Chapter Text
“Zahira, Cap wants you below deck, like, um, now,”
I nodded, and clapped Fang on the back, “Boss man's calling.”
“Better not keep him waiting, then.”
“Wouldn't dream of it, Fang.”
I regretted the light jab as I made my way down the stairs. I hadn't meant anything in particular, but then again I wasn't used to the hierarchy of a ship and respect it demanded.
Yeah, it was a pirate ship and things tended to work a bit more fairly than a navy boat but as nice as Fang was, I didn't want to cross any lines in the sand with the crew when it came to their captain.
I breathed in deep before taking the last step. My head felt so cluttered, filled with things I had never given a second thought to before. If I upset Fang I'd make up for it, be thrown overboard or he'd just resent me. That was it. Why was I still thinking about it?
Stepping into the hold I looked up and down the walkway, not expecting to have to guess where I was to meet the captain.
“In here,” a voice called, and I followed it a couple meters down into something that could charitably be called a room.
The pirate some called Blackbeard, and who was definitely called a menace, was standing between the chests and boxes lining the room, unmoving besides his eyes that followed me in.
I crossed the threshold of the room, leaning against the table that separated us both. Unimpressed by whatever intimidation tactic it was to stare me down in a glorified closet of a room, I just started right back.
Silence kept us suspicious company.
“You called?” I asked, not overly excited to spend more time in the hot, stuffy hold. djfdjf ofdpdf
He threw a lock on the table, irritating me with the unnecessary clang and the dead-serious stare.
“Nice lock,” I said, crossing my arms.
“Open it.”
I scoffed, “You’re kidding.”
“Open the lock,” he repeated, sliding it closer to me.
I shook my head, “I'm already performing on command for you when I get to that fucking fortress, I do not have to do it for you now. Can you just let me do what I do so–”
He arched a brow, unimpressed with my stalling, “You and I both know you can get this open in about ten seconds. Save us both some time and get it done so that I can have my peace of mind.”
“You don't trust that I can do it?”
“Darling, have you even known me to take someone at their word?”
I could feel my heart start to thud, “But I've done this before, you've seen me do it before, I'm good, I'm, like, one of the best. Top five in my region, for sure.”
He looked at me, silent, before tearing his eyes away. He swore and stomped one of his boots, the sound heavy in the stuffy room.
“You can't do it anymore, can you?”
I struggled to answer. On the one hand, if the moment was right, I was as fast as ever. On the other hand, if my mind strayed even a little bit there was a chance that the shaking would start and I would be caught fumbling around with a lock before promptly being escorted out and disposed of without much ceremony.
I felt sick. I physically felt like I would be sick.
How the mighty fall.
“Fine, I'll open the stupid lock,” I snatched the cold metal and pulled out my kit.
Yes, I managed to get it open, but once I finished, once I stopped doing what I knew best, my thoughts turned back to getting caught and I dropped my kit with a quiet but very audible clinking on the floor.
“Shit,” I dove down and snatched all the picks up, stuffing them back in their satchel with hands that were now visibly shaking.
I wanted to stay on the floor. To sink down and hide under the table, give up. But I couldn't.
I stood back up and walked out onto the small adjoining hallway, crammed with supplies, a pair of footsteps right behind me.
“Well, you need to calm down or else all of us are absolutely fucked.”
The fucking nerve on this man stopped me and made me turn around.
“Oh my god, what does it matter to you what state I'm in?”
“Because you're the one that has the map in your head!”
“I already drew it all out for you!”
“You have all the combinations!”
“I wrote them down!”
“You have every guard shift, corner, window," he'd planted himself in the middle of the hallway and started listing items on his fingers, “and passage of that building inside your head, even if you did manage to tell us absolutely everything none of us are going to be in and out as easily as you.”
“I thought you had the most capable crew in all the seven fucking seas, if you really think I can't do it what's the problem?”
“It’s like you said,” he shrugged, “you're one of the best, so why would I run with the plan that's more likely to fail?”
“Because apparently I'm too hysterical to do anything!”
He scoffed, starting to pace the cramped hallway and giving a barrel a half-hearted kick.
He turned back, boots clicking on the floor in a space that now felt too small and too quiet. I didn't think his brown eyes could ever feel so cold. His stare fixed me to the spot, and suddenly I wondered if I'd fucked up.
He made the distance between us feel interminable, taking steps so slow that I had time to think about the bullshit I’d been saying. I could see why the ship ran as right as it did.
He didn't say a word as he stood in front of me and watched as I looked down both sides of the hall. He raised a brow, a silent invitation if I wanted to try storming away from the ship’s captain.
Fuck.
I took a breath and stood my ground, straightening to be as eye-level as I could.
“Have I once said that you weren't capable?”
My resolve almost faltered as I swallowed hard, but I was not going to act like a scared fool in front of him.
“No, you haven’t,” I conceded.
He gave me a quick nod, the icy expression showing a tiny sign of thawing.
“However–”
No sooner had I said the word that he took a step closer, eyes now narrowed and shoulders tensed.
I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand but I didn't back down.
“However–?” he prompted, jaw set.
He wasn't much taller but at that moment it felt like he was towering over me.
“Fuck,” I whispered, trying my best to hold back a shiver, “nothing. Fuck.”
He didn't let me off the hook, leaning in further, trying to see who would break first.
I stood my ground, determined to show I was not in total shambles after the fuck-up with my trembling hands.
“I don't want to see you broken by nerves, you're too sharp for that, too capable.”
I snorted, “And that makes me immune?”
“Obviously not,” he rolled his eyes, “but I'd hate to lose an ally. And you owe me, anyway, how are you gonna get those ledgers for me if you can't even leave the ship?”
It was my turn to roll my eyes, “You don't give up, ey?”
“That's why I'm the best to ever do it, sweetheart. So what is it going to take?”
“I'm going to do the job for you, Teach, don't worry,” I mumbled, looking at anything that wasn't his eyes.
He sighed, so close that I felt his breath on his face, “Not good enough, Zahira.”
“What do you mean ‘not good enough’? I said I'll get it done, what else do you want from me? You said it yourself I'm the best chance you have to get it done quick and clean and you still have the fucking balls to tell me how I'm supposed to act after–”
He put a hand on my shoulder, I blinked at it, surprised into silence.
“Zahira, and this is coming from me, yeah? You are on one of the shortest fuses I've ever seen. Believe me when I say this, this is how you fuck up and get yourself killed.”
“I can look after myself you patronizing–”
Somewhere at the back of my head I knew that, were I someone else, I would have won a walk down the plank, a knife to the thigh.
Just my luck, all it got me was another, even more exasperated, sigh.
“Like I was saying,” he squeezed my shoulder, maybe for emphasis but it sent a jolt through me, “we all need you to get those documents and I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you but you are a fucking shadow of your former self.”
The words shocked me more.
I tried to step away, the back of my legs immediately finding some crate.
A shadow? A shadow? And who the fuck was he to dole out surveys of well-being as if he was the picture of coping?
I felt myself wilt as the words sank in, ringing some kind of true.
“Takes one to know one,” he added, as if that would soften any of the damage, “trust me.”
I ignored my body's screaming desire to hang my head and cry. I stayed upright, chin up, willing my tears away while I entered another unspoken stare-off with the man that had wanted posters hanging over dozens of ports.
One would think that, maybe, being face-to-face with the notorious Blackbeard would be a far scarier fate than the nebulous possibility of being taken prisoner by, say, the English navy. But I would take my chances with Edward any fucking day.
The idea of falling into the hands of justice made me feel sick again, I had to press my hands into fists to keep from shaking.
“I'll be fine,” I repeated, “it's just nerves, Ed. It was just a close call last time, alright? I didn't know if I was gonna make it.”
And I wouldn't have made it, had this insane crew not found me. Even then, I wondered if I would have had a chance at all, had I not worked with him before.
“And I'm telling you, if you don't put that shit past you you're going to make another mistake,” his eyes were wide, I wondered how many people he'd seen go because they couldn't keep it together.
I shuddered, feeling like my whole body was about to start trembling, “I don't wanna–”
My voice caught, which mortified me enough to dry any tears.
I cleared my throat, surprised to see him being patient, “I don't wanna die at the hands of some navy fucks. God, I really don't wanna die to an officer. Oh, I really have to shake this, don't I?”
He nodded, “Yeah, mate, you really, really do. And I wanna see you do it, but…”
I felt his breath on my skin again when he exhaled, I willed my mind not to stray too far.
I looked over at him as he stared off into the end of the hallway. He was calculating, he was looking at every possibility and all the risks and which one meant he made it out alive, mostly unscathed, and in a better position to bargain with whoever the fuck he had pissed off enough to need top guarded information.
“I just need to let off some steam,” I said, sounding a bit foolish even to myself, “I'll just, open whatever locks and chests you have here, like, a couple hundred times, run around best I can, and, you know, get some sun, go over the plan, pick some more locks, sleep and repeat for the next five days. Easy!”
He closed his eyes, taking a sharp breath in, “And how has that worked so far?”
I frowned, “Well, maybe I just haven't–”
He laughed, giving me an incredulous look, “Zahira, maybe this is asking a lot right now but be realistic about how you're handling this.”
I stepped forward, not caring about how close I was, “I can manage my situation, Captain.”
“Then why are you in the state you're in?” he countered, disbelief all over his face, “huh?”
“Oh, g–” I bit back the words, thinking twice about telling the captain to go fuck himself, “this is going nowhere.”
“Then help me get it somewhere, Zahira.”
And he looked tired. I mean, he looked composed, in his rough and tumble way, his skin always sunkissed and eyes sharp and— enough observing. Regardless of how he was looking, the suspicious hint of desperation that peeked was a good clue that something was wrong.
And I was that something.
And in reality I couldn't deny that there was more wrong than right tumbling around my body.
I just needed time. Time to distance myself from that brush with what could have easily been the end. But we didn't have that.
“Alright, what the fuck do you do to shake off some bullshit when you're stuck at sea?”
If he’d called me a landlubber or something in that vein I think I would have screamed, maybe he was right about the short fuse.
“Get absolutely hammered.”
It was tempting but… “I've been cursed with awful hangovers and comedowns, that'll only make everything worse. What else?”
He pursed his lips, hands on his hips as he thought.
He started to say something but shut his mouth.
Then he pondered some more, leaving me with uncomfortable silence.
“I mean, fucking,” he shrugged his shoulders, “the comedown’s not that bad, is it?”
“Depends who you sleep with,” I said, my body starting to loudly remind me how close we were standing together.
We'd danced around this before. Every single time we'd met. But it had never happened, or gone beyond unspoken tension. All those previous instances seemed to stack up together in my mind in a wobbly tower. Brushed hands with murmured apologies, eyes lingering a bit too long after a few too many drinks.
“Right…” he responded, and for the life of me I could not remember what he said it in response to.
“So you think the answer to my newfound fear of death is sex,” I said, not wanting to sound too eager, lest he get an even bigger ego.
He scrunched his nose up, “Maybe more of a temporary solution.”
“You're gonna fuck the fear out of me in five days?”
“I think I could easily do it in two, actually,” he grinned.
And that tower of tension came crashing down. His smile was so bright, so playful. There was about zero chance I would turn it down.
“I can't tell if you're being serious.”
“Okay, three days, max,” he winked.
I crossed my arms, reminding myself to keep some composure.
“Oh,” he frowned, “yeah, ‘course I'm serious. It'll be fun.”
He said it so casually.
I blinked up at him.
He cocked his head, “If you don't want to it's fine, if it's privacy you're after I'll lend you my quarters while I'm, you know, captaining. But I find it's usually more fun when you're not on your own.”
I barely followed what the fuck he was saying, looking him over again, thinking…
“Well, hell, if that's not the best worst course of action we seem to have available,” I mumbled.
He watched attentively as I bridged the small gap between us, bodies brushing gently while I wondered what would be the next move.
“Can't believe you're calling my cock a worst course of action,” but he smiled as he said it and held my face in his hands.
I stood as tall as I could, kissing him before I could think about what I was doing.
Warm, warm like falling asleep on hot sand on the beach. His tongue lapped my mouth like a wave rolling onto the shore. I immediately felt he had rhythm like the sea as well, pulling and pushing, drawing me close and just as I felt myself cresting he rolled us back, his body pressed against mine as I crashed into the crates behind.
Seven hells, if that wasn't a current I was looking forward to riding.
I felt his leathers on my neck, soft on my skin as his hand moved down from my face. It felt fucking good, his fingertips a light touch.
I heard a set of footsteps on the stairs and, after a good couple of seconds of kissing, registered what it was that meant. Maybe this distraction really would work.
I blinked my eyes open, mind almost unwilling to register that I could be close enough to Blackbeard to see the black liner around his eyes.
He pulled away, as little as he could, and turned his head to face the stairs.
Izzy Hands was a smart man, he was perfectly capable of putting the scene together.
“Is there something you need, Izzy?” Ed asked, not bothering to move an inch.
He shook his head slowly, not taking his eyes off of us, “Nothing worth interrupting this.”
I felt myself get a little hot under his stare.
“Then why are you still interrupting?” Ed asked.
Whether consciously or not, his grip on my hips tightened and I used all my energy to keep from responding to the touch.
“You're right,” Izzy conceded, “I'm sure I'll know where to find you later.”
He looked between us, wolfish grin spreading on his face before he gave an equally wolfish whistle, “Whatever you've got going on, good luck, babe.”
And he turned to leave the way he'd come.
I wasn't particularly sure which of us he was saying it to but, knowing both of us, we were probably going to need it after whatever situation and consequences sleeping together was bound to create.
But maybe it would create no situations and–
Frustrated with the line of overthinking that was rendering me unfit for work I gave in and kissed the man in front of me again before I could form any other ideas.
However, my senses made me open my eyes to find Izzy paused on the stairs.
I broke away and was about to say something before Ed noticed and shooed him off with a quick ‘fuckoff’.
Izzy's smile only got brighter and he winked before disappearing through the door.
“Is he trying to join or–?”
The thought wasn't a bad one. Might even sound good.
‘‘Cause I'm sure I could handle it…” my eyes looked to the door Izzy had gone through.
“Mmm, as hot as that makes you sound,” he kissed my neck, stopping to suck hard enough to leave a bruise, “when we're on this ship, I don't share anything that's mine.”