#stage right

Ace

Sometimes you wonder why Rook chose to call you Trickster when Ace existed.

"Ahhh because Monsieur Heart wears himself on his sleeves so beautifully it would be a shame to not recognize it."

Bullshit, you huff to yourself as Ace laughs as Crowley reads out your death sentence and shooes you up to the balcony with his expected indifference, Rook just saw his Queen of Hearts mandated make up and got lazy. Sure, Ace's face settles into something more serious once he sees you are no longer looking, sure he flinches when he reaches out after you and gets ignored. And sure, Rook sees all of this with a self satisfied grin on his face, already satisfied enough with this victory to wonder just what he should do for the rest of the game.

It's not exactly like Ace is going to be an actual obstacle to his hunt after all.

~~~

This sucks ass and Ace doesn't really want to admit to himself why. Protecting Yuu is something he really prides himself on; as much as he might like to say that he only ever puts forward the bare minimum, or that his goals were only to beat his housewarden, or meet the measure of his upperclassmen, the real truth was that he just wanted Yuu to be safe. Most of the time he did a good job hiding that.

That time was not tonight.

"Say, did you see who Yuu was talking to before-" he mimes a knife across the throat and dies a little inside, despite the tight grin on his face. Hurting Yuu is unacceptable, even if it's in a game he's the only one allowed to make them the butt of the joke because he's the only one whose intentions are never actually mean. He barely registers Crowley announcing another victim, even as Ace makes sure to note the name he continues his line of questioning to those who were around them.

“Did you know that was the prefect?”  Most people did not.  What a bunch of losers, how could they not realize who they were talking to?  Did they just forget everything that had happened this past school year?

“They didn’t seem surprised to get picked.”  He noticed that himself genius, try harder.  Or don't, he doesn’t need another numbskull accidentally hurting Yuu with their stupidity.

“Oh they looked really annoyed!  Did you make them mad again?” 

“What do you mean again?”  Ace glares at the person even as he backtracks into his own mind hyper aware of all the times he’s made Yuu mad, some very much intentional as Crowley calls out yet another set of victims and he grinds his teeth together looking for a pattern.

“Vil Schoenheit!  Oh dear I thought you would be quite safe.  Please take off your mask and make your way up to-" As the headmage drones on Ace finds his head whipping around to make eye contact with an all too amused looking upperclassman, who suspiciously isn't wailing at all.

"Seriously?!"

"Monsieur Heart you look quite troubled," Rook's sympathetic head shake would fool most anyone in the room, but not Ace, not when he's this upset "has the loss of your bosom friend affected you that much?"

"Oh fuck off and give me your card." He tries to pass himself off as annoyed at loosing the game, but Rook circles him like a particularly annoying bird, if only someone could name one. "You're not the one who has to listen to their whining every time someone singles them out from the crowd." Rook tuts, not particularly annoyed at having "lost" as he passes over his card.

"Non, non, there are three things you cannot hide Monsieur Heart, a cough, poverty and-" mercifully Rook shushes himself as Yuu appears, but he doesn't have to finish his sentence. It shines through in Ace's eyes, the way he jumps at the little backhanded praise Yuu gives as he needles for more, heart firmly bleeding on his wrist as his hand seeks out the small of their back to guide them away from all perceived threats back towards the safety of the roses.