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Having the room all to himself was rather dull, Floyd thought as he lay sprawled on his own bed, pajamas on after a shower, lights turned off as he was in the process of tiring his mind out so he could go to sleep. It wasn’t the first and certainly not the last night in which Floyd wouldn’t sleep with his twin by his side, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get bored out of his mind. If Jade was there, he’d do something about it, say some ridiculously insane thing to make Floyd spiral, or perform any other Jade-esque antics, and they’d end up laughing, talking, planning and plotting.
But nooo, he had to go to that wedding.
At least the pictures were more than nice, Floyd had to admit. After all, he had been staring at the pictures of Riddle for the past ten minutes and he couldn’t get enough of it.
Even so, sleep was reaching him, his vision blurring as his arms grew heavy from holding the phone above his head for so long. On the verge of falling asleep, a single thing managed to make him wake up. A single notification popping up on his screen, the red fish in the display name sending Floyd up sitting on the bed, heart racing at the novelty of it all.
Goldfishie rarely sent him texts, especially when he was away on a trip or another, preferring to use one of Floyd’s daily ‘annoying sessions’ as a catch-up event in which he’d sit Floyd down with a cup of tea and talk about where he’s been and what he’s done for what felt like ages. He rather loved it, even if he got bored half of the time and his Goldfishie also collared him half of the time for his ‘annoying’ and ‘improper’ interruptions. But this? A text? Late at night too?
The anticipation building in his chest fizzled out when he opened the chat with his boyfriend, only to turn into sheer amusement.
I HATE your brother!
Oh, Jade was definitely planning and plotting and doing Jade-esque things out there alright! And he was bad enough to make Riddle run to Floyd to complain about it! Incredible, truly he couldn’t ask for more.
Means i’m your favorite right?
I did NOT say that!
You’re both equally bad, only that he’s worse…
You loooove me
What did he even do to make goldfishie sooo angry???
It does not matter, just know that he’s the worst!
Did you turn red and pretty for him too?
FLOYD!
If I could collar you for that I WOULD in this instant
Kinky ;)
But you only get red and pretty for me anyway~
Knowing Jade, he probably did a lot of things, and went away with them with that infuriatingly sweet and innocent smile of his. And knowing his Goldfishie, he’d probably look disgusted and yell a little, but nothing more — he was more accepting of Jade after all, by virtue alone that his twin didn’t outright challenge him to add fuel to the fire — so the anger would shimmer down under Jade’s guidance.
Boring.
Still, his Goldfishie left him on read, probably too embarrassed to answer. Definitely too infuriated to do so, so Floyd did what any concerned boyfriend would do, and called Riddle.
“I swear, if you called just to make fun of me, I will throw my phone into the sea.”
And he would, maybe, probably, depend on how much Floyd wanted to test that theory.
But, there was something novel and intriguing about this. Him in bed, in his dark room. His boyfriend across the sea, probably retired to his room too, talking on the phone with him. It felt nice, and it also provided opportunities.
“What if I called because I wanted to hear your voice?”
Riddle went silent at that, the slow sigh he left out barely audible — Floyd had his phone glue to his ear, so he heard.
“I’d feel flattered then,” Riddle spoke, quietly and reserved, clearly aware that this was the very first time they talked on call.
“Well, do feel flattered,” he giggled while making himself more comfortable. The second sigh was louder than the first. “So, what are you wearing~?”
“Floyd!” his boyfriend nearly shouted on the phone, controlling his voice at the last moment. So he was either with someone else close by, or in a quiet place to begin with. “You’re incorrigible, honestly, I’ll end the call if you keep this up.”
“You’re sooo boring, at least ask me what I am wearing.”
The third sigh came even louder than the first two.
“Your sleepwear, that’s what you’re wearing. And you’re probably in bed already.”
“Oh, so Goldfishie wants to jump straight in~”
“I will jump off the balcony if you don’t stop!”
“That where you are now?”
Silence, so absolute that Floyd could actually pick up the sound of waves crashing into the rocky shore and the singing of the night life, a constant buzzing that filled the warm night air with an eerie, enchanting feeling.
“Yeah, I was watching the sea,” Riddle said, voice a little far away so Floyd let him float a little. He knew that his Goldfishie would always swim back to the shore.
“Do you like it there?” he asked when the silence stretched on for too long.
A hum was all he got in return, so he waited just a little bit more.
“It’s so pretty, charming even. There’s so much happening around, it’s a little bit overwhelming with the wedding preparations though,” he admitted after some time, sounding more present than before so Floyd urged him on with little mhm s and aha s. “All these traditions, and the intriguing history, I can only think about how glad I am that I didn’t smack your brother with a book in the face before refusing his invitation.”
As if Jade would have taken that as a no, but Floyd didn’t tell Riddle that. He’ll grow to learn that despite his cloying words and two-sided smiles, Jade was pretty much genuine in his attentions, so if he went to Riddle with an invitation it meant that no matter what he said or did about it, he did it with the intention to get what he wanted, one way or another. And, Jade also liked Riddle well enough.
They were brothers after all, and at this point in time Jade almost knew all there was to know about Riddle. Some things, not even a twin should be aware of.
“So you’re having fun~”
“I, yeah, I am. There was a puppet show today,” he went on about it, not for long enough for Floyd to lose interest in the conversation because Riddle was smart like that and knew well enough when to stop. “Anyway, that and the dancing, it was something I never thought I’d do. But it was nice, I suppose, even if I must have looked like a fool.”
“Awe, don’t say that Goldfishie! I bet you tried your very best.”
A huff on the line, which turned into soft giggles.
Riddle really did have the sweetest of laughs.
“You should do that more,” he said before he could think too hard about it. “Laugh.”
Riddle huffed on the line, the sound of clothes rustling and the sea in the distance almost lulling Floyd to sleep.
“Maybe, and try some forms of dancing other than ballroom.”
“I can help with that alright.”
He had offered once, only to get heavily rejected. The only dancing they ever did was a bastardized form of waltzing, more mindless swaying in each other’s arms than anything else and Floyd found himself missing it all of a sudden.
“Alright.”
Well, he’ll hold Riddle up to that.
“Dark trousers and a dress shirt,” Riddle said after a short silence, his voice flat and even the way he always went when he was embarrassed but tried to refuse it.
“Oh?”
“That’s what I’m wearing, I went out on the balcony before preparing for bed.”
Floyd hummed, his fingers playing with the zipper of his hoodie. He could take the discussion in a certain direction, he was sure of that, but he couldn’t really tell if the warm and fuzzy feeling he was experiencing was arousal, or something else. Simpler, calmer perhaps.
It wouldn’t hurt to try something new, he decided. At least that wouldn’t be a boring endeavour.
“So, the school uniform,” he said, feigning ignorance as he rolled on his stomach to tab out of the call and open one of the pictures of Riddle from earlier.
“No, your…your mother provided us with clothes fitting for a wedding,” his boyfriend replied, sounding a little bit bashful and wasn’t that adorable? Floyd sure had to take him back home one day. “I don’t know if I’ll get to keep them or not though.”
“Don’t you worry Goldfishie, I’ll tell mama that you loved the clothes and she’ll pack them up for you~”
“Oh no, you don’t have to, I wouldn't want to be a bothe—’
“Shush now,” he interrupted Riddle, getting an annoyed grumble in return. “That’s the mother of your boyfriend, she’ll dote on you anyway.”
The crashing of waves and the buzzing of cicadas were not loud enough to cover the unevenness of Riddle’s breathing, the shaking way in which he exhaled. As if Floyd did not know what both of them were thinking.
“She’s very nice,” came the tiny, pained voice from the other end of the call. “She loves you a lot.”
“I know.”
And that was that.
Water lapping at the shore and the heavy silence between them as Floyd flopped on his back, and Riddle moved too, until all Floyd could hear was the barely there sound of his breathing.
“What are you doing now?”
“Looking at the sea,” Riddle whispered back before he seemed to take a deep breath. “I…”
“It’s alright Goldfishie,” he reassured him, not feeling like teasing nor forcing Riddle into confessing anything he didn't feel like doing on his own accord. Sometimes, all you had to do was let the present happen to you, to allow it to carry you away like deep sea currents dragging you in their wake. “I’m happy you met her, and I can’t wait to see you dressed and dolled all up by her. My fashion sense had to come from someone, and I’m telling you, it ain’t from pop.”
The giggle that came through the speakers was in no way as beautiful as it would have been if Floyd was there to hear it in person, but he made do.
“And then, I will take extra care to unwrap you like a little present~”
“Floyd, I will end the call.”
And somehow, the threat didn’t sound threatening at all.
With a sigh — Goldfishie sure liked to sigh that night didn’t he — his boyfriend seemed to move around a little, the sound of a door closing and the sudden silence of a closed space filling in the distance between them.
“I should go to bed, we had a long day today and tomorrow will only get busier.”
“Mhm, even pretty Goldfishies need their beauty sleep, don’t let me keep you up~”
More silence, then the sound of shoes dropping on the floor and the rustle of clothing. The vibrations were different, static filling the spaces that were once waves and the city life. He knew right away that he was on speaker then, Riddle probably undressing all the way.
“I’m going to take a shower,” Riddle said, the soft thudding of his feet on the floor disappearing in the distance.
Well, wasn’t that something.
Floyd decided that closing his eyes was the best course of action, mind pleasantly calm as it only managed to get around Jade, Azul, or well, Riddle lately.
If anything, Jade simply knew how to lead him to such a mood, although his steering failed just as much as it succeeded, his twin was the very first able to make Floyd feel calm. Azul on the other hand didn't do it consciously at all, but he managed to catch on once or twice. Even so, he did nothing about it and Floyd was almost certain it was because Azul preferred to enjoy the nice and quiet atmosphere in Floyd’s presence than the possible outburst he’d receive if he prodded him or tried to take advantage of the situation.
Riddle though? He just did it as simple as that. Be it with a kiss on Floyd’s forehead while he was dozing off on the library table while Riddle was studying, or with a thumb massaging the inside of Floyd’s wrist. There was a time when Riddle made him tea, the entire process suddenly so relaxing and enticing that Floyd watched him transfixed, accepting the warm cup of tea with both hands and a smile on his face. He even drank it all in silence, which seemed to entertain Riddle more than anything else.
So when his eyelids grew heavy and a quiet, serene voice started whispering in his ear, he simply smiled and hummed back in response.
The rustling of bedsheets, the quiet and even breathing on the other end of the call, silence and blissfulness in the darkness and softness of his own bed, the way Riddle paused, held his breath, before whispering some more. The way Floyd was already so out of it, but a part of his brain kicked in before he was pulled under, words spilling past his lips across oceans and land, cradled into tiny and warm hands, held close to a fiery chest with a thudding heart inside of it.
Love you too.
If he dreamed of gentle waves and warm waters, of sunshine spilling across the glossy surface of the sea, bright arrows of light piercing the depths to caress blood red corals, he did not remember it in the morning. He only recalled the softness, the warmth and the rightness of the dream, the itch under his skin for more, the hunger in his belly for more , the anticipation building in the marrow of his bones for when he could wrap his hands around a slim waist, bend his back over a shorter body and drink it all up with his mouth.
Soon.
If the call log showed that Riddle had ended the call some time after six in the morning, Floyd only added that fact to the same place in his mind where the images of Riddle wearing black and red resided. Food for thought.
Somewhere down the hall, at the same late time into the evening.
Azul almost dropped his phone when his brain processed what the string of letters in the display name of the text meant. A number he had by virtue of being a housewarden, and frankly speaking by Azul being Azul, but still, nothing could have prepared him to have Malleus Draconia text him.
Yuu says she can’t message you due to a communication issue, so she asked me to.
She told me to send you this video clip.
Below the two messages was a short clip which Azul downloaded and let it play, eyes narrowed as the camera went out of focus before zooming in to the form of Jade, crouched down, puppets in his hands as he spoke his lines diligently, even switching voices between characters. There was nothing out of the ordinary really, beside the fact that Jade looked rather endearing with how dedicated he was to the bit.
Azul also knew him well enough to notice how much he was enjoying that play, the slight curl of his lips as he spoke saying a lot about how much fun Jade was having. Which, good for him, but Azul had an ominous feeling about this entire ordeal. After all, Yuu seemed to be rather feisty that evening and Azul had to be on his guard.
Then, when Jade started outright barking as part of the play, the camera started shaking, the muffled laugh in the background clearly belonging to a little vexing housewarden.
The video stopped right after, and with a sigh, Azul swiped back to the chat with Malleus only to find new messages waiting for him.
She also asked me to relay this message:
Come get your dog, it barks and bites too.
I am not sure what this is supposed to mean, but she told me not to worry about it.
Azul was going to throttle that woman, even if he had to go past Malleus Draconia to do it.
Why she had decided to pick on him was beyond his understanding, but that wouldn’t stop him from having a few choice words with her! Or that was the plan.
My dear friend, I feel like there is something you wish from me
You don’t need to be shy, just ask and a contract shall be crafted!
It is only fair if we are truthful with each other, or else…
To say that the undelivered icon that showed up on the screen and the user has blocked your account message almost sent him into a fit of rage. He was offended enough, pride bruised enough , to almost send a string of curses to the only contact he knew that could relay the message to Yuu.
He only stopped, finger hovering on the send button, when his eyes caught up on the name at the top of the chat. Maybe, just maybe, he should try to side step Malleus first. Just in case.
Please tell our dear common acquaintance of a housewarden that I thank her
Her benevolence knows no boundaries
The reply that he received, almost immediately, made him consider a new possibility. What if she was the one texting him? But no, that way of speech was entirely the Diasomnia housewarden’s doing.
Message relayed.
I am pleased to see you have such a high opinion of her.
I wish to repay you in kind, and admit that your partner is truly one of a kind too.
His what? But before he could even start to guess what that meant, Malleus went on.
Although his intentions are rather questionable at times, Jade Leech is a formidable character.
I wish you two only the best and I would happily attend your wedding too!
He seems to want one in the likes of the wedding we shall attend soon,
So I am already knowledgeable of the customs and traditions.
…what?
WHAT?!
Yuu says she would gladly be my plus one too! Isn’t that wonderful?
Maybe…
Never mind, I wish you a good night Ashengrotto.
What in the name of the Seven was that?
What even happened?
With a headache already creeping behind his eyes, Azul decided that he was above dealing with a pair of idiots. Complete, ridiculous fools!
But…if anything, he had to agree that the video of Jade was rather entertaining. In an adorable kind of way. In the way he rarely saw his vide-housewarden enjoy things other than mushrooms and forest hiking. Maybe he should indulge Jade some more whenever he implies taking part in certain activities.
Azul decided to go to sleep before he started being catatonic at the sheer audacity that insufferable pair had! If Malleus was fully dedicated to pursuing that possibility, Azul could only feel sorry for what awaited the citizens of Briar Valley under the reign of such a pair.
Not his circus though.
If he re-watched the video a couple of times before actually falling asleep, that was only between him and the four walls of his bedroom.