Chapter Text
“No.”
“Awe cmon! It’s just for an hour…”
The sound of whispered bickering came down the upper floors of the Heartslabyul dorm. Ace had his feet planted and his arms crossed stubbornly, shaking his head and he huffed in disbelief. The taller Junior swung an arm around his shoulders and leaned closer until the suit symbols on their cheeks were almost touching.
“Heck no!” Ace tried to pull away from Cater’s surprisingly strong grip, but the other was persistent.“You really think I wanna be in the same room as that lunatic?! I sorta feel bad for him and all but no way man, what I said to him STANDS. I’m still mad at him, for one and for two,—“
“I’ll do your homework for you for a week.”
“…”
“Two weeks?”
“And buy me those butter cookies from the shop.”
“Totes!! Dealio Acey!”
“Ughhhh. PLEASE don’t call me that.”
“Thanks for watching Riddle for meee! I would totally stay with my dear little Housewarden but Professor Crewel will actually poison me if I don’t show up to my makeup lesson. And I can not have Riddle finding out I’m failing a class. You’re the best underclassman everrrr! Toodles!”
And with that, Cater was gone, hurrying down the hall, furiously typing on his phone.
Ace groaned and rubbed his face. How had he even agreed to this? Not like he had a choice anyway. If there was one thing Cater was good at, it was persuading people to do stuff for him. It was almost as if that was his signature spell instead. He could probably convince anyone to do pretty much anything, well except for maybe a few people, their psycho Housewarden included on that list. But it certainly worked on normal people. After all, he’d been the one to rope Deuce, Yuu, Grimm and Ace into painting all those roses for him even though he could quite literally duplicate himse—
“HEY!!!” Ace whipped around as the realization came, but his junior had already disappeared down the stairs, leaving him with the realization he now really couldn’t back out of this now, and the impending responsibility of being civil to Housewarden Rosehearts the spoiled brat for an hour.
“Why can’t he just leave himself here?! It’s LITERALLY just for an hour..” The red head grumbled as he gave a defeated sigh and trudged all the way to the room at the end with the red door and gold trim.
Maybe it wasn’t possible for Cater to focus on two things at once like that. Ace couldn’t blame him too much. He hadn't been here long, but Professor Crewel seemed like someone who should not be messed around with.
Ever since Riddle had experienced his overblotting episode 3 days ago, Trey and Cater had taken turns sitting with him to force him to rest. Well, in the beginning it was mostly Trey, who simply refused to leave, even to the extent of missing classes and not sleeping.
Ace had overheard them outside the room one night when he had gotten up to use the bathroom.
“Dude you’re killing yourself over this!” Cater whispered fiercely, practically holding up his green haired classmate, who was slumped against the wall. “If Riddle finds out about this he’s going to hate himself more than he already does!”
“Don’t pretend like you know him!” Trey snapped back, his voice uncharacteristically harsh as he yanked his friend’s hands away, swaying a little to stand upright, “I can’t leave him like this! And I don’t trust him with any of you. You all hate him. I can see it, especially the upperclassmen.”
Ace shivered and closed his door a bit more to just a sliver. He had never seen Trey get mad before— granted he hadn’t been here that long— but he just seemed like the type of guy to never get angry ever, so seeing him like this left him unsettled. He already felt a little bad for eavesdropping, but he was so curious he couldn’t help himself.
The hallway—no, the entire dorm of Heartslabyul itself— was decidedly disturbing at night. It stretched and twisted at odd angles, perhaps discouraging late night rule breaking. It seemed to have a mind of its own, reflecting another reality, distorting the shadows of the two upper classmen standing in the hallway, long spines morphing along Trey’s back and Cater’s own shadow growing long claws from the tips of his outstretched hands.
“Hey. That’s not fair. Not all of us hate him, Trey.” Cater’s tone switched from exasperation to a much gentler one. “Including me. Do you at least trust me?”
Trey didn’t respond immediately. The reddish glow of the ever burning lamps in the hall softened to a more orange hue.
“Look, you know if he sees you looking like death warmed over he’s going to lose his shit, and that’s the last thing he needs right now. Please please just let me do this for you. The dorm needs ya you know, we’re falling apart without your pastries.” he joked in his usual teasing voice, and then looked away, adding a little more quietly: “Riddle needs you too.”
“….Fine.” Trey’s whole demeanor seemed to just melt into exhaustion. “But keep me updated.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll text you if he so much as gets one strand of his little heart shaped bangs out of place.”
Trey started to return to Riddle’s room, stumbling a little before Cater’s hand grabbed his wrist.
“No you don’t, mister. You’re going back to your own room for tonight.” He pulled Trey back towards him and turned him by his shoulders until the Vice Warden was facing his own room and gave him a gentle push in that direction. “That way.”
Cater had waited in the hall until the other junior had gone inside his room before heading into Riddle’s room himself. Ace had felt like he’d intruded on something he shouldn’t have, and that somehow the dorm building was judging him, and ultimately he’d decided he didn’t have to pee anymore, shut the door and had gone back to bed, staring at the ceiling blankly until he fell asleep.
Deuce, on the other hand, had visited Riddle a few times. Ace couldn’t really understand what his friend saw in the Housewarden. Maybe it had something to do with Deuce also having rocky past behaviors that made him so easily forgive the Teapot Tyrant, but he was not going to win Ace over so easily. Ugh. Cater could've asked him if Deuce was sooooo enamoured with that asshole.
Ace stood in front of Riddle’s room and hesitated. The door suddenly seemed to grow impossibly large. He wondered how Riddle could even reach the doorknob. He thought back to that night, when the dorm seemed almost sentient, conscious of the emotions of its occupants. Maybe…maybe he was the problem here, and the door was really just a normal door.
“It’s fine. Deep breaths. Just don’t throttle him. He had shitty parents, he said he’d do better, just give him a chance.” He told himself, relaxing his shoulders before raising a hand to knock. The door didn’t seem so large anymore.
There was no answer, but the door swung open anyway, since it was unlocked. Or did the dorm just let him in? Ace didn’t think about that too hard. Riddle’s room was pretty much exactly how he pictured it: in PERFECT order. Not a single thing was even a centimeter out of place, and it was spotless, not even a speck of dust. It was beautifully decorated and very classy with a red, white, black and gold color theme. However, there were oddities that he guessed must be more secret and unknowable rules Riddle followed, like three silver bells on the nightstand, a glass that was exactly half full of water directly in front of the closet, and a deck of playing cards under the chair in the corner with the ace of clubs facing up on the top. Not to mention there didn’t seem to be anything…personal about it. It was devoid of anything unique to Riddle, no sentimental mementos like pictures or trinkets, He wondered if this was genuinely how Riddle wanted to decorate his space or if he was just following more bizarre rules. Did Riddle even have a personality buried somewhere underneath all these rules and regulations? Ace found himself frustrated on Riddle’s behalf. Didn’t he know it was all these rules that were making him so miserable?! His weirdo mom wasn’t even here, he didn’t have to follow any silly made up rules!
Riddle was pretty much swallowed up by his massive bed with huge pillows that was almost comically large compared to his size. Someone else was there as well, leaning over him and fixing his hair into the shape of a heart again, mumbling.
“You! Ch..cheeky! No, Cheese, wait no, Che’nya! How did you get in here and why are you bein such a creep?!” Ace pointed an accusatory finger at the other who turned his head around at full 180 degree angle to stare at him.
“Ohhhh?? Through the window of course! I’m not allowed to check on a dear friend?” Unsettling yellow eyes blinked at him one after the other as the older boy grinned ear to ear and the rest of his body twisted slowly until it matched the direction of his head and neck again, “The question is rather, why are YOU here, Ace?”
“Mind your own business, weirdo.” Ace mumbled, suddenly feeling embarrassed for some reason.
“Uh ohhhhh,” Che’nya giggled in a sing-song voice, disappearing from Riddle’s side and reappearing behind Ace, poking his neck, “someone’s grumpy. Why, did a certain someone force ya into guard duty?”
“Yah!!!” Ace whipped around and flailed his hands in the air.
“Shhh.” A long, boney finger with a painted nail was pressed against his mouth.
Ace fought back the vindictive urge to bite the other’s finger, but refrained. He wasn’t Grim, after all.
“Okay sorry sorry.” He dropped his voice to a whisper, “yeah, Cater made me.”
“How nice of you to come.” The cat-like boy tittered and squeezed Ace’s shoulders. “I’ll be going now. Hope you all get better soon!”
Che’nya made a peace sign and faded into oblivion. Ace wondered what type of magic he was using in order to be able to do that. He loosened his uniform collar a bit and stretched, wandering around the room and looking at stuff, careful not to touch anything. Other people touching his stuff without permission was something Riddle could be reasonably upset about in Ace’s mind, unlike just about everything else that got him mad.
However, the sight of Riddle’s casting pen lying on the bedside table did make him curious. He leaned down to get a closer look. It was almost identical to his own, except the crystal that should have been glimmering a brilliant red was dull and dark, however there were small bright patches he could see beginning to shine through.
He thought back to what Crowley had said about Overblotting. Overuse of magic, strong emotions. It was odd, he mused, sitting down on the red heart shaped chair and resting his chin in his hands and his elbows on his knees, surely he wasn’t the first student to get fed up with Riddle and his nonsense house rules and cause a scene? He found that hard to believe, since there were 870? 850? 800-something rules.
Riddle was already likely stressed about being perfect himself, trying to make sure everyone else was also perfect? Why bother? What everyone else did was their own business, Ace thought. If people like him wanted to be stupid and crazy or sneak out or skip class, who cares? Maybe Riddle thought everyone's parents were like his mom or something, holding their kids to impossible standards. Slowly it dawned on Ace where this train of thought was going and he sighed.
“Fiiiiiiiine I guess you were just trying to help. In a really messed up way tho.” He admitted out loud to no one in particular.
He still was pissed off at Riddle for being a selfish stuck up prick, and destroying his tart in front of everyone because of some petty random rule made up by some stupid crazy lady a few hundred years ago, and embarrassing him horribly, but—
“What are you doing in my room?!”
“GYAH!!!” Ace nearly jumped out of his skin as his head snapped up to look at Riddle who was blinking at him sleepily.
“Did you need something? Apologies, I ought not to be shirking my house warden duties, what is it? Study guides? Advice..uggh—”
“Uhh no no it’s alright I don’t need anything, Houseward—“ he was interrupted by a loud thump as the sophomore tried to get out of bed and promptly fell onto the floor.
“Oh Trey’s gonna kill us all.” he mumbled under his breath.
He extended his hand to help with a sigh but Riddle quickly leaned away and shook his head vigorously.
“No! No I’m fine I don’t—I do not need help thank you! I am perfectly capable of doing this on my own!”
“Aah I get it.” Ace ignored him and grabbed his arms despite the other’s furious struggles. Though Riddle might be vastly superior to him in Magic, the freshman was bigger and stronger. Ace manhandled the tiny Housewarden off the floor,“You don’t wanna ask for help cuz you’re scared it makes you weak. No worries, I won’t tell anyone if that makes you feel better. Quit whining.”
“What-? Hey! Unhand me this instant! You insubordinate ruffian! I told you—…ugh.” Riddle gave up as he was plopped back onto the bed again, the sudden movements making him feel dizzy.
“Phew! Surprised you didn’t lock me in one of your collars for that one.” Ace rubbed the back of his neck and sat down on the chair again, exhaling and stretching out his legs.
“Well…I’m afraid there isn’t anything in the rules against picking up the Queen of Hearts.” Riddle replied meekly as he pulled the covers back up over his legs and folded his hands in his lap.
“Nothin in those rules about letting people be nice to the Queen either I suppose.”
“No.” It was almost a whisper. Then he spoke again, “I think…I think everyone must have hated the Queen.”
“Tch. Ya don’t say?!” Ace scoffed a little at that and crossed his arms“Sure she might have been a great ruler but she sure doesn’t seem like she could have been a fun person with all those rules.”
“I would have hated her too, I think.” Riddle continued as if Ace had never said anything, “A successful nation full of miserable people.”
His voice broke and he leaned back against the pillows and closed his eyes, swallowing hard, lower lip trembling.
“This ain’t about the Queen of Hearts, is it.”
There wasn’t a response, but the Housewarden rolled over with his back to him, and pulled the blankets over his head, so Ace was pretty sure he was right. He felt a little bad when he saw Riddle shaking, probably crying, but also he was glad that this incident was letting the other do some serious self reflection. Not that Ace was perfect by any means, but at least he’d readily admit that. Little Mr Perfect Rosehearts hadn’t even thought he was capable of being wrong about anything. However, Ace wasn’t that cold hearted, so he did reach over and give Riddle’s shoulder a few awkward pats before pulling out his phone and scrolling through magicam.
He must have dozed off because the sound of a door opening made his head snap up from where he was resting on the side of the bed. The entire left half of his face had marks from his hand and his hair was messed up as he rubbed his eyes.
“Huh…hello?”
“Aweee c-U-te!”
The sound of a camera shutter going off.
“Sorry! Ow ow! Trey! okay okay I said I was sorry dude!”
He was just in time to see Trey grab Cater by the ear and pull him aside as he walked in.
“Ace, you’re certainly not the person I expected to see here but thank you for staying. You can go now, if you want I’ll bake you something later. Cater shouldn’t be dragging you into this, Riddle is my responsibility.”
“Whoaa I get MORE free food outta this?! Heck yeah! Anytime you want me to babysit Teacup Tyrant here I’m more than happy to! -OOF!”
The orange haired freshman grinned from ear to ear before a decorative silk pillow hurled at his head with the force of a frisbee knocked him over.
“Since you were helping Trey as a favor I won’t enforce any type of punishment for your disrespectful behavior, but in the future expect no such leniency!” Riddle glared at him from where he’d raised himself up on one elbow to throw the projectile. “And Cater delete that photo off of your phone IMMEDIATELY!”
“But Riddleeeeee cmon dude—“ a look from Trey made the upperclassman stop mid sentence and he held up his hands in surrender, “okay fine. Heh. Let’s go Acey I did promise ya something from the shop I guess. Laterz!”
And with that, Ace was dragged the rest of the way out of the room unceremoniously and the door was kicked shut behind them. Once they were outside, Cater dropped the smile and glared.
“Are you nuts ??” Cater whispered fiercely, still grabbing his arm.
“Huh???” The unexpected change of temper threw him through a loop.
“I’m tryna look out for you dude, do not call Riddle names in front of Trey .” Then his demeanor changed a little, perhaps because he noticed the genuine fear and confusion in Ace’s face, and he continued more in his regular voice as they walked a bit further away, “trust me freshie, I found that one out the hard way. You think the Leech twins are scary? I’d rather have Jade hunt me down than Trey when he’s mad.”
“Eesh. Point taken.” Ace grimaced. That tall weirdo from Octanville always put him off with his dead-eyed stare and sharp teeth. “It’s kinda lame he has a watchdog though.”
“Hm. I wouldn’t say watchdog, more…ah…devoted? Don’t worry about it, Trey is a super nice guy. Just protective. Come on, let's go to Sam’s. I owe ya cookies.”
********
“Sorry, I really didn’t want anyone else doing this, but I uhhh figured you wouldn’t want me missing classes.” Trey sounded a bit sheepish as he sat down on the edge of the bed and shrugged off his uniform jacket.
“Don’t you dare throw that on the floor.” Then, after he had folded it and draped it over the back of the chair, “it’s quite alright, I apologize if it’s caused you trouble…I’m sorry I’ve been such a complete failure at everything,I—.”
Riddle’s voice cracked and he started coughing. It was a rattling wet cough that shook his whole small body. Thick dark ink oozed from between his fingers that covered his mouth as he doubled over himself in bed.
“Hey, Riddle, easy.”
“Ugh…I…I hate this stuff. I despise looking at it. I don’t want to see it, it hurts…” the redhead choked out in between gulps of air.
Trey felt helpless. It hurt. A tight, nauseating feeling in his chest as he watched his friend suffer, knowing there was nothing he could do to ease the pain. It was a familiar feeling, like all those years ago when he could only now watch from the outside of the frosted window of the Roseheart’s mansion as Riddle wasted away at his desk, surrounded by mountains of books, his head in his hands.
He had hoped that Riddle coming to Night Raven College would be good for him: he would be away from his mother and finally able to develop into his own person. But the small, cold and rigid teen who greeted him was nothing like the boy Trey remembered. Deep down, he had hoped against hope that Riddle was still in there somewhere…
“Trey—“ a hand gripped his sleeve and startled him out of his thoughts.
“Riddle! Are you alright?”
Steely gray eyes looked up at him as smeared trails of black liquid ran down the younger’s mouth and covered his hands and arms. Splotches of it had dripped onto the bedspreads as well, and it left a black handprint on his sleeve. It was everything Trey could do not to recoil in horror, flashes of that terrifying thing wearing Riddle’s face passing in front of his eyes, the thick smoke, the hedge maze torn to shreds….
“Pass me the handkerchief in my top dresser drawer. The blue one.”
Trey did as he was told, and took another for good measure, going to wet it under the sink in the ensuite bathroom and returning to gently wipe away the stains from Riddle’s hands and face.
“You…don’t have to.”
“Stop moving, just lay back.”
The fact that the usually combative Housewarden didn’t argue and instead lay back with a weary sigh was a sign of just how exhausted he was.
“I am sorry for the trouble, Trey.” He whispered.
“No! No, it's no trouble.” Never for you. Trey assured him as he stole a sidelong glance at his friend who had his eyes closed before dropping the stained handkerchiefs into the floor.
“May I remind you that the laundry basket is right next to the bathroom door.”
Damnit.
With a sigh the Vice Housewarden stood up from where he was sitting on the edge of the bed and walked over to the laundry basket, dropping in the dirty handkerchiefs.
“There. Happy?”
Riddle didn’t answer.
Trey went back to the bed and bent down to take off his shoes, then swung his feet up and settled onto the bed next to the redhead.
“Come here.” He held out his arms and the much smaller housewarden crawled over and hugged his vice warden’s waist, resting his head against his leg.
“I’m frightened.” he whispered finally.
“Why?” Trey’s fingers found their way to Riddle’s hair, carding through it mindlessly.
“Because I have no way of knowing whether this will happen again. I don’t know what came over me, I felt so strange. It was as if someone else was controlling my body, trying to expel me and take my place.” Riddle took a breath, “I had a nightmare that…I…”
His breathing quickened and he gripped Trey’s shirt tighter.
“I killed you.” His voice was barely a horrified whisper now as his eyes squeezed shut in an attempt to block out the memory, “I killed you and Cater and I couldn’t...I couldn’t stop myself…”
“Riddle shh.” Trey soothed, “It’s only a side effect of the stress. I’m alive. Cater is alive. Everything is okay. Right now you need to rest. Your magic is entirely depleted and the last thing you need is more stress. The maze is in great shape again, we’ve cleaned up the hedge, the flamingos and hedgehogs are taken care of. The dorm is running as it should, Cater and I are handling everything.” Trey patted his head reassuringly.
It reminded Riddle of when they were kids, during that short amount of freedom he’d had.
For the briefest moment he felt as if he was staring up at the patches of blue sky through the leaves of the massive apple tree in the Clover’s backyard, feeling the wind brush his face as it rustled through the trees. The feeling of lying on the grass, squished between his two newfound friends, shoes off, Chen’ya’s tail tickling his arm as he squeezed Riddle like an excited child would a new plushie. Riddle had never told anyone, but that was the first time he had ever been genuinely held.
“Don’t leave me please, Trey.” He whispered as his eyes slipped shut again, this time out of sheer exhaustion as Trey’s gentle touches lulled him to the edge of sleep.
“I won’t. I won’t ever leave you again.”
And Trey meant it this time. His heart clenched. He wanted to tell Riddle so badly. When he’d seen his limp, battered body collapsed on the ground, the fear and panic of all the things he’d wanted to say to Riddle washed over him, freezing every nerve in his body with terror. He hadn’t said it out loud to anyone, not even to Cater, but the things he wanted to say weren’t merely apologies.
I love you. I am so madly, deeply in love with you, Riddle Rosehearts, and not even the most perfectly crafted pastry in the world could ever hope to convey even half of what I feel.