#and yes i do also need this to turn into steddyhands
OFMD Angst Prompt:
It’s after the season finale, Stede and the crew have finally caught up with the Revenge and as soon as Ed catches sight of Stede, he bursts into tears and welcomes him abroad. They cry together, promise their eternal devotion and forgive each other. Lucius pops out of the wall, Jim decides that they’ll wait to enact revenge on Blackbeard and Frenchie collapses into Wee John’s arms.
Everything is fixed! Everything is solved!
Well, except, of course, for Izzy. He limps over to Stede, presents a saber and challenges him to a duel. The crew, at this point, are so over Izzy that they’re about to rush him, pick him up and toss him overboard when Stede asks his terms.
Izzy says winner stays on the ship.
And the loser is killed.
The crew gasps. Ed begs Stede to refuse. Wee John and Jim offer to just kill Izzy outright. Lucius hides his face in his hands.
But Stede, high on the adrenaline of reuniting with Ed, accepts. He’s bested Izzy twice and surely he can do it again! In fact, he privately decides that when he wins, because he truly believes that he will, that he’ll just tie Izzy up and dump him at port.
So they get into their stances, swords held high and the duel commences. The crew cheers for Stede as he slashes and advances on Izzy, who’s taken the defensive position and for a moment, Steds begins to feel sort of proud.
Because he’s winning. He knew those lessons from Oluwande and Roach would help him! He begins advancing more and more, cutting Izzy off at every turn and backing him into a corner.
And just as Stede is about to knock the sword from Izzy’s hand, he catches the confused look from Ivan and Fang. They’re stating at Izzy… like something’s wrong.
So Stede pulls back, allowing Izzy to advance and…
Then he realizes. Just to check, he raises his sword and swings his sword to cut across Izzy’s face, making sure his move is so obvious and slow that even a child could parry it– and there!
As soon as Stede’s arm moves, there’s a small twitch under Izzy’s eye– he’s seen the attack coming but his sword doesn’t move to even block it. In fact, Izzy waits until the absolute last second to parry and doesn’t take the opportunity to advance.
Stede can’t believe it. He doesn’t want to. So again and again, he swings wildly, like an amateur and every time, Izzy lets him get so close to actually hurting him before he blocks or parries or dodges. Stede stops, frozen, when Izzy lets the tip of Stede’s sword cut a thin line across his face.
But again, Izzy does nothing. Absolutely nothing!
Stede can feel a pit growing in his stomach. The cheers from the crew have quieted as Stede waits and waits and waits for anything, any attack. He’s wide open, Izzy could easily rip the sword from his hand at any moment. But Izzy doesn’t move an inch.
Stede feels sick.
This is a fight to the death.
And Izzy is losing on purpose.
So this could go any way.Preferably towards Steddyhands. Please. Please God please please please steddyhands steddyhands steddyha
