Right Back After This

Episode 24

Riz doesn't let himself sleep like this, as comfortable as it is. He'd risk turning over in his sleep, throwing the sheets off, showing the world something that he didn't want shared. Paloma wanted ambiguity, and holding hands isn't ambiguous. Pretending you're too stupid to grasp the implications of sharing a bed is fine, but everyone knows what holding hands means.

So Riz turns over and tries not to think about the warmth radiating from Kiel's side of the bed. At least if they somehow end up tangled in one another, nobody will be able to say they did it on purpose.

Luckily enough for Riz's reputation, people don't usually cuddle in their sleep. He doesn't wake up splayed across Kiel's chest. Instead, he wakes up with his face buried deep in the pillow, groggy and heavy, being gently shaken. He reaches a hand up to wave vaguely at the cause, and his hand is captured, pulled on. "Hey. Wake up."

"Hmm?" Riz is pulled from a dreamless darkness into the smell of caramel pancakes, and he turns over, reaches out- pulls Amello down with him. Amello's body is like a weighted blanket, twice as comforting, and Riz wants to go back to sleep.

"Rizzzzzzzz," Amello's saying, and his voice is quiet in Riz's ear- but Riz is stirring, becoming aware of the thousands of people, minimum, who share his ears right now. "Come on, now."

"Good luck," says a voice that Riz does identify as Kiel, even in this sluggish dead space, "that bed conks you the fuck out."

"Manners," Amello mutters, and the bed shifts with Amello's weight as he sits up. "Riz. Wake up."

"I'm up," Riz slurs, and he lets himself be dragged into a sitting position. "That's... that's a comfortable."

"That's a comfortable?" Amello asks, and Riz slowly forces his eyelids open, although the dawn light streaming through the windows makes it difficult. Amello is far nearer than Riz thought he was. "Come on. We've got to get up."

"What time is it?"

"Morning," Amello answers immediately. Riz tries to find Kiel behind him, and can just make him out against the window as he pulls a shirt over his head. "C'mon, love. I'm not leaving until you're up."

Riz tilts his head, trying to read underneath the words- and the effort is waking him up. "They shouldn't let me sleep here," he mutters, mustering the strength of every atom in his body to shuffle over, to swing his feet off the side of the bed. At least it's not too cold out from under the covers. "I'll never wake up again."

"Do you ever think about the words that come out of your mouth?" Kiel says, and Amello waves a dismissive hand in his direction.

"You know what he means," Amello argues on Riz's behalf. Riz doesn't exactly have the ability to explain, even if he could speak freely, how he understands why Kiel's acting like this. "Come on. We've got a meeting and breakfast and you don't wanna miss breakfast."

They almost never mention the meetings. Nobody does. The live viewers know they happen, and everyone else can assume they do. That doesn't mean it's okay to talk about them openly- the reminder that not every single thing is organic isn't smart.

Which means Riz is right to be reading worry in Amello's eyes. Riz can't say a word- can't let the worry show on his own face- but he knows that Amello just did the best he absolutely could to warn Riz of what was about to come. Riz hopes his sudden alertness proves he understands.

"Okay," he nods, standing almost immediately. "Do I have time to get dressed?"

"If you're quick," Amello says, and he's smiling like it's casual.

Riz is quite worried it's not casual.

Kiel is gone by the time Riz is out of the bathroom, and Amello is hanging around by the door- not showing his anxiety in his body language. It has to be read into where he's standing, where he's looking. Is Kiel at a meeting where he's about to be yelled at for being too close to Riz? Why does Amello suspect something is wrong?