o18

Alcohol Night

Hei didn’t get seasick often, but the ship had run headlong into a storm just hours after leaving Xiyuan and it had gotten so bad that she ended cocooning herself in a blanket in the cabin and trying to push down the feeling of nausea. It was apparently happy not going away, and she spent most of the time curled up in the bed trying to tame the feeling. As bad as seasickness did get, Hei was pretty sure that she’d gotten used to the sea enough not to feel nauseous at a storm like that.

Still, there was no denying the fact that she was, in fact, sick. Barely keeping herself on the bed (the storm was rocking the ship enough for it to get that bad. Between bouts of nausea, Hei debated whether or not it was the magnitude of the wind and waves or if it were the fact that she hadn’t sailed in a long, long time), she curled deeper in the blankets, although it didn’t help with anything. It wasn’t as if she were cold. Just sick. And that was way worse.

It seemed like forever before the storm calmed down. It was even much longer before the nausea finally faded to something more bearable and she managed to settle in the bed without twisting and turning, although it was still too uncomfortable to be able to sleep properly. For the longest time, she tried to match her breathing to the now-steady waves of the ocean, attempting to focus on anything that would distract her from the discomfort. Not quite able to sleep yet tired from all the events of the day, Hei lingered between half lucid.

It was Baekhyun who finally woke her up completely. The door of the cabin swung open as he stumbled inside, already drenched head to toe, and Hei pushed herself up a bit begrudgingly. Then again, she had been incapable of falling asleep, so there wasn’t really a better option.

“Hey.” He wiped wet hair from his eyes. “Did I wake you?”

She shook her head. “Couldn’t sleep. It’s not that late, anyway.”

Baekhyun pushed his hair back again, then went with shaking his head like a puppy. “Are you okay? You look kind of pale.”

Hei snapped shut before she could tell him that she felt nauseous. It was normal, she figured, given that she hadn’t sailed in a storm in so long, but at that point, anything was worry-worthy to Baekhyun and she really would’ve rather kept him from having another fit of fretting. “I’m fine,” she assured him, “it’s probably the lighting. And I can’t fall asleep, though it’s probably because it’s so early.”

There was the scratch of a match as the room lit up from the lantern. Baekhyun set it down on the bedside, then went with struggling to get the wet shirt off. “Help me rebandage,” he murmured. “God, that storm was so bad.”

Hei waited him to change fully into dry clothing before he sat down next to her, holding the clean shirt in one hand, bandages and a towel in another as he tried to dry his hair while unwrapping the roll. Ignoring the fact that she still didn’t feel quite well, Hei sat up straighter, shook her head in a sorry attempt to clear it, and plucked it from his hands. “Stop multitasking,” she scolded.

Baekhyun let her. Hei squinted at the gash down his chest.

It wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been on the first day, at least in terms of severity, but it had begun to scab at the sides and looking at it still made her feel slightly uneasy. Baekhyun raised his arms as she wrapped gauze around his chest until the wound was completely covered. “Can’t you just get Yuxuan to heal you?” she asked. “I mean, it’s pretty bad and it might’ve gotten worse after Junsu—”

Baekhyun was already shaking his head. “I don’t want to make her do too much,” he replied immediately. “Luhan mentioned it earlier, but Yuxuan’s powers have their limits too and we shouldn’t make her heal anything unless it’s seriously necessary.”

“Then you’ve technically gone against that,” she pointed out. “I mean, you made Yuxuan heal me and I’m not even as badly injured as you.”

Baekhyun decided, somehow, that ignoring her was the best way to go, as if it had worked in the past before. “I have another shift tonight,” he went with saying. Hei couldn’t tell if he genuinely thought the change of topic was believable or if it were a sorry attempt to talk about something else. “The sky’s cleared for now, although Junmyeon’s pretty sure that there’s going to be another storm. Honestly, he’s probably right.”

Figuring that she would pry later, Hei humoured him instead of pursuing it any further (though she made a mental note to refuse any treatment from Yuxuan unless it was completely necessary in the future). “How long will the storms go on?”

The relief was obvious on his face, although he was smart enough not to say it. “Don’t know,” he replied. “It’s not really going in our favour because it isn’t even helping us get to Hell’s Gate, but at least it’ll slow Junsu down. We might have another day tomorrow if the weather’s particularly bad.”

Her heart dropped at that, but Hei tried not to show it. The nausea and seasickness was possible to deal with, at any rate, and compared to everything else, it was hardly the end of the world. Still, she must have looked somewhat crestfallen because Baekhyun began frowning (Hei was starting to think that he had gotten awfully sensitive after Junsu, and while it was endearing at times, it was suffocating too). Before he could say anything, the door to the cabin swung open.

Only one person would’ve done such a thing.

Kim Jongdae peered inside. “Kyungsoo cooked something that actually smells good,” he started, then shrunk back. “Woah. Didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”

Hei set down the bundle of gauze and rolled her eyes. Baekhyun and Jongdae combined were way too much to deal with. “He’s hurt,” she protested. “I’m not sure who says worse things. You or Baekhyun.” She was pretty sure she heard Baekhyun mutter something along the lines of worse things or stupider things?

“Who knows,” Jongdae replied serenely, though he had turned back around. “The difference is you probably like it when he says it.”

She wasn’t even going to comment on that. Shaking her head, Hei pushed herself up from the bed to put the bandages back into the drawer. “What’s Kyungsoo making?”
 

“Smooth change of topic.”

“You came in here to call us down for dinner,” she shot back.

Baekhyun was pulling on a shirt by then, but he turned to Jongdae’s general direction, who was watching him, slightly amused. He started in a muffled voice, “You should come help me steer tonight. There’s a storm. If we’re lucky, you might even go overboard.”

“Wow,” Jongdae said drily. “You’re actually inviting someone up to steer with you now?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Jongdae jumped on it gleefully. “Baekhyun used to take a bunch of early morning shifts,” he started. “Alone. In the rain. Supplementary cold bath. Guess why?”

Baekhyun groaned, though he looked slightly flustered. “Not this again.”

Hei frowned. She did remember vaguely, but Baekhyun had always gotten up too early for her to remember much and it had been pretty much a year ago. “Again?”

He hauled himself up, shot Jongdae a glare, and grabbed his cutlass from where he’d set it down on the desk and sheathed it on his hip again. It was a habit, Hei knew, but it was also funny given that it half looked like he was attempting to threaten Jongdae. “You’re going overboard.”

“I suppose he doesn’t have the same problems anymore given that you’re married and now you can—hey!”

Baekhyun drew back his arm and punched him again, though it seemed light enough not to hurt. “Why am I even helping you in the first place?”

Hei trailed after them. It was nice seeing Jongdae back to his usual self, even if he was a handful and said a good bunch of things she would’ve been better off not hearing, even if it was also too early to tell if he was feeling better from whatever that had been bothering him the past while or if it were just temporary. All thoughts of that went out the window, however, when she got to the mess hall.

Kyungsoo had set up a strange contraption in order to actually cook with a fire, and part of it apparently involve Chanyeol’s power because the poor boy had been quite literally dragged to hold his hand under the metal stand as Kyungsoo cooked something. He managed to keep a slow and steady flame burning, though it was obvious that Chanyeol was beginning to tire because the fire was flickering.

Hei gawked at them. “What in the world is this?”

Kyungsoo glanced up. “Supper,” he deadpanned. “I don’t want to eat preserved meat. I want something fresh. So I’m making dinner.” He stirred the pan with his makeshift spatula, which Hei couldn't see what it was made of.

Chanyeol gave them a pained smile. “You might wanna do an alcohol check on those two,” he said, then pointed his free hand in the direction of the other table.

Hei turned to where he was pointing and nearly choked.

It was obviously Jongin who’d brought out the alcohol because Jinqiong didn’t know the ship well, but she was sitting and watching Jongin drink with a slightly contemplative look. She had her own mug in front of her, although she didn’t seem to be dri