Chapter Text
Lucius huddled by the pantry exit to the secret passageways. To anyone standing in the pantry itself, the entrance looked like a line of hooks, perhaps for hanging dried meat. But if you pushed the second one from the left straight up, it caused the whole panel to swing out.
Lucius had found this out when he accidentally closed the panel behind himself the first time he found the room. He had frantically pawed at the wall, pushing at every piece of wood and pulling on every conceivable handhold. Finally, he had pushed up on the hook and made it back into the passages right as Fang came in to grab some supplies.
Now, he sat in wait, hoping Fang would come by again soon. It was awfully hard to tell what time of day it was in the passages. Lucius hoped that it was sometime near dinner.
The first sign of Fang was a huge sniffle, an inhale through so much snot that Lucius winced in sympathy for Fang's lungs. The man in question pushed the door to the pantry open, the light from the kitchen portholes highlighting the streaks of tears pouring from his expressive eyes.
Fang stumbled in and sat down heavily on a barrel of god knows what, buried his face in his hands, and wailed.
The pit of fear in Lucius's stomach grew. Fang could be pretty quick to cry, but he couldn’t think of what could get him like this. Oh, god. He hoped no one had been killed already. Or, or thrown overboard. Or any other horrible thing that his mind was now serving up to him, one after another, like a horrendous multi-course meal of terrible possibilities.
Lucius just had to ask. Just had to find out. There was nothing else for it.
Lucius stood shakily and silently pushed the door open. Then he inched forward, reached out a hand, hesitated, and finally rested it on Fang's shoulder.
Fang jumped a mile in the air before whipping around, knife pulled from his belt and a surprised look curving his mouth into an oh.
Lucius froze, hands in the air.
"Okay, yeah, on second thought, shouldn't have startled you! That is the sort of thing I do not think about! Please don't gut m—"
Lucius was cut off, his breath pressed out of him with a great whoosh as Fang crushed him in a hug, crying even harder than before. The tears soaked through Lucius's shirt at his shoulder, and he coughed, raising a hand to pat rapidly at Fang's back.
"Can't. Breathe." Lucius choked out, but Fang only held him tighter.
"Alive," Fang cried, his beard scratching Lucius's neck. "You're alive."
"You." Izzy jabbed a finger at Frenchie, who looked down at him from the rigging. "When you're done with that, come up to the bow. I have a task for you."
"You got it, babe." Frenchie let go with one hand to give him a two-finger salute. Izzy bared his teeth at him, but chose to ignore it.
There was so much to do, way too much for three people, and Fang wasn't even on deck yet. Izzy had to check the wheel, give a cursory glance at the state of the sails, try to map out exactly where they were based on what he knew of their last few headings. Blackbeard had said he'd mapped their position, but Izzy didn't think now was the best time to go ask him for his calculations.
Ten minutes of silence. Izzy worked methodically, falling into the rhythm of it as he always did. He was so focused on the compass that he didn't hear Frenchie approaching behind him.
"Hey, Izzy?" Frenchie stood about two meters away, well out of arm's reach. Just in case you've changed your mind , Izzy thought, and you're planning to toss him over the rail. Frenchie tilted his head questioningly. "Here I am. What did you need?"
"In about a week, we'll be landing in St. Nevis. We need to procure a larger crew," Izzy walked over to the side of the ship, pointedly staring out over the ocean. "When we make port, you should leave. Find a different job."
A pause. "Why?"
"I didn't say that you could ask any fucking questions."
"Mm. Well I'm asking anyway." Frenchie leaned up against the side next to him. Rather brave of him, considering. "What, is he going to kill me at port?"
Silence.
"Or is he going to have you kill me? That would make more sense," Frenchie twiddled with a small piece of rope. "Fulfill his order, and I guess punish you too."
"You think killing you would be a punishment?" Izzy scoffed, and glanced at Frenchie at the decidedly wrong moment, as Frenchie just arched an eyebrow at him in response. Izzy tried scowling harder at the ocean, but the ocean appeared unbothered.
Distantly, Izzy remembered the story of the man who had a river whipped for not following his orders. It'd probably be cathartic, trying to fight the ocean. He'd lose, though. It's the ocean.
"Why is Ed doing this?" Frenchie splayed out his hands, gesticulating like he could pull the answer out of the air around him. "I know he's upset about Stede, but well. I thought he was doing better?"
" Blackbeard has remembered how to act like a real pirate." Izzy gritted out.
"But he was a real pirate." Frenchie grabbed his arm, and Izzy turned to him, yanking his arm away but finally meeting his eyes. "Nothing could change that. He's, him!"
Izzy shook his head. "You don't understand."
"I do. Violence may be how we pirates are expected to act, but it's not the only way." Frenchie plowed on as Izzy snorted derisively. "The world puts people in boxes, expectations of what they're supposed to be, how they're supposed to act. But we were proving that it doesn't have to be that way. We don't have to act like that." Frenchie's eyes were shining, and it looked like he wanted to reach out and shake Izzy, and it was only the pissed off look in Izzy's eyes that kept him at bay.
"That mindset made you all weak, and weakness in pirates gets all of us killed." Izzy hissed, gesturing toward the empty deck.
"No, Izzy," Frenchie said firmly. "Our bonds with each other made us strong. We had to actively choose to be kind, to learn to talk things out. That wasn't easy. It was hard! It was work. And it was worth it."
Izzy pressed his eyes closed and turned back toward the ocean, hands gripping the railing.
"Yeah, we could probably have used some more training in swordfighting. But I guarantee, we all would have fought so much harder than other pirates because of how much we cared about this ship and about each other."
Against his will, Izzy's mind conjured up a memory of Lucius and Black Pete, their heads tilted together as they hung their feet over the side of the boat, taking in the sunset. He blinked hard to make the image go away, and his treacherous mind showed him Oluwande and Jim splitting an orange between them. Buttons and his stupid bird. Frenchie and Wee John making their way to their bedroom, laughing at something Roach had said while the Swede looked on, confused as ever.
God fucking. Damn it.
Frenchie tentatively laid his hand on Izzy's shoulder, and Izzy was too frozen to knock it off.
"Love is strength, Izzy. I wish I could get you to see that."
And well, Izzy didn't fucking know how to fucking respond to that. After a good long silence, Frenchie finally took pity on him.
"So," Frenchie dragged the word out. "What was that task you needed me to do up here?"
"Secure that… rope. And check the rigging. This ship is a fucking disaster."
"Iz," Frenchie began and then at Izzy's wild glare, unartfully added, "...zy. Thank you. For not killing me yesterday. And for, you know. Warning me."
"Just, shut up. And fuck off."