Seonghwa felt oddly at peace in Yongguk's company. The man was a calm one, often out of the house to wander the forests and leaving Seonghwa alone while he was preparing to go home. In general they had not spent much time together in the two days Seonghwa had stayed with him. Yongguk was out collecting herbs to do his magic stuff with and Seonghwa was staying back and thinking about what going home meant for him.

He was endlessly happy and even more glad that he was finally able to leave. Yongguk had promised him to make sure he woke up at home the next time he fell asleep so Seonghwa was torn between staying awake still some time or going to sleep early in order to go home soon. He had trusted Yongguk to still stay awake some hours and think about how he felt, sort himself out and then go to sleep.

Normally he would have been terribly suspicious of Yongguk, warlocks and such did not have an much liked place in their society, but for now everything was supposed to stay as it was. After meeting those doubles of themselves, nearly everybody seemed to be a nice person. And Yongguk might have been mysterious and a lonely person but Seonghwa trusted Hongjoong's choice of friends.

Seonghwa spent most of his days sitting at the seashore, looking out over the vast ocean with it's beautiful deep blue and glinting surface. The sun was still shining warmly down at them but autumn was nearing, the first animals preparing their rest already. Seonghwa would miss it somehow, going to sea. Maybe one day he would return to it and become a sailor. Or even just travel. He might get into accounting, become more of a travelling merchant if his mother ever died while he still lived. Without here nothing really kept him at home, he did not know where he would go afterwards.

He was mindlessly drawing in the sand beneath his naked feet, letting the rough grains slip through his fingers in a reminder of all the time that had passed. He kept wondering how his mother was, whether she had been able to survive these past weeks without him. She was not that old of a lady yet but her back had been acting up for a few years now. He felt bad for not constantly being there, for making her have to go to the town every Friday by herself and do her best at selling.

Seonghwa sighed heavily, laying his head down on his knees but immediately picking it up again when Yongguk suddenly sat down on his side, looking out over the ocean too. The man had some basket with herbs with him, setting it down neatly next to his body on the sand and wrapping his arms around his knees.

"You are distresst. Do you fear for the future?" The deep rumble of his voice resembled thunder on a hot summer day, the nearing of long awaited rain to come. It was easy to get lost in it, Seonghwa being glad that this man was such a diplomatic one.

"I am happy to be able to return home. But within those weeks so much happened, so many things that shaped my life. Lasting scars..." He carefully touched his mouth, healing unnaturally fast with the help of the warlock.

The other man hummed thoughtfully.

"It's not bad memories only, isn't it?"

Seonghwa was looking down at the sand again, idly wiping away Hongjoong's name written down there with his foot. Yongguk's eyes calmly followed the movement.

"It's not. There are still more bad ones than good ones. But I now understand how life works. That everybody lives differently and not everyone the guards call a criminal is truly a bad person."

"If one of them happened to visit your town again." Hongjoong's face flashed in front of Seonghwa's eyes. Yongguk lips curled far too knowingly without Seonghwa noticing.

"If they ever did and they got captured. Let's say they were going to be hanged the next day."

Dancing with Jack Ketch. Seonghwa remembered.

"What would you do? If it were your town, your friends and family. Would you act upon it?", Yongguk quietly asked, taking up some sea shell to play with.

Seonghwa took a moment to think.

"My home?" It was terrifying how obvious the answer already was to him. He would save Hongjoong again and again, not hesitating even once to save his life. Why? Because Hongjoong was a man worth saving. A man that deserved to live.

"I would get them out."

"You would have to leave forever then. You could not go back to your life. The navy would hunt you... You would probably become a wanted criminal then."

Seonghwa gulped. That would be really tragic and devastating not only for him but also for his mother. She would possibly die earlier from shock and he would feel guilty forever. Seonghwa made a distressed noise, grabbing his head with his hands.

Yongguk must have seen his worry as he chuckled gently.

"Don't worry, this is purely theoretical. The chances are slim for this actually to happen. I just wanted to know where your heart lay."

They fell quiet again after that, Seonghwa mindlessly tongueing at the corners of his mouth that were just a bit more open than normal. It was unsettling him still but he was getting used to it.

"Hongjoong called me a pirate once. Maybe aiding pirates and siding with them is already enough of an reason to become one.", Seonghwa mindlessly told him, starting to play with the sand again.

"A pirate would fit well to you."

Yongguk rose then, patting the sand off his clothes before offering a hand towards Seonghwa.

"Come on. We shall eat and then prepare for you to go home."

Seonghwa gladly took his hand, letting himself be pulled up and led inside.

-

Waking up had been a strange experience.

Even when Yongguk had told him exactly that he would wake up at home, Seonghwa still felt all wrong when he was suddenly opening his eyes and staring at the familiar ceiling of their little hut.

This was not Yongguk's home made of bamboo. And neither was it the swaing hammock in the dark belly of the Precious. It felt foreign in its acquaintance, even if he had only been gone for some weeks.

When he rose Seonghwa found himself laying on the big mat he was sharing with his mother, the whole room exactly the same as before. He found some baskets with food, one of them he distinctly remembered as being the one of a friend of theirs. He was glad they had looked after his mom.

Seonghwa got up, stepping outside in the warm morning sun and looking around in front of their comfortable home. He finally found his mom, standing in the fields with Jimmy and gently cleaning his fur while the dapple grey was peacefully munching away on some grasses.

And Seonghwa felt his heart bloom when he saw them.

All of the previous tension finally left him, washing away as if completely forgotten and he was hurrying up, running up to them in order to yell after his mom.

She was surprised at first, turning around with a flinch but when she finally recognized him with his happily skipping steps her small face brightened with joy.

"Seonghwa! My baby, is that you?"

He came to a halt in front of her, slowing down before pulling her in a big bear hug. She was trembling like a leaf in the wind, hugging him close and touching him all over, making sure he was alright.

"What happened to you? Where did you go, my dear? I feared for the worst!" Her hands gently petted his hair, his broad shoulders engulfing her and then she had to laugh disbelievingly.

"There is so much I have to tell you! I don't even know where to start!" He had to laugh too, a free sound he himself had not heard quite some time. He soaked up the warm embrace of the woman, her familar scent.

When he did finally pull back both of them had tears in their eyes, giggling stupidly about the other while they brushed them away.

Seonghwa was at home and he finally felt content again. After all that stress, all that fear at the side of the pirates he could finally rest again.

His mother was staring at his face, gently touching the scars on his mouth. She looked pained to see him like that, the sadness in her eyes evident.

"You lost something, my dear."

He did. He lost a lot of things. He had lost his innocence, the colour of his hair, his shadow, his previous easy life. But he had also gained much more, so much knowledge to share.

"But you also gained something much more important, did you not?"

He was nodding at her cheerily, greeting Jimmy now too. The horse nudged him with its big nose, pushing him away a bit and he had to laugh.

"I can tell you everything! But how have you been, mother? I'm sorry for worrying you like that but there was no turning back." He gently took her hand to lead her inside, starting to cook some stew because her face looked more hollow-cheeked than before. She was just sitting down next to him, staring at him full of love and happiness while he was humming away.

He was back and suddenly everything else felt so surreal. All those pirates and warlocks, the fighting, the torture. Nothing felt real anymore, there was just him and his mom, that was everything he needed.

"I was wondering where you went. When I was searching for you that day I met that nice sailor man again and he told me he never saw you. We suspected you had been kidnapped." She sounded so worried, her quiet voice speaking of the horrors she had went through and Seonghwa nodded silently, stirring in his pot.

"Well I was. But I saved myself and was able to return. Did that sailor stay?"

"He did not, but whenever he's close he comes by for some time and then we talk. He was searching for you on every one of his journeys. He will be so happy to hear you are back when he comes by next time."

Seonghwa turned right in time to catch her smiling fondly, immediately grinning at her. He stopped however, when her worried gaze fell to his mouth. He did still not know how horrible it looked, how well it had healed but he was aware that he was scaring her.

He smiled with his eyes instead.

"Is there something going on between the two of you? I'm happy he returned to check on you."

She was shyly shaking her head, waving her hands in dismissal.

"No, no, don't go there! He is just a nice man helping a poor widow who lost her son to the sea. He will probably not return once he sees you are back." She distracted herself with setting out bowls for the two of them, Seonghwa just grinning to himself. He dropped the topic for now, eagerly awaiting the man so he could prove her different.

He put some more potatoes in their stew, wishing for his mother to be healthy quickly and then settled down next to her, constantly cringing away from her benevolent gazes. He had not even been gone that long.

"When will you leave again?"

Seonghwa looked up from where he was stirring some salt into his stew, curiously cocking his head.

"Why would I be leaving again? I just returned, did I not?" He was confused, reaching over to get some water without taking his eyes off his mother. The woman smiled a bit to herself, some loose graying hairs falling into her face that he brushed away gently.

"Then will he come visit you?"

Seonghwa's brain halted, trying to make sense of her words. For another moment he was just staring at her confusedly, not quite sure what she meant.

Hongjoong wanted to come visit him, did he not? But how could she ever know? She did not mistake that blossoming relationship between herself and that sailor of hers for Seonghwa's reason of absence, right?

"Why- Who? Who would come visit me?"

"That pirate you lost your heart to."