Deuce and Ace (pt5)

We see Ace insult Deuce apropos of nothing when Cater compliments him for being quick on his feet, and Deuce says that Ace “cheats the entire time” when they play card games together, “so it isn’t fun at all”. 

It seems that Ace also enjoys pranking Deuce: we see in a chat that he once convinced Deuce that his watch (which has no date display) was two days slow, leading him to apologize to all his teachers for being two days late to classes.

During Phantom Bride Ace tricks Deuce into volunteering to propose to Eliza while Cater observes, “You can’t even see how he’s playing you.”

Despite their bickering we see Ace rescue Deuce from aggressive upperclassmen in a vignette, and at the end of Spectral Soiree Ace expresses frustration at Deuce for not understanding how worried Ace had been about him, the prefect and Grim when they disappeared.

Ace vents at Malleus and Lilia, who point out he must have been lonely. Ace insists he only “grudgingly” lets Deuce (and the prefect and Grim) “tag along” with him, but we see flashbacks that indicate otherwise.

At the end of the vignette Deuce invites Ace to dance and Ace accepts, feeling better after having expressed his frustrations.

In Ace’s dream of Book 7 Cater announces that he will be putting Ace into a deeper sleep as Ace has chosen to stay behind and Deuce goes after him, asking for one more chance to talk to Ace (Cater had actually never intended to leave Ace behind at all).

Deuce identifies a fake-Ace during Riddle’s dream when it claims that Leona could easily beat Riddle in a fight, saying, “the Ace I know would never tell another housewarden he could ‘easily’ beat ours in a fight. Even if you did believe that, you’d never say it out loud! At least… I think.”

Deuce demands that it tell them what Ace’s dream was like and when the fake-Ace tries to stall, he calls it out for not being real.

The fake-Ace asks, “How’d you suddenly smarten up so much?,” and Deuce responds, “The real Ace would keep fast-talking and find a way to confuse me even if he was cornered. I didn’t smarten up. You’re just dumber than he is!”