Baekhyun can hear voices. 

Distant murmurs. Slowly rising. 

His eyes dart back and forth behind his eyelids. He frowns as the voices grow louder. 

‘— he had died? What would you—‘ 

He feels as though he is going in and out of consciousness, not really aware and not making any sense of the situation at hand. The only thing he wishes to do right now is close his eyes and sleep. Which is what he attempts to do, only the voices persistently get louder and louder, grating against his earbuds, ricocheting off the back of his skull. 

‘—Do you not think before you do stupid stuff like that? Goddamnit Rei—‘

‘Don’t put this on me. I just did what I had to do. He was snooping.’ 

‘Still, we can’t afford being caught by the Kingdom.’

Baekhyun’s eyelids flutter open wearily, slowly, as if he’s just woken up from ten years of sleep. Everything seems to be blurry, specked with dots of black swimming across his vision. It takes a few seconds for them to clear, and he furrows his eyebrows in concentration as he tries to tune out the conversation that seems to pound rocks into his skull. 

‘The Saphire Kingdom doesn’t even know what it’s doing anymore. Everything and everyone in there is as corrupt as , and—‘ 

Something seems to have shut up the female voice. It takes a few beats of silence for Baekhyun to realize that it’s all due to the fact that they are staring at him, but it’s only when he realizes that he has no ing clue who these two individuals are that he finds himself in a chokehold, a wrist pinning him down on the hardwood floor before he even has a chance to spit out a word. 

The arm’s owner stares down at him impassively, eyes narrowed mouth turned down into a scowl. A shadow of stubble dots his chin albeit the fact that he might have looked younger without it, and though his frame does not look imposing, the fingers grasping Baekhyun’s neck gives away his enemy’s strength. 

The dark-haired enemy stares him down, before he hisses, ‘Your name.’ 

Baekhyun opens his mouth. Closes it silently. 

‘Speak.’ the skinny young man squeezes his windpipe as method of encouragement.

‘A bit hard for him if you’re going to keep holding on to his throat.’ The voice behind him drips with sarcasm.

 Baekhyun’s eyes slide to the side to take note of the girl scrutinizing at her nails with a bored expression, a fearful sense of dread starts to settle in his stomach. He finally gets released from the chokehold, air rushing through to his lungs so quickly that it causes his body to double over into dry, horrible coughs.

The two strangers are still and gazing down at him when he finally gets a hold of himself. 

‘Speak.’ repeats the man. His tone is hoarse and thick, the voice of a man that has spent his entire life smoking, there is no doubt about that. 

‘Who are you?’ Baekhyun asks instead, ‘What do you want from me? Where am I?’

‘Woah slow down, pal’ the dark-haired stranger crosses his arms over his chest, eyebrow raised in amusement, ‘Either you’re a very dumb idiot or you have a habit of running your mouth whenever you want to.’ He leans in closer, getting right up into the soldier’s face who stares impassively back at him, ‘Now, I asked you a question. I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care. As long as you’re on my grounds, you’ll do as I say. I want your name.’ 

Baekhyun fiercely stares back. He’s not backing down. He’s part of the Royal guard. There is no way he is betraying the crown just because he has gotten himself into a pickle. 

A very prickly spicy pickle, that is.

Something rocks beneath Baekhyun’s feet, who jolts in surprise before looking around. His eyes widen when he realizes that, for the first time, he is surrounded by water and only water. Suddenly, everything seems to roar louder in his ears; he hears the muffled sound of the seagulls in the distance, the lull of the waves rocking against the boat, the constant hum of the wind through his ears. His eyes dart back and forth in growing confusion as panic slowly builds up and his heart jumps to his throat. 

What the . 

Cool metal against his skin suddenly puts a halt to his thoughts. The dark-haired stranger’s blade presses against Baekhyun’s neck, the pressure enough to hint that his enemy isn’t joking about killing Baekhyun off if answers provided weren’t satisfactory. 

‘And answer for a question.’ Baekhyun grovels out.

The man eyes him, ‘Fine. You first.’ 

‘Byungsoo.’ Baekhyun lies straight through his teeth without flinching, ‘Who are you?’ 

‘Captain Leroy Hitoshima. People call me Leroy. That doesn’t apply to you.’ Leroy shifts his weight from one foot to another, holding the blade at Baekhyun’s neck, ‘Who sent you?’ 

Baekhyun’s throat runs dry. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘You damn well know what I’m talking about.’ Leroy grabs something from the girl’s hands before shoving it violently into Baekhyun’s arms, ‘The rucksack. Made from fine cotton material, not very common for someone living on the borders.’ 

‘Got it as a present. Why are you here and what’s your deal?’ 

‘That’s two questions, and we’re here for personal reasons. That’s as much as I can tell you.’ Leroy says, ‘Are you from the palace?’ 

Baekhyun swallowed. ‘No.’ 

‘He’s lying.’ The girl states drily. 

‘I know he is,’ Leroy snaps, swivelling towards her with a glare, ‘You don’t have to tell me that.’ 

She shrugs in mock response, but her eyes are teasing, ‘I’m just telling you.’ 

‘What do you want from me?’ Baekhyun asks, only to have Leroy his blade against his neck once more, a warning that he should consider his words carefully. The dark-haired man’s eyes narrow into suspicious slits, orbs glistening with dark malice. There is no hint of sympathy, nothing that can trigger any positive responses from the royal soldier.

Baekhyun is doomed. Might as well be as good as dead.

‘See, now that’s a tough question. You don’t ask that type of question.’ Leroy starts picking at his nails using his other hand, ‘But since we’re planning on keeping you for ransom, we might as well tell you our full story. We’re pirates from the East Coast, usually make our living by exchanging fish for gold coins and, sometimes, the occasional steal here and there,’ he purses his lips in thought, as if this is just a mere coffee shop conversation they are having, ‘We just came here to rest for a bit since we were on our way to the Saphirica Capital, near the Royal Kingdom, but turns out fate is on our side.’ 

With that, he glances down at Baekhyun, and dread fills the latter with bitterness.

They know. They’ve known ever since they captured him. They are basically just playing around with him like cats having gotten a mouse in their paws.

Baekhyun’s teeth grit together in an attempt to keep it together. He has to find a solution to escape, but the possibilities seem limited right now, especially since both captors look like skilled fighters. He isn’t about to play against fire. That might prove to do him more bad than good.

‘We know what you are.’ The girl suddenly speaks up, and before Baekhyun can even open his mouth in defence, she has tossed something so quickly he struggles to juggle it in his hands. He does so, only to discover his name plate, bent and burnt at the edges.

‘It was pinned to the back of your pants.’ She shrugs, not looking apologetic in the least, ‘didn’t know you royal soldiers were so fancy as to have personalized pants with names on them.’ 

Fury boils through his veins. She has some nerve, coming this close into his personal space and practically damaging one of his two outfits of clothing. It’s not like he’s carried his full wardrobe with him now, did he? 

‘So tell me, soldier boy. We know you’re working for the Royal Kingdom. We know you’re one of the guards. There’s no use in lying,’ she leans forward until they are face to face, brown eyes clashing with her dark ones, ‘Why are you here?’ 

Baekhyun presses his lips together as the dilemma between loyalty and hopelessness start to argue inside his head. It’s not like he’s betraying them per se if they already found out about his identity. They already know his name, they already know his title. There is nothing left to hide and to do so will be futile and just plain dumb. 

‘I’m on a mission.’ He finally mumbles out, eyes glued onto the ground before him.

‘What mission?’ 

‘A secret mission.’ 

‘No it’s a secret mission.’ she rolls her eyes and he swears that if she sasses him one more time there is going to be damage, whether he’s captive or not. He feels for his hands,  feels for the loosening knots that he tries to wriggle out of and is greatly rewarded by the slow loosening of the knot. 

‘Come on,’ Leroy nudges him harshly with his foot, ‘How many times am I gonna tell you to open that goddamn mouth and talk?’

Slowly. Slowly but surely, Baekhyun’s hands skim across the ropes, trying to memorize their pattern in order to find an escape route while he narrows his eyes at the girl, ‘I don’t know your name.’ He says, in an attempt to distract them. 

‘I don’t think you’re in a situation to even ask for that.’ The girl replies, crossing her arms. 

‘I don’t think you’re playing fair.’

A little bit more and the knot will fall off. Just a little bit more. 

The girl’s expressions flashes with what he can only define as surprise for a few seconds, before she’s back to that regular impassive mask of hers, ‘I’m Rei.’ 

‘Oh,’ Baekhyun his head at her, ‘It was nice meeting you, Rei.’ 

And then he pounces. 

A surprised cry falls from Leroy’s mouth when the young prisoner jumps up, jabbing his elbow right in his stomach and not waiting to see him fall as he swivels on his heel and takes off to the edge of the boat. 

He hears incoherent shouting behind him before footsteps start to follow. Figures of other pirate members suddenly stumble into view, blocking his escape and Baekhyun curses under his breath. Quickly jumping up onto the edge of the boat, he pushes himself forward and propels his other foot right into another pirate’s face. He takes this chance to steal her knife away, turning just in time to halt Rei’s sword from slicing him right in the middle. 

Brown orbs clash against each other. In her eyes he saw the determination like bolted lightning. Granted he isn’t one to get into other people’s personal space, but he has to admit that he’s never seen that much emotion in an individual’s expression before.

It scares him for a moment, and he falters. 

Rei smirks and before he can even blink, she’s grabbed onto his arm, twisted it behind him before her foot crashes into his back so that he topples onto the ground. He lands with a grunt, sparks of pain jolting through his bones and causing him to grind his teeth together.

‘Don’t mess with me.’ She hisses in the shell of his ear. Baekhyun stiffens at the closeness, cursing at his earlier hesitation. How could he let his guard down when he’d known he’d been surrounded by enemies? This isn’t what they’ve trained him to do all this time. It’s clearly not everything that he’s capable of and he wishes that he can wipe that annoying smirk off her face right now, even though he technically can’t see it. 

‘I don’t think you’re going home yet, soldier boy,’ her murmur causes a shiver of fear to run down his spine, but he doesn’t even have time to respond before a cloth chokes his mouth. He hears Leroy shout some incoherent instructions but as his mind tries to figure out what he’s said, darkness comes swooping in once more to take him away as sounds of the ocean linger at the edge of his consciousness.

Baekhyun wakes up to darkness. 

It takes his eyes a few beats to adjust to the dark shades and outlines that adorn the room, the only source of light coming from a tiny window casting a pale spotlight into the room. But when he does, it’s enough for him to make out an empty room, bare without any furniture whatsoever apart from the single bed in which he’s lying on and a small bed stand containing a candle holder and some matches. He grabs the candles and proceeds to light the candle, letting his eyes wander around the room with the growing realization that he is still in that damn pirate ship, prisoner and probably reported missing by now.

He wishes to know how long he’s been trapped here, has a sudden desire to be back home where’d he’d be warm and cozy in the comfort of his own bedroom. The one he’s occupying right now is cold and daunting, and as if on reflex, Baekhyun curls his knees up to his chest, wraps his arms around himself tightly like a baby. 

Any possibility of escape had flown out of the window the moment the pirate’s handkerchief had made contact with his nose, and judging by the slow lull rocking the ship from side to side, he guesses that they are already too far out in ocean waters, probably as a precautionary measure to make sure he won’t be able to leave this boat alive unless he has a craft on his own.

Not that Baekhyun knows how to control boats anyway. He’s learnt all there is to learn about martial arts and sword fights, to the biblical studies he’d had to sit through in the afternoons as well as the cordial and polite mannerisms that should be engrained in all soldier’s. But boat navigation hadn’t been one of them, although it might’ve come in handy, such as now. 

I’m ed, he thinks to himself just when he hears the sound of a lock clicking. The door opens to reveal the young woman pirate. What’s her name again? He racks his scrambled brain while she starts walking towards him with a soft smirk playing across her lips. 

He’d give anything to wipe that off, if he could. 

‘How’s your head?’ she asks. 

‘Do you care?’ he shoots back.

‘If it’s going to retard our plans, then yes I do care.’ 

‘Monster,’ he spits, guarded eyes trained on her every move when she places the loaf atop the bedstand. She straightens up before crossing her arms over her chest and gazing at him with a curious, somewhat amused expression. 

‘Are you done?’ she asks pointedly, not failing to miss the scowl on his face, ‘I’m telling you it’s useless to fight. We’re way too far out for you to swim back to shore. We’re the only ones that can keep you alive right now.’ 

‘If you think you can threaten the Kingdom with just a mere soldier, you can think again,’ Baekhyun says coldly, ‘We’re not that indispensable.’ 

‘Most soldiers aren’t. But I have a feeling you’re not just another soldier.’ She picks at her nails while they talk, as if this is the most boring conversation she can ever have. It infuriates him, makes him want to spank her face, ‘You’re part of the special force, aren’t you?’ 

His face almost gives him away, heart doing a double-take at her use of terms. How in the world does she know this and what is he supposed to do with it? They’ve sworn an oath to the Saphire Kingdom, that their identities don’t matter when they are on missions, that if they die, they should die as unknown men so as not to trace back their history to become potential threats to the crown. But watching the pirate’s face now doesn’t give Baekhyun any indication that she’s bluffing. On the contrary, a spark of certainty reaches him when their brown orbs meet in the dim light of the room. 

‘Who told you that?’ his demand is a mere whisper, ‘How do you know that?’ 

‘I’ve had my fair share of experiences with the Saphirica’s soldiers, especially the ones who think they know everything when they barely know how to set sail,’ She says, ‘You say you’re on a secret mission. What is it?’ 

‘You’ve said you know how soldiers work,’ Baekhyun’s lips tug into a mocking smirk, ‘You should also know by now that we don’t talk to strangers, especially the ones that come in the form of pirates.’ 

‘You’re pathetic and you’ve already given yourself away, Byun Baekhyun,’ she repeats his name with glee, like it’s an exotic treasure she’s managed to find in the depths of Atlanta. Her voice is filled with a sickly sweetness laced with venom. She’s not kidding when she says she’ll make him talk. 

Sure enough, she pulls out a machete from her back, taps it lightly onto her open palm while brandishing a playful smirk of her own. 

‘So you have a choice,’ she takes a step forward, ‘We heard a few weeks back from one of our crew members. About a man, an assassin who’s killing off soldiers for fun. Not that I blame him, but we’re trying to find him before the Royal force does. If we find him, we get enough money to get away from this sorry place.’ 

She clears , locks eyes with him, ‘So either you help me find him, or you die,’ she shrugs, ‘Your choice, really.’ 

Baekhyun proceeds to roll his eyes, ’And you’re setting me up for ransom? Do pirates have other motivations apart from becoming rich?’ 

‘None that I know of,’ she shrugs again, this time a smile curving up at her lips and reaching her eyes. Baekhyun isn’t sure what has sparked such passion in her eyes and he clearly doesn’t want to know, ‘So? It’s your call now, soldier boy.’ 

‘I have a name,’ he snaps back, ‘and it’s not ‘soldier boy’.’ 

‘Oooh, someone’s cranky.’ 

‘Let’s see how you deal with being seasick and hungry at the same time.’ 

‘Fortunately for me, I’m no weakling.’ 

Baekhyun gritted his teeth but decided that saying nothing would be the safest bet for him not to lose his cool, especially when he’s faced with such an obnoxious and annoying pirate girl. 

And speaking of pirates, he isn’t used to seeing a female so tattered and dressing up as if she doesn’t give a damn about how she looks. Now that he takes his time to inspect her closely, he notices her slim and fragile frame hidden by the layers of large clothing that resembled that of a boy’s outfit, the tight belt holding her pants together, and the small tears fraying the edge of her shirt indicating her careless nature. It’s definitely not a normal sight for the soldier and he can’t help but wrinkle his nose. 

‘Sure, take your time. We do have all the time in the world.’ she suddenly says and that brings him out of his head. He blinks at her, frowning when her words register. 

‘You never said you wanted an answer now.’ 

‘There wouldn’t be any other reason for me to stand here like an idiot if that was the case.’ 

‘I don’t know, maybe you like standing and talking to yourself.’ 

Baekhyun pats himself on the back upon seeing her scowl in irritation, ‘Decide now, soldier boy.’ 

‘Wait wait wait. So if I decide to help you, will you let me go?’ 

‘Depends whether you cooperate or make our life more difficult. After all, there’s a possibility of you ruining our plans and getting us killed by the Royal force.’ 

‘Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to.’ 

‘Better safe than sorry, they say.’ 

‘Are you always so suspicious and prickly?’ 

‘Are you always so annoying?’ then, mumbling under her breath, ‘I might just throw you to the sharks.’

‘I heard that.’ 

‘It was meant to be heard.’ she pulls her tongue out playfully, not caring about his glare.

‘I’ll help you, but on one condition.’ Baekhyun holds up a hand against her rising protest, ‘You help me get back to the Saphire Kingdom. No Ransom. No killing me off.’ 

‘But that’s the whole fun of kidnapping people.’ Rei groans.

‘I’m not going to help you knowing that I’m going to die in the end.’ 

‘Aren’t you better off dead rather than knowing you betrayed your city?’ 

That shuts Baekhyun up for a few seconds as he thinks of all the times he had sworn to the crown about his loyalty. A soldier’s oath is not just a promise, but a binding contract that ties the soldier to his kingdom until the end of his days. Failure to do so only ends up in imprisonment and sometimes even a sentence to death. Guilt slowly washes through him when he realizes that it’s the only way for him to survive on this boat, amidst a group of pirates. It’s either be eaten or join them, and he can’t help but think of all the consequences that will follow once he breaks the promise he’s sworn his heart to. 

He lifts his eyes then, hating how right she sounds and how right she is. And the worst is, he has no choice in this. 

Say yes and he’ll be an oath breaker, a traitor. Say no and he’ll have his head chopped off.

‘I’ll help you, if you’ll help me.’ he meets her gaze, own maroon orbs swimming with seriousness, ‘A win-win situation.’ 

‘Fine. Do we have a deal?’

He nods and they shake hands. Baekhyun pushes away the heavy feeling of remorse before it swallows him whole. 

And here's the 2nd chapter of "Across Two Seas"! 

What are your thoughts on the story so far? It's taking some time to develop the characters and the plot, but that's always been a very weak trait of mine. I usually hate writing beginnings because I need to set everything up before driving in on the action and adventure, haha. But I hope this wasn't too bad! 

Next chapter will be up soon (hopefully!) Thank you for reading everyone!!