o19

Last Minute Plans

Baekhyun was right that there was another storm that night, and Hei spent the first while worrying about Jinqiong (because maybe she hadn’t been that drunk in the beginning, but by the time they’d finished dinner, Jinqiong had another two mugs and was beginning to past the point of tipsy and borderlining on drunk), and then the latter part of the while curled up and trying not to throw up then and there. Except that time the storm was bad enough for the feeling to actually be real.

A night of barely any sleep and many times of rinsing out left her exhausted, frustrated, not quite as nauseous (to be fair, actually heaving made the seasickness leave, even if it left other miseries behind) but replaced by the feeling of disorientation that came from not having enough rest. Unsure if she was more frustrated with herself or the terrible weather, Hei managed to drag herself up when Baekhyun slipped into the cabin too and held up the lantern she’d lit for herself.

“Woah.” He held up his hands to shield his eyes from the light. “Hei? Why are you up?”

“Can’t sleep,” she croaked, voice hoarse. She shook her head, trying to clear it, though to no avail. Hoping the excuse sufficed, she explained, “The storm kept me up.”

If Baekhyun noticed how terrible she looked (or, really, if she looked as terrible as she felt), he didn’t comment much on it because he made his way over, beginning to change from the wet clothing yet again. “It’s so late,” he murmured. “Or early in the morning. I don’t know. But I don’t even know what it was, but something tore the canvas on one of the main masts. We can get it patched up right now, but we don’t have extremely durable material that will hold, so we need to stop again.”

“Will we make it?”

“Yeah.” He finished pulling on a dry pair of pants before shuffling over to the bed, apparently too tired or not even bothering to find a shirt. Hei reached for the lampstand, took one more gulp of water, before slipping under the covers fully again next to Baekhyun. “It’ll take about a day to get from here to there, and hopefully less than a day to fix the canvas—we have all the supplies we need, so we don’t need to worry about that—and then fifteen more to get to Hell’s Gate. It’s not, well, ideal, but it should work out. The storm’s run its course, anyway, so Luhan can deal with everything else now.”

Despite the exhaustion, part of her must have been awake enough to realize that Baekhyun’s hair was still wet. Gripping his shoulder, she pushed him up. “Sit up,” she told him. “You’re going to get a headache if you sleep like this.”

He groaned quietly. “I’m tired.”

Hei fought back the words so am I—he was bound to get suspicious, and she didn’t want Baekhyun thinking she was too sick to stay—and tugged on his arm a bit harder. “I’ll dry your hair for you.”

There was another sleepy groan but Baekhyun sat up, rubbing his eyes. Hei grabbed one of the clean towels from the closet and began drying his hair as best as she could.

It actually required concentration, which was a bit hard because she could barely see straight, but Baekhyun seemed to relax into her touch. She towelled his hair until it was slightly damp before putting the towel aside and tapping his shoulder slightly. “Go to sleep.”

Baekhyun twisted around to look at her. He still looked tired, but his eyes crinkled into crescents. “You’re amazing.”

She frowned. “You’re being cheesy. I just dried your hair because you didn’t look awake enough to do it yourself.”

He hummed at that but didn’t respond, instead wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her back down. A couple of seconds later, he had apparently settled into a comfortable enough position, head buried near her neck and an arm draped over her loosely. Hei fought the urge to laugh; she had genuinely thought she was the tired one, but it was obviously Baekhyun.

“Talk,” he mumbled against her skin, and she blinked.

“Talk?”

“Yeah. You’re nice to listen to.”

“You’re really tired, aren’t you?”

“Mm.”

“What do I even talk about?”

“Anything.” His voice was muffled, barely a breath against her skin, and Hei felt Baekhyun shake his head, grip tightening. “Just talk. About your power. About… I don’t know, it doesn’t matter.”

It was a strange request from him, but Hei obliged either way, figuring there was no point in denying. Threading a hand through his hair absentmindedly, she cleared , feeling slightly silly. The cabin was quiet, matching the peacefulness the sea had settled into, and Hei was beginning to feel tired too. “Alright,” she started quietly. “Uh, well, I did try to use my power a bit. I managed to do it with you when I turned back time and on your father, but I’m still having trouble focusing and just stopping time around one particular person or object. I can sometimes do it, but I still haven’t managed to turn it back. Jongdae was telling me about it, and apparently, if I learn how to stop time just for a particular area, it’ll save a lot more energy, but it’s also a lot of focus and I—” She broke off. “Baekhyun? Are you still awake?”

There was no reply, only his steady breathing, the faint rise and fall of his body. Hei would’ve laughed if it wouldn’t have disturbed him; he really was exhausted, given just how fast he’d fallen asleep.

It wasn’t long after she’d closed her eyes that she drifted off too.

***

Jinqiong expected the headache, but she did not expect the light.

Some god awful person had decided to leave a lit lamp in her room, which happened to be right in front of her when she blinked awake. Then she remembered that that person could only be Jongdae, which wasn’t exactly surprising even if it brought an uncomfortable sort of feeling she couldn’t quite place, especially in that state. Groaning, she rolled the other way, away from the glare of the firelight and closed her eyes again.

The pounding headache did not go away. She attempted to switch a couple more positions before giving up and forcing herself to adjust to the light.

By the time Jinqiong could tolerate the brightness, she pulled herself to her feet, changed into a set of clothing that didn’t smell of alcohol, then downed the whole glass of water on the bedside table before wondering how in the world the water had gotten there. She figured that it was probably, once again, Kim Jongdae’s doing.

Her headache refused to go away when she stumbled outside, still a bit disoriented and very, very tired. The morning after was always the worst.

The first person Jinqiong managed to crash into, however, was Junmyeon, who was just going down the staircase when she dragged herself up.

He was holding a light, and Jinqiong saw him raise a quizzical eyebrow at her. “Rough night?”

Jinqiong winced and shook her head. “Contrary. I had a wonderful sleep. Just… waking up wasn’t as pleasant.”

“I’ve always found drinking a negative experience from start to end,” Junmyeon replied thoughtfully. “I suppose it differs person to person.”

She shrugged. “Maybe you just need some time to get used to it.”

He chuckled quietly. “Maybe. Anyway, Luhan’s looking for you in the mess hall. Says he needs to try to keep the spell on your gem up to date in case Junsu manages to track us down again. It needs to be… concealed? I don’t know how any of his magic works. Hopefully you do.”

“Nope.” Jinqiong tried for a smile that actually looked like one. “Well, thanks for telling me. I’ll go find him now, I guess.”

“Yeah.” Junmyeon took one step down, before stopping and glancing over his shoulder. “You know, my brother likes you even though he may not act like it. His way of getting anywhere close to lying is to be harsh with those he’s fond of, but if he didn’t care about you, he wouldn’t spend half the time arguing with you like he does now.”

“I’m not really feeling the love,” she replied drily.

“I’m sure Byun Baekhyun doesn’t either,” he joked back. “But it’s one of his ways for making up with his inability to lie. Don’t take it too personally.”

“It seems pretty personal.”

“He’s been like that since he was little,” Junmyeon chucked slightly. “It’s personal for all of us, so I guess that makes it, well, not so personal, right?”

Unsure of how to respond to that, she gave a confused shrugged. Junmyeon nodded at the direction of the stairway. “Then I’ll be off,” he said. “See you around.”

“Uh, yeah.” Jinqiong shifted on her feet, with no idea what to say. “Uh, yeah. See you.”

He disappeared into his own room, and she hurried up the stairs, trying not to think about what he had said about Jongdae.

She nearly got out from below deck when she crashed into Hei. The other girl was rubbing her eyes, looking disoriented, and her half sister ended up staring at her for a good five seconds or so before seeming to actually recognize her properly.

“Hey,” Hei exclaimed a little too loudly, then flinched. “Sorry. Tired. Rough night.”

Jinqiong raised an eyebrow. “You look like you’ve gotten no sleep.”

“The storm kept me up.” Hei groaned, running a rand through her hair. “Baekhyun’s still asleep. But the storm—or something, I have no idea what happened up there—tore through one of the canvases, and we’re going to need to drop by at one of the port-towns to grab materials, because Baekhyun says the fixing they did was too temporary to hold through Hell’s Gate.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe the seas are this bad.”

“Weren’t you on sea for months before this?” Jinqiong asked.

Hei gave a defeated groan. “Yeah,” she muttered. “I was. Except I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Seasickness keeps me up, and it’s getting worse.” Hei shook her head. “I’ll let you go. Though do you know where Jongdae is, by any chance?”

Jinqiong had an extremely faint recollection of Jongdae in her cabin the previous night, but the amount she drank was enough to turn everything fuzzy, and she had absolutely no clue what he was doing there for and trying to remember was an absolute nightmare. There was a glass of water, she thought. Then, thinking about, perhaps it wasn’t water. She had a vague memory of Jongdae giving her something absolutely vile to drink.

“In his cabin?” Thinking of Jongdae brought a bitter taste. Whatever Junmyeon had said about him—it definitely felt pretty personal. Jongdae didn’t snap at everyone like he did at her. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since last night.”

Hei rubbed her eyes again. “Alright,” she said. “Thanks. We’re stopping this afternoon, though, so if there’s anything you need in Chaoyun, you can probably go with us.”

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”

She flinched slightly at the response, but covered it up quickly with a slightly smile. “Alright,” she said. “See you around. I have to find Jongdae.”

Then, like Junmyeon, she disappeared down the stairway.

***
 

What Luhan did with the gem Jinqiong had no idea, but she sat with a glass of water watching him work with it while having absolutely no idea what he was doing. He inspected it, pulled out one of his notebooks, and struggled for a while. Once in a while, colour flared up around the gem, a spark or two, and Luhan dropped it once with a loud swear. At some point in time, Jinqiong managed to drift off with her chin in her hands, and when she finally blinked back awake, Luhan was apparently finished and just pouring himself a cup of water too.

He gave her a wince-smile. “I think we’re good for now,” he said. “I mean, I’m not too sure, but I should’ve masked up the magical signals around it well enough that Junsu can’t trace them. I’ll need to redo them in… two days? Three days? At least until I can find a long term situation.”

Jinqiong picked up the jewel and slipped it back into her pocket. “Thanks,” she managed.

“Yeah, no worries—” he started, though before Luhan could finish, the doors to the mess hall bust open.

“We need you on the helm,” Byun Baekhyun started, then broke off abruptly when he saw her.

Jinqiong could almost swear that his expression soured. It would’ve been funny if she hadn’t been so irritated by it. She had enough self control not to scowl back at him but instead turned around pointedly.

If Luhan sensed the atmosphere, he didn’t comment on it. “Are we docking soon?” he asked Baekhyun.

“Yeah, let’s go. It’s a bit hard to control the ship right now because the sewed up canvas is already starting to rip, so the ship’s a bit…” He made a motion with his hand. “It’s okay. Chaoyun’s normally okay at this time of year, but I just don’t know what it’s going to take for Yifan give me the canvas.” He made a face. “I don’t have any money. Should’ve asked Yoona for gold before we left.”

“And she would’ve given it to you?” Luhan stood up and rolled his eyes. “You threatened Yifan last time. Don’t think he’ll be happy to see you.”