Guardian of Junmyeon

Death is easy.

It’s dying that hurts.

Only those from Atlantis can survive under water. You know that. Baekhyun knows that. It’s an ability that, as regular humans, you will never have.

Death by drowning. Death by blood loss. Death by blade or gunshot. These are all things you’d long predicted would inevitably take your last breath from you. Old age, illness, or natural causes never seemed like probable deaths. A peaceful death isn’t one your lifestyle affords. You’d leave this world the way you’d entered it, no holds barred, all or nothing.

You’ve never feared death.

No.

You’ve only ever feared dying.

You’ve found fear in the pain, in the ugliness of it –never of actually being dead. You’ve only ever worried about the thoughts you would have as you came to the realization that you’d never live another day in this life. You imagined feeling scared, of gasping out agonized breaths.

You never imagined that dying could feel like melting in the embrace from someone close to your heart. Like a suffocating darkness that is eased away by warmth and light. A feeling that carries a gentleness that can only be given through a touch imbued with love.

You never imagined that dying at the bottom of the ocean would lead to you washing up on a regular old beach in the afterlife.

When you open your eyes, you see an early morning sky above you. You can hear the wind whistling through the trees and waves crashing against the land. You can feel the wet sand beneath your palms and the salty water droplets rolling off your face. The afterlife feels all too similar to home.

Sitting up, you can see that you’re still in the outfit you died in. You’re in the outfit you died in, the sun is rising on the horizon, and a copy of your ship is bobbing calmly on the water not far ahead.

All your limbs are intact. You muscles ache but that’s nothing new to you. Water droplets bead on your forearms as the morning sun begins to evaporate it. An anxiety settles in your stomach and you follow the urge to look around for any other signs of life.

Of souls?

Of the gate, or passage to wherever the hell you are supposed to go now that your own fleeting life has ended.

Throat tight, you look around the mostly empty beach.

And you find Baekhyun seemingly not breathing not far behind you.

You scramble on to your knees and lean down to see if you can feel his breath.

Not again…

Maybe this is secretly hell. A replica of one of your happier moments, but you’re forced to spend eternity waking up and finding Baekhyun dead or dying in a new way at your side.

When you lean down again to find he is still unmoving, you attempt to breathe life into his lungs. It feels ironic given your situation.

He finally livens up. Water and acid come out of his mouth as soon as he opens his eyes.

Relief overcomes you at the sight of him and as soon as he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, you press your lips to his –desperate for touch to prove to you he’s there.

“You taste like vomit,” you sob happily.

He grimaces and leans up on his elbows. “You’re the one shoving your tongue down my throat after I threw up, you nutcase.” He groans and looks around. “Where the hell are we?”

“Didn’t we die? Aren’t we in some kind of limbo? Davy Jones’s locker.”

He laughs, wet with the water still in his lungs. “I don’t think this is quite what the afterlife looks like. Your ship is right there, there are still signs of life around us, and besides; we’d have ended up in different places. Different lockers, right?” he rationalizes.

It takes you a moment to consider his words –to really feel the sand on your palms, the heat on your skin, the beating of your heart in your chest. You’re still alive somehow, after all of that. You were so far below the surface, there’s no way the two of you should have survived that.

“But…how?” you whisper to your shaking hands.

“I think…” Baekhyun coughs, looks out at the water. “I think Junmyeon guided us to safety somehow.”

You think back on the feeling you felt just after the initial suffocation and you turn to face the water as well. You recall the warmth and safety that came with what you thought was death. “…I…Yeah. I guess he did…”

The water laps lazily against the sand. Calmly.

At peace.

You close your eyes and let the full weight of your reality set in. You’re alive. Junmyeon is gone. He saved you somehow.

Junmyeon is gone.

The tears spill before you can even try and verbalize the realization. You curl into yourself and let the hard sobs shake you to the very core. Baekhyun doesn't say a word.

What couldhe say? Nothing would change what’s been done.

Instead of speaking, he wraps his arms around you to let you weep until you no longer can.

~~~

When your crew realizes that it’s you and Baekhyun who have washed up on the island, they send out a dinghy immediately. By then, your tears have gone, but the lump in your throat won’t go away no matter how many times you swallow around it.

“I miss him,” you mutter as you watch the dinghy get closer to the beach.

“I know,” Baekhyun replies.

“But, he’s happy now.”

He hesitates as he looks out at the water. “…I know.”

Questions are thrown at you as soon as Yixing and Chanyeol make it on land. Baekhyun just shakes his head at your side and they quiet. You’re thankful for the silence.

Your body shakes violently, but your mind is numb.

The joy of your crew as you climb on deck is overwhelming. You look at all the faces emotionlessly. When people begin to sense that something is wrong you lower your gaze to the floor and walk towards your quarters. You can’t speak, not right now. Not when you aren’t even sure what they expect you to say. And you surely can’t plaster on a grin.

The door closes behind you, and the shaking only worsens in your solitude. You let the wet clothing, the only physical reminder of your time in Atlantis left, carelessly fall from your body. More out of habit than by conscious thought, you pull on something dry.

When you bury yourself under your covers, you can’t stop the tremors no matter how hard you try.

~~~

Hours pass. Or maybe it’s a few minutes. It could have been half a day, you can’t be sure. All you know, is that in the time between you closing yourself off in the room and the first person coming in to check on you, is that you haven’t been able to go to sleep.

Every time you close your eyes for more than a few seconds you’re haunted with the sight of Junmyeon’s smile as he thanked you. That and then his still form in the sphere of water. Every time you tried to sleep, you just ended up crying.

Yeri is the first person to knock. She peaks her head in and says words that hold no meaning to you. When you show no sign of responding, she retreats.

Yixing comes in next. He tries to make conversation. Checks you for any obvious injury or illness. Frowns despite seeing nothing physically wrong. You think he tells you that you need to eat.

Jongin and Kyungsoo come in together. Kyungsoo with a tray of food, and Jongin seemingly just there to see you with his own eyes.

When they give up trying to coax words out of you they leave the food too.

You push it to the floor just to hear it clatter. To hear something.

The door opens for a fourth time and you want to exhale in frustration. Why does no one understand that you want to be left alone?

A cup of tea is set on the table where the food once sat. You tiredly raise your eyes to the face of the newest intruder. Baekhyun looks down at the mess on the floor with pursed lips. You decide then to avoid his eyes.

He rounds the bed and sits on the other side. You can feel his weight against your back. A dry sob finds its way out of your mouth. You would feel embarrassed if you had the energy to.

A sigh is all you get from him. You can feel him shifting and the sound of his boots hitting the floor before the covers lift and he crawls under. He doesn’t say anything. You turn to face him. His eyes catch yours before you can even think to look away.

When he opens up his arms, your lip trembles and you hide yourself against his chest without second thought. He holds you tightly, as if his arms are the only thing keeping you from breaking apart.

You let your eyes fall closed. Thanks to the warmth of his body and the thumping of his heart, you’re finally, finally, able to fall into a dreamless sleep.

~~~

You wake up alone. The tea on your bedside table has long gone cold. You don’t need to touch it to know. The lethargy in your bones lets you know that you got at least a few hours rest –plenty of time for a hot cup of tea to go stale. You frown and fight the urge to throw the cold glass across the room.

Sitting up, you dig the palms of your hands into your eyes as hard as you can. Stars and non-shapes flash across your vision when you reopen them.

Frustrated, you notice that nothing has changed when you open your eyes. The room is the same. The tea is still cold.

And you’re still alone.

What now?

You never thought about what you would do after Junmyeon was gone. Hell, you hadn’t thought that Junmyeon would die.

Where do you go from here? Are you just supposed to get up and sail on? Find a new mission? Make someone else your new first mate?

The thought of that alone makes you feel sick. You aren’t ready to think about that.

What do you do now? You don’t want to think, you don’t want to feel, you just want to lie in bed and pretend this never happened. Maybe have a dream where thisis all just a dream.

Should you eat? Should you go talk to someone? Should you throw yourself over the side of the ship? If you’re lucky, maybe you’d hit a rock and die from head trauma. You’ve drowned enough in this lifetime, you think. You couldn’t handle drowning being the last thing you ever felt.

The compass catches your eye, flipped open and on its side on the bedside table. That probably happened when you flipped over the food.

Automatically you reach out for it and cradle it in both of your hands. There’s no way you can make a decision for yourself right now. Maybe the compass will help lead you to what you should focus on doing next.

A breath in. Closed eyes. Cleared mind. A heavy breath out.

You open your eyes and see the needle of the compass slowing moving from the left towards your door.

Baekhyun must be about to walk in, you think bitterly.

And he does.

There’s a fresh tray of food in his hands. He falters in the doorway when he sees you sitting up with the compass in your hands. He doesn’t say anything as he walks to the side of the bed –where he’d slept- and places the food there.

He reaches over and closes the compass in your hands. “Don’t look at that thing right now. You’re in the middle of mourning.”

Mourning. That sounds right. You couldn’t place the feeling until you heard it.

“You should eat something,” he says softly. He settles on the bed at your side. “I cleaned up the food on the floor earlier, and we all figured you would feel somewhat better with fresh food.”

You don’t reply.

“Eat something. You can’t starve yourself.”

You clench your fingers around the closed compass.

Baekhyun groans exasperatedly. “You haven’t eaten or had any water in nearly 48 hours. Do you not care? I don’t expect you to say anything, but the least you can do is not sit here on your ass trying to kill yourself by refusing to eat.”

There’s nothing for you to say to that. You hadn’t realized how long it had been, but even then you don’t want any food. The thought of eating makes you feel nauseous.

The compass is snatched from your hands. “Okay fine. You don’t want to eat? Then decide on the next plan of action. Where do you want to go huh? You want revenge? Wanna go kick Poseidon’s ass? Let’s do it. Just get up and do something, you can’t waste away like this. Not after everything you’ve been through.” He opens the compass up and immediately puts it back in your hands.

As always, it turns towards him.

He looks at it in confusion. You exhale and let it fall from your hands. Baekhyun looks from you to the compass with furrowed brows before he picks it up himself. After only a second he holds it in your line of vision.

The needle unwaveringly points towards you.

So, what?

You sluggishly drag your gaze back up. His jaw is set in determination.

“It points towards you too. It won’t stop pointing towards you. From the start of this, it’s only been you. I’m here…I’m trying to be here with you.” He sounds as exhausted as you feel.

You bite your lip to hold back a fresh set of tears.

He rakes a hand roughly through his hair.

“I-I love you.” He pauses and you see the shock in his eyes as he realizes what he’s said. You clench your fists at your side. “I…love you, and I’m sorry it took you losing Junmyeon, us nearly dying 10 times, and your confession for me to finally say it. I don’t think I could tell you when it started even if I wanted to, but that doesn’t matter.” His face burns red with embarrassment but he pushes on. “What matters right now, is that I’m here, you’re here, and you’re killingyourself. Do you hear me?

“Junmyeon wouldn’t want to see you like this. I don’t want to fucking see you like this.” He licks his lips and exhales shakily. “We still have so much to fight over. Don’t you still wanna kick my ass? You can stab me again if you want, I don’t care, just…please,” he begs. He lowers his head into your lap and his hands clench around the sheets. His face is hidden from view but you can see the shake in his shoulders as he tries not to cry.

Silently, you reach over the grab the cup of water in your trembling hands. You drink a few mouthfuls but it doesn’t feel as though it really helps. Baekhyun looks up with red rimmed eyesat your movement.

You grab a piece of soft bread and break off a piece and hand it to him. He opens his mouth to eat it. You break another piece off and feed it to yourself.

Until the food is gone, neither of you say a word to each other. It’s only when he sits up to clear away the tray that you find the energy to speak. “Stay with me, please.” Your fingers curl around his wrist to keep him from leaving. You silently notice that he’s paler than usual, and his wrist is thinner.

As if he’s been in a similar state of distress.

If he wanted to, you still think he could escape your hold without even trying –given the comparatively worse state you’re in. “You help keep the nightmares away. You…you being here helps me sleep.”

He blinks at your admission and then nods. “Of course. I’m here. You couldn’t make me leave even if you wanted to.”

You lower yourself back down to your side, nearly chin deep under the covers as he settles in next to you. This time when he opens his arms, he doesn’t wait for you to close the distance. He pulls you closer on his own.

After a few minutes of quiet, “I don’t know what to do now,” you admit softly. He hums in question. “I never thought this far ahead…I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“Just take it day by day. You don’t have a plan in place now. It’s okay to take some time to just feel, to do nothing. That might be what’s best for you until you get back on your feet. It doesn’t matter what you do. Just take it day by day.”

~~~

The days get easier, or maybe you become more accustomed to feeling like shit.

Who knows?

It’s decided that everyone will head back to Arae and take a well deserved break. After all that has occurred, some time on land to recuperate is the least the crew could use.

It takes a week before you’re able to finally call a meeting with all the crew to discuss what happened while you, Junmyeon and Baekhyun were in Atlantis.

You give your retelling and Baekhyun chimes in to fill in blanks where needed. Once you describe the last moments with your former first mate, you actively see people’s eyes glassing over.

Even as you try to convince everyone that he is content with his decision, you hear the uncertainty in your own voice.

“So…that’s just it? Mission accomplished, I guess.” Yixing runs a hand through his hair. “This is a lot to hear.”

“I understand that there may still be confusion and that emotions are high after all of our recent events. I’m still trying to come to terms with it all myself. Let’s just get to port and then everyone can rest and take the time they need,” you say to the crowd. “We can figure everything else out later. Junmyeon was treasured, and was proud of each and every one of you. Never forget that…”

You end your address with a nod to your men. The weight of a hand on your shoulder gives you just enough strength to summon the authority of a captain in your voice. “Anchors aweigh! Man your stations! We’ll be heading northwest until we’ve set our course for Arae!”

Your words snap everyone to attention, and the deck bursts with movement.

“I want a record of how our food rations are looking! I need a headcount of our men! Sehun, you’re on the helm until I get back!”

For the first time in a while, you feel the rush of being in charge. Of being in control of the things occurring around you. You would puff up with pride if the thought hadn’t reminded you of all that you’ve recently had no control over. Of the things…the people…you’ve lost.

The hand on your shoulder squeezes. “You’re doing a great job. You don’t have to push yourself any further than you can handle.”

You turn to look at Baekhyun head on. “I’m fine. Let’s go chart our course to port before I get the urge to vomit in the middle of the deck.” You grimace.

His hand drifts to your nape. The smile on his face is affectionate, warm, loving. “C’mon then.”

~~~

You wake up in the middle of the night feeling like all of the air has been stolen from your lungs. Sitting up with a start, you clutch your throat to check if anything was physically choking you. The candle you’d put out before going to bed burns brightly on your bedside table, but your throat is no longer constricted.

Baekhyun, who has unofficially moved into your quarters (not completely unwanted), is dead asleep at your side. You look around the room slowly, hand itching to grab a weapon in case you’re being ambushed. Being woken with such abruptness has your guard raised.

A glint of gold catches your eye as the candle flickers in the darkness.

A golden seal. Wax with an unfamiliar emblem pressed into it holding closed a note by the flame.

Confusion causes your eyebrows to furrow, but curiosity has you reaching out to grab it. The paper feels strange in your hands. Smooth and glossy, but wet. The water droplets don’t soak into the note; you’re able to wipe them off easily without disturbing the integrity of the odd parchment.

As you open it, you recognize the handwriting immediately.

Dear Captain,

I’m writing this hurriedly in my bedroom, so I apologize if it doesn't read as easily as it should.

I decided that you deserve a proper explanation. After the experience with the guardians earlier, I knew that I needed to tell you what things will happen next. What my purpose of being here is for. I fear there’s not much more time before I will lose my chance to talk to you.

The guardians of the ocean were never meant to last for all of time. They lose power just as all things do, and certain events can trigger a power outage faster than others.

Events like my leaving home.

You might have been able to put together the pieces from what Jongdae was saying, but my reason for leaving was quite simple.

I knew that I would have to die to restore power to our guardians.

I knew that I would have to die, so I wanted to live before I had to give up my life for the kingdom. I didn’t think much of it when I left. I didn’t have any plans or any idea of where I would go. I just needed to leave. I needed time to enjoy my life while I could.

But every action has a consequence. By leaving, I unintentionally caused not one, not two, but three of our sacred guardians to lose power. If I don’t step in, then we may very well lose a fourth and I can’t let that happen. I refuse to let that happen.

All this is to say, that this note is my goodbye to you. It is my goodbye to the crew. If things go as I expect, then the fourth guardian will lose power soon and I’ll have to give up all that I am in order to restore at least the guardians that we lost in my absence.

This is a goodbye, and I know you must be thinking, ‘there must be another way’, but there isn’t. This is the only way, and I’ve long accepted that.

However, I’ve gotten to live a full life thanks to you taking me in that one rainy night. Thanks to the crew for being a family for me and dedicating so much time and spilling s much blood just to get me home. Being able to sail with you all, experiencing the good and the bad of being human, has steeled my resolve. I will do this to protect humanity. To protect the seas. To protect my family, both in Atlantis and aboard my real home on the Storm Chaser.

I never planned on leaving any trace of my existence on land. I thought I could exist and vanish without a trace, but in a way I’m grateful that I will be able to complete the prophecy with people who will remember me as me.

Not as a prince.

Not as a cursed child of Posiedon.

Not as Suho the Guardian of the Ocean.

But as a man. As Junmyeon. As first mate of the Storm Chaser.

Thank you for everything, Captain. Continue to sail the seas happily and healthily. I know that you’ll continue to be a protector and a home to many more lost souls like mine. Live a long life. For me.

Yours truly,

Kim Junmyeon

P.S. you should give Byun a chance to get his thoughts together. From what I’ve gathered, you stunned him and he is just as much in love with you as you are him. We’ve all be telling you this for so long

P.P.S please clean up your quarters. I won’t be around to help you keep things in order, so for me, clear away all those damn posters.

Your eyes flit over to the messy pile of wanted posters that have spilled onto the floor and you feel a smile stretching across your lips. You run your thumbs across the paper a few times to keep your mind distracted as you scan over the note again.

Having this final piece of him here in your hands fills your chest with emotion. An ache, a fullness, a kind of pain and a kind of happiness. It’s a lot to process so soon after waking.

“Euurggh,” you hear him rising before you feel him shifting beside you. “What are you doing awake so soon?”

“A letter.”

“I’ve got a letter for you, it’s ‘Z’ and it means lay back down and get some.”

You can’t help how your eyes roll. He’s as annoying as ever, but he’s right. You only get a few hours of rest before you have to take over from Yixing for the night. The letter, figuring out where it came from and what to do with it, can wait a few hours more.

You fold it back neatly and set it next to the candle before blowing out the flame. It’s presence in the room is heavy, but you are determined not to deal with it until you wake again.

Burying yourself under the blanket, Baekhyun attaches himself to you immediately to sap you of your body heat. “Baekhyun…”

“Mm.” You contemplate briefly bringing up the note, but think better of it. Instead you focus on the heat he radiates against you. You feel warm all over.

“You know…you’re the only one who’s said it so far.”

“Mm?”

You shuffle up and cup one of his cheeks in your hand. He opens his sleepy eyes to gaze at you in confusion. You take the moment to really accept this moment. You can’t lie to yourself and say that you’re happy, but you can see yourself being happy in the future. In this moment, it’s clearer now than before. You may no longer have Junmyeon at your side, but Baekhyun is here. He’s here, he genuinely seems to care about you, and he said he loves you.

You hadn’t even had the courage to say those words when you’d been sharing your own feelings in that hallway. The words felt too real. Too permanent. But now, in the darkness of your room, everything feels…right.

“I love you.” You press a poorly aimed kiss to the corner of his lips. “I love you…a lot.” A giddy feeling bubbles up in your stomach. “It kinda makes me disgusted.”

“You just had to ruin the moment at the end there didn't you?”

“I can’t have you thinking I no longer think that you’re a bastard.”

“But I’m your bastard.”

You snort. “Yeah, unfortunately.”

He presses a messy kiss to your mouth. You laugh at first, taken off guard by the suddenness of the action. He pulls you closer to his body, and the kiss develops into something more purposeful.

Your hands on each other hold so much more meaning now. There’s no hidden feelings here. No rush of any kind. No need to hide tenderness for fear of being to vulnerable. Just two lovers who want to cherish the person in their arms. You brush your lips against his temple. “Baekhyunie…I really do love you,” you whisper before placing a peck against his earlobe.

He groans deep in his throat, hides his face in your neck. “You’ve gotta stop using that nickname when we’re fucking. I’m never gonna be able to hear it again without my dick getting hard,” he breathes hotly against your skin. A laugh escapes you without warning.

He breathes out a laugh of his own before pulling away and kissing up your neck to your forehead. His lips linger there. “God, I love you.”

You hum happily. “I could get use to hearing that.”

“Oh, shut up.” He says softly. “Go back to sleep. I’m too tired to do anything else. We can continue after a few more hours of rest.” You wrap your arms around him and place your head on his chest. “We can deal with whatever is in that letter tomorrow too, get some rest for now,” he yawns out.

You’d almost forgotten about the letter, but you don’t feel any desperation to address it. You’ll sleep for now. Punctuated by a light kiss to his skin, you murmur quietly, sincerely, “I love you.”

His arms tighten around you in acknowledgement and you fall asleep at peace.

~~~*Three months later*~~~

“Are we ready to leave port?”

“Yes Captain. All members are present and accounted for.”

“Good. Our heading is southeast, let’s make haste. I want to get this bounty quickly. We’re rusty, we need to start with something easy.”

“Ay, Captain.”

Leaving port is always as gratifying as it is stress inducing. There’s nothing that can quite match the rush you feel when you see your fellow crewman rushing around your ship, bringing her to life again, after months at rest. Raising the sails and cleaning down her surfaces before taking her back out home on the open sea, that rush is what excites you most in this world. The entire vessel buzzes with energy as your men call out to each other across the ship ensuring that she’s prepped and safe to take out on the water.

“Uh…Captain? We’ve got an extra in our headcount.”

You whip around at Yixing’s voice.

“Long time no see,” the new face says, smile as bright as you remember.

“Jongdae?” you can’t believe your eyes. It’s been months since you saw the younger prince last. The last place you expected to see him again was on land, in Arae no less.

“I figured you might be needing an extra hand here and there. Although I don’t know much about working on a ship, I know plenty about how the currents and how the ocean works.”

Yixing looks from you to Jongdae in confusion. “So…you know this guy?”

“Yeah...yeah. He’s Junmyeon’s younger brother.” Your words stun your quartermaster so much so that his mouth drops open.

“Speaking of my brother, did you get the letter I delivered?”

Letter?

The note!

“You put that letter there? We couldn’t figure out how it could have possibly ended up there.” You’d all spent hours thinking of ways that the letter could have been snuck aboard, and even longer trying to make sense of the paper itself. After reading its contents, everyone aboard the ship felt as though they’d finally gotten the proper send off deserved of your first mate. Most questions had been answered, and everyone felt content in the way things had played out, even if it meant Junmyeon was no longer with you all.

“Well yeah. Junmyeon wanted it to go to you after he took over as guardian. I had to do my part to fulfill that wish. That, and getting you all the treasure you were promised.” Its then that you notice the enormous cases being loaded on the ship –cases you know the crew hadn’t packed themselves.

“Treasure?”

“Gold, jewels, shiny stuff you humans like.”

Yixing rushes over to a case to open it. “Are these all full of treasures?”

Jongdae nods easily, as if the fortune he’s brought has little meaning to him. “Of course.”

“This would set the entire crew for generations Captain…” Yixing says in awe.

You blink at Jongdae dumbly.

“There’s just one favor I have to ask in return for delivering all of this,” he starts. “I need you and your crew to help me with my destiny.”

“Of fucking course there’s a catch. What? We gotta help you on a suicide mission next?” Baekhyun’s voice shakes you out of your stupor. He tosses an arm over your shoulder. He’s gained more weight in the months at rest. The weight on your shoulders is welcomed.

“It’s nothing like that trust me,” Jongdae says with raised hands. He focuses his attention back to you. “Junmyeon trusts you all, so I do too. It’s nothing quite as final as Junmyeon’s, but it’s still quite a feat to complete on my own.”

“Did you run away too?” You ask in worry.

“No, no! I was given permission. This has to do with my destiny so it’s completely fine. Besides, Junmyeon’s able to help guide me home if I need to go back.”

“I’m sorry, what?” You ask incredulously.

He blinks innocently. “Junmyeon can help me find my way home when I’m ready. Whenever I talk to him he seems pretty sure that he can.”

“You still talk to him!?”

“Duh, he’s a part of the ocean now. He’s not gone. I’m sure even you guys could get some kind of response from him if you tried to talk to him. It might not be words, but he’s pretty good at communicating.” He waves away his words as if it was a passing thought. “He told me to come to you guys for help, and said I might be able to help in return. If you all help me destroy the monsters that inhabit the more dangerous parts of the ocean, then I can offer my knowledge in exchange.”

Baekhyun is able to jump back into the conversation first. You’re still stupefied at the idea that you could have talked to Junmyeon all this time. That he isn’t fucking dead, just…part of the ocean now?

Whatever the fuck that is supposed to mean.

“So…you want us to help you fight sea monsters? Like sirens and krakens and shit?”

Jongdae gives an eager nod.

Baekhyun looks at you and raises an eyebrow. Do you really want to take this on? You purse your lips and turn back to Jongdae. You’ve spent over 3 months not taking on any missions. Your crew is as rusty as they can get. Fresh out of mourning and getting back on their feet. You have enough gold and jewels to never have to work again.

Even if you declined, you doubt Jongdae would take the treasures back. This was your payment for Junmyeon’s return. Nothing more than that. If anything, this would be a favor to the other prince.

But, Junmyeon thinks you’d be of help to each other. Besides, you don’t know what you would do with your time if you stopped sailing as a pirate. You belong on the sea. You’ve know that for nearly all your life. You want to live adventurously. The Storm Chaser can’t be reduced to some shitty cargo ship. Your men came to you to escape their lives on land. They wouldn’t want to return even if they had the money to live happily. You can tell by how eager everyone is today just coming back aboard the ship.

You jut your hand out. Your decision is made; although, it might have been made up from the moment he even asked. “You’ve got a deal.” Jongdae beams and reaches out to grab your hand, but you suddenly pull back. “Ah…well as long as my first mate agrees?”

You catch Baekhyun’s eyes again and he smiles. “If you want to do this, I’m behind you 100% Captain.” The eye patch he was using to keep his bangs out of his face is slid back over his eye.

“Let’s go kill some fucking sea monsters.”

~~~

20 years ago the seas became angry. Unruly and unkind to any sailor, to any ship that dared venture too far out in her waters. Many a man has heard the tales of Atlantis, the lost city, the key the ocean.

The heart of the ocean.

These days, her heart is at ease. These days, the ocean is calm.

The tale of the lost child of Atlantis have become nothing but an old wives tale. A thrilling bedtime story told to children to amaze them with the wonders of the sea.

A story of family, of fear, and of loss.

A story about mermaids, and storms –of ships that nearly faced destruction in attempt to return that lost child.

To return that lost man. A prince.

A tale that dazzles with promises of riches, and happiness. Of adventure and hate. A tale of love.

There’s no way to determine the truth of the story, for no written record of Atlantis exists. Only the oral retellings by those who claim to have seen it.

Many secrets lie beneath the ocean’s surface –wonders and horrors alike. The tale of finding Atlantis will stay as secret as the ocean herself.

Thus, her story continues on.

Calm. At peace.

A chain of avoidance begins at the entrance of the castle. You from Baekhyun. Junmyeon from you. Jongdae from Junmyeon. Boa grimaces and vanishes for the night, almost immediately upon arrival, after briefly letting her brothers know that she’s available if needed. An uncomfortable nod goodbye is all she offers you and Baekhyun. The atmosphere is suffocating even to her.

Everyone bolts in different directions and somehow in the scramble to get away from one another, you end up in the library of the castle. You can’t go back to your bedroom or else you’ll see Baekhyun, and you have no clue where Junmyeon’s room is so you can’t go corner him like you wanted.

The shelves that line the walls of the library tower high into the air, no space is left empty. The size of it intimidates you even as you find yourself curiously walking over to the closest shelf and gazing at the spines of the books sitting there. Your fingers curl in on themselves when you realize that you’d begun to reach out to touch them unconsciously.

Who knows if there is magic infused with these, or if they'll crumble to dust at your fingertips. The last thing you need is to bring a deep sea curse back on land with you.

“Ah shit-”

You snap your head so fast in the direction of a new voice that your neck pops. You groan and put a hand on your neck before barking out, “Stop.”

Junmyeon freezes in his retreat from the room.

“I think it’s about time for our talk.”

His body deflates. He sighs as he crosses the room. You narrow your eyes as he begrudgingly makes his way over. “Yeah.” With a flop on the couch settled in front of an unlit fireplace he huffs, “I guess you’re right.”

Settling next to him on the couch you pull one leg under yourself. “So, what’s the rest of the story here? What aren’t you telling me?”

Junmyeon sets his lips in a line and looks forward with unfocused eyes. That deeply unsettled feeling in your stomach, from earlier, returns full force. “You know that I never planned on getting married, right?”

“What does that-”

“Just listen.”

You bite your tongue.

He starts again. “I never planned on getting married…well scratch that. I knewthat I would never get married. But I considered it for a while- when I first left home. Because of my destiny, thanks to my father’s curse, it never made sense to me that anyone should have to endure being by my side in that way. The life I have to give isn’t one that promises happiness. I ran away thinking I could live free of the responsibility placed on my shoulders at least long enough for me to live a life that I wanted –to live a life that made me happy, and not one where my only purpose is to complete a prophecy. I wanted to live for my own sake, not for anyone else’s.

“Everyone was constantly telling me what I should do. Where I should go, the experiences I should have, the people I should meet. ‘Go to this event. Meet this person’s child. Get married. Have a child of your own.’…”

Junmyeon sighs. “I never wanted to get married. I never wanted to put anyone through the pain of what being close to me would bring. I thought I could suffer through it on my own as long as I’d had a chance to be free and happy for a while. Doing what I wanted without worrying about the expectations of my family and my people.” He turns to face you. “But I think I’ve done exactly what I aimed not to do, with you.”

You narrow your eyes as you try to process his words. “But we aren’t married or anything? I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”

“No, but we’re family. I…I wasn’t supposed to pull anyone in to this. I didn’t want to leave any trace of me on land when I’m gone.”

You open your mouth to voice your confusion but Junmyeon continues on.

“I didn’t want anyone to have any memories of me, to cry over me, to feel any pain because of me. My family here, they know what lies ahead; they will be able to move on. I never wanted to hurt the crew…I never wanted to hurt you.”

“Jun-”

Ignoring your shaking voice he plows forward. “What I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry. I’m sorry for getting you involved in all of this.”

“I…I don’t understand what you’re trying to say to me right now. What are you saying? What do you mean?”

“You know what my name means, right? Suho. Guardian. It’s a name that carries a lot of meaning.”

“Stop speaking in circles and just fucking-”

Your racing words and thoughts slam to a halt as the building shakes. Everything vibrates with such intensity that your ears ring. Books tumble off the shelves and you jump to your feet.

“Shit.”

Junmyeon’s hand wraps around your wrist. “Looks like we’re out of time. We need to go, now.” Another rumble shakes the building to its foundations.

The lights flicker rapidly.

“Follow me; we need to go back to the guardians. I’m sure my sister is already waiting for us.”

You allow Junmyeon to drag you along as you try to make sense of everything going on around you. The markings on his skin, the ones you'd nearly forgotten about, are once again taking on their glow. As the lights around you fight stay bright, Junmyeon’s skin shines steadily. Between flickers of light you see frightened faces of people emptying into the hallways. Rooms you didn’t realize housed residents finally show signs of life as panic fills the castle. You recognize two guards in the rush to the exit, but all the other faces blend together into nothing but a giant mass of fear.

You give yourself a second to close your eyes and gather your thoughts, but when you open them it’s to the sight of the city flying past you. A strange vehicle transporting you soundlessly through the city and farther away from the castle. The city flies by through the glass dome of the transport surrounding you.

The Queen is in the front seat next to the head of the military. You watch her point ahead and her mouth moves, but the words fail to reach your ears. Junmyeon leans forward from the seat right behind the Queen, his mouth moving rapidly, as he talks to Minho. You can’t hear the conversation.

Everything sounds muffled.

Just like being submerged in water.

A hand covers yours suddenly.

Baekhyun. You clench the seat under your palm and let out a breath you hadn’t noticed you were holding in. He squeezes your hand in reassurance and suddenly your senses catch up to you. The dome comes to a stop. “We’re here. Come on,” Baekhyun murmurs to you. You nod to show him you hear him.

Minho powers the vehicle down and the glass melts away like ice. The only things left are the seats and floor.

The 9 guardians are waiting for you all as you exit the vehicle.

The ground is shaking; you find it hard to take more than 2 steps forward. The guardian that flickered, before the entire city was engulfed in darkness not long ago, now glows brightly. Its light is almost painful.

It rings out a deep continuous note like the hit of a gong.

“It’s breaking down…” Boa says solemnly.

“I thought you said it had been flickering like that for a while now!”

“It had been…but this glow…this is what the others took on before their end as well. I estimate we only have 10 minutes before it fully loses its power.” She shakes her head. “I’m at a loss for words. I never imagined it would lose power so fast.”

You swallow thickly at the sight of the only thing standing between you and what would essentially be the end of your world. 10 minutes and society will collapse. It’s almost funny.

All this time. All the trials. Everything you’ve gone through only for things to end like this. It feels like a poorly set up punchline.

What a joke.

“So…that’s just it then?” You clench and unclench your jaw. “So everyone not in Atlantis will die?”

“No. That’s not going to happen.” Junmyeon turns to you with a straight face. “This is just where we have to say goodbye.”

“Huh?”

He laughs then. Something about the sound rips at your heart. “I asked you if you knew the meaning of my name, right?”

Not this again. You throw your hands up in exasperation. “Yes! Guardian. Your name is fucking guardian. It means Guardian of the fucking Ocean-”

These…are the guardians of the ocean.

“These are the guardians of the ocean…” you lower your arms in confusion. “The guardians…when you left…you…”

He smiles sadly.

“You have to assume your role…as a guardian…” Baekhyun whispers, the ability to articulate the realization hitting him first.

Guardian of the Ocean. A guardian.

“I can’t fix them all, but I can at least restore power to the ones that broke down in my absence. I may have sped things up by leaving when I did but…this is how things were always meant to end,” he says. Arms wrap around your shoulders. “Thank you for being with me all these years.”

You grab the back of his shirt like your life depends on it.

Like his life depends on it.

“No…no…Junmyeon, no. I didn’t- I brought you here so that you could be with your family not so…not so you could fucking die! I never- I never would have agreed to do this if I knew you would-” your throat closes and you struggle to gasp in air.

He pulls back to cup your cheek in his hand. He looks right into your eyes. “I know. That’s why I could never get myself to tell you. It was selfish of me, huh?” He smiles. “I will never be complete if I don’t fix this. This is the only reason I’m alive, and as long as I’m alive I’ll be incomplete until I fulfill my duty. I was born for this reason.”

“No, there has to be someone else. There has to be something else.”

He shakes his head and wipes away the falling tears from your eyes with a smile in his. He’s accepted this. He’s calm.

At peace.

“There isn’t.” Your muscles lose their strength as he pulls away. “I’ll take it from here. You guys get somewhere safe. I don’t think the barrier around the city will stay up for long if things go the way I expect them to.”

“Of course, I’ll have everyone notified…may Poseidon be with you brother. Your sacrifice will not be in vain. I can promise you that,” Boa says. She bows to him in respect. You have to look away as he bows back.

Minho shares no words. He offers a salute with a proud smile on his face that Junmyeon copies brightly. “We’ll make sure the citizens are notified to find safety.”

“I’ll accompany you. I need to speak to a few of the guards as well,” Boa informs him. “Quickly, we need to be back here before the barrier comes down.”

They rush off and the ringing of the guardian continues sorrowfully.

With an exhale, Junmyeon turns to you and stands up his straightest. “Captain, I would like to be relieved of duty.”

You can’t help the incredulous scoff that escapes you.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?”

“This is my last request, as your crewmate and as your friend. Please.”

Clenching your fists at your side you straighten your spine as well. If he wants you to send him off, then by Poseidon’s name you’ll fucking send him off. It doesn’t even feel like it has been a week since you did this last. The send off for your departed crewmates that night Baekhyun and his men joined your ship feels like it happened just yesterday. You can clearly remember the faces of your men and the emotion in everyone’s voices as they said goodbye to people they see more often than their blood relatives.

And now you’re the only one here to send Junmyeon off. He deserves to have all of his friends here. It feels unfair. You shouldn’t be the only one saying goodbye.

“As captain of the Storm Chaser, I release you, Kim Junmyeon, first mate, Suho, Prince of Atlantis, Guardian of the Ocean-” you breathe in a shaky breath, “best friend and brother, from duty.” You don’t have your gun to prepare for the send off shot so you settle for copying the way you would hold it with your fingers. “I never could have imagined having such a strong, kind, intelligent, loyal, and loving person at my side to help me lead my…to lead our ship.”

Pulling the imaginary trigger, you swallow thickly as Junmyeon relaxes his stance. Contentment brightens his face. “Thank you for being with me all these years. Tell the rest of the crew not to miss me too much,” he says with a laugh. Watching him with a smile on his face, you feel the pain in your heart worsen.

A pause.

An inhale.

He turns to walk towards the guardian. You take a step forward but are stopped midway by a hand on your shoulder.

Baekhyun shakes his head at your side. You struggle to heave another breath into your lungs. He breaks the eye contact to look in Junmyeon’s direction. When you follow his gaze you can see a puddle of water forming in the middle of the 9 guardians. Junmyeon walks into it without hesitation.

The ground finally stops shaking.

As the puddle grows, you begin to notice the bright tint it has as it surrounds Junmyeon. The tattoos on his skin shine the same color.

“We need to go,” Boa says back at your other side. “From here there is nothing else we can do.”

“I…I can’t leave him…” you find yourself whispering. Baekhyun mutters your name brokenly. You shake your head. “I-I cant. I can’t leave him behind,” you cry.

“Please,” Baekhyun grabs your face in both of his hands. “We need to go. If we don’t we’ll both die here and I doubt that’s what Junmyeon wants for us…for you.” The sphere of water grows in volume around Junmyeon’s still body.

“I can’t…”

“Please! Listen to me just this once. We’ve got to leave. We’re going to leave. I’m going to get us out of here alive and I’ll…and we’ll-” his sentence is cut off as the ringing of the guardian finally stops.

“Oh dear Poseidon…” Boa whispers. “We’re out of time.” She looks at you both in horror. “May Poseidon be with you both.”

You’re suddenly exhausted by the mental acrobats needed to keep up conversation with the younger prince. Junmyeon was right about his brother talking just for the sake of pushing other people’s buttons. It feels like he knows just how far to go before he backs off and lets you recover.

Just enough time for you to nearly forget about it all and only notice how charming and bright a person he is.

Then he picks it back up right where you started.

Trying to keep up with Jongdae is enough to have extinguished your earlier anger and frustration. You only feel tired. Tired of talking, tired of feeling out of your depth, tired of fighting.

You hear a soft ‘hey’ from across the table and lift your head to find Baekhyun giving you a solemn look. “Can we talk?” he mouths. At his side the siblings are still talking to each other with heavy focus.

You’ll have to have a conversation with him at some point.

Letting out a sigh you tap your first mate on the shoulder. He startles and faces you. “Is something wrong?”

“Baekhyun and I are going to step outside for a moment. We aren’t going far.”

A frown spreads across his face at your tone. He glances at Baekhyun before nodding. “Alright. You can just go, I’ll cover for you. You don’t need to announce that you’re stepping out.”

Trying not to disturb anyone else at the table you slide from your seat and motion Baekhyun towards the large door where you entered. Walking a bit farther from the entrance to the dining area, you find a spot in the hallway where you can lean back against the wall. It’s strangely warm against your back.

Baekhyun stops in front of you and holds your gaze in silence.

You click your tongue behind your teeth. “So…what did you want to talk about?”

His lips purse. An inhale. A frustrated exhale. He opens his mouth –lets out noise that quickly cuts off as he closes his mouth. “I’m…I’m sorry.”

You blink at him. Shocked that he would even apologize –wondering what exactly he’s apologizing for. Keeping the secret of the memory from you? Bickering with Jongdae? Not knowing what he’s even sorry for?

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just…” he waves his hands around as if he’ll be able to find the words in the air. Catch them and present them to you for you to make sense of on your own.

He continues on once he deems the hand waving won’t help him. “I didn't think you would ever figure out the truth so I didn’t say anything. It seemed like it made you happy to think about that memory and I didn’t want to ruin it for you by revealing that it was a memory with…me in it. I don’t get why you’re so angry about it in the first place. If I told you, you would have been pissed. If I didn't you’d still be pissed. What else was I supposed to do?”

He runs a hand through his hair and exhales hard. “I just don’t get it. You’re frustrated with me no matter what I say and do and I’m just trying my best but that’s obviously not working-”

“What-”

“-I don’t know what to do at this point-”

“Baekhyun-”

“-if I’m not enough to bring you back on my own then what am I- I mean we supposed to do? You-”

You place a hand over his mouth to stop his word vomit. “Baekhyun,” you start softly. “I understand. I- I think I get it. I’m not…angry at you for keeping it from me. If the roles were switched I would have done the same. I was just…shocked I think.”

And you’re telling the truth. Had it been even a year ago, you would have still be angry at him, angry at yourself, pissed that the universe is dead set on making your life a living hell by entangling your path with his at any moment. You aren’t necessarily mad at the fact that that memory so precious to you happens to be one shared with Baekhyun –you aren’t even mad that he knew about it and didn’t tell you. You feel a different kind of frustration watching him anxiously try to explain himself to you.

A frustration you are more committed to understanding than keeping up a pissed off countenance.

Your hand falls down to your side. “There wouldn’t have been an appropriate time to reveal it either. I can’t be angry that there was just…never a right time or place.”

“You’re not mad at me?”

“No. No I’m not.”

“Then why were you acting so weird? I thought we were doing well before, but I can’t read your mind; I don’t know where your head is at. Jongdae started talking and you didn't turn down the idea of staying here with them or of being one of their mates and I-”

“You’re asking me too many questions I can’t keep up,” you laugh out. “I’m here. I’m talking to you. I can’t exactly run away since we’re at the bottom of the fucking ocean, what do you want to know?”

Smiling at him when he’s visibly worried sends a pink across his cheeks from mild embarrassment. “Are you…are you actually considering staying here? With Junmyeon?”

His eyes have started to dart across your face for a nonverbal answer. You look away just so that you can think without being affected by the concern swimming in them. That seems to be the wrong thing to do. Either that or he found something in your expression. “You are aren’t you…” he whispers. The accusation is clear enough.

“I’m…there’s just a lot to think about right now. You have to understand where I’m coming from. Junmyeon isn’t going to come back with us, I’ve accepted that now. He has to live here and fulfill his duties as a prince and get married and everything. I just…I considered it for a moment. Just…what if I did stay?”

“…Do you want to stay?”

You pause again and choose to stay quiet on the matter. You can’t say that if the proposal was decent enough you would say no without a little hesitation.

“What if…what if I told you I don’t want you to stay?” Baekhyun murmurs. You look up from the ground, shocked. His face is pink as he all but forces the words out. “Wh-What if I told you I want you to come back. To leave with me?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I…I-I don’t think you’d fit in here. You don’t belong here. You should be on top of the ocean. Wouldn’t you miss the feeling of the wind and the food and your crew? You’d be leaving so many people behind just to settle here. I have to make sure you get back to your men.”

You deflate at his explanation. “Is that it?” you scoff and bounce your leg in frustration. Ah, there is that feeling again.

“Well…yeah.”

You feel your emotions coming to a boil. Unsure if it’s another one of the properties of the water Jongdae was going on about, or your own need to just…explode with the frustration that itches just beneath your skin like insects.

“You want to know why I was being weird when I wasn’t mad at you right? Why everything you do pisses me off?” he nods slowly, apprehensive from the anger appearing in your voice. “It’s because I was embarrassed, okay? I was embarrassed that I talked about how much that moment from our childhood meant to me to you and had you tease me about it. I’m embarrassed because of all the people in the world that boy could have been of course it was you. I’m-I’m embarrassed and frustrated because it feels like everyone knows how I feel when I’m only just now…only just barely accepting my feelings myself. I’m frustrated because after figuring that out, after accepting that maybe my feelings go back farther than I thought, I’m still scared to openly say that I fucking like you to your face.”

He takes a step back as if you’ve shoved him.

You take in a breath and push on. The floodgates have opened and you feel adrenaline at each sentence you can release. “I’ve been trying to accept it and I was pissed off because I’ve liked you for even longer than I fucking thought, and it makes me so fucking mad that I can’t get rid of these feelings because it’s pathetic. It’s pathetic that I like you so much that even just seeing your smile makes me feel gross and warm and makes me think about what it would be like if you liked me back. I can accept that you don’t like me, but to have you know how I feel, how I’ve felt, and that you’re probably getting a kick out of it at my expense…” you lick your lips to save yourself from having to continue the thought.

I’m losing a fight I wasn’t even aware I was fighting and it’s frustrating.

“I don’t particularly want to stay or be either of their mates, but after all of this and knowing my other option is to go back above and to keep losing this stupid ass battle with my feelings and to have my own crew making jokes at my expense of it…well that's enough for me to at least consider the offer of staying. It was embarrassing enough with my crew knowing, and…now you do too. So, yeah I’m embarrassed and frustrated, and the idea of staying at the bottom of the ocean sounds ideal right now.” You feel your face burning painfully. “Even Jongdae knows, that why he was picking on us. So now you know too since I’ve said it aloud to your stupid face. Everyone in the whole god damn world knows.” You clench your fists to keep from throing your arms up in full on defeat. “So there. Satisfied?”

The coil in your chest, in your stomach loosens after your tirade, but a different tightness overcomes you. You told him you liked him and that him not liking you back made you feel upset enough to want to never see land again.

Not in that few words, but fuck was there a less dramatic way to say that?

Even though you said you had nowhere to run at the beginning of the conversation, you take a step back towards the room with the others just to free yourself of the suffocation you feel, but Baekhyun grabs you to stop you.

“I…I didn’t know,” he stammers.

“Obviously. I figured you would have made fun of me or at least stopped fucking me if you did. I know this wasn’t a part of whatever we were supposed to be doing. We fuck, we fight, we go on about our lives. We aren’t meant to be together.”

“You…uh…” he swallows and you watch his face color further. The pink has long turned a red and spread all the way down his neck and below the neck of his borrowed shirt. “You like me? Romantically…you mean romantically, right?”

“No, as in metaphorically.” You roll your eyes and glance around the hall for an out. Your skin feels tingly as you feel yourself shifting to fight or flight mode to escape; mind no longer fully processing anything else he has to say.

“I’m…I think I…you…also…” his words get quieter and quieter.

Leaning in to hear better, you grunt out a “Huh?”

“I think I-”

“There you are both are!” you jump apart at the volume of Jongdae’s voice. “We’re taking you on a tour of the city…unless we interrupted something.” His eyes focus on Baekhyun. You watch curiously as the man across from you straightens up and clears his throat. The hand he’d placed around your arm drops.

“We should talk about this later,” he says evenly.

Rolling your eyes again, you push away from the wall and shake your head. “No. There’s no need. I think it’s pretty clear where we stand.” With one last glance, you turn your back to him and pass Jongdae to return to Junmyeon’s side.

Where you think you may belong.

~~~

The atmosphere is chilly as you sit next to Junmyeon in a sacred hot spring that Boa decided as your first stop. There are multiple little sections to the spring, each little cave big enough for about three people and all of them warmed by the hot magma below the seafloor. Supposedly, the water has magical properties that can heal the body bone deep.

After limping around for days, Junmyeon was more than excited to submerge himself in the glistening water.

To your dismay it doesn’t glow or bubble up, but the pleased smile on your crewmate’s face as he rolls his healing ankle around is magic enough.

“You can get in too you know?”

His voice shakes you out of the intense gaze you have on his foot.

You hum. “I’m alright.”

A bit of water hits you in the face. You meet the unimpressed look on Junmyeon’s face. “How’s that rib doing? Or those burns on your wrist?”

At the mention of them, you faintly feel the aches in your body. You frown at him and focus back on the steaming water in front of you.

“You’ve been through a lot, get in the water for a little while. Please.” He touches your hand. “For me?”

With a huff of breath, you start to disrobe.

“You’re annoying. You know that?”

“I’ll take annoying if that means I care about your health since you don’t.” You elect not to humor his attempt to tease you. “…alright, so are you going to tell me what’s going on, or am I going to have to sit here and guess?”

You frown at him and cross your arms over your chest, sinking further into the water.

“Doesn’t have to do anything with me?” You feel your eyebrow twitch. He nods. “So yes. Then, is it just something I’ve done?” You flick your eyes away from his. He hums. “Baekhyun?” You try not to purse your lips but he catches the clench of your jaw. “Ah so we’ve both done something to upset you then. Oh woe is us.”

His lilting tone makes you look back at him. A smirk sits on his lips. “You’re staying here,” you say, more a statement than the question you’d intended it as.

He nods.

“Baekhyun thinks I’m going to stay here with you.”

“That would explain the weird behavior between the two of you.”

“He’s also the boy that hid me in his shop back home.”

He nods sagely. “Fate has a funny way of making these things happen. I’m not that surprised.”

“I told him I like him.”

He nods again, eyes closed. “Ah of course- wait you what?” his eyes pop back open and you feel a sick satisfaction at seeing him finally react in shock to your words. Fucking intuitive bastard, always being able to make correct predictions.

A sigh, “Yes.” Another inch deeper into the water. “I told him because he’s a fucking idiot…and because I’m a fucking idiot. I know you wouldn’t ask me to stay here with you even if you wanted to, you’re too self-sacrificing to do that.” You breathe out a laugh and he smiles sadly. “I’d just rather leave all of my regrets here. I have to give you up, and in a way I’m going to give Baekhyun up too. I’m ready to accept what I feel and move on from here.”

“Move on? Slow down, what did he say when you confessed?”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s clear that he doesn’t feel the same, or that he’s overwhelmed by what I said. Whatever, I don’t need to be that attached to anyone anyway. I shouldn't get so attached to people, they end up leaving anyway and if I cut off contact with him now, after he gets his gold or whatever the hell he came down here for then I’ll do whatever I can to avoid him. Until I can kill my feelings.”

“You’re…talking about me too right now aren’t you?” he asks softly.

Your eyes sting. “No,” you lie.

“Hey-”

“It’s alright. Really. I’m fine. Everything is fine. You’re home. I’ll have my ship to go back to. I can go back to living my life on the sea and knowing that you’re where you belong and can forget all about us. I won’t have to worry about Baekhyun because he’ll be wherever the hell he goes when we don’t meet in Arae and we’ll be on neutral terms. Everything will be good.”

He says your name in a way that pains you. “Do you really think all of that? Do you really think he’s only here for the gold? Do you think I’m just going to forget about all of you? That I’ll forget you?”

Most of you knows that you’re just saying all of this to make yourself feel worse, to make yourself feel even more abandoned than you will be, but you can’t bear to take the words back.

“Of all of that, you got a single thing right. You really are a fucking idiot. I…I can’t speak for everyone, but I will speak for myself. You mean the world to me and I would be no one without you in my life. For you to reduce your impact, your meaning to me to something as small as that is frankly insulting.” He gaze burns into yours. You look away. “I think we need to have a deeper conversation once we get back to the castle. I know you’ve got more on your mind, and I have far more to say than I can with the time we’ve been allowed here.”

You look back at him and bite down on your cheek. “Alright.”

Dressing in silence, your thoughts swirl messily in your head. the weight of an arm settles across your shoulders. “I love you, idiot. You’re my best friend and nothing will change that. Get it through your thick head.” A shaky smile spreads across your face at his words.

“I love you, too.”

He beams then. “Let’s go. We’ve got a tour to finish before we can finish our talk.”

~~~

“A lot of our infrastructure was build around maintaining the environment. Passageways made big enough for animals to swim through without issue. You may be confused considering we are all here breathing air, but there is a barrier put up around the city at times to close it off from the surrounding waters.

“There are times when the barriers must come down and we essentially flood the city to protect our safety; therefore, it must be able habitable to both us and the sea life around us.” Boa leads you all down a pathway lined in coral and paved with smooth cool rock.

Halfheartedly you listen to the history and architectural lesson she has so kindly decided to give you all. A lesson she has taken her time to give on her own.

You try to pay attention, you really do. It’s hard not to with all of the new and interesting information, but you keep feeling your mind slipping and thinking about Baekhyun. About Junmyeon.

You aren’t sure how long you’ll be staying in Atlantis, not sure how long their hospitality will last before you have to leave.

“-is why all Atlantians have the ability to breathe under water. Our carefully hidden gills are only visible when we are in the water.”

“I’d been in water before while I was gone…why couldn’t I breathe underwater then?” Junmyeon questions, genuinely curious.

Jongdae nudges him. “Your special privileges get revoked not long after you defect from the city. If you hadn’t left us then you would have kept them.”

“I don't remember ever having them.” Junmyeon says, pushing his brother lightly.

“There’s a reason your memory fades the longer you’re away from us. It’s to protect our people. If you were captured and tortured, you’d be able to tell them all you know, so we take away the most important things first. Your gills go first, then the ability to swim long distances, then memories of where we are and how to get back,” Boa explains solemnly. “It’s never a personal punishment, but rather a precaution for the safety of everyone else.”

“Seems rather harsh,” you find yourself murmuring unconsciously.

“Harsh but necessary,” Boa directs to you. She stops in her tracks and everyone in the group follows. Her eyes are on you, they burn with emotion, but they are not hostile like you expect. “If you had not found him, if he had found someone with less than pure intentions, what do you think would have happened? We are not like humans. Our ways allow us to be much more honest and trusting of one another.

“By the time he was ready to return, had he had his memories and his abilities, had he found someone else, they would have taken advantage of him. Not only would he have been a pawn, a useful asset, but a direct map to our location and the sole cause of our destruction. Leaving is already a reckless thing to do. We cannot leave the fate of our sanctuary to be left in the hands of those who abandon us and are naively tricked to reveal its location by humans.”

Junmyeon’s head falls down in shame. You feel offended on his behalf. She may be right but she could give him more credit than that. You open your mouth to defend him, but someone else is faster.

“But he didn’t get tricked did he? He found her first, and he got her help first. So it’s obvious he has good judgment when it comes to people. You’ve listed all of these things that could have gone wrong but all of the trouble he was put through to get home nearly killed not only us, but him as well. I understand that it’s a safety measure, but you should also consider the weight of your words when you describe your own brother as naive and reckless after all he’s done to get back safely,” Baekhyun says evenly. He bows his head slightly, “With all due respect.”

She gives him a measured look before a laugh trills from her lips. “Perhaps you are right…” Turning to Junmyeon she places a hand on his neck. “You do have good judgment. I apologize for my words. All the stories I’ve been told of why we do what we do for our protection just took over my rational thought. I didn’t mean to insinuate you are reckless or naive. If the two you’ve brought here with you are any indication of your ability to read others then it’s clear you are truly befit of being a son of Poseidon.”

The gentle honesty she casts him shocks you, and by the looks of it Baekhyun and Junmyeon as well. You can see Junmyeon’s eyes getting misty as he places a hand on his sister’s hand to hold it to his neck in appreciation. Baekhyun’s eyes dart between them as if he’s expecting them to switch their reaction and attack him for his words.

“My sincerest apologies, when you’re told every day of your life that the safety of the city and the ocean comes first, sometimes you forget to…think about your wording even when it’s directed at family,” She says with a small smile.

“Uh- it’s- I’m…”

You step in front of Baekhyun who seems to still be searching for his words. “No, you’re too kind. We just care a lot about Junmyeon; your point of view is understandable.”

Jongdae snorts and you snap your head to look his way. He just smiles and shrugs exaggeratedly.

Boa’s eyes light in excitement. “Let me show you all to the treasure of the city.”

Briefly, you think about how this is all Baekhyun is really here for. Finally, he’ll get his treasure.

~~~

The walk to the treasure is filled with more explanations of traditions and history and architecture, and even as you listen in, you find yourself frowning due to the lack of excitement your former foe displays.

This is what he came along for. Why aren’t his eyes gleaming? Why isn’t he asking 1000 questions and trying to learn as much as he can about Atlantis the way he wanted? Why does he look so lost and like he’s been kicked while already on the ground?

“You seem distracted,” someone whispers to you while you sneak another glance in Baekhyun’s direction. You startle and almost bump heads with Jongdae who has his eyebrows arched up curiously.  

Your frown deepens as you look forward to where Boa is still animatedly talking and answering the occasional question Junmyeon asks to fill in the gaps of his missing memory. “Do I?”

Jongdae hums. “You know…I overheard your conversation in the hallway this morning.”

You scoff. “Of course you did.”

“I don’t mean to insert myself into your business, but I think you’re avoiding a solution that's staring at you right in the face.”

“What? Do you mean your proposal of being mates?” You smile wryly.

He laughs and shakes his head. “No, although my offer is still on the table if you happen to fall in love with me by the end of your trip,” he says playfully. There’s no seriousness in his words so you allow yourself to smile just a bit more authentically.

“Not gonna happen.”

“Damn. We could have made beautiful little half fish half human kids.”

“Wouldn’t it be more like a quarter sea God and three quarters human kids?”

“Your interest in my genetics betrays your earlier words,” he whispers. “I’m already a quarter of the way to seducing you.”

You breathe out a genuine laugh and roll your eyes. Jongdae smiles a bit wider at having gotten you to stop frowning.

“Then what’s this grand solution you claim to know of?”

He pretends to think and then looks around. You follow the exaggerated act amused, a smile twitching at the corner of your lips. “Ah, my solution. I think…that you should do a better job of watching those around you.”

“…That’s it?”

“Mhm. Simple isn’t it?”

“How is that going to fix my distraction?”

He shrugs noncommittally. “Like I said. Pay more attention to the people around you.”

Your eyebrows furrow together and he winks before groaning loudly. “When will we get there? My legs are aching from this elongated walk you’ve taken us on. We could have arrived a full hour ago,” he complains –projecting his voice to the two leading the way.

Without missing a beat Boa answers. “We’re here. Had you not been flirting with our guest maybe you would have recognized your surroundings.”

You look around the area to fully take in the scenery for the first time since your conversation with Jongdae began. It appears that you’ve ventured to the very center of the city. Buildings wind and curve around you, up and over your heads. It feels as though they are all leaning to face the very spot you all stand.

You don't see anything of value.

“These…are the guardians of the ocean.”

Boa places a hand on an oddly sharp looking rock, it glows faintly at her touch. You take notice of the other 8 evenly spaced rocks in a circle around you. Each of them are double the size of the average person, and all but two of them look smooth to the touch and are solid black.

“Why are only two of them jagged and glowing?” Baekhyun asks the question you struggled to form.

Jongdae gives him a sad look. “They’re the last ones we have left with power.” The air feels depressing all of a sudden, so you keep your questions to yourself. Junmyeon places a palm on the smooth guardian closest to him and frowns when it doesn’t react to the touch.

“This is it isn’t it? The reason why the ocean has been so chaotic lately…the guardians are losing their power,” he frowns deeply, as if feeling emotional pain from the sight of the rock.

“Yes, it is. Unfortunately…our ancient guardians have been losing their power over the years. Each time one breaks down, another catastrophe meets the ocean. They’ve been around for as long as Atlantis has been, but we have no way to fix them. We can’t very well just ask Poseidon to come back to return them to their original power,” Boa explains.

“There were five before I left…what happened?” The look in Junmyeon’s eyes is one of devastation.

He locks eyes with Boa and they share a moment before realization flashes in his eyes and his jaw sets. “Oh…”

“Oh?”

His attention turns to you. “It’s…” a sigh “nothing for you to worry about.” He finishes lamely.

“Once you left, the first one broke down. 10 years later, we lost a second. The third met its fate only a year ago.” Boa’s eyes are set on Junmyeon. A frown marring her face.

“What happens if they all lose their power?”

“Then everyone is fucked!” Jongdae supplies cheerily with a slap to Baekhyun’s shoulder.

“We don’t need to have all 9 of them to keep the ocean alive, but to be down to one would be the destruction of the world as you know it. Storms so strong and creatures so terrifying that it would eradicate all that lies on land. Without the final guardian, Atlantis would collapse and be unable to even attempt to restore the peace the destruction of a second guardian would bring.” Boa looks at one of the last two guardians. “We don’t seem to have much time before things take a dark turn.”

As if listening to the conversation, the glow of guardian beneath her hand flickers and all of the lights in the city immediately die.

~~~

It takes a few minutes before the lights in the city come back on, but you’re terrified to say the least. Once the city went black, emergency lights came on and the palace guards were immediately at your sides to guide you to safety.

You all are guided to a building not far from the dying guardians.

Deathly silence engulfs you all.

Until, Jongdae speaks up.

“What has Junmyeon told you about why he left?”

You swallow and clench you fists to ground yourself. The anxiety of being buried miles below the surface of the water, engulfed in nothing but blackness like before is fraying your nerves. You fight the urge to look over to Baekhyun, to search out his pulse just to reassure yourself that he’s still breathing. That you haven’t somehow still been drowning since that first storm. “He said that he left because he was being pressured about some destiny he has to fulfill to save Atlantis and he panicked…”

“Do you know what that destiny is?” Jongdae inquires further.

You shake your head, looking over to Junmyeon who is carefully avoiding your gaze. “No. He never told me. Never told us.”

“Jongdae shut up.” Junmyeon bites out.

“Our lovely Junmyeon here- fuck! Ouch!” You watch as Junmyeon yanks Jongdae up by the front of his shirt and drags him out of the room. You blink at the door were they vanished feeling a chasm opening up in your chest. A bad feeling is building, a very bad feeling.

“I suppose he wants to tell you on his own time,” Boa sighs out. She runs a hand across her face and looks from you to Baekhyun. “Perhaps we should head back so that everyone can rest.”

“BUT WHAT ABOUT THE GUARDIAN!?” you stand up to all but shout.

She waves a hand in the air dismissively. “It has been doing that for almost half a year. It will be fine for one more night. I think we all need a night to let our minds and bodies catch up with all of the day’s events.”

Jongdae and Junmyeon reenter then, sour expressions on both their faces. Boa immediately deems it time to return.

Baekhyun drying you both off in record time and then eagerly dragging you over to the bed may have been one of the most entertaining moments of your life. You cover your mouth with a hand to hide your smile when –once you’ve crawled under the covers- he crawls from the bottom of the sheets right on top of you with a cheesy smile bright enough to put the sun to shame.

“Hi,” he says breathlessly.

“Hi,” you breathe out. You bite down on your bottom lip to control the goofy grin threatening to break out and match his.

You like him.

You like him.

You like him.

You lo-                      

“Baekhyun,” you say suddenly. He hums in acknowledgement, his body warmth wrapping you in heat. You push up on your elbows. “I want to try something.”

“Anal? Oh god bless!”

“Shut the fuck up before I take back my offer of fucking you entirely.” He stops talking but the playfulness is still there clear on his face. “I want to…put you in my mouth.”

His eyebrows raise in interest. “Huh?”

“I want to suck you off. I want your dick in my mouth okay? If you don’t want to, just say so. I just thought I’d ask…fuck that was a stupid thing to say-”

“No! No no no yeah no I would,” he closes his eyes and takes in a large calming breath. When he opens them, his pupils are blown wide. “I would love for you to suck my cock, holy shit,” he whispers. You sit up fully and push him gently onto his back at your side. Throwing your leg over his waist and the blanket at the foot of the bed you look down at him.

“You sure that you’re okay with this? You seem…nervous.”

“I am so okay with this you don’t understand,” he pants out. His hands run up and down your thighs, you think it may be to help calm himself down.

“You’re shaking right now. Maybe we shouldn’t-”

He leans up to capture your lips in an uncoordinated kiss, barely landing on your mouth at all before finding their place where they belong. “I’m just…very excited. Please,” he murmurs against your mouth.

You can’t count the number of times you’ve slept with Baekhyun. Can’t recall the different positions, different locations, different places you’ve cum, but the one thing you can recall, can count, is how many times you’ve given each other oral.

Zero.

It was territory you both had claimed as an unspoken boundary that you wouldn’t cross. It required more trust than either of you were willing to give the other. Would require more intimacy than your quick rough bouts of intercourse normally did.

It wasn’t as if you hadn’t imagined him between your legs, his sinful tongue that was so skilled at tossing out insults and lies working against your center to bring you over the edge. But you couldn’t get yourself to ask or even offer the opportunity to have yourself there so at his mercy that you were at your most vulnerable.

Similarly you hadn’t asked nor been offered the chance to taste him like this. Truthfully, in the past you couldn’t say that you wouldn’t have bitten his dick off if he’d caught you on a bad day.

“Are you sure you know how to do this?” he asks through a shaky breath when you wrap a hand around his half hard dick and give it a few test strokes.

“You are not the first man I’ve sucked off before Baekhyun, please get off your high horse,” you say boredly.

He frowns and removes your hand from his length. “I’m not?”

“No, I dated a guy for a while a few years ago and he liked it when I would lick-”

“OKAY I don’t want to hear about someone else you’ve slept with.” He flops back against the pillows. “…turning me off with this bullshit.” You hear him mutter from above you.

You wrap your hand back around him and feel his cock twitching back to life despite the frown on his face. “Are you jealous, Baekhyunie?” you coo. As expected you feel him hardening ever so slightly in your hand at the nickname.

“I’m not jealous,” he mutters petulantly.

“Mm. Is that right? Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to let you know that this is the first time I’ve really, really wanted to suck someone off before,” you say lightly, giving the heat in your hand an encouraging squeeze to emphasize your point.

“…really?” He leans up to his elbows to look down at you.

“Mhm,” you nod and lower yourself to lick kittenishly at the head of his cock, keeping your eyes on him. He whimpers and lets out a shaky breath. You swirl your tongue around his tip and are rewarded with a long guttural whine. You take half of him into your mouth and then pull off, sucking hard at his head before removing your mouth with a pop. You let your saliva guide you fist as it drags up and down his almost completely hardened erection.

“Fuck,” he groans.

“You feel so good in my mouth,” you murmur before flattening your tongue along the underside of his cock and then taking him fully into your mouth. He moans loud as you bob your head trying to take in more of his length with each time you lower yourself on him. You feel him beginning to lose his restraint as he begins to buck shallowly into your mouth, trying to fuck himself to completion.

“Mm holy shit. Been wanting this for so long,” he pants, grabbing loosely onto your still wet hair. You bottom out and attempt to swallow around him before pulling off to catch your breath. He sounds wrecked, weak and desperate, and his noises, mixed with the knowledge that you can affect him so fully with just your mouth, is enough to have you embarrassingly wet.

You smile proudly before taking him back into your mouth and making it your mission for him to cum like this. His eyes are watching you with a kind of glazed over bliss that makes you more bold in your job. You lock eyes with him and let him thrust into your mouth with a hand on his hip to keep him from moving too hard or too fast. He moans deep in his throat. “Fuck, fuck I’m gonna…”

He weakly tries to warn you but you keep him in your mouth until you feel his hips stalling and the feeling of his shaft pumping out warm spurts down your throat.

You swallow it all without thought and lift yourself back up. “You’re going to fucking kill me,” Baekhyun grumbles out before grabbing you by the back of the neck and smashing your lips together. You hadn’t even realized he’d sat up until you were being pulled back down, tongue sliding against his as he tastes himself eagerly inside of your mouth. You moan into his mouth when his hand grabs onto your ass and runs down your thigh, so close to where you want- no need to feel him most. You think for a moment that you may have to say it outright, but Baekhyun has always been attentive.

He lazily drags a finger through your folds and you shiver in pleasure at the feeling. “You’re so wet already. Just from having my cock in your mouth? That’s so fucking sexy.”

Heat spreads from your toes to the tips of your ears.

You try to hold in a groan of embarrassment but it comes out in the form of a whine.

“What?”

“Nothing, just fuck me already.” You try to deflect your embarrassment, but you’re stopped before you can.

“Wait hold on, slow down there,” he laughs. “I need more than 30 seconds to recuperate.” His fingers skim over your face, curls into a wet lock of hair plastered to your forehead, skates over your cheekbones and then across your lips. You feel like your body is on fire under his scrutinizing gaze.

“What?” you ask, parroting his earlier question.

“Nothing. You’re just…pretty.”

That’s too much. You swing your leg off of him and flop on your back at his side, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling above you. Why do you feel so affected by such a simple admission?

You feel him looking at you in confusion but if you turn to look at him you think that you may lose yourself completely.

His says your name a bit worriedly, a bit amused. “You okay there?” He pops into your line of vision with a knowing smirk.

Shaking off your daze and the way that your heart pitter patters like light rain on the deck of your ship, you focus on him. “No, I’m still horny and you’re still not hard again.”

“Sounds like the perfect time for you to sit on my face then.”

“I’m sorry what?”

“Sit. On my. Face. I can get you off without my cock,” he states bluntly.

“You’re insufferable.”

“You love it.”

And you admit to yourself. Yeah, you kind of do.

~~~

Waking up to Baekhyun wrapped around your back and a comfortable bed beneath you makes it in the list of things that will lodge itself in your memory forever. You blink away sleep and stretch out your muscles under his hold.

You turn onto the opposite side to find him still fast asleep –cheek pressed against the pillow and mouth lolling open. He looks beautiful like this.

You realize what it is that disturbed you from your sleep when the knocking against the door gets louder.

“Baekhyun.”

Nothing. You try again.

“Baekhyun?”

He grunts.

“Baekhyun it’s time to get up.”

“Mm,” he grunts again sleepily.

The knocking continues.

You slide out of the bed, grab one of the towels that were thrown haphazardly on the floor to wrap around your body, and pad over to the door. Unlocking it and hiding your still naked form behind the door, you peek out your head.

You’re met with the sight of a young woman with hair the color of cobalt. She bows deeply. “Good morning. I have been sent to notify you and the gentleman with you that breakfast will be served within the next half hour. I will be back to retrieve you then.”

“Oh, uhm thank you. We will make sure to be ready.”

She bows again and holds out a short stack of clothes that you take from her hands. She stands and offers a final curt bow before immediately retreating down the hall. You follow her with your eyes until you can no longer see her without stepping outside the door.

Closing the door behind you, you look down at the clothing you've been given. The fabrics are light and silky against your fingertips. At an initial glance they seem to be a mix of pearly white and shimmery light blue. It reminds you a bit of the crystals that you’d seen in the cave when you first arrived.

Time to actually clean yourselves up then.

Dropping the clothes on a random surface before walking back up to the bed, you decide to forcefully shake the other occupant of the room awake.

“Get up, we have breakfast soon.” You shove him with an open hand. He whines loudly. “I’m going to bathe, if you aren’t awake when I get back I’m going to stab you. I’m serious. I have knife hidden in my clothes somewhere.”

With the threat left hanging in the air, you wander back to the bathroom to finally take a real bath.

After the water is run and you’re in the middle of rinsing off your hair, Baekhyun finally trods into the room and sleepily drops himself right in the basin next to you.

As you try to rapidly scrub away grime, sweat, and other bodily fluids you’re being interrupted by wandering hands from the other body occupying the bath. The water sloshes around at the disturbances he causes while moving around.

“Get your hands off of me. We need to get dressed soon,” you complain lazily, batting away roaming fingers in the tub of fresh water and oils. You swat at his hand inching around your middle you encircle you. “Have you always been this fucking touchy?” You crane your neck to catch him humming thoughtfully with a pout on his puffy face.

“Dunno. Maybe.” You can hear the life returning to his voice with each word. The huskiness from sleep dissipating quickly. “You should ask Jongin, maybe he’d know. You know…since we’re in love.”

“Shut the fuck up okay I was wrong we already established that I’m- yah do not try to slip your fingers down there.”

“You’re no fun.”

“And you’re a pain in my ass.”

“You won’t even let me anywhere near your ass.”

You close your eyes to hold in the desire to punch him in his dumb face. He pokes you in the cheek. You’re met with a satisfied grin when you open your eyes.

The frustration immediately vanishes.

“Fine. Lie down and I’ll wash you off.”

“Huh?”

“C’mere.” He wraps long fingers around your arm to pull you closer to his body. “Just relax. I’ve got you,” he says softly. You lie back against him and let your eyes drift closed as a sponge runs across your skin.

The sound of him humming alongside the relaxing feeling of being washed nearly puts you back to sleep.

You startle awake with a splutter when water pours over your face. “What is wrong with you?!”

“You fell asleep and I need to clean up. We have to get dressed remember?”

Holding in a glare you settle for a huff and climb out of the basin. Water droplets fall to the ground; you stretch upwards to loosen up your tightened muscles. Padding towards the towels you can feel eyes burning into your back, but the fear of being wrong keeps you from turning around.

You wrap a towel around your body and another around your hair and glance towards Baekhyun on your way out.

His cheeks are flushed as he looks down at the water and continues to run the sponge across his chest, but you chalk it up to the steam coming from the warm bath.

He has no reason to look shy in front of you.

Right?

Quickly drying yourself off and twisting your hair into something that could be called decent, you hold out the garment in front of yourself. It’s a long garment similar to that of a dress with a pair of matching pants, each white with blue swirls and silk accents that make the simple garment appear strangely elegant.

You rub at the chest area of the piece of clothing to feel it’s a bit thicker in material than the rest.

It seems comfortable, practical, but very pretty. It’s not overly flashy. You like it, although it's a bit lighter in color than you’re accustomed.

But who are you to complain about free clothes given to you in Atlantis of all places?

When you slide the fabrics on, you feel a confusing mix of sensations. A smooth coolness that reminds you of a light rain shower lying just beneath the feeling of warmth like that of sitting by a campfire. You run your fingers down the sleeves of the lengthy top and feel that same heat rush through your finger tips being immediately soothed by the coolness of the silk.

It’s magical.

The outfit makes you feel as though you should put more effort into your appearance. The memory of a full vanity covered in makeup hits you like a freight train.

You haven’t touched makeup in years, not since you were 19, right before you bought the Storm Chaser. An attempt to pretty yourself up for a night out in Arae when Captain Lee docked for the last time and you were able to take his final breath.

It feels strange to be looking at the expanse of paints and oils and remembering what it led to all those years ago when you last painted your face.

Does it prophesize a promising future? Or is it an omen of death?

You don't realize you’re shaking until a brush is in your hand and you’re looking at your reflection in the mirror.

What’s the matter?

“Nothing…” you mutter to yourself. Grabbing the brush harder in your palm you run it across the rouge and add color to your cheeks the way that comes to you almost automatically.

Color on the cheeks, filling of your brows, kohl around your eyes and a deep pink that borders on red on your lips –the motions of it feel robotic. You stare at your face emotionlessly as your features are emboldened, your eyes more sensual, and your lips more enticing. The person staring back at you looks less like the you that you’ve grown use to seeing.

She’s pretty. But she isn’t really you.

“You know how to do makeup?”

You startle out of your stupor to catch Baekhyun a foot away from you in the reflection of the mirror. He looks at you in shock, but it doesn't seem to be a bad kind of surprise. You set the lip color on the table, fingers no longer trembling as violently as they were, and paste on a smile.

“Why? Surprised by how good I look?” You take the chance to joke and cross your legs to turn in his direction. He looks handsome in his nearly matching attire –the length of his top a bit shorter and the color just slightly darker. He looks soft in the pale colors with his bare face and damp hair. “Do you want me to do yours?” you offer.

His eyes widen before he nods, clearly taken aback. You shuffle a bit to the side to make space for him to settle beside you on the chaise.

You scan the table in front of you and hum to yourself in thought. What would he look best in? Maybe a shimmery pink color on his lips and a pale blue on his eyes? Or a light pink on his lids and dark kohl rimming his eyes? The thought of his eyes rimmed in kohl immediately sparks interest in you so you grab that first.

He raises an eyebrow at the object in your hand and you smile fully before shifting closer to him. “Close your eyes,” you find yourself whispering. You watch rapt as his lids flutter closed and squeeze together tightly. You sigh out a laugh. “You can relax, it’s not like I’m tattooing your eyeballs.”

His nose scrunches in annoyance before he takes in a breath and relaxes ever so slightly. You lick your own lips in nervousness before you place a hand on his jaw and let your other rest on his cheekbone as you try your best to line the black as close to his lashes as possible. You can see his eyes moving restlessly beneath his eyelids and roll your own fondly and his inability to stay still. Doing the eye not on the side of your dominate hand is a bit more tricky, but with some maneuvering you manage to find a position comfortable enough for you to work.

With the top completed, you let out a breath of relief. Baekhyun opens his eyes and you realize how close you leaned in while using the kohl. You swallow anxiously at the intensity of his unwavering gaze.

“Look- uh, look towards the ceiling. I need do the bottom.” You stutter out. The twitch in his lips is almost indiscernible, but you’ve learned almost every tick of his face. He finds the situation amusing.

Heat rises to your cheeks and you thank yourself for having the rouge there to hide behind. More careful than before you darken the lower part of his eyes, trying your hardest not to accidentally poke him in the eye.

His sudden ability not to fidget helps you, but you wonder where this sudden control came from.

Happy with your work you lean away and set the kohl on the table while Baekhyun blinks rapidly as if clearing his vision. You let yourself appreciate your work for a few seconds until he finally meets your eyes and it feels as though steel is hardening in your veins.

“Where is she?! Where the fuck is that little bitch?”

“If we get our hands on her I’m going to wring her neck.”

Your ragged breath fills the space of the alcove you’ve been able to hide in. Chest rising and falling at a pace that shows the desperation that you’ve been running for your life. Tears flow freely down your cheeks as you look around trying to find someone, anyone that will let you in and give you shelter at least for a few hours until the men give up, but you can find no one.

You’ve been on the run for hours, the hefty purse of money at your side no longer feeling worth the pain in your legs, the burn in your chest, and the fear in your heart.

“We’re looking for a girl about this high on the run. Have you seen her?”

The voices are closer now than they were but you’re too afraid to move. Too afraid that if you left your hiding space they would find you. The dark of night casts a dark enough shadow on you but you can’t stay here forever. It was too cramped a space, to small, and as soon as there was light cast on the alley you’d be found.

You hear a latch unlock and a door open from your side and startle in your spot. A boy, not much, if at all, older than you walks out and you’re immediately illuminated by the light inside of the building. You catch his eyes and freeze.

Like prey at the mercy of any predator.

You know that you’re shaking. You can hear it in the slight jingling of the coins at your side.

“We’re looking for this girl-”

You wince at the sound of the voices and squeeze your eyes shut. This is the end. They’re going to catch you. You deserve this. You’ve been all alone for years; no one here cares about you. It was only a matter of time before you were finally killed for fighting the inevitable.

You were meant to be dead. You’ve known this for a while now.

A sob racks your body at the thought and fresh tears spill down your face.

Warmth encases your wrist and you’re too tired to fight it. The boy is going to show you to the men searching for you. You deserve this. You deserve this.

You deserve this-

“Come on, you can hide here.”

You open your eyes to find yourself being dragged towards where he appeared. You look down at the hand on your wrist and grit your teeth to hold in more tears. You can’t appear any more weak than you already are.

Stairs take you below ground. You quickly realize that it’s the storage room to some kind of clothing store. Fabrics line the shelves, colors and patterns you’ve never seen before. You swallow nervously and grip your purse with a grip so tight it would hurt if you weren’t full of adrenaline.

“You can stay here for the night. I’m the only one who comes down here so they won’t find you,” he says softly. He speaks gently as if trying to calm a wild animal. “You’ll have to leave in the morning but hopefully you can at least have a few hours of rest. You don't look…great.”

“Why are you helping me?”

He shrugs and the hood covering his head falls back just a bit. You can see his eyes in the light now. “You just…looked like you could use it,” he says. You grab the bag at your side tighter and he catches the action. “Don't worry, I won’t take your money. You’ve been through too much for it to be taken in your sleep.” He laughs a bit to himself and you squint distrustfully.

Seconds pass as you both look at the other trying to figure out each other’s intentions.

Something in his coal rimmed eyes makes you want to trust him.

“I-”

A voice interrupts you from above. “Hyunie what is taking you so long down there?”

The boy breaks eye contact first. “I’m coming!” He frowns at you. “You can stay, just be quiet okay?” You watched him huff and scratch at an abnormally large ear with a very visible mole before disappearing from your sight.

You flinch violently as if you’ve been physically pushed from the memory.

“You-You…” your throat tightens as you try to put together the pieces you’d previously blocked from your mind. The hands, the eyes, the moles… “It was you?” you whisper. The betrayal clear in your tone seems to shock Baekhyun.

“What?”

“The… the boy… I told you about that boy from when I was younger…”

The fear that flashes across his face is all you need to see.

You stand up on shaking legs. “And you knew. You knew and you listened to me tell that story and you didn't say anything…Baekhyun how…” Acid sits in the back of your throat.

It was him. This whole time it was him. You should have known…you should have known. Seeing both of his eyes like this, lined the same way they were back then, it feels like you should have noticed before now.

He’s always had one eye covered…but his ears…his laugh his hands…you’re an idiot. You’re an idiot and you fawned over the version of him you knew in the past right in front of him and he knew. Hyunie, the nickname feels like a hot brand burning into your brain. Baekhyunie…you wondered where the nickname came from.

“It was you and you- Baekhyun how long have you known? Why didn't you tell me after I told you my story?” You back away slowly.

He stands up quickly. “Listen I-”

A knock on the door breaks through the moment. You both stand in silence as the knocking continues.

“The Queen will see you now!” You can faintly hear outside of the tense bubble that's been created around you and the boy- no the man- that you’ve discovered has been a part of your life for longer than you realized. The knocking persists and you clench your fists at your side.

“We’re going to talk about this later,” you say through gritted teeth. You make a quick escape to leave the room as embarrassment curls in your gut.

You feel ashamed.

Tossing open the door to the room you find one of the guards from earlier. Hendery you think his name is.

“Let’s go,” you mutter. He opens his mouth to protest but the glare you give him must be enough to kill the argument.

“O-Okay…” you notice but decide to not bring up his purposefully slow pace that you know is meant to give your…room occupant time to catch up.

Heat flares deep in your face and you feel anger quickly surfacing to disguise it. You told Baekhyun how much that moment meant to you. You told him about how it made you feel and he teased you for it. Teased you and mocked you while knowing that you were talking about him.

You feel sick. You feel sick and fooled and mortified.

Baekhyun catches up not long after, but after watching you jerk away from his touch at your wrist and ignoring the repentant way he says your name, he quickly gives up.

The energy needed to take in your surroundings is all focused on the ground and the feeling of the cool rock beneath your bare feet.

Your mind shuts off as a way to avoid having to think about what you’ve suddenly remembered.

You are to meet Atlantian royalty; you have to have your head on semi straight.

Hendery stops before an enormous set of doors, big enough to force you to crane your neck up to see the top of. Why the fuck would they need doors this big?

The doors begin to slide open soundlessly and you watch them in wonder. The room you’re led into is a grandiose dining room. A spacious table with 11 chairs set around it. One chair is just slightly bigger than the rest. The food is already set at the table, but you and Baekhyun appear to be the first ones to arrive.

Hendery pulls out a chair and motions for Baekhyun to sit. You figure you’ll be placed at his side so you make no move towards a different chair.

“Captain!” Junmyeon walks into the dining room with a bright smile on his face. “Wait maybe I shouldn’t call you that here…” Two men are at his sides, one of which you remember as the captain of the military, Minho. The other you’ve never seen before. He’s about Junmyeon’s height with kind eyes and a soft smile that feels a bit mischievous.

Minho pulls out a chair across the table, right beside the head of the table. “Your highness, for you,” Minho says. You watch as Junmyeon settles himself in the seat and a thrum of sadness hits you at how naturally he fits there. That darkness that had settled over him after Isla de Sirena is nowhere to be seen.

He didn’t need you, he needed to be here. You aren’t enough to make him happy. Yixing was right.

Minho pulls out the seat next to him and both he and Junmyeon give you looks as if to summon you to the other side of the table.

You know that if not for what had happened earlier you may have found an excuse to stay at Baekhyun’s side, but you aren’t sure you can deal with an entire breakfast feeling him next to you. Hurriedly you walk over and sit at Junmyeon’s side. Knowing he can tell there’s something wrong, you give him a shaky reassuring smile.

“You two seem close…” you look up to see the other man who entered with Junmyeon giving you an amused look with his chin in his palm. He fills the only other seat next to the head of the table.

He must be important.

“Oh…this is my brother,” Junmyeon says at your side. He rests a hand on your thigh and gives you a look that you know means ‘trust me’. You nod at him and he grins back. “Brother, this is who I told you about. The Captain who’s been at my side while I’ve been above water. Captain, I’d like you to meet my brother, Prince Jongdae.”

Jongdae smiles fully and you see the corners of his lips curl up. “It’s nice to finally meet you. My brother has told me a bit about you…”

“And at your side there, that is Baekhyun. I mentioned him as well.”

“Ah, so this is the…other male.”

“Other male? What the hell does that mean?” Baekhyun asks defensively.

Jongdae shrugs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Nothing. I just expected the competition to be…” he looks Baekhyun up and down “…more impressive.”

“Competition?” you murmur.

“Ignore him. Jongdae just likes to press people’s buttons to see how far he can take his jokes.” Junmyeon rolls his eyes. You stifle a laugh at the red spreading up Baekhyun’s neck as Jongdae continues to attempt to get a rise out of him with little offhanded comments.

It’s not long before more people begin to fill the hall and the noise gets louder. The table is full; five other guards join the table, each of them talking animatedly to Minho who sits at your other side.

You purposefully avoid looking in Baekhyun’s direction, even as you engage Jongdae in conversation and deflect Junmyeon’s sly attempts at uncovering what has happened between you in the hours of his absence.

“Queen Boa has arrived!”

All of the chatter in the hall ceases as a guard at the door announces the arrival of the queen.

You aren’t exactly sure what to expect or how to act in the presence of royalty. Do you stand? Should you bow? Are you required to curtsy and then press your forehead to the ground to show submission? Hoping to be clued in on what you should do, you glance around the table.

Baekhyun catches your eyes when they land on him and you clench your jaw in frustration before tearing your gaze away. No one is moving so there’s no use in continuing to look around –especially if it means making eye contact with Baekhyun again before you’re ready to talk. You still feel the embarrassment bubbling under your skin and it makes you want to fidget, stand up, walk around, anything to shift your attention from the feeling.

You hate feeling this exposed to him. If you had been the only one to remember, then it would have been different.

But would you have revealed it to him? Or would you have hidden it the same as he has?

A woman in a dark blue dress walks into the room with a gentle smile on her face and you shake away the thoughts clouding your mind.

Accustomed to hearing how royalty wear thick clothing covered in embellishments and patterns and material meant to display their wealth, her outfit is not what you expected.

The simple floor length dress the queen wears is only slightly shimmery, and clearly light in fabric. It flows behind her with minimal drama.

She’s a calming sea breeze deep in the night.

“Oh, you all are here. I must apologize for being late,” she says with a smile. Her chair is pulled out and she settles in it gracefully. Silence stretches out as she looks around the table. “Well don't let me interrupt you all, please continue your conversations. Let’s eat.”

And like a spell is broken, the chatter resumes and hands reach out to pile food on plates. You blink stupefied at the candor of her words and the casual attitudes of everyone in the room. Kings and Queens should eat first right? Everyone should be quiet at a dining table like this? Shouldn't there be more formality?

Must be an Atlantis thing.

Marinated fish is placed on your plate while you attempt to accept the situation you’re in. You follow the hand with your eyes to Junmyeon’s face. “This is normal. You should eat,” he says with a hint of humor in his voice. You exhale a laugh and squeeze his arm in thanks, offering a smile of your own.

“This is weird. Am I weird for finding this weird? It’s weird, right?” you whisper to him as you shovel some kind of seaweed stew into a bowl.

He shrugs and hands you a warm bun. “You’re not weird, but this could be shocking to people not familiar with the way that things work here.”

“Your Highness, have you met our two special guests yet?” Minho asks from your side. The queen looks up from her own bowl of food to look from her guard to you.

She places the bowl down. “No, I haven’t yet. I assumed it would be better to let them eat before we went into our introductions. We have so much time to talk.” She locks eyes with you. “Unless you would like to tell us more about yourselves now…”

“We could…tell you a bit about ourselves now?” Your eyes flicker to Baekhyun who seems equally nervous. “I’m…I am a close friend of Junmyeon…uh Suho? Prince Suho is- erm,” you clear your throat. Junmyeon laughs into his hand at your side. Instinctively you elbow him for laughing at you. Boa’s eyebrow arches up in interest at the interaction. Heat races up the back of your neck in embarrassment.

Shit. Fuck. You shouldn’t have hit him. He’s a prince for Poseidon’s sake. A prince in a room full of guards and the Queen!

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have- uh hit him.” You whisper a curse under your breath and close your mouth. Idiot. Fucking stupid uncultured dumbass fuck-

“This is who I told you about. My friend and my Captain above land. She’s the one who’s been at my side all these years and saved me from the sirens. I’d still have been on Isla de Sirena if it weren’t for her and Baekhyun here.” Junmyeon explains easily.

Baekhyun waves almost sheepishly from across the table. “I’m Baekhyun, it’s very nice to meet you your highness. We aren’t exactly sure what to say as we are unsure what you already know of us.” he says.

“I know who you both are. I know you very well Captain Byun Baekhyun,” Boa starts with a smile and fingers crossed under her chin. “You don’t think I wouldn’t be keeping an eye out for one of my own and those around him when they all spend a majority of their lives on our waters?”

Baekhyun’s mouth opens and closes and you look to Junmyeon for help, but the smile hasn’t left his face.

“W-We didn’t mean to assume or say that you don’t know- or er wouldn’t already know us. Of course you do! I mean…it would only make sense that you would be watching over Junmyeon- Suho- uh Prince Suho-” Baekhyun looks to you for help and you shrug helplessly. He nods to himself. “I’ll just shut up now.”

Boa laughs gleefully as you both flounder for words and any hint of how to behave in her presence. “You two are far more interesting in person than the tales I’ve heard of you.”

“Even before Junmyeon here spun grand stories of your adventures and your personalities, we’d known of you both,” Jongdae supplies.

“How?” you ask in surprise. You never would have guessed that you would be known in Atlantis. Known by their royalty…

“The ocean is large, expansive, but it’s a place where sound travels easily –especially if you know where you should be listening. We have many ways of listening to the world above us. The words you tell each other, the things we find out ourselves, we hear it all.

“Because of who we are as Atlantians, our relationship with the ocean is deeper than yours. We are more in tune with her sounds and the life that surrounds us. We’re aware of more things than you would expect.” Boa explains.

“Since you’re in our domain and under our spells and protections you may also experience some of the water’s more magical properties. Sounds from far away being clearer than what would be normal on land, injuries healing faster, memories being shaken loose and resurfacing are all common to those who visit us here. The water here has many positive properties,” Jongdae adds.

“Did you say that memories can resurface here?” you ask, suddenly enrapt.

Jongdae nods. “It’s not unusual to have repressed memories come back to you out of nowhere. Both negative and positive feelings could suddenly be recalled.” Jongdae leans forward curiously. “Why, did you remember something? Something you’re trying to keep hidden?” You frown as his bright eyes look into yours.

“No.” You state evenly. “I was just asking out of curiosity.”

He hums in thought and you pick up your bowl to avoid all the eyes suddenly on you. The room is eerily quiet around you. Jongdae appears to thrive under the attention and continues on. “I’m curious about something though…are you and my brother mates?”

Your soup catches in your throat and Baekhyun chokes on fish across from you.

“Jongdae…” Junmyeon says in warning. Jongdae smiles and shrugs innocently.

“What? You two are cute together. If you are not mates yet, do you hope to be?” he looks at the two of you with wide eyes. You’ve dealt with enough people in your life to know that his questions are anything but innocently asked.

“He has a point. You are at the point where you should have found your mate,” Boa says seriously.

Red colors Junmyeon’s face. “Can we talk about this privately, sister?”

Junmyeon begins to whisper vigorously to the woman at his side while Jongdae watches Baekhyun chug down his cup of water to keep from coughing further. Slowly the conversation resumes as normal. As soon as the glass in Baekhyun’s hand is empty, Jongdae’s attention is right back on you.

“If you wanted, you could stay here. The queen loves you already. If you don’t want my brother, you could always be my mate.” His smile is salacious.

“Is this really conversation fit for breakfast?” Baekhyun intervenes. “You don’t even know her.”

Like a cat catching a mouse, Jongdae excitedly turns to the side. You fight the urge to slam your face into the table. “Oh? And you do then? Since you seem to know her so well, then who do you think would be the better suitor? Of me and my brother of course.”

You jump in to avoid having to listen to the man across from you explain who he thinks would fit you the best. This conversation is not one you wish to be a part of let alone hear. You aren’t sure you could stand listening to the two of them have a conversation about whether you should mate Junmyeon or Jongdae. Baekhyun has never seemed a fan of you and Junmyeon being intimate together, but just to spite the prince at his side, he may just talk about how well you and your first mate suit each other.

“Baekhyun you don’t need to-”

“No, I just…I don’t think either of you would really…be a good fit…for her…” he murmurs. Your eyebrows furrow at his words. Now, he actively avoids your eyes and pokes around his food. Words no longer seem to come to him.

Jongdae presses on despite the nature of the conversation being less lighthearted than before.

“And why not? You couldn’t have someone else in mind by any chance could you? We’re both powerful and handsome; we could provide anything that she wants. Junmyeon is quite funny don’t you think?” Jongdae looks to you. “His humor and yours seem to match. You also seem to care deeply for one another.” He taps his cheek. “Ah, but maybe you prefer someone a bit less goody-goody. My brother can be a bit stuffy huh? Maybe you’re interested in someone a bit more wild, more unpredictable and willing to…tease you. Someone who can match you in a fight of the wills –will push back when you pick a fight.”

His head tilts and his eyes float in the direction of the man at his side who is still looking down at his plate with a deep frustrated crease between his eyebrows. You feel your heat pump faster in panic.

Seemingly satisfied with the look on your face, Jongdae sits back in his chair. “Then in that case I’m perfect! You could stay here with us and be with me.”

You exhale in relief and place your head in your hands.  

“Don’t you have royal duties and princesses to attend to? We have lives above water. We aren’t staying here.” Baekhyun grumbles.

“Was this a joint decision or are you speaking for the group?”

“Does it fucking matter?”

“Cute, you think you’re her protector.”

“Jongdae! Enough.” You lift your head and growl out the command. He locks eyes with you and quirks an eyebrow. His lips twitch up before they settle and he holds his hands out in surrender.

“I apologize. I was just…appeasing my curiosity,” he says meaningfully. “I just wanted to know whether you’d stay with us or settle with not seeing my brother again…since he’s needed here now.” And just like that he slides right into the hushed conversation still happening between Junmyeon and the queen.