My contribution to Sabo's birthday! Also a late birthday present for my friend leafyxthiefy, so happy birthday both! This is what sun stars look like, for those of you who are curious: bit .ly/1UdPKlW
Beta'd by shishiswordsman, prompt from otpprompts on tumblr
Enjoy! (:
Prompt: Imagine person A trying to tell person B they like them for the very first time in a very cute way. Person B suspects that something is up because A is acting very nervous. A gets so nervous that they dodge telling them entirely. A few days later, B tells A that they actually love them and have had feelings for them for a long time in the most straightforward way possible.
How A reacts is up to you.
Ace swallowed nervously, not quite believing that it was happening. Today was the day. After countless failed attempts, Ace would finally tell Sabo that he loved him.
He drew in a deep breath and knocked on the door of his best friend's apartment. He took a step back as well, and after a moment's thought, hid the bouquet of flowers behind his back a split second before Sabo opened the door.
Immediately, Ace's heartbeat picked up and his palms grew sweaty as Sabo smiled at him like he couldn't be happier see him standing at his door.
"Hey, what's up?" Sabo asked casually -how dare he- and stepped aside to let Ace into the apartment.
Ace smiled back shakily and stepped inside, making sure to keep the flowers behind his back at all times, out of the blond's sight. He wound up standing in the entry hall awkwardly with a bright blush coloring his freckled face. "I uh… I had something I wanted to tell you."
"And what's that?" Sabo asked, seeming to finally notice Ace's odd behavior. His bright blue eyes widened as they flickered to the hands Ace held behind his back. He snorted and crossed his arms, giving Ace an expectant look. "What did you steal this time?" he asked, half laughing while shaking his head in disbelief.
"No!" Ace blurted out, immediately regretting it as Sabo's laugh stopped and the attention was back on him. "It's-" Ace licked his lips, wondering feverishly why his mouth was so dry all of the sudden. He'd spent all day practicing what he would say, how he would act when he told Sabo, but just standing in the blond's presence had unravelled all that effort in an instant.
Sometimes it scared Ace how much power Sabo unknowingly held over him, but he would trust Sabo with his life. What if he screwed this up? Sure, there had been moments when Ace had entertained the thought that Sabo might feel the same, but what if he didn't?
If Sabo only saw Ace as a friend and Ace confessed, it would almost certainly ruin the friendship they had. Ace felt cold sweat on his brow, and a small sense of panic rose within him at the mere idea. Sabo's blue eyes were still fixated on him with increasing concern.
"Ace? Are you alright?" he asked softly, but the words made Ace jump nonetheless. Sabo moved closer, reaching out to the other man, and the blush on Ace's face deepened until he felt like his entire face was on fire. God, this was so embarrassing. He took a few steps back, bumping into a table in his haste. Sabo was still standing there, looking so gorgeously concerned, and Ace's resolve crumbled.
Shit. He couldn't do it.
"I uh, Makino gave me these flowers, but I thought that you might like them more. I don't have anything to keep them in anyways."
Sabo's face fell at that, and Ace's heart skipped a beat, dread coursing through his veins. For one terrifying moment, Ace thought that Sabo would call him out on the lie.
"Oh, alright. Thank you, Ace," Sabo said instead, taking the bouquet from Ace's hands. They were his favorite flowers, Ace didn't remember the name but Sabo had commented on it once so he'd taken a picture of it and shown it to the person at the flower shop. The man had said that it was very sweet of him and that whoever they were for was lucky to have someone like Ace to call their other half. It had been sweet, maybe, but now Ace was wishing that he hadn't bothered at all.
"You're welcome," he replied shakily, internally cursing himself for being so weak. He could still do it. All he had to do was blurt out those three little words that had all but taken over his life. He could still do it, there was still time. "I'll just… go now."
No! No! Stupid idiot, what are you doing!
"Alright. See you later?"
I love you. Sabo, I love you, I love you, I love you.
"Yeah, bye."
Ace shut the door behind him, staring numbly at the apartment door across from Sabo's. Fucking shit! Ace let out a snarl of frustration and withheld an urge to hit something. Hard. He stalked down the hallway, leaving Sabo's apartment behind.
You complete coward.
Sabo let out a shaky breath and leaned his back against the door as soon as he heard Ace leave. He looked down at the bouquet of sun stars in his hand, a small smile coming to his face as he inhaled their sweet scent. The orange flowers were his favorite, but Sabo had only mentioned that once in passing. Had Ace actually remembered something so trivial?
A fluttering warmth lit up Sabo's chest at the thought and he smiled, ducking his head to hide a light blush from the empty apartment. It was sweet; Ace had always been the type for small gestures, just one of the many things Sabo loved about him.
Speaking of, just what the hell happened? Ace had been so nervous that for a moment Sabo had thought he would faint, and then he'd given Sabo the bouquet saying they were from Makino. A lie, of course, and not a very good one at that. Sabo's heart skipped, wondering if Ace had been planning to…
No, he was reading too much into it. He'd loved Ace for so long that he couldn't tell the difference between a friendly gesture and a romantic one any more. With a sigh, Sabo pushed himself off the door, filling a vase with water to hold the flowers in. After a second's thought, he placed them on the coffee table in front of the couch in plain sight, where anybody would be able to see them when they walked in.
Sabo smiled softly again, taking a single flower from the vase and carrying it back to his room. Foregoing the assignment he'd been working on prior to Ace's arrival, Sabo laid down on his bed, observing the flower as he twirled its stem. It was small and dainty, but absolutely beautiful despite its size. His mind, however, was elsewhere, on a certain black haired man.
Sabo had loved Ace for a long time, yet he'd never said a word about it. He couldn't be certain about whether Ace felt the same, so Sabo had decided to play it safe.
He bit his lip, resting the flower on his chest. He couldn't even remember how long it'd been since he began loving Ace. It'd happened so slowly and gradually that one day, Sabo had simply thought that he loved Ace, and he'd known it to be true.
It was a classic case of unrequited love, so textbook that it could have been ripped out of some romance novel, but Sabo had long since convinced himself that he was fine with friendship. He'd lasted this long believing that Ace would never feel the same, and he would gladly take whatever the freckled man was willing to give. It hurt though, knowing that he would never be able to be as close to Ace as he wanted to be, that he would never be able to call the artist his.
But that didn't change the fact that what had happened today was strange.
Sabo had never seen Ace look so nervous, the only time that came even close was when he had told Sabo who his father was, and Sabo doubted that Roger had anything to do with this. What could be more important than Roger, so risky that Ace had felt compelled to dodge it completely at the last possible second?
The way his warm grey eyes had seemed to be begging Sabo to understand despite the words falling from his lips had Sabo second-guessing himself. Was it possible that Ace really had been trying to say what Sabo was hoping?
Sabo's heart clenched, and he rolled onto his side, still gnawing on his lip. Ace… just the thought of the man brought a light, happy feeling to his chest, one that he cherished. And as annoying as the butterflies in his stomach he felt whenever Ace was around could be, Sabo loved them too.
He loved everything about Ace - well, almost everything - and Sabo knew that this was something real. He'd had relationships in the past, but none of them had ever made him feel like this, with all of the intensity of a conflagration.
Could he really spend the rest of his life this way? Yes, but no. There was too much to risk. Sabo didn't want to ruin the relationship he and Ace had, but he didn't want to compromise himself because he was too afraid to speak up either. As much as he loved Ace, Sabo didn't want to spend the rest of his life yearning for somebody who he may or may not ever be able to have.
If it came down to it, he could always brush it all off as a joke or a dare. But if he didn't take a risk, then he would never know, and not knowing was the most painful thing about this. If Ace said no, then Sabo would at least know for sure, which would be one hell of an improvement from what he was currently feeling. Heartbreak would be preferable to this endless yearning, surely.
Sabo blew out a long breath, sitting upright again. He would confess to Ace the next time he saw him. No exceptions and no backing out, no matter how mortifying it would be. With that in mind, he returned to his desk and continued working with a newfound sense of peace. He placed the sun star in his pencil cup, smiling and feeling his resolution strengthen with each glance he spared it.
It really was a beautiful flower.
"Wait wait wait, you're telling me that she actually knocked him out with a single punch?" Ace asked incredulously, and Sabo laughed, nodding.
"Yep. After all that big talk, Koala had him on the ground within a few seconds at most, out cold. Just goes to show why you never insult her hat," Sabo snickered, and Ace sweatdropped. Goddamn, Koala was scary.
"Remind me to not get on her bad side," he grimaced, taking a lick of his ice cream cone. "Like, ever." Sabo laughed at that, and Ace's heart soared.
They were walking side by side, and all he could think about was how easy it would be to move his hand and intertwine his fingers with Sabo's. It was a nice spring day, and Sabo had come over unexpectedly, suggesting that they get some ice cream and walk through the park.
A date, was Ace's immediate thought, but he dismissed it, convincing himself that Sabo just wanted to hang out. They hadn't seen each other for a couple days since Ace's failed attempt at a confession, and... Ace immediately cut that train of thought off, not wanting to dwell on how angry he still was for giving into the nerves. But he was content with being friends, or rather, he would have to be until he could gather up the courage to actually confess.
"Ace, I love you."
Ace froze, eyes lifting from the ground in front of them to look at Sabo. He would have dismissed it as just a casual statement, but the hesitation in Sabo's eyes said otherwise. "What?"
"I-" Sabo coughed awkwardly, and Ace's heart picked up speed, wondering if this was really happening. "I love you. I've been in love with you for a long time, and… yeah."
Ace was unable to do anything but stare, even as Sabo began to fidget uncomfortably. Was he serious? This wasn't a dream, was it?
"Say something, please," Sabo begged after a long moment of silence, and Ace blinked, shaking the shocked haze from his mind.
"You're serious?" he asked, hope swelling up in his chest dangerously. "Like you really, actually love me?" he breathed, a hopeful smile rising up along with a blush that matched Sabo's.
"Well shit, if you're going to be like that, you can just pretend I never said it- oomph!" Sabo's words were cut off as Ace jumped at him, picking the blond off the ground and spinning him around in his arms without care for the ice cream he'd been holding. A pure, ecstatic, disbelieving laugh came from Ace as he continued spinning them around, hugging the younger man tightly.
"Sabo," he grinned, the laughter filling him with glee even as they stopped spinning.
"Y-Yeah?" Sabo stuttered, and Ace could see shock and disbelieving hope on his face as well. Ace laughed again, leaning in for a kiss.
"I love you too."