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magniloquent-raven · 1 year ago

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i have this idea for a fic that i'll probably never write but just hear me out

ed gets adopted by a stray cat

he's the rattiest little tabby with half a tail and a notched ear. no one in the area really knows where he came from but a couple merchants stede talked to think he might've been a ship cat someone left behind. people always find him at the docks, anyways. staring out at the sea. maybe he just goes there hoping to catch fish.

and he's not a friendly cat, is the thing. he skulks around giving everyone the evil eye, he hisses when people come near him, and he's never accepted the food scraps kids will throw him hoping to earn his trust. no one knows why he insists on hanging around populated areas if he hates people so much, but he's been there long enough they've just sort of accepted it.

stede has no interest in the cat, once he realized the thing was never going to let him pet it he gave up, but ed. ed won't stop getting distracted looking for him every time they're in town, craning his neck around corners trying to catch a glimpse of grey fur and angry green eyes. he's started putting leftover bits of dinner in his pocket and leaving them around. under the pier. behind a fruit stall in the market. anywhere he's seen the cat hang out. he never sees the cat eat, but the bits of food are always gone when he comes back. (probably birds, he thinks. or weirdo kids. anything could've gotten them)

then one day the cat follows them home. and will not leave. not that they try very hard to make him. stede shoos him half-heartedly when he catches the cat on the porch, scratching at splintery bits, but he gives up when he sees the starry look on ed's face. they're replacing all that wood anyways, what's a little more damage?

ed sets aside bowls for the cat. for food and water. they get left on the porch, and he finds them empty every morning. the cat rarely comes inside, and never comes very close, but it's okay because ed loves just watching him go about his business. he takes all his business so seriously. stalking bugs and licking his paw and digging holes in the sand. it's all very important. and adorable.

they have a breakthrough when ed is having a bad day.

he's had so many good days since him and stede decided to settle here. sure, it's been weird and difficult doing shit he's not used to doing, but it's also been fucking great. because stede's here doing it too.

but some days are just hard. some days his knee aches and he's gotten one too many bug bites and all the good shit isn't enough to keep him from sitting by izzy's grave and just. hurting.

stede brought him tea earlier. kissed his forehead and asked if he wanted come company. he didn't. he did. but he didn't. so stede promised to come back in an hour and see how he was feeling then.

he's not sure how long it's been, but the tea is long gone and the wind is irritating and sitting on the ground sucks. but. then the cat comes over. and starts playing with izzy's tie. it's still hanging off the makeshift cross they made him, a little sun-faded now. it had been swaying in the breeze until the cat pounced out of nowhere and caught it between his paws.

and ed's first instinct is to jolt, swear, shoo the cat away, but then he freezes, half holding on to the tie, the cat still digging his claws into the other end of it, looking up at ed with his eyes wider than ed's ever seen them. he looks young like that. and he's so much smaller up close.

ed wiggles the tie a little, and the cat bats at it some more.

it's fucking morbid, playing with what's essentially a memorial to someone who died in his arms. his insides clench when he thinks about it like that.

but then he thinks about it differently. he thinks about izzy. always keeping himself apart, holding himself like he didn't need to lean on anything, anyone. acting like he didn't have soft hopes behind steel bars. but he cared. he cared about ed. about their crew. he would've scoffed at ed being silly about a cat. but he would've done it with gentle eyes and a suppressed grin.

"he would've liked you." ed's sure of it. he would've hated the scratches all over everything, and the little holes he was poking in izzy's favourite tie, but none of that would've really mattered. as much as he'd curse and bluster about how much of a bastard the cat was, they would've understood each other.

the cat blinks at him. and chomps on the tie, a quiet growl rumbling in his scraggly chest.

and ed smiles for the first time since he woke up that morning.

#edward teach #ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2 #our flag means death #a raven's writing desk #i was playing around with the idea of him straight up calling the cat izzy but i can't decide #it doesn't really matter either way honestly the cat is izzy whether he calls him that or not lmfao #idk something about izzy's death closing a chapter of ed's life and him being okay with that on some level but also #it still leaves a hole #it's still a loss #so it helps to have some of that izzy energy in his new life but without all the baggage because it's just a cat

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ghost-oftheriver · 1 month ago

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