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Late nights were not uncommon for either Ace or Deuce. They were roommates that often spent their nights talking the other’s ear off until they fell asleep or working on the assignments they’d procrastinated on during the day. Besides, nights were the only times they didn’t have to abide by Riddle’s rules, so long as they were quiet about it. It was completely normal for them to stay up late.
Deuce tried not to stay up too often. After all, track practices were early in the morning and had classes the rest of the day. That wasn’t even mentioning exams and track meets he had to go to every so often. Staying up super late just wasn’t a luxury he could afford. He needed the energy, and he wasn’t about to develop a caffeine addiction like his roommate was.
The former delinquent didn’t know how often his roommate stayed up, but he usually saw him with a coffee or energy drink. He was never concerned given that despite being a little grouchy, Ace always had the energy to get through the day. His bright, mischievous smile lit up any room he was in. Deuce could always count on the redhead to be ready for the day, no matter how begrudgingly he was.
The change in him was slow at first. Deuce figured that the days Ace was quieter just meant he was having an off day. Everyone had their moments, he figured, and Ace was no different. But then he'd find Ace passed out on the bay window sill instead of his own bed. Other times it was the floor. It worried Deuce more than he cared to admit when he had to wake up a very drowsy and disoriented Ace on their school days.
It got so bad that Yuu confronted Deuce about it. "Hey, is Ace okay?" they asked him.
"I think so?" Deuce replied, extremely uncertain. "Why? What happened?"
The prefect shrugged their shoulders, gaze pointed to the ground. "Nothing specific. He just seems so tired lately. He could barely keep his eyes open during PE and nearly got hit in the face with those magical dodgeball things."
The boy frowned. Ace was usually at the top of his game during PE. Not as much as him, but if he was feeling off that day, PE normally brought him back into himself. "I don't think he's been sleeping well. Probably staying up too late too."
Yuu nodded in understanding. "Maybe you could talk to him? You two are pretty close given that you're roommates and all. Plus he usually only talks to you or me about personal stuff, and you're more around him than I am."
A faint blush bloomed across Deuce's cheeks. He scratched the back of his head, averting his gaze away from his friend. "Yeah. I'll, um, try to talk to him. It's the weekend at least so he should be able to catch up on some sleep."
"Let me know how it goes."
"Of course."
The two walked together to their last class for the day. They already found Ace half asleep, head laying down on the desk with his eyes closed. Deuce sat next to him and gently shook his shoulder. "Hey, you awake?" he asked.
"Yeah," Ace replied groggily, pushing himself up into a proper sitting position. "Just tired." Deuce noted the lack of caffeinated beverage as he opened up his notebook. Ace flashed the prefect a small smile as they sat down next to the former delinquent. "Hey Yuu."
"Hi Ace. Did you start studying for the alchemy practical yet?"
"A little bit. Nervous?"
"Oh yeah. I've been trying to get Grim to study, but he's been very difficult."
Before any of them could continue the conversation further, the professor entered the classroom and began their lecture. Deuce made sure to take careful notes, occasionally glancing over at Ace's own notes. There were a few things written down, along with the occasional doodle, but it was overall a blank sheet in front of him. That wasn't the most surprising thing. Ace often just absorbed whatever information was in that lecture and wrote down the more difficult parts he didn't understand.
Today, however, was different. Ace's eyes were glazed over, staring down and seemingly through his notebook. His handwriting and doodles were shaky. Ace's hands were always steady, but now, Deuce saw they held a slight tremble in them. The rest of Ace's body was eerily still, aside from a twitch in his eyebrow or lip every so often.
"Hey," Deuce whispered to him, nudging him gently. Ace jumped slightly at the contact. "You okay?"
A strained smile spread across the redhead's face. "Yeah. I'm fine," he whispered back.
"It's okay if you're not you know."
"I know it is."
Deuce's gaze dropped to his roommate's hands. They were always steady, so seeing him like this worried him more than he cared to admit. "You just seem…" His eyes found Ace's. His cheeks warmed, and he quickly looked back down towards his notebook. "Nevermind. Just thought you were acting a little off."
"Well, um… thanks for checking in."
Deuce glanced over again, about to say something else until the professor scolded, "Boys! Quit the chit-chatter or it's detention."
"Sorry sir!" Deuce apologized.
The professor resumed the lesson, and Deuce tried not to let his mind stray towards his best friend.
—
The lesson felt like it went on forever. Deuce could barely even keep his attention from sitting there for so long. Thank the Great Seven that it was the last class of the day. Now he and Ace could-
"Ace?" Deuce asked. The redhead had fallen asleep again, face down and buried in his arms. "Ace, you need to wake up."
He stirred slightly. "No, 'mma stay here," he mumbled.
"I'll carry you if you don't get up."
Ace groaned in annoyance, weakly pushing himself up from the desk. "If you lay one finger on me I will curse you and your entire bloodline." He stood up and started packing up his things lethargically. Deuce kept a careful eye on him, watching as his body swayed and how his eyes were blinking heavily. He knew exactly when Ace was about to trip over himself and nearly fall to the floor.
Deuce caught him, his hands grasping Ace's arms firmly to keep him propped up. Ace shot him a glare, but there was no malice in it, just exhaustion. "Am I still getting cursed?" the boy asked sheepishly.
"I'll spare you this time." A few moments of silence passed between them. "You can let go of me now."
Deuce retracted his hands and stepped back quickly. "R-right! Sorry." He watched Ace sling his bag over his shoulder and start to walk towards the door. He joined him at his side. "Are we gonna head back to the dorm?" the dark haired boy asked once they were in the hallway.
"Yeah. I'm ready to be dead the whole weekend."
"I'm sure. You look like you need the rest."
Ace looked like he wanted to fight that statement but kept his mouth shut. "I mean, maybe not the whole weekend. I think there's an unbirthday party at some point."
"Not this weekend no. There's one on Monday though."
Ace's face contorted into disgust. "Eugh. I hate Monday unbirthday parties. Too much work for the beginning of the week."
"Yeah. And the housewarden is even more annoyed with us than usual."
"We should petition to push it to Tuesday. Or literally any other day."
"Yeah." Deuce scratched the back of his neck, his promise to Yuu echoing in his mind. "Hey, uh, I know you'd probably rather not, but can we talk?"
Curiosity flashed over Ace's face briefly. "Sure. What's up?"
The former delinquent wondered if they should stop walking for the conversation they were about to have. It was probably fine. It wasn't like Deuce was going to drop any earth shattering news. Still, it was a little nerveracking to say out loud. "I'm kind of worried about you. You haven't really been acting like yourself for the past couple days."
Ace stiffened and looked away from his roommate's sincere expression. "Yeah. I know," he replied, almost looking guilty. "I haven't really been sleeping well and it's catching up to me. I mean, you literally saw me falling asleep in class. That professor is pretty boring though."
A small smile stretched across Deuce's face for a moment at Ace's comment. "I'm serious though. You can talk to me if something's going on. I'm not gonna think any differently of you." He turned away as Ace's head swiveled to look back at him. "I mean, you can also talk to Yuu. Or Jack. Or Epel. Or anyone else honestly. I just want you to know that you can talk to any of us if you're going through something."
The silence felt a little tense as Deuce waited for his best friend to say something. His eyes darted over to those cherry red eyes boring into him as they continued to walk. He wondered if he said too much too quickly. Ace wasn't really one for serious emotional talks in general. What made Deuce think he was going to open up now of all times?
"I appreciate it," Ace finally said after a few silent moments of walking. "Seriously. It's, um, nice to be reminded that you- that everyone does actually care."
"Of course," Deuce replied earnestly. "We all care."
Another brief moment of silence passed between them before Ace broke it again. "Alright, too much vulnerability for me right now. Let's get back to the dorm so I can fucking pass out in peace."
A frown flickered on the former delinquent's face, but he kept on walking with his worrying roommate. If Ace didn't want to talk about it, that was fine. Deuce would still be there for when he was ready. Until then, he would catch him if he tripped and fell over himself as many times as needed.
—
When Deuce came back from track practice, Ace was asleep. A small smile graced his lips at the sight. He was glad Ace finally seemed to be getting that well needed rest after how he acted throughout the entire day. He almost sent Yuu a picture, but thought better of it. Ace would surely try and kill him if he found out he took a picture of him sleeping.
Deuce didn't stay up too much later. He took a shower and got some last minute work done before slowly succumbing to his exhaustion.
Unfortunately for him, his mind didn't let him sleep. A plague of dark thorns, sand, contracts, and poison infected him that night. Flashes of his friends hurt and in hospital beds haunted him. He was running around a labyrinth of darkness, trying to find the way out of the strange hell scape he found himself in. Monsters made of ink tried to stop him, each victim of them laughing hysterically as they wreaked havoc with Deuce helpless to stop them.
He could see a light at the end of a tunnel before he felt a spear pierce his chest.
He woke up gasping for air, beads of sweat beginning to roll down his neck. "Just a nightmare," he whispered to himself, trying to calm his racing heart. He unzipped his hoodie and threw it to the side, feeling restricted despite how baggy and comfortable it normally was. His head turned towards his right to check-
Deuce froze at the sight of Ace's empty bed. He just saw him sleeping there a few hours ago, right? His eyes flicked towards the door next, seeing that the lock was not engaged. He tried not to panic, telling himself that his roommate was probably just in the bathroom, but his heart didn't agree.
He didn't have to wonder where Ace was long, however. The door to their room slowly opened. The redhead crept inside, careful to make minimal noise. His eyes widened when he saw Deuce wide awake and staring right at him. "Hey," he said.
"Hey," Deuce replied, slightly out of breath. He gazed at his best friend quizzically. "Did you shower?"
Ace chuckled nervously, taking the towel he used off his head. "Uh, yeah. I did."
The dark haired boy glanced over at the digital clock on Ace's desk. "It's three in the morning."
"I know that. And why are you up exactly?"
"Nightmare."
Ace's expression softened, eyes glancing down towards the floor. "Oh. That sucks. I'm sorry did- Did you want to talk about it or something?"
"It's fine. Just the normal overblot stuff."
"Oh. Yeah. Sucks."
A few moments of awkward silence passed between them. Deuce kept his gaze on Ace while the redhead couldn't even look him in the eye. "Is there any reason you're up?" the dark haired boy asked softly.
"Well, I mean-" He wiped his dry hands with his towel. "Usual late night burst of energy and whatnot."
"You look exhausted."
Ace shook his head, walking towards the window. "I'm fine."
The redhead sat down on the window sill, eyes trained on his hands still fidgeting with the towel. Deuce frowned at the sight. He couldn't just sit there and not do anything while his best friend was clearly suffering. He threw the covers off of himself and sat across from Ace on the window sill. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Ace, you're not sleeping. Clearly whatever is bothering you is serious enough for you to lose sleep over it."
"It's…" The redhead forced out a breath, turning his head to look out the window. "It's just all of my stupid worries and fears and it's just fucking stupid that I can't control myself."
Deuce's frown deepened. "Anxiety?"
"Yeah."
They'd talked about this before. For as cool as Ace played it in front of people, his mind was usually going into overdrive. Deuce had to praise the boy's composure under the constant pressure of his mind. His perfectly crafted smile hid his irrationality and deep rooted fear that no one but the boy's best friend saw in flashes. It was bad, but Deuce never thought it was this bad.
"Is it about anything specific or just a general feeling?"
"Um…" Ace ran a hand over his face, resting his chin on his knuckles. "It's kind of everything." He took another deep breath before he elaborated, "It was about a few things at first and now it's just been constant because I keep thinking about it."
Deuce nodded in understanding. "Maybe it'll help if you talk about some of it? Not all of it if you don't want to obviously."
Ace was silent for a good couple of minutes, unmoving from his position. The former delinquent couldn't help but feel a stab of heartache at the sight of him. Dark circles made his normally bright red eyes look hollow and sunken. His demeanor was all off, shoulders curled inwards and steady hands holding a slight tremble in them. Deuce wished he could take some of that unfounded anxiety away and relieve the boy across from him of his own mind.
"Yeah. Yeah I probably should tell someone anyway," he breathed. "But you're not allowed to judge me."
"Of course."
Ace paused briefly, fingers running along the edge of the towel. "It kind of started back when me and Epel got into that argument."
"About your pie preferences?" Deuce was surprised. That was weeks ago.
"I know it's stupid and Epel probably didn't care but I thought I took it too far again like I normally do with any kind of fight. And then we didn't talk for a few days and I thought he was actually upset and I didn't know how to bring it up so I just kind of spiraled into thinking that now everyone else is gonna hate me."
"No one would ever hate you over something so dumb," Deuce assured him.
"I know but me and my fuckass brain." Ace chuckled bitterly, biting the inside of his lip. "From there it was just other small things. Like Yuu and Jack not telling me about their study group, Sebek yelling at me for something, me fucking up in basketball for the umpteenth time, and just Riddle's rules."
The former delinquent nodded sympathetically, offering a strained smile. "It's probably a lot for you."
Ace's eyes narrowed, his jaw clenching. "It shouldn't be."
Deuce wanted to reach out but thought better of it. Ace was already overthinking a lot, and he didn't want him to get any wrong ideas. "Have you thought about, like, medication? Or therapy?" he asked hesitantly.
A flash of shame crossed Ace's face. "I- Yeah, but- Okay you can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, alright? Not even Yuu."
"I promise."
"I can't… really afford it right now."
Deuce's eyes widened in surprise. "Really? I thought-" He shut his mouth. He's been over to Ace's house. It was in a nice neighborhood, fairly clean, away from crime, the perfect dream house for any upper middle class family. Market value was probably north of three hundred thousand. But just because someone had a nice house didn't always mean they were doing well.
"So, uh, funny story about my family," Ace chuckled nervously, "is that my dad kind of sucks. He left my mom with a shit ton of debt from gambling and has somehow roped my brother into helping her pay it off. So money's been kind of tight and I think if I told my brother "hey can I have anxiety pills that aren't covered under our current insurance that will costs hundreds of dollars per month?" that it really wouldn't go so well."
Deuce frowned, sympathizing with his best friend. "Damn. I'm really sorry. That sucks."
"We're all coping. I just cope by repressing all of my emotions and feelings about every situation."
"That's not unhealthy at all."
"Yeah, right?" The two giggled briefly, flashing each other a smile. Ace averted his gaze back towards the towel in his hands. "But, um, anyways, it's all just kind of accumulated into me waking up in the middle of the night anxious as hell and thankfully only two panic attacks. One of which was earlier tonight. So." He quickly glanced up at Deuce's face, watching the concern morph into sorrow. "That's why I showered. Helps if I have something else to focus on."
The dark haired boy nodded in understanding. "I know they can be intense, so just try not to drown, I guess."
Ace scoffed, a small smile appearing on his face. He finally raised his head and looked his best friend in his eyes. "Thanks for listening to me. I appreciate it."
Deuce smiled back. "Yeah. Of course. Do you feel any better?"
"A little bit. It's just the after effects of the panic attack now."
"Good. That's good."
Ace leaned back against the wall, sliding down into a more comfortable position. "So? What about you? With your nightmare and all. You haven't had one of those in a while. At least about the overblots."
The dark haired boy nodded. "Yeah. It was the normal stuff. Average monsters and maniacal laughter paired with the faces of all my dead friends. Scared me more than usual."
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault. And, um, not that I wished you had a panic attack and were awake, seeing you alive when I woke up was pretty nice and reassuring."
Red bloomed across Ace's cheeks, a bashful smile spreading on his face. "That's cool. Glad my presence could help," he laughed, pulling at a loose fiber in the towel. "And I promise not to die to any of the mentally ill idiots at this school while we're still here."
Deuce's lips cracked open into a grin. "I appreciate that."
A beat of awkward silence settled between them. "I, um, guess I have one more thing that kind of worried me sort of."
"Yeah?"
Ace nodded, gaze settled onto the towel in his hands again. "There's this boy I like." Deuce's heart began to beat faster. "I've been trying to drop subtle hints but I don't think he's really picking them up. I didn't want to be too obvious but I feel like I kind of have to now." He lifted his head, looking Deuce straight into his peacock green eyes. "He's kind of an idiot."
The dark haired boy's cheeks warmed. "Well sometimes your subtle hints are a little too hard to pick up on."
He shrugged his shoulders. "That's fair I guess. But I didn't want to be obvious just in case he thought I was weird for even feeling that way about him. And we're already pretty close, so it would ruin our friendship." He swallowed thickly, the next words rushing out of him. "Plus we live together, so it'd be weird if- you know."
Deuce nodded slowly. "Yeah. I get it. I also live with the boy I like too." He paused briefly, offering Ace a small smile. "So yeah. I get it."
They stared at each other for a moment, fighting back their smiles. Ace broke first, falling into a quiet fit of giggles with Deuce following shortly after. "We're both idiots," he laughed.
"Yeah. Maybe."
Ace rubbed at his eyes, unable to contain the relief and joy in his chest. "You're not fucking with me right? Just wanna make sure."
The former delinquent stood up and moved so that his face was inches from his roommate's. He gently cupped the side of his face, staring into those brilliant cherry red eyes before pressing his lips to his. Their hearts beat in sync with each other, unable to stop the grins from infecting their kisses. Deuce didn't stop kissing him until he felt Ace's hand slightly pushing against his chest.
"Are you sure now?" he asked, slightly out of breath.
"Yep. I think you made your point clear," Ace chuckled, his face completely flushed red. Without another word, Deuce scooped up the redhead in his arms. In a brief panic, Ace wrapped his arms around the former delinquent's neck. "Wh-what are you doing?"
"Taking you to bed. You need to sleep."
"You don't have to carry me, weirdo."
Deuce laid Ace down on his bed and promptly climbed in with him, pulling the covers over them and holding him close. "This way I can make sure you actually stay in one place."
Ace pouted. "I don't wanna accidentally wake you up in the middle of the night if my brain decides that I don't deserve to sleep."
"Then I'll just punch you and knock you out or something to make sure you sleep."
The redhead scoffed, pressing his forehead against Deuce's. "Asshole." He pressed another kiss to his best friend's lips. "It's embarrassing how much I like you."
Deuce brushed his thumb along Ace's cheek. "Feeling's mutual. Don't worry." Both of their eyes began to blink heavily, and Deuce's brushed some of Ace's hair away from his face. "We're both tired. We should sleep."
Ace sighed and reached for Deuce's hand. "Fine, but don't get mad if I wake you up."
He pressed another kiss to his lips. "I won't. Goodnight Ace."
Both of them slowly began to relax, a different kind of warmth comforting them as they laid together, fingers and legs intertwined. "Goodnight Deuce," Ace mumbled before they both drifted off to sleep.