And of course, it doesn't matter how long he's been asleep or how much of the comings and goings of the world at large he'd missed -- Riley has learned to cope in his own way, on how to make the most of a thing that holds him as tightly as any leash.

He takes Hikaru's weight, but just enough to lend support, understanding full well what it means to the younger man to stand and move about on his own. Of them all, it has always been Hikaru who moves at his own whims. While Riley himself has never felt the need to go about things the way the Blade King has, he understands the frustration to some degree.

To reach Golconda he'd chosen to embrace the beast in his own way, to become something more than the creature that the cards he'd been dealt had made him, succumbing to slumber and accepting that ( with no small measure of personal reluctance ) because it was a fair enough trade off for his reclaimed humanity.

He leads Hikaru to the office he shares with Liandrin and Aidan, takes a moment to hold open the door to the otherwise empty room in silent deference to his comrade.

It is not a gesture that chastizes, but one offered up the way he might a glass to drink or a plate of food; a simple and unspoken: here, is this alright? that Hikaru can choose to accept or turn away.