Treasure | Ateez

| 28 |

"Dulce Periculum"

- Danger is sweet

☾ ☾ ☾

The impact knocked her off of her feet. 

The tarpaulin falling over her fallen form as she struggled to rise up, the think material refusing to move as shouts and scrapes of wood breaking made itself aware to her. Her head hurt as sunlight finally made its way back to her, a worried Yeosang hovering above and offering her a hand- she declined, rising up on her own. 

"What was that?" Wooyoung scream in the back, stumbling out of the hold with a dazed Yunho who clutched onto one side of his head with a light cloth. 

"Hell if I know," Mingi shouted back, rushing towards the wheel as San peered over the side- one hand holding onto the railing and the other covering his eyes from the spray of sea foam that flew from the churning sea. 

"Captain!" Jongho shouted as he ran towards the mast, pulling at the loosened sail and tying it around the beam and looking for their leader. "What do we do"

It was obvious they weren't inexperienced in this procedure, working out methodically over to what they were supposed to do as Aeris could only try to gain her balance and stumble towards a safer spot- stomach lurching as the ship tilted to its side, eliciting a strenuous yell from San as the wind blew harder in the opposite direction- helping to right them up. 

I love his powers, Aeris thought with grim satisfaction at the small pleasure. 

"Hongjoong I-" she finally found the two-toned haired boy, who walked across the deck without a single stumble and a gaze of anger in his eyes. He was not bothered by the tilting and tumbling of the ship, instead he was at ease with it. 

Her words died in the crash of wood that splintered against the side, a sharp piece dragging itself across her chest while Seonghwa at her left groaned in shock, making her forget what she was going to say and turning around with a gasp. 

"Seonghwa-" she crawled across the mess, hands digging into jagged edges yet it didnt seem to hurt. The boy lay propped up against the door of the hold, a bloody hand against his side as he winced in pain- tearing of strips of his shirt in an attempt to make a makeshift bandage while putting pressure on the wound at the same time. 

"Wait, wait-" she stumbled over her words, "I'll do it, wait- I can do it" Treating a wound had been one of her many classes that she had had to learn since a young age, the rules being crystal clear even in the panic that settled across her body at the moment. 

"I- I have to take out the wood" she spoke slowly, looking at the pain dazed boy in urgency, "It's going to hurt," 

"I can deal with it" he gritted his teeth, eyes screwing shut as she nodded. "Just get it done with, they can't keep this up by themselves." 

"Yes," she removed his hand from the wound, eyes widening at the rush of blood that fell across the deck before bracing a hand against his head as the ship tilted once again, breathing hard as Seonghwa watched her attentively. 

"One, two and-" she pulled it out, "Three" The ripped pieces of cloth made their way into her hands soon, the initial panic disappearing into focus as she bit her bottom lip- wrapping the cloth around his waist tightly as his breath hitched each time, before giving way to a ragged tempo that had her know he was trying his hardest to get back to normal. 

"Go," he spoke first- gently moving away her hands as she tied a knot to secure the bandage. A fire blazed in his eyes, already shuffling to his feet as shooing her away. "I can make it, you need to be at the front- whatever this is," his voice turned dark. "If he can't identify it, then it is extremely dangerous" 

Her path was steady as she made her way to where Hongjoong stood, pushing past a panicked Mingi and the mop of yellow hair that made an effort to not bump into her but managing to in the end- 

"Hey!" Wooyoung shouted at her as she made her way, eyes widening in panic as he realised where she was headed "Don't! Its-" 

The rest of his sentence was lost to the howling wind. 

Rain battered her skin, the crack in their ship making themselves painfully aware to her and then finally- 

The lone tentacle. 

It took everything in her to not blanch at the sight. Saving it for later as the ship seemed to finally collapse under the pressure, a wounded howl rising from the ocean as a weight lifted itself off and making a white faced San collapse with a cry, a terrified Wooyoung rushing towards him- heedless of the pain while she tried her best to make sense of the situation. 

Tentacle 

Ship

Monster

"Kraken" 

It wasn't her who had spoken, yet the voice voiced out her thoughts. Grim and dark, it didn't take her much time to figure out who it was. 

"How-" her voice betrayed her, eyes widening as she looked at the stone faced boy. "I thought they-"

"Didn't exist?" Yunho stalked past the two, a scowl on his face. He was making his way towards his captain, the slightest red mark showing below his shirt collar while the others dragged themselves towards each other, all gazes landing on the one person who didn't seem shocked, whose face contained the same neutral expression masked below a show of mild concern for his crew.

"Yeah me neither" 

☾ ☾ ☾ 

Authors note

Birthday updateee 🥳🥳🥳🥳