Day 8 (September 30) - Free Day!
Birds chippered and sang songs of pleasant memories of night and morning, the sunlight shining around the calm neighborhood of the Queendom of Roses’ beautiful winter landscape. Every single building of brick coated in winter decor and snow and icicles on every framed window and gutter drain in a beautiful painting like state. Deep in the special view of the town surrounded by trees and buildings in perfect unison of nature and man is a cute little two story home big enough for a typical family just perfectly centered of the town’s main road and the nature path that goes up into a large majestic mountain, bricks of the walls deep red and secured in a warm snug but one can tell is able to be cool during the hot summer days and nights with a black well done shingles with a very lovely matching red and black chimney that comes up the left side of the home peeking out the top of the roof splitting it open like a hole of a giant. Within this home a young man finishes spreading some strawberry jam across soft yellow toast and places the piece of bread on a plate alongside three other slices of toast with different spreads from marmalade to butter to a chocolate butter spread to go in harmony with the jammed one.
Ace smiles, nose flush from the cold, as his pale freckled hands grab the wooden tray in his hands and turned on his fuzzy slipper heel around and waltz out the kitchen’s open wall with a soft hum. He made his way to the stairs and got to the second floor with no worries of the morning time rolls, pausing his step once one of the doors opened and a tall muscular tall steps out scratching at his bare chest with a tired yawn. The older one turned his head and looked over at Ace with the wooden tray, “Morning lil bro..” He mumbled. The younger chuckles, “Morning big bro.” The older brother glanced at the tray then to these stairs by the hall's end and slowly smirks, Ace feeling a ping of dread imminently in his chest. “Rocket, no-” The two gingers move in fast walks down the hall to those steps as they both try to step forward the other while one has a smirking expression of older sibling tease and the other has a worried yet stern expression. “I just remembered a fun story to tell our guest-” “You are not waking up my Housewarden to tell an embarrassing story about me, fuck off!”
Ace opens the single door up the stairs, shutting his older brother out in a fast swift door slam. He sighs once the door was closed and turned to the room, a small loft or attic like space where it’s very vast of wooden beams and brick walls that has faded and stained over the many years, scattered boxes full of different things and junk and some trash bags full of more junk but otherwise the floor was rather clean and tidy, a large brick block of the chimney showing from the fireplace on the ground floor, and in the room’s center in a large sofa with a few thick blankets and a red and white patterned quilt is a small red haired boy who’s all snuggled and comfy under the warmth of the covers gifted him, a single small window shines the sun light down to his beautiful doll like face as if the Heavens present the beautiful art piece before the ginger haired lad.
After catching the nearly forgotten air that left his throat, Ace walked closer to the sleeping Riddle who now stirs softly as he begins to wake up from his slumber. “Good morning rosebud.” He said softly as he allowed his boyfriend to sit up on the soft sofa and watch him yawn and stretch, Riddle dressed in a large basketball t-shirt as his red hair is a mess, before he placed the wooden tray of a cup of tea and the toast spread with a smile. Riddle smiles sleepily and carefully takes the cup of warm tea into his hands, his plush lips blowing against the steam as his cheeks flush in morning winter air and the tea’s heat bouncing off his face.
~ ~
Night Raven Collage’s lovely Mirror Chamber gets really crowded as winter break comes to the day, a fun moment of time where everyone heads home for the ends of December and the beginning of January.All seven dorms huddle together in the room, chats and murmurs flying across the room as the students stand around excitedly to go to their hometowns for the weeks to come while carrying bags and other forms of luggage with their persons. As everyone is distracted, a small group of a dorm huddles near each other to not get lost or trip over with the waves upon waves of students around them.
Ace holds Riddle’s hands as he whines, “Please call me when you have time! I want to make sure you’re not lonely, and if you ever need to talk to me as a boyfriend or as a fellow Heartslabyul school mate please call me!” Riddle giggles softly as he squeezes the ginger’s hands back, “Of course, that goes for you too Ace.” They both soon stare at each other, the look of despair of the idea of parting clear in their eyes as Ace’s lip quiver. “Great Seven you’re like a puppy separated from their owner.” Said Trey, astonished by the way his childhood friend has Ace Trappola on his small palms of his hands after a few months since the two became a thing.
“Alright, those who live in Lake Core within the Queendom of Roses, please step in line and cross the mirror!” Called out Crowley among the sea of students, many already moving forward in hurried feet and hurried goodbyes and promises to call. With said eyes and hesitant movements, Riddle leaned up fast and gave Ace a peck on the lips before letting go of his hands. Trey, similar to his friend, gave Cater a kiss on the lips as well and a tight hug. “Call me if you’re stressed, ‘kay Cay?” He whispered, just loud enough people heard though. Unlike the two in front of them, these two were very obviously a couple which no one really complained about, they minded their own piece. Cater squeezes and nods. Once that was out of the way, the green haired man and redhead Housewarden parted from their different ginger lovers and headed to the mirror. Though it was obvious from Riddle’s walk he was dragging his cold feet desperately behind him…
—
Ace and Riddle walked down stairs to the ground floor living room, barely missing the Christmas tree that is resting right by the stair’s end as the branches reach out and touch them softly. Now the kitchen is a man with a rugged strawberry blond thin beard who’s pouring a cup of coffee in a red clay mug dressed in a fuzzy red robe and black checkered sweatpants, his height taller than the three young men in the home and his eyes a cool misty orange like a cloudy sunrise within tired eyes of age. The man smiles at the pair as he sips the coffee with a groggy yet still welcoming voice, “Good morning you two. Sleep well? Sorry if the attic was cold, Riddle.” Riddle shook his head, “Oh no it was fine, honest! Thank you again for letting me stay the night, I’m sorry that it was last minute.” “Nonsense, a friend of my son was in need of a place to stay, it’s the least I can do.”
Ace smiled some and moved to the left so his father could walk to the living room area down the hall, turning to his boyfriend with a softer smile and even softer eyes, “How are you feeling?” He asked, a hand on his small shoulder. The redhead rubbed his arm some, eyes towards the tile floor of the kitchen. Ace rubbed his red locks and mumbled, “It’s okay babe, take your time. I’ll get my coat and I can show you around Carol Marsh to relax your head.”
~ ~
Ace eats some of the pulled pork his father and brother made earlier that night, the TV playing the season’s biggest game of championship croquet as the three males sit on the baggy sofa of the living room with plates in their hands. He and Rocket lean close to each other as they stomp their feet in a single beat of six, grinning ear to ear. “Come on Lewis Hair! Go go go!” They both cheer and chant as an athlete hurries to dress in red and white, watching as his mallet swings down as he rides his noble pure white steed and hitting a black ball into a hoop above. The Trappola family shoot up and cheer, the father being quick and catching the food when they stand, the brother jumping up and down cheering a song of victory, and the youngest jumping on both their old backs laughing and cheering.
It’s been a good two weeks since Ace arrived back for winter break and it’s been very fun and very Trappola; He visited his grandparents and mother, he’s been staying primarily with his dad, his older brother Rocket has a few weeks off from his job, he got great gifts for Yule, and now his hometown croquet game of The Wanderers have won the winter season game of the championships! Winter break is just good for him. Outside of these fun activities he also joined in video calls with his closest friends from Basketball Club or some Heartslabyul folks, meeting up with Deuce at one point and chilling at the ice rink with him, and of course being in a distance away from one another he also had a video call or two with his boyfriend Riddle who he’s aware is slowly losing it back home.
As if on cue, Ace’s attention to his family and the celebration he’s feeling was pulled away thanks to his phone vibrating in his pocket. Upon taking his phone out he sees a familiar cute picture of said boyfriend during his recent birthday celebration, hinting the redhead is calling him now. “Excuse me, I have to take this.” Said the shorter one of three as he goes to the dining room, the fireplace still hung with stockings with care and warming the room so perfectly well even as the embers were dying low, rolling his red eyes at Rocket’s little teasing as he answers, “Hey there Riddle, miss me-” He pauses. He heard a familiar noise, a noise he grew more than familiar after dating this young man. “H-Hey, what’s wrong? Why are you crying…?” He hears Riddle sniff, his heart breaking in his ribs. “Ace I… I can’t… I can’t deal with this anymore…” Ace feels his blood run ice cold upon hearing those words, picturing his boyfriend’s red and tear and snot covered face hiding somewhere cold and alone as he calls him.
Riddle shakily clings to his cell phone for dear life, tears rolling down his cheek, one being slightly red and swelling. He hiccups through the phone’s mic as he tries to be quiet with his distraught noises as if trying to not alert his mother his tears but also to not let Ace know he’s crying so. “Okay okay, breath, breath babe, where are you right now?” Like Bloody Hell you can come see me… He thought but shakes his head to not think of it. “I-I’m at home, in my room… M-Mama and I had a fight b-because I told her that I… I was the one who ov…overblotted in the beginning of the y-year a-and…” He chews his bottom lip that trembles with the front row of his teeth as he recalls back of a few minutes ago. As he said, his mother was mentioning disgust of the Heartslabyul’s Overblot incident during the start of September, completely oblivious to who had the Overblot. Riddle, in pride of his dorm and making the plan to be more bold the new year to come, speaks up and confesses it was he who overblotted that day in the year prior. “Why would you overblot? What could possibly get you so stressed? You’re a Rosehearts, imagine what people will say if they hear this!” Are just a few gems his mother mined and presented out her mouth upon hearing the brave yet clumsy confession. It soon led to an argument where the son wanted to have a proper discussion of the mother’s actions in his life which suddenly took a harsh turn as her palm connected to his cheek, yanking his voice out his throat in a terrifying manner. He listened as she ranted and raved of his “disrespect” of his words and treatment towards her in numbed silence before she shunned him to his room in a huff.
“Second floor right?”
Riddle blinks and nods until he recalls he wasn’t seen yet, “Y-Yes… I-I’m sorry, I’m so sorry… I-I know you’re busy and–” “Don’t even apologize. She’s gonna pay for making you cry!” Why the Housewarden found the words sweet, he knew he couldn’t let his boyfriend get into literal legal trouble over this, especially so late at night. “Ace, no, you can’t–” “Oh-ho-ho, like fuck I can’t! You’re not just my boyfriend, you’re also my Queen! And that means I’ll protect you from everything and everyone!” Riddle gasped, a tear sliding down his cheek as his heart floated into his throat. Ace… He thought, feeling himself smile softly at the idea of his lover protecting him so diligently in battle like a brave Knave with his Queen. He shakes his head again. It still won’t help “Ace–” “Turn around.”
Confused yet curious, as he always seems to be dating this ginger trouble maker, turn his body around until he’s facing his main window right behind his bed frame. He pauses fast seeing a silhouette of a person on a broom by the window. He doesn’t even have the wait for the flier to knock on the glass before he hung up the phone and leaped onto his red plush bed and swung that window wide open, the cold air clinging fast onto his skin as he stared up at the one and only Ace Trappola sitting there on his broom with a look like he left as fast as he could. Ace smirks down at him, “Did someone order a boyfriend?”
Riddle couldn’t help but smile at the cheesy line, his heart feeling better than earlier. That was until fear hit him like a truck when hearing an oh so familiar voice of a woman come from the hall outside his bedchamber door. “Riddle? What is that noise?”
Heart beating fast, Riddle tries to shoo Ace away, “Leave, you have to leave now..!” He stretches his arms out until his palms on the firm chest of the ginger and goes to push him away as his hushed raspy whisper of a voice coaches him away. But instead of turning away like instructed, Ace held those hands in his own, eyes soft but serious as to his voice, “I can’t do that and you know it. Please, get on the broom, rosebud.” As heels click and clack against hardwood floors Riddle weighs the options of banishing Ace away for the night when he came all this way or, and as foolishly as it sounds, take the offer of fleeing the scene. “Let me help you…”
The door of his bedroom opened right when he made the crazy choice, his body leaped from the bed into Ace’s arms that held home close in warm comfort as if that’s what those arms were made for, the winter air nipping and hugging tight around him officially now as he managed to the outside finally. Within a flash the pair were already a good mile away from the Rosehearts’ estate as the screaming calls of Riddle’s mother fades deeper and deeper into the wind that whisk and howl against his sore ears, his sock covered feet shiver in the cold as he clings to Ace tightly, holding back the verge of sobbing in fear ice will form in his eyes instead of the sad tears of pain and… freedom.
—
After that moment the night prior Riddle calmed down in the comforting space of the Trappola’s home’s attic and soon called his mother that he needs space from her and turned off his cell for the night in thanks of Ace’s support and care throughout the night, he doesn’t fully quite know when he’ll leave to go back but he knows when he does he has to make a very hard decision.
Riddle glanced up from his mitted hands as Ace hurried over with two cups of warm drinks in his own mitted hands, a strong sense of deja-vu hitting him like sea sickness on the great wide ocean. “Hey, I ordered you a Strawberry Latte since I don’t really know what else you would’ve liked. Don’t worry, best coffee Queendom of Roses can offer!” Ace said with a smile as he hands Riddle the cup of joe, who smiles small in return and accepts the cup. The two sit side by side on the park bench, sipping their coffees in small silence as people of the town walk around the park or the shops nearby. “So,” Ace started, not yet looking at Riddle in case it was not the right time, “What do you want to do now?”
Riddle looks down at his latte in his hand and sighs, his breath visible due thanks to the cold of winter greetings, “I honestly don’t know… How… How do I even face her? I-I disrespected her wishes and—” “No no no, don’t start that rosebud. Disrespecting her wishes? You stood up for yourself and she’s the one who crossed a line and disrespected you.” The Housewarden sighs. He knows Ace is right, but he still can’t quite shake the feeling of quilt that consumes his chest and heart. He hears a sigh beside him before he feels an arm snake around his shoulders and huddle him close, his face going warm at the sudden intimate nature of the hug. “A-Ace—” “I know it’s scary. I may not ever know what you’re going through. But I do know I love you too much to let you do this battle alone. Things will get better. I promise.”
Riddle slowly let his shoulders fall less tense as his head soon found it’s way resting peacefully against the shoulder it leans on, watching the winter scene in front of them in silence as the feelings of happiness, sorrow, and peace buzz in his chest like a busy bee hive.
—
Life afterwards was chaotic but was much easier in flow. Right after calming down in the park, the pair went back to Ace’s home and opened up to his father and brother on what happened and that… Ace and Riddle are in love. Ace’s family accepts the relationship whole-heartedly, sure his mother might need some time to wrap her head around it but otherwise it went well! Though, sadly, Riddle wasn’t meant to stay at the Trappola’s for long. But he was lucky to have Trey offer a home for the rest of the final week of Winter Break where he calmed down better and hung out with him and Chenya for the rest of the vacation.
School life is also somewhat better after the break! Ace managed to become the Basketball Club’s team captain and they even won some games thanks to Ace’s strong leadership! It didn’t take much longer after the first day back where everyone became aware of the two polar opposites’ romantic relationship together, and they were all mostly positive words and manners of the two. By the time the semester finally came to an end, starting a new life with Ace starting as a sophomore and Riddle in his senior year, things finally came to an end with Riddle’s heartache and sorrows. Many were shocked if they heard that after the break a year earlier Riddle went to Azul for a favor, in exchange of this so-called favor he was going to give the octopus his very special Unique Magic until the contract was fulfilled… To get away from his mother.
Court was tedious, to say the least. Azul’s step-father, a well good lawyer who handles many cases, was able to give Riddle the win he needed to finally breath outside his family’s name as he finished up the disownment of them with testimonies of neighbors, Trey, Chenya, and students of Night Raven of the treatment towards him for years of his life. Every Rosehearts’ face and name was dragged across the sticky mud they call estrangement and dishonor throughout that nail biting terrible process that was merely drawn out due to Mrs. Rosehearts’ many pleas and arguments on the matter. In the end, Riddle felt like he was able to breathe again when the courts allowed him freedom from under that iron fist and led thumb. His heart was so eager and full of life once again as if he’s been dead for years!
And throughout every step, Ace was always there smiling and comforting him as lovers do…
“Rosebud, come on, we’re going to be late!”
Riddle blinked and looked from the wall he was facing. There standing in the hallway is Ace dressed to the nines in a suit and tie and his ginger thick hair groomed back, his face no longer that typical youthful teenage smoothness he was somehow gifted with but now filled out in the sharp edges of the jaw and neckline. The man there instead of that trouble making loving teenager he knew smiles as he leans on the wall. “You know how Deuce gets when we’re late.” The redhead smiles and walks to him, pecking his lips as he gets closer, at long last their height isn’t as bad as the past’s.
After many years of back and forth battles, the two were able to settle in this average plane of a happy life together domestically. Riddle graduated and gave the crown to Ace who has grown to a great Housewarden, worked hard and got a job as a child doctor. Though he wasn’t Doctor Rosehearts anymore, but a Doctor Clover after the amazing surprise in the graduation of Trey a year earlier for Riddle with his family offering to take the lad in as his own. But of course he still wasn’t just Doctor Clover forever as things went swimmingly well and fast sometime after Ace graduated and got a job as an officer of the law in town, which yeah it wasn’t as car chasing save the damsel kind of fun Ace grew up with but he’s happy with it the most, and after one faithful February 14th the ginger went on one knee and asked his former Housewarden, enemy of teenage feels, first love, crush, and boyfriend the very wait worthy question; “Will you marry me?” “Sorry, just enjoy memory lane.” Said Riddle as he snuggles against Ace’s stern neck and gives the warm flesh a soft peck with a giggling smirk. He hears Ace snort and feels his strong arms hug him close. Thank Seven you were in my dorm… He thought in glee as he hugs his husband back with a good squeeze.