“All right,” Yixing called as they reached the hull of their ship in the rowboat. “Everyone sit still. We don’t want to shift any of the weight and make Luhan angry.”

                Joonmyeon looked over at Tao and shrugged just as the rowboat lifted out of the water without them having to attach any sort of ropes to aid them. He tightened his grip on his knees but didn’t otherwise move. Someone, most likely Luhan, had the power of telekinesis.

                “This is amazing,” Tao murmured as he blinked up at the side of the ship as they steadily rose through the air. “I didn’t know such a thing was possible.”

                “Before the King attacked Exodus,” Yixing told him from where he was relaxing at the front of the boat. “There were more types of powers than you could ever dream of. Whatever yours is, Tao, don’t be ashamed or worried.”

                Tao dropped his gaze to his lap as he bit at his bottom lip. He liked everyone he met, so far. But he couldn’t talk about his powers. He wouldn’t ever be able to tell them what he could do. Joonmyeon was right. It was too dangerous for anyone to know.

                Because they’d been told not to move, Joonmyeon held himself back from reaching over to comfort Tao. Yixing was trying to be nice. He didn't know. "What do you want us to do when we get up there?”

                Yixing hummed as he watched the railing as they rose above it. Once they were high enough, the rowboat moved over the railing and landed softly on a stand made for it. “Grab a crate and follow Minseok and Chen as they carry theirs down to the galley. We’ll get everything put away and then have a meeting about where we want to go.”

                “And Yifan?” Joonmyeon asked as he climbed out of the boat. “What about him?”

                Yixing grimaced as he looked back at the island. “He’s still sulking. Kyungsoo could feel him before we left so I’m sure he’ll come out here when he’s done pouting.”

                Kyungsoo nodded as he and Jongin gathered some of their supplies from the rowboat. “He wasn’t that far away from the beach. He was probably hoping someone would go find him and let him try and convince them he’d done the right thing.”

                “Oh?”

                Kyungsoo shook his head. “He did, but we’re still mad at him. No one deserves to be held prisoner. Least of all by the King.”

                “And we all agree,” Jongin added quietly. “We’re just not happy with how you came to be here.”

                Joonmyeon nodded at them as he and Tao lifted a crate together and did their best to maneuver it across the deck of the ship as they followed Minseok and Chen. The shifting of the ship ever so slightly beneath their feet made the task difficult.

                “Are ships always like this?” Tao asked as he tilted too far and hit the wall of the passageway they were trying to make their way down. “I can’t figure out how to stay balanced!”

                Joonmyeon laughed as he let the ship move beneath him. The waves may make the rest of them a little unstable but he had no problem keeping his balance and bending his knees through the movements of the ship. “It’s going to get worse once we set sail.”

                “Great,” Tao groaned as they finally made their way through the doorway. “I don’t know if I’m going to like sailing very much.”

                “You get used to it,” Chen told him as Joonmyeon and Tao set their box down. “You’ll find your sea legs. And then it’ll be going ashore that’ll be difficult.”

                Tao made a disbelieving face but didn’t argue.

                Joonmyeon chuckled as he made sure the crate they’d brought down was where they wanted it.

                “How about,” Minseok said as he dusted his hands. “You stay in here and organize things with me while we make Chen and Joonmyeon go get another load.”

                Tao glanced at Joonmyeon out of the corner of his eye before he nodded bashfully. “If you don’t mind having me down here, I’d rather not try that again.”

                “Sure,” Minseok said as he went back to opening the crate that he and Chen had carried down. “Chen’s right, though. You will get the hang of it eventually.”

                Tao watched Joonmyeon follow Chen out the door. He was glad when he looked back at him just as he went out the doorway. He didn’t like being separated from Joonmyeon but they weren’t really being separated. Joonmyeon was just going back up to the deck to get more things to bring down. “What do you want me to do?”

                “Get the lid off that crate and let’s see what we’re working with,” Minseok replied without looking up.

                Joonmyeon followed Chen back through the ship while trying to stay as relaxed as possible. It wasn’t that he did or did not trust the crew they were with. He just didn’t like it when Tao was out of his sight. The King had thought to keep them apart as a punishment once and Joonmyeon had thought he was going to go crazy.

                in a deep breath without letting it be obvious, he climbed the last of the stairs and joined the fray on the deck. He and Chen made their way silently back to the rowboat, partly because everyone else was shouting at each other as they got everything settled for their departure.

                Yixing stood next to the rowboat as he called out orders to the others. “And you two,” he said as he turned to Chen and Joonmyeon. “What did you do with Minseok and Tao?”

                Chen smirked as he leaned against the rowboat. “You know exactly what I like to do with Minseok, Yixing. It’s a small ship.”

                Yixing scoffed before he looked over at Joonmyeon. “Well?”

                “Tao’s having a hard time walking. The shifting of the ship makes him uncomfortable so he’s helping Minseok unpack while Chen and I bring down more.”

                Yixing rubbed his chin as he studied Joonmyeon. “If he doesn’t like it now then I think he might end up seasick.”

                Chen made a face as he gathered some sacks that they were going to have to carry below deck.

                Joonmyeon sighed as he ran a hand through his hair and looked out at the sea. “We spent so long in that tower that I’m not surprised he’s uncomfortable. He had trouble walking on the sand when we first landed on the island.”

                “If he does get sick,” Yixing said as he turned to the sound of someone else calling his name. “Bring him to me. I’ll take care of it.”

                Joonmyeon felt his brows pull down in confusion but Yixing was already striding away as he called out to whoever it was that was talking to him. “What did he mean?” Joonmyeon asked Chen.

                “What?” Chen said as he turned back around. “Oh, Yixing’s got the ability to heal. If Tao starts feeling sick then Yixing can set him right for a while with just a touch.”

                Joonmyeon made a sound in the back of his throat that even he wasn’t sure what it meant. He wasn’t surprised when all Chen did was grin at him and then hand him two sacks to carry.

                “Come on,” Chen called over his shoulder as he carried his next load across the deck. “We’ve got more to take down and Minseok gets cranky when I dawdle on purpose.”

                Chuckling, Joonmyeon followed Chen back across the deck. He made sure to pay attention to where they were going so that he could remember the way to the galley. Part of him wanted to hurry to get the unloading down so they could figure out where they were going to go, but he knew the real reason his steps were faster was because he was returning to Tao.

                Tao looked up with a grin as he dug more things out of the crate he’d carried down with Joonmyeon to store them away in the cupboards that could lock as Minseok had told him to when Chen and Joonmyeon came back through the doorway. “Hey! Minseok said that we’d have a while to get this stuff put away before you came back because Chen likes to get lost on purpose, but I told him that you wouldn’t, Joonmyeon. I said that you like to finish tasks efficiently and that you’d be back sooner rather than later.”

                Chen guffawed as he set the bags of food down on one of the tables. “He sold me out, huh?”

                Tao shrugged as he looked back at Joonmyeon as he set his bags down next to Chen’s. “I think he said it fondly? I’m not really good at reading people.”

                Joonmyeon ruffled Tao’s hair as he looked him over. The few minutes they’d been apart were almost too long. It was a relief to see that Tao was fine. “I’m sure he was just teasing. I think we have two more loads to bring down. Don’t worry, I won’t let us get lost.”

                Tao grinned as Chen sighed and followed Joonmyeon back out the door.

                “Oh, good,” Minseok said as he came out of the little storeroom in the back. “I’m glad we’ve finally got another person on board that can keep Chen on task.”

XXX

                “Listen up, everyone,” Yixing called to get the last bits of chatter to fade out. “We’ve got two unexpected but welcome guests aboard. For those of you just meeting them, this is Tao and Joonmyeon. Yifan flew off to the King’s castle and discovered them being kept as prisoners in the tower.”

                A bit of murmuring picked up from a couple of the men that Joonmyeon hadn’t been introduced to yet. He waved at them when they looked at him but otherwise didn’t say or do anything.

                “Joonmyeon has the power of water and has graciously agreed to help us sort out our freshwater problem since he can filter out the salt from the ocean. And Tao doesn’t wish to talk about his powers. So everyone be kind.”

                “Yixing,” a deep voice called out from the back of the small crowd. “Why are you telling us all of this?”

                Yixing sighed as he looked over the crew. “Tao and Joonmyeon might be strangers but they’re from Exodus just like we are. They were in a bad situation and were set free. They’re welcome to stay with us for as long as they like, but they were kept by the King.”

                Joonmyeon cleared his throat and nodded at Yixing when he looked at them. “The King would call us his treasures,” he told them. “He would keep us locked in a tower with a tiny room at the top unless he wanted to show us off. Tao and I don’t want to intrude. We don’t want to cause problems, but we’re here and that is a problem.”

                “The King won’t just let us go,” Tao said softly as he shifted on his feet next to Joonmyeon. He didn’t like having everyone look at him but he found his courage and spoke anyway. “He’s going to search for us. He won’t stop until he finds us. He was, is obsessed with us and the power he thinks we give him.”

                Yixing nodded as he looked at the stunned faces of the few crew members who hadn’t heard the story. “So we have to set sail. We have to get out of this area and get as far away from the King as we can. Joonmyeon warned me that his spy network is intricate. We’ll have to be very careful when we go ashore, if we go ashore, to not mention anything about Tao or Joonmyeon.”

                “We understand,” Minseok said from where he was leaning against a barrel that Chen was sitting on. “Keeping them safe will keep us safe for now. We got it.”

                “So,” Chen said as he wrapped his arms around Minseok’s shoulders to let them dangle against his chest. “Where do we want to go?”

                Yifan landed on the deck with a loud thud next to Yixing. “We’ll go where Tao says to go.”

                “What?” Tao squeaked. “Me?”

                “I heard him,” Yifan told the rest of the crew. “He’s Suho. He’s the guardian of the Black Pearl. You know the stories. That means that he can always feel its presence. He knows where it is.”

                Tao blinked rapidly and backed up a step as everyone turned to look at him. Only Joonmyeon’s hand on his back kept him from turning to run away. “I don’t-“

                “The King wronged us,” Yifan cut in. “He murdered so many people that day. With the Pearl, we could right those wrongs. Take us to it.”

                “I can’t just-“

                “His powers don’t work that way,” Joonmyeon said from behind Tao as he gave him a little nudge with his hand to cut off his stuttering. “It’s less he can always feel the Pearl’s presence and more he just sort of understands where he needs to go.”

                “Right,” Tao said with a nod of his head.

                Yifan frowned at them before he shook his head. “Fine. Then where do we need to go?”

                Joonmyeon smoothly moved Tao until he was behind him instead of slightly in front of him. He met Yifan’s hard gaze without flinching as he clasped his hands in front of his body. “He’s only just gotten free of the tower. It takes a bit of time to adjust. I think the best option for now is to sail far away from this area and wait until he can figure out what the magic is telling him.”

                “Then that’s what we’ll do,” Yixing said firmly as Yifan opened his mouth to argue. “Does anyone have any suggestions?”

                “We got that map of the South Sea the last time we were in port,” Baekhyun reminded them as he leaned back against Chanyeol’s chest and let him keep him standing. “We were talking about going to check its accuracy.”

                “I do want to add it to our map collection,” Jongin said with a dip of his head. “And I know Kyungsoo always wants to explore new islands.”

                “That’s true,” Kyungsoo readily agreed.

                Yixing nodded as he smiled. “All right then. Let’s head south. Luhan, if you’ll get the anchor, we’ll be on our way.”

                Luhan grinned before he closed his eyes to concentrate on lifting their anchor as Baekhyun and Chanyeol moved to coil the rope it was attached to. “All set.”

                “Excellent,” Yixing said as he turned to look off toward the south. “Let’s get those sails in order and be off.”

                Yifan glared hard at Joonmyeon before he turned to help the crew with their tasks.

                “Joonmyeon,” Tao murmured gently. “What are we going to do?”

                “Escape when we can,” Joonmyeon told him. “We’ll just have to leave before Yifan gets suspicious. If it comes down to it, just pick a random direction and tell him it’s that way.”

                Tao bit his lip as he nodded. A flash of movement by some rope caught his eye just as the ship began to pick up speed. “ZiZi! There you are!”

A/N: Sorry for the wait. I'll try to make certain it doesn't happen again.

LOVE ME~!!~~~~!!!~~~