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Idia still wasn’t used to having anyone in his room.
His room was supposed to be his refuge from the tall grass random encounter zone outside, and yet—
Riddle had been coming over regularly ever since he'd crash landed into Idia's dream. It was still odd to see him sitting on the floor or on his bed studying, but Idia supposed it was odder that he opened the door every time Riddle primly knocked, arms full of studying supplies. Idia told himself it didn’t mean anything, but…
“This Spellforge site seems wrong,” grumbled Riddle from Idia's bed, bent over a recently acquired laptop.
“Again?” Idia swiveled around in his desk chair, grinning. “Just because my mental materials are so much better doesn’t mean the official courses are wrong, Task Master.”
Riddle's unmodded laptop was configured for any normie to easily use— yet he still took notes with pen and paper right beside it, frowning as he wrote down lines of code. “What I know is so much more advanced, yet I'm stumbling on basic functions and syntax! How irritating.”
“Uh, yeah. You had the crash course to end all crash courses.” Idia shrugged, dragging his headphones off so they rested around his neck. “But you'll figure it out.”
“I will!” repeated Riddle, eyebrows furrowed and determined as he entered in more code to the website lesson.
With learning tools and books, Riddle didn't have to hang around Idia. Honestly, it would probably be more useful if Riddle only came in to ask particularly difficult questions, but Idia let him stay for entire work sessions, the hours flying by while Riddle studied and Idia… had many tabs and windows open, one of which was probably homework.
Multitasking, okay?
To his relief, Riddle minded his business despite being so close to Idia's screens. Talk about a trust level multiplier.
Idia never fully tuned Riddle out, as Riddle usually had too many questions for him to do so, but it had grown to be something he couldn’t quite explain. Almost like Ortho's maintenance routines or Idia's computer fans, Riddle’s inquiries and mix of typing and writing put Idia at ease. He didn’t used to think such a thing was possible.
It was so new.
If anything, Idia felt somewhat down when Riddle had to leave each day. He didn't enjoy the mysterious debuff. Solitude was supposed to be safe. Optimal. This was chilling with a high level boss in his room.
Even though Idia had just said the website lesson wasn't wrong, he leaned forward anyway to see what Riddle was writing down. “Ah, yeah I found a shorter way to script that, but you gotta learn the hard way before you get to use cheat codes.”
Riddle huffed. “I acknowledge the necessity of fundamentals. It's annoying that those fundamentals are not the most efficient.”
“You're telling me.”
Without thinking, Idia went ahead and added a side quest for himself.
“What if I drew up some problems for you?”
Riddle brightened, raising his head with a pleased smile. It sent a bolt of warmth through Idia’s stomach. “That's a generous offer. I'd greatly appreciate it.”
By Talos, this couldn't be happening. What kind of Night Raven College student was Idia, offering something for free? Time to dial back that dialogue option.
“And in exchange—” Idia held up a handheld game console, smirking as he waved it. “You gotta play something.”
Riddle folded his arms. “That’s absurd.”
“Awwwww, come on. You were so excited when you cleared that tutorial on easy! Hee hee!” Despite wanting to encourage Riddle, Idia couldn’t help a guffaw at Riddle’s total newbie expense. “Maybe you’ll get past the first stage of something this time!”
“I’m here to be productive.” Yeah, that was Riddle. Guy had a damn high Persuasion check to clear.
“You wanna be an expert coder, right?” Idia tapped his own temples with the side of the game console. “What’s the point of learning all of this without getting into what we’re into? The fact that you’re learning Technomancy and it’s not even to mod any games or build robots is already crazy. Like, eating napkins for the taste? You gotta lighten up a bit!”
Riddle paused, actually considering Idia’s words. “In other words, I should learn to think more like you by experiencing more recreational applications?”
“Yeahsurewhatever.” Idia took the W and thrust the handheld at him. “I can even be super nicies and point you towards a game that doesn’t need reflexes, since you clearly have none.”
“I do too!” retorted Riddle. “I’ll have you know, in a real duel—”
“Hey, hey, no melting the plastic!” exclaimed Idia, watching as Riddle’s skin all started to turn red. “Okay, so you’re super scary IRL. My hobby is being a total BAMF without moving more than my fingers, so you gotta channel all that energy down into the pixels, got it?”
Riddle simmered down, shoulders slumping. Idia was concerned for a brief moment, like, woah, did that get to him? But Riddle was still scowling with determination, which was a good sign.
“Hmph. Got it.”
Riddle even took playing a game seriously. He opened the console to reveal a screen, staring at the selection of games blankly. “Which one is best?”
Idia had a lot of choices, many of them hilarious, but he wanted the chance to do this again. Better not scare Riddle off. “You know what you’ll like? Some kinda management game. Briar Valley is a good one. You plant stuff, buy stuff, fish stuff, go get materials, help fae and humans with their problems, try not to pass out from exhaustion— total nightmare for me to imagine doing myself, but I’ll gladly pretend to do it for hours.”
“You don’t make any sense,” stated Riddle.
“Just to you and the rest of humanity,” snorted Idia, turning back around to his screens. He opened up his own Spellforge app, brainstorming code that would be similar enough to what Riddle already knew from the Malleus incident, but still beginner-friendly.
There were a couple of tapping noises behind him.
“The game isn’t going.” Riddle got up and stood next to Idia, pointing at the screen, and then tapping the screen. The screen that was definitely not a touchscreen. “See?”
Idia burst out laughing, clutching his sides.
“Oh my God, you’re killing me! Press A!”
“How was I supposed to know?!” Riddle grabbed the nearest soft thing, which happened to be a plushie of a slime, and threw it at Idia’s head as Idia wheezed.
“Here’s another game-changer: B is for back, or no.” Idia coughed, hunched over, tears in his eyes. “Ooooohohoho! Please, please ask more questions!”
“It’s a good thing you’re better at teaching code than you are at video games!” Riddle sat down heavily on Idia’s bed again, curling into an angry little ball.
Idia snickered. “Sorry, pal. You gotta understand, I feel like I was born playing games. It’s just intuition."
Riddle glowered at him over the top of the screen as the menu music played. “The same intuition you seem to lack for handling a broom, perhaps?”
“Talk about an attack of opportunity. You got me there.”
Their conversation dwindled again as Riddle put all of his focus into learning how the game worked, aided by an actual in-game tutorial. Idia tapped away at his keyboard, making coding exercises for Riddle, as if he was making his own mini curriculum, complete with notes he couldn’t help adding in.
An hour went by without Idia even noticing. He’d assumed Riddle would be asking more questions he could post online later for some laughs, but the only thing he heard behind him were gameplay noises and the occasional scratches of pencil and paper.
Huh?
“Hey. Are you taking notes?”
Idia got up and stretched, eyes widening as he stared at Riddle. Riddle was totally engrossed, writing with one hand and his eyes locked on the screen as he tabbed through a menu. “Yes. There’s quite a bit to keep track of, but I believe I’m steadily increasing harvest yields at a decent amount.”
Curiosity burned in Idia’s mind as he scanned Riddle’s notes, nodding. “Yeah. Yeah! That’s really good for the first few weeks!”
Riddle finally smiled again. “It is?”
“Totally. Even planning ahead for sprinklers. Course you’d have tactical strats in mind.” Idia sat next to Riddle, gushing as he got ahead of himself. “Yooo, that’s a rare fish right off the bat! You’re on top of everything, except the mining. Oh, don’t tell me…”
“I do not want to talk about the dungeons.”
Idia took the console from Riddle’s lap. “Ha. Okay. Scoot in and learn, then.”
“No making fun of me?” Riddle pressed close to Idia’s side, leaning in so he could see the screen and watch Idia play.
“I’ll save it for after I demo. Cause if you fail then, you can’t blame it on me not teaching you.”
Riddle chuckled. “Fair enough.”
It was so much like hanging out with Ortho that Idia forgot to be nervous. He forgot to tamp down his excitement, forgot to expect for Riddle to not care. Idia was at home once he took the handheld and guided Riddle through a couple of dungeons, talking the entire time as he explained hidden mechanics and gave tips. And yet…
Idia had forgotten to be afraid, but Riddle didn’t do anything but nod along and ask questions.
It was like having a friend.
“You know,” commented Riddle, once Idia handed the game back to him. “I thought you were going to say I was weird for taking notes, or that I was playing wrong.”
“Oh yeah? Check this out.” Idia opened a new window on his screen, showing off a game wiki with embedded tables for character stats, skills, and best builds. “I moderate some fan pages for certain games. Seems like every other update I gotta fix my guides because one new character screws up the whole meta, and patches don't change it back all the way, so I totally get needing to crunch those numbers for the best stats!” Idia paused, rubbing the back of his neck and fighting the urge to immediately close the tab, anxiety spiking in his chest. “I- I mean, there's no wrong way to play anyway, unless you're totally beefing it all the time.”
Riddle leaned forward, squinting as he read. “I don't know who these characters are or what any of this means… but I'll take us both being weird.”
Their eyes met and Riddle laughed, warm and soft, untangling the knot of anxiety that had begun to wind around Idia.
They were both weird. Idia could live with that.
“Heh heh.” Idia joined in, unable to stop his face from turning pink. Why was it so surprising? Neither of them were normal-passing in any situation, so why was he shocked that Riddle so confidently accepted it? Guess high tier bosses don’t get self-conscious over having multiple health bars.
“Oh!” exclaimed Idia. “Your Spellforge stuff. Let me email you the link.”
“Yes. Thank you.” Riddle set Briar Valley aside with a hint of reluctance, only to dive into Idia’s lessons with the same intense focus as before. Idia stared a few moments too long, both proud and too aware of his work being given such scrutiny, even if he knew it was all correct. Riddle picked his pen back up, eyes fixed on his laptop as his hand was busy drawing hexagon grids to illustrate different sigil combinations, accompanied by strings of code.
Well, even a hotshot like Riddle would take awhile to work through what Idia had given him. Idia turned back around, checking on an idling game while setting another to start farming resources. Playing some of Briar Valley had him in the mood for starting yet another old favorite, so he browsed through his titles and brought up another in the series for nostalgia’s sake.
He should’ve known that getting back into his gaming groove would evaporate the last remaining hours of the day, but Idia was still surprised to hear Riddle drop the pen behind him on the paper.
“Oh? Think you can do a speedrun and 100% it your first time?” Idia stood up, ready to keep teasing, only to freeze.
Riddle hadn’t dropped the pen because he was done.
He was asleep.
On Idia’s bed.
Idia’s first reaction was to glance at the clock. 10:30pm, on the dot. Geez, Riddle even had a scheduled power down time, huh? The middle of the venn diagram between Riddle and Ortho grew bigger, somehow.
Then, he directed his attention back to Riddle, and Idia’s face grew warm.
Riddle had slumped over, lying on his side with his face on one of Idia’s pillows. He breathed deeply, mouth open, suggesting that he would start drooling in a few turns. He’d been using a large, squishy kitty plush to prop his laptop on, and in his sleep he’d shifted to hold the plush close to his chest instead, laptop off to the side at an angle. The notebook had barely stayed on the bed through Riddle’s horizontal descent.
It was so…
Cute.
Idia covered his mouth, skin hot under his palm.
Riddle was cute.
Riddle was also Riddle, and Idia got the feeling that he’d be so dead if he made the wrong move. Was he supposed to let him sleep? Wake him up? Where was Idia supposed to go? He could march over and tell Riddle to get up, even do a scary impression of Riddle waking up some poor underclassman, but Idia didn’t want to. He didn’t want to banter or ruin something so seemingly fragile.
He actually didn't want to make Riddle upset, just out of courtesy.
For Riddle to just pass out like that despite all of the self-discipline he spouted, he had to be exhausted. He needed to actually rest, for once in his overachieving life.
He stood there, staring, awkwardly tapping his two index fingers together.
Uhhhhh.
Talk about being under a status effect.
Idia did what he did best and sat back down, pulling his headphones on to ignore the problem. Maybe if he like… typed loudly, he’d accidentally wake Riddle up, and he could pretend he got so absorbed in a game that he didn’t notice Riddle had fallen asleep and then done nothing, like a freak.
Yeah. That was a good plan.
He gamed until 11pm, glancing behind himself every so often to see Riddle still snoozing peacefully. Definitely drooling. Boots on the bed too, which would be a funny thing to tease him about if Idia didn’t feel so awkward and conflicted about the pros and cons of letting him sleep or waking him up.
Idia’s next excuse was that he had a few games which reset at 11pm, so he pulled those up, collecting dailies and running a few quests, frowning when Riddle didn’t wake up to any of the clicking of controls, flashing lights, or the music Idia slowly upped on his phone.
11:30pm.
Maybe Idia could stay up all night since the bed was taken. It wasn’t out of his usual realm of behavior, although the thought of going to P.E. in the morning with no sleep made him groan. Right.
Maybe Idia could just die, then.
Idia changed into his loungewear, hiding in the closet and shuffling around, both disappointed and relieved that his rummaging hadn’t woken Riddle up. He crept towards the bed, slinking into it between Riddle and the wall. He shrank back from Riddle’s blissfully oblivious form, back flat against the wall. He was so close to accidentally touching Riddle. The bed was only for one person, and Idia was gangly to begin with.
His arms already ached as he tucked them inside of his sleep hoodie, curled against his chest.
Okay, but he could totally sleep like this. Just mentally stream one of Trein’s lectures and he’d be gone in no time.
“Hm?”
Idia froze.
Riddle yawned, stretching his arms out and sending the notebook tumbling to the floor. He raised his head, blinking over at Idia. “Huh?”
“Uh, hi.” Idia sheepishly waved, sleeve flopping over his hand.
Riddle looked around, the situation catching up to him. His eyes widened and he nearly lost his laptop over the edge of the bed too.“What? Oh— oh this is most unbecoming of me. I apologize, I—”
“Wait!”
Idia launched himself across the bed, grabbing for Riddle’s laptop over Riddle’s body.
It was like being in a quick time event. Idia felt every microsecond as he rescued the laptop, dragging his arm over Riddle’s side, his chest pressed to Riddle’s warm back as Riddle stared back at him.
Idia shamefully saved the sensation in his mental hard drive, since he didn't think he'd have contact with another human being that calendar year, before springing back.
“S-sorry!” Idia stammered, somehow managing to disengage and letting the laptop slide safely between them “I just- uhhhhh, I just didn’t want to bother you, but then in trying to save your hardware I just like, totally rolled a natural 1! I'm so sorry I didn’t wake you up, it got really late, so, um. My bad.”
Riddle blinked.
“I… thank you, for catching it.” Riddle’s eyes were puffy with the need for sleep, under his eyes grey, eyelids still clearly heavy. He rubbed his head. “I’m the one who so rudely intruded on you, so I should take my leave. It’s quite unlike me to lose track of time.” Riddle sat up, tiredly slipping as he did so.
“No no, it’s okay!” urged Idia. “I’m so sorry I didn’t wake you sooner.”
Riddle’s shoulders sagged.
“Because I’m ‘super scary’, as you said?” he asked.
Idia’s brain blanked. “What?”
Riddle gestured at Idia. His voice sounded rough, which Idia would usually think was from sleep, but it seemed to be more than that, like Riddle couldn’t tamp down his emotions as efficiently as he’d want with his guard down. “You’re trying to hide from me in your own room. I get it.”
“Oh, woah woah, that’s not it!” Idia held Riddle’s laptop with one arm, tugging Riddle’s sleeve with the other. “People are all scary to me, TBH.” Idia grimaced. “I’m just really bad at this. I was trying to be like, nice.”
Riddle rubbed his eyes. “What time is it?”
“Almost midnight.”
“Midnight!?” Riddle swung his legs out of the bed, voice panicked. “That’s past my curfew!” Idia could sense the frustration that amounted to an unspoken swear word.
“As a housewarden, you could just…”
Riddle gave him an unimpressed look over his shoulder. Idia corrected his statement.
“...set a good example and not break your rules,” finished Idia sheepishly.
“I’ll take the floor,” stated Riddle.
“It's my fault, I can take the floor,” insisted Idia.
“Don't be ridiculous. It's your bed.” Riddle stood up, waving his wand once and effortlessly appearing in his sleepwear. Idia once again was overcome by a rush of warmth and fondness, noting how the black pajama set suited Riddle, complete with a soft red robe. He recovered in time to keep arguing.
“Look— this is big enough for both of us.”
Riddle sighed, rubbing his temples. “You can stop this. I make you uncomfortable, this isn't my room, and I had a lapse in judgement. That is all.”
Idia climbed out of bed, scrambling to stand up. “Wait, that's exactly what I wanted you to avoid thinking! I should've woken you, but you were totally fine! You got to relax and have fun, and you don't have to think you did something wrong!”
Riddle folded his arms, still intimidating in pajamas. “What in Wonderland is your point?! Spit it out.”
“I screwed up, but I want you to stay!” blurted out Idia. He groaned, rubbing his face. “I want you to come back, not leave forever because I'm weird and off-putting! I wanted this to be a good memory, after all the bad ones at Styx. Turns out I can't keep it together even without the whole Underworld stuff bogging me down either. Ugh.”
Idia wondered if it was actually possible to die from awkwardness. Somehow, it felt as high risk as a love confession. Did people with friends actually go through this all the time? How?
“I thought we agreed we're both weird.” Riddle extended a hand, gesturing to Idia. “Therefore, if we both accept that as fact, I don't understand why you think I take issue with you.”
Idia spoke to the floor, wanting to shrivel up and leave his physical form. Why did Ortho get to upload himself to satellites via wi-fi while Idia couldn’t? “It's just statistically probable that you'd not want to spend time with me, that's all.” Idia had blown it. Double blown it, in fact.
Riddle rubbed his temples. His voice was softer than Idia expected.
“Let me get this straight— you invited me over, gave me a custom study guide, played a game with me, let me sleep in your bed, caught my laptop when it almost fell on the ground, and you're trying to apologize to me?”
Idia thought about it.
“Um.”
When Riddle put it like that,
“I- I mean, I like, got close and it was probably weird, right?” Idia's face was burning. “I just assume people are repulsed by me, what with my low charisma modifier. I feel like I probably did something wrong.”
Riddle’s mouth twitched. “Let me teach you something in exchange for what you've given me: I come here of my own volition because I want to and like spending time with you. That's the signal I'm sending. Got it?”
A sizzling sound filled Idia’s ears.
“Your hair is turning pink,” commented Riddle.
“No it isn't!” Idia frantically patted down the length of his hair as if he could literally put out the rosy flames. Riddle laughed at him and Idia stopped, fighting down a shy smile, hunched over but unable to hide the relief in his voice. “You aren't mad?”
“Not at all.” Riddle looked down at himself. “I know what my temper is like, how little sense I make to others, how a crowd will part for me out of fear, but for a little while, you were treating me like an equal. It was… nice.”
Idia hadn’t even realized Riddle was sensitive about that sort of thing. In retrospect, he felt stupid. He’d even seen the guy’s whole traumatic backstory and character development arc unfold, and he hadn’t known what to do with that information. “Well, yeah. I- I don’t know how to do, you know, this.” He gestured to the space between them. “With another organic heat signature in the room. But it’s been… nice. Yeah.”
Idia’s heart pounded. Riddle didn’t seem to know what to say either, reverting back to business. “It seems I will be here for the night. I stand by my offer to take the floor, but if you don’t mind sharing your bed, I don’t either.”
“It’s fine,” assured Idia, quickly.
“Then the final issue is that I need a toothbrush.” Riddle grimaced. “I can’t believe I fell asleep without brushing my teeth. I cannot allow it to go uncorrected.”
Idia wondered if it was a Heartslabyul rule, a Riddle rule, or that Trey would smell it on him. He decided to not ask.
“I have a spare. Just keep it.” Idia dug around in a junk drawer, holding out a half empty two-pack of brushes. Riddle narrowed his eyes, examining the overflowing drawer of merch, wires, and other random stuff suspiciously. Idia shoved the drawer closed again with some difficulty. “What? It’s new!”
Riddle shook his head fondly as he took the toothbrush. “How do you find anything in here?”
“Haven’t you heard about the connection between genius and clutter?” Idia flashed his pointed teeth with a smirk. “If it’s true, this whole room proves my brilliance.”
“Hmph. Seems like an excuse to not tidy up.” Despite the comment, Riddle wasn’t upset at all. He lingered by the door, waiting for Idia to find his slippers and lead him to the dorm bathrooms. “Does Ignihyde have a specific lights-out time?”
Idia shrugged.
Riddle folded his arms. “You’re Housewarden.”
“To be fair, I don’t know who’s more nocturnal: us or Diasomnia. Just how things go around here.”
He expected Riddle to argue, but Riddle simply nodded. “I see.”
“Really?”
“Different places have different rules. If that’s how things go here, which is under your jurisdiction and not the general rules of Night Raven College, then that’s correct.”
Idia eased into his slippers, which were light blue with cat faces on the front, and paused with a slow smirk. “You mean anything I say goes?”
“As a fellow Housewarden, our authority is equal, though this is your territory.” Riddle scoffed. “Don’t get any funny ideas.”
“Nah. I’m not one to make up rules anyway.”
Even so, their banter felt good. It felt right to tease and rib each other, Idia feeling slightly more secure in his verbal footing than before.
Idia led Riddle through halls dimly lit with blue lights until they arrived at the community bathroom. The blue and black theme continued, though the lights above the rows of mirrors above skull-shaped sinks were thankfully bright and white for clear viewing.
A few Ignihyde students were already in there, freezing and then backing away slightly at the sight of Riddle.
“He’s just visiting, at ease,” drawled Idia, handing Riddle a tube of toothpaste.
Riddle ignored everyone else, brushing his teeth and acting unbothered. The other students still scattered anyway, leaving the two of them alone.
“Don’t take it personally,” said Idia. “We’re all like bugs that scramble for cover when you lift a rock up.”
“It’s okay,” replied Riddle. He washed his face, grabbing a towel with the Ignihyde blue triangle print pattern on it to dry off with. “I’m used to it.”
Idia’s heart skipped a beat. He knew Riddle was used to it, it may even seem like a compliment about his power, but some new part of him wanted to defend Riddle and reassure him. Maybe there were things he shouldn’t be used to.
They returned to Idia’s room. Idia turned the main lights off, the room still lit up enough by the blue glow of his electronics that they could both see well enough to walk around. Riddle took his robe off and laid it as neatly as he could over his laptop and notebook, set on a miraculously clear spot on Idia’s desk.
Now that it came to actually sharing the bed, on purpose, Idia felt his nerves start up again. He climbed in, taking the wall side again as he waited for Riddle to settle in on the spare pillow. Riddle seemed much more at ease, lying down next to Idia. Riddle sighed, closing his eyes. “What a night.”
“Yeah.” Idia pulled his blankets over them, praying his hair wasn’t turning pink again.
Riddle shifted, puzzled. “Why is this so heavy? Is there something else on us?” He sat up, patting the bed, but Idia just laughed under his breath.
“Heh, sorry. Weighted blanket. It calms your nerves.”
“Really?” Riddle settled back down, yawning. They laid side by side, facing each other as they chatted. “Your bed is more comfortable than mine.”
Idia blinked. “Uh, that can’t be right.”
“It’s the same sort of mattress, but I mean that you have more bedding.” Riddle picked up the cat plushie he’d been using earlier. “You have stuffed animals and more pillows. I tend to fall asleep while reading, so I often wake up with the corner of a book poking me somewhere.”
“Productive to the last second, Task Master.” Idia grinned. “Now who needs to clean their room?”
“Hey! I tidy up every morning, but I bring several books to bed.” Riddle jerked his head behind him, where a pile of books was sitting by the bed. “Yours live on the floor.”
“Right. Because then they don’t stab me when I’m asleep.”
Riddle snorted, but he didn’t argue, yawning again instead.
Idia shifted slightly, feeling like he needed to say more. “This is my first time doing something like this.”
“Going to bed before 1am?”
“Hee hee, no.” Idia got more serious again. “I mean, having someone over. Guess you could already tell, but I didn’t do the whole sleepover thing as a kid. Not as a teen, either.”
Riddle opened his eyes again, tired but attentive. “Hmmhmm. Me neither. Are there sleepover rules I’m missing?”
“What? Um, I don’t think so.”
“Good.” Riddle’s hands were so close to Idia’s. Idia had to make an effort to not curl up in bed as usual, since that would mean tangling his legs with Riddle’s for sure, though part of him was certain it would feel nice. Riddle seemed lost in thought. When he spoke, it was clearly not the same thought Idia was having. “When you were monitoring our dreams… did you see my overblot?”
“Yes and no.”
“Be specific.”
Idia pondered it. “Well, Ortho was my main eyes and ears. If the others were with you, I could see you. If anything happened alone, like when you got pulled into the darkness, I lost my feed.”
“I see.”
Idia wanted to press so bad. Thankfully, Riddle was talkative enough to speak his mind.
“I encountered myself, my overblotted self. He’s a real piece of work.” Riddle huffed with a dark humored chuckle. “Powerful, cruel, delusional, unreasonable, and a complete tyrant. I had to face the worst parts of me and not deny them, but accept them, before I could safely harness those powers in the dreamscape. I managed to, of course, but it was chilling.
“You know what he said? Something akin to my test scores being 100, and my score as a human being 0.”
Idia jumped in before he could think better of it. “That’s a rounding error at the very least, and totally incorrect anyway. It can’t be 0, because, you know, here we are.”
Riddle smiled, grateful. “That’s true. The point still stands, though. I’m not good with people. But, for some reason, you make it easier. That’s all.”
“R-really?” Idia felt his hair going pink again and he tried to tuck it away, even though Riddle could clearly see it, the blue and pink hues reflected in his amused eyes. “I’m usually the difficult one. You know, with so few social skills I barely leave my room. I’m worse than a prey animal and make problems out of nothing.”
“Maybe. But once you let yourself get into something, you’re so passionate about it. I could listen to you explain Technomancy or a game all day. You’re the only person in the entire school who can challenge me in an intellectual sense. It’s… actually fun to be around you.”
The admiration shone through in Riddle’s voice, clear as day.
Now, all of Idia’s hair was pink. He pulled the hood of his sleepwear up.
“Augh! You can’t say something like that! not when I’m like, caught flat-footed! Totally prone!”
Riddle squinted. “You seem closer to supine to me.”
“It’s a status condition from a nerd game, don’t worry about it,” mumbled Idia, hiding his brightly burning face.
Riddle reached out, gently pushing back Idia’s hood. Idia let him, for some reason. “I know we can misunderstand each other sometimes, but after all we’ve been through… have we achieved a status akin to friendship?”
Oh Sevens. Neither of them knew anything.
Riddle was looking at Idia the way you’d look at a spooked cat you were trying to calm down, eyes soft and worried. Idia swallowed hard. “Our relationship rank is probably there, yeah. Wish I had a meter or something to confirm it.”
“Ha. I understand the feeling.” Riddle smiled, hesitantly. He left his hand on Idia’s shoulder. “Without it, can we say we’re friends anyway?”
“Sure.” Idia gave him a tiny smile. The light touch on his shoulder made him lightheaded. “Consider yourself in the Friendship tier.”
Riddle nodded. “That’s settled, then. We’re friends.” His eyes lost their sharp focus as he smiled, apparently at peace with something Idia couldn’t quite parse out. Maybe he needed relationships to be stated to be official.
A wave of relief coursed through Idia. That made things straightforward, actually. Couldn’t everyone be like that?
They were friends. They’d keep seeing each other. His heart soared, already planning out more lessons and more games he wanted Riddle to try. He’d made a friend. They’d been friends for a little while now. That was newsworthy for both of them.
“Uh, here. This might make sleeping less awkward.” Idia dug around behind him, pulling out a squished, long pillow that had been half buried between his mattress and the wall. He laid it between them as a sort of barrier. The pillow was almost as long as Riddle, with an armored character design printed on it. “This is the main character from Star Rogue. It’s hilarious because, you know, he’s entirely in his space armor on both sides, and characters on a dakimakura usually… uh…” he trailed off.
“What?” asked Riddle, sincerely.
“Nothing.” Idia closed his eyes, making sure to hold the pillow and not cling to Riddle. “Goodnight.”
-~-
Operation: Make Sure You Don’t Hold Riddle Rosehearts All Night was a total failure.
Idia stirred awake first, yawning as he did so. He vaguely remembered going to sleep with the body pillow in his arms, but that didn’t explain why it felt like he was holding something warm and breathing.
He opened his eyes and inhaled sharply.
Riddle had apparently rolled closer in the night, squishing the pillow under him and depositing him right into Idia’s arms. His head was tucked against Idia’s chest, red hair messy and sticking up everywhere as he slept, smaller arms embracing Idia’s body as though Riddle was lost at sea and Idia was a life-saving chunk of driftwood.
The only question left was who was going to set his room on fire first.
Heat rose in Idia’s face as he tried to ignore how cozy and comfortable it was to be cuddling of all things, and cuddling Riddle Rosehearts of all people. Riddle fit against him perfectly, which didn’t help, and he looked completely at peace, which didn’t help either.
Riddle owed him for inadvertently causing Idia so many consecutive mental crises.
“Psst. Hey,” whispered Idia.
Riddle frowned in his sleep, nuzzling Idia’s collarbone.
No no no. If Riddle was going to kill him, it needed to be literal, not metaphorical. Idia got an idea.
“Hey Riddle! You’re late.”
“Augh!” That got Riddle awake, body jolting as he gasped for breath. Idia snickered at his revenge, grinning as Riddle settled down from his panic. “Where- what? Oh.”
Riddle stared at Idia, face flooding with warmth from his vantage point in Idia’s arms as he watched Idia laugh at him. “Oh dear, I… I didn’t mean to get so close. I apologize—”
“It’s fine.” Idia stretched, disappointed to be letting go of Riddle. “You sure do panic about your punctuality.”
“Of course I do!” Riddle sighed with relief once he spotted the clock on Idia’s idle computer monitor. “Early. Good. I usually wake up slightly before my alarm anyway.” He scowled. “You gave me quite a shock, you liar.”
“Right back at ya. I got like, jumpscared with no save point there.”
Idia expected Riddle to be just as flustered about it as he was, but Riddle sensed a weakness. Riddle hummed, rolling back over to Idia as Idia’s brainwaves flatlined. “You mean when I was like this? You said it was fine. Is it against the sleepover rules?” he asked, tone innocent despite the smirk on his face.
“N-no,” stammered Idia.
Idia wondered what the spontaneous combustion rate actually was.
“Are you certain?”
Idia didn’t even bother trying to hide how pink his hair was getting. “Yeah. Totally fine. Just RPing being Tetris blocks.”
Riddle tilted his head. “What?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Riddle yawned. His eyes still had grey around them, which Idia figured could be related to going to sleep past his bedtime. “Since I have your attention, I wanted to make a request of you.”
“Oh man. Ominous.”
“It’s nothing major.” Riddle lightly tugged Idia’s hoodie before saying something very major. “Come to breakfast. In person.”
Being around Riddle wasn’t good for Idia’s adrenaline levels. Fear choked out all of the warmth in Idia’s chest. Idia’s face went blank as his internal systems shut down.
“Nope.”
“I can’t order you to—”
“Good, because it won’t happen.”
“—but I wish you would.” Riddle sat up, looking down at Idia. It wasn’t as intimidating as it could have been, but Idia still felt cornered. He shrank back, readying rebuttals, but Riddle’s expression softened. “Idia, I know I didn’t really understand how difficult it is for you to do these things. My own dorm could tell you in detail how much I’ve hindered rather than helped them when I pushed too hard. I still struggle, obviously, but I’m trying. I’m offering to go with you. As a friend.”
Idia blinked a few times. “What?”
“If we go together, people will be so caught up in avoiding me that they won’t stare at you.” Riddle slid out of bed with a grim smile. “And if they do, I’ll scold them for their rudeness.”
Right. SSR boss on his side.
“Oh.” Idia had expected to get dragged to the cafeteria by the shirt collar, but Riddle’s offer was kind of nice. They could wind up attracting even more attention together, but Riddle was right about people clearing a path in front of him.
Idia’s stomach ached with hunger, which nearly sealed the deal immediately, but he couldn’t agree to such an ordeal off the bat. He had a shot to either get out of it or get a new source of amusement.
He reached for the game console from the night before, handing it to Riddle. “If I go with you, then you have to try out Kingdom Hearts next. It’s an educational period piece about major historical figures.”
Riddle beamed at him. “Done.”
Was this what friends did? Drag each other into all sorts of messes, interests and social circles blending until they were more and more a part of each other’s worlds? Idia’s world was his room and his screens, but Riddle’s was everything outside the door. Riddle was a force of nature, pulling him outside like the tide.
Riddle changed into his dorm uniform with barely a thought, tucking his magestone away as he picked up his laptop, notebook, and the game console. “Let me know when you’re ready. I’ll wait outside— oh, the toothbrush—”
“Leave it.”
Idia spoke without thinking, but it was true. He shrugged. “What? You’re coming back over, right? May as well have it here for next time.”
Riddle hugged the bundle of items closer to his chest.
“Yes, you’re right. Next time.”
The door clicked closed, Riddle obediently waiting in the hallway, probably giving every passing student a heart attack.
Idia stared at the ceiling, wiping at his suddenly stinging eyes, almost laughing to himself. Such a simple phrase, manifested in a friend’s toothbrush in his room, a borrowed game console, promises they both meant to keep, and memories they never had to let go of.
Next time.