“Whoa, look! There’s fruit in this barrel!”

“They can’t have been on water for more than a couple of days, then. We’ll have to eat it quickly before it goes to waste.”

“Take all the food to the galley. Come on.”

Jongin followed silently behind, a barrel of apples in his arms. None of the other pirates on the ship had addressed him at all and Kyungsoo himself had since let go of Jongin’s arm, but he felt it best to stay in line for now. A few more pirates had emerged from the lower deck by now, and were assisting in carrying the food down to the ship’s galley. Everyone followed Kyungsoo’s instructions without argument.

Clearly, he was as strong a captain as the stories said.

They moved the barrels and crates for what felt like hours, the sun burning down onto the deck. The sea and sky were endlessly blue, no land or other ships in sight in any direction.

Jongin’s original ship and all of those unfortunate men aboard it…he wondered what they were doing now, how they were getting home, whether they were still heading for their original destination or not. Lost in his thoughts, Jongin almost walked straight into the back of the tall redheaded pirate, Chanyeol.

The crew was surprisingly small, even for a relatively small vessel such as this one. Aside from Captain Kyungsoo himself, there was Chanyeol, baby-faced Sehun, Jongdae (who, judging by how he helped patch up Sehun’s cuts after they returned to the boat, appeared to have some medical knowledge) and then the others he hadn’t seen on his old ship; a willowy looking thing going by Luhan, soft-spoken Baekhyun who had barely acknowledged Jongin’s presence as he too was preoccupied with cleaning up the returning pirates, and Minseok, who hadn’t left the ship’s galley since Jongin came aboard. From the conversations happening around him, it seemed as though Minseok was the ship cook or something. The others appeared to respect him quite highly, however, so he couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to the man than first appearances.

Jongin went to pick up another barrel, just as the captain did the same.

“More fruit.” Kyungsoo peered into the barrel. “This is the last of the food. Take this to Minseok in the…” He quietened when he looked up and took note of who he was actually addressing. “In the galley. Off you go.”

And Jongin went, as quickly as his legs would carry him. The lower decks of the pirate ship were as dark and maze-like as Jongin’s previous ship. But his feet already seemed to know the way to the galley by now, and he arrived there relatively quickly. Only Minseok was in there, tending to what Jongin assumed was dinner. He smiled gently at Jongin when he entered, taking the boy aback somewhat at his first real acknowledgement from anyone on board other than the captain. It was a distant sort of smile, as though he had other things on his mind.

“Kyungsoo’s never brought a person from another ship before.” Minseok’s attention returned to the food he was preparing, Jongin placing the barrel beside the others. “He’s brought back all kinds of treasures, weapons, curiosities, but never a person. I wonder what made him do that…” Jongin sure wished he knew, but Minseok didn’t seem to be waiting for an answer. The same distant smile returned to his face as he set about chopping vegetables. “The others may not have told you, but my name is Minseok. I’m actually the quartermaster on this ship.” Oh. Jongin straightened his posture. “Second in command, behind Kyungsoo. I’m also in charge of food, and guard the galley when we engage other ships. You’ll usually find me in here or in my quarters.”

Jongin nodded in understanding, but his mouth simply wasn’t able to form any words. Not that he could think of anything to say. The quartermaster reached into one of the barrels lined up against the wall and tossed a small orange at Jongin.

“It won’t keep long, so we should make a start on it so it doesn’t go to waste. Run now, explore the ship before dinner. This is your home now.”

Orange in hand, Jongin did as he was told and left the galley. As he emerged onto the top deck again, he could hear voices; Sehun and Luhan were sitting on the rope ladder up to the lookout, talking as though they were on opposite sides of the ship from one another.

“We got some great things this time, Luhan. They had so much stuff in the hold! I don’t know what they were going to do with it, but I’ve got my eye on a few things.”

“Just got to hope none of the others do too, when Minseok comes to divvy it up later.”

“I’ll fight them for it. They had some really nice-”

“Jewellery, I’ll assume. You always take the jewellery. Give it to your boys and girls on shore, you heartbreaker.”

“…quiet, you.” But Sehun was laughing, punching Luhan playfully in the arm. “There was a lot, so our spoils should divide up pretty well.”

“Wonderful. But what about…him?” Luhan glanced over at Jongin, freezing when he met the boy’s eye accidentally. He looked back to Sehun, awkwardly chewing his lip.

Jongin didn’t move.

“Well…I’d assume he’s the captain’s.”

Jongin took his orange and made for the lower decks.

-

Dinner came as the sun vanished from the sky. It was then that Jongin realised, to his shock, that there really were only seven people on board (eight including himself.)

He had figured there were other pirates he simply hadn’t come across, or maybe some who were sleeping, but no, apparently the ship, small as it was, was manned by just seven men. Jongin shuddered at the thought of how frightfully vicious they must have been, to take down entire ships on their own, sometimes only three or four of them going at a time in order to have their own ship protected against attackers.

But then…if it was true that Kyungsoo only targeted ships from the Sapphire Country, who had been in peace for centuries, maybe it wasn’t as surprising. There was almost no military power, no navy, most of the populace had never been in so much as a fistfight due to a general tendency against violence. Most Sapphire Country ships were manned by sailors who only took to the ocean because there weren’t jobs for them on land, and had little to no experience or training in any kind of combat. It was still unusual for such a tiny crew to overwhelm ships carrying fifty to a hundred men at a time, but if all of that tiny crew were ruthless pirates prepared to kill (and equipped to do so) it could happen.

Contemplating the body counts of the men around the same table as him made Jongin quietly stare at his stew for a few minutes, not feeling like eating it for a little while.

“Does it talk?” Chanyeol smirked, stirring his stew with a strangely bent spoon. The pirates ate their food with a restraint Jongin recognised from his childhood – even when food was plentiful, those used to going without would never take it for granted. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. He realised then that he hadn’t said a word since before the pirates attacked his former ship.

“He probably doesn’t feel like talking.” Minseok scolded, but the other pirates weren’t silenced.

“I think your boy is broken, captain.” Jongdae grinned, though he shrank a little when the captain glared at him in response.

“Does he have a name?”

“J-Jongin.” There was a chorus of clanking sounds as spoons were dropped into bowls, nobody having expected an answer to Luhan’s question. Jongin hadn’t really expected it himself, but it just came out. “My name is Jongin.”

Minseok’s expression changed into a smile, more genuine than the one he had worn while cooking earlier. “You do speak!  I was starting to worry. How old are you, Jongin?”

“Eighteen.” He was met with nods from all but captain Kyungsoo, who once again wore that weird blank face that Jongin couldn’t read. It was simultaneously everything and nothing. He probably had a lot going on in his mind and probably wasn’t listening to Jongin at all, Jongin thought.

He received proper introductions then, learning the roles of each member of the ship. Due to the crew being so small, naturally many of them were multitaskers, in addition to Minseok being both quartermaster and in charge of cooking. Sehun and Luhan were both navigators, usually sleeping in shifts so that at least one of them was awake at any one time, though they both tended to stay up at night to confirm with the stars where they were headed.

“A good navigator is essential to any ship, I’m sure you know.” Jongin didn’t know, but nodded anyway. “We can all follow the stars to some extent, but not like those two. Luhan’s a born compass, really.” Luhan looked proud. “He stays behind when we engage with ships, like I do. Without at least one of them, we’d be done for.”

Chanyeol was pretty much everything. Apparently born on a ship himself he was in charge of a lot of the ship maintenance, dealing with the sails, repairs and general carrying things to and fro. If something needed doing, Chanyeol was the muscle to do it. He gleefully recounted his work earlier in the day, marking the Sapphire ship’s sails, to the others.

Baekhyun was the ship’s main medic, and also a skilled carpenter. Jongin’s stomach turned a little wondering how these two roles could possibly connect to each other. Jongdae also had medical knowledge, but not as specialised as Baekhyun’s. Baekhyun was the last of the crew to routinely stay behind during encounters, something which Jongdae for with a hearty poke. Jongdae’s other role was woodwork, like Baekhyun’s, but he was particularly skilled with making and maintaining barrels for storage.

“I’m probably the most important person on the ship.” Jongdae grinned, ignoring the protests of the others. “Without me, all our stuff would be rolling all over the decks, in the galley, in the hold, everything would be ruined.”

“What can you do, kid?” Jongin wondered if Chanyeol had forgotten his name already. It wouldn’t surprise him, really. But the matter at hand was Chanyeol’s question, and Jongin felt himself shrink about five sizes under the scrutiny of the pirates.

“I…can’t really do anything. I’ve been at sea for two days; it was my first ever voyage. All I really know how to do is mop decks and pick locks.” He swallowed hard.

Kyungsoo nodded slowly, apparently having been listening after all. “Picking locks is good. None of us can do that; if a door is locked we usually just destroy it.”

Murmurs of agreement around the table, and Jongin finished his stew with a sigh. The captain suddenly took his leave and left the room.

An apple rolled across the table towards Jongin, gently bumping him in the chest and drawing his attention away from the door the captain left through. The other pirates were now also holding apples with expressions of similar confusion to Jongin’s own.

“You’ll be sick of fruit within three days.” Minseok shrugged. “But I’ll be damned if I let good food go to waste in my kitchen, you understand?”

-

Jongin sat on the deck, eating his apple.

Small lanterns lined the upper deck, the only light for miles. Jongin supposed it would be bad form for Sehun or Luhan to not see the edge of the boat and fall off in the darkness. The two navigators were on the other side of the deck, lamps in hand and maps spread on the floorboards as they chatted and waved and pointed to the sky. Jongin leaned on the short wall on the edge of the boat, looking down at the water. It was black, endless and inky; like the sky with no stars. He squirmed uncomfortably at the memory of his former captain suggesting he be thrown overboard to appease the pirates. It didn’t look very nice down there.

He looked to either side, realising that he was most likely on the right part of the deck to find out the ship’s name. Most ships Jongin had seen in the docks back home had their names proudly engraved on their sides, close to the back. Picking up one of the lanterns from the floor, he held it over the edge of the ship and looked around.

Nothing.

He checked the other side of the deck.

Nothing.

“I guess you’ve noticed by now that we’re not a normal pirate ship?” Jongin almost fell overboard at the sudden voice, but only almost. Minseok stood beside him, following Jongin’s gaze to the sides of the ship.

“But you're still pirates?”

“Oh yes, we’re definitely pirates.”

“Have you killed anyone?”

“Not that I’ve witnessed, no, but I can’t guarantee that nobody has later died from wounds at my hands.” The casual manner in which Minseok answered him was slightly unsettling, his voice calm and breezy like the wind in the sails as though he’d been asked what his favourite colour was.

“And you still take treasures?”

“Whatever we find, but that’s not what we’re here for. The treasures are just a bonus, an incentive to keep going, if you will. We’re looking for something else.”

Jongin chewed the stalk of his apple, all that remained of the fruit. “And what are you looking for?”

“That…I’m not at liberty to tell you. We’re not all looking for it, just the captain. Even he hasn’t told us everything. In fact, he’s not told us much at all.” Minseok handed Jongin yet another apple, which he took gladly. Food wasn’t to be taken for granted at sea, he knew that much. “He needed us to look for it, and we needed food to feed a crew, so we take supplies from the ships we attack. Any other valuables…they’re just hard to resist.” He chuckled a little at Jongin’s serious face as they both bit into apples. “You don’t seem like a pirate type, but it’ll grow on you.”

“It’s just the sea thing.” And the being randomly abducted without explanation thing, but Minseok was clearly trying to make things easier for Jongin and he appreciated that. “I spent most of my childhood on little food, and a lot of it stealing. I can handle that.”

Minseok seemed amused. “Is that why you can pick locks?”

“I’m not at liberty to tell you.”

They watched the waves roll; soulless, black and cold. It was silent for a long time, save for the constant chatter of the two navigators on the other side of the deck.

“Our ship does have a name,” Minseok piped up suddenly, “but we don’t show it for a reason. Kyungsoo remembers the name of every ship he’s ever seen, you know, so he doesn’t waste time chasing the same ships over and over.” Jongin nodded for him to go on. “If our ship’s name was well known, Sapphire Country ships would be prepared for us; they would spread it around, not engage us and even try to attack us. It’s easier when they don’t know who we are. Our ship is quite plain to look at, wouldn’t you agree?”

“I…guess?”

“Yes, and we often change the sails. No matter what stories they tell of us back on land, nobody will ever see us coming until it’s too late. But the ship does have a name; the captain gave it to her. May I be the first to welcome you aboard the Calling Siren.”

“Calling Siren…” What an odd name for a ship. Jongin’s former ship had simply been called Angel.

“We don’t know the story behind it, but it means a lot to the captain. I like it though – sounds like we lead a lot of men to their deaths.” Minseok was good at being suddenly, unexpectedly scary.

“Am I included?”

“No, not you. You’re living on the boat now, so the captain will be good to you. He makes a point to be very good to his men.”

Minseok tossed the stalk – all that remained of his apple, as like Jongin he ate the whole thing, core and all – into the water. “I shall be retiring for the night now. Do you know where the crew sleep? I’m sure there’s room in there for-”

“I was looking for you.” Jongin thought he had heard a faint clicking as Minseok spoke, and sure enough captain Kyungsoo was stood beside them now, lantern in hand. He looked considerably different without all of his weaponry on his person, and also quite tired. “Jongin, what was your sleeping arrangement on your previous ship?”

Jongin was so taken aback by the captain actually using his name that he almost forgot to respond. “Ah, I slept in the hold, captain. I can go there now.”

That strange expression again. Minseok seemed to notice it too as he watched the captain silently.

“That will not be necessary. You are to sleep in my quarters with me.”