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Ace would’ve been lying if he said he was excited for spring break. Compared to winter break, it was too short, the weather always switching between warm and cold instead of just picking one, and his hometown friends would be bugging him every day about hanging out when he would rather be anywhere else. He would rather die than admit it, but he preferred hanging out with everyone at NRC way more. Traveling from school all the way back home was such a pain anyway.
He was currently sitting in the closest dining hall eating his feelings about the whole thing when his roommate, Deuce, sat down across from him.
“Hey Ace,” he greeted.
“‘Sup?” he replied.
“Are you packed for spring break?”
Ugh. “No.”
Deuce frowned. “You know our RA is gonna get on your case again if you check out late.”
“I don’t really care what Riddle says. What’s he gonna do? Kick me out of the dorm and leave me homeless?”
Deuce shrugged his shoulders. “I wouldn’t put it past him.”
He rolled his eyes in response. “Look, if he fines us for whatever reason, I’ll deal with it. You don’t have to worry about anything, alright?”
Deuce frowned. “Are you not excited to go home for some reason? You were chompin’ at the bit in the winter.” Something in his expression must’ve shifted, because Deuce followed with, “You can come stay with me if you need to. My mom would be fine with it.”
Ace couldn’t help but smile. Even though they got off to a rocky start their freshman year living together, Deuce was actually really sweet. They had enough shared trauma with their fellow dormmates and classes that they had just naturally grown closer. Deuce was also the one to introduce him to the rest of their current friend group besides Yuu, so it was really thanks to him that he had any close friends outside of his major at all.
“I appreciate it man, but it’s fine. It’s just annoying moving back and forth all the time. I did it enough throughout middle school and high school. If the break was a little bit longer it’d be fine.”
“Ah.” Deuce remembered Ace drunkenly confessing how much his parents’ divorce tore him up when he was younger, especially moving between towns all the time. “Yeah. I’m sure you’re definitely sick of the back and forth at this point. Why didn’t you apply to stay in the dorms?”
“Both my parents were already on my ass about coming home, so I didn’t even consider applying until the window passed.”
“Damn. I’m sorry.”
Ace picked his fork back up and shoved a forkful of food in his mouth. “Not your fault.”
Suddenly, both of the boys’ phones buzzed simultaneously. Deuce took his phone out of his pocket. “It’s probably the group chat,” he said. He smiled when he saw he was right. “Yuu’s texting us.”
Ace leaned over to peer at Deuce’s screen. It’d been a while since anyone heard from Yuu since they were so busy with their research. “What are they saying?”
“They just sent an address and told everyone to meet them there.”
Ace smirked. “Well that’s not ominous at all.”
—
“Where the hell did you get the money to buy this?” Ace asked incredulously, not believing he was standing in front of Yuu’s brand new house. The place had to be over five hundred grand at least.
“You would not believe how many of our seniors owed me a favor,” they explained.
“Enough money for this?”
“It is definitely a little unbelievable,” Jack agreed.
“Also, kinda fucked up of ya to not tell us beforehand that ya called us here to move all of yer shit,” Epel grumbled, lightly kicking one of the many cardboard boxes that sat on the sidewalk. “I could’ve skipped the gym today if I knew that.”
“I’m grateful for the free workout, but I also wish you told us you needed help instead of surprising us,” Sebek concurred.
“My new prosthetic should allow me to help out this time around,” Ortho said, flexing his fingers with his new arm.
Deuce was already picking up one of the boxes. “Just tell me where to put stuff,” he said, already walking towards the door.
Yuu giggled and shook their head. “Alright, alright, let me give you all the grand tour before you get too excited.”
They unlocked the door with their new key and opened the door. The smell of fresh wood hit everyone’s nose immediately. Every room was obviously empty at first, but it all looked so clean. The ceiling in the living room and kitchen were so high up that it would take all of them stacking on top of each other to reach it. All of the countertops were carved from onyx, and there was already a crystal chandelier hanging in the middle of the room. And everything was furnished from ginormous leather couch, marble dining table, fur rug, and fifty inch flatscreen TV.
“Dude, seriously. How did you get this money?” Ace asked.
Yuu laughed. “Do you know how rich Leona and Malleus are? I helped them out a few times and all of a sudden they’re throwing money at me for my tutoring services.”
“Is that why ya haven’t been answering yer phone?” Epel asked, setting a box down in the living room. “Been busy tutoring those pompous princes?”
They rolled their eyes. “They’re not that bad.”
“Leona just sleeps all through our English class and is somehow still passing it,” Jack grumbled in annoyance.
“Malleus is not pompous! You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Sebek shouted indignantly. “He is our brave, kind, fearless, flawless-!”
“Look what you’ve done, Epel. He’s going on a rant about his idol again,” Ace sighed.
“He’ll stop in a minute when he realizes he’s not helping us at all,” Deuce replied. Ortho set another box right next to Deuce, breathing heavily. “You okay Ortho?”
“Yeah. I underestimated how heavy some of these were,” he replied. He moved to pick up the box and take it upstairs, but Yuu stopped him.
“Don’t worry about taking stuff where they’re gonna go when we get fully settled. I just need your guys’ help getting everything inside before we freeze.”
Everyone froze at those words as they watched Yuu walk back outside. “We?” Ace repeated.
They turned back to everyone, smiling. “Yeah. I got this house for us. I don’t want us to live in the dorms for our entire college career.” They all just kept staring at Yuu with varying expressions of disbelief. They chuckled nervously and scratched the back of their neck, “I know I probably should’ve talked about it with you all first, but I figured that I was already planning on staying, so if the mortgage was just in my name only you all could just crash and send money-”
Deuce was the first to crash into Yuu with a hug, overwhelmed by their generosity. He was quickly followed by Epel and Ortho, practically suffocating Yuu with the group hug already. Their lungs could barely get any air when Ace, Jack, and Sebek crushed them into the hug even further.
“Okay, guys, seriously,” they wheezed after a few moments. “I’m pretty sure you’re all bruising my ribs.”
They all eased up but didn’t let go. “We’re never letting go of you,” Deuce said seriously. Everyone silently agreed and didn’t let go of their best friend.
“Okay, well I need to release Grim from his carrier so if we could pause this moment for about like ten seconds that would be appreciated.”
The group reluctantly let go of Yuu and helped them carry the rest of their boxes into the house. The house that was apparently for all of them. Their house that they could all call home. It was a little hard to believe it as they continued to help Yuu move in, and became all the more real once they finished. Mostly because they realized that they’d have to do this all over again five times over. The thought was already making their entire bodies ache.
When they were all finished, they all sat down on their new couch and put on a movie. Ace couldn’t help but turn to Yuu with apprehension on his face. “We can seriously all live here?”
They just smiled sweetly at him. “Of course. I got it for all of us.”
Ace smiled back at them. “Cool.” He could get used to having a permanent place to call home with his friends.