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reikizoku · 3 months

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Three Nights Remain

Leona Kingscholar loves sleep more than anything else in Twisted Wonderland. So he is determined to continue sleeping all through the night when he has to host two freshmen crashing in his dorm for taking a rather stupid deal he had nothing to do with. It wasn't his problem.

Yet for some absurd reason, the three nights that the prefect stays in Savanaclaw, he doesn't get a wink.

Second Choice, Last Place

(part one) (part two) (part three) (read on AO3)

Word count: 4.5k

The moment Leona saw one of his freshmen bringing the herbivore and the weasel into his dorm, he knew that it was going to be trouble for him. He tried to avoid it as much as he could. Anything that didn’t involve him wasn’t his business, and wasn’t about to become his when it meant more work added to his plate he kept purposefully empty.

But here he was, watching his dorm get humbled by that very same freshman and strange package deal, where one wasn’t anything more than a pipsqueak and the other didn’t have a drop of magic in him. Here he was, finding that strangely enough, the person he thought would be dead last in a fight seemed oddly good at throwing down when the need arose.

Here he was, in his room, with two extra freeloaders on his couch that were much too loud and much too foolish for his taste, if they had gotten into a situation dire enough that forced them to stay here of all places. “Thank you again for letting us stay here,” the prefect said, as he made sure for the umpteenth time that his and Grim’s bags weren’t taking up any more space than they had to like a good little student.

Leona just hummed, making himself comfortable on his bed. “Don’t make me regret it.” Out of all the reactions that could have gotten out of him, the herbivore laughed. It made Leona crack open an eye to peer at him. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.” Yuu sighed as he shrugged out of his uniform jacket, still trying to be as unimposing as possible as he draped it over his bag. “Usually I’m the one regretting things. Like this deal, for example.”

“Getting cold feet now?” Leona taunted, almost more a leer than a real question. He couldn’t help but smirk just a little. “You made your bed, herbivore. Now you gotta lay in it.”

Yuu huffed lightheartedly, the faintest hint of a smile etched on his lips. “Grim’s already taken care of that, I’m afraid.” He looked down at where the thing was already conked out, spread out on enough of the couch that it’d be a pain for the freshman to fit, too. Maybe that was the reason why he sighed, glancing down at bare wrists revealed by scrunched-up sleeves. “You wouldn’t happen to have a first-aid kit, would you?” he asked, that smile turning into something of a frown.

Another hum, as Leona eyed him through the slit he had to see through. “Didn’t know the herbivore was so easy to knock around.” He didn’t look all that beat up, but Leona could smell the tang of metallic blood in the air. Somewhere, skin had been broken. Wherever it was, he did a good job of hiding it, he’d give him that.

Maybe Leona was being a little mean. Something in him paused when the prefect’s eyes flickered, a dimmer thing flashing in them. “Didn’t know the lion took such pride in playing with his prey,” he shot back, making Leona’s second eye open as his eyebrow raised. “What a catch I am. ‘Doe-eyed and dimwitted,’ I think you put it. You must be flaunting me to everyone who’d listen as your best hunt.”

So the herbivore still had guts, even after facing beastmen full of snarling teeth and crackling spells. Leona smirked this time, tail flicking from where it was next to him. “Finally decided to drop that little act of respect, huh?”

Yuu grinned back, something twisted and dark and just evil enough to make Leona wonder if this frosh was really as out of place in this school as he originally thought. “Not at all.”

Doe-eyed, dimwitted and cheeky, he mentally added, a little more amused than he should’ve been to find out that the prefect had claws beyond just physical fights. “If I got anything, it’d be in the bathroom,” Leona finally said, trusting he wasn’t blind enough not to miss the door.

“Thank you very much, Housewarden Kingscholar.” He almost didn’t let the laugh that got out of him be anything more than another hum, but it did when Yuu somehow schooled his features to look as prim and proper as physically possible. He didn’t know how to feel about it. He could be asleep and yet here he was, laughing at some forgettable freshman’s joke.

Leona decided he’d sleep now, letting his eyes shut again. It wasn’t his problem that he had been foolish enough to make a contract with the cephalo-punk, and it wasn’t going to be. The only thing that he would contribute and take from this was a temporary lodging and a new, equally temporary servant.

But then little noises kept coming from beyond the wall—clinking and ripping and the shuffling of clothes—and he found that it was enough of a distraction to keep him awake. “Knock it off,” he called with a lazy snarl, turning onto his side. There were days that he didn’t mind his heightened senses, and then there were nights like now, when he almost wished he was as deaf as a human so that he could get to rest.

“Sorry. I’m almost done.” Leona’s ear swerved as he picked up something else. A faint gasp, the sharp inhale of a hiss. He felt a growl rising in his throat when he heard it, though he didn’t know quite what it was directed at. Irritation that he was still awake, he decided on, when another of those breaths were sucked in.

Leona dragged himself off his bed, stalking over to the doorframe. Yuu almost jumped when he saw him, making a little flash of predatory satisfaction run through the housewarden. It was accented with the smell of blood, sharper now, since the wound was exposed to the fresh air instead of covered like before. It was a gash on his arm, still weeping a thin stream of scarlet.

It wasn’t just that one place, he realized, when his eyes slid to the hand gingerly letting his bunched-up shirt fall again. There was a bandage already on his abdomen and a bruise budding on his hip, only the very edge visible from where it dipped below his pantline. Leona supposed if he looked closer, took in a deeper breath, he’d find hints of even more blood and blue on his body.

That growl returned. “You really are easy to rough up,” he scowled, eyes smoldering as he looked at the prefect. Yuu averted his for a moment, but then thought better of it, staring right back with a face that said how unafraid he was. Leona’s glower grew. He was too bold for his own good.

“I’ve managed just fine until now,” the herbivore reminded, going back to his wounds as though Leona was nothing but a shadow on the wall. He didn’t make a sound when he dabbed some sort of ointment on the cut, biting the inside of his cheek to muffle it. But Leona still caught the faint scent of pain, something just as sharp and thick as though he was feeling it himself. If he looked close enough, he could see the way the herbivore’s eyes squinted, in annoyance and exhaustion and a list of other things Leona didn’t want to list, because he shouldn’t be thinking about it anyways.

What a pain.

Yuu opened his mouth as Leona stepped closer, undoubtedly about to shoot another quip at him, but he stopped when he noticed that the housewarden had swiped a roll of bandages, ripping off just enough to wrap around his injury. His wrist was thin, Leona found himself musing when he felt the way Yuu’s heart skipped and thudded from his vein. It was almost impossible to see what he really looked like, thanks to the uniform that was at least three sizes too big for him, but even then, he wasn’t nearly as brawny as he’d imagined, to be able to take on the number of his dorm members he had and win. Then again, he would have to be small, to avoid the spells that seemed to follow him like fire streaking through dried grass.

He didn’t say anything, even as Leona tied the bandage ends together, keeping it there to cover the slice on his skin. “Thank you,” Yuu finally murmured, when Leona dropped his hands and leaned back, eyeing him a bit more. He really was puny. He couldn’t imagine that he’d be close to a filling snack to the menaces that were the Leech twins, let alone himself.

“Just stop making noise.” Yuu sighed, but the hints of a smile were on his face. Leona almost scoffed at it. The prefect started to put back together the supplies, tucking a strand of hair that had fallen into his face back again. That was when he saw it, able to look at it without distractions like other people or fights that he’d started.

Leona had known that Yuu got hurt from when he’d overblotted, but he had never been able to see just exactly what he’d done. It was the first time he was seeing it from so close up—taking in the claw marks that spread from the side of his head to the corner of his jaw, still red and still fresh, even though the tournament had been some time ago now. With how big and long the four scratches were, Leona was almost surprised that the herbivore still had an ear on that side. But miraculously, it was still there, only with a few nicks and tears to speak of.

It was healing as nicely as it could, but even so, it would no doubt hurt like no one’s business if it was put in saltwater—like the very sea he was going to dive into. That silent growl returned, but now Leona knew what it was directed at.

“You’re staring,” the prefect mused, not looking over at him as he crouched to put the kit away. “I’m done now, I promise. You can go back to sleep.”

He felt something whisper inside him, like mounds of sand were forming to weigh him down. “Change into something else,” Leona grumbled, despite the way something putrid covered his tongue like rotten meat. “Your shirt’s bloody.”

The prefect blinked, and it almost looked like he was noticing that for the first time when he caught sight of the crimson stain on its front. Leona fought the urge to make that growl audible. “I don’t really have anything else,” he admitted, looking a little embarrassed as he did.

Of course he didn’t. Whether that was because the eels didn’t give him enough time to pack, or he just never had enough clothes in the first place, Leona didn’t know. He sighed either way, feeling the telltale drag of drowsiness start to pull him back to his bed. If he didn’t get to go back to it within a few minutes, he’d be angry. “Take something of mine then,” he ended up saying, trying to make this go faster so that he could get to sleep earlier.

“Are you sure?”

Leona just eyed him in return. “Anyone with half a sense of smell in this dorm would catch a whiff of it. They’d be on you in seconds if they knew it was from you.”

It wasn’t a lie. The members of Savanaclaw were more feral than they should be some days, and it ended badly for anyone who was foolish enough to show their weakness off for others to exploit. If they knew that Leona was housing a wounded defect instead of just a defect, things would get bad for the both of them.

Only, he wasn’t either of those things. Leona didn’t know what to think as he watched Yuu tentatively open his closet while he stalked back to his bed, taking out the first shirt he thought Leona wouldn’t mind him wearing. This was a person—a herbivore—that had somehow taken him on at his stupidest, weakest, but still most powerful moment, something that he still didn’t know all the details of and didn’t want to, and won. Out of everyone in this school, Leona could count the people who were capable of that on one hand.

And yet, he still got pushed around like he was the weakest in the pride, beaten and used like a chew toy. Every time Leona had seen it, when those little spats had taken place in the botanical gardens for whatever reason, he had seen how the prefect had never fought back. He just defended himself with a look of set grimness on his face, and once his assailants were satisfied, he just went back to his day like they did. Maybe it was because he didn’t have magic. Maybe it was for some other reason, but all Leona knew and cared to know was that that was the way of the world. Those not favored were always second choice, and those not gifted were always last place.

Leona’s eyes narrowed as the prefect reappeared again, gently scooting Grim away for him to have enough space to curl up. Except, he didn’t. He reached down for his bag, pulling out a stack of documents thick as Leona’s wrist.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded, a snarl in his voice. It was too far past when he should have been asleep. It was too far past when the prefect should have been asleep, if Leona cared, but now he was starting yet another thing to keep them awake.

Yuu gave him a smile. Even in the dim light, Leona could see how it was strained, speaking of how desperately he wanted to drift off, too. “You can turn off the light. I won't disturb you.”

“That’s what your words are sayin’, but that’s telling a different story,” Leona countered, shooting an icy look at the papers. There was no reasonable way that a freshman should have that much of anything, homework or dorm responsibilities or anything else.

He didn’t put them away, much to Leona’s annoyance. He couldn’t read the text on it from his position, so he couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but he had a sneaking suspicion about it when Yuu sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “They have to get done by the end of the week,” was all he told Leona, an apologetic tone woven into his voice. Leona met it with an unimpressed stare. “Pretend I’m not here. I’ll be quiet as a mouse.”

Leona’s eyes narrowed. Yuu tried to give him a sheepish smile, and that was finally the thing that made Leona relent, rolling his eyes as he let his head fall on his pillows. “You’d better be.” The last thing the prefect did before Leona made the light go out with a wave of his hand was put a finger to his lips, already displaying how silent he could be.

It wasn’t his problem, and it wasn’t his mess to clean up. So Leona let his eyes close, nestling just a little further into his bed to get comfortable. But he found himself keeping his ears alert, pricked and swerved just the right way to pin down the herbivore’s every noise. He really was quiet, Leona would give him that—the only thing he could pick up for the most part, even with his inhuman hearing, was the faint scribble of a pen and the occasional louder exhale of a weak sigh.

At one point, there was something a little off. The air changed in a way Leona couldn’t quite place, making everything smell and sound and feel different. Then there was the sound of a cork uncapping a bottle, a whispered swallow, the rustling of a jacket as something was taken out or put back into his bag. Everything changed to normal a few seconds later, as though the strange abnormality had never happened. Leona chalked it up to his half-asleep state playing tricks on him, when he wasn’t quite sure what was real and what wasn’t.

But the sounds continued. Every time Leona thought that he was finally done, as a silence dragged out for long enough that he felt himself slipping into complete sleep, something would always break it. The resuming of writing on paper, or a little murmur so breathy Leona couldn’t even call it a whisper.

Finally at his wit’s end, Leona let his scarred eye open, peering through the night to catch a glimpse of the herbivore. He doubted that the prefect had moved from his position in all the time they’d spent in darkness. If he had, Leona couldn’t tell—he still was hunched over his papers, pen moving as though it were the last thing keeping the world from ending. He’d gotten through a good portion of it, at the very least. The stack at his feet that Leona assumed were the finished ones was thicker than he’d expected it would be, especially when he could hardly see in the dark as well as Leona could. Efficiency seemed to be one of his strong suits, if nothing else.

Yuu stopped as he finished the sheet he’d been working on, staring down at the ones on the ground with a dull look in the eyes that otherwise glowed like two ghostly blue stars. Leona could practically hear the gears turning in the herbivore’s head, screaming and clicking from the lack of oil rest would give them. And then he stopped, listening to his mind's pleas by joining the two stacks together before storing them back in his bag. Leona breathed a sigh.

Only for the prefect to pull out another stack of papers.

Enough was enough. “What,” Leona hissed, making Yuu jump at how a single emerald fire was aimed at him from the dark, “are you doing.”

“My homework,” he answered, too surprised to lie. It took another snarl from Leona to finally make Yuu come to his senses, albeit if he had any. “I thought you were asleep.”

“You can see just how right you are, can’t you?” Leona could hear the way Yuu’s breath hitched when he lifted his head, raising up to glare at the freshman. “Wasn’t that other stack it?”

His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “No. That was— that wasn’t.” Yuu seemed scared. Good. It reflected in his eyes as Leona sat up further, silently demanding a better answer out of him. “They’re from the headmage,” he admitted, fidgeting with his hands under the housewarden’s smoldering gaze.

“‘Course they are.” It almost sounded like Leona wasn’t convinced, with the venom starting to seep into his voice. He was more surprised that the birdbrain would trust a job like that to a freshman with no place in the world and no magic to his name. Maybe that was exactly why, he realized, as he remembered that Crowley was the reason why the herbivore had even been investigating him in the first place.

It clicked then, what Yuu's role was in everything. Of course—he was someone unnoticeable and disposable. And Leona’s anger surprisingly changed to a new target, as he recognized just how little say the student in front of him had in anything. But no one in the room had to know about that. “Put them away,” he ordered, giving the papers such a heated look it wouldn’t be surprising if they spontaneously combusted. Yuu opened his mouth to speak, to no doubt argue with him, but Leona stopped it with another hair-raising snarl. “Now.”

Yuu gave him a look that only seemed half-annoyed, with how worry and fear was taking up the rest of his brainpower. “I’m sorry. I—”

“Stop talking.” Yuu immediately listened, closing his mouth without another word. So now he had some common sense. “Lay down ‘n sleep,” Leona told him, narrowing his eyes more for every second that passed where he didn’t. “I’m not askin’, and I’m not saying it again.”

Leona watched with eyes that didn’t miss a thing as Yuu did as he said, making sure there was no way for him to worm his way out of it again. Maybe he should start calling the herbivore the weasel instead of the pipsqueak, he thought with an almost sarcastic tone. He was small and slippery enough to be one.

Finally, the freshman seemed like he was done. So Leona laid back down again, hoping for sleep at last. “Sorry,” the herbivore mumbled, not-quite-quiet enough for Leona to miss.

His eyes opened again from where they had almost closed shut, feeling those sand dunes press down on his chest again. “Go to bed,” he answered, in a voice that was not quite as harsh as before.

The prefect shifted one more time, readjusting the blanket draped over his body for one final last noise of the evening. “Good night.”

Leona sighed, forcing himself to stop staring at the ceiling and listening to the prefect. Some sleep he was getting.

Once Yuu and his gang of freshmen disappeared from campus, Leona returned to his room instead of his regular spot in the botanical gardens. He’d been tipped off by the herbivore’s frantic studying to know that there were going to be one too many classes there for him to stomach, so he returned to his room instead, peacefully and blissfully quiet without his two extra roommates.

And yet, he did not sleep. For some strange reason, Leona dug through his possessions, without rhyme or reason, trying to remember where it was that Ruggie told him he’d stored a particular group of stuff. Of course, he’d been falling asleep, so he hardly remembered what the sophomore had said to him. At the time, Leona hadn’t cared in the slightest, but he supposed he was a little ticked off at his past self now, when he’d rummaged through enough places and thrown enough things around that he wanted to just stop and get in his afternoon nap.

Then, finally, in the last few seconds Leona had grumbled to himself he’d spend doing this, he found it, left to gather dust in a box in an unused room. Anyone without magic or muscle would have been doomed to get buried in all the discarded things, which was why Leona had held off looking in there until he was completely sure that was the only place it could be. It really was for the best that Yuu and Grim roomed with him, Leona found himself thinking, before he threw the thought out of his head.

He’d done more than enough for today, Leona decided. So he haphazardly threw it onto one of the many piles of things scattered amongst his floor and slunk back to his bed, hoping to catch a few winks before Ruggie came looking for him for lunch.

No one at this school pulled any punches, Yuu found, even for those younger and weaker than them. Any other day, under any other circumstances, she would have respected that. But now, when she was tired and cold and sore, Yuu just wanted to go back to her moth-eaten bed and let the world crumble around her.

“You’re not done yet,” Ruggie chimed, noticing how Yuu and Grim were about to fall back onto Leona’s couch and pass out, even though it was littered with mess. “We gotta clean, then you can conk out.”

Of course. Yuu sighed, grabbing Grim by the scruff to pick him up again and set him on the ground, too tired to speak. “This feels messier than last night,” she mused despite herself, knowing it was probably a little rude, but exhaustion removing her filter.

“It always seems that way when it’s your job to clean up.” Yuu hummed, grabbing any and all laundry nearby to throw in the hamper. If nothing else, she could try to be quick. Then she could get to the mountain of paperwork she still needed to do, between her homework and the papers Crowley had assigned to her.

The last few rays of sun trickled in through his balcony, and Yuu couldn’t help but pause for a second, watching the great ball of fire descend to the horizon. She only had two more days to achieve the impossible. It would have been difficult enough with a month, but with only three sunsets given to her, Yuu had half the mind to just curl into a ball and let herself give up.

But she couldn’t. Yuu wasn’t the only one standing to lose something now. It was the mess she’d told her friends she’d help them get out of, so it was her burden to bear. Yuu sighed, rolling her shoulders to hopefully shake some of the aching soreness in them from swimming the entire day, and got back to work. Leona did nothing but watch with half-lidded eyes, lazily following their movements as the two of them cleaned while Ruggie oversaw.

Once the rest of the room was devoid of things haphazardly tossed around, Yuu moved onto Leona’s desk, seeing that there was clutter still near its surroundings. She hadn’t meant to pry, but when she carefully took the blanket that was draped over the table into her hands, folding it absentmindedly, her eyes dragged across the words of the opened book below.

And then they widened. “Leona,” she called, feeling a spark of hope ignite in her for the first time in weeks, “are these your textbooks?”

His eyes had closed, and they did not reopen at her query. “What’s it matter?”

It wasn’t a yes. But it wasn’t a no, either. “Could I borrow them for tonight?” Yuu asked, glancing down at Grim when he made his way over. Hopefully he didn’t miss the silent plea she’d given him to start reading, just in case Leona suddenly got up and snatched them away.

Not that he'd do that. Or maybe he would. After last night, Yuu wasn’t really sure where his boundaries were in what did and didn’t make him mad. But the housewarden just hummed, not bothered enough to give her a proper answer. It wasn’t a no. “Thank you,” she breathed, taking them in her hands as though they were the most fragile glass and bringing them back to her makeshift bed.

“You’re still doin’ homework?” Grim exclaimed, the hint of disapproval in his voice. “We’re not even goin’ to class, minion. There’s no point.”

“We’ll still have to learn the material,” she countered, only half present in the conversation. The last of her attention on her surroundings disappeared when Ruggie snickered, echoing in her ears like the whispers of sand grains shifting against each other. Maybe tonight, she could finish her homework before such an unreasonable hour.

And Leona watched through that one hardly-opened eye, as the last of the light disappeared from inside his four walls, and yet the prefect still worked.

#sorry I keep reposting these #their fics are so good I can't help it #please go check them out they're amazing

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reikizoku · 3 months

Text

Two Nights Remain

Yet for some absurd reason, the three nights that the prefect stays in Savanaclaw, he doesn't get a wink.

Carnivore, Herbivore

(part one) (part two) (part three) (read on AO3)

Word count: 7k | Warning: Yuu has her period

Leona yawned, feeling his eyes droop as the stars started to appear. “Give yourself a break,” he found himself saying, despite how it was almost entertaining watching the herbivore question his life choices over a few measly pieces of paper. “You’re just going to make yourself dead on your feet if you keep goin’.”

“One more page,” Yuu bargained, keeping his eyes glued to the textbook in front of him. Leona couldn’t help but roll his, tail flicking in something he couldn’t quite call annoyance at the prefect’s stubbornness. It was a little vexing, how someone that small and meek could still have enough persistence to almost make Leona wonder how the Dark Mirror didn’t say he could fit in at Savanaclaw.

Then again, maybe he couldn’t. Leona had to rethink that when he caught the scent of blood, stinging his nostrils and making his senses snap to attention. Now where was he hurt? The hints of a scowl started to pull Leona’s lips down, especially when he caught himself trying to look over the herbivore for anything he might be able to see that his uniform didn’t cover. It wasn’t his problem.

“Patch yourself up, at least,” he grumbled, the growl in his voice more directed at himself than his new servant. “I don’t want to be smellin’ your blood all night.”

For some reason, that got the prefect’s attention, a crease appearing in his brow. “You can smell it?” he asked, more curious than anything else. “But I—” and then he stopped, some strange revelation making him freeze and the sickly tang of worry wave off him. “I’ll get right on that.”

His sudden and total attitude change was enough to make Leona raise an eyebrow, but he said nothing as Yuu shot up to dash into his bathroom. He closed the door behind him this time, hopefully learning from last night that it took more than carefully quiet movements to muffle sounds from his ears. Leona just sighed, lacing his fingers behind his head.

In his newfound boredom, he caught himself looking at his second freeloader. How was it that out of the three of them, Grim was the only one asleep? Whatever madness they’d gone through that day had seemed to take a toll on him, if nothing else, because he’d been out like a light the moment his head hit the pillow. Leona decided that he should fix the grave mistake in the world as soon as he could, closing his eyes to doze off, too.

But before he could get very far, the sound of a door tentatively opening caught his ear, pulling him back into consciousness. He almost scowled, but kept his features neutral, trying to feign being asleep when he realized that the prefect was trying to sneak back into his room. He pinned his ears on him, trying to pinpoint just exactly what was happening while his eyes were closed.

What was he doing? What was Leona doing, trying to listen in like some stupid kid at a slumber party? He couldn’t frown, but he could let his tail thump on his mattress, the only outlet he had to express his annoyance. It was so he could make sure the herbivore wasn’t trying to get slick and get away with stealing something, he reasoned with himself. After all the rumors he’d picked up about Yuu’s rather abysmal financial situation, he wouldn’t put it past him to try to make a quick thaumark.

But the prefect wasn’t like that, Leona found himself thinking. Out of everyone in Night Raven College, he would probably pick the herbivore as the most trustworthy student on campus. He was also the most trusting, which got him into many a bad situation like the one that had made him oh-so-kindly become Leona’s servant for two more days. After the big display he’d made out of Leona trying to cheat for the spelldrive tournament, he’d be shocked if he really turned out to be as twisted as—

What was he doing? Leona hissed at himself again, stopping himself mid-thought. He had no business with the prefect whatsoever. None of his problems were Leona’s issue, and he had no reason to care. His tail’s flicking became stronger with his increased irritation, now letting out an audible thud as it hit his bedsheets. Look at all the good rooming with the herbivore did to him after one night, with missed sleep and unnecessary annoyance. He wasn’t looking forward to sharing his dorm with the guy for two more nights.

Then Leona felt him gently touching his shoulder, and it almost made him just leap up and devour him right then and there. He kept to his facade of sleep, willing his tail to stop moving. “Leona,” Yuu called, and something in him stirred at the way he’d said it. His voice was practically a whisper, uttered with fear and worry and something that made Leona think that he was about to shatter.

Fine. He’d just keep bothering him if he ignored him, so Leona let his eyes open again. “You’d better have a real good reason for waking me up,” he growled, before he took in his expression. It made Leona pause just for a moment, and he wondered if maybe he really did have one, when he looked that nervous.

“I’m going to tell you something,” he said, still in that voice that reminded Leona of a terrified songbird, “and I don’t want you to freak out.”

“You’re tellin’ me that?” he couldn’t help but scoff back, even though he felt something strange and cool start to close around his stomach. It got just a little tighter when the prefect bit his bottom lip, glancing around the room as he took in a breath. “Spit it out already.”

He took his hand away, as though he’d only just now remembered that it was still on Leona’s shoulder, and breathed in again. “I’m a girl,” he blurted out, in a forced exhale of a sigh that was just barely words instead of breath.

Out of everything the prefect could have told him, Leona was not expecting it to be that. He blinked, trying to see if this was some sort of joke as his surprise faded. “What.” If this was anyone else, Leona would have thought that they were lying. But the way that Yuu’s face flinched at the unimpressed snarl in his voice made him think again.

And then Leona remembered that moment last night, when something in the air seemed to shimmer and change. Then the pieces suddenly all slotted into place, making everything strange make sense. The oversized uniform, the small wrist, the sound of a cork uncapping…

“You’re serious?” he asked, that snarl noticeably absent from his voice now. Yuu nodded, the faintest dip of the head as he—she—confirmed.

Leona fought the urge to swear.

He sat up now, making the prefect take a step back as he swung his legs to let his feet touch the ground. “The headmage gives me a potion,” she explained, sensing that Leona was about to start asking questions. “I have to take it every night, and it does…something. I’m not really sure what, but it keeps people from finding out the truth.”

To think it even worked on him. It must be some potion, Leona mused with bitterness in his thoughts. “You’re making it all useless right now,” he reminded gruffly, though not unkindly, trying not to think about all the ways that he’d been a complete imbecile to her. “Why tell me?”

She fidgeted with her shirt, and Leona saw that the tips of her ears were burning a furious red. It was extending to the rest of her face, he noticed, which she was trying to hide by tilting her head even farther down than it’d been already. “I-I have a problem,” she mumbled, and the only reason Leona could catch her words was because of the way his ears were fixed on her. “I’m…bleeding.”

It took Leona a moment longer than he wished it had to realize what she meant. Yuu had let her hair fall around her face all the more now, practically concealing herself from his view in either shame or embarrassment, or a cruel combination of the two. “You don’t have anything?” he asked, forcing his voice to lose the growl of frustration it almost had. There was no reason to scare her any more than she already was. Leona found he had no desire to anyway, when she was trying her hardest not to cower now.

He saw Yuu’s hair wave more than he saw her shake her head. “The twins were watching me when I packed. I didn’t want to risk it.” Leona ran a hand through his hair, trying to figure out what exactly he felt and who exactly it was directed at. “I’d go buy something, but if you can— can smell it, then…”

“Yeah.” He’d been pretty dense, but there wasn’t a guarantee that everyone in the dorm would be as blockheaded. Leona took one look at the herbivore and sighed. The sharp, bristling scent of fear was sticking to her skin like mud and musk. Even if Leona wasn’t able to smell it, it was obvious to tell that she was a hair’s breadth from trembling.

So much for anything not becoming his problem. “I’ll take care of it,” he told her, standing up to make it clear he meant it. “Sam knows?” Another barely-nod, making him go off how her hair moved more than anything else. Leona felt his tail swish, hesitantly bringing a hand up to lightly touch her shoulder. He hoped it helped to make her not want to bolt as much. At the very least, it didn’t make her want to run more, since she didn’t flinch at it. “Go take a shower. You—” smell like fish guts, he was about to say, then realized that what she smelled like was definitely a sensitive topic right now. “It’ll help,” he decided on instead, gently coaxing her to start walking back towards the bathroom. “I’ll be back when you’re done.”

Yuu nodded, a bit more brave this time as it finally got through to her that Leona wasn’t going to rip her to pieces. “I’m sorry,” she got out, as she took the first few steps with him.

Leona found that he wanted to shred whatever it was that made her sound so fragile when he heard her voice again, still just as timid. Maybe it was him, he realized, the thought making something sour and rancid fill his mouth. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault,” he said, meaning it as much as he could. He stopped when they made it back to the bathroom door, relieved that she seemed at least a little less flighty now. “No one else’ll find out. Take a breath, herbivore.”

She listened for once, filling her lungs with air that would hopefully help to calm her. “Thank you,” she told him, finding enough courage to fix her falling glasses. “Really. Between this and letting us crash here, I— thank you so much.”

He sighed, though it was not exasperated. “You’re not as big a hassle as you think you are,” he answered, trying to convince her that it was true.

And that was how the housewarden of Savanaclaw found himself trying to hastily make it over to the Mystery Shop in the few minutes he had before it closed instead of curled up in his bed. At this time of night, there weren’t many students awake and roaming campus—especially when it seemed as though the vast majority of them had taken a deal with the cephalo-punk, like the fools they were, and were trapped working in the Mostro Lounge.

Leona walked with a scowl on his face and a swishing tail, scaring the handful of students he did end up passing into a silent stupor. Why did the layout of campus make it so that they had to walk so far to get to the Shop? He had never minded it before, but it just made his mood all the more dour now. At least it wasn’t at the very end of the path, like Ramshackle was. Leona was honestly surprised that Yuu was on time to class most days. He wouldn’t have the resolve to wake up as early as she no doubt had to if he wasn’t forced to by Ruggie.

The doors were miraculously unlocked when Leona got to the Mystery Shop, much to his relief. Leona found that he had to take a little moment to calm himself before opening them, quelling his irritation and fixing his expression to not be so immediately hostile. He fought the urge to cringe when the bell rang, announcing his presence to everyone inside—which only seemed to be himself and Sam, thankfully, who peeked his head out from the back when he heard the chime.

“If it isn’t the Kingscholar imp!” he greeted, a disbelieving grin on his face as he saw who had come in so late. “What can I do for you?” Leona didn’t know how he felt about the way his ears swiveled before he’d consciously known they were, confirming without a shadow of a doubt that they really were the only two there. Sam seemed to realize what he was doing, thanks to the way Leona had grown silent just before he’d come to the counter. “You’re my only customer. Just about closed the doors before you came in.”

Good. Leona looked at him with a gaze that didn’t leave any room for arguments, making Sam pause for just a moment from the intensity his emerald eyes burned. “I know about the stuff you keep in stock for the herbivore,” he told him, deciding it was a night where he didn’t feel like mincing his words and dodging the truth. “She needs some of ‘em.”

Any reluctance or deception Sam was about to spew on him immediately vanished when he heard the pronoun Leona used. “You found out, huh?” he asked, his smile turning a little sour.

Leona recognized that look instantly. He wouldn’t hesitate to make the housewarden shut up if he needed him to. That unexpected streak of kindness almost surprised him, but it only made his job harder right now. “Quit it. I ain’t telling anyone,” he growled, making Sam raise his hands in a sign of peace.

“Heard about the deal the imp made with Ashengrotto. Looks like she made it over to you, huh?” Leona barely stopped his lip from curling back to reveal fangs that would no doubt make this go faster. But he had to remain civil, if nothing else than to not have to deal with the lecture he’d be in for if he didn’t. “What is it she needs?”

It was then that Leona realized he’d forgotten to ask. What even was there? Did Sam have everything, or just a few select things? It was only after a few seconds that Leona remembered he had to answer the question, when he noticed the way Sam was waiting for a response. His ears flattened to the sides of his head. “She’s swimmin’,” he answered, hoping that was enough of an answer to let him do the rest.

Thankfully, it was. Sam flashed him a thumbs up before ducking into the back room again, leaving Leona to be the sole person in the entire shop. He couldn’t help but run a hand through his hair, pushing his bangs up as he sighed. The silence made him think, both about what had just been revealed to him and how he hadn’t possibly found out before now. He still couldn’t believe how he hadn’t noticed until now, when everything was made so painfully obvious that even a toddler could figure it out. Pieces of memories and overheard conversations ran through his head, only helping to emphasize how foolish he’d been before.

A plastic bag being placed on the counter snapped Leona out of this thoughts, making him look down at it instead of the random wall he had been fixated on. It was already tied shut, making sure that no prying eyes got a glimpse of what was inside. “How much?” he asked, thankful he’d remembered to get his wallet back from Ruggie that evening.

“Nothing. The two of us have an agreement.” Leona’s eyes instantly narrowed, finding his choice of wording all sorts of suspicious when Yuu was already in another soul-sucking deal with a student Sam seemed to take to a bit too much. But he laughed, making Leona’s eyes all the more darker. “It’s nothing shady. You can ask the imp if you’re curious,” he offered, before giving him a grin. “Guess my friends from the shadows were right when they said she’d gotten a new buddy.”

Leona didn’t know what to do at that, much to his dismay. He decided to play his turbulent emotions off as annoyance, flicking his tail as he scowled. “What’s the crow’s role in all this?” he asked, slipping two fingers between the bag’s handles and taking it off the counter and into his hold.

Sam’s grin faltered, much to Leona’s curiosity and true irritation. “He gives her something to hide in plain sight with. That’s all I know, I’m afraid.”

He highly doubted that, but Leona didn’t have time to question him, when he’d already spent enough time here that Yuu would be waiting for him to get back at this point. “Come back soon,” Sam called, as Leona turned on his heels and started back out of the shop. He just let out a sound between a hum and a grunt in reply, halfway out the door already.

The walk back was just as uneventful as the walk there. Leona supposed he’d scared off any students still awake and foolish enough to get in his way, because he made it back to his dorm without any issues, relying on all his useless lessons as a royal to somehow look presentable to those of his dorm that still prowled the halls.

When he finally got back to his room, not sure whether he should scoff or laugh at how Grim was still somehow asleep, Leona thankfully still heard the constant hiss of the shower. He’d gotten back just in time, he realized, because not even a second after he got closer, it shut off. He lifted the hand carrying the bag to rap his knuckles on the door twice, hearing the herbivore make some sort of noise to confirm she’d heard him.

“I have your stuff,” he said, catching the faint hint of something rustling in the bathroom beyond. Maybe he shouldn’t be listening, Leona realized, and he promptly spun his ears away. “It’s by the door. I’m goin’ out to the balcony.”

“Okay,” Yuu called back, muffled through the door and the way that Leona was trying not to hear everything else that went on behind it. “Thank you.” He hummed back, deciding it was better to be quick than to spend more time tempting an unfortunate accident to possibly happen.

Much more noisily than he needed to, Leona walked out to the balcony off his room, resting his elbows on one of the fence posts. He caught the soft noise of the door’s latch unlocking, and fixed his gaze on whichever star caught his eye, staring at it with such intensity he almost thought it was going to go supernova. They were the souls of past kings, he remembered despite himself, recalling the night the royal scholars taught him that. Or at least, that’s what the old prides thought they were, before they ended up learning enough science to understand that they were balls of gas millions of miles away.

Leona had never been taken with the idea of there being souls up in the sky—why would there be, if they didn’t seem to be around to help out those still living? Maybe there were, even despite the evidence proving otherwise. There had been days when Falena seemed especially lucky, in situations that Leona would have been hard pressed to get out of unscathed. He hadn’t been blessed, if his entire past spoke anything about the subject. Perhaps they just thought that Leona was too unremarkable to spend their energy on, when he was only the second-born.

He must have spent more time looking up at the sky than he thought, because the next thing Leona knew, Yuu was at his side, gazing at them right alongside him. “You got everything you need now?” he asked, making her blink and glance up at where he’d started to look at her instead of the night.

“Yes. I took my potion for tonight too, so I should be fine. Thank you again,” she said, for the umpteenth time in the span of one night. Any other time, any other circumstances, Leona would have thought she was trying to stroke his ego. “Sam didn’t make you pay for anything, right?”

“No. Said you had an agreement.” Yuu nodded, looking a little relieved at that. But that only made Leona feel more of the opposite, eyes narrowing. “He isn’t making you do anything weird?” he asked, watching her carefully to see if she would lie. At the very least, he hoped it wasn’t as much work as Crowley seemed to give her.

When Yuu shook her head, he didn’t catch anything to make him think it wasn’t the truth. “I just help out at his shop twice a month to pay for it. They’re regular shifts besides that.” Leona hummed, not entirely sure he believed her anyway. But he supposed that was something he could look into later, when everything had cooled down and it wasn’t way past his bedtime. “If you wanted to ask me about…this, you can,” Yuu told him after a few moments. “You deserve that. I lied to you, after all. And I’m making you share your room with us.”

Had she, though? Leona couldn’t recall a time when the herbivore had explicitly stated that she was a guy. She just went along with the others, and didn’t correct them when they just assumed she was another average student. “Who knows?” he decided to ask, even though she owed him nothing. She didn’t seem to be the type who liked making anything go unpaid, he’d found.

“Just you, Grim, a handful of staff, and a few guys in Heartslabuyl, so far.” It didn’t take much thinking to know who those students were. Leona couldn’t help but frown when he thought of the two froshes in that dorm she ran with knowing, the possibility of her secret getting spilled to half the campus just one idiotic slip-of-the-tongue away. “None of them have said anything to anyone,” Yuu told him, somehow sensing his distaste. “I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it’s been okay up until now.”

Leona hummed, running a hand through his hair. “Jack hasn’t figured it out?” he asked, more musing to himself than a question for Yuu. “Or Ruggie?”

“No. But honestly, I kind of think they suspect something,” she admitted. “As long as they don’t say anything though, it’s fine.” Leona hummed again. He could help make sure of that.

Yuu sighed, the tinge of nerves in her breath. She looked down, and Leona’s eyes followed curiously, watching the way she fiddled with her fingers anxiously. “I hate to— can— am I good now?” Yuu asked, finally getting the words out after a few tries. “You can’t tell anymore, right?”

If anything, Leona was actively trying not to figure that out to not make her revert to the way she’d been before he’d returned. But he stilled, taking in a breath to let his sense of smell kick in. It was a bit of a jolt to realize that she smelled like him, after washing her hair with his stuff and wearing one of his shirts for the past two nights. It was even more of a surprise to find that, for some strange reason, Leona didn’t mind it.

At least it wasn’t the salty tang of the sea and the stench of fish, he decided. “No. Nobody’ll bother you,” he told her, truthfully. Especially not when she was silently protected by the aura of him, the one that he hadn’t even realized he’d given to her until now. Despite it all, Leona realized he didn’t find it in himself to really mind. “Sorry I pointed it out.”

Yuu shrugged, lacing her fingers behind her neck. “It’s better you said something now than half the dorm finding out later.” The prefect let out a sigh much more relieved than her previous one, the musk of stress radiating around her lessening somewhat. “One night left after this,” she mused, giving him a sheepish smile when Leona looked over. It fell flat a moment later as she glanced away again, breathing in deeply to steady the nerves that were starting to wrack even him. “I’m sorry for being such a problem.”

Out of all the things Leona felt, he was surprised it was not annoyance. Especially when the prefect’s still-healing injury was as visible as it could be to him then, as she gazed out at the sky. He just sighed softly, flicking an ear. “Wasn’t ‘cause of you. This time, at least,” he had to add, feeling something light inside him flutter softly when he caught how that made her smile just the smallest bit. “You could stand to cool it a bit, herbivore. The rate you’re goin’, anyone can tell you’re about to burn out.”

He almost frowned at how that made her anxiety spike again, attacking his nose with sharp daggers of it. “Seriously,” Leona continued, watching her carefully as she busied herself with braiding her still-damp hair. “You’re makin’ me stressed just by being next to you. That ain’t an easy thing.”

She looked surprised at that, her eyes widening just a bit as she looked over at him. Leona almost wondered if he should have said that—both for her sake and his. It wasn’t his problem. “I am?” she asked softly, something in her voice making Leona know that there was more than just one question in those two words.

Leona sighed, feeling how his tail swished behind him. He didn’t have the energy to dance around a half-answer or a mostly-lie so late at night. “You’ve got a spine and a brain that isn’t the size of a peanut. I know you do, ‘cause I’ve seen you use them,” he said instead. “Start using ‘em outside of fights, too, and you’ll be fine.”

That made her flush, much to his amusement. “You’ve seen me— In the gardens,” she realized, with a bashful exhale and the pinking of her scarred ear he could see. But then she stopped, looking up at him again with a glint in her eye he almost wanted to call amusement if it wasn’t just curiosity. “You were watching me?”

“When you were causin’ such a racket that you woke me up?” Leona almost chuckled at the way Yuu frowned at him, looking everything like a pouting cub. “Not my fault you decided to duke it out on public property.”

“You could’ve helped,” she huffed, but even as she said that, Leona could tell that she was realizing why he didn’t.

Just in case she was getting to the wrong outcome—what was the wrong outcome? he asked himself—Leona smirked, making something in her starry eyes flicker. “You had it handled,” he told her, enjoying the way that made her unoffended frown deepen. “‘Sides, by the time I could’ve gotten up, it was already over.”

Even now, knowing what he knew, Leona wasn’t sure that he would’ve rushed up to help her. She was tough, even if she didn’t look it—even if she hadn’t started out that way, when she’d first tumbled into the Mirror Chamber like a newborn gazelle. But she’d gotten stronger, through playing with all the unfair hands the school dealt her. Leona had to say, she was doing pretty good for herself so far. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world for her to flaunt that sometimes, if that was in the form of persevering in the face of assailants to make them leave disappointed and defeated.

“If this is how you compliment people you think are dull and dimwitted, I can’t imagine what you say to people you admire,” Yuu teased, surprising Leona at her sudden bold streak.

He wouldn’t admit it, but something in his smirk became a little more warm at that. There was that spine. “Wouldn’t you like to know,” he purred, watching as her frown turned into a little huff and a grin. A yawn caught him off-guard, reminding him just how late it was and how he was not in his bed. And yet, for some reason, Leona was not nearly as aggravated as that knowledge should have made him. “Guess you’ll have to see if you’ll find out tomorrow.”

Yuu didn’t argue this time before she went back inside, Leona found. Good. At least she was making some progress in that aspect. But he still had to let out the softest growl he could when she started towards the couch, making her look back at him in confusion. “What’re you doin’?”

She blinked, her brow furrowing as she looked back at him. “Sleeping?”

“Not there you aren’t. Take the bed.” Yes, his sleep might suffer from the couch’s less-quality surface. But Leona thought it was the least he could do to give her his bed, especially given the circumstances.

But the prefect—the stubborn, headstrong part of her that only seemed to rear up when he least wanted it to—fought him then. “What? No, it’s yours. I’m okay on the couch. I’m not making you give your bed to me, too.”

“I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t fine with it,” Leona told her, feeling the hints of annoyance creep into his voice. It was too late for him to want to argue. “Take the bed. It’s yours now.”

Yuu frowned, looking down at the couch Leona was already starting towards. “Grim’s already asleep,” she pointed out, making Leona scowl to himself at how she was still trying to stop him. “You won’t have much room.”

“I can move ‘im.” But Yuu was still following him, so Leona sighed, turning around to face her instead. “When’d your respect come back, huh?” he asked, the gruffness in his voice not entirely irritation, he found. “Or maybe it didn’t, since you don’t seem to listen.”

She opened her mouth, about to say something back to him that Leona had no doubt would make his scowl turn into a snarl. “Let’s share it then,” she compromised, making that rumble starting to prickle his throat immediately die out. That wasn’t what he thought she’d say.

“What.” His voice still had the faint snarl of how unimpressed he was, despite catching him off-guard.

But Yuu seemed completely set on this idea, even though she had only thought of it just a second ago. “Let’s share. You’ll be happy because you were a gentleman, and I’ll be happy because I wasn’t a total jerk to you.”

Leona just glowered at her. “No.”

“Why not?” There were a million answers to that question. Leona had not the patience or the energy to list them, so he settled to give her a smoldering stare instead. She was smart enough to think of at least a few of them on her own. “If this is because I’m a girl, I don’t care. You can’t treat me any differently than before, or else people are going to catch on,” she reminded, making his eyes glint sharper at how he hated that she was right. “Or we could just settle with both of us sleeping on the ground. Your call.”

The sigh that was building in his throat tapered into a growl as Leona pinched the bridge of his nose in his irritation. He was too tired to deal with this. “When I said to use that spine of yours, I didn’t mean on me,” he grumbled.

“You didn’t specify that at the moment.” He had the sneaking suspicion Yuu was grinning at him while his tail lashed behind him. Leona fought the urge to bare his teeth. So he just gave her the most smoldering glare he had yet, when he saw for certain that she indeed had the faintest of smiles on her lips. “If you’re fine with it, I am,” she added, a little less stubborn and a bit more serious.

Even though he knew he should deny her, Leona found himself caving. “You better not kick in your sleep, herbivore,” he warned, finding the way that her eyes lit up at her victory against him less annoying than it should be. It wasn’t his problem. He was just trying to get the least work out of this.

He turned his back to her the moment he laid down, careful to keep his tail curled onto his leg. “Good night,” she called softly, making Leona hum in a half-scoff as he finally turned off the lights. Finally, he could close his eyes and sleep. He did exactly that.

Until he felt the mattress start to rise again, telling him how its second user was trying to get up. “Stop movin’,” he growled, not bothering to open his eyes this time. She didn’t. The mattress lifted more. “Herbivore.”

“I didn’t finish my paperwork.” Leona didn’t have the willpower to even scoff. Before Yuu could fully get up, he turned over, slinging an arm around her waist to make her stay down. “Leona, let go,” she huffed, struggling against him. It only made his grip tighten.

He opened an eye then, peering at her with an emerald flame hot as the savannah at its most blistering. “Stop movin’,” Leona told her again. This time she did.

Yuu looked back at him with a gaze every bit as unamused as his, ghostly blue as the moon and stars outside. “Fine.” That satisfied Leona, so he let his eye close again, content to go to sleep. “You can let go now.”

“Are you goin’ to get up?” he asked, more a rumble than anything else.

“No.” Leona hummed at that. They both knew that was a lie. But still Yuu sighed, gently tugging on his arm in one last futile attempt. “Leona.”

“Good night,” he drawled, chuckling silently at the way that made Yuu let out an angry noise and pinched his arm in response. And yet, he still did not move, even when he found that he’d stayed awake long enough to make sure she’d fallen asleep.

It wasn’t his problem, he reminded himself one last time, as he drifted off to the faint sound of her breathing.

Leona groaned when something called his name, too busy sleeping to wake. It called to him again, and his ears flattened this time, trying to drown out the voice to instead stay asleep. But then something hit him, pummeling his side with harmless attacks, and he finally had to wrench his eyes open, a snarl rumbling in his throat at whoever it was that dared to wake him in that manner.

“Paws off my minion!” Grim exclaimed, though he cowered when Leona set his gaze on him. He darted behind the leg of someone else, who, when Leona followed it up to their face, found to be Ruggie.

He was his assailant, he found, baring his fangs at the pillow in his hands. “Rise and shine,” the hyena chimed, grinning down at his housewarden. “Borrowed this ‘cause it didn’t seem like you needed it, what with your new one there.”

It was then that Leona remembered about the second person in his bed, when he glanced down to find her twisted around to face him, the hints of a crease in her brow. Then she noticed his gaze, and it disappeared, replaced with a twitch of the corners of her mouth that made Leona realize her face was pink. “Will you let go of me now?” she asked, though her voice seemed a touch amused underneath the hesitant exasperation in it.

Leona lifted his arm away as though she’d burned it. “My bad.” shooting Ruggie a glare as the hyena snickered. “You think you’re off the hook for that?” he asked, words now meant for him instead of just the herbivore.

“Not really.”

“Good. Start runnin’.”

“How come my hench-human gets a bed, but I hafta settle for a couch?” Grim seethed, grating voice getting on Leona’s already worn-down nerves.

Yuu laughed before Leona could fully get up, getting his attention. “You had more space than us that way,” she reasoned, either unaware or ignoring the way the housewarden was shooting him a look. “I thought you’d like that better than having to share with me again.”

“Oh. You got a point, I guess.” Leona turned his stare to the prefect instead when she nudged his shoulder, before getting up with a yawn. Ignoring it, then, he decided, when he saw the way she was looking back at him, too.

What luck he had. So many people to teach a lesson, and the perfect way to do so was in just a few minutes. “You’d better be ready to have your tail handed to you for interruptin’ my sleep,” Leona growled, scowling at the way Ruggie laughed.

“Looky here, guys, we made Leona mad.” He was just about to make Ruggie regret that then and there, but then the herbivore laughed again. And Leona just sighed instead, running a hand through his hair as he found his annoyance seep out of him. It was too early for this. “Chop chop, everyone. The rest of the dorm’s waiting on us.”

Another day of getting swept up in spells and tossed around like a toy had come and gone. Yuu’s prospects were looking dim at this point—nothing was working, everything was going wrong, and the infuriating Leech twins were always around every corner, just waiting to ruin any hope of progress she had in sight. Yuu had tried to keep her face as neutral as she could, but Ruggie must have seen how grim she was when he walked them back to Leona’s dorm.

“Bad day, huh?” he asked, and Yuu was almost a little surprised at the absence of any taunting in his voice. She looked up to see that he was giving her a small smile she would almost call sympathetic. “Those Octavinelle guys are something else.”

“No kidding.” She sighed, wincing a little as she moved wrong to make a new spell-given burn throb with hot pain. Yuu wasn’t able to keep track of what injuries were from who anymore, what with Floyd slinging most of her friends’ magic right back at them, but it didn’t make them hurt any less. “I never got to thank you for convincing Leona to let us stay, by the way.”

Ruggie shrugged, that grin turning a bit more playful. “If it gives me a couple days off, I’d take it.” Yuu rolled her eyes at that, especially when Grim started to pipe up with his own objections. “Honestly, it didn’t take as much pushin’ as it normally would,” he admitted. “Guess he has a soft spot for ‘ya.”

“How can you call any of what he’s doin’ a ‘soft spot?’” Grim yowled, totally unconvinced. “The guy’s hardly done anything ‘cept give us even more work to do!”

And yet, Yuu found herself silently wondering if Ruggie was right. Leona loved his sleep more than anything—that was something that would be undeniable until the end of time. But for two nights in a row, he’d sacrificed it for her, even if it wasn’t entirely willing. He’d helped her more than she could ever repay in the span of last night alone, in so many more ways than one.

So Yuu found herself wanting to defend him, even though Leona would hardly care what was said about him behind his back. “I don’t know. He’s been nice, in his own way,” she tried to reason.

Grim was not impressed. “You’re just saying that ‘cause he let you sleep in his bed last night,” he grumbled, giving her an unamused stare. “I still don’t know how you pulled that off. I’m jealous!”

Ruggie gave her a look that was much more entertained than Grim’s, which she tried to ignore alongside the heating of her face. “You had more space,” she reminded. “I think we were all happier last night.”

“I’m sure you were.” Yuu gave Ruggie a look, who just snickered right back. “Come on. Leona has a messy room and it’s your job to fix it.”

Grim and Yuu both groaned at that, not very willing to go do even more labor after an already arduous day. But Yuu found that she didn’t really mind it, despite that it would make her keep going instead of resting. And what more, when the three of them got to Leona’s room, she also found she thought that the room didn’t seem as messy as it did yesterday.

Maybe it wasn’t just her imagination, because Ruggie whistled. “Are you picking up because you have guests, Leona?” he teased, making his housewarden shoot him a smoldering glare and flick his tail. “What a nice guy you are.”

“Keep talkin’ and I’ll stop giving you the favor of slacking off,” he promised, deciding to make a show of getting comfortable to just taunt Ruggie all the more.

Yuu couldn’t help but grin a little. Savanaclaw certainly wasn’t as strict and uptight as Heartslabuyl, that was certain. “I’ll work on the bathroom,” she offered, not wanting to leave anything to chance. Yuu was pretty sure that she’d hidden everything well enough, but just in case either Grim or Ruggie decided to do a deep clean, she didn’t want them to find anything.

And while the second sunset of her three-day deal concluded, Yuu spent it cleaning. Then singing, albeit in the worst voice she could possibly use, in hopes of getting the two beastmen to aid her in the final confrontation to come.

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reikizoku · 3 months

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One Night Remains

Yet for some absurd reason, the three nights that the prefect stays in Savanaclaw, he doesn't get a wink.

Chooser, Chosen

(part one) (part two) (part three) (read on AO3)

Word count: 7.7k | (this is the song Yuu sings during that one part :3)

Leona wanted to rip his ears out. As small as Grim and Yuu were, he hadn’t known that they could be so loud. Or so shrill. It could only be called singing by the most insane souls in Twisted Wonderland. Ruggie had almost tried to escape when they’d started shrieking at the top of their lungs, but if Leona had to endure this torture, then so did he.

“Fine,” he finally spat out, sick of covering his already-flattened ears with his hands. Their voices still got through the tiniest of spaces that he didn’t know he wasn’t covering, and he had no idea how. “Quit your screeching.”

Yuu was quicker to stop than Grim. He seemed to be especially enjoying this, Leona found. But a particularly sharp glare shut him up just fine, he also found, and finally, his ears were saved. “You’ll help us?” the weasel asked, voice hoarse from how he’d been belting without a care in the world just a moment ago.

If it was up to him, he wouldn’t be doing any of this at all. But Leona ran a hand down his face, while his ears rang and throbbed even after they’d closed their mouths. “We’ll see. That’s the best you’re goin’ to get,” he added, giving Yuu a warning look as she opened her mouth again. “Give it a rest.”

“Please never sing again. I don’t think I could take it,” Ruggie begged, looking everything like he would ram his head into a wall if they started back up. Leona would probably join him. “You’re a lot crueler than you look, Yuu.”

Out of everything she could have done, the herbivore grinned. Leona almost wanted to ask where the audacity came from, to be that cheeky while she goaded a lion in his own den. “I’m taking Leona’s advice,” she told him, making the housewarden scoff when he heard it. That only made her grin widen, annoyingly. “I’ll use my spine on you, too, thanks.”

“That’s just askin’ to get taught a lesson,” he growled back, but found that she hardly seemed scared at that. What a strange herbivore she was. “You got a plan, or are you expecting us to go in blind?”

It didn’t take her long to make the final touches in her head before putting it into words. She told them all about what she’d gone through the past two days, and what her torture had taught her about the Octavinelle groupers. And as loathe as Leona was to admit after she had nearly rendered him deaf and crazy, he found that her plan could almost work. “Wow.” Ruggie whistled, and Leona could tell that he was seeing Yuu in a new light. Leona was too, if he was being honest. She wasn’t all that doe-eyed anymore, he supposed. “That’s pretty gusty. Sure you can handle it?”

Yuu just shrugged. “I’ve dealt with them for the past two days, and I’m still standing.”

“What’ll you do if it ends up going sideways?” Leona asked.

That just made her grin again. Leona fought the urge to sigh and just go to bed. “Are you saying you think you’ll mess up?”

Again with the spine. Leona couldn’t stop himself from smirking, as his tail swished with something he almost wanted to call amusement. “I can handle the cephalo-punk just fine. I’m sayin’ I don’t exactly have my utter faith in you to make it work. No offense.”

Leona didn’t know how to feel when Yuu’s grin did not lessen. If anything, that same dastardly, twisted glint from her first night there returned, much more visible now than before, now that she didn’t have the same naive look about her. “If I can’t go back to Ramshackle, you’ll just be seeing a lot of me every night,” she told them, even throwing in a cheeky wink as she did right alongside Grim.

His smirk dropped. “Are you threatenin’ me?” Leona was strangely more surprised than angered. Yuu just shrugged. She shrugged, out of all the things she could have done. Leona didn’t know if he’d wanted one answer over the other to be perfectly honest, but the lack of a clear one certainly wasn’t what he’d hoped to get as a response. He sighed the deepest sigh he had in a long time, holding his forehead as his eyes rolled. It was strange how he was trying his hardest not to laugh even though he felt like he should definitely be a bit more offended than he was. “Here I thought you were a goody two-shoes.”

“I’m certainly more of one than most students here. You included, I’m afraid.” Leona had to make himself give her a hard look instead of let that laugh get even closer to finding its way out of his throat. “It’s up to you if you two want to help us. We’re not forcing you to do anything.”

Of course they weren’t. Grim snickered, sounding a suspicious amount like Ruggie while the sophomore sighed instead. “Only for you, you scavengers,” he grumbled, ears flicking as he mirrored the look Leona had. Except, it was directed at his housewarden a moment after he’d shot it at the herbivore. “What’d you tell him, Leona?” He wished he’d said nothing at all, now that it was giving him this much grief. How did everything become Leona’s messes to clean up in the span of one night?

“You’d better hurry ‘n get some rest,” Grim taunted, a smirk on his face that was much too arrogant for a pipsqueak like him. “This could be your last night of quality sleep, y’know.”

“I’ll get right on that, O Great Grim,” Ruggie leered, shooting both Ramshackle students one last dour look. “Sure glad I ain’t rooming with you guys right now.”

“Says the one who got this all started in the first place,” Leona shot right back, turning his glare over to his dormmate instead of his freeloaders. As Ruggie slinked out of his room, the lunatic grinned at him, giving Leona a wink just as he shut the door. Leona didn’t want to know what exactly was running through the hyena’s head, but he was certain that if he ever found out, he’d want to do more than just beat him in spelldrive.

And then it was just the three of them once again, in beautiful, blissful silence. Only to be ruined once more when Grim started talking again. “You really should be more villainous, minion. It gets stuff done,” he mused, giving her a grin as he hopped onto the couch. Then he yawned, already curling up on the cushions before Leona himself had the chance to make it back to his bed. “I think I’ll sleep, too.”

“You really think you get to, after the stunt you just pulled?” Leona growled, making Grim’s fur bristle as his eyes shot back open at the tone. There were so many ways to make him pay. Leona was having a hard time deciding just which exactly he wanted to execute on the weasel that night.

But then Yuu—stubborn, arrogant, persistent Yuu—just had to smile at him, in a way that was just apologetic enough yet still sure of herself to make his anger dissipate. “We need all the sleep we can get if we’re going to get tomorrow to work,” she reasoned, and Leona didn’t know how to feel about the way he didn’t really want to fight her. “It’ll get us out of your hair, at the very least.”

Leona scoffed, flicking his tail as he rolled his eyes. “This is the last night you’re gettin’ free board,” he reminded, trying to look like he was still irritated more than he really was. “Even if this doesn’t work.”

“Thank you for letting us stay here for the three nights you’ve already let us,” Yuu told him anyway, making his tail swish all the more. “We haven’t been the greatest houseguests.”

“Is that so?” he mused flatly. “Can’t say I noticed.”

She smiled at him again, a little more apologetic than before. So Leona rolled his eyes, dismissing her attempt to apologize when he hadn’t demanded one in the first place. Then she sighed when she turned around, finally catching the way that Grim had taken advantage of her diffusing the situation to fall into slumber. He was already long gone somehow, despite being in the lion’s den that nearly became his grave. Leona didn’t know if it was foolishness or arrogance on Grim’s part, but either way, it wasn’t the greatest testament to prove there was much of a brain in the weasel’s skull.

“One of these days, I’ll beat him to sleep.” There were the hints of a laugh in Yuu’s voice, as she reached out to gently tug the blanket higher on Grim.

“Maybe I’ll get to sleep, too,” Leona added bitterly. It made that laugh become stronger, ringing in his ears despite how quiet it still was.

“Unless we mess up tomorrow,” she reminded, with that devilish smile that only seemed to get more evil each time she flashed it. “Then neither of us will, ever again.”

That laugh returned, louder now as Leona glowered at her with a swishing tail. Yuu just gave him a grin, so he forced his expression to become even darker. “Why are you helpin’ him, herbivore?” he asked, finding that he wanted to know the answer now, when it was all of a sudden his problem, too. “Helpin’ any of the suckers who made a deal, for that matter. It wasn’t your mess to clean up.”

Yuu shrugged. It made Leona’s glower become a bit more real than it had been. “They made some bad decisions. We all do that. They should have known better, but it isn’t right for them to have to suffer so much for a mistake. And besides, some of them are my friends.” Maybe she was still doe-eyed after all, Leona found himself thinking. She looked up at him with those innocent eyes, and the faintest smile appeared on her face. “Why are you helping me?” she asked, making something weak in him almost startle.

Leona gave her an unamused stare in return. “If you really have to ask that, maybe you’re more dimwitted than I thought.”

She giggled. Leona’s tail swished just a bit stronger. “Of course. I hope the great Leona Kingscholar can forgive my threatening of his sleep.” That was all it was. She smiled at him, in that way that told him she was apologizing silently.

There were so many levels of disrespect to that comment that Leona didn’t even want to start unpacking it. So all he did was growl in reply, watching with slitted eyes as she crouched to dig through her bag. It was to get her magic potion, Leona realized, as she procured a small vial that held liquid that was an iridescent, shimmering black. He didn’t exactly think it was the safest looking thing to drink, he realized as he glowered at it. It didn’t matter that it came from the headmage—for all the years Leona had been at Night Raven College, he’d known the man to cut corners and skimp whenever possible. There could be a thousand things wrong with that potion, that Yuu was foolish enough to swallow and take without any questions asked.

Before he could school his features back to normal, the herbivore just had to glance up at him, catching the way his eyes smoldered. “Professor Crewel told me it’s safe. There aren’t any lasting side effects if I stop taking it,” she told him, irritatingly guessing the reason behind his annoyance correctly. “Doesn’t stop it from tasting disgusting, though.”

“Whatever you say,” Leona mused, putting the dull tone of boredom in his voice. He still watched as she uncapped the vial, feeling something strange grip his insides as the potion disappeared behind her lips, eliciting a faint grimace to darken her expression. Leona didn’t know how to feel about the way it made something sour his own tongue, as though he had been the one to take the potion instead of her.

He watched Yuu carefully in those first few moments after she took it. If nothing else, it was certainly effective. The air shimmered around her just like the potion in every way it could—it almost seemed like stardust had surrounded the herbivore for a few seconds, as it glittered in the space around her while it did something magical to her scent. It was the same thing that had happened the first night, and the second. But now he was able to watch and study, to see just what exactly the potion did to her to hide her in plain sight.

Only when Yuu gave him a half-uncertain smile did Leona finally realize that he’d been staring. She’d had this happen to her every night since she’d gotten to this world, no doubt, so Yuu was hardly fazed in the slightest. It left her able to see just how Leona watched her, trying to figure out just what it was that was happening to her. “Some potion he gives you,” he mused dully, pretending he hadn’t been caught. “There’s ancient magic in there.”

She hadn’t been told that, it seemed, because Yuu looked surprised. “There is?” Leona hummed as a substitute for a nod. There had to be a jumble of spells and enchantments weaved together to make something that could do so many things at once. For it to be so potent, there was no doubt there were some parts so archaic that Leona was surprised they still existed. “You can tell?” she asked. Her surprise changed to awe as he hummed again, making her eyes sparkle and shimmer like the potion. “Just from seeing it?”

“Isn’t all that hard, once you know what to look for.” Even so, Leona felt the hints of something proud tug his lips up into something of a smirk, as Yuu continued to look at him in that way. “You’re starin’, herbivore,” he purred, finding that he wanted to see if he could get back at her for the way she’d tormented him earlier.

He almost chuckled at the way she startled, blinking hard as she clasped her hands together and stared down at them instead. It let him catch the hints of pink rising to her ears, no doubt dusted on her cheeks as well. “Sorry.”

“Sure ‘ya are.” The pink darkened.

Worry stung his nose again, but it wasn’t as sharp as it had been before, during the nights when she had been distressed. It was gentle, if anything. It reminded Leona of a fluttering heartbeat, which he wondered if Yuu’s was doing when his smirk deepened. “We should go to bed,” she decided, and Leona wondered what insane part of him it was that almost wanted to stay up just a bit longer.

“Oi. Where do you think you’re going?” he asked instead, making Yuu pause from how she’d nearly joined Grim on the couch yet again. “Come here.”

The herbivore blinked again, that awe swapped out for confusion. “I didn’t think you’d want me to sleep there after I threatened you.”

“So you did threaten me.” Leona grinned at the way that made her face flush once again, changing that pink into a true red. “I ain’t about to banish you just ‘cause you got more arrogant.” Yuu rolled her eyes a little, but she listened anyway, crawling onto the bed alongside him. Even though the potion had messed with the way she smelled, Leona could still make out his scent was on her without much effort, surrounding her just like that stardust had.

He wondered if it would still, once she was no longer staying in Savanaclaw. “I wouldn’t blame you, if you did,” she admitted. “I wasn’t the greatest of people just now.”

“If you think that was somethin’ real terrible, then you haven’t been in this school long enough.” That got Yuu to smile, the tiniest of laughs escaping her lips. Leona’s ears twitched at it, how it still seemed to echo in his mind without fail. “You gotta earn your place, though,” he told her, smirking at the way that made Yuu look at him in equal parts surprise and suspicion. “Sing something for me, if you like bein’ a songbird so much.”

Her head tilted ever-so-slightly, and Leona found himself thinking that it was almost cute, the way she did that when she was confused. The thought was instantly shoved out of his head with a scowl. “You practically just begged me to not do exactly that,” she reminded, the hints of a disbelieving grin appearing despite the way her brows knit together.

“You’re more delusional than I thought if you think I’d ever beg for anything.” Leona hummed as he laced his fingers behind his head, leaning back to let his back touch the headboard. “That couldn’t have been your best shot. Maybe it was the weasel’s, but not yours.”

Leona’s suspicions were proved right when the herbivore huffed, bringing her hands up to nervously fidget her hair into the beginnings of a braid. Maybe she really was a songbird. She certainly got as flighty as them when she was anxious, always moving in whatever way she could manage. “I haven’t really sung for anyone before,” she admitted. “Except my brother.”

The smirk on Leona’s face just grew all the bigger. “Even better. I’m your first,” he purred, making Yuu huff again and shoot him a glare that wasn’t all that sharp when her face was that flushed. “Shouldn’t have sang anything if you weren’t prepared for the consequences.”

Yuu gave him a pouty look, but she didn’t say anything else to argue with him. A sigh found its way out of her chest as she finished braiding her hair and lost her excuse to stay silent, eyes darting across something Leona couldn’t see. He almost thought she was going to deny him. And something strange and oddly gentle inside Leona told him that, if she really didn’t want to, he wouldn’t press. The next time she said anything to get out of it, he would let her.

But then she took in a breath, parting her lips. And she started to sing, making Leona quiet even his breaths so that he could listen.

It was different from before, when Yuu had been screaming at the top of her lungs like a banshee. Her voice started off shaky and hesitant at first, almost fumbling over the first few words as nervousness rolled off her in waves. But then it became a little more confident, as she got through the first verse without a single complaint from Leona. It lost the tremble, replaced with something more intentional that wasn’t quite vibrato, but something just enough to make his ears stay pinned on her.

Yuu was not the best singer by any means. Nothing about her singing was remarkable—it was as ordinary as it could get. She didn’t look at him, eyes fixated on something invisible to Leona but almost seemed to act like a lifeline to her. Especially when her face had dusted pink, growing deeper in shade for every note she sang. He decided that was alright, he found. Leona wasn’t sure what he looked like at that moment, when he realized that Yuu’s voice might be one of the prettiest things he’d heard. He certainly wasn’t sure what he looked like when she reached the chorus, words making him almost sit up as he watched and listened.

I've spent a thousand nights

Lost in your emerald eyes

Lost in a place where I know

You can see my soul

Make me lose track of time

You and your emerald eyes

Finally found a place that I can call my home.

The last remnants of the song dissipated in the wind as she finished, as the words and melody echoed in Leona’s ears again and again. She blinked, and it seemed as though she’d come out of a trance when her hands tugged on the shirt of his she’d all but taken at this point, finally mustering a sheepish glance over at Leona. He was staring at her, he realized with a start, flicking his ears as he recollected himself. It was almost hard not to, when he’d realized that the glow of the moon and stars suited her so eerily well.

Leona smirked to hide that fact, laughing silently to himself about how it made her shoulders rise in embarrassment. “Not bad,” he mused, watching as she hid behind the hand fixing her glasses. “Better than your little performance earlier, at least.”

“I’m better with instruments,” she murmured, still fiddling with her shirt. “My voice isn’t the greatest, to be honest.”

Even though he had absolutely no reason to, Leona found his smirk becoming a bit more teasing. “Where’s that spine now?” Yuu rolled her eyes shyly, making his tail flick in amusement. It was only then that he realized it had found its way around the herbivore, curled around her so that the tip rested on her other side. “If you’re going to use it on me, then use it when you have reason to. Like now.”

At least she didn’t seem to notice his tail. So he kept it there. If he tried to move it away, she would just catch sight, Leona reasoned with himself. That would end up causing him unnecessary issues to deal with at a time he didn’t want to give himself any more problems than he had already. “Do you treat all herbivores this way, or just me?” she asked, the hints of a tease in her voice.

Leona’s smirk grew. “Who knows.”

She gave him a look that wasn’t at all sharp when she could hardly keep from laughing. “Fine,” Yuu relented, sighing a little as she tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Don’t regret that later, okay?”

The second part of what she said almost went over Leona’s head. It was almost impossible to listen, when he found himself the closest to the scar he’d given her than he’d ever been. He could only try to figure out how she hadn’t been keeled over when she’d first gotten it—how she wasn’t in pain even now, when it looked pink and tender while it still healed. But she’d somehow been the first person he saw when he came to, on that spelldrive field he’d almost turned to sand.

Yuu seemed to know that something had changed with Leona. Her smile changed a little too, growing softer and a little smaller. And for some reason, that made him feel like she was reassuring him. “I—” Leona started, then stopped, finding that his throat was strangely dry. Too dry to keep going, with words he didn’t have. He sighed, pushing his bangs up with his hand as unease churned his stomach. Even if he thought about it for longer than he did, he wasn’t sure if he’d been more unsure of what to say. “What did I do?” he finally got out, and he was displeased with the way his voice sounded. It did not tremble—a lion’s roar could never tremble—but it was not sure. It was not confident, like a prince—a king—should always be.

Leona wasn’t confident he wanted to know. It had been intentional, the way he hadn’t asked Ruggie or Jack anything about what happened that day. All he knew was that when he woke up, his body had ached like nothing before, while sand clung to him like a miasma. Yuu had taken up all of his vision, even though scarlet blood dripped from her head like rubies and matted her hair with grains of sand to make them look like golden flecks. And she hadn’t seemed to care in the slightest about what she looked like, because everything about her had been fixated on him when it shouldn’t have.

Then the herbivore came into his dorm, smiling at him like he was someone worth looking at. She did that even now, when Leona was certain that all she should feel towards him was nothing but hate and resentment. “You made a bad decision.” Leona’s tail thumped on the mattress, certainly loud enough for Yuu to hear. She didn’t look at it. All she looked at was his eyes, with her own that were much too seeing for her own good, even when she was without her glasses making everything clear. “We all do sometimes.”

That was all she said. That was all she would say, Leona realized, as the silence continued to grow instead of lessen. He’d been ready to hear a tale of how he’d nearly turned everyone to sand. How he’d nearly destroyed everything the light touched because he didn’t get his way. How even now, Yuu didn’t trust him not to turn her to dust, and how she’d slink off his bed and away from him in the next moment.

And yet, none of that happened. Despite himself, when Leona next exhaled, it shook ever-so-slightly at the edges. “This might be a bad decision too, herbivore,” he warned, eyeing her and his room and—him, the failed usurper that should have known better than to think that anything could be his. “You got a warning already.”

Out of everything she should have done, Yuu did none of them. She took his hand instead, that had fallen in between them once it had left his hair. Leona was hit again with how much bigger his was, as she took the thing that had left her mangled and twisted and slotted her fingers between his. “You have claws,” she agreed, far too calm than she should have been as she glanced down at what she’d done. “That doesn’t mean they’re always out. And if they are…” Yuu looked up at him then, with eyes that were unspeakably beautiful in the moonlight. And she smiled, something warm and kind and much too sweet to ever be directed at someone like Leona Kingscholar. But there she was, doing just that anyway. “Well, we’ve seen that they can’t stop me.”

Leona stilled. He didn’t know what to do, when he looked at the herbivore and saw the way she looked at him. She was insane. She was annoying, making so many of her problems his without even asking him in the first place. She was an enigma. She was so stupidly, foolishly kind, even to him, even though she had seen just how far that kindness would take her.

And yet. “Big words for such a small herbivore,” he said, trying not to think about how the way her smile grew made something stupidly, childishly warm swell in his chest.

It only grew when she laughed, still becoming everything Leona could ever hope to hear without fail once again. “You told me to use my spine.” Of course he did. Leona had to roll his eyes, because he wasn’t quite sure what he would have done if not that. “Now. Do you want to spend your potentially last peaceful night sleeping, or are you going to stay up talking to me?” she asked, a tease in her voice.

Leona tried not to think about the way that, strangely, perplexingly, he wasn’t quite sure he knew what the answer to that question was. “That’s rich, comin’ from you,” he huffed, trying not to let his smirk turn into a smile as Yuu giggled. She beat him to lay down first, leaving him to be last when she took second place before he could. And yet, he didn’t quite mind.

He didn’t turn away tonight. Neither did she, even as he made the lights switch off with a flick of the wrist and gave her every opportunity to. Hesitantly at first, Leona let his arm drape over her as he lowered it again—because it was more comfortable that way, instead of crammed to fit on top of his side. And then that same deranged, warm thing in him beat just a little erratically as Yuu shifted closer to him, pressing her scarred ear to his chest. He almost wanted to bat her away so that she wouldn’t hear the way it pounded—like an innocent, doe-eyed herbivore, he grimaced to himself—but found that he didn’t have the strength to. Especially when his ear flicked in the newfound silence, and he realized that when he rested his chin atop her head, that this was the most comfortable he’d been in a long time.

“Good night,” the herbivore whispered, as Leona found his hold on her tightening. He hummed in reply, listening to her faint breaths as she started to succumb to rest. If only he had more time to sleep, Leona mused as his eyes closed. He supposed he just had to make the precious little time he had count.

After three endless days of fighting tooth and nail, Yuu and Grim were finally able to return to their dorm. It was just as dank and decrepit as it’d been when they left, but at this point, they wouldn’t have it any other way. This was their dorm, and despite everything it was, they were proud of it.

“Good to be back,” Grim exclaimed, already relaxing the moment they stepped into the foyer. Jade and Floyd didn’t seem like they had done anything substantial to the place in their absence, at least, because it looked largely the same as they’d left it. “And out of Leona’s room. I still can’t believe you got him to let you sleep in his bed. It’s totally unfair!”

Yuu hummed, finding that she’d given up trying to explain it to him. All that Grim saw was bias towards her, and the one way that would make him forgive it was a few cans of tuna sent his way. “I got you out of the deal with Azul,” she reminded nonetheless, laughing a little at the way he shrugged it off like it was nothing. “And I seem to remember you doing a lot more eating than waiting on tables tonight.”

“I had to do that already. It was time for me to get a break.” Yuu rolled her eyes, though there was a grin on her face. Of course. Grim yawned then, sharp teeth glinting in the abysmal lights of their dorm. “I’m beat, though. I wanna catch some winks before we hafta go back to class tomorrow.”

“Did you remember to do your homework?” Grim’s face dropped at Yuu’s reminder, giving her something akin to a glare as he scurried off in a hurry, trying to outrun the lecture he thought Yuu was going to give him. She decided she’d give him a head start, walking slowly through the halls as the reality of the day seeped into her.

Somehow, they had done it. The odds had seemed a million to one, even with Leona helping them, but they had managed to prevail. Albeit with a few scratches, Yuu found herself adding, as she moved her arm and felt the throbbing pain of her new injury burn her collarbone. It was nothing she couldn’t handle, though.

Grim yowled suddenly, cutting through Yuu’s thoughts like a cleaver. He didn’t make that noise unless something was wrong. She quickened her pace, feeling her heart start to pound at a more worried rhythm. “Grim?” she called, as she rounded the corner to make it into the lounge.

“What are you doing here?” he exclaimed, his fur bristling while his eyes were kept wide.

It was then that Yuu saw the uninvited guest in their lounge, sprawled on the couch as though he was the prefect and not her. “Pipe down,” Leona hissed, shooting Grim a sharp look. “You woke me up.”

“So what? This isn’t your dorm!” Leona’s gaze turned into a glare as he sat up, resting his elbow on the armrest and propping his head up on a fist. Sleep still seemed to have a hold on him, and yet, even though his eyes were half-lidded, the emerald rings still held so much intensity and fire in them, as he stared at Grim. He did not leave. “Do something about this, minion!”

Yuu, despite Grim’s clear distress, found herself trying not to smile. “You go on ahead,” she offered, feeling that smile become even harder to hide when Leona’s eyes slid to her, the glare dimming somewhat. “I’ll be up soon.”

Grim didn’t need to be told twice. He hardly spared her a glance that was a mixture of appreciative and mournful as he darted up the stairs and out of sight with record speed. Yuu hadn’t even known that he could be that fast.

Leona didn’t seem to mind, content with lazily watching her just stand there. Yuu couldn't find it in herself to, either, when she finally let that smile faintly show on her face. “I thought you were sick of us," she said, finding that smile grow when he hummed. “You have your bed all to yourself now. I don’t think our couch is better than that.”

“It isn’t.” Yuu couldn’t stop the little laugh that got out of her. She winced slightly as it escaped her chest, making her wound throb with white-hot pain. Leona’s gaze changed at that, his eyelids raising ever-so-slightly. “C’mere,” he called, more a soft demand than anything else. She listened, feeling her heartbeat quicken as Leona sat up when she got closer. The intensity of his eyes never let up, even when her expression returned to normal.

His hand came up when she was finally close enough to satisfy him, though it did not touch her. Leona was waiting for her to say it was alright, she realized, something warm and gentle filling her chest when the way he glanced up at her eyes confirmed it. Yuu hummed, accepting his request, and tried not to let her breathing change when she felt him undo the first button of her shirt. Then the second, before he spread the two sides apart.

Nothing met Leona but bandages, not showing even a trace of skin beneath her neck. It made his eyes narrow, especially as he saw that it wasn’t just snow white that he was met with. Crimson blood had left the tiniest of blemishes, three pinpricks that were hardly anything to the eye, but still enough to make him glower. “How bad is it?” Leona still asked, gaze moving to look up at her face.

Lies wouldn’t go undetected. So Yuu sighed, even though she wanted to shrug it off. But her newly acquired injuries would just make her wince again if she did, and Leona would certainly see through anything else she tried. “I’m on painkillers,” she told him, feeling the warmth of his hand even through his glove and her bandages. “They’ll kick in.”

Even though she’d hoped that would satisfy Leona, it didn’t. He glared at her clavicle as though it had done a great insult to him, even when Yuu brought her hand up to cover his. “You shouldn’t have this,” he eventually said, a growl in his voice as he spoke. “I should’ve been faster. I—”

“I should have been more careful,” Yuu cut him off, making Leona’s ears flatten and his tail thump on the couch next to him. “This isn’t your fault.”

“Sure it isn’t.” The way that he glanced up at her didn’t go unnoticed. She knew exactly where his gaze went, the sight making his lip curl back in a silently snarl directed at only himself. Yuu didn’t know what to do at the way it made his eyes darken, glinting like emerald wildfires in the middle of a rainstorm.

When another moment passed, she decided that she didn’t want Leona to look angry at himself for a second longer. His brow knitted as Yuu’s hand lifted off of his, before his hold on her shirt tightened as he felt her fingers brush against his cheeks. When she finally held his face in her hands fully, ignoring the way his silky hair tickled her fingertips, she tilted it up, forcing his eyes to rip off her bandages to instead look at hers. She knew her plan worked when she watched Leona’s glare become directed at her in his confusion, his free hand coming up to wrap around her wrist to pull it off.

“Leona Kingscholar,” Yuu started, before he was able to rip her hands away, “I have a spine. I have a brain that is not peanut-sized, and it’s telling me that you are blaming yourself that has nothing to do with you.” His eyes narrowed, and she caught the gleam of his fangs when he started to open his mouth, no doubt about to challenge her. “Maybe I wasn’t using it for a moment back there, or back then, but I am using it now. I’m listening to you.”

“You call this listening to me?” he huffed, not convinced in the slightest. “Maybe I was wrong when I told you that. It doesn’t seem like you have any wits sometimes, when you go and make deals with swindlers that get you nothing. Or when you go an’ charge forward to your death when you have no magic to arm yourself with.”

She knew he was trying to hurt her. But even so, she felt his claws scratch her, making something angry bubble up inside her. “Why do you care?” she asked, feeling her own small growl whisper in her voice.

“Because I do,” he hissed, his grip on her wrist tightening. Yuu instantly stilled at the way his eyes flickered, raging like a wild beast. “You went and made things my problem when I didn’t ask. Now this is your problem, herbivore. Hope you’re happy.”

They stayed like that for a long moment, glaring daggers into the other’s eyes with angry snarls draining their lungs of air. Leona was furious. Yuu just didn’t know who he was raging at, between himself and her and a myriad of other people and things it could possibly be. With the abundance of choices he had, she hoped it wasn’t the way he felt about her. Especially when she decided, in her exasperation between how Leona was like this and how the daggers she shot at him were all but dull, it was a smart idea to lean down when his chest swelled with an inhale, no doubt about to continue with another sharp comment. And she gently pressed her lips to his, trying to take the sharpness out of him, too.

Leona bristled, that hold he had around her wrist tightening still until it was almost painful. And for a split second, Yuu wondered if she had just gone too far, and that she had taken everything completely wrong. Maybe she’d be mauled that night in her own dorm, and not in Leona’s room like she’d thought she’d be. Maybe there was the faintest of hopes for her to keep her life, as she started to pull away in order to spew out a sling of apologies at her idiocracy. But then the fist gripping her shirt tugged her right back, practically sending her into Leona’s lap from his strength.

His lips were surprisingly soft, Yuu found herself realizing, as the hand around her wrist came down to hold her waist equally gently in the closest thing to an apology she’d get. It was a dizzying contrast from how rough his voice had been before, as the scent of sun and dust and the faint hint of acacia swirled around her. He kissed her like he was starved, and she’d offered him the first real taste of food he’d had in years. It was all she could do to match him, to tell him all the things she’d wanted to without using words she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to find.

Yuu didn’t know if she even remembered what breathing was as time seemed to stop. The only thing reminding her that she was alive and not just feeling everything Leona gave her was the rapid beating of her heart, which almost threatened to shatter her with how strongly it thudded in her chest. It finally came back to her when her lungs finally burned too hot for her to ignore, making her pull away despite how she longed to burn to ash with him. Maybe he felt the same way, Yuu realized, as she took in how his chest heaved and how he looked at her with eyes so beautiful she thought she might die anyway.

“Maybe I am stupid,” she muttered, finding that she still kept some of the hiss in her voice from before. Yuu found that she didn’t particularly care, especially when the housewarden had the audacity to glare at her again.

“The only way you’re stupid is annoyingly persistent,” Leona growled, before he kissed her again. He was gentler this time, reassured that she cared for him the same way he did for her after she'd kissed him. As if she couldn’t, when she had been hoping that somehow, someway, she could get just a bit lucky for once. She most certainly had, if she was able to be like this tonight, and to have spent the past three nights with him.

It was only after they’d broken apart for the second time that Yuu realized what she’d done. She covers her mouth to make Leona give her a strange look. “I just kissed a prince,” she blurted, almost feeling like she wanted to die when the shock hit her like a wave. She’d probably just crossed so many lines and made so many mistakes in etiquette that it could be a national scandal. Yuu almost wanted to kiss him again, just to get back that feeling of the world disappearing so she didn’t have to face it.

Leona laughed then, the sound filling her ears and making her heartbeat quicken. She adored his laugh, she realized, making her skin turn even redder than it already was after the way he’d taken her breath three times now with that. “You got kissed by one too,” he reminded. Yuu found that she had to hide the entirety of her flustered face, a little too nervous to take on even the room they were in. Leona chuckled, before she felt hands coming up to gently lift hers away. “Don’t go hidin’ on me now, herbivore.”

She forced herself to calm down when Leona let his forehead fall against hers, letting her fingers intertwine with his. This was the most relaxed she’d felt in a long time, between her deal and her homework and all the little worries rooming with Leona had given her. At least those had been for nothing, she mused to herself, finding she couldn’t help but smile at the way his tail had curled around her leg at some point.

But then of course she had to think of something else, to make her stomach knot and unease seep back into her. Leona seemed to know, by the way his nearly-closed eyes opened again. “Is this really okay?” she asked. “You’re a prince. I’m— I don’t have magic whatsoever. I’m not even sure if I have a legal presence here.”

“Who cares. I don’t.” Leona made her anxious huff turn into more of a squeak when he brought one of her hands to his lips, keeping his eyes locked with hers all the while. “The one good thing being second-born’s given me is the freedom to choose. I choose you,” he promised, smiling at the way that made her blush. “I’m also choosin’ to sleep here tonight. Hope you don’t mind, after I so kindly gave you my room for the past three nights.”

Yuu couldn’t help but scoff in a laugh at the way Leona added that, already yawning as though he could doze off in a matter of seconds. “Out here? This couch isn’t as comfortable as yours to sleep on, unfortunately.”

Leona gave her a look like she was the most deranged person to grace Twisted Wonderland. Maybe she was, she thought with a level of satisfaction she certainly shouldn’t have. She had just kissed a prince. “You have a bed. It works just fine, far as I’ve heard.”

“But Grim’s already there.”

“We can move ‘em.”

She huffed, bringing her hands back up to cup his face in disbelief. “You have to play nice with him,” Yuu told him, even though her feigned sternness was completely forgotten when she watched the way Leona nuzzled into her touch. He looked up at her with half-lidded eyes that were no doubt meant to dissuade her, but she kept firm. “We’re a package deal.”

“Fine. But he’s takin’ up your space, not mine.” Yuu laughed as she nodded, knowing that was probably the closest thing she’d get to him agreeing. “Do I get to sleep now?” Leona asked dully, making Yuu hum as she kissed his brow.

“I suppose, Your Majesty.”

“Good.” Yuu almost yelped as Leona surged up, holding her in his arms as though she weighed the same as a feather instead of letting her drop on the ground. He must have noticed the way she was staring at him, because he smirked while he started towards the stairs. “Maybe I’ll make you sing me a lullaby, since you were so willin’ to last night.”

Yuu almost frowned at him, but then she grinned, making Leona falter just for a moment. “Only if Grim can join me,” she chimed, wrapping her arms around his neck playfully. “I know just the song to sing with him.”

Leona huffed, his ears flattening as he no doubt remembered the wonderful performance they’d given him last night. “Maybe I’ll just drop you instead.”

Her grip on him got tighter in response, just in case he decided he really would. “Don’t you dare,” she warned, only met with an amused hum in response. “You’re evil.”

“Yet you still kissed me. Makes a guy wonder about your taste in people.” Leona’s eyes glinted as Yuu made a flustered noise, hiding her face in his chest. “I’m your problem now, herbivore. Hope you’re ready for what that means.”

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reikizoku · 3 months

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Hiii I don't know if requests are open or not...? (If not then you can just ignore this and I apologize in advance!!)

,, but I was wondering if you could write a little drabble? You know how when you pick up your cat or your puppy and you give it a kiss, you just. Can't stop giving it more and more kisses. Like almost as if it was beyond your control, you just keep kissing their cute little faces over and over?? That but Savanaclaw!! The idea has been rotating in my mind for so long, it's just so cute and tender and fluffy and ojausvbsnsns;;;🥹🥹

Hello! I'm realizing I never really said anything either way about requests, but they're open! That's such an adorable idea too omfg 🥺🥺🥺 I personally have two cats, so I know exactly what you mean <33

Also I am so so sorry if any of them are OOC, this is my first time writing Jack and Ruggie so I'm like,,, really scared they are.

A Flurry of Love, Soft and Sweet

Jack Howl, Ruggie Bucchi, Leona Kingscholar x G/N Yuu

Word count: ~520-50 per part (1.6k in total)

Jack, even now, tried to pretend that he didn’t care about the prefect nearly as much as he did. It was obvious to anyone that wasn’t him that he was clearly failing, however, when his tail would wag without any hope of stopping it the second he caught even a glimpse of them.

He still tried to keep up that futile facade now, much to their amusement, when they had cornered him in his room after practice one day to give him a kiss. It had devolved after that, turning into the mess for his heart Jack found himself in now when Yuu couldn’t stop after the first they’d pressed to his cheek. But Yuu couldn’t help themselves. He was always so kind, even when he was pretending, and they wanted to be kind to him for once in return.

“C’mon, Yuu,” Jack grumbled, his eyes darting anywhere but the prefect. It was hard to do that when they seemed to be everywhere at once, caressing his face with their lips while their hands held his cheeks. “You said just one.”

They hummed just as they pressed another kiss to the bridge of his nose. “Whoops.” The corners of Yuu’s lips quirked up as their victim huffed at the unapologetic tone of their voice. It was a ploy to try to hide the way his tanned cheeks had darkened with the beginnings of a blush, Yuu knew. “I can stop if you really want me to,” they offered, pulling away just a little.

Yuu almost couldn’t stop the giggle bubbling in their throat when Jack’s hand came up as quickly as it could, gently holding one of their wrists to halt their retreat. “I didn’t say that,” he muttered, ears flattening a little as he finally looked at them. Yuu remembered all over again why they had fallen for the beastman as his eyes softened, changing from the normally harshened gaze to become the honeyed, golden color they had grown so fond of. It was when his eyes looked like that when Yuu could see just how much he really did care for them, try as he might to hide it.

They had no idea how they had gotten so lucky, to be the person that could make a fearsome wolf like him melt. It was still something they wondered now, when Yuu remembered that they were one of the rare people to see his eyes like this. Maybe they were the only person.

Jack was thinking the same thing about them, Yuu knew, as he watched their own smile melt and warm. “You’re adorable,” they couldn’t help but say, unable to stop the little giggle this time when Jack huffed.

“I am not.” Any lingering growl in his voice was rendered useless as Yuu resumed their relentless attack. They squealed with laughter as Jack started to fight back, his hair tickling their jaw as he kissed the side of their neck. “You’re the cute one.” His tail just thumped against his mattress even harder as Yuu kept on kissing him, between fits of laughter and his own retorts stopping them for just a moment.

Lunch was always a little volatile for Yuu and Ruggie. It was rare when they would have it to themselves, when Yuu was constantly pulled in to help solve disputes on campus and Leona would perpetually call on Ruggie to fix his problems. Rare was it when the two of them would get to have five minutes to eat together, let alone the entire period.

Today was one of those rare days, thankfully. The two of them ate together in a peaceful, sunny little corner of the courtyard that only the two of them knew about. Yuu had leaned over to kiss him, a little disappointed that this had been the first time they’d been able to in so long. The little grin that had appeared on Ruggie’s face as a result was addicting, Yuu found, because they pressed their lips to his cheek again, seeing if they could get another one of his smiles from that, too.

“What’s this for?” Ruggie asked, the hints of his hissing laugh in his voice as he frantically tried to keep his cool. It was getting harder and harder for him to do just that, Yuu knew, as they kept kissing him again and again.

Another brush of their lips to his forehead before they answered. “Nothing.” Ruggie hummed at that, knowing full well that nothing usually meant something. “Can’t I just kiss you because I wanted to?” Yuu countered.

“‘Course you can. Doesn’t mean you do.” Yuu stopped their onslaught to give him a look, making him give them one in return. They rolled their eyes, going right back to their attack after a moment. “You want something,” he chimed, in a sing-song voice that made them huff. Yuu enjoyed the way they made him choke when they kissed the corner of his mouth, close enough to the real thing to make him sputter and stall for a moment. “That’s why I like ‘ya. We’re both twisted little opportunists.”

“Speak for yourself,” Yuu huffed, enjoying the way Ruggie frowned ever-so-slightly when they didn’t indulge him with another kiss to his lips. “I’m appreciating my favorite dandelion.”

Their pet name sent Ruggie laughing again, whispering like grains of sand for every time Yuu kissed him. They had grown to love that laugh, trying to make it echo in their ears at every opportunity possible. When the prefect kissed the corner of his jaw, they smiled as they caught the faint rumble of a purr. That was even better to hear.

One of Ruggie’s hands grabbed Yuu’s, making them stop in surprise. “You call this nothing?” he asked, amusement filling his voice and making his eyes sparkle as he looked from their hand to their face with a raised brow. It had been slowly reaching towards his half-eaten sandwich, and was only a few centimeters away when he had noticed.

Yuu shrugged. “I forgot I was doing that.” Maybe their original goal had been to get just a bite from his food, but that had been thrown away the moment they’d seen him smile.

Ruggie rolled his eyes, ears flicking. “Scavenger.” But that was why he liked them, Yuu finished quietly, as they indulged him with a peck to the lips in a form of an apology. He accepted it, if the louder purr was any indication.

After knowing Leona for so long, it was decently easy to find where he was. He seemed to enjoy rotating between a few different places to nap, from Savanaclaw to Ramshackle and a sunny spot in the botanical gardens. They got pretty good at figuring out which place he chose to take up that day, depending on if a hand suddenly reached up to pull them down to him when he tried to drag Yuu into napping with him more often than not.

He’d chosen the botanical gardens today, Yuu found, as they came across him lying under his favorite tree, back resting against the trunk with closed eyes. Leona was already asleep, they realized with a small sigh, but they sat down next to him regardless.

It was always at the strangest times when Yuu was struck with how beautiful Leona was. Now was one of those times, they found, as the late-afternoon sun hit his face just right to make it look like he nearly had a halo. They had no idea how it was fair, that someone like him could exist, and someone like him was theirs.

Softly, Yuu pressed their lips to his temple, too captivated by him not to. His skin was warm from the sun, they found, making them lean ever-so-slightly further into him. Leona did not wake, so they kissed him again, on his cheek this time. When that did nothing either, they kept going, deciding they would until he finally woke up.

They had kissed practically everywhere on his face except for his lips when Yuu finally paused, trying to determine if Leona really was still asleep. They watched him for a long moment, making sure they didn’t blink in case even that split second made them miss something. After getting so good at falling asleep that he could do so in three seconds, he had gotten equally as good at imitating sleep even when he was awake.

It was the flick of his tail in the corner of Yuu’s eye that gave him away. They glanced down to look at it, and found that it had found its way to snake around them. It had been on his other side when Yuu first found him.

Yuu shot him a look they knew he could feel, even if he couldn’t see it. He finally stirred when they leaned closer to him once more, brushing their lips against the scar now fully revealed thanks to his closed eyes. “Good morning,” they called, catching the way his ears twitched, too. “You could have stopped me, you know.”

“Didn’t feel like it. It wasn’t a bad way to be woken up,” Leona hummed, cracking open an emerald eye as they pulled back. “Might just forgive you for that, herbivore.”

“You’re forgiving me?” they asked, giving him a look as he yawned without restraint, revealing gleaming fangs. “You’re the one who fell asleep before I got here.”

Leona blinked slowly, regarding them with half-lidded eyes. “You’re right,” he sighed, making a small huff of triumph escape the prefect. It caught in their throat when they felt Leona’s hand come up, cupping their chin. The beginnings of a smirk appeared on his lips as he rose up, coming ever-closer to them. “Let me pay you back.”

Thank you so much for reading! <3

Divider made by @/cafekitsune

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reikizoku · 3 months

Note

Hi hey hello :333 may i request something? Since I saw from another post of yours that they were open :> I also am not sure if you wrote this before or not but can you please do MC/Yuu waking up malleus, jack, rook, and idia with nice soft kisses please? 🩵🩵

Thank you!! :D

Hi!! I haven't written that yet, it's so cute omg! I died a little while I was thinking of scenarios. My brain rotted in a good way, thanks so much anon <33

True Love's Kiss (Without the Curse)

Malleus Draconia, Jack Howl, Rook Hunt, Idia Shroud x G/N Yuu <3

Word Count: 2.6k | ~650 per part

(Malleus' part lowkey is kinda angsty but nothing too bad, really hope they're all in character and if not I'm so sorry TwT)

It was rare that Malleus ever slept. It was even rarer for Yuu to be witness to it, because after all their time together, the prince had become accustomed to watching over the prefect while they rested instead. But there were rare days where this was the opposite, and the human instead watched over the fae.

Fae were beautiful, Yuu found themself musing, as they took in Malleus’ sleeping face. He especially was extraordinary, with eyes that flickered and blazed and burned the most beautiful shade of green. It almost made their heart cry at how they couldn’t see his eyes then, when he rested and they had to be shut, but they supposed that was alright. They could still see his elegant horns that gave away his draconic heritage, and the pointed ears that hinted at his long, long lifespan.

That was one of the reasons he rarely slept around them, Yuu knew. Malleus wanted to spend as many moments as possible with them. In the grand scheme of everything, they knew that what time they had to offer with him was naught but a drop in the sea of his life. Neither of them pretended that they didn’t know this, and yet,they never spoke of it. They countered it with little things, by taking walks together every night, or staying together even when one slept.

Yuu wondered what dreams he had. They wondered if he had dreams as vibrant as theirs, of histories that did not seem to be correct. They wondered if he could even dream, when he could govern everyone else’s to the point that they could become a reality he could shape. If Malleus could do that with others’ dreams, Yuu could not begin to imagine what he could do with his own.

And yet, they still wondered. Maybe he got lost in them too, like they did. Maybe when his eyes flickered underneath his eyelids, beautiful lashes fluttering, Malleus forgot that what worlds his mind constructed weren’t reality. Maybe they were nice dreams. Yuu hoped they were.

Just in case they weren’t, they stood from the place on the couch in his room they had been sitting on, making their way around his bed as quietly as they could. Just in case they weren’t, Yuu watched him for a moment longer, trying to study Malleus’ face in case they saw this again and could find the signs. Just in case they weren’t, they took his hand, ever-so-gently.

Softly, carefully, lovingly, Yuu leaned down, coming close enough so that they could hear the feather-soft breaths Malleus took. Like a timeless incantation, an ancient spell, they whispered his name. And then they pressed their lips against his, so terribly filled with adoration that they thought their heart might nearly burst.

It did not, thankfully. When Yuu pulled away, they watched as the fae’s eyes opened slowly. They saw the exact moment that Malleus saw them, making those beautiful rings of flame crackle and warm and blaze all at once. “Did you dream?” they asked, finding that their curiosity was getting the better of them.

Malleus smiled, and Yuu’s heart nearly burst a second time. His smile was the most ethereal thing they had ever seen. “I did,” he answered, finding that his hand was in theirs and holding it tighter. “I dreamt of you and I, in a field of flowers as the sun set.”

Yuu couldn’t help but smile back, when their heart didn’t break again to instead swell with warmth. “That sounds beautiful.”

He hummed, and the sound revealed how sleep still had the faintest of holds on him. “You are much more beautiful than any dream of you would be,” Malleus whispered, bringing their joint hands up to his lips to kiss. “Thank you for waking me so that I may behold the real you.”

Jack worked hard. Everyone knew this, from how he woke up hours earlier than his dorm to train more even before they did as a whole. He didn’t slack on his studies either, much to his professors’ appreciation. And for all the effort he put in, he knew where his limits were. It was one of the reasons why Yuu admired him so much, even when they were long into knowing each other.

He woke up much earlier than Yuu, to the point that they almost had no hopes of waking up before him. However, rare were the nights that he went to bed after them, thanks to his equally early bedtime. It almost terrified Yuu sometimes, how he could stay so devoted and consistent to his schedule. With all the hectic things Night Raven College threw at them, the prefect had a less-than-stellar sleep routine more often than not. Jack, in a way that just made Yuu’s heart melt all over again, tried to help them as much as he could to fix it, but it too failed more often than not.

The one good part about it, Yuu supposed, was that it could lead to times like now. Jack had come over to Ramshackle to study with them, since they had a test coming up in their Defensive Magic class. Yuu couldn’t cast spells, but that didn’t stop them from having to do the same written test as the rest of the class. For the practical part of the exam, they had to rely on Grim and hope that he did well enough to pass the two of them. Jack, thankfully, was making sure that the direbeast didn’t leave that up to chance.

A few hours into their study session for the written test, however, Yuu had found that they were more amused by watching Jack gradually become sleepier and sleepier. It was a mixture of adorable and endearing, the way that he had to keep jerking his head back up the moment it started to fall to instead answer one of Yuu’s questions. Maybe they were being a little mean, the way that they were purposefully asking more than they had to in order to make it last for longer.

Yuu had been smart enough to at least ask the more difficult questions in the beginning of their time together, so now they were more messing with Jack than anything at this point. They suppressed a giggle when they looked up from their textbook to see his eyes half-lidded and still rapidly drooping. “Flora’s weak against water-defensive spells, right?” they asked.

Jack hummed. Yuu couldn’t stop the breathy laugh that escaped them when his eyes finally closed, watching at how that made his ears swivel to focus on the sound. But he didn’t react to it any other way, as his head dipped to his chest. “Jack,” they called softly, when he didn’t lift it up again.

He’d finally fallen asleep, Yuu realized, when they said his name two more times with no response. Maybe that was for the best, if they were being nice. But Yuu wouldn’t be a Night Raven College student if they weren’t a little cruel, so instead, they leaned over. Jack was so tired that he almost didn’t react to when they kissed his cheek, which made them smile all the more.

“Jack,” they tried, one more time. “Don’t sleep like that.”

With two more kisses to his cheek, his eyes finally fluttered. One more to his forehead, and they opened, as he raised his chin back up with a small grunt. “Sorry.” It took almost all his strength to say just that one word, Yuu saw, and they couldn’t help but giggle.

“Let’s go to bed,” they offered, with one last brush of their lips against his temple. Jack hummed again.

Yuu and Rook, in a way that would hopefully keep the latter from actually hunting the former, had come up with a strange little game the two of them would play. It had started so long ago that Yuu couldn’t even remember the exact day, and became such a habit that they didn’t want to stop, either.

Whenever one of the two of them found the other sleeping, they would try to wake them up in the way that all the timeless legends did: with the hero giving the rescued the gentlest of kisses. More often than not, Yuu was woken up by the soft brush of Rook’s lips against their brow, or their cheek, or even their hands. More often than not, Grim woke up shortly after Yuu to be scared into having a small heart attack at the sudden presence of the hunter.

At this point, Yuu couldn’t even begin to count how many times Rook had woken them up. On the other hand, they couldn’t even fill one listing the times that they had woken up Rook. Even when he spent the night at Ramshackle, or they had a sleepover at Pomefiore, they always fell asleep before he did and woke up to see him already awake. Yuu was beginning to think that he just didn’t sleep.

Until, one day, when they had been strolling through the forest, it happened.

Yuu didn’t know who or what was on their side, but everything had to have aligned perfectly for this to happen. They walked around a tree only to nearly jump when they caught a glimpse of his golden hair catching the sunlight on the other side, hat removed to better let him sleep.

He was beautiful asleep, just as he was when his emerald eyes were open. Yuu immediately tried to make every movement, every individual breath become as silent as possible, if only just to take in this rare sight before it disappeared once more. For all the time that Rook had spent praising their resting expression, Yuu had half a mind to do that to him, too.

Carefully, they took another step closer. When that didn’t make so much as an eyelash quiver, Yuu took another, slowly but surely getting closer to the hunter. How funny it was, they thought, that their roles had finally been reversed.

Somehow, they had gotten close enough to Rook to be able to touch him, and he had still not awoken. Yuu breathed a silent thanks to all of the Seven, alongside whatever deities and lucky stars they’d been blessed with as just as tentatively, they crouched next to him. Closer now, Yuu could see all the better just how stunning Rook was. For all the words he said admiring beauty, Yuu decided there and then that they would say the same number about Rook.

They leaned forward, softing pressing their lips against the apple of his cheek. And the moment they did, they felt the way that Rook had started to smile, unable to hold it back any longer. “Beautiful, Trickster. That was merveilleux.” His smile turned a little teasing, a little predatory as his eyes glinted. “It will take more than that to sneak up on me, however.”

“I knew it.” Yuu sighed, making Rook laugh as they unceremoniously plopped down next to him. “Do you have any tips?” they couldn’t help but ask, as one of Rook’s arms came to wrap around them.

“A hunter cannot reveal all his methods, mon coeur. You’ll simply have to practice.” Yuu didn’t know what to think, when they were met with another one of his beautiful smiles when they frowned up at him. At least they won a little, though. They won a little more when they kissed his cheek again, making a shade of pretty pink dust his face.

It was almost impossible to find someone who took gaming any more seriously than Idia Shroud. That was why, at the same time, it was almost impossible to find someone who slept less than him, be they fae or human. Most times, Yuu would try to work with Ortho to make sure he actually took care of himself and actually slept instead of just chug energy drinks like they were water.

Tonight was not one of those nights, however, because they had been challenged to a bet. Idia, with the cocky smirk that almost seemed to be exclusively for them in the safe confines of his room, had gloated that there was no one who could beat his times in a racing game. Yuu, considering themself something of a rising gamer ever since becoming the Ignihyde housewarden’s go-to player two, thought that maybe it would be something if they beat him at his own game.

Yuu had known it was going to be hard, but not as hard as it was. The moment Idia had heard that, he’d held nothing back, getting a time even better than what was already stored on his console to nearly make Yuu just give up right then and there. But if nothing else, Yuu was resilient, and they went right to trying to getting the gold ranking and knocking Idia’s character down a peg.

Once they got going, Yuu had no idea how much time passed. It was long enough to make Idia drop out and go finish his dailies on all his other games before midnight passed, at the very least. After that, Yuu had thought that he would have joined them again, but they stayed the only player.

After their latest attempt ended in another failure—Idia was still faster by a whopping 3.20 seconds—Yuu let their hands drop into their lap, sighing as they let their head fall back to hit the mattress from where they’d been stationed on a bean bag on the floor. “Idia, where was that one glitch again?” they asked, finally getting the resolve to slide their eyes over to him to see the told-you-so grin he’d give them—

—only to be met with nothing but closed eyes and a peaceful expression, as his head rested on folded arms. He’d been laying on his stomach on his bed in order to still see the screen while he’d been using his phone, but now even that device was left discarded to the side, as he took soft, even breaths while the screen dimmed and finally shut off from inactivity.

Maybe it was a little too late, or maybe Yuu had spent a bit too much time gaming, but this felt like a scene straight out of one of the dating sims they’d played with him. Looking over to see that Idia’s face was so close to them, so close that they could kiss him if they just moved so much as another few centimeters. They could feel their heart skip a beat, as his hair flickered and waved and surrounded him like a halo.

Idia Shroud was gorgeous, Yuu found themself realizing again. It made them smile softly to see that he had fallen asleep, though it turned a little guilty at the way that they’d kept him up late enough to make him finally just shut down. In a way they hoped would be a good enough apology, they gently leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the bridge of his nose.

That made him flinch slightly, humming ever-so-softly as his brow furrowed. “Idia,” Yuu called gently, making him hum again. They brushed their lips against his forehead now, as his hair flickered when he finally cracked open an eye. “I can’t get it.”

It was because his hair didn’t immediately turn pink from their proximity did Yuu know that Idia was still barely awake. He shifted a little, nuzzling deeper into his arms as his eye threatened to close again. “‘Cause you need the cheat code,” he muttered, words half-slurred. “I’ll tell you it in a sec. Need to…restore mana…first.”

Yuu almost laughed. “Mood.” But then they yawned instead, and decided that maybe their bar was getting a little low, too. They could take a second to refill before they attempted another try.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed <3

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