Work Text:
Make this our kingdom
Somewhere where good love conquers and not divides
The box was tempting Ruggie from the backseat of Leona’s car. Ruggie had once again borrowed Leona’s car to pick up breakfast, and he was on his way back to NRC. Honestly, he was lucky Leona had been interested enough in the idea of a non-NRC breakfast to write him a permission slip for him to go off campus.
Ruggie’s phone was hooked up to the bluetooth in the car, and he was on the phone with Leona. If it had been up to Ruggie, he wouldn’t have answered the call, but since he and Leona had actually started to date, Leona seemed a hundred times clingier. Any time Ruggie was off-campus, Leona would either call him or send him an obscene amount of texts until he returned.
“Really,” Ruggie muttered, listening to Leona’s steady, slow breaths over the phone. “You’d think Mr. Big Strong Lion would be less obsessed with me.”
“Shut your mouth,” Leona muttered, making Ruggie jump a few inches in his seat.
“Fuck! Have you been awake this whole time!?”
“Yeah. An’ I’m not obsessed with you.”
“Pfft. The last time I was off-campus you texted me, like, twenty times.”
“You weren’t responding. You coulda’ been dead.”
Ruggie chuckled. “Suuure, that’s why you got so freaked out. Admit it, you’re just a scared little kitty cat.”
“I’m going to kill you,” Leona growled.
Ruggie laughed fully this time, grinning. “No you won’t. Who would you call then?”
There were a few seconds of silence, then a snort and a rustle, like Leona was moving away from the phone. “‘M goin’ back to sleep. You’re getting on my nerves.”
Ruggie shook his head. “Okay, kitty. Sleep tight.”
“ Shut up ,” Leona snapped.
Ruggie couldn’t help but laugh once again. “I loooove you,” he coed, saccharine sweet.
A few beats passed, then Leona sighed and muttered, “love you, too.”
Preening, Ruggie returned to focusing solely on the road. (Which he, you know, should’ve been doing the whole time, but. Leona .)
Fifteen minutes later (long, grueling minutes made bearable only by Leona’s gentle breathing on the phone) Ruggie snuck Leona’s car back into its stolen spot in the staff parking lot and said, “Leona, wake up.”
Leona sighed. “What.”
“I’m back. I’ll be at the dorm in, like, five minutes. Wake up or I’m sharing the donuts with Jack.”
“Don't you dare, ” Leona tiredly grumbled. “I’ll be up. Hurry.”
“Pssh. Sure.” Ruggie leaned into the back seat, grabbing the box of donuts. (He didn’t need Leona to be awake. He’d gotten enough for Jack to share them either way.) “See you in a few. Kisses.”
“You sound like Ashengrotto.”
“Woof. How dare you.” Ruggie disconnected his phone, putting it on speaker as he fumbled his way out of the car, keys and donut box in one hand and phone in the other. “I will see you in a few .”
Leona hummed, and Ruggie could perfectly picture Leona tilting his head to the side ever-so-slightly. “See you. Kisses,” he added teasingly.
Ruggie groaned and hung up on Leona’s laughter. The walk back to the mirror hall was cold, and Ruggie rushed along with his ears flat against his head, trying hard to not let them get too chilly.
Back in Savanaclaw, Ruggie bared his teeth at the few students who tried to intercept him for donuts as he made a beeline for Leona’s room. He was, thank the King of Beasts , no longer freezing. There wasn’t much Ruggie enjoyed about the savannah- he had almost exclusively bad memories of his hometown- but he adored the warmth of it, the way it sank into his body.
Still, he preferred being warmed up by Leona.
Speaking of, the second Ruggie stepped into Leona’s room, he was greeted by Leona snatching the box out of his hands, dropping it on his desk, scooping Ruggie off the ground, and dropping him on the bed .
Ruggie yelped as Leona leaned over him. “Oi! What gives?”
Leona didn’t respond, just leaned down and pressed a kiss to Ruggie’s lip. Ruggie hummed, kissing him back for only a second before he lightly pushed Leona away and said, “M’kay, y’know I like kissin’ ya, but I’m starving. I wanna eat.”
Leona rolled his eyes a little, fondly. “Of course you do. I swear, you’ve got more of an appetite than anyone I know.”
Ruggie shrugged. “I was starved as a kid, I think it’s some kinda residual trauma.”
Leona frowned, crawling off of Ruggie and saying, “I’m makin’ you talk to Yuu about that later.”
“Good luck.” Ruggie climbed off the bed and grabbed the donuts. He crawled back onto the bed, settling himself sideways on Leona’s lap. “I’ve been not talkin’ ‘bout my issues since I was born. I can keep goin’.”
Leona frowned harder, then shook his head and opened the box of donuts. He, of course, immediately went for one of the classic glazed donuts. Ruggie went for one of the two chocolate-sprinkled donuts he’d got specifically for himself.
They didn’t talk much as they ate, and when they finished, Leona wordlessly shoved a glass of water into Ruggie’s hands, then grabbed one of his own. “Drink,” he said simply.
Ruggie drank almost half of the glass, then groaned when Leona scrubbed at the corner of his lip with his thumb. “You’re such a mess,” Leona muttered, voice threaded with something warm and loving.
Ruggie caught the tip of Leona’s thumb with his teeth, licked it playfully, then released it and said, “I’m your mess, though.”
Leona’s ear twitched, as did the corner of his mouth, and Ruggie snickered. “What, you like that?”
“Yeah.” Leona pressed his face into the crook of Ruggie’s neck. “You are mine.”
Ruggie snorted. “You’d make such a bad feminist boyfriend.”
“Firstly, how dare you. Secondly-” Leona shoved the box of donuts aside again, pushing Ruggie so he was flat on his back and leaning over him for the second time that morning. “I guess it’s a good thing you aren’t a woman, huh?”
Ruggie grinned, wrapping his arms around Leona’s neck, and said, “Would you still like me if I was?”
“Sure. I’d just be a helluva lot nicer to ya.”
“I know.” Ruggie tilted his head up, fluttering his lashes in a wordless beg for a kiss.
Leona obliged, leaning down and kissing Ruggie hard. He tasted like sweet glaze, but there was the underlying taste of cigarette smoke and metal like there always was. Ruggie had wondered once before what he tasted like, but it had to be something good, with the way Leona seemed to be obsessed with kissing him.
Ruggie sighed happily into the kiss, curling his fingers into Leona’s hair, and happily decided that he could definitely spend every morning like this.