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.

 

---

 

ad lucem | daylight

 

It was noon and Ardent was sitting comfortably in Minseok’s living room. They had had a casual breakfast, and Ardent’s morning had been spent supervising the Lux Pirates. It was something he did only when Baekhyun wasn’t around. He admitted he enjoyed the brief moments of superiority, but at the same time he was worried about Baekhyun.

 

It’s not like Baekhyun to go back to sleep after breakfast, he frowned. Ardent tried to push the thought away, but it lingered in the back of his mind. Did he visit Hana’s grave? I swear to God, if he did – why would he do that?! He knows it only makes him depressed.

 

“Vice-Captain Ardent?”

 

Xiao Guang was standing in front of Ardent, and he looked somewhere between nervous and unsure. He shuffled closer to Ardent and asked, “Do you know where Captain is?”

 

“He’s sleeping in one of the rooms,” Ardent sighed.

 

“And the princess?”

 

Ardent looked around the living room for Cirrus, but didn’t find her. “She’s… sleeping? I think I saw her entering one of the empty rooms.” he finally replied.

 

“Should we wake them? We were planning on making a trip to the Hub today, weren’t we?” Xiao Guang asked.

 

Ardent stood up from where he was sitting and stretched his arms behind his back. “I’ll do it.”

 

Ardent walked down the hall and stopped at a closed door. He knew Baekhyun was sleeping in there, and gently rapped his knuckles against the wood. He knocked again, a bit harder that time, before finally deciding to let himself in. Baekhyun was curled up in one of the hammocks, with a thin blanket covering his entire body. He slept quietly, and so peacefully that one wouldn’t think he was the captain of a pirate crew. Ardent shook Baekhyun’s shoulder, and the captain jolted awake.

 

“What?” Baekhyun mumbled. He combed through his jet-black hair and squinted his eyes at the first mate.

 

“Baek, it’s noon,” Ardent told him.

 

“Oh really?” Baekhyun let out a yawn and stretched his arms.

 

“Baekhyun,” Ardent said sternly. “Did you do what I think you did?”

 

“Do what?” he feigned innocence.

 

“You visited Hana’s grave last night, didn’t you?” Ardent folded his arms against his chest and snorted. “Of course you would.”

 

Baekyun narrowed his eyes at the first mate. “I don’t really like the tone you’re giving me, Ardent. You may be my first mate and best friend on this ship, but I don’t take sass well from my subordinates.”

 

“I’m not talking to you as Vice-Captain Ardent, or a crewmate for that matter right now,” he sighed. “I’m talking to you as an innocent bystander who has a pair of eyes.”

 

“I don’t appreciate sarcasm either,” Baekhyun scoffed.

 

Ardent let out a chuckle. “But all jokes aside, Baek – did you visit her grave yesterday? That’s why you’re so tired isn’t it?”

 

“Perhaps,” the captain hummed. “But maybe it was merely on the way.”

 

“On the way?” Ardent exclaimed, flabbergasted. “What was on the way?”

 

“I went seashell picking last night. Spent a little too much time on the beaches, which is why I was so tired this morning.” He wasn’t lying. Baekhyun and Cirrus had spent more than 3 hours on Piscari’s beaches searching for orange seashells. Once they had found one – Baekhyun insisted he found one first, but Cirrus said it was more of an amber colour than orange – they went on to find silver, navy, and emerald green seashells.

Ardent stood in silence, staring at Baekhyun with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. He then began shaking his head and laughed to himself. “Good lie Baek, I almost fell for it.”

 

“I’m not lying,” Baekhyun argued. “I really did go seashell picking with the princess last night.”

 

“Oh and you brought Princess Cirrus with you! Did you see a giant squid too or was that also on the way?” Ardent cocked a brow at him.

 

Baekhyun clenched his jaw. He dug into his pocket and fished out the orange seashell he had picked up. He showed it to Ardent and declared triumphantly, “I’ll have you know I was too busy looking for seashells to notice any giant squids.”

 

“No way…” Ardent’s voice trailed off. “You actually found one?”

 

“That’s what I’ve been telling you,” Baekhyun said smugly.

 

“So then… Hana’s grave – it really was just on the way?”

 

Baekhyun sighed. “Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?” he quoted from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. When Ardent shot him a puzzled look, Baekhyun continued, “It’s a line from a very famous play. It means ‘are you disrespecting me?’”

 

“You know I don’t read Shakespeare,” Ardent scoffed. “Or was that Edgar Allen Poe?”

 

Baekhyun sighed again, and his shoulders slumped down in disappointment. He had been so used to rallying quotes back and forth with Cirrus that he had forgotten the fact that the rest of his crew were ignorant to the playwright’s works. “Shakespeare,” Baekhyun told him. “And about Hana’s grave, no it wasn’t on the way, as you would like to put it. It’ll never be on the way. I was lying earlier.”

 

“So the seashell picking was on the way then.”

 

“Not entirely,” Baekhyun replied. “The beaches were past the tombstone. It was an extra trip, not on the way.”

 

Ardent stood in silence, his mouth tugged into a half-smile. “What?” Baekhyun inquired.

 

“That’s the first time you’ve gone past her grave. You usually come back immediately and mope around for the next couple of days,” Ardent snickered.

 

“What? I do not – moping and what not,“ Baekhyun stammered.

 

“You moved past the grave to go seashell picking; there’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m sure Hana would have approved of it,” Ardent smiled. Stepping onto the beach means getting past the grave, perhaps both literally and figuratively.

 

“Hmm,” Baekhyun hummed.

 

“Did that count as ‘biting my thumb at you’?”

“Perhaps, but I’ll let it slide this time,” Baekhyun murmured.

 

.::.            .::.            .::.

 

“Are we leaving the island today?” Cirrus asked Ardent. The crew was currently assembled in Minseok’s living room, though the pirates were all standing up and inching towards the front door.

 

“No,” the blond pirate shook his head. “We’re heading deep into the heart of Piscari today. Well, more precisely it’s called the Hub.”

 

“The Hub?” she asked with a hint of eagerness in her voice.

 

“It’s the central gathering for pirates.” Niteo jumped up from behind Ardent and propped an elbow on the first mate’s shoulder. “Piscari is famous for its fisheries, which means sailors pass through the island on a daily basis. It makes sense for pirates to do the same, really. The traffic makes it easier for us to slip in.”

 

“Oh,” she nodded her head. “What do you do at the Hub?”

 

“Gather intel, mainly.” Baekhyun appeared out of nowhere and answered the question. “It’s the best spot to check out updated Wanted posters, and a lot of gossip floats around too. We might as well make the trip while we’re here.”

 

“Be careful guys,” Minseok warned them. “Niteo’s right – there is a lot of traffic there which makes slipping in easy. It’s getting out that’s the hard part. The Marines aren’t stupid, you know.”

 

“Pish posh,” Baekhyun sneered. “Have you ever heard a tale about Baekhyun Lux getting caught by the Marines?”

 

“Well, if there was one you wouldn’t be here right now,” Minseok scoffed, though playfully.

 

“We’ll be fine, Minseok,” Baekhyun reassured him. “Always have been, always will.”

 

Baekhyun opened the door, and one by one the pirates slipped out of the house and into the woods that surrounded Minseok’s cottage. Some started sparring with each other (merely roughhousing), while others shared their excitement at the thought of their bounties increasing. From the corner of his eye, Baekhyun spotted Ardent pointing up at a family of birds and giving some facts about their species to Cirrus.

 

Baekhyun was the last of his crew to leave the house, but he didn’t step too far out. He stayed by the door, and Minseok joined him shortly after.

 

“Baekhyun,” Minseok breathed.

 

“What?”

 

Minseok sighed. “About yesterday… I’m sorry I lashed out at you. We’ve been through a lot, heck, you’ve been through more and I feel terrible… about a lot of things.”

 

“It’s fine,” Baekhyun said quietly. Then with a quirk of his lips he added, “Brother.”

 

Minseok’s lips curled up and he wrapped an arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders. The older male started to laugh, and with a playful hand he tussled through Baekhyun’s hair. “Brother,” he repeated.

 

When Minseok decided to let go, he let out a sigh and stared at Baekhyun with a soft expression on his face. “Just be careful,” he said.

 

“I will.”

 

Minseok heaved another sigh and said quietly, “Even if it were a lie, I wish you’d tell me that you’re doing all this because you genuinely want to be a pirate… that you’re not doing this for Hana, nor for me. But because you truly want to sail the seas like your parents did.”

 

Baekhyun scoffed under his breath, then muttered, “My parents didn’t sail the seas. They could never stray too far from the island, and the one time they did, they – whatever. It’s pointless bringing this up now.”

 

“Your parents --,” Minseok began. He bit his tongue back though. Your parents wouldn’t want you to be sailing the seas like this.

 

“My parents didn’t have a purpose to scavenge the world,” Baekhyun shrugged. “They weren’t brave enough.”

 

After a long pause, Minseok murmured, “I know you’re a pirate now, Baek, and I’ve accepted it too… but sometimes I just wish things didn’t have to be like this.”

 

“I’m trapped by the sea, Minseok. My name is already tarnished, and my face infamous. I can’t stop being a pirate now. I told you before, that when I decided to become a pirate I had already sold my soul to the devil.” Baekhyun stared at the ground as figments of his past flashed through his mind; the guidance, the opportunity, and finally the red.

 

“You chose to give it to him,” Minseok sighed.

 

“I sold my soul to Sangkyu Morrigan, and my heart to the sea,” Baekhyun breathed. “Though I’m bound to the ocean, that doesn’t mean I don’t like it.”

 

“You should have just said that from the start,” Minseok grumbled, but was relieved by the fact. Then in a careful voice he continued, “Are you still going to search for the Fruit?”

 

“Every pirate has their muse. That’s all I’m going to say,” the captain replied.

 

“You can be such a stubborn bastard,” Minseok said under his breath as he shook his head.

 

“Oh, stop biting your thumb at me.” Baekhyun waved his hand in the air to dismiss the other’s comment. When Minseok cocked his head to the side and squinted his eyes at Baekhyun, the captain continued, “It means ‘stop disrespecting me’ in Shakespeare-talk.”

 

“Just get your out of here before I kick it out,” Minseok chuckled.

 

“Take care, Minseok.”

 

Minseok pulled Baekhyun into a tight hug and whispered gently, “Take care, brother.”

 

.::.            .::.            .::.

 

Cirrus stepped over tree roots and fallen branches. They were moving further away from Minseok’s house, from the ship, and from the beach just beyond Hana’s hill. She followed Baekhyun closely, occasionally stepping into the imprints his boots left behind on the soft terrain.

 

“When we get to the Hub, stay close to me,” Baekhyun told her.

 

“Aren’t I already?” she huffed.

 

“I mean, even closer,” he emphasized. “The Hub can get pretty crowded with its residents, shoppers, sailors, Marines, and pirates. If you don’t stick by my side you might just get lost.”

 

“I won’t get lost,” Cirrus murmured and quickened her pace so she was walking next to Baekhyun.

 

“That’s what I said the first time I visited the Hub too,” Baekhyun chuckled quietly.

 

Behind them, Cirrus could hear the voices of Baekhyun’s crewmates. They were talking about Wanted posters, discussing ways to piss the Marines off without being caught, and fighting over which booze to drink at the bar. Because of their noise, Cirrus almost hadn’t heard what Baekhyun said.

 

“Did you just say you got lost?” Cirrus asked.

 

“The first time I visited the Hub, yeah,” Baekhyun admitted. “It’s a large place, and the way it’s structured is like a maze.”

 

“So the Hub isn’t a single building?”

 

“No,” he informed her. “It’s a city.”

 

“A city?!” Cirrus’s eyes widened in surprise. “No wonder you got lost the first time.”

 

 “I was 15 at the time.” She had meant no malice in her last comment, but Baekhyun’s pride managed to take a hit. He felt the need to explain himself to her. “And I had never been there prior to that.”

 

“It’s just… a city. Wow. I can’t even imagine exploring a city at such a young age.” When she was 15, Cirrus spent her days balancing a stack of books on her head and learning how to formulate sentences in Coelum. She learned to play piano, and read countless textbooks about unique islands and different cities.

 

But waltzing through a city was a far more rewarding experience than books could ever provide. Pages were cold and lifeless. They were soundless and often times, colourless. Bland. Boring. The Hub sounded like the exact opposite of that.

 

“You sound like you’ve never explored a city by yourself,” Baekhuyn scoffed.

 

“Of course I have,” Cirrus began. She had started out confident, but her voice trailed down to nothing more than a whisper. “Well, I mean, I snuck out to do so.”

 

“You what?” he exclaimed amusedly. “I thought princesses were supposed to be obedient and disciplined. I never would have thought you’d be a rule-breaker.”

 

“I had my reasons,” she huffed.

 

Baekhyun let out a laugh. “Was it to get away from your fiancé?”

 

“What? No!” Cirrus gawked at the pirate. “I told you before that –“

 

“That you love your fiancé as much as moonlight yada yada.” Cirrus’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment and she tilted her head away from him.

 

“It was to get away from the palace,” she muttered quietly. Wanting to divert the attention away from herself, Cirrus decided to ask, “What about you? Why did you escape to the city by yourself?”

 

“I wanted… to escape as well,” Baekhyun replied hoarsely. He remembered running through the busy streets of the city, and bumping into several people before he finally bumped into fate himself. Fate took the figure of a man, who Baekhyun eventually learned to call Sangkyu Morrigan. Adventurous, brave, and cunning – Sangkyu was everything he ever wanted to be, yet everything he hesitated to become.

 

But that was in the past. Sangkyu Morrigan was no more, and so was his legacy. It was a wonder how time had the ability to cover things up. 8 long years had passed, and while Baekhyun was confident he’d never forget the only person he was willing to call Captain, the world seemed to disagree with him.

 

If he disappeared one day, would people forget about him too?

 

“Baekhyun?”

 

He snapped his head to face Cirrus. “Huh?”

 

“You wanted to escape too?” she asked cautiously. Then with a gulp she continued, “From what?”

 

Baekhyun managed to force a chuckle out. He reached into his pocket and dug the orange seashell out. “I actually wanted to see if any stores in the Hub sold orange seashells. I was escaping from the beaches,” he lied.

 

Cirrus rolled her eyes and reached into her own pocket to grab an orange seashell. “Yours is amber, not orange. This one is orange.” She presented him with the seashell she had picked up from their scavenging hunt.

 

“They’re the exact same shade,” he breathed.

 

“No, yours is lighter than mine. It’s practically a golden-copper colour,” Cirrus argued.

 

“Why did the colour’s name get even longer?!” Baekhyun exclaimed.

 

Cirrus giggled and lifted her orange seashell to the sky. Closing one eye, she positioned the seashell above her open eye. The sun’s rays hit the surface in such a way that the entire seashell looked like it was aglow.

 

“But I’m the one who managed to find a silver one,” he mused. Wearing a smug look on his face, Baekhyun dug into his pockets to pull out the tiny metallic-looking seashell.

 

“I’d say that’s more of a 40% grey with a metallic sheen to it,” Cirrus chimed.

 

“Yeah, so in layman’s terms – silver,” he smirked. Just moments ago, his mind had been filled with thoughts of Sangkyu Morrigan. But for some reason his chest felt a bit lighter now, and his mind not so muddled with images of the past. Perhaps it was because of her company.

 

Cirrus was different now; Baekhyun could see that. A month ago, she had been a frightened prisoner who he had pushed to the verge of depression. Looking at her relaxed expression now, he felt a tension in his chest. Guilt, he realized. It was a weird sensation; one he had never really experienced in the past before.

 

He had felt regret, remorse, and pain but guilt was new. He wondered how things would be now if he had treated her this way from the start. She was more than a captive, but less than a crewmember. Did that mean she deserved the same rights as his crewmates?

 

No.

 

But he kind of wanted to grant her the opportunity.

 

“I didn’t know you spoke in layman’s terms,” she spoke wittily. “It seems too common for your tastes.”

 

 “Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?” he inquired for what seemed like the nth time that day. Baekhyun was trying his best to remain as composed as possible, but before Cirrus even opened to reply his lips had already curled into a wide grin.

 

“I do bite my thumb, sir,” she quoted the next line from the play.

 

There, that was better.

 

---

 

A/N: Hello again! I'm back with another chapter that I hope you guys enjoyed. I really had a unch of fun writing this chapter and it's one of my favs, actually. And I know I just made an annoucenmentlast chapter, but WE'VE HIT 100+ UPVOTES THAT'S CRAZY!!! And a little shout-out to llsehunx for being the 500th commenter :) It shakes me to think that we've hit such a grand milestone, because when I first started this fic I didn't even dream about hitting 500 comments. Thanks for all your support as always! This is all because of YOU GUYS, without you PYP would never have sailed.

\\ xoxo