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Deuce woke up heaving. He sprung up in his bed, clutching his aching chest as he tried to draw in any sense of air. His eyes were wide, leaving his tears easy access to run down his face. He couldn’t remember if he screamed when he woke up, and to be honest he didn’t care. The dream felt disgustingly real, and that only made his panic worse, wondering if it had never been a dream at all but instead a memory of the past.
He choked on the sobs trying to escape his throat. He usually was embarrassed by his own tears and would try his hardest to calm himself down, but with how hard it was to breathe, he didn’t care if he had to cry all night.
He clawed at his neck, it hurt but he just wanted it over. He hadn’t had a nightmare like this in a while, and he hadn’t felt this sort of pain, or cried to this extent since he was quite young. He didn’t know what was different, but he feared it was something as childish as not having his mom around.
He slowly started to calm down, breaths coming in and out more easily, but his tears still fell freely. He took a deep breath, his tears finally starting to slow down. He bent down, grabbing the bottom of his plush shirt and whipping his eyes dry with it.
He hiccuped, before the sound of his dorm room door opening could be heard. He froze, not making a noise and trying to determine who was walking in my the sound of their steps.
“Hey Deuce? Are you up?”
Deuce could recognize that voice from anywhere. He cleared his throat before promptly responding. “Hey Ace. What do you want?”
“I’ve got a test tomorrow, mind if I chill here for a bit to get my mind off of it?”
Deuce sighed. “Yeah fine. Want me to quiz you or something?”
Ace sat down in the corner of Deuce's bed, keeping eye contact as he leaned against the banister. “Nah, I’ve studied enough for tonight.”
“Alright, whatever you need, I guess. What do you wanna talk about?”
“Uh… actually I don’t really know.” There was a moment of silence between the two before Ace broke it again with a laugh. “Remember when Cater was doing bad in math and Riddle gave him a giant pile of math homework to study?”
Deuce laughed too. “Yeah, poor guy had to do that in one night, right?”
“Yeah! Maybe Riddle should do that to you, you suck ass at math!” Ace’s laugh turned into something like a cackle.
“Cool it Ace. Plus it’s not like your grades are so much better.”
“True enough, but it’s not like I try that hard. You, on the other hand, lose sleep over studying and yet you're still an idiot.”
Deuce shot a glare at Ace. “Tonight’s not the night okay? Make fun of me all you goddamn want tomorrow, just hold it off for tonight okay?”
Ace held his hands up in a mocking surrender. “Alright alright! Didn’t know the model student got on edge so easily!” Ace mocked.
Deuce just sighed in response, closing his eyes.
“Or is it that you’ve started reverting to your old roots? Starting to be a delinquent again?”
Ace swore he could almost see Deuces breaking point. He went dead silent, the sound of his breathing not even making a sound anymore. He just stared at Ace… quietly.
And yet… he continued. “Woah woah! Did I finally piss off the ‘former delinquent’?” He put harsh air quotes to anger Deuce farther.
“Will you ever shut the hell up?” Deuce started.
Ace only responded with a chuckle and a small yet sturdy ‘no’.
“You truly don’t understand how much work I put into improving do you!? I want nothing more than to be a good fucking student, and I don’t care what caused you to turn out this way, but you need to shut the hell up so I can focus for once.”
Deuce took a breath.
Ace tried to cut in.
Deuce cut him off. “No, you don’t fucking get it do you? Has nobody ever put you in your place for how you treat people, or do you only ever target me this harshly. I get that I’m bad at math, but you don’t need to shove it down my throat any fucking opportunity you can get.”
Ace looked down slightly. “At least you have someone to force you to do better.”
“Do you think what you say is funny, or that it just flies over my head? Do you really believe nothing you say to me actually affects me? Maybe you’re the true idiot between the two of us.”
“What the hell man!?” was all Ace could get out before Deuce continued.
“No, it’s not your time to talk. I have tried for so long to atleast stay nice with you but nothing I do ever teaches you a good enough lesson. You’re an asshole, Ace. No matter what you do it won’t change what you’ve done in the past.”
Ace's face had paled slightly, his eye contact weakening with each of Deuce's words.
“I have been trying so hard to get better.” Deuce’s voice finally started to calm down. “Would you please, just try to stop yourself from insulting me for everything I do?”
Ace had fully turned away from the other, staring at the wall, spacing out. His jaw was quivering as his sniffling reverberated around the room. “I– look, Deuce… um.”
“You’re crying. I’d like to give you pity but you seem to mock anyone including me , if they cry at all, even if you didn’t see it yourself, so why should I even try?”
“I don’t have a test tomorrow.” Ace's voice cracked.
“What?”
“I don’t have a test for another week but… look I heard about the fight you got into and… I can’t believe I’m saying this but… I felt bad. I know how much work you put into trying to stop that side of you. I wanted to check on you earlier but I was scared. I… I heard you crying so I came in to check on you.”
Deuce looked at the other, dumbfounded and embarrassed.
“I was worried that if I showed that I actually gave a shit, you’d think I was joking.” Ace cut himself off with a dry laugh. “So I thought acting the same but just being here might help you feel at least slightly better.”
Deuce joined his laughter. “You’re an idiot.”
“Yeah well shut up, you’re not so smart yourself.” Ace’s words were defensive but they weren’t sharp. Deuce knew there wasn’t any real venom behind them.
“Look um… I know I’m a piece of shit, and I don’t expect you to want to still be my friend, but I really do…” Ace cut himself off, fighting his inner self to spit out the vile words that burned as they came up. “I really do care about you.” He said it, it was quiet, but it was there.
Deuce looked at the back of his head. “You’re so confusing.”
Ace turned around slightly, making eye contact with Deuce once again.
“I’m sorry.”
Deuce’s ears perked up. “What did you say?”
“You heard me.” Ace scowled.
“Yeah but I don’t think I heard it right.”
“I said I’m sorry, alright!? Don’t make me say it again, Deucy.” He tried to hide it, but Duce could see the small smile on Ace's face.
“Hm, interesting. I guess I’ll just have to report back with my answer tomorrow.”
“Hey, that's not fair!” Ace yelled, grabbing one of Deuce’s pillows and smacking him over the head.
“Oh it’s on, Acey!”
The two of them fought with their designated pillows for what felt like hours. Between the screaming and laughing they ended up tired and breathless. Ace fell onto his back dramatically as a sign of his defeat.
“Alright, alright! You won!” Ace's lungs hurt, but he kept laughing anyway.
Deuce smiled. “Good, it’s late as hell and it’s going to be ‘Off with our heads’ if we wake up late.” Deuce joked, imitating Riddle's voice horribly.
Ace punched Deuce’s arm weakly. “Stop it! Stop it! If I keep laughing I’ll die of air loss, asshole!”
Staying laid on their backs, they eventually calmed down, their breaths not only falling back into a normal rhythm, but starting to imitate each other's breathing patterns as well.
“Hey Deuce?”
“Yeah?”
“Mind if I sleep in your bed tonight? I’m way too tired to walk all the way back to mine.”
Deuce laughed. “Your bed isn’t far at all!”
Ace placed a finger over his mouth sloppily, his eyes were already too heavy to keep open so he had no clue where his finger even landed. “Shhh, it's sooo far.”
Deuce found it endearing, dare he even say cute?
“Yeah, alright, but only tonight okay?”
“Yeah yeah okay.” Ace leaned over, resting his head closer to Deuces.
“Goodnight.” Deuce waited for a response, but Ace had apparently fallen asleep immediately. Funny, considering it usually took him a bit? Maybe he was just more comfortable when sleeping around someone else?
And maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t the only time these two shared a bed.