Archive of Our Own

The very first time Ace had been in direct contact with someone that had claimed to be a ‘huge fan’ of his, he was safely around people that knew him. That was the luckiest he had been in his many encounters of the group of weirdos, unfortunately.

“Ace Trappola, right?”

Ace doesn’t even notice someone is talking to him until they tap him right on the shoulder as he’s in conversation with Jamil and the rest of the basketball team - minus Floyd - about one of their practices next week. He turns a bit quicker than he’d like to admit, but upon not recognizing the boy that was trying to talk to him, he only crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow. “Um… can I help you? Are you new or something?”

“Oh!” The boy turns away. Ace pretends not to notice the boy’s cheeks turning a bit red. “My name is… Blaine. I’m a sophomore in Octavinelle, we haven’t met. Are you Ace Trappola?”

Ace turns his head back to Jamil, who shrugs but has a confused expression on. He looks back at the boy, looking him up and down before answering. “Uh, yeah. That’s me. What, did you want an autograph or something?”

This ‘Blaine’ boy looks up at him with eyes that really scream ‘can I really?’, but he shakes his head anyway. “I was… uh, no, no autograph. I’m here from the photography club. A club commissioned us for high quality pictures of the sports teams for a collage poster they’re making, and they- um… directed me to you.”

Ace threw a look back at Jamil. “Well, I’m not the club captain, so you’re going to have to walk two steps forward and speak to Jamil here. He's the team captain.” As he says this, he grins at Jamil, earning him a grimace in response.

Blaine steps away from him in order to speak with Jamil and Ace goes back to just chatting with the other basketball team members until they’re finished. He can feel Blaine’s eyes on him as the boy is leaving, but he attributes it to just his imagination and a very large admiration for him.

—

Ace knows he isn’t imagining eyes on him as he’s walking to the cafeteria, since both Deuce and Grim can feel it too. He was sure that if Yuu was still here, they’d all be on the hunt for their mystery person, but now that Yuu isn’t here and Ace is thinking about it, it’s probably just Rook again.

At least, he thinks that until he enters the cafeteria. Rook is sitting by Vil and Epel at their normal table, lovingly chatting away with the two. 

He looks at Deuce, who looks back at him, equally as concerned as Ace is, before they’re pulled along to sit down by Grim.

Lunch passes by as normal. Ace makes sure to savor his food for as long as possible, since the 15 minute lunch rule has been hammered into his brain too many times for him to disobey it. Deuce gets up for one moment to go to the bathroom and Grim is by the buffet table getting food, which apparently means Ace is free to eat in peace. Or so he thought.

“Would you happen to be Ace Trappola…?”

Ace turns around and looks up to see a very feminine-looking boy standing beside him with his lunch on a tray. By the armband, this one is a Pomefiore student, though he’s not sure what year this one is in. He has sudden flashbacks to that one student that dropped by during the end of their practice a day or two ago to try and get a picture. “Yeah, that’s me. Who are you?”

“Ah, my name is Allan.” The boy bows his head. “May I sit with you for a bit…? It’s just until my friends return, that is all.”

Ace is not blind to the stares he’s receiving from Vil and Rook from the other side of the cafeteria, which he interprets as ‘allow him to sit with you’. So he gives the boy a grin and nods.

“Sure, sure. My friend went to the bathroom and the other is raiding the buffet tables anyway, so it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do.”

Allan is a pleasant enough conversation partner, especially when Ace begins to speak. He doesn’t interrupt at all, nods along when Ace says something he’s sure is correct, and he even offers to throw out the things on his tray after Ace finishes eating. By the time Deuce returns from wherever the hell he was, because Ace was sure he couldn’t have gone off to the bathroom for that long, Allan has shared only a bit about himself. He’s a third year in Pomefiore, he doesn’t have many classes with his Housewarden or Vice Housewarden, and that he heard about Ace through a few friends and wanted to get to know him. Honestly, Ace is flattered.

When Allan leaves, it’s only been a few minutes since Deuce got back. Ace finally gives Deuce a cold stare.

“And where have- holy shit, you look terrible.” Deuce looks like his entire stomach rearranged itself in the span of a few minutes. His skin was slightly paler than normal, which Ace had not noticed until now, and he looked very tired. “Dude… do you want me to tell Vargas you aren’t feeling well? He knows you wouldn’t skip class, so…”

Deuce shakes his head, sitting down with a resigned expression. “No, it’s fine. I’ll tell him myself. I don’t think whatever I ate agreed with me today…”

Grim rejoins them a bit later, not even daring to talk as Ace makes sure Deuce is alright. From the other side of the cafeteria, he doesn’t notice Vil and Rook exchanging glances and watching the three together, with Epel trying his best to understand what they’re doing.

—

The third time this happens, Ace is painting the roses. There’s an unbirthday party coming up the next day, and now that they’re procured enough paint, he and a bunch of other students are painting. They organized it differently this time than how it’s normally done - since they choose the people painting the flowers based on last name and year, Ace and Deuce are normally paired together thanks to their surname initials being right beside each other in the alphabet. This time, however, it was cut off right on S, separating them. So Ace was basically alone for this painting.

At least, he thought he was going to be alone. As luck turns out, he was not.

“Ace, right?” A voice calls out for him, startling him out of his rose-painting trance. Ace looks over and crooks his head to the side, spotting a group of three students with paint and paintbrushes with them as they approach him.

“Uh, yeah?” Okay, Ace was getting kind of freaked out at this point. There was no way this many people could know his name. “Need help painting the roses? Don’t mean to brag, but I’m kind of an expert on this stuff by now. Riddle’s tried to off my head so much, I think using magic is actually less effective for me at this point.”

One of the three boys giggled and shook his head. He’s rather small, more on scale with Epel than his two other friends, who are both either Cater’s or Jamil’s heights respectively. “Is that something you should be boasting about?”

“Sure, why not. It means I’ve survived long enough as a rulebreaker, and it’s not like I’m going to give up on that anytime soon. It’s basically my job.”

More laughter erupts, and before Ace knows it, he’s surrounded by people painting the rose bushes and chatting with him. Just like with Allan, they let him do most of the talking, only pitching in when they need to or when Ace asks a question. The smaller one is named Trinity, the one that is about Jamil’s height is named Primo, and the taller one is named Quinn. Quinn and Primo are second years, while Trinity is a first year. 

Everything is actually proceeding well enough, except when Ace asks how they got to know him, which is the first time the three give him a sort of weird answer.

“We sort of heard your name around.” Primo turns back to the roses he’s putting a thicker coating on. “Well, Trinity and I did. Quinn met someone.”

Ace looks at Quinn with a raised eyebrow. Quinn shrugs, still painting with meticulous effort. “I know a kid in photography, his name is Blaine. He told me about the sports team, gave me your name and the leader’s name, Jamil. A friend of mine wanted to get the pictures, but he’s in Ignihyde, so super shy. I asked the club for them.”

Ace finds their answers weird for two reasons - one, that would mean this friend of Quinn’s in Ignihyde was the one that specifically requested for Ace to be in the picture. Second, how could Primo and Trinity have just heard his name around? He certainly wasn’t very popular, and even if he was, he was sure he’d be popular for breaking Riddle’s rules more often than the guy had a cup of tea. He’s not sure anyone would want to actually seek him out for that.

“And we’re almost finished!” Trinity sets his bucket and paintbrush down, wiping his forehead with the back of his wrist as he steps back and looks at the bushes. “Just Ace’s roses left! Good job, boys.”

Quinn finishes up what he’s doing, then takes off his gloves and ruffles Trinity’s hair playfully. Primo, meanwhile, directs his attention back to Ace. “We’re going to check out a café a bit off campus from here. Do you want to join us?”

Honestly, a café sounds nice. But he promised Deuce that they’d study together when he finished, and Deuce being sad would mean no more comfort the next time they watched a scary movie together. Or painted roses together. Or got in trouble together. They really were a two-in-one package, huh?

“Nah, got things to do.” Ace waves them off, finishing up his last rose. “Nice meeting you three though. I’ll catch you around, alright?”

The three smile and wave to him as they walk off with their buckets, but something about the smiles he receives from them makes his arm hairs stand on edge. He shivers for no reason in particular, then picks up his bucket and makes his way back to his room.

—

The fourth time this happens, Ace is in the bathroom. There was something in his food that hadn’t entirely agreed with him, which is something that had never happened before. He’d been noticing the influx of people getting sick from one particular food he didn’t like, including Deuce, so he’d been tempted to see if it was altered in any sort of way. Maybe it was just how the dish was cooked.

He remembered why he didn’t like it after he had already eaten it, though. The texture of the food and his stomach did not get along, and alongside the food having something put in it to make whoever eats it downright sick, his stomach was already killing him for making it eat that food again. So there he was, in the bathroom, coughing his lungs out and throwing up in a toilet for being an idiot about what he puts in his mouth.

He’s sure he’s in there forever, as Deuce actually has to call him and make sure he’s okay. He’d told Deuce about what he planned to do, but didn’t mention the fact that the food wasn’t exactly his cup of tea, so he had to try and explain this to Deuce between coughing and heaving. Deuce was understandably upset and concerned, but Ace told him to go tell their next period teacher he probably wouldn’t be in until way later in the period.

On his way out of the stall he had taken up due to his unfortunate predicament, he’d noticed there was a Savanaclaw member at the mirror readjusting his uniform. Not wanting a conflict with the Savanaclaw dormitory, and partially due to past encounters with them, Ace uses a sink a bit away from him. This does not prevent the Savanaclaw member from talking to him, though it’s a far cry from what Ace thought he’d say.

“...You’re Ace Trappola, aren’t you?”

Did word spread around campus quickly or something recently? Why did everyone and their distant aunts and uncles suddenly know who he was by first and last name, and how?!

“Yeah.” He doesn’t have the strength to be sassy with this guy, and he’d prefer not to have his ass handed to him after all the heaving he’d just done. His voice had all but disappeared due to the burn in his throat, so talking was already a hassle for him anyway. The other boy just raises an eyebrow.

“You don’t… look too well.” He approaches Ace, which is the last thing Ace wants, so he backs up to the wall right beside him. Suddenly having to crane his head to look up at the boy, he had the urge to throw up again, but refrained from doing so. The boy stopped a bit in front of him and began holding Ace’s face gently by the chin. “...You should go to the infirmary. I’m too out of my depth for this.”

“Panera, move aside!”

The boy, who Ace now assumes is ‘Panera’ turns, revealing that it was Leona fucking Kingscholar standing by the entrance to the boys bathroom. Panera immediately turns around and moves to the side so Leona can walk by and examine Ace himself. Ace quickly swats away Leona’s hand and pushes past them in order to get to a stall, no longer able to hold in the intense urge to vomit his insides out again. He does make sure to close and lock the stall door behind him while he’s in there, which is when he decides to listen in on Leona’s and Panera’s conversations.

“What were you even doing in here, Panera? You better not have come in here for him.”

“I was actually just in here to fix my uniform and use the bathroom, Housewarden. I dropped food on it earlier, so a friend came and dropped off one of my extras for me.”

“You’re sure about that? I’ll make sure you regret it if you’re lying.”

“Honest, Housewarden! I’d swear it on my family’s lives too. Ace was probably in here for longer, but he only got out of a stall a minute ago.”

Leona goes silent, and Ace no longer needs to heave out his lungs, so he opens the stall door and goes to a sink, dousing his face in water before turning back to Leona. Leona gives him a look and reaches over for one of the paper towels, handing it to him for him to dry his face off. Before he can even do that, however, Leona is dragging him off somewhere, muttering something about a wasted nap.

“You’re damn lucky that little Housewarden of yours knows how to piss me off.” He says as they’re walking through the halls.

“Housewarden… What?” He really doesn’t want to try and muster up more words, and Leona seems to sense this, so he elaborates.

“Some of your friends got sick from the food you ate. Apparently, you complained that the texture of it doesn’t work with you, and makes your stomach hurt. He saw you eat it earlier for whatever reason, and sent me after you when Deuce texted him saying you weren’t going to show up for class. Why would you even do that?”

Ace doesn’t want to tell Leona that he forgot that he didn’t like that specific type of food, and both luckily and unluckily for him, his throat still burned, so he didn’t have to do any talking. He allowed Leona to lead him on in relative silence, looking around every now and again with the feeling he was being watched once more.

—

Between the odd visits he had received from other students, he is visited by Rook, who creeps him out to no end, but he can’t do anything when he’s confined to an infirmary bed. Rook is pleasant enough, graciously bringing by some tea for his throat and snacks Trey had given him before beginning to speak with him.

“Monsieur Hearts, I couldn’t help but notice you talked to Allan a few days ago.” God, had it already been a few days? It felt like it had just happened. “Did he say anything… odd to you? He is not the type to simply approach people, so I am curious.”

Ace shakes his head. “Nah, nothing bad. We just… talked.”

“You both talked, or did you do most of the talking while he listened?”

Ace gives him a weird look, but now that he remembers the conversation well enough, Allan didn’t really say anything to him outside of speaking when Ace asked a question. Actually, the same could be said for those three Heartslabyul students too. 

For some reason, a fifth time comes to mind. There was one other time near the beginning of the school year where he spoke with one of the second years, who seemed pretty interested in the conversation they were having despite being very shy otherwise. The only reason Ace remembers it so well is because the same student had first told him the rule of roses, as well as a few others. It had been Ace’s first experience with the rules, and that had made an impression on his mind.

“Ce n’est pas bon…” Rook’s voice shakes him out of his thoughts. This is clearly enough to earn him Rook’s attention, as the third year simply smiles at him. “No need to worry, Monsieur Hearts. Thank you for your information, and I hope you recover soon.”

Just as quickly as he had arrived, Rook left. Ace deflated in his bed, mind still reeling through the thoughts he had brought back to the front of his mind. Exactly what was going on here?

—

There was no way this was happening.

After Ace had been discharged from the infirmary, he remembered a cafe that Primo, one of the Heartslabyul students he’d met recently, mentioned. He’d gone ahead and searched it up after asking around, and deigned to check the place out himself. Unfortunately, the single day he had off from basketball practice for the next month or so happened to be the same day Deuce was held back by Riddle for extra tutoring, while Grim had been kidnapped by Azul for some reason or another that Grim didn’t explain to Ace. Probably something to do with a contract again.

This left Ace alone to visit the cafe. When he arrived, the place was nearly empty save for a few Night Raven students here and there, who had all turned to look at him as he entered. He felt as if a spotlight had shone on him while he was awkwardly standing at the door, so he took a seat and waited for one of the waiters to come by with his order.

The food were all things he could eat, which was fortunate for him even though he didn’t really have a picky palette, but it was odd that they only served things he liked . It could be excused as a coincidence if it was a bit of the menu, but every single item on their menu was only things he liked, which made the menu a bit small for the cafe. Far be it for him to complain though.

The food itself was so good he could die and feel blessed. Especially the cherry pie, which they had managed to make so perfectly that he couldn’t even object when they said the cherry pie was the most expensive meal on the menu. He had the money to treat himself, and he was going to treat himself well today, damn it. He was having a rough week.

When he paid his tab and approached the door, the doors suddenly force-closed, and that’s where everything spiraled downwards. Too quick for him to comprehend, someone came from behind him and held their arms around his neck, placing a cloth with some sort of drug laced onto it over his mouth, promptly knocking him out.

And that’s where he is right now. He’s not sure where he is, but his magic pen is gone. He’s also stripped of his dorm uniform jacket and tie, so he’s just in the white button up and his undershirt for now. His hands are tied behind him tightly, and if he shifted ever so slightly, it’d give him rope burn, which is something he found out after a long amount of time spent struggling. His ankles were both tied to pipes beside him on opposite ends, making his position very uncomfortable.

It was only when the people behind this walked in that he connected the dots.

“See?” That voice, face, everything belonged to the boy that had stopped by basketball practice that one time. Blaine, Ace remembers, as he had looked into the boy a bit after they met to make sure he wasn’t lying - Jamil had a nice face, so he’d come prepared for creeps to ward off for him, even if Jamil didn’t need it. “Doesn’t he look so pretty tied up?”

The other three people beside him are Trinity, Primo and Allan. Allan looks down at Ace with a pitiful look, but he ultimately still looks rather overjoyed to have him tied up to a pipe in the corner of the room. “Even though he’s in pain, he still looks so beautiful… Ah, what a sight. I could look at this forever.”

Trinity intertwines his hands behind his back, looking up at Allan with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “A picture could last you longer, Al!”

Allan’s eyes light up, and Ace does not like where this is going. He struggles a bit more, even going so far as to kick his tied-down legs up. “Don’t take a picture, what the hell is wrong with you?!”

Of course, they aren’t listening to him, as Allan takes out his phone and begins taking pictures. Ace ducks his head down and to the side so the giant heart on his face isn’t visible to the camera, his face heating up in embarrassment. Allan coos at him after realizing this.

“His face is red! Ah, he’s embarrassed, and still….”

“Could you stop phrasing everything like you’re the creepiest out of all of us?” Primo sighs and shakes his head. “You’re making me think Elpoma founding a fan club for one of our own students is actually reasonable with how weird you’re acting right now. No, not even, it’s weirder than Trace asking for his nudes.”

“My what ?!” Ace asks, attention snapping back up to the four. They finally seem to pay attention to him, but not in the way he wanted, as Allan is quick to sit in front of him and between his legs , which is not a thought he really wants to have right now.

“Don’t struggle, or we’ll have to knock you out again. You’re still beautiful, even when sleeping, but I like hearing your voice…” Seriously, what was wrong with this dude?! He was even worse than Rook of all people, and Rook was literally the bottom of the barrel! “Just let me do this, and…”

Despite his warnings, Ace still moved around every now and again, just to show that he still has resistance. Blaine was by him in an instant, the cloth back in his hand and over Ace’s mouth. He holds it over Ace’s mouth until Ace is just on the brink of losing consciousness, where he removes it and tilts Ace’s head to the side. He then stands back and pulls his phone out, which is when Allan finishes with whatever he was doing and stands back.

“Oh, the boys are going to eat this up.” Blaine grins, taking the picture quickly and saving it. “Open shirt, tie back on, disheveled… It’s literally the most enticing pic I’ve ever seen. I should start charging money for them to come in and see him soon. They’d love to come see their favorite in the flesh.”

“Would you charge us?” Trinity asks. Blaine shakes his head, still busy with his phone. “You five get free visiting passes, but I’ll have to charge you for an entire night. Well, I have to set up prices first. For now, we keep him as a trophy.”

Ace does not like where this is going, but he finds himself too exhausted to even think about it. Eventually, sleep overtakes him, though not before Allan steps towards him again. That’s the last thing Ace sees before he falls asleep, and it’s enough to give him nightmares as he sleeps their activities away.

—

Ace has woken up here and there to the most unsavory of things happening to him, but every time without fail, he’s drugged and put to sleep again. Though instead of the cloth they used at first when they brought him here, they make him drink something tasteless. He’s not sure how many times it’s happened, but it’s enough to make his head hurt and his body numb.

He doesn’t sleep through the times where no one is with him, even though he’d like to. Every time he wakes up, he can’t remember too much either, since it’s obvious he’s been awake for at least a few of the things that has happened to him - his voice is much more horse than it was before, and there are rope burns on his body that could only have been caused by him moving too much. He sleeps like he’s dead, which means he’s very still in his sleep almost all of the time, so he couldn’t have slept through it.

He’s starting to lose hope. Since he sleeps too much due to the additional drugging, he can’t figure out how much time has passed. Every time he wakes up, he’s dressed to the bare minimum, with a fresh pair of paints and another unbuttoned white collar shirt in place of his school uniform. They’ve long since forgotten the socks and shoes he used to have on, the shoes neatly tucked away across the room from him.

They’d moved him onto a bed after some time, where they began to do even worse things. True to Blaine’s words earlier, they’d started bringing in more people, though it was still a relatively small group. Quinn was one of the four people he mentioned earlier, but the fifth person Blaine mentioned had still been a mystery. Still, their activities with him are not exactly what he wants, and even though they praise him, call him beautiful and whatnot, he doesn’t want to be the object of their sexual desires. It’s not like he can object much, though.

He eventually finds out that it’s a very small fan club , as he sees repeats of people throughout his time there. He isn’t drugged through some of the encounters, so he knew that it had been at least two days. Probably a third since he’d been moved to the bed, but a safer assumption was four, since they couldn’t have drugged him too much in one day without killing him. The marks on his body suggested that he was there for a little more than a day.

There’s one boy that keeps coming in, one that keeps speaking to Ace as if they know each other personally. He never says his real name and none of the other boys mention it, but whenever he touches Ace, his touch is as cold as ice. His hands are gentle, which betrays how rough he can get with Ace later on in his time period, but his hands are always soft and on his skin, as if to memorize every inch of his body. 

Ace has learned that this boy likes to clean up after him and just sit with Ace for a bit, even if Ace is drugged, or simply just tied up. He sits and talks and pets Ace’s hair, and Ace does not like it at all just like how he doesn’t like any of this, but this boy is one of the nicer people to him. All of the boys that visit him praise him and call him their favorites, but at the end of the day, it’s always either Blaine or Allan, mostly Allan, cleaning up after their mess. They don’t really care too much outside of being able to feel him. 

This boy is different, as he sometimes asks Ace questions and has little conversations with him when his voice has recovered. Recently, he’s been enthusiastically bringing him tea for whenever their little events end, and Ace’s voice has worn itself out. Even though drinking things makes him need to use the bathroom, some of the things the other boys ask for from him are the most insane things ever, so he’s learned to just… not deny it.

For the last few visits that he’d been giving him, they just talked. They didn’t do anything, not even make out. The boy even stretched the fact that Ace didn’t need to try and touch him at all if he didn’t want to, and that he should tell him if he didn’t want him to touch him at all. He finally gave Ace an alias to call him by too - Nony, which probably was short of Anonymous, but far be it for him to complain. This one boy had made his days bearable. From what he gathered, he’d pay to visit every single day just to visit Ace, and sometimes he would pay extra to visit at a certain time. It was as if he was dedicated to visiting Ace whenever he had the opportunity, but he never went into detail about himself, so it wasn't as if Ace could get to know him well enough to figure it out.

Sometimes they blindfold him when they leave him, other times they leave him to look around the room. On this day, they decided to blindfold him, which only enhances Ace’s hearing since he had been robbed of one of his senses. He can hear people shouting outside, which is something he doesn’t normally hear. From the window that he’s normally by while on the bed - he was still on the bed, just not able to see at the moment - he knows that he’s at least three floors from ground level. So it justifies the fact that he can’t hear too much if they’re on one of the lower levels.

The door to his room slams open, startling Ace to the point where he jolts violently. No one was speaking, the door was evidently still open due to the coldness wafting through, but no one was speaking . That was different, it was a change of pace, since whenever they entered they’d always tell him who it was or if someone was there to see him.

He doesn’t speak. He’s learned that if he does, people will want to hear more of his voice that day, as he’s supposedly expressed that he’s talkative. If this was truly Nony, Nony would have spoken by now, or Ace would have heard the familiar clink of the teacup against a teapot. He promised to bring in tea the next time he visited, and Nony never went back on his promises. Not when it was Ace.

It’s a bit before he hears anything more than the breathing of whoever opened the door, which is footsteps falling right beside the door as well. The first person - well, Ace assumes it’s the first person, he’s not actually sure - approaches him. He’s not entirely sure who this person is, and by how heavy their footsteps are, they probably either have a lot of body fat or muscle. More than the other boys he’s had visit him, anyway.

His hands still tied behind his back and legs tied to the bedposts on the other end of the bed, it’s kind of hard to shift away from someone that is approaching. He leans to the side, away from them, but is roughly grabbed by the arm. Just as he thinks this person is about to get a bit more violent than the boys would, he feels hands working at the ties on his wrists, loosening them until they’re untied and left on the bed. The same action is repeated for his legs as he registers the feeling of having his body fully in his possession.

Actually, maybe not fully. He still feels kind of numb. He had just woken up from being drugged again, after all, so it’s not as though he remembers what happened last.

Someone is taking him by the hand and helping him out of the bed, but he isn’t sure where his legs are anymore. According to his knees, which are admittedly not the best source of information in this case, they’re dangling off the bed. Whoever is helping him up must realize he doesn’t have control of his legs at the moment, so they pick him up - it’s got to be a boy, their chest is flat as fuck it may as well be inverted, kind of reminds him of Deuce - and carry him out of the room. He knows they walk down a few flights of stairs, and he wants to untie his blindfold, but he can’t bring his hands up to do it. Is this his body giving out on him?

“You found him?” Ah, that was… “Oh. Oh! Oh no, that’s horrible, you’ve got to get him back to the infirmary quickly!”

“I know.” That voice was… “Can you help him out here, Leona? My broom flying isn’t the most stable…”

“Whatever.” Oh that…

Someone’s hands are at the back of his head, untying the blindfold set around his eyes. Once it’s off, he screws them shut under the glare of the sunlight, which happens as he’s being handed over to someone else. He registers wind, coldness and more sunlight, but mostly wind and coldness, and he assumes that they’re flying. It had been too long since he flew.

Before he even realizes it, he’s passed out again, comfortable in someone’s arms for once in the awful time he’d been stuck somewhere else.

—

When he comes to, he’s back in the infirmary at Night Raven. This information alone is enough to make him want to cry again, but he can’t bring himself to after all the crying he’d done and tears he’d shed over his time back in his room, wherever he used to be. There’s someone beside him, and it takes more effort than he’d like to admit to turn his head to the side, and-

“Ace!” Deuce exclaims loudly, practically shooting up from his chair that nearly falls backwards and onto the ground if not for his quick reflexes. He sets the chair back and sits down on it after earning the glare of one of the infirmary nurses. After this Deuce sighs out in relief, setting his head down on the bed. “Ace…”

Ace reaches his hand out and pats Deuce’s head gently, smiling at him. He doesn’t want to speak, he’s not sure what he’d say to make the situation better, so this is all he can offer Deuce at this time. Other come flooding in after hearing Deuce’s loud voice Ace sees the few others he’s acquainted so well with - obviously the other three Heartslabyul students he knew well were there, which included their Housewarden. Ruggie was there, Leona, Vil, Rook, Azul, the twins, Silver, Jamil, Kalim… Epel, Jack, Sebek…. Vil was holding up Idia’s ipad, so Idia and Ortho were here too, and then there’s-

“Don’t glare at me like that…” Panera looks away awkward, scratching the back of his head. “I didn’t have anything to do with that , if you’re wondering. I actually came to tell you all I know about it, if you’ll let me.”

—

Panera tells him all about a fan club that was made close to the beginning of the year. It was a quiet affair hosted in one of the second floor rooms at first, but after only a few people showed up, it became an online affair only. People that were fans of Ace joined the club by contacting one of the three people that hosted it - the creator, or the creator’s two admin, which were Allan and Blaine. Ace had no doubt that the creator was Nony, but he wasn’t sure yet.

Panera mentions joining the club itself under the impression that it was just a place to uptalk some of the people at their school, but was sorely wrong after finding out it was devoted only to Ace. He stayed in, curious about Ace but not a fan like the others. After a month or two had passed, the club had started to take a turn for the worse, as people began snapping pictures of Ace randomly, drawing him suggestively or inappropriately, or even writing fiction about him. 

Blaine had eventually come up with a plan that involved getting separate people to speak with him and learn more about him and his food preferences, then advertise a cafe that would take place in a building the creator had redecorated. They would then lure Ace there and everyone in the club would get to see their ‘favorite’, which is actually what they called him, every single day if they paid enough. Panera mentions that the owner didn’t seem too fond of this idea, but went along with it anyway since it was the will of the club.

When Ace had finally found enough of his voice, he immediately asked the one question that had remained on his mind since he woke up.

“Were the drugs… part of the plan?”

Panera furrows his eyebrows and gives Ace a confused look, but softens his glare up after remembering who exactly he’s talking to. “Um… I don’t think so? They never mentioned any drugs in the group chat they have. I’m not a higher up, I wouldn’t know.”

“Ace…” Deuce gives Ace a soft look. “What drugs are you talking about?”

It’s hard, trying to speak in front of so many people after so long. He thinks it’s an aftereffect of the drugs since he’s never slurred this many words or struggled to say things this much in his life. But he eventually manages to explain the fact that sometimes his body would become numb and he would forget most of the things that happen over the course of a day due to the drugs if he’s awake for it. He mentions Nony and tells them about him too, but he doesn’t go into detail about what happened to him outside of the pleasant talks and just sitting around. He thinks they get the picture.

Riddle’s face is completely red by the time he’s done, and even the other students look angrier than they normally do. Kalim just looks sad, so Jamil looks angry on his behalf. Deuce and Epel look like they want to cry, Jack and Sebek are probably the angriest there aside from Riddle. 

Sensing the tension in the room, Ace brings his knees up to his chest and puts his temple on it, resting his head. “How long have I…”

“A week and a half.” Panera answers for him. “You’ve been in there for about ten, maybe eleven days. The only reason we couldn’t get there faster was because I didn’t know where it was, and no one would tell me. Only the higher ups and those they deem ‘true fans’ or whatever get access.”

Ace is faced with the urge to cry again, but he wills himself against it. “Did I mess up…?” He asks, quieter than he would if it was any other day. “I… shouldn’t have talked to them. Then maybe this-”

“No.” Riddle cuts him off, bringing the bottom of his cane down onto the floor hard. “You will not be blaming yourself for anything that’s happened. We will take care of matters from here. If you would be so kind as to write down the names you can remember, aside from this ‘Nony’ person.”

Idia’s ipad buzzes. “I might know who you’re talking about. Leave the Nony person to me, I’ll have Ortho contact you when I find something.”

Riddle nods, then reaches into his school bag for a notebook. He flips over to a free page and holds it out for Ace to take, but seems to rethink this decision as he hands the notebook to Deuce. “You can write for him, since his hands may not be in the best condition.”

“H… Housewarden.” Ace starts with moving his head so his chin is resting on his knees instead of the side of his head. “Where’s my pen? They took it from me…”

Cater reaches into the drawer at the foot of Ace’s bed and pulls out Ace’s magic pen to show him. “It’ll be in here for you when you’re feeling better, OK?”

Ace nods, then looks over at Deuce, who is staring at him intensely - though it isn’t a bad stare, like the ones Allan had given him too many times to count. Instead, Deuce’s glares looked rather loving and soft, a sharp contrast from what he had been feeling over the course of the week and a half he’d spent in that room.

—

Life returns mostly to normal. After he recovers enough to become discharged from the infirmary, Ace realizes very quickly that he’s mostly averse to touch at the moment. Most of the others seem to respect this choice, except Floyd, who still squeezes the everlasting daylights out of him. However, Floyd’s squeezing was not something that had ever happened to him back in the room long enough for him to hate it, so while he still flinches at being touched, he knows Floyd is safe to touch him. Mostly. It still hurts.

The people involved don’t reappear after it. Headmage Crowley calls Ace up personally to re-explain what happened to him in as much detail as he’d allow. At the end of it all, Crowley was standing and hugging Ace tightly while the boy was still crying. Either way, Crowley saw to it that the students were punished, and none of his teachers gave him too much trouble for it. Not even Professor Crewel, who was known for being short-tempered and easy to irritate, batted so much as an eye when Ace needed to copy notes off of Deuce in class or ask a question they had gone over a few days ago.

Eventually, Idia contacts him about the ‘Nony’ person. It’s a week later, and while the memories of and lack-thereof what happened to him were still fresh in his mind, he had begun to feel a lot better about walking about. Jamil told him he could take time off practice, but if he was being completely honest, basketball was the one thing that was keeping him grounded to his sportsmanship. Otherwise, he’d totally forget to take care of himself and exercise often. Even though he’d lost only a little bit of weight in that room due to extensive “exercise”, it was still healthy to get a daily dose in. Basketball was perfect for it, and enjoyable.

Idia’s number was not saved in his phone, but luckily for Ace, Idia was kind enough to sign his name at the end.

UNKNOWN: i found more abt the guy if u want info -idia

Ace: ofc, let me save ur number rq

Idia: kk

Idia: so hes a second year in ignihyde

Idia: if u wanna stop by after class and ur practice tmrw

Idia: i can show u his room

Ace: i can do that, yea

Idia: epic

Idia: ortho will pick u up

Ace: lookin forward to it

—

Of course, Idia had also invited Jack and Sebek to join them for intimidation points, and Panera was invited for the sole fact that he was their informant. Epel invited himself along, since he was concerned about Ace’s wellbeing and also wanted to punt the guy responsible.

Idia knocks on the room door politely first. The person inside shouts to come in, and Idia steps aside for Ace to go in first. He enters cautiously, leaving the door a crack open so the others could hear them, and remains by the door. Eventually, the boy turns and looks at him, dropping his headphones on the floor once he sees Ace.

“Y-You’re…”

There was no mistaking it. Nony had never wanted Ace to be blindfolded whenever they were together, so Ace had a lot of time to study the boy’s face and features. This was Nony, even the voice was similar. He really hadn’t gone through too many disguises to hide himself, though maybe that was for the best, since Ace had a lot of questions. Ace walks forward and takes a seat on Nony’s comfortably sized bed.

“Nony.” He starts with, his voice having recovered a lot since he was discharged. “Can we talk? No violence, no… aggression. Just us, talking. Please?”

Nony gets up from his chair and picks up his headphones, then sets them on the table behind him. He turns back to face Ace, then nods, joining him on the bed, managing to smile despite the circumstances.

“Whatever my Ace wants.” He says, and Ace recalls that Nony calling him ‘my Ace’ was a privilege he only said when they weren’t going at it. There were no bad memories regarding it, so Ace lets it slide. “What do you want to talk about?”

“...Why?” Ace remembers clearly that Panera made it a point to mention how Nony never wanted to go through with Blaine’s idea, but did it because the club majority wanted it. “Why agree? Did you… ever want to?”

Nony doesn’t respond for a bit, looking down at his hands. Nony was a bit taller than Ace with hands slightly bigger than his, so when he reaches over and takes Ace’s hand in his, Ace can finally feel the difference between them. “No. I didn’t. Did Panera tell you already…?”

Ace nods, which prompts Nony to continue. “I… have always liked you. Ever since we met in the Queendom. You probably don’t remember, we were really young. When you got into Night Raven, I was excited to be your friend, but… I couldn’t muster up the courage to talk to you beyond the first time.”

So this was the person Ace talked to sometime during the beginning of the year, back when Yuu was still around. It’s odd, since he only remembered it once, but now that it’s clear, it’s… actually super obvious.

“Having my own little place to remember you by was the closest I ever got to speaking to you. I never did… any of that . It sounds creepy, but all I did was appreciate things like your basketball practices, or read a school newspaper about you and your friends. That was it. That was all it was supposed to be, just a private place for me in a place bigger than my own room so I don’t get distracted.”

That sounds… tame, actually, which means this is going better than Ace thought it was going to go. But of course, Nony’s expression darkened.

“When more people joined, Blaine and Allan, I was… very happy. I talked about you nonstop. The other members became smitten. I was… jealous that they were willing to talk to you when I was not, but… I was happy with my decision for a while. Then more people came, I was named ‘the creator’ on our group chat since I didn’t join them I-R-L anymore, and… yeah.”

So Nony got his title from the fact that he was never seen in the actual fan club room anymore, and likely didn’t know that they moved to fully using the group chat until later. He also probably didn’t know many people joining either.

“They became…. Obsessive. Too obsessive for me to handle. Especially Allan. They started doing more than I wanted to - they took pictures, they wrote stories, they imagined scenarios, they… did a lot. I didn’t really want to be part of it anymore, but it was my responsibility, since I founded it. Then… Then Blaine asked to borrow the estate I had been given by my family for when I graduate, and… they started their plan. I learned the details later because I was busy with the exams I missed. I was sick.”

So they started planning it after the exam period. That didn’t tell Ace much, but hopefully gave the others outside the door some insight.

“I’m so… so sorry.” Nony untangled his hand and bowed his head down. “I never asked Blaine, so I thought I was supposed to do… what everyone else was. When he told me I was allowed to just do whatever I wanted, I was so, so happy I could just talk to you. I tried to make it a bit better for you. I… toiled through the group chat to find someone that wasn’t active, and I hope he helped you a lot. He… was very receptive to shutting down what happened. I’m sorry we couldn’t do it sooner, my estate is… hard to get to without a teleportation spell in use around it.”

That’s when the door opens and Jack comes in, his arms crossed. Deuce is beside him, but looks arguably more calm than Jack. Idia follows suit, and everyone else pours into Nony’s room. Nony is easily startled by this and sits upright once more.

“Elpoma.” Ah, Elpoma was the name that… yeah, he was sure one of the five mentioned that name a while ago to him, but he wasn’t exactly sure when it was. Jack is still talking, so Ace tunes back in. “You know what you have to do, right?”

Elpoma nods, getting up from where he is on the bed. He walks over to Idia, who takes his arms and holds them together with extra rope they probably borrowed from Ace’s person when they rescued him. Elpoma takes a moment to look back at Ace with an apologetic expression. “I’m so sorry I let it get to this point. I… don’t think you need to forgive me ever, but… I hope you recover well. I’m sorry for everything I’ve done. And… you can still call me Nony. I like it better when you say it.”

One final smile is what Elpoma - no, Nony gives, and he disappears with Idia and Panera down the corridor. Ace isn’t sure what to feel at the moment, so he only sinks back into the bed. Deuce joins him, followed by Epel, followed by Jack. Sebek still leans beside the doorway, so Epel takes his shoe off and throws it at him.

“Join us on the bed!” Epel demands. Sebek looks horrified at this idea.

“It’s not any of our beds! We shouldn’t be on it, especially since the owner just left.”

Ace giggles, then gets off the bed and walks over to Sebek. He leans forward and allows his face to mush into Sebek’s chest, which is the most touching he’s done in the past week aside from the sudden hand holding he’d just had with Nony. Deuce comes by and joins them by hugging Ace from behind, and suddenly they’re all hugging Ace. He has the insane urge to cry, and for once, he allows it to happen. The other three release from their hug, which gives Sebek the opportunity to reach up and pet the back of Ace’s head.

“I-It’s over…” He says elatedly, turning his head to the side so he can breathe. “I-I…”

“It’s over.” Deuce states, smiling at him. “We’re all here.”

“Yeah.” Epel says, nodding. “An’ if any o’ them come back ‘round ‘ere, I’ll kick ‘em to the side for ya! You can bet on it!”

“I’ll protect you too.” Sebek says, burying the bottom half of his face in Ace’s hair as he continues petting his hair. “I may not be your official guard, and I may have sworn loyalty to Young Master Malleus, but I can still protect my friends. Especially my boyfriends.”

Jack doesn’t do much more than growl and lean down to pull Ace away from Sebek by wrapping his arms possessively around his shoulders, which still startles Ace, but he goes along with it. Sebek allows this to happen for once. “You’re ours, and no one else will take that again.”

Ace looks at the four faces fondly, with a smile on his face and tears still pouring. For once since this entire affair had started and he’d have to feel too much, he finally believes he’s back home, in arms that will actually appreciate and love him, not obsess. He really couldn’t ask for anything more.