Pirate King - Ateez x original female character

Chp 7: Illusion

AN: another flash back chapter. Possibly my favorite chapter yet also.

Watching this girl learn was almost heartbreaking. I didn't care for her much, still thought she was dangerous, but she wasn't a liar. She meant it when she said she had no life skills. She can't read, can't do basic math. But if you ask her where the major arteries are she can point them out, she knows every pressure point on the human body. She can tell you where to stab to kill and where to stab to cause pain. She can recite back to you the ins and outs of the system of government the world operates under. But nothing useful for being a person. She doesn't have a favorite color, favorite food. The only thing she feels strongly about is her dog, the one currently curled up by her feet as I gave her her reading lesson.

Her brow was furrowed as she held the book in her hand, she was reading out loud to me, "h-he's just... a boy.. pre...pre"

I could tell she was starting to get frustrated. I took the book gently from her hands, "he's just a boy, pretending to be a wolf, pretending to be king..." we had been reading Where the Wild Things Are, it was one of the only books I had that was near her level.

She leaned her head forward and placed it on the desk, "god Hongjoong I'm so fucking stupid aren't I?"

I sighed, setting the book down, "you aren't stupid... honestly you are very smart, you are picking it up quickly... it's not your fault nobody ever taught you."

She sighed and looked up at me, with those clear blue eyes, "why are you of all people trying to make me feel better?"

I chuckled, shrugging, "the guys really like you... I care about two things, in this order, their safety and their happiness. You make them happy, as long as you don't put them in danger, I'll keep you around. If you are sad, it makes them sad."

Something swam in her eyes, I couldn't pin the emotion, but it made me feel guilty for some reason, "let's do something else for a bit, okay?"

She nodded and followed me out onto the deck. She was good with her hands, so I wanted to do something she would be better at for a while. She didn't know the first thing about sailing. I decided we would work on some boating knots.

We did that for a while. Her hands were small, but strong and accurate, and her mind was a steel trap. She quickly memorized which knot was for what, and the names.

I was teaching her the bowline knot when wooyoung came bounding over, "oh yay! You guys aren't killing each other!"

"We are kinda busy woo," I said gently. If I let him get involved we would get nothing else done all day.

Wooyoung dramatically laid himself across peppers lap, "oh no pepper! Is he torturing you?! Making you memorize all the most boring-est of shit?!"

"Boring-est isn't a word Wooyoung" I sighed, rolling my eyes.

A small tinkling laugh came from pepper. She looked down at Wooyoung so softly, one hand going to run through his hair, "no, I want to learn this stuff, so I can help. So I can do something besides kill."

He reached up to touch her face, "pepper... you already do... and besides, being strong isn't bad."

She shook her face, "I'm actually not that strong... I suck in a one on one fight..."

He sat up, "really? I bet you could at least beat me! I'm the weakest!" He said a little too proudly.

"Woo that's not a good thing" I laughed at him, reaching out to touch his cheek.

"I'm a doctor, it's a neutral thing. I took an oath to do no harm," he said simply.

San had walked up behind us, "an oath? Tell that to the chunk you took out of my arm last week" he laughed and nodded at pepper, "he bites."

I sighed, nothing else was getting done, might as well see what she had in her, "why don't you and woo spar? It'll be interesting."

While woo wasn't as physically as strong as the rest of us, he was still stronger than most, and San had taught him how to protect himself. I was interested to see the outcome.

They both stood up and took position. As they fought it became clear that in terms of strength they were about evenly matched, but pepper was more experienced. Her movements were refined from years of training. She finally just managed to get wooyoung on his back, pinned. However, where Pepper had experience, Wooyoung was gay and evil. He managed to lean forward just enough to sink his teeth into her shoulder, just hard enough to make her lose her grip. Wooyoung flipped them so he had her pinned.

"I told you he bites!" San called out, laughing.

I smiled and leaned back against the side of the ship. The other had wandered out and now they were all sparring. They really did look happy. She came to sit beside me.

We watched them together for a while. The sun had started to go down behind them, bathing them in pink light. 

"I think that's my favorite color.." she said softly, leaning her head down on her knees.

"Pink? Like the sunset?"

She shook her head softly, "freedom."

"Freedom isn't a color," I corrected her gently.

She shook her head again, "sure it is..."

I watched her, watching them. The scene of the guys rough housing, bathed in the light from the sunset reflected in her eyes, and I decided she was right. Maybe freedom was the combination of the colors in front of us. Maybe she had been through enough that she got to decide what her favorite color was, even if it didn't make sense.