"Well, that was… something," Archie muttered as she sat down beside Jim.
"Yeah, you could say that," Jim sighed. "Never imagined our first kiss would be in front of Izzy, of all people, let alone his rotting leg."
Archie grinned at them. "But you did imagine our first kiss?"
"Ugh," Jim grumbled, burying their face in their hands to hide the blush spreading across their cheeks. "I walked right into that one, huh?"
Archie laughed, and despite their embarrassment, Jim couldn't help but join in. Genuine laughter had become so rare on the Revenge these days, and it felt good to be the cause of it.
For a while, the two of them just sat there, laughing and kissing and laughing some more, but Jim couldn't help but brace, waiting for the other shoe to drop. This wouldn't last. It couldn't. They didn't get to keep Olu, and they wouldn't get to keep Archie either. They just knew it.
Since Stede had left, Ed—no, Blackbeard—seemed hell-bent on destroying every bit of happiness, every bit of love that was left on the Revenge.
"What are you thinking about?" Archie asked, cupping their face in both of her hands, and Jim leaned into the touch.
"Nothing," they sighed, shaking their head. Archie looked at them doubtfully but said nothing, just stroking her thumbs over their cheeks and waiting for them to tell her the truth.
"It's just—" Jim began after a few minutes, "I don't know, I'm kind of worried about him."
"Who, Izzy?" Archie asked, raising an eyebrow.
Jim shrugged. "I mean, him too, sure, but I meant Ed." They sighed. "This isn't like him. This isn't him."
Jim didn't understand what had happened. Ed had been fine when he came back to the Revenge! Well, not fine, obviously—he had cried a lot and sung terrible songs and all that, but that was normal after… well, whatever Stede had done to break his heart like that.
But then, suddenly, he was so mean and angry and his eyes looked so fucking dead. It seemed like something had broken him, for real this time, and it terrified Jim.
"Well, I'm new here, so I wouldn't know. At least it's better here than on my old ship, so…" Archie shrugged.
Jim raised an eyebrow at that. "¿En serio?"
She nodded. "Yeah, one time my old captain cut off a guy's lips and fed them to him, it was crazy! And then there were the snakes, of course, and…" Archie trailed off as she noticed Jim staring at her. "What?"
Jim stared at her, horrified. "Archie, that is crazy! And not in a good way." They knew they had gotten lucky with Stede as their captain, but how the fuck could anyone think that this was normal captaining behavior?
"What, you never had a captain who skinned people alive?" Archie chuckled nervously.
"I mean, I worked at Spanish Jackie's, so…" Jim answered, rolling their eyes. "But…"
They hesitated. How were they supposed to explain this to someone who hadn't been on the Revenge before… all of this?
"I've kinda gotten used to Stede's kind of pirating, you know? With him, we got a living wage and vacations… Fuck, he even read us stories every night." They shook their head, smiling at the memory. "We did raids, sure, but mostly, we spent time together, as a crew. It was… fun. "
When they glanced over at Archie, though, their smile dropped. Archie was staring at her hands, and her lip started wobbling dangerously.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Jim asked softly.
Archie looked up and gave them a shaky smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "That's why I came here, you know? To start over, get a second chance. Escape from all the violence and have some fun." She swallowed hard. "But I guess it's like you said: you never know when you're in the middle of the good old days. Maybe mine are over already."
And then, to Jim's horror, Archie burst into tears. "Archie?" Jim asked, alarmed. "Archie, querida. Hey, hey, it's okay."
Archie just shook her head and buried her face in her hands to hide the tears. Jim didn't know what to do. Comforting people had never really been their thing. Olu, on the other hand… Once, after a bad nightmare, Olu had held them close and told them stories to distract them and—Nope. Shouldn't think about Olu now, or they would start crying themselves. But maybe they could help Archie through this nightmare they had both found themselves in.
"Do… Do you want a hug?" they asked tentatively. For a moment, Archie just stared at them, and Jim feared that they had said the wrong thing, but then Archie practically threw herself into their arms and began to sob.
Jim held her tight, whispering sweet nothings in her ear. Archie's sobs broke their heart—they'd had no idea that underneath the cheerful exterior, Archie was hurting so badly.
"I'm sorry," Archie mumbled when the worst of the tears had passed. "That was embarrassing."
Jim gently brushed a tear from her cheek and shook their head. "No, it wasn't."
"Uh, it kinda was, though," Archie disagreed, and Jim was relieved to see a tiny smile on her face.
"Nuh-uh," they shook their head. "Not embarrassing. Sometimes crying helps with," they gestured vaguely, "all of this."
"Maybe it does," Archie muttered quietly. "I know something else that might help, though," she added with a mischievous grin as she wiped the last of the tears from her eyes.
"Oh, yeah?"
Archie nodded, then winked at them. "Wanna see my boobs?"