#acedavid

"Well yours was a victim of an item-camping Bubba," Meg told Steve. Then she smiled sheepishly. "Nea's I went out running with and dropped in the swamp."

"You what!?" Nea screeched.

"It was an accident!"

The group chuckled at the girls' bickering while Laurie patted a fuming Nea on the shoulder.

Ace smiled at his friends having fun. It was times like these that were his favorite: with the day's trials over and done with and an air of easy camaraderie settling over the survivor camp.

It was a shame that Ace had been banned from the majority of games after numerous accusations of both cheating and extravagant lies. But at least he could enjoy laughing at the others' expense as truth or dare inevitably got out of hand.

Because it always did.

"C'mon, Red, your turn to ask," Quentin said.

"Hmmm…" Meg's eyes scanned the group. "David! Truth or dare?"

David, who hadn't even looked to want any part of the game, merely perked up with an amused smirk. "What the hell. Truth."

Meg's smile was full of mischief. "Fuck, marry, kill. Free choice, survivors and killers!"

"Really? That the best you got?" David grinned.

Ace huffed out a quiet chuckle. It was amazing how far David had come. Only a year ago, he would have refused to even participate in games like these—claiming they were too girly and childish, in not so polite terms—or at the very least thrown a fit after a question like that, punching a tree and oozing toxic masculinity.

"Plenty o' killers I'd wanna off, but I think we all know which one I'd pick given the choice," David huffed.

"Do they happen to have a white mask and go hmm, hmm hmm—" Kate started humming the Huntress' lullaby with eerie precision.

"Ugh, stop!" Feng smacked Kate's arm. "I went against that bitch twice today! If I hear one more second of that fucking song…"

Kate smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Okay, okay," Meg said. "Kill Huntress. So who'd you fuck?"

A dozen pairs of curious eyes were aimed at David and Ace couldn't help but roll his own under the brim of his cap. 

This was another new thing. After David had come out to them—and mellowed out in the process, since he no longer had to keep up the appearance of some ridiculous macho man—the survivors had become very interested in who David was interested in. Even though David clearly wasn't ready to tell them.

That didn't stop them from trying to dig for crumbs in the form of silly party games, apparently.

David just shrugged. "Maybe Triangle Head."

"What!?" Meg yelled while many others erupted into laughs.

"Pyramid Head is a monster! A killer!" Laurie hissed, clearly scandalized.

"Dat ass, though," Nea commented.

"He's a prick, but he's hot," David said. "Strong, too, if he can lug that sword around—"

"Ugh, spare me, please." Meg scrunched her nose. "So, for the last one…?"

"Hmm," David said. "I'd probably marry…"

He paused for dramatic effect, pretending to mull over the answer.

The atmosphere in the whole camp was now one of anticipation; everyone far from subtle in their nosiness of their friend's love life. Ace could even spot the normally polite Claudette eagerly leaning forward in her seat.

"Don't get your hopes up, he's just gonna give you a troll answer again," Quentin commented.

Ace smirked to himself. He had a pretty good idea of who David had his eye on, but then again, he hadn't exactly played fair to figure it out. 

Still, Quentin was right; there was no way David was admitting his interest in front of so many people—

"Ace," David said, and Ace's world screeched to a halt.

Thirty heads whipped around to look at Ace, and the gambler only hoped that nobody noticed how it took him a second to put on his patented smirk instead of the slack-jawed staring that David's simple confession had reduced him to.

Ace raised an eyebrow, cursing himself for not having his sunglasses on hand. "That so, King?"

"Uh." Yui grimaced and turned to David. "Are you sure about that?"

"Told you. Troll answer," Quentin said.

David merely grinned and offered a one-shoulder shrug.

"I can see a Vegas wedding," David said. "Ace'd make a nice trophy husband, yeah?"

"If you mean 'gamble away all your shared assets as soon as you signed the papers,' maybe," Zarina huffed.

Ace saw the twitch in David's hands; a reflex from years of resorting to fighting at the first sign of offense. But now, the ex-brawler just took a deliberate breath before splaying his fingers back to his sides.

…And people were still staring at Ace, watching him watching David.

Ace leered at David, giving him an exaggerated wink. "You had me at Vegas, handsome."

"Gross," Meg commented. She was clearly disappointed at not getting the gossip she wanted.

"Come on!" Feng yelled at the group, snapping her fingers obnoxiously. "We're playing a game, not a fucking daddy dating sim!"

And Ace had never been as glad for the girl's impatience as when David predictably picked Feng as his target and then dared her to do a handstand.

Fortunately, in the midst of laughter, Feng falling on her ass, and Nea showing off how to do a proper handstand, nobody noticed that Ace was still left reeling by David's confession.

—---

After the game, Ace found David at his usual spot in the woods—recognizable by the dozen trees that had been cracked and dented by angry fists during the years.

But now, David was only sitting at the root of one tree, leaning against the bark and looking out over the forest in thought.

"Knew I'd find you here," Ace said, making his presence known.

Immediately, the pensive expression on David's face was replaced by his bright grin. "Hey, luv."

The stupid little nickname didn't normally make Ace blush, but after today, he felt his ears heating up.

"Hey yourself," Ace said, going to sit down next to the man.

But David had other ideas, grabbing Ace by his hip and manhandling him into his lap instead.

"Oof," Ace protested the treatment and adjusted his hat. "Careful, pumpkin pie, these old bones aren't what they used to be."

David snorted and shot up an unamused look to where Ace was straddling him. "When we first met, you said you were thirty."

"And you laughed in my face and said in yer dreams, pops," Ace shot back.

David winced; it was far from the first time he'd been embarrassed by his past behavior.

"But I was just happy I got you to laugh, so win-win," Ace said.

He got a hesitant smile in return. David's hand, scarred and callused from a life as a fighter, cupped Ace's cheek oh so gently, before his fingers trailed up to—

Yoink Ace's hat from his head and throw it into the depths of the forest.

"Hey,'' Ace protested. "I liked that cap."

"And I wanna see your pretty face." David was smirking way too smugly. "Dunno why you insist on hiding it from me."

"God, you are such a sap." Ace grinned. "The others would never believe me, if I tried to tell them you just want to snuggle and tell me cheesy one-liners 24/7."

"That sounds like a them problem," David sassed.

And then he shut up Ace's would-be comeback with what Ace imagined was called a thorough snogging.

David kissed much like he fought: wholeheartedly and with his entire body. Chapped lips stole the breath from Ace's mouth while strong arms pulled him closer and caressed over his back. Even David's legs shifted under Ace, like every part of him yearned to be as close to Ace as humanly possible.

And Ace tried to give back as good as he got. He tilted his head to deepen the kiss, running clever hands over David's shoulders and up his neck, earning a bone-deep, satisfied moan for his efforts.

When they pulled apart, Ace was more than a little out of breath. And David was still smirking infuriatingly, like getting Ace hot under the collar had been some self-issued challenge and David had won.

But Ace rarely went down without a fight.

"So, Pyramid Head, huh?" Ace asked.

It was satisfying to see the cocky smirk fall as David groaned in protest and his head slumped to rest on Ace's shoulder.

"Not like I could pick you twice," David grumbled. "Dumb fuckin' rules. Had to come up with somethin'."

Ah; David King, fiercely loyal even during hypothetical, immature party games.

"You're getting pretty good at bullshitting." Ace grinned. "Wonder where you learned that from."

David chuckled and pulled Ace even closer into his arms.

"And… yer not mad?" David asked.

"About a couple tiny white lies to get our friends off your back? Do you know me?"

David huffed. "You know what I mean."

"Well, you might have gotten them to speculate whether you were really kidding about being into me, so maybe not the best move if you didn't want them to find out about us." Ace shrugged. "But it's all the same to me. If our friends finally figure out that we've been doing this for the last… what, two years?"

"A year and ten months," David immediately replied. "Well—earth years. Fuck knows how long it's been in here. Still haven't figured out the equations."

Sometimes Ace forgot just how goddamn smart David was. Ace wasn't shy to admit he'd judged a book by its well-defined, muscled cover. But after his little character reform, David had been helping out Adam—and the other people lightyears smarter than Ace—in figuring out the ins and outs of the realm.

"Right,'' Ace said. "In any case, it's still a little embarrassing for the others to not have figured it out. Well, I know I'm the master of subterfuge, but you? I mean, marriage?" Ace laughed. "Maybe it was just absurd enough that they knew you were kidding."

David didn't laugh with Ace at the shared joke. On the contrary, David was frowning.

"Uh," Ace said. "David?"

"I wasn't kidding," David said. "If I got the chance to, I'd marry ya in a heartbeat."

Ace froze. He'd probably have fallen off David's lap unless the ridiculously defined biceps weren't there to balance him.

"Ha-ha, very funny." Ace's grin was shaky. "You're getting a little too good at that bullshitting."

"'m serious," David said. "I'm in this for the long haul. I love you, and I wanna marry you someday. I'd do it now, if you asked me to."

Ace fidgeted and felt himself flush. He cursed the lack of hat to hide behind, because this was… Ace didn't do this, these earnest confessions and plans for the future—hell, he'd never even been able to say those three little words back to David. Yet here David was, already talking about tying the knot.

"But I know ya need time," David said, smiling much too happily considering Ace's emotional constipation. "Lucky for me, time's all we've got in here."

He leaned in, rough fingers rubbing gentle circles over the stubble on Ace's jawline, leaning in to murmur against Ace's ear.

"Take all the time you need, luv."

Ace almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. That was David King for you; stubborn, loudmouth, loyal to a fault…

And hopeless romantic, even when it came it washed-up gamblers with commitment issues.

Ace smirked. "Kiss me like that fifty more times and I'll see what I can do."

And David threw his head back and laughed, a deep bellow that had to echo all the way to the shared campfire, looking so damn happy that it made Ace's chest feel tight and butterflies dance in his gut.

And, then David's mouth was on Ace's again and his goddamn gentle hands were caressing Ace like he was something precious. Ace felt like he was falling, tumbling into something unknown and maybe not as scary as he'd always feared.