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Hongjoong was going to kill someone.
The town he docked at a few days ago had warned him about strange and dangerous creatures of the sea he's crossing, of serpentine sea monsters and “other horrors”, but they were so vague he thought they were joking.
Currently, there is a fish with human-like teeth gnawing at the net he threw into the ocean to catch fish in hopes of a midnight snack. A shiver travelled up his spine each time he looked at the fish thrashing about, as he quickly jotted down key characteristics and a sketch. The next time they dock, he’s going to consult a librarian on what in the everloving fuck that Thing is.
He hooked his hooked-hand around the net and tried to pull the net from the fish's teeth (he's never going to get used to that), with no avail. His little emergency dagger, that he never parts with, wasn’t sharp enough to cut through the hemp twists. He also jots to get his blades sharpened when they dock, and starts pulling the net up to undo it by hand/hook.
It was the dead of night and the rest of the crew was sleeping, so it's not like he could've made this San or Yunho’s problem. The price of being insomniac is to deal with Situations on your own and get hungry at the ass crack of dawn.
"You look like you have scurvy, disgusting." Hongjoong had given up and hoped the insults would scare (what he deemed) The Thing into chomping through the net with those horrific teeth.
It didn't.
He sighed and dropped the net, securing it to one of the hooks by the pulley making sure the fish was still in the water, making quick work of Mingi’s knots that are nearly impossible to untie. Damn the skills of the ship sailmaker and Hongjoong’s nonexistent left-hand.
The sea was surprisingly calm, with all the weird ass fish probably sleeping (except for The Thing) or whatever sea creatures do.
Once Hongjoong successfully created an opening big enough for the fish to squeeze out of, and The Thing galumphed into the side of the ship before landing in the sea and speeding away. His entire body goes lax and he lets himself fall against the wall, knocking his head back to look up at the night sky.
The moon was so full and pretty.
She reflected on the ocean, making the ocean look like fairy dust, glistening and shimmering. The stars around twinkled, giving the illusion of lightning bugs or snowflakes.
He sat there for a while, taking in the fullness of the moon and her light, where the only noise was the susurration of the ocean, the lack of bustling crew highlighting that whisper.
Hongjoong’s stomach rumbled, interrupting his serenity, grounding him and reminding him of his mortal problems. The moon started to resemble tangyuan, her plumpness and roundness, and he could really go for some tangyuan right now. He missed traveling near the coast of Southern China.
A thud was heard from the other side where the net was, pulling Hongjoong out of his misery, his entire body tensing up. Hongjoong drew out his dagger, silently making his way across the deck.
The thud was heard multiple times, as if something was ramming into the boat. It couldn't have been the ship hitting a rock, there are no rocks around them as far as he can see. It also doesn't sound like the wood scraping an underwater rock or reef. The thumping shook the pulley system’s post, alerting Hongjoong something enormous was lodged in his net. Something that might be more than just a snack but enough for a whole week of meals.
He grabs the net, hooking it to the pulley system, and pulls with all that he can. The net flies up with whatever it was trapping and lands on the ground with a thud.
With his dagger in front of him, Hongjoong slowly approaches whatever was caught.
It was… pink? A bright, sparkly, pink.
It has a tail, clearly a sea creature, and is alive at that too.
The tail flopped and the creature pulls itself up, clearly panicking as it started to thrash.
A fleshy torso was seen, sparkling pink scales following the lower midriff, climbing up the sides of their flat chest, neck and gills, to the pink ear-fins and hair on his (?) head.
Oh gods, Hongjoong caught a fucking mermaid.
The mermaid turns around, eyes wide and panicked.
Hongjoong slowly makes his way forward, and the mermaid tries to scramble away, further tangling himself.
"Hey, hey, I'm not gonna hurt you," Hongjoong tosses the dagger behind him. "I really didn't mean to catch you, sorry."
The mermaid looks at him, a little less on edge, and stops thrashing.
Hongjoong makes his way to the net, crouching down, ever so slowly to make sure the mermaid doesn't freak out. He makes work of the (stupidly intricate) knots, creating enough space so that the mermaid can make his way out, as Hongjoong stretches the net up.
He looks at the mermaid, and oh. Oh.
He was so pretty. His face was so soft, like it was hand sculpted. His eyes were round and sparkled like the moon, his lips full and soft. The water drops on his hair glimmered like little gems.
His hair was a mess but highlighted his glowing ear-fins, a slightly darker pink gradient than the rosy hair.
Hongjoong was probably delirious with sleep, and this is probably all a dream, but boy was he the prettiest man Hongjoong has ever seen. Never in his entire life would he have thought that one day at the ass crack of dawn he’d have the world’s most gorgeous being on his ship.
And then the mermaid speaks, and it’s like Hongjoong was hit with the aftermath of 3 consecutive sleepless nights – that voice was like a lullaby. Like the ocean’s hymn and the lull of the tide, he completely misses the fact that the mermaid asked him a question.
"Holy fuck, you're so pretty," As soon as he registers what left his mouth, Hongjoong wants to pass away, preferably throw himself overboard. Embarrassing.
"Thanks, but uh, who are you?" Ah, the question that he should probably answer because it's terrifying enough with the first impression of getting caught in someone’s fishing net.
"Hongjoong. Uh, welcome to my ship, I think," Gods, he sucks at this. To be fair, he’s never had to “host” anyone, with the closest case being surprise attacking rival trespassing crews. This is also pretty far from the concept of “hosting”, but Hongjoong isn’t too familiar with what that concept entails, anyways.
"Oh. sorry." The mermaid curled in on himself even more, as if he occupied too much space.
"Um, who are you? Like, how did you… end up in my net?" Hongjoong took a seat on the floor, making himself comfortable as if to prove he posed no threat.
"I’m Seonghwa. A siren," Seonghwa drags his tail (knees?) up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them, as if shrinking himself even more was possible. "I, uh, got lost."
"Oh."
A silence fell over them. A breeze blew, stronger than the previous ones, and Hongjoong noticed as Seonghwa wrapped his arms around himself, goosebumps decorating the skin absent of scales.
"Sorry for intruding…" Seonghwa spoke up.
"You must be cold," Hongjoong said, because courtesy exists and he doesn’t entirely suck at it. Hongjoong took off his thick coat and slid it across the deck. "Do you need a place to stay?"
Seonghwa gave it a quick glance, before quickly picking it up and inspecting it. Deeming it was of no threat, he shrugs it on and gives a small nod.
You see, Hongjoong is quite a guy.
Seonghwa couldn't walk with his tail, right? Apparently he did have a human form, but he needed clothes before he transformed, and Hongjoong wasn't going to leave him on the deck, shivering to his bones out in the open.
Luckily, they were right next to the storage cellar, which for convenience reasons, was placed next to the fishing dock. Hongjoong lugged out the wheelbarrow that they happened to have, and asked Seonghwa if he was comfortable being wheeled to get him dry and some blankets.
Yes, he put Seonghwa in the wheelbarrow and wheelbarrowed him to his room.
It also turned out Hongjoong's clothes were too small for Seonghwa’s human form, so he had to sneak into mingi's room to get some clothes after leaving Seonghwa to warm up in a pile of blankets.
Thankfully, Mingi is a heavy sleeper – he sleeps like he's dead. Not built for night duty and being left alone.
Finally, after much negotiation in awkward exchanges, Seonghwa was settled and knocked out in hongjoong's bed.
Hongjoong went back out on the deck and slumped against the mast towards the end. He was exhausted. Maybe he will actually get a couple of hours of shut-eye for the night, and wake up Yunho to take over watch.
Hongjoong makes a mental note to also tell Yunho to add dried meat to their market supplies list for the next dock, so snacks will always be supplied and not require extensive effort that he cannot give when twilight is nigh.
He knocks his head back against the mast to do some stargazing before the sun starts to peek along the horizon, thinking about how he would explain this to the crew. The gentle rocking of the ship made it hard to remember when he fell asleep, or what he would tell the crew, and whether the Mingi-like yelp and siren-like wail he heard was just in the distance, or Mingi poking his head into Hongjoong’s room to not find him but a certain pink-haired man in Hongjoong’s bed.