Treasure: Road to Utopia | ATEEZ Pirate AU

six - tempest

For Song Mingi, the day had started off normal. Or, as normal as his life could get.

He'd left his younger sister at home, whilst wandering into the streets of Kadåra himself. Even before the sun rose, he'd strolled down the aisle of the marketplace, eyeing the goods on sale; weighing out the possible chances of him being able to snatch an item unnoticed and to get away smoothly.

Mingi was a thief.

He'd admit that much.

Stealing, pickpocketing, 'borrowing' items and never returning them -- these were all part and parcel of his daily life. But he hadn't always been like this. He hadn't always had to resort to such means. Once upon a time, in a better life, his parents had been alive. His family had been whole. Mingi remembered arriving home from school, running into his mother's warm embrace. He remembered fishing at the docks with his father, trying and failing to catch anything from the ocean's depths. He remembered dinnertimes together as a family, the laughter and love they all shared for each other filling him with warmth, a warmth blazing above what any fire could create. He remembered his mother's auburn hair and his father's kind, crooked smile; he remembered oh-so many little details that were now a thing of the past.

He remembered. And he missed them so.

By mid-afternoon, Mingi had 'collected' a mishmash of items -- golden bracelets slipped off the arm of passerby; brightly coloured trinkets swiped from the mat of a roadside stall; a single rusted, bejeweled pendant he found lying at the foot of a stone wall. Satisfied with the day's haul, he slipped them all into his pouch, heading for the little pawn shop at the far end of the market.

The gentle ringing of windchimes sounded as he entered the quaint little shop. As usual, it was empty save for one or two customers eyeing the products on display. He let out a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding. This shop was one of the only places he could let his guard down, and truly let himself relax. Aurora, the owner, was a girl only a few years his senior, and she was one of the few people who saw Mingi for who he really was, not just the thieving scoundrel that the rest of the island saw him as. Curiously, she was nowhere in sight today. Running a hand through his wind-tousled hair, he turned his gaze this way and that, looking around the shop for her.

"Mingi!"

With a start, he backed up as Aurora came running out of a back room, jumping right into his arms. Grinning up at him, she wrapped her arms around him in a crushing hug, knocking the wind out of him. "You little thief, where have you been? I haven't seen you here in a while; I was beginning to worry!" Laughing at his momentarily shocked face, she gave him another squeeze and let go, grabbing the goods-laden pouch he hung on his waist.

"Hey, that's mine—" he tried to grab it back, but to no avail. Giggling, she flung it onto the countertop, where it landed with a heavy 'clunk' of metal, a telltale sign of what lay inside the leather fabric. Wiggling her eyebrows at him, she swept her red hair over her shoulders, making her way to the bag. "Ooh, sounds like someone's hands were busy," she teased, emptying the contents of the pouch. As the jewelry and gold came into sight, her eyes widened in mock surprise. Grinning at him, she picked up the treasures, inspecting and weighing them, calculating their value. Satisfied, she swept them into a box and slammed it shut, but not before scooping out handfuls of coins and depositing them on the counter. "Here," she smiled, pushing the pile of money towards him. "Payment for your hard work."

Unable to hide his grin, he grabbed the money, silently counting the amount in his hands. As the last coin clinked into his palm, the smile quickly fell from his face, his eyes clouding over. Blinking his eyes rapidly, he tries to focus on the miniscule amount of money in his hands through the fast-gathering cloud of tears. No. It couldn't be... after all this time, it still wasn't enough? His heart dropped to his soles, bitterness and anger setting in as fast as the happiness had left. Noticing the change in mood, Aurora's silver-grey eyes widen with worry. "Hey," she whispers gently, putting a reassuring hand on Mingi's larger one, "Are you okay? What's wrong?"