pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

memories

"Chin Hae, can you pass me the salt?"

"Coming right up!" You call over the rattle of the pans, grabbing the wooden bottle from the shelf and tossing it over your shoulder without a second glance. Seonghwa catches it easily without turning around, the two of you already so attuned with each other's actions in the kitchen that you might as well be telepathic.

"Thanks!" He tells you and you nod, knowing that even though he can't see it, he'll somehow sense it anyway. The fragrance of steak and chicken marinated with spices and wild onions grilling over a charcoal fire wafts into the air and you breathe in appreciatively.

You're almost salivating at the very thought of eating it already, the tantalizing smell lingering on in your mouth.

"Your cooking is amazing, you know that, Seonghwa-oppa?"

The cook smiles shyly, shaking his head as he prepares the stir fried vegetables in the pan, seasoning them lightly with salt. Not too much, Seonghwa always tells you, because salt has a strong taste and he wants people to appreciate the original flavour of the food. Enhance, not replace, as he likes to say.

"I did grow up intending to be a chef and cook lots of delicious food for customers." He says wistfully, and for a moment you're brought back to that beach on Nassau, watching Seonghwa as he chose to stay with the Treasure. Then his smile broadens gently as he puts the vegetables on a plate, hand stilling in the air for a moment. "But it's more fulfilling to cook for people I love."

You can't help but beam back at him. Seonghwa is truly too sweet for this pirate life, you think as you chop up the chives finely to use as garnishing. He looks at your work proudly.

"You've really improved by leaps and bounds." Seonghwa praises you, one hand ruffling your hair like a proud older brother. You laugh as he moves to the charcoal oven to take out the pieces of grilled meat, shaking your head in amusement.

"You're not lying out of the kindness of your heart like the last time, are you?" You jibe teasingly, referring back to the time San had described your cooking to be akin to "fish innards". Seonghwa assumes a perfectly innocent face faster than you can blink, piling slabs of perfectly grilled meat high on a tray.

"I didn't lie. You did improve greatly... with plenty more room for improvement."

You throw the pepper grinder at him playfully, but he catches it without blinking an eye and seasons the grilled meat to perfection. Now the food is finally done.

As if on cue, your stomach growls loudly and the door creaks opens to reveal Yunho, his head peeking in between the crack.

"Hey, hyung, is dinner ready?" He smiles that beagle like grin, hopping up and down excitedly on each foot as he sniffs the air hungrily. You swear that you had thought cooking was an easy job at first, but cooking for so many hungry men on board a pirate ship put fighting a battle to shame.

Seonghwa shakes his head good naturedly as he passes Yunho the platter of meat. "It would have been done a lot faster if you had offered to help, Yunho-ah."

The lookout shrugs, but there's a mischievous grin on his face that spells trouble. "I've got to leave you some job to do, otherwise you'd be useless on this ship, hyung."

Seonghwa sputters in outrage and draws his meat cleaver, but Yunho ducks out into the galley stairway before the knife can find his head, the blade sinking into the wooden door instead.

"Come back here, you coward!" Seonghwa shrieks, but Yunho's laughter only echoes down the hallway after him.

You raise a hand to your mouth to stifle your giggles, picking up the plate of vegetables and tugging lightly on his arm. "Come on, Seonghwa-oppa. Let's go before all your steak is eaten."