Chapter Text
Ace woke up screaming.
The sound echoed in the room. He was gagging, choking on the sobs that were ripped from his throat with each heaving attempt for air. He clawed at his neck, trying to loosen the collar of a sweatshirt too big for him. One broad hand pushed between his, the thick palm splitting under his breaking nails and bleeding thin red lines.
“Ace—”
He flailed, shoving at the shape looming over him. His open palm struck their jawline, shoving their head to the side. His other hand struck their shoulder once, twice, balling into a fist for the third strike that finally pulled a grunt from the faceless assailant. Ace’s hand on their jaw clawed up the side of their face, before gripping onto hair and yanking.
“Crabby!”
Ace dragged his eyes open. Teal hair in his hand. One piercing gold eye peering at him through the ruffled strands. Blood rolled down Floyd Leech’s cheek. It was stained on Ace’s fingers as he wrenched his hands back. They pressed against his heaving chest.
“I’m sorry,” he sobbed.
“It’s alright.” The blood splotched over the sheets, dripping off the eel’s clenched jaw. “It was just a dream.”
“You’re mad!”
“‘M not mad.”
“You’re mad—”
“I could never be mad at you—”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
Floyd got his arms around Ace and pressed his lips to his forehead. He shut his eyes as Ace sobbed into his chest, begging for forgiveness in the same breath he just couldn’t let Floyd go. The door to the dorm opened, the light draping over Jade’s empty bed before falling over them. Floyd looked. Jade stood there, magelight floating above his head. Azul stood behind him, pushing his messy hair from his face while he squinted without his glasses.
“A nightmare,” Jade guessed correctly.
“He needs water,” Floyd said.
“And you need the first aid kit,” Azul noted. “We’ll get it.”
The door shut. The light went away. Floyd looked down at Ace. He cupped his cheek, cradling it. Ace was a goddamn mess, snot and tears all over his face as his bottom lip wobbled. He clutched onto Floyd’s wrist with both hands, leaning heavily into his palm as he shuddered beneath him.
“I woke them up,” he sobbed, miserable. “I woke everybody up. ‘M sorry.”
“Stop apologizing,” Floyd demanded, a growl bleeding into his tone. “Got nothin’ to apologize for, Ace. Ya hear me? Nothin’.”
Ace didn’t answer. He just turned his face further into Floyd’s hand, as if he were trying to hide.
“I’d never let it happen again,” Floyd told him. “Ya know that, right?” Ace didn’t answer. “And if Crowley keeps tryin’ to take you away from me, I’m gonna claw him open and show him his fuckin’ innards. Make that vulture fuckin’ eat ‘em. Ain’t nobody gonna hurt you and they sure as hell ain’t gonna take you. I’d burn this entire fuckin’ place down first.”
Ace’s gasping was slowing down. Tears still rolled down his cheeks but they were more soundless, sliding sideways down into Floyd’s palm. Floyd pressed his dry lips to Ace’s temple, then the place just beside his eye swollen with tears.
“You got that?” Floyd rasped. “You’re mine, Ace, and ‘m yours. Nobody else’s. So cry it out. Hit me. Make me bleed. There ain’t anywhere else I wanna be.”
“Floyd,” Ace sobbed.
“What is it? Tell me what you need.”
“I feel gross, papi.”
“Do you want a bath?”
Ace nodded. He tried to hide his face in Floyd’s neck but Floyd stopped him with a slight cringe. “‘S okay. ‘S okay.” He moved his hands to Ace’s. He lifted the first year’s arms and wrapped them around his own neck. Because they’d done this a hundred times, Ace lifted his legs and wrapped them around Floyd’s waist without being told. Floyd grunted as he lifted them off the bed, carrying them out of the room.
“Where are you going?” Azul asked, holding the first aid kit in his hands.
“Your bathroom.”
Azul just nodded. He griped about the twins using his bathroom strictly on principle at this point, but never Ace. Even after a year the first year still couldn’t use the public washrooms to bathe. In truth, the three of them doubted he ever would. That didn’t bother Floyd one bit either way. After school, Ace was gonna have his own bathroom in the house.
Azul’s room smelled of ink and cologne. Jade’s books were on his nightstand. The sheets were rumpled—they must have rushed out of bed the moment they heard Ace’s screaming. Wouldn’t be the first time. Floyd stroked the back of Ace’s hair. The strands were stuck together from his sweat, despite the fact it was always cold in Octavinelle and it was autumn out on the campus. His poor Crabby. He always ran so hot when he cried like that, it would leave him so flushed and miserable.
“Bath or shower, Crabby?”
“M-My legs…they’re too…”
“Alright.” Floyd pressed another kiss to his hair. “‘S alright.”
“Floyd,” Azul called from the bedroom door. “I need to look at you after you’re done.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m serious.”
“I said yeah, Azul. We’ll get to it.”
Azul shook his head. “Jade’s making him some soup. Potato.”
Ace peered over Floyd’s shoulder. Azul looked at him, adjusting his glasses. When he’d put them on, Ace wasn’t sure. But it did Ace some good to see a friendly face. Especially when the corner of Azul’s mouth curved up and he gave a nod his way. Ace turned his face back into Floyd’s collarbone before Floyd pulled his foot back and closed the bathroom door with it. He turned down the lights in the bathroom when he saw how Ace was squinting against the intensity.
“Let's get you cleaned up, Crabby,” Floyd muttered. He sat Ace on the edge of the sink. He took one of Jade’s hairpins and used it to push Ace’s bangs out of his eyes, since he knew how much Ace hated that when he was in this state. Then he grabbed a washrag and wet it in the sink, wiping Ace’s face clean of the snot and tears. “Theeere we go…after your bath we’ll go and drink some water, have some soup. See how you feel after all that.”
“I don’t wanna sleep,” Ace mumbled. Floyd was kneeling by the bath at that point, turning the knobs. He pushed his hair out of his face as he closed his eyes for a moment, letting out a weary sigh. “I’ll dream again. It’ll be worse.”
“Do you want somethin’ to take? One of Jade’s xanax, maybe.”
“You don’t like it when I take ‘em.” Ace wrapped his arms around himself, hunching forward. “Y’said I was dependent, or somethin’.”
“Yeah, well.” Floyd didn’t lift his head. “I don’t like a lotta things. Still might do you some good.”
Ace was quiet as Floyd checked the temperature. His hands curled around the rim of the sink as he watched the upperclassman. Floyd stood up and walked back over to him. “Maybe,” he muttered as Floyd stood in front of him, hand resting across Ace’s knees. Floyd squeezed one. Ace’s hands went slack on the sink.
“We’ll see how you feel after you eat,” Floyd agreed. Ace reached down and grasped his hand, lifting it and turning it over. The scratches Ace had left there had stopped bleeding. He traced his fingers over them and Floyd ruffled his hair. “Let’s get you in the bath.”
Ace nodded as he released his hand, then lifted his arms above his head. Floyd was smiling as he pulled his sweatshirt off the boy. Underneath he wore a tank top he’d largely sweated through, and Ace crinkled his nose as he made a small whine.
“I know,” Floyd cooed. “We’ll get you cleaned up, piccolino. We’ll get you feelin’ better.”
“Floyd,” Ace whispered. “Am I…always gonna be like this?”
“So what if you are?” Floyd tilted his head. His black bang fell out of his face, letting Ace see both of his eyes. The gold one glowed faintly in the low lights of the bathroom. “I’m right here, ain’t I? I’ll take care of you ‘til we’re both withered and gray.”
Ace wrapped his arms around Floyd’s neck. Floyd, obediently, leaned in so their faces were inches apart.
“I’ll be gray, not you,” Ace muttered. “Jade told me you guys can live a long time, so long as you’re not stupid.”
Floyd’s lips thinned before he stretched them in a grin. “Well, that’s good news for you. You’ll have your papi lookin’ after you your whole life.”
“You won’t get tired?” Ace whispered.
“Of you? Never.” Floyd rubbed their noses together. Tk. Tk. “Day’s never boring when you’re around.”
Ace shut his eyes. Floyd rubbed their noses together one more time—tk, tk—then pulled back to turn off the bath. When he turned back around, Ace had his tank top off and was working on the soft flannel pants he’d worn to bed. Floyd returned to his side—not to help, just to give him his company. Ace looked up at him and then buried his face into his collarbone. Floyd stood there, letting Ace regather himself as he rubbed his hand up and down his back. He stared at their reflection behind Ace, eyes moving over the scars on Ace's back. The blood on the side of Floyd's face had dried and the scratches had stopped weeping. His eyes flicked between the two before a coldness settled over his face.
Floyd had put three of 'em in the infirmary over the week after it happened. That joke of a Housewarden he'd squeezed 'til he popped. He wasn't entirely sure what Jade had done with the body, though he'd bet money that was the tongue Azul kept in a jar.
For a future potion, he kept saying, you never know when we might need it.
Yeah, right. Azul could posture all he liked, but he was a sea creature just as much as them. He liked his trophies. And those who knew—and everybody knew, they just couldn’t prove it—always sweat real bad when they saw it on his shelf during interrogations.
Floyd was still looking for the one that had dropped out and ran like a fucking coward. But moray eels are patient hunters. Down on the seabed he could lie in wait for hours for his meal, with or without his brother. Jade had offered his help, but Floyd was handling it alone. He needed someone to stay with his Crabby while he hunted at night. Jade was always a good substitute. He had Floyd's face after all.
“Papi,” Ace muttered. “Can you…the bath…”
Floyd snapped back to reality. He looked down at Ace and smiled.
“‘Course, piccolino. C’mere.” He picked him up off the sink so he wouldn’t have to make his legs work, carrying him over to the tub. The runaway would keep. Right now, he needed to work at getting his Crabby back to bed.