pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

ghosts

San looks over your hands gently, turning them over in his. His fingers trace the scrapes your fall on the cobbles have left behind, and he shakes his head in disapproval.

Then he lets your hands rest on the table of the sickbay and picks up a clean cloth with tweezers, soaking it in rum before wiping your hands down with it, removing any small pieces and blood still remaining on them. Your palms sting, but it's nothing compared to the anguish in your heart.

"What happened?" San murmurs softly as he works on your wound. You remember Seonghwa had mentioned that San was a better healer of the heart than he was of any physical ailment, but the thought of Seonghwa's once cheerful, smiling face twists at your chest and lungs like a poisonous vine.

The lump in your throat refuses to go away.

"I don't know." You reply in all due honesty. Truly, till now you still don't understand what had happened to the gentle, kind-hearted cook, but you can only piece together what you have guessed from the incident earlier.

Seonghwa was afraid of the gallows.

Yunho has taught you that the brightest smiles can hide the most bitter tears, but you've never expected that the man who'd first treated you with such kindness has suffered so much.

San continues staring at you for a while. Then he finally puts down the cloth and whispers to you in a soft, secretive tone.

"Hey, look at this."

You frown in confusion, but San places a single finger on your torn skin. Closing his eyes, you see his brows furrow in concentration before a tingling feeling starts to blossom across your hand from where San's fingertip touches yours, warmth chasing the slight sting in your hand away. You feel as if you've dunked your hand in a warm bath, the heat emanating from San's finger too real to be a mere figment of your imagination.

Then it happens.

Fascination washes over you as you stare at your hand in wonderment. The bleeding slows gradually and finally stills, before you watch the skin and damaged tissue steadily knitting itself back together like a spider's web. In the end, the entire wound closes, leaving the skin of your palm a soft baby pink.

Your mouth falls open.

"Master, did you just-"

"I'll be teaching you this over the next few days. Remember, don't ever attempt this without me. It's potentially fatal if you don't know how to do it. Do your best to learn it fast." San's smile is a little sad, a little forced. Your initial excitement fades at your master's clear unease. "I get the feeling we might need it."

Your fingers brush the silver hairpin tucked securely in your belt for good luck. You don't like the sound of that.

You know what your master is implying, that there will be much conflict happening soon. But you don't like to admit that it may be coming already. You and your master sit in momentary silence, both preparing yourselves for what may be to come.

"Sanie, Chin Hae." The two of you turn to the person who's come knocking on the sickbay's door. It's Wooyoung, purple hair rumpled, rouge smeared on his clavicle and dark circles under his eyes from yesterday, but the unusually grim expression on his handsome face shows he isn't exactly reminiscing happily about night before. "Captain wants to see us in his cabin, now."

His tone gives no room for argument.

"Got it." San rises to his feet, his expression neutral. You only know that there's unease flickering in his eyes from the way his shoulders are tensed. Since you and Mingi have returned from desperately searching the town for Seonghwa, you've found out from Wooyoung, who's just arrived himself with Yeosang, that Seonghwa had dashed up the gangplank in tears, all alone and ignoring the concerned shouts of his crewmates, before locking himself up in the kitchen galley by himself.