Where the Stars Meet the Sea - Our Flag Means Death

Chapter 1

Blackbeard's mind is a haze. It had been for the past few weeks.

His days go by in a blur of drinking and stumbling around the deck of the Revenge, trying to maintain the shreds of composure he has left. Whenever he did feel sober, he went around threatening his crew members to get back to work and stop staring at him with concern. He is Blackbeard. He is the Kraken.

So why, oh why, when the booze wears off late at night, does he curl up in Stede's old bed and sob? He barely knew him for a couple of months, and his absence has reduced him to this.

The painting is still up on the mantle, the bright red paint strokes an eyesore that begs for his attention.

Stede was right. He was a lighthouse; one that Blackbeard should've avoided.

Izzy is the only one on the ship who seems remotely happy. The way he looks at Blackbeard makes him want to jump into the sea.

Because he's looking at the Kraken, at what he wants him to be. Cold. Calculating. Ready to maim someone at a moment's notice. Which he's been ordering a lot more of lately.

But what else is there to do? It's back to the old days of making plans and executing them. Stede is gone. Blackbeard can still remember that moonlit night. Still feel his red silk being gently tugged from his lax fingertips. Now Stede's the one who slipped away, gone into doggy heaven, just as Izzy wanted.

Stede told him he wore fine things well. And now here Blackbeard is. Dark rouge smeared across his face. His hair an unbrushed frenzy of grey and white. The definition of savage sitting with a bottle of alcohol in the room of a lover he cannot forget.

The dinghy was left unnoticed. Or maybe someone did see it, but decided not to tell Blackbeard, who was standing by himself up on the quarterdeck, above the rest of the crew. The little wooden dinghy drifted right up to the Revenge unbeknownst to him. Maybe he was too woozy from his drink. Maybe his eyes were too puffy from crying.

All that he knows is that he was looking out at the horizon when he heard a dead man's voice.

"Ed?" The sound of him makes Blackbeard still. Agonisingly slowly, he turns around and looks down, not wanting to let hope overtake him.

But there he is. In tatty cotton and trousers, his golden hair slicked back. Weary eyes that soften at the sight of him, eyebrows slightly upturned.

"You..." The word slips through Blackbeard's lips, his throat croaky. Stede was there, and the people he had left on an island to die were climbing on board. He allows himself to face him, unsteady as the waves lap against the vessel.

Stede spreads his hands before letting them fall against his sides. "I'm back." He says simply, the twinge of a smirk on his face.

"You're alive." Wave after wave of different emotions slam into Blackbeard. Anger, confusion, happiness, bitterness. "I thought..." His eyes threaten to water. He still hasn't moved.

After slight hesitation, Stede replies. "I am." Traces of nervousness in his voice makes Blackbeard stiffen.

"What - what happened?" He asks, taking a clumsy, groggy step forward, unable to pull his eyes away from Stede. Meanwhile, Stede's brown eyes (oh, those eyes) cast downwards.

"I have a lot to explain, Ed. But... I missed you." Their eyes lock once more, and Ed swears he could've kissed him right there and then if the whole crew wasn't watching. "I missed you everyday."

"I missed you too." Blackbeard says breathlessly, climbing down the ladder to meet Stede on the deck. But he left space in between them, unsure of how to reach out. "I thought - I thought you were dead. I thought-"