Seeing Jungkook take something out of the box that he dug out from underneath the bed, Taehyung couldn't help but to screw his eyes shut out of panic. He didn't want to see him try to take the gold out of his scar. He already knew that it would be painful, so he couldn't bring himself to watch it.

Taehyung wasn't a fan of pain, having experienced a wide range of it in his twenty-seven-year-old lifespan. When his parents had been alive, he helped them on the farm. He tried the best he could to fulfill his role as the dutiful son, but he had his head in the clouds more often than naught. That led to him stupidly injuring himself every now and then. Every time that happened, his mother would bandage him up and his father would act like it never happened. When they died, Taehyung had experienced a pain worse than any farming accident he had ever been a part of. It was a new pain that he hadn't ever felt before. It was like a never-ending fire that burned in his chest, causing him to shut down and cry every once in a while even when he felt strong. Taehyung wasn't afraid of the pain that was going to come from this extraction. He just wanted it over with.

However, it felt as if it was taking forever for it to start. The longer that he kept his eyes screwed shut, the less air he felt entering his lungs. He could see spots begin to dot the corners of his vision as he began to get light-headed. Eventually Taehyung had to let in some air in what sounded like an impatient huff before asking, "Do you plan on getting this over with?"

He could hear the other's chuckle reach his ear before a metallic clunking sounded out. Could it be possible that it was done already, and he hadn't felt anything? As this thought ran through Taehyung's mind, he felt something as delicate as a feather brush against his forehead again and again. Opting to open one of his eyes, he looked to see that Jungkook was in front of him on his knees. He expected a warmth on his forehead from blood, but he instead felt a warmth from Jungkook's fist against his forehead as something continued to brush against it.

"What are you doing?"

"Shut up," was all Jungkook said in response.

Taehyung frowned a bit as he opened both eyes, staying still but letting his eyes wander. He noticed some gold near Jungkook's leg. Each piece was about the width of his pinky and jagged. He noticed that - while dirty - none of them had blood on them. Confused, Taehyung flicked his gaze away from the small pile of gold by Jungkook to a container in front of Jungkook's kneecaps. The brushing against Taehyung's forehead stopped and he watched as a brush was dipped into the container. The brush emerged from the container with some sort of skin colored paint on it before it was brushed over Taehyung's forehead again.

"You're not extracting the gold from me."

"Do you have only one volume?" asked Jungkook, furrowing his brows at his handiwork. His eyes were focused on that instead of Taehyung's eyes.

Even though Taehyung didn't think he was talking loudly, he lowered his voice. He supposed not being told to 'shut up' was an improvement. Taehyung desperately wanted to ask Jungkook why he was doing this instead of doing what Captain had ordered. Instead, something else entirely came out of his mouth.

"Thank you."

Jungkook nodded his head curtly; a grunt leaving his mouth as he continued his work. Taehyung didn't understand why Jungkook was doing this, but he decided to stay silent again and let the other work so he wouldn't change his mind.

- - -

"My arms ache. Can't one of you help?"

Namjoon was about to lean forward to help the distressed pirate in their custody, but Suga stuck out an arm to stop him. Upon hearing that Taehyung had been taken back to some sort of pirate ship, Suga had dragged the pirate down to the shore by his collar and secured them a rowboat from a fisherman. Namjoon still wasn't sure if they had gotten the boat so easily because the fisherman was kind or because he had been scared of Suga. Whatever the reason, they had all piled into the boat and Suga had forced the pirate to row. The pirate had been rowing for at least the last fifteen minutes nonstop prior to his compliant.

"No, we're not going to be helping you," said Suga.

Namjoon frowned. He looked past Suga at Hobi who was currently staring out at the sea instead of at the situation. Hobi had told him Suga was grumpy about hay, but Namjoon still couldn't understand what exactly what was going on.

"He wouldn't be any use to us if he is exhausted," said Namjoon as he looked over at Suga who looked at him in an unwavering manner back.

"What if he tries something?"

"It's three against one," reasoned Namjoon. "We can easily overpower him if necessary."

Suga grumbled under his breath but soon moved his barricading arm so Namjoon could move to sit beside the pirate. The pirate looked at Namjoon warily as he sat down on the bench next to him. Namjoon took one of the oars from the pirate's hands, trying to give him a kind smile.

"It's alright. I'm not going to hurt you."

- - -

"I'm going to hurt you if you don't stop asking me questions," mumbled Jungkook.

It had been about fifteen minutes since he had stopped working on Taehyung's forehead, and ever since then Taehyung had dared to test the waters every once in a while with a question. He couldn't understand Jungkook's actions or what he had done.

Jungkook had his back to Taehyung, slipping his knife in a thin belt about his waist. The gold that had been by Jungkook's knee previously had been shoved in one of his pockets.

"We're going to see Captain now," said Jungkook as he turned back to face Taehyung, "And you keep your mouth shut, understand?"

Taehyung nodded, watching as Jungkook walked over to him. Jungkook yanked him up off the floor by his arm, leading him towards the door before stopping short. Taehyung watched as Jungkook looked over at his forehead again.

"I'm gonna have to make that look more convincing," said Jungkook more to himself than to Taehyung.

Taehyung continued to watch Jungkook as he dropped his hold on his arm to grab his knife from his belt. Taehyung's eyes narrowed in on the tip of the blade, watching as Jungkook locked eyes with him.

"I need you to trust me," said Jungkook. That had been the nicest thing that Jungkook had said to him.

Taehyung nodded his head, not daring to speak and jinx this sudden appearance of Jungkook's soft side. Jungkook nodded his head back, bringing the blade of the knife up towards Taehyung's forehead as Taehyung closed his eyes.

Seconds later he felt the warmth he had been expecting all this time followed by an all too familiar pain that made him homesick for his mother's love.