pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

reflection

You have to make the choice yourself.

You sigh and rub at your temples, trying to resolve the onset of a headache you can already feel coming. All this thinking hurts your head. "You know, I wish you weren't right all the time, master."

"We all want the impossible sometimes." San shrugs easily, his usual smirk tinged with a hint of cheekiness. You turn a glare at him, but there's no heat to it at all - how could you? Instead, San yanks you out of the bed and you follow, a tad unwillingly.

"What are you doing?"

"Let's go get some herbs from town," San suggests, pulling you along with him. "A good walk about time will clear your mind, and the Treasure will be leaving Tortuga soon."

You sigh, reluctant, but follow.

What could possibly go wrong?

>>>

The trip to town starts off fine enough.

Wooyoung whines about not being to go with the two of you - you remind him about his ban from the town due to his little hostage attempt ('it was only one teeny tiny hostage attempt," he protests) and the two of you set off hand in hand, chattering brightly about what you'll find in the marketplace.

And well, apparently the Fates had been listening, because they were determined to proved you wrong.

It's barely ten minutes into the market that you're completely lost.

You have no idea how you ended up in this situation - quite alone, separated from San in the middle of a bustling crowd in the marketplace. The sea of people surge around you like the push and pull of an unyielding tide, and the last thing you remember is San's hand separating from yours after a man bumped into the two of you.

You're not too worried, you've come here quite a few times, enough to be rather familiar with the place. As long as you find your way to the central town square, you'll definitely be able to navigate your way through the back alleys back to the harbour with the town square as a reference point.

That is, until you hear something.

"The Treasure is leaving the harbour soon. We should move as soon as possible." A low mutter reaches your ears as you step into a dark alley, and the second you hear those words, you flatten yourself against the wall in shock. That definitely doesn't sound like any of crew, you know most of their voices well enough.

"But the Pirate King is the captain of that ship." A nervous tremble in the voice of the man's conversation partner. He sounds reluctant, and for a moment pride wells up in your chest at the reputation your captain holds. "We can't just attack them! We'll die!"

What?

They're going to do what now?

"Listen, you coward," the man practically growls, his voice a low rumble. You shiver lightly at that, and peek around the corner. To your horror, you see a hulking, burly man with rippling muscles, tan skin decorated with swirling black lines that spiral down his chest and across his forearms. He could easily crush you under his foot. "The big bosses in the inn right now are discussing plans, big ones. The second the Treasure leaves the harbour of Tortuga, ten different ships are going to hit it all at once with everything they've got. There's no way they'll escape."

You clap a hand over your mouth and crouch behind the brick wall again. Heart racing in your chest and cold sweat sliding down your temples, you think carefully over what you've heard. All thoughts of escaping immediately flee your mind. Ten ships intending to attack the Treasure?