Baekhyun was sitting on the steps to the postal office, waiting for his father. The latter had gone inside to talk to some man in charge of the telegrams. Something about reporting some pirates making trouble and cheating to his superiors. 

Baekhyun was told to wait outside as the specifics were confidential information, so Baekhyun had sat down on the steps out front. He put his arms around his knees to try and keep as much of the cold out of his small body as possible and was staring down at the ground, watching the boots of the people passing by. 

Suddenly, a fine but worn pair of brown leather boots had stopped in front of him.

“Hey, there, boy,” a deep voice greeted and dragged Baekhyun out of his thoughts with a start. 

He looked up, and his eyes had widened when he discovered it was the pirate from last night. “You shouldn’t be here,” Baekhyun said after composing himself. “My father is a navy officer. He is inside at this moment and could walk out any minute. He won’t be pleased to see a pirate talking to his son.”

The man's smirk widened to a grin, and he winked at the boy again. “Is that a challenge, huh?” He asked teasingly.

Baekhyun scowled at him and stood up to tell him to leave again. Best that he didn’t get too close to this pirate.

The mysterious man put his hands up in front of himself. “I’m leaving. I’m leaving.” He laughed, eyes twinkling with mischief. “See you around,” he said before he continued up the road and turned a corner out of Baekhyun’s view. Baekhyun hoped that wouldn't be the case. He already felt quite weary from this pirate. 

But a small part of him told him he would be lying if he said he didn't wanna hear that laugh again.

Later, when Baekhyun was back at the tavern waiting tables, the Explorations crew wandered in again, sat down at the same table as yesterday and ordered a round of beer. 

Baekhyun could sense the man's eyes on him from time to time, and he could feel his cheeks warming up. What was this pirate’s deal anyway?

These small interactions continued for the rest of the week. The unknown man would try to tease Baekhyun, and Baekhyun would try his best to not be affected by it. But as the days went by, the man turned to more and more shameless flirting, winking at the petite boy, using small endearments when exchanging words with him and in general just playing around. 

Little to Baekhyun's knowledge, the man enjoyed watching him get more and more flustered around him, and thought the slight pinkening of his cheeks and the tips of his ears whenever he smiled at him was quite endearing.  

One evening, Baekhyun was watching a table in the corner where his brother was sitting playing cards with a bunch of pirates, and it was clear by the wrinkle between his eyes that he wasn’t doing very well. 

After having lost for the nth time, Baekbeom decided his misfortune was enough and stopped the game. He found the money he had lost from his purse and put it on the table and stood up and turned to leave. Before he could go, someone grabbed his arm harshly and prevented him from going anywhere.

“Hey, lad,” the pirate’s captain said in a condescending tone. “We could use some new deckhands on our ship. What’d ya say we forget these coins, and ya' come with us instead?”

The crew grinned at the words, looking at Baekbeom with sly expressions on their faces. Baekbeom refused their proposal with a flat tone and a scowl at the fingers wrapped around his arm, but the man holding him didn’t let go.  

Baekhyun watched with rising horror as the captain stopped smiling and said something to his quartermaster. 

“Ya' lost boy. Ya' don’t have a say in this.” He grinned, showing rows of brown and rotting teeth, and got up to leave. He told his men to bring Baekbeom with them.

Baekhyun watched them drag Baekbeom out of the tavern. He was motionless for a few seconds, but then he shakingly put his right foot in front of his left and started out the door. Not that he even had the slightest inkling of what he could do. Still, he had to try something. Anything.

As he stepped out the door and turned to run towards the docks where he assumed they would’ve dragged his brother, he ran into something sturdy and rigid, or rather someone. As he rubbed his nose from the collision, he looked up and locked eyes with a tall, broad-shouldered man, and it took him a few blinks before he realized who was standing in front of him.

The pirate who's been flirting with him.

The man furrowed his brows as he took in Baekhyun’s panicked expression and gripped his shoulders as Baekhyun tried to push himself past him. “Hey, wait a minute,” he said as he tried to steady Baekhyun. ”What’s wrong, love?” He asked, and for once, Baekhyun was too stressed out to think about the fact that he was talking to a pirate.

“My-my brother,” he breathed out. “He was playing cards with these men… Pirates. And he lost, but they wouldn’t take his money. They wanted him for something they called deckhands or something, and dragged him away” he stammered out quickly. 

“All right. Calm down, darlin’. What did these fellas look like?” The tall pirate asked. 

Baekhyun thought back to a few minutes ago and tried to recall anything useful that could distinguish these men from other pirates. “Uh… The captain had long red hair and a tattoo of a snake on his collarbone.” 

The man cursed under his breath. “Yeah…I know who it is. I’ll take care of it.” 

“But how?” Baekhyun asked. 

“By gambling him back,” he answered with a dark grin.

☼☼☼☼

Chanyeol was good at gambling and he was damn good at cheating as well if the situation called for it, and this particular situation did. He knew the Snakes crew had a reputation for cheating at games themselves. That was how they often got themselves some new deckhands, so he didn’t feel any bit of remorse in tricking these bastards. 

Chanyeol knew where their ship was docked, but first, he returned to Exploration to get Suho. It wasn’t that he needed the back up, but it never hurt to have your captain with you when dealing with other pirates. Especially those as dishonest and treacherous as the snakes.

Chanyeol didn’t waste any time and quickly explained the situation to him. “I know you told me not to gamble, cap’n, but I think this is an exception.” 

Suho thought for a while, this could end up starting a lot of trouble they didn’t want, but he nodded and added, “Yeah, you’re right, Chan. Let’s go beat the hell out of these bastards and get the lad back.”
Suho was a just and kind man, and he wouldn’t let anybody get cheated to practically become a slave on a pirate ship if he had anything to say about it. 

They walked off their ship together and quickly found Snakes’ boat. It wasn’t hard. Their ship was in poor condition. It was big and long, with three masts that looked to be all rigged with square black sails, but half of the sails hung in torn pieces. Their railing was missing bits here and there and their jolly roger had a skull with snakes instead of bones. Easily recognizable. 

They walked up the gangplank and jumped aboard the ship. When they reached the main deck, they were greeted with scuffs and condescending looks.

“What’re ya’ doing here?” Someone asked; the quartermaster, it would seem.

“We’re here to get the boy you cheated yourself to, back to where he belongs,” Suho stated calmly.

“Oh? Are ya’ now? And how d’ya’ suppose ya’d do that, huh?” A different voice asked.

They spun around and saw the captain of the Snakes enter through a door in the back of the ship. 

Chanyeol raised his eyes to look at the captain as he slowly neared them. His hair was red and long, reaching down to mid-chest and looked greasy and filtered, a grey hat was adorning his head, and his clothes were the finest silk, though dirty and ragged. Probably stolen from some wealthy merchants who had had the misfortune of crossing paths with Snakes crew. As he reached Chanyeol, he saw that the captain barely reached his chin. 

He snorted. “With the same way you got him in the first place. In a game.“ Chanyeol grinned slyly. “If I win, you give us the boy back. If you win, we’ll give you our profits for a month.”

This piqued the captain’s interest like Chanyeol had known it would. All pirates were money-hungry bastards. Since Chanyeol never gambled, nobody outside of his crew knew of his superior skills. Chanyeol was confident he could win, so he cocked an eyebrow. “You afraid?” He asked. 

The captain jumped at the opportunity for more money just as Chanyeol knew he would.

“It’s a deal, boy.”

Suho watched with amusement and something akin to fatherly pride as Chanyeol beat them again and again. He never doubted Chanyeol, especially when it came to gambling. Having grown up with a gambler father, Chanyeol knew his way around games, knew how to counter cheating and how to cheat himself without ever being caught. 

After about ten minutes of continuously winning, Chanyeol deemed it enough and took a hold of Baekbeom’s arm. “I guess we're done here, gents,” he said cockily, but with his no-bull voice. He turned to leave, dragging Baekbeom with him and Suho taking up the rear in case anyone decided they wanted to test their luck.

Surprisingly it went smoothly, and soon they walked through the doors of The Eve. He watched Baekbeom reach his brother. 

Baekhyun instantly threw himself at his brother. He had been waiting anxiously, almost carving out a half-circle in the floor with his pacing. After hugging him for a while, he let go and looked at Chanyeol. “Thank you for rescuing my brother.” He smiled. “I’m Baekhyun.” He held out his hand to shake Chanyeol’s. 

Chanyeol took his hand with a lopsided grin. “You’re welcome, love.” He turned to leave with Suho, but he turned around, saying, “I’m Chanyeol by the way,” before they reached the door.