Everyone knew that Mace hated you.

More often than not, he was more aggressive with you. His voice was rough, loud, and annoyed. Nobody really knew what you did to get him to hate you, but it must have been something, right?

What you didn't know was that Mace didn't hate you—at least, not in the way that people expected him to. The reason he treated you so harshly? It was because he didn't hate you, and that annoyed him. Every time he saw your smiling face? It would make his heart jump in his chest, and he didn't know how to handle that feeling, so most of the time he reacted in annoyance.

Should he try to just ignore you? Maybe, but he couldn't bring himself to ignore you, so he normally, uh, kind of bullied you, he'd admit.

Today, while you were walking by him to get to one of the other rooms, he decided to stick his leg out, tripping you up and he chuckled, his eyes shooting down to look at you. "Best watch where you're going, short stack. Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."