Chapter Text
“Captain Kim Hongjoong, yes?”
The voice calling to him was calm. Serious. Which meant it was most likely inside Hongjoong’s head. Not that he didn’t have serious conversations! He did! No matter how much scarcer they’d been getting in the last few months. But none, not a single one had ever started with someone calling him captain and meaning it.
Still, ever the dreamer, Hongjoong turned toward the docks to face the owner of the voice, who - to his very well disguised surprise, thank you very much - actually existed.
He was tall. Being taller than Hongjoong wasn’t a challenge, but his caller was Tall. He seemed young, and while he wore tattered clothing, he carried himself with poise. Elegantly.
Hongjoong stepped down the small wooden stairs to the main deck at a perfectly normal pace, his hand hovering just above the railing to avoid a particularly splintery portion of it, also entirely normal, and avoided the average and normal second floorboard after the stairs, as it was too rotten to take on weight (he’d been meaning to fix it but he hadn’t gotten around to it yet). By the time he’d gotten to the ship’s ramp, the stranger had climbed it to meet him halfway, a small smile playing at his lips.
“Good morning, captain. I am Jeong YunHo. I would like to join your crew.”
Hongjoong had no normal behaviours left. He stood on the deck of his ship staring at the smiling man, then at his outstretched hand, then back to him, until the smile faltered.
Jeong YunHo spoke again:
“Um- Captain?”
“Why?”
“I- I’m sorry?”
“Why?” He probably should’ve elaborated. He thought so immediately after, and proceeded to hope Yunho simply gleaned some understanding of the small fragile thing growing in Hongjoong’s chest at the prospect of someone, anyone believing in what he was trying to do.
He might have. The smile returned, this time a cheeky thing, almost mocking, but with no malice in sight:
“I heard about you.” Yunho started. “Heard that you have a good ship. Heard that you’re a good man. Heard that you’ve been waiting.”
The good ship creaked under Hongjoong’s worn shoes. The good man swallowed the knot in his throat and shook the hand that had been offered. He had been waiting. He’d been almost ready to believe nobody would come.
Almost.
“Welcome aboard, master Yunho. Allow me to show you around.” Hongjoong smiled at his new crewmate, and if he looked like a small child seeing his Christmas wish coming true, well, he didn’t feel all that different.
--ἁʑ--
Hongjoong was a pirate. Had been one all his life. Mostly scrubbing decks and peeling potatoes, but a pirate nonetheless.
When his age and critical thinking ability outweighed his talent to make himself invisible against salt logged brig walls, he’d realized what drew him to such a life was precisely what he was missing. The freedom to sail towards the horizon, to make the next big plan work, to fall on a crew he could trust with his life. He’d dreamed of it all his life.
And that’s what he’d set out to look for.
The Journeyer had been little more than a wreck when Hongjoong gave most of his possessions for her. To many, she still was. But he knew the time he’d put in was going to pay off. It had, already! He had a new crewmate.
Yunho, was, of course, his only crewmate. And regardless of how much Hongjoong loved the Journeyer, she could not sail with a crew of two.
“So, what do you do then?” Yunho had asked, one morning, a few days after he’d moved his (also scarce, Hongjoong had noticed) possessions onto the ship and rolled up his sleeves to fix whatever was needed around the place.
Through some embarrassment, Hongjoong had described a slightly different type of piracy. Out of necessity, he’d traded ships for richly adorned coaches, stretches of water for pine tree ladden trails, sea breeze for scarves over their faces and quick (mostly empty) threats.
Highway robbery.
It wasn’t freedom. It wasn’t piracy. But it got results. And it would be temporary. He hoped.
Yunho, to his credit, had been extremely rational about it, which is to say he’d agreed immediately.
Their first mark proved much easier than any in Hongjoong’s entire year. As it turns out, intimidating people into giving you their riches is a lot easier when you’re not one man pretending to be eight.
They had a system. Food on the table. A companiable silence over a drink on warm nights.
Hongjoong learned a lot about Yunho.
He was fast. Quick feet following a quick mind, sharp at all times. He saw what Hongjoong sometimes couldn’t.
Once, when the carriage they’d targeted ended up being more guarded than expected, Hongjoong had found himself running for his life, most of the spoils left behind in favour of their lives, Yunho a few steps ahead of him, looking back every few steps.
Hongjoong adjusted his hat, making sure his hair was hidden. Black clothing was unremarkable. Blue hair was…not. He looked back a few seconds later, gauging how far they were from the men chasing them, and was relieved to have lost sight of them. Less relieved when he looked back ahead to find he’d lost sight of Yunho as well.
Shit.
He couldn’t stop running. They’d find him. But he couldn’t just go ahead without his crew mate. Shit.
He looked around, walking backwards, scanning the foliage for the man. For someone so tall he sure knew how to hide!
Suddenly, a hand grabbed his waist from behind, another coming up to cover his mouth. Hongjoong lifted his right leg, where he kept a small dagger hidden in his boot. Right before he plunged the blade into the body pressed against him, the person spoke.
“Captain. I’m going to need you to. Not. Move.”
Hongjoong relaxed when he recognised Yunho’s voice. He spared half a thought for a future conversation about sudden grabs with no warnings, - neither of them was a doctor, after all - placed the dagger back in its sheath, and nodded.
Yunho let go of him and pointed discreetly to the right of them.
From where they stood, the largest of the men chasing them was visible. He’d reloaded the crossbow that had been a serious problem a few minutes before, holding it in position as he walked, and Hongjoong realised that if Yunho hadn’t grabbed him, he’d have run right into the man’s line of fire.
Through a mix of hand signals and hushed whispers, they arranged a way to leave without alerting their hunter.
A few ways away, they could finally speak again.
“How did you spot him? That was insane!” Hongjoong almost yelled, blood still pumping.
Yunho shrugged, a boyish smile playing at his lips.
“I have an eye for that stuff, I suppose.”
As if to mock him, the other half of the hunting pair took a swing at him, dropping from the tree above them.
Hongjoong swung the last of their treasure from that morning at his head, and the man fell to the ground before he could try for a second swing.
“Maybe I just have an eye for when it’s other people.” Yunho chuckled, slightly embarrassed.
“Good thing there’s two of us, then” Hongjoong smiled.