Work Text:
It’s no secret that Riddle worked a lot. His time management skills were near perfect in order to do the workload that was demanded of him. He is a dorm leader and one of the top students in NRC. It’s no easy task to do either of those things, and you know this.
But a few things that you’ve noticed about Riddle since you met him was that when he is focused on something, he will complete his task and then some. As such, he tends to tune out the world around him, especially if he’s alone. You’ve learned that a few taps on his shoulder would get his attention, maybe accompanied by a few calls of his name. Usually, he would stop for a moment, ask what you need and then wrap up whatever he’s doing if your matter was urgent.
However, you heard nothing from him all day.
Usually, Riddle would answer his phone right away, if not a few minutes afterwards. He would also inform you whenever he was busy to avoid blowing up said device, but he also didn’t do that today. Maybe he forgot and put his phone on silent to avoid his ears from being blasted off in case somebody called while he listened to music, or maybe he saw it while he was busy and just forgot to text you that he was doing something. You don’t know.
What you do know is that you did not see nor hear from Riddle all day, and the first thought on your mind was to rush over to Heartslabyul to check up on him. Luckily, you were greeted by Trey at the door who informed you that Riddle has been in his office most of the day and hasn’t budged an inch since lunch. It was almost tea time.
You stared at the scene in front of you. Your boyfriend was hunched over his desk in his office, eyes roaming over a report. He was dressed in his dorm uniform though the crown was placed near the edge of his desk, most likely put away after using it for so long. Your eyes zeroed in on his phone face-down on his desk and the earbuds plugged in. So his phone was on silent.
“He’s been like this for a while,” Trey whispered. He had led you towards Riddle’s office knowing that Heartslabyul’s maze of a dorm was hard to navigate. The two of you were standing at the threshold of his office, quietly waiting for the dorm leader to notice you but he didn’t. His eyes were still on the paper in front of him, occasionally marking it. “I’m a bit worried since he hasn’t eaten since lunch.”
You sighed. “It’s fine, just leave it to me.” You looked at the small stack of papers to his right and the larger one to his left. “He’s almost done, so it’s best to wait it out and let him finish whatever he’s doing. I’ll bring him down in time for tea.”
Trey nodded and left the room. You sat on one of the chairs in front of Riddle’s desk and pulled out your phone to check the time.
Four o’clock PM, an hour until tea time.
You looked at Riddle again but his gaze was still zeroed in on his paper. You glanced at your phone again and groaned. An hour was going to be a long time.
About fifteen minutes in, Riddle had neatly placed the paper on the left pile. You may or may not have spooked him a bit when you waved at him as he was putting the paper down but all he did was give you a gentle smile and nod before grabbing the next paper from the right stack.
By the thirty minute mark, you were getting tired of waiting for him. Aside from Riddle acknowledging you earlier, his eyes had stayed glued to the paper. The soft scratching of pen against paper was the only thing that broke the silence. Your boyfriend at least had some music but you didn’t, and after worrying about him all day, you had no more patience to wait for his attention.
Leaning over, you rapidly tapped Riddle’s desk until he looked up. He tilted his head in confusion when you held out your hand.
“Hold my hand or I’ll die,” you bluntly stated.
Pulling out one earbud, Riddle blinked. “What?”
You raised your hand higher. “Hold my hand or I perish.”
His eyebrows furrowed at your antics as he said, “I need my hands to work.”
“You only need one hand to write.” You shook your hand, practically shoving it in his face now. “And I only need one of your hands to hold mine, so hold my hand or I die.”
“You won’t die, if I don’t—”
“I will.”
Riddle blankly stared at your hand then at you as if reconsidering if this relationship was worth your silly distraction (it was) before sighing. A satisfied smile stretched across your face as you moved your chair closer to the desk to avoid hunching over it. You laid your head on his desk using your other arm as a pillow, careful not to touch any of his work, as you watched him go back to work. Content to just watch him until Trey inevitably called the two of you down for tea.