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When Stede held up his hands in surrender Izzy saw his name in the flesh of his palm as clearly as Stede's name was etched into his own and finally knew the target of the ache he'd carried all his life. He imagined his blade melting into Stede's body while he held him steady enough to writhe in the agony of Izzy's continued thrusts. He and Stede were among the chosen whose souls had been grasped by divine will and tied to an eternal love or an eternal adversary. Each reincarnation their flesh was marked with a name and it was their mortal duty to find and either love or destroy each other.
Edward rolled his eyes, polishing off another pint while Izzy ranted and quoted scripture. Edward, like the majority of people, was unmarked and blissfully ignorant of how a scribble on the skin came to mean so much to so few. Stede interrupted Izzy with a wave of his glass, beer sloshing gently over the lip.
"Timothy Ronalus argued it's a social construct, nothing but chaos dressed up in religious propaganda."
Edward nodded, his gaze nauseatingly gentle as he looked at Stede while speaking to Izzy. "We once met a longshoreman with a birthmark in the shape of a cow. He wasn't going around picking fights with every steer he came across was he?"
"Astute observation, " Stede tapped his glass to Edward's, "this could all be perfectly random."
There was no use arguing so Izzy stalked off to get himself a drink of his own to drown his thoughts in. Perhaps it wasn't divine in nature, but something existed between the two of them, Izzy was sure of it. Every morning they'd awaken on opposite ends of the ship, but find themselves together before the day was out. More often than not it would end with shirts bunched up into fists and their noses crushed together as they swore over matters forgotten as soon as they broke apart. Once, Stede slapped Izzy across the face so hard that Izzy backed him up against the side of the ship and threatened to throw them both off so they could start again in the next life when hopefully Stede was reborn as someone who could at least pretend to be an actual threat.
"Right and maybe you'll be tall enough to do something about it!"
"I am an average height!"
"Apologies, I do believe you mean average rat!"
Edward himself had been called to separate them which he accomplished only with the assistance of Olu and a sword hilt as a wedge. The final straw came when their arguing botched what should've been a simple raid; the crew took a unanimous vote to drop them off on an island, chase after the loot that was stolen, and come back afterward. Anticipating a fight, Edward enlisted the help of Roach and Jim to knock the two men out and leave them hog tied in a rowboat. Izzy woke first, kicked Stede as hard as he could in the ribs, and they figured out how to get themselves untied and to the nearest shore.
"Wait!" Stede yelped when Izzy began to walk off as soon as his boots hit the sand. "We're meant to stick together."
"You are meant to be my ruin."
"You keep saying that and it's not true!"
"Then what?! If we're not adversaries, than what? GO ON!" Stede crossed his arms, infuriatingly dry and kempt because he'd let Izzy do the hard work of rowing whilst complaining the whole time. The silence stretched long enough for it to be uncomfortable before the penny dropped. "You're not serious. You think this," he gestured to the space between them, "is love."
"I think you wouldn't recognize a positive emotion if it kicked you in the teeth."
Izzy got his face as close to Stede's as it had ever been. "What would that look like?"
"And scuff my boots? You're not worth the polish, Iggy."
Izzy wondered how Stede would respond if he reared back and headbutted him, sent him sprawling into the dirt and sand so they could finally move past words and heed their primal desire to fight. Maybe some repressed part of Stede was waking up to the truth because when Izzy unsheathed his dagger his hand snapped out for it, the same hand with Izzy's name on it. Before Izzy could say anything, do anything, a drop of rain came down that made them flinch their eyes closed and look up.
"Treeline," he jerked his head towards the distance, not needing to turn around to know Stede was following behind.
As it turned out, Stede had made enough forts in his life to fashion together shelter that held up against the wind and rain. Izzy had been angling to hike it out to the caves some miles uphill, but Stede refused to "sleep on rocks". Before sunset they were sitting cross-legged beside one another under the clothes and tarps their crew had thoughtfully throw into the boat(along with a few days rations) before abandoning them to the elements. Stede had made a face when Izzy told him to strip out of his layers so they could spread it evenly across them, but it was nothing compared to his own discomfort with being bare-skinned beside him with nothing to do but wait.
"Right, how shall we sleep?"
Izzy brought the cloths to his chin and leaned his head back pointedly. "No room for anything else. You'll make us something bigger in the morning."
"My spine will be all out of tune."
"You're welcome to stick your feet out." The clouds unleashed another rolling thunder as if to underline the sarcasm in Izzy's tone.
Perhaps it had to do with the noise and stress of the day, but Izzy fell asleep more quickly than he had in months. An indeterminate amount of hours later a crack of lightening caused him to shift lazily into waking and awareness a heavy warmth atop him. His eyes adjusted to see that it was Stede, legs curled into odd angles with his head twisted up into Izzy's abdomen. So much for his bloody spine after all, but trying to move him was like wrestling a damp log. He settled for spreading his legs and shifting Stede between them so his chin rested atop the other man's head and his hands interlocked around him. It might've made more sense to lay down, but that's not what one did to their enemies. In this position Izzy could choke him out or shove him off with little exertion.
He re-positioned the blankets and fell into a dreamless sleep.
In the morning neither of them mentioned it, turning their backs to one another to dress then agreeing to spend as much of the day apart as possible. Stede would hang back to fortify and expand their shelter while Izzy went off to shoot them dinner. He returned with a wild boar which he broke down and cooked fast before the storm rolled back in again. Stede's hands were wrapped in bandages sporting various small bloody spots, but there was a fire going and more padding to the sides of their shelter than before so Izzy made a valiant attempt at holding back a snide remark. He lasted until he was tearing up the meat and Stede tossed a bottle across the fire to him.
"Didn't know all it took was a cuddle for a little hospitality." He took a swig and spit it out immediately, nearly spraying salt water over the flames. "Twat!"
"Dick!"
"You threw it at me before I said anything."
"Because I knew you would!"
Izzy chucked a hunk of meat at him which had only half the desired effect because Stede gasped at the stain it left on his blouse, but then began to eat as if he hadn't munched his way through Izzy's share of hardtack that morning. He chased the juice of the meat spiraling down his criminally soft fingers with his tongue, mmed and ahhed over every bite as if it were the first, and rubbed his mouth to wipe away any remaining traces once he was finished. The whole display was offensive, but Izzy couldn't figure out why and that only made him angrier about it. Stede had expanded their shelter enough that they could stretch their legs out, but only on their sides. They fell asleep back to back, but just as before Izzy woke up in the middle of the night to Stede shifting against him, on his side still but with his back almost flush against Izzy's front and hair tousled up into Izzy's nose and mouth. He made some undignified sputtering that was drowned out by the rain and Stede's snoring then got his arm under Stede's. If he wanted to he could apply pressure on the back of Stede's head or neck, turn him over onto his back and pin him there.
"I could kill you like this."
"Jolly good," Stede mumbled and shifted closer against him.
The storm doubled back on itself, leaving clear skies for Stede and Izzy while presumably wreaking havoc for the Revenge. After five days (of arguing and passive aggressiveness broken up only by hunting, foraging, eating and sleeping) Stede suggested they channel their energy into sparring. Izzy admitted it wasn't the worst idea so they took advantage of the sun and time to walk to the edge of the beach and go at it with rounded off sticks and daggers. It devolved, perhaps a little predictably, into name calling and grappling in the dirt but by then they'd both leaned into it. There was no point in doling out damage that could get them killed while on a deserted island so there was a security in their brawling. Izzy would never call it a gentleman's agreement, but it existed as an unspoken contract to bruise and insult, but to stop when the other was out of breath and capable only of panting into the air.
"How the foppish have fallen," Izzy wheezed out between laughs after one particularly tense round where Stede had gotten a bloody nose and for the first time not stopped to tend to it but fought on. He was on his back, but content because Stede was standing in front of the sun and providing him with a bit of shade.
"You don't fool me Hands, I found those soap berries of yours yesterday."
"Wouldn't need them if you stopped rubbing your stench all over me at night."
Stede wiped sweat off his forehead and pressed his bare foot onto Izzy's chest, not tightly, but enough for him to feel it.
"Build your own bed then. It's warm enough now to sleep alone." His foot shifted up to Izzy's neck. "Unless you'll miss me."
Izzy grabbed his ankle and threw him down for another go.
Afterward, they split up what was left of the rations, meat, and blankets then Izzy walked four miles uphill to the caves he'd set his eye on when they first arrived. He bundled up the padding he didn't need as a pillow and woke up the next morning to find himself holding it tightly to his chest while his face groggily twisted back and forth to dislodge curls no longer there. For three nights he dreamt of Stede's throat in his hand, of pressing a cutlass into his stomach and watching his lips part to beg Izzy for a mercy that wouldn't come because how sweet would it be to keep that prat on the edge of death forever. He dreamt of them drifting at sea, no land in sight, hands on shoulders as they attempted to shove each other deep below the waves until Stede kissed Izzy while chanting into his head we could drown like this we could drown like this we
"-could drown out there! Wake up you princock!"
The world rushed back in and Izzy saw fathoms of muddy water arcing over the cave entrance, pouring downhill and flooding over an area that must've included Stede's camp from the sight of him. If this was as recent as a few weeks ago Izzy would've laughed at the sight of Blackbeard's own gentleman pirate caked in wet dirt, shaking, pale, hysteric, and missing a shoe while the other was wrapped in banana leaves and twine.
"Strip down," he managed, scrambling to his feet and getting to the pile of wood whose embers were not quite out yet. He got it roaring again while Stede undressed and rubbed roughly at himself with one of the cloths from Izzy's sleeping pile before wrapping his wet clothes in it and tossing the bundle to Izzy who hung it off a walking stick within warming distance. When he was finished Stede was already attempting to cocoon himself into the quilt Izzy had sewn from clothes, but he had it the wrong way around. "Come on."
Izzy took the quilt, positioned it the right way and wrapped it correctly around Stede. There was a moment when his arms were around him that Stede's knees bent so he sagged into Izzy's chest. Izzy tightened his arms to keep him standing and walked them crabwise to the fire.
"Stay here," Stede whispered, delirious no doubt from exhaustion. Four miles uphill in a storm wasn't anything to laugh at after all. They were seated like that first night with Stede's legs out and his body bracketed between Izzy's knees. His hair at least was too damp and flattened to get in Izzy's face.
"Warm up then," he said not unkindly.
"D'youknow wha I think?"
"Saints preserve us."
"You've fallen in love with hating me," Stede wagged his fingers limply in Izzy's face, "which is a sort of ruin. Isn't it?"
"I am begging you to shut the fuck up, Bonnet."
Nobody would ever know what happened so nobody would ever ask, but if they did ask Izzy would say that it happened because there was something appetizing about a challenge. Stede had bested him in fights, derailed the legacy of Blackbeard, and wouldn't say his name right under threat of impalement but there he was clinging to Izzy in the dark stripped of all the things that made him more than a runaway ponce. All of that mixed with the dreams and memories of holding Stede down in the dirt so that when they were in the cave, pressed together for warmth as they had been every night, Izzy let his hips roll in response to Stede shifting back against him. He put his hand on Stede's hip and held it there until Stede reached a hand back to pat Izzy's cheek.
"About time."
Stede was warm already, but when he parted his legs his inner thighs were even hotter. Izzy spit into his hand and let himself groan at the feel of his cock sliding between them. Stede moved as if Izzy were fucking into him, grunting and occasionally scraping his nails over Izzy's stubble but never bothering to take care of himself despite his erection bowing up with hunger.
Only when Izzy was about to come did Stede turn around, taking Izzy's cock in his hand and stroking him to completion with a kiss that hurt more than it felt good which made it better than any kiss Izzy had ever had. It felt like drowning.
The storm eased eventually and the Revenge came back. Edward and Stede raced into each other's arms and Izzy averted his gaze as he began to walk past them towards the ship, but was halted by Stede's arm thrown out in front of him.
"Look you can drop me off at the next port, I'm done. Call it a truce for this life and I'll best you in the next."
"I see, you're a coward." Edward whistled, taking a step backward as Stede and Izzy squared off in front of each other.
"Easy, Bonnet."
"What sort of pirate doesn't have any sworn enemies? A pirate who isn't worth a damn." Stede jabbed his finger into Izzy's chest. "I thought you'd be the one to put me in my place, but you'd rather run off with your rat tail between your legs, chasing lowbrow merchants."
"What are you doing?"
Izzy had a new scar on his cheek, earned one night before the crew showed up and Stede had gotten carried away shoving Izzy's face into the cavern floor while fucking him so deeply their moans echoed for minutes after he came.
Stede's eyes were trained on it as he spoke. "Falling in love with you would be the worst mistake of my life. Absolute agony knowing I couldn't stand to be away from a wretch such as yourself." He held out his hand the one with Izzy's name on it. "Your leaving will be a mercy."
"To hell with mercy." Izzy clenched his fist, nails digging tight into Stede's name."I'm staying."
"Dreadful," Stede said with a grin, "positively dreadful."