Just Like Fire (Ace x Reader)

Chapter 21: The Rule

Wings spread wide, the flames had dissipated and faded away. You were massive. Larger than you even thought you could've been. Big enough to carry several people on your back. Ace was small on the ground, but not so small that you didn't know it was him.

His fire. His sun.

Your gaze shifts at the thought and you see the sun rising into the sky. Some part of your body twitches, as though at this size you could make the flight. You hear Ace yell your name, and feel his hands grab the soft feathers he could reach.

"Change back!" He's seems almost ready to climb you, if he has to, to be heard. "CHANGE BACK!"

You lean down and step back, gently bonking him with your cheek. Gentle as you are with the action he grunts, arms grabbing onto your face to keep himself upright.

"Don't fly away." The words are softer, but desperate. There's a fear in them, in his fingers, that you'd never felt before. You weren't sure if it was because you'd flown into his fire, or because he could sense your desire to fly into the very sun.

You're afraid to talk in this form, worried that a whisper would leave your mouth like some rumbling mountain. You're certain you're not quite that big, but everything is sharper, closer, farther away, muted, brighter. It's hard to know what part of it all that you're actually interacting with.

You remember Marco's words, and focus on the parts of yourself that you know well. Hands, fingers, the curve of your elbow into your forearm. All the small details that few others would know or pay attention to, and slowly you shrink, and shift.

Ace's arms around your face turn into arms around your body. He's not holding onto you tightly, but he makes no move to step back as you change, as though you would slip away into pieces of ash if he let go entirely.

"Sorry," you say quietly, and Ace's arms tighten around you.

"You're okay." He says softly, words disappearing into your hair. "It's okay." You can feel his heart thundering in his chest, his fingers trembling against you, and his warm breath sinking into your hair.

"I scared you."

"You terrified me." He corrects, his grip loosening a little as a nervous sound escapes him. "I thought I..." His body trembles, and you remember Sabo's words. About Ace having his own demons. Between his curse and his father, it wasn't hard to know what he was thinking.

Especially since you'd just got done literally flying into his flames.

"... You're not cursed to hurt everyone you love." You say quietly, arms returning the trembling embrace. "And you apparently can't hurt me at all."

You lean back a little to give him a smile, and he tries to return it.

"What happened?"

You open your mouth, close it, and then shake your head. "I don't know. It was like staring into the sun, and some part of me just took over."

"... Some part of you took over... and flew you into my fire?"

"Sun." You correct. "I... we?... Thought it was a sun." You look at your hands for a moment before you leaned into him, setting your head against his chest. "All I could think was that the sun was full of peace, and life, and safety. That I needed to be in it."

"... We?" He questions, stepping back and looking into your eyes.

You nod. "It's... it's not over-bearing, or it wasn't, but there's something else." Your brows furrow and your face scrunches up in thought. "Like an instinct. A driving force you have to be very conscious of to override. When people run upstairs in fear because up in a tree is safe, so up in a building is too, but if you stop and think about it, it's a bad idea for certain situations."