Chapter Text
It was a beautiful day.
Birds were chirping.
Flowers were blooming.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
Every unbirthday party went just as planned.
Every class, he got closer to his friends.
Riddle couldn't be happier.
“Trey, isn’t this such a wonderful day!” He said cheerfully, walking through the joyful courtyard of Night Raven College.
Trey laughed, “It sure is. What’s got you in such a good mood?”
“Does there have to be a reason to be so happy?”
“No, I suppose not.” Trey smiled, “I’m happy you're happy, Riddle. We all deserve it after these past few weeks.”
“Yes indeed, hopefully no other overblots will happen the rest of the year,” Riddle sighed. The school had just finished repairs from what Malleus had done; they all really needed a break!
“We can’t slack off too much, though,” Riddle added on, “the interschool tournament is soon, this will be the year we beat Royal Sword Academy!"
“I suppose we can hope so…”
Riddle hummed, “I’ll have to discuss inter-dorm training with Azul later. We’ve come up with a plan to hopefully make Octanville and Heartslabyul work together better!”
Trey adjusted his glasses. “You and Azul have been hanging out a lot lately aren’t you?”
Riddle smiled, “Yes, we have. I’d say at this point we’ve become decent friends. I would’ve never expected that at the beginning of the year, but he’s surprised me a lot. He’s actually fairly pleasant once you get to know him…”
“Hmmm interesting…” Trey commented.
Riddle chose to ignore the fact that Trey seemed to think he knew something that Riddle didn’t. He was in far too good a mood to allow it to be soured by paranoia. After all, he had so many things to look forward to! Like talking with Azul again, they’d had a pretty enjoyable conversation last time, and Riddle was excited to continue it. Especially considering the next time they’d meet would be in a joint alchemy class, he was always able to learn a lot from Azul; he really admired how much the octo-mer knew about potions.
He felt positively giddy about seeing Azul again, if he did say so himself! He was one of the closest friends Riddle had had in a long time, with them sharing their dreams and putting their lives on the line for each other at S.T.Y.X. It was a bond that Riddle cherished deeply-
He froze in his tracks.
There, only a short distance away, sat Azul on the fountains. He looked radiant, the sun catching on his silver hair, which shone like pearls, and his eyes sparkled like the depths of the sea.
Riddle felt his heart skip a beat; it was just his luck that the person he wanted to see the most would appear in front of him!
But then his eyes began to wander to the person sitting next to Azul.
He was fairly unremarkable, a medium-sized guy with short black hair and an average-looking face, although he was sporting some impressive-looking makeup. Looking at his uniform, he seemed to be from Pomifore. Riddle usually didn’t judge looks, but he was sure if he’d passed him by in the hallway, he wouldn’t recall him at all. In fact, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen him in his life.
The two of them seemed to be chatting up a storm, probably about a contract Azul wanted to make or homework for a class. Surely Azul wouldn’t mind if he joined in on the conversation; after all, two housewardens are better than one! And then he could finish up with the other boy faster, and Azul would be all his to converse with.
But then again… why was that boy looking at Azul like that? Like he had hung the very stars and built the earth just for him? And what was that look in Azul's eyes? That sparkle as he’d just made the business deal of his life.
If Riddle knew any better, he would say the two of them look positively love-struck. But that couldn’t be it; it wouldn’t be.
“Azul-!” He smiled, taking a step forward towards him. Then he froze when his eyes caught sight of something.
Their hands. They were holding hands.
He took a step back as a feeling of absolute disgust and anger washed over him. Azul was holding hands with that- with that nobody!
“Riddle, are you alright?” Trey asked, seeing his switch in emotions. He turned to see what Riddle saw: “Oh, it seems Azuls found a partner… good for him. Are you taking it… ok…?”
There was nothing ok about this! Riddle felt sick to his stomach!
He looked back at them again, laughing and holding hands and whispering all their little secrets that only they would know. Riddle should feel happy for Azul; he was his friend after all! It was natural for friends to feel glad for each other's romantic success!
He clenched his fists. So why did Riddle feel like someone had ripped his heart out? Why did Riddle feel like Azul and his little boyfriend had come and personally spit on him?
There was nothing wrong with their relationship, so why did Riddle-
Boys. They were both BOYS!!!
But that wasn’t wrong! Maybe a few centuries ago, it was frowned upon, but in this day and age, same-sex relationships were practically completely normalized. Only a rare few, raised with hate in their hearts, frowned upon them.
Like how Riddle was frowning right now…
Riddle took a step back, covering his mouth in shock. Was he… homophobic…?
No… that couldn’t be! His mind raced; he had friends who were gay!
But then again, those relationships were when two friends of his dated; this one was a friend of his and someone he’d never met before. Maybe he’d been homophobic this whole time, but his care for his friends had overshadowed it.
He thought back to his younger years. Where his mother had schooled him about how some people liked the same gender. She’d never gone out of her way to make it appear as bad as she did, but the way she always pushed Riddle by talking about his “future wife” always proved she had a certain ideal in mind. After his overblot, he’d realized that a lot of her views had been flawed, that one especially, but perhaps it had a more internal effect on him than he thought..?
He looked back towards Azul again, just to confirm his feeling. He could feel the anger rise inside of him as he watched them be all lovey-dovey, only to be quickly followed by fear.
He thought he’d moved on from his ways before his overblot. He’d become kinder, more tolerant, and a better person. He’d changed! Yet it obviously wasn’t enough for him to feel such feelings still.
His heart rate began to quicken. He couldn’t stay like this. How would Azul want to keep being friends with him if he found out he was angry just because he liked someone of the same sex? It was shameful to think of someone like that. He couldn’t lose Azul!
He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths to calm himself. It was ok to be Gay. He repeated the words in his head like a motto, trying to exorcise the unwanted thoughts from his mind.
However, when he opened his eyes, he felt like he had been shot in the heart all over again.
Azul was leaning. On him.
He was laughing and smiling all while his head was resting on that guy's shoulder, his arm wrapped around Azul.
They looked so happy. Yet he never wanted to overblot again in his life.
“I’ve… I’ve got to go.” He said quickly to Trey.
He turned around in the blink of an eye, fighting everything that told him to look back at them, as well as the protests from Trey.
He was going to need help if he was going to fix himself.