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Chapter Text

Dottie and Rebecca had been friends since the first day they met in Horseshoe Bay’s kindergarten. They devoted themselves during recess in middle school to plan their lives ahead, so it was no surprise for anyone when they got married the exact same day with two young cop friends. Their wedding service was not just splendid and beautiful, but also marked the beginning of two families. Rebecca married Thom Hardy, the hope of the force, whilst Dottie married Jamie Quinn, the second son of the 6th wealthiest family in town, although by then he was no longer in touch with his parents or brother.

Time went by and Rebecca was the first one in getting pregnant with a gorgeous boy, but Dottie struggled with both her marriage and infertility for years until she was finally able to give birth to a girl she named Olivia Love Quinn. When Olivia was born, her relationship with Jamie was on the verge of breaking down. After three years of expensive medical bills for their fertility treatments and arguments on a daily basis, their marriage was sinking. Jamie wanted to leave her, but Thom talked him to stay, for the little girl. It was the right thing to do.

The age gap never was a problem for Ace Hardy and Olivia Quinn. The children grew up deeply fond like their mothers once did. One day, when Olivia was 3 years old and Dottie was doing extra shifts at the Hospital, Jamie packed her things in the tiniest of backpacks and grabbed her favourite teddy bear. He left her on the Hardy’s front door and ran away from the force, his family and Horseshoe Bay. Dottie was mortified during the following months, although in public she held to her pride, but life was no easy for a single mother in a small town like that. At least, money was never a problem. Jamie’s parents made sure Dottie and Olivia never lacked anything, after Dottie restored the relationship. And against all odds, the Hardys became the rock of the Quinns. 

***

When Ace was involved in the car crush with his girlfriend Laura Tandy, Olivia was at Columbia for a pre-college program. She dropped everything to go as soon as possible to Horseshoe Bay and bought a ticket for the first plane to Maine. In the mean time, Ace’s friends from work were in the waiting room trying to unlock his phone.

“If I try another time, it will be locked forever” declared Bess, worried.

“I thought you knew” answered Nancy, thinking in their chances of unlocking Ace’s phone to throw some light to the latests events.

“Me too” muttered Bess, “but maybe we can ask his best friend”, she suggested.

“You mean Olivia Quinn? She’s away for the summer,” bursted George while Nancy looked slightly disturbed, as her memories of high school clicked.

“Yes, yes… You should know her, she’s just one year younger than you”.

Nancy never paid much attention to Ace at school, and neither to those below her age. Until a couple of weeks ago, Ace was just the school burnout and Olivia seemed to be a rich girl with good grades.

Bess left and made her way through the sea of cops to Rebecca and asked for Olivia’s phone number. At first, Rebecca was hesitant, but she ended up giving it to Bess, since she was such a lovely and polite girl. Rebecca was also moved by Ace’s friends of work showing up, since he never had that much of a friends group before. Olivia answered the call when she was in the waiting line for boarding the plane. She had heard so much about Ace’s crew back home and felt she had nothing to keep from them.

***

Olivia arrived at the Hospital by taxi at the dead of night, surely past the visiting time, but to be honest, that wasn’t going to be a problem.

“They didn’t let me be in his surgery, but I’m doing as much as I can. Come on, I will get you to his room”, said Dottie, welcoming Olivia through the Emergency door.

“How bad is it?”, asked Olivia, with the heaviest of fears in her voice.

“He’s in coma now, there’s no much science can do for him at the moment, but I’m sure he’ll feel better with you around”, answered Dottie.

To be a doctor, Dottie believed way too much in the supernatural, but Olivia was ready to cling to any hope. She couldn’t lose her best friend. Of course, she would never tell, but for her he wasn’t just her best friend. Olivia couldn’t remember the exact moment when she felt in love, it was like it had always been there. She spent most of her nights thinking to herself about it. Was it when they were just kids racing in their bikes and she fell and he kissed her knee? Or was it when they grew older and he became such a hunk? Or was it when she noticed he left everything to walk her home after school although he had graduated two years before? All Olivia could think about was when he grinned down to her while driving, with the sun directly to his face, making his blond hair and blue eyes lighter.

“Olivia”, breathed Rebecca, leaving her seat in the chair beside Ace’s bed.

They hugged so hard before she even had the chance to look at Ace. Olivia’s heart just dropped when she saw him looking so defenseless. So quiet and still laying on his back, with only the sound of breathing support breaking the silence of the room.

“I’ve just sent Thom home to get some rest”,
declared Rebecca, holding tightly the hand of her goddaughter.

“You should get some too”, said Dottie.

“I just can’t leave him. What if he wakes up and he’s alone? My sweet boy”.

“He will never be alone, Becca. We’ll do shifts to guard him”, promised Olivia with tears in her eyes.

She spent that first night with her mom in the bunk beds of the medical staff room and they shifted to keep an eye on her during the following days, as she suggested. His crew from work kept visiting him and even Laura did, once. Olivia could feel in her gut that they were up to something, but she never asked. She was the only one of them allowed to spend the night with Ace at the hospital, guarding him so fiercely from the hands of death.

Olivia kept talking to Ace every day. She told him stories about when they were kids, and updated him on everything. She told him about her program in New York and she was so tempted to confess her love for him, but even if he was in coma, she wouldn’t risk putting their friendship in danger.

She cried some nights, too, and begged him to wake up. His injuries were healing just fine, why couldn’t he just wake up? No doctor in the hospital knew why he continued in coma.

It was during one of those nights, he squeezed Olivia’s hand. She was so caught up in crying that she took some seconds to react. She didn’t really tell anyone about that, she was so tired it could be just her imagination, and she would never get Rebecca’s hopes high without being sure. Olivia laid hopelessly in the chair besides Ace’s bed and took his hand in hers. She was restless and finally gave up to sleep, resting her head on Ace’s arm.

A couple hours ago, he started regain consciousness, so slowly, like he was waking up from a dream. And it had been sort of a dream for him: he could remember bits of the car accident before he lost consciousness and some weird stuff after that. Why would he dream about George? And why Olivia was three again in that dream?

Amongst all the trauma from the car crash, he could notice the smell of her hair. Was she Laura? He could see just a blur and started having trouble to breath because of all the tubes. No, her hair was much lighter, just like honey, like It was Olivia’s. "She looks so heavenly", was the last thing he managed to think before the door bursted open and an army of doctors came inside and took Olivia out to check on him.

Chapter Text

A couple of days had passed since Ace woke up from his coma and he was just healing fine. Finally the day to leave the hospital had arrived, and Olivia was helping Rebecca to pack everything, to his distress.

“I already told you I’m fine and can do it myself”, Ace said rolling his eyes.

“Oh my god, Ace. Stop complaining. You still look horrible”, commented Olivia jokingly, giving him a smirk. And indeed he looked horrible: he was bruised all over his body and a cut on his lower lip, not to mention every inch of him ached, “but, actually, I gotta go, I promised I’d help in the library. See you later, let mom or me know if you need anything”, she smiled and left.

“Why is she helping out at the library? Shouldn’t she be back to New York?”, asked Ace, clearly annoyed.

Rebecca shrugged her shoulders and continued folding her son’s clothes.

“She came back the night of the accident”, Rebecca said finally, “and has been here everyday”.

“Damn it!”, snorted Ace.

“Language!”, answered her mom.

Had he waken up from a coma and turning 21 in a couple of months and just got told off by his mom?

“What’s going on here?”, signed his dad, entering into the room.

“Nothing. I’m going to see my friends at the Claw later this afternoon”, said Ace, using both sing language and his voice.

“Just take it easy, okay?”, signed Thom.

***

His friends had prepared a little surprise party at the Claw for him. They had even put his face on a birthday cake. He enjoyed it so much. Ace was thrilled of having a crew like that. He didn’t grow up with many close friends apart from Olivia. They had some fun, although the afternoon was a bit tense since Nancy was worried about her dad being in prison because of Lucy’s Sable murder and definitely the party ended when Laura arrived. They still had two mysteries to solve.

“Alright, but after we solve my sister’s murder by the Hudson family, we are going to Paris”, agreed Laura, taking his hands when Nancy told them there was nothing more romantic than solving a murder with her. It was the first time Laura and Ace saw each other since the accident.

“To visit?”, Ace asked innocently.

“No, we’re moving to Paris, C’mon, you even speak French and there’s nothing left for us in this town”, insisted Laura.

“Oui”, he froze. Except I have now.

They both left with Nancy to the police station. They managed to geotag Tiffany’s last day: she parked her car in somewhere non suspicious and walked to where she really wanted to be. Unfortunately, one of the last places she visited was the library, exactly where was the person Ace wanted to keep away from all the dangerous and supernatural mess.

***

When Nancy and Ace arrived to the library, Ace greeted a couple and told Nancy they were regulars. Laura didn’t go with them. He had to explain then to Nancy that his mom worked at the library and spent a lot of time there. Nancy kept looking surprised, but pleasantly surprised. At the desk, Nancy asked about the CCTV recordings. 

“And, where’s Olivia?”, he asked to the unpleasant librarian like it was out of curiosity.

“Olivia Love is reading to the kids in the storytelling room”, Dominique said emphasizing nastily Olivia’s middle name.

Ace put on a sour face, but maybe they could find out about Tiffany before Olivia finished with the kids. Ace had developed a sort of responsibility towards Olivia, since she was the youngest. He always took care of the people who mattered to him, but when it came to her, the feeling was stronger. Olivia would always be by his side, but he tried to get her do the right thing even when he did wrong. Ace would never smoke pot when they were hanging around, for example. And to be honest, he didn’t use weed anymore because he wanted to be aware of the criminal and supernatural affairs happening right now. So, after almost being killed, having Olivia around and the possibility of her getting hurt was especially bothering him.

“Wow, she really hates you both”, said Nancy when Dominique left them alone. 

“Actually, Dominique just hates me, I bet she has a thing for Olivia” answered Ace, keeping his eyes on the computer, “come on, let’s finish with this”, he rushed.

“Why are you acting like you are hiding from her? Isn’t she your best friend?”, asked Nancy, with her singular inquiry air.

Ace took a deep breath. However, he found it easy to talk to Nancy. 

“It’s just that lately we’ve been involved in a lot of dangerous stuff. And Olivia has already been through a lot and she wants to study in New York. If anyone can make it outside this town, it’s her…”, Ace started saying, but noticed Nancy had frowned, “hey, I didn’t mean you can’t make it to the uni you want if you fill your applications”.

“It’s ok, Ace. We should focus on this”, ended Nancy.

They found out that Tiffany had actually been in the library that day, using the computers, but for Ace’s distress, they needed Dominique’s help with some hacking. But, it was thanks to his software that they managed to find what was Tiffany looking at that day: e-mails between Dead Lucy and Ryan Hudson filled with angsty teen love.

Ace and Nancy were on their way to the desk to ask Dominique to print everything when the ran into Olivia. 

“Hey, can I help you?”, asked Olivia.

“Hi! Yes, could you print a couple of copies of these for us?”, asked Nancy handing her an USB.

“Sure!”

“Olivia, you know you don’t actually work here, right?”, Ace raised one eyebrow.

“What can I say? I’m happy to help”, she smiled.

While Olivia made the copies, she quickly read through the emails. She felt bad for not respecting Ace’s privacy, but honestly, something was fishy about the latest events. And since the car crash, she felt like she had to protect him from something, but was not sure from what exactly. Over the days Ace was in hospital and the Drew Crew visited him, they couldn’t look more suspicious, so Olivia seized the opportunity.

“There you go! Hope you found what you were looking for!”, she said giving the copies and the USB back to Nancy.

“Bye, Olivia. We’re thrilled to have you back”, interrupted one couple with a toddler from the storytelling club.

Olivia smiled back at them and Nancy noticed why Ace wanted to keep her away from the supernatural. She was just light . Olivia seemed to fall well with everybody, even Nancy felt she liked her, despite the fact she took her time trusting people and was reserved.

“We have to go, but I’ll come back to drive you home later”, said Ace before leaving.

Olivia just smiled back at him and kept on working.

***

A couple hours later, Olivia was enjoying the few last rays of summer sun on the skin of her thighs down her skirt whilst she waited outside the library for Ace. She was genuinely happy to be back almost to normal.

“Hey, Liv!”, Ace called her out from his car. Olivia ran to him and jumped inside the car.

“Hi, Ace. Hi, Florence”, she greeted the car by sliding her hand across the dashboard.

Ace drove around for some time while they were listening to music and talking and laughing. It was way too good to be back. How could she even think about of going to New York? Olivia was trying her best to take her eyes off him. He had something to die for when he was driving. That summer had left an open wound in her. Texting Ace was nothing compared to be able to see him, touch him, and she even missed his 21st birthday. They did some FaceTime, but Ace was always urging her to enjoy the place and study.

“I broke up with Laura today”, said Ace, finally.

“Oh, I’m sorry for that. Are you okay? Want to talk about it?” asked Olivia.

“No… it’s just… she wanted me to move to Paris with her and I couldn’t commit to that” declared Ace finally, “I really liked her but I always felt on the run with her”.

Olivia nodded, looking at him with her blue eyes, noting every single detail of him in her mind.

“But I’ll be alright. I’m super excited to come visit you in New York. When are you going back, by the way? You should still have two weeks left or so of your program”, Ace looked over at her.

Olivia took a big long deep breath.

“Ace, I’m not going back ro New York”, said Olivia like a bolt from the blue.

“Why? Did anything happen there that you haven’t told me?”, Ace wanted to know.

“No, not really. All my life is here. I just can’t leave”, she admitted.

Ace snorted. It was definitely the best moment to have Olivia around.

“You always said you wanted to leave Horseshoe Bay. Come on, it was your dream to study in New York”.

It was not the moment. Not only because of all the possible dangers, but also because he had felt things. He had been feeling things before she left to spend the summer in New York. And it was crystal water that Olivia felt things too.

“I know, but I don’t want it anymore”, said Olivia with a sad undertone, “I like it here. I like my life now. I like helping out at the library. And there are great colleges nearby”.

“But have you heard yourself?”, asked Ace, a bit angry, “Are you really doing this for yourself?”.

“Of course I’m doing this for me! What the hell of a question is that?”, Olivia was clearly mad.

“I just think you haven’t thought about that carefully.…”, Ace started, “Some things are just not meant to happen. I really think you shouldn’t throw away your future over someone else”, he lowered his voice as he spoke.

“What are you talking about?”, Olivia had lowered her voice too, but it was just the calm before the storm.

“Olivia…”, Ace said tucking his hair back under her watchful stare, “I mean, I’m cool with it, really, I swear”, Olivia continued looking at him as if she didn’t have a clue, “I know you have a little crush… on me… But you’re brilliant, Olivia, you should study in the bests colleges”.

Olivia froze for a second while her cheeks blushed. So he knew. She couldn’t help but feel ridiculous. And the worst was that he didn’t look bothered at all. It meant nothing to him. Ace opened his mouth to speak, but Olivia was faster.

“Oh my god. Oh my fucking god. I can’t believe you’ve just said that”, Olivia’s cheeks turned crimson red in anger and she got out the car, “this has nothing to do with that. Nothing”, she hissed.

Olivia continued saying those two sentences on her way to the front door. Ace followed her calling her name and repeating that he didn’t mean to bother her.

“You just said that and didn’t mean to bother me”, she repeated just before closing the door on Ace’s face.

They both thanked innerly to the fact that Dottie wasn’t home to witness that deplorable show. Of course it wasn’t their first fight, but it was the first time they both felt a crack in their friendship.

Why the hell did I said that?

Chapter Text

Ace left the room immediately after the fight. He was so scared of dying. And he was so damn tired of being the consequence of Nancy’s actions. Of course everyone had got carried away by the heat of the argument, but he didn’t feel like doing anything anymore. Ace sat down by the bench in the lockers room and took out his phone. He sent another text of Olivia, but it looked like she wouldn’t receive them. He was swearing right when Bess entered in the lockers room.

“I thought you could use a platanchor right now”, Bess smiled at him and sat down with him.

“Thanks, Bess, you’re the only friend I have now”, Ace smiled back.

“It’ll get settled with the others. We’re just under too much”, she exhaled a big breath, “and what about Olivia?”, Bess asked.

“We fought a couple of days ago, she’s still not talking to me”.

“What happened?”, Bess asked.

“I fucked up. I said something… I told her I knew she had feelings for me, but I didn’t thought it was such a big deal”.

And that was true. He had been feeling things for Olivia before she left to New York, but it was over now. And even if it wasn’t, it would never work. When Ace learnt that Olivia had been with him during the coma and noticed how she looked at him in the drive home, he felt he had to stop that somehow, before she abandoned the idea of going to New York and regretted it forever. Ace had told Bess about forbidden feelings for a girl when they became friends during summer, so she put two and two together.

“Oh, Ace, you humiliated her”, Bess said in the end.

“I know. And now she won’t talk to me and we’re going to get obliterated from existence”.

“I still have hope Nancy finds a way to get us out of this, but I think you should reach Olivia, just in case”.

***

Later that day, he came over to Olivia’s house. Ace could bear dying, although he had never been more afraid, except when he was a kid and his father almost died during duty. It was his heart that couldn’t take leaving this word without making it up with Olivia. The Quinn’s house was actually near Ryan Hudson’s, richest neighborhood in town. Olivia’s grandparents were lit. It was late in the afternoon and he used his emergency key to enter the house since Olivia wasn’t answering his texts and he went straight to the deactivate the alarm. Olivia appeared behind his back, phone dialed 911, ready to press the call button on one hand and baseball bat on the other.

“Why are you breaking in my house?”, she asked.

“Okay, I did use my key to open the door” he said, Olivia raised one eyebrow, “I texted you. I really need to to talk with you”.

“I blocked you”, she said.

Ace looked almost as pissed off as her. Olivia was being extra annoying and he really needed a normal afternoon with his best friend.

“Truce?” Ace asked, “I brought you Vanilla Coke”, he added showing her the paper bag with junk food from the Claw.

“Deal”, she said grabbing the bag, he just knew her so well.

They set up the coffee table of the living room and kept quiet. Olivia wasn’t really ready to talk yet.

“Look, I’m sorry for what I said. I’m a dishwasher, I never went to university, I had no right to tell you what to do”, Ace had to be the one breaking the ice, “I wanted to let you know that I will respect your decision whatever it is”.

“Thank you, I really appreciate that”, Olivia admitted.

“Do you want to talk about what I said?”, he asked.

“No. Not ready. I’ll be cool with that, I just need some more time”, she said before he could ask anything, “for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I blocked you on the phone and screamed at you”.

“It’s okay, let me know when you’re ready to talk… but can you unblock me, please?”, Ace smiled at her.

Olivia said sorry again and unblocked him. She then received all his texts and skimmed through them.

“By the way, congratulations for making it to the newspapers for solving Dead Lucy’s and Tiffany Hudson’s deaths”, she quickly changed topic.

Ace noted Olivia was fully avoiding the whole crush thing. Maybe he was mistaken and she had fell harder than him. He was completely flattered that Olivia could actually see something platonic in him. And definitely, Ace had been seeing her from a different point of view since he was seventeen. Not always nor a real crush, but she was beautiful, and kind, and he liked himself better when she was around, like if she could actually craft a much better version of him. And of course, he knew his little platonic crush was shared; he had known for the way she looked at him. Her gaze was so subtle, but it was enough to let him know she cared about him, although he never really thought there could be something else, something deeper, until some short time ago.

“It was all Nancy. And we had some extra help with Lucy Sable, but don’t really wanna talk about that” he said.

And there was it again. His last day on earth, courtesy of the Aglaeca.

“You look as if you had a lot of things to say about that”, said Olivia, examining him with her eyes.

“I just need to feel nothing has changed”, Ace grinned, “tell me everything about your summer in New York”.

Ace went to the kitchen to get some glasses of water. He didn’t make it there, though. He fell down because of ropes tied tightly to his ankles and wrists, he recognized his portent, except for the fact that he was suffocating now. Olivia ran to him all and kneeled beside him. She couldn’t see anything, but Ace was trying to get something out of his neck. Olivia was about to call an ambulance when suddenly Ace managed to sit down on the floor and catch his breath.

Ace stretched his legs and placed his hands both sides on the floor.

“What was that?”, Olivia inquired, she was white with fear.

“I didn’t want you to find out, I don’t want to scare you”, he gasped.

“Well, I already am, so tell me”, she insisted.

Ace hesitated. He had his reasons not to tell Olivia about Lucy Sable’s bones and the death curse upon him, but he neither wanted to lie to her, specially if that was their last time together. In the end, he told her about everything until the sky started to darken outside the window. Olivia hugged him, crying, asking what could she do to save him.

“Hey, I don’t want you to get harmed. We are going to try something tonight”, Ace checked his phone, “and for that I need to get going now”, he added.

“You can’t expect me to sit here and wait until midnight to know if you’re alive or dead”, argued Olivia.

“That’s exactly what I’m asking you to do”, said Ace, dead serious, “look, you’ll be the first one I’ll let know if we make it, but right now I need you to stay here, and to give this letter to my dad if I die tonight”.

After making Olivia promise a hundred times that she would keep herself out of danger, he left to face the deathly hook at the Claw.

***

“You’re alive”, said Ace when Nancy arrived to the Claw while Bess was bandaging his arm. Thankfully, they managed to defeat the Aglaeca and he only got a pretty ugly cut from the hook. “Care if I tell Olivia to come over? She found out everything and I promised to met her right after if we made it”, he added, and everyone nodded, so he sent the text.

Everyone was so happy to be alive and Ace felt like he had lost a burden. He breathed calmly for the first time in weeks.

I’ll be there in 5. Olivia texted him.

“I’ll go grab some sparkling cider from the back”, announced Bess, happily, after she had finished putting the bandage on his arm.

But all of a sudden Odette’s sea shanty frowned everyone. The lights went off and The Claw was filled with wind and water from the seas.

“Here she comes, Godfather style”, said Ace, he had completely forgotten Olivia was on her way there.

The Drew Crew stood together when the Aglaeca appeared, and Nancy, thinking fast, told them that they had just angered her reminding the trauma of Odette’s death, but maybe if they appealed to the woman she once was, they still stood a chance. So Ace started to recite in French one of the letters from Odette to the her beloved, nevertheless, the Aglaeca’s scream made him burst backwards against the floor. George was the second trying in reminding Odette of the words she once said, but had no better luck than Ace. Then, the Aglaeca’s scream made everyone kneel down on the floor covering their ears. It was then, when Olivia walked through the door and ran towards Ace, that Nancy managed to wake up while saying some of Odettes words by heart.

“Please, don’t take them. Please, don’t take him. Please, don’t take him away from me” , cried out Olivia, trying to act as a shield between the Aglaeca and Ace, “I love him”, she whined as tears streamed down her face.

The rest of the Drew Crew were managing to slowly wake up after Nancy, they kept reciting phrases from Odette’s love letters. Olivia started to raise her hand towards the Aglaeca as she began to bleed out like Owen had done a week before. It brought her down to her knees, but when the first drops of blood reached the water on the floor, everything ended. The Aglaeca transformed into an afraid Odette and while Nancy tried to talk to her, Ace shredded a piece of his T-shirt to prevent Olivia from bleeding out. The ground began to shake violently and Odette finally disappeared. When the lights came back, Bess and Nancy melted in a hug, but soon everyone noticed George was badly injured.

Chapter Text

Olivia was shaking heavily with her hand upon the bandage on her arm made from Ace’s T-shirt. She was in a corner below the bar behind everyone, completely shaken. Not only she had witnessed George die, but also how Nancy had covered her in a shroud and made her come back from the dead. Everyone was in shock, but somehow Ace’s voice came out clear.

“Guys, I’m going to take Olivia to the hospital, the bleeding doesn’t seem to stop”, announced Ace, looking at her cut, “I’ll come over later”.

Ace received no answer and offered his hand to Olivia to help her stand up. They left the Claw and got inside his car in complete silence. Ace kept looking over at her, but her eyes were focused on an undefined point on the road.

When they arrived to the Hospital, Ace grabbed a jacket from his trunk and put it on. He wasn’t cold, but it would be best if none noticed he was injured too. At the check in desk in the Emergency Room, he had to speak for Olivia as she still didn’t say a word.

“This is Dottie Quinn’s daughter. She’s cut herself with a glass, it’s pretty deep” Ace said at the check-in counter, looking over at her for approval on the story. She just nodded.

A few minutes later, Dottie appeared in the hallway running and took them to a separate hospital room.

“Okay, what happened here?” she asked removing the fabric from Olivia’s arm.

“I was holding a glass and it exploded in my hand” answered Olivia, for the first time since they left The Claw, “I’m fine, I just want to go home”.

Ace noticed that her voiced sounded clearer than he had expected. He never doubted Olivia’s strength, but she had went all in into the supernatural advanced level just in one night. He rested his hands behind his back on the doctor’s table without keeping his eyes off the Quinns.

“Alright, it looks like there’s no glass remnants. It must’ve been such a clean cut”, commented Dottie, examining the cut, “I’ll give you some stere-strips and a painkiller”.

When Dottie finished disinfecting Olivia’s cut, she moved towards Ace and whispered if that was everything that had happened, because she looked terrified and it didn’t look like a glass cut, but Ace didn’t answer and she just let it go.

“Do you mind taking her home? I still have two hours left of my shift”, asked Dottie.

“Yes, ma’am”, said Ace.

***

Back at Olivia’s front door porch she spoke for the second time time that night to tell Ace that she really thought she had lost him when she found him on the floor. She was on her tiptoes, hugging him with her arms around his neck, tears streaming down her face.

“But you saved us… You saved me”, said Ace, softly to her ear, “everything will be alright now”.

The smell of her hair captivated him completely and he moved one of his hands from her waist to her hair, hence pulling her face closer to his.

“I don’t know how I did it”, confessed Olivia.

“I do know”, said Ace, “you showed your heart to the Aglaeca and she could only find love, because that’s who you are, Love”

Olivia rested her hand on his chest, feeling the beat of his heart. They were both breathing heavily. Only Ace and their families called her by her middle name, and hearing it on Ace’s lips melted her.

Ace closed his eyes and Olivia pulled herself closer so she could feel his warm breath all over her face, closing her eyes too. Somehow time was frozen.

“I can’t do it”, said Ace, in the end, breaking the short space between their faces.

“Just stay here”, begged Olivia, her eyes remained closed, “stay with me”.

Ace breathed in the smell of her hair, mixed with the smells of blood, sweat and tears, and for a second, he rested his head on her neck.

“I have to go, I’m sorry”, he pulled away and turned back on Olivia, leaving her crying under the threshold.

His heart never felt heavier and his lips itched from laking hers. He almost kissed her, and it took everything in him not to do it. If what Olivia said to the Aglaeca at The Claw was true, and given the latest events, it was, he was more than a platonic crush to her. And he wasn’t sure of which were his feelings towards her at the moment. It almost felt forbidden, to look at her like that, but it was there, either way. Ace wasn’t letting anything romantic happen between the two of them if he was not as in as her. Breaking her heart was the last thing he wanted to do.

Back at The Claw, the Drew Crew welcomed a new day by the picnic tables towards the bluffs. That was the first time they didn’t have mysteries to solve since they met. Everyone was happy but tired to say anything. Anyway, Ace was so caught up by his thoughts to speak about anything else rather than Olivia.

Time went by and the days returned to certain calm, but it was just the calm before the storm. Ace and Olivia did return to their routine, eventually, but nothing felt the same anymore. Ace was cautious with his movements towards her while she became quieter and reserved with him. And then, Ace met Amanda, who was just like a breath of fresh air to him.

Chapter Text

Ace dated Amanda for a couple of weeks, but they ended drifting apart when she left to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago. However, he kept in touch with her after the break up. He felt guilty, conscious he shouldn’t have started anything with the whole Olivia situation and keeping up with long distance relationship was very far of what he needed at the moment. Nevertheless, he tried his best to be in good terms with Amanda and stay friends.

He had come to terms with his feelings towards Olivia too. One Saturday, just before Amanda left, he met Olivia and her mom for dinner at his parent’s house.

Olivia was helping Rebecca out in the kitchen by grabbing a large baking tray when Ace ran towards her to grab it instead of her. Olivia held it by the handles, so Ace brushed her hands softly when she handed it to him. It was the first time they had been that close in weeks. His heart ached for her touch and Olivia forced a smile, leaving the tray on his hands and turning back on him to find something else to carry to the dinning table.

The longing of the slightest touch made Ace think of the Pride & Prejudice film they had watched a hundred times. It lead him to acknowledge every time he felt something for her and he quieted it so it wouldn’t be a dagger to their friendship. And he figured out that he had loved her for so long. So that day he decided to pick her up at the library after she finished her volunteering.

“Hey, how you doing?,” smiled Ace.

He felt nervous for the first time around her and kept his hands on his trucker jacket pockets. It was silly how much his feelings towards Olivia had changed in a couple of weeks.

“How you doing?,” greeted back Olivia.

“Can I take you home today?,” he asked, “we can drive around and grab dinner, if you want”.

“I’d really loved to, but I already have plans,” said Olivia, her cheeks turned rosy, “rain check?”

Before Ace could ask her anything else, Olivia grabbed her black denim jacket, along with her backpack. Someone in a brand new expensive car parked at the front door of the library and honked twice. Ace was about to say something, probably asking who was such an idiot to do that but Olivia surprised him by kissing softly and briefly his cheek. She then left to sit on his passenger seat. Ace could see through the glass doors of the library how he kissed her recklessly.

“Jeremy? Is she really out of her freaking mind?,” asked Dominique behind his back, looking at the scene as well.

“Wanna know something, Dominique? Maybe we have finally found something to agree on,” said Ace, before heading to The Claw, alone.

***

Olivia cried herself to sleep the night they defeated the Aglaeca. She could live with Ace knowing she had a crush on him. And she had always been cool with her feelings not being shared by him. Fine. But he had totally pulled her away. She really thought he was going to kiss her, and she almost did kiss him, but now she was glad she didn’t gather the courage in the end, because that would have been so much worst. It would have brought the death of her and their friendship.

She woke up with redden eyes the next morning. When she grabbed her phone, Ace had sent her some texts, which she ignored. Olivia scrolled down Instagram instead. It takes one to forget one, she thought to herself before checking her DMs. Jeremy, who was just one year younger than Ace and was studying in university had been hitting her up for some time now. He had a long list of exes behind his back, but Jeremy was always nice to her. And he could be Ace’s exact opposite, which she felt she needed the most.

She did talk to Ace eventually and they tried to amend their friendship. It was hard to be away from him when both families had such a strong bond but sometimes, being left alone with Ace felt such a tease for her, but tried her best, because after all, Ace had been her best friend since they were born and she didn’t want to lose him over a thing that never happened. So when Jeremy Irwin offered to take her on that date later, she said yes without hesitating.

***

Ace almost dropped dead when he saw Jeremy and his friends walking in the restaurant the following Friday and Olivia was just behind them. It was not like they never had dinner at The Claw before, but he felt a stab of pain right in his heart. Olivia dropped her purse and her black denim jacket in the seat closer to Jeremy’s and headed to the bar, where all The Claw’s staff were hanging instead of working.

“Hey, I just came around to say hello,” announced Olivia and everyone greeted her back.

“Oh my god, I love the dress,” said Bess.

Although Ace hadn’t lifted his eyes out of Olivia since she came in, he took his time to analyze her now. She was wearing a short, glossy purple dress that embraced gently the curves of her body and black Converse. Olivia had this kind of thing of dressing so fancy and making it look casual. Ace agreed with Bess innerly, he loved that dress on her. He had seen Olivia a hundred times, but as her friend, it felt different now. The thoughts about how short the dress was and how dangerously a lock of her hair fell on her neckline ending in V felt almost forbidden.

“Thanks!” Olivia said, and turned her head back when she heard the boys calling her Livvie, “I should go back, see you.”

“Let me know if you need a ride home!,” Ace screamed when Olivia was already halfway to their table. He was so loud and his voice was filled with a shade of despair it made everyone keep quiet.

Olivia turned back to face him and shook her head, she also gave him a stare, an are you crazy? stare that made Ace went down like a balloon.

“Why do you look like you just found your dog dead?,” Nancy asked Ace, but he didn’t answer, he was staring at their table.

“Nope, I can’t, nope” he said when he saw Jeremy’s hand resting recklessly on one of her knees and then moving up along her bare thigh.

“He fancies her very much,” Bess explained to them when he went back to the kitchen.

“Oh, they’ve exchanged roles now, cute!,” Nancy smiled.

“Wait, you knew about Olivia’s crush? Is that another girl detective trait?,” Bess asked

“No, Bess, everyone at school knew Olivia loved Ace except for Ace, and Olivia,” George answered.

When Ace’s shift ended and got out the Claw, he would have sworn he saw Olivia and Jeremy making out in the car. He drove back home all pissed off, but at least, Olivia would be coming over for dinner next day.

***

He was sitting at the last step downstairs when Olivia knocked on the door of his parents house. She was carrying a Tupperware she handed to Ace and got inside the house.

“Isn’t it too warm for the scarf?,” signed Thom, walking out of the kitchen.

“I got a little cold last night,” Olivia answered using ASL, too, and faked a couple of coughs.

“Can you give mom this?,” asked Ace offering his dad the food container, Thom grabbed it and immediately when he was out of sight Ace turned back to Olivia, containing his laughter, “oh my god, how bad is it?”, she moved a bit apart her scarf to show a couple of bluish hickeys on her neck, “has the man no manners? Your mom is going to kill you”, he laughed, although it concerned him how carelessly Jeremy treated Olivia. Amongst the blue and red colored stains he could tell teeth marks of bites.

“I know, I know, I tried to cover them up with make-up but they won’t come off,” she whimpered.

“Okay, meet me in my room, I’ll help you,” Ace resigned and went real quick to the kitchen to grab a whisk.

Upstairs, Ace sat by Olivia’s side at the edge of his bed and moved her hair to have access to her neck. He then used the whisk to help her blood circulate again.

“Tell me if it hurts”, he said, Olivia just whined again.

Ace removed the hickeys slowly and softly, taking his time to work on her delicate skin. He had missed how it felt to touch her, to be so close to smell her perfume.

“I’ve missed so much being this close,” he said, a pinch of sadness nuanced his voice.

“Yeah, I’m so happy we’re not weird anymore”, Olivia replied.

They had always shared everything and helped each other, so maybe help Olivia to cover up in front of her mom was really what he needed to know at the moment.

“Does he treat you right?,” Ace asked after hesitating for a bit, “he sort of has a record with girls,” he added.

“Yeah,” Olivia answered, “why you asking?”

“I just wanted to remind you that you don’t have do do anything with him that you don’t want to.”

“Yeah, I know, everything’s okay, I know what I’m doing,” she reassured.

Ace let her hair fall back into place and Olivia stood up. She fixed the wrinkles on her clothes with her hands and thanked Ace for helping her out. Olivia walked out of the room, but stopped by the door when she didn’t feel Ace following.

“Coming?,” she asked him, he was still sat down.

“Uhum, just give me a sec,” Ace said. He brushed the tips of his fingers one another when only seconds ago they had been on Olivia’s skin. It shocked him how he had never appreciated how her touch felt before, how her love could have felt if she had let her, and now he wanted it the most, his hands were tied.

Chapter Text

When school started in September, things were getting back on track between Olivia and Ace. They started spending again some of their afternoons together at the library, keeping each other’s company. He caught himself staring at her countless times. All the feelings he had reprimanded over years had been set free now. Nevertheless, Ace wouldn’t said anything about his new found out love. He wanted to respect the fact that Olivia was with Jeremy, although it was almost impossible sometimes. Ace could stand it better when he didn’t have to witness any of it. When Jeremy called her Livvie or when he left marks on her, for example, especially when his hands would get underneath her skirts without any shyness in front of everyone looking.

It felt good, however, that Olivia was granting Ace some priority over Jeremy. Or that’s how it felt, anyway, when during the week Olivia would only hang with Ace since Jeremy was back on campus. Like that Wednesday Olivia was at his house, hanging out on the couch, laughing out loud just like when they were kids.

“You can be so silly sometimes, can’t you?,” Ace laughed.

Olivia didn’t reply. She was so caught up chuckling about her own joke her eyes were about to fill with tears.

Ace reached out to stroke the cheek where her tear fell. And then put away some strings of hair that were covering her gorgeous face. His heart ached for every inch in between them now. With his hand still behind her ear, his face approached painfully close to hers. Olivia remained quiet and still, however the pace of her heartbeats and breath were racing. Ace could feel it in his chest like a thunder, too, that’s how close he was to her. He could kiss her. He could show her how delicate would feel the kisses of someone who really loved her, how gentle he would be with her.

Ace pulled away the second he heard his mom keys on the front door. Rebecca came into the living room, loudly:

“Hey, kids, did you have anything to eat?,” she asked.

They both shook their heads and Rebecca decided she would prepare some snacks for them. Ace needed something to help him get out of the-almost-kissed-her-situation, so he grabbed Olivia’s phone which she had left by his side earlier.

“This thing is burning,” he said when passing it to her, the screen lightened up every time she received a new text.

He couldn’t help but quickly scan her notifications. She was getting a bunch of texts from Jeremy. In the last one he was asking for nudes and in the previous ones, he was talking dirty to her.

“Agh, my eyes burn,” Ace said casually dropping the phone on her hands.

“Ace!,” she gave a muffled scream, “oh,” she said when she read through the texts.

Olivia’s cheeks turned bright red and she put the phone away in one of her back pockets.

“I’m not doing that,” Olivia explained.

“Hey, I’m not judging,” Ace rushed to say, “but if you don’t feel like that, I think you should tell him, so he doesn’t get the wrong idea.”

Olivia was ashamed to tell Ace she had already told Jeremy she wasn’t sending any compromising pictures, but she had asked before for the dirty talk, just not now. She would deal with the texts later, her heart was still racing because of having Ace at a kissing distance.

“Yeah, I will,” she promised, herself, too.

Olivia stayed there for dinner since her mom was working until late. She never liked to be left alone in her house, she was easily frightened. So when Ace dropped her home in his car and Olivia refused when he asked her to stay over, he knew for sure there was something going on with her, but he let it be. In fact, Olivia wanted to be alone. She pulled the blinds back when she saw Florence’s lights disappear in the driveway. Slowly, she grabbed her phone from her back pocket. It had been there ever since Ace handed it to her. She got into her pjs and then into bed. That’s when she opened the conversation with Jeremy while her free hand dived through her belly and into her pants, above her panties. She touched herself to Jeremy’s dirty words.

***

“Olivia, could you grab these books for Mrs. Anderson, please?,” asked Dominique the following day at the library. She handed her a paper with some references and the keys of the cellar. Ace knew Dominique was sending her downstairs on purpose, so he decided to follow Olivia.

“Do you remember when we were kids and coming down here scared the creep out of us?,” Ace asked from her back, making her jump a little in surprise.

“Yeah, I don’t like it any better now”,” answered Olivia.

Turning the lights on downstairs made something run away through one of the unusually open windows and Olivia clinged on Ace’s arm. He smiled to himself because of that.

“It must have been just a little animal,” Ace said, walking towards the window and aimed to close it, “yep, it’s broken,” he added when he was close enough to reach the window.

Olivia was still by his side, holding tight his arm, and Ace was enjoying it way too much until she finally released him.

“Can you help me find this one? Should be up that shelf,” she asked giving the reference to Ace.

Ace got nervous when he grazed her hand to gather the reference. He didn’t understand how Olivia had kept quiet over all this time. He could barely breathe when he was alone with her. He couldn’t let her go without knowing what he felt for her, specially when he felt so latent the hope that she would kind of take him back.

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you” Ace said, as he reached the book on the top shelf. He then turned towards her and waited until he had her whole attention, “I have feelings for you. I think I’ve had them for a really long time but I was too stupid to realize it before”, he started saying, “seeing you with Jeremy made me realize I’ve been an idiot for not saying something sooner when I had the chance. I know you’re with Jeremy now and it’s probably too late, but I just needed to tell you”, he shook his head, “so I told you”.

Olivia opened her mouth open wide, but didn’t manage to say anything, so she closed it. Ace patiently awaited for her to make up her mind. She shook her head, Ace started to worry as she looked like she had a lot of things to say.

“If I could just go back in time I would have kissed you when you saved us from the Aglaeca. I really should have”, the despair of his words made his voice shaky, “and yesterday at my house.”

Ace was so close to Olivia he could feel the warmth of her breath.

Some tears started falling down Olivia’s face and she took a step back. Ace’s heart grew heavy again in his lungs.

“I didn’t mean to upset you. This was not the reaction I expected,” Ace explained, dampened.

“And what were you expecting? Tell me, honestly, because you’re being so unfair and selfish right now.”

“Why you’re saying that to me?,” Ace asked, they never called each other things even if they were mad and arguing.

“Because that’s how you’re acting. You knew I loved you during all these years and I’ve been always on your side, witnessing all your girlfriends and hookups. I never said anything, I never complained, hoping one day you’d see me, although I was coping perfectly fine with my unreciprocated feelings,” Ace kept quiet while Olivia made a pause to catch back her breath, “you were dating Amanda five seconds ago, and now I’m finally moving on with someone else, you decide you have feelings for me.”

“Olivia, I’m sorry I hurt you, but it’s not like I get to decide what I feel,” he said, but Olivia really had left him without arguments.

“Look, Ace, those feelings you say you have for me, they’re not real. You’re just afraid you’re going to lose your best friend over a boyfriend, but you don’t love me.”

“You have no right to say that. You can’t speak for me,” Ace got mad at the last thing Olivia said.

“You’re just jealous!,” Olivia made her thoughts really clear.

“The hell I am. Why would I be if I didn’t love you?,” against everything, Ace raised his voice, “I’m so jealous I hate to see how he gets to touch you and kiss you and treat you without any hint of affection…”

“And you could do it so much better, right?,” Olivia interrupted him, “because you’re the good guy, you’re always trying so hard,” Ace shut his mouth, “but you aren’t being one now, Ace. You know I love you and that I will be always on your side, but you can be the bad guy too. You played down my feelings for you first, when I told you my choice to study in Maine. You humiliated me and you made me feel so small, like if I just was a silly girl,” Olivia paused again, “and from the moment I got closer to Jeremy you have been questioning his actions and questioning me, too, for wanting to be with him.”

“All of that is right,” Ace had to recognize it, he had been a fool, although he would never stop thinking Jeremy was no good for her, “but that doesn’t mean my feelings for you are not real or any less.”

“I’m not ready to keep on with this conversation right now,” Olivia said, leaving him hanging, “I’m sorry”.

She got out of the cellar and told Dominique she needed to take her break. She felt every pair of eyes in the library on her and Ace. After all, they had left the door of the cellar open and the argument had got quite loud.

Ace, on the other hand, packed his things and got ready to left the library to give her space. Nevertheless, he approached the desk to give Dominique the books for Mrs. Anderson. The librarian looked as if she was pleased due to his argument with Olivia.

“Don’t dare say a word about it,” he warned Dominique, “please… sorry,” he added when he noticed the aggressiveness of his tone.

Ace left the library then. He had always tried to be a good guy, but Olivia’s words got him thinking he wasn’t that good after all. He texted her later, that he would be there any time she felt like taking, but she never answered. That was the last time Ace spoke to Olivia.

Chapter Text

It was late in the night, while Ace was asleep, when he received her call. On the other side of the phone, Olivia was shivering from the cold, in the middle of the road. Her voice broke when Ace picked up the phone.

“Olivia, are you okay?,” he asked, concerned, the moment he heard her sobbing.

Olivia sniffed and asked him if he could come pick her up amongst a thousand apologies for their fight a couple of days ago. Ace was already getting out of bed and grabbing some clothes.

“Send me your location,” Ace replied at the same time he got dressed, “do you want stay in the line?”

“No, my phone is dying,” she said again, “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. Save your battery. I’m on my way,” he said as he closed the front door of his house and crossed the driveway to get in Florence.

He stopped the car when he arrived to the location Olivia had pinned him. She was in the middle of the road, looking like a ghost. Her clothes were shredded and she was covered in blood and mud. Her honey hair looked messy and darker from the dirt. Before he could do anything else, she threw herself into the passenger’s seat.

“Can you drive me home, please?”, she asked.

Ace saw the marks of the tears making their way down her face, like little trails in the dried blood and sludge of her cheeks. He didn’t ask any questions, he drove their way back into town. Ace kept looking over at her every time he had the chance. Her tights were completely shredded under her skirt, as well as her black top. There was no trace of the jacket she must have been wearing earlier that night. He also noticed how Olivia was still quivering and held one strap of her top to keep it from falling, so he didn’t hesitate in reaching his jacket, which was lying on the back seats, and gave it to her. She put it on, grateful, and soon after they arrived to the Quinn’s house. Ace parked his car in the lane and opened the door for her. Dottie wasn’t home, since she had a 24-hour shift at the hospital, so Ace and Olivia made their way upstairs.

“I need to clean myself up,” she said, walking towards the bathroom.

“Olivia, wait, I need you to tell me what happened first,” Ace said, grabbing her by the hand and sitting with her at the foot of her bed. She looked scared as hell.

“I just want to have a shower,” she cried.

“I know, but we may need to get to the Hospital first,” Ace said. It broke his heart to see her like that.

“You can’t take me to the Hospital,” Olivia answered, the idea terrified her even more, “I can’t let my mom find out.”

“I know,” Ace stroked her hair, “we’ll figure it out later, but you have to tell me what happened now. It’ll be okay, You’re safe, with me,” he reassured her, but she started crying.

“I’ve been so reckless and stupid. I’m so sorry for the things I said to you at the library,” Olivia sobbed.

“It’s okay, it doesn’t matter now,” Ace said at he same time he pulled a lock of her hair behind her ear, “we both did a lot of stupid things, but that doesn’t mean you’re stupid. You’re not stupid, Olivia.”

Olivia raised her chin and looked him in the eyes, hers were reddish and swollen from the crying. Ace kept calm and tried his best to comfort her until she was ready to speak again.

“So… I met Jeremy at the end of summer’s party tonight at one of his friends’ house and we decided to get to a place more… private,” Olivia started and paused looking for Ace’s approval to continue speaking. He was paying her all his attention and measuring carefully each one of her words. Olivia kept going: “we took his car and went to the bluffs, hooking up spot. And we started making out.”

Ace nodded, he knew the spot, he had taken some girls there. It was so popular amongst people their age to have sex and drink in the summer. He didn’t like to where Olivia’s account of events was headed to.

“I wanted it at first and I really thought I was ready for it but he was getting more and more aggressive and kept pushing it and I just didn’t wanted it anymore. I told him to stop and then I noticed he was taping everything on his phone,” Olivia was blubbered out.

Ace had never been angrier, he was knocking the bastard down the next time they crossed paths. When he noticed she wouldn’t continue speaking, he stepped in.

“Did he forced you to have sex?,” Ace asked. He was careful, but he was more worried than anything.

Olivia started crying again, but shook her head.

“No, but he called me all these horrible, dirty things and kicked me out his car. I punched him in the face to get him off me, but…” her voice broke down, “he beat me up” she said, in the end, “and then he got in the car and left. I wandered around and then I called you.”

Ace stroked Olivia’s face and dried her tears with the sleeves of his sweatshirt.

“I’m really sorry. It was stupid and reckless and I pushed you away and I treated you so bad and then I called you because you’re the only one I could trust to pick me up and…”

Ace had to stop her there. They would talk about that next time, but for now there were more things to sort out.

“Hey, you did the right thing calling me,” he said, “I think you should let me take you to the hospital, but it’s up to you”, Ace said, after what had happened that night, they definitely should, however he didn’t want to force or rush her into anything.

She continued saying that she didn’t want to and that she’d be just fine.

“Will you let me take you to Carson Drew tomorrow, at least? Just for counseling and balancing the options”, he offered, one of his concerns was the video, for sure.

Olivia ended up agreeing on that, and finally Ace let her go to have a shower while he got the first aid kit from Dottie’s bedroom next door. He also threw her dirty clothes in a plastic bag, just in case.

When she had her shower and changed into a clean pajamas, she asked Ace to come in, who was already waiting by the door. Ace kneeled down on the floor when Olivia sat down on the toilet seat and carefully examined her injuries. She had some cuts on the palm of her hands and knees from the broken glasses on the ground of the bluffs, but nothing that needed serious, immediate health assistance. He cleaned up all the little cuts under Olivia’s attentive sight. She also had two tiny cuts in her face: one in her lower lip and another one above the eyelid which he disinfected even more carefully.

“May I?,” Ace asked for permission to check her ribs with the hem of her t-shirt in his hand. His voice came out rasped, so he cleared his throat.

Olivia nodded and he pulled her T-shirt up, slowly. He made sure to pull the tee the exactly amount needed to not make her uncomfortable. She had a huge bruise beginning to form on the right side of her ribs. Ace checked if she had any broken bones with his thumb. His touch was warm against her cold skin from the shower.

“Does this hurt?,” he asked her.

She just let out an “ouch” and Ace let her T-shirt fall back into place. It could wait, they would take care of that next morning.

Olivia didn’t have to ask him to stay. He settled up her sleeping bag from archery camp on the floor by her bed and some pillows. She sat in the bed, holding her bended knees under the light duvet. Ace asked her if she could lend him some oversized sports or pajama pants to sleep in. She pointed out one drawer and Ace choose basketball shorts from the time Olivia and her friends dressed up as the characters of High School Musical for Halloween two years ago. He changed clothes in the toilet, the shorts were a little tight for him, but it was better than sleeping in his jeans.

Olivia kept sobbing and Ace couldn’t help but feel helpless. He wanted to tell her so many things, but after their fight he didn’t know where they were drawing the line anymore. Olivia didn’t need him to say anything. She just needed Ace to hold her. As he did when he finally sat beside her. Olivia was the first one in falling asleep with her head resting on Ace’s arm while he stroked lightly her hair. Ace managed to toss the duvet over him with the tiniest moves. He wouldn’t dare to move not to wake her up, although the back of his neck started be numb due to his pose. Ace elongated his fingers to turn off the lights and hugged Olivia tighter. He wouldn’t be letting her slip away ever again.

***

The next morning, with the first sun beams coming through the blinds, Ace got up to an empty bed, but soon he could hear Olivia crying in the bathroom and speaking to herself.

“How could I be so stupid?,” she said looking at her reflection in the mirror.

“Hey, don’t blame yourself. You did nothing wrong,” said Ace, leaning on the door frame.

“It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have dated him in the first place. I knew he had been a douche with other girls, why on earth could I think he was going to be different with me?,” she started walking around, “and if I had just said yes, none of this would’ve happened,” she ended looking at her palms.

“No, we don’t know that, Love,” he said, using his right hand to comb his hair backwards, “you have every right to say no, no matter how far you get with a guy, you still have the right to change your mind.”

“I thought that I was ready,” she said, her voice shattered.

“I know,” Ace said in a whisper.

Ace felt bad for all the times he had told Olivia that Jeremy wasn’t right for her. His words from then had managed to pierce on her like nails, but he never wanted Olivia to feel like that. He would never blame Olivia for what happened.

“I was so stupid. I thought he would be different with me. I’m sorry, Ace. I’m sorry for everything. I should’ve known better. I…” Ace already knew what she was trying to say, and he needed her to stop.

“I know we weren’t in a good place, but it’s all water under the bridge”, he said, and he meant it. He hugged her. At first Olivia was a reluctant to be that close, but it was Ace. Even though her trust was shattered from the night before, it was Ace. Her best friend. The one she loved. The one who would always be by her side. Olivia buried her face in his chest and breathed deeply for the first time in days.

Eventually, Ace left Olivia’s house to go to his. He needed to change his clothes since both his sweatshirt and jacket were covered in mud and were spiked with Olivia’s blood. He even had to use his bedroom window to come in, because his parents were downstairs and he didn’t want them to find out. Although it was just a matter of time: if they reported Jeremy, the thing would scatter like wildfire in Horseshoe Bay.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Ace took Olivia to the Drew’s house and held her hand while she explained everything that happened the previous night. She added some details she hadn’t told him, but he understood why she didn’t mention them to him the night before. When Olivia finished, Carson went to the kitchen to seek a glass of water for her and then got out of his office again, asking Ace to follow him this time.

“Look, I have my hands tied. Apart from that she’s underage and that we’ll need her mom to take any action, she needs to get checked at the hospital asap, and an injuries report done,” explained Carson.

“But Mr. D., he tried to rape her. I can testify against him,” said Ace, “I was there after all happened, and I kept Olivia’s clothes from last night in a bag.”

Ace saw from the corner of his eye how Nancy approached them. He felt torn apart, because he wanted to respect Olivia’s privacy, but his trust on Nancy had grown so strong he would trust her his life, and even Olivia’s. He knew they could use her help so bad.

“They were dating. The highly sexual content conversations they shared over text will only make it look worse for her,” Carson reminded him, “It’d be different if someone sent the tape anonymously to the station,” he added after a short pause, looking at Nancy.

Carson walked back into his office and closed the door. Ace didn’t want to leave Olivia alone for much more time.

“So, we need to get our hands on that phone,” Nancy said, “they’re the only regulars at the Claw, so we can grab it when they come back.”

“That’s what I was thinking, I could duplicate his phone if I had the chance to have it for five minutes,” Ace said.

“Yeah, but what if if he has erased the video?,” asked Nancy.

“I’ll find it,” Ace replied, confident, “but we need a plan.”

“Let me in charge of that,” Nancy said.

Ace went back to Carson’s office and sat again beside her seat. Olivia reached for his hand immediately, but she started coughing considerably all of a sudden and covered her mouth with her hand. When she removed it, her palm and lips were spiked with blood.

***

Ace never had regretted anything more in his whole life. He should have taken her to the Hospital, no matter what she said. She had been through minor surgery to remove the blood that was inside her lungs due to the blow she had received in her ribs. Ace was waiting outside her room, but he could hear Dottie’s yelling as if she was screaming right to his face. She had been giving Olivia a hard time since she was out of danger.

“I thought I raised you to be smarter than this,” Dottie said, as she opened the door, “and you… What were you thinking? You should have brought her to me the second she called you,” added pointing a finger to him.

“Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry,” he looked down.

“Dottie!,” called her out his mum behind him.

Ace looked at his parents, they seemed to be angry, but he couldn’t tell if it was at him or at Dottie for talking to him like that.

“Not now, Becca. I’m sorry, but he’s an adult and she isn’t. He should act on it,” Dottie used also ASL for Thom.

“You can’t blame Ace for Olivia’s actions,” signed Thom.

“It’s okay, dad. Olivia called me for help and I was the adult,” intervened Ace.

“Thank you, at least!,” Dottie said and then she left.

Rebecca watched Dottie walk across the hallway and went inside Olivia’s room to check on her. She knew how hard Dottie could be on her sometimes. Ace waited outside with Thom, but kept watching Olivia and his mom through the blinds of the window in the door. Thom tapped his shoulder to draw his attention.

“Why didn’t you take her to the hospital?,” signed his dad, “or called me? We could’ve filled the report right then and this would be nearly over.”

“Exactly because we knew this was going to happen. Dottie has been screaming and slut shaming her since she woke up, and you’re mad at us, too,” Ace replied, “and after being sexual assaulted I thought I should respect her wish not to come here.”

“Ace, we’re your parents, we have our reasons to get mad at you but even if you can’t believe it, we want the best for you,” Thom signed much calmer, Ace did make a point, although he knew the wise option should have been calling him. And Olivia was family for the Hardy’s, after all.

“Do you know what is Dottie doing about it?,” Ace asked, changing subjects.

“She’s hired Carson and has already filled the report. It’s just a matter of time, but the biggest concern is the tape. You know how harmful are those to young girls”, Thom signed and puffed.

“That’s just not going to happen. Everyone that has met Olivia likes her,” Ace said, “and I won’t let that happen.”

“Ace, think twice for once. If you mess up, you’re going to make things worse,” Thom tried to warn him, but it was already too late. Nancy’s plan was on track.

The waiting at the hospital was long and difficult for everyone. Some police officers arrived to get their statements but he couldn’t focus on his while he heard Olivia cry her eyes out in the room. Ace looked for his dad for help when the police officers came out Olivia’s room and approached Thom. He only managed to get that Olivia was not telling them anything. Thom snorted and signed that he would get her statement himself.

***

Ace had to sneak into Olivia’s room during the night because Dottie wouldn’t let her leave the hospital and the police had taken away her phone. He found her sitting down on the stool of the open window of her hospital room. Olivia looked towards the door when she heard him arrive. The wind blew her hair away from her face and Ace felt how cold was the room, but it didn’t seem to matter her. He also thought someone must had visited her before, since she was wearing a blue cardigan over the hospital gown.

“How are you feeling?,” Ace asked as he approached her prudently.

Olivia dried her eyes with the back of her hand, her face itched from the salty tears and her eyes were reddened.

“Dottie will aim for your head if she finds you here,” Olivia said in a dry manner unusual in her, letting Ace know she was mad, apart than hurt.

“Is that your way to tell me to go?,” Ace asked then. Ace hoped she wasn’t, but he would go away if that was what she wished. He would vanish, if necessary.

“No, I want you to stay,” she rushed to say looking again at him directly in the eyes.

Ace accepted the invitation and ended the distance separating them. He rounded Olivia’s shoulders with his arms and rested his chin on her head while she grabbed his forearms, keeping him close. Looking through the window, he felt how the quietness of the night in Horseshoe Bay invaded him to the bone.

“I’m not a slut,” Olivia said after a short time, the sadness nuanced her voice once again.

“I know,” Ace replied.

“You should’ve seen how Thom and mom looked at me. And the police officers who came in for the statement. And everyone,” Olivia explained.

“It’ll get better,” he sighed, and after a short time, when she coughed, he added: “Does it hurt?”

“Not really, I should be at home by now, but mom wanted to keep an eye on me,” she said, “it was just a stupid blood clot.”

Ace smiled, there she was, his Olivia.

“A very stupid blood clot in your stupid lung,” he played it down, but he had been worried about her since she called him to pick her up.

“Will you stay tonight, too?,” Olivia asked later, she had started drawing circles in his forearms with her thumbs.

Ace wanted to. Ace wanted to keep her in his arms and never let her go, but he also knew Olivia was very vulnerable at the moment.

“I don’t think I can,” he said, softly.

Olivia immediately slipped through his arms to stare at him like she needed a reason from him. The last thing Ace wanted was make her feel rejected once more. He had to gathered all his self control not to kiss her when she looked at him with her big eyes. He thought he could drown in them.

“I don’t think we should give Dottie any reasons to be mad at us right now,” Ace finally explained and Olivia nodded in agreement, “but I’ll come to you everyday.”

And somehow, that was the promise Olivia needed. Ace left for the Claw when Olivia finally got to bed. He had already set his computer in the lockers room when Jeremy and his friends arrived to have dinner as they usually did. He also thought it was better not to tell Olivia a thing about their plan yet.

Bess was intentionally sent to serve Jeremy’s table, spilling his drink on him. She managed to take his phone while she made it look like she was cleaning him up with a napkin.

“Bess! Get out of here! You’re the worst waitress ever!” George screamed, allowing Bess to go straight to get the phone to Ace, “I’m so sorry, dessert’s on the house,” she said smiling at Jeremy and his friends.

Ace had no trouble unlocking Jeremy’s phone. He just needed three minutes to duplicate it on his laptop. He couldn’t say he was surprised when he found a folder full of videos alike, but it was disgusting. George came back to check and when Ace unplugged the phone from the laptop, she said: “okay, magic hands, do the trick again before he notices,” referring to Bess.

Bess just left Jeremy’s phone under a napkin when she served the rest of their meal.

“That was… easy,” said Nancy, who was expecting much more trouble, that was the thing about being used to the supernatural, it kept hooked her on, “so I guess we just have to take it to my dad now.”

Ace limited himself to drop the folder with the tapes into two clean USBs, one for Carson and the other one for the police. He saved the last video filmed with Olivia’s name on it, though.

“Say hello to Olivia, the prude, for me” yelled Jeremy defiantly when he was already walking through the door.

Enough was enough. Ace had tried hard not to confront Jeremy, but he deserved to be knocked down. He followed him to the parking lot ignoring the Drew Crew telling him out of falling for Jeremy’s shit.

“Jeremy!” Ace yelled. He didn’t want to fall for it. He knew it would only make things worse for Olivia, but it was inevitable.

“Calm down, mate,” answered Jeremy, in a joking way, “I’m giving you just some friendly advice. Olivia is not fucking you,” he got closer to him and Ace closed his fist, “she’s just a tease. She’ll get so fucking wet asking for all the naughty stuff you’d do to her and when the moment arrives, she’ll shut her…”

Jeremy couldn’t finish. George, who had followed Ace there, punched Jeremy right in the face.

“Girls fight back, you bastard!” yelled George.

“Wow, that was a pretty decent hook,” commented Nick behind Ace, he had run there to try to stop her, clearly unsuccessfully.

“That was more than decent, man,” answered Ace, half surprised half pleased.

Jeremy ran to his car and started it. Before he left, he threw something to them through the window. When the three friends got there, Ace recognized Olivia’s jacket. It was a black denim jacket with fringes on the chest and the back, one of her favorites. He took it with him before going back into the restaurant.

***

The next morning, Ace woke up early. He made sure to arrive at the hospital for visit time, even though he feared Dottie wouldn’t let him pass through the check in desk. However, she was not there and had no problem getting to Olivia. She looked way better than the previous day, but the sadness hadn’t abandoned her face, yet.

“Would you smile if I told you I’ve got the tape and your jacket back?,” he asked, grinning at her.

Olivia’s face lighted up and she sat up with her back against the pillows.

“And I brought you cookies,” he added showing her a Tupperware from his mum with freshly baked cookies, as he sat by her side.

She hugged him, her arms firmly locked around his neck. Olivia said thank you to him a thousand times while she peppered kisses all over his face.

“It was nothing,” he said. Olivia used to kiss him in the cheek, but this was definitely something else. He fought the thought of her kisses being in return of a favor.

His fingers got lost in her wavy hair and he looked at her directly in the eye. They were still swollen from the tears, but had their dark green color back. Ace’s lips were dangerously close to hers. He had sworn to wait, but it was so painful to keep his distance. Olivia broke the spell and pulled apart, though, he saw the fear making his way across her face.

“Did you watched it?” she blurted.

Ace shook his head. Olivia knew in her gut she could trust him. And he knew she did, but also that her trust was damaged. That’s why he felt anything between them had to wait.

“I don’t want you to see me like that,” she explained.

Ace did watch it, eventually, when he went to testify before the court. Since Olivia was still underage, the proceedings took place closed doors and the details didn’t transcend the Horseshoe Bay’s press. But Olivia’s grandma had to do so much with it, or in other words, her money.

Still, Jeremy’s friends spread some rumors, but nothing that could harm Olivia for good, especially when the court examined the rest of the videos and investigated Jeremy.

Ace said once everyone who knew her, liked Olivia, but people their age could be cruel. “Olivia, the prude” became a thing in high school, making her lose some of her friends. She said she was in a living hell. At the same time and to make things worse, Dottie took her time to sort of forgive her. Olivia had a long journey ahead of her to regain her self-esteem and stop blaming herself once and for all. She needed desperately some constant in her life, some peace, and Ace was there to give it to her.

Chapter Text

Olivia started hanging out with the Drew Crew. She would take her homework to the Claw while Ace was working there, and she did really hit it off with Bess. She even helped Nancy with a case translating some texts from Latin into English. They made her feel useful, they gave her a new purpose: that was the what made the Drew Crew special. On the other hand, Ace would walk Olivia home every day and had dinner with her and her mom. They would also hang around town during the weekends. Sometimes they would be walking around and hold their hands almost unconsciously, but they never talked about it.

And Ace was happy with that. He was happy with her regaining her trust and self esteem. He was cool with not saying a word about their feelings. All he needed was to have Olivia by his side, as his best friend or as whatever the universe wanted.

When Olivia got into the car, he could tell she was exceptionally happy and excited. Her eyes got back their spark.

“And that was officially the last therapy session,” she announced smiling broadly.

Ace cursed innerly being already driving, but he managed to grab one of Olivia’s hands and put it on top of his lips. He kissed it lightly and squeezed it after.

“That’s great. Why didn’t you tell me before?,” he asked, it had been almost two months since the incident.

“I didn’t want to jinx it,” she explained.

“You’re wearing your jacket,” Ace added when he noticed.

Olivia smiled and looked at her jacket cuffs, she said: “God, I really love this jacket.” Therapy had given Olivia that much needed peace, it allowed her to finally forgive herself. Being able to wear her jacket back was definitely a win for her. Ace smiled, too.

“So, I’ve been thinking… would you like to go to the movies for Halloween? With me?,” she asked while playing with her fingers.

“I thought you were dressing up with Victoria and Lexi,” he answered.

They never spent All Hallows’ together. Olivia had been dressing up with her friends since they were kids and he was never interested in any of that. Last year they ended up in the same party, though. At the age of sixteen, Olivia’s and her friends’ costumes stopped being childish ,as they started going to parties. Last year, they crashed on each other’s faces in the hallway when he was being drawn upstairs by Laura Tandy. Olivia and her friends were dressing up as an angels, sexy angels, with miniskirts and deep necklines. That was the first time he saw her as a grown up, too. Of course, Dottie hadn’t let her go out the house like that, the girls had backpacks with cloaks to cover in front of their parents. Ace did Laura in the bathroom that night while Olivia was drinking her first beer downstairs.

“I’m not really ready to going back to parties,” Olivia explained, “and I don’t want the costume to give them more reasons to talk,” she added really low.

“Mmm… you shouldn’t stop having fun because of them… or change the way that you dress,” he thought aloud when he was parking Florence at the Quinn’s doorway.

Clothing shouldn’t sort people, but Olivia’s style was more than defined. Pleated skirts, loafers and soft knitted cardigans and sweaters in a range of earth and pastel shades which gave her big teacher’s pet vibes were her thing. It was so dainty about her.

“I guess I could drop by,” she ended up changing her mind when they got out of the car.

“I’ll be there with you, if you have me,” he said, looking at Olivia in the eye before she opened the front door.

Olivia agreed on that, and Ace also did stay for dinner at the Quinn’s house. He started washing a pile of dishes right after they were finished.

“Alright, kids, I should get going by now”, said Dottie, kissing Olivia’s head, “see you tomorrow, don’t stay up late. Thanks, Ace”.

“Happy to help”, Ace smiled.

For Olivia, the worst thing that happened during the past weeks was how angry was Dottie with Ace and her until short after the trial. It kept her from healing, so when they eventually came into terms, Olivia could finally start letting go. But it had been hard, Olivia spent sometime at her grandma’s, at the Quinn’s manor. Violet Quinn was just legit, although her old age, she would be the one that got on best with Olivia, as her confident.

“You know you don’t have to do that, right?” asked Olivia, leaning on his shoulder like cat.

“You’ll always find me near a pile of dirty dishes”, Ace grinned and turned his face toward’s Olivia at the same time he put the dish towel on his shoulder.

Olivia took a second to look at him. He looked gorgeous with his cap backwards, keeping his long hair from falling on his face. And she also loved the earring on his left ear. Olivia was so attracted to his pale blue eyes and his so defined jawline, but she was more focused now on how his T-shirt got bulked at his forearms. Ace grabbed Olivia and pulled her closer. She rested her forehead on his chin and Ace stroked her hands with his thumbs.

“We never really got to talk about us,” said Olivia.

But Ace had already closed his eyes and was leaning to kiss her.

“Uhum,” he muttered, before placing his lips on top of hers.

Ace kissed her softly and real slow, tasting every second. Olivia opened her mouth to his and rubbed her fingers through Ace’s hair, making his cap to fall down. Ace hugged her, putting his arms around her waist, and placed a kiss on her cheek after he finally let go her lips.

“God, that felt as if I had been waiting for it forever,” he said.

“I have been waiting forever,” Olivia emphasized.

They both cracked a smile, Olivia could not help but stare at him.

“Hey, we don’t need to talk about us”, Ace said, “I just want you to know I’m a 100% on this”, he paused, noticing Olivia was stroking his hair again, “a 120% if you keep doing that.”

“I don’t want to stop,” she said, “it’s just so soft.”

“Yours is real smooth too,” Ace took a lock of her hair between his fingers, “Want to know something? It’s the first thing I remember after my coma. The smell of your hair.“

***

Ace got to the Quinn’s house by foot to meet Olivia before the Halloween party. He didn’t dress up as anything special, his plan was just to stay around so she would feel confortable. On the other hand, she had fixed her pirate costume with an oversized white shirt underneath to make it slightly less revealing. Ace felt guilty the following second to the thought of how sexy and hot was Olivia in that crossed his mind. They walked to the party, where some vampire guy opened the door for them.

“Hey, dude, what are you dressing up as?,” asked the vampire after giving them a quick check up.

“Common white guy,” Ace replied, making Olivia laugh. He had always found cute the little noise she made when she was trying not to laugh and the air came way too loud through her nose. She covered her mouth and part of her nose with her hand.

Victoria and Lexi were already there, drinking from red plastic cups in the living room.

“We agreed we’d wear the same costume,” Victoria said to Olivia immediately.

“I wasn’t comfy,” Olivia explained.

“Hey, Ace,” greeted Lexi, “we weren’t expecting you tonight.”

Ace nodded and asked Olivia if she wanted anything to drink so he could make a quick scape to the kitchen to seek the booze. He came back with two beers, and after handing Olivia hers, he was called by some classmates of his. He came around to say hello, but they were never friends in school, so it was not long until the conversation ran dry. It was also difficult to find something to talk about when they all left Horseshoe Bay for university while he had stayed there. But, he wanted to give Olivia space to have fun back in her world, so he stayed away, although he kept watching her through the corner of his eye, as the content of her cup disappeared swiftly. It was a flashlight in her direction which called his attention, making him go straight to face the guy.

“Did you just take a picture of her, Milton?” Ace asked, in a very dry and unfriendly manner.

“Calm down, dude,” replied Milton, trying to get away from there, but Ace blocked him.

Soon the party moved towards them, and the attendees congregated in a circle leaving them in the center. Olivia and her friends were just beside Ace.

“C’mon. Show me the pic,” Ace insisted.

His right fist was closed so tight his nails were sinking into his palms and his knuckles were whitened. Ace had been raised to stand against violence and he never started a single fight in school, but when it came to Olivia, he wasn’t afraid to get his knuckles bloody for her. It was instinctively, and feral, which made Olivia’s heart burn in her chest. Lexi looked down at her phone and found Milton’s latest Instagram story and showed it to them. Ace took Lexi’s phone to have a closer look and put it before Milton. In the picture, around her friends, Olivia looked like the most modest indeed, so Milton must had found hilarious to upload the picture with the hashtag “Olivia, the prude.”

“Everyone is saying that,” said Milton to excuse himself.

In that moment, Ace felt Olivia curling at his arm, making him let his closed fist go.

“It was just a joke, Ace,” said Victoria on the back.

“I’m not a joke, Victoria,” Olivia said, angrily.

Ace exchanged a quick look with Olivia and he knew they were done with the party, so he grabbed her hand and got away from there. They speed walked until they were far enough from there. Olivia was breathing heavily, as if she was at the beginning of a panic attack.

“I can’t breathe,” she said, suffocating, “this is too tight, I can’t breathe.”

Ace hurried to untie the corset of her pirate costume from the back while she gasped for air. Olivia was holding the bodice over her chest to keep it in place when Ace finally managed to loosen it.

“Better?,” he asked.

“Yeah… Thanks…” she muttered. Ace didn’t need to read her mind, he knew she was still processing it, “I thought I was fine.”

“You’re fine, Olivia, it’s them who are messed up,” Ace said, regretting convincing her to go to the party.

Olivia sighed loudly and she took a deep breath and some locks of hair fell on her face, making her look wild. Ace realized he liked Olivia in every way. When she was the perfect girl in her twee outfits, when she was messed up, when she was fierce. He would do whatever it was in his hands for her, and to be with her. Ace couldn’t help but think about how he would kiss her at that very moment and how he would pull her so close until her back ended up against the brick wall on that street. He felt his kiss would escalate quickly due to a new found need and urgency to be closer to her. He thought about how her corset had been rising her breasts and still did, although he had loosened it. He reiterated in how it had felt to undo the bow that tied her corset with his fingers and how would it be like to undress her by unbuttoning slowly her shirt. His head was dizzy, and he had only drunk only one beer.

Ace got closer to Olivia and grabbed the hand of Olivia that was still free. He had to bit his lip in order to not kiss her and then he whispered: “I really want to take this slow.”

“That means you’ll take me to dates?” Olivia asked, her smile came back.

“Can’t wait,” he grinned.

“So, are we going now on that date to the movies?” Olivia asked and Ace smiled.

“I thought you’d never ask me out.”

“Well, I’m doing now.”

Ace fixed the back of her costume corset before they headed to the theater. When they arrived, the film had already started, but they made it to the last row. Ace put an arm around Olivia’s shoulders and she rested her head on the hollow of his neck.

Chapter Text

Even since their first date at the cinema, Ace had been making dates out of the smallest, dumbest situations. For Ace, everything was new and exciting, since at his almost 21 years old he had always skipped the dating part and got straight to the mattress, or onto any surface that could take his weight. If he was looking for deep conversation, he went to Olivia, so every day it made more sense to him. What made Ace fall the hardest was that Olivia wasn’t a puzzle he needed to solve, it was exactly the opposite, he could see through her. And watching how the things they used to do as friends became their own couple traits was quite special, too. And Ace found excitingly amusing to steal kisses from her all the time.

For the first game night of the Drew Crew plus one, Bess, along with Ace and Olivia, were in charge of the groceries. And Ace was so unhinged about Olivia that the second Bess left them alone to go find something, he made that became a date, too. They were drifting down the aisles, throwing into the cart anything that looked savory enough. Olivia was mouthing the words to the song that played in the background and Ace left aside the cart to dance, with her, amongst the chips and other varied snacks. Ace made her spin on her feet by passing their intertwined hands above her head. Bess caught when they were pulling apart after a very long, sweet kiss. She tried to turn away on them, but Ace had already seen her. So she walked to them and she put the snacks she’d been looking for in the cart and kept going, torn between being happy her friends were finally together and mad because none of them told her.

“We wanted to tell you,” said Olivia on one of her sides.

“We were just waiting for the perfect timing,” added Ace, on the other side.

“And keeping it secret was definitely… stimulating,” Olivia said, making Ace to look at her with a raised brow, he loved the fact that she had called his company stimulating.

“Ugh, come here, I’m so happy for you, you make the cutest couple,” Bess said in the end, hugging them both.

A week later, Olivia and Ace hadn’t broken the news anyone else yet, but the honeymoon glow lighted up their faces. Rather than wanted to keep it in secret, they wanted to stop people from spoiling it. The rumor about Olivia’s sex life was still running and it seemed too soon to let their parents know. Since they had been brought up that close, they feared it could be confusing for them, or for the rest of Horseshoe Bay’s citizens, indeed.

***

Ace was playing video games on his computer when his mom knocked on the door and opening without waiting to hear his answer.

“Look who’s here, Acey,” Rebecca said. She was carrying a plate with cookies which she left on his desk as he lowered his headphones.

Olivia entered into Ace’s room and he smiled at her. Rebecca closed the door loudly after her.

“Do you think she’d close too the door if she knew?,” Olivia asked when she left her backpack and coat on his bed and approached to him.

“I highly doubt it,” Ace grinned rolling in his chair to make room for Olivia, “hey, gorgeous,” he added when she was at a kiss distance.

“Hey, gorgeous” she greeted back, making him chuckle, she leaned on him to give him a lightly kiss on the lips, “I finished earlier today at the library, seems like all the kids caught a cold at school this week,” she explained, “and I thought I could do homework here.”

“You mean staring-at-me-while-I-finish-this-game by doing homework?” he asked, jokingly, and he caressed her arms from the shoulders to her fingertips.

“Yeap. That’s exactly what I meant,” she laughed and kissed him again, deeper this time.

Olivia laid face-down on his bed while Ace resumed his game. In her defense, she had almost finished her homework, with only a few stolen stares in between. Stares he fully returned and shared. He ended up throwing himself on the bed with her, and actually, he watched her do homework.

“I love this. I’ve never had this and I’ve just found out I’ve been missing it all these time,” Ace said, with a lock of her hair intertwined in his fingers.

“What do you mean?,” asked Olivia, after she closed her laptop.

“Just doing nothing. Minding our own businesses, but together,” he explained.

“I think it’s cute.”

“It’s intimate,” he said and he started kissing her, although Olivia had an idea of intimacy slightly different.

Olivia answered his kiss opening her mouth and laying on her side, as he was. Ace pulled her closer and his fingers got lost in her long wavy hair.

“I could spent forever like this…,” Ace muttered, “…but I really should be going downstairs to prepare for game night,” he added, finding difficult to separate from her lips.

“Do you mind if I stay up here and finish homework? I have a couple of sentences to translate for Latin,” she explained. Her hands were still on Ace.

“Sure. When you’re ready.”

Ace set the living room table with some snacks and drinks. Rebecca helped him and Olivia followed suit soon after. When the Crew arrived, Rebecca left for dinner to give them some space. It filled her heart to see that Ace had found a crew, after all, it pained her not having give him a sibling and that he had so much trouble making friends at school. And he looked happy, now, as the scent how weed had also disappeared from his dirty laundry.

Nancy had brought Scrabble and Mysterium for the game night. However, with everything that was going one, it was no surprise no one except for her wanted to play the latter. Nick had brought the Twister too, which everyone enjoyed, although it was too much of a personal space invasion for George. They all had a lot of fun, specially Bess, who was completely focused on watching how Ace and Olivia exchanged looks. She was awed by watching his platanchor falling full head over heels but she was afraid the rest would not need much more time to find out. So when they ended up playing Jenga, and Ace went to the kitchen Bess went right after him.

“You’re so cute together, but you’re doing a poor job keeping it secret,” she said, out of a sudden.

Ace turned back on his tiptoes, caught by surprise, and looked at her as if he was a kid caught being naughty.

Bess raised her palms in a peace sign, and said: “they’ll put two and two together sooner than later”, she looked at the rest, some of them were sharing the couch and others on the floor.

“It’s okay,” he put a broad a smile which lighted his eyes, “I mean, it’s not like we’re trying to keep it secret anymore,” Ace paused, “well, from our parents, maybe?”

Bess laughed and in the end, she told him how happy she was for him. They met the rest in the living room, and when it was Ace’s turn, he made the whole Jenga tower to fall down. He folded his hands, saying sorry, but his eyes told otherwise.

“I should go, guys, I want to put Ted in bed today,” announced George, grabbing her coat.

“Do you need a hand to clean up?,” Nick asked Ace.

“Nah, it’s okay,” Ace answered.

“Do you need a ride home, Olivia?” asked Nancy, already with her jacket on, turning to the girl.

“No, it’s okay,” replied Olivia, she threw her hands in the back pockets of her jeans, balancing on her feet while doing so, “you know, I live on the other side of town, I don’t want to bother,” she overexplained.

“Why don’t you drive me and Nick drives George?” suggested Bess, matchmaking beyond her means.

“Bess, you live with me, I was going to drive you either way,” thought Nancy aloud, “oh,” she realized.

The Drew Crew exchanged stares, but none said anything rather than goodbye. When Olivia closed the front door after they left, she turned back and rested against the wooden door.

“They know,” she just said.

“They know,” Ace repeated, moving closer to her.

“And you blew down the tower on purpose,” Olivia added, leaving her lips slightly open to his kiss.

“Guilty,” Ace said, before kissing her in front of the door.

The sound of their muffled breaths and the music playing low in the back of the living room prevented them from hearing the keys unlocking the front door. Ace had been naturally gifted in the French language, he could’ve got an A+ in school, but he would graduate with honors in kissing. Specially in kissing Olivia, since he got her weak in the knees just by brushing his lips against hers. Rebecca’s bag dropped, as well as her jaw and aimed a hand to her chest, right were her heart was. Ace opened his eyes wide and ran to her at the same time he asked, repeatedly: “mom, are you okay?”. Years ago, Rebecca had been diagnosed with a heart condition which forced her to semiretire early and avoid any kind of… intense emotions. Olivia also got by her side with a worried grimace.

“Oh, Acey!”, she exclaimed, “and Love. You two are together.”

Ace, who was already checking her mom’s pulse on her wrist thought he would be the one suffering the stroke, then. He felt his heartbeat still rising higher and higher.

“So you’re okay?,” Ace asked, recovering his breath.

Rebecca leaned to the floor to grab back her bag and giggled: “oh, my boy, I’m fine, never better, actually.”

Ace tried to find Olivia with his eyes seeking for help, but she was just as shocked at him.

“I’m so glad you’re finally dating,” she continued, walking towards the sofa to grab a seat, “I almost thought it was never happening, but I’ve been getting a vibe lately.”

“Mom?,” Ace asked again, his brain was still working hard to process.

Olivia sat by Rebecca’s side and asked then, while she kept an eye on Ace: “do you approve, then?”

“Oh, darling, I shipped you even before you were born,” she smiled ear to ear.

“It could have gone wrong, you know? You two could have given birth to two boys. Or two girls,” Ace finally intervened, in his corky manner, but his semblance was still showing worry. Olivia casted a stare on him.

“You know that wouldn’t matter. I’m a very cool mom,” Rebecca argued, also amused.

“The coolest,” Ace assured, kissing her cheek.

“But you’d rather let me be the one who tells Thom about it,” she said, knowing his husband would need a long time to get used to the idea, “and maybe your mom, too,” she added looking at Olivia, “It’ll be our little secret,” and after another pause, she demanded as the tiny line of her smile vanished from her mouth: “Ace, it’s so late, drive her home, now.”

And Ace, who was feeling far from chill with that conversation, caught Olivia’s hand and got her out of the house as if it had been set on fire, ignoring whatever else on Earth his mom was saying.

Chapter Text

Smiling ear to ear to himself, Ace stopped Florence in the parking lot in front of the Claw. He understood now why everyone had been avoiding him, why else would be his dad car parked there during inventory night if it wasn’t for him? Ace walked through the front door, although he typically used the one in the back to get to do his shift, and everyone screamed “surprise” at the top of their lungs. There were colorful helium balloons flying up the ceiling of the old fashioned dining and a birthday banner hung above the heads of his friends and family. Even his aunt Trudy and George’s three younger sisters were there. The latter came in an indivisible pack with the restaurant, but it didn’t bothered him. After three years working there, he enjoyed their company as if they were his own sisters. Ace got closer to the attendants to greet all of them as his heart was filled with joy. To have friends that cared enough about him to organize him a surprise party got him absolutely thrilled and Nancy’s presence made him genuinely happy, since her fake birthday had just been a few days before and got her feeling blue.

“This is much better than inventory night,” he grinned excitedly at them, referring to them luring him to the restaurant under the pretext of closing for inventory.

The tables from the centre of the dining had been moved to create a larger one, where they all sat around. To prevent Rebecca and George to spend all afternoon cooking for them, the Drew Crew agreed on bringing something each, which made the table look odd as the plates and trays were all uneven. It warmed so much Ace’s heart, and he snorted a laugh at the sight of the baking tray of nachos and cheese that Olivia and her mom had brought. It was common knowledge that Dottie couldn’t cook further than opening a bag and putting the content inside a microwave. His mom said sometimes that the Quinns would have died from starvation if it weren’t for her Tupperwares, and, even if she said it a mockingly way, there was some truth in it.

After dinner, his mom came out of the restaurant kitchen with a large chocolate cake, whose candles sparkled under the dim lights that Nick had lowered them for the moment. Everyone got around him to sing “happy birthday”, but before he could blow off the bunch of candles, Bess told him to make a wish. His pale blue eyes finally sank into Olivia’s dark green eyes. He didn’t need to wish for anything else.

But then, Rebecca took a photo album out of her bag. It was something she did on each of his birthdays, however, there was rather a lot more people to show this time. He tried to stop her by giving her his best puppy eyes, but it was already too late, Nancy had started to lurk on the pictures.

“Oh, god, look at this!,” Nancy said showing the album to the rest, “you were so small!”

Ace got closer for a better look, as the rest of them did too, and he recognized the picture, it was the same one he had in a frame up in his bedroom shelf. His dad had brought him and Olivia on a fishing trip to the lakes and his mom took the picture right when they got off the boat. He was keeping the very first, and only fish that he had caught, away from his face while Olivia, with her hair braided at both sides of her head, bit her thumb behind his dad’s leg. His broad smile showed some missing teeth on the front, which along his long hair gave him even a more mischievous look, if that was even possible. Ace loved that photo so much, partly because of how proud Thom looked in it. He couldn’t help but feel an aching pinch in his heart. He missed when his relationship with his dad was easy, before everything was screwed up. Before he had to sneak into his dad’s office to seek for any piece of information. Once he started finding leads to his father’s past, he couldn’t stop, until McGinnis caught him hacking that WITSEC database. He was scared to death at first, it was a federal offense for which he could go to jail, but McGinnis made a deal with him. And leaving aside the fact that it almost blew his friendship with the Drew Crew when they found out, he came out ahead. And most importantly, he found out that he could have a brother out there.

Shaking his head to come back down to Earth, not wanting to spent his night thinking about that part of his life, he locked his eyes on the picture his mom was narrating now. This time, it was one that had been haunting his dreams since his senior year.

“I remember this day. It was when they did that play in High School, what was its name?,” George asked.

“Hamlet,” Olivia answered, uncomfortably dry.

His cheeks reddened at the sight of Olivia wearing an ankle length white dress and her long wavy hair decorated with flowers to play Ophelia’s role in the play. He was standing at an awkward distance from her in the picture, long hair too, but dark clothes and a very sour, unfriendly face.

“Moooooom,” Ace mourned, at the same time Bess grabbed the picture in her hands and said: “wow, you were truly a match made in heaven even back then.”

Bess covered her mouth as Olivia swallowed a hard sip from her glass of water. Ace just closed his eyes and forced a smile at their parents exchanging looks. Beth mouthed to him an “I’m sorry,” and Ace did the same thing to reassure her it was okay, although he caught Olivia sneaking through the back door with the corner of his eye.

“Okay, I think it’s time for us old folks to get going and let the kids have their party,” said his aunt Trudy.

I don’t visit her enough, Ace thought to himself and vowed to change it as Trudy interrupted whatever Thom was trying to say.

Dottie and his mom agreed, saying their goodbyes, when the former whispered softly to his ear while she hugged him: “I expect you two to respect the curfew, which is at ten, we’ll talk about this another time, now enjoy your birthday, darling.”

“Yes, ma’am,” replied Ace, a bit uncomfortable before following Olivia’s path outside the dining.

Ace found Olivia sitting on top of a picnic table, with her feet tapping on the bench, in front of the sea, focused on the rhythmic pattern in which the waves broke against the small rocks of that beach.

“They seemed much more pretty okay with it than we thought,” Ace said behind her before occupying the empty seat by her side, “Are you okay?,” he asked when she rested her head upon his shoulder.

“Yeah,” Olivia answered, “actually, I wanted to get you alone.”

“Uhu!,” Ace smiled.

“To give you this,” she clarified, getting a small package wrapped in paper from the pocket of her jacket, “you know, I bought the COD for you long ago, as your best friend,” she emphasized, and Ace nodded, remembering Olivia had got him the latest version of his favorite solo shooter video game, “but I wanted to get you something else, as your girlfriend.”

Ace grimaced when he opened the box and saw the content, “you didn’t need to, I was saving for this,” he took out the watch. It had been his father’s, and his grandad’s before him, until Thom had finally passed it to him on his 18th birthday. It had got broken into pieces the night they defeated the Aglaeca and he never found the time nor the money to fix it, “It must’ve cost you a fortune.”

“It was nothing,” Olivia said.

“I… I…,” he stuttered, “thank you,” he said finally, way too loud, before kissing her. He had still the watch on one hand, so he used the other to grab Olivia’s face and stroked her cheek using his thumb. Ace rested his forehead against hers, eyes closed, thinking about how much he did loved her, and how was he ever capable of making her believe he felt nothing.

“We should go back inside,” she whispered.

“Just one more minute,” Ace whispered back to kiss her again, stealing her breath.

When they finally came back, Bess ran to them to apologize again, but it didn’t matter anymore. The honeymoon glow lighted their faces under the sparkling lights of the restaurant. Ace danced with all his friends, and they screamed the words of the songs that were playing in the back. He tried to capture every second, to treasure them forever as one of the best birthdays he could ever remember.

***

“Why you looked so pissed off at me in the picture of the play?,” Olivia asked out of the blue while Ace was driving.

“I wasn’t. I was pissed off because of you,” he answered, looking at her through the rearview mirror.

“And is that supposed to make any change?,” she insisted.

“Okay, do you remember I went to every rehearsal?”

“Yeah, you were reading books at the back” Olivia replied, so logical he snorted a laugh, because, how could she be so smart and be missing all the signals there?.

“For god’s sake, Olivia, the lights were off, how was I supposed to read?,” Ace asked, amused, “I couldn’t stop looking at you,” he said, finally, while Olivia watched him, waiting to dive in more, “that was the first time I saw you as a girl, rather than my best buddy, and you were… gorgeous. I was so mad at myself to think about you that way and so afraid you’d find out and everything would change between us… So I tried to stay away, but I couldn’t. I played it off until I thought I had no longer feelings anymore.”

Olivia sank in the passenger seat and kept quiet for a couple of minutes, “I already loved you by then, you know?” she asked softly, almost inaudible.

Ace stopped the car on one side of the road so he could continue the conversation looking at her face to face.

“Okay, I told you when I started having feelings for you, now it’s your turn,” he grinned.

“I honestly don’t know,” Olivia stuttered, “I think they were always there.”

Ace looked at her as if she was the most precious thing he had ever seen. She leaned on him like a cat to kiss him, which ended up in Ace moving the driver seat to a position where she could sit on his lap. Their kiss was slowly building a fire between them, getting deeper every time. Olivia’s hands were caressing softly the back of his neck, curling a lock of his long hair in her finger. At the same time Ace stroked her lightly above her navy sweater, which made some gasps scape out of her mouth. In a moment of weakness, he placed one hand underneath her sweater, but if the goosebumps she got in her belly as she sucked in her stomach to distance her skin from his fingers weren’t enough, both their phones started ringing.

“I’m sorry,” he said, removing his hand immediately. He awkwardly reached for his phone, that was ringing in his pocket, so Olivia was forced to move back to the passenger seat.

***

Ace performed a whole solo autopsy on the dead body laying on the Drews’ kitchen table, while the rest of the Crew tried to figure out what happened to the haunted corpse. However, the Coroner appeared at Nancy’s door to get back the body the second he managed to stitch the corpse back after it started bleeding. Of course, it meant what died didn’t stay there, it meant it was not the victim, it was the monster. They chased the morgue van to find the corpse attacking Leo, the coroner’s child.

When Nancy asked if somebody could drive Leo and the coroner back to her house in the van, Ace reached out for Olivia and walked her a few meters apart from the rest.

“You should go, and stay with them,” he said.

“You don’t want me here,” Olivia thought aloud, frowning.

His lips were pursed, “no, I don’t want you to get hurt, but you’re also great with children. And you calm people, it’s your thing.”

Olivia looked over at Leo and Connor, who had not stopped repeating “it was alive.” She could never walk away from somewhere where she felt she was needed. Although, she did agree on one condition, “I’m going with you next time,” to which Ace nodded. Olivia got closer to the kid and he grabbed her hand immediately. Ace kept his eyes on her when she looked back at him, and offered her a crooked smile. They drifted paths there and learnt from the keeper at the Historical Society that the entity they were looking for was a lamia.

His phone rang again, merging call from the Drew Crew, when he was driving around with George looking for the lamia: “guys, don’t take me wrong, but I think Charles is not just Leo’s invisible friend, he said he’s protecting him,” said Olivia on the other side of the phone.

“That actually makes sense,” blurted Nancy, “I mean, the lamia went away when Leo showed him the doll, can you get him to talk more?”

There was silence on the other side of the line for a couple of seconds, while the rest awaited patiently until Olivia finally added, “he’s super afraid, but he has told me to remember their names, the twelve of them,” silence again, “does that help?”

“Yes, thank you so much,” replied Nancy. Olivia was the first one to put down the phone, but then the police radio that Ace kept in Florence emitted a call for a naked man running towards the Claw, where George’s sisters were.

Chapter Text

“I don’t know. She’s not avoiding me, but she’s not talking to me either,” Ace said, “I feel like she’s only giving me half the truth.”

“At least she’s not George and she’s talking to you, at all,” said Nick as he opened the door of the shop making the bells jingle announcing their arrival. The two boys were running some errands when Ace decided to stop by the Antiques shop to buy some vinyls with the spare money he got from his birthday, “I mean, you could confront her about it,” Nick added.

“I don’t want to push her, though,” Ace answered while he went through the box of vinyls.

Both guys exchanged looks when something glassy seemed to have been shattered into pieces at the back of the establishment. Along with the saleswoman, both boys ran towards the direction of the fuss. Nick almost tripped because he crashed on Ace when the latter stopped on his feet all of a sudden when they found the three sources of the yelling.

“Ouch,” screamed Lexi when she fell down to the floor after having put herself as a wall between the two other girls.

“I saw it first!,” Olivia yelled, trying to get herself back on Victoria.

After a second of confusion, Ace ran to grab Olivia by her forearms as Nick followed suit with Victoria, who was also shouting: “it looks better on me!”

The saleswoman grabbed her phone and announced that she was going to call the police, but Ace stopped her before she managed to dial the station by saying “please, don’t, we’ll pay for everything,” at the same time he looked at the broken items on the floor.

“And we’ll leave a very, very generous tip,” added Nick, in an attempt to convince her.

The saleswoman casted the deathliest of the stares on the five of them, worthy of the Aglaeca, and then, she kneeled to the floor to examine the price tags of the objects that had been broken. The woman also told them to wait by the checkout, and they walked there, without loosing the grip of the girls arms, who were still hissing at each other. They were afraid that they would get on each other if they freed them.

“Do you know what are they bickering for?,” Nick asked to Lexi.

The girl opened her hand to show them an old gold locket, whose sight made Olivia and Victoria squirm heavily in the arms of the boys. “It all started when they got their hands on it,” Lexi explained, and after a short pause, she added: “it’s like they got… possessed.”

Ace held Nick’s gaze, that was the word the 2/5 of the Drew Crew feared to hear. He grabbed the locket to keep it in the pocket of his trousers and got out of the shop with Olivia and Lexi while Nick paid the high amount to the saleswoman. He called Nancy first, and then Bess, but none of them picked up the phone. Ace tried once more with George, but the call was as short lived as the other two before it. Every second that passed with Olivia and Victoria knowing the hiding spot of the locket, made their hold more difficult to keep. As they were running out of options, the group found themselves at the doorstep of the Historical Society, but the person who was behind it was, to say the least, a surprise.

“Ace?,” Trudy asked at the same time Ace said: “auntie?”

“Now it’s not the best time. The other keeper has resigned today and I’m trying to find the whereabouts of some items that got lost when your friend Nancy broke in,” Trudy explained, ready to close the door upon their noses.

“Our friends need your help. I think we found one of your lost items,” Ace said.

Trudy took a minute to study them with her eyes before she finally moved aside to let them come in. Since the two girls seemed to be on the verge to start a fight again, she suggested to keep them in separate rooms. Once they both were locked up, Ace handed Trudy the necklace to examine it.

“What I don’t get is why we didn’t got hysteric when we touched,” Nick posed the question.

“That’s because it’s a device from the 1800’s created by the Women in White which was only destined to chaste and pure ladies, according to the standards of that time,” Trudy explained behind them, “it served two purposes, first, if the lady to whom it was given to was, indeed, chaste and pure, and then to trap her into marriage once found in an questionable position with a man, due to the inhibition capabilities of the device,” she carried on as she showed them the handwritten records of the locket, “normally, the effects would wear off in twelve of twenty four hours, but this kind of magic deteriorates over time.”

“But they were fighting,” Lexi pointed out, “not making out.”

“As I said, the device is deteriorated, so do the effects,” Trudy said.

“Would an antidote work? Our friend Bess prepared a whole batch of crushed nacre when Nancy got poisoned with the lust of the Bridal gown of Boothbay,” intervened Ace.

“I don’t see how could that help If the symptoms are not the same,” argued his aunt, making Ace feel told off.

“Then, if our best shot is sit and wait, I’m going to check on my girlfriend,” he said, walking towards the room where he had left her.

However, he left a voicemail for Bess updating her on the information about the cursed locket to see if she could work out another antidote out of Temperance Hudson’s book. Ace carefully locked the door behind him once he got inside the room where Olivia was. He found her at ease, sitting on a chair and covering her face with her hands, and ended up telling her all they found out about the necklace, which he soon regretted.

“So Victoria is a liar. She told us she lost it at a party a year ago. She gave us pretty detail about it… Oh my god, then, if Lexi is okay, she is a liar too! But then… to whom?? She’s never had a boyfriend, not that I know…,” Olivia fast-thought aloud as she walked around the small room, “and again, what did you say we were doing about this?,” she redirected towards Ace.

“Wait,” he said, “but Bess is already working on an antidote.”

“An antidote, uhu?,” Olivia repeated, “maybe you can be my antidote,” she added, lasciviously checking him out.

Ace bit his lip to keep his blabbemouth shut, but it was already too late. Olivia pushed her body against his, leaving him trapped between her and the door. If he tried to scape from her now, she would be able to sneak outside the room too, and it would got them a lot more trouble.

“Olivia…,” he gasped. She was so close to him her scent invaded his nostrils and made him feel dizzy.

Olivia got on her tiptoes to kiss him, but she contented herself by only grazing her lips upon his: “tell me to stop,” she teased, “tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll stop.”

Nothing rather than her name in a whisper managed to come out his mouth. Ace felt his skin burning underneath his clothes from the sudden heat that had installed in the room. He offered no resistance when she finally kissed him, opening his mouth to her wandering tongue. He felt her hands everywhere across his torso. Her taste had never been sweeter, her touch had never felt softer. Ace grabbed Olivia by her waist so she could put her legs around his waistline and he carried her just to leave her on the desktop table. He separated at a minimum distance from her lips to kiss and suck it on the soft spot of her neck. Olivia closed her eyes and threw her head backwards, giving herself away to pleasure.

Ace traced kisses down her neckline before finally grabbing her hands, getting them off his chest: “stay still, I need one minute,” he whispered to her.

“I want you now, I’ve been waiting a lot for this,” she whispered back.

Ace smiled, and kissed her again, a much naive kiss this time, before he started waking backwards: “then I’m sure you can wait another minute more for me.” He used the fact that Olivia was still keeping her eyes shut as an advantage to get himself out of the room. When Olivia noticed, she hit the door and called out for him, but Ace had already locked her back in.

“I’m sorry, I’ll find you an antidote,” he promised, but Olivia had got him weak at the knees, so he let himself fall restless to the ground, with his back resting against the wooden door.

“What took you so long?,” asked Nick, who had just came there. Lexi wasn’t far from there either since she had been also checkin on Victoria.

“She has been…,” Ace paused to search the words. He didn’t want to embarrass Olivia, and neither admit his willpower had got to ground level inside that room, even though he had managed to put an end on it before they had done something they’d regret later, “persuasive,” he said at last.

“Victoria was… quite heated up, too,” Lexi said.

Trudy appeared next in the hallway, followed by Bess, who claimed to have found an antidote, even if they added the new found lust to the list of symptoms.

Bess opened the content of her bag in the kitchen table before explaining: “I think we just need to break the bond between the locker and them, and I already have all the ingredients for the antidote, but something tells me it’s not going to taste like lemonade.”

Lexi held down a gag when Bess crushed a beetle and added it to the rest of the ingredients. She stirred it until the mix gained a color and texture that reminded them of mud, and filled two glasses with it. Trudy went on helping Nick and Lexi with Victoria while Ace and Bess did the same thing with Olivia. Ace had to grasp her tight again to prevent her from running away. She fought back, saying: “I’m not drinking that. Smells horrible,” but Bess used her talking to pour one third of the glass onto her mouth.

Olivia swallowed hard and made the sourest of faces: “tastes horrible,” she said, clearly disgusted.

“You’ll feel better once you drink it all,” Bess promised.

Olivia then grabbed the glass by herself since the effects of the antidote had already started to kick in her system. She brought the glass closer to her lips, and at the same time, she looked up at Ace, who had loosened his grip on her, but impassible, he used his index finger to empty the whole content of the drink in her mouth. Olivia held still and had more trouble to swallow the antidote this time. Ace grabbed her again, afraid she would faint, but instead, she demanded water. Bess didn’t hesitate in getting a bottle of water out of her bag and offered it to Olivia, who drank it all in only one large gulp.

“How are you feeling?,” asked Ace, still worried, once she seemed to be settled down.

“Like myself, again,” Olivia answered, sincerely, feeling how the presence of the locket was worn off her organism slowly, “but I still feel that awful taste in my mouth. What the hell was that?,” she asked, as she used the sleeve of her T-shirt to wipe off the corners of her lips.

Ace smiled and stroked her hair: “it’s better if you don’t know.”

***

Sat down in a red velvet sofa at the Historical Society and with the effects of the cursed necklace having completely vanished, it was the perfect timing for the three friends to come clean.

“I just wanted to be the first one at something, for once,” Victoria stated, “I mean, look at you two, you’re naturals, and gorgeous, and smart, and I always… Look, I’m sorry,” she turned to Olivia, “And I’m sorry I called you a prude, too,” Olivia shook her head, as a sign that it did no longer matter, and Victoria looked at Lexi, “I’m also sorry I said that about you. Now I know better that talk shit about other girls, but it’s definitely not true.”

Lexi sighed before saying: “the only reason why I didn’t tell you was because I didn’t lost it to some random guy, it was… to Jenna,” she held back the tears, “I was afraid that you wouldn’t want to be friends anymore when you found out I was into girls. But well, I am into girls.”

Olivia hugged her, and only stopped to merge Victoria in their hug.

“We would never stop being friends because of that,” assured Olivia.

“Of course not, but Jenna, seriously?,” asked Victoria, and Lexi bursted in laughter. She threw a cushion to the face of the first one once she dried her tears.

Olivia deviated her attention towards Ace, looking at him in fully awe while he was talking to Nick and Trudy in the contiguous room. The boys had agreed to help her improve the security system of the Historical Society, starting the following day. “And Ace and you?,” asked Victoria, forcing Olivia back into the conversation. However, she kept an eye on him.

“I don’t know. Jeremy left a scar that I’m not sure it has healed yet,” she replied after a long sigh.

“I’m sure time and love will help you healing,” said Lexi, “and, from how concerned Ace was about you all day, he does truly love you.”

In that exact moment, Ace gazed back at the girls to give Olivia his goofy, crooked, and so much perfect grin.

Chapter Text

Late November’s cold winter air hurt his bare hands while he climbed up the wall to sneak into Olivia’s room, but it was already too late to go back to the car to get his gloves. He was halfway up there, and he had left Florence parked far away, where Dottie couldn’t see it in plain sight from the large windows of the Quinns’ home. After the incident with the cursed locket, he had given the girls a lift home, leaving Victoria with Lexi and planning to stay the night with Olivia, since Bess had told them to keep an eye on the two girls, just in case she had poisoned them. Her new found skills in potions weren’t too strong yet. However, Dottie was unusually at home that night, and he had to leave in his car, just to walk his way back in the dark, cold night. Olivia stepped backwards once she saw his fingers grasp the sill of the window to make room for him. Ace made some noise when his boots hit the floor and closed the window after him, but Olivia had thought ahead about it and had some music playing, not too loud to bother her mom, but definitely enough to cover up for the noise he made. Ace looked at her with half a grin while he tucked his hair back: she was barefoot on the floor, already changed into her pajamas and midway to braid her hair at both sides of her head, so she would wake up with a naturally wavy hair the next morning. Exactly as she had been doing since seventh grade, but he preferred when her hair fell wild above her shoulders. The thought of knowing her like the back of his hand make Ace smirk while he brushed his hands against one another to heat them up. Olivia ran towards him and placed her hands above his.

“Thank you for saving me,” she said, as Ace blew some hot breath into the set of hands.

“Anytime,” he smiled.

“And for the things I said and did earlier… I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to,” Ace replied a bit more serious than he had expected, but Olivia smirked.

Olivia stared at him hesitantly for a second before stealing a kiss from him. At first, it began as a shy, featherweight grazing of each other’s lips but soon it built up more urgent and passionate. Ace traced her lips with his tongue to make Olivia open her mouth, getting to slowly savor the remaining toothpaste she still had on the corners of her mouth, mixed with her own flavor. Olivia had been unsuccessfully trying to get rid of the awful taste of Bess’ antidote before Ace came back, but none of them minded it. From his perspective, it was an act of intimacy, to be that close, to enjoy the minty taste of her lips. Because that was just how much he did love her. Ace was clinging to her body like she was the air he breathed, with one hand at her waist and the other loosing her one and a half braids, keeping the hair tie around his wrist, as if it was the friendship bracelet she had crafted for him their first year of archery camp and that he had worn until it fell in two pieces that were now kept somewhere in his room. Ace couldn’t let go of his grip on Olivia, nor he didn’t want to, so when Olivia started walking backwards, he followed suit, without letting a single rush of air get between their mouths. They stopped when Olivia reached the edge of her desk, but Ace didn’t let her back hit the clear methacrylate material of the table. Instead, he used his hand to take the hit and lifted her on the table, putting an end to their height difference. Olivia’s hands moved to caress his chest, just to end up holding firmly his shoulders. Taking it as an invitation, Ace took of his trucker jacket, letting it fall on the floor. He could feel the pool of sweat forming at his nape, curling some locks of his dirty blond hair. Against the freezing temperatures he had been bearing outside, Olivia’s room felt extremely warm and cozy. He broke away some centimeters from her face at this point, in an effort to study Olivia’s features. Ace’s fingers dived up her bare arms as he got lost in the forest of her eyes. He felt the goosebumps of her skin on his fingertips when she finally gasped.

Ace knew Olivia well enough to know something had been going on between them over the past days. He had noticed how Olivia had been casually avoiding him. And he couldn’t ignore the spark of fear that seem to never abandon her eyes since the day they had defeated the Aglaeca. But he had been trying to step aside, to give her as much space as she needed, but he couldn’t help the feeling of wanting to ease whatever it was troubling her mind.

“Hey, are you okay?,” he asked, cupping her face in his hands.

Olivia looked upset and tired, but she said she was okay. Ace couldn’t take it anymore, because she was avoiding eye contact at all costs and looked like everything but fine. Ace put some more distance between them and rested his lower back against the edge of the clear table and snapped his tongue. If Olivia wanted to avoid the face to face, he would give her that, but he was sick of the secrecy. He had his suspicions, of course, but he didn’t want to make assumptions before hearing it from her. And maybe, in the end, he did want to confront her about it, although he had told Nick otherwise. Or maybe he felt like he needed to, since it was serious enough to make Olivia lie to him, or not tell him the whole truth, at least. Even if the cause of Olivia’s distance had a name and made his blood boil through his veins.

“Why are you lying to me?,” he asked, after sharing her silence for a couple of minutes.

Their eyes met when both turned to their side. Olivia looked like she was about to cry, but she said nothing.

Ace kept his hands held tight to the edges of the table at his sides and looking over at her and waited. He waited for the longest minutes for her to finally tell him the truth.

“I’m nervous,” Olivia bursted our, finally, “I mean… I get nervous when we are thatclose.”

Ace tilted his head but Olivia didn’t let him speak.

“I mean, it’s not like I don’t trust you or like I don’t want it, but… I don’t know. I know that you’d wait for me forever, and that’s the worst part,” she sniffled, “to feel like I’m wasting your honor.”

“Olivia,” Ace said trying to get her to look at him, “Olivia, you don’t have to feel like that. You don’t have to be sorry.”

“But it’s so hard when all I want it’s to be with you and my body tells me to run away every time you touch me, it’s like my body anticipates the hit, it’s like…,” she started crying.

“It’s like muscle memory,” Ace whispered, sadly.

Ace had seen Olivia crying hundreds, thousands of times, but it was more bitter now. If he could take away her pain and carry it on his shoulders, he would do it in the blink of an eye. And despite how much he had tried to understand what Olivia had gone through with Jeremy, he knew he would never be able to do it completely. But he would do whatever he could.

If he could only solve it, like he had done with the hashtag of Olivia, The Prude, by creating a bot that reported every post under it as soon as it got on the Internet. If he could only go back in time and kiss her on her porch after she saved his life, instead of pushing her to the arms of another. Before she got into that car. Before they fought at the library.

“Can I hold you?,” he asked, softly, trying not to sound as worried as he actually was.

Instead of an answer, Olivia crushed her body against his. Ace put his arms around her, letting his chin rest on her head.

“Just tell me what you do, I’ll do whatever you want me to,” Ace affirmed.

“I just want you to touch me and not being afraid,” she whispered, her breath coming back to a normal pattern, “I want you to be able to touch me,” she paused again, “I know it will sound awful, but I sort of liked being under the spell. It was just you and me. I couldn’t think of anything else, I couldn’t feel anything else than you.”

Ace cupped her cheeks in his hands to lock his gaze on hers and said: “If that’s what you want, I’ll give it to you. I’ll get you used to me. I’ll touch you a bit more every day, until you feel nothing else than me” he made a pause, thinking, and offered her a tiny grin, “I’ll freaking moisturize my hands for it.”

Olivia let a light chuckle scape out of her mouth. There was no way she could love Ace more.

“I just want you to speak to me,” Ace whispered, finally, asking for something for himself.

He couldn’t be mad at Olivia, but It was something easy for him, to feel left out. He had been coping with it all his life. Even as a kid, he had trouble making friends, no matter how good friend material he was. And he was comfortable with silence: he always understood, he always stood away when he was asked to, explicitly or implicitly. Friends or more than friends, he took whatever they wanted to share with him, asking for no more, no less, and maybe it was what girls liked about him, and what they misunderstood for no strings attached, but in the depths of his heart and mind, he ached to be worth of their confessions, thoughts, feelings. And it had been always different with Olivia. She had been sharing everything with him since the day she started talking. She always spoke, and he always listened. Even when in high school Ace distanced himself from Olivia to let her enjoy her newfound popularity. She would go to him, when he had lunch alone at the library, when he smoked in the toilets.

They were both aware that some things would change when they started dating at last, although a lot stayed the same as it was. Ace was committed to Olivia in a way he would never question if she wanted to keep anything to herself or get some space. He just couldn’t help his stomach from twisting at the anxious thought of being the one suffocating, harming her. Or her suffering in silence, because he wouldn’t be able to take her pain away, but he could help her carry it until it didn’t weighted in her heart anymore. Only if she told him.

“Okay,” agreed Olivia, and they stayed merged in a hug on the middle of her bedroom until tiredness won over them.

“I can sleep on the floor, you know,” offered Ace.

Olivia wiped the dry tears away of her face and walked towards the bookshelf with the hi-fi system to turn it off: “no, it’s okay,” she said, and looked to Ace, “let’s just put a movie, I’m too nervous after today to sleep.”

Ace agreed and, while he changed his clothes for something more comfortable to go to bed, aka Olivia’s basketball shorts, she set her laptop on the nightstand with the first light movie she found on Netflix. He turned the lights off after he got underneath the covers and Olivia turned right to face him as Ace’s face glowed in different colors from the reflection of the screen.

“Are you okay with this?,” he asked stroking one side of her face, the other crushed against the pillow.

“I will be,” she answered, unexpectedly smacking his lips.

Chapter Text

Olivia was always the first one waking up. As a kid, she would get up early on weekends to seize the day as much as possible. It drove everyone crazy. To find a six-year-old ready at five in the morning, watching cartoons on the couch. Ace always thought she would get tired at some point, that once she was older, all that lack of sleep would take its toll, but he always woke up to find her already awake.

“You’re so cute when you sleep,” she smiled, caressing his cheek.

It was true. Light reflected directly on his face, making his hair shine like gold and his blue eyes even lighter. Olivia had been expending an extra time on bed to watch Ace rest, with his eyes closed and his lips curved in a tiny smile. His paced breath calmed her messiest thoughts. And there was something so romantic about watching Ace sleep. Specially when he had a smile on his face.

Ace crushed his lips on her, getting his hand tangled up in her hair and rolling his body on her. He had been sneaking out to sleep there the whole week. At first, it was in case Bess’ antidote had a super late side effect. Then, Olivia called him on the third night. And then, on the fourth night, they agreed if felt so right to sleep by each other’s side. So that counted day number eight waking up next to her.

“Morning, gorgeous,” Ace answered, breaking away the kiss and getting out of bed.

He watched Olivia grab her clothes and go to the bathroom to get herself ready for school. She didn’t close the door, and he turned away instinctively to take off his pjs (somewhere along the past week he had left some spare clothes to sleep at the Quinn’s). He may not be able to touch her yet, but she was letting him get closer. Leaving the door ajar was an act of trust. And he knew it. Still, his gaze was as careful as his fingers towards her.

He had just fastened his belt when Olivia called him. Ace quickly put his T-shirt on and walked to the bathroom. Pleated beige skirt and white knee socks, looking like a girl from a boarding school, Olivia asked him to did up the buttons on the back of her white shirt. One amongst all the classic shirts with fancy collars she owned.

“The holes are too small,” she said for an explanation, offering Ace her back as she grabbed her hair to get it out of his way.

Ace laid his fingers on the last button, just about a palm below her nape. He caught a sliver of a baby pink strap of her bra with his eye, and he flushed. He had seen Olivia a pretty number of times in a bikini when they spent the summer afternoons at her grandparents’ pool. Now he didn’t even dare to reply the memories of back then in his head. Not now he didn’t see her as a kid, close to a younger sister, his best buddy. Not now he saw her as a more complex, beautiful creature.

Their eyes meet across the mirror in front of them. Olivia’s cheeks were rouged too, but soon her expression turned to fear when they heard Dottie scream “Olivia, coffee’s on the table.” It sounded too loud.

They stood still for a couple of seconds before heading out of the toilet. The door of her bedroom remained shut. She hadn’t caught them.

“That was close,” Olivia said, catching her breath again.

“I should go,” Ace said, looking for his boots. Olivia nodded and went to open the window once he put on his trucker jacket. He leaned to kiss her lips softly, “have a good day at school.”

“You too,” she answered to the light kiss.

Getting his legs out of the window, Ace turned back to her to say: “promise me you’ll get yourself a proper breakfast,” he paused, “don’t say coffee is a proper breakfast, it isn’t.”

Olivia closed her mouth without saying anything. Ace had said ahead her words. She just shook her head and gave him a foolish look before he descended the wall.

Ace drove back home, with the radio on. He had a couple of hours before his shift at the Claw. Maybe he could get to read a couple of chapters of the forensics book he had just got from the library. When he arrived to his parents house, he used his front door kiss. “Enough climbing windows,” he said to himself looking at the back of the damaged hands he had promised to keep soft. No one should be at home, either way. He got to his bedroom and sat on his table, opened the book on the first chapter, grabbed a pencil and some paper to get notes. Two minutes later, he felt the familiar weight of a palm resting on his shoulder. It was the way Thom drawn attention to him.

“Dad, you scared me!” Ace jumped on his feet.

“We’re even then,” Thom signed and Ace looked confused, “your bed’s been empty for days,” he explained.

They knew. They must did. It had been weird enough to hear Dottie that close in the morning. They must had found out. And as Thom sat on the edge of his bed, Ace sat back down on his chair. He had walked into an intervention, and the only thing he wished was that Dottie hadn’t gone too hard on Olivia. And at least, from his face, he could tell it didn’t seem easy for Thom either.

“So you and Olivia…” signed Thom.

“Me and Olivia,” repeated back Ace.

“You two are dating dating, like boyfriend and girlfriend?,” Thom face was a poem, and Ace couldn’t think of anything else rather than where was this conversation headed to.

“Yes, we are.”

“And are you serious about it?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t we?,” Ace signed along he spoke.

Thom sighed, long and loudly, with furrowed brows: “Ace, you never commit. You didn’t go to university, you don’t have a real job, you’ve been sleeping in the same room since you were eight. That when you’re not sneaking out to have sex with Olivia. That’s not how we educated you.”

“Dad, we aren’t having sex. And if we were, it would be none of your business,” Ace said, measuring his words, because he was one of calm disposition, and Thom was really coming for him. His dad could spoke to him in the worst of manners, but Ace was not going to let him get between him and Olivia.

“It would, because the girl in question is Olivia. She’s still a child, and impressionable, specially after the incident. And you can’t just disrespect Dottie entering her house every night without her approval. You both are not ten and seven anymore. There are limits,” Thom made a pause, he was tired of signing to his son and seeing no response on his face.

“Why are you so pissed off? Why it’s so wrong for you?,” asked Ace, getting up, wanting to leave, needing to put as much distance as he could between Thom and him. No matter how hard he tried, being in the same room for more than ten minutes always ended in a row.

“Because we’ve raised her like a daughter. We’ve brought you two up together like brother and sister. Pick any other girl to break her heart in a couple of weeks. For your mom and I, Olivia is the daughter we never had, and we want it to be like that,” Thom was standing up too. And Ace hated how his dad had involved Rebecca there, when he knew how much she supported them as a couple.

“She’ll fucking be your daughter in law,” Ace said, ending the conversation by leaving his room and slamming the door.

He started Florence and drove, he drove past Trenton, he drove past Ellsworth, and when he got to Bangor, he cursed his bones, since he was going to be late for his so much fake work. He fought the need to get back to past habits and light up a joint, the one he still had in the glove compartiment. His hands were still sweaty and his heart was beating faster than it should. He was dealing with his own insecurity, anxiety, fear, he didn’t need his father to worsen it. And he knew that working at the Claw for three years was not ideal. And that his dad had made a point in that he shouldn’t be sneaking into Olivia’s room. But he was trying so hard to do better. He would give away so many things to get some recognition from Thom. A “good job”, a “well done.” Ace was also mad at himself for having raised his voice at Thom. He was a nervous wreck right now.

An hour later, he was stoping his car on the parking lot of the restaurant, kind of hoping George wouldn’t dock the thirty minutes he was running late from his paycheck. His phone started ringing, unmistakably announcing an incoming FaceTime from Olivia. As he accepted the call, his features softened, letting finally go of the wrinkle on his forehead and the clench of his jaw.

”Did they give you the talk too?,” she asked when the screen went from black to show their faces.

As Ace walked towards the door of the Claw, unable to lose more time, she looked gorgeous with her head resting against her locker and her wavy hair falling unstopped above her chest.

“Mmmmm,” mumbled Ace in agreement.

”Mom was actually waiting for me downstairs. She was quite angry at first, but she came down to her senses and said she likes you for me. She’s taking my phone at night, though, she says it’s important I keep school as priority number one. And we have a new open doors and curfew policy to be implemented,” Olivia made a pause, “what did they tell you?,”

“More or less the same,” Ace said, not wanting to tell her about the argument right now.

And at the same time, the bursted out mimicking their parents voice: “I expect you two to respect the curfew,” and then, they laughed until Olivia was in tears.

“You’re grounded, then?,” Ace wanted to know.

“Look, mom was quite pissed off at us for sleeping together, but I think I made a point, we’ve been sharing beds since… forever?” The school bell rang while Ace got inside the restaurant, ”I’ve got to go, see you later,” said Olivia.

“Later. Love you, babe,” Ace answered before hanging up on her as fast as he could.

Behind his hand holding the phone, three heads popped in equally hearted and disgusted eyes.

“Aw, our boy Ace has said I love you for the first time,” said Nancy.

Ace headed out to the dressing room to put on his apron, just for the girls to follow him as three little ducks walking on their mom footsteps. “You can’t tell if it was the first time,” answered Ace, a bit moody.

“Oh, I can, you look like a frightened deer,” Nancy pointed out.

“And when did you go all cheesy to say babe? It’s so creepy, man,” intervened George.

Certainly, it was not his first time saying he loved her out loud, but indeed he had never done it since they started dating. And he hadn’t planned it, not like that, after having an argument with their parents, not on the phone. Maybe he was lucky enough and Olivia hadn’t heard it, so he’d have a second chance to say it right. And perhaps, elide the “babe”.

“For the record, I thought it was super cute,” Bess said, patting his shoulder.

“I really appreciate it, Bess,” Ace answered. Although Olivia would be always his best friend, the connection he felt with his platanchor was stronger every day.

Some time later, he ended up being alone with George, since Nancy and Bess quick escaped to the Historical Society. Although he was wearing gloves, the murmuring of the warm water running and the soap did its trick to finally calm him. He actually enjoyed working only with George and her sisters running around. For the sake of the old times, even if those memories would always be bittersweet. When he was about to take his well-earned break, Olivia appeared in the kitchen, mouthing a “hey.”

“Hey,” Ace replied and approached her, knowing for sure there was no way she hadn’t heard him on the phone.

“I love you too,” she said, cheeks flushing lightly.

Ace giggled and pressed their lips together. Olivia locked her hands at the back of his neck while his arms closed around her waistline, making her skirt go a little up.

“Olivia, get out of my kitchen in five seconds or get yourself in a uniform and start waiting tables,” George hissed at the door.

“Oh, I actually was about to order a very large meal and leave a very high tip for the cutest dishwasher and the…,” Olivia thought fast of something to say that wouldn’t offend the other girl as she poked a c-note out of her purse, “Georgest waitress?”

“Okay, your order, miss?,” George asked, taking the bill and looking at it against the light on the ceiling.

“Bacon cheese burger, large fries, salted caramel milkshake,” Olivia said rushing while George slowly put down each finger of her spare hand, as if it were the five seconds Olivia was allowed in the kitchen. She gave Ace a quick peck and ran to sit on one of the restaurant benches.

“I’m going to need to go to the cash deck to split this one,” George commented, still looking at Olivia’s note.

“Use my half to pay for her meal and leave the rest on the tips jar,” Ace said, and shrugged his shoulders at George pissed off face, “I didn’t say you couldn’t take yours, but I won’t take Olivia’s money.”

“You could use it to take her out, Hardy, it’s not a big deal” George argued.

“Nope. Do as I said,” he crossed his arms at his chest, firmly stating his posture and got to prepare Olivia’s burger and fries.

He knew Olivia was kind-hearted when she did those things. She wasn’t the average rich girl from the pile. But it was one of the short list of things he didn’t really liked about her, the way she had been brought up to use money to solve almost everything. However, he loved how much she glowed in her tweed, preppy clothes. And how much she used her money to help others, although she made mistakes sometimes.

When George came back holding a tray with Olivia’s milkshake, Ace used the remaining space to put the plate with the food.

“Wait,” he said, “I’ll bring it, I gotta put some peanut butter on it, she likes it like that,” Ace explained before walking towards the dining room. Olivia was doing homework when he put the tray of food on her table and sat on the bench in front of her. She took off her earphones and immediately dipped a fry into the salted caramel and peanut butter milkshake, “that is disgusting.”

“It’s absolutely delicious. You should try it,” she exclaimed, offering him another dipped fry.

“I think I’ll pass,” he said, carefully removing her hand with his fingers.

“Are you upset?,” Olivia asked, then. Ace felt her green eyes understudying him and faced the urging need of closing his eyes, giving himself up for her. He had asked for sincerity, shouldn’t he reciprocate it? Her gaze trespassed his skin, right to his soul.

“I just don’t like you giving us money,” he said, sinking on his seat, breaking the eye to eye.

“I’m sorry… I thought… well, business is running low,” she apologized, looking around the restaurant, there was only another table occupied and two men drinking coffee on the bar, “and I wanted to compensate for the clients you lost… because of Jeremy…,” her voice went lower and lower with each word, until it was almost inaudible.

She was right. They had kicked the group of friends out there, and surely, they had spread the word of a waitress punching clients on the face. But Tiffany had died there, too. And the doubtfully known Nancy Drew worked there.

“Yeah, but you don’t have to worry about that,” Ace came across the table and kissed her, “and this is on me.”

“Ace…” she started to argue, but Ace shut her up again by smacking their lips together. It was a very nice way to keep her quiet.

***

The sky outside had darkened long ago and Charlie Fan had been pesting about going home to watch the streaming of a BTS concert for longer, so when George had finally gave up and thrown him the master keys of the restaurant, he had caught them on air with a pretty impressive movement. He arranged slightly the kitchen, got changed in the lockers room and turned off half of the lights of the Claw. Olivia was still on that table, fingers covered in ink from writing and food almost untouched, except for a couple of fries and half of the milkshake.

“You’re taking that home,” complained Ace, taking the tray back to the kitchen and coming back with a brown paper bag filled with it, “let’s go.”

“Ace,” Olivia said, with a mysterious air, “I think I’m ready.”

“Ready for what?,” he asked, already stopped from leaving the Claw.

“For you to touch me.”