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No one was dead, all the work was done for the day, and Izzy could finally sit back and enjoy a smoke while watching the waves.
That is until one person came to ruin it.
"I swear, I'm gonna bloody kill em'" Lucius hissed, storming up to the deck next to Izzy, throwing down the large book always under his arm.
"Lucius, write this down. Boy, Come do this' Lucius, I have an idea' I'm not a fucking dog!" he spat, pacing angrily next to Izzy, who just laid back and continued smoking.
"He's a dick!" Lucius concluded, seemingly more aggravated by Izzy's lack of reaction.
"I could have told ya that," Izzy said simply, not even sparing a glance, getting Lucius to huff louder, sitting down next to him.
Izzy sighed, realizing this wasn't going to be a short rant.
"Welcome to piracy, you think of adventure, but instead, you get erratic asshole captains." Izzy offered lamely.
Lucius sighed.
"Didn't want piracy to begin with." Lucius huffed, causing Izzy to spare a glance his way to see Lucius deflating at the thought.
"I wanted to be a teacher," he added, looking out to the water with a shrug.
"Oh yeah? Then why don't you?" Izzy asked flatly, taking another drag from his pipe.
"Well.." Lucius paused, thinking hard about whatever he was gonna say before peaking again.
"School was always expensive, but we managed. I remember my mum always telling me, 'be on your best behavior, or you'll be paying for every dime.'" he said, mimicking her voice.
"Course, boys will be boys…. And there was this one boy," he shrugged nervously at the memory.
"I thought, rather foolishly looking back, that he and I were of the same sort… we weren't. The other boys had a lot of fun hearing about it. The headmaster less so. when my mum found out, she kicked me out thinking I corrupted everyone by existing." he shrugged in resignation as if he were stating the weather rather than being disowned.
"Ended up a pickpocket to get by, did pretty well actually." he huffed a laugh.
"at some point, I guess I picked the wrong pocket, and… constable came to find me, so, you hop the first ship insight," he said, gesturing around him.
"The only question asked was 'hows your penmanship, and the rest, as they say, is history." he finishes with a shrug and a lazy smile as if that wasn't tragic backstory 101.
Izzy just stared at him for a moment.
"Your mother is a fool," he said simply, tilting his head to add.
"You haven't the guts to corrupt a bug, let alone other people," Lucius scoffed in indignation.
"Truly, don't know why I put up with you. To begin with, your just mean." he quipped, no heat in his words.
Yet it seemed enough to deem a response.
"for what it's worth, you'd be quite a good teacher." Izzy shrugged, ignoring how Lucius beamed at the compliant.
"Really?" he asked with a grin.
"You teach me patience and restraint every day on this ship." Izzy grinned at him, causing Lucius to huff and deflate, scowling at the sea as if it personally offended him.
The glint in his eyes betrayed that he saw the statement for what lay underneath it.
He perked up again when a thought occurred.
"I can teach you to read ya know… if ya like?" he offered with a shrug.
"I can read," Izzy said with a shrug.
"While bonnet is a right propper fool, he does have a nice collection of books." he shrugged.
"Can you write?" Lucius pushed.
"Can spell my name well enough." Izzy shrugged.
"Can I see?" Lucius pushed, handing over the large book tucked beside him and the quill.
Izzy looked between the book and Lucius for a moment before sighing, handing over his pipe, and scratching out his name.
Sure enough, in somewhat even print, you could clearly read out 'Israel Hands.'
"I didn't know your name was Israel," Lucius noted.
Izzy scoffed.
"What, you think my parents just named me Izzy?" he asked flatly.
"It's a propper mouthful to call out, 'Isreal.'" he mimicked, taking back his pipe from Lucius.
"It's a very noble-sounding name." Lucius offered.
Izzy just snorts.
"Lucius is a very educated name." he offers back.
Lucius waited for the insult to be tacked on, deflecting his true feelings, but it was left alone. No quip or slight tacked on, just saying he had a nice name, and Lucius didn't want to push on that front, happy to just sit and watch the waves.
"No one ever wants to become a pirate- well, expect the fool Bonnet, but…." Izzy shrugged.
"What did you want to be?" Lucius asked, earning a look from Izzy.
"I wanted to be a Gardener," he said after a long pause of contemplation.
Lucius smiled; the big bad Izzy Hands being a gardener… was sweet.
"Why?" Lucius couldn't help but ask.
Izzy shrugged.
"Gardners make good money, especially royal ones, had even managed to get an apprenticeship when I was twelve," he said with the ghost of a smile on his lips.
"What happened then?" Lucius pushed a little, hoping he wasn't about to get punched.
Izzy sighed.
"My mum was pagan; people never took kindly to that. Inevitably that fact got out, and any plots I worked on were gonna be burned for fear of dark magic.' I was meant to be 'questioned after." Izzy said mockingly.
Lucius winced, knowing full well what 'questioning' referred to.
"Like you, I hopped the first ship I could and ran." he shrugged.
"And your mother?" Lucius asked tentatively.
Izzy sighed.
"No clue, would have gone down fighting, that's for sure; best not to think of it, though." he shrugged, taking another long drag from his pipe.
"You would be a great Gardner," Lucius said, finally getting a snort.
"Don't patronize me," he brushed off, causing Lucius to scoff.
"Your right; you would need to be able to take a compliment to be a good Gardner; can't even do that." Lucius quipped, earning a questioning look from Izzy.
"Lucius, boy! Commer! I need something written!" Stede called, earning a long groan from Lucius.
"Off you go then, boy." Izzy teased, making Lucius blush before he smirked.
"Your quite pleasant when your not yelling, Israel." Lucius grinned at the wide-eyed look on Izzy's face.
Before he could say anything, Lucius planted a kiss on his cheek and got up to leave.
"Let me know if you want company later," he called back to Izzy, who just sat there dazed, letting his pipe burn out.