#masked deucexreader

It was close to the breaking point though, you felt. All those lingering glances, the heated looks, it had to come to an end eventually. Something had to give. As if sensing your thoughts, Deuce turned and met your heavy stare.

The molten brown of his eyes made you melt a little, looking like glistening honey orbs that the glow of the bonfire only amplified. The dark blue of his mask shifted slightly with the small grin he shot you. You tilted your head at him before blowing a little kiss and he laughed. The sight of it made you smile; it wasn't a full belly laugh at the sky, not like Ace would have done. No, it was small as he hunched into himself but his eyes closed and the smile made it a lovely laugh regardless, you thought.

So distracted by the vision he made, you didn't catch exactly what happened. One moment he was laughing shoulders hunched into himself, taking one last peek at you before he turned, as if someone called his name. You didn't quite catch it since you were across the bonfire from where Deuce was standing. All you saw was him move to look over his shoulder before becoming drenched in alcohol.

You couldn't help it, you gasped, covering your mouth as he spluttered wiping at his face before he hurried away. Stumbling to your feet, you went to chase after him. Along the way nakama handed you a couple of towels and you took them gratefully, slinging them over your arm before ducking into the treeline.

"Deuce? Deuce!" you called, pushing aside large green ferns. Finally you saw his backside, the deep green of his jacket as he sat facing away from you on a low rock. "There you are." You sighed with relief and he tensed.

Coming closer you dropped a towel over his head, making him complain before you held out another smaller towel over his shoulder. "For your face," you explained into the silence. Slowly he reached out and grabbed it while you stayed behind him, waiting.

Anyone who knew Deuce knew he didn't take off his mask, not for anything. There had been some light teasing you had heard before but Ace quickly shot that down quickly. Even if he never explained why, the mask was important and no one saw him without it.

“Can you…can you clean this for me?” Deuce asked softly as he offered you back the small towel, not turning.

“Yeah of course,” you replied easily, taking it from him. Unwrapping it, your heart seized as his mask sat so plainly on top of the white.

Swallowing lowly, you started dabbing it, trying to work out all the alcohol.

“Thanks for this,” Deuce muttered. “I’m still going to smell like alcohol but at least now I won’t be soaking wet.” You saw his shoulders flex as he tugged the towel from his head and used it to rub his face instead.

“No problem,” you replied, mind still a little distracted by the blatant trust he was showing to you. The next words came out without much input from your brain, “I’d prefer to see you soaking wet in another situation anyway.”

The both of you froze. If your hands weren’t busy trying to rub out the dampness still embedded in the mask you would have face-palmed yourself. What an idiotic thing to say—

“Um, and what situation would that be?” Deuce asked, sounding just the tiniest bit shy. You blinked before bumping his mostly dry mask against his shoulder. A hand reached up to grab it.

“Oh you know, something sexy. If you were into that,” you said casually, hands shaky a bit. Was this the moment? The edge of the drop into something else? All those flirtations finally coming to fruition?

Deuce finally turned around, mask now back in place, and shot you a wide smile. “Maybe I would be,” he said huskily, a gleam in his eyes before he grabbed you by the wrist and pulled you into him.

You landed against his chest with an ‘oomph’ before warm lips descended over yours. Immediately your hands roamed over his skin, still slightly sticky and tacky under your palms from the alcohol.

His tongue wormed its way inside, spreading the taste of booze over your mouth and you moaned. Your hand wound its way up into his light blue hair, tugging slightly and he groaned in return before he pulled back.

“Maybe we should wait until after I shower, I’m still all sticky.”

You hummed but couldn’t help yourself as you dropped kisses over his chin before licking down his throat, feeling him shiver.

“It’s okay,” you murmured against his skin. “Let’s get you cleaned up like this.” You felt him suck in a breath as your lips and tongue trailed down his neck to his chest, your hands reaching up to push his jacket off his shoulders.

But you hoped that it did. The nervous laughter that tumbled from his lips when you both spoke when it was just the two of you. The time you helped him with a stack of books as he travelled to Marco’s office, the stack started to wobble and you jumped to help him, your fingers touching, how he stammered and ended up dropping the stack anyway.

He couldn’t make eye contact as he desperately grabbed at the books scattered on the deck. Each time your fingers met in an attempt to gather them up he would jerk away as if your fingers were too hot to touch. The blush was mostly obscured by the mask he wore.

Deuce either didn’t like you at all or he was struggling with his feelings. You dearly wished and longed for it to be the latter. Each time your eyes met you could see the shadow of a smile on his lips before he tried to busy himself.

Maybe he was just the most awkward man alive?

It didn’t help that the older members of the crew would tease you both. Marco and Thatch always knew what was going on, Marco especially liked to nudge you when he knew Deuce was staring. Sometimes you wanted to slap his dumb tuft of hair off his dumb head.

“You know,” Marco whispered into your ear, his eyes meeting with Ace across the fire as he spoke. “You might need to make the first move, Deuce is a little, awkward yoi.” Marco chuckled.

As Marco conversed in secret, you saw Ace with his hand covering his mouth as he also whispered into Deuce’s ear. The masked man’s eyes widened when Ace pulled away, a shit-eating grin plastered across his freckled face as he elbowed his friend in the side, waggling his eyebrows.

“What do you suggest, Birdbrain?” you mumbled, tugging your gaze away from the others across the dancing flames of the fire.

“I suggest you get up.”

Marco budged you off the log you’d been perched on. You spun around to give him a look, his smug expression just pissing you off more. He jutted his chin in a direction and you saw that Deuce had finally left Ace’s side, heading off into the lush vegetation just off to the side.

Almost tripping over your own feet, you got up to follow, Marco chuckling as he watched the awkward and not subtle way you trailed off after Deuce.

“I was hoping you’d take the hint.” He mumbled, his voice unsure as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his coat, kicking at the sand, trying to focus on it rather than you.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah..”

This was so awkward you thought but still, your palms felt sweaty at being alone in the dark with him, fireflies amble around you, lighting up the area with soft ambience, making you feel like the starry night sky had descended and surrounded you both.

“Deuce, I know you like me, and I need to come out and say, I like you too.” You reached forward, grabbing his arm, and making him look up at you.

“You do?” He stammered and blinked, you rolled your eyes and nodded.

Stepping forward you cupped his face in your warm hands, rubbing his cheeks gently, you felt him retrieve his hands from his pockets, setting them on your waist. You rubbed your nose against his, letting out a sigh, foreheads pressed together as you both took a breath, trying to calm your collective nerves, calm the butterflies that surged inside as feelings came to a boiling point.

“I think I love you, Deuce.”

“I love you too… I’m sorry I’m such a wreck.” He laughed, arms around you now, pulling you closer.

You felt his trembling lips tentatively pressed against yours, you made the next move, with more confidence than him you pressed into the kiss, deepening it. You heard him make a contented hum, feeling the light vibrations.