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There was a time when Izzy hadn’t been anybody at all. When he signed with Hornigold, he wrote merely “Israel,” and the crew, too busy trying to puzzle out whether that was something he should be mocked for (they tried, but quickly learned that was not a way to remain un-stabbed), asked no questions about the lack of a surname. Everyone was running from something, after all.
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The first time he saved Ed’s ass in a fight, it was because he noticed that the younger boy, who'd handled himself reasonably well during practice bouts, was faltering in action. He was only fighting defensively, never attacking like Izzy knew he could. Izzy swore, fighting his way across the deck, knowing Ed would tire himself out like that. He arrived just as Ed fell and struck down his opponent with one blow, booting the falling body towards the railing for good measure. Izzy rounded on Ed, ready to shout some sense into him, but found him staring back at him with a look on his face that was something akin to admiration. Instead of shouting, Izzy reached out a hand. Ed grabbed it, hauling himself up and nearly overbalancing Izzy as he did so. They ended up chest-to-chest, and it was only through good fortune that nobody took the chance to strike them both down at once right there. Ed gazed down at him like he was seeing something amazing and murmured, “Izzy.” Israel was gone.
Ed called him Izzy after that, because of course he did. He put up a token protest, but there was nothing he wouldn’t do for Ed. Especially after he learned that this wild-haired, roaring youth couldn’t bring himself to kill. It was precious, and secret, and Izzy loved and hated him for it in equal measure. They argued about it constantly for a while, Izzy asking how Ed was ever going to be the most fearsome pirate in all the seas without killing anyone, and Ed replying, earnestly, “well, you’ll kill them for me, won’t you, Iz?” He had that same look of awe in his eyes and, fuck, what was Izzy supposed to say?
He groaned, caving, “sure Ed, you’ll be King of the seas, and I’ll be your hands.” Ed’s answering grin was like a muzzle flash.
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It was a few years later, post mutiny and Hornigold’s death and blood, so much blood, that they found themselves in a position to hire more crew.
“You can’t keep introducing me to people as just Izzy, Ed,” Izzy grumbled, “it’s fuckin’ embarrassing. How about you say Israel to the recruits, huh?”
Ed brushed off his concern, saying, “nah mate, I like you as Izzy.”
“C’mon Ed, I sound like a whore.”
Ed laughed, slapping him on the shoulder, “maybe so. How about we add to it then, huh? Like a last name?”
Ed had never asked about Izzy’s old name, one of the many things Izzy loved him for, and Izzy wasn’t about to volunteer it. Cautiously, he asked, “what are you thinking for that, then?”
“It’s your name, Iz, you should choose.”
“It’s your stupid idea,” he shot back, caught up a little in the dance of their usual banter, a bit like swordplay in the way Ed kept him on his toes. The difference was that they both knew he’d win with a sword if he wanted to, while Ed could talk circles around him.
Ed shrugged, relenting, “I guess I’ll have to give you one then. Let’s see, I’m Teach—” he lapsed into thought. Izzy suddenly became very aware of his own pulse. He was too drunk for this. Edward wouldn’t share his name, right? It would be too intimate, close in a way they weren’t. Unless of course he intended to pass them off as brothers, though that thought made Izzy want to scream.
Before he could change the subject, a man stumbled up to them. Tall, broad, not too drunk. A good candidate. “Heard you're lookin’ for crew?” he asked.
“We sure are!” replied Ed, jovial at this point in the evening, not yet drunk or sea-weary enough to have lost his good humor, “what’s your name, sailor?”
The big man grinned back, “I’m Fang. And you two are?”
Ed stuck his hand out, and it was somehow not swallowed up in Fang’s. “I am the soon-to-be-legendary Blackbeard, and this,” here, he turned to Izzy, whose heart was in his mouth, “is my first mate, who acts for me in all things, Izzy Hands.”