Transient Waters

4

Back aboard their own ship, everyone felt a bit more at ease. They finished sinking the other ship, bombing it, and watching as it sunk slowly under the waves of the ocean. It was a thing they did. They needed to make sure that it was fully destroyed, and so they always waited until it sunk under the ocean before leaving. This was a rule that Hongjoong had first made up because it ensured that nobody was left to report them. It was double fold. It also made for less consistent variables should someone actually survive. The rare time that it happened, or that HongJoong decided to spare someone, such as this SeongHwa that WooYoung was infatuated with. HongJoong was not entirely sure what was going on, which was why he called WooYoung up to his office, which the boy agreed too, feet shuffling slowly, nervous.

"Captain Hyung," WooYoung said lowly, his tone clearly indicating his nerves. HongJoong knew why he was nervous, knew that it was this...feeling of protectiveness that he apparently had managed to cultivate with this SeongHwa person.

"WooYoung, I am not going to throw SeongHwa overboard." WooYoung's jerked upwards to meet his. "However, I also cannot justify forcing him to stay on the boat if he does not want to. You know that, right?" This did not seem to deter WooYoung's joy or relief at HongJoong's words. He just nodded, now bouncing on the balls of his feet, clearly over the top with joy. "What...Happened?" He asked, his voice somewhat tentative. Unsure if he wanted to know for the curiosity, or if he wanted to just make sure that nothing bad happened to WooYoung.

The normally hyper boy flopped to sit cross legged on the floor, waiting patiently while HongJoong huffed in an amused air, but slowly sat himself on the floor alongside WooYoung. "You know how I got to the boat, but not what happened after. Well, they threw me below deck, in some sort of chained cage." WooYoung ignored the slight growling coming from the Alpha. "Well, SeongHwa was there too. We were both sort of on edge a bit, with each other, understandably. Yet, he still protected me. When those people came back down to try and take me, SeongHwa Hyung interfered and they took him instead." WooYoung bit his lip, unable to stop the guilt that assuaged him at this memory. "He came back, the first time of many times, but he was very badly injured. I don't know for sure what happened, and SeongHwa just refused to talk about it, not like I would force him to anyways. He did say that it was worse other times, and not to really worry about him too much." WooYoung fiddled with his fingers. "I know why they beat him though. He talked back to them, and defied them, rather severely. They did not really take well to that. It happened multiple times after that every time they tried to get me out of the cage. SeongHwa always interfered. I supposed they didn't want a feral Omega on their hands, without really knowing what creature SeongHwa is so they backed off and instead took things out on him instead of me."

"Omega?" HongJoong cut into, startled. He had not recalled scenting Omega on the ship, at all. Much less that SeongHwa was one. Then again, he had spent quite a bit of time with WooYoung, and any scent that he did have was probably overwhelmed by WooYoung's own. Then again, WooYoung was a Beta, so that did not quite make sense. It would cover a majority of SeongHwa's scent, but not all of it, and definitely not so thoroughly. He waited, expectantly, WooYoung caught on and gave a slight smile.

"They had him start taking scent blockers." WooYoung said with a shrug of his shoulders. "It was obvious once the rest of the crew began to get antsy at the amount of aggressiveness in his scent whenever they tried to take me. SeongHwa did not mind, all he did was shrug and say it was for the best either way." HongJoong nodded, he supposed that made some sense after all. "Anyways, after some time, they stopped, although every so often they would come down to take SeongHwa, I don't know what they did to him, I didn't ask, and he did not tell me. I didn't have the courage to ask." WooYoung admitted, glaring down at the floor. "Whatever it did left him shaken for the rest of the day or night. He had been on the ship for...so long. I don't think he even knows how long, he seemed to think that they wanted to sell him." WooYoung glanced up at HongJoong, before redirecting his eyes straight back to the floor.

"Well, we certainly are not going to let him be...sold." HongJoong said with a slightly pained sigh. "I do need to talk to him though, what the hell happened earlier?"

"Well, Hwa-Hyung had already felt a bit anxious this morning. He said he thought something was going to happen, and admitted that he thought it would be something bad but he was not sure. In his defense, almost every time he had that feeling it was something bad. However, he did tell me that he was not really sure and he just felt that something...was going to happen. Something was going to change, but he was not really sure what it was. I had a suspicion what it would mean, and luckily I was right!" WooYoung said with bright eyes. "Either way, he always gets weird after these sorts of spells. His energy kind of...goes on and off a lot. I'm not really sure what it is, but I just sort of assumed it was like...Omega intuition." HongJoong did not know. He had not really had any dealings with Omegas before, of any creature. He knew next to nothing about them. He did know someone who did, however, and he was fully intending to grasp any information he could get, it just meant that they would need to change course slightly. "Anyways, that, combined with the, you know, fact that he went head to head with..you...an Alpha...Refusing to cower. It takes a lot out of someone. Like, when you get all protective and shit it is hard for me to got head to head with you, even YeoSang has some issues at times, but SeongHwa? He isn't a beta, or an Alpha. It took so much out of him, and he refused to step back until he knew for sure that I was safe." WooYoung could not help but feel a bit guilty. All of that could have been avoided if he had just told SeongHwa what he was.

"It is not your fault, Woo-ah." HongJoong said simply, as though stating a fact. It helped, WooYoung did feel a bit better, though no less guilty.

"Well, anyways, combined with that, but he had also been hurt by those bastards earlier. Of course...he sort of passed out. I was kind of waiting for it to happen, I guess." He shrugged. "Either way the important part is that he is away from them."

"I am going to need to talk to him when he wakes up." HongJoong stated. "If you could be just outside of the room..." HongJoong trailed off, as WooYoung already was agreeing. He scoffed a bit, although unable to help the amusement in his voice, and the fondness in his gaze. "Just be ready, for anything. Okay?" Wooyoung was visibly nervous at his words, but nodded resolutely.