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The ship's deck was becoming Izzy's least favourite place to be. The entire deck, not any of the specific realms to describe its intricacies. He would much rather be somewhere below, maybe in some locked room.
Somewhere that didn't house any of Stede's ridiculous knickknacks. Though, seeing the assortment of hoarded items was far superior to seeing Blackbeard holding Stede, at least. Perhaps it would be better to give in and make way downstairs to avoid whatever it was they were doing.
It seemed to always be on the deck like they wanted the stars to see them hold each other. Izzy was so fucking tired of seeing it. Every way he turned it seemed to be in the direction of where they were.
It started with too-close proximity and bled into hand-holding. Then on to one touching the other's hair, caressing each other's jawlines, falling into kisses and giggles.
He hated the deck.
Tonight, though, he had no ability to escape. He should be happy, as he was trusted to oversee the work of the crew, to keep an eye out in case of any shenanigans. Of course, the joy at being trusted by his captain was far overshadowed by the fact that the only reason he was being given any trust was to allow Blackbeard to put his attention on that son of a bitch Stede .
Stede had no reason to be so close to Blackbeard. He'd known the man for all of a few months, and all he'd done was stir shit up and soften "Ed's" heart.
Ridiculous. Izzy had been loyal and had remained by Blackbeard's side for years. They knew each other's ins and outs. They protected each other and knew how to fight at each other's backs. Stede had not a single one of these qualities about him, and yet Izzy was the one to sit and keep watch while the two snuggled like fucking cats in the sun.
He glanced over towards them for an instant and sneered, his chest tightening with pure unadulterated hatred. His captain was seated, his legs pushed through the posts along the side of the ship and hanging loosely over the side. His back was pressed against Stede's leg, his hair pulled away from being caught in the middle. Stede seemed to be braiding the dark locks gently, and the two were muttering something Izzy couldn't hear.
Izzy certainly didn't miss the lack of ever-present tension in Blackbeard's shoulders, the fact that his eyes were closed oh so gently, that his hands were laid delicately on his thighs.
It made Izzy want to fucking hurl. His stomach certainly churned at the idea, and if it weren't for the ever-present eyes waiting for any moment of weakness, he might have just leaned over the side and done just that.
Blackbeard was his captain, though, and he'd made an order. Izzy was to stay and watch over the ship and crew until told otherwise. Unlike Stede, Izzy was wonderful at following orders. He had the guts to follow them through and the capability of knowing truly what needed to be done.
He watched the two for only a moment longer before sneering and looking toward the sea, wishing for nothing more than to retire below deck and ignore everything happening above.
The sea itself even felt different at Blackbeard's change, darker and possibly more dangerous. Izzy had always relied on the air of control he felt when he knew exactly what Blackbeard thought of the world around him. When he knew that his captain saw every shape in the distance as more treasure to plunder, more people to destroy and ships to raid.
Now he saw it as new places to haul his stupid fucking puppy, new sights, new people. Izzy hated it.
He refused to call Blackbeard 'Edward'. It was a disgrace to the man he knew was still hiding in some deep corner far away. All it would take was one word, one intelligently devised sentence to bring his captain back. Uttering the name Edward would be like a curse, admittance that the man he knew was utterly gone. And he wasn't gone, never completely.
Stede fucking Bonnet made have ruined the surface of the captain Izzy knew, but it meant nothing. It meant so little, in fact, that the bubbling anger in Izzy's stomach was meaningless.
He clenched his fists, taking a breath as if to calm himself from the everlasting rage in his mind. No amount of breathing would free him, though, because all he had to do was turn his head even slightly to rekindle the flame of hatred.
He took another glance and blanched to a white that wasn't so different from the foam that met each crest of the waves beneath him. They were kissing again. They never fucking stopped, never did anything but kiss.
Izzy certainly didn't momentarily think about the fact that his rage at that moment was to hide jealousy. Not even for an instant.
It was the lack of anything particularly interesting happening around him that kept his increasingly hardening gaze trapped at the scene. It was like a shipwreck, every moment made his very bones ache in some sort of phantom hurt. He could never turn away, and it was never embarrassment that made him break free from the frozen state, only when his heart began to twist into such tight knots that he couldn't ignore them any longer.
As the kisses increased in depth, so did the rock dropping through Izzy's stomach. Finally, the ache arrived and pulled him from his blatant staring, only for him to turn and meet eyes with Lucius.
The bitch had a wicked grin on his face and a knowing gleam in his eyes. Some small weak part of Izzy's mind wanted to break eye contact and pretend it had never happened. "Back to work," he barked instead, his voice raspier than usual due to the tightness in his throat.
"I haven't been tasked with anything, sir," Lucius taunted, a singing tone in his voice. That god-forsaken voice always grated in Izzy's ears. One of these days he would gladly bring the endless grating voice to an end, but that day was not today.
"Find something other than staring to waste your fucking time on, then," Izzy retorted sharply, bearing his teeth for all of a moment.
It only seemed to amuse Lucius all the more, and there was truly nothing stronger in that second than the wish to punch the smug look off of his smear of a face. It almost made Izzy forget why his very bones resounded with the want to break something or someone.
Normally Izzy would have found something for the annoying bitch to do, given him some ridiculous task, but there wasn't all that much to do this far into the night. Eyes were kept to the horizons to watch for other ships, and some cleaning was done, but in the depth of the night, it wasn't exactly like much had to be done.
And as much as Izzy would have loved to have broken up the moment between the two on the opposite side of the ship by making the entire issue a larger deal, he valued Blackbeard's opinion of him far too much to do anything of the sort. He was the only thing keeping his captain together, and being an animal with thoughts no deeper than to break apart the things he hated would do nothing but finalize the Edward-ation of Blackbeard.
He was Blackbeard's only protection from Stede Bonnet's deceivingly perfect everything. Someday soon, he would recognize that Bonnet was nothing but a scheming rat from a rotting barrel, and would return to his normal self. He would realize his mistake and return to Izzy.
Izzy turned to glance towards the couple of the night once more, knowing that at this point he was only perpetuating his anger. He was proven right as he watched Blackbeard's shoulders shake with a laugh Izzy couldn't quite hear. Stede had an arm around the slightly larger man's shoulders, the other stretched out to point at something only the two knew of.
It was the gleam in Blackbeard's eyes, the easy smile plastered across his face that made Izzy's nausea return. The small voice in the back of his head telling him that he'd already lost Blackbeard fell on deaf ears.
He was the only thing holding his captain together, the ship's deck was their domain; not Stede's.
And yet, the deck was becoming Izzy's least favourite place to be.