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Deuce wasn’t the most observant person in the world, but he wasn’t blind. He could tell when people were keeping things from him, especially when it came to his best friends. And lately, it felt like they both had a secret they were keeping from him.
It was kind of obvious when Yuu was hiding something from everyone. They always got this nervous edge to their voice and a tension in their jaw. Always just a little too nervous for Deuce to write it off as normal. He never pushed why they were always so nervous lately, but it was starting to feel like they just didn’t trust him.
Ace was a little more difficult to read. Deuce’s roommate was infamously hard to read, but Deuce knew him long enough now to tell when he was keeping something from him. His eyes would narrow ever so slightly and his smile got just a little bit more strained every time he was lying. It was often when it came to personal stuff, but for some reason, he was always making that face when he was around Deuce lately.
It especially hurt him when he'd find both of his best friends talking and immediately getting quiet when he appeared, with both of them making those faces at him. Ace would normally be the one to brush the brief second of awkwardness over with a topic change, but Deuce could never shake his jealousy when he saw them. What could they possibly be talking about that they felt the need to keep from him? There were almost no secrets between the trio, and now that Deuce was on the outside of one, he couldn’t help but start to question things.
He had told this all to Epel and Jack during their lunch period, who were now just staring at him with blank expressions.
“I expected this from Ace, but not from Yuu,” Jack sighed, shoving a forkful of food into his mouth. “You guys are so messy.”
Deuce’s expression shifted from worried to completely baffled. “What are you even talking about?” he asked.
The beastman shook his head. “The fact that you don’t even know-”
“Jack just means that all of you are pretty dense when it comes to each other,” Epel explained. “And that you’re all terrible at communicating with each other despite being best friends.”
Deuce pouted at them. “Well, you two can’t really talk either. You’re terrible at actually talking about your feelings.”
“Yeah but we know that,” Jack replied. “You guys are just dense and assume you can read each other’s minds, and then just think that because you know each other so well, you don’t need to have those hard conversations.”
“That’s-”
Epel cut him off, “Deuce, you know he’s right. You guys aren’t psychic so stop acting like it. If you’re really that butthurt about whatever secret they’re keeping from you, just confront them about it.”
Deuce sighed and rested his head against the cafeteria table. “Easier said than done. Ace literally runs away at any hard conversation I try to have with him.”
“Then go talk to Yuu. They’ll at least try to give you a straight answer.”
“Switch the straight part around,” Jack mumbled through his food. Deuce was about to ask what that meant, but Epel lightly smacked Jack before he could. “Hey! You almost made me choke.”
“Shut up and eat your food. Also, weren’t you going to study?”
“Am I not allowed to try and help my friend through his love life troubles?”
Deuce asked, “What the hell are you talking about?”
Epel sighed and shook his head. “Ignore him. You should go talk to Yuu about it after class. It’s clearly bothering you enough to talk to us about it.”
Deuce took a deep breath and lifted his head back up from the table. “Yeah. You’re right. I should just ask them about it instead of wallowing.”
“There ya go.” Epel patted Deuce’s shoulder. “Now you should get going before you’re late. Isn’t your next class across campus?”
The Heartslabyul student checked the time on his phone, eyes widening. “Damn it, you’re right! I gotta go!” He grabbed his bag off the back of his chair and slung it over his shoulder. “I’ll see you all after school! Thanks for the advice!”
Deuce ran out of the cafeteria, leaving Jack and Epel alone again. “You think they’re actually going to make any progress?” Jack asked his best friend.
Epel sighed and finally went back to eating his food. “Who knows with them?”
—
“Yuu!” Deuce called out, jogging up to them.
Yuu turned around at the sound of Deuce’s voice, their expression immediately brightening at the sight of him. “Hey, Deuce!” they replied.
“I’m glad I caught you after class. Did you wanna hang out?”
“Sure! You wanna go to Ramshackle?”
How should he bring this up? “Sure.”
As the two started to walk, Deuce could feel his anxiety begin to grow. He wanted to ask them about what was going on between them and Ace but didn’t know how or when to bring it up. Did he just straight up ask them? Did he try to bring up the topic of them first before asking? Why was it so complicated to just ask his best friend a simple question?
Fingers suddenly snapped in front of Deuce’s face. “Deuce? You with me?”
Deuce scratched the back of his neck nervously. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to space out on you.”
Yuu just smiled at him fondly. “What were you thinking about?”
“Oh, w-well, uh…” He cast his gaze to the ground. “It’s- It was just about whatever is going on between you and Ace.”
Yuu clenched their jaw, working it for a split second before pretending to be confused. “What do you mean?”
Deuce frowned, unable to stamp down the hurt at their obvious lie. “Look, you don’t have to hide it. Every time I show up you guys look at me like I’m not supposed to be there, or that I walked in on something private. It’s okay if I am, I just want to know that you guys are purposefully keeping something from me just because… Well, I don’t know. We’re all supposed to be friends so I just thought-”
He felt Yuu’s hand wrap around his own. “Deuce, that’s not it at all,” they reassured him. He finally looked at them and saw the guilt written all over their face. “I mean, we are keeping something from you, but I promise it’s not bad and you have nothing to be worried about.”
Deuce swallowed thickly. His next words sat heavy on his tongue. “Are you two together?” he asked.
Yuu’s entire face flushed red. “No! No that’s not-! Well…”
Deuce felt his heart drop into his stomach, forcing himself to let go of Yuu’s hand. “I mean, it’s totally fine if you are. I just wish you didn’t feel like you had to hide it from me. I’m not gonna be super hurt that you two feel something different between each other than what you have with me.”
“Deuce-” Yuu cut themself off with an exasperated sigh. “I should’ve just talked to you earlier about this.”
Yuu grabbed Deuce’s hand again and resumed walking. “Uh, where are we going?”
“Somewhere to properly talk about all of this.”
Yuu dragged themself and Deuce towards the courtyard. They sat down on a nearby bench. They held Deuce’s hand for a long time, and Deuce wondered what they were about to tell him. How bad could it have been that they kept it from him for this long?
“Alright, just… don’t freak out when I tell you what I’m about to tell you,” Yuu said. “And you can’t tell anyone outside of the three of us what I’m about to tell you.”
“Okay,” Deuce replied.
“You promise?”
“Promise.”
“Alright.” Yuu took a deep breath, holding onto Deuce’s hand tightly. “A few days ago, I kind of cornered Ace and told him that I liked him. And it… went kind of interesting?”
Deuce cocked his head to the side, confused. He could tell just by looking at the two that there was a sort of tension to them, and that Ace’s flirting with the both of them was somewhat serious. But to reject Yuu? “I’m guessing… he didn’t say yes?”
“Well, he said he liked me too, but…” Yuu bit their lip. “You cannot tell anyone that I told you this, alright?” Deuce nodded frantically, just wanting them to continue on with the story. “He told me he couldn’t be with me in good conscience because he likes you too.”
Deuce’s entire body froze. Ace liked both him and Yuu? He didn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t quite that. His face still went red at the admission. “So… he likes both of us?”
Yuu blushed furiously, hanging their head low as they mumbled. “Yeah, and after he said that I… I kind of realized I also liked you too.”
Deuce’s face somehow got even redder. “Wh- Hold on, you both like me too?”
“Yeah, I-” Yuu cut themself off, Deuce’s words hitting them at full force. They lifted their head and stared at their best friend in shock. “Wait, you like us both too?!”
“I- Well yeah! Why wouldn’t I?! Yo-you’re both my best friends and I really enjoy spending time with you guys.”
Yuu let out the most melodious laugh Deuce had ever heard. They rested their head on his shoulder, letting out a relieved sigh. “Oh my god, I was so worried over nothing. I thought everything would be weird between us if I tried to bring it up with you. I’m glad I was so wrong about that.”
Deuce couldn’t help but let out a relieved sigh as well. He thought he was somehow getting left behind, when really all it was was that none of them could properly communicate how they were feeling. Maybe Epel and Jack had a point about them, but he would never tell them that to their faces. Right now, he was just happy that their misunderstanding was cleared up.
There was still the problem of Ace, however. “So, when you were trying to talk with Ace…?” he inquired expectantly.
Yuu frowned slightly. “I was trying to get him to talk to you about it so we could all talk about it. I should’ve known by now that he was going to keep refusing and closing himself off. And now he hasn’t really been talking to me outside of class.”
Deuce nodded sympathetically. They both knew how Ace was when it came to opening up about his feelings. He was probably already feeling super embarrassed for admitting what he felt to Yuu. They just had to make him realize that it was okay. That they were all going to be fine.
“I have an idea,” Deuce said with a smile.
—
Ace knocked on the door to Ramshackle, not thrilled to be there at all. He had gotten a text from Yuu telling him to meet them here. They said it was urgent, and even though Ace would rather not see or talk to them at the moment, he couldn’t ignore when they might’ve been in danger. Normally he would just walk in, but he didn’t want to strain things further by being rude on purpose.
Yuu opened the door with a shy smile on their face. “Hey, sorry for the weird text,” they said. “Come in.”
Ace stepped inside the dorm, scanning the room for any kind of danger. The only thing he saw was Deuce sitting on the couch with a smile on his face, eyes gleaming with excitement when he saw Ace walk in. The redhead’s entire body tensed when he saw him. He flinched when Yuu entered his vision, still smiling at him.
He suddenly felt backed into some invisible corner. “You told him, didn’t you?” he concluded, staring at Yuu with a mix of betrayal and panic.
Yuu’s smile fell. “Well, I did, but just talk to us for a minute, okay?”
Ace shook his head, turning right back towards the door. “Nope. Not doing this right now.”
“Ace-”
“Bye.”
He got his hand on the doorknob and almost twisted it when he heard Deuce shout, “I like you too!”
His head whipped towards Deuce, his heart hammering in his chest. “What?”
“I prepared this whole speech on the walk over here,” Deuce said, rubbing the back of his head, “but you were about to leave and I just wanted to tell you before you did, so.” He glanced towards Yuu, who nodded encouragingly. “I also like Yuu like I like you, so I just wanted to know that you weren’t alone in that feeling.”
Ace hung his head low, face burning with embarrassment. Yuu smiled warmly at him. “I also like the both of you, so it seems we’re all in agreement,” they said softly.
He slowly took his hand off the doorknob, tense shoulders slowly relaxing. “Oh,” was all Ace could think of to say.
Yuu couldn’t help but giggle. “Yeah. Oh.”
“So I’m an idiot then?”
“No.” The prefect wrapped their arms around Ace’s neck. “You’re just a little dense when it comes to feelings.”
Ace rolled his eyes. “Thanks for that, Yuu.”
Deuce got off the couch and joined in the hug. “We still love you all the same.”
Ace hugged them both back, burying his head between their shoulders. “I’m lucky you guys are in my life.”
The three stood there in each others’ embrace for a long time, reassured by the knowledge that as long as they were together, things would be alright.