#aceazu

A small potted plant sat on the table in front of them. Its thick glossy green leaves had already begun to spill over the edges of the pot, a marked difference from the sprout that barely peaked from the soil the day before. Production’s magic surely.

“Plus, we’re a team now,” Ace added, giving Michinaga a nudge in the ribs. He scowled at him in return, shifting a bit further away. “Maybe more like an old married couple.”

“We really don’t have to do this. We can just take turns watering it or whatever.” Michinaga lifted his foot and toed at the pot, pushing it further to the middle of the table. He could have sworn he saw the leaves change, as if shriveling and shrinking into themselves.

“Hey, that’s our kid you're kicking around,” Ace said, gesturing to the plant.

“I would hardly call that kicking. And it’s not our kid. Like you said. This is a plant.”

“But we’re raising it together. Turning our little sprout into… whatever it’s going to become.” Ace leaned forward and took one of the leaves between his fingers. It was oddly soft. “And horticulture requires much more work than just watering it. Are we raising it in the right conditions? Are we providing it with the necessary nutrients it needs to grow? Are we not shoving it across the table with our dirty boots?”

Ace pointedly dropped his gaze to the other man’s shoes.

“Oh, whatever.” Michinaga rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help but turn away a bit more in an effort to hide his feet from Ace’s view.

“What should we name it, hun?” Ace asked.

“Who’re you calling ‘hun?’”

“C’mon now. Like I said. ‘Old married couple.’” Ace wiggled his eyebrows, secretly relishing in the way Michinaga’s reddening cheeks betrayed his growing scowl. Just how far could he push it? “Hey, how do you think the wedding would have gone?”

If Michinaga had been drinking anything, it would have been spat out of his mouth so fast.

“Quit it.”

“I’m serious! I’m thinking something… small. Intimate. Hell, maybe not. Maybe all of the DGP is watching. Small or large, doesn't matter.” Michinaga’s silence caused Ace to keep going. “I’m seeing lots of florals. You know, in honor of our child. I’d wear white because I look better in it-”

“Oh, you wish-”

“Hush, I’m conceptualizing. I’d wear white because I look better in it and you’d wear black because you’ve got that whole not-so-silent brooding thing going on. And, sure, you look good in it too. Whatever. I’m seeing… red flowers. Roses. One pinned to each of our lapels so we match. You know, optics are important.” Ace trailed on about the different flowers that’d be found in various bouquets, centerpieces, and archways. Michinaga looked on at him, both slightly horrified with his level of detail and slightly in awe of his knowledge of flowers. Ace felt the leaves of their plant again. “Maybe we could get some more of these guys too.”

“Do we have to raise those as well?” Michinaga asked, looking back to the plant that had undeniably grown a few more leafy offshoots in the brief time he was watching the other man. Ace laughed and waved him off.

“Don’t worry, we can take Keiwa and Neon’s. Speaking of Keiwa and Neon, who’s going to be your maid of honor?” Ace asked, a mischievous smile sitting on his lips as he waited for Michinaga to catch up.

“Oh, so I’m the bride? You don’t want to be the one walking down the aisle, Mr. Star of the Stars of the Stars?”

“Perhaps you’re right there. And I’ll already be in white anyway.” Ace held a finger to his chin as if he were deep in thought. “Now what about the first dance?”

“I don’t dance,” Michinaga said with a huff.

“Not even for your loving husband? One dance on our special night wouldn’t kill you, hun. Oh, and we’ll have to get a good photographer. We’ll have the best shots hung up all through our house. Can’t you just see it.” Ace held his hands up, framing an imaginary photograph of the two of them. Michinaga grabbed his hand and pushed it back down.

“First it was a wedding and now it’s our future home. Now you’re just doing too much.”

“Well we need somewhere to live if we want our kid to bring their plant partner home to meet us,” Ace said, gesturing back at the table with his free hand. “Forgive me for wanting to provide our sweet child with some stability.”

Michinaga rolled his eyes and crossed his arms again. Ace was nothing if he wasn’t a pain in his ass and while he knew all of this was a big joke just to get under his skin, there was a small part deep within him that had started to warm to the idea with each new detail that was added. He let out a sigh and gave a small shrug.

“I don’t know. Maybe being married to you wouldn’t be the end of the world. I’m sure you’re good at some things,” Michinaga offered, shrinking into himself much like the plant had earlier.

“Oh, I’m good at plenty of things,” Ace teased. “But what do you think I’m good at?”

The sirens were blaring, the sounds were so loud, then so muffled. Then nothing.

Michinaga sighed, looking down from the metal scaffolding he was roped up on. Another rich client, another way too high construction job. He didn't mind the heights, but he hated the heat. And he was hungry, his stomach growled.

He sighed, checked his watch. There was still two hours until lunch.

I could really go for a meat bowl right now.. Maybe I'll text Ace later..

His stomach growled again and he could practically see the dish in his mind, bowl of rice piled way too high with fresh hot sizzling juicy meat. He was startled out of his thoughts by the sudden scent of fresh meat, the bowl he'd envisioned sitting on some of the scaffolding beside him.

Michinaga quickly looked around to see if anybody saw; it didn't seem so. "Haaah?! How'd I do that?" He furrowed his eyebrows, no it wasn't possible. Ace must have been looking into his head again, the fox loved to piss him off by peeping at his private thoughts.

Get out of my head, Geats!

But he didn't hear the usual taunt back from his omnipotent deity boyfriend. He grabbed the bowl, quickly scarfing it down before anybody saw. Michinaga would just have to yell at him later when he came to pick him up from the construction site.

Ace came to with a splitting headache, he groaned, blinking back the tears in his eyes. He looked around, pushing down on the airbag that had exploded in his face. Ow. He looked at the mirror, disorientated. He had a giant cut across the side of his head.

He brought his hand up, wincing at the sensation of touching it. Ace dropped his hand to the door of his car, weakly pushing it open. He collapsed out of the car when it did open, groaning when he hit the pavement.

"Didn't you say he had no pulse?" "He didn't!"

He looked up in time to watch the paramedics rush over to him, grimacing against the bright light of the sun. It really wasn't helping his headache.

"Don't move, sir!"

But he pushed them off of him when they tried to help; something was wrong.

An injury like that shouldn't have done anything to him, he was God.

"Please let us help you-"

"I'm fine," Ace used the side of his car to pull himself up. It hurt, but he was recovering quickly. He brought his hand back up to the wound again. It was completely gone. Only blood remained. Ace turned back to his car, it was almost totalled.

But it'd have to do, he had places to be.

"You can't just leave!"

But Ace slammed the car door shut. Somebody was getting their ass beat, he just wasn't sure who yet. His car took a few turns of the key, but it did start and he sighed in relief. He'd have it fixed later.

Michinaga stretched, groaning, his muscles were complaining. But it was lunch time, he looked down at the ground. He'd need to rope down, and he made a face. It was always annoying having to get down from the higher up positions.

"Alright here we go-"

There was a gong sound and he was falling out of the air, landing on the concrete with an 'oof'. The fall wasn't far, maybe three feet. But it made him curse, fingers digging into the stone out of annoyance.

GEATS.

It was getting ridiculous now, that fox was pissing him off. Toru came over with a laugh, holding his hand out to help him up. Michinaga took it, pulling himself off the ground and back onto his feet. He wiped the chalk and stone off his knees.

"That boyfriend of yours really likes fucking with you, huh?"

Michinaga rolled his eyes, rubbing the back of his neck. "Don't mention that here." He hissed, voice low. But Toru just laughed at him, like it was no big deal. "Whatever, yeah he does." He couldn't help but feel something was off though, like something wasn't quite right.

"This is a closed site! You can't go in there!"

"Okay then can you get Azuma for me?"

"I'll go see if he's down- should I call an ambulance?"

"No!"

Michinaga went to the argument he overheard, leaving his friend's side quickly. His eyes widened momentarily seeing Ace; the man was covered in blood, bruises and scratches littered his face and he walked with a slight limp.

"What happened to you?" He went up to him, but Michinaga was careful not to make even more of a scene. He grabbed the man's elbow, dragging him away from the entrance of the construction site.

"I was in a car crash." He pointed behind him to the car he had to park down the road. His very nice, very expensive, absolutely destroyed car. Michinaga cursed, looking his injuries over with a disguised worry. "I'm okay. I have a headache, but I'm fine."

"Can't you just.. Heal yourself?"

Ace shook his head. "Something is wrong."

Michinaga felt even more worry then, if Ace said something was wrong then-

Gong.

The man blinked, then straightened out. Michinaga looked on, confused. His wounds were completely gone, Ace was fully healed.

"Did you do that?"

Ace shook his head, even his clothes were mended, the blood was gone. His headache was gone, he felt.. Great. It then dawned on him what was wrong, Ace's eyebrows furrowed. But that shouldn't have been possible, it wasn't like they could just..

Something caught his eye and he reached up, taking a strand of Michinaga's hair between his fingers. He followed the man's fingers, eyes widening. The strand was fully white. He, too, now understood what had happened.

They'd swapped powers, somehow.

"Well switch them back!"

"I didn't do this." Ace shook his head. The shorter man looked at him, then huffed, turning around.

"You stay here." He demanded and Ace stayed put while Michinaga went to talk to the foreman. He was thankful his shirt was mended, he'd bought it when he was still a celebrity and he wasn't sure if he could find something custom like it again.

There was some shouting and Ace lifted his head. "Watch out!" A voice called out to him but it was too late. A bundle of rebar rods had snapped and was quickly approaching him, his eyes closed instinctually, calling upon his teleportation ability.

Oh. Right.

"Ace!"

It certainly didn't feel great, his pain tolerance tanked without his Creation powers. He collapsed to a heap on the concrete, his blood pooling around him.

"Don't touch him!" Michinaga hissed, grabbing one of his coworkers and tugging him away from Ace's body. He used too much force, the coworker being flung backwards.

Michinaga looked at his hand, pausing momentarily. He had to be careful. He shook his head, tugging his helmet off, he tossed it aside. Then he bent down, picking Ace up, he was careful of the two rods sticking out of his torso.

"I'll bring him to the hospital."

He was quick to leave the construction site, going back to Ace's car down the road. The car looked even worse up close and he grimaced, setting Ace down against the side of it.

"I'm gonna take these out, alright?"

Ace didn't respond.

"Damn it, Geats!"

Michinaga grimaced as he wrapped a gloved hand around one of the rods; he carefully pulled it out of the man's chest. He tossed the rod to the side. "Okay, that's one. Ace? Hey! Ace!" He gently smacked his cheek, but Ace didn't respond, his eyes closed.

He cursed again and got to work on the next rod, it'd be a shame if he revived only to die again due to the obstruction. Michinaga pulled the second rod out, dropping it to the ground. He got up from where he was crouched, pulling open the door to the backseat. Then he was quick to load Ace into the car, they couldn't stick around.

He was halfway to apartment when Ace came to, sitting up in the backseat with a wince. "Again?" He huffed, falling back on the seats.

"Not so fun having the DIE powers, is it?" Michinaga huffed, glancing at him in the mirror before looking back at the road. He ignored the steady growing of white in his hair, his brown locks were beginning to fade away.

"No!" Ace complained, rubbing his chest. "I'm going to kill whoever did this, somehow. Once I find them."

"You sound like me."

Ace grimaced, sitting up again. "I feel like you. It's.. It's strange."

"What does that even mean?"

"I don't know. We should talk to the others, maybe they noticed something."

Michinaga reached into his pocket, throwing his phone into the backseat for Ace to use to call them. His didn't make it out of the construction mishap. Ace took the phone, inputting Michinaga's passcode. He pulled up the group chat with the others.

There was going to be hell to pay for whoever the hell did this to them, he decided.

Bonus:

Michinaga stared at him, eyes a beautiful shade of violet, his long hair loose and fully white. He was gorgeous, Ace noted. He could look at him all day. Well, he sort of had. A threat from another dimension had them running around all day. But now things were calm, he wanted to look at him while things were calm.

"You're beautiful."

"Shut up, why haven't we switched back yet?"

Ace smirked, pressing his ring and middle finger to his thumb, his pinkie and pointer finger up to make his signature fox shape. He booped the man's nose, making him scrunch it up.

Michinaga had enough of this day after dealing with Aeropos, he swatted Ace's hand away from him.

"You should have the power to do it, Micchan~"

"Wha- Why didn't you say that earlier?!"

"I was having fun." Ace shrugged with a grin, dropping his hand to his side. Michinaga was quick to grab his collar, yanking the taller man down to him with a growl. "Oh come on! You didn't have fun being God today, baby?"

Well.. He did..

Michinaga scoffed, letting him go and pushing him away. "Whatever. How do I switch us back?"

"I'm not entirely sure.. I suppose if we both wish for it really hard, our wills should resonate."

As far as Michinaga was concerned, Ace was just saying shit. But he sighed, exhaling through his nose. He then closed his eyes, arms crossing over his chest.

He focused. Really really hard.

Ace inhaled a deep breath then closed his eyes as well, he focused on what he wanted, what it was that he desired. He felt the warmth of desire blossom in his chest and spread through him.

The bell tolled.

Michinaga's eyes snapped open when he felt the warmth leave his body, he was cold again. Comfortably, safely, cold. And most importantly, bright blue eyes looked back at him. He picked up his own hair, looking down at it. Brown. Pleasantly brown.

"Thank God."

"You're welcome~"

Michinaga punched him in the chest.

Ace caught his wrist and tugged him into his arms, holding him with a grin. "Feeling better?" He asked as Michinaga melted against his chest.

"Much." Michinaga affirmed.

The God hummed, rubbing his lover's back with a gentle palm. "I won't take your undeath for granted again, that's for certain. How do you handle those headaches?"

"Lots of Paburon." He answered, nuzzling the taller man's chest with a huffy sigh.

Ace smiled, trailing his hand up to massage the back of the man's scalp.

"You were kinda sexy with the white hair."

Michinaga made a sound, and though he couldn't see him, Ace was sure he rolled his eyes.

"You always think that." He huffed.

"Oh no, my boyfriend is so hot.. I apologise, sue me about it."

Michinaga growled at him, then bit his chest through his chest; causing Ace to chuckle.

He gasped out when Ace picked him up instead, holding him koala style.

"Let's go rest."

"Haah? Rest? Uhuh?"