Chapter Text
“I think the ghosts are stealing my sheets,” Yuu said, stabbing at his food with his chopsticks out of sheer spite.
“Really?” Ace asked, his eyes wide in faux surprise.
‘Faux’, because Deuce knew for a fact that the sheets Yuu had ‘lost’ were in their dorm room at this very moment.
“Those things cost me three whole thaumarks,” Yuu whined.
“I’ll buy you some new sheets, if you’re really that desperate,” Ace offered.
Yuu perked up a little. “Really?”
“Sure thing!” Ace said, smiling.
Deuce could practically hear the maniacal laughter Ace was suppressing.
♠️: Can’t beliiiieeeve he’s using this to score points right now.
Ace gave Deuce an affronted look.
Deuce pressed a hand over his mouth. Had he said that out loud? He hadn’t meant to.
Yuu glanced up at him. “You doing okay? Stomach ache? I can go get you some Sprite from the vending machine, if you think that’ll help.”
Ace and Deuce relaxed slightly.
♥️: Must’ve been too busy complaining to hear him…
Deuce stared at Ace.
Ace… Ace’s lips hadn’t moved.
But then…
♠️: Ace, look at me?
Ace rolled his eyes and looked over.
♠️: Can you hear this?
He flinched back, his eyes widening.
Yuu looked between them. “… is this another ‘different world’ thing?”
Deuce certainly hadn’t heard of anything like this happening before…
“I just remembered it’s our day to take care of the hedgehogs,” Ace said, jumping to his feet.
“Isn’t Rosehearts more forgiving, now?” Yuu asked.
“He isn’t that forgiving,” Deuce said.
Ace and Deuce scrambled to grab their bags.
“You could have any human you want as your friend, but you chose them?” Grim said, unimpressed.
Yuu snickered. “At least you can eat what they didn’t finish.”
“Fine. They live another day,” Grim sniffed, before diving into Ace’s leftovers.
♥️: Fucker.
♠️: ?!
♥️: Not you.
They hurried out of the cafeteria.
But, instead of making their way to the Mirror Hall, Ace dragged Deuce toward the library.
“What about the hedgehogs?” Deuce hissed.
Ace gave him an incredulous look.
“It must be nice, being stupid,” he said, eventually.
Deuce’s mouth dropped open in offense.
Ace sighed and headed over to the front desk. A quaint old man sat there, glasses perched on his nose. He could not have looked less interested if he tried.
“Do you —?” Ace started.
“Shhhhh!” said the librarian.
Ace sighed.
“ᴰᵒ ʸᵒᵘ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᵃⁿʸ ᵇᵒᵒᵏˢ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ᵗᵉˡᵉᵖᵃᵗʰʸˀ”
“ₜₑₗₑₚₐₜₕᵢ𝒸 ₛₒᵤₗₘₐₜₑₛ ₒᵣ ₛᵢ𝓰ₙₐₜᵤᵣₑ ₛₚₑₗₗₛ?”
♥️: I don’t know which of those sounds worse.
♠️: If my UM is having a telepathic connection with this guy, I’m going to kill myself. Or him. Maybe both of us.
“Excuse me?!” Ace said.
“Shhhhhh!”
Ace’s eye twitched.
Deuce looked at the ground, thinking hard.
It probably wasn’t a UM, neither of them had said an incantation.
“ₛₒᵤₗₘₐₜₑₛ?”
The librarian left, coming back several minutes later with a couple of tomes so old that there was dust leaking from the pages.
Deuce took them into his arms with a grimace.
♠️: … ew.
Ace snickered.
Deuce slapped a hand against his back, smirking at the dusty handprint he left behind.
Ace glowered at him.
Their new collection in hand, they took a seat at a nearby table.
They had plenty of time to read. It was Study Hall. Which, for teenagers, is really just ‘do whatever the hell you want time’. Whether that be quickly finishing the homework you procrastinated that’s now due next period, or taking a shower (more people should do this), or just fucking around with friends, they were free to do whatever.
Deuce had to admit, he wasn’t that excited to spend this time studying, but whatever. Figuring out why he had a psychic link with the most annoying person to ever exist was very important.
And the answer was…
Well, apparently, soulmates exist.
Deuce knew that part. He was pretty sure that Grim and Yuu counted as soulmates. So do most twins and triplets. Movies love to depict romantic soulmates, but… in practice, it was a quite literal term – people whose soul, for whatever reason, your soul just clicks with. It could be romantic, sure, but it wasn’t necessarily romantic.
♥️: Thank the Seven.
Deuce shot Ace a brief glare before returning to his book.
Most people don’t even recognize they have soulmates, since most people aren’t in tune with the mana in their environment, let alone the magic they themselves may or may not have.
Around 10% of people have enough mana for basic elemental spells.
And maybe 1% of people were able to manifest actual Signature Spells.
But if two or more people who could manifest Signature Spells were to be soulmates…
Well, they end up with a psychic link, apparently.
Ace grabbed Deuce by the hands, his eyes bright.
“Deuce, this means we’re going to get UMs!”
“Shhhhhh!” the librarian hissed.
“Oh fuck off,” Deuce said. “We’re having a moment.”
The librarian got up.
And then kept getting up, stretching taller and taller, large, fleshy tendrils creeping over the side of his desk —.
♥️: … we should run.
♠️: Mhmm.
♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️
"Apparently, we can send pictures to each other if we concentrate hard enough," Deuce said.
"Weird," said Ace, pulling out his phone. "Here, let me try."
There was a beat as Ace typed something into his phone.
And then Deuce's vision was filled with - with -!
He tried to cover his eyes instinctively, only to curse when that didn't work because the image was seared into his brain.
"Sevens, you're such a -!"
Ace tipped his head back in a laugh.
Deuce threw a pillow at him, groaning.
♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️♠️❤️
You want to know what’s worse than having a roommate?
Having a roommate who can beam their thoughts directly into your mind, even when you’re nowhere near each other.
Ace was having a grand old time. He was eating chocolate (because Yuu had given him more… Ace didn’t really get it, but he wasn’t going to complain) in the makeshift nest he had built in Ramshackle Dorm. It wasn’t nearly as good as his nest in his dorm room, and even worse than the one he had back home, but it worked well enough, and Ace wasn’t in the mood to get up.
Yuu lazily carded his fingers through his hair as he complained, at length, about the movie they were watching.
“The acting is terrible, I mean, why do everyone’s faces move so much?!”
Ace hummed lightly, his eyes falling shut. Yuu’s lap was nice and soft. Ace was starting to understand why Grim almost never gave up his spot.
But the furry little bastard was away in remedial classes, so Ace got to lay his head in Yuu’s lap and drift off to the sound of him complaining about how TV was way better back in his own world… something about subtlety… overreacting, or maybe over-acting…
♠️: Ace, take out the bathroom trash.
Ace flinched so hard he nearly fell out of his nest.
He scowled at the bedsheets he was now lying on. The lap. It was gone. This should be a crime.
♥️: The trash is mostly yours, y’know. All those makeup wipes from messing up your spade three times a day, minimum –.
♠️: Ohhhh, you had to bring that up, huh?
“What’s wrong?” Yuu asked, leaning over Ace, frowning lightly.
Part of Ace wanted to tell him the truth – let Yuu be the one who was jealous, for once. But Yuu looked genuinely concerned for him, and Ace didn’t really want him to get the wrong idea…
“Had one of those… dreams where you feel like you’re falling,” Ace said, fixing his blankets with practiced precision.
Yuu snorted. “Sucks to suck. That could never be me.”
♥️: You have to draw that spade eeeeevery day, but somehow you never get better at it.
“What, do people from your world not have nightmares?”
“No, but if I was going to die in a dream, I’d just say ‘no’,” Yuu said. “And then The Horrors wouldn’t be able to get me. They need consent, you know.”
♠️: Die.
♥️: Oh, great insult. Did your mommy help you come up with that one?
♠️: Never mind. I’ll kill you myself.
“Offff course you would,” Ace said, sighing lightly as he dropped his head back into Yuu’s lap, getting comfortable once again.
Or, as comfortable as he could get when Deuce insisted on being annoying.
♠️: Take out the trash.
♠️: Take out the trash!
♠️: Take out the trashhhhhhhh!
♥️: Dude. It’s right in front of you. Do it yourself if it bothers you that much.
♠️: Take! Out! The! Trash!
Ace beamed a picture of Yuu’s soft, mildly concerned expression over to Deuce.
♥️: Can’t move, sorry~.
♠️: KLFSNFDLKSDNFLSNDFKLDSFNSLKD.
Yuu tilted his head to the side. “You sure you’re okay? You look like you’re in pain.”
“Yeah, just got a headache,” Ace said. “It comes and goes.”
Yuu turned down the volume on the TV. “Better?”
Ace smiled softly. Yuu was… an asshole. Almost all the time. But, at the end of the day, he was actually kind of sweet, when it mattered.
“Yep. All better.”
Ace wasn’t entirely surprised when Deuce burst into Ramshackle Dorm fifteen minutes later, panting like he had just run a marathon. Which, to be fair, the distance between their dorm room and Ramshackle was pretty far, including the maze, he might have actually run a 5k.
Ace wasn’t concerned with being fair.
“Ah, the headache’s back.”
♠️: Oh fuck you.
“Hey, so, did you take out the trash in the bathroom before you left?” Ace asked.
Deuce’s mouth dropped open.
“You really should take out the trash, Deuce,” Yuu said. “The longer you leave it there, the grosser it’ll get.”
Ace smirked.
♠️: Fuck! You!