#deuce baby im counting on you to be my shield in these uncharted waters

[parad-ice-lostandfound]

Prompt: Deuce will never know why you chose him out of everyone in Night Raven College. But maybe, he doesn't need to know.

Pairing: Deuce Spade x Yuu (Gn!Reader)

Genre: Fluff

TW: Na

Deuce will never know why you chose him out of everyone in Night Raven College. Yes, he was one of your best friends. Yes, he had been on your side since the moment you two had met. But he never, ever would have imagined that his feelings for you, which grew with every passing day you spent together could ever be reciprocated. Not when he knew that many others (far better, faster, smarter than him) had their eyes on the magicless Prefect who had fought against seven overblots.

Which was why when Crowley announced that he had finally found a way for you to go home, Deuce stayed silent; even as fire burned in his veins and a voice from inside him desperately begged for you to stay, to choose Twisted Wonderland, to choose him, he just smiled and congratulated you.

He watched as Ace, Epel, Jack, Sebek and the rest of your friends, your admirers insisted on spending your remaining days in Twisted Wonderland spectacularly. Everyone wanted to spend time with you, perhaps in hope that they would change your mind about leaving, that you would stay.

But not Deuce. Deuce wouldn't make you choose between your home and him; as much as he wanted to be selfish and beg you to stay, as willing as he was to sacrifice anything for you to decide that Twisted Wonderland was where you were meant to be, he would not act on his desires.

And so he stayed away, watching from a distance as everyone you had endeared yourself to spent the final days you had with them celebrating for you with heavy hearts and longing gazes.

The night before you would finally be sent back home, to your world, Deuce couldn't sleep. Anxiety clawed him from the inside out as a voice that he desperately tried to push down repeated within him what he already knew: he was going to lose you, the one person who believed in him from the start, the one who always helped him with a gentle smile on their face, the one he loved. And he was just going to stand aside and let them go, for their happiness meant everything to him.

So imagine his surprise when you showed up at Heartslabyul Dorm, way past curfew that Riddle, even with his obvious bias towards you would not be able to overlook the rules you had broken, with tears in your eyes and a tremble in your voice as you confessed to him.

To him. When there were literal princes, heirs of huge corporations and some of Twisted Wonderland's most beloved celebrity figures vying for your attention, for your affection, he was the one you confessed to. And while Deuce had always been raised to be courteous by his mother, something he was relearning after his years as a delinquent, he couldn't help himself.

He kissed you.

He kissed you like his life depended on it. Like he was a man starved and you were the finest meal prepared on Earth. Like he was a thirsty traveler finally getting his first drink of water.

Like he loved you.

And he did love you. With everything he had.

He showed you how much he loved you every day. He showed how grateful he was that you chose him, chose Twisted Wonderland, every moment you spent together. He worked harder than ever before, surprising Ace and everyone else with his dedication and determination to become, in his words, "worthy of you".

It didn't matter if you felt he was already worthy enough. He wanted to be the kind of person you could see yourself marrying one day; someone worth having a future with. And his efforts did not go unrewarded.

Deuce will never know why you chose him out of everyone in Night Raven College.

But as he saw you walking down the aisle, looking like an angel sent to grace his life with your ethereal and (quite literally) otherworldly presence, he thought, maybe, he doesn't need to know why you chose him.