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The first thing Bambam hears when he goes up to starboard is a blood-curdling scream that washes his spine in dread. He shivers instinctively as the sensation urges his legs forward. The sun is shining and the birds are chirping somewhere. And a distraught looking man is assisting a bloody man off of the deck they are momentarily stopped at and over the gangway. 

Upon a closer look Bambam notes that Jaebum is the one covered in blood and Jinyoung is supporting him while tears are streaming down his tanned face. The moisture leaves tracks in his cheeks. His arms are visibly shaking. His wide, slightly crazed-looking eyes are tinted red. The two match, somewhat.

The others are flapping around them likes birds straight outta the chicken coop, fervent and busy.

What a nice way to start the morning. 

“Hyung, what happened-” Jinyoung pushes right past Bambam’s unfinished question, not on purpose. His eyes are glazed over in stark panic. 

“Bam.” Yugyeom runs straight to to Bambam, taking hold of one arm and pulling him close, staring down at the older. “Jaebum-hyung got shot in the leg.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious!”

“Well,” Bambam drops his voice to a whisper, shooting looks of worry over at Jinyoung, which the only part of him he can see is his back, shoulders shaking uncontrollably, “is he going to be okay?”

Yugyeom shakes his head and hiccups sadly. “We don’t know. Best case scenario, he just loses the leg.”

“And the worst?”

Yugyeom bites his lip and blinks, tears sliding down his face, dripping off of his chin. He shakes his head again. “He lost so much blood that I...I-”

“What, Yugyeom?” Bambam drills fiercely.

“He just loses, period.”

Once the wave of commotion passes and the door that leads to the lower deck is shut firmly, Bambam, flanked by an equally confused Yugyeom and Youngjae, make their way to the helm of the ship. 

“Do you know how to work this?” Youngjae gives the wheel an experimentory jab, and then totters dangerously to the side as the stern of the ship yields to his touch. Bambam clings onto Yugyeom’s broad shoulders as he gently readjusts the wheel, irritation sprouting at Youngjae’s surprised face because, apparently, he hadn’t known before, that yes, it’s a wheel, and that’s generally what they do. 

“Sorry.” Youngjae sports a dumb, apologetic grin. 

Yugyeom shakes off Bambam’s grasp to step behind him and sock the other in his shoulder. “Good going, genius.”

“Don’t punch me.” Youngjae shoves Yugyeom back. His tall body barely budges. 

“I wouldn’t punch you if you weren’t so stupid.” Yugyeom punches him again.

“I’m not stupid.” Youngjae sticks his thumb in his mouth. Bambam internally cringes as he sees what’s coming whole seconds before Yugyeom does because the younger barely has time to duck before Youngjae is stuffing his saliva drenched finger down Yugyeom’s ear, and then they really start fighting. 

“Guys, stop.” Bambam shoves them off as he unfolds the map Jinyoung had urgently shoved into his hands. Blue lines weave across the paper, intercepted by red markings and scribbled gibberish that he might’ve had a chance at deciphering if he had an inkling of what anything on it meant. He doesn’t. They’re going to die at sea because he’s going to drive them right into an iceberg. Jaebum had to go and get himself shot in the leg, now they’re all ed. Good lookin’ out, bro. 

“Call me stupid again.” Youngjae grunts behind him. Bambam is busy flipping the map this way and that, squinting. If he’s lucky, the dots will form a picture and a really old, really nice guy with a beard and a magic staff will crawl off of the page and steer them to safety. That’s how this stuff works, right?

“I call it like I see it.” Another shove. This time the bow heaves to the left and Bambam loses his footing completely. He tumbles sideways into Yugyeom’s chest, who wraps an arm around his torso to steady him. 

“One more jerk and Jaebum is going to lose his leg.” Jackson’s enraged shout sets the back of Bambam’s neck on fire. He rips Yugyeom’s arm away from his body and wheels on both of them with a stern glare. The two flounder under his stare as they scramble to make excuses, mouths gaping likes fishes.

“You,” Bambam directly addresses Yugyeom, the latter strengthening his spine. He shoves the map to his chest and the other takes hold of it immediately. “Figure that out.”

He nods.

“And you, hyung.” He turns to Youngjae, who jumps a little at his tone. “Don’t break anything important.”

Another nod.

Bambam turns back to the wheel and puts one hand on a spoke, eyes peeled and wavering from nerves that are slowly but surely morphing into something like fear. 

Day bleeds into night at some point. 

It happens gradually at first; the edges of the sky darken, leaving Bambam’s vision that much worse as he already is struggling to peer through the fog that had wafted up from the whooshing sea and beyond. One moment he’s squinting at a point far off into the distance in order to steady himself, and the next it’s dark and he takes a moment to panic because he can’t see. The moon is hidden behind a thick cover of clouds and the stars do nothing. They’re just suspended balls of puny fire that twinkle but don’t cast any actual light. 

He glances back at Yugyeom who is being a useless sidekick by sleeping with his long, long legs stretched out miles in front of his body and torso that’s propped up against the side of the ship, motionless except for the snores that vibrate across his chest. Youngjae is being equally useless beside him, hooded eyes close to shutting but snap open periodically. The map is open on his lap, but he’s not looking at it. After a while, the map is crushed between the two bodies as Youngjae gives in to sleep, finally, and rolls over onto Yugyeom.

Bambam groans and rolls his eyes when he realizes that he’s in this alone. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are slumbering peacefully, mouths hung open and a trap for bugs. Bambam hopes both of them catch a few. 

He eventually has to pluck the map from where it’s being suffocated and lies it out on a barrel carrying supplies. He irons out the creases the best he can with his hands and commits himself to figuring out what he’s looking at. He knows his east, west, north, and south. The compass rose in the corner is useless to him, which is funny because that’s the only thing he understands. 

Someone yawns behind him and Bambam jumps. Surprise turns to anger quickly when Yugyeom walks up to him and pats the map like a long-lost friend.

“This is my job,” he says, and it comes out somewhere between a yawn and a sigh.

“Well, you’re fired,” Bambam says back, tracing a  blue line absently with his finger. “Youngjae needs someone to skip stones with in his dream. Go back to sleep. You guys are no help anyway.”

“Hey, you don’t know what you’re doing either.” Yugyeom shoves Bambam aside lightly, picking up where he left off, clueless.

“Fighting won’t help.”

They both jump this time. Jinyoung approaches them. His clothes are soaked in blood and his face is tired, eye whiskers semi-permanent on his slim face. His cheeks are no longer fluffy like the first time Bambam had seen the man, eyes bright and full of something magical. So much so that the younger couldn’t keep himself from agreeing when the man offered him a spot on their crew. Their having a tall and handsome member around his age helped seal the deal as well.

But, this Jinyoung is different. This Jinyoung looks run down and worn. Wispy pieces of black hair are attached to his upper lip and a shadow consumes most of his jaw, all of which, Bambam decides in that moment, don’t suit the man and need to be shaved.

Jinyoung approaches them. 

“How is he, hyung?” Yugyeom asks.

Jinyoung doesn’t say anything. It takes Yugyeom asking his question a second time and Bambam’s calling his name three times in a row for the man to snap out of whatever cloud is bogging his mind and keeping him from thinking straight. He laughs dryly, swallowing in a way that looks strained.

“He, um,” Jinyoung coughs once and waits to regain himself before continuing, which takes forever for Yugyeom because he grabs Bambam’s wrist so tight it might break. “He’s doing alright right now. We stopped the bleeding and he doesn’t have any infections, thank goodness. He says his leg feels numb, though. If we can’t get back home by tomorrow evening his leg is gonna have to go. But, he’s alive.  At least, for now.”

“That’s good,” Bambam says, chest loosening. Yugyeom lets go of his wrist then. “That’s really good. Hyung, I’m sorry, though. I think I got us lost.”

“That’s okay, Bam. Nothing a little navigating can’t do. I’ll have us back on track by morning.” Jinyoung passes them and goes to take control of the wheel. “Just a little navigating. That’s all. You guys should go to bed, by the way. We have a long day tomorrow.”

“But, hyung-”

Jinyoung cuts off Bambam’s protest with a calm yet powerful, “Take Youngjae.” There is no room for argument. Bambam and Yugyeom both take one of Youngjae’s arms, hauling him up and to the lower deck while he babbles in his disrupted sleep.

Lying on his cot, gently swaying with the ocean, and tasting some saltwater that flew in his mouth that he never bothered to rinse out, Bambam can’t fall asleep. He keeps thinking about Jaebum’s leg and Jinyoung’s face. Yugyeom is snoring in the cot next to his, Youngjae is humming in his sleep, and urgent feet are shuffling endlessly above him, making the wood whine and creak all night. Of course he can’t sleep. 

Like a replay of last morning, Bambam is shaken awake by shouting and heavy boots pounding above his head. Clinks that sound eerily like swords clashing together has him scrambling off his cot and sticking his feet into the leather boots lined beside him. He tightens the straps, grabs a sword lying around, and runs up to the deck. 

Bambam almost groans at the sight. 

Jinyoung has Namjoon and his boys tied up like sacks of cargo against some barrels and Jaebum is hobbling along with his one good leg, dragging the other like a ragdoll with Yugyeom at his heels, worried out of his mind by the looks of it. Youngjae is at the wheel, which explains the precarious shifting of some supplies because he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Jackson and Mark are fixing whatever the Bangtan Boogers wrecked in another fruitless attempt to loot them. 

“Namjoon,” Jaebum scorns as soon as he makes it over to them. “We meet again.”

“I caught the weasley looking one digging around in our stuff and then they all came flying in, screaming like monkeys,” Jinyoung says. The ‘weasley looking one’ is a tall, skinny boy with  bunny teeth and a bad twitch. He may just wet himself by the way he’s shaking, sword clutched in his sweaty fingers.

“Hey, uh, what’s up with him, Namjoon?” Jaebum clicks his tongue. “You’re not trying anymore, are you?”

“Jungkook’s my cousin,” Namjoon grumbles. “My aunt said I had to bring him or else she was taking back her ship.”

Jaebum laughs. “If I actually cared, I would be offended you had the gall to bring the little brat. But, because I in fact don’t care, I’m just going to send y’all off with some advice. Get some big boy pants and get yourselves together, yeah? One more little intrusion and you’ll lose more than just your pride. Get off my damn ship, Namjoon.”

The good news is they make it to a port in Daegu that has a doctor who has seen his fair share of blood and gore. A friend of a friend. And a loyal one, too. He patches Jaebum up without so much as asking for a cent. He only wants them to send him news of his old friend in another town. 

The bad news is they lose some supplies because Namjoon had swooped in and scooped some up while they were on land. Nothing irreplaceable. However, you would think it was by the way Jaebum immediately puts Jinyoung on navigation duty and assign the rest of them to lookout duty. They’ll have to push some things back in their journey as Jaebum is well enough to go searching for them with a vengeance.

Bambam doesn’t really care, as long as he gets the one who was shaking and twitching. He seemed like an easy catch.