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Ruggie Bucchi has survived many things in his short life: hunger, poverty and life-threatening injuries, to name a few. But this? This has to be the worst thing he’s ever had to face.
“Leona, where do you even keep your socks?” you ask, hoisting a basket of laundry to your hip. You, the Ramshackle prefect, who’s faced several overblots and garnered quite the notoriety in school as a result, are now doing Leona’s laundry. And for free, too.
It would have been laughable if Ruggie didn’t have to bite back a scowl every time you talked to Leona.
“Dunno. Ask Ruggie,” Leona drawls, still buried somewhere under his comforter.
“Ruggie, where does Leona put his socks?”
“Left cabinet, top drawer,” he responds automatically, smoothing out a crease in Leona’s lab coat.
“Thanks!”
“Don’t mess anything up, herbivore,” Leona calls.
“Keep talking like that and I’m going to cut holes in all of your socks,” you shot back.
Ruggie’s ears twitch. Truly, listening to you flirt with Leona was worse than breaking a bone. Scratch that, he’d prefer having a broken bone than having to listen to you two banter back and forth. Because every time you exchanged a pointed word with Leona, all Ruggie could think of was how you never talked to anyone else like that.
You were one of the few people Leona (grudgingly) tolerated, and he’d spotted the two of you hanging out during lunch more than once. It makes perfect sense that you’d gotten closer to Leona after his overblot, and you didn’t treat him with any of the trepidation the other students did. It was that, and the fact you were always chasing after Ruggie, asking if Leona had sent him on some outrageous assignment again and if he needed any help, that first clued him in.
It’d been a bit suspicious the first time you chased him down, he wouldn't lie. But hey, he wasn’t going to turn down free help from a known goody two shoes.
“You really don’t have to do this,” Ruggie had said, balancing a mountain of food in his arms.
“I want to help you,” you’d insisted, arms wrapped around your own haul from the cafeteria.
“You want one of these buns?” He waved a freshly baked pastry in your face, and your eyes had followed it, betraying your true thoughts.
“No, it’s okay.”
“Take it,” Ruggie had said, unwrapping it and holding it in front of your mouth.
With some hesitation, you bit into it. “Thanks,” you mumbled, your cheeks stuffed with bread. It was cute– you were cute, even though, for some reason, you refused to make eye contact with him.
“Stop flirting.” Leona’s voice suddenly rang out, irritated. The two of you had made your way to the botanical gardens before either of you was aware of it, and had been loud enough to rouse Leona from his afternoon nap.
“We’re not flirting,” you had hissed. “Go back to sleep.”
Leona raised an eyebrow, but simply beckoned Ruggie over to collect his lunch.
“If you need anything else, you can call me any time,” you had told him afterwards, walking back from the garden.
“Sure, sure, I’ll let you know if a spot opens up to become Leona’s second gopher.”
You’d look a bit upset at that, and it was in that moment it had hit Ruggie that you probably liked Leona. No wonder you didn’t appreciate being called his gopher, and no wonder you’d asked Ruggie if he needed any help buying and carrying food to Leona: it’d all been so you could get closer to him.
Normally, he would put his foot down, tell you to get closer to Leona on your own terms. Ruggie would not let himself be used by someone, not unless they were willing to pay up. But, well, you were a different case. You were– you are– special to him.
Now, watching you and Leona snark at each other, Ruggie has to fight back a familiar sinking feeling in his stomach. You never looked that relaxed when you were with him.
You can do a lot better than Leona, in Ruggie’s opinion. Leona is spoiled, and always looks for underhanded methods, and couldn’t even fold his own clothes, for crying out loud. But he’s– he’s also a prince, and he has money, and he’s good looking. No wonder you’re attracted to him. There’s no way in hell that you’d even consider Ruggie if you were into Leona.
Because Leona is a lot of things that he isn’t, and will never be.
—
Ruggie isn’t sure when he started liking you.
Maybe it was when you’d been staying in Leona’s room, and you’d chat with him around the dorm. Or maybe it was when you’d been chasing after him during the spelldrive tournament, trying to pin him down as the culprit to the string of mysterious injuries. Or maybe, from the very beginning, when he saw you stumble out of your coffin during the entrance ceremony, he’d been interested in you.
You shone. You’re someone that he couldn’t take his eyes off of, even when it hurt.
“Ruggie!” As if on cue, you run up to him. Classes were over the day, and he’d been making his way to spelldrive practice. Your presence is expected at this point; the first thing you seem to do whenever you have time is come find him. If he was honest, Ruggie would admit that he’d been walking slowly, stretching out the minutes until you came.
“Hey,” he says, and resists the urge to do something stupid, like put his hand on your cheek. “What did you need me for?”
“Epel told me that you have practice today, and I brought you some water,” you say, holding out a cold bottle to him, condensation rolling down the side. “It’s hot today, so… I wanted to make sure you’d be okay.”
Did you give one to Leona, too? Ruggie stops himself from asking. It wouldn’t do him any good to know. “Thanks,” he says, instead, and puts a hand on your head.
You smile, and his heart does cartwheels in his chest.
Ruggie is screwed, he is so screwed, and he needs to do something before he falls for you any further.
—
After several weeks of your constant presence, it feels strange when you’re not around. And it’s laundry day again, too, and it would have been nice to have your help lugging around piles of clothes. But, well…
“You should stop playing around with them,” Ruggie mutters, without looking up at Leona.
“Who?”
“What do you mean, who? The Ramshackle prefect, duh. Seriously, Leona.” He flings Leona’s shirt onto the bed with more force than he intended. “They’re, you know. Squishy. Human.”
“Huh. It’s not like you to care about some random herbivore.”
“Well, I don’t. It’s just annoying, seeing them come in here, looking at you like that. Like, they’re waiting for you to give them the time of day, and then you don’t. Just give it to them straight. Say you like them, or say you don’t, but the sooner they stop coming in here, the better.”
“Looking at me? Are you serious?” Leona’s tail flicks in amusement. “You think the herbivore comes in here and does your chores because they want my attention?”
“Well, why else would they be here? Come on, it’s obvious.”
Leona laughs then, a low rumble that Ruggie only hears when they see something unfortunate happen to Rook Hunt or Malleus Draconia. “Ruggie… I’ve always thought you were clever. So why are you giving me that crap?”
“Crap? I’m just…”
“You’re being an idiot,” Leona interrupts. “Your precious little prefect doesn’t like me.”
“Then…” Because if you didn’t like Leona, why else would you spend so much time with Ruggie? What could be the reason you kept hanging around him, the reason you kept helping him out and pestering him? Because… it would mean… Oh. Oh.
“Congratulations on being the last person to figure it out,” Leona says dryly as Ruggie springs up, shirt falling out of his hand.
“Leona, I’ll finish folding your clothes later,” he yells, rushing out the door.
—
Why is it the one time he needs to talk to you that you’re suddenly nowhere to be found? You’re not at Ramshackle, and Jack doesn’t have a clue where you could be. Maybe he could wrangle down those two Heartslabyul freshmen you were always hanging out with…
“Ruggie!”
He stops, heart pounding. There you were, in the middle of the mirror hall. He’s never loved the sound of your voice more.
“What are you doing here?” he asks.
“I could ask you the same thing! I was going to go hang out with Ace and Deuce.” You step closer to him. “Have you been running around?”
“Yes. Sort of. I was looking for you.”
“Me?”
His mouth is dry. In front of you, he feels weak. Everything in him crumbles in your presence, at the way you look at him. “Do you…”
“Do I?”
What if he’s wrong? What if he puts himself out there, and makes himself into a fool? It would be infinitely easier to just shove his feelings down, and keep your relationship as it was. If he never steps out of line, he would never get hurt. Play it safe, and take the easy way out.
But…
“Why do you do so many things for me?” he says instead.
You blink. “Is that what you needed me for? Well, it’s because you’re my… friend, and you’re always working so hard, and I want to help you…”
Ruggie takes another step towards you, so close he could lean in and kiss you. “It’s not because you like Leona, right?”
“Leona? What? No! No way. He’s just a friend, and besides, we would strangle each other to death first.”
“That’s good.”
“Why is it good?”
“Because I like you. I like you, a lot.”
In a sudden movement, you fling your arms around him. “Seriously? Really? You like me?”
He wraps his arms around you, like they were always meant to be there. “Yeah, of course. What, you aren’t going to say it back?”
“I think you already know how I feel,” you mumble, still clinging to him. “I can’t believe you thought I liked Leona! Seriously! Did you think I was doing all of those chores for you because I wanted to impress Leona?”
“Well…”
“Ruggie!” You cup your hands around his cheeks. “I like you! I’ve always, always liked you! You, and not anyone else!”
And really, the only thing he can do right now is kiss you.
The first kiss he gives you is out of relief. The second kiss he gives you is out of love.