pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

monster

"Let us off the ship, or she dies."

The gun crew freezes from where they'd been about to move forward with their swords lifted. Iron digs into your skin hard enough for you to feel a bruise forming at your temple, and you wonder if it's broken skin. He has a musket to your head.

"One squeeze of the trigger and her pretty head will be in pieces. I don't think you want that to happen." The man holding you says, yanking you against his chest roughly by the neck. He's strong, far too strong for you to physically overpower, and for a second, you're terrified for your life.

"Chin Hae!" The crewmate who'd talked to you earlier tries to take a step forward, but the man taps the musket against your head and he stops dead in his tracks, teeth gritted. You can see the fear in his eyes, clashing in conflict with the want to save you and have to bite back tears.

"Bring your captain here, and tell him to cease the fighting. If another of my men falls, you'll pay for it with her life." The enemy pirate demands, voice as cold as the arctic seas. You know in that instant he would have no qualms at all putting a bullet through your head. The man hesitates, and the pirate points his musket at your other hand instead. "I might not kill her yet, but she has three limbs more I can take off before I end her suffering. I think you'll find that I'm not a man of much patience."

His eyes send you a clear message, please, hold out until I get captain here, and dashes off into the midst of the fighting. Swallowing, you mutter out lowly. "Do you really believe that the Royal Navy will let you go if you turn me in? They might simply-"

"Don't bother reasoning with me, little lady." The musket edges its way up to under your throat, and you shiver as the metal brushes the skin there. You can taste gunpowder in the back of your throat. "I'm afraid you'll find it harder to change my mind than stop me from blowing your brains out."

"Everyone, cease your fighting."

Your captain steps out through the midst of all the fighting, and like the eye of a hurricane, both sides lower their weapons, seemingly unable to refuse the sheer command that rolls off Kim Hongjoong. His one green eye burns silently, fixing on you before it lands on the man holding you captive. The crewmate trails behind him. "Speak."

"I'm the captain of the Great White, and I think that I've made my terms perfectly clear." The pirate states calmly, unflinching as he meets your captain's vicious gaze. Hongjoong looks like he's seconds from drawing his own cutlass and cutting down the man in fury. "Let us stop fighting, and I will not kill this woman right now. It will save both sides many lives."

"You're intending on handing her over to the Royal Navy." Hongjoong hisses out through a snarl. "You dare to ask me to accept such a thing?"

"If you don't, we'll continue fighting, and even more of your men will lose their lives in the battle." The pirate replies, bringing his musket back to your head again. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Wooyoung scaling the mainmast with a musket slung over his back. "Are you saying that the life of one woman is worth more than that of the rest of your crew?"

Hongjoong stills for a moment, a moment of raw uncertainty flashing in his eye as it meets yours. Seeing his moment of vulnerability, the pirate presses on, voice more harsh. "Can you really call yourself a captain if you're playing favorites that way? Shame on you." The crew of the Treasure look like they're about to surge into an uproar, but Hongjoong raises his hand, and they fall silent at once. "I once used to respect you as a captain who would do anything to protect his crew and ship, Pirate King," the man's voice darkens. "But it seems as if you've grown soft in the time that you vanished from the Royal Navy's sights."