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Gods, being home was boring.
On one hand, no one ever asked him to do anything. On the other hand, almost no one even talked to him, his family notwithstanding. And if Leona had to deal with being woken up by Cheka bouncing playfully on his stomach one more time he may just overblot again.
Ruggie had abandoned him for the holiday as per usual, inevitably off feeding half the city again or whatever it was he did with all that crap he carried back. Leona knew he’d come running if he offered a bone, but he wasn’t in the mood to deal with the wheedling that would entail either.
So instead he was here, locked away in his own room, sitting on the windowsill and watching the buzz of the palace happen around him, utterly uncaring of the fact that their second prince was even present.
Thrilling.
He did at least have his phone to entertain him, though his Magicam feed was more depressing than anything at the moment. Jack’s huge grin as he was sandwiched between his siblings, Epel’s raucous holiday party pictures...
He could text someone, maybe. He’d heard Cater was always bored, but even just flipping open those messages made his eyes hurt from the emoji flashing on his screen. Vil would have his head if he interrupted at the wrong time, and would be probably be unsympathetic to his plight regardless. Just talk to them, he’d say, and Leona could just see the look that would accompany it.
Leona paused, hovering over another name. He’d almost forgotten – Lilia had given him the number one time when they’d lost the phone somewhere. Apparently the device had to be changed often due to his penchant for breaking them, but they always kept the same number.
Malleus.
Well, why the hell not. Worst case scenario he didn’t get a reply and it was something else he could annoy the horned bastard about when they got back to school.
[happy holidays] He sent the message along with a picture of the view, looking out across the decorated courtyard.
The nigh-immediate buzz back startled him. [Kingscholar.] Well, apparently his phone wasn’t broken now. Leona paused, wondering what to send back. The fuck did he even have to say to him?
[bet your royal holidays are as fun and exciting as mine.] Another picture, faking sleep.
[I’m in fittings at the moment. They let me keep my phone for entertainment.] This came with a picture in return – Malleus with an extremely unimpressed look on his face, some monstrosity of black fabric and pins all down his front. Leona bust out laughing, entirely too entertained.
[been there. don’t bite] The response this time was just an obviously hurried picture of Malleus’s most toothy grin, tailor scowling in the background.
[or at least don’t leave a mess.] Ten, twenty minutes went by and Leona didn’t receive a reply, which he found fairly annoying but Malleus had probably just been whisked away by another staff member. He finally abandoned his phone and the view and rolled into bed, intent on a nice long afternoon nap.
–
It was dark by the time he awoke, a lukewarm meal awaiting him on his desk. Farena must have instructed them to not wake him, which grated on him almost as much as waking him would have. Ugh.
He sat on the windowsill to devour it anyways, checking his phone again. No new messages, of course. At least he had the stars to keep him company now. They were always so beautiful at home, and he’d never seen a picture do them any justice.
...which gave him an idea. He snickered around another mouthful as he pulled up his thread with Malleus.
[wish you could see the sky here. could send you a pic but doesn’t do it any justice] That was sure to make him jealous. Leona knew that the weather in the Valley of Thorns was just abysmal this time of year and that the fae probably hadn’t seen a single star since he left NRC.
[oh?] Leona grinned. Perfect.
Ten minutes later, he felt his hackles rise at the feel of a familiar burst of magic rolling by. A shout from the hallway was followed by a polite knock on his door and Leona cautiously padded over to the door and opened it, despite already knowing what would be on the other side.
“Malleus.” The fae looked down at him, some sort of politely neutral expression on his face, utterly ignoring the two spears pointed at his neck.
“I brought yo--”
“Silence, intruder!” One of the guards was awfully ballsy. Leona glared at him and snarled outright, both men flinching.
“This is the King of the Valley of Thorns and my guest besides. Go tell your boss so he doesn’t have to waste a platoon investigating. If he has any issue with that he can take it up with my brother.” The guards backed away, bowing as they left, and Leona turned back to Malleus and gestured for him to continue.
“I brought you... wine. I hear that is the polite thing to do.” He seemed all too amused but Leona couldn’t blame him – he couldn’t believe his idiotic guards couldn’t recognize fae magic like that. Wine though? Really?
“...ha, well, come in.” Leona turned to retake his seat at the windowsill. “The fuck are you doing here anyways?”
Malleus blinked owlishly, carefully setting the bottle down on the table. “...you invited me,” he said quietly after a moment.
“I…” Leona looked out into the night again, staring at the sky. “Guess I kinda did. You really use all that power just to come see the damn stars?”
Malleus looked at him again in that eerie looking-through-you kind of way, stepping up next to him. “You invited me,” he repeated, still looking at Leona and not the stars. “You messaged me.”
Leona held eye contact for a long moment before looking away, muttering. “Was just bored.”
“And I was at a fitting.” The malice in Malleus’s voice was obvious and Leona just had to laugh. “I’m fairly certain they should be classified as torture and accordingly outlawed.”
“At least your people seem to want you,” Leona grumbled. “I’m just extra here.”
Malleus stepped just close enough that his shoulder brushed Leona’s. “The pedestal… it can be quite cold.”
Leona watched his expression closely, but there was no teasing there, only loneliness. Perhaps they had more in common than Leona was usually willing to admit. “Anyways,” he continued quickly, not wanting to give Malleus the chance to continue this conversation down a deep path he wasn’t really willing to tread. “Wine. You brought it, we should share it.”
Malleus just smiled enigmatically down at him and Leona flustered, feeling suddenly like they were all too close or not nearly close enough. He shoved the fae back a bit and turned, stalking towards the table as Malleus chuckled behind him.
–
The buzz of his phone woke him just as the sun started to stream in through the windows. He yawned, stretching wide and patting around him for the device, fumbling up to his face once he managed to grab hold of it.
[Thank you for the entertainment, Kingscholar.] Attached was a picture of himself, dead asleep and tucked in like a child.
He fumblingly typed a message back. [gonna kick ur ass when we get back to school, horns]
[I am looking forward to the attempt.] Leona grinned. Good.