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“Keep quiet in the library” Riddle repeated only hell knows what time, his eyebrows knit together, fingertips drummed on the yellowed pages of an old book he was trying, keyword trying, to focus on while his much taller schoolmate slumped on the table, staring at the redhead.
“His-to-ry of blot… you’re reading smart books again, Goldfishie?” Floyd, as per usual, ignored the question and instead peeked to read out the title of the old text by syllables. It surprised no one that the merman always seemed to find where Riddle was, even if they were across campus doing entirely different things, the two always ended up at the same place eventually.
“I need to perfect my knowledge. Be quiet in the library” The redhead moved the book a bit closer and scrunched his nose, while someone was speaking to him he couldn’t focus, especially when it was Floyd’s drawn-out simple words. The grip he had on the cover tightened just a bit, was a peaceful studying session too much to ask for now?
“Hmm, Goldfishie is always studying hard things.” Floyd's cheek rested against the wooden table while the playful eye stared at Riddle, his lips puckered with thought. He glanced away, picked up one of the books from the pile the redhead brought with him, and absentmindedly flicked through the pages, clearly without a mission to stop and read any of the contents.
“Who do you think I am? I have to get better.” Riddle shook his head and rolled his eyes. He didn’t think that being silent would stop Floyd talking anyway, so he may as well respond while making the effort to not lose focus. Wait, why is he on page 80 when he was just on 76? With an annoyed click of the tongue Riddle came back to the page he accidentally skipped while responding and lifted the book above the table again.
“Goldfishie is smart and amazing” Floyd shrugged and put the book back before looking back at the short redhead with a grin. “A lot of people look up to you” he chuckled while dangling his legs back and forth under the table.
Riddle cleared his throat and brought the book closer to his face to cover it, as he felt a burning tingle in his face, his heart raced a little. Any hope he had on focusing he could say goodbye to, no word in the book he could make sense of now after Floyd’s compliment, but of course, Riddle would rather die on the spot than let the merman see it. Damn him for reacting to anything so easily.
Oh well, even though Floyd wasn’t the brightest, he wouldn’t be as dumb as to not notice the redhead’s reaction, so mischief painted over his face. For a bit he stayed silent, sneaking his hand closer before effortlessly snatching the book out of the shorter’s grip with one hand. “Hehe, your face almost matches your hair” he quietly laughed and sat up so his hand could reach to pat Riddle on the head.
To describe vaguely, Riddle was flustered. Just when he thought he was about to start calming down, he didn’t notice how quiet Floyd got, and of course, now all hope to calm down was out the window. The redhead’s eyes squeezed shut as a hand touched his hair, and for whatever reason lingered on to run along the crimson locks in a slow, unwillingly for Riddle to admit, relaxing manner. Butterflies in the stomach raged on and the shorter bit down on his inner cheek, he wanted to say something but all words were tied together in a knot. Riddle wouldn’t open his eyes either, or maybe just look away, he couldn’t look at Floyd in this state or he would perish.
They stayed like this for an unknown amount of time in comfortable silence, the only thing that broke the silence sometimes was Floyd humming something to himself, he was surprised that Riddle didn’t at least smack his hand away, but he wasn’t going to bring that up, maybe later to tease the shorter about it. He was happy that even this way they were at some sort of peace, well, Riddle did say that the library is supposed to be a quiet place, maybe that’s why there was no response.
Never would Riddle say this or as little as let himself think on it further, but the touch somehow relaxed him eventually. Of course, the traitor that his blush was wouldn’t leave still, but his form relaxed in general from the tension in his posture. It was soothing to have the gloved fingers running along his hair, even if Floyd was still looking at him, which was only further flustering. He wouldn’t say anything because he didn’t want the new combination of feelings to end, and simply because he didn’t know what exactly to say, and was a little, okay, more than a little, scared of making it stop by wording something wrong.
Eventually, this moment had to end, Floyd’s phone buzzed with a message from Azul, probably something related to Monstro Lounge, since the cafe would be opening soon. With a small huff, the taller moved his hand away rather slowly and quickly unlocked his phone to see the message. Indeed it was the cafe work, ugh. “Well, I gotta go, hope you had a good break, see ya ‘round, Goldfishie” He puckered out his lips and stood up, Floyd’s face changed instantly to a toothy smile.
“Goodbye, Floyd” Riddle sighed, finally finding it in itself to look back at the taller after all this time, and followed him with his gaze until he left. A small smile curled the redhead’s lips for a little while, he then looked back at the book that he was reading before, which Floyd put down, thankfully without messing up the page number. Memorizing it for later, Riddle closed the book and stood up as well to get the books back to their shelves, maybe he could go down to Monstro Lounge later today.