Hyukjae and Donghae received the news about ‘zombie’ pirates with great shock, though the most shocked person amongst them was Kyuhyun. Mouh gaped his eyes darted from Hyukjae to Donghae. Both seemed like they had hastily thrown on a shirt, both were in boxers (that were hanging dreadfully low(and since when did Donghae own pink polka dot boxers?))

It took him a while to connect the dots

“Holy !! Ye’ two have been ing?! Like actual --”

 “I won’t put it that crudely I me—“ Hyukjae winced

Sungin raised a brow at Kyuhyun “ Oh, you didn’t know?”

Kyuhyun now looked furious “What the flyin’ kraken!! Shungmin knew too?!” puset about being the only left out on this big secret, Kyuhyun glared.

“It’s Sungmin” Sungmin corrected, displeased, only to be waved off by Kyuhyun who needed to be coaxed to calm down, Donghae had to actually take him aside and talk to him.

Meanwhile Hyukjae shot sungmin an apologetic smile and sungmin shrugged “So now that I can see we certainly interrupted something, I’ll apologize though it seems Kyuhyun doesn’t approve” he nodded towards the frowning pirate who kept side-eyeing Hyukjae.

“Jokes aside, Ming what are we supposed to do with this now?”

“In all honesty, we will be paying for a failure, Jung’s men were supposed to ing prevent the Pirates from pinpointing the exact location of where Pandora is found in rich quantities. Now that Jung’s failed, our tactics will need to be revised.”

“We need to talk to Chief about this” Hyukjae nodded, looking grave and cast a quick look at the two pirates “What do we do with these two?”

Sungmin smiled innocently “Oh you mean Kyuhyun? Since of course Donghae’s spending the night over. Oh look at the time, the fireworks will be starting soon. Hurry get us all a drink.”

Hyukjae was watching with narrowed eyed that twinkled with amusement “I don’t keep liquor at home, remember?”

“Ugh, you’re the worst, either way come along!”

So the two unlikely nearly-friends, Sungmin and Kyuhyun along with the two unlikely love birds, Hyukjae and Donghae spread a blanket onto the cold surface of the balcony floor and sat down and raised their heads to the sky. Donghae felt Hyukjae lean onto his shoulder and intertwined their fingers.

A red flare streaked up the dark velvety sky till it burst  and sparks flew. Echoes of cheers sounded from all over as several other fireworks followed, flying and bursting, spreading color and light and of course such a romantic moment was not to be wasted. They felt a magnetic pull towards each other as Hyukjae and Donghae leaned in, hearing and feeling sparks fly as lips molded against each other. Kyuhyun was the first one who instantly groaned in distaste and sprang off, rushing inside the apartment, profanities flying out his mouth. Sungmin grinned at the sight of the two lovers languidly kissing, though he was not as creeped out. So turning to the sky once again he in a lungful of air. Hope and determination lingering in his eyes as he witnessed the beauty that the Boalan sky was that night.

The plan was to devide the crew in groups and find a weakness to the freak-pirates. While Donghae had indeed stayed the night over at Hyukjae’s,  Kyuhyun had been sneaked into one of the pubs reputed to be visited often by criminals of all kinds, hence mingling in was no issue.

Chief’s advisor had straight away claimed that simply bombing the ship with fighter jets would be enough to end them it all, effectively and swiftly. After all what would be a better way to end an apparently invincible army of nonperishable Pirates than to bomb them into pieces? The Chief however had to keep his word regarding not gunning down the Pirates led by Donghae.

As the sun finally rose that morning it was decided to go ahead with the plan that very day. Hyukjae had returned to his apartment and an impatient Donghae who took a while as he took in the news that the raid was to happen that very day.

“Don’t ye’ dare pull any heroics or I swear I’ll revive ye and kill ye’ myself!” he threatened as he clung on tightly to Hyukjae, not wanting to break the embrace. Hyukjae smiled, this would have been yet another battle he was going into, but this particular battle was going to be way different than any other, he could already feel it. “Same to you, you reckless brat. I need you whole, just like this.” Hyukjae tried pulling away, they needed to prepare but Donghae held on

“Let’s just be like this fer a while.”

Hyukjae gladly complied, not bothering to come up with a snarky retort; he needed this as much as Donghae, to be held. They were going into battle after all, nothing new for either of them but this time, they had something to lose: each other.

--

a/n: late and short update, I know, Iv'e been busy plus the shortness  was necessary. Next chap the battle begins.