So what happens next

“Ye need rest!” she said. “Did ye unlearn English somehow?” she wondered.
“I think she doesn’t understand why you want us to rest in the same bed. You should go home instead of staying here,” Ace tried to say. It was much easier to follow the conversation when the Scottish girl spoke more clearly.
“Clearly ye got a guid yak fur each other*,” she said and picked up her fork pointing shifting at them. She was almost certain that the vampire hadn’t spoken about his feelings or not been open about them. He seemed like the man who rarely spoke, or maybe Mary-Jane was just intimidating him, taking up space that he wasn’t used to people filling.
“I don’t know what you just said, but I think you’re wrong,” he corrected her.
“Nah cheil. Ye got tae wark wi’ yerself” She finished her text before she paid attention to the fine lady once more. She looked away shortly, thinking before she shrugged. “I think I’m just contempt,” she said and looked down at her place, picking up her utensils. “But certainly, thaur is somethin’ abit ye that is quite comfortable,” she replied, not taking her eyes of her plate. She took a mouthful of food and leaned back nodding a little. “It’s guid,” she mumbled, nodding a little to prove her point. The blue eyes shifted from one of them to the other. Ace looked at the girl shortly before he put some food onto his own plate, shaking his head clearly still confused about the whole situation.

*Clearly you got a good eye for each other

Willow gave MJ a soft smile as she spoke about them having a good eye for each other, almost as if proving a point; she couldn’t help but look at Ace with that sort of longing you only saw in those situations was one-sided and as if they had rehearsed it Ace told the kid that she was wrong, even if he hadn’t understood what she had said. Willow quickly let her eyes snap to the plate in front of her, starting to push some of the vegetables around, not knowing what to do with herself for a moment.
Luckily MJ gave her an out, not that it seemed like she had even thought of it as such. “I’m glad, just you know, everything we could find in the fridge”, she said with a smile, just about to tell her that it was something they usually did when they had saved a life, but this time it wasn’t a celebration, it had been a distraction. With a small smile, she placed her utensils neatly to the side. “Excuse me, I’ll just go and use the restroom”, she said, but as she got up to walk to the restroom, she took a wrong turn, not by mistake but because the bathroom was further away and she needed a moment, or two.

Mary-Jane picked up everything that was happening that the other person didn’t notice. She could see how hopelessly Willow loved Ace and how much Ace tried to resist the thought that kept pushing him. It was cute. She almost envied that she had never caught anyone looking at her the way that Willow looked at Ace. She wondered for a moment, had she given such a look to someone? What she certainly noticed was how Willow reacted when Ace said that Mary-Jane was wrong. Maybe Mary-Jane had to turn down the volume of the Scottish when it was something a little more important? She truly didn’t want Ace to hurt Willows feelings without even knowing it.
“Oh, so you made this together?” she wondered and pointed towards the dish in the middle. It was filled with love, that was what it was.
“We did,” Ace replied. As soon as Willow announced that she had to use the rest room, Mary-Jane noticed how Ace’s eyes changed. Not that his vampiric traits showed, but it was almost like he could hear that she wasn’t feeling well. “Take your time,” he said with a softer voice than Mary-Jane had ever received. Mary-Jane looked at him with a slightly angered look, which Ace firstly noticed when his eyes couldn’t follow Willow any longer. He almost jumped in his seat by the look and how she had leaned a little closer. “Son of a gun! What the hell is up with you?” he asked her which made her stand up to lean a little closer. For the sake of the secrets.
“Ah don’t know what happened at yer wark the-day, but whit ye just said to me, abit how Ah was wrong, that certainly made 'er card-tower fall,” she told him and stared into his eyes. In her eyes, he looked scared of her. “Ah told you that ye got a good eye for each other,” she told him, “She is clearly in loove wi' ye,” she let the words sink in for a moment. “And even though ye don’t want to admit it, ye got some strang feelings for the laddie,” she sat back down and made her fork spin a little around in her food before she looked up at him. “So, what are ye waitin’ for! Get yer feelings in check and make it up to 'er!” he almost sprung to his feet not knowing what was happening, but Mary-Jane certainly got under his skin in a way he didn’t like. Was it because she was a child? Maybe he should speak with his grandchildren again and see if it was just children or the little girl.

He started walking down the hall and before he got very far, he could hear how she was crying. He could almost taste the tears, and hear how her heart beat. He hurried a little more and knocked on the door very gently before he got into the bathroom. “Willow,” he said calmly and walked closer to her, wanting to pull her in for what seemed like a well deserved hug.

It was almost as if she was afraid to make noise; that was how she closed the door behind her. Softly, without forcing it or doing as an average person would have done. For a moment, she stood there, taking a step toward the door and pressing her forehead against the cool surface. She repeated what he had told her repeatedly in her mind. She tried to remind herself that they were work partners. It had gone so well over the last couple of days that she had felt like she could put her feelings behind her. The problem was that she had loved him since he had first helped her when she had landed in this world, and she hadn’t known what was up or down; he had been there and given her a helping hand. It was many years, a ridiculous amount of years, she had to turn off.
When that didn’t help, she started pacing. Until she finally found the sink's edge and her hands clamped around it. She gave in and let the tears overtake her, sobbing as she wasn’t even sure if she was crying because he didn’t love her or if it was because they had lost a life today.

“oh”, she hadn’t even heard that he had knocked on the door, turning to look at him, letting her tongue glide over her lips. “Hi”, she whispered, swallowing the lump in her throat, not that it helped. The back of her hand dried off the tears until she felt how he pulled her in for a hug. Her arms found their way around his waist, and she placed her head against his chest, closing her eyes; she found it funny that the missing heartbeat had always resonated with her; there wasn’t that annoying thumb against your ear that could sometimes make you more annoyed than calm. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to make a scene”, she whispered softly in his embrace, not really knowing what else to say.

”Don’t worry, you didn’t,” he assured her. “MJ did,” he told her and caressed her gently. “She got some pretty good eyes,” he told her and figured it sounded odd when it was a doctor who said it, “I mean, she observes a lot,” he rephrased. He licked his lips a little. “Please don’t laugh, but she’s really intimidating,” he told her with slightly wide eyes just by the thought. “I really want you to know that…” he put his head on top of his, “I really like you, but right now… I am not suitable to look for something new,” he spoke softly, shortly thinking about Hope. “I don’t think I would be taking the right decisions, and I really don’t want to hurt your feelings by doing something that I might not want to do,” he said, and without thinking much of it he removed his head from the top of hers to kiss her hair.

She listened to what he was telling her, letting the words sink in and feeling the pain it caused. Once again, they were here where she had been too open with how she was feeling, and he had to tell her that he liked her, just not like that. Or at least not right now, which meant what, that she should wait for him? If he told her to do that, she would; she would wait a lifetime for him. But he didn’t, he spoke about doing things that he didn’t want to do, and she nodded a little, blinking away the tears that formed in the corners of her eyes.
“I understand, as you said; we are work partners, we save lives”, she whispered, looking to the side, and as his lips kissed the top of her head, she closed her eyes and felt the tears glide down her cheeks. “Maybe I should go home after we eat; I’ll make sure to get MJ out, so you don’t have to deal with her on her own”, she chuckled, swallowing the lump in her throat, not knowing what else to say. She didn’t want to convince him that he wouldn’t hurt her because it had already happened. The tears she was shedding and the fire burning in her chest painfully so were evidence enough that just by telling her that he wasn’t looking or suitable for looking for someone new or something. It also meant that there had never been those feelings towards her; like and love were two very different things.

She repeated the phrase that he had said that night somewhat under the influence of a whole lot of alcohol. Then she spoke about how she could go home and how she would make sure to take MJ out. It was like her words created a small epiphany for him. “No, it’s okay,” he said and pulled a little out of the hug, having his hands on her shoulders trying to look at her. “I would really like for you to be here,” he said and kept his eyes on her. “Please?” he begged her. He didn’t want to be alone right now. That had been the meaning of this right? Comfort each other after the loss at their work. Comfort-
Mary-Jane cleared her throat and stood in the bedroom looking at them from the door that stood completely open. She raised her hand up, holding onto a metal bracelet. With a few sweet skipping steps she stood between them and took Willow’s hand and put on the bracelet. Now, it wasn’t like she knew much about Musai’s, but her father had spoken about them before, and the way this bracelet almost radiated with magic, she had her theories. “Dorn’t waste it,” she told the musai softly, winking at her. She then looked up at the vampire. “Dorn’t be a prick,” she told him before she gave him a tougher pat on the shoulder and skipped out of the bathroom and back to the food. She had to clean up the mess he had made from snooping around like the curious being she had been.
Ace needed a short moment to pick up what the girl had just said and done. “What?” he said and looked at Willow.

Now she was confused. Wouldn’t it be better if she left, especially since he wanted to have time for himself? She was just about to say something when the kitsune cleared her throat and walked inside of the bathroom and handed her the bracelet; she took it, not really understanding what was going on; much like Ace, she just let her eyes follow the girl out before she had to look back at Ace and to blink a little. “I think”, she looked at the bracelet and then let out a soft chuckle; “I think she is trying to tell us that we shouldn’t keep running in circles like we are doing right now” she put on the bracelet and then she understood, she understood now. Her fingers took his chin softly, making him look at her. “You didn’t want to make the decisions because you were afraid that you might not want to do it; well, then I have to take them for you, right?” she said, then she leaned in and finally, after so many years, after so many years her burning hot lips found his cold, almost as if they neutralised each other it created a normal temperature sparking something in her she had never experienced before.

He looked at her while she spoke about running in circles. He watched how she put on the bracelet but didn’t really understand it. Had she dropped her bracelet? No he was quite certain that she hadn’t been wearing it earlier. He furrowed his brows a little as she spoke about how she had to make decisions because he might not want to do them.
And then she leaned in.
Ace almost froze as her lips touched his and for a moment he panicked. He pushed her away. It felt like time had been slowed down. He felt like he stood for an eternity and felt how he wasn’t influenced by the poison on her lips. The same second as he had pushed her away, he stepped closer to her and caught her again, without even noticing how he had used his vampiric speed. He leaned in and kissed her again with a hand behind her neck and another behind her back. His kiss was very gentle and filled with teasing intimacy. Almost painfully slow he pulled his lips away from hers, “You really scared me for a second,” he whispered to her.

Maybe she should have gotten mad or upset that he pushed her away, but she didn’t. She wasn’t even surprised because she had known she would overstep a boundary that could end up making him lash out. Her fingers glided over her burning lips, and she watched how he was dealing with it; it was clear he was waiting for her lips to take effect, but just like the witch had promised her, nothing happened, or she couldn’t be sure because before she could even say anything he had pulled her back in their lips finding each other as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Her eyes closed as her hand found the back of his head, and she surrendered completely to him. She couldn’t count how many times she had wished for this to happen. How often she had daydreamed while looking at him, how jealous she had found herself when he had married Michelle and started a life with her. How she had been there while he had mourned, tried to help when he had felt like the world had come crashing down. Been left behind when he needed a break, and now they were here.
“Sorry”, she whispered when he told her that she had scared him. “How are you feeling?” she asked, both wanting to know if he could feel an effect or if he, as he had said before, was regretting it.

Now, Ace didn’t think much about his boundaries when he pushed her away. No, he only thought about the poison on her lips. He had for a moment believed that she somehow had stabbed him in the back, and wanted a slave, rather than a good friend, even though their conversation and chemistry had gone somewhere else, and the small ginger devil had been odd towards them.
His eyes were closed as he kissed her, feeling both some kind of peace and burning anxiety. He could feel how she almost melted in his hands. It made him confident in what he was doing, even though she had been the one to start kissing him.
He shook his head a little, giving her a chuckle before he looked her in her eyes, having pulled back to see her properly. “I’m good. I’m very good,” he told her letting a more genuine smile play on his lips. He licked his lips before his brows furrowed a bit. “But, how? Why am I not affected?” he wondered, generally a little confused. There was a small part of him that simply wanted to save the questioning for later, but most of him was interested in the magic behind it all.

A small smile formed over his lips as he asked how he wasn’t affected. “Well,” she let out a small sigh “, either the magic works” she moved her hand around, which had the bracelet around the wrist, her eyes taking in the magical aura that it was given off. There was no denying that it was magical, but if she was being honest, she hadn’t really been sure if it had worked or not. “Or you actually love me, like truly love me – those that do, doesn’t get infected, because a true loves kiss can break the curse of a musai” she had meant for it to be a joke, but as she kept talking her words became more solemn. Especially when she realised just how much she hoped that it was true, that he actually loved her in a way that couldn’t be doubted. Maybe she had just put too much weight on it; someone could love a friend without having any flicker if they loved them or not.

She spoke about magic, which made him look at her wrist where she had put on the bracelet. So, it was magical, she continued to explain about the curse of a musai. It sounded complicated, to him. Not that he didn’t believe her, but when was a kiss a true love kiss? Because what if he one day got mad at her, would it then not work? Was a true love kiss a person? He didn’t know. He pulled a small smile. He didn’t even trust himself to tell her that of course he truly loved her, because he didn’t believe that he was capable of loving someone truly and completely, even though he had believed he had found that in Hope. He wished he could tell her, that she could throw away the bracelet, but he simply didn’t know, and he didn’t really dare to take the risk. Even thought he was quiet for a moment; he could feel how his heart almost fluttered. “I-I wish I could tell you that I truly love you,” he told her, before he shook his head, “But I doubt myself too much to believe it fully,” he told her. “I don’t trust my own feelings to tell you that,” he told her with a short sad smile.

“Ace”, she said softly as she could see how he started to let the gears turn in his head as if he needed to put into words that he wished that he loved her, but he wasn’t sure. It hadn't been because she wanted him to confess big and grand feelings. Which was also why she hadn’t been making a joke out of it in the end, because she knew how it would affect him; it had been stupid of her even to say it in the first place. “Ace”, she said again, as he kept talking and looking at her with that sad smile of his. She took a step toward him, both hands gently cradling his head between them. “I’m not expecting you to”, she whispered, letting her thumbs softly trace his skin that so needed to be moisturised; maybe she should force him to or surprise attack him with it once in a while. “I’m not expecting to do anything other than you’ve always done; I care and love you regardless”, she explained with a genuine smile as she pressed up on the balls of her feet to lean in and place a small kiss against the curve of his brow. “I’m not going anywhere”, she reassured him.

She stepped closer to him, and it was like she put a pause on whatever had been going on in his head. His eyes shifted at which of her eyes they looked at. His smile was hesitant, but genuine. As she kept talking his smile widened, still hesitant. He closed his eyes as she kissed his brow and looked at her afterward. He let his hands find her waist and pulled her a little closer. “I think I would lose myself if you left,” he told her.
“Yeah, okay. Ye got it, Scottie. Mah wark is dain haur. Min’ protection!” Mary-Jane shouted from the other end of the house before she left her brother’s house.
Ace slowly looked over his shoulder, towards the door to the bathroom, indicating he was confused about the last bit that she had said. He looked back at Willow with a short chuckle. “I really don’t understand Scottish,” he told her. After a short moment where he got to look at her, his shoulders lowered themselves, “Can I kiss you again?”

She chuckled a little as he told her that he would lose himself if she left. She understood why they had, after all, been together, albeit that it had only been as friends, for the better period of, what was it seven, eight thousand they were nearing? No matter what would happen now, she knew she would never leave, even if it didn’t end up being them. She would always be his friend; she would always love and care for him. That was a promise she didn’t even – her eyes widened, suddenly she understood, and for a moment, she didn’t hear what was going on around her. She didn’t hear how MJ told them to remember protection. She almost didn’t catch the fact that Ace asked if he could kiss her again. Her eyes were big and confused as she looked back at him. Then she understood what he had asked; “yes”, she whispered breathlessly. Her fingers pulled off the bracelet and then leaned in and let her lips softly press against his before leaning back, watching the reaction. As she knew nothing had happened, tears started sliding down her cheeks before she leaned back in, so she could kiss him as the bracelet fell to the ground by their feet.
It wasn’t her that needed to find someone that would love her unconditionally; it was her that needed to find someone that she loved no matter what. All those girls who had kissed their man after a musai only saw that he was still enslaved, blaming the man, not thinking that it was them who didn’t love the person enough.

He could see how she almost seemed confused, and for a split second he wondered if it had been an odd question. But then she replied, he didn’t even notice that she had pulled the bracelet off when she leaned in, which made him confused when she let the kiss stay short. He watched how tears started gliding down her cheeks and a worried expression was exposed, but vanished as she leaned back in. He let his arms wrap more around her and pulled her closer. He had heard the bracelet fall to the ground, but he didn’t think much about it. He hadn’t even realized that it had been her bracelet, it wasn’t important right now – or it was, but as of right now it wasn’t a priority to figure out what it was that had fallen to the ground. He held her close and kissed her with what would seem like great passion before he slowed down and gave her more sensitive kisses. As of right now, he felt like  he could stand there forever, as long as she was the one that accompanied him.

It was like a beautiful symphony was playing as their lips met in a soft, exploring kiss. It went from burning passion, to slow and steady, almost like a curious newborn animal that wanted to figure out what it was like to walk.  It wasn’t like she was in a hurry nor that she needed this to go far, but feeling like kissing someone after almost a thousand years, she couldn’t begin to describe what the feeling was like. No words seem to describe it strongly enough or give it enough credit. She knew it had something to do with the fact that it was Ace kissing her, more than it had to do with the fact that it had been so long since she had felt someone this close or intimate.
After a while, she had to pull away, not that she wanted to, but she couldn’t get enough air through her nose to keep up. She let out a small chuckle with a, clearly out of breath. “Maybe we should get some more to eat before we go to sleep”, she whispered, letting her hands press gently against his chest, not that she pushed him away; if she were being completely honest, she would much rather keep him here in her embrace.

She pulled away, and he could, simply by the way she breathed through her nose, tell that it was the breathing. Even though he had never needed to draw a breath, he had learnt to understand how it functioned a long time ago. Ace folded his lips and looked down between, at her hand against his chest. He let go of his lips as he looked back up at her, “Yes, good idea,” he said with a soft voice. “It would be a shame if our food got cold,” he told her, but he didn’t move away from the embrace. He didn’t want to. He knew that he would follow her if she walked back towards the kitchen, no doubt.
All the thoughts about tomorrow and work, hadn't yet reached his head, but it was certainly going to hit hard, because how were they going to work together? If he got too much into a loving relationship with her, he would feel bad for telling her when something was wrong, or if he took or gave her extra work. It was plenty of questions he needed to answers to before he would be able to work with her. They both knew he didn't do flings, well, he almost didn't do relationships and he didn't go into anything without being certain that it was something good or something he could handle. Why was work Ace and private Ace so alike?

She nodded. “It would be a shame,” she said with a soft smile and let herself stay in his embrace a little longer. I knew that the thoughts would come as soon as they stepped away. She knew the man rather well; after all, she knew how he worked and how he liked to work. That was why she wasn’t overly worried about how it would happen from here on out.
Pushing herself up again, she gave him a small peck against his lips, chuckling a little, before using her abilities to pick up the bracelet from the ground without reaching for it. “Then let’s go”, she said, closing her hand around his and pulling him along with her to the kitchen where they could sit down and get some much-needed food before going to bed.

She gave him a short kiss before she found his hand and pulled him with her. The hall was much longer now, mostly because thoughts slowly got to him, but for now, it was easy enough to shut the thoughts out and not take them to heart. He sat down across from her, seeing how the small Scottish-speaking gal had cleaned up after herself, and even though the food had stayed out, it didn’t seem like it had gotten cold. He was quite certain it was the girl who had made sure their food wouldn’t be cold. Sweet of her.
“She’s a charmer,” he mumbled before he started to eat, trying to let the taste of the food drown his thoughts. “How-” he munched a little longer on his food before he changed his mind, “When are you meeting tomorrow?” he wondered looking up at her keeping a little break from continuing eating.

Willow let a breezy chuckle leave her when Ace mumbled that Mary-Jane was a charmer “she sure is sweet,” the nature deity hummed as she started eating again; when he began speaking, she looked up, only to see how he changed his mind while eating, asking her something else entirely. She found her phone and opened the work app as she looked at her schedule. “I’m actually off tomorrow” she let out a soft sigh of relief; she wouldn’t mind a day off, getting back on her feet after everything that had happened prior to this. Besides then, she could dwell a little on what had happened in the bathroom, what it would mean for her and Ace, and what would happen from here on out.
“When are you meeting?” she asked, putting away the phone again so she could focus on eating rather than looking down at the screen.