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Ace is stunned into silence at Riddle’s question.
He probably looks like an idiot just staring so dumbfoundedly like that, but it doesn’t matter in the end because Riddle just… deflates.
“I suppose that’s a yes, then,” he murmurs. He clutches his book bag in one hand and turns to leave, and Ace can’t help but panic because Riddle’s leaving and out of all the possibilities he could’ve thought of, this wasn’t-!
“ No! ” That came out a lot louder than he expected, and his voice echoes through the shop. Riddle flinches and glances back towards him with a look of surprise. Ace’s heart hammers in his chest, but he keeps gazing into Riddle’s eyes. Riddle hasn’t left yet. He still has a chance to make things right.
“No? Then what do you call the past few weeks if not avoidance?”
“It’s not- ok, maybe it is?” Ace stares at the counter as he struggles to think of what else to say. “Yes and no. Yes in the sense that I’m avoiding you, but also no in the sense that I think you’ll understand why.”
Riddle stares at him flatly. “So it was a yes. Was it something I did?”
“No, of course not!” Ace puts his hands together in a pleading gesture. “Please just let me explain, ok?”
“You’d better. If I did something wrong, I’d prefer it if you just told me outright.”
“I…” Ace knows he isn’t the smartest, but just this once, he’d like his brain to come up with words (preferably ones that don’t reveal his feelings). “You’re gonna think it’s dumb.”
“I’d rather take a dumb truth than a smart lie.” Riddle crosses his arms and glares at Ace. “Now out with it. I’d hate for you to be the first person I use interrogative tactics on.”
Ace sighs and hangs his head. No use arguing with someone as smart as Riddle, after all; he just hopes he has the right words. “I just thought that what we had was special.”
“Special? How so?”
“Y’know, cause I can always make you laugh, and whenever you’re in here, you always smile so brightly. I thought I was the only person that could make you do that.” Ace takes a deep breath to stall, and hopes that his hair can hide how red his ears probably are. “I saw you that day with Trey, and I saw you laugh at his jokes, and… I dunno.
“I probably sound like a grade schooler, but knowing I wasn’t the only person that could make you smile that bright… it threw me off. I got upset about it, and I thought I could deal with it before you noticed, but then I couldn’t deal with it, and you did notice in the end, and it was just a big, huge mess.
“Yeah, I know it’s probably really childish, but I’m not gonna avoid you again. And I’m sorry for doing that to you this whole time.”
“That’s all? And you’re sure you weren’t avoiding me because you hated me?”
“No! Riddle, I could never hate you. I swear I wasn’t doing it to hurt you, so please believe me when I say I really am sorry.”
The redhead sighs, his shoulders slumping with relief. “Hm, if you say so. I’m glad I came and listened to you. I thought I’d been doing better… making friends normally, that is. So it’s reassuring to know I haven’t done anything wrong, unlike in the past.”
“Yeah, it was just-” Ace tilts his head in confusion. “Wait, what? Why would you think it was you? You were saying a lot of ‘if I did’ earlier too.”
The redhead’s eyes go wide, seemingly realizing his verbal slipups. “I-it’s nothing, please just disregard-”
“Did something happen in the past? Something that made you think you were the one that ruined our friendship?”
Riddle glances at Ace remorsefully, then gazes at the ground. “...yes. It was a long time ago, but I’ll admit I’m still dealing with the fallout even today.”
“Can I… ask what happened? If that’s okay with you, of course!”
“It’s a long story.” He goes silent, but eventually sighs. “One probably best shared over tea.”
For once in his life, Ace gets the hint. He mouths “oh”, then nods frantically and rushes into the back, not even bothering to ask for payment. He pulls out two cups and steeps the tea as fast as he can, tapping his foot against the floor while he waits.
He got it out. He actually got it out without admitting any jealousy of Trey, or his feelings, or anything! Whichever of the Seven made him so eloquent at that one moment in time, Ace wants to thank them with his entire existence. Riddle doesn’t hate him! Thank the Seven a million times over that they can just go back to how they were before. Nothing needs to change, Ace reminds himself.
He is just fine having Riddle as a friend, and his feelings will die down soon enough. Hopefully.
The timer dings, and Ace pours the tea and some milk into cups before carrying them out and setting them on Riddle’s table. He’s about to sit down, then realizes they probably shouldn’t be interrupted; even if it’s unlikely that a customer would enter, Ace isn’t going to take any more chances. He flits around the windows, pulling the blinds down and flipping the ‘Open’ sign to ‘Closed’ before he finally lets himself plop into the empty chair.
“So no one bothers us,” Ace says to Riddle’s bewildered expression. “You’re more important than them anyway.”
“I see.” Riddle hums as he takes a sip from his tea. “So. Where should I start?”
Ace holds his cup with both hands and sits up as straight as he can. “You said you were friends with Trey, right? Why don’t you start there?”
“Right. Right, of course. Trey and I first met when he and Che’nya snuck into the courtyard of the Rosehearts mansion during my independent study time…”
~-~-~-~-~
A rock clinks against the window, and Riddle glances up from his textbook. Right outside are two young boys that seem to be around his age. He knows he shouldn’t get distracted while he’s studying, but… they managed to sneak into the courtyard, and Riddle would be lying if he said he wasn’t even a little bit curious. He stands from the desk, and he undoes the latch and swings it open. “Whoa, look, he heard us!” The boy with glasses exclaims.
Another head pops up from below the windowsill, purple cat ears twitching as a wide grin spreads on his face. “Hey hey, why don’t you come play with us?”
“Wah!” Riddle stumbles back into the room, nearly tripping and falling flat on his back. “Who are you two?”
“My name’s Che’nya, and that’s Trey! Come on, come on, let’s play croquet!”
Riddle blinks and gazes down at them. “Croquet?”
“You don’t know what croquet is?” Che’nya (that was his name, right?) reaches into his pockets and tosses something up. “Here, catch!”
“Wait, what?!” Riddle scrambles to catch it, and he grins when he sees what’s happily nestled in his hands. “A hedgehog?”
“Yep! He wants to play with you too, y’know.” Che’nya puts his hands behind his head and grins. “So? What do you say?”
“But I…” Riddle glances forlornly at his desk, still piled high with books. “I can’t. It’s my independent study time, and I have to focus on the assignments Mother gave me.”
Che’nya frowns. “If it’s independent, that means you get to choose what you study, right? My grandpa said that you can learn by playing too!”
“Really?”
The other boy (Trey, if Riddle remembers right) nods. “That’s right! So, what do you say? Want to come down and join us for a little bit?”
Riddle glances back and forth between the hedgehog on his windowsill and his assigned readings. He wants to join them. He wants to leave the house and run around, climb trees and play croquet and eat whatever he wants. But his mother will be angry at him for not finishing his assignments… Riddle squeezes his eyes shut, hands shaking with the temptation to jump out into the courtyard, and eventually he makes up his mind.
He’s pretty much done with those readings anyway. “Fine. J-just for a bit.”
Trey smiles and reaches out towards him. “Can I ask for your name then?”
“It’s Riddle.” He reaches out the window, but suddenly… his hand freezes. He shouldn’t be doing this, he should be studying and being a good son that can make his mother proud! But when he looks at the hedgehog, then at the hand being offered to him, Riddle can’t help but feel warmth in his chest as he firmly grasps Trey’s hand.
“Riddle Rosehearts.”
~-~-~-~-~
Well, isn’t that just romantic.
Trey, sneaking into Riddle’s backyard and rescuing him from his mother’s clutches? Practically straight out of a fairytale. “Sounds like you two had a lot of fun when you were younger.” Jealousy creeps into Ace’s voice, and he gulps down his tea to try and stop it. “Those two being your first friends and all.”
Riddle smiles fondly, unaware of Ace’s inner turmoil. “Yes, we really did. They showed me a life outside my mother’s influence, where I could play outside and eat cake whenever I wanted.” But his smile disappears, and he drops his gaze to the table. “Of course, what with us being just kids at the time… it couldn’t last very long.”
“Whoa, hold on, you’re not saying..?”
“It was a few months after my eighth birthday. They found out I’d never had a strawberry tart before, and invited me to have some at the Clover bakery. The concept of sweets was all but foreign to me, so of course, I readily accepted. But in my delight of finally getting to try something sweet for once, I lost track of the time, and…”
~-~-~-~-~
“I can’t believe you!” Riddle flinches at his mother’s fury, desperately trying to stop his tears through sniffles. “Not only did you sneak out and abandon your study time, but I also find you eating that monstrous heap of sugar with those two hooligans!”
Riddle hiccups and swipes his tears away. “M-mother, please, those were my friends-”
“Nonsense! Those two have led you astray! Your so-called ‘friends’ are nothing more than terrible influences, and there will be no more playing with them ever again!”
No. No, by the Seven, this can’t be happening- not Trey, not Che’nya, please anything but them-!
“I’m sorry, Mother!” Riddle stumbles forward, grabbing onto the hem of his mother’s coat. “I-it won’t happen again, so please, please-”
“Quiet, boy! You broke the rules, so now you’re going to have to pay for it.” She reaches towards the window and starts pulling it shut. “Honestly, I think it was much too soon to allow you that much freedom. Clearly, I need to keep a much closer eye on you.”
The window clicks shut, and Riddle can do nothing except scream desperate apologies until his throat turns sore. When his mother finally, finally leaves, he pulls himself to his feet, grasping the windowsill he’d leapt off of just hours ago, and watches as Trey and Che’nya leave.
That’s it, then. They’re abandoning him- no, they’re being pushed out the door because he didn’t follow the rules. None of this would ever have happened if he’d just kept an eye on the clock, or even better, if he’d never snuck out to play with them in the first place.
It’s all his fault. He’s lost the only people he’s ever cared about, and his chest only hurts this much because of his own actions.
Rules are order, and in his house, order is law. They’re unchanging, unforgiving, unerring- absolute. If this is what breaking the rules got him, well, he’d be better off following them down to the last word, wouldn’t he? He’ll never have to feel this pain again if he just follows every single one of Mother’s rules.
(Even if he wants nothing more to rebel against them, because whatever love he once felt isn’t to be found in the Rosehearts mansion.)
~-~-~-~-~
“And after that, she grounded me. I wasn’t to be let outside the house unless I was with her, and the strict schedule she’d set for me only got worse. After coming straight home from school, I studied until dinner, ate, then studied some more.” Riddle stares at the table with the cup clasped in his hands. “I only ever left the house once a week, on Sunday walks with my mother.
“Seeing everyone else play with their friends and run around pained me. The amount of times I saw Trey and Che’nya, while they merely glanced at me without a word… it stung, yet it also reaffirmed that the rules were the most important part of my life back then. If I wanted to be a successful doctor like my mother, I’d have to follow every single one.”
“Oh yeah, I remember you mentioning how your parents wanted you to go into medicine.”
Riddle nods. “All of it was her influence. Changing my major was merely an act of rebellion, now that I’m thousands of miles away and she can’t get to me anymore.”
“Makes sense. I’d wanna rebel against her too.” Riddle chuckles at that, and Ace pointedly ignores the way his heart flutters. “You mentioned school? I always assumed your mom homeschooled you.”
“That is what it would seem like, isn’t it? But no, I went to a regular elementary school, as well as middle and high school. Both Trey and Che’nya have followed me through every grade, and I’ve known Cater since middle school. A simple time, perhaps, but I’d never want to go back.” The redhead sips his tea and smiles bitterly. “Kids are cruel. You can only imagine how isolated I was from everyone after what happened.”
~-~-~-~-~
Riddle shifts his books around in his arms. His library visit had proved fruitful, and he was just about to head back to class, when- “Hey, did you hear what happened to Trey over the weekend?” Riddle freezes and ducks around the corner, peeking out to see who’s talking.
“No, I didn’t! What is it, what happened?” One of them asks.
“I heard Rosehearts’ mom totally went off on Trey’s mom and dad cause she found out her son had been sneaking out to play with them! My sister was there when it happened, and she said it went on for hours.”
“What?! But Trey’s mom and dad are so nice to everyone, and they own that really nice bakery with all the tasty cakes! How could anyone get mad at them?”
“Right? That’s what I thought too!” They all lean in and form a huddle, but even though their voices drop to a whisper, Riddle can still hear them. “I bet that woman’s insane! I mean, no one just goes off on people like that without being a little-” the young boy whistles and twirls his finger near his temple- “cuckoo up here!”
“And for something as simple as cake too!” The girl gasps, horrified by her sudden realization. “What if she passed that cuckoo crazy to Riddle? We have to be careful, or he’ll go all insane on us too!”
“Oh my Seven, you’re right! I always thought he was a little scary…”
The third boy, who’d been silent the whole time, finally speaks. “Aw, I kinda liked him though. He always knows the right answers to all the homework, and if he’s in your group, you’re guaranteed to be number one!”
“Shut it, Piper! You’d rather have him scream at you like that? Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!”
“I guess not. We’d better steer clear of him.” Their voices fade into nothing, and Riddle barely holds himself back from sobbing. He’s not like that. He’s not insane, really! Ah, his nose is all stuffy… and why is his chest so tight? Heart issues? Lung problems?
He’d better ask Mother about that when he gets home.
Riddle emerges from his spot, clutching his books to his chest as he speeds past them. He can’t let them see him like this, can’t let them know he was listening.
“Shoot, it’s him-!”
No time for tears. No time for them . All he needs is his books, the rules, and his knowledge. Yet even as he ducks into the classroom, Riddle catches the last few things.
“Oh, thank the Seven he didn’t see us.”
“Did you see that look though? He’s so scary! Maybe he actually is insane.”
“C’mon, let’s not hang out near him! He might hear us and come out…” The voices fade as the door clicks shut, and Riddle takes a deep, shuddering breath as he collapses into his seat and cracks the first book open. He is Riddle Rosehearts, from the Rosehearts family, and it is his destiny to be great, no matter what all the others say.
(No matter what his own feelings say.)
~-~-~-~-~
All of Ace's feelings turn into pity in that one instant. “Oh, Riddle… I’m sorry, that’s-”
“It’s alright, Ace. You don’t need to apologize. But as you already know, kids talk, and the rumors of what my mother did and the implications it had on me followed me well into high school.
“By then, I’d gotten used to tuning unimportant conversations out, half because of the rumors and half because of my role as student council president. Unbeknownst to me at the time, quite a bit of people in our class hated me. It may have been the capital, but everyone knew who I was, for better or worse.”
“Wait, hold up, the capital?” Ace leans over the table with a grin. “You lived in Petalcove? My parents are from there!”
“Is that so?” Riddle hides his face behind his cup and slumps down defeatedly. “In that case, did they ever tell you what happened two years ago in Rosecourt High School?”
“Rosecourt?” Ace tilts his head at the mention of it; he tries to think about it, but nothing comes up. “No, I don’t think they ever said anything about it.”
“No? Then, let me be the one to tell you.”
~-~-~-~-~
His mother's heels click against hardwood; the sound has long since been engraved into Riddle's mind. “Did you catch wind of anything happening at your school today, Riddle?”
Riddle glances up from his textbook. “No, I don’t believe so, Mother. Is there something wrong?”
“Well, I’ve just been told there’s a special award ceremony today.” She crosses her arms and frowns. “Invite-only. And I do believe we never got anything in the mail saying that we were to come.”
Guilt sinks deep into Riddle’s stomach at the words he’s about to say. “Perhaps I just didn't get one, then.”
“Nonsense. You’re special, Riddle, you deserve to be on that stage alongside everyone else. Why, you’re top of the class, you have perfect attendance, student council president, and one of the best people on the debate team! It’s practically guaranteed that you’d be invited.”
She keeps prattling on, but Riddle tunes her out, his own thoughts swirling in his mind. Well, when Mother puts it that way… why is he sitting at home when everyone else is getting awards?
He is good enough, isn’t he? He’s worked so hard this whole year to maintain his grades, be the top of the class, but now that the end is here, he gets… nothing? Why? Has everything he’s done been for naught?
After all that he’s endured under his mother’s reign, after everything he’s done to uphold the rules, he still gets nothing? That can’t be possible. He clenches his fists, crinkling the pages as anger bubbles up inside him. He has to have something for this, he has to-!
“You have one more space in your award shelf for this one, and now you're telling me you don’t get one? Honestly, I am this close to marching up to the school and asking why you didn’t-”
Riddle snaps the textbook shut, the sound echoing in the empty room. “No need. I’ll do it myself. I’ll find where that ceremony is, find whoever’s running it, and demand answers from them myself.”
Mother beams, but it seems too empty to be real. “That’s my boy.”
~-~-~-~-~
When faced with the person in front of him, Ace almost can’t believe his ears. “Did you really go up to them like that?”
Riddle’s knuckles turn white as he grips his cup. “Yes. I effectively crashed the awards ceremony. When I got there and went backstage, it was already halfway through. I went onstage, and after I got used to the lights, I saw…”
“Trey? Cater? Che’nya? What are you three doing here?” Riddle doesn’t care that everyone’s staring at him, tunes out the murmurs rippling through the crowds, and just focuses on them. The three people he thought could trust the most, and they’re all right there sitting in the crowd with papers in their hands- awards, no doubt.
Trey shoots up from his seat. “Riddle?! Wait, what in Wonderland are you doing here?!”
“That’s what I’ve been wanting to ask you.” Riddle glares at Trey from atop the stage and crosses his arms. “Why didn’t anyone bother to inform me of this momentous ceremony?”
Che’nya gazes at him with a raised eyebrow. “Cause mew didn’t get one?”
“That’s preposterous! After all I’ve done this year, you’re telling me I don’t deserve anything?”
“Hey, hey, Riddle, let’s calm down,” Cater pleads, standing from his own seat with his hands in the air. “That’s not what we’re saying at all. Get off the stage, and we can talk this over, ok?”
“You’re one to talk, Cater. Nowhere near the top of the class, and yet here you are.”
Cater winces, and Trey frowns up at Riddle. “Please, this isn’t like you. Like Cater was saying, we can talk about this outside.”
“I am not leaving until someone tells me why there’s no paper up here with my name on it!”
Che’nya finally crosses his arms and stands. “Because mew didn’t earn it.”
Trey’s jaw drops, and he whirls around to glare at him. “Che’nya!”
“What? Someone had to say it.”
“You know what, that guy’s right!” A voice from the back shouts, and Riddle glares at the student in the top row of the theater. “Just cause you’re always top of the class doesn’t mean you’re entitled to an award, Rosehearts!”
“Yeah, you’re wrong! Some of us had to work damn hard for these, and we’re not gonna let a spoiled little brat like you steal them from us!”
“We all have to earn these, and you’re no different!” The rest of the students stand, their enraged voices clamoring into one, but all Riddle can feel is white-hot anger burning through his veins.
“Silence, silence, silence! All of you shut up!” Riddle screeches, and the entire theater flinches. “My mother is always right! Therefore, I too am always, always in the right!”
“No one gives a shit about your mother!” Someone shouts from the back.
“Who said that?!” Riddle can only hear the sound of his own breathing, not a single person answering him. “So, none of you are going to own up? Fine! I’ll just have to discipline all of you! As student council president, I hereby declare that all future school events are now cancelled!” Shocked murmurs ripple through the crowd, and Riddle grins evilly. “Hah! How’s that? No one can say a word against me now!”
“Riddle, stop this!” Trey is at the foot of the stage now, Cater and Che’nya still by his side. “I can’t let you do this to them! They’ve done nothing wrong!”
“Trey. Even you are going against me?” Riddle clenches his fists, and a cackle bursts out of him. “Hah… ahahaha! You really think you can stop me? Then I’ll just make all of you pay!”
“Security!” One of the teachers yell.
“What do you think they’ll do to me-” Riddle’s arms are forcibly grabbed, and he’s jerked back before he can react. “Gh- let go of me! I said let go!” He makes a move to headbutt one of them, but fails, and when he realizes his feet can’t touch the ground anymore, he resorts to kicking and lashing out.
“You’re all going to pay for this! All of you, I swear it on-!” A rag is forcefully shoved onto his face, and though he tries to fight it, the last thing Riddle sees before everything goes black are the people who betrayed his trust that night.
“When I came to, I was in the infirmary. Trey was there when I woke, and I remember him telling me it’d all be okay as he held my hand. Che’nya told me in no uncertain terms that what I had done was wrong, and I realized that they’d never betrayed me in the first place… they were just trying to protect me and everyone else.
“It was then that I ended up telling them everything. I must’ve cried for hours that night, but they stayed with me the whole time.” Riddle sighs and places his empty cup back on the saucer. “It’s what made me start to realize that maybe my mother’s way of doing things wasn’t quite the best. Granted, she’s still my mother and she did raise me, so I haven’t dared do anything too extreme as of now, but I am trying to learn these kinds of things for myself, even if it hasn’t been easy.
“I did manage to reschedule all the events in an effort to make it up to everyone, but a lot of them still held grudges even as I moved into my third year. Once I graduated, I moved to Sage Island under the guise of going to NRU. In reality, it was more an attempt to start over than anything. But now I’m here, and… now you know.”
Ace is nearly lost for words. “Riddle, you… really did that? That’s…”
“A long story, I know.” Riddle smiles briefly as he leans back in his chair. “Part of the reason I had you make tea.”
“Yeah, that, but I was also gonna say that sounded kinda immature.” Ace waves his hands around in a vague gesture. “Y’know, no offense, but it was like a temper tantrum a baby would have.”
Riddle flinches and opens his mouth to protest, then closes it again. “N-no, you… you’re right. You’re right, I was a wreck. I don’t think you would’ve liked me very much had we met back then.” His voice drops to a whisper and he gazes forlornly at the table. “It’s why I didn’t want you to know.”
Ace shakes his head. “No, that’s not what I meant! Look, what I mean is, you might’ve been immature then, but you’ve grown a lot, I can tell! You’re way nicer and honestly? I can’t see it in you anymore, to do that kind of thing.” He puts one hand on top of Riddle’s as a comforting gesture. “And hey, thanks for telling me. Can’t have been easy.”
Riddle glances at their hands, then up at Ace. “You really think so?”
“Course I do!”
“I see. Then, in that case…” Riddle nods gratefully with a smile. “Thank you. I’ve tried to make my peace with it, but I’m afraid it’s still a work in progress.”
“Hey, you made it somewhere! I'd say you’ve done pretty damn well if you’re here now.”
“You're right, though I doubt I ever would’ve made it this far if not for Trey, Cater, and Che’nya.” That fond smile is back on Riddle’s face again as he traces the table’s wood grain. “Especially Trey. No matter what I needed, he was always there to help.”
“Sounds like he’s done a lot.” The jealousy Ace thought he’d gotten rid of curls around his heart like a thorny vine again, and he can’t help but scoff. “Trey must really love you, then.” His eyes go wide as soon as the last word leaves his mouth.
Shit. He wasn’t supposed to say that.
Riddle blinks, clearly taken aback. “Pardon?”
Ace chuckles nervously, suddenly finding his surroundings more interesting than Riddle. “Aha, I- I, uh, didn’t mean to say that, so if we can just pretend I never said a thing, that’d be great.”
“You didn’t mean to say that?” Riddle straightens up and raises an eyebrow. “So then, what did you mean to say?”
Ace realizes too late just how badly he’s fucked up. Riddle’s gone full lawyer mode; the coffeeshop’s his courtroom, and Ace his unwilling witness. This must be what it’s like to be interrogated , Ace defeatedly thinks to himself.
“What I meant to say is that Trey really cares for you?”
“Is that a question or a statement?”
Ace groans and rolls his eyes. “Jeez, now you really sound like my mom. That was a statement, Riddle.”
“Just making sure.” Riddle hums and nods, though the expression on his face is unreadable. “Now, you mentioned ‘love’ in your supposedly unintentional statement. Would you elaborate on that?”
“...Dude, are you seriously using courtroom interrogation techniques on me right now?”
The corner of Riddle’s lips curl up into a smirk. “Answer the question, Ace.”
“I- I just, uh…” Ace sighs, letting his shoulders slump. “Argh, I give up. Look, haven’t you two been, y’know… dating?”
Riddle’s lawyer facade shatters, and he tilts his head curiously. “What? Why would you think that?”
“When I saw you in the courtyard with him, and he was giving you cake. Like I said earlier, I really thought what we had was special and then it wasn’t , and I knew it’d take a really special person to make you smile the way you do here, so…” Ace drums his fingers on the table in an effort to stall before he has to say those words. “I just assumed you two were dating.”
“So that’s what you were really thinking this whole time?” Riddle covers his face with one hand to hide his grin, but eventually breaks out into full laughter. “Ace, goodness, I can't believe it!”
For his part though, Ace just pouts. “Hey, what’s so funny?”
The redhead giggles even through his attempts to stifle it. “Ace, I thought I’d told you I’ve never dated anyone before.”
“When we first met! I thought you guys got together after that!”
Riddle chuckles one last time, then leans back in his chair with a grin. “Ace, I do believe you’re misunderstanding us. Trey is an amazing person, don’t get me wrong, but we’re just friends. Childhood best friends, but still just friends. If anything, I see him as a brother.”
“Seriously?” Ace looks right into Riddle’s eyes for the first time since they started on this topic. “Then the reason he gave you cake is just..?”
“Because he’s like that. Trey bakes cakes for everyone. Besides, the only person Trey’s dating is Cater, and between you and me, Cater isn’t exactly the best at sharing.”
Hope builds in Ace’s chest, and he picks himself up off the table. “And you’ve really, never ever dated anyone?”
“No, I’ve never had a significant other before. However…” Riddle clears his throat and smiles bashfully, light pink dusting his cheeks as he takes Ace’s hand and laces their fingers together. “I would be more than willing to try if it was with you, Ace.”
Ace glances dumbfoundedly between Riddle’s face and their intertwined hands, and he’s silent for a long, long while until… “So does this mean you like me?”
The redhead sighs and rolls his eyes, but his expression is fond as he stands and leans over the table. “Yes, Ace. It does.” Ace opens his mouth to respond, but then Riddle’s grabbing his collar and pulling him up in one swift motion, and suddenly their faces are way too close to be a coincidence, and Ace feels soft lips on his own-
Oh. Riddle’s kissing him.
It’s over just as quickly as it happened. Ace would swear it was a fever dream… but his lips are still tingling and Riddle is still looking at him with the same soft smile that sends butterflies all through Ace’s stomach. No, that was real. That definitely happened.
Do it again, Ace wants to say, kiss me more! But his voice fails him, and all he can do is glance down at his lips disbelievingly.
“I hope that was a sufficient answer to your question.” Riddle stands and gathers his belongings, slinging his bag over one shoulder. “And I’m more than glad we were able to work things out.” He strolls over to the door, and right as he’s about to push it open, he glances at Ace with a broad smile- a smile that Ace now knows is for him and him alone. “I’ll see you next week, Ace.”
“Wait, Ri-” The door jingles, and Ace can only watch as Riddle’s figure disappears around the corner.
Just like last time. Just like always. And in that moment, Ace makes up his mind; he’s tired of just waving when Riddle leaves, tired of watching Riddle walk off without him.
In that moment, Ace knows what he has to do when he sees Riddle again.
He sweeps the empty cups into his arms and carries them to the back, all while a plan is slowly formulating in his head. Riddle stole a kiss from him, so Ace will just have to make sure he returns the favor.
Preferably at least ten times over.