I *did* promise a happy ending eventually, right? That may no longer be the case….
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Knives eventually grew tired of sitting up on the roof feeling sorry for himself. He would have stayed up there forever if by doing so he could keep the consequences of Ace's actions from haunting her. He supposed that was one of her defenses; anyone who looked at her, all of them, they still saw a child. A girl as yet unsure of her place in the world. He would have thought himself the last person capable of being taken in by a pair of innocent blue eyes in a youthful face. Just look at the destruction he had caused before in his first year. But her act had fooled him as completely, no, more completely than Vash or Meryl. They both cautioned him, said that what was between him and Ace wasn't quite right.
He had thought that since it was her idea, where was the harm? None of them had guessed at the hate that those innocent eyes hid. He least of all. With a sigh for his foolishness, he stood and brushed the dust off his pants, then slid the cube in the front pocket of his jeans. Brushing his hands together, he strode towards the door and marched back to Anne's apartment.
"What was that all about?" asked Ace as he entered, her innocent eyes meeting his, lifting from a book she had bought yesterday. Was there suspicion lurking behind her gaze, or was he looking too hard for what he knew lived there?
"It's much like you said," he said diffidently, hiding his unease with the practice of over a century. "She's working with the people at the plant."
"Oh?"
"Mark was here, trying to make me believe that Kiley was the injured party."
"I told you they would."
"You were right," he affirmed, allowing a slightly pensive look to cross his face. Oh, how easy it was to manipulate the trusting, he thought. How very easy.
"What?" she asked, getting up off the couch and coming over to slide her hands around his waist. He kept himself from cringing, but it was a near thing.
"I just wonder why she could betray us like this. To work for, no, with, our enemies. Why?"
"You know she isn't sane. She never has been."
"I know. But why? How did we harm her? What did I do to her that made her betray me? Us?"
She sighed and rested her head on his chest. "She may not need a reason. She might just be hurting us because she can. Because it gives her power. Most of all, because she wants to. Why does she need a reason? Does it hurt less that way?"
He echoed her sigh. "It might."
"She had a horrible childhood. Maybe it left her unable to trust anyone, and hurting us first is her way of ensuring that we can't hurt her."
"But why would she think that? What did we ever do to her to make her think that we would ever do her harm?"
She pulled back enough to look him in the eyes. "It might not be anything we did. It just might be a part of who she is."
He leaned forward to rest his forehead on hers. "It's just so wrong of her. She's blind if she can't see that we love her."
"Maybe she can't accept it, can't understand it enough to trust it."
"She should," he said sternly.
"Maybe she can't stand the thought that you could belong to someone else. To me. Some would call that a betrayal."
He pulled back and shook his head. "No. She said that what we did while apart was not the other's business. She knows she has no right to stop what's between us."
"Then why did she threaten to kill me?"
He slipped her arms off his waist and paced the room a bit. "I don't know. I don't know what she's thinking, or why. I just know…" he let the thought trail off.
"… that she's dangerous," Ace finished for him.
"Yes," he said, nodding sadly. "She's a plant, and dangerous is one thing we are all very good at."
She stepped behind him and placed her hands on his hips, stopping his pacing. "We're good at many things," she said simply. "Dangerous is only one of them."
He turned in her grasp. "I dislike knowing that she's plotting against us. I just have this horrible feeling that she's going to try lying again, going to try to make us distrust one another."
"If we know that's what she's planning, then it won't work. We'll be cautious, be careful and listen to everything she says, look for the hidden meanings and half-truths. She won't succeed, not if we are on our guard."
He couldn't stop the laugh, then. One quick bark, the irony of their conversation overwhelming reason.
"What's so funny?" she asked, and he could hear a faint not of caution in her voice.
"Only that you are young to be so wise."
"Would you forget about my age?" she asked, asperity crowding out suspicion. "By the time you were my age, you had--"
"Changed the course of human history," he interrupted, having heard her gripe so many times before. "I know, I know," he said, rolling his eyes. "You are an adult, perfectly capable of making your own choices and decisions, and able to abide by the consequences thereof."
"And don't you forget it."
He smiled down at her, wondering how she expected him to forget when all he could see before them were the consequences of her hate?
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Just kidding. Stick with me; we'll still see the happy.