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Riddle was sure he hated it when Floyd’s attention was on him. Nothing good ever followed, and the worst part was that Floyd was so volatile there’s no way for Riddle to even predict what might happen until he’s as red as a rose and shouting unbecomingly at the other. Actually, no, that wasn’t quite right. There was something even worse than being in Floyd’s line of sight: It was being completely ignored.
Of course, with someone as moody as him there had always been moments of peace and disinterest, but this had been over a week! After almost two years dealing with that giant shadow behind him, threatening to wrap around him and devour him entirely, to go so long without even a “Goldfishie!” echoing behind him was unthinkable. Riddle didn’t believe Floyd could be planning to do something to him, specifically, but every day that passed when their paths crossed and he didn’t even receive a glance seemed to add to the weight in his chest, to the point it became unbearable.
He tried not to think about him. The school had been busy enough as it is, from everything like the normal hassles of a new year to Overblot going to “rare condition few had even heard about” to nearly half a dozen cases in as many months. Everyone was busy, and as Azul’s right hand man, Floyd should be, too. Even though Riddle constantly saw him loitering around and doing weird things, well, Azul’s success even after his contracts were destroyed proved the man had a method to his usage of the Leech siblings. He had to, right?
Shaking his head, Riddle tried to focus on something else. Summer was approaching, and with it, swimming exercises constantly in PE. Last year he'd done… Acceptably enough, but he had to try harder to set a better example this year. Of course, thinking about swimming reminded him of mermen, but Floyd was not going to magically appear before him, and his formal request to access the pool to practice before classes wasn’t going to magically write himself. And Riddle could only force one of those things to happen.
Floyd would never follow his will, anyway. Same grade, different dorms, Riddle had nothing over him, and even if he did, he doubted any of it would work. Floyd was someone who didn’t go with the flow, seeming instead to be outside of it entirely, reaching in to mess with his head and make his stomach do nervous flips before retreating back into his own little world, where Riddle could never reach.
Being around Floyd felt a lot like drowning in feelings Riddle wasn’t familiar with and didn’t know if he wanted to be. And he hated not knowing himself.
Professor Vargas accepted Riddle’s paperwork with ease, praising him for demonstrating the extra initiative to tone his muscles. After paperwork came the key, the empty locker room before morning classes, and finally, the pool.
It was a large, heated indoor pool, filled with mineral water to minimize chlorine exposure to non-human students, and maintained clean and warm thanks to volunteers in the sports clubs, solar panels, and a small but well applied use of magic every now and then. Despite the best efforts of exterior illumination, Riddle still couldn’t see much when he looked down, staring over the edge into the pool. There was no reason to be scared. He’d been here several times the past year for class. The fact that the early hour left the water looking like a polished black mirror, only giving back his own stare and nothing else was unsettling, but could easily be explained by the time.
The water was calm, until it wasn’t. Riddle was supposed to be alone. He thought he was alone. But as he’d been distracted by his own contemplation, something cold and strong shot up from the water, grabbing his ankles in a vice grip and dragging him in.
Riddle barely had time to hold his breath, and it didn’t matter much. The water wasn’t heated at the moment, and the sudden cold knocked what little air he’d managed to hold onto out of him as he was dragged all the way down, until he could feel his feet touch the bottom of the deep end of the pool. And as suddenly as he was grabbed, he was free, kicking himself up to the surface to breathe.
He turned his head around frantically, searching for whatever had grabbed him, cursing his carelessness. His pen was back in the lockers, and while he could use magic without it, in an unfamiliar environment under attack by an unknown assailant he was at a disadvantage. Especially when he’d been dragged to a part of the pool he couldn’t stand in, having to bob awkwardly to avoid going under. He couldn’t even begin to imagine who it could be. Even after he began making amends, Riddle was under no impression he’d gotten his dorm mates, or the rest of the school, to forgive him. There probably wasn’t a single person in the school he could think of that he hadn’t exploded at or threatened, and generally just driven away. A few Unbirthday Parties didn’t make up for his time as a tyrant. He knew that better than everyone else.
But without proper footing and lighting, he was little more than a sitting duck in the water. He’d see a ripple here, a bubble there, but whatever caused them was always nowhere near the area by the time his eyes could focus on it. By the time the panic and cold left his brain enough so he could think clearly, so that he could realize how his attacker could stay underwater for so long, it was too late, and the great wave formed by Floyd emerging behind him and leaping onto him pushed him underwater again.
Bubbles sprang around him as Floyd tried to say something that Riddle couldn’t hear, even though Floyd’s mouth was so dangerously close to his ear, even though he was wrapped tightly in a hug against the merman’s smooth skin. Every fear and worry he’d felt the past few minutes vanished, being replaced by a familiar irritation. He was angry, of course. Angry at how being treated like this was making him smile, like all was right in the world.
And a bit angry he couldn’t breathe. He tried elbowing Floyd to get let go, and while his attempt was a valiant failure, Floyd got the point and released him, surfacing right next to him with the same dopey grin he always had when it was Time To Bother Riddle And Fill His Stomach With Butterflies. Angry butterflies, Riddle’d insist, if he ever tried admitting it out loud. (He would not).
“F-Floyd!” Riddle sputtered, ungracefully, “What are you doing here?!”
(Riddle thought this was a valid question. Considering Floyd’s attendance records, he hadn’t even been totally sure the other could be awake at this hour).
“Ehh? But I should be asking you that, Goldfishie~ Me and Jade always use the pool since the leg potion gets uncomfortable at times. You’re the intruder here, you know?”
Shit, Jade. Riddle had been so caught up in Floyd’s unusual behavior that Jade’s usual behavior had slipped his mind entirely, and he started looking around for the less openly evil twin, earning a laugh from Floyd.
“Jade’s busy helping Azul this week. I was thinking it was going to be totally boring to swim alone, but then you showed up, Goldfishie~! Isn’t this great?”
This was the worst possible situation. At least warm water would have given Riddle as excuse for his outrageous blushes, but of course someone used to living under the sea would have turned off the heaters. He was tempted to just call Cater to come paint him the proper color for “still in cold water”, honestly.
“Not great at all,” Riddle tried to maintain his composure, and he didn’t even need to look at Floyd’s smug grin to know he was failing. “I came here to practice swimming, and I won’t have you bother me.”
Floyd muttered a lame okay as Riddle swam to the edge of the pool, grabbed the corners to stabilize himself and kick off, trying to at least start one lap down the pool. It shouldn’t have surprised him that when he opened his eyes to make sure he wasn’t veering off his lane that Floyd was right below him, matching his pace easily and even giving him a little wave when he realized Riddle was looking, almost making him choke on pool water in frustration.
It was a small miracle Riddle reached the other end, clutching the pool’s edge as Floyd popped up behind him like the world’s soggiest Jack-in-the-Box and crowded him against the wall. It felt kind of odd. Usually Riddle had to strain his neck to get a proper look at Floyd’s face, even in his dorm uniform, but in the pool like this, he could actually look straight into his mismatched eyes. Far too close for comfort. Or not close enough. He couldn’t tell.
“You really need to swim more if you already can’t breathe just from that…” Floyd teased, poking Riddle’s cheek. It had nothing to do with swimming! It was just too much. Closeness. Nerves. Something he could never command or push away. No matter how little Riddle wanted, Floyd just gave him more and more.
So Riddle decided to take more, interrupting whatever was coming out of Floyd’s mouth next with a kiss. He had to move from gabbing onto the pool's edge to Floyd's shoulder to not go under, but it just meant the kiss was even closer. It was even a small victory, the first time he managed to make Floyd stop and stay still, even if for a second before the other responded with more, pushing Riddle against the tiled wall and trapping him there with his larger frame, while his mouth opened just a bit, inviting and dangerous and completely willing. Riddle wasn't discouraged by the sharp teeth, even trying to show off his own with a bite to Floyd's lower lip, which was responded to in kind before the kiss progressed into a more 'proper' thing, with lips and tongue and just the tiniest taste of blood that neither of them really knew who came from and neither of them cared, too invested in taking in more of each other.
As small a thing as it was, Riddle considered it a loss when he had to pull away from the kiss first to breathe. Even if he could see Floyd cheating, keeping his neck underwater and feeling his gils move, it was a loss he didn't like. So he kissed back, again and again, letting Floyd aimlessly drift them around the pool as they slowly tried to explore each other. At one point he even found himself completely submerged, only able to breathe the air Floyd gave him, unable to hear or see anything else as the water muffled and hid away everything but the two of them. He felt a bit sad when that ended, as Floyd had gotten bored and tried to change the positions of their lips again and finally remembered Riddle couldn't breathe underwater unassisted.
It was only when Riddle surfaced and saw the sun shining in from the skylights at the edge of the pool area that he realized how much time had passed. The wall clock told him he hadn’t missed any classes yet, but that yet was dangerously close to going away entirely. He let out a curse under his breath, trying to untangle himself from Floyd, who’d used his unfairly long tail to wrap around him so thoroughly it was a wonder Riddle hadn’t noticed how close they were before. Or maybe he’d just been too intoxicated in finally getting something from Floyd to care.
Floyd, however, refused to stop squeezing him.
“Let
go
, Floyd, we have class!”
“Ugh, don’t wanna.”
Riddle was gonna strike that expression from his vocabulary someday. But first, he needed to find a way to regain use of his legs. And arms. His whole body would be preferable, actually.
“I’ll cut you a deal, how does that sound? Let me go now, and after classes and club activities are over, you come by Heartslabyul and I’ll entertain you as long as you want.” thankfully, not an empty promise. He had no outstanding prefect duties to work at, he could do his homework while Floyd was at basketball, and if any troubles arised, well, Trey could handle it for a night. Part of him trying to change should include him getting some nights off to himself, after all.
“Hmm….” Floyd seemed deep in thought for a while, before releasing Riddle entirely (and leaving him a bit disoriented without the giant merman holding him afloat), getting out of the pool with practiced ease as the potion he used to look human took effect again now that he was no longer submerged. Thankfully for Riddle’s heart, it also came with pants. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if he ended up staring at a stark naked Floyd right now.
“I’ll hold you to that, Goldfishie~” and with that, Floyd was gone, leaving Riddle alone in the cold pool. The temperature did wonders to rapidly ice his teenage libido as he considered the consequences of the deal he’d proposed Floyd. Idly, he traced the bite marks on his lips with his tongue. Those consequences would surely be worth it.