Work Text:
“Full moon out tonight.”
Izzy grunted, not looking away from the horizon. Ed sighed. This would be harder then.
He strode forward, bumping his shoulder against Izzy’s as he looked out over the side of the ship. They were just far enough away from port that the lights of the Republic of Pirates were just a glimmer out over the water. Another ship cast a dark shadow, far enough out that they wouldn’t be a problem.
“Edward, we can’t keep doing this."
Startled out of his reverie, Ed looked down at Izzy. “What can’t we keep doing?”
The sigh Izzy let out sounded like he’d been holding it in for fucking years. “This, Edward. Burning down ships and killing half our men just so you can follow your fucking whims across the Caribbean.” Izzy went silent for a long, sticky moment before adding, “We built Blackbeard for more than this.”
Edward scoffed. “What the fuck did we build it for then, Iz? What else than being able to do anything we want, anywhere we want?”
Ed stared back up at the moon, remembering long nights of watch duty on Hornigold’s ship, yearning for days like today. Days filled with excitement and blood and a prize too intriguing to put down. He’d been sitting at Stede Bonnet’s bedside since the raid just watching Stede's chest rise and fall, until he started to itch at Izzy’s absence.
“Isn’t this what we wanted, Iz?”
Another grunt. Then, “Maybe it’s what you wanted.”
Rolling his eyes, Edward put his back to the railing, looking over the ship instead. It was empty, save for them, rocking gently on the waves. “Since when do we not want the same things?”
“Since you started sitting by the bedsides of prisoners that should be locked in the fucking brig.” Izzy’s voice, filled with fury, rang out against the calm sea. Then, much quieter, “Who am I to you, Edward?”
“What?” Edward looked down in shock, watching the man at his shoulder, his first mate that would follow him to hell and back. “Iz…”
Face screwed up in consternation, Izzy finally looked up at him. “I have… love for you, Edward. You know me—”
“I do know you,” Ed interrupted, turning to face him and gripping his shoulder. “Izzy, what’re you saying?”
“I said, we can’t keep doing this. We lost too much on your fucking whim, Edward. I need—” Izzy cut himself off, looking away.
Carefully, as though Izzy might bite—and Edward knew from experience it was a possibility—Ed tipped Izzy’s chin up until Izzy’s eyes locked back on Ed’s.
“What do you need, Izzy?” Ed whispered, leaning closer until his lips ghosted over Izzy’s and he could feel Izzy’s breath on his skin.
A small noise escaped Izzy that he would probably deny later, but Edward caught it just before Izzy murmured, “Space.”
Ed’s breath stuttered to a halt. Before he could think better of it, he gripped Izzy by the back of the neck and dragged him into a searing kiss. Their lips crashed together like a wave against the hull; fearsome and with enough force to break a weaker ship in two.
There was nothing weak about his Izzy though.
A rough shove broke them apart, and they both were panting as Izzy glared at Edward.
“In what fucking universe is that space, you fucking twat?”
Giving a liquid roll of his shoulders, Ed looked back at him. He was becoming increasingly aware of his arms dangling like useless clubs. But Izzy couldn’t leave him. That wasn’t how it worked.
“I need you here, Iz.”
Izzy continued to glare at him which… fair. He needed something else.
What had he wanted?
“Izzy, I don’t know what you want. Do you want me to say bye-bye to Blackbeard? Because I fucking will. We can go be some anonymous pirates, work our way back up—”
“No,” Izzy answered, looking away. “No, Edward. We put too much into Blackbeard to leave him like that. But…” He caught Ed’s eye again. “Something needs to change. If you want to set down Blackbeard, everything we fucking worked for…”
Sighing, Izzy looked out over the horizon.
“Mmm.” Ed thought about it—about everything they had done together and what might keep Izzy in his arms. “We could give it to Fang and Ivan.”
“What?”
“Blackbeard. Give it to Fang and Ivan, and we can just… I don’t know. Go anywhere, do anything we want. Izzy, you can’t leave me.”
“Tch.” Ed reached out, this time caressing Izzy’s lower back as they looked out over the ocean. “There’s no place for me but at sea.”
“Yes, there is. By my side, Iz.”
The breath Izzy let out was almost imperceptible, soft as the whisper of steel against skin. Ed resisted the temptation to lean in closer, to press kisses along that neck, to tug on Izzy’s ear with his fucking teeth. He could be patient. He could.
Izzy shifted. “So, what. You want to just be nobody again? You want to give it all up?”
“Sure.” Anything to keep you near me, he doesn’t say. “We could own a little shack and, I don’t know, sell food or something. Fuck knows we have the money.”
Another derisive noise. “You think you’d be able to settle for that long?”
It was Ed’s turn to sigh as he stared out at the horizon. “I don’t know. One way to find out, eh?”
The sigh Izzy let out then was long and rattling, and he answered, “Edward. What happens when it’s just another whim?”
“Then, I don’t know, we go buy a ship and a new crew. Whatever you want, Izzy.”
“Whatever I want?”
“Yeah. I want you happy, Iz.”
Izzy froze then; Ed couldn’t even tell if he was breathing any longer. “Ed…” His voice was soft, sounding as fragile as the tear in a sail. “That’s not how it works, Ed.”
“What if it was?”
There was wetness shining in Izzy’s in his eyes as he looked back up at Ed. Ed blinked, and the near-tears were gone, but Izzy’s mouth was agape, and he gripped Ed by the front of his shirt.
“Do you mean that?”
“Course I do.” Ed chanced letting his hand fall on Izzy’s hip. Izzy didn’t flinch, didn’t react at all. As though Ed’s hand belonged there. “I need you, Iz. Fuck the rest.”
“Oh.”
They didn’t speak for a moment, just standing there with naught but the moon watching them, until finally Izzy tugged on the front of Ed’s shirt, bringing him down slowly until they were sharing air once more.
“So, what, we leave the Queen Anne to Ivan and Fang, fuck off of this ship, and go buy a-a restaurant somewhere?”
“Long as you’re with me.”
Izzy let out a dry chuckle, and then his lips were on Ed’s, firm and insistent. Ed kissed back, best he knew how, bringing a hand up to cup the back of Izzy’s head while the other continued to grip his hip. Izzy made a garbled noise that Ed thought was probably pleasure, then broke away.
“You and me, yeah?” Izzy asked.
“Yeah, Iz. You and me.”