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Izzy enters the captain's quarters, Blackbeard’s abode, all light shut out by some drapery, the stench and stain of smoke in the air from his master's pipe, books and weapons sprawled across the room. Izzy hesitantly stands behind Blackbeard’s large throne-like chair, finding the right words to introduce himself and his concerns on deck.
“Spit it out Izzy,” Blackbeard says impatiently, having heard him enter the room.
Izzy shifts his weight uncomfortably as he finds his voice, “captain, we are advancing on the Revenge shortly.” He bites his tongue in that moment, resisting the need to cuss out the captain Stede Bonnet, who his boss is so unusually enamoured by.
“Yes, and?” He replied in irritation, Blackbeard places his pipe down beside him and shifts his weight to turn and look directly at Izzy, a sharp gaze noting that he was not wishing to be interrupted from whatever he had on his mind in that moment.
“Well the crew were just wondering what the aim of this endeavour might be?” Izzy maintains eye contact with Blackbeard, but has to look away soon enough, feeling the gaze pierce through his skull.
“The crew… and do you agree with the crew Izzy?” Blackbeard rises from his throne to stand silhouetted by the dim light of the windows, shadows cast across his face hiding his expression from Izzy.
He squirms under Blackbeard’s eye before biting the inside of his cheek and meeting him with a fierce gaze. “I’m not entirely sure you’ve thought this through Edward.”
Blackbeard breaks the intense eye contact first, leaning on the edge of the table beside him, looking thoughtfully in the distance. “To be completely fair Izzy, I don’t have a plan, and it is your job as my right hand man to lay down your loyalties to me regardless of the structure,” Blackbeard spoke matter-of-factly. “You will make sure there is no doubt in my crew, and encourage their loyalty likewise.”
“Yes, of course boss,” Izzy affirms, lowering his eyes.
“And Izzy?” Blackbeard stands before Izzy, blocking the natural light from their face.
“Yes…” Izzy gulped.
Blackbeard’s gloved hand met his left cheek, cold and distant, but not an unfamiliar gesture to Izzy. “Never doubt me again,” Blackbeard growls and shoves Izzy’s head down to meet the table, grasping the back of his neck roughly.
Izzy’s hands come up defensively, but make no attempt to free the grasp his boss has on him, cheek pressed hard against the wooden table, he smiles through the pain. “...Never.”
Blackbeard releases him and leaves the captain's quarters to address his crew, while Izzy gathers himself, straightening up and brushing his hair out of his eyes. His heart was near beating out his chest, the adrenaline rush was impeccable. He grasped at the ring of his cravat and repressed his urges, following his captain outside.
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Dusk had started to fall as Blackbeard's ship weighed anchor, the Revenge off to the horizon silhouetted by the setting sunlight before slowly disappearing to the night sky. Blackbeard stood at the bow of the ship, the last pink highlights of the sun that reached the clouds beginning to fade as night drew near. He leaned on the wooden bannisters and rested his head on his arms with a heavy sigh.
“Is everything alright, captain?” Izzy spoke softly from behind Blackbeard, he wasn’t surprised by his presence, welcomed it even, he didn’t like where his mind wandered some days, and this strange pirate was clouding his mind, so Izzy was a welcome distraction.
“I s’pose so…” Edward grumbled.
Izzy leant back on the bannister Blackbeard rested on, with his back to the ocean and facing the ship, looking down at Ed with a cautious eye. “Is there something you’d like me to order the crew to do? Maybe even me if it might cheer you up…” Izzy suggested, knowing that he was making a shocking effort at hiding his desires that had lingered all day.
Blackbeard tilted his head so to look up at Izzy through the wisps of grey hair that framed his face. “It sounds like you’ve had something in mind Izzy,” Blackbeard reached toward Izzy’s waist and hooked a finger in the belt of his tight pants to drag him closer.
Izzy stayed silent, unable to formulate a response, witty or smart. Edward straightened up and stood over Izzy, the usual menace in his eyes was different, it was mischief, and Izzy met him with a wanting stare. His captain moved his knee to stand between his legs and stood across his body, raising his ungloved hand to Izzy’s throat, holding it lightly, forcing him to stay against the bannister and brace himself as Blackbeard leaned further into him.
Izzy was breathing heavily, hardly trying to hide his reaction to Ed’s light hold on him, anticipating what he might do next; but the teasing, that is what he wants, the way his captain stares him down with intense amber eyes, the curled grey whiskers of his beard close enough to brush against his face, the way he barely touched his neck beneath the black collar of his undershirt.
Izzy finally found his voice and croaked out “Blackbeard…”
“Shhh, don’t speak,” the leather gloved hand at Izzy’s waist moves to cover his mouth, as Ed presses his thumb into the side of Izzy’s neck with his other hand, slowly building pressure. “Now do as I say,” Blackbeard whispers, his eyes wandering over Izzy’s face with a stern seriousness to them, like he was considering what he should make his first mate do. Lost in complete bliss at Edward’s proximity to him, Izzy reached a hand out to rest on Blackbeard’s waist, but was quickly whipped away by Ed suddenly releasing his mouth for air. “Hands to yourself, filth!” Blackbeard snapped, he quit holding back for his own sake and gave into the rage that boils beneath his skin, forcing Izzy to arch over the bannister further, teetering him on the edge, as though he’d let go and throw him overboard within a second.
The hand at Izzy’s throat is so raw, the physical skin to skin contact from Blackbeard, the way his nails dug into the skin, the pressure he had over his oesophagus, closing the air from his lungs, and gasping helplessly for air. He was in complete adoration of his captain, the iron fist of which he led with, and sometimes indulged in him from time to time…
Blackbeard smirked and started a low growling chuckle as he watched Izzy squirm helplessly beneath his hand. “You make this too easy sometimes Iz…” Edward leaned closer still, his lips next to Izzy’s ear, the long wiry beard scratching gently across his cheek as Edward spoke into his ear. “Now kneel.” He released Izzy and took just a single step away, relinquishing his grasp, losing all contact from Izzy, and it ripped the air from Izzy’s lungs like he had been exhausted of all light, all warmth, all comfort he had ever known.
He collapsed down before Blackbeard, kneeling before him, head hung low as he grasped for a breath from the asphyxiation. Edward’s hand hastily grabbed at Izzy’s greasy hair, forcing the pirate's face upward toward him. Blackbeard glared down at Izzy, “that’s better," he pulls a knife from his belt and holds the blade to Izzy's chin, the sharp edge brushes through his salt and peppered beard hair, threatening to cut him. "What am I?" Blackbeard snarls.
Swallowing hard, Izzy finds it hard to get the words out from how awestruck he is in the moment, completely encapsulated by his boss. "You, are, Blackbeard," he rasps out.
" No ," Ed seaths through gritted teeth, "what am I to you ?"
"You are my master… I am indebted to you, my captain, I do as you desire…" feeling so consumed in the moment, Izzy felt tears brimming to his eyes, so emotional as he was to lay loyalty down for his captain, so proud to be a part of his crew, the honour in being named his right hand man.
The sting to his eyes was a visceral reaction, but he worried the wrong message might come across to Blackbeard, he choked up and tried to swallow them down, but the ball in his throat only grew before it too felt like it had blocked his airways and stripped him bare for Blackbeard to witness.
Blackbeard gently grazed the knife over Izzy's stubble, pausing on his cheek as he noticed a tear streak down and pool on the tip of the blade, seeing this he quickly dropped the blade and softened his grip on Izzy's hair for a gentle hold. "Mate, you're not crying are you? I didn't go too far, did I?" Edward stopped, all tension and heat from before diminished, his movements were smooth and careful as he touched Izzy's wet cheek with his fingertips.
" I'm not fockin' cryin' ," Izzy snapped and pushed Blackbeard away, the sudden change wrenched at his chest, he almost felt like throwing up from the nerves and anxiety building over his all too stoic exterior. The arousal was too overbearing to handle, the proximity of which Edward was to him, he wasn't ready, and that frustrated him, he wasn't wantin g this yet, and it tortured Izzy. The gentleness was too much, it broke something in that moment, something he wasn't prepared to face in front of his captain; he tried to keep the tears down, nearly choking as they fought their way out, he leant back on the wooden rail, hiding his face from Blackbeard, completely ashamed of himself, humiliated by this image he displayed. Something born from the perfect eroticism he felt, turning quickly against him in a fit of apprehension.
"Iz… Izzy c'mon now," Blackbeard knelt down beside him, unsure how to proceed, it was so unlike his first mate to reveal such raw emotions, he feared even he hadn't been so open with anyone before. "Was the knife too much?" He asked wearily.
"No, it was fokin' perfect!" Izzy groaned through his sleeve, wishing he could be anywhere but in front of Blackbeard, he felt guilty and alone so suddenly; Edward was giving him the exact thing he wanted, and yet his mind wasn't in sync with his own body.
"Then what's the problem, mate?" Edward pulled himself up to sit next to Izzy, throwing an arm over his shoulder and forcing the man to lean into his chest. Izzy let this happen to his surprise, too focused on his haphazard breathing, the dryness in his throat, and hapless breaths of air he tried to breathe that brought no relinquish to his suffering. He shook under Ed's arms for a moment, unable to speak, breath, hear, anything: it was like a wall of intense crashing waves growing louder and louder.
"Izzy pull yourself together man!" Blackbeard's stern voice cut through the noise, he had grabbed Izzy's face between his hands and forced him to look up into his dark eyes; there was no seriousness or mischief to them, only frustration and fear, fear for his mate who might have died of fright in his arms for all he could imagine.
"Edward, I'm sorry… I got lost… I…" Izzy struggled to pull himself together completely, but he knew that his captain was as loyal to him as he was to Blackbeard.
"Don't over do it, Izzy, yeesh," he dropped his hands from Izzy's tear stained cheeks and stood up. "Let's pull you back together, hey?" Blackbeard extended a hand to his first mate, and pulled him from the floor to his feet, swaying on his sea legs a little as he stood. "Don't frighten me like that, I thought you'd swallowed your own tongue," Blackbeard tried to joke in the silence that thickened the air between them.
"I felt like maybe I had too," Izzy smiled, but it wasn't a real smile, he lost the respect of his captain for that moment, a moment of weakness he had no idea was brewing beneath the surface. He shrugged off Edward's arm that steadied himself, walking off to the stern of the ship, wishing to put as much distance between him and his captain as possible.
Blackbeard stayed behind, watching his first mate hunched and defensive as he escaped the tension; Edward turned back to face the Revenge across the water, imagining to himself how he might first greet this Gentleman Pirate he heard so much about, laying his concerns for Izzy in the back of his mind to worry about another time.