Chapter Text
When Sunwoo spotted the body lying at the beach, he thought it was a water corpse – it wouldn’t have been his first time seeing one, and he almost continued walking as the sight wasn’t exactly pretty and it had nothing to do with him.
However, as curiosity took over him and he came closer, he saw the fitful heaving of the stranger’s chest. Whoever was lying there, right where only some of the flattening waves reached, was alive.
It was a young man. The water swashed over his limbs as if it was trying to pull him slowly into the ocean.
Sunwoo faltered. There was nobody else – just him, the white beach, and the stranger. If he was injured Sunwoo couldn’t tell, he neither knew if he had been washed up at the shore or lay there by chance – but if Sunwoo didn’t help him now, nobody would. And so he approached, pulling his rapier out of the shaft dangling from his belt to play it safe.
Sunwoo’s eyes fell onto the clothing, ragged, stained, ripped. The thin arm, sprawled out on the wet fine sand, the thin wrist and hand, half clenched into a fist. The shaggy brown hair, moist from the sea spume. The stranger’s head was facing away from him. Sunwoo held out his rapier, about to tilt his chin towards him with its tip when suddenly the stranger moved.
Sunwoo winced, weapon held out in habit – as if the young man in front of him even had a chance to hurt him. He propped himself up on his elbows, coughing up water, struggling for air. Sunwoo’s eyes widened as the stranger’s gaze shot up to him.
“Save me,” he heard him whisper, “please. Help me—”
Sunwoo slid the rapier back into his sheath and crouched down, wrapping one arm around his back to raise him up until he sat in the sand.
“W-water—”
Sunwoo handed him the flask that was strapped to his belt, watching as the stranger drank from it hastily, water trickling down his skin, soaking into the ripped seam of his shirt.
“Don’t choke on it,” he muttered, eyes wandering over the other. He held back a sigh. He had just wanted to take a stroll, indulge in the rare moments of solitude before returning to the others at the ship, and now he crouched next to a stranger gulping down his fresh water that he had just filled up at the beach.
“Who are you?” he asked. “What happened to you?”
“My name is Changmin.” His voice was light. Innocent, kind of. “I... I ran away.”
“A runaway, huh?” Sunwoo clicked his tongue, tilting his head. Since he had realized that the boy in front of him was neither a threat nor in critical condition, he might as well make the most out of it for now. “Are you far from home?”
Changmin nodded tentatively, eyes widening as they fell on Sunwoo’s strange attire, the many dangerous weapons on his belt, his opulent jewelry. He faltered.
“You’re not gonna hurt me, are you?”
“Me? No.” Sunwoo held up his hands in defense. “I have no reason to. You weren’t planning on robbing me, were you?”
“No.”
“Good. Are you hungry?”
Changmin nodded.
“Hurt anywhere?”
He shook his head as he slowly slid onto his knees, seemingly regaining a bit of strength after drinking from Sunwoo’s flask.
Sunwoo watched how Changmin’s eyes flickered over his surroundings, the confused streak reflecting in them, the defensive stance of his narrow body, his trembling hands. Sunwoo tilted his head, hand reaching out to tuck a strand of his longish hair out of Changmin’s small face before he gently grabbed his chin, moving his head to both sides as if he was inspecting him, the delicateness of his features, his wide eyes, his high cheekbones.
Changmin flinched, ever so slightly.
“You’re far from home, right? Ran away, too – I guess you don’t have a place to sleep for the night?”
Changmin’s eyes told him everything he needed to know.
“My ship is anchored not far from here. We have food there. A place to sleep for the night in case you need it. You can come with me. I promise I won’t hurt you, neither will my crew. You’ll be safe with me. You can come with me if you want to.”
“T-thank you,” Changmin muttered.
“Mh, no problem,” Sunwoo responded, voice low, a smile fleeting over his lips.
Changmin was light as a feather as Sunwoo’s helped him up to his weak feet. He could barely walk on his own, and Sunwoo carried him more to the ship than Changmin walked himself.
Changmin wasn’t wearing shoes, and his clothes were almost too torn to be even called clothes and not rags, and considering how weak he was, thirsty and probably overheated and food deprived, Sunwoo started to wonder how on earth he had ended up in this state.
“Why are you helping me?”
Yeah, good fucking question, Sunwoo thought to himself, why was he helping him? What was he even doing?
“Oh, just because,” he answered, adjusting Changmin’s arm thrown around his neck.
Hours later, Sunwoo had just laid down on his bed and closed his eyes as Hyunjae barged into his chamber. The door banged against the cabinet to its left. Sunwoo reluctantly opened his eyes.
“Why is there a stranger sleeping in my hammock?”
“He was able to fall asleep? That’s good. I was worried that maybe he wasn’t used to sleeping on a ship, but he’s probably so exhausted he could have slept anywhere.”
“That’s all great and good, but what is he even doing on this ship?”
“I told him he can stay for the night. His name is Changmin. Problem?” Sunwoo stretched out his legs, looking up at Hyunjae who had his hands on his hips, frowning.
“Yes, there is? It’s my hammock.”
“Come on.” Sunwoo raised an eyebrow. “Don’t act as if you’ve ever used it. Juyeon and you, you’ve never spent a night apart ever since you two came here.”
“But Sunwoo—”
“Sunwoo?”
Hyunjae grit his teeth. “Captain, I just don’t get it. Why did you take him here in the first place? A stranger, and you offered him a place to sleep? We’re not a fucking inn.”
“He was passed out when I saw him, couldn’t even properly walk on his own. What was I supposed to do?”
“Leave him there,” Hyunjae said, “that’s what you should have done. Don’t act like a saint.” He sighed. “Just tell me why.”
“He’s pretty.”
“... excuse me?” Hyunjae looked like he was very close to slapping Sunwoo across the cheek. “Your explanation is because he’s pretty?”
“Mhm.”
Sunwoo knew that there was no logical explanation for his behavior.
It didn’t make sense, Hyunjae was right, and the fact that Changmin was pretty was only a pretense, in a sense, knowing that it would annoy Hyunjae.
There was something in Changmin’s eyes, so doe-like, dark and captivating, none like he had ever seen before, something in the way that he had looked up at him that had stopped Sunwoo from thinking about what was wise and logical and what was not.
From the moment he had looked into his face, he had known. There was something about Changmin, something that Sunwoo couldn’t quite place, couldn’t really understand or explain, something that had snuck into his heart and taken it hostage although he hardly knew him.
It had been a few days, barely a week, since Changmin had woken up on that lonely shore, at an island far away from the home he had ran away from. Barely a week since that strange, young pirate had taken him onto his ship, offered him water and food and a place to sleep.
Strange days, but undisputedly the best ones of his life.
The town they had stopped at was one of the larger port towns of the kingdom. Rows of boat bridges with dozens of docked ships, swaying with the subtle waves beneath them, and Sunwoo’s one of them. The Silver Tide blended right in with the others – just a regular unlabeled brigantine – and the navy guards patrolled right past it.
The insufferably bright smile on Sunwoo’s lips wouldn’t fade. Changmin had found the captain’s smile to be very captivating, not only that but also contagious. And very pretty.
The eleven of them had split up, agreeing to all meet up again at the ship at sunset. While some of the crew had already set off, Changmin still stood at the harbor, enjoying the subtle wind, the view of the bustling town spreading out in front of him.
“Want me to show you around?”
Sunwoo stepped next to him, hands buried in the pockets of his pants.
“I know my way around here quite well.”
“Are you here often?”
“Now and then. To stock up on supplies and such. Come with me, let’s go to the market.”
Without further ado Sunwoo grabbed Changmin’s hand and pulled him along, towards the town’s center.
Changmin was very aware that they were being stared at – no wonder, with Sunwoo in his extravagant blouse with puffy sleeves and frills on the front and the many rings and dangling earrings and the heavy belt with keys and weapons and miscellaneous stuff hanging from it.
Anyone could tell that he meant trouble.
Sunwoo seemed to enjoy it rather than being bothered by the eyes on him.
The market square with its many food stands was crowded, children running around and people haggling for fruits, it smelled like fresh hay and sugary sweets. Changmin’s lips parted in awe of the scene in front of him.
“Want an apple?”
With a swift movement, Sunwoo took an apple from a basket to his right.
“Or a mango?” He snatched one of the exotic fruits and dropped it into Changmin’s hands before he hurried on, skipping across the roughly cobbled path as if nothing on this world could do him harm or darken his mood.
“But Sunwoo, you have to pa—” Changmin’s eyes flickered between the pirate captain and the food stand.
“Don’t you worry,” Sunwoo said, “an advantage of being a national enemy – you don’t have to pay for everything.”
Changmin frowned. “I’m not quite sure if it works like that...”
“Oh, it works out just fine.” Sunwoo linked their arms, grabbing the apple he had just stolen out of Changmin’s hand and taking a bite. “You just have to know how to do it – don’t turn around, just walk away. Want a bite? It’s sweet.”
The smile that Sunwoo had put on Changmin’s lips wavered as he noticed two men standing in a nearby alley, whispering to each other as they kept glancing in their direction. They were guards of the navy. Changmin’s eyes were glued to the rifles hanging from their shoulders.
He tried to ignore them at first – perhaps he was paranoid, perhaps they were just overlooking the square, perhaps they hadn’t even notice them.
Changmin kept close to Sunwoo, fingers curling around the loose fabric of his shirt, as Sunwoo kept strolling through the market. He was good-tempered and talkative, and hardly noticed Changmin tugging at his sleeve until he said his name.
“Sunwoo—”
“Yeah? Wanna go somewhere else?”
“No, I... I think we’re being watched.”
“Hm? Watched?”
“Yeah. Look behind us. Those two men, those guards – aren’t they looking at us?”
Sunwoo glanced over his shoulder. Changmin watched him, holding his breath in suspense, waiting for a reaction.
“Oh. You’re right.” He grinned. “Run.”
The guards started sprinting after them the moment Sunwoo started picking up pace, pulling a stumbling Changmin along. He almost ran into several food stands as he crossed the market square, dodging the town’s people, trying not to stumble. Out of the market, alongside a small side road, through the almost maze-like town – Sunwoo had been right as he had told Changmin that he knew his way around. The men, however, were persistent, and despite their heavy rifles and uniform, quite fast.
“In here.”
After rounding a steep corner, Sunwoo dragged Changmin with him into a gap in between two houses, barely a meter broad, just enough for the two of them to fit in. Changmin felt Sunwoo’s hips against his, his chest against his own, his hair tickling his face, Sunwoo’s warm breath on his skin.
His heart was racing. He heard the guards’ footsteps, their voices, and for a moment he saw them passing them, eyes scanning the road but failing to spot their hiding place. Changmin exhaled in relief, resting his forehead against Sunwoo’s shoulder. He noticed that they were still holding hands.
“D-do these men know you?” Changmin asked, voice hushed even after he had heard the guards pass by.
“Probably.”
“Have they caught you before? Or... is your face on some kind of hit list?”
“Not exactly. They’re kind of subordinates of my father.”
“Your father?”
“He’s, um... an admiral.”
“An admiral? Your father? You’re the son of a navy admiral?”
Sunwoo nodded. “Long story. Let’s get away from here first – I don’t feel like meeting my father again any time soon, you know?”
“Are we going back to the ship?”
“Not yet. The beach is the safest place for now. Leading them to the ship would be dumb – even if it seems like they’ve lost track of us, you never know. These assholes are smart.”
The beach that Sunwoo led him to looked similar to the one he had woken up on. Seemingly endless, sand so fine and light it seemed white snow, the scorching sun burning down at them.
They stumbled to a halt.
Changmin let out a laugh. He leaned against one of the nearby trees after almost toppling over, his head spinning. He hadn’t realized how long they had been chased until his body was now struggling to recover. His eyes locked with Sunwoo’s. He was crouching down next to him, hands trailing through the sand.
“You’re laughing,” Sunwoo noted, eyebrows knit. “Are you not scared? Isn’t it scary, being chased by the navy? You’re in danger when you’re with me. Those guards, if they had gotten their hands on us, we would have landed in prison – or worse, be sent to my dad.”
“I know,” Changmin said. “I know it’s dangerous... but so far, it’s been fun.”
“Fun?”
“Yeah, fun. It’s exciting. I feel so... alive.”
Sunwoo’s parted lips slowly melted into a smile, eyes flickering all over the other.
“I think I’m in love with you.”
Changmin, who had started detangling the lacing of the deep v-neckline of the shirt that Sunwoo had given him to wear, laughed.
“Sure thing.”
“No, I’m serious.”
Changmin smiled before he sat down. Sunwoo looked at him, eyes squinting against the light. His face was painted with gold and all the other colors of the sunset. His curls were swaying in the breeze. Changmin felt dizzy looking at him, he was like the sun itself, but he kept staring.
“Have you decided what to do yet?”
“Ah, right...”
After Sunwoo had allowed him to sail with them, they had agreed on Sunwoo bringing Changmin to the nearest town. He had run away from home, that miserable forsaken village, without any proper plan – starting with a busy port town, with ships sailing to everywhere and roads leading into the country and lots of opportunities, had sounded like the best option to him.
But now... his life had taken quite a different turn than he had thought it would, and he wasn’t exactly mad about it.
“You know...” Changmin let a handful of sand run through his fingers. “—if the others are alright with it, and if there’s still, well, a place for me on your ship, I—”
Sunwoo smiled. He leaned in a little, tilting his head to the side. Their faces were close, Changmin thought to himself that if he leaned in just a little more, their noses would touch.
“You want to come with me – with us, I mean? Wanna come with us?”
Changmin shrugged, an abashed smile suddenly flashing over his lips.
“Can I?”
“I think you already know the answer to that.”