Chapter Text
Izzy didn’t trust anyone else to hold the repulsive Prince Ricky- an even worse nom de guerre than Stede Bonnet , if that was possible- but he hadn’t considered that the cowed Prince would draw immediate attention to his unicorn hoof, putting the entire crew and this fuckery that barely was at risk.
In slowed down motion, Izzy watched Ricky snatch a gun off of a soldier who should’ve outranked the prince, aside from the accident of his miserable birth, and raise it, leveled at Izzy himself. But before the bullet could strike him, Izzy was shoved to the side, and Edward was there, a bloom of red on the left side of his stolen uniform. Izzy heard Stede cry out even over the alarmed shouts and pained screams of combat, and Ed’s weight on Izzy was reduced as Stede’s not inconsiderable strength came up under Ed’s other arm.
The hike out of the trees and across the beach was a blur of terror and denial for Izzy, who couldn’t hear anything farther removed than the beating of his own heart. But somehow, they all made it, all of them. Even Twatty, and Fang, and Auntie, the three he had been most concerned wouldn’t make it and who it would’ve hurt the most to lose. Because it had never occurred to Izzy that Edward might get hurt.
And now Stede fucking Bonnet was laying Edward down on the deck of the Revenge as the crew lifted anchor and set sail away from the destroyed Republic of Pirates, and Izzy couldn’t speak as Edward reached for him.
“Iz,” he whispered, blood on his teeth.
Izzy gripped his hand tightly. “I’m here, Edward.” Faint sounds in the background of his mind resolved into Stede directing Roach, their chef-surgeon, to get supplies, and Izzy looked at Edward’s wound and then stripped his jacket off. He rolled it into a pad and pressed it against Ed, praying that the bleeding would slow enough for Ed to survive the bullet meant for Izzy.
“Iz,” Ed whispered again, and found a hand he could grip tightly, blood smearing between their palms. “Izzy, I’m so sorry.”
Izzy felt hysteria climb his throat and nearly laughed from panic. “You aren’t dying, Edward, so don’t bother apologizing to me! I fed your darkness, I was wrong about Bonnet, I should be apologizing to you!”
Ed shocked him then, by pressing a kiss to Izzy’s hand. “I’ve never deserved you, Izzy. Not your loyalty, and not your love.” His ragged breathing broke into wet coughs, and Izzy wanted to scream in fear. But between one breath and the next, Roach was there with a box of supplies and Jim pulled him away to take his place. Izzy watched as Roach worked, deft brown hands dripping in cheap rum, glazed with the blood of a legend Izzy himself had helped to build.
It took him several minutes of watching Jim move with Roach before he realized who was holding him- Bonnet, of course. Stede was watching Edward, tears falling freely in tracks down his screwed up face, but Stede wasn’t grieving. Izzy was startled to see that Bonnet believed Ed was going to be okay. He was scared and his lover was in pain, but Stede believed Ed would survive. And so Izzy made the decision to believe, too. He believed in Jim’s competence at Roach’s side, a needle flashing in the sun. He believed in Frenchie’s command, as Wee John, Archie, Oluwande, and Auntie followed his instructions and got them the hell away from the British. And Izzy believed in the stubbornness of Edward himself, who had gotten his love back only days ago, and wouldn’t lose it again.