pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

adrift

The two of you have been drifting for an awfully long time now.

You don't know exactly how long you'd been passed out for, or what exactly you'd been dreaming off when you were asleep, but when you'd come to, you'd realised that you were on a raft... floating all alone in the middle of a sea of great blue.

Well, all alone except for your captain lying next to you, at least.

You hadn't remembered falling asleep, and you had most certainly not with your captain's arms wrapped around you protectively, your head tucked into his shoulder. When you had awakened, the smell of sea salt and warm sun nudging insistently against your senses, you had startled and very nearly upended the entire raft that your lives depended on.

Now, however, you're content with watching the gentle sunlight filtering between the clouds reflecting of the waves. You sit at the edge of the raft carefully, resisting the urge to dip your toes in the bottomless ocean, shoals of rainbow fish inspect your raft curiously and their scales glinting iridescent under liquid diamonds while you wait for your captain to awake.

The sea is calm, the sky is a soft forget-me-not blue, and if you didn't know any better, you can almost believe that you're back on the deck of the Treasure.

How's Wooyoung doing? Does he know that you and your captain are missing? Is your master with him, comforting him right now as Yeosang and Mingi furiously wrack their minds for where the two of you could have gone?

For some reason, though, you're not the least bit worried. The sea is calm, and so are you.

All of a sudden, there's a groan behind you, and you turn around to see your captain attempting to sit up, one hand on his head - where a painful knot had bloomed from a hit he'd received from earlier - and he had lost his eyepatch sometime during the massive storm. Now one green eye blinks blearily, clouded with sleep, and then fixes on you. There's a hint of confusion, before it clears and his lips part to form a word.

"Chin Hae?"

"You're finally awake." You say brightly, turning around to look at him. For you, he manages a smile, and sits up completely, the last, tattered rags of his red jacket that you'd put around his shoulders falling into his lap.

Hongjoong picks it up, inspects it briefly, and laughs, dropping it onto the raft. "So that's it for you, old friend."

You wince sheepishly, turning to look at him more clearly. He's dressed simply now, in a white shirt and his patchwork pants, green eye clear as an emerald sea. "I might have done the last blow to it... it was pretty beaten up so I tore up some parts of it and used it to clean the blood off your face."

Your captain lets out a little laugh and shakes his head. "Well, we're both alive, so I have no complaints. It's a pity I lost that rope, though." His smile turns a hint fainter, nostalgia painted on his face. "It was the last memory I had of her."

You glance over at him. "Your benefactor? That was her only gift to you when you were abandoned on that island, am I right?"

He nods quietly, fondly gazing out at the ocean. "Maybe it returned to the sea, like where she came from. But," a playful twinkle comes into his eyes, "that isn't the only gift she gave me. Look at this."

Curiously, you lean over as your captain kneels at the water's edge, sliding his fingers into the warm water. The fish at your raft scatter for a moment, startled by the sudden intrusion, but then come up to him boldly, without fear, seemingly exploring his hand.

But that isn't the only thing that happens. In your belly, you feel a gentle tug, then all of a sudden the water shifts and the raft starts moving.