#rindle

「riddle x ari // rindle + che'nya」 ↳ for @kunehori !!

“The roses are red, the tablecloths pristine white⋯ come, let’s begin our perfect tea party.”

With punctilious strides, Riddle emerged within the garden—his arrival accentuated with his card soldiers unleashing the noise of illustrious fanfare. The scintillating gleams of sunlight highlighted Riddle’s earnest countenance, and if you looked close enough, you could espy how his eyes twinkled in response.

Riddle was in a good mood today; and he was exceptionally eager for today’s teatime.

“Ari.”

Upon hearing that familiar, austere voice speaking to them in Heartslabyul's lobby, they pivot around to the origin and discern Riddle—his countenance exhibiting that of the tone he used. Ari gulped, that dour reflection in his eyes telltale that they had broken a rule of sorts.

“What is it, Riddle?” they asked, an innocent gloss highlighting their oh so sweet question.

“Your hair is a mess,” Riddle pointed out, folding his arms across his chest, “what happened?”

Immediately, their fingers darted up to their head and felt strands protruding this way and that way. "Ahh! I forgot to fix it-!" they squeaked, doing their best to flatten it back down. “When I was painting the roses earlier, a stray hedgehog slammed into me. Poor little guy tumbled right into a paint bucket, and I just spent the last half hour cleaning him off.”

At their words, Riddle's demeanor appeared to dissolve into a more sympathetic, affectionate, one. His gray eyes softened as he said, “Oh. I’m sure he appreciated that. The hedgehogs really are fond of you, after all."

Before Ari could respond, Riddle ambled around the couch as his hand patted the spot in front of him; inviting the young knight to sit down. “Here, then. I’ll fix it up for you. Sit down!”

If he was going to insist, who were they to refuse? Handing him their hairtie, Ari plopped down where he instructed them to with pleasure. "Thank you, Riddle!" they beamed brightly, grinning from ear to ear.

Riddle's slender fingers cascaded through their black hair, discreetly revelling in how the silky locks flowed to his will; and with every graceful, deliberate brush of his skin against their ear as he tucked it all back for them, he espied the goosebumps that rose on their flesh. "Ticklish, are we? Don't worry, I'm almost done," he lightly teased them against their ear, a giggle bubbling in his throat as their shoulders stiffened from his comment.

With deft hands like his, it didn't take long at all for him to uphold his promise and finish. And Ari couldn't help but notice how incredibly self-satisfied and prideful he looked afterwards⋯

Later that day——

"Ari, hey!" Mana's voice called out to them as they sauntered down the hallway to their next class, the older girl picking up her pace to catch up. “What a cute clip! Did Riddle give it to you?”

Discombobulation etched itself onto Ari's face as they tilted their head to the side, questioning, “Huh? What clip?”

“The one in your hair!" Mana held her finger out towards the back of their head, charmed by Ari's obliviousness. "It looks just like the one Riddle wears on his bow,” she commented.

Once those words leave Mana's lips, realization struck Ari and their fingers delicately brushed against the spot where their hair meets; and sure enough, they could feel a cold ornament pinned there.

Heat blossomed on their cheeks when they recollected the look of complacency on Riddle's face earlier, and they buried their face into the palm of their hands. 'What a dumb thing to do! It's too cute!'

As Grim begun to thrash and flail in Mana's arms, insisting for his henchman to hurry up and get moving again, Mana chirped, “I better go. I’ll see you later, Ari!”

Ari stared at Mana's fleeting back as she ran off, taking note of the bat-shaped clip donned in her hair, thinking to themselves, "I've never seen her with that clip before either. Uh⋯ does SHE even know it's there?"

With the Heartslabyul residents converging together outside, playing a rather exigent game of croquet, Riddle couldn’t cease the wavelets of anxiety and choler from suffusing throughout his body—because Ari clearly wasn’t paying any attention to the on-going activity.

Instead, they appeared far too occupied with speaking to some other students and that left the acrid taste of jealousy to smolder in his mouth. And as it continued on, Riddle only found these feelings exacerbating until they reached a boiling point⋯

“Ari! Come over here at once—” Riddle’s indignant words dissolved on the tip of his tongue as the aforementioned knight was called over by someone else; thus making them delve deeper into the crowd of students and leaving him ignored.

Feeling a mixture of demoralization and irritation, Riddle pressed his forehead into Trey’s shoulder. “Trey⋯ why won’t they pay attention to me!”

Giving his childhood friend a mollifying pat on the head, Trey comforted him, “There, there, Riddle.”

Sniggers emitted from a certain second-year, his droopy red eyes glimmering with a sardonic amusement as he scrutinized Riddle’s behavior. “It looks like Ari is busy - too bad for you, Riddle-sama,” Beta said, his mocking tone exuding strongly.

Immediately collaring Beta without restraint, Riddle leered at him, retorting cuttingly, “You’d be the same way if Rumi ignored you.”

Beta shook his head in congruence with effortlessly removing the collar from around his neck, that complacent smirk never leaving his lips. “My Rumi wouldn’t ignore me,” he clarified as he further taunted the immature tyrant. In order to fatuously prove his point, Beta ambled over to Rumi who was fervidly discussing something with Ramshackle’s prefect.

Approaching silently from behind, believing himself to be covert and undetected, Beta brought his arms forward to wrap Rumi into a hug—only to have them adeptly crouch down at the last second, making the boy embrace the air.

Without another word uttered, Beta tromped away from the scene and pressed his forehead against Cater’s back. “Cater⋯ they’re playing hard to catch!”

a half-lidded gaze of annoyance was fixated onto your petulant moue, and riddle folded his arms across his chest, tinctures of displeasure tinging the undertones of his voice as he said, "will you quit pouting? it wasn't a real proposal."

"still... hearing you give such an enchanting speech for the sake of someone else," you began abashedly, fingers reaching forward to take hold of his sleeve, "... was a little frustrating."

that idiosyncratic gesture of yours to ameliorate your jealousy brought forth abundant warmth within riddle's chest, and he heaved an exhale.

"it's not like i ended up saying it to her anyway," he refuted, recollecting his ire at the ghostly guards alluding to his shorter stature and how he spent the rest of the mission fuming and fighting.

and yet, even with that elucidation, you still couldn't stave off the snit of desire. 'they're so cute...' riddle thought, 'i bet she doesn't even remember the queen of hearts rules about marriage with how they're talking; i better remind them later.'

unfurling his arms, riddle brushed against your lithe skin with the back of his fingers, a soft and tender simper curved on his lips, "besides, there's no way i'd ever marry someone like her...

「ari x overblot!riddle // rindle」 ↳ as always, for @shinmon-c !! i've had the image of ari taking charge to do what she wants for the first time as riddle overblots, they just want to help him - it's their duty as his knight!!

”Enough, enough, enough! SHUT UP!!” Riddle’s strident, jarring scream abraded the rose garden with every pulsation of emotion in his voice, as the corrosion of blot left him more and more absonant. “My mother was correct! That means I’m absolutely correct!!”

An inordinate effusion of pitch-black ink swallowed the air, the rose trees heeding Riddle’s call to rive down those he judged wrong. Dexterously dodging a vine whipping towards him, Cater yelled, tone inundated with dread, “This is seriously bad, all of you get out of here⋯!”

And everyone, all the dorm residents in Heartslabyul, gathered began frantically retreating away from the dorm head’s culminating outburst, devastated by how things had escalated.

But for one particular student, their feet stayed firmly planted in the eroding grass.

Watching as Riddle continued to sink deeper and deeper into his own desperation, Ari took a step forward as they reached their hand out to him—to her beloved, cherished Queen. “R-Riddle, you need to calm down!”

“Huh?” Unbridled eyes fixated on Ari, an ephemeral sense of surprise bursting in his grey orbs, before Riddle gritted his teeth together at the sight of them defying him. “Calm down? What place does a knight like you have telling their queen he’s wrong?!”

“It’s my duty as your knight to protect you!” Ari’s voice resounded as they interjected through the decaying air, the sound and sensation of their shout galvanising them into taking another step forward.

They felt as if they had failed Riddle. They allowed him to deteriorate to this point, staying by his side but not fulfilling what they swore to do. Ace was right—this allegiance was falsified, only helping fester the deplorable conflict within him by enabling his behaviour all this time.

The conviction and resolve to save Riddle seeped through the fissures of Ari’s body with a white-hot intensity as she got closer, squandering this distance between them. “If you keep casting magic like this, you’ll⋯!” they pleaded to him, her hand about to reach his.

“Don’t come any closer!” Riddle shrieked, concurrently swinging his staff forward—and Ari felt a splatter of ink pelt their cheek at breakneck speed, scorching through their nerves as a stain of black and crimson stained her skin as blood rose to the surface. “I have no need for a knight who won’t listen to my orders!”

Harrowed gasps reverberated at the sight, and Mana hurriedly rushed forward to seize Ari’s arm and pull them back away from Riddle as his shoulders trembled with more and more ire. Left in a dazed stupor, Mana’s mollifying words distant against their ears, the revelation that Riddle had outright hurt and discarded them with little regard pierced through her heart.

A rush of raw, violent emotion pervaded between flesh and bone. Ari felt a cluster of tears gather on her eyelashes as both heat and frigidity stung them.

“Riddle, stop this! If you keep going any further, you will lose everything!” Trey’s modulated voice rung, and he tried so helplessly to conceal his own overwhelming worry.

As Trey’s words managed to peel back an iota of Riddle’s dismay, Riddle’s gaze fixated on Ari as she cradled their bloodied cheek. “Look at everyone’s faces!”

Forced to face the utter ruination and anguish he caused, Riddle was incapable of controlling the devastation left behind his wreckage; as any vestiges of his sanity finally became fully deluged in blot.

Overflowing ink enveloped Riddle’s frame, exploiting his hopelessness and obsession with order and control until the Queen of Hearts had dominated him completely. Riddle could feel the guillotine twined around his neck, and if he didn’t listen to the oppressive blot, it’s off with his head.

“He’s 「Overblotted」!!”

Ari witnessed as Riddle’s clothes and demeanour became soaked in black, the distorted and garbled sound of his haughty laughter imposing terror.

From beside them, they heard the headmaster’s words, alluding to them, “Right now, the safety of the other students is the top priority. I shall evacuate the other residents. Therie-kun I need you to go get other dorm heads and teachers to assist⋯”

Panic and trepidation swept their befuddled state, jolting them back to reality; and in that moment, they felt as if the pain in their cheek was nonexistent—and all that remained was the ache in her heart.

The headmaster was instructing her because he knew Ari would listen; that they’d do exactly as they’re told, no matter how they felt on the matter. Should they——?!

“Eat this!!” “Come forth, cauldron!” “Fghnna!!”

The idiotic first-year trio all bellowed, each war cry emitted impelling everyone else into acting alongside them. Even Cater who felt out-of-place united with his fellow Heartslabyul’s residents to put a stop to Riddle.

Clenching her hands into fists, Ari shook her head intensely and brought out her magical pen as determination etched itself onto their countenance. “I’m helping, too! Headmaster, you focus on evacuating the remaining students!” Ari cried, their heart hammering erratically in their chest.

“I’m not going to abandon Riddle! I’m not, do you hear me?!” Ari felt hot, thick droplets cascading down their cheeks as they bawled, that sheen of resolution still gleaming in their eyes, “That’s why, I’m going to fight!”

Nodding her head as Ari instinctively stands in front of her to shield her from any onslaughts, Mana bellowed, “Let’s all work together to stop Dorm Head Riddle!!”

“I should’ve went to bed earlier last night⋯” Ari’s fatigued voice griped as they plopped down into their seat at class, fingers pinching the bridge of their nose to ameliorate the ripples of exhaustion.

The clamor of their classmates blathering around them pulsated with every twinge of the headache throbbing through at them, and with every loud laugh they felt their muscles tighten.

Honestly, they wanted nothing more than to shut their eyes and pretend they were back in the comfort of their bed.

“Is this seat open?”

A gently modulated voice cleaved through Ari’s daze, and they peered up at the source—discerning a dazzling boy with red hair and gray eyes. A sensation of nostalgia seeped through their veins, imbuing vestiges of warmth.

They couldn’t help but feel as if they’ve seen him before; but why? He seemed familiar, so familiar that they felt their heart ache with heat.

“Oh, uh, yeah, it is,” Ari choked out, dumbfounded and nearly flustered from their behavior in front of such a debonair presence, “Sorry, I have a bit of a headache. Didn’t get enough sleep last night, haha;;”

A dribble of sweat slid down the side of their face as he sat down next to them, tucking a strand of his hair behind his ear.

“No matter what world you’re in, you can never set a proper schedule for yourself, can you?” the boy sighed, a tincture of vexation lingering in his voice; although the affectionate hue in his softening eyes did little to bring it to the fore. “I better keep a close eye on you now that I’ve finally found you again, Ari.”

Bemusement carved itself onto Ari’s mien as they squinted their eyes, and they furrowed their brows together while asking, “Wait⋯ how do you know my name? I haven’t seen you in this class before.”

“Ah,” he began, a prick of pain flashing through his expression before he shook his head at them, “you don’t remember me, then.”

Even as Ari scrutinized the subtle pain on his face, they felt strangely⋯ enraptured with him. They weren’t able to pinpoint what it was about him that made them incredibly sentimental, dewy-eyed.

“Have we met before?” Ari asked, the tentativeness in their tone evoking a jolt in his body, “I don’t think I remember you.”

“Mm, don’t worry about it,” the red-haired boy dismissed their concerns with a wave of his hand, before settling his chin into the palm as he leaned his elbow onto the veneer surface of the desk, “I’m Riddle. Riddle Rosehearts.”

A frisson surged down the column of Ari’s spine, accompanying shivers permeating along their body. Why was that so familiar? And why did they feel as if they had just fallen in love?

Riddle’s glossy lips curved into an assured smirk, one that sent Ari’s heart into a frenzy of allure, before he avowed;

“I’ll definitely make you remember me, Ari.”

「ari x riddle」 ↳ gift for @shinmon-c !! they make me so happy♡ *the poem by lewis carrol; title is also a reference to the white knight who tells said story to alice!

Whether it was childish of them or not, a fairy tale with a happy ending always brought a smile to their lips.

Surrounded by a multitude of freshly painted roses, each one bursting with riotous reds to mask their white nature, tea cocooned Ari’s senses and imbued them with tranquility. Well, with this placid set-up, they couldn’t cease the worsening delight from overwhelming them. After all, they were sharing this breathtaking tea party alongside their very important person—Riddle Rosehearts.