pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

green eyes

"You're not going to kill me and hide my body, are you, Mingi-hyung?" The words leave your mouth before you can stop them and you clap a hand over your face in horror. Mingi stops in front of you abruptly and you go crashing into his shoulder, bruising your nose, but he doesn't turn back to look at you.

There's silence.

You gulp nervously when you see his jaw clench. Did you make Mingi angry?

Then he turns around with a pout.

"Am I really that scary to you?"

You stare at his face for a short moment in shock, eyeing his pout with something between incredulity and sheer horror. You've seen Mingi angry, you've seen him in a battle fueled rage, you've seen him smile when Captain is smiling and you've seen him screaming for his life, but a pout?

A shiver runs up your spine at such a foreign expression on his face.

"I must be, huh..." The quartermaster grumbles unhappily under his breath as he shakes his head. Then he pinches his cheeks with his fingers, twisting the skin there before he turns to face you again with some distorted growl on his face.

You nearly scream with shock.

"How do I look now?" He asks you, his deep voice muffled because of the strange shape his mouth is in. It takes you a long moment, but you eventually realise he's trying to pull his lips into a smile.

You don't know whether to laugh or cry at his efforts.

"You look... like you're smiling." You manage to lie through your teeth and finally Mingi gives you an actual smile that is miles better than his terrible attempt, a gummy one that shows off all his teeth and actually makes something in you soften a little. But soon it slides off his face into a more serious look and he sits down on the sand, patting the ground next to him.

"Sit down for a moment."

You're a little surprised at his abrupt change of attitude but still do as he says. The sight from here is surreal, the orange rays of the setting sun making the water sparkle like a sea of emeralds, turning the sand a luminescent pink-orange, as if they're fresh coals from a burning fire.

You stay quiet for a moment, taking in the view, a little lost in how beautiful this place is.

"I wanted to talk to you." Mingi begins and you turn to glance at him, a little curious. Why would the quartermaster want to speak to you now, of all times?

"Alright." You nod hesitantly, and Mingi begins to speak.

"I apologise for my behaviour back then." Your eyes widen in confusion at why he would say such a thing. Mingi has never done you any wrong, not in the whole time you've been on board this ship. Seeing your stunned expression, he quickly explains.

"Back then, when Yeosang got shot and Captain got whipped... I blamed you."

Ahh, so that's what he wanted to talk to you about. But part of you still doesn't understand why he would be apologising to you.

"But you didn't do anything to me." You tell him, frowning a little. Unless he pulled a Hongjoong and threw something of yours away in secret, you can't think of anything he could have done to you. Then you touch the necklace under your shirt carefully, suddenly irrationally afraid he might have done just that.

Mingi shakes his head. "No, I didn't, but my attitude was wrong. I should have tried to understand, at the very least, even if I was worried about Hongjoongie-hyung. I hope you can find it in you to forgive me."

Once again, you're stunned by how kind this crew can be. It's true you've never spoken much to Mingi before, so you don't know him very well, but you don't think anyone would actually apologise for having wrong attitude.