Ace took off his hat again and sullenly did his best not to look sad. He bit Smoker's thumb and held it between his teeth. "I'm not sad," he insisted, though he wasn't sure how believable it sounded. What did he want? What did he want. He didn't even know anymore. Except he did. "Hug me," he decided and leaned against the marine, though his own arms were still wrapped around his own legs. It was kind of more like half topping over sideways.

"I told you. I want you. But I don't want to be alone. If I belong with you, and this is home, then what do I do when I can't find home. You told me I have to be the one to come to you and I do, but it gets lonely. If you don't want me to share all my life with you, you can't get mad at me when there's parts of me you can't have. I don't want it that way, but I'd rather it was that than I was alone," Ace sighed and closed his eyes. "I like having fun, I like teasing, I like playing around, I like flirting. I like it best with you and only you and I don't like that is that way, but I accept it. I don't know what to do about it though. I don't know what I want to do about it. I don't even know how to feel about it. Or how I want to feel about it. Maybe just numb."