The Rat Catcher's Hands

There is a bitter, hopeless feeling when you can do nothing but watch the person you love dash themselves against the hard cold stones of another persons hatred. Where you can only sit and watch, as someone who could care less about them, continuously and tortorously takes their heart and wrings it out until there is nothing left.
Ruslan, the Rat Catcher of the Revenge, can only hope that Israel Hands can hold out long enough to realize that he has loved him all this time, even when Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach could not.

I have also posted this story on Ao3 )
Cover art credits to Veronica O' Niell on Twitter / X https://twitter.com/zookie_art/status/1712426943466148148 ))