V / Our Flag Means Death. - Tumblr Posts

      IZZY HAS NEVER BEEN THE GODLY SORT, no matter how intensely his father had tried to instill the faith upon him in his youth.  &  yet when he hauls lucius’ unconscious form out of the waves, he considers voicing a prayer to any deity that might be listening that the boy is still alive. he’d been floating for a few hours ;  it was already something of a miracle that the sharks didn’t have him for their supper, that he didn’t drift farther from the ship than he did, that izzy was able to find him in the dim light of a slowly approaching sunrise.  &  it seems that someone had afforded him one more.  because before he can utter a word to anyone, lucius is awake, eyes going suddenly wide  &  terror-stricken.

                ❝ i’s all right.  you’re all right, now, ❞   he says, flinching when the boy clings to him  &  shifts some weight to his freshly bandaged foot.  his tone is rough  &  uncertain, his voice not used to offering comfort. ❝ don’'t make me regret it. ❞ why izzy had come for the scribe  —  infuriating as he had been  —  even he cannot say. he had  felled countless men on blackbeard’s orders, never once hesitated to end a life if it meant protecting edward.  but this felt different ;  lucius was no threat to anyone.  he had simply been too close to ed when he’d snapped.  in the wrong place at the wrong time.  &  as izzy helps the half-drowned man steady himself, he recognizes the familiar sensation of guilt, heavy in his gut.

            it was his fault — so the least izzy could do was save his life.

           ❝ don’t worry about the others right now. ❞ before he had finally fallen asleep clutching his empty bottle, edward had mentioned a plan to leave any who would not be useful to them on a spit of sand somewhere, but izzy knew better than to say as much to lucius.  was cooking in the sun preferable to drowning in the sea ?  izzy didn't know which was a kinder fate.  ❝ we need to get back to the ship  &  you need to find a place to hide before the captain wakes up. ❞

voice hoarse and spent,   he doesn't have the energy to shout anymore,  so he just clings to the piece of wood beneath him like a lifeline.  it's safe to say lucius is nearly terrified out of his mind:  he is alone and surrounded by open water,  again.  it's pitch black,  again.  and who the hell knows,  there might be sharks lurking nearby.  oh,  great!  now he is even more terrified.   '  please  —  guys?  anyone?  '   his scream is met with silence once again and lucius chokes on a sob,  letting his head fall weakly against the wood.  the storm has been bad enough and now he is stranded,  stuck in one of his nightmares  —  has been for what seems like forever,  when it couldn't actually have been more than a few hours.

water ripples around him,  jerking lucius awake.  and he nearly lets out another scream when he sees a shadow looming over him.  he scrambles for some excuse to spill out,  in case it's the navy,  but he doesn't need to.  he half collapses against @musecraft 's smaller,  but much steadier frame and breathes out the first relieved breath of the night,  right against his shoulder. ( found )  

'  thank god,  i thought i was going to die.  '   shivers wreck through his body now,  making it harder for him to speak,  but that doesn't deter him from cracking a weak smile.   '  aw izzy,  didn't know you  —  you cared.  '   a bit lame,  he knows,  but he thinks a near death experience should grant him some leniency.  jokes aside,  they have come quite far from their less than amicable start..  so,  did izzy actually worry about him?  he has certainly found him first,  at any rate.  reason,  however,  makes it back into his brain at last and lucius gathers himself upright.   '  wait.  what about the others?  are they okay?  ' 

    WHEN EDWARD SMILES,  he looks like the man he’d been when izzy first met him.  the silver streaking his hair  &  the creases that form when his lips curl make no difference ; he still has that same glint in his eyes that refuses to go out.  & regardless of all that has happened since then  — &  everything he might have said to the contrary — izzy did not regret his decision.  he would choose to save edward again, every time, no matter what the consequences might be.  &  when he playfully jostles their hands ( the idea that he might not talking about stede leaving him breathless ), izzy can only hope that ed knows how he feels.

          but in spite of all they've discussed recently, all the agreements they have come to in hopes of moving forward together, there is still a lingering sensation of guilt.  in the quiet moment where they sit with their fingers entwined, izzy hears the memory of his own voice returning to haunt him.  &  even when edward dismisses him from his post, izzy doesn't move, eyes downcast  &  shadowed.  hoping that he knows is no longer good enough ;  edward deserves to hear the truth.

        ❝ ed — ❞  he starts, voice soft  &  low.   ❝ you know, when i … when i said that i should've let the english — ❞  he breaks off.  he can't even bring himself to say it a second time, even now. &  after a beat he gives up  &  moves on.  ❝ i never should have said that. i'm sorry. ❞  &  slowly, as though it's a real challenge, izzy drags his eyes up from where their hands are still curled tightly together  &  back to ed's face.  ❝ i didn't mean it. you know that, right ? i didn't mean it. ❞

his gaze doesn't drop,   it holds fast to izzy's face,  nearly unblinking.  for years,  for two whole decades   (  un-fucking-believable!   ),  edward had looked at his first mate without really seeing the whole of him,  the answer that was nestled right there,  between unflinching devotion and fierce protection.  edward had suspected,  at the very least,  yet in the end failed to connect two very important dots:  this is not something he had clearly seen before,  on the deck of a ship or in more or less clean taverns,  a passing fancy.  this is a larger than life feeling,  almost,  and edward has finally learned to feel comfortable enough in his own skin to not bolt away from it in terror.  nah,  he runs towards it and doesn't let go.

he smiles a bit to himself,  then,  but it gets comically dispelled by izzy's words.  he opens his mouth in protest   (   you little—   ),  in fact,  only to begrudgingly close it shut on the basis that izzy hands is,  unquestionably,  right.  as he often is.   '  yeah,  alright.  stayed out of trouble this time,  though,  didn't I?  '   his smile returns,  shifting into a grin with no small amount of mirth to it.   '  knew there was someone important waitin' for me here.  '   he gives their still joined hands a little shake,  as if to say yeah it's you,  feeling absolutely mad with giddiness under the moonlight and loving every second of it.  which is why it takes him a couple more minutes to actually get to what got him climbing up to the nest in the first place.   '  hey,  you should get some rest.  i'll take the watch.  '