Chapter Text
“I want a job.”
Taehyung looks up from his laptop and meets Jimin’s eyes. He gives him an odd look, then directs his gaze back to his screen. He manages to send two more emails before Jimin interrupts him again.
“Taehyungie,” Jimin whines, pushing the laptop slightly closed, Taehyung’s hands obstructing from him closing it fully.
Taehyung doesn’t look up this time. “Why do you want a job?” Taehyung isn’t entirely sure what Jimin is asking, knows that he just asked the blond to get him a coffee from the kitchens and the boy hadn’t listened to him then. If he was feeling really enthusiastic about helping, he could take Taehyung’s job of negotiating a deal with this annoying as hell cartel off of the coast of Colombia. Taehyung rolls his eyes as his inbox chimes with another email from the aforementioned thread. He breathes a sigh of relief when the email turns out to be from Yoongi.
Jimin shrugs and slumps against the front of Taehyung’s desk, idly fiddling with a soft duckling paperweight. “To help out. I want to pull my own weight.”
“That’s not necessary, sweetheart.” Taehyung responds, grinning as he reads Yoongi tear this guy to shreds. “If I had jobs that needed to be filled, I’d have brought on more crew by now, but as it is, everything is perfectly taken care of.” He leans back into his plush leather chair and closes the lid of the laptop, concluding that the deal has been finalized. Speaking of jobs, it would seem Yoongi deserves a raise.
Jimin huffs and drops the duckling harshly onto the tabletop. Taehyung raises his eyebrows at him, waiting for him to speak his mind.
Eventually he does, saying, “It’s just that everyone kind of has a role to fill and a purpose on board-- even Jungkookie.”
“You do too, yours is to sit there and look pretty.” Taehyung barely has time to duck before a stuffed baby duck is being thrown at his head with an admittedly good aim. He laughs and gestures for Jimin to come over to the other side of the desk.
Jimin obliges, rising to his feet and Taehyung wonders if he’ll ever get used to seeing his boyfriend’s pet fish standing up on two legs. Said fish makes his way to the opposite length of the desk, and Taehyung props him up so that he’s sitting on the edge of it, facing Taehyung. The captain places his hands on Jimin’s waist and holds him there.
“Talk to me. Is that the real reason you want a job or are you just bored spending your days leisurely aboard my fine vessel?”
“I just, um.” Jimin pauses, looking down at his hands. Taehyung reaches behind himself and retrieves the duckling from where it’s fallen between his back and the chair. He hands it to Jimin to toy with, hoping to soothe the obvious anxiety of the small blond.
Jimin takes it thankfully with a deep breath. “I overheard some things a few nights ago and it’s been on my mind. If you give me a job, then I’ll have to work with the crew, right? Get to know them?”
Taehyung nods.
“Then that’s what I want. I want a job.”
Taehyung mulls it over. Puts two and two together, concludes that what Jimin said about carrying his own weight and having a purpose was probably to do with whatever he’d overheard, that someone had implied Jimin wasn’t doing as such. He frowns as he rubs smooth circles into Jimin’s hip bones.
“How about we start you off with rigging, hm? There’s a vacancy there at the moment because Seulgi has a fever. I’ll speak with Eunwoo, get him to teach you, how does that sound?”
Let him prove himself to them then, Taehyung thinks. Jimin has an attitude and an impressive will, Taehyung is sure that he can manage most of the jobs on the ship, cultivate specific skills, and shoulder the responsibility maturely.
Jimin is capable.
It irritates Taehyung that anyone might believe differently, especially when he hadn’t taken on individuals with shitty, or questionable, backgrounds aboard his ship, under his leadership, into his family, to be judgemental of one another. Jimin was more of a misfit than any of them perhaps, but that only meant that he should be treated with utmost understanding and care.
Taehyung just wants to be supportive.
“Thank you Taehyungie,” Jimin leans forward to wrap his arms around Taehyung’s neck in a hug and Taehyung feels his heart soften.
Before Taehyung can even react, Jimin is pulling away and sliding off of the desk. He grabs Taehyung by the hand to pull him up out of his seat, but can’t pull him to his feet. He struggles for another second, then Taehyung realizes, “Oh, now? Right now?”
Jimin pulls him harder in response and Taehyung acquiesces, rising to his feet with an amused chuckle.
He knows that Eunwoo is a safe place to start, him having been one of the first people Jimin met and trusting that Eunwoo was a good kid who’d treat Jimin with patience and kindness. Hopefully he wouldn’t be too bothered with the strange request, ‘Hey man, would you mind teaching our resident merman how to do your job? I promise he’s not replacing you.’
… I’m going to have to work on that before we get there, Taehyung notes mentally.
~
To Jimin’s pleasant surprise, he recognizes Eunwoo. Less pleasantly, he recalls the embarrassing way that he’d gotten himself tangled in the ship’s largest fishing net and his rude frustration when the humans had tried to rescue him.
Eunwoo seemed to hold no grudges and smiled warmly at Jimin. Now that Jimin was observing him without the concern of his safety in the hands of humans, he noticed a few things about the man. His dark hair was similar to Taehyung’s, and though it was cropped much shorter than the captain’s, he resembled him a small bit, especially with his shoulder-to-waist ratio. He's tall and unsurprisingly attractive.
Taehyung speaks with him for a moment, making sure they’re acquainted and asking Eunwoo to somewhat mentor Jimin.
With a determined nod, planting his hands on his hips, Eunwoo turns to Jimin and asks, “So! What do you know about ropework?”
Taehyung takes that as his cue to leave, brushing Jimin’s back as he retreats back to the captain’s quarters. Jimin looks after him anxiously, watching him leave.
Eunwoo picks up on Jimin’s unease and smiles in a way that he hopes is reassuring. “Why don’t I show you around the boat? I’ll point out all of the important lines and what they’re for,” He offered.
Jimin nods thankfully. This would be the first time that he would see the deck in its entirety, and he feels somewhat irked that it’s taken this long for someone to give him the grand tour, and it’s a stranger.
“That’d be lovely, thanks.”
Eunwoo leads Jimin to the highest deck, the quarterdeck, and points out where the ropes lead, where they’re being held down, and their uses (some for sails, others for keeping goods held down on the ship or for moving goods in pulley systems). Jimin’s seen plenty of ropes and nets abandoned underwater over his years, but had never realized how important they were for large ships.
His head reels, trying to retain all of the information, but Eunwoo takes it slow, and he’s a good teacher. His patience knows no bounds and Jimin slowly gains the confidence to ask questions and winds up learning about the ship’s history by the end of the day as well.
“Is that why Taetae’s the captain?” Jimin asks.
“What, because it’s technically his boat?” Eunwoo’s hand grazes along the rail gracefully as they stroll along the edge of the main deck. There’s a game of cards happening in the center of the deck, and another two members of the crew are counting shipment boxes with a clipboard to Jimin and Eunwoo’s right.
“Yeah.”
“Well, partially, I guess. He’s been collecting us ragtag sailors for years, but believe it or not, some have been aboard longer than himself.” Eunwoo smiles slyly when he knows he’s captured Jimin’s attention.
“Really?” Jimin prompts, eyes sparkling and eyebrows raised with wonderment, launching Eunwoo into a story of years past.
“Oh yeah, for sure. Namjoon-hyung grew up on this boat,” and there was that name that Jimin keeps hearing. “And Seokjin-hyung was brought aboard before the captain was even born, you know. I’m not sure who, but I’m sure there’s a few others who have been around for just as many years too.” Eunwoo stops to hold the door to the interior of the boat open to Jimin. It’s the same door that Taehyung and Jungkook had carried him through on Jimin’s first night with his legs.
“It may be the captain’s boat,” Eunwoo continues, “but what’s more important is that he knows how to manage it, and how to manage all of us. He’s got the heart to take in those who need a home, and the will to recognize what’s best for everyone and make it happen.”
“That’s what makes him captain?”
“To me, anyway, yeah. I’d say those are the important qualities.” Eunwoo nods decisively, then hurriedly adds, “Also, probably the fact that the captain’s kind of wild when it comes to swordsmanship and battle. If anyone wanted to commit a mutiny, which, I can’t see why they would, I don’t think they’d win.” He muses.
Jimin has a newfound curiosity to see Taehyung with a sword, or any other weapon, and asks, “Do we get into fights a lot?” He’s only seen ships battling twice before, and can only recall the first time rather blearily. It had been during a storm and his pod had been quick to usher himself and his sister away from the danger.
“Fights? You mean-”
“Like, confrontation with others, or with ships? I want to see Taehyungie with a sword,” Jimin blurts out. It registers dimly in the back of his mind that he’s very quickly become comfortable with Eunwoo and can’t find it within himself to be ashamed of his admission. Besides, who honestly wouldn’t want to see Taehyung in a sword fight if he’s supposedly the best on the ship?
Eunwoo brings them further down the hallway, past the kitchens, and Jimin wonders where he’s being led.
“Not that often? I don’t know what would be considered regular or irregular, actually. I was a fisherman’s son before I got caught up in a drug squabble and joined the crew. But yeah, anyway,” He carries on as if what he’d said is the most normal thing in the world. “If you’re curious enough, you could probably watch the captain practice with the prince.”
“Kookie?”
“Mhm. The captain’s been training him for the past year, wants him to be self-sufficient if worst comes to worst in a battle. They practice every now and then on the deck, early in the morning. We’ve all got some kind of skills, just in case.”
“What’s yours?”
“Oh, mine?” Eunwoo smiles deviously, jumping into a detailed explanation of his fighting style.
~
Taehyung comes to retrieve Jimin from Eunwoo when the sun begins to set and finds him practicing knots with the raven-haired boy indoors. They’re sat in the hallway of the dorms, legs outstretched in front of them, Eunwoo’s shoes flat against the opposite wall and Jimin’s feet not quite reaching as far, even with his boots. They’re making easy conversation and there’s a book laying between them, open on a page that reads How To Tie An Ashley’s Bend at the top.
Taehyung thanks Eunwoo for ‘fish-sitting,’ earning himself a well-deserved smack to the arm from Jimin, then he and Jimin bid Eunwoo a good night and leave for dinner.
For the second time that day, Jimin passes the kitchens with someone else leading the way and wonders why he’s not entering. “Isn’t it dinnertime?” His stomach accompanies him in embarrassing support, growling in its hunger.
“It is, but I thought it’d be nice if we had dinner alone with Kookie tonight, talk about how your first day went. Kookie’s excited to hear all about it, y’know. ‘That okay with you?”
More than okay, Jimin thinks. He feels his heart swell at the thoughtfulness and a weight falls off of his shoulders knowing that he won’t have to put up a likeable front for any random combination of whichever crew members come to dine in the kitchen tonight.
It was true that he was getting along well with Eunwoo by the end of the day, but he was exhausted from the social interaction and the need to be accepted by Taehyung and Jungkook’s massive family that was the crew.
“Is Kookie the only one excited to hear about my day?” Jimin teases with a scoff, mock exasperation lacing his words.
Taehyung laughs and winds an arm around Jimin’s shoulders. The action feels natural. “Of course not.” He says to the sunset. “I’m sure the noodles and soup would love to hear about Ashley knots too.”
“It’s an Ashley’s bend,” Jimin corrects, reaching up to swat at Taehyung’s hand that rests on his shoulder.
Taehyung catches the hand, preventing the slap, and holds it within his own. “Aww, are we holding hands?”
Jimin groans and suppresses a laugh, but doesn’t pull his hand back. Taehyung catches himself off-guard when he’s the one who blushes, ironically enough. He averts his eyes to their path ahead and holds the door open for Jimin. What? He may be a pirate, but he’s a gentleman too, damn it.
Jungkook is indeed excited to hear about Jimin’s day, and vice versa. They converse during their dinner over the low table in the middle of the study before heading off to bed and the three find themselves pleasantly content with evening, proceeding naturally, moving around one another in a way that suggests years of closeness in what is actually the result of only a few day’s rehearsal.