sometimes, babygirl is a forty year old autistic man with severe mental illness

in our cell, you ask me do i wanna be a sailor?

[edizzy <33, also trans izzy bc its canon nobody can tell me otherwise]

The beach was Isabella's favourite place to be. It was calming. It soothed her soul. Countless grains of sand between her toes, salty sea breeze on her tongue, the freezing ocean soaking the hem of her dress. Going to the beach on her own was the perfect distraction. Windy or rainy days made for good beach days. Nobody else was ever there. Or, so she thought.

Edward Teach loved to sprint down the beach and dive into the sea. He loved the way he felt when the cold saltwater chilled him down to the bone. That was when he felt most alive. When he was alone on a misty morning, swimming out to the island beyond the cliffs. Once he reached it, he would shake the water from his too-long hair and scream. It was far too early for anyone to be awake. Nobody would hear him. Nobody, except Isabella Hands.

Ed saw her standing on the beach. She was staring at him. He stared back from his rock in the middle of the ocean, before bellowing at her.

"Come and join me!" He cried out. She stayed put. "I don't bite, I promise."

"You come over to me. My dad'll kill me if I fuck up this dress, too." She screamed back, her voice carried across the ocean by the strong winds.

Without another word, Ed dove into the sea and made his way back towards the beach. Once the boy reached her, now out of breath and shivering, she laughed loudly. Silently, she wrapped the towel by her feet around him.

"Hi. I'm Ed Teach." He introduced himself enthusiastically, chest still heaving.

"Isabella Hands. You look like a drowned rat." She commented. Ed placed a hand on his chest in mock offense, gasping dramatically.

"How dare you insult me like this! I'm more like a scrawny kitten that's just been given a bath." He corrected her, smirking slightly. This caused her to cackle once again.

"Keep telling yourself that, rat-boy." She said, sticking her tongue out at him. Ed mirrored the gesture, before giving her a gentle shove. She pushed him back. Their catfight continued for a moment, until the two of them burst out into a fit of giggles.

---

When Isabella was fourteen, she snuck Ed into her house in the middle of the night. They built a blanket fort and whispered secrets to each other for the rest of the night. Izzy felt like she could tell Ed things that she'd never been able to say out loud before. She told him how she'd never really wanted to be a 'she'. She told him how desperately she longed to look like the boys her age. In return, Ed told her of the pretty boys that he'd admire in the marketplace and his childhood crush on the paperboy.

Ed offered to cut Izzy's hair, after she told him how much she hated it. The haircut was choppy and uneven, ridden with split ends. But Izzy loved it. She looked almost like a boy. A grin split her face in two as she looked in the mirror, admiring Ed's handiwork. In Ed's spare clothes and with her new hair, she felt more like herself than ever.

"Is it good? Do you like it?" He asked softly, cocking his head. Izzy nodded, continuing to run her fingers through her hair. Her expression was distant, lost in deep contemplation.

It didn't matter that her daddy screamed at her and beat her when he saw what she'd done to her hair. It wasn't like he could un-cut it. She stopped caring about her parents' opinion on her hair. Or, about any of their many opinions. They didn't affect her, except when they would take it out on her physically. Only a few more years, then she could leave with Ed and never return. Everything was okay, because she had Ed. She reckoned that if she told him that she wanted to be a boy, he would call her one. Ed was always very willing to go along with those kind of things. Maybe someday she would tell him.

That day came a year later, on one of those nights. The ones where Izzy and Ed would lay in silence on the clifftops. Cold wind kissed the tips of their noses, as they stared up into the night sky. A background of crashing waves against the rocks accompanied their contemplation nicely. It was almost like a date. Occasionally, someone would murmur a confession. The howling winds swept their secrets away somewhere they could never be found.

"I think... I think I'm a boy," Izzy muttered, hearing Ed turn to face him, "I know that's probably confusing. I want to be a boy so much that it hurts. My soul aches with the desire to look like you; to be like you."

Edward silently wrapped his arms around Izzy, pressing a soft kiss to his temple. Izzy smiled contentedly. Of course Ed would be nice about this. He was too lovely not to be. Despite his happiness, he still shook as he exhaled. A sob forced its way up Izzy's throat and he tried in vain to suppress it. He knew that he had been holding this in for far too long. It was only a matter of time before he broke down.

"Frankly, I've always seen you as a boy. You were too masculine not to be one, even when you were wearing those ugly dresses. I love you regardless, Iz. Wait, is Izzy still okay? Like, as a name?" Ed fretted, words trailing off into incoherency. Izzy grinned fondly.

"Yeah, Izzy's fine. I don't know if I could ever be called anything else. Maybe it could be short for something else, though... Like Israel. Yeah, I like that." He mused quietly as Edward listened, enthralled.

"I'm glad you told me, Izzy. It was brave of you." He comforted him, clutching his hand tightly.

---

Izzy Hands was sixteen, and spending the night in a holding cell. He didn't know exactly the fuck-up that led to this moment, but honestly he didn't care. The cell was dank and cramped, but he was high off his ass and had Edward here with him. Yes, they were awaiting murder charges, but that didn't matter as long as they had each other. So many years ago, they'd made a promise. Nothing could hurt them when they were together. Or, at least, everything would work out eventually.

They did what they had to do in order to get Ed out of the shitty situation he was stuck in. In fairness, Ed's dad was a piece of shit human who most definitely deserved the fate he received. Ed and his mum were finally safe. That was all that mattered to Izzy. He didn't really give a shit about the consequences of that. So they waited. Quite a long time, actually.

Izzy had been considering what kind of tattoos he wanted for a while. He had the stars on his lower back that Ed had done for him six months ago, but he wanted something more obvious. Besides, it wasn't like he had much of a future anyways. He was waiting on the verdict of his murder case, for fuck's sake. He might as well get a face tattoo whilst he was at it.

"Ed, do you have a needle on you?" He asked, nudging the boy in question with his knee. Ed murmured groggily, searching through his deep pockets.

"Um... I've got a safety pin, if that works? What do you need one for?" He fumbled with the object in question, holding it up for Izzy to see. He nodded.

"That's fine. Would you give me another tattoo? I've been thinking about it, and I want something more visible." Explained Izzy in hushed tones. Ed agreed enthusiastically, grabbing a pen out of his seemingly bottomless pockets, unscrewing the top so that he could access the cartridge.

"What do you want me to do? Or should I choose for you?" Ed asked. Izzy instructed him to pick it out, he didn't really care what it was just as long as it made him look scary.

He coated the needle in ink and began to push it into a spot just beneath his right eye. It was a small tattoo, but the face had a lot of nerves so it hurt quite a lot. Izzy dragged his finger softly along the sore area. He couldn't quite tell what it was, so he asked.

"A cross, like the kind everyone thinks you get on treasure maps. Because you're my treasure, Israel Hands." Ed explained.

"You sap." Izzy teased, but smiled warmly at the endearment. He'd never admit it, but he was in love with Ed. He had been for a while, if he was honest.