Want to Fly - Ace
Author Notes: Fun fact, this was originally going to be a Trey fic before Ace did a hostile takeover. The moose beastman Savannaclaw student I mention in this fic is a character come up with by me, my sister, and my mom for funsies and his name is Bruce Harvey. I wasn't actually listening to anything when I wrote this fic and it just kind of happened because I sort wonder what flying on a broom would be like. As per usual, reader is gender-neutral. I hope you enjoy!
Type: Gender-neutral reader/ fluff/ can be platonic or romantic
Word Count: 1507
You watched as various young men bobbed up and down in the air on their brooms from where you sat on NRC’s lush lawn.
Flight was one of the classes that you simply couldn’t participate in without magic. It was true that you and Grim had tried working together, with him handling the magic and you piloting the broomstick, but that had only ended in injury and busted brooms.
So instead of flying, Vargas always tasked you with jogging a certain number of laps that always went by far faster than the boys' flight lessons. Leaving you sitting boredly and just watching while Grim went off to do whatever it was he did in moments like these.
You tilted your head as you watched a random moose beastman from Savannaclaw ascend before slowly drifting down, all but taking out Azul with his Azul. But watching your friends and classmates fly around briefly before descending always made you wonder. What was flying like?
It was true that you’d ridden on Kalim’s carpet and flown that way before, but were broomsticks different?
With the way that everyone flew differently, that certainly seemed to be the case. It was almost like style came into the equation. Some, like Leona and Cater, even went so far as to surf their brooms. Most of the students were more like Trey, whom you were currently watching, and sat.
Fingers drummed down on your shoulder, causing you to jerk in alarm before twisting to see Ace grinning cheekily down at you, pleased that he’d startled you before he tilted his chin indicatively towards the flying students, “Staring at Trey pretty hard, ain’t ya’?”
You rolled your eyes at his teasing remark, watching as the redhead dropped down into a crouch next to you, “I was just watching him fly, that’s all.”
Your explanation had the young man looking towards where everyone zipped around overhead with raised eyebrows, “Why?”
His incredulous tone reminded you that such things were commonplace in Twisted Wonderland, even if they seemed uniquely fascinating to you.
“I was just wondering what flying on a broomstick is like.” At your words, Ace slowly nodded, looking your way with a slight, ‘Oh,’ of understanding.
Silence fell between the two of you as you both watched Malleus ascend and fly a little circle before returning to the ground. He was another especially showy flyer that had you smiling ever so slightly.
“I guess I could just show you if you’re that curious,” You blinked slightly in surprise before looking over at Ace, only to see him grinning smugly at you. It was an expression you knew well. One that meant he wanted to show off like he so often did when it came to magic.
You frowned slightly before shaking your head slightly, “I don’t know, Ace…. Vargas might not like that and-”
You were cut off by a snort from Ace as he straightened and proceeded to flip his broom around like it was a baton, “I’ve already finished my lessons and am homefree.”
He swung one leg over his broom, immediately ready for flight, as he grinned over at you. His red eyes were already sparkling mischievously as he leaned towards you, his voice dropping into a teasing tone, “Not chickening out on me, are you Prefect?”
You frowned at his words before impulsively pushing yourself up and to your feet, “No. But don’t blame me if you get into trouble.”
Despite your bold words. You were eyeing the broom warily as you stepped closer. Ace wouldn’t let you get hurt, but…. Well, accidents did happen, and you didn’t actually know how good Ace was at piloting a broom.
Either ignoring your hesitance or not noticing it, Ace pressed one hand to his chest. Watching you with poorly disguised amusement, “On my honor, I’ll accept any and all blame.”
You snorted at his words, fighting the grin that started to crawl onto your face and earning yourself a grin from the redhead, who seemed oddly excited by the prospect of flying with you.
He even leaned closer, bumping with you a single shoulder playfully, “So ya’ coming, or not?”
At the sight of his cheeky grin, you steeled yourself. Hesitating only slightly before you swung your left leg over his broom so that you were sitting just behind him, “So what do I-”
“Just hang on tight,” Ace interrupted you and kicked off the ground simultaneously. Causing you to squeak slightly and wrap your arms tightly around his waist as your gaze immediately darted to the ground.
He laughed almost immediately at your reaction, meanwhile you were suddenly realizing exactly how many things could go wrong with this entire adventure.
“No fancy tricks, alright Ace?” Your voice wavered slightly as you continued to stare down at the grassy earth that grew steadily more distant. You were already far higher than you and Grim had ever gotten before anything had gone wrong.
At complete and total odds with you, Ace sounded perfectly fine when he answered, leaning forward slightly as he spoke, “Right, just a little fly around the grounds. Sound good?”
At his question, you nodded, forcing yourself to look forward as you resolved to just trust Ace. After all, the two of you, with Deuce, had been through several overblots together. A little flight couldn’t be worse than those. Right?
Even with that thought in mind, you still had to swallow thickly as you responded in a slightly squeaky voice, “Sounds good.”
“Alrighty then, one flight around the grounds coming right up,” You could hear the grin in Ace’s voice as the broom started picking up speed slightly, and before long, you were gliding through the air with only the power of Ace’s magic keeping you aloft.
“Y/N! Y/NNNNN!” At the distant call of your name, you glanced down to see your other friends on the ground, waving wildly.
You giggled slightly at the sight of them. Epel was waving with both arms as Jack shook his head slightly with what you thought was a smile. Sebek pointed up at where the two of you flew with great vehemence, or perhaps it was excitement, and Deuce was beaming as he waved at you both.
“You can wave back, you know; you aren’t gonna fall off,” Ace’s tone was perfectly smug, and you glared slightly over at the back of his head before slowly and carefully letting go with one arm and waving slightly before quickly latching back on to the redhead the very instant you dipped down lower.
“You said no tricks!” You practically hissed at him as he laughed, wholeheartedly and free.
“A change in altitude is hardly a trick. Now relax; you’re gonna make me look bad in front of the teachers,” At his words, you glanced down to see Trein and Crewel both looking up from where they were sitting outside. No doubt taking tea or something during their break.
You stared down at them in silence for a bit before leaning forward and letting your chin rest lightly on Ace’s shoulder, “Are you sure you aren’t going to get in trouble?”
In reality, you weren’t actually concerned about the teachers. They didn’t look upset at all. In fact, both Crewel and Trein had looked vaguely amused, but that didn’t mean the same could be said for how Riddle might react.
And, judging from the way people were staring, Riddle was definitely going to find out.
As if he’d read your mind, Ace knew exactly who you were worried about, “Nah, if the teapot tyrant says anything, I’ll just say you wanted to fly and that I couldn’t say no to your puppy-dog eyes.”
You rolled your eyes at his tone, but stayed silent as you finished circling around the building and touched back down exactly where you started.
In the distance, you could see Epel pointing and taking off towards where you and Ace had landed. Leading the other first-years towards where you were before he got lapped by Jack and Deuce. Fitting, considering the two of them were the trackstars.
“Well, that’s that,” Ace grinned as he glanced at you over his shoulder, far too pleased with himself for reasons you couldn’t quite place. But then Ace was always incredibly pleased with himself whenever he showed off anything to you. Be it a simple magic trick or actual magic.
You smiled, though, as you carefully slid off the broom, “Thanks, Ace. That was nice.” And, in an odd sort of way, it had been. After you’d relaxed, it had been quite nice up there. Peaceful, in an odd sort of way, even though Ace had been with you the whole time.
“No problem. And if you ever wanna fly again, you know where I’m at,” He winked at you cheekily, and you shook your head. Grinning despite yourself at him before looking over to see your friends joining you.
Epel already cheering about how great of a job Ace had done flying you around the school.
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more self-indulgent jgy abo headcanons
I read a fic so long ago that I no longer remember the fandom nor characters involved, but the thing about it that really stuck in my mind was that it was an abo-verse fic that used the concept that omegas have an ingrained biological need for physical (including platonic) affection, to the point where “touch-starvation” was a medical diagnosis
this is obviously extremely up my alley for ALL my blorbos, but consider jin guangyao in particular:
unlike the usual ‘omega pretending to be a beta’ trope, I think that once he is established at jinlintai, he would not really try to let people assume that he’s a beta. being an omega leads people not only into underestimating him, but also into offering him a certain degree of safety in providing a veil of stereotype-associated demureness, placidity, etc. it is more to his benefit for people to see him as a polite young man, perhaps even one who, yes, is a war hero - but people can’t quite imagine what kinds of things he must have done for that. surely nothing too bad.
but at the same time, this is the character who couldn't even serve tea to people as nie mingjue’s deputy without people making a show of wiping off their fingers after touching the cups. people know he is an omega, people judge him for being an omega on top of all the other things he is already judged for, but I suspect that most of the relevant and appropriate people in jinlintai avoid touching him unless absolutely necessary. in a world where casual contact is thoroughly commonplace just due to the socialities set up by their biology, jin guangyao has a personal space bubble of like 2-3 feet because he's the dirty son of a prostitute.
he walks through the halls, ostensibly the second young master of the tower, and feels like he is drowning in the physical manifestation of loneliness.
who does he have left? family? jin zixuan is not close to him, and frankly is likely an alpha raised by alphas to whom it would not even occur to that such needs need to be minded. jin guangshan certainly is aware, but is using it as leverage, allowing and denying contact as he see fits to manipulate jin guangyao the same way he does with his fatherly affection. there are his sworn brothers, but his relationship with nie mingjue is fraught: certainly da-ge wouldn’t withhold contact as punishment or leverage, but that doesn’t mean he wants to touch jin guangyao anymore, nor does he really understand how the necessity of it feels when he grew up with nie huaisang, an omega who has never been shy about taking whatever affection he wants. and er-ge... he just isn’t around enough.
lan xichen is still the best option, and by the time they have the opportunities to see each other, jin guangyao is pressing nails into his palms to stop from just plastering himself up against lan xichen’s side, which surely would be humiliating for both of them. but still, he’s so aware of it any time they’re in the same room, meting out as many small touches as he can get away with without embarrassing himself. lan xichen slips his fingers over jin guangyao’s wrists as he pulls him up from a bow, intending warm affection. jin guangyao doesn’t want to let him know that it feels like being allowed to gasp for a single breath of air before his head is shoved back underwater.
(with nie mingjue, it is worse. da-ge is just as aware as jin guangyao is when they touch, but for all the worst reasons.)
it is the strangest blessing whenever jin guangyao sees nie huaisang. it’s embarrassing, a little - the knowledge that nie huaisang understands, unlike most people in jin guangyao’s life. but nie huaisang takes that embarrassment onto his own self willingly, never hesitating before making a fool of himself in the way that only a terminally younger brother can, and simply flinging himself into his san-ge’s arms. it’s nostalgic, too: nie mingjue isn’t quite so aware of how important touch is with how proactive nie huaisang can be, and so during his days as deputy, it was often nie huaisang who gave meng yao what he could not ask for.
the cultivators at jinlintai look down on him just as the ones in the unclean realm did, but now there is no willing young master to soothe away the tangible, physical ache of it. more often than not, jin guangyao tucks his hands into his sleeves to hide the way his fingertips shake.
anyway this is my petition for jiang yanli to take two looks at this situation and promptly wrinkle her brows just the slightest amount, expressing quiet concern to jin zixuan that it’s strange how she doesn’t see anybody touch his half-brother very much, does she? and jin zixuan is a little confused, a little embarrassed, a little off-balance - he doesn’t feel close enough to jin guangyao to be that casual, but he’s an alpha, he doesn’t get it until jiang yanli explains to him, with a beta’s patience, the value of family bonds to an omega as well as jin zixuan’s responsibility as a brother (older brother? younger? his father claims older, but there’s no way to truly know - ), and isn’t it wonderful, having a little brother?
and then someone pats jin guangyao over the head until he’s feeling a little less strung-thin and out of options, he realizes he has to keep jin zixuan and jiang yanli alive lest he actually lose his mind (sympathy for da-ge? oh no...), and etc etc things end happily ever after, the end, QED.
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