"Ye 'ave to agree that me lettin' ye stay inside despite yer misbehaviour be a kind gesture. Believe me, as much as ye despise me, ye would nay wish to be out there as we be speakin'." Hongjoong glanced at the windows in the back of his cabin that wrapped around the stern of the Grief. The skies and oceans outside were pitch black as they threw themselves against the ship with all their might. As if wanting to throw them over and swallow them. The crew outside yelled orders across the deck as they ensured all of their survival. Seonghwa and Hongjoong stayed blissfully dry inside the cabin since they weren't needed outside.

Seonghwa's scowl tightened the corners of his lips. His body strained against his shackles when he once more uselessly attempted to pull himself free.

"Not even ye would want to spend the night in that storm."

"You trapping me in here is no act of kindness, I know that. Either you did it so your surgeon wouldn't criticise your behaviour again, or for your own twisted pleasure. I see through your lies, pirate." Seonghwa's shoulders pulled his uniform taut as he tried harder.

"Ye will get yer whippin' tomorrow after we return from the next island. Yeosang may only allow me so much but I can an' will make it worse fer ye if ye do nay obey."

The fire in Seonghwa's eyes gave every answer away. He would never bow down for a pirate. And Hongjoong looked forward to changing that.

"You will only get a rise out of me for so long. Once I get numb towards it, you will just throw me to the sharks and set sail to capture your next victim."

Intrigued by the way Cabezon thought about him, Hongjoong swayed his head in his direction. His fingers wrapped around the neck of a bottle of rum. As their eyes met, Hongjoong took a big gulp. Seonghwa's features crawled with disgust over the vile drink.

"Ye think so? I keep tellin' ye that ye be the one I be fixated on. Yer rotten brain just ain't rememberin' why. If ye did, I be sure ye'd know."

"Then tell me!" Desperation laced the commander's voice. As if his own lack of understanding of the situation was driving him madder than his actual life as a prisoner. "Tell me what I forgot! Whatever you want of me, I would deal with it far quicker! I may not accept any request, but I can at least have an attempt!"

Hongjoong chuckled and sipped his rum again. Burning, the alcohol slid down his throat.

So Cabezon was developing a sense of dissatisfaction.

"Nay. I want ye to recall by yerself. That may be me greatest enjoyment as o' now."

Upset, Cabezon leaned back against the headboard. His teeth worried his lip as he tried to find a suitable answer on how to trick the pirate. Amused, Hongjoong watched him try.

"I spy the questions burnin' in yer spotlights. Try an' ask me. I be in a jolly mood tonight, an' I may reply if ye blabber smartly." The pirate's voice was rough from the treatment of his drink to his throat. Seonghwa gave him a disdainful glare. His eyes snapped back to look straight ahead when Hongjoong rose his bottle in cheers.

He had offered the nasty drink to Seonghwa several times, but every time the man had refused it vehemently.

As Seonghwa came up with a question, the pirate slumped some more in his chair and adjusted his legs on his table. He had yet to pull off his boots since he wanted to be ready to storm out if needed. But his coat and vest had already found their way on a barrel nearby. The laces on his white shirt were undone.

"I presume that we've met for your misdeeds before. I recognise your face from the wanted poster, but I am sure that I have never captured you. So it must have been a meeting before you became a pirate."

Hongjoong hummed. His bottle was half empty and his heart sunk at the idea that it might not last through the entire conversation. Did Yunho stash another one nearby?

"Right an' wrong. I been a pirate back then, but I been nay a capt'n an' I had nay a poster."

More confusion befuddled Cabezon's face. That amusingly dumb look in his doe eyes was back. When puzzled, he lost all sharpness from his features. He looked exposed and vulnerable.

"Did I know your name back then?"

Hongjoong shook his head.

"I doubt it. It had nay been me who ye been after."

"So you claim that I... Did a dreadful thing to someone you knew back then before you became a pirate... Which was years ago. Did I have your past lover hanged, by any chance?"

The chuckle that escaped from Hongjoong's throat was barely audible over the rushing of the waves and the deafening roll of thunder every few seconds. When he shook his head, Cabezon deflated some more. He looked uncomfortable in his grimy uniform that forced his body to remain stiff and uptight at any moment. Perhaps, Hongjoong should peel that corset off him before it grew to his skin.

"But given that you seduced a guard in the Royal Prison to break out of there, you must have been there. Which made you important. Before you were nefarious, though?" Questions stood written all over the commander's face. He found no answer to that.

It would be so easy for Hongjoong to tell him. So easy to make him remember by just looking up at him from below. But seeing the man wrack his brain for an answer was too much fun.

"I 'old me grudges fer a long time. An' ye met me at a bad time back then. I 'ad lost a lot a few days prior an' ye made that time e'en 'arder on me. I suppose what ye did seemed just to ye, or at least nay like anythin' too bad fer a pirate and prisoner." With a dull thud, Hongjoong put the bottle down on the tabletop. It was empty.

When he rose to stride over to the door, Seonghwa remained quiet. Lightning flashed through the room and brightened it for a moment as Hongjoong opened the door.

Rain hit his face cold and heavy.

"Ahoy, me 'earties. 'Ow be the weather?"

San and Wooyoung stood at the wheel together. At his question, the navigator rose his eyes to the sky.

"It be calmin'. We should be safe in another 'our. Ye can go to sleep, capt'n. If we need ye, we will get ye to show a leg."

Hongjoong wished them the best of luck before he went back in. Cabezon still stared at him quizzically. Without the hatred and disgust spoiling his beautiful features, he returned to being a handsome fellow to look at. At least Hongjoong got a handsome face to glare at.

Hongjoong kicked his boots off at the end of his bed and crawled under the covers. Barely minding him, Cabezon merely shifted further to the side to keep his distance on the spacious sheets. Soft and comfortable, the furs and blankets on Hongjoong's bed urged him to fall right asleep. He barely even noted to throw the rest of his clothes off.

"Think about it. Maybe ye will find an answer until the mornin'."

-

Cabezon did not find an answer.

When the next day dawned, Hongjoong found him just as he had left him the night prior. Huddled in the bed's corner sitting upright. His chin had sunken to his chest in his sleep, but the moment Hongjoong stirred, he also jerked awake. Promptly, he adverted his stormy eyes when Hongjoong rose to get dressed.

The crew was already bustling outside. Land was near, and they readied the cargo they planned to sell and brought out empty barrels and crates to fill. Their cheerful voices wished Hongjoong a jolly morning when he appeared on the deck.

"'Ave fun today an' remember to keep yer ears open fer news on our route. We will leave the port in the mornin'!"

Cheers replied to his message. Everybody was excited at the prospect of land under their feet and the bodies of a lover beneath their fingers. Hongjoong would join them today and take his mind off the matters of his tentacled enemy and the snotty commander in his cabin.

This time, they left Wooyoung, Jongho and Mingi on the ship. Yunho's injury had healed well, and he dared to venture out again.

The town they visited was full of pirates, an entire nest of them. Their hollering voices and drunken laughter echoed from every alley. More seagulls than Hongjoong could count found their way here and surrounded the docks like flies a cadaver. Picking at anything they decided might taste well, be it alive or dead.

Hongjoong joined his crew in an inn and savoured a meal that didn't comprise dry fish and hardtack. Alcohol and laughter filled their bodies. The mood was delightful and carefree, and nobody gave them trouble for it. They blended right in.

As Hongjoong let the grilled pig meat melt on his tongue, his thoughts flashed to Cabezon for a split second. He wondered how the man would react if he brought him wonderful food like that. Would he be thankful? Or not even accept it?

The thought got lost with drunkenness. After the inn, the pirates stumbled through the streets giggling and singing. They greeted fellow pirates they had never seen before, shared a moment of evil cackles when Youjin cast up his accounts in a corner, and then swung along. Their arms held each other up and the lights of the nightly city grew hazy and blurry in front of Hongjoong's eyes as they visited their next stop.

The abbess that greeted them in the brightly lit establishment in a back alley that was much too crowded to be a hidden place was curvy and had rosy cheeks. When she came over to wrap an arm around Hongjoong's waist the moment they stepped in the rowdy crowd inside, the pirate grinned a cheeky smirk. She didn't mind him being three sheets into the wind, and neither the smell of liquor that wafted from him.

Much better than a certain stuck-up naval captain.

"Ahoy, comrades! What can I get ye gentlemen today?"

Hongjoong gestured at his crew, waiting for them to speak. As if shy, they all mumbled to themselves.

"Can we pick?"

"Aye! Any lass ye spy that ain't in company already!"

Instantly, the crew spread out. Wobbly, Yunho leaned against a wall as he chatted up a blonde girlie, and San already had his face in someone's lap before Hongjoong had even scanned the colourfully decorated room for a potential match.

The alcohol in his veins didn't let him think twice. When he spotted a gorgeous red-haired woman in a corner near the warm fireplace, he saw her black corset first before he even spied the vibrant hair colour. Their eyes met, and she ended her conversation with her friend when the captain beckoned her over.

Her lips were tinted in the same blood red colour as her hair. As she pulled him up the stairs and into a room for them to share, they curled into a pretty smile. Hongjoong let her press him down in the sheets of a heavenly soft bed. Her lips tasted of wine and cherries as they kissed all over him and left burning pleasure in their wake.

Sometime in between while she was between his legs, Hongjoong closed his eyes. He imagined it to be someone else, someone with broader shoulders than her but just as plush lips. When he scuttled her later, he had her face away from him and keep on her corset as the only piece of clothing. With his hands around her waist, he guided her movements. He swore he could nearly reach all the way around her narrow body.

Hongjoong was sober enough a few hours later to count his crew correctly before he went back. Some would spend the night there, other would return with him or find another place to have fun in.

On their way, they got more alcohol to brighten their moods with.

With his first mate in tow, Hongjoong floundered through the streets. Yunho giggled into his shoulder when their height difference made it difficult to keep each other up. Multiple times, they had to lean against the walls of buildings to catch their breath when they forgot to breathe through their laughter.

Hongjoong's body was warm and relaxed, pleased in every aspect. When he spotted his resting ship in the harbour, he roared at it merrily. It was doing an outstanding job at carrying him over the oceans.

Yunho and Hongjoong trudged up the plank arm in arm. Yunho rambled something about exotic fruit and how he didn't like one of them because they made his mouth tingle and swell and everything itchy.

Hongjoong suggested he should ask Mingi, their ship's surgeon, about it.

The reply he received back pointed out certain aspects of Mingi that interested Yunho far more than his medical knowledge. Then, they had to laugh again.

As they arrived on deck, Hongjoong got startled by his navigator who walked up to him with a brisk pace. Wooyoung frowned bothered as if he had lost his favourite piece of cutlery. Hongjoong straightened to face him head-on and be ready to become a shoulder to cry on in case his mate needed it.

"Captain, I-"

Hongjoong giggled, turning to Yunho.

"That be me!" He proudly announced to the man. Impressed, Yunho patted his shoulder.

"Impressive! Ye made it so far!"

Giggling, they fell into each other. When Wooyoung roughly grabbed Hongjoong's shoulders, the captain whined. The harsh turn he received was too fast for his reeling head. His brain thumped against the walls of his skull.

"Captain!" Wooyoung had to joggle him to get him out of his stupor. "Captain, I 'ave bad news."

Hongjoong fell against him, hugging his navigator affectionately. He smelled of someone else, not Wooyoung. At least he would stop swinging him while Hongjoong held him close. Gradually, his mind stopped spinning.

Overwhelmed, the navigator sighed into his hair. Hongjoong giggled at his youthful disrespect.

"Enlighten me."

"Cabezon disappeared from the ship!"