Chapter Text
Hongjoong had already known at the tender age of six years old that he wanted to achieve great things in his life.
With big eyes and pouting lips he had pulled at his mother's skirt, his little voice soft as he spoke up to her.
"Mama, Mama! I want to be a pirate one day!"
His mother had been shocked at first. Pirates were being hunted down and executed across all heavenly lands, never could her son go down such a path! What made him wish for something like that?
"But, baby... Why a pirate? Why not a mechanic on a ship like your father? Then you can see the sky, too."
Little Hongjoong, really tiny for his age, had stubbornly shaken his head.
"Nooo. I want to be a famous captain and I want to have a crew of my own! And my own ship! And then explore the sky with my friends!"
"My darling, you're not free when the good guys chase you. Must you become a bad man?" She reached down with a faint smile to let her hand glide worriedly through her son's hair. When Hongjoong raised his head to grin at her with the gap of his missing teeth, she knew it was no use.
"Nonsense! I will stay good, I will even become the best! Whenever I come home, you can be proud of me, Mom."
It had to be childhood nonsense, a careless dream that faded with the years.
His father would talk Hongjoong out of such foolishness, she was absolutely sure.
Hongjoong left her side to run into the garden again, staring up into the endless sky full of wonder. He stretched out his hands as if he wanted to pick the small airships in the distance from the sky or to pull himself up to them.
She watched him with a conflicted heart.
Why did his words feel like the heaviest burden on her shoulders?