Mors Per Mare (ATEEZ FF)

14

"Someone slapped her."

"I swear I will beat those slavers into bloody fucking PULPS!" Jongho snarled, whirling on his heel to head back towards a pub but Yeosang snatched him back by the collar. Or that's what you assumed happened judging from the gagged noise Jongho let out just after his words.

You silently thanked Yeosang for intervening. No sense in him wasting his energy when you knew it wasn't them.

"You idiot, you spent the most time with her after you brought her back. She didn't have it when I was treating the nose bleed or I would have treated her cheek too..." he trailed off for a moment then. "Jongho, did you slap Y/N while you were trying to wake her up today?"

You nearly shook your head before remembering that you were feigning sleep. Instead, you withdrew the silent thank you and replaced it with an unseen roll of your eyes in Yeosang's direction.

Jongho would never do that... would he?

"Of course not!" Jongho roared, "I can't believe you would accuse me of such a thing. But if we're gonna accuse each other, how could it go so unnoticed by you? Aren't you supposed to be watching over her? Unless you're just used to seeing it because you did it?!" The accusations were getting out of hand and you nearly faked a wake up, but Captain Hongjoong had heard enough too.

"Shut it, both of you! No need to point blame. Yeosang, is there a specific time in the day and a half that you can say was the last time you intentionally checked on her face." He asked, the authority in his tone once more assuring you of your captain's capabilities.

"I... I think the only time I intentionally checked her wounds was when Jongho brought her in." Yeosang admitted, suddenly sounding sheepish.

"It's okay. But that widens the timeframe in which it could happened. Was there ever a time that neither of you were with her in the infirmary?"

"There was one. The entire time she was asleep, Y/N was dreaming. When Jongho was there, she was fine but if he was gone for a while she would start to scream." Yeosang started.

"Well after Jongho went to go load some of the cargo with Mingi, she seemed to be doing okay. I figured it would be fine if I left to go help Seonghwa with prepping some food for our departure. But after maybe an hour or two one of the crew members came running down to me, shouting about how there was screaming coming from the infirmary. I told him to fetch Jongho and went the infirmary." Yeosang finished.

The air between them was quiet. It was strange, hearing about what you'd been like during your slumber. It made you question your sanity. You'd been screaming? Who screamed like that in their sleep? But you seemed to be the only one concerned about that particular aspect.

"Well, whoever did it could've done more than just a slap in the hour he was allotted." Hongjoong murmured. It was quiet, he'd said it merely to himself but you'd still heard it. You couldn't help but squirm at his words and he adjusted his grip on you, suddenly rubbing your back as if you really were the sleepy toddler that he was carrying you as.

But he was right. Someone could've done a lot worse to you in the hour that you were out of someone's sight.

He resumed his humming and you settled into his arms, pushing —for the moment— your fears to the back of your mind.

"Until we find out who did it, keep it under wraps. The members of the crew that are leaving because of Y/N, let them leave. If they're gone anyways, it won't matter. I want to find out who would do such a thing just as badly as you two, but acting rashly will only cause trouble. I have enough spitfire on my hands with Y/N, I will be a lot less forgiving if one of you slips up." The Captain commanded and both Pirates let out hums of acknowledgment.