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You were a rule breaker, this much he knew.
Riddle watched, time and time again, as you ignored established order and rules in favor of your own. You had this horrible, awful way about you that seemed to challenge the world to tell you why the rules existed. You would create your own rules in place of the ones you were given.
It infuriated him.
To your credit, you were often very good at following your own rules. Riddle found himself learning your rules because he wanted to see if you actually stuck to them, and he learned that you're actually quite orderly when you're the one creating the order.
This trait of yours was one that initially made you his bitter enemy. Rules aren't there because we like them, rules are there because we need them. If you couldn't follow the rules, you were the one who needed to be reined in. The queen didn't stand for rulebreakers because they turned the kingdom on its head. You two fought bitterly time and time again.
It wasn't until his overblot that he realized something about you; You brought order to places that had no rules.
When composure and cordiality left the gardenscape, you stayed behind firm in your resolve. You called out rules that didn't exist, bringing people together to fight effectively under your banner. What was chaos became uniform under your leadership.
Riddle had come to respect you immensely because of this.
He saw time and time again, as you persevered and beat the odds, braving against threats he never knew how to handle.
Sure, you didn't follow plenty of other people's rules, but he could always look to you to supply rules in places he didn't understand. You created rules for friendship that helped bolster him in building relationships. You created rules for fights, which made conflict safer. You created rules for survival, which kept him afloat when his regimens failed him.
Your rules were good. Sensible. Easy to remember. Failure to comply came with the natural consequences of making poor decisions.
Even Ace followed your rules. He didn't listen to half of Heartslabyul's rules, but he listened to every single one of yours. You tempered the wild-hearted and gave them structure.
Riddle grew to admire this quality of yours. He found himself following your rules whenever he found himself at a loss for how to conduct himself. That's why, when he first tried alcohol, he looked to you for guidance. As always, you gave him order;
1) If you don't like the taste of a drink, don't keep drinking it.
2) Don't drink when sad.
3) Don't drink without an activity. Drinking or wallowing in sadness don't count as activities.
4) Don't drink alone.
5) Tipsy is fine, drunk is not.
Five simple, good rules. You taught them to all of your friends when you went out to venues with alcohol. When Heartslabyul members got caught up in drunken revelries, Riddle would force them to learn these rules before he'd allow them out on their own again.
Alcohol wasn't allowed on Heartslabyul property, so the students getting into trouble were always out of reach until it was too late. They had to learn to self-manage so they wouldn't mar the reputation of the dorm at parties and off-campus functions.
Your rules kept people out of trouble.
By now, these rules were considered so sensible and so commonplace, that most people on campus knew them. Even if students broke one, the other rules usually helped keep them from making too much of a mess. They were considered so sensible that there were rumors that even Savanaclaw unofficially adopted them, calling them 'Common sense'.
So why is it, that you've managed to break at least four of them?
---
Before him, you sit on the porch of Ramshackle, visibly disheveled, a mostly-empty bottle nearby as you tearfully peruse something on your phone. He finds himself in shock.
Riddle came to return the notes he'd borrowed from you during your last study session. The last thing he expected was to walk in on something like this.
In many ways, he's come to see you as a paragon in the school. Someone to be admired for your strength and resolve. Seeing you completely undone like this, he feels.. Bitter.
Riddle steps up to the porch, expression stern as he clears his throat. He expects you to look up. When you don't, he swipes your phone out of your hand as punishment. He looks over the screen to see whatever it could be that you've allowed your moral compass to bend for.
When he sees a picture of you in clothes he's never seen with people he doesn't recognize, his eyes narrow on you. "And what exactly is this?"
".. M'furends.." Your words meld together as you hug on the banister. It doesn't seem like you're in any state to hold a proper conversation. Looking back over the image, you look younger in it. This must be a picture from your original world. He knows you had a phone on you when you arrived in the mirror, which lost power by the second day. So you must have been able to finally get the pictures off of it.
Riddle's eyes soften as he realizes he's likely looking at the last connection you have to the world you lost. He glances back over to you, only for his gaze to harden again as he still feels betrayed by your behavior. If you were feeling homesick and sad, you should have reached out. You should have asked for company.
Why didn't you?
He pockets your phone, moving to swipe up the bottle when he sees you reaching for it again. He catches the scent dripping off the bottle; It's a hard liquor. He knows you hate the taste of these on their own. You prefer mixing them.
Seems you've gone five for five on rule breaking this evening.
Stepping off the porch, he scowls to you and has you watch him pour the rest of the contents out onto Ramshackle's lawn. If you won't keep yourself in check, he will. "It seems someone needs to give you a refresher on the rules."
In a frustrated second of clarity as you realize he's throwing away the rest of your drink, you scowl right back at him, spitting "I MADE th'rules!" as you put your arms up as though to challenge him.
He doesn't even skip a beat as he walks past you and helps himself into Ramshackle. "And you think that means you're above them?" Riddle's tone is audibly frustrated. He remains calm as he moves, but you can tell he's annoyed with you. You can hear him beginning to go through your cabinets, and you grumble as you slowly force yourself up onto your feet.
You clutch the banister as you can hear him muttering angrily as he's looking for something. You can hear the sound of something being poured out into Ramshackle's sink. It takes all of your focus to not fall down the stairs as you try to slump your way into the front door to see what he's doing.
It takes a while, but you follow the noises into the kitchen, where you find Riddle pouring out the remainder of your cabinet of booze with the conviction of someone scorned. Considering you're struggling to stand, you don't dare try to leap across the kitchen to stop him. You just clutch the counter, groaning in anger.
Riddle doesn't pay your anger any mind. "Rulebreakers don't get to have drinks."
"Thaznot wunna mine.."
"Rules mean nothing if there's no consequences." Typically, the consequences for breaking your rules was a heavy headache, regret, poor choices and a mess to clean up in the morning. Normally, that was all the deterrent people needed to stick to your rules.
It seems you need a stronger deterrent.
You lean against the counter, sleep tugging at the edges of your mind as your innards hurt. You feel sick, and the room is swaying a little. When Riddle's completed pouring out around a hundred bucks down the drain, he tosses the bottles in your trash and he turns his attention back to you.
What should he do with you?
Should he send you off to bed and return in the morning to scold you? Should he collar you and drag you back to Heartslabyul so he can ensure you're not getting into more trouble? Should he send you off to bed and stay the night himself to keep you out of trouble and maintain your dignity?
Riddle finds himself asking himself the question he always asks himself when he's in an unfamiliar situation.. What would you do?
It doesn't take him long before he knows exactly how you'd handle this. He moves to help you up from the counter. When you struggle to stand on your own and you're half-asleep, he tugs an arm under you to pull you up against him so he can help lead you up the Ramshackle steps to your bedroom. He takes it slow, gentle, his firm arms keeping you from falling over with the spinning of the room.
Getting you to your bed, he helps you into it, tugging the blankets up over you to gently tuck you into bed. You murmur something about feeling sick, and he goes to retrieve a couple of buckets from one of the closets. You taught him to put a bowl/bucket on either side of the bed, just in case.
He goes downstairs to get you a glass of water and some pain meds for when you wake up in the morning, bringing them up to set on your bedside table.
When Riddle is sure you're set up for the night and morning, he heads back down to the Ramshackle living room and sits himself down on your couch, beginning to make some calls.
---
When you awaken in the morning, your head feels like someone ran it over with a truck. Repeatedly. Grim isn't in your bed. You're completely alone. How did you get into bed? You slowly roll onto your side to get up when you begin to hear the distant sound of laughter in the downstairs.
That's definitely not Grim's laugh.
You slowly sit up, the nausea hitting you again. You can see at some point in the night, you woke up and expelled some of your sick into the bucket next to your bed. The window is cracked open, as though someone anticipated that the room would smell foul in the morning without it.
The glass of water on your bedside table appeals to the dryness and horrible taste of your mouth, but the pain meds are the real treat. You down them and slowly get up. You definitely aren't the one who put yourself to bed last night, so who..? You look around half-heartedly for your phone, coming up short.
Great. You're missing your phone.
As you slowly shamble to get out of your room, you can hear a distinct voice calling out loudly to other people inside the house. The commanding tone of the Heartslabyul housewarden can be heard clearly outside your door, causing your head to feel like someone's stabbing you in the skull with a screwdriver; "I'll be checking in on ___. You all get started on breakfast!"
Riddle knocks on the door, and when you don't answer, he swings it open to find you standing only a few feet away, clutching your throbbing head and leaning against the wall. He smirks upon the sight of your rule-breaking catching up with you.
You manage to croak out in a hoarse whisper; "… Riddle.. Could you.. be quieter..?"
"Ah, I see you're awake." Riddle ignores your request for quietness and moves past you into the room, beginning to grab the buckets to take them to the bathroom to clean them for you. Every click of his polished heels on the wood makes your head bloom with a throb of pain. Every knock of the metal buckets embeds itself into your skull.
It's obvious to you that he's the one who has been taking care of you, but he's also doing it in the most awful way possible.
You can see through your wincing that Riddle seems very pleased at seeing your pain. Like you're getting your just deserts. He can see that you've taken the pain meds on the table, so he knows it's only a matter of time until the pain starts to dull at least a little.
"Hahh.." You massage your skull, struggling to exist.
"Come along. Rule number 133; All must start the day well groomed and clean. I won't stand for anymore rule-breaking from you." His tone is firm, but not as harsh as you would have expected. It's almost.. Amused..?
Riddle gently eases you out into the hallway, where you can clearly hear Sebek's voice raising from the downstairs followed by Grim's cackling, causing you to pitifully whine in pain as you whisper out; "… why is Sebek here..?"
A grin threatens to spread across Riddle's lips as he ushers you into one of the bathrooms that has a shower. "I found you in quite a disheveled state last night, ___. I figured you could use some help this morning."
You can tell he's enjoying your suffering, but he's also acting as your island amidst the storm of your hangover. Once he helps you get into the restroom, you can see he's already set up your uniform on the counter, next to your morning toiletries and haircare products.
While you shower, Riddle goes to clean out those buckets.
You eventually make your way out of the restroom, moving at a snail's pace as you slowly meander down the stairs like a zombie. As you get closer to the living room, you can hear many more voices than you did before. It seems Riddle didn't just call a couple people, he called an army.
It's here that you discover several of your friends picking up after themselves from a massive sleepover they hosted in Ramshackle's living room. You're greeted by the smirking and grinning faces of Jamil, Ruggie, and Kalim as you can see Cater rolling up a sleeping bag as Ace and Deuce are already loudly griping about the true winner of some game they'd been playing earlier.
You tiredly clutch your head as the two of them fight, and Kalim comes rushing over to happily greet you; "Good morning, ___!! Last night was so much fun! We missed you!! Riddle said you were sick.. Well don't worry! We'll take care of everything!"
Every syllable coming out of his mouth makes you regret coming downstairs. Ruggie begins snickering as Jamil steps in to gently usher Kalim away from you. You can see Jamil's visibly amused at your current condition. Both him and Ruggie can tell you 'partied a little too hard' last night and Riddle's punishing you.
Kalim's greeting quickly alerted the room to your presence, and Cater grins, snapping a picture of you in the morning light. Ace is laughing at you as Deuce gripes at him for being too loud while giving you sympathetic looks.
None of them are helping.
Riddle comes down the stairs, loudly declaring to the room; "Everyone is to be cleaned up and ready to leave within the next hour. This is the last call for breakfast." his voice splitting your head right between your eyes. He looks to you, crumpling your body against the railing of the stairwell and he gently presses a hand to your back to help move you down the stairs. You let him guide you.
As he does, he's incredibly tender towards you. His touch is kind and careful, and keeps you moving forward.
Approaching the kitchen, you can hear loud pop music being blasted and even more people laughing and talking. You wince and try to peel away from Riddle to avoid it. He lets you, and he taps your shoulder to show you that he's the one who has your cellphone. He smirks and heads into the kitchen.
You get the message loud and clear; If you want your cellphone back, you'll have to go in there.
Groaning quietly, you shamble into the kitchen where Lilia is blasting music from a boombox nearby and singing into a spoon as he floats in the air above. Sebek is loudly griping about Grim is eating all the breakfast food. Epel is loudly going through your fridge while talking to Jack, clinking glass bottles of apple juice together as he pulls them out to hand out to people.
Trey is making morning pancakes and bacon, which smells amazing, but you have no idea where he got the supplies for that, because your fridge was mostly empty last night.
That question is answered as Epel loudly shouts; "Hey Ruggie! Is it okay if we leave the rest of the food you brought?" to which you can hear Ruggie call from the dining room; "Yeah, I think ___ could use it more."
Riddle leaves your phone on the middle counter of the kitchen, walking past it into the dining room where even more voices can be heard.
You spitefully go to grab your phone from the middle of the kitchen, crumpling against the counter. Epel grins and puts the cold bottle against your head - And while it's cold as hell, it also feels nice against your headache. Jack moves to help ease you into the dining room, where he helps you find a chair.
In here, Ruggie is already chowing down on some food as he listens to Rook loudly and enthusiastically describe some of the finer breakfasts he can remember having in his life. Ace and Deuce are seated as Deuce talks about some of the best eggs he's ever had. Kalim bursts into the room from the kitchen, singing along with Lilia as he's giggling, Cater following after by tapping on the furniture in tune with the beat as they come to join everyone at the table.
You're visibly in pain as it feels like Riddle called all of the loudest possible people to come to your home, when he knew it would hurt you the most.
Grim comes in, giggling and running away from a shouting Sebek who is chasing him away from the breakfast foods as you further crumple against the table in pain. You can't even beg for mercy, you're so hungover.
Lilia comes in, turning off the boombox after the last song ends. Behind him, Trey brings in the last of the food, setting plates on the table filled with pancakes and bacon. Jamil comes in shortly after with a plate decked out for Kalim.
Everyone enjoys sharing breakfast as they discuss the sleepover last night, and people occasionally ask you questions, but you just wincingly groan in pain in response as you try to eat your food. By now, the pain meds have kicked in, so your headache is no longer splitting your skull, but this certainly is way more noise than you wanted this morning.
Still, you can't deny.. The breakfast is delicious. It is amazing. You can't remember the last time you woke up in Ramshackle to someone else having cooked for you. The pancakes are buttery and full, with little chunks of apples in them. Someone brought spiced maple syrup that enhances both the pancakes and the bacon. The bacon fills that hangover craving for something greasy and comforting. Epel's applejuice pairs really well with everything and it was refrigerated overnight, so it's cool and refreshing.
Even though you are in agony, the pain begins to subside as the pleasure of being surrounded by people who are loving on you and the deliciousness of the good food begins to take hold of you.
After everyone's done eating, everyone washes their own dishes in the kitchen, but they leave the dishes for cooking and serving in the sink. Everyone except Riddle and Grim leave for the morning.
When it's just the three of you, Riddle decides to declare to you; "You'll be in charge of cleaning up the serving and cooking dishes." He looks to you expectantly.
You tiredly nod in confirmation.
Satisfied, he smiles. "I hope this serves as a lesson to you; You aren't alone, there are many people who want to help you, and if I ever find that you've broken your rules again, I will personally see to it that you are cared for in the morning." the last part is spoken as a threat as his smile blends into a smirk.
You know in your heart of hearts that Riddle will absolutely gather the loudest people on campus again to come torment you if you ever break your rules around drinking again.
You nod, still grimacing a little as you head into the kitchen, Grim following after you. Riddle waits for you to come out, so he can walk with you to school.
While he doesn't ask any prying questions about why you broke your own rules, he does ask questions about your homeworld on the walk to school, listening as you three walk together. Grim ends up asking lots of questions as well, as you haven't really talked that much about your friends from your old world.
Gently, and ever so tenderly, you are reminded that you are loved and you don't have to carry the pain alone.
You are also reminded, not so tenderly, and actually quite painfully, that Riddle doesn't like it when people break the rules. Especially not yours.
And no one is above the rules.