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Riddle, realistically, didn't want to come home from Night Raven College during break. He wanted to stay at the school, look after his dorm, relax, and most importantly, be away from his mother. Breaks, even the short, one-week ones, were hard on him.
He did like his studies, but when they were thrown at him 24/7, they became…less likeable. He used to think that he had to do everything his mother said. Thought she knew everything to do and how to live properly, but ever since his Overblot incident, his mind had been profoundly changed on that idea.
He had made friends. Friends! People who cared about him, not for his intelligence or his magical abilities, or because his mom forced them to be acquainted. No. These people were friends by their own choice because they liked him for him. His friends had tried to convince them to stay at the college for the break, even though the reasons they gave and told him to give to his mother were good, nothing could fly past Riddle's mother. He knew that. Everyone knew that.
He just had to deal with having to study and have to eat, frankly, shitty food, for a week. He could deal with it, he had for the past 17 years. He just got better, over that time, of being sneaky about disobeying her. Now more than ever.
Riddle waited until his mother went to bed and made a makeshift form of a person using his pillow, wig included, and tucked it into his bed. He grabbed the phone one of his friends had bought him from inside the pillowcase, walked over to the closet with quiet, planned footsteps, and went inside. He sat comfortably in a corner where he’d stealthily hidden pillows, blankets, and fairy lights.
He smiled and sat there, quietly relaxing after the long day, finally being able to truly unwind and even text his friends. He didn’t used to even have this type of free time last year, it was only now that he started to take care of his mental health this way by taking breaks rather than living by his mother's say and choices. It was nice to be rebellious for once in his life, even when it was long overdue.
He’d been scrolling through Magicam for a long time, snacking on hidden treats he had hidden in a small box in his hiding corner, and he soon read the time off the top of his phone screen. It read “6:45 AM” In white letters. Only then did Riddle finally yawn and realize he was tired after being awake for so long. He then exited the closet and went back to his bed, looking at the traditional alarm clock he was *supposed* to be using for his alarms rather then his phone and remembered his mother had been so generous as to let him wake up at 9:00 AM now rather then the 6:00 AM it used to be when he was younger. How generous of her.
He had lain down and figured he’d sleep the small amount of time he had left. As he was about to pull the blanket over his body, he heard a tap on the window. He tilted his head to the side to see a familiar, smiling, beast-man outside of his window, clearly expecting him to open it.
Riddle rubbed the sleepiness from his face and opened the window, climbing out so as not to alert his mother as quickly. The redhead turned to the Savanaclaw boy and gently, atleast by Riddles' standards, smacked the back of his head.
“What are you doing here?! My mom could've seen you! Or worse, you could’ve fallen off the roof and broken something!”
His friends coming to see him while he was at home like this wasn’t unusual. However, those friends atleast had the common sense to do it on the first floor rather than the second.
The hyenas' laugh made Riddle crack a small smile. Ruggie pointed over to a car that was parked across the street, “It wasn’t my idea, rosie, look over at that car.”
Riddle let out a “hm?” noise and looked across the street to the car the other had pointed out, seeing it was quite fancy, but he had never seen it before. It was also too far away for him to see the driver or others in the said car.
“What's that have to do with anything?” Riddle seemed confused about what he was getting himself into.
“Cmon.” Ruggie scooted a bit closer to the edge of the roof and slid down the gutter pipe, going down to a grass patch in the yard. Riddle, hesitantly, and with curses being thrown at himself mentally, copied Ruggie's actions.
Ruggie grabbed Riddle's hand, much to Riddle's astonishment, and dragged him towards the fancy, white, and light yellow car. Then the window rolled down, and a very familiar, smiling face popped out of the driver's side window.
“Hey there! Figured we’d take you on a nice day out.” The prince gleamed, his voice about as bright as the rest of him was. It was almost too much for Riddle’s sleep-deprived brain.
Riddle let out a small chuckle, acting reluctant as he got in, but in actuality, and well known to the others, he wanted to be there and was happy to get out of the house for many hours…Even if it would cause issues later. That was for future him to worry about.
As he got in, he noticed the others in the car. Lilia Vanrouge was riding shotgun, Kalim Al-Asim was driving and Floyd Leechs tall-legs-invading-Riddles-space-self was now sitting beside him with Ruggie taking the last seat in the car.
Floyd seemed ecstatic, “Goldfishie~! There you are! I thought you’d argue with Ruggie for hours before you agreed to come with us. Did you miss us that much?”
Riddle's face got about as red as his hair was, “D-Don’t say those things! I just wanted to get out of the house! That's all!” He argued, knowing the merman would see right through that in a heartbeat.
Floyd shrugged and laid his head on Riddle's shoulder, “‘Should’ve stayed at NRC with us. You could’ve hung out with the rest of us.”
Riddle was about to retort, but Lilia said something from the front, “You’re the one who said this would be a fun idea, Floyd.” He pointed out.
Floyd pouted at that answer, knowing Lilia was right, “Yeah~ but I still missed my Goldfishie~” He whined, clinging onto him still.
Kalim giggled, “You two are adorable, quite the cute couple, yknow?”
Riddle’s mouth was agape, “We-we’re not together!”
The former general raised an eyebrow that could be seen from the mirror, “You’re not?”
Floyd mumbled something into Riddle's neck that the others couldn’t hear, but Ruggie, with his hyena ears, could tell was similar to “I wish…” This seemed to irritate Ruggie a bit, but he kept quiet on his opinions, atleast while they were with the others.
The white-haired driver decided to pay the tension no mind, even though he might not have even noticed it, and kept driving.
“So…Do you guys wanna go get coffee?” He asked the other four boys in the car.
The fae nodded, “That sounds fantastic right now.” He yawned, stretching his thin arms up a bit
The others chuckled and agreed. Kalim then drove to a small, but popular, coffee shop about 20 minutes away from Riddles house and right when Kalim was about to get out, Riddle then spoke up.
“How about I go in and get the drinks? I have to use the bathroom, and Kalim already did a lot today by getting all of us together here, so I can go and get our drinks.”
The sunshine boy of a driver was about to heavily protest when Lilia gently clamped a hand over the boy's mouth, “That’d be lovely. Thank you, here's Kalim's card if you need it.” He said, handing the plastic to the Heartslabyul housewarden, who thanked the others and got out of the car, heading inside the cafe.
“Why’d you do that?!” The boy was shocked, “He didn’t need to go do that!”
The fae slightly ignored Kalim, unbuckled his seatbelt, and turned to face the other two boys in the back seat, “You two both have a crush on Riddle, don’t you?”
The two blushed brightly, which was odd, atleast for Floyd, who shrugged and said, “Well, I do. I know that.”
Kalim seemed to pick up on what Lilia was implying, “So…~ I may have an idea.”
One of Ruggie's dark-brown-tipped ears flicked at the words of the other, “What is it?”
Kalim seemed uncharacteristically flustered at what he was about to ask, and there was a phone on the center console, which Ruggie figured he shouldn't question, atleast for now.
“Uhm..Well…I and uh…Lilia, well, it was kinda more than me and Lilia, but he kinda gave me the idea,” Kalim ranted before the pink-highlighted-700-year-old put a hand ruffled his hair and continued talking for him.
“It wasn’t my idea, thank you for the credit though,” He thanked, “Anywhos~ we were thinking about doing some kind of big polyamorus relationship involving you, Floyd, Riddle…”
Kalim smiled and explained, “It’d be quite a lot, so I’d understand if you wouldn’t be interested, but a lot of people have already agreed to it!”
Floyd tilted his head, his blue hair falling slightly to the side, “Who has?”
“Leona, Vil, Rook, Trey, Cater, Ace, Deuce…I think Epel? He was still on the fence? Malleus, Maybe Sebek? When I asked his brain kinda blue-screened, Silver-”
Ruggie cut him off at the mention of Silver, “Wait, wouldn’t that be weird? I mean, thats Lilias son.”
“That’s what we discussed before. First, the polyamorous relationship doesn't have to work like you’re dating everyone in it, atleast not if you don’t want to. So, I am not dating my kid. Second, if you don’t have romantic feelings towards someone in the relationship, that's ok! You don't have to date them if you just wanna date, say, one person in the relationship, but you can also date multiple if not all of us.” The fae explained quite knowledgeably, “...Did that make sense? You look like I just set your brain on fire.”
Floyd grinned widely, showing his sharp, eel teeth, “So, you mean that I get to date a bunch of people that make me blush like crazy and not…have to worry?”
The sunset-eyed boy nodded, “That’s a very nice way to look at it! Yeah! That's how I kinda thought about it, but, Ruggie, if you’re not comfortable with it, that's ok.”
Ruggie was still blushing, “Uh…Actually, I’ve been in a polyamorus relationship with Deuce, Epel, Jack and Leona for a while and we discussed inviting Kalim and Riddle to join it.”
Kalim flushed, “Me? I get Riddle because even I notice how lovey-dovey you two are, but… Me? Why me?”
Ruggie smiled softly, “Leona has a massive crush on you.”
Kalim's face looked like it had exploded with blush, like in one of those shows the Ignhyide house warden liked, “O-oh…So, would you like to join the relationship?”
Ruggie nodded and Floyd nodded ecstatically, “I get to date Sea Otter~!”
Floyd hugged Kalim, well, atleast as best as he could for being in a car.
Then, the passenger car seat opened. Riddle was back, making good time, and handed the other four their drinks before putting his drink in the cup holder.
“I heard your conversation. The windows were down.” He said plainly
Kalim found his plain expression strange, “Is something wrong? Do you not want to? It’s ok, but you seem…Upset.” He said, driving to a nearby park where he directed them to all get out, and they walked to a nearby bench, sitting down with their drinks, and were able to talk face to face better.
“I…I want to. I do. I’m just…Scared.”
Then, a voice came from Kalims phone, “Riddle for fucks sake, if you say something about your mother getting on your ass, then I promise you, it wont happen.” It was Leona Kingscholars voice.
Riddle sighed, “But, it will be! It’s hard to keep a phone without her knowing! How do you think I’ll be able to love so many people the way I want to without her knowing?” The former tyrant ranted
“Riddle. I want you to know that if something does happen, there are so, so many people who would be willing to help you. I promise. Any of us would come get you at the drop of a hat.” Leona explained calmly over the phone
“But-” He was cut off, feeling a hand on his shoulder,
“I’ll take it from here, Kingscholar.”
Riddle and Floyd, who were sitting beside him, turned to see Che'nya standing there, leaning in and hugging Riddle from behind, his arms hanging lazily on Riddle's shoulders, “If anything happens, I’ll be right here too~” He purred, the rest of his body appearing slowly.
Riddle looked conflicted, “I...Then…Can I come and stay at NRC? I don’t think I want to tell my mother, or worse, have her find out about this.” The heart-haired boy requested hesitantly.
Kalim smiled, “Do you want to do a bit of shopping first?”
Riddle was still very tired but, since he was already on a bit of a rebellious streak, he did also want to go shopping, just to piss off his mother more.
“Yeah, that sounds nice…” He yawned, stretching
Lilia giggled at the younger's sleepiness, “You kids are always so sleepy~ It's cute.”
Riddle blushed and his cheeks puffed a bit at the compliment, “Sh-shush.”
Che’nya pinched his cheek, “Hehe~ You’re like mochi, yknow?”
Floyd did the same, “Goldfishie is so cute~”
“Group hug~!” Kalim exclaimed, met with a quiet “wait!” before Lilia, Floyd, Che’nya, Kalim, and Floyd all hugged Riddle
A tiny smile spread across Riddle’s face “T-thank you…for everything.”
—
After many long hours at clothing stores, a salon, a nail parlor, a restaurant, a cafe, the mall, a furniture store for dorm decorations that better expressed Riddle's personality, and a flower shop upon Kalim's request. He wanted to get them a bouquet to put in each of their dorms so they could be reminded of each other.
The day so far was long but Riddle both wanted to sleep and wanted to keep the day going; he was conflicted, to say the least.
Kalim parked the car and smiled, “Lets get your stuff into your dorm and your room looking pretty~”
Riddle got out of the car and grabbed some of his stuff before Lilia used some fae magic to lift the rest and send it into the dorm. Riddle looked at Lilia and let out a small laugh, “That works, I suppose.”
After many hours of decorating, more people began to file into the dorm like Leona, Jack, Epel, Rook, Trey, Cater, Ace, Deuce, Jamil and a few others. The two turned on a movie and Riddle found himself comfy leaning on Ruggies shoulder.
“Thank you for today. I…I don’t think I’ve been so comfortable and happy in a long time.” He then gave Ruggie a soft kiss on the cheek
This prompted everyone else to look over, wanting kisses too. Riddle simply chuckled, kissing each one while one of Vil’s movies played on the TV in the background.
Maybe break won’t be so bad after all.