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SeongHwa woke up to screaming and metal clashing against each other, and an distinct lack of warmth from WooYoung. His brows furrowed, horribly confused for multiple reasons. For one, the metal clanging and screams hurt his ears. It worsened the headache that he already had, and he despised that. For two, there was no reason for WooYoung to not be with him. He always stayed with him until SeongHwa woke up, so finding that he was not here had him rushing in worry, and his fingers digging into his palms to clear his head and vision so that he could really properly assess the situation that he was finding himself currently.

WooYoung was not in the cell at all, which had him scrambling upwards in a total panic. He scanned the room to see the door was open. The...Wait, Seonghwa told himself, breathing heavily from the sudden adrenaline that was coursing through his entire body. Why is the door open? The door is never open. He cautiously moved forwards, after reassuring himself that WooYoung would have to be upstairs. He felt his worry increase tenfold. There is almost no good reason for WooYoung to be upstairs. At all. SeongHwa felt tears flood his eyes. He was...he was more than just scared, he was terrified of what could be happening. The screaming had yet to finish coming from upstairs, and it was not the good type of screaming.

He steeled himself, not sure that he was going to find anything good, but if WooYoung was still alive, he would be upstairs. SeongHwa had canvased the downstairs several times, and he was not here. Which meant he was up there...assuming he was still alive. To which he severely hoped that he was, because he was not sure what he would do if he found out that he was not okay. SeongHwa took a deep breath, before steeling both his nerves and his heart. He had to do this. There was no other options.

Actually that, that was a lie there was another option, but SeongHwa was not that cowardly. He wanted to know if WooYoung was alive or not, and at least that would give him some sort of clarity. He knew nothing good could be happening upstairs, fighting was expressly forbidden, he knew that because of the amount of times that the crew had been shoved down in one of the cellars because of that. He licked his lips nervously, hand on the handle that would lead him to the main dock. Taking just a moment to collect his breath, he shoved the door open and crawled up and pulled himself onto the main dock.

He stared.

This was not good.

Not only where there no signs of movement from the men that he recalled were members of this boat, if the blue jackets were not a dead give-a-way enough that they had probably either been slaughters, or they had been injured deeply, or knocked out, then it was the fact that there they were, decked in red uniforms with gold tassels. SeongHwa shivered, but did not pay much attention to the fact that there was pirates on the ship. He did not particularly care if he died by Pirates. Many were terrified of Pirates, and some of that fear was definitely justified, SeongHwa could not deny, but he also just did not really care much for either those with the law or the Pirates. He disliked them both, and if he was going to be honest, he had been given more reasons to despise the Royal Guard and law keepers than the Pirates.

What he did not see was WooYoung, which had him biting his lower lip harshly. He had looked through the bodies, quietly, the pirates clearly preoccupied. At least they had been, which had let him remain rather undetected as he checked body after body trying to find WooYoung. It was perhaps depressing thought processes to believe he would be among the dead, but if Pirates were on this boat it was unlikely that they just causally were letting prisoners live, whether they had a mutual enemy or not.

He got more and more worried as he continued not to see WooYoung, until he heard him. Then he felt relief flood his body for but a moment. Until he realized what that meant. Jerking his head up he saw that the group of Pirates were half surrounding WooYoung, and some other man. There was a total of six, including WooYoung, and five unknowns. The last unknown was talking with WooYoung personally. He assumed it was the Captain of these people.He was somewhat short, but had on that fancy cape of fur and what looked to be silk. It was expensive, and he was the only one that was dressed with that sort of extravagance, which led him to believe that he was undoubtedly the leader of these boys. Or...Captain in other words. He felt his body tense, and his teeth grit. His vision went gold when he saw the man try to reach out and touch WooYoung.

He had moved before even really seeing it, dragged WooYoung away from the Captain guy, glaring the man down as he kept a firm hold on WooYoung, who was squirming in his hold. He felt his teeth ache with the mix of anxiety, relief, and worry that filled his body. "Hyung!" WooYoung whined frustrated that SeongHwa would not let him go, Seonghwa shook his head.

"No, Youngie, stop." He said gently, his voice still gentle, despite the dangers of the situation that they were presented with. WooYoung seemed to notice how hard he was working to hold himself back as his body was shaking as he glared the Captain down, and the boy finally stopped fighting him. WooYoung felt SeongHwa relax slightly at that, and marveled that despite the clear loss of control that he had suffered, WooYoung would likely not even bruise, despite how hard he had been fighting SeongHwa's grip.

"What is this?" The person who was currently being glared down by SeongHwa questioned his voice somewhat curious and amused. The man moved closer and SeongHwa shoved WooYoung behind him, his body stiffening, but otherwise not letting WooYoung move in front of him despite the plaintive whines of 'hyung' coming from behind him. SeongHwa inhaled sharply as the man moved to stand right in front of him, tilting his head curiously. "Fascinating." He whispered softly, SeongHwa fought the desire to drag his nails across that face of his, knowing that the moment he let WooYoung go he was going to run in front of him and Seonghwa refused to do that. "Do you even know who we are?" The man asked, curious. "Who I am?"

"That would imply that I care about you enough to have learned." SeongHwa's voice was still soft, still gentle, but it held a bit of a bite that it had not done before. The other man just laughed in surprise.

"Oh?"

"It doesn't matter either way." SeongHwa said simply, his voice still steady despite the fear that flooded him standing next to the other man.

"It doesn't?" The man asked laughing. He sighed, "Now, now, I would normally love to play these games with you, but we really need to get going, so if you will just hand over that boy you got hidden behind you we can be on our way."

"Hyung!" WooYoung whispered, trying to calm SeongHwa down, but SeongHwa was not having it, his eyes flashing.

"You have to go through me first." He spoke, his voice steel. The man reeled back, clearly not having expected that, raising a brow at WooYoung from behind SeongHwa.

"That can be arranged, of course,"

"No!" WooYoung shouted, his voice louder than SeongHwa had ever heard it, leaving him to flinch slightly. "You can't hurt him," He said, his voice regulating itself.

"Can't I?" HongJoong questioned.

"He helped me, all this month, he's been...He..." WooYoung felt tears flood his eyes, and SeongHwa grit his teeth, glaring at the captain who was looking somewhat concerned.

"Don't move an inch," He warned, the worry turning to amusement at SeongHwa's orders. He raised his hands in mock surrender, and SeongHwa spun around, dragging WooYoung down to the floor with him, thumbing the tears that were falling down his face gently. "Woo-ah, what is wrong?" He asked, coaxing the boy slowly, but surely, to calm himself down.

"They came to save me, Hyung," WooYoung said with sad eyes. "I told you that I would be rescued, you didn't believe me," SeongHwa ignored the last part instead choosing to focus on the first part.

"You know them?" He asked, continuing to stroke the boy's cheeks to keep him calm and pliant. WooYoung nodded a smile on his face.

"I've been with them for several years." SeongHwa instantly pushed down the feelings of resentment, hurt, and betrayal that threatened to choke him at the realization that WooYoung had not trusted him to tell him he was a Pirate, that he had probably not intended to tell him at all, but instead continued to focus on the matter at hand. WooYoung was a pirate, that was...that was news.

"Oh, are you safe with them?" he asked. WooYoung looked confused.

"Why wouldn't I be safe with them?" SeongHwa shook his head.

"No reason, I just want to be sure that you are going to be safe with them Youngie," SeongHwa said gently. WooYoung nodded enthusiastically.

"Hyung...Hyung you are going to come with us as well, right?" He asked, turning to look up at SeongHwa's eyes, bright and wide and pleading. SeongHwa froze, unsure what to say to those words. He glanced at who he guessed was the Captain, who was staring at the scene with surprise, one look behind them and it showed that the rest were rather surprised as well.

"I don't think that is my decision, Youngie," SeongHwa said with a slightly strained smile. 

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