Rose-Red Loverboy

ix

In a feeling of pure defeat, they made their way back down to the common room. Riddle was reading something on the couch– some medical textbook. They didn't get why he didn't just read in his room, but it was probably some weird habit his mother's parenting had passed onto him even now.

"Excuse me, house– er.. Riddle," {y/n}'s tone of voice was painfully awkward, standing there with the same awkwardness present in their voice. His eyes widened slightly as they stood there.

"Did you need something?" He asked, his gray eyes boring into theirs. They immediately wanted to back out the second he made eye contact— to either just not do the work or go back to suffering alone. But they were once again too far in.

"Uh.. Professor Trein randomly dropped a ton of homework during my class period with him.. There's no way I can finish it all on my own.." Their words were hesitant, as if they were scared that he would suddenly snap at them.

"So you need help?" They reluctantly nodded, feeling embarrassed that they had needed to ask their housewarden for help, but they felt that one more moment sitting at their desk would drive them straight into insanity.

And thats how {y/n} managed to get stuck on the couch of the Heartslabyul with the pile of papers from their history class settled on the coffee table. It felt unexplainably weird to be sat down next to him as he looked over the papers. They could already feel the silent judgment from the man.

"You got number 4 wrong," he pointed at the page, his gaze darting between {y/n} and their work. "And wasn't this done in class?"

"Some kid riled up Professor Trein, so he spent the entire class period yelling at him," {y/n} looked down at their lap. Riddle had to fight off the urge to tell them to fix their posture– to speak more clearly and to keep their head up, and yet what little they had spoken to him was enough to convince him not to. He didn't want them to go back to being one of the many people who avoided him like the plague, so he kept quiet.

"I can't imagine being in the same class as some trouble maker students could be fun," he looked back down at the papers, trying to keep his comments more positive.

"It really isn't.. Plus I didn't get any sleep last night." They leaned back against the couch, and he looked at them slightly skeptically.

"Oh? Why is that?" He asked out, his focus momentarily shifted away from the pages to their words– an expression he couldn't quite read painted across his features. Maybe it was something along the lines of dissatisfaction or disappointment, but they couldn't help but hope that there was at least a tinge of concern in his gray gaze.

"Ah.. I've had trouble sleeping ever since I was little. Sometimes I couldn't sleep at all, other times I sleep way too much."

His eyes seemed to soften slightly at that. After that brief moment, he looked back towards the paper.

"I see.. Let's get back to work."

❦

Nothing that personally happened while he helped them study. He was simply helping them with their history homework for the next 2 hours. By then it was decently late, so he said goodnight to them, and started making his way towards his own room. As he was walking, he paused, turning back to look at {y/n} one last time.

"If you ever need help with anything else.. Don't be scared to ask."

{y/n} nodded, beginning to walk back to their own room. Once they reached it, they immediately jumped onto their bed, sprawling out across the comfortable sheets with a sigh. They were tired– they had been tired all day, they just hoped that their body would let them rest tonight. Looking at their phone again, they saw a few texts from Olyver over the hours they had been studying with Riddle.