from the sight of the neatly packed bags he could see Blackbeard's thunderous expression.

Now Jack is a smart man, well not smart, but quick on the uptake. It never stopped him from getting himself into trouble but once he’s there, escaping is his specialty.

Right now Jack can tell, He's in some shit. So he goes full force in digging himself out

“Common man you know I'd never try and poach Izzy, i mean I'd be lucky to have him but I'd never thought he would want to leave you” that spurred Blackbeard into motion hauling Jack against the wall “ ok, bad wording, I'm sure he doesn’t want to leave you, but it wouldn't hurt to give him another reason to stay? could help with that, I bet between the two of us and your new boy toy we could get him to forget all about leaving.“

Fuck Izzy was leaving him, why the fuck was Izzy leaving him, Izzy doesn’t leave he’s Izzy he’s always there.

“Ok you want to do the convincing on your own how’s about I get going then, leave you too it. I’ll take my dinghy and I'm gone, we’ll catch up next time we’re both in the republic. I know you always want to buy a drink for the guy who saved your life”

Jack's rambling isn’t making him any calmer, but it is hitting the right buttons, this is his old friend, who saved his life. He doesn’t want him dead, but he does want him gone, yesterday if possible.

So Blackbeard doesn’t let go of the bastard but he does stop pinning him to the wall, in favor of dragging him up on deck and onto the same dinghy he arrived in.

Jack being quick on the uptake, he’s all to happy to cut his losses and get the fuck out of there. he can’t get his dick wet if he doesn’t have his dick in the first place and he’s sober enough to realize that and get to rowing.

Kicking Jack off the ship felt good, one less person trying to steal his first mate but the main thief is still here. The problem was he can’t get rid of the bastard because it's Izzy that wants to take Izzy, steal Izzy away. This is gonna be a hell of a pirate lesson for Stede because even he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s gonna do

There’s one thing for fucking sure Izzy's not going anywhere.

~ ~ ~

Izzy's first thought as he wakes is fuck laudanum, he hates laudanum

He hasn't had it many times, he can take his pain well, but he’s had a stabbing or two that required stitches to heal properly and the doc back on the Anne prefers to work with his patients under and not thrashing about as much.

he had opened his eyes just to close them again as the light was too fucking bright and his head had too much fucking fuzz around the edges for this to be an alcohol hangover, where the hell was he stabbed his time?

When his memory fails him he tries moving each part of his body in sequence. Just a little, the pain will cut through the laudanum far before he pops any stitches, He thinks it will anyway.

He rolls his shoulders, then tenses his arms. It’s neither of those so he sluggishly uses them to press gently around his chest and his abdomen, the brief action feeling like a herculean effort. Not finding the wound he moves on to shifting each of his legs a bit.

No pain radiates from the movement but he does hear a soft clink.

Not finding any wounds should be a relief but with his head swirling it just adds to his confusion. He needs to open his eyes again, figure out where he is and what's happening, but knowing the light is going to send a stab into his head just like the first time, it’s not an attractive prospect.

When he does muster the effort he sees fabric, not bolts of it. Like might be in a cargo hold requisitioned as a makeshift sick bay but colorful suitcoats and trousers hung neatly on racks.

The sight is unfamiliar and his drug-addled brain is losing the battle to stay awake, Let alone figure out what's happening. But he knows that frilly fucking outfits mean frilly fucking Stede Bonnet.

The fight keeping him awake leaves at the realization, he’s as safe as he can be under the circumstances, and that's enough to let unconsciousness take him again.

Chapter Text

It would take someone completely deaf to every and all social cues to miss the fact that Jack and Ed were intending to proposition Israel, so naturally it took most of the way to Izzy's room for Stede to parse it out.

The rest of the time he used to panic and unsuccessfully try to think of a way out of this disaster

Because there was no way it wouldn’t be a disaster. Not the um, fucking, Stede is quite sure that the situation wont get that far. He does not have the mental real estate right now to figure out if he wants it to get that far, because it won’t.

Izzys going to look at the drunken gaggle of men, tell them to go fuck themselves and, that will be that.

The disaster is in the fact that Stede is going to lose all of what little respect Izzy has for him.

It's going to be impossible to look at the man, let alone trade barbs with him. From now on he will be going into every battle of wit from the disadvantageous position of a man who was part of the drunk horde wanting to fuck him.

He’s barely making out even as it is, he’ll never win again if Izzy can pull out a trump card like that.

So Izzy's empty room was a huge relief, if a bit confusing. In the interest of respecting the man's privacy, he hasn’t actually seen the room since Izzy requisitioned it. While he had always assumed Izzy would keep a tidy room, surely he should have unpacked by now.

But more important than how Izzy keeps his belongings, with Izzy somewhere else on the ship he has the time it takes to find him to convince Ed to stop this disastrous idea.

Or he would have to if Ed hadn't suddenly started to radiate the menacing aura that he usually only wore for raids. It quickly became clear that Ed was no longer as interested in finding and propositioning Izzy and would rather assault Jack.

While Stede only has the vaguest idea of what Calico Jack did to anger him, (poaching crew maybe but where did Izzy come into that?), it seemed a good idea to let his anger stay directed at Jack. It may not have been the original plan but the original plan isn’t working anyway, it seems he’s going to finally be rid of the headache of a man. He supposed the foursome is also off so that problem sorted too. He did however have another problem in the form of an angry Ed.

It was unfortunate that Jack's abrupt departure from the boat didn’t put Ed in a better mood. Where Stede would have thought that seeing the subject of his anger row away would calm him, the tension seemed to only grow.

In the face of Edward's emotional upheaval, Stede felt a calm certainty. He found no joy in Edward being upset, on the contrary it is making him quite upset as well, but this is a situation he is well prepared for.

It's time to talk it through, as a… co-Captains? that certainly doesn’t have the same ring to it. Oh well, the rhyme isn’t the important part.

”Edward? What's got you so upset? Not that I don’t approve of Jack leaving the ship of course, but he wasn’t acting any differently than he has been all day.”

“Fuck mate, I didn’t know he was trying to steal Izzy all day.”

“Steal Izzy, surely not” while Jack did seem preoccupied with Izzy, it hadn’t seem like recruitment to Stede. Surely the best way to recruit a man like Izzy would be to show you’re a capable captain, not spending the day partying drunk on an island.

“Yeah you saw the bags didn’t ya. Don’t know about you but I don’t pack up when I'm planning on staying” Stede thought back to his carpet bag, packing it had felt like making his choice, not building the boat or even sending his things ahead. But putting his toiletries and his half finished novel into the bag was final in a way nothing else had been.

But Izzy leaving made no sense. It hardly took eyes to see that loyalty to Blackbeard was as important to Izzy as breathing. He couldn’t imagine a reason why Izzy would leave, but the bags did speak for themselves, if that wasn’t how he usually kept his possessions.

Though perhaps they shouldn’t let them speak for themselves, it's not like Izzy had gone and they were trying to figure this out from the pieces left behind. The man was still on the revenge and could answer any questions they had.

And of course they could still convince him to stay.

“Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a talk with him, have some brandy, see if we can get this straightened out” Stede really needed to stop suggesting brandy for every conversation, he was either going to become an alcoholic or run out of brandy at the amount of talking that needed to be done, “there's still time yet to get him to stay” he added

Ed seemed to perk up a bit and gave a slightly forced smile.

“Yeah, that's a good idea, you go get him, I’ll go get the captain's cabin ready.”

Stede agreed, remembering the mess of glasses they left before the trip to Izzy's room, Then he remembered the reason for the trip to Izzy's room in the first place.

Oh god, he had forgotten in the hubbub of throwing Jack off the ship, even if Izzy wasn’t to know what had almost been asked, he still felt embarrassed just thinking about it. Suddenly not confident in his ability to string a sentence together, he sent Frenchie to go get Izzy. Instead using the time to try and get his awkwardness under control, Before retreating to the captain's cabin himself.

Whatever progress in acting normal he made left the second he saw Izzy, then left again when the man asked after Jack. However, if they were to get anywhere in figuring out why Izzy wanted to leave, they were going to have to talk, and as wonderful as Ed is, having hard conversations did not seem to be his strong suit.

So he gathered all the social graces he had and steeled himself to look Izzy in the eyes and ask about the bags

Only to be met with not eyes but eyelids

~ ~ ~

When he woke up from his drug induced sleep for the second time he had more of his head about him. He still had a fucking headache, but the drugs cleared his system enough that they weren’t trying to drag him back to unconsciousness

His new found ability to stay awake was a double edged sword because while he was glad that the drugs were wearing off, now that he wasn’t sleeping there wasn’t anything else to do but sit around. His leg had a shackle around it which itself was attached to a chain that was attached to a clothing rack that was firmly anchored into the wall. Making his status as a captive rather clear.

As a rule Izzy is a rather docile prisoner, contrary to his usual personality. Being captured wasn’t a fight, it was a waiting game. Snarling and struggling won’t get you anywhere, better to sit and bide your time, calmly test the binds or bars of your prison for weaknesses and escape when the time is right.

This time however while still docile, it wasn’t a pretense. there would be no escape attempts, no picked locked or dislocated thumb . He was staying right where he was because this is where Blackbeard wanted him.

Not that Edward said that directly of course, he hadn’t even seen him since he was handed the brandy. But it would take a much dumber fucker than him to not figure it out after being given a drugged drink by Edward and waking up chained in his captain's fop’s closet.

There was a type of person (Bonnet) that could happily spend hours in a closet filled with prissy clothes, but that was not Izzy. After opening and closing a few drawers, finding nothing but more clothing, shoes, and a stupid hat with a feather he elected to just sit and wait. He took the feather though, it gave him something to fiddle with.

He'd never even had a closet, let alone spent any time in one. It probably wasn’t the first choice in where to put him, but fuck knows while she is a beautiful ship The Revenge was sorely lacking in practical pirate things, like a brig.

God he hoped Twatty doesn’t know about this. He's cheap enough to take the low hanging closet joke and run with it.

Of course when someone does come its not Edward but a guilty looking Bonnet with a tea service

“This drugged too Bonnet?” Izzy might be a docile prisoner but that doesn’t stop him from being a mouthy one

“No, no of course not, I just figured you’d be rather hungry, you know what with how long you’ve been out.” Izzy was hungry but wasnt gonna eat just to be knocked out again.

“I don’t know actually, how long have I been out then?”

“Two thirds a day just about, it's almost noon now and it was gone 8 when you.. Uh”

“Where fucking drugged” Izzy cut in helpfully

“Well yes,” Bonnet replied, looking even more uncomfortable at every mention of the drugs, good. “regardless I can assure you that this food is completely safe”

Izzy gave him a long stare at that “and I'm supposed to trust that?”

Bonnet looked ready to argue but must think better of it, instead poured the tea into a cup and took a sip, then ripped off a corner of the sandwich and ate that too before replacing both back on to the tray and placing it on the floor near where Izzy was sitting.

Supposing he wasn’t gonna get better reassurance than that Izzy picked up the sandwich and took a bite

Even though Bonnet's mission to deliver food to his captive was complete, he didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving. In any other situation Izzy would be enjoying how uncomfortable Bonnet looked, but it's hard to do when it's his own captivity that was causing it. It didn't really feel like a win. Even if he wasn’t going to get any satisfaction from this conversation with Bonnet, as long as he was here, he might as well try and get some information

“So the laudanum your idea?” Izzy was pretty sure it was, while Edward liked trickery, but this wasn’t his usual flavor, you couldn't play to the audience if they weren't awake. Nowadays he was always looking for more of a fight, not less.

“I assure you, I had no idea until you were asleep that there was anything but brandy in that glass”

Bonnet's denial was baffling; and stupid, was he really so caught up in the gentleman part of his self imposed moniker that he'd deny the first time he actually acted like the pirate part. He could be telling the truth but Izzy was pretty sure he wasn’t.

“Bullshit you couldn’t have looked guiltier if you tried, I thought it was because of the shit liquor”

“Shit liquor, I'll have you know that was an excellent vintage, if I knew it was going to be tampered with I would have offered the swill I gave to Jack” It wasn’t Bonnet's words that made Izzy start to believe his innocence, it was his indignation on his fucking taste in liquor. The twat wasn’t good enough for an actor to drop the guilty look for a fake reaction, if he was he would have been able to hide the guilt in the first place.

“ok then, you’re fucking innocent, you at least know why I'm in here then?”

“Ed seemed.. concerned that you were going to leave, he saw your packed bags and didn’t take it well”

That was just about what he guessed, but the confirmation didn’t thrill him. While before there was a small chance that Jack had been more of a bastard than usual and told Ed something that pissed him off (a night in the republic during one of Ed's worst depressive episodes comes to mind) but now he knew for sure, he also knew he was unlikely to regain his freedom.

If he was sitting here chained up because he was going to leave. Ed wouldn’t be letting him go anytime soon.

This didn’t change the fact that Ed didn’t want him around; he was still pretty sure about that. But there was other reasons he would not be allowed to leave, like that he knew too mutch

Decades beside the man meant he knew all the bolt holes, the favored routes, the regular fences. supposed it didn’t make sense to let someone like that go. Good way to end up in a noose if they betrayed you. It hurts to think that Edward would believe him capable of betraying him but caution was not unfounded if he wanted to protect his new life and his new ponce.

Drugging him made more sense in light of that, Ed didn’t like killing so it was the easiest way to quiet someone, at least when he couldn’t use his attack dog.

“Were are you going to leave? I mean did you want to?”

He had been so focused on his depressing train of thought that it took a second to properly hear Bonnet's question.

Did he want to leave, no of course he didn’t. But it wasn’t about if he wanted to. He was going because he thought it would make his captain happy, or rather stop getting in the way of Stede making him happy.

“Doesn’t really matter much now, does it?” Izzy pushed away the tray, the food now gone and Bonnet picked it up.

He must have gotten whatever he wanted from the conversation, as he left. leaving Izzy to the closet, his chains and the weird hat feather.

Chapter Text

It's been three days since the capture of Israel hands, and Blackbeard's first mate has remained where he’s been confined. In that time there has been no successful escape or rescue attempts, or any unsuccessful ones for that matter.

For any other captain, whether government aligned or pirate, this would be quite the feather in their hat. Something they could brag about for a good while, or perhaps leverage for a promotion.

For Stede however, it was a dilemma

He had joined the pirate lifestyle assuming he was going to do some morally dubious things (some morally wrong things as well) but that was always against imagined enemies. An Us vs Them where he and his crew would emerge victorious.

What he did not consider is how he would handle that dubiousness being turned inwards, towards his own crew, so far the answer to that question is ‘not well’

He said it once and he’ll say it again: he didn't think that a culture of abuse was necessary to run a pirate ship. And what was this imprisonment if not abusive. Izzy, for all he likes to criticize how soft things are on the Revenge, is certainly not taking to the harsher environment well. Stede was so sure, the first time he delivered food after Izzy woke, that there would be demands. Demands to be let go, to talk to Blackbeard, for Stede to give him his sword and fight him like a man.

But instead there's nothing, after the brief conversation the first visit, It's like the strings controlling him have been cut. He doesn’t snark, or even talk, barely even reacting to Stede's presence. It's disconcerting, this docile, melancholy behavior coming from someone who has always been so… spirited.

And Ed, Ed isn’t even acknowledging that anything is wrong at all, the only difference in behavior that Stede has seen has been a decrease in time spent in the captain's cabin. Almost like if he is out on deck, as far away from the auxiliary wardrobe as he can get, that he can forget that he is holding his first mate, and good friend, prisoner

Stede really hopes that the reason Ed hasn't attempted to feed Izzy is because he always does it first, not that he has actually forgotten about him.

There is also the fact that for the first time in their acquaintance Stede feels he can relate to Izzy, it wasn’t too long ago he was in a place he didn’t belong and made the decision to leave, to chase his own happiness. He was just lucky enough that he was able to slip away unnoticed, so he was miles from Barbados by the morning, when Mary and his children woke to find their husband and father ran away in the night.

How badly Ed is taking Izzy's attempt to leave makes him wonder if his own absence shook his family half as much? If it did, would that be enough for him to give up his happiness and return to life on land? He knows in his heart he wouldn’t, but is he hypocritical enough to expect Izzy to do what he can’t? Is it even his decision to make?

As evidenced by the last three days, he wasn’t getting anywhere just letting these thoughts race around in his head. So like most times when he was conflicted, or when he was sure about things, really anytime he had much of a thought at all, he called for Lucius.

This time however he doesn’t need him as a scribe, but because he’s one of the best people persons on the ship.

Lucius is good at people, Stede likes people but he doesn’t understand them all that much, Any friends he has made have been because he keeps trying, reaching out again and again and occasionally he hits the right note and makes a friend. He doesn’t however have the best success rate with this method; it's been better since he’s gone to sea, but still not particularly good.

In contrast Lucius seems to actually understand people, and can adapt in social situations in a way Stede never could when there weren't hard and fast rules. So if anyone can help Stede figure out this very muddy situation it's Lucius.

They don’t meet in the captain's cabin, but the bowsprit, because Stede might also be avoiding the situation with the closet, at least physically.

“Izzys trapped in the closet”

Lucius huffed a sarcastic little half laugh and gave him a long suffering look Stede didn’t feel he had entirely earned “yeah, I knew that”

Stede hadn’t expected that

“You already knew? How?”

Stede had believed that the crew thought Izzy had left with Jack, seeing how they “disappeared” at the same time. They had no reason to believe otherwise. Most of the crew were sleeping off rum at the time and he hadn’t seen any of the more sober ones on the deck when Jack had left, quickly and alone.

Well if Lucius already knew then it won’t take as long to get him up to speed at least

“I kinda had that pegged since I met the guy. What with the.. everything going on there. I mean it’s sad but there's not much you can do, has to figure it out for himself.”

Or not

“What are you talking about, you couldn’t have known since you met him, he’s only been there for a few days.” he could accept if Lucius found out somehow, but claiming foresight is a bit much.

The long suffering look has turned to one of blank confusion, so Stede decided to start again,

“Izzy is imprisoned in my wardrobe, and I don't currently know what to do about it.”

“Wait so dizzy is literally in a closet, not like metaphorically literally, but literally literally”

“Yes! I know it's an unusual situation but what are you having trouble understanding?”

That long suffering look is back, Lucius might be the best people person on the ship but Stede is starting to regret coming to him if he can’t even grasp the most basic part of the problem he’s having.

“Ok, why did you trap Izzy in your closet then?”

“I didn’t trap him there Ed did, he found out that Izzy was planning on leaving with Jack and… reacted

“But hasn’t Izzy been threatening to leave like, daily since he got here, Blackbeard didn’t seem angry any of those times”

“neither of us thought he meant it, and he did stop recently, I thought he had finally adjusted” he was relieved when that snag had been sanded out, it had seemed to take a lot of pressure off Ed to see his first mate in better spirits.

“Yeah, no, he probably stopped when he decided to actually leave”

“You think so” a few sentences and Lucius seemed to understand what is happening much better than Stede, once they got through the confusion in the beginning

“Probably, though it might just be part of his personality, usually the only reason people complain that loud is when they want something out of it, in this case for someone to change his mind”

“So he only stopped threatening because he had already made up his mind?”

“Yup” Lucius said popping the p

Unfortunately, While it shed some light at what at first seemed like an abrupt decision of Izzy’s it didn’t actually solve anything

While Stede worked this new point of view into his understanding of the situation, Lucius barreled ahead

“So what happened when Ed and Izzy talked it through?”

and isn’t that just the crux of the matter

“They haven’t”

The long suffering look once again made an appearance. This time though Stede finally felt like he earned it, that's the bad part about coming to Lucius, he can read people, including Stede's cowardice.

“I know, I know, it’s just, Ed has been a captain for decades, Israel's captain for decades, surely he knows what he’s doing.” Stede's excuse sounded weak to his own ears let alone Lucius's

“Look captain, It makes sense that you’ve been deferring to Blackbeard when it comes to the more masculine piratey stuff, it's been a great decision, one that’s probably kept us alive if I’m honest. But communication does not seem to be either of their strong suits, so if you want your closet back you're gonna have to play to your strengths and make them have a conversation, and go on from there”

It wasn’t the magic fix-all answer Stede wanted to hear, but it wasn’t an unexpected one. He dismissed Lucius with a weary thank you and went to go find ed.

~~~

Ed has had time to cool down

Naturally as Blackbeard he’s a master strategist, always five steps ahead, with plans upon plans upon bloody plans. Clever ones, brilliant ones, ones in the nick of time and just crazy enough to work. His latest one though,was not his best work and he knows it. He panicked a little, sue him.

It had worked though hadn’t it, Izzy was fucking leaving, and now he was very mutch not leaving, but it wasn’t a long term solution just a way to get a little time. Not a lot of time, god knows those shackles won’t hold Izzy forever, really they shouldn’t have held him for this long, but hel needed them to buy him enough time to clear the angry fog from his head and be able to think of a better plan.

Three days hasn’t been enough so far.

He was avoiding the issue, avoiding where he had left Izzy chained up. In doing so he was spending an awful lot of his time on deck, like he is now, sat on a box of whatever and watching the crew working, everything is running well.

Too well, it was pissing him off again.

He liked the crew of the Revenge, but when he got on this ship it would have been generous to call them functional.

But now the deck is clean and swabbed, everything properly coiled, stored and braced down, the sails are a sight better than they were and when the wind picks up oluwundae calls orders to adjust the sails to keep the rigging from excessive strain.

God, does the ease of it all make him feel stupid. Here he was having the time of his life, And in the mean time Izzy, his Izzy, had trained his own fucking replacement, a new first mate not a quartermaster, all so he could slip away unnoticed like a thief in the night.

and thief in the night was the perfect fucking analogy, thats what it was after all thievery, Izzy was taking something that belonged to him. Logically someone shouldn’t be able to steal themselves, but the unlogical angry part of his brain is telling him that isn’t really true.
After all Izzy was his, he always had been, by any measure. From the promises Izzy had made to him, his reputation as Blackbeard's right hand, or just because Ed was captain and he bloody well said so. Izzy was his, IS his. The captain's word is fucking law isn’t it?

But who better than dread pirate Blackbeard himself to know that laws mean jack shit if you don’t want to follow them.

he need’s a new plan, a better long term plan that will keep Izzy here by his side where he belongs and not fucking off to where ever the fuck he thought he was going.

So a plan, a plan to keep Izzy here, to make him stay, to make him want to stay.
This would be a hell of alot easier if he fucking knew why he wanted to leave in the first place. Sure Izzy had complained about tons of shit but nothing that was a big deal, nothing huge enough that ed thought he’d leave over it.

Maybe it's a problem of perspective. Its hard to figure out why anyone, let alone Izzy, would want to leave the Revenge because in eds opinion, things are pretty fuckin good here.

Even if you leave out the fancy shit, and the fancy man that Ed likes, it's just a genuinely good ship to be on, the Revenge herself is beautiful, the crew are all nice, the food is phenomenal, What is it that Izzy has such a problem with?

It should be easier to tell, Izzy never been shy complaining about whats wrong. and if you asked him a month ago he would have been able to tell you. most of Izzy complaints on the revenge started out about Stede and his crew being liabilities, which was fair. but those complaints had decreased a-lot once they, well, stopped being such big liabilities .

Nowadays the complaints have been about how Stede’s a dickhead, that or the bows, put a bow somewhere like a shoe or a beard and Izzy has to complain about it for some reason.

Bows aside, Izzy thought Hornigold was a dickhead and Iz lasted four years under his “leadership” before the mutiny, doing the math, Izzy couldn’t possibly think Stede and his crew are more than eight times more dickhead than Hornigold. at least here no one seems keen to flog them for speaking out or slit their throats in their sleep.

Is he bored? An unambitious crew means there isn’t any mutinys to put down. But even on the queen the mutinies have slowed down over the years, as the legend of Blackbeard grew. It’s not like Izzy hasn’t had the opportunity to let out his stabby-ness during the raids they do, opportunities he has taken with relish. so he should be good in the whole violence level”

Maybe it wasn’t the blood lust that wasn’t being sated. That would be fucking ironic wouldn’t it, if Izzy was planning on leaving because of a dry spell and he only got caught because Ed was tried to fuck him.

Granted it could have been a completely different reason Izzy wanted to leave, but the dry spell theory is the only decent reason he can come up with right now. It’s a good starter plan anyway, and even if he’s wrong about Izzy’s motive, the sex wouldn’t be a half bad argument for why izzy should stay

He heads to the captian’s cabin and it doesn’t take any longer than it usually does to get there, he doesn’t slow his steps so that it would take longer. He may have been avoiding it for a few days but it didn’t scare him. He wasn’t nervous about how once he opens the latch to the auxiliary wardrobe, it will be go time, his shot to convince Izzy to stay will start, what might very well be his only shot to convince Izzy.

If it would be his only shot perhaps he should get some food first, he has to be in top form, can’t half ass this. Not something this important.