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The morning after a difficult night at the ocean is always a pretty one. It's not quite clear for most if said bonanza is an actual weather phenomenon or just a result of the sheer happiness of surviving such dangerous storms. But nonetheless, the sun shines bright and the sea seems calmer than ever, somewhat like a friend who apologizes silently for the fight they started a few hours prior. Anyone who had only been out on the sea for days like these would find it really difficult to believe the things it did the night before and on countless others. It’s simply too hard to grasp the idea of something so serene, so inviting and so beautiful sinking entire fleets and ending lives as if they’re nothing - hiding it all under its magnificent blue cloak for eternity.
It’s one of these comforting mornings and not long has passed since Seokmin left the main deck to lay down a bit when he comes back out into the open air. He still feels like hell and is pretty sure his skin has already embraced a permanent greenish tint to showcase his everlasting seasick state. His mates are chanting, whistling and talking loudly through their work as he leans his arms on a barrel and rests his forehead on his arms, imagining how much better he would be feeling if he was back on dry land.
“Deep breaths and eyes on the horizon!” Seungcheol shouts at Seokmin as he climbs the ratlines. He’s on his way to work on the damage some of the sails had gone through the night before and in much better conditions than Seokmin could ever be.
Seokmin grunts loudly and stands back up, looking straight ahead, trying to signal his brain the reference it needs to be back in sync with his inner ear balance mechanism and finally understand that he is simply moving and not actually dying. He takes the whole deep breaths and eyes on the horizon seriously and barely moves a muscle for a while, focusing all of the little energy he has left after spending the past night trying to make himself somewhat useful for the crew during the storm, despite his miserable condition.
After a while staring into the point where the sky meets the ocean, Seokmin sees movement on the water and it appears it’s not only the ship crew who is happy the storm is finally over. They’re quite far, but the bright colors reflecting as the sun hits the sea leave little to no doubt which creatures are out celebrating the sunny day.
Partly hypnotized by their colors and tricks, partly too focused on not throwing up the little food he had in front of the distant visitors, Seokmin doesn’t notice Mingyu quickly approaching him.
“Here, nibble on those,” Mingyu says, handing a few slivers of raw ginger to Seokmin.
“Didn’t we run out of those a few weeks back? I looked everywhere for them to make soup the other day and couldn’t find any,” Seokmin says as he turns his back to the water, facing his friend and starting to chew on a small piece of the slightly sweet and spicy root.
“Yeah, the ones at the kitchen are all gone, but I saved a bit from the last time we were back on dry land and kept it within my stuff. Everytime we come around this place there’s a bad storm waiting, so I suspected you would make good use of it once things calmed down,” Mingyu confides before picking up a tool box by Seokmin’s feet and leaving, surely also on his way to work on the damage the ship took the night before
Seokmin watches as the crew puts the ship back in order after the rough time they all had. He wishes he could be of bigger help, but everytime they face storms like that he somehow pulls through the actual crisis, however the aftermath is always terrible. He finishes chewing the ginger root thinking about his choice of spending his life at the sea, finally feeling less nauseous and able to think more clearly.
“It’s been years and I still have a really difficult time understanding why the hell you keep doing this to yourself,” Jihoon shoots at him as he sits on the barrel beside Seokmin, the mouth full of the bite he just took of the slightly odd apple he’s eating. Seokmin tries not to think for how long the fruit has been on board.
“Sorry? I’m afraid I don’t get it,” Seokmin replies, making an effort to sound like he isn’t thinking the same thing himself at that very moment. He’s not a good liar, but he feels like trying is better than just admitting his thoughts at the moment. That would be one more confirmation of his fears, that maybe he doesn’t belong there.
“Why did you choose to be a pirate of all things. There are ways of living your life that would be a lot easier, you know? I mean, I find it really amusing and you won’t ever find me back on land for more than a couple of days at a time,” Jihoon says, finally swallowing the fruit.
Seokmin turns his back to the deck again, facing the never ending ocean and the pretty colors and shapes that are still making an appearance at a distance. He doesn’t say a thing, so Jihoon takes it as a sign to keep going.
“But I really don’t get why you’re still out here when you’re miserable half the time. Hell, we could leave you at the port of your choosing in the next few weeks! You’re a good cook and we both know the crew could use a somewhat more amicable pub to visit everytime we got back to the shore,” Jihoon finishes the last sentence right before blurting out his contagious laugh, amused by the idea of them all visiting Seokmin anytime they stopped by his port.
Seokmin laughs with him, knowing there’s nothing against him in those words. It’s simply Jihoon doing his best to show he cares about how he’s doing, and Seokmin is thankful for that. Yes, the ocean is tough, but this crew surely helps him endure it.
“It would be easier, wouldn’t it? But there’s just too much beauty out here that I would miss if I chose the shore,” Seokmin says, hopeful that it will satisfy Jihoon’s curiosity for the moment.
“Fuck it, I’m not the one that can’t even keep food down everytime we go through a few bigger waves,” Jihoon shruggs and stands up to get back to work after he finishes eating. It seems like Seokmin’s half assed answer did its job.
Once Jihoon is gone, Seokmin turns his attention back to the group of creatures jumping out of the water and tries to tell them apart from afar. They’re too distant for him to see their faces, so he climbs the stairs to the forecastle and hangs the upper half of his body over the edge, squinting his eyes, hopefully maybe their colors would help him at least a little bit. That’s when Seokmin hears a giggle coming from right behind him, followed by the sound of a small splash of water.
Seokmin looks down and there he is.
Jeonghan is already back underwater, but he keeps on giggling and it’s almost as if Seokmin can still hear him. Jeonghan swims playfully on his back, just a little bit beneath the surface. Seokmin opens his mouth to say hi and stops right before any sound comes out. There’s no point in trying to talk if Jeonghan can’t hear him yet.
Seokmin could curse the muffling effect of the thin layer of water between them, there’s so much he wants to tell him! But he doesn’t, as the same thin layer of water makes Jeonghan look even prettier, if possible. The rays of sunshine glimmering at the water make the different shades of blue on his tail more prominent and the pinkish lilac edges sparkle even more than usual as he moves around. Any stranger would see it as a beautiful coincidence, but not Seokmin. He knows there’s no such thing as a coincidence when it comes to the one swimming around on the ocean below.
Jeonghan’s hair is now longer than the last time they’ve met, but the pretty silver color is no different than what Seokmin remembers. It still catches all the different hues around him, slightly changing colors as it floats like a crown around his head, going in various directions when he lays still, and quickly going pin straight behind his back anytime he moves his tail to lazily swim around, never going too far or too deep that it would make it any harder for Seokmin to see him.
“Well, it was about time the winds brought you back”, Jeonghan says, once he finally puts his head above water. As usual, he carries an inviting smile on his lips and his soft attentive eyes still focus on Seokmin as there’s nothing else around them.
There’s indeed too much beauty out here Seokmin would miss if he chose the shore.