pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

mission

The two of you swim for shore.

Warm water laps against your skin as you paddle forward in almost complete silence, the only thing that lets you know Wooyoung is still behind you is the soft, occasional splash behind you. The night is cold, but the water is relatively matching your body temperature, so at least there's been a good start to the mission so far.

You can only pray to the gods that it stays that way.

Finally, you see your destination, a small, deserted beach at the shoreline and swim hard for it. The tide seems to be favoring you today, pushing you gently to shore and in the end, you and Wooyoung collapse next to each other in the gritty sand, panting hard from the exertion. The sea washes over your feet one last time, like an encouraging pat on the back, before it sweeps back into the ocean.

"This mission is killing me already." Wooyoung heaves for breath, shivering against the cold wind. You open your oilskin bag and offer him a towel, but he waves it off. "You first."

His tone tells you he won't take no for an answer, so you sigh and rub the coarse sackcloth down your arms and legs, toweling your hair as dry as possible. Then you pass the cloth the Wooyoung who starts doing the same, while you wring out the cloak around your shoulders.

"We need to cut through the grove of trees and make for the estate." Wooyoung tosses the cloth to the side when he's done with it. You struggle to make out his face in the darkness, the only light coming from the pubs and taverns near the bay front area still open at this time of the night, but you suppose the darkness will be good in helping the two of you go unseen.

"Let's go."

He takes your hand in his and the two of you tread as silently as you can through the small grove of trees separating the beach from the town. Even though the grove is dark and almost completely uninhabited, every soft crunch of leaves beneath your feet makes you jump, and you have to stop yourself from jumping out of your skin at every hoot of a night owl.

Then in front of you, Wooyoung lets out a muffled curse and stops suddenly. Fear sinks in your chest.

"What happened?" You whisper to him, trying to keep fright out of the edge of your voice.

The head gunner merely rubs his head and you can hear the amusement in his voice. "I was too busy looking at where I was putting my feet and hit my head on a tree branch. It's broken."

"That's terrible."

Wooyoung shakes his head, hand falling to the side. "Thanks for the concern, but my head will be fine. Don't worry about me."

You pause for a moment.

"I thought you were talking about the branch."

You don't need to look at him to know he's wearing a pout, but you give him a weak grin in response. The two of you manage to make it to the edge of the grove without a hitch except for Wooyoung's little hiccup. You scan the town.

There aren't many guards, as far as you can see.

"Alright, let's go."

Both of you stride out in the open, trying to be as natural as possible, as if you aren't trying to break into the estate of the most important official of this town. To blend in with the crowd, Wooyoung has even rubbed henna into his hair to disguise its striking purple shade, and you still do double takes sometimes when you look at him. But other than that, the two of you look perfectly normal, the usual shady people you'd find at this hour of the night.

You've memorized the map in your head so you know where you're going, but there's always the irrational fear that you may have taken a wrong turn, or that they've changed the structure of the town.