Chapter Text
A loud sigh escapes Riddle's mouth.
"Long day?" The prefect nonchalantly asks as they put down the tower of afternoon biscuits on the round table between them. The cheap biscuits from Sam's are a far cry from Trey's delicacies: too sweet and crumbly for Yuu's liking, but the housewarden doesn't mind as he mindlessly swipes one and takes a bite on it.
Riddle rubs his temple, "Yes. Deuce and Ace are caught up in detention. Again."
Yuu nods, "So I've heard."
Of course they do, because Ace and Deuce are Ramshackle's idiots first before they are Heartslabyul's troublemakers.
"And Cater left the sophomores unsupervised in the common room. A fight broke out and knocked over every chinaware that existed there."
"Ah."
"Somebody ate the strawberry chocolate croissants that Trey baked for me before he left for the Science Club today."
"Wow, you're really going through it." Yuu comments again, "And you collared them all for it?"
"...No, I went out for a walk and came here instead."
Yuu blinks.
"Well, that's new."
"It's an improvement on my end."
An improvement that somehow feels wrong, Riddle thinks. He didn't know when this hot, bubbling magma pit of anger of his turned into this quelled, passive resignation. Breathing exercises for his anger management issues weren't quite effective as it did until now. He couldn't quite pinpoint what the oddity was, but he figures bringing up this situation in the next session would make his counselor happy. Probably.
Further reflection of his actions brings him back to his phone call with his mother last night, which consisted of the usual questions regarding his housewarden duties and beration on the errors on his tests. It was just like any other status update to his mother, but the incoming dread never fails to fill up his stomach again. He soothes himself with a long sip of his earl grey tea.
"Riddle, you like puzzles right?"
The question piques his attention back to reality, "Yes, crossword puzzles to be exact. Why? Do you happen to have one right now?" He could definitely use a brain exercise right now.
"Nope, I got a different puzzle." The prefect pulls up a small box on their hand and shakes it, the contents making a shuffling sound, "You got any experience in solving jigsaw puzzles?"
Riddle eyes the cover on the box. World's Smallest Puzzle, it says. Beside the text print is a picture of a painting that surely resembled one of the talking paintings on NRC's hallways. The one that Cater flirts with once in a while, usually before exams.
"I... haven't touched one since I was ten, I think. I've only ever solved two of them." He didn't have much access to jigsaw puzzles, as his mother preferred to provide him more with learning resources that contained words. And he decided that he was going to delve more into crosswords.
"Do those puzzles happen to be 1000 piece puzzles?"
Riddle's eyes widen slightly, "No, they don't. Is that..."
"Yep! This one's got 1000 pieces!" Yuu grins, their eyes sparkling with childlike excitement, "Found this while Sam did a clearance sale and I was helping him organize his items. He gave some of the puzzles to me for free."
Riddle has never moved this quick to set the afternoon tea aside to participate in what may be the most entertaining highlight of his day, "We are solving this. Right now. Sevens, prefect, this is the most brilliant way to spend my tea time right now."
Yuu chuckles, "Oh my god, of course you'd be a nerd over this," they open the box and pour out the pieces and the small plastic pack of powdered glue on the table, the smell of paper dust immediately wafting through the air, "By the way, I'm setting a speedrun competition to see who can solve this jigsaw puzzle the fastest. Malleus and I solved one in 5 and a half hours."
A very smug grin finds its way on Riddle's face, "Oh, a competition? Prefect, do you know what you're getting yourself into?"
Yuu rolls their eyes and grumbles a few words of regret before announcing the last terms of the mini competition.
"Winner gets to have bragging rights and ten minutes of access to my kitchen with no parental or ghostly supervision."
A kettle of cold tea, a tower of biscuits, and sore asses later, Riddle frustratingly beats the Diasomnia housewarden's record by 25 minutes.