Chapter Text
When asked, Riddle will never admit that every time Silver falls asleep on a horse, that his heart almost stops every single time.
He should be used to it, should be , they have several plans on how to handle it when Silver just slumps forward all of a sudden, but… The reality of it is still terrifying every single time. It‘s dangerous to fall asleep in the saddle, what if he falls? What if he spooks the horse and it throws him off? What if they run into a tree? Not that that ever happened, Silver‘s horse is stupidly enamoured with him. She has never acted out with him, but Riddle worries regardless.
The possibilities are endless after all, the risk is high, anything could happen and Riddle has not even a single rule that could work in a situation such as this. So really, Riddle is a bit overwhelmed. Silver is after all someone he considers a friend, if only because he takes Riddle's rules and eccentric tendencies seriously, without even an ounce of malice behind honest questions and open interest.
Which is primarily why Riddle wants to make this club activity work for the other boy.
And that is how their various plans and contingency plans were created, from A to Z and more, possible outcomes and anything Riddle could do to help his friend out.
So yes, when Silver slumps forward, Riddle‘s heart skips a beat and then kicks back into high gear, he jumps onto his own horse and carefully guides it to Silver's own.
„Silver?“ He tries once he is within earshot, „Silver!“
No reaction.
Plan B it is.
And of course it‘s one of those days where Sebek is tailing Malleus and the rest of the Club , which means that Riddle is technically alone with Silver, because the rest of the group has already moved inside.
It‘s a good thing, because Silver gets embarrassed when he is caught sleeping on the job, but it's also a bad thing because Riddle is tiny and his arms are Short and he can barely grab the reins of Silver's horse to guide it back to the stable.
He manages it with a good portion of whining and trying to wake Silver up, either shaking his shoulder or screaming at him, but nothing happens, so he gives up halfway through.
„Must be one of his bad days.“ Riddle jumps off his horse, ties it to the post and starts tugging at Silver‘s leg to pull him down, „A Queendom for a helping hand… I forget every single time how heavy he is.“
Somehow he manages to pull him down, only to yelp when Silver falls to the side and onto him, crushing Riddle underneath himself.
Riddle blinks. Facepalms against the grass and wheezes out a strangled „Fuck.“
Both of their horses snort and Silver‘s noses at the sleeping boy‘s hair, careful and almost motherly, whereas Riddle‘s horse just keeps staring down at them with a vaguely judgemental look.
Okay. Getting Silver to a bed ist… a bit more difficult without help.
Riddle barely manages to roll Silver off and scrambles back to his feet, looks around frantically to check if anyone has seen this mess and then turns back to the sleeping boy on the floor, who is still blissfully snoring ahead, completely dead to the world.
Usually, Sebek would grab Silver and Riddle would be tasked with opening doors or holding Silver's legs from time to time, but this time, alone, he will have to do everything by himself, which is slowly shaping out to be an adventure and a half… He can‘t carry Silver, not with his tiny stature and nonexistent strength.
Levitating him it is. There is no rule against levitating. At least none against levitating sleeping people back to their beds.
Riddle winces when Silver‘s head slams against the frame of the mirror. The sleeping boy grunts, frowns and continues sleeping .
„How did he survive this long?“ He grunts as he climbs through himself. Thankfully, the Mirror Chamber is mostly empty, with only a few students from Pomefiore loitering around the mirror to their dorm. They look up when they hear the thump, stare for a bit and then shrug and keep talking among themselves, as if it‘s the most normal thing in the world to see the housewarden of Heartslabyul levitating a student from Diasomnia across the campus.
“Goldfishie!”
“Oh for fucks sake.” Riddle hisses and ducks barely fast enough to dodge the arm about to wrap around his shoulders, “Bad timing, Floyd.”
“What are you doing with Jellyfish anyway? Wait, is he asleep?” Floyd skips around the floating body, “He is! Hey, Goldfish, can I draw on him?”
“It’s may I and no, you may not!” Riddle carefully moves Silver away from the other boy, glare dirty and admonishing, “Don’t even try!”
“Too late.”
“ Where did you get the pen?! Floyd!” Of course he drew a pair of glasses and whiskers on Silver’s face. Of course, “How am I supposed to get that off him without waking Silver?”
“Well, you just whacked him against the mirror frame a few times and he didn’t wake up.” Floyd giggles and makes a grab for Silver, “C’mon, lemme carry him. You are so tiny, you will get tired floating him all the time.”
Riddle can feel the vein in his forehead throbbing, “I am not getting tired, thank you very much.”
As if to mock him, Silver’s form falters for a second. Floyd pretty much uses Riddle’s distraction to grab the sleeping boy from midair with a cheerful “Bind The Heart!” and runs off towards the Diasomnia mirror, cheering when Riddle bites back a curse and runs after him.
“ Floyd! Get yourself and your stupid long legs back here! If you let Silver fall, it’s Off With Your Head! ”
Floyd just cackles and runs faster.
They pretty much jump through the mirror itself and Floyd rounds the corner, bouncing off a wall like it’s one of his parkour routes, whereas Riddle crashes into the same wall with a force that makes the picture frames above him tremble.
“One day…” He wheezes and decides to just… walk to Silver’s room instead. It’s not like Floyd knows where to go. He might be able to catch the other boy on his way there.
Floyd returns two halls later, with the biggest pout on his face and Silver now slung over his shoulder like a wet potato bag, “You stopped following me!”
It may or may not take all of Riddle’s willpower not to flip him off. Or actually, it may or may not take all the rules, regulations and etiquette rules his mother has beaten into his head not to flip him off.
Still, Riddle is very, very close to breaking all laws of propriety and strangle this man.
He doesn’t. Because he was raised better than that, even if he wishes he wasn't.
“Please be more careful with him, yes?” He sighs instead and walks past, straight towards Silver’s room, “That is still a human being you are hauling all over the place.”
“But he ignored me even when I painted the rest of his face.”
He what.
“You what.”
Riddle won’t look. He just won’t look. For his own peace of mind.
They finally arrive at the right door and Riddle unlocks it with the spare key Sebek dropped into his hands a…while ago, after the third time he helped walk them back with Silver cradled in Sebek’s arms.
It’s almost like the first year knew this would happen at some point.
They walk inside and Floyd unceremoniously drops the body onto the bed, “Okay, he’s back now, let’s go, Goldfish, you owe me now!”
“Go where? And I didn’t agree to anything! Floyd? Floyd, put me down right now !”