Title: After

Fandom: RHPS

Prompt: 080. Why?

Pairing: Riff/Brad

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Richard O'Brien is god. Not me. (And 20th Century Fox should get some credit, too, I suppose)

He looked so young and forlorn there alone on the bed, his hair still rumpled, blinking owlishly without his glasses. Riff Raff couldn't think of a single thing to say that would make any difference to the other man, and so he simply stood in the shadows of the doorway, listening to the uneven breathing that was the only sound in the room.

"Why?" Brad suddenly wailed to the opposite wall, raking his fingers through his hair, "Why did I do it? Janet…Oh, Janet, I'm so sorry…" With that, he dissolved into choked sobs that seemed to wrack his entire body.

Wondering whether he would regret it later, Riff cautiously crossed the room to the bed, and put a careful hand on the shoulder nearest him, once again not coming up with anything to say. Brad looked up, eyes wide and afraid. He relaxed visibly when he saw that it wasn't Frank, but then he only curled up into a tighter ball and muttered, "I'm sorry—did I wake you?"

Whathad the bastard done to him, anyway? Riff was under the impression that Brad wasn't the sort of man to be broken by simple men and their insults, but then again Frank was by no means simple. Riff, of all people, knew that.

"I suppose it wouldn't comfort you very much to know that yourfiancée has been likewise seduced by the Master," Riff began, and felt the other man shudder beneath his hand, "But she is a strong lady, and shall recover. So can you," Encouraged by the way that sounded, he repeated it firmly. "So can you."

"Can I?" Brad asked, raising his face toward Riff's, and there were tears on his cheeks. "I don't think I know anything for sure anymore…Except how much girls can hurt."

The dreamy look in his eyes was more than a little alarming, and proceeded to becomestill more so when Brad took his hand and pulled him down down down toward the bed, murmuring something that sounded suspiciously like "Maybe I should just stick to my own kind, mmm?"

Riff, managing to hang on to one last reasonable thought, replied, "You know I'm not going to be like Frank—"

"—You know I'm not going to be either." Brad smiled, "And I don't want you to be."