pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

missing (you)

"I got to see my newest godson," he says cheerily, a real, joyful grin on his face. It's... nice to see, a certain peace seemingly having settled over the cook. "Although I still think they should have named him something other than Hwaseong. It's too late, though, he doesn't respond to anything else any more. But I digress. The entire crew is safe, don't worry. We've been pardoned."

"What? How?" His mind is failing to keep up with whatever is going on. Seonghwa says that only two weeks have passed, but far too much has happened in a short span of time. He tries to sit up, but the moment he does, a throbbing pain shoots through his head and he's forced to settle back into the pillows. Reluctantly, he glances at Seonghwa. "Can I... see the rest of the guys?"

"Of course you can," Seonghwa says gently. "But rest first. I'll fetch you something light to eat and some water." He pauses for a moment, then laughs lightly. "Funny how I'm the one telling you to do all this, considering that you're our healer." He rests a hand against San's forehead, and San's eyes flutter shut at his crewmate's comforting touch. He's more used to doing this to the crew than having it done to him... "I'll be back soon."

San is already asleep by the time Seonghwa slips out of his room.

>>>

The next time he opens his eyes, it's to two very familiar faces.

"Oh, oh, San-ie is awake!" A head of purple hair is shoved out of the way, only to be replaced with big brown eyes staring up at him from way too close. San blinks a couple of times, still groggy, having just woken up. This is... this is some sort of nightmare, right?

He closes his eyes again. Is it too late to return to sleep?

"Get out of the way, Yunho, I was there first!" One voice protests, loud and annoying and oh so familiar in his ears. "I had my whole dramatic speech planned and everything!"

"Your speech just consisted of declaring that all of us had fallen into the Davy Jones' Locker and would be trapped here forever," Yunho interjects. San cracks open an eye to stare at them. Although it isn't that big of a movement, it's enough to capture their attention. The two rigging monkeys immediately crowd around his bed.

"San, you're finally awake!" Wooyoung exclaims. San exhales.

"All of you..." he says, and Yunho leans in closer to hear him more clearly. "Shut up..."

Wooyoung only laughs. "Wow, the two weeks of sleep have put you in an awful mood, huh?" His eyes soften. "Good to have you back in the land of the living, San-ie. The rest of the crew will drop by in a bit, but for now, are you hungry? Seonghwa-hyung said that we should get something light and nourishing, so we bought you some grits and soup, but that's boring. So-"

"I snuck you grilled squid!" Yunho produces four skewers of grilled cephalopod out of nowhere with a flourish, looking far too pleased with himself. Then he pauses, reconsidering as he looks down at his favourite snack. "Ah, but three of them are mine, though. Only one is yours."

San lets out a snort at that, moving slowly to sit up in the bed as Wooyoung moves to help him. "I'm not surprised... and I'll take what I can get. Here, give me that squid."

As Wooyoung and Yunho fight over the remaining three skewers, San takes a moment to look over the two of them. Neither of them are wearing their usual seafaring clothing, instead having swapped them out for clean linen shirts and trousers, the standard attire of most land dwelling townspeople. And Wooyoung... something seems different about Wooyoung...

Yunho smacks Wooyung's hands away as the latter tries to snatch a skewer, and that's when it clicks. There's no clattering sound of chains, no metallic noises even as his bare wrists knock against each other. As much as San is unbearably relieved at the sight, part of him also knows what those shackles meant to Wooyoung - there's no way he would have decided to take them off just because they'd been pardoned. So... why?