Chapter Text
At the start of the year, the first overblot specifically, it was clear that everyone was unnerved, if not . Most passed it off as a one time thing, overblots were always written as rare. That was before each dorm had recorded a case of its own. After so many had occurred, it was thought that the headmage would step in and help, although his uselessness became blatantly obvious when they started again.
——
Ace sat on the end of the infirmary bed, blearily curled up into a spare blanket he had managed to persuade the nurse to give him after all the time he had refused to leave the room.
It had been two days since the incident, and in his haze of paranoia wad not looking too sharp. He knew that recovery was needed, but was it really meant to last that unbearably long?
He pulled out his phone and shuffled to turn on the bed to face the other side as he blindly scrolled through whichever app he first found mildly appealing. His blank scrolling trance was broken however as he jumped at the sound of loud, course coughing from behind him, his heartbeat suddenly faster than before. He snapped around to meet their gaze, at the same moment they happened to cough up an amount of a thick atramentum substance, which in the process coated the thin infirmary sheets and him.
“Dude! That’s fucking disgusting!” He yelped as he stumbled as he tried to quickly get up from where he had found himself quite comfortable at the end of the bed, looking down at the dense liquid which had begun to drip down his uniform sleeve.
A short, quiet apology was all that were muttered in reply, followed by a series of more harsh coughs, that Ace could do nothing much but express sympathy for.
“You wake up and the first thing you do before anything else is get your gross blot all over me, so much for being supposed best friends..” He sulked although no real bite was behind his words as he stood up and jogged over to the office in the infirmary, and consequently out of the ravenettes line of vision.
Deuce sat there silently. A confused string of questions had threaded themselves into his bleary headspace once Ace had left. His memory was a thick haze of a sleep induced amnesia. The silence stretched on as he tried to recall and piece together and particular theory on why he was where he was.
He could tell he was in the infirmary. The bright fluorescent lights and the sheer fabric he had seen other students adorn had told him that much. He knew he wasn’t the most careful out there, but he was tough. Something simple wouldn’t have placed him into as critical as of care that even Ace of all people cared to stay there with him, with the exception that he was allowed to skip classes to do so.
Then it was what he has recalled Ace calling blot, as he stared down at the substance as it seemed to seep into the sheet. He had coughed that gross shit up, but blot is produced in an overblot?
Just as soon as he had left, a head of amber poked its way into his peripheral, followed by a short series of snickers.
“What’s with that face?” In reply all he received was a sharp frown, to which he simply shrugged back. “I told the nurse you were up, he said he’s gonna come see if you’re good or not before deciding if you’re going back to the dorm or not.” He chose to ignore the blank, confused look he got answered with, as he placed a plastic cup of water into one of Deuces hands. He let go himself to shove the sheets into an unorderly mess at the end of the bed, and moving to slowly usher the cup to his mouth.
After a couple of minutes of struggling, that seemed to stretch on longer than it was, Ace finally managed to get at least half of the water drunk, the other half spilt down Deuce, and had already left to refill the cup.
This left him by himself again. It wasn’t something he was actually displeased by, the silence not accompanied by a ringing and/or a lingering sense of isolation. And the time could be used to piece together the odd ends of the string he hadn’t gotten to due to his interruption. He coughed up ink, and the one in the infirmary.. he knew he wasn’t dumb at times, excelling in his interests, but he really thought he was missing something here..
It felt as though the answer was right in front of him, yet far enough away he’d have to reach out, grazing it with his fingertips as it taunted him from its distance.
Ace returned not too shortly, clearly paying more attention to talking than the water tipping over the edge of the cup which he had filled too much and in the process leaving a trail across the floor, ignoring as the nurse nodded as he walked off while huffily telling him off for making a mess. Deuce hadn’t even noticed him walk over after Ace left in the first place.
“The nurse said you’re perfectly fine to go back to the dorm for now. Which I personally think is great, because it means I can still ‘watch over you’ but now in the comfort of my own bed, and not this suspiciously thin mattress!” Ace rambled as he sat himself down onto the bed, spilling more water down his arm as he sat on the edge of the bed.
“You think you can stand? I mean I guess you’ve not really moved for two days.. you can get your steps in though.”
Not exactly expecting a proper answer, he didn’t seem surprised when all he got in reply was a small mumble which he took no notice in properly listening to.
“I’ll take that as a yes!” Ace grinned, placing the cup down on the table beside the bed, wrapping his now slightly wet arm around the other as he pulled Deuce to the edge of the bed, moving a hand to his lower back to help him stand up.
Apparently his legs seemed to protest at the idea of doing anything, and he stumbled into Ace.
“..Okay, so no walking, I guess I can call Trey then..? I doubt he’ll appreciate a call in the middle of class, we can only hope he doesn’t snitch to Riddle” He rambled more to himself as he helped Deuce to sit back down on the ground this time, gently passing him the cup of water as he blindly scrambled for his phone where he had left it disregarded on the bed from before.
The silence of the infirmary returned, a vague conversation heard from next to him as Ace went through with the call and soon after moving to play a random add riddled mobile game, in which Deuce took no notice in apart from the occasional glance out of the corner of his eye as he fiddled with edge of the white plastic cup in his hands.
The water for the most part was left ignored in the cup, although Ace silently took pride in the fact he managed to persuade him to drink any at all, even if it was just a couple of small sips, without having to force the drink to his mouth especially with how out of it he had been previously.
A knock followed from against the dividers in the room, which accompanied a signature almost smug expression and readjustment of his glasses from the third year.
“How’s he been?” He asked as he knelt in front of the pair, looking over the two first years.
“He’s alright, I guess?“ Ace muttered, not bothering to look up from whatever game he had been playing on his phone.
They were met with a sigh and a look of expectance from Trey. He didn’t care to ponder on Ace’s ignorance, as he moved to securely pick up Deuce. One arm in the crook behind his knees and the other on his upper back. He curled up against him, his face squished against his chest. Trey spared a look at the redhead and started to walk out of the room as Ace scrambled to his feet, jogging slightly to catch up with the pair as they headed out of the infirmary.
—————————
After Ace had rummaged through his pocket to find his dorm key and had pushed the door open, he came to a stop and spun around to face Trey. “..Why is it clean in here?”
“Your roommates did it while you two were out” Trey moved past him into the room, shifting the hand that was holding up his back down slightly, just enough to pull back the bedding before laying Deuce down onto the bed. “It honestly needed it. Just think yourself lucky Riddle hadn’t seen what a pigsty it was before.”
Ace grumbled in response as he sluggishly dragged himself to sit disorderly near the foot of the bed.
Small conversations about classes were made, the dorm and whatever else they could scrape up to talk about in the time they were all gathered, but Deuce blanked most of it out somewhat reminiscing the warmth he had felt in Treys arms.
Soon enough, Trey deemed it a suitable chance to head back to class and said his goodbyes as he closed the door behind him as he left. The click of the door broke the room into the same familiar silence that the infirmary had.
“Suppose it’s just you and me for now, huh Juice.. how’s it feel to be back?” Ace spoke, more to himself without expecting a reply. It’s wasn’t like he had been properly responded to before. It was more to fill the quiet tension of the room.
A short time passed where not a lot happened and not a lot was said, such a contrast to their normal quarrelling. Neither of the pair had moved, although it was obvious from the frequent shuffling that Ace was eager at the idea to do something other than sit there.
The silence remained unbroken until he shot up, stumbling slightly when his leg clashed against the corner of the bed frame. He dropped himself onto his knees, scrambling over to one of the oddly shaped wardrobes in the shared room. Deuce never fully understood the reason why they were shaped like that. Sure, the rest of the dorm was similar in strangely shaped furniture and the like. But it seemed unethical.
Ace pulled open the drawer from wardrobe, scrambling through a mixture of folded and dumped clothes. Deuce lifted his head, his curiosity beating the tired weight draped over him to get a look at what the other was doing. After a good minute, he sat back on his knees, huffing as he dumped a pair of clothes onto the bed.
“Why does nothing in your drawer match?Either way it’s not my problem, and you should get changed. ‘s gotta be ten times better than whatever you’re currently wearing anyway. And while you do that, I can go take a walk” This time he could actually somewhat understand the redheads rambling, and the fog in his head somewhat settled as he sat up with a short nod as he watched Ace unceremoniously fling the door open and walk out, hands held behind his head.
A good minute passed before deuce stood up, unsteadily stumbling as he walked to the door to push it closed and journeying back to his bed to use whatever energy he had left to get changed.
He was definitely glad to get out of the gown that the infirmary had issued him. The thin material was not helping fight the bitter chill that seemed to run through the dorm on the days where the sun wasn’t fully out which seeped into the ache across his body which he hadn’t noticed until now, and the material was a texture that grazed his skin in all the wrong ways.
He slowly changed, sinking into the feeling of his actual clothes opposed the gown left discarded on the floor. It didn’t have to be his problem to move it somewhere and the odd feeling of fatigue that had come across him left him with nothing more than wanting to sleep for days on end, even if he had woken up only a couple of hours beforehand.
The room was back to its unusual silence, where normally the tranquility was filled with the sounds of cards being shuffled or dealt, or the soft scratch of a pen against paper if one of his roommates was actually bored enough to do homework.
While Ace was still out wandering somewhere, he let run through his head whatever came to mind. Maybe dinner would be one of his favourites. He hadn’t asked Trey for any insights on it, yet knowing Heartslabyul it was probably something elaborate if riddle had any say, though he didn’t feel that hungry. Maybe he could ask for something simple.
How many classes had me missed? It was the middle of the day, right? He could probably ask someone in his class for notes. He didn’t know that many people in there, at least he didn’t think he had left any poor impression on them that he couldn’t have a friendly conversation asking about they covered while he was out. Not yet anyway.
He did know Ace though, but he had already assumed that he hadn’t been going to class while he was in the infirmary. He would truly do anything to get out of even 5 minutes of class if he could. While that was the norm for him, what wasn’t was how kind he was being. Sure, sometimes he would be actually nice (shocker) but it was evened out with a line of banter. For once it seemed.. more toned down in a way? Definitely less snarky if anything.
The door swung open, loudly clashing against the wall and sounding a harsh bang that seemed to echo through the student free dorm. Deuce flinched at the loud noice, his head snapping up and glaring accusatorially at Ace.
He huffed as he strolled into the room, barely glancing at the other as he slithered onto the bed, stretching across the lower half.
It was quite easy to tell that he was conflicted about something, if the way he couldn’t keep still and the harsh scowl that was painted across his face were any indicator.
He somehow scowled further, reluctantly yanking something out of his pocket and throwing it at the other, hitting Deuce square in the forehead. No wonder he was in the basketball club with aim like that. Even if Deuce had seen him miss countless times.
The item he had thrown clunked down into his lap, and carefully picking it up and flipping it over to read a label if it had one.
He wasn’t sure what wires crossed in his head for him to do that, because he was holding a banana. Which don’t have labels.
He could feel Ace shuffle on the bed somewhat awkwardly, and when his eyes met his face there was a very slight warmth spread across his cheeks.
“I uh.. googled what sick people eat. It said something about bananas. It’s not because you’re gay, I swear.”
That earnt him a second scowl. Even if he was grateful for the food as he peeled it open and took a small bite.
He didn’t feel like he was sick though. It seemed like Ace kept mentioning it though he didn’t feel out of the ordinary. Maybe a little tired. An odd fatigue sitting like an aura around him but he felt the same way after staying up all night studying because he forgot to until late. But he didn’t exactly feel ill. That’s not saying he wouldn’t bask in the kindness that was unnatural from Ace for a little bit longer. Which reminded him that lessons were currently happening seeing as Trey didn’t stay, and that he was missing out on class. What if they were going over important notes and be wasn’t there!
Ace seemed to have dozed off, his eyes closed and his breathing slowing down. Deuce munched the rest of the banana, placing the peel onto his desk (he could throw it out later) and standing up. Ace didn’t seem to stir. He stood up, carefully changing into his uniform while trying to not rouse the other, grabbed his bag, and closed the door behind him.
——
The trek to his class seemed to run longer than usual. He was barely half way there and felt more out of breath, normally at least triple would make him start to break a sweat in track, and by the time he got there the class he was aiming for had finished. The bell seemed to echo through his head, bringing back the remnants of what felt like a headache. It bordered bitter by the time he had sat down in the next class and the loud students entering the class didn’t help one bit.
He was glad it seemed to be a slower lesson. There was no test or review, mainly revision over what they had been covering that term, and he was actually proud on how many notes he had written this time around. It was a nice change of pace from the more fast paced lessons, where it was obvious the teacher had to cram weeks worth of subject matter into the few weeks before a test where he already had trouble taking in the information presented.
The only problem with the still ambience of these lessons and the dull professors voice drawing on is the earlier fatigue he had temporarily forgot about came back tenfold, to where he barely noticed the way his head would start to droop forwards, and most definitely missed the looks other students in the class seemed to send his direction when he caught anyone’s eye.
His teacher didn’t even seem mad when he approached at the end of the lesson and gently woke him up. They faintly explained something to him in the empty classroom as he packed his things up, though only occasional words broke his trance, the other falling on deaf ears.
‘Dorm’.. ‘housewarden’.. ‘injuries’.. ‘rest’.. ‘overblot’? and handed him a piece of paper neatly filled out as he sent him on his way.
The quiet in the halls as other students had fled to other areas of the school for lunch seemed to calm the pain radiating through his head to as he took the calm of the storm to read the note.
He didn’t bother dawdling with the details, only staring down at what he was guessing where the important words, harshly glaring at the paper as he tried to process what each neatly written letter was.
Most of what happened in class seemed to be somewhat of a blur, but something seemed to have happened for him to have been given a note telling him to go back to the dorm, and how rest was vital while still in recovery from drastic affairs. It felt like everyone knew something he didn’t. Also weren’t affairs when someone cheated on their husband or wife? He didn’t think he was married, let alone dating someone! Did Ace count? Was that why he was giving him those sympathetic looks?
Reading the note didn’t make him as happy as it probably would have done for any other student. Unlike those, he didn’t look for any excuse to skip class. He was an honour student. That was the main reason he came to the infamous Night Raven College, to be a better person mainly for his mum! He wanted to be the son she deserved, not the one to only cause her grievances. He had promised to change way.
What if the teacher told on him to his mum about what happened in class? Whatever it was he was sure it wasn’t good, he didn’t need to worry her more than he had, plus he was doing so much better at nrc than he had in his secondary school!
He slowly teetered down the hallway, anxiously scratching at his hand beneath the gloves, but stopped haphazardly as the collar of his shirt was yanked backwards. He choked both in surprise and at the random tightness around his neck, snapping his head around to face a burst of orange.
“What the fuck are you doing? Do you know how long I’ve had to search around the campus for you?”
The blood drained from his face, and if the pissed off look he could see clear as day on Ace’s face were to tell him anything, he was in trouble.
The more he looked over Ace, the more smaller details he could notice. Like how his frame heavily lifted and dropped with each breath he took, clearly winded from having to run who knows how far around the campus to find him. Or how sloppily his uniform sat on him, with his vest and half of his shirt buttons undone, and his armband and tie apparently forgotten in his rush.
Ace glowered seeing as Deuce didn’t attempt to answer in favour of staring at him, and dragged him by the back of his blazer, making snide remarks until he had towed him back to Heartslabyul and back into bed.
Deuce was seeming still in a small state of shock, both at how Ace literally lugged him back to the dorm, and trying to ignore the slight heat he could feel hovering around his face and continuing to stare into the other’s cherry eyes didn’t seem to help.
It wasn’t like he was complaining. Not that he would say it out loud, but Ace was very pretty. Handsome even. Like how freckles seemed to scatter across his face, framing around his jawline. Or when he would turn over at night and catch Ace looking in his direction, the moonlight from the small window in the room causing his eyes to shine a midnight red.
He was so caught up in his oblivious staring that he hadn’t noticed that he was back into whatever clothes Ace had gave him in the first place with the redhead sitting on a chair beside him, although the term sitting was becoming increasingly more indefinite with how he was slouching to the side, basically laying with his head on Deuce at that point and gently running a hand up and down part the bed.
Actually, maybe Ace was the one who had overblotted. His teacher mentioned something about that, right? He did look pretty miserable currently. It could explain why he was being so nice. Sure, the snarky attitude was still there, he had seen it when Ace was complaining at Riddle for why he wasn’t out of bed yet some mornings. But when it was directed at him, it felt like it was smothered in a slice of cake, a whole lot sweeter.
“You know.. everyone was really worried.” He hadn’t expected Ace to start talking though. He had gotten comfortable in the silence of the dorm and expected it to remain that way until he fell asleep. He rested his head back, feeling as it gently hit the headboard behind him.
“I don’t know how much you remember, but you tore up the garden pretty bad. Not as bad as riddle though, he can keep that title. We were stuck painting the roses while the third years used flora spells to fix the grass.”
He watched as Ace paused, his hand moving from the plush fabric of the bed to prod tiny patterns against Deuce’s skin through the duvet.
“I don’t think anyone was prepared to be fair. No one expects the self proclaimed ’honour student’ with a mysterious delinquent background to go out and overblot.”
But Deuce was the honour student with a delinquent background, not Ace?
This newfound knowledge felt like oddly reminiscent to him. Like when for most of class you don’t understand the calculation for a question, and it isn’t until the very end where you’ve spent a majority of the lesson doing everything but work not knowing what to do, yet you give it another go and you feel dumb not understanding it at first
And then it all made sense. Sevens, he was stupid, how had he not figured it out already it was right in front of his face! This opened up a completely new problem and answer! What will the other first years say? What have the other first years said guessing they already know? Most of them would probably be fine with it actually, they’ve all experienced them enough for a so called rare phenomenon. How much longer does he have to stay out of class? Did his mum know? She would be so worried, technically the school would have to tell her. How many times had she tried to get in contact with him and he wasn’t able to reply because he was resting in the infirmary?
The world felt like it was smouldering, a blur threatening to cloud his peripheral vision.
This was new. He was used to panic, where a cold sweat would break out across his skin and he suddenly found himself breathing more heavily than ever, but not like this. The cold that would drill panic into his lungs instead felt like a cold frost slowly but painfully sinking into his chest.
That was until he found a warm pressure melting that frost.
He looked up to see a bright pair of red eyes. They adorned a soft yet equally concerned expression. It was almost shocking how empathetic the redhead looked compared to the smug grin he usually wore.
As he returned more or less back to his senses, he could make out more and more of his situation. The heavy yet grounding weight pressed against him and the slightest chilly air that was occasionally breathed out, rustling against the shorter hairs on his neck. At this view, Deuce could count every freckle that adorned Ace’s face, heck even call favourites. His eyes had always caught onto the two beside his eye, how they followed the contours of his skin.
“Whatever you’re thinking is probably wrong.”
The quiet silence that overtook the dorm room was broken with words that which could have been a jab at his intelligence but he had come to know them as how someone as snobby as Ace showed he cared.
“I mean it’s not like I could read your mind or anything, you looked like you were about to cry though and I really don’t want to have to console you if you’re sobbing..”
Deuce watched as the other shuffled around slightly, moving into a position slightly closer to him, somehow compressing more of his weight against the other.
“Everyone gets pushed past their limits. Some people just have a higher tolerance for people’s bullshit than others. It’s not totally your fault you were cornered into that situation. It’s also not your problem that you seem to have a lower tolerance for twats than others. We’ve all been worried, heck I was scared shitless afterward and when you didn’t wake up that first day after. I ended up calling your mum just to talk to her.”
Turns out Crowley had not yet reported about his overblot to anyone, due to the fact he didn’t really want styx coming and stealing any more of his students for testing. Ace had continued to rambled, not that Deuce was complaining. The way he would emphasise the small details that he clearly thought were important while the more relevant information was barely doted on was unique. And he wouldn’t change it for the world.
“And so she ended up having a right go at Crowley for detaining that information from her especially since it was her son whose life was on the line this time. Oh! And you’re allowed to go home for the weekend. She managed to finesse headmage into letting you go since it’s Friday anyway and you’d probably want to recover in a familiar place. Do you think I could come? Since I’m like awesome and your mum and I are like best friends?” I don’t think I can leave you alone while your like this both for your health and my heart was left unsaid.
“You’re fat.”
“EH?????”
Ace shot up at the blatant bullying from Deuce, the empathy from his eyes burned in the vermilion into a glare that more naturally fit his features. “Who just calls someone fat? Look at all this I’m doing for you and spilling my heart for you to criticise me?”
The grumpy expression made him giggle a little, and Ace smirked at his ability to raise his spirits by being pissed off. He met the gentle smile worn by the other caused him to beam. Maybe his feelings wouldn’t be hopeless after all.
“You’re a piece of shit.”
Their casual banter provided a warm entertainment while classes remained in action and flowed through to the evening. Ace never left Deuces bed, and Deuce never made him leave. If cater had caught them in the morning, arms wrapped around each other as they dozed through the morning after such an eventful previous day, he sure didn’t tell anyone.
Maybe there was some hope for the two card soldiers who always seemed to get the other without words or actions after all, even if it took defiance and burden to get them there.