Wilhelmina truly wasn't surprised when Izzy stormed into their cabin, he'd shoved the door so hard it practically bounced off the wall. She'd been reading in their for maybe forty minutes so Izzy's sudden entrance caused her to startle. Even less surprising was the way he grumbled under his breath, something which sounded strangely like 'he said he'd send him to doggy heaven', not that Willa had any idea what that meant but Izzy looked … different from earlier. Anger bubbled inside him but that was just normal Izzy, frankly he seemed more like he was clinging to an idea or something soothing that calmed him down.
The Fuckary would be getting underway a few hours after the sun had finished setting, hours away yet since it hadn't even neared dusk.
Wordlessly Willa set her book down, rose from the bed, carefully closed the abused door then went to her pirate. With practiced movements she removed his baldric then stretched up to kiss Izzy since she knew it would distract him if nothing else. With ease their kisses deepened, tongues mingled, until she managed to maneuver them enough to push Izzy down on the bed. Yet where Izzy had imagined his beautiful girl straddling him, showing him what lay under her stays and sliding his calloused fingers though those wonderfully auburn locks, Willa instead pulled out a few sheets of parchment from underneath the bed. Some of these pages had writing on them while others were totally blank.
"Okay, I'm going to start with letters."
First Mate Hands wasn't impressed. "What?"
"We said this was what we'd do while the others were doing this fuckary thing."
Blue eyes flicked around the sheets she held. "I didn't think you'd plan shit though. Looks like you've got a fucking itinerary planned."
"Agenda might be a better word. And of course I planned, how else are you going to learn if there's nothing to look at for reference?" She sat herself down then set out the pages neatly between them. Izzy felt his cock's interest dwindle. "Now, in English there are twenty-six letter, unlike German which has thirty or Danish that has twenty-nine. You are about to know all twenty-six intimately. You're reading skill has increased amazingly but your spelling leaves a lot to be desired."
"Do I have to do this?" He sighed, clearly he'd have much preferred to do something else.
"You are learning this even if it is the last thing I do."
Izzy took one look at her determined expression and immediacy knew he'd cave. Stubbornness was something of a natural instinct for Izzy but Willa had this way of just getting what she wanted. He decided it would be significantly easier to just do as she commanded, and besides, learning was something he wanted to do. It may not have been the distraction his libido had asked for but it remained a distraction. So that was what they did, no noble nonsense or first mate duties or anything else, they just got on with it. Izzy listened, Willa taught, and it turned out he picked up simple spelling rules rather fast.
Izzy hadn't been able to prevent himself preening when she praised his hard work, called him her good boy and flashed him sweet smiles. He'd lapped it all up like the desperate-for-praise man he was. Wrenched, piteous, doleful, all were words Izzy had been labelled with by himself and others, but never from Wilhelmina.
The man with salt and pepper hair listened and learned for several hours until the sun had dipped below the horizon and he knew the alphabet backward.
The moment Willa rose from the bed surprised him since they'd been sat quietly for so long. She gathered up the pages they'd been using, some with her neat handwriting, some with his much messier writing, others which had become home to both, and tucked them away back underneath.
With a sweetness in her polished emeralds Willa knelt before him and began to unlace his leather pants and Izzy's dick twitched with want eagerly.
"My good boy earned a treat." She purred and reached into his pants. "You have been a good puppy, right?"
Izzy nodded slightly frantically but when she lifted an eyebrow he knew he was meant to use his words.
"Yes. Yes, I've been a good puppy."
As a reward she immediately started to stroke his length. Her hands were soft and caressed him gently but soon Willa wrapped her thumb and forefinger around Izzy's cock to pump him almost rhythmically; Izzy tried to resist letting out a moan but his girl's hand was too perfect. Quickly she had her whole hand around him moving in a steady pace. His skin grew heated as his hand shot to her braid to pull it loose, though he did have the sense of mind to throw her adored ribbon to the table where it wouldn't get lost. With her hair loose he plunged his fingers deep into her locks. His breathing came in rougher pants as his skin continued to flush and the muscles in his abdomen tightened.
He could have cried when she pulled her hand away but the tragic feeling didn't remain long, not when he realized his reward had only just begun. Blue lust-filled orbs watched Willa shuffle further into the space between his legs and her run the flat of her tongue down her palm only to go right back to work.
"Oh fuck." He groaned when his head fell back. "Fuck, lass, yes."
"Tell me you're a good boy." She ordered softly and Izzy managed to speak through his bliss.
"I'm- I'm a good boy."
Wilhelmina took the pirate's dick into her mouth then and Izzy felt her smile around his hardened length; her lips around the tip so she could suck on it. He knew she'd taste his pre-cum and it caused his eyes to flutter shut. The laps of that girl's tongue could kill a man, her mouth so warm and pleasurable. When a small series of gentle kisses were bestowed to the head Izzy's hips bucked as both hands grabbed her by the hair to pull her closer and Wilhelmina took him fully into her mouth without complaint.
He tugged on her hair with too much force, the first mate knew that, but the pleasure of his cock on her tongue was too great for him to care in that moment. His eyes couldn't stay open, they'd been fluttering but when she took him deeper, he felt himself hit the back of her throat and it became quickly apparent he'd not last much longer.
They'd not been to land in a while and Izzy hadn't ventured to a brothel in even longer. So, when Willa hummed so delightfully Izzy gave in and came. His vice-like grip on her auburn locks tightened just a little more as his mouth fell open to let out a moan and the expletive which probably should have been his catchphrase.
Willa clung to his loose leather pants as Izzy thrust through his orgasm. She just let him use her mouth for his carnal need and deep down he swelled with gratitude. All the men who'd touched her she'd fought and refused, but Izzy's touch she welcomed, Izzy's touch she wanted and took pleasure from.
The man with salt and pepper hair collapsed then as the last touches of bliss caressed him. His head hit the wooden hull with a dramatically loud thud which had Willa chuckle behind the hand she used to wipe her mouth.
With next to no effort Willa crawled up into Izzy's lap after she'd tucked him away and pressed a kiss to his stubble-coated cheek. Izzy could smell himself on her tongue.
"Fuck you're perfect."
The sixteen-year-old smiled, a real smile. "Not so bad yourself."
She fitted so well into Izzy's lap, just seemed to be able to settle against him with ease, which nobody had ever done before; until she'd made him he'd not been one for cuddles.
Suddenly screaming and some kind of high-pitched singing rumbled through the ship a clear indication the fuckary was well underway. The Prussian didn't moved though, just remained in the tiny cabin they somehow managed to share and still have space to spare.
"Fucking cunts!" He seethed. "What the hell are those assholes doing now?!"
While Wilhelmina may have been perfectly content to remain in Izzy's lap he wasn't quite so relaxed. He shoved her aside and shot to his feet so he could lace himself back into his leather pants, and then he was gone leaving Willa to essentially deflate.
~X~
Stede Bonnet lived! Blackbeard had said he'd kill the ponce, he'd practically promised to send him to doggy heaven, but there was fucking Bonnet alive and breathing like Izzy's whole conversation with his captain hadn't ever happened. Then, to top things off, Blackbeard had just disappeared with Bonnet being the one to go find him. Izzy couldn't take it. Everything he knew, everything he'd worked so hard for. His fucking life was falling apart around him with each bit of erosion Stede caused to Blackbeard. Ten minutes later they'd just reappeared cheering and clapping like everything was hunky-dory, like everything was fucking normal. As though Stede were his best fucking friend even though it was Izzy who'd been there for decades picking up the pieces.
It was when they started on about angels or something that Izzy just couldn't take it any longer. He couldn't. They were pirates, they killed and thieved and fought, they didn't fucking giggle and prance about. Nothing made sense any longer, nothing fitted, nothing was right, nothing was – nothing – nothing – Izzy couldn't even think clearly.
Even Willa, who'd come up from the cabin, sat over with Wee John having a good fucking time. No. No! He'd had enough of this shit. I wasn't right. So Izzy launched to his feet with a snarl on his face and anger in his heart.
"Stede Bonnet, draw your weapon."
The bearded Captain was on him instantly, he wasn't dumb, he knew what Izzy wanted.
"No, Izzy, we're not doing this."
He didn't care what his captain wanted in that moment, what Blackbeard needed and wanted weren't the same thing. Izzy had made up his mind, he'd do the dirty bit again, he'd be the one with rust-colored hands. It had to be done. He always did the hard jobs, always been the one relied on to do the killing, so he'd do the fucking killing. Izzy was serving his adored captain.
"No, you're not doing this. So I must." Izzy grabbed a sword and approached the blond captain. "Stede fucking Bonnet, I fucking challenge you to a fucking duel."
With that he tossed the sword at Stede while the entire crew finally came down from their happy high and tumbled into worry and concern. Willa stepped away from Wee John, her eyes wide with distress.
"Izzy-"
"Shut the fuck up!" He snarled, nothing would stop him now.
Willa made to step toward the man she loved but Wee John feared for her safety so grabbed her by the wrist and tugged her back to perceived safety.
"Well I accept your challenge." Replied Stede.
Nobody thought that to be a good idea, not a single person.
"Stede, be careful he does know his shit."
If there wasn't any stopping Izzy then Blackbeard did his best to get his fellow captain see reason. He'd seen Izzy kill with vehement prejudice.
"As do I." Said Stede. "You taught me well."
Teaching a pet tricks was how Izzy viewed it. The first mate would kill the doggy then Blackbeard would return to normal, everything would be how it should have been once more. The captain would be his strong, powerful self again and Izzy … wouldn't be sidelined any longer. Izzy Hands would be with his captain again. Everything would be as it once was.
"Not that well."
The man with salt and pepper hair silently agreed with his captain, Bonnet couldn't have picked much up the fucking idiot.
"Izzy-"
Yet again Willa found herself abruptly cut off.
"I told you to shut the hell up."
"Right, I'm assuming standard duel rules apply." Said Stede while Izzy fiddled with his lone leather glove. "What are those exactly?"
"Let's make it interesting, shall we? The loser is banished from the ship … if they're not dead."
With that Izzy went at him at the taller man. Had he been paying attention to anything beyond cutting Bonnet's liver out he'd have seen the way Wee John wrapped a strong arm around Willa's waist and tugged her closer to his large frame. She ended up wedged between Buttons who stood on her left and the Swede on her right with Wee John himself sat on a heavy barrel.
Stede floundered and Izzy knew this wouldn't last long. He was doing this for Blackbeard. All for Blackbeard. They'd been together years, Izzy had always protected his captain, even from himself, so Izzy would protect him from Bonnet now.
"Come on, give a man a warning."
"That was your warning."
Once more blades clashed, all rage and hate which flooded out of Izzy but it didn't need to, very little effort would be needed to put the damn dog down. When Stede fell Izzy felt a twinge of glee, his heart practically burst out of his chest, so close, so very close. Just a little more and everything would be okay again!
"Yield or die." Izzy growled.
"I choose … this."
Suddenly something was in his face burning his eyes and momentarily blinding him. Those blue orbs of his stung more than when Willa had forced him to look at all those letters for hours on end. A cowardly act in Izzy's opinion, the last ditch effort to win. It had his maladroit crew cheer as though it were something to be proud of though.
The slap of Stede's blade hurt but it wasn't anything compared the pain he'd had before, pain given to him by better men than Bonnet. Izzy blamed himself, it was his own fault to have not expected this fucker to try such a cowardly act. All it did was renew the rage inside Izzy's chest, and before he knew it he was hardly breathing. Izzy knew he'd cut Bonnet and heard his sword fall to the ground somewhere in the back of his mind, but all he could think was 'kill Bonnet, make it right. Kill Bonnet, make it all okay again'.
"So it looks like we've arrived, Bonnet. The end of the road."
"All right, let's just call it a draw."
"Nah, I'm good."
Oh First Mate Hands would enjoy this. Once Bonnet was gone Blackbeard would sulk for a few days like Fang had when he'd put his dog down. Just one plunge of his sword and everything would go back to normal. The sand falling away from underneath Izzy's feet would stop, it would be solid land again. Everything would all be okay. So he quickly flicked his blade and thrust it deep into Stede's body. For a split second anger, rage, pain, melancholy, everything, drained away and Izzy felt practically euphoric.
"Did I do it right? He missed all the important bits."
And with those two small sentences the sky came tumbling down again. Izzy was right back in that hour glass watching the sand gather around him as it buried him alive. His sword was stuck in the mast. Why, thought Izzy, why can't you just die?! No matter how hard he yanked the damn sword just wouldn't come free.
"This mast is made from the finest cherry wood in Brazil." Informed Stede. "It's rather strong actually."
Christ, even the fucking ship had been won over by Bonnet.
"Shut up!" He screamed. "Don't you ever shut up, you rancid rat!"
Why couldn't he just stop talking? Why did it have to be Bonnet? Why was everything always Bonnet?! Why not him? And then his sword broke at the tang and Izzy knew it was all over. Of course this had happened, it was the only way Bonnet could have ever actually won a duel against Izzy Hands. The first mate arguably had better swordsmanship skills than Blackbeard himself.
Izzy just stood there staring at his sword hilt in that moment, everything was over. Blackbeard was lost and that final grain of sand supporting Izzy's feet fell away. His world was gone. Bonnet had taken everything he'd ever cared about and laughed at him while he'd done it.
Izzy's heart had no anger left, he just couldn't muster any. Everything he'd done for his beloved captain and yet he stood there unspeaking.
While Izzy's brain and heart tried to shove out the melancholia Buttons stepped forward to drive the last nail into his coffin.
"Well now, Mister Hands, reckon he's rendered your sword inoperable. By dueling tradition that means -"
Frenchie dove in with utter glee. "Stede wins!"
The entire crew cheered, of course the idiots did, they couldn't see the bigger picture, couldn't see how everything was so very broken. Izzy's blue eyes rowed over to his captain, or whatever remained of his captain, and the bearded man shrugged. All the years of his life, all the years of service, he'd given to that man and now all Izzy got was a shrug.
His eyes returned to his broken sword. Was even the universe against him now? With the ground under his feet dissolved, Izzy floated away from Stede and Blackbeard – from Edward. Willa was suddenly by his side having escaped Wee John's protection.
"Izzy, you-"
He didn't yell, didn't shove her or threaten, just walked around the teenager and kept going. Nothing mattered now, not with everything important gone. Izzy's feet simply carried him away unsure of where he was going and then, all of a sudden, five minutes later or maybe an hour, he found himself thrust toward a dinghy with a tiny barrel of water and his navigational equipment. Yes, the universe was truly against him now as well. Had he killed an albatross somewhere along the line and not noticed? Had he been Judas in a past life?
"So, this is it then?" He asked his captain, why Izzy didn't know, maybe he still searched for a glimmer of the real Blackbeard lurking. "You're actually allowing this?"
Ivan watched on, didn't look happy or sad, but Ivan wasn't of interest to Izzy.
"You shouldn't've dueled him, Iz. We could've worked this out."
Oh the anger returned fully then, like a snap of fingers it just turned back on. 'Work it out'? All he'd done since they fucking met Bonnet was try to work things out with Blackbeard, tried to make him see sense and stop falling apart pretending to be someone else!
"You will rue this day, Edward." Because he was Edward now, not Blackbeard. "You will rue it long and you will rue it hard."
Izzy found he had to shuffle back and forth on his feet just to give the rage something to do. Then Roach appeared with Willa in tow.
"Hey, made you a sandwich for the trip."
Before the former first mate could even process what had been said the idiot cook threw said sandwich straight at his face where it bounced off and entered the ocean.
"Hey!" Moaned Ivan. "I would have eaten that."
Oh that Ivan cared about. A fucking sandwich was more important than the destruction of the infamous Blackbeard. No, if Izzy was going he had to do it now before he lost all control.
"Get in the fucking boat, lass." He gestured toward the dinghy. "Come on."
He'd not leave her on the Revenge so Bonnet could mutilate her very being as well. However, Willa just looked at him with tears distorting her beautifully green eyes while her lip quaked, and then she shook her head.
"Nein."
The word was so quiet that for a second Izzy wasn't certain he'd actually heard it.
"What?" Izzy's face fell. Any anger replaced with panic unlike anything he'd ever felt before. Izzy didn't like panic, he could cope with anger, anger he'd grown very used to, knew it intimately, but panic? No, she's said no. "Don't piss about, little lass, come on."
Ivan, Roach and Edward were all now staring at a slowly crying Willa just as Izzy did. She'd said no.
"I- I adore you." She told him down in that pathetic looking dinghy. "You're my hero. The one who makes my nightmares go away … but I can't lose another home." Her accent grew thicker with each word. "Not even for you."
Then she ran deep down into the bowels of the ship with the sound of her crying to echo behind her. Izzy's legs gave out underneath him, he fell to the thwart. He couldn't think, couldn't speak, not after she'd abandoned him. Calloused hands grabbed the oars because he needed something sturdy to cling to, and he rowed away.
The world of Israel Hands had burned to ashes, so of course Willa would be gone from it as well. The former first mate just kept rowing, rowing was all he had now. The Republic of Pirates was closest, it was as good a place as any to go. Most of the fuckers there had watched everything they held dear leave or die so why shouldn't he go to do the same.
~X~
It took almost a half hour for Edward, Wee John and Roach to prise Stede free from the mast, but as soon as they had the bearded captain made to aid Stede toward his cabin only for the blond to object when the sound of Willa crying reached him. It came in waves as the wind washed the tragic sound back and forth.
"Mate, you need to lay down."
"No, Ed, that's Willa."
So they went to the bathroom with Stede stumbling all the way until they found the bathroom door partially open. They entered to see Willa balled up in the tub as she sobbed and hyperventilated. Stede shuffled forward and just managed to catch the edge of the bathtub before he collapsed by her side. Willa's crying was loud, not pretty and raw. Just broken.
"Why is everyone having breakdowns in here all of a sudden?"
"Cosy and out of the way." Muttered the bearded captain from his place in the doorway.
Stede took a moment to glance at the bloody hand he held over his wound, then, after a breath, he turned back to the distraught teenager.
"Willa, my dear, are you okay? Well, I know you aren't but I don't know what else to say."
He reached a reddish hand out to brush her cheek in what he hoped was a comforting way. The poor girl was covered in tears and snot, covered in fear and sorrow. Meanwhile Edward stayed rooted to the spot, he didn't know what to do, all he could manage was blocking the door while Willa muttered in German things he couldn't even begin to translate, but something, he had to do something; it was partially his fault after all.
"Baby girl, I'm sorry Izzy is gone but it isn't Stede's fault."
Wilhelmina's head snapped up then and there was fire in her eyes. He'd clearly said the wrong thing.
"It's not his fault, it's yours! All Izzy has ever done is stand by you, protect you, been your friend, everything he does is for you. He lives for you. He doesn't just adore you he fucking loves you. And then you come here, meet Stede and start talking about how he's your first friend. You just threw Izzy aside, told him his friendship and loyalty hadn't ever been good enough for you. Just ripped his heart out and stepped on it as you traipsed toward Stede." The tall man swallowed audibly at her harsh words. "You spent years conditioning him as to what pirates should be, what they should and shouldn't feel and then you just rip the rug out from under him. It it any wonder he reacted the way he has?! How would you feel if the person you loved more than anything else just turned his back on you? You abandoned him-" Her breath caught. "- and now so have I."
By this point Stede had been rubbing her shoulder with a somewhat bloody hand for some time. He had no idea what to say to her and his fellow captain feared speaking again lest he be tongue lashed once more. He wouldn't have blamed the devastated teenager.
"This stupid fucking ship isn't home, it's just wood and nails." She sobbed. "Izzy is my home now. He's become my everything and even I abandoned him." Her hands wiped away tears only for new ones to replace them. "I'm as bad as everyone else! I love him with everything I have and I threw him aside too. What sort of a person loves someone and then abandons them?!" Her heavily accented anger turned to Stede then. Red eyes, red cheeks, Stede's red blood smudged across her skin. Her glare had Stede actually recoil as his eyes widened because he'd never seen such rage from Wilhelmina before. It flicked between all three of them but Stede found himself afraid. The dagger stare. "And you! You keep going on and on about talking things through as a crew but have you ever actually asked Izzy's opinion?! Have you ever actually cared what he has to say?! Nein, because he wouldn't give you the answers you wanted!"
"That's a little unfair, my dear." The bleeding man tried to reason in a calming voice but the Prussian wasn't in the mood to be reasoned with.
Her crying wasn't melancholic any longer but rage fueled. Everything overwhelmed her at once, sobs, hysterics, fear, anger, more emotions than one had words for whirled inside her like a Shakespearian tempest.
"Halt die Schnauze, du Hurensohn! Das ist mir scheißegal!" (Shut up you son of a bitch!)
With that Willa broke down into new tears and indecipherable sound effects they all assumed to be half-sobbed German. Stede's dark eyes flashed to Edward's who appeared to have turned himself into a statue. Then the hyperventilating started again, ragged breaths into her wet hands. The blond reached to pull her hair out of her face, some of it had come loose from her braid quite some time ago, but she shoved him away.
"Fick dich!" (Fuck you!) She snarled in such a way that surely Izzy would have been proud, then she returned to crying into the side of the bathtub.
Stede felt he should have been offended, possibly highly offended, but he'd never had much luck with German so wasn't sure what she'd said, all he'd had to go on was tone and guesswork.
"… denn ich brauche dieses Boot!" (… because I need this boat!)
The blond shifted from his awkward spot beside her, his legs had gone dead and almost the entire front of his shirt had been stained red. In hindsight those two things may not have been so coincidental. Stede's pain had lessened though, instead a numbness had taken over which had created a sense of ambivalence in him. Reckless though it was to ignore such a wound, Stede felt Willa to be more important at that point in time; and perhaps classic pirate insouciance had brushed off on him.
"Ed?" That seemed to snap his fellow captain out of his internal thoughts or whatever had caused his momentary transformation into a statue. The bearded man blinked rapidly then turned abruptly in the doorway. "Where are you going?"
Edward didn't look back as he spoke. "To try to fix some shit. Don't bleed to death."
Stede sighed as the pirate left the bathroom, he glanced yet again at his bloody hand then to sweet Willa, who at this point was more closely related to a puddle of salt water than any human, and opened his mouth to speak, but what could he possibly say?