Chapter Text
“Radish Sprout.”
“Oi, Radish.”
“Idia!”
Idia Shroud startled at the sound of Leona’s voice shattering the mental equivalent of TV static in his brain and snapping him back to reality.
Reality, at the moment, was a chess board on a bed. And across from that chess board was none other than one of the most terrifying, powerful, attractive men on campus, Leona Kingscholar.
Idia’s miraculously chess buddy turned boyfriend.
“S- sorry. I- I just zoned out there for- for a sec.” Idia shook his head as if to restart his brain like an Etch-A-Sketch. Trying to avoid Leona’s emerald gaze, he instead opted to stare at the board to figure out a move instead of just staring at it blankly.
“You’re not on top of your game today.” Leona didn’t sound mad or annoyed, merely observational, as if talking about the weather. “You’ve been ‘zoning out’ a lot today.”
“Sorry,” Idia repeated, fiddling with his hands nervously. Finally, he moved his bishop and glanced at Leona, inviting the beastman to make his move.
Leona studied the checkered board for a bit before taking his queen and effectively winning, again.
“Checkmate.”
Idia sighed and half heartedly clapped his hands a few times. “I know when I’ve lost, nicely done, Leona.” Idia frowned at the board, trying to figure out how he could’ve avoided losing.
Thinking was better than making eye contact with Leona, whose eyes were going to burn a hole through Idia’s already burning head.
“How long did you sleep last night?” Leona asked casually, moving from a crossed legs position to reclining on his back.
“Why do- do you wanna know?” Idia stammered anxiously. He knew Leona wouldn’t hurt him, and that Leona didn’t have any ill intentions, but Idia was a mess of a human and assuming the worst was his specialty.
“Just curious.” Leona closed his eyes, and that piercing, beautiful stare going away made Idia a little more willing to talk. He tried to recall when he had gone to bed.
There had been that raid he’d had to do with Crimson Muscle, an event he’d played through about half of, sketching a little bit of an early birthday present for Ortho, reading the updated chapter of his favorite webtoon…
“I think I fell asleep at… 3, maybe? 3:30 at the latest,” Idia murmured, tracing circles with a pale finger into Leona’s elaborately patterned sheets.
“You were there for Crewel’s test in the morning, right? When we had to be there by 7:30,” Leona’s eyes were still closed, but Idia felt like he was being interrogated.
Interrogated by a very hot, amazing cop, but interrogated nonetheless.
“Yes…?” Idia didn’t see or like where this was going. “Why?”
“Sevens, Radish Sprout, that’s only four hours.” Leona sat up, and Idia quickly looked at his lap. “Ain’t the little sprout been telling you to go to sleep earlier? It’s not good for you.”
“Well, sleeping too much can also be bad for you, so you’re not any better than me,” Idia said without thinking, immediately regretting what had come out of his mouth. “S- sorry.”
Idia remained still as he heard and felt Leona removing the chess board and its pieces from the bed and into a dresser.
The Ignihyde housewarden only imagined the worst, that Leona was mad, he’d tell Ortho, Ortho would get upset, and now EVERYONE is upset because Idia is stupid and can’t just do one damn thing for the people he loves-
That train of thought was the reason for his shock when he heard Leona quietly say, “C’mere, Radish Sprout.” When he looked up, Leona wasn’t mad at all.
He just looked concerned and…
Kind.
That was a word that sixteen year old Idia probably would have punched eighteen year old Idia for using to describe freaking Leona Kingscholar.
And Leona was gently patting his lap and looked so uncharacteristically soft and caring that Idia wanted to cry a little bit.
His body reacted on instinct and crawled towards Leona until he was comfortably situated on his boyfriend’s lap.
“I don’t like it when you don’t take care of yourself,” Leona mumbled, slipping his arms around the other man’s waist. “And I know Ortho doesn’t like it either.”
“I- I know,” Idia sighed, ashamed that he’d made two of the people he loved most worry about him. “And I’m sorry-“
“I don’t want you to apologize,” Leona interrupted him, placing a gloved finger on his partner’s blue lips. “Because I’m not upset. I just… you know…” Leona’s eyes darted to the suddenly very interesting bedsheets. “Worry. About you.” Those words were unfamiliar to the lion, even though he thought them all the time.
Idia’s softened a little when he saw how subtly shy Leona was about admitting his affections.
Cute.
“I know you do.” Idia began to scratch behind Leona’s ears. “I’ll try to get more sleep. I promise.”
“Great, we can start that resolution now.” Idia barely had time to absorb what his boyfriend had said before Leona flopped back down, dragging the other with him.
“Oof- Leona!” Idia protested, the tips of his hair turning pink. “That- why are you-“ He tried squirm from Leona’s grip, a fruitless effort considering to how strong Leona was and how… not strong Idia was.
“You said you’d get more sleep,” Leona’s voice was teasing as he secured his grip around Idia’s waist, bringing them so close that there was no space between. “So let’s start now. I’m tired anyways.”
“Is this really necessary?” Idia squirmed uselessly before Leona squeezed him as a playful warning.
“Absolutely. Now hush and go to sleep.”
The way he said it was so final that Idia, as embarrassed as he was, saw that it was pointless to argue.
And he didn’t… hate this. At all, actually.
“Fine.” Idia pulled the blankets over them and snuggled until he was resting his face against Leona’s chest, away from his teasing words and lips.
“I love you…” Idia mumbled into Leona’s shirt, so quiet that any non-beastman wouldn’t have heard him.
“I love you too, dork.” Leona placed a kiss on Idia’s forehead, running his hands through the blue and pink fire as he began to doze off.
And soon, lulled by Leona’s heartbeat, Idia followed his partner into sweet, dreamless sleep.
So deep that neither of them noticed when Ruggie snuck in and took a picture of them and texted it to Jack.