#tw deuce

“What are you doing?” Deuce questioned looking between the three of them. They all stayed silent, staring at him unblinkingly. Deuce thought for a moment before hitting himself on the forehead. “Did I really look that stupid?”

“Kinda..”

“A bit…”

“Absolutely.”

The three responded simultaneously, lifting their heads and resuming the consumption of their lunch. Cater and Trey glanced at each other from the corner of their eyes, while Ace looked at Deuce, attempting to hide his laughter behind his sandwich. 

“You still haven’t asked her out though.” Cater said, finally trusting himself enough to speak without laughing. 

“What?!” Deuce said, entirely too loudly. He grimaced at himself, glancing around to see if anyone was looking at him. He chanced a glance at Yuu, ensuring that she wasn’t paying attention to his table before continuing the conversation. “Are you actually insane? I could never do that!”

“What do you mean?” Trey asked him, hanging his wrist lazily, raising his eyebrow at Deuce. “You understand that she’s the only girl at an all boys school, yes?”

“Of course I-”

“In other words,” Ace interrupted Deuce. “Someone’s gonna get to her eventually. We just want to make sure it’s you.”

Deuce felt his heart sink into his stomach. He knew that. Of course he did. But it was a truth he was trying to avoid. He wanted to pretend that he had all the time in the world. He wanted to pretend that she would always be available, always be waiting for him. 

He shook his head. What a childish way to think. He scolded himself. She was… She was Yuu. Even if she weren’t the only girl at an all boys school, someone would certainly notice her. Ask her out. Steal her. She was kind, she was generous, smart, brave,  she was beautiful, she was… Yuu. 

Deuce took a deep breath, stealing another not-so-subtle glance at the lone girl. At some point she had taken out a book, and was engrossed within the print as Grim curled up and napped on the table. She subconsciously bit her lower lip, apparently not knowing what exactly that expression does to him. 

“I wouldn’t even know… how…” He muttered, stammering off at the end of his sentence. 

“No need to worry.” Cater said, resting his hand on Deuce’s shoulder. “We can make this a totally Magicammable date!”

“A- wait- I didn’t- I CANNOT-”

“Don’t worry about a thing.” Trey said, leaning back in his chair. “We can take care of everything for you.”

Needless to say, Deuce was worried about all the things. 

***************************

“Deuce, what are you doing?” Ace asked with wide eyes, walking into their Heartslabyul dorm where Deuce lay on his bed. 

“Just chillin’?”  Deuce responded, clearly confused by Ace’s frantic tone. 

“Didn’t Cater tell you what today is?” Ace asked him, rummaging through Deuce’s dresser and pulling out different articles of clothing and throwing them at Deuce.

“No? Why? Did I miss an emergency tea party?” Deuce asked, now sitting up in bed, holding one of the shirts Ace had thrown at him. Grim walked into the dorm after Ace, looking around. “Why is Grim here?”

“Because I bribed him with ten cans of tuna to spend the night here instead of Ramshackle.” Ace said, clearly exasperated with his bright eyed friend. 

“I don’t understand.” Deuce said, shaking his head. “Why does he need to stay here-”

The door to their dorm slammed open, and in walked a panting Cater. As soon as he was through the door, he rested his hands on his knees in an attempt to catch his breath. Ace paused in his mission to find Deuce the perfect outfit to simply stare at Cater with his hands on his hips. 

I… Know.” Cater gasped out. “Riddle… I couldn’t… Roses…” His green eyes were filled with sincerity as he panted out his excuse. 

“Well, nothing to be done now.” Ace said, “But since you’re here, dress Deuce. You’re better at that than I am. I’ll run and get everything else ready. We can still save this.” His scarlet eyes were filled with determination as him and Cater gave each other a slight nod.

“I’m still not really sure what’s going on.” Deuce grumbled, his voice low. Grim looked up at him in confusion.

“I thought you had a date with my Henchhuman.” Grim said, crossing his paws over his chest. “That’s why I was gettin’ kicked out. Not that I mind.” He shrugged. “Can’t feel the wind in this dorm.”

“If you don’t mind, then why did I have to give you so much tuna?!” Ace exclaimed, glaring at the blue eyed gremlin-like creature. 

“Well, why not get as much from you as I can?” Grim questioned, shrugging once more before walking over and sitting on Deuce’s bed with him. 

Deuce’s jaw was hanging low, his mouth wide open. His eyes were unfocused, a look of dawning comprehension slowly colored his features. After a moment, his eyes focused on Ace and he spoke, his voice hoarse.

“What.. did you do?”

********

Yuu sat, curled up on the rickety couch in the common area of Ramshackle dorm. She was wrapped up in a blanket, scrolling Magicam on her phone. Ace had come by earlier, and stolen Grim for some reason that he refused to tell her. All she knew was that Grim had been bragging about some kind of feast. 

“If they were going to dinner, they could’ve invited me.” She muttered quietly, her stomach rumbling as she sighed. What did they even have in the kitchen to eat? And it was too late to go to the cafeteria. She curled up tighter as a gust of wind blew, creating a draft in the already chilly dorm. She shivered, forcing herself to uncurl so that she could stand up, making her way to the kitchen. 

She was certain there wasn’t anything to eat. Grim was constantly eating so he almost never left even a crumb of the snacks that the headmage actually provided them weekly. The next batch came in two days. It was usually a miracle if there was anything left by day three. Yuu sighed, putting some water in a kettle, she could at least make herself some tea to warm up. 

She leaned up against the counter, watching the kettle as the water warmed up.

“A watched cauldron never boils.” She whispered, smiling slightly to herself as the world ‘cauldron’ brought a certain blue haired first year to mind. The kindest and most honest man she had ever met, in either world. “Maybe staying in Twisted Wonderland wouldn’t be so bad if… If I could stay with him.” She sighed.

A soft sound brought her from her thoughts. She shook her head lightly, looking around for the source of the noise. It had almost sounded like a knock. Was someone at the door? Or maybe the ghosts were messing around upstairs. She turned her attention back to the kettle, her mind wandering once more to the cauldron-throwing guy that always gave her butterflies. 

Knock Knock Knock

There was no mistaking it this time. Someone was definitely at the door. She furrowed her brows in confusion, but left her position by the stove to answer. Her t-shirt gave her little protection from the cold air that forced its way in through the rickety walls of the old dorm. She crossed her arms, rubbing her hands over them to try and fight off the chill as much as she could. She wrapped her hand around the cold doorknob, opening the door to the night air.

She was immediately met with a bright gaze, and her confusion only grew. Was this like Bloody Mary? Say his name three times and he’ll appear? Did she even actually say his name? She lowered her eyes, noticing the bag that he was carrying with him, before raising her stare once more to meet his own.

“Deuce? What’s up?” She asked, taking a step back so he could walk in. The sooner she could close the door the better. 

“Honestly, I’m not so sure.” Deuce said, shaking his head. He definitely did not feel like he was given adequate time to adjust to the situation before being dropped off on her front step. “Uh,” He shook his head. He needed to remember the last minute advice Cater had given him. Be the good guy. That’s kinda your schtick.

Deuce thought for a moment about what exactly that meant. “Ace mentioned that he was going to hang out with Grim for the night. So I figured you might be lonely.” He said, giving her a smile that, in her opinion, deserved an award. 

“That was sweet of you.” Yuu responded, forcing herself not to get lost in his purity. “But.. I’m afraid you’ll probably hate it here.” She gave him a forced smile. “It’s cold and boring.” 

“I brought games!” Deuce said, holding out his bag to her. “I figured we could play for a few hours.. Maybe?” He finished his sentence uncertainly. He started talking without thinking, but maybe that was her way of saying that she didn’t want him there.

“Are you sure?” She asked him, her eyes wide with what appeared to be hope. “I’d really like that.” She said, feeling her heart thump just a little faster than normal. “The water should be hot now. I’ll go make us some tea!”

The two of them sat on the couch, each sipping their mug of hot tea as they sat side by side, under the same blanket. Deuce took one of the games out of his bag, setting it up on the table in front of them, feeling Yuu’s stare on him. His cheeks were warming up as he tried to ignore her watching him set up the game. 

“Are you ready to play?” He asked her, smiling gently when she nodded with quite a bit of enthusiasm. 

They played round after round, neither gaining enough ground to consider themselves ahead. They were both excelling at the game, subconsciously leaning in closer together as they continued to try to best each other. Yuu made her move, looking down at the board.

“I… I think I win.” She said, the corners of her mouth slowly turning up in a smile. Deuce’s eyes were wide, and they stared back up at each other simultaneously. Neither of them had noticed until that moment how close they had gotten, the tips of their noses almost touched as they met each other's gaze and both of them stopped breathing for just a moment. 

“I, um.” Deuce started to say, his brain slowing to a halt. Neither backed away, but neither got any closer either. “I’d… really like to kiss you..” He muttered out. It wasn’t until Yuu’s eyes widened that he realized what he had said. His own eyes widened in surprise as his brain started to finally catch up on the situation. A few seconds too late, in his opinion.

“Oh, no.” Deuce said, “I didn’t mean to say that out loud. I’m so-”

“You can.” Yuu said quietly, causing Deuce to stop speaking. He thought for a moment he might have misheard her. But the fact that she still hadn’t backed away, and she was looking at him expectantly convinced him that he had heard her perfectly fine. His shoulders relaxed as they stared at each other. Her lips were slightly parted. Were they always so pink? And they looked so soft too.

Deuce slowly reached up, taking her chin in his hand and tracing her bottom lip with his thumb. Her cheeks were a bright shade of pink now, and her lips were just as soft as they looked.

“Are you sure?” He asked her.

Yuu was almost positive he could hear her heart beating. She almost didn’t hear what he said over the sound of it roaring in her ears. The pressure of his thumb resting against her lip was weirdly enticing to her. Like she wanted to just take it into her mouth and-

Yuu blinked a few times, her cheeks getting even warmer as she allowed her thoughts to stray somewhere else for a moment. Her silence was starting to give Deuce anxiety. Was she going to say no?

But instead, she nodded. She didn’t trust her voice at this moment. Deuce moved his thumb out of the way before slowly, achingly slowly, tilting his head closer to hers as their lips finally connected. They moved together slowly, but perfectly in sync, as if they had been kissing each other for years. Deuce moved one of his hands to the back of her head, deepening the kiss further. Yuu placed her hands on his upper arms, a small noise of surprise left her throat only to be immediately swallowed by Deuce. He felt much more muscular than she had expected. She sat up on her knees in an attempt to get even closer to him, and he wrapped his arm around her waist in response as he teased her closed lips with the tip of his tongue. 

Yuu parted her lips slightly, but Deuce didn’t even give her a moment before shoving his tongue into her mouth. He rubbed his against hers, adjusting his grip on her to hold her even tighter. His fingers threaded themselves through her hair, refusing to let her go. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, and stayed there for most of the night…

************

“So Deuce didn’t come back to the dorm at all last night?” Cater asked Ace, snickering.

“Nope. I have no idea what happened. She might have killed him for all I know.” Ace answered him, shrugging. 

“Or…” Cater said suggestively, resting his cheek on his palm. Ace looked at him for a moment, his brows furrowed together. 

“I… I have to know.” Ace muttered. Trey, who had been listening to the two’s conversation, sighed. But he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t also curious. The three looked at each other, before all standing up at the same time. 

“Be quiet. You can hear everything through these stupid walls.” Ace muttered to the other two as they crept around outside of Ramshackle dorm. Cater had stepped on a twig, which produced a loud ‘crack’. “This window here should look into the common area.”

The three crowded the window, looking in at the scene.

Yuu had her eyes peaked open. Her head was resting on Deuce’s chest. He was lying on his back with one arm behind his head and the other wrapped around her. She was so comfortable, and warm. She saw two heads of bright red hair outside the window, and she sighed. She felt Deuce move beneath her, and she subtly tapped him on his chest. She heard him grunt as he started to wake up.

“Just a heads up,” Yuu muttered to him. She heard a soft ‘Hm?’ from him. “Your friends are being creepy.” She said, nuzzling her cheek against him. He moved his arm from behind his head, peaking his eye open just enough to see the three nosey guys looking through the window, as if the clear glass didn’t work both ways. Deuce stretched out his arm in their direction.