Present-day...

Captain Jung Chunghyun just calmly placed HaeEun's things on the wooden coffee table while her son made a fine ruckus waking up the owner's husband.

"Uncle Hyukjae, wake up!" HaeEun was yelling, and Chunghyun could hear a muffled epithet followed by her son's squealing as apparently, Uncle Hyukjae was on the tickle counterattack.

It's a usual scene whenever she had to leave her son at the Lee's while she and her husband are out for days on end manning the sky. She'd love to bring her son with her but that was only possible during his vacation months or weeks. For this week, he still had school and other extracurricular stuff.

A bleary-eyed, thin blonde finally emerged from the master bedroom, following her son into the kitchen where Chunghyun started to heat up breakfast. It was the least she could do considering he'd be playing nanny for the week, but it was also no secret that the Lees loved having children over, considering the couple couldn't have one. So even as Uncle Hyukjae was admonishing HaeEun for smearing strawberry jam all over his shirt, Chunghyun can see the fondness there.

"Donghae's already at Headquarters?" she asked as she stacked a couple of HaeEun's foodstuff in the pantry as her son had his second breakfast and Hyukjae had hot choco.

"Yeah, left early, said he's headed out to Soldado. But he'll be back tonight." Hyukjae's husband was busy these days, with the season high for commerce off the seas. He himself would be taking his skyship in a few days to survey some of the harvesting.

Then they were both checking their chronographs, the call of time an inexorable pull on these navigator families.

"I'll drop HaeEun off in daycare on the way to Headquarters. You need to get on your ship." Hyukjae just vocalized what the captain already knew. It was a flurry of goodbyes with her son, plus a promise to be a good boy while staying with the Uncles.

"Minguk will come by to take him home day after tomorrow," Chunghyun said as Hyukjae walked her back to the door.

"Yeah, he told me himself he'd be by after marauding the skies."

Captain Jung just chuckled. These days, the only marauding her husband does is telling off errant pilots while he patrolled the skies with his crew.

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"Wow, Uncle Hyukjae! All these are yours?" HaeEun said in utter awe. The four-year old was perched on Hyukjae's arms as they both looked out the windows and down the sprawling complex that was the Skye Privateers, Inc. It was a big enough place to accommodate most of the company's vessels, warehouses, barracks and offices. On some days, it looks like a minor military outpost, but for today at least, the airstrips were busy with commercial activity. Donghae would be down there until the rest of the day, onhand to take care of decision-making stuff as they continually received and carted off the items coming in through. 

"Well, technically it's your Uncle Donghae's." He had only brought in a single ship and crew when they got together but Donghae already had a fleet he built since he was young.

"Oh, then it's yours, too. Mum always said married couples share everything."

Hyukjae chuckled at this bit of wisdom from the kid. He did get the best from both his parents, balancing Minguk's brashness and hotheadedness with Chunghyun's calmness and coolheadedness. Chunghyun wouldn't be a Captain in Donghae's fleet had she been otherwise.

Minguk was another matter, as Hyukjae reminisced in their old days together. It was funny how everything has changed in just six years. He hadn't dreamed that this was possible. Six years ago, he couldn't have imagined that the kid in his arms would be possible. And it started the day he met Donghae.

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