Izzy Just Casually Musing On. - Tumblr Posts
🪐 — EDWARD TEACH for izzy !
izzy is at his side not a moment too late, just before his knees buckle under the strain of keeping him upright. i’ve got you. edward believes him on instinct, knowing his first mate would never let him fall, however smaller his frame might appear. they have sparred too many times for edward not to know how deceptively strong those arms are. there’s a joke at the tip of his tongue, a silly one about being in good hands — good hands, izzy. got it? — but his brain is still woozy and the only thing that comes out of his mouth is a sigh when he is finally seated. eyes slip closed as his breathing slowly evens out and the sharp pain coursing through his knee becomes a throbbing ache that doesn’t really go away.
❛ nah, leave it. it just decided to be a bitch today — pipe sounds real good, though. ❜ no, of course opium doesn’t fix the problem, but hell if it doesn’t sweeten the bite, making his head light and his limbs heavy. it’s exactly what he needs. ❛ remember that day, izzy? not that one. ❜ he’s pretty sure there is no need to summon the awful sound of heavy wood and metal against bone. the bastards laughing as he screamed. oh, he got lost there for a second, thoughts gone exactly where he didn’t want them to. ❛ the— y'know, when you got me back here and the doc said it would’ve been easier to just cut from knee down. tell you what, i still don’t regret telling him to fuck off. ❜
WHATEVER HE NEEDS; it is not a pledge that izzy takes lightly. so while he himself holds no affinity for mind-altering substances, preferring to stay sharp at all times, never would he deign to tell edward not to indulge himself, especially if it soothed his pains. it is not his place to question the captain. so he hurries to collect his pipe from the place it had fallen on the table the night before & knock the ash out before refilling it with sticky sweet-smelling leaf from the jar that was almost always kept somewhere nearby. izzy is pushing down on the bowl with his thumb to ensure it’s packed tightly enough to smoke evenly when edward bids him remember. & of course he does — he will never forget. they had been so young then, but izzy had already been willing to desert for edward, to die for edward. from the moment he’d first seen the other man, beaten bloody & in chains but still snarling & seething & so beautiful it had hurt his eyes, izzy belonged to him completely. it seemed a lifetime ago. they had both been different men then. but he still remembered with sharp clarity how calmly the order to break his spirit had come, & how edward had screamed when his knee had been crushed. but he also remembered how it had felt when edward had asked izzy to come with him — the two of them alone in a rowboat stealing away into the inky darkness was the closest thing to freedom he’d ever had. but not that one edward had said. & izzy is pulled directly into another memory by his next words. a smile comes to his lips at it, painful as it had been. he can almost see edward snarling at the doctor holding the bone saw, a feral kind of ferocity in his eyes. he had been beautiful, then, too. ❝ ‘course i remember. you also told him exactly where he could put his knives, if i recall correctly. ❞ & the way his captain is talking now, like he would do it all again in spite of the pain, izzy knows the man he had followed into the darkness that night is still alive somewhere inside of him. ❝ you’re braver than most — more than half the men up there would’ve let him just take the leg. ❞ satisfied with his work, izzy crosses the room to hand his filled pipe to him, gloved fingers brushing against edward’s as he passes it over. & he kneels, pretending to examine the brace again, while truly letting his eyes list up to linger over his captain’s face. the thick beard that covers the planes of his jaw is going silver, & a pattern of creases is beginning to fan out from the edges of his eyes. & he’s beautiful, still. neither aches nor age could ever change that. ❝ that’s why you’re our captain. ❞