Black and white mixed together in harmony.

Where there is black there is white, and where there is white there is black.

You will find the one with both there.

 

---

 

lux civitatem | city light

 

The Hub was like everything she had read about in books. It was lively to say the least, with sunlight casted on every inch of the streets. People bustled around, never stopping in one place for too long. Shops had their doors opened constantly, even those that closed automatically after a person entered the store.

 

People were dressed in all types of clothing, and Cirrus found it difficult to distinguish the island’s citizens from pirates – if there were any there. Baekhyun had told her that pirates constantly traversed in and out of the city, but she almost couldn’t believe it.

 

Right before they had entered the city, Baekhyun had given her a thin scarf, which she wrapped around her head to conceal her hair and face from the public. Baekhyun had slipped a pair of glasses on and had a thin scarf wrapped around his neck. It was supposed to deter attention away from him, but the glasses seemed to attract heads.

 

Well, hers at least.

 

It was a strange sight to see Baekhyun wearing glasses, and even stranger that she found herself liking the look on him. With the glasses on, he didn’t look like Baekhyun Lux, captain of the Lux Pirates. He looked more docile and tamed, yet edgy at the same time. But truly, the strangest part of it all was the fact that he had decided to bring her with him to the Hub.

 

If the city was so busy and dangerous as Baekhyun claimed it to be, if he felt the need to warn her about staying close to not get lost, then why was she there? Couldn’t he have left her behind with Minseok, then fetched her once they were done their errands? The question was right at the tip of her tongue, but she bit it back.

 

She liked exploring the island, and she liked the adventure it brought. And if she wasn’t already filled with enough marvel, then perhaps a tiny crevice in her heart liked being with the Lux Pirates – and with Baekhyun.

 

He had changed. A month ago, he was a ruffian who kept her caged within a damp, dark cell. Looking back at all their conversations about Shakespeare, the numerous strolls they had taken together, and the way he seemed to laugh more around her, Cirrus almost couldn’t believe she was standing next to the same person.

 

But then again, maybe Baekhyun hadn’t changed. Maybe he simply opened up, and allowed her a glimpse of his true nature.

 

Or, perhaps she had changed. She definitely wasn’t the same person anymore, and yet Cirrus couldn’t pinpoint what about her had exactly transformed. Was it the curiosity? No, she had always harboured desires to explore the boundaries past the castle. Was it the fact that she now knew the various parts of a ship? Perhaps, but she had encountered texts in the library outlining the anatomy of a ship.

 

Maybe she hadn’t changed either. Maybe she had simply opened up to Baekhyun and his crew. Maybe Princess Cirrus of Pileum had always been like this, but no one had really encouraged this side of her.

 

Then again, that was a lot of ‘maybe’s.

 

Someone bumped into her, causing Cirrus to stumble to the side. The man was a large brute, with a clean-shaven head and a forest of a beard. He grumbled incoherent words under his breath, and glared in her direction.

 

She was about to apologize when she felt a grip around her hand. Cirrus’s body was tugged forward, and she was forced to clumsily walk away from the man. The grip around her hand tightened, and she was at a complete loss for words when she realized Baekhyun had taken her hand in his.

 

“I said to stay close to me,” he sighed. “It’s busier than usual today.”

 

“You’ve made your point,” she mumbled, her eyes unable to look away from their intertwined hands.

 

When Baekhyun realized he had been holding her hand, he quickly let go and tucked both of his hands in his pockets. “Just make sure to stay close.”

 

She nodded her head curtly, though he couldn’t see it since he was a few steps ahead of her. “Where’s everyone else? Ardent, Niteo, and all the other crewmembers, I mean.”

 

“They’re behind you,” Baekhyun replied.

 

Cirrus looked behind her, but didn’t see Ardent’s familiar bright hair or Niteo’s quirky eyes. Xiao Guang was nowhere to be seen either, and she knew she would have recognized his dragon tattoo if it were in the crowd.

 

Baekhyun continued, “They’ve gone incognito. We still have to keep our guard up around here.”

 

“They’re in disguise? But how? They didn’t look like any different when we left,” she walked up to Baekhyun and whispered to him.

 

“It’s amazing what a hat, a thin jacket, and sunglasses can do, princess,” he smirked in her direction. His eyebrows suddenly knit together, and he added in a hushed voice, “Stay low. The Marines are right there, and don’t even think about revealing your identity to them because they’ll probably shoot you before they even register your title.”

 

Strangely enough, Cirrus did as she was told, and as they walked past a post she glanced up to steal a glimpse of the Marines. There were two of them, and they were dressed in the typical naval uniform – white shirt, white pants, and a white hat. Any stripes or lettering were painted in navy blue, and they wore the ‘Marine’ emblem with pride.

 

Their lips were pursed together so tightly that Cirrus wondered if they knew to smile. They did a quick inspection of everyone who passed them by. The princess felt a cold shiver down her spine when one of them glanced her way. Her pulse quickened, her breath hitched, and she jerked her eyes away from them.

 

Weren’t the Marines supposed to be good? Fenders of justice, and protectors of people? So why did she feel so unsettled by them?

 

The crew made their way to a large pub. The exterior was constructed entirely out of wood, and the words ‘Clam’s Tavern’ painted the front entrance in black. Baekhyun pushed the doors open confidently, and strutted in. Cirrus followed him, but noticed that not all the Lux Pirates had done the same. She figured that it’d be suspicious if they all entered at the same time, so some were loitering outside until the right moment to make their appearance.

 

The first thing Baekhyun did was walk up to the large bulletin board that hung next to the bar. It was covered in posters – Wanted posters, she realized – and filled with infamous names. Cirrus scanned the board from top to bottom, until her eyes settled on Baekhyun’s poster near the middle left corner.

 

“Well, it didn’t go down,” he mumbled to himself.

 

“Why do you sound disappointed?” she asked him confusedly. “You want it to go up?”

 

“Of course,” he said to her like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “It measures a pirate’s worth, and $1.5 million seems hardly worthy of me.”

 

“What is considered worthy for you then?” she rolled her eyes at him.

 

Baekhyun cocked his head to one of the posters and said in a low voice, “One fit for royalty.”

 

Cirrus followed his gaze and caught her breath when she saw a picture of herself amongst the other posters. The photo couldn’t have been more than a year old, and yet she couldn’t seem to remember when it had been taken. In the picture, she was wearing a tiara and the finest silk robes. Her hair was styled neatly, and her face dolled with makeup. The words ‘MISSING – Princess Cirrus of Pileum’ were printed clearly underneath the picture, followed by ‘$10 million reward’.

 

“Te-ten million?” she gasped. It felt weird staring at a picture of herself, and one that seemed to be a far cry from her current appearance.

 

“Hmm, looks like Chanyeol’s didn’t change either,” Baekhyun muttered under his breath.

 

Cirrus found Chanyeol’s poster, and gulped at the sight of his picture. His red hair was flared up like fire itself, yet his eyes were cold as ice. Lifeless. Soundless, yet filled with screaming all at the same time. “$1 million,” Cirrus read the bounty under Chanyeol Ignis’s name.

 

“Either they’re not updating these, or I need to up my game,” Baekhyun grinned devilishly.

 

Cirrus forced herself to pull her eyes away from her Chanyeol’s picture, and found them drifting to an old and battered poster. Half of the paper was covered by another pirate’s poster, so Cirrus lifted the other one up to expose the one underneath. Its edges were ripped, and the ink clearly faded.

 

“Yeah, this one looks like it hasn’t been touched in ages,” Cirrus said. The man in the seemingly ancient poster had auburn hair and dark eyes like the night. He had a long, pointed nose and lips that were curled in an amused smirk. Her eyes trailed down to the text just underneath the picture. Sangkyu Morrigan was his name, and he had a bounty of $900,000.

 

Baekhyun flinched when he saw the poster, and brought a hand over Cirrus’s. He gently brought her hand down, and the poster she had been lifting up draped over Sangkyu’s. “They should get rid of that poster, actually. He’s no longer alive.”

 

“Then why haven’t they?” Cirrus asked. Wait, how does Baekhyun know he’s not alive anymore?

 

“If you die at sea, realistically would the Marines ever find out? Not likely,” he said dryly. “Some of these posters are extremely outdated, and most of these pirates have probably already perished. But people don’t report a pirate’s death, so the world assumes they’re still alive. The same could be said about the flip side, actually. Someone who’s thought to be dead might still be alive out there. The ocean is a large place, after all.”

 

“Did you know him?”

 

Baekhyun chuckled. “Everyone knew him. His name reigned the seas once, but that was a long time ago.”

 

“Really?” Cirrus furrowed her eyebrows. “But his bounty is significantly smaller than yours.”

 

“Back then, $900,000 was above average,” Baekhyun told her.

 

“What’s the average now, then?” she asked. “Is yours above average?”

 

“I never really paid attention to the average,” he shrugged. “I’ve always had a goal in mind when it came to my bounty.”

 

“Oh,” Cirrus hummed. As she recalled her own reward of $10 million, she mumbled in a quiet voice, “Guess you’re still some ways off from it, then.”

 

Even though he was smiling, his expression was somewhat melancholy. “I surpassed my goal a long time ago.”

 

.::.            .::.            .::.

 

Just on the outskirts of the Hub, 3 clumsy – well more precisely it was 2 clumsy, and 1 experienced – Marines walked through the woods.

 

“So why are we heading to the Heb again?” asked Jongin.

 

“For the nth time, it’s called the Hub, Jongin!” Kyungsoo snapped. “And Yixing explained it fully well why we’re going there when we were on the ship.”

 

“Well Yixing was like, on the other side of the deck!”

 

“You could have moved closer to him, you know,” Kyungsoo sighed.

 

“But you were the one who told me not to distract Yixing while he was steering the ship, and it was also you who told me to occupy myself by tying knots,” Jongin grumbled.

 

“Because the first time you distracted Yixing, we almost ended up in a whirlpool!”

“No, that was because of your questions about pirates,” Jongin said in retaliation. Then, in a mocking tone he imitated Kyungsoo, “Oh, what about Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew? Or Monkey D. Luffy and his straw hat pirates? Tell me more, Yixing!”

 

“I don’t think educating oneself about their enemies is a bad thing,” Kyungsoo huffed defensively.

 

“But are pirates our enemies?” Jongin asked. It was a question he pondered every so often; casually, and not with a lot of passion either. But it rested in the back of his head, never leaving his mind. What was a Marine’s duty? To enforce the law or to bring peace? There was a fine line between the two, and who was to say that a pirate wasn’t the same? Some pirates were notorious and worth the antagonistic reputation, but to apply the same principles to every pirate seemed too general. And Jongin didn’t like general.

 

“Of course they are!” Kyungsoo exclaimed without hesitation.

 

“Honestly, I’d say Lieutenant Shin is more like my enemy than a pirate,” Jongin snickered. “I almost failed his class!”

 

“Lieutenant Shin is a man of discipline and character. He’s to be respected… even if he is a tough marker,” Kyungsoo mumbled. He shuddered at the thought of the lieutenant’s final exam.

 

“Guys,” Yixing breathed. Kyungsoo and Jongin spun their heads to face their friend. The two Marines gulped and held their breath. Yixing seemed serious – too serious. “Lieutenant Shin’s not even as bad as Lieutenant Moon though. Her classes were the tough ones!”

 

Kyungsoo exhaled a breath of relief. “I never took any of Lieutenant Moon’s classes because of that.”

 

Yixing laughed and stepped over a tree root. “We should be there soon. Oh, and Jongin, about your question earlier – we’re visiting the Hub because a lot of pirates loiter around there. If we want to get intel about specific crews, it’s a pretty good place to start. Hopefully we’ll be able to dig up some recent information about the Lux Pirates.”

 

“Got it,” Jongin said.

 

“Kyungsoo, you brought the camera with you, right?” Yixing asked.

 

Kyungsoo nodded his head and reached into his bag. His fingers grazed the cold metallic surface of the camera. He felt both blessed and stressed to be responsible for such a refined piece of technology. Cameras were still a relatively new technology, and most people were used to seeing the clunky, large cameras that weighed a ton. But the Navy had access to all the newest technology, and as such the camera Kyungsoo kept with him was both small and light – and it produced colour photos.

 

“Too bad I could only snag one camera,” Yixing breathed. “The other troops needed them as well.”

 

“No, this is great!” Kyungsoo blabbered. “If we spot the Lux Pirates and the princess, at least we’ll have solid proof to show the higher ups.”

 

“Yeah,” Yixing murmured. “Finding them is the hard part though. They could be anywhere in the world.”

 

“What if they were right under our noses?” Jongin asked.

 

With a hesitant smile, Yixing replied, “Then it’d be even harder for us to spot them.”

 

The young Marines stepped out of the forest and were greeted by the bustling activity of the Hub. Yixing took in a deep breath and clapped both his hands together. “Whatever happens, don’t get lost.”

 

.::.            .::.            .::.

 

Baekhyun and Cirrus stood at the very back of the bar. Baekhyun had his back against the wall and a drink in his hands. He tuned in on every conversation and studied each figure that passed him by, all the while staying as silent as thought. But Cirrus could tell that in his mind, his thoughts were anything but quiet.

 

“What are you doing?” she asked him.

 

“Shh,” he told her. “I can’t hear.”

 

She followed his gaze and stopped when she spotted two women sitting around a table. They were middle-aged folk, with dusty gray hair and light wrinkles around their eyes. Cirrus tried to mute the sounds around her and focus solely on the women’s conversation, just as Baekhyun was doing. Very faintly, she could make out bits and pieces of their gossip.

 

”… palace cannot … Prince is worried… I know, right?”

 

“Abducted… pirates?”

 

“That’s what they speculate… Prince Cumulus… move, will he?”

 

Baekhyun’s voice broke Cirrus’s concentration. “Looks like I’m still in the clear.”

 

Her heart ached at the mention of her brother’s name, and she was sure the women had slipped Suho’s name somewhere in their talk as well. Cirrus wanted to assure her family of her… safety. It was clear now that the Lux Pirates meant her no physical harm, and that they simply needed her assistance in finding the treasure.

 

She missed her kingdom, and she missed Suho. But she had been missing them for a long time now, and she was sure they could wait a little while longer for her. Cirrus wanted to apologize to her family and to Suho. She wanted to tell them she was sorry for making them worry. But there was something else that was tugging at the back of her mind. Something else she felt sorry for, but didn’t know what.

 

“I won’t run away,” she mumbled under her breath. “It’ll be better that way… for the both of us.”

 

“What?” Baekhyun said in surprise.

 

“It’s better this way, isn’t it?” she smiled coyly at him. “I won’t run up to the Marines or anything. I won’t scream for help because it’s you guys that need my help. It’ll be better if we maintain a low profile, right? Easier to find the treasure, I mean.”

 

A tall man with blond hair waltzed in, followed by a larger, muscular man wearing a long-sleeved jacket. The sleeves were just long enough to hide Xiao Guang’s tattoo, and the blond figure’s sunglasses shielded his bright blue eyes. They walked up to the bar and began chatting with the bartender.

 

Niteo had already slid his way in. He and a few other crewmembers sat at a table, indulging in booze and tuning in on gossip. A few other members of the Lux Pirates huddled around the bulletin board and studied the Wanted posters. Cirrus could pinpoint the location of every single crewmate in the pub, and she thought it funny that others weren’t able to see through their disguise. It seemed so obvious to her; the spark in Ardent’s step was impossible to miss, Niteo’s lively laughter lifted the tension in the air, and Xiao Guang’s presence soothed her.

 

Baekhyun’s lips lifted into a smile, and something seemed to dazzle in his eyes. “Right, Cirrus,” he spoke.

 

His smile was warm, and a far contrast from the smirks he fancied. It was much different than the fake smiles her father, mother, and she herself were used to putting on display. It reminded her of the brief luncheons she had with Cumulus in the garden, and the warmth of Suho’s trust.

 

And finally, the tugging feeling at the back of her mind came to light. The reason why she had been so reluctant to approach the Marines earlier, and her promise to Baekhyun about maintaining a low profile suddenly made sense.

 

Cirrus laughed to herself. She had changed. Unknown sights were her calling, adventure her lifeblood, and the Lux Pirates her allies. Her family away from family. The home she never quite had. Over the past month and a half that she had spent with them, Cirrus found that she appreciated Ardent’s company, Niteo’s quirkiness, and Xiao Guang’s extensive knowledge (on baking). She enjoyed the back-and-forth rallies of Shakespearean quotes, the strolls, and the midnight seashell adventures with Baekhyun. And just like the rest of the crew, sometimes Cirrus found herself thinking that she’d be willing to follow Baekhyun to the ends of the earth if he so wished to tread through those waters.

 

And in that moment, Cirrus realized what it was that she wanted to apologize to her family and Suho for.

 

She trusted them. Him.

 

Cirrus felt a wave of relief, but it was quickly washed away by the bubbling feeling of guilt. They were pirates. Bandits who had kidnapped her; kept her locked away. Her parents would be so disappointed in the alliance she had silently formed with them. A princess wasn’t supposed to lay her faith in pirates.

 

But perhaps just as ‘princess’ was a title maybe ‘pirate’ was simply another label. If only for a short time, she wanted herself to be known as ‘Cirrus’. And she wanted to know him not as Captain Lux, but as ‘Baekhyun’.

 

“It’s nice… you using my name. It’s refreshing,” she admitted.

 

“You should consider yourself lucky that I did,” Baekhyun said with a hint of arrogance. “It means I trust you.”

 

Cirrus glanced up to see his expression. Baekhyun wasn’t looking at her; his eyes were fixated on the crowd before them. And yet he had all her attention. Though he wasn’t looking in her direction, the faint curl of his lips was definitely meant for her. It was subtle, but it lit up his entire face. It distracted Cirrus from everything else going on around her. The bright lights dulled in comparison, and the lively chatters diluted to a soft buzz.

 

Her vision had narrowed down to just her and Baekhyun, and because of that she just missed the flare of red that had slithered its way to the corner of the pub.

 

---

 

A/N: I'm back at it again, hopefully you guys didn't wait too long! I've fallen in and out of writing lately, but today was one of those good days where I wrote a lot, so here's a well deserved update for you guys (for all your patience).

Does anyone else sense love in the air? "Can you feel the love tonight?~" Nah, too early? Well let's just say in the next few chapters there will be some development :^)

And oulala guess who's back das right our lovely Naval trio is in the same town! And who could this "flare of red" be hmmhmm? What's going to happen I wonder..

\\ xoxo