o53

Destinations Abound

The fifth sector proved to be surprisingly more lenient after the incident with the seaweed. By the time Baekhyun’s shift was over, the sky had lightened considerably, and apart from a faraway flock of giant birds circling the ship, there didn’t seem to be anything else to worry about. Hei stayed in the cabin until she couldn’t stand it a moment longer, and decided to test her luck by going to the mess hall, in case there was somebody to talk to there.

She’d rounded the corner when she heard Baekhyun’s voice. He was speaking quietly, not enough for Hei to pick up what he was saying, but she thought she caught her name, then Yoona’s. Peeking through the crack of the door, she caught a glimpse of Jungwoo sitting across Baekhyun, hands folded in front of him as he listened with a focused expression.

Hei was about to turn to leave when Jungwoo glanced towards the door. “Hi,” he greeted in his usual reserved tone.

She saw Baekhyun lean over so he could see who it was. His expression brightened when he met her eyes. “I didn’t hear you.”

Hei pushed open the door of the mess hall a bit more and stepped inside, a bit embarrassed about interrupting their conversation. Jungwoo stepped out of his seat. “I’ll get you water,” he offered, then hurried away to the side.

Very much touched by the gesture, Hei sat down beside Baekhyun. He picked up her hand out of habit, thumb running absentminded circles over her palm. Jungwoo came back and handed her the glass of water. He’d even made sure to take her designated cup.

“Thank you,” she told the boy as she took the water from him, taking a small sip. It was still cool, which felt nice, given that the sector had begun to feel a bit too warm. Figuring that it was too late to excuse herself so that they could continue their conversation, Hei asked, “What were you two talking about?”

Jungwoo exchanged a look with Baekhyun. They seemed to have a brief staring contest for a couple seconds before Baekhyun turned to her. “I was just telling him about Yoona,” he said. “About what she’s been doing against the families, who I’ve been working with, and… well, having someone who can neutralize powers would give us a huge advantage.” He tilted his head at Jungwoo. “He’s pretty certain he’s going to join Yoona when we get back.”

Hei took another sip from her cup. “That’s really great,” she told Jungwoo, and she meant it. Now that he wasn’t wearing all black—apparently nobody on the ship had that attire to lend him—he looked much younger, brighter. Maybe it was something about his expression as well that contributed. “It’s… well, it’s not as drastic as killing a family leader, but their power has been slowly crumbling after what happened with Baekhyun’s father, and I know that Yoona has been striking them where it’ll cripple them the most.”

Jungwoo nodded. He always looked serious, Hei thought, and she had yet to see him smile. “I’ve heard a lot about Im Yoona,” he admitted. “Just… until Hei told me, I had no idea you were working with her as well.”

Baekhyun rolled his shoulders. “I have to do something to keep myself occupied,” he said with faux lightness.

Hei rolled her eyes at Baekhyun. “Ignore him,” she told Jungwoo. It wasn’t nearly enough to elicit a laugh, but she swore that his lips twitched ever so slightly. After a moment of hesitation, she asked, “What did Junsu promise you for helping him? You mentioned that he would help you kill a family leader, but… it wasn’t really clear.”

Jungwoo’s expression darkened, and Hei could tell that the topic of Junsu still made him antsy. Still, she hoped he knew that they—or at least she—didn’t hold it against him. Byun Junsu, mind control aside, was still strong and persuasive and driven, and she couldn’t find it in herself to blame Jungwoo for following him.

After a long moment of silence, Jungwoo’s shoulders sagged slightly. “He told me he nearly killed his father,” he started, “which I suppose was true. He said he’d learned his lesson as to what went wrong, and he promised that after he was freed from the curse, he’d be able to bring down the family leaders once and for all. I guess… after seeing what he was capable of, I believed him. I wanted to believe him because nothing I’d ever tried had worked, and it was better knowing that I wouldn't do it alone.”

“Junsu never treated you as an equal.” It was Baekhyun who spoke up, and Hei glanced at him, surprised at the seriousness in his tone. “He just commanded you whenever he needed your power, and there was no guarantee he’d even keep his promise after he broke the curse.”

Jungwoo’s shoulders seemed to sag even more. “I know.”

“It’s not the same here, though.” Baekhyun hesitated, like he was searching for the right words. Finally, he continued, “You don’t need to be scared of speaking up or asking anyone anything or expressing what you want or what you think. I don’t want you to feel like that.”

Jungwoo glanced up at him, eyes wide. Baekhyun offered him a small smile in return. It wasn’t even directed at her, but Hei could feel the genuineness. “The crew works as a team,” he told him, “I’m not… I’m not commanding an army like Junsu was. And that means that if you have any concerns, I’ll do my best to address them as the captain.”

For a couple of seconds, Hei wasn’t sure if Jungwoo was about to cry or smile. It turned out to be the latter, because he broke out into a grin. It wasn’t large and he hid it a moment after, but it was something, and she could tell he was happy. “Thank you. I—I’ll also do my best to communicate. I think I have a shift now.”

He got up from his seat and bowed slightly at them, then headed towards the door. After he left, they remained sitting there in a couple more seconds of silence before Hei turned to Baekhyun. She couldn’t help but smile. “How do you always know the right things to say to people?”

Baekhyun shrugged with fake nonchalance. “One of my many charms, I assume.”

“I think Jungwoo really needed to hear that.”

Baekhyun went quiet. When she looked at him, he was staring at his hands thoughtfully, perhaps a little sadly. Hei nudged his side. “What’s wrong?”

He took her cup from her and took a long drink. “Jungwoo apologized to me before you came,” he said slowly. “About that time Junsu kidnapped us, and about how he couldn’t do more on Junsu’s ship. And we ended up talking a bit about his childhood. He kind of just… reminded me of myself, I guess? The families—both his own and yours—took so much from him, yet he’s only eighteen. Eighteen feels… so young.”

“You were only sixteen.”

“Yeah.” Baekhyun’s voice was strained. “Yeah, I was. Hearing what he told me and I couldn’t help but wonder how many children from the families there’ll be with a scarred childhood and burdened with so much… with so much hate. It shouldn’t be that way, but practically all of us went through that, didn’t we? And not everyone was as lucky as I was.”

“You consider yourself lucky?” she asked.

Baekhyun blinked. “Am I not?”

Lucky was not a word she’d think to describe him. Lucky… was not a ruined childhood, not being sentenced to death by his own father at sixteen, eight years of running and hiding and fighting. Wordlessly, Hei shook her head, not sure if she could formulate her thoughts if she spoke.

“Well,” Baekhyun said. “Not everyone met the right people, you know? I could’ve left Vasileia that day and never bumped into Heejin, and who knows what would’ve happened then? Who knows what my father would’ve done to me? If Yixing hadn’t found me half dead on the beach or if he left me there rather than help, I probably would’ve bled to death. If I’d never known Luhan, I don’t think I’d even have a crew now.”

Hei waited a couple moments, then frowned. “That’s all?”

“Yeah, were you expecting something else? Someone else?”

She snatched her cup back from him. “Nope.”

Baekhyun let out a laugh, wrapping his arms around her. Hei yelped as his hair brushed against her neck. “Kidding,” he said, voice muffled against her skin. “If I hadn’t met you, then…” The exhale was warm against her neck. “Then I’d probably still be lost and angry and bitter about my father. Maybe I would’ve just been dead already. Wouldn’t be this happy, that I know.”

Hei slipped an arm over his back. “You flatterer.”

“You love me.”

Hei hummed an agreement, because she couldn’t find it in her to say anything else. For a while, they remained in companionable silence, then the door of the mess hall swung open so abruptly that she jolted. With a groan, Baekhyun lifted his head and squinted at the door.

Jongdae poked a head inside, then brought his hands over his eyes. He was still peeking through his fingers. “Seriously, in public?” he demanded.

“ off,” Baekhyun grumbled petulantly, but he unwrapped his arms from around her to sit up on his own. Hei watched as Jongdae lowered his hand, still grinning. To her surprise, Jinqiong followed him inside the moment he moved from the door—Hei hadn’t even noticed she was there. She nodded at Hei when they made eye contact.

“How’re your shoulders?” she asked, making a beeline for the water.

Hei rolled them carefully. The pain was still there, but it was less pronounced than before. Baekhyun redid the bandages every night, and they were beginning to scab. Which, although awful to look at, meant it was healing.

“Fine,” she concluded, then realized Jinqiong didn’t have her crutches anymore. She repeated the thought out loud to Jinqiong.

It was Jongdae who replied. “She refuses to use them,” he snorted, sliding into the seat across from her and Baekhyun. His limp had disappeared significantly well, though his hand remained bandaged. “Said she’s fine without the crutches.”

Jinqiong shot him a positively scathing glare from where she was standing. “I am fine without the crutches,” she snapped in a sharp tone. “You looked like you needed them much more than I did in the first place anyway.”

Baekhyun leaned in and whispered much too loudly, “Are they fighting or flirting?”

Hei couldn’t help but laugh, and Jongdae, not even looking the least bit embarrassed, grabbed Hei’s cup of water and flung the remnants at Baekhyun. He brushed it aside easily with his power, then stuck out his tongue at Jongdae.

Jinqiong rounded the table, walking with surprising ease despite the injuries, and sat down a little ways from Jongdae. She pulled her legs up to her chest, balancing precariously on the bench. “Where’s Kyungsoo?” she asked. “I heard he was supposed to cook.”

“Probably waiting for Chanyeol to finish his shift because he needs fire,” Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “He should be here soon.”

Hei studied her sister. It had been a few days since Jinqiong had come to find her in front of her cabin, and she still hadn’t told her what it had been all about. The one time she’d asked Jinqiong, she’d been brushed off with later, and later had yet to come. Then she remembered how Jinqiong had talked about leaving after they returned, and she wondered if it was about that. The thought, a month ago, had seemed hurtful but inevitable, and Hei had forced herself to come to terms with it. Now… the simple possibility of it seemed more painful than it had been when it seemed to be an unchangeable fact.

“Where’s my water?” she heard Jongdae demand, and Hei snapped out of her thoughts. Jinqiong downed her glass in one shot, then slid the empty cup to him.

“Here,” she said in such an emotionless tone that she would’ve put Kyungsoo to shame.

He groaned. Jinqiong’s face was still set in her usual impassivity as she watched Jongdae push himself from the bench and head for the water. “I didn’t even do anything this time to warrant this treatment,” he whined.

The faint hint of a smile crossed Jinqiong’s face as she watched him, which Hei didn’t miss. She raised an eyebrow at her sister, but Jinqiong was stubborn enough to avoid looking at her altogether.

“Jin—” Hei started, but before she could get the rest of the name out, the door of the mess hall burst open and Park Chanyeol tumbled in. His left sleeve was on fire, which he didn’t seem to notice until Hei hesitantly pointed it out.

He snuffed it without much more than a twitch of his fingers. “Where’s Kyungsoo?” he demanded, out of breath. “He told me to get here on time so he could cook.”

“Behind you,” Kyungsoo’s monotone said. “Hurry up. You’re already late.”

“You’re late t—ow!”

In a minute or two, Kyungsoo had set up his cooking contraption again, with Hei watching in slightly horrified amusement. Chanyeol laid his hand on a slab of stone in order for the wooden table not to catch fire, and Kyungsoo placed some sort of metal rack over it, on top of which sat a pan. He had finished cutting vegetables at a speed Hei hadn’t been able to keep up with, and was in the process of tossing everything he’d prepared into the pan.

Chanyeol lit a flame in his palm, and, with the most deadpan expression ever, Kyungsoo began to cook.

Jongdae had long retrieved his water and returned to his seat. “I feel like I’m witnessing something revolutionary,” he admitted.

“It’s really tiring,” Chanyeol replied. “He wants me to keep the heat at exactly the same temperature, which requires a lot of concentration. It’s easier to summon a full-on firestorm than do this.”

“If you need to concentrate that badly,” Kyungsoo said, “then shut up.”

Chanyeol snapped his mouth shut, miraculously.

They spent the next while in silence. By the time whatever dish Kyungsoo was cooking was starting to smell heavenly, Hei was once again reminded that she needed to ask Jinqiong about what she had been planning to talk to her about. “Jinq—” she started.

Jinqiong had already turned to look at Baekhyun. “Has Lee Taeyong been joining you on shifts?” she asked.

Hei was momentarily too surprised by the fact that her sister was talking to Baekhyun so casually and civilly that she forgot about the frustration of being interrupted. Again.

What was even more mind blowing was Baekhyun’s response. She wondered if she would ever get used to him talking to Jinqiong without a hint of irritation or anger in his tone. “Occasionally. Why?”

“Was just wondering,” Jinqiong replied with a shrug. “He’s… interesting.”

“Interesting,” Baekhyun echoed with a little snort. “He has the mannerisms from a millennium ago, and hasn’t interacted properly with anyone for that long either. He’s awkward.”

Hei frowned. “That’s not nice.”

Jinqiong nodded. “He is, though.”

“He tries his best to start a conversation, though, and I can appreciate that.” Baekhyun jabbed a finger at Jongdae. “When he joined us for a shift the other day, you don’t know how relieved I was to listen to someone else talk that wasn’t Jongdae.”

Jongdae glared at Baekhyun. “You act as if you don’t talk a lot either.”

“Honestly,” Jinqiong replied, “I’m going to have to side with Baekhyun here. You really do love hearing your own voice.”

Jongdae shot her a mock-wounded look, and deciding to balance it out, Hei patted Baekhyun’s shoulder. “Baekhyun does too, though. I think he’s told me before that he likes how his voice sounds.”

“You also like how my voice sounds,” Baekhyun pointed out without an ounce of shame.

“Alright,” Jongdae interrupted loudly. “I’m going to need this to stop here before I hear something I’d much rather not know about.”

The only good thing that came out of the embarrassment was the way Jinqiong’s lips twitched, even if she didn’t actually smile. Before either she or Baekhyun could retort, Kyungsoo raised his hand with the spatula (which, after a moment of squinting, Hei discovered to be a knife with a broad piece of wood attached to the bottom). “Dinner is ready,” he said very seriously.

***

The stretch of the fifth sector was rather long, but Lee Taeyong had taken it upon himself to frequent a majority of shifts, and his power kept them away from having to clash head-on with anything too difficult to deal with, like the sea serpent or the kraken. There was one time where something ‘very huge and very angry’ had approached them in the water, although Taeyong had frozen it and they left it behind them without much of a clash.

Jinqiong’s shift with Junmyeon was beginning to wrap up. Taeyong had left minutes ago, clearly spent from how much he’d exerted his power. It was somewhat odd to see him hit some sort of limit. He clearly tired much less easily than Hei did, and despite the eleven centuries he’d spent without being able to use his power, he still seemed to draw on it like second nature. Jinqiong wondered just how intimate his power had been to him for it to remain so easy to call upon after so long.

Still, watching him excuse himself was a strange reminder that this man—a millennium old, perhaps the strongest one