pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

past

You're too late to reach him.

By the time your footsteps come thundering up the gangplank of the Treasure, wood creaking beneath your boots, Mingi comes to greet you midway, face drawn with concern and barely veiled fury.

"Where is he?" Your captain asks urgently, immediately, and you feel the pit in your stomach sinking more than it already has. San has had his hand on your arm the entire time, a reassuring presence but unwilling to divulge any information to you about that mysterious white ship.

White ship... you think, eyes glancing over over the hull, following the harbor. What meets your gaze is an unassuming, slender ship a few docks down, hull painted a stark, bone white, the same colour of ashes long burnt out, cold and dead.

"He's in the sickbay." Mingi runs a hand through his hair, eyes hard and distressed. He makes a soft, helpless noise, turns to your captain. "Captain, I really didn't know this was going to happen, I-"

"There was nothing you could do, you couldn't have predicted it." Hongjoong says with a sigh, his fingers tracing the stitching along his eye patch. Next to you, San's hand falls from your arm, chewing on his bottom lip nervously as he glances at the door to the sickbay. "How is he?"

"Wait." You cut in, unable to bear not knowing about what is going on anymore. This is Wooyoung they're talking, dolphin laugh Wooyoung, chatterbox Wooyoung, brighter than the sun Wooyoung. Why is the mere sight of a single ship sailing into the harbor of Tortuga enough to unsettle all of them so much. "What's going on?"

San's mouth works soundlessly for a moment, trying to find the right words, before it abruptly closes. He glances between you and the white ship and back again, then swallows nervously. "Chin Hae, that ship is-"

All of a sudden, the door to the sick bay slams open with a bang and you nearly jump, whirling to stare at the source of the noise.

"Wooyoung, wait!" You hear Yeosang cry out, and your eyes widen when you see the purple haired gunner burst out of the door, stumbling on shaky legs and eyes wild. He looks about frantically before his eyes zero in on the gangplank, and takes off at a run, frighteningly fast, barreling straight towards you. You don't recognise his eyes, lost in the waves of something dark, a place where you can't see.

"Wooyoung, stop!" Hongjoong grabs him by the arm and tackles him to the ground, and the younger gunner goes crashing to the ground with a painful cry. You merely watch in horror as Yunho follows behind his captain, dropping from the rigging to pin his other hand to the deck as Wooyoung continues to struggle and flail, panicked tears streaming from his eyes, mumbling unintelligible nothings under his breath.

"They've found me, they've found me, need to run, need to escape," he moans, tears slipping down his cheeks as you can only stare on in horror - what on earth is happening? "Need to hide, need to run away before they find me and chain me up again, I-"

What?

"Wooyoung, listen to me-" Hongjoong tries to say, but Wooyoung shivers uncontrollably even though the sea breeze is warm, teeth practically chattering from fear. "Wooyoung, please, you need to listen-"

"Who?" You find yourself saying, even before you realise you've spoken. "Who is 'they', Wooyoung?"

"He's here." He sobs, and you can feel each individual piece of your heart shatter and crack at his heart wrenching wails. "He's found me, I need to escape, I need to-"

"Wooyoung." Your captain grabs him by the cheeks, forcing the younger man to look at him with tear filled eyes. "Listen to me. You are Jung Wooyoung. I gave you that name myself years ago, when I broke the chains on your hands and brought you with me. You are one of my crew, part of the Treasure." He squeezes Wooyoung's hands tightly, as if trying to will him to understand. "No one is going to hurt you ever again."