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You should have realized something was up when you got called to the captains’ quarters in the middle of working on your mid-afternoon chores. To be fair, it wasn’t all that strange of an occurrence. Every so often Stede will request your presence for one reason or another, whether it’s to write some stuff down for him when Lucius is otherwise occupied (read: when he’s nowhere to be found and is likely hiding somewhere avoiding Stede), or because he wants help rearranging his book collection.
(Being literate is truly a blessing and a curse on this ship. You and Lucius have managed to bond over your shared commiseration.)
Because of this pattern, you don’t suspect anything off when Frenchie comes walks over while you’re mopping the deck and holds a hand out to take the mop from you.
You look at him curiously. “Hey Frenchie, what’s up?”
“Captain wants to see you in the captains’ quarters.”
“Oh?” You frown. “Did he say what for?”
It’s not that you mind helping Stede, but you’d been hoping to get the mopping done so you could go down to the galley and beg some coffee off of Roach.
“Nah, sorry.” Frenchie shrugs. “Let me see the mop and I’ll finish up here.”
You smile gratefully and hand the mop over. “Thanks. I’ll owe you one. I better go see what he wants.”
Frenchie waves you off and you head off to see what the captain wants.
You knock on the cabin door. “Captain, it’s y/n.”
The door swings open and you’re surprised to see Ed standing on the other side instead of Stede. You like Ed well enough, but you still haven’t managed to get to a point where you’re fully comfortable around him.
Despite your surprise, you smile politely. “You wanted to see me, captain?”
“Y/n! Come in, mate.”
You follow him into the cabin and your unease grows a little when you realize that Stede doesn’t appear to be present.
Ed catches your glance around the room and he smiles disarmingly. “Stede’s off plotting a course with Mr. Buttons. I just had something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Of course, what’s up?”
The captain begins circling around the room with an exaggerated casualness that immediately sets you on edge.
“So it’s recently come to my attention that you and Izzy have… ‘entered a relationship’ as Stede might put it.
Oh shit. Are you about to get the shovel talk from Blackbeard of all people? Is that why he waited until Stede was busy to call you in here?
You nod slowly. “That’s right, sir.”
Ed slowly drags a finger over the spine of one of Stede’s many books before looking over his shoulder at you. “And what exactly are your intentions for my first mate?”
“Well, we haven’t exactly attached a label to our relationship. What I want is to do my best to make him happy for as long as he’ll let me. Izzy deserves to be happy.”
Ed gets a sad look on his face and you worry that you said more with those last five words than you meant to.
“He does. I don’t know how much Izzy might have told you about our past before meeting your captain and his crew, but I haven’t always done right by him.”
You have no idea what to say to that, so you’re grateful when Ed continues on.
“Izzy deserves better than I’ve been able to give him for a long time- maybe ever. If you make him happy, then I’m glad he’s found you. However-”
He suddenly strides towards you, forcing you to step backwards until your back is pressed against the wall. Looking every inch of Blackbeard instead of Ed in that moment, the pirate captain leans in close until his face is inches from yours.
“If you betray him, hurt him, hell- ever make him feel anything less than valued, you’ll have me to answer to,” he threatens. “That may not be fair of me, but pirates aren’t known for being fair.”
You nod fearfully. “I understand, captain.”
The pirate captain stares you dead in the eye for a couple seconds before nodding and taking a step back. All at once the shroud of Blackbeard seems to fall away, leaving behind Edward in his place.
Still leaning against the wall, you release the tension you’d been holding and your shoulders slump.
“Alright, glad we could have this little chat. Sorry for interrupting whatever you were working on.” Ed says cheerfully with a smile like he hadn’t just threatened your life literally seconds ago.
Ed leads you over to the door and bids you a good rest of your day, before lightly nudging you out of the cabin and shutting the door between you.
Now that there’s a piece of wood safely between the two of you, all you can do is stand there in silence while your body works on slowing your racing heartbeat. Once your brain has finished working through what just occurred, you finally turn around and head back out onto the deck and make a beeline over to where Frenchie is still mopping.
The musician looks up and eyes you curiously. “You alright there, babe?”
“Ed just threatened to defend Izzy’s honor by murdering me if I ever hurt him.”
Frenchie sucks a breath in through his teeth. “Glad I’m not in your shoes, then.”
You shove him gently with a laugh. “Gee, thanks.”
“All I’m saying is that I wouldn’t want to be on Captain Blackbeard’s bad side.”
“Few would.”
You and Frenchie both jump and turn around to see Izzy standing behind you. Rather than yelling at you both to get back to work, he eyes you with a look of concern. “What happened?”
Ever reluctant to have Izzy’s attention on him, Frenchie gives you a quick smile and makes a show of going back to his mopping. You decide to take pity of him and motion for Izzy to follow you to an unoccupied part of the deck.
“I just got back from having a private conversation with the captain in he and Stede’s quarters.”
Izzy looks you up and down carefully. It’s not exactly that he expects Edward to hurt you, but the man can be a bit unpredictable at the best of times. “What did he want?” He asks cautiously.
You smile. “The captain wanted to ask me about our relationship and to warn me not to hurt you.”
“He threatened you?”
“He didn’t go into any specifics of what would happen, but his point was clear.”
Izzy scowls. “I’ll go talk to him.”
Before he can walk away you grab hold of his leather vest. “Izzy, wait. Don’t do that, I’m ok. It’s kind of the best friend’s job to give the shovel talk, anyway. I’m sure at least one of our crew mates would do the same for me, if you weren’t so terrifying,” you tease.
He still doesn’t look happy, but Izzy doesn’t move to pull away from you so you let go of his vest and smooth your hand over the soft leather.
Izzy sighs. “Last time Edward ‘defended my honor,’ was when we were at a bar and some drunk got a little too mouthy.”
Looking around first to make sure no one is looking and the two of you, you reach up to cup the side of Izzy’s face and rub a thumb over the X inked under his eye. “He might not know how to express it very well, but Ed does care for you.”
You watch Izzy’s face as shuts his eyes and leans into your touch. He allows himself three seconds of contact before pulling away and readjusts his clothes in an effort to regain some control. You wonder if Izzy realizes how well you’ve learned how to read him.
“I still have to go talk to Edward about charting a course, but I’ll trust you if you say he didn’t do anything to you.”
You nod. “Promise.” Your mind strays back to Frenchie, and you chuckle. “I better go let Frenchie know that you weren’t really mad, or else he mind send a rescue team to come check on me.”
You’re about 95% joking. Izzy still may not be the crew’s favorite person, but most everyone has come to respect, if not at least respect if not actually like Izzy. You’ve even caught Izzy and Buttons sharing their thoughts about the sea with one another, on occasion.
Izzy chuckles. “You do that.”
You part ways to see after your respective duties.
It turns out Frenchie had taken his opportunity to flee after you’d pulled Izzy off to the side, as evidenced by the mop leaning against the railing and the lack of musician anywhere to be seen.
It looks like he did manage to finish mopping however, so you grab the mop and bucket of now dirty water and go about putting them away.
After that experience, you’ve even more eager to score some of Roach’s coffee.
-
Izzy’s in the middle of coiling up a length of rope when Roach saunters up to him with his hands on his hips.
The first mate raises an eyebrow. “Yes, Mr. Roach?”
“Ive never had to do one of these before, so I’ll keep it short. You know that talk that Captain Blackbeard had with y/n?”
He nods.
“Well, the same goes for you and don’t forget that I am very skilled with my knives.”
Izzy looks up at Roach and nods seriously, fighting a smile as his respect for the chef grows. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“See that you do,” Roach points his cleaver at Izzy before walking away.
Izzy shakes his head fondly. What has his life become?