I WANT NOTHING FROM YOU, tagged ACE;

[marci]

It had been two days since her fight with Alex. It hadn't ended well. No matter the ending of that encounter, however, she'd known that she was going to have a deeply sick feeling in her stomach afterward. It hadn't gone away yet. She'd 'seen' him in classes and not spoken to him, she'd 'seen' him in halls and ducked into wrong turns to keep him from seeing her. The little blind girl felt like a fugitive, the way she was acting, like he was going to explode into a fiery inferno if he got too close to her for two long. Or that she was.

But it was killing her. Not only was she feeling like she was betraying Nell by not protecting her, she felt like she had horridly hurt him. And for some reason, she couldn't take that. But for some reason, she couldn't forgive him for hurting her, either. So she avoided him again, which wasn't that hard, seeing as he wasn't exactly trying to talk to her, either. Today had been difficult, though. It was during lunch break, and she was seriously considering skipping the rest of the school day. She and Alex had the next period together, and she didn't even want to think about that right now.

To keep herself from being tempted, she had eaten lunch as sparingly and quickly as possible and left the mess. She wandered about for half of the hour aimlessly, knowing the passages well enough not to be confused. Then she ran into two guys. She knew they were guys because they sort of grunted as they laughed, and she knew there were two from the frequency of the sounds. Immediately she had a current of air moving slowly around her, allowing her to see as she stood quietly in front of the two that were barring her path. Great. She didn't need this again. But she was far too tired to get into a passion, so she just waited for them to make the first move.

One of them, the bigger one, stepped toward her and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. He had to have been aware that she knew he was there, but there was that satisfying moment of confusion—as always—when her arm shot out like lightning and deflected his. ”Don't touch me.” She said, her tone completely flat. There was no one else in the hall, so acting distressed and trying to get others to help her was out of the question. Best to put up a strong front. She raised her head enough to place her blind gaze on the one who had almost touched her.

Though they were off balance for a moment, Elaine soon felt heat gathering around her. Her wind picked up on two small fires, one in each of the boy's hands. Great, two fire elementals. ”You shouldn't do that. It'll just be a lot harder that way.” The other boy said, pushing his fire close to her. Her wind immediately picked up and dissipated it.

”Fuck off.” She said, still emotionless. But they didn't want to. Convinced they were that she was just putting up a strong front. One of them stepped forward and took a painful grip on her left shoulder. She didn't think—the moment she felt the heat building, she twisted and slammed her right fight into a pressure point in his elbow. The force of the blow sent agony up her strained elbow, but she gritted her teeth against it. The guy yelped and let go, allowing her to take a couple steps back. She could tell by the way her wind saw his arm that she'd numbed the entire hand and forearm, but now he was angry.

”You little bitch!” Was the gist of what both of them said. Then she prepared herself as they started toward her again, resisting the urge to coddle her injured arm.

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[AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE]

It was lunch time but Ace wasn't that hungry. He had already had a grilled cheese as a snack earlier in the day. And some how the 'food' in the cafeteria didn't seem that appetizing. Ace sighed as he shoved his hands into the pocket of jeans, and he kicked an imaginary ball with his converse covered feet. He sighed as he looked around the empty hall way no one was there everyone else was mostly in the mess hall or in their dorms. No girls to flirt with and no guys to spar.

Ace reached into his back pocket and fished out his wallet. He sighed as he opened it, the thing was basically empty, there was only thirty dollars ten of which were American. He sighed as he thought about having to start up his 'challenges' again. That was how he made money. He set up fliers around the school stating that if you could beat him in a fight you would win money, but if he won then you paid him money. He usually hoped that honor or pride would make them pay. He won a good amount of them but he was only human, not Superman like he wished. He lost a few especially against the bigger kids and then when he faced some pride filled kids they would usually end up using powers. Which wasn't fair cause Ace wasn't that great at using his powers. He happened to get beat up but he managed to put a black eye, and a few bruises on them.

He shoved his wallet back into his pocket when he heard a voice, no three voices. He peeked around the corner and saw the girl that made his heart beat just a bit faster. He saw Elaine and it took him a moment to see the other two. He saw her punch the kid's arm and saw him yelp. He also saw the balls of fire in their fists. 'Damn what is with these fire kids and Elaine?' he mused. Ace saw them start towards her and he knew he had to do something. So he did what he always did he went in head first.

"Aerial ACE!" He shouted as he flying kicked the smaller of the two in the chest. Ace landed lightly on his feet as the other kid let out an oomphf and fell to the floor. Ace took his fighting stance. "What are you two doing to my girlfriend?" He asked lying so that they wouldn't hurt her. "Who the hell are you?" the one that was still standing said. "Me? I'm her boyfriend, and your worst nightmare." He said with an evil smile.

The smaller one got up and looked at Ace in fright, "Hey I know you." Ace said looking at the kid. "You still owe me twenty bucks for beating you!" He said as he approached the kid. The smaller kid got up and snarled at Ace. He reached into his pocket and threw bills at him. "Psh dude lets get out of here."

"What why?"

"They ain't worth it."

The smaller one said as the two walked away. "Yea you better leave!" Ace called after them, but he turned around and faced Elaine. "Are you alright?" He said looking at the tiny burn on her shoulder. He took some water and placed it on the burn. He sighed, "Elaine what were you doing?" He asked concern on his face. He hated it when she got hurt.

[marci]

Elaine picked up on the quick footsteps approaching her, and her wind saw who it was before he'd even had the chance to attack. There was a smirk on her face, and she fell into a graceful duck in order to get herself out of the way of his showy attack. Obviously, he was going for the same tactic she was—showmanship bent on making the offenders piss off. He was just a little more... zealous about it. She stood up straight again, taking a step to put Ace in between herself and the two fire students. No, she wasn't planning on staying out of it if it came to a fight, but right now she felt like being supported, less like dealing with everything by herself.

Her eyes stayed front, but as the boys had their exchange her left hand moved up to test her elbow a bit, see if the brace had come loose from the movement. Other than the great amount of pain lingering from what she'd just had to do, it seemed to be ok. But the nurse who had helped her into the brace would not be happy with her. As she moved her left arm back, however, she let out an involuntary hiss as her shoulder rolled painfully. Ok, so she was burned a bit. Hopefully not badly.

When the leaves of money were thrown (at least she assumed it was money—she couldn't actually see what was on them), Elaine allowed her dextrous breeze to dispense them in a semi-neat pile against the wall of the hallway. It was like a little show of thanks to Ace for keeping her from having to fight. Then he turned around and asked her if she was alright, and she nodded, raising her head a little so he could see her smile. ”Yes, thank you.” Then she almost jumped when she felt water on her shoulder. But after a moment of surprise, she forced herself to relax. Partially because it was Ace, partially because the water really felt good on the burn.

He asked what she had been doing, and she smiled with mischief, ”Waiting for may boyfriend to come save me, apparently.” She grinned, letting out a little giggle. It had taken her by surprise that he had said that, but she had held it back during the encounter, understanding why he had said it. Taking a deep breath and leaning a bit closer to him, she gained a secret smile and a flirty tone, ”You know, if those guys ever see the two of us together again we're gonna have to act the part.”

She really didn't know why she was doing this. He was her friend and she was comfortable around him, but Elaine didn't tend to act the flirty girl. If she was interested in someone, she showed it with much more subtle signs of affection. At the same time, she really hadn't had much experience with what she was and wasn't apt to do in these sorts of situations. In the back of her mind, she was, however, still angry with Alex. A part of her was smiling evilly at the thought of what he would think if he saw her acting this way.

So, without further thought, Elaine flashed Ace a bright smile and asked, ”Would you like to skip class with me this period?”

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[AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE]

Ace let out a sigh of relief as she said she was fine. He gently removed the water to examine the small burn on her shoulder. "Ah you'll be fine just make sure to put cold water on it every now and then." He said nodding his head. He was used to healing burns as he had volunteered in the medical wing whenever there happened to be a war going on. The reason he wasn't there now was that there hadn't been many attacks recently. But he only thought of this as a slight drop, he was sure until the war is over the attacks would keep coming.

He smiled "Well I'll be your knight in shining armor anytime." He said with a laugh as he took a heroic pose. He loved to be the hero,and he loved the feelings that came with being admired. IT was one of his dreams to become a hero to people. "You know, I don't think I'd mind that." He said flirting right back, he took a step toward her with them getting closer.

His smile took a different turn, it became mischievous and playful. This smile in his mind was the notorious charm smile. He donned this smile subconsiously when he started to flirt seriously or when he wanted a girl to fall for him. He looked at her "What class?" he said taking her hand in his. He didn't know what changed in her but he wanted it to last. "Let's walk around."

He didn't know where they were going but he decided that it was better to just wander instead. He thought that the journey instead of the place they were going was the fun. "Do you have anywhere in mind my lady?" He asked with a smile keeping with the knight in shining armor theme.

[marci]

Elaine's smile turned sweet when she heard the relief in his voice. It was quite natural feeling, having him protective over her. It had been surprising in both Josh and Alex, but for some reason Ace just seemed like that kind of a guy. He seemed to like to help people in general, and he was unusually attentive to her. Elaine almost shrugged when he gave her the medical order, but she stopped herself at the first bit of pain in her shoulder. Damn. Oh well. ”I probably won't remember to, honestly. Water is one of those things that....” She trailed off, tilting her head in a little bit of a shrug.

Since they had chosen to continue to spar since that first time, Ace seemed to have a pretty good idea of how she felt about water. At least, he had never triggered that reaction from her again. But Elaine had never really told him the full of it, or any of it, really. She danced around the subject. The little blind girl prided herself on being fearless, so this one major weakness was hard to admit. But ace managed to get her train of thoughts off of that track by answering her comment, and that same knowing smile was back on her lips. As a blind girl, she didn't have the same use of gazes and expressions to convey her meaning, but it was more than name up for by the subtleties of her tone.

”Anytime? Really?” Elaine smiled, ”Wish I had a phone, or I would seriously take you up on that.” A little part of her wanted her to actually be wary when he stepped closer to her, but judging from his tone, they way he had treated her since they'd met, and her own argument-hangover, she didn't have anything to worry about. She leaned back until she was merely standing straight, but that wasn't far enough to show any distaste to his movement. His words, however, actually lured a surprised look onto the blind girl's face. ”Really now? Don't think there would be horrible gossip about you and the deeply impaired girl?”

Being blind, she didn't see the smile that he gained in response to her request. Her wind sight wasn't detailed enough for fine details, not unless she were to give him a full blast of air in the face. However, she did hear the smile in his words. It was such a simple question, but she could tell he was very pleased. And interested. ”English.” She answered, giving a light laugh, ”Not really a subject that's gonna do me great service in the future.” It was said so easily, though in really her wish to leave the class was very much different. She was interested in the books they discussed and the plays and things, but she didn't want to see Alex again just now.

He took her hand without warning, and she really did flinch a little. A shock of pain went up her arm, and she realized that he'd just take her right hand. With a bit of a pained smile, she brought her other hand to his and lightly pulled it into another clasp. Without thinking, she intertwined her fingers with his. Then she realized, and a little heat entered her face. He said they should walk around, and she nodded, motioning for him to lead on. ”We can go anywhere besides the sparring room today. I'm not up for kicking your butt today.” She said, throwing a teasing smile in his direction.

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[AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE]

Ace nodded his head gently. Right she had that thing about water, quick think of something else. “Well frozen peas should do the job best.” He said trying to think of a way to help her heal faster. Frozen peas, that was pretty old school, at least he didn’t suggest anything like a steak or something like that. “Another thing that heals faster is if you get someone to kiss it.” He said with a laugh thinking about the times when his mom would do that when he fell and scraped himself. It was only a joke and he hoped she didn’t think he suggested he should kiss it, though he wouldn’t deny kissing her, her shoulder that is.

As they had kept sparring once every week Elaine started to come out of her shell. And since that first sparring session he made sure to never encase any part of her in water, mostly he worked on his water bullets and the new technique he called water jets. The move that helped him flip over Elaine, that first try was really lucky after that he usually landed on his butt or face, usually the latter. But Ace wondered about what had happened that day, he wanted to ask but he didn’t want to bring up memories that might scare her again.

“Yea anytime you wanted, I’ll come to your rescue in the dead of night or if I’m half dead at a hospital.” He said puffing out his chest trying to look tough. She stood straight and he moved back a little to give her some breathing room. “Well they can gossip all they want, so long as their ready to take a trip to the medical wing. I won’t let anybody talk behind my girlfriends back.” He said with a mock knuckle crack. Really he wouldn’t let anyone talk like that if they were dating, if the were dating what was he thinking about? “I would think some people would find it romantic that you would date an ugly guy like me.” He said with a half grin.

“English huh?” He said with interest, English was one of his best subjects, he liked to read and write so it was natural for him to like it, thought he didn’t like writing essays on books like The Scarlet Letter, or The Jungle. Just thinking about that book made him groan, he nearly stopped eating meat after that. Ace wanted to say that he would read to her anytime she wanted but he stopped himself thinking that that might be a bit insulting, cause of course she had brail books didn’t she? But if she didn’t and she had to listen to those on tape books he would read to her instead. He would be by her bedside reading her to, wait what the hell was he thinking? What was this mushy stuff going on in his head? Was he, no he couldn’t be?


“Ah sorry,” What the hell was he doing, he was usually a whole lot smoother than this. Wait why was he trying to be smooth with Elaine? Ace suddenly felt some heat rise to his face as she intertwined their fingers together. Was he blushing? He, he hadn’t blushed because of a girl in a, a very long time. He gave her hand a light squeeze on instinct. He started to bring her along the hallway thinking of a place to go. “Hah I let you win.” He said with a light laugh, of course he did try but when they sparred both of them were evenly matched which was nice as sparring with each other helped them get stronger. Ace started thinking of the empty room that inhabited this giant castle, all the ones he thought she would like involved something that had to do with sight. Then he remembered one, he gently led her along t he hallway taking turns and zigzagging through the castle.

They finally arrived at the destination that he had wanted. It was perfect, or at least he hoped it was. He opened the door slowly and let out a breath of relief, no one was there. The room he had took her too was the closest one to the wilderness, and since it was day they had nothing to worry about, like no wolves or bats springing out of it anyways. He led her to a chair and went off to open the windows. As he did the scent of the outdoors flooded the room, as did its sounds. The sounds of birds chirps filling the air full of beautiful songs only the wild could understand, The sound of a light rain hitting onto the panes of the glass reverberated around the room. The sweet smell of spring filled the air of the room that had waited in the dark cold winter. He turned to her, “Is this okay?”

[marci]

”Frozen...peas?” Elaine was highly confused for a moment. Obviously he had some general knowledge about life that she did not, because peas did not have anything to do with wounds. No different with them frozen. But she didn't think about it too much, as she was distracted by his next words. Those actually did make her blush, and her eyes went wide for a second. Kiss. No thanks. She couldn't quite make herself believe he was serious, though, so she managed to regain her composure quite nicely. She did not, however, know quite what to say in return.

She laughed when he carried on with the hero act, her wind seeing him swell out his chest and stand a little straighter. She heard the trying-too-hard toughness in his voice as well as the humor. All of that added together to amuse her highly, and make her speak without thinking. ”Oh, my hero! You'd come for me even half dead? Oh, how did I get so lucky?” So apt was she at telling the subtle differences in tones, her dramatics were spot on, so that it was almost hard to tell that she was joking—save for the fact that it was completely out of character. That was a giveaway.

”Anyone you can hear.” She corrected. Though still lifted by happiness and relief, the girl let a little bit of seriousness sour her voice as she said, ”Unfortunately, I hear a lot of things. It's disturbing how much I know about complete stranger's lives.” Now, she couldn't hear things like the voice on the other side of a cell phone, or things like that, but she could hear most whispered conversations in the halls. Hell, she could listen to a recording of a train and hear the bird that were flying above it, so what was a whispered conversation? Then he said he was ugly, and instead of answering, she gained a ponderous look. But she saved that though for now, preferring to let him take them where they were going.

”Yep. English.” She said. Then, when he said he'd let her win, she shoved her shoulder into him playfully. She didn't lose her balance, thanks to the quiet breeze she had wafting around them. She could feel the air moving her hair every once in awhile, playing with the ends and pulling it from her face. It actually felt good to have to coolness on her face, for once. ”You know it was fair and square, and you know I could do it again.” She grinned as she said this, teasing again. God, Ace was making her feel really good right now. Wait, what? She shook her head slightly, a bit of a frown appearing.

Then he took her into a room, dropped her hand and went to open windows. Her wind expanded and filled the room, creating a nice, tangible current that wafted over her, the tables, Ace, and the now-open windows. Then her ear picked up the sounds of spring, of birds and bugs and leaves rustling. She could hear things moving about in the woods, just starting to wake up from a long winter slumber. And she could smell plants readying to bloom and the fresh, wet breeze. Elaine beamed. It was raining. Ace asked her a question, but she didn't answer right away, wandering over to one of the open windows and pushing a hand outside. The feeling of the rain on her skin was wonderful. Her smile grew wider still.

Though she wanted to stick her whole head out, the blind girl did not. She waited for a couple seconds, overwhelmed with emotion. One or two silent tears fell down her cheeks, and then she let out a long, grateful sigh. Her voice was genuine, no long filled with the teasing and flirting as she said, ”This is so wonderful, Ace. Thank you, I really needed this.” She waited for a couple seconds, her left hand stuck out and receiving the droplets of a light rain, then she pulled it back in and turned toward Ace. ”Can I look at you, Ace?”

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[AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE]

“Yea you know put it on your burn and it helps heal the burn.” He said looking at her curiously. He didn’t get how she didn’t get it. Then he thought maybe she thought you ate the peas. “You don’t eat the peas silly.” He said with a laugh. He saw her eyes widen a bit at the suggestion of a kiss. “Well you know not, um from me.” He said awkwardly. He tried to laugh it off but it was getting really bad so he just dropped the subject of their discomfort.

He loved her laugh, it was light and happy, he laughed with her. He liked to make people laugh but somehow he loved to see her smile. “Well you did have the luck to fall under my tree of wishes. Secretly you wished for a hero and poof,” He said emphasizing the poof, “Here I am.” Ace said with a happy laugh. She was good at acting he had to give her that. If he didn’t know her he would have believed that was how she was. But he had known her long enough to know that that was a dead giveaway. He wasn’t bad himself, he was a good charmer and thus and actor.

“Well then my lovely girlfriend, just tell me who’s saying mean things and your big strong hero will take care of it.” He said squeezing her hand. He really meant it he would help keep the people from talking about her. Why? Well because she deserved a lot of respect to take on two fire guys, punch one in the balls, and fight evenly with him. Yea this girl deserved a lot of respect. He decided he would give her the respect she deserved and let other people see that. He didn’t want her getting hurt or taken advantage of because of her disability. He was protecting her a whole lot more than he would anyone else. Why? What was happening too him?

He laughed when she pushed him, he didn’t fall because he had been learning how to keep balance from her. Hell his balance improved so much; he could stand on one foot for a pretty long time. He could Limbo pretty far back until he fell. He still had a bit of a flexibility problem but hell he was getting better. He laughed, “Yea but don’t forget I won a few too. Like that time you tried to knock me down but fell on top of me instead!” He said with a laugh though during that moment it was a little weird. Hell that’s when he started noticing the smell of her hair and the rhythm of her breath. Ace mentally shook himself, what was he thinking. Elaine was a friend of his and that was it, wasn’t it?



Ace watched her as she walked across the room, listening to the sounds of spring bursting through the cold hold of winter. He smiled because she looked so amazing standing there feeling the rain. His heart gave a flutter and his breath hitched a little in his throat. What was this, this feeling? Like some twisted boy scout used his intestines to get his knot-tying badge. This feeling, he hadn’t felt it in a very very long time. When he was six if he really thought about it. Ace was scared but at the same time he was happy. The mix of feelings set off confusion in him, he denied them he thought they were on something else, something wrong with the grilled cheese he ate, yea that was it.

Ace watched her as two silent tears fell down her face. He wanted to hold her so she wouldn’t cry, maybe those were cries of joy, either way he wanted to hold her. He watched her silently listening to her thanks, he didn’t want to ruin the moment so he just nodded, his silent your welcome. Then she asked to look at him, he didn’t know how to respond to that besides saying “Yea.” Ace said softly talking a small step forward so he was within her arms reach.

[marci]

Elaine tilted her head thoughtfully, ”Tree of wishes, huh? Well, I should fall under it more often if it usually grants such good...wishes.” Her pause had been mysterious, but mostly for effect. She didn't have a real way for it to be interpreted. A light laugh escaped her lips a moment later, as she was considering his referral to their less-than-graceful meeting. She'd tripped over a branch. And fallen flat on her face in the snow. Though that sort of a thing wasn't extremely rare for the blind girl, she still really hated when it happened. It almost made it worse, actually.

He was joking when he said his next, but it still made her expression falter. It only took a half a second for her to put the same happy smile back on her face, but he'd set off a deluge of thoughts about her last encounter with Alex. Unwillingly, her mind was set to reliving the entire conversation, her gut twisting when she remembered what he'd said, how he'd said it. Drowning in guilt whenever she thought of what she'd done and said. But there was still that anger, and so she couldn't make herself go back to him just yet. Last but not least, she didn't want Ace to be anywhere near the situation, so she said with a small grin, ”How about this; you deal with the ones you hear, and I deal with the ones I hear. That way my crazy skills won't go to waste.”

Crazy skills of confusion and failing.

He distracted her again with the banter about their fighting. A real laugh left her mouth again, and she felt a little better. With only a little bit more willpower, she was able to put to rest (mostly) the thoughts about Alex and focus on her friend. That had been one of the most awkward moments of her life. She'd never been so close to a guy before, other than the one time she'd hugged Alex—oh, there it was again. She shook her head, bringing her right hand carefully and painfully up to her forehead. What was wrong with her? She thought about how it had felt to be so close to Ace, and that made it a little better.

He seemed to understand what she meant, when she asked to see him. He stepped closer to her and said one serious word. Suddenly Elaine had apprehensions, sensing something different about the way he was acting. But she was too confused and overwhelmed by too many things to understand it, so she wrote it off as her own paranoia. She allowed her wind to guide her in front of him, then winced as she tried to raise both hands. Right, injured. Only her left hand, then, rose up until it touched his collarbone. As soon as it did so, the current in the air died down.

She left her dextrous, gentle fingers gain a picture of his face. His jaw, his nose, the height of his cheekbones, the shapes of his eyes. It took a little longer than usual, because she was only using one hand, but eventually she made it to the hairline and smiled. Her hand lingered for a second before she let it fall. She didn't know if she liked it better than Alex's face, but she liked it. Very much. And it was nice to have 'picture' of him for herself. She opened her mouth to speak, then blushed and closed it. Then, a second later, she angled her face down and said something different, ”Thank you.”

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[AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE]

Ace laughed, he wished he could give her wishes, and stuff. Ace said thinking, oh if only magic really did exist, he could do a lot of things. He'd make world peace, cure AIDS and Cancer. He'd do a lot of things with magic, but if he could make one selfish wish. He had no idea what it could be. He hadn't really dwelled on what he would do if he had the chance to make one wish for himself. At the moment right now he wished that he could keep this moment going on for a very very long time. He smiled inwardly at how they first met, he took a hit from a snowball for her in the chest, then twenty minutes later he took her power punch to the chest again. His chest had complained about that for a few weeks.

He smiled at her but as he gazed down at her it seemed that something was bothering her. He wanted to ask about it but decided that it would only make her feel worse. "Well alright that way I don't get more practice than you and we'll still fight evenly." He said jokingly. He wanted to make her feel better so he thought up a corny joke "A dyslexic man walks into a bra." He said cornily, it felt sorta out of place with him but he wanted her to feel better and he couldn't think of anything other than that stupid corny joke. He regretted it cause it sounded really lame and if she didn't laugh he would feel like such a freakin idiot. He hoped she wouldn't do an awkward i don't get it laugh or a fake that was funny laugh. He sorta wanted to hear her real laugh and he wanted her to feel better.

He also thought about that time when they fell over. He smiled to himself, it was a rather awkward moment and Elaine's reaction had just made that time so much better. He had been pretty close to girls before, slept with a few too. But just seeing her face when they fell he forgot about all that experience being close to girls and somehow reacted as if it was the closest a girl had ever gotten to him. He mentally shook his head and tried to forget about the way she smelled or how she breathed. That moment only lasted a split second before she had gotten off of him but to him it seemed like they were there for a while. He shook his head, why had he been thinking of this? He didn't know he still doesn't.

Ace sorta knew how she would see him, he watched a few movies with blind people, especially since he met Elaine. Usually they saw with their hands, right? She confirmed that when she tried to raise both hands. That was when he finally noticed that her right arm was injured. It wasn't like that in their last sparring session, so it was probably something recent. He wanted to ask what had happened to her, who hurt her, and why but he was silenced as her left had rose up and touched his collarbone.

Heat rose a bit to Ace's face as her slightly wet fingers touched his face. He wanted to kiss her fingers as they danced across his lips but he held himself back. What was he thinking, why would he want to kiss her? Why would he want to kiss her fingers? What's with this confusion, this turmoil inside him. Her cool fingers danced across his face taking in every part of his face, everything from his cheekbones to his eyes. As they came toward his eyes he closed them so she wouldn't you know poke him in the eye. She let her hand fall as she reached his hairline, Ace opened his eyes in time to see her blush and then pause. HE smiled at her thanks. "It's no problem. So I'm ugly aren't eye." He said with a light laugh.

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[marci]

Though many people thought the blind girl was a little uptight, such was far from the case. Elaine was quiet and reserved around those she didn't trust—which was almost everyone—but around her friends she was a nut. She'd once been so hyper around a friend before that she'd forgotten to use her wind sight and ran straight into a wall. Ok, so it had been more than once. But the point was, she'd laughed afterward. So when Ace said the lame joke, she busted out in a grin, and immediately said, ”A baby seal walks into a club.” She paused, letting it build for a second, then ducked her head in mock somberness, ”So sad....”

She'd said that mostly because she adored the joke, but also because she'd sensed that Ace was beating himself up for his corny joke. She hadn't minded it at all, but just like anyone, she'd had a little thought in the back of her mind that hadn't been appreciative. She gave his hand a squeeze once, as a sort of quiet reassurance, then felt another blush in her cheeks. Goodness gracious, what was wrong with her? Again, the little blind girl wrote it off on the fact that she was simply not used to situations like this, to figuring out the subtleties of a happenstance she'd never experienced before.

She felt the change of temperature in his face with her sensitive fingers, and she smiled sheepishly, her voice very, very quiet, ”Why are you blushing?” She didn't even know if he'd be able to hear it—after all, her own ears were much more sensitive than his. Elaine had always been terrible at judging the keenness of other's senses, save for the fact that they were very dull compared to hers. In her mind, she was comparing this to when Alex had let her do the same thing, and it was getting incredibly annoying. He'd blushed too, hadn't he? She'd felt the heat, now that she thought about it. But thinking of this made her all in a muddle again, so she—once and for all—shoved all analysis into a dark corner of her mind. Alexandre Blackthorn had shouted at her, cursed at her, and nearly attacked her. He didn't deserve her time right now.

He spoke, and she gave him a playful shove in the shoulder. ”Yeah,” She said, obviously not serious, ”Yeah, I was going to run away screaming, but that never works for the girls in the stories, so.... Besides, I already know I can kick your butt.” Obviously, this was a very common tease coming from her. Which made sense, considering she hadn't thought that she was quite as good at fighting as she'd turned out to be. Albeit, Ace won more often than she did, if one didn't count when she was panicking (which was only the one time). Nevertheless, she was learning a great deal from him, and enjoying it immensely.

After a couple of seconds of just standing there, enjoying the smell of him mixed with rain, wind and old school room, Elaine started to truly relax again. Her blind eyes slipped down as her muscles lost their tension in her shoulders and neck, and a small, contented smile settled on her face without her knowledge. Even without the aid of her wind, she could sense Ace's presence less than a pace in front of her, and for some reason the proximity didn't bother her. Good job, Ace. She thought, her smile widening, You just broke down a wall.

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[AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE]

Ace laughed at her little joke. “That was good.” He said with a laugh. She was no longer the closed off girl he knew when he had first met her. She had stopped being serious all the time and had times to joke around with tease him whenever they were sparring. He smiled at her and her little jokes. He began to become more comfortable around Elaine, more than he was with anyone else anyways. Ace was always the fun guy to hang around with, though he was also responsible it was fun just to sit with him and talk or play video games. If you talked to Ace during his lazy moods he’ll just talk and ramble on and on, about nothing really. Somehow even though it took him so much effort to get up out of bed it didn’t take much for him to ramble.

Ace felt the reassuring squeeze on his hand and he squeezed back a thanks. He liked this hand-squeezing thing it was nice. He smiled at her cute blush but again shook his head internally. What the hell man, why are you confused about this? She’s your friend, a good friend and nothing more. He told himself, then why were these feelings swirling around inside him.

His eyes where closed but he thought he had heard something a whisper or a breath. Ace didn’t pay it much attention right now he was following the small steps her fingers made as they crossed examined his face. Ace was a gentle person, he would hurt but he wouldn’t if there were another option. His temper was long but cut short if you hurt someone close to him. If a friend ever got him to be angry he wouldn’t freak out and shout, his anger against a friend was cold, calm, collected. He wouldn’t raise a hand against them nor would he shoot venom at them. He would warn them, he would walk away. If they threw the first punch Ace would restrain them until they calmed down. And by restrained he meant sit on you and weigh you down with water.



Ace smiled, “Well maybe you can come around to love an uggo like me and not run away, or kick my butt.” He said with a laugh. Ace smiled at her little tease, it was like her catchphrase. She said it often when they sparred or when he bragged. He didn’t mind it, he liked to spar with her. Hell with her teaching him how to balance properly it was fun. They taught each other and learned from one another. It was this thing they decided to do instead of just sparring. He thought maybe they should see who could balance the longest. He was getting pretty confident in his stand on one-leg skills.

Ace stood there beside her watching her reaction and what she was doing. He was subconsciously reading her body movements, and he saw her relax. Like really truly relax. Something in him took over and his conscious mind tried to regain control but somehow it couldn’t or wouldn’t. He took in the sight of her beautiful smile and he closed the gap between the two, he looked down at her peaceful face and with his left hand he gently tilted her chin so her face looked up at his. He didn’t know what he was doing, or he did but he had no control over it. Ace leaned in going for the kiss. He was less than an inch away from feeling her soft lips on his feeling her breath against his cheek. He could basically feel the heat rise to his cheeks as he went to close that last few centimeters when a voice yelled out from his back pocket “HEY! LISTEN!” his phone rang off and he jumped back finally in control of his body. He quickly fished his phone out and answered the call. “It’s me. What! How the hell did you manage that? Ugh I’ll be right over.” He said hanging up and putting his phone back into its pocket. “I I-m sorry about- about that.” He didn’t know whether he was referring to the almost kiss or the interrupting phone. Ace quickly walked out of the room full of embarrassment.