Jongin didn’t look at Kyungsoo as the Calling Siren drew closer to the Sapphire vessel. Instead he watched Yifan and Sehun as they gathered up weighted ropes, with which they would board the other ship. He watched Yifan the closest, the taller man sporting two gleaming short swords strapped to his person and a small pouch around his waist.

“I’m surprised the Siren doesn’t have any cannons.” He said, taking more ropes from Sehun. “It would be easier to engage with other ships if she did. She could just shoot them still.”

“Sapphire Country doesn’t have any cannons; all they have is cargo ships, not warships, and the last thing we need is to encourage them to purchase some.” Was Kyungsoo’s response as he ed his coat. The wind swept at his coat and made him seem all the more intimidating despite his small stature in comparison to the others. “The Siren would be slowed down too much if we gave her cannons, she wasn’t made for them. She’s small and fast – just what we need.”

“I have more firepower than both ships combined.” Yifan toyed with the drawstring on his pouch, and Jongin swallowed hard – Yifan had spoken of being a good shot on land, but he hadn’t expected any guns to be brought on board. The only other one he knew of remained in Kyungsoo’s quarters, hidden away in the desk.

Perhaps it was the romance of the blade, or perhaps the ability to inflict anything from light wounds to drawn out torture to a swift and bloody demise, that drew Kyungsoo to the sword rather than making use of the Last Resort tucked in that drawer.

“Yifan, you will be in charge of the upper deck until we have swept the ship. Sapphire sailors are, on the whole, feeble. From what I can tell they have no standardised combat training and almost none carry any form of weapon. Ensure all members of their crew are bound and controlled so that I’ve seen them all, and do what you have to do to keep them in line.”

“And if they resist?”

“Tell them a dead man doesn’t struggle.” Kyungsoo’s tone was flat and highly disconcerting. “No one dies before I’ve seen them, but once I’ve seen their face…they’re at your mercy.”

“Understood.”

“Sehun, your duties are no different to usual. Search the ship and take everyone you see to the top decks. Subdue or bind them if you must – it will make Yifan’s job easier.”

“Understood, Captain.” Sehun’s posture was straight, the spiked club in his hand glinting threateningly under the dim light.

And then Kyungsoo turned to Jongin, and for a brief moment it was as though a stone wall crumbled between them. The captain’s shoulders were low and eyes uncertain, causing a lump to form in Jongin’s throat. The captain who worried about him, protected him, kissed him. Giving him instructions for throwing himself into danger.

The wall was back up within moments, however thin.

“Jongin.”

“Captain.”

He was hesitant, almost, to commit to giving Jongin his orders. “You will be doing the same as Sehun; take anyone you find to the top deck alive, until the whole ship has been accounted for. Then the three of you will clear out the vessel of its valuables while I keep watch over the crew. Understood?”

The three men stood by Kyungsoo all made noises of agreement, and the captain took his trusted sword in hand.

“Prepare yourselves.”

 

It was eerily quiet on the deck when Yifan, physically strongest, left with the weighted ropes to take his position. Kyungsoo left with him, perhaps stronger than he appeared, and Jongin waited with Sehun on the deck.

“He was right.” Jongin muttered to nobody in particular, though Sehun heard. “Sapphire sailors have no training at all. The country has been in peace for centuries and has no army or navy. Cargo ship captains carry swords they don’t know how to use correctly and an average man can throw a punch, perhaps.”

Sehun grinned at him, bouncing a little on his heels as the Sapphire ship drew closer. “You should really talk more about your time on that ship. You might have some interesting information for us.”

“I was a swabbing boy, Sehun.”

“And now look at you.” He tapped his club against Jongin’s sword with a light clang. “Never underestimate the swabbing boy.”

A shout from above, and something from high up suddenly whizzed onto the deck of the other ship with a crash. The weighted ropes, far heavier than any man or even a group, had been hurled onto the Sapphire vessel and looped over part of the mast to form a rope swing. Halfway down from the lookout, Yifan leapt across, clutching the rope, before landing on the enemy ship’s deck. He threw the loose end of the rope back across with all the force he could muster, where Kyungsoo waited to take it.

“I’ll go after you.” Sehun gestured to where Yifan was already being confronted by Sapphire sailors. “It’ll be my job to take the rope down so they can’t get onto the Siren. By the time I’m over, most of them will have come up to see what the commotion is about, so I’ll help Yifan with them while you head for the lower decks.”

Jongin was going to respond, but instead was tapped in the shoulder by a swinging rope. He took it before it swung away again, and meeting his captain’s eyes one more time, took a running start and jumped.

Landing on the Sapphire ship wasn’t like coming home for Jongin, but rather like stepping back into everything that ever went wrong in his life. Setting foot on those wooden boards brought him back to the young, weak Jongin who had nowhere to go and no one who cared. Jongin who left for the ocean because the land didn’t want him.

He never wanted to be that Jongin again.

The thud of his boots on the deck of the Sapphire vessel was met with a shout from nearby. Throwing the rope back over to where Sehun was waiting, Jongin looked around frantically. Kyungsoo was already gone, likely to scour the ship for what – and who – he was looking for. Yifan was tussling with three men at once (though with one on the floor under his boot, one in a headlock and the other backed against the wall with a sword in front of his face, Jongin reckoned that Yifan was just fine by himself)and there as nobody paying attention to him that he could see. Which could only mean…

He ducked down quickly, just as a fist appeared from behind where his head had been seconds ago. Jongin lashed out without thinking, kicking behind him before sprinting away. There was another thud as Jongin’s would-be attacker fell to the ground, and Jongin ran for the first door he saw that could possibly lead him to the lower decks.

He didn’t look back, but he heard a telltale oomph as Sehun beautifully timed his landing to leap right on top of the sailor.

 

The halls beneath the decks were strangely nostalgic. Dark and eerie, nothing but plain wooden boards stretching as far as the eye could see and further still. There was something haunting about them, almost, the way the shadows danced low on the walls like monsters swirling around one’s feet. Monsters of self-doubt, of fear. Monsters that feed on the weak and unwanted.

The swabbing boys.

“Ah!”

“Jongin?”

For all his being careful, Jongin had managed to bump into someone in that lonely hallway. Fortunately, he was quickly comforted by the sound of his captain’s voice.

Jongin had his back to the wall, Kyungsoo looking at him curiously. Kyungsoo’s sword had blood on the blade already, and precious little light filtering from the top decks reflected from Kyungsoo’s eyes, his sword, his earrings, the buttons on his coat. It took Jongin back.

“This is like that day…” Kyungsoo murmured, not pressing close but not stepping back either. Jongin nodded, but didn’t quite meet the captain’s eye. There were more important matters at hand right now.

Namely, the footsteps that didn’t click in the darkness, the pair of eyes barely glinting in the low light that could be seen over Kyungsoo’s shoulder. They weren’t high up enough to be Sehun, or Yifan who had been assigned to the top deck.

“Captain, move!” Jongin scrambled for his sword, but Kyungsoo moved first, swinging his sword out to the side and apparently succeeding in hitting his target as the man behind him staggered back with a groan. Jongin moved to grab the man, pulling his arms behind his back. Perhaps it was the adrenaline, or maybe a desire to protect his captain that had Jongin holding his sword to the Sapphire sailor’s throat before he even knew what he was doing.

“We’re going for a walk.” Jongin said, though it came out more like a hiss. His eyes were adjusting to the darkness and he could see the man better now – perhaps the same age as his former captain and just as helpless-looking as the older man had been when Jongin last saw him. Blood ran down his shins where Kyungsoo had struck. “To the top deck.”

The man whimpered in protest, maybe even fear, and on any day before now Jongin might have let it pull on his heartstrings. He was the boy thrown to the pirates like a piece of meat, a peace offering to be disposed of however they pleased. He knew the fear well, of having his ship taken over.

But the captain’s dark eyes on him, burning into him, made him instead hold the gleaming blade closer to his captive’s neck. “I suggest you behave. You don’t want to get into trouble – I’m the gentle one.”

The adrenaline faded when Kyungsoo vanished into the darkness of the lower decks, and it started to hit Jongin that he was a pirate. He was holding this man’s life by a thread as they marched through the dingy halls to where Yifan would be waiting, and it made him feel powerful.

He liked that, and wasn’t sure whether to be afraid of that or not.

“Put him this side.” Yifan gestured to the left-hand side of the top deck. There was already quite a crowd on both sides, in varying states of disarray and all tightly bound in ropes. “Anyone the captain hasn’t seen goes this side. Those he has go that side.”

And Jongin led the stranger to where Yifan had told him, pushing him to the floor. He didn’t particularly want to cause the man any further damage and winced a little when he cried out; landing on his wounds from Kyungsoo’s sword, but Jongin couldn’t afford to lose face here, in front of an audience. With his captive subdued, Jongin took up some nearby ropes and set about binding the man’s wrists and ankles.

“Keep quiet, keep still, and do what he tells you.” He muttered as he finished tying the sailor’s wrists together. He didn’t look at his face, he didn’t want to.

He didn’t need to.

“Anyone untying their bounds will be a dead man!” Yifan barked, raising the pistol Jongin assumed had been hidden in the pouch around his waist. Yifan was pointing it directly at two men near the back of the right-hand group, who did indeed appear to be trying to escape. “Unless you want to be shark bait, don’t move!”

“I’m the doctor.” A voice near Jongin’s knees wheezed. Jongin still refused to look at him, instead taking up his sword with a deep sigh and making his way back to the door.

“Then I really recommend you don’t get yourself killed.”

Jongin brought a few more sailors up to the deck after that, most complying quite easily. Perhaps because they were slightly older men or perhaps because they were unarmed while Jongin was waving a sword threateningly at them. They silently allowed themselves to be bound in ropes, joining the ever-growing crowd of hostages on deck. It seemed that in visits to the top deck Kyungsoo had opted to single out the more important members of the crew, with the doctor Jongin had captured earlier alongside a line of others a little further forward than the rest of the group. One man, more smartly dressed than the others, appeared to be the captain.

It also appeared that Sehun, who had located him, had kicked him in the face. That or he was simply losing teeth naturally.

Jongin once again disappeared below deck, just as Kyungsoo emerged from the right-hand doors to survey the captives. If Jongin had stayed, he would have heard Kyungsoo ordering the other captain to tell him how many men were on board the vessel, with a prod to the chest with Kyungsoo’s sword to convince him. The sky above was overcast, with the first drops of rain threatening to fall.

“Fifty-two.” The man had said to Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo looked around the crowd before summoning Sehun to his side. “Count them.” Was his order. And Sehun counted. He counted them twice. Yifan counted too.

“Fifty-one, captain.” And Yifan nodded in agreement.

“Are you lying to me?” Kyungsoo questioned the Sapphire captain again, but usually when they were lied to about crew numbers, it was insisted that there were fewer than there really were aboard, not more. Never more.

“There are fifty-two men aboard this ship.” The Sapphire captain’s voice was weak, but carried the underlying firmness present in Kyungsoo’s own. A captain’s words to another. “Unless one of you threw a man overboard.”

“There’s one more.” Kyungsoo said to Sehun and Yifan, who flanked him either side.

He went quiet.

“Jongin.”

 

It was peaceful below the decks now, as most of the Sapphire crew had been taken up to the top deck. Jongin felt a little strange, under the decks alone like he always used to be. Everyone else would always be up on the top decks doing something far too important for Jongin to even ask about, for sure. Except now they were up there at his own crew’s mercy…

Passing by a door, Jongin heard a clatter from inside. Gripping his sword, he peered in.

The hold. It was dark.

“We clearing out already?” He closed the door behind him, still holding the sword tightly. Jongin did wonder for a brief moment if the other presence in the hold was someone like Sehun, or even Yifan if the captain had decided they were done with the crew. But when he received no response, it was time to up his guard. He raised the blade, glancing around him for any sign of movement. Jongin was alone in enemy territory now, and knew an attack could come from any direction.

He didn’t expect a barrel to be thrown at him, however. It collided with the wall behind Jongin with a crash, breaking apart easily with obvious poor craftsmanship.

But wasn’t what bothered Jongin right now.

“Filthy pirate!” A screech from somewhere in the darkness. “Thieving scum! Leave this ship before I throw your corpse off the side!”

Another barrel came flying out of nowhere, and the hold felt far too large for Jongin, like the shadows were endless. It was too dark to see properly, impossible to get an idea of where the mystery assailant was now no more barrels followed the first two. Perhaps they had run out of empty ones to choose from.

Or maybe, Jongin’s blood ran cold, they were on the move.

Jongin took up his sword and swung blindly in front of him, around him, behind, but came into contact with nothing more than wooden walls and crates that gave a disappointing scraping sound with each hit. The sound taunted him, mocked him. You’re running out of chances, Jongin. Time is ticking. Where is your enemy now? Where could they be? Not where you’re aiming, Jongin.

You’re running out of chances…

“Vermin!” Jongin’s sword was knocked out of his hands before he could register, a solid punch to his wrist releasing his grip. Movement past him, in the direction Jongin’s weapon had been tossed. He reached out.

Jongin’s hands found hair. Long hair. He pulled hard and brought the other person – man, by the sound of his voice – to the floor with him.

“You’re coming with me.” He growled, pinning the other to the floor by the shoulders. Jongin wanted to punch him, as his face became clearer to see, but his world was spinning too much from the adrenaline to do much more than dig down with the heels of his hands. “Even if I have to make you.”

“Never!” The Sapphire sailor struggled beneath Jongin, at little avail. “I’d rather die!”

The man, probably older than Jongin by a little way, reached up suddenly and raked sharp fingernails down the side of Jongin’s face, causing the pirate to recoil with a hiss. He managed to knee his assailant in the chest in retaliation, but it wasn’t enough, and Jongin was thrown back onto the floor. His elbows scraped against the wooden floorboards. “That’s not off the cards!”

The other man scrambled up onto wooden boxes that were easier for Jongin to see now, though the corners of the room remained shrouded in shadow. Grabbing a piece of debris from the shattered barrels, Jongin gave chase, ignoring the stinging in his cheek and elbows as he too leapt onto the boxes stacked so high in the large room. Jongin wasn’t the fittest of men, but had his youth on his side as he soon caught up with the sailor.

He brought the jagged plank in his hand against the man’s ankle with a beautiful crack.

And the sailor went tumbling down. Down from the crates and onto the floor of the hold once again, flat on his back. Following, Jongin wondered if the commotion could be heard from the upper decks or not. The man punched and kicked out from below him, slower than Jongin but definitely stronger. There was something strange and surreal about it, Jongin’s head slightly clouded as he batted his opponent’s limbs away from him with the plank and the blood running from the clawed trails on his cheek down onto the other’s shirt, neck, face.

He saw it then, out of the corner of his eye. The tiniest glint of light from his sword on the floor across the room. Perhaps the sailor hadn’t seen it yet, but Jongin knew, in all his clouded mind, that letting his weapon get into the hands of that man would be fatal. Knocked back once again from his place above his enemy and onto the floor with a mighty shove, Jongin narrowed his eyes, not at the sailor but at a distant spot in the shadows over the other’s shoulder, and threw the plank.

From then, everything happened in slow motion.

With Jongin’s sword out of the equation, as far as the Sapphire sailor was aware, the plank was the only weapon in the arena. He turned to chase down the piece of wood, turning his back to Jongin, and there he made his first and last mistake.

Jongin’s muscles acted by themselves, bringing Jongin’s aching body to standing, to running, across the room and launching into the other man’s back, hard. Every last pound of Jongin’s modest weight, with a running start, sent the sailor crashing into a cabinet against the wall of the hold. The entire hold shook, and the cabinet came down in a cacophony of noises Jongin couldn’t even begin to describe. The ensuing silence was sharp, piercing to Jongin’s ears.

He first went to take up his sword, before investigating the heap on the floor made up of former pieces of cabinet. Sword raised, he pulled the man out with his free hand, pressing it against his chest, then his neck.

Light breathing, a steady pulse. He was probably just knocked out.

It was a slow walk back to the upper deck, especially with his new captive being surprisingly heavy, but Jongin made it there in the end. Squinting a little bit in the last bit of daylight that greeted him when he emerged from the lower deck, Jongin’s face broke into a tired smile at the sight of his crew and captain.

“I found another one.”

 

“You should get some earrings, Jongin! To mark your official becoming a pirate. I’ll do it for you!”

“Later, Sehun. He doesn’t need any more holes in him today, thank you. Fetch me another cloth, Yifan – his face won’t stop bleeding.”

“Ouch!”

“Keep still! It’s like some kind of wild animal clawed you.”

The deck of the Calling Siren was still littered with boxes and barrels, but even as the Sapphire ship long since disappeared over the horizon once more, the first order of business was getting any wounds seen to. There weren’t many, as it seemed all of the crew had been just as easy to subdue as they had expected. Save for the man hiding in the hold.

“You find them occasionally; the spirited ones.” Kyungsoo grimaced, a hand resting lightly on Jongin’s arm as Zitao tended to Jongin’s cheek and elbows. The captain’s coat was fully buttoned again now, with patches of blood across the chest. A good idea, Jongin thought – it would be better to spare his white shirt from ruin. “But spirit alone won’t take us down.  You did very well, Jongin.”

Kyungsoo hadn’t left Jongin’s side since their return from the Sapphire vessel. Since the weighted ropes had been taken up and put away, since the makeshift bridge made from a board Sehun ripped up from the Sapphire ship’s deck had been propped against the wall, since the rain began to fall properly now.

“If those scratches scar, at least it’ll look really cool.”

“Thanks.” Jongin wasn’t sure if Luhan was serious, and brought his hand up to lightly trace the wounds on his cheek. The jagged lines clawed into his face that just would not stop bleeding on ‘everything I throw at him!’ as Zitao complained.

His hand was smacked away by the medic quickly, and Jongin winched – that was the wrist he got punched in before. “No touching!”

Zitao didn’t seem so shy now that he was in his element, faced with wounds to be cleaning up. Jongin just couldn’t be sure whether he preferred this Zitao to the meek, nervous Zitao he’d first met on the Opal Coast or not. He was certainly doing a good job, though, even when he had to get creative.

“We’re out.” Zitao was frowning at a particular glass bottle that once held the stinging liquid used for cleaning wounds. It was no surprise, as the ship’s whole supply was exhausted from keeping Chanyeol’s leg wound from getting infected before, but they couldn’t have gotten through their restock that quickly, could they? Zitao seemed to read his mind. “Yixing used almost all of his tending to Chanyeol back on the coast, apparently. He had very little to begin with, let alone to spare…we don’t need anyone else getting bloodied up now.”

“Jongin’s elbows are still bleeding.” Minseok pointed out helpfully, and Jongin groaned. He’d wanted to forget his elbows, which certainly weren’t in the shape of their lives. He was trying his best to concentrate on the stinging in his face rather than the sickening feeling there were still wood splinters stuck in his elbows.

“I know. And I’ll get the wood out of them, too.” Thanks, Zitao. “But I’ll have to clean the wounds with something else…this might sting.”

It stung like hell, and didn’t make Jongin’s evening any better. As the sun slipped away and the crew gathered for dinner, Jongin’s head was swimming as the day’s events caught up with him. He was so unfocused, Luhan had resorted to trying to spoon-feed him at dinner while Zitao grumbled ‘I want to wash his face again’ from across the table.

Everyone fussed over Jongin, but none so much and yet so little as Captain Kyungsoo. While the captain said little, he was almost glued to Jongin’s side all evening, leaving only when Zitao pulled Jongin aside one more time to dress his elbow wounds.

When Jongin returned to Kyungsoo’s quarters after that, the captain had already changed for bed. Jongin pulled out a new shirt from a chest in the corner of the room – clothes bought for him on land by Luhan – and turned away from Kyungsoo to toss his bloodstained shirt aside.

“Are you alright?” Kyungsoo asked him when he slipped into the bed, the captain careful not to touch his bandaged elbows.

“Yeah…” Jongin sighed. “But it wasn’t the right ship, was it, captain?”

Kyungsoo’s shoulders dropped a little bit. “Not yet…I’m sorry you had to suffer like this, when it wasn’t even the ship I’m looking for.”

“But it’s one more off the list.” And Jongin smiled again, softly, when Kyungsoo brought him into their nightly kiss. Perhaps he was just exhausted, but it felt sweet and tender, soothing as the captain’s hand – on the side of his face that wasn’t injured – seemed to fit perfectly in a place made just for it. The contact was barely feather-light, but Jongin could have fallen asleep in the enveloping warmth it spread through his body.

“It is.”

But he had to know.

“Captain…” His words were quiet against Kyungsoo’s lips. “What were you going to say to me earlier? Before we engaged…” Kyungsoo tensed, but Jongin didn’t let that bother him. He gently ran his hands over the captain’s shoulders, down his back. He only drew them away when they came near Kyungsoo’s chest and the captain winced. Perhaps he had a bruise under there. “Please.”

“I don’t know…” When Jongin’s hands returned to Kyungsoo’s back, the captain moved closer to him, after reaching back to extinguish the lamp by the bed. “I…don’t know the right words.”

“Then tell me without words.” Jongin was pushing it, but he’d had such a chaotic day he’d gotten to the point of throwing all judgement overboard.

“I already did.” Was Kyungsoo’s reply, sending a shiver up Jongin’s spine.

He whispered, barely audible. “Then tell me again.”

It was difficult at first, figuring it out in the darkness when Jongin ached all over and Kyungsoo seemed antsy about his chest, but they eventually came together quite naturally, even in limited vision. Jongin settled on his back, not really able to move much but not really needing to with his arms around the captain and Kyungsoo hovering above him to set as much distance as needed. It wasn’t much, really, and they were still so close. So, so close.

Kyungsoo was careful with him, even as they kissed to avoid accidentally hurting Jongin where he was already wounded. The amount of concern and care in it all was practically suffocating Jongin in the best possible way, it was so overwhelming.

But the kiss didn’t last long, and Kyungsoo moved to instead hold Jongin close, though carefully. He rested his head on Jongin’s chest and fell silent.

Jongin wasn’t sure what to do with his hands. Or his anything. “Captain?”

“I’m listening to your heartbeat.” Kyungsoo murmured as though it were obvious. “It tells me you’re alive. It’s beautiful.”

Jongin felt his heart race, and he could just about see the captain smile ever so faintly. He probably heard it. “Were you worried about me, captain?”

No answer, however, and Jongin sighed gently as Kyungsoo stayed settled on his chest. He let his mind wander a little, or at least he tried to. He tried to think of the other members of the crew – of Sehun being (jokingly) scolded by Minseok for kicking Luhan under the dinner table, of Yifan proudly carrying multiple boxes from the Sapphire ship on his own, of Zitao diligently checking everyone over for injuries. But he was lost. Lost in the comforting weight of Captain Kyungsoo resting on his chest, breathing gently and listening.

“I want…” Kyungsoo began, but he quietened. Jongin still didn’t know what to do with his hands, so instead squirmed a little to encourage him to go on. “I want…I want this.”

“This?”

“This.” And then Jongin realised that Kyungsoo had brought a hand up to Jongin’s chest as well, resting over his heart as it beat steadily, though all too quickly. Oh. Oh. “This. You. I want you. Jongin.”

Stunned into silence, Jongin hadn’t a clue what to say.

“You can say no, of course.”

Of course. Of course Kyungsoo would remind him he could say no. He always talked about no. It was as if he didn’t know any answer but no, like it never even crossed his mind that Jongin could want to say something else. Anything else in the world but no.

“Yes.” Jongin said suddenly.

“Yes?”

“Absolutely yes.” He wriggled down the bed a little way so that his face was level with Kyungsoo’s, and he smiled shyly. His cheeks were probably burning, but despite the composed expression (betrayed slightly by those wide eyes) Kyungsoo’s probably were, too. He slipped a hand between them, hovering by where Kyungsoo’s heart would be though not quite making contact. “I want this too.”

And their lips met again, for the first of many times that night, as the first gales began to blow outside.