drowning [in the depths of who you are] - chapter 6
He doesn’t want to jinx anything, but if asked, Stede would admit that things are as close to perfect as they realistically can be.
Or, they would be, he thinks, frowning slightly to himself, if it weren’t for the Izzy Issue, capital letters very much required.
Stede would like to claim that he’d disliked Izzy from the very beginning, right from their first meeting in that blasted jungle, but in reality, Stede’d been intrigued. Excited, even, to meet a real, proper pirate, intimidating and interesting in equal measures. Handsome, even, although the naive, repressed Stede from back then hadn’t had a clue that the nervous flutter in his chest had been attraction rather than fear.
The dislike had come later, in heaps, before turning into begrudging respect after Stede’s return to the Revenge, and eventually into a sort of uneasy camaraderie, courtesy of each of their relationships with Ed. Stede would like to think they’re tentative friends, these days, and he would even go so far as to suggest that Izzy’s grown somewhat fond of him, however reluctantly that might’ve happened.
Oh, sure, they’ll bicker and snap at each other still, but there’s no more viciousness to it, most of the time. Instead it’s become—dare he say, fun? An equal back and forth, of sorts, a game, and one that Stede enjoys immensely. Izzy’s a right proper twat, to borrow one of the man’s favourite insults, more often than not, but he’s softened around the edges, just enough to let Stede see beyond the surface and glimpse the capacity for genuine care and kindness underneath.
For Ed, mostly, but also for their crew and, more and more often, Stede himself.
Read the rest of the chapter over on [AO3].