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It was pure love at first sight.
The moment Ace first laid his eyes on Machina, Ace already knew that this was the one for him.
"Machina did it. He took your quiver of arrows, Trey."
Sort of.
Trey frowned at the messy common room. Ace was doing nothing to assist him in the perilous search for his missing weapon.
"Are you certain that Machina did it?" Trey looked at the other blonde.
"Of course." Ace simply replied, flipping through his math textbook. "Who else would it be?"
"And why would I steal Trey's arrows?" came Machina's deep, calm voice from behind the couch the petite blonde was sitting on.
"For your own sick pleasure." Ace replied, equally calm.
"Look, can you just argue like a married couple later and help me out here?" Trey was desperate. He was so damn late for archery practice and he was never ever late.
"Married couple!?" Ace exclaimed. "Even if I was gay, I won't sink that low."
"Oh, be still my heart." Machina's voice was dripping with sarcasm.
"You know what, I'll just borrow a spare from the club room." Annoyed, Trey left the messy common room.
It was only 24 hours since Machina arrived into Class Zero.
48 hours later, the whole entire peristylium of Suzaku would witness Ace of class zero, running in the opposite direction every single time Machina Kunagiri would approach from a nearby corner.
Kurasame was puzzled.
What in the world was wrong with this boy?
Sure, he had seen Cinque, Sice and a few girls act that way around him but that was because there were in love-
'Unless....' Kurasame watched his tonberry play with a pencil at a corner of his desk. '...Dare I assume this theory?'
There was only one way to find out.
xXx
A month passed by quickly. There were so many things to do for the students.
Mock exams, pop quizzes, assignments for the month, projects, open houses and dorm inspections.
Lately, Kurasame had noticed that Ace had been increasingly tired during morning classes.
Ace, being one of his prized students, wasn't the kind to fall asleep in class during lessons(that was more of Nine's specialty). However, he spotted Ace lying face down, head buried against his arms and his mantle being flipped over his head to hilariously provide some shade against the glaring lights of the lecture hall.
Seated beside him was a smirking Machina.
Sometimes, Machina would exchange a suspicious look at Ace. Sometimes, Ace would speak in a very high pitched voice.
Kurasame was puzzled.
xXx
Another three months passed. It was Autumn. Daylight got shorter and nights grew colder.
The students began to switch from their short sleeved summer uniforms to their winter uniforms and fireplaces were lit after dinner time in an effort to add warmth to the Peristylium grounds.
But Machina had his way of keeping his personal chocobo warm and entertained.
"Take off all your clothes."
"In your dreams." Ace spat. "And even in your dreams, you will never even get my mantle off me."
"Funny." Machina crossed his arms. "In my dreams, you were naked as a new born baby, writing underneath me."
"You truly are delusional."
"It'll be warmer if our clothes aren't in the way."
Ace narrowed his eyes. "You are just try to get me to strip."
"The heater is down so suit yourself." Machina crawled into bed, discarding his uniform to the side carelessly.
For all it was worth, Ace knew that Machina was right.
Thanks to Nine and Eight, trying to fire one of Trey's arrows to the picture of the headmaster in the common room, only for the arrow to rebounce and smash the heater.
Sice had skinned the two alive and Ace was pretty sure that the two idiots didn't need any more pain added to their battle wounds but damn, was he freezing now.
All the fire materia was being hogged up by the angry scythe wielder and she refused to let any of the boys in her room.
So while all the girls were getting snuggly in Sice's room a hallway down, Ace was miserable in his shared room with Machina.
Jack and King were probably comforting Nine and Eight in the medical wing. Maybe he should join them-
No. Being around Nine was bad luck. The last time he was in the same room with Nine, he had been convinced to drink some alcoholic beverage down and it ended up with him trying to smuggle a stolen chocobo into the common room, howling and wailing like a temperamental child when Kurasame tried to reason with him.
Oh yes. That went well.
Ace was pretty sure that he had enough blackmail material on himself to last for the whole of his school life.
Sighing, the blonde haired boy unfastened the gold clip holding his red mantle.
At the sound of metal buttons being undone, Machina turned around slightly just in time to see the other boy pull the black T-shirt that he wore underneath the heavy black uniform coat, over his head.
"Let me make this clear, Kunagiri." Ace stated. "I'm only doing this because out of all the other males in this class, you're the only one that is the safest option."
Machina raised an eyebrow at the comment. "Safest option? What? The other boys are full of diseases?"
"Yes. A disease known as stupidity and recklessness." Ace crossed his skinny arms.
"Sounds like you got a story to tell."
"Over my dead body." Machina turned away to face the wall one more time. He felt the mattress dipped slightly as Ace got onto the bed beside him.
"I don't do corpses." The transfer student muttered, shutting his eyes and trying to picture Rem lying down behind him instead of Ace.
"Good night." Ace cut the conversation off.
Machina heard the other boy shift to his side, turning his back towards him before hitting the lights out.
Sleep surprisingly came to him that night.
xXx
Ace groaned, hearing the sound of the cellphone's alarm ringing in his ears. Groping through the sheets sleepily, he tried to reach out for the pesky device so that he could hit the snooze button on it.
Through his sleep induced haze, his fingers couldn't feel the side table. No, instead, he ended up grabbing a fist full of hair.
"Deuce." Ace whined hopelessly. "Turn that thing off."
All he got was a groan from 'Deuce'.
In fact, Deuce sounded a bit too deep....and manly.
But if it wasn't Deuce he was cuddling with or his chocobo plush toy that was around his waist...?
The other sleeping figure wrestled his hold from Ace's waist, sat up and shut the screaming phone off.
Ace began to remember what happened the next before. Heater, cold, bed warmth, snuggling for warmth. Nothing else. Also the fact that he was in bed with a boy he hated and they were both half naked.
"Ace?"
And the whole entire Peristylium was then greeted by the sight of Class zero's newest transfer student, carrying an unconscious feverish Ace (bridal style) towards the medical wing.