"Ace."

"Yeah?" He replies, peering at you from over his shoulder.

"Are we lost?" You ask, for what seems like the millionth time that day.

He chuckles, his entire body shaking as he does. "Nope, why would we be lost?" He holds up a large piece of paper for you to see as well. "See? I have a map! How could we be lost if We have a map, right here?"

Instead of being relieved, you feel more panicked than ever as you take the sheet of paper from him. "Ace. You are holding the map upside down!" You half shout, flipping it so that it is now right side up.

He grins sheepishly, moving aside some low hanging branches so the two of you can pass through. "Was it?" He asks "I didn't realise that it was, sorry [Name]-.."

You sigh, shielding your eyes as you take a look up at the orange tinted sky. "Hey Ace, it's getting dark- where are we, seriously- I'm starting to get worried!"

He laughs again, but you can no longer see where he is. "Ace? Ace, where are you?" You call, feeling your heart begin to pound as the fear starts to ebb into your mind.

After a moment, when there is no reply to your calls, your breathing becomes shallow to match your unusually fast beating heart. "Ace, this isn't funny!" You call.

He still doesn't reply so you stop walking. A sniffle escapes you as the sun finally disappears over the horizon. "Ace!" You look around desperately "Ace, where are you!"

You feel yourself become hysterical as you hear a wolf howl off in the distance. "Ace!" You call again, tears threatening to make an appearance.

"You don't have to call my name so many times, I can hear you." A voice from your right suddenly says.

You whip around to see Ace, sitting beside a small fire that he had made with a tent- from where you had absolutely no idea, whilst roasting some sausages on the fire.

"Ace! Where the heck did you go?" You shout at him. He looks up at you, confused. "Go?" He asks, innocently "I didn't go anywhere. You were the one who kept walking even when I stopped."

You glare at him, rubbing your arms to try to keep them warm. He smiles at you, his usual cheerful grin and it makes you blush. "Come sit by the fire, we won't be able to find anything for a while so we may as well camp out." He tells you.

With a loud sigh, you reluctantly go and sit by the fire, deliberately sitting as far away from the Knave as you possibly can.

Ace hums as he cooks the sausages, occasionally pulling them out to see if they have been properly cooked.

You stare at the fire however, trying to keep your mind occupied on something other than him but you still find yourself stealing glances.

The tendrils of flames make his brown hair look nearly orange, well- at least the parts where the light reaches. It illuminates his face, making his blood red eyes appear to shine. As though he can feel your eyes in him, Ace looks over at you. His smile never falters as he continues with the task at hand.

You frown at him, but after a while you give up and rest your head onto your shoulder. Feeling drowsiness begin to consume you as you stare at the very welcoming flame before you.

"Y'know what's really ironic about this?" You ask, instantly making him turn to you with an eyebrow raised "I deliberately said that I didn't want to go camping with you but- well, here we are."

He nods, although something in his expression makes you feel suspicious about him. "Do you want a sausage?" He asks, holding the stick out to you for you to take one.

You shrug and take one, savouring the taste of it in your mouth as it was the only thing you had to eat all day. "So where is the tent from?" You ask out of pure curiosity. "From my jacket, I carry it around with me just in case." He says, taking a bite of his own as he does.

You stare at him incredulously. "You just carry that thing around? All the time?" You ask and to that he nods.

Shaking your head, you sigh...again. "Well I'm going to sleep- wait...are we sharing the tent?" You ask, eyes growing wide as you do.

He nods, completely oblivious as to why you are so flustered.

You shake your head, getting up from your seat and dusting yourself off.
Ace, at the same time, also gets up and stretches his arms above his head "I think I'm going to sleep too- it's getting pretty late, huh?"

"Yeah..." You mumble, taking off your shoes and scuttling into the tent. Moments later, Ace joins you.

The inside of the tent has two blankets spread out, presumably one for each of you. In between them is a lantern, the only light that there is because Ace had out out the fire outside. "Hey A- what the heck are you doing?" You suddenly shout at him as you see what he is doing. Ace stares at you, confused.

"Are you really stripping?" You ask, face going beet red at the sight of him unbuttoning his shirt, his jacket lying on the floor in a heap. "No, I have a shirt underneath here." He tells you, pulling off that shirt as well to reveal that he indeed does have a black shirt underneath.

"Oh.." You say, tugging off your socks and lying down, snuggling into the blankets.

You hear him shuffle about beside you, then it grows silent. You assume that he lied down as well. You stare up at the roof of the tent for a long time before they flutter shut. You try to will yourself to fall asleep But when that proofs futile, you slowly open your eyes again.

"Hey Ace?" You ask and it surprises you how quickly he responds "Yeah [Name]?"

"Despite the fact that we're lost, I had fun today-" you tell him, feeling suddenly embarrassed. His laughter doesn't help your predicament.

"No worries." He says and you smile. Letting your eyes flutter shut as you do. Sleep finally comes and when you dream, it doesn't surprise you that Ace is there as well.

When you wake up the next morning, you are vaguely aware of a pair of arms wrapped around you.

Groggily waking up, you turn and nearly scream when you see how close Ace is to you.

Feeling you moving around, Ace stirs awake and smiles at you. "Good morning~" he chirps, face going bright as he smiles widely.

You scream and then the only other sound within the entire forest is that of a resonating slap.

"Did you really need to hit me?" Ace asks, walking behind you as you weave through the forest.

"Yes. I did need to hit you. What kind of pervert just- just-" you trail off as the embarrassment consumes you. Instead you focus your attention on the map and walk forward.

"But [Name]-!" He whines.

You are about to say something to get him to shut up when suddenly you realise that you are no longer in the woods but instead are now standing at the gates of the Castle of Hearts.

When you turn to look at Ace you see that he, in no way looks surprised and a thought suddenly dawns a upon you. "Did you know that if we walked for a little while more we'd be at the Castle?" You ask. He shrugs and smiles at you again. "Wait- holding the map upside down- did you know that we weren't lost?" You ask.

Ace chuckles and when he sees the murderous glare that you are sending him, he shrugs sheepishly. "It was just an innocent mistake..." He says.

You groan an walk past him, into castle grounds. Ace follows and whistles cheerfully. "Well you know, one good thing that came out of this was that we did get to go camping after all~" he sighs "and your heart beat sounded so nice.."

Thus another slap to the face is ensued.