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“Agh! Cut that out, it stings.”
Ruggie snapped at the red headed dorm leader who was disinfecting the wound on his leg. A pretty solid scrape to the knee was the less concerning of the two. The other injury, which Riddle had already cleaned and bandaged, was a gash across his forehead.
“So you want this cut getting infected then? Stop moving, you’re making this difficult.”
“I’m not trying to. You’re being too rough, just let me do it!” The hyena eared boy did his best to stop fidgeting. He bit down on his lip with one of his fangs.
“If I let you do it, it’ll be half-assed. This is just karma for that stunt…” Riddle glared up at the wounded beastman before correcting himself. “Stunts, you pulled before the interdorm matches.”
Ruggies ears flattened to his head and he looked away, leaning back on his hands. He bit down just a little harder on his lip. But ‘a little harder’ was too hard and he tasted iron pretty quickly. He ran his tongue over the small puncture to quickly clear his lip of blood before the teapot tyrant noticed, but it didn’t make it stop. The red head wasn’t looking but he decided to keep talking so Riddle wouldn’t notice he had once again, indulged in his bad habit.
“Yea yea, maybe a tumble down the stairs was what I deserved, are we done?” His brows furrowed in annoyance, he was more than capable of cleaning a few scrapes.
“I would hardly call it a ‘tumble’. I’m surprised you aren’t concussed! And no, we aren’t done, stay there.” Riddle jabbed a finger at Ruggie as he stood up. He had finished cleaning the cut on his leg and needed to grab some bandages. While he had his back turned, Ruggie rolled down his pant leg and stood up. He wiped the back of his hand across his still bleeding lip, leaving a crimson stain across it.
Of course, it wasn’t long before Riddle turned back around. Just before Ruggie could book it to the door. With blood smeared on his lip. And his hand. And his un-bandaged wound now covered by his uniform. Even after he told him to stay put.
Riddle cocked an eyebrow. Maybe he would have lost his temper if it wasn’t Ruggie, or maybe, by some miracle, he just didn’t believe he would do anything stupid. But the hyena was tempted.
“Sit down Ruggie.” The two boys stared at each other for a good while, both trying to figure out which of them would move first.
Ruggie’s too-big blazer rustled slightly as his tail flicked.
“Bucchi, don’t you dare.”
Riddle was serious.
Ruggie sat back down and Riddle breathed a sigh of relief. He started walking back to the bed Ruggie sat at and crouched down to finish bandaging the cut. “Lift up your pant leg, let’s hope you didn’t g-”
But he was cut off by Ruggie jumping over him and running to the door. The red head reached out for the beastman but he was much too fast. He reached for his magic pen but realized it would be of no use, he couldn’t cast any spell that would matter at the distance Ruggie had already put between them in the short time.
Riddle was in pursuit of the infirmary escapee for what felt like hours. In reality, it was only a few minutes, though it would’ve been longer had the Ignihyde housewarden not been in Ruggie’s way.
“Shroud! Don’t let him past you!” Riddle’s voice alone was enough to make Idia freeze up, but to see a panicked savanaclaw kid, bandaged and bleeding, running at him at top speeds made him hold his breath. Ruggie, who was actually having quite a bit of fun, didn’t see Idia until it was all too late and both boys were on the ground.
With Riddle close behind him, Ruggie got up as quick as he could and started to bolt again, hoping none of the blood from his lip got on the poor, unsuspecting house warden. Before he could get more than a few feet though, he stopped short hearing someone call out “wait!”
In no world would Idia want to incur the wrath of Riddle Rosehearts. Sure getting this kid to stay still was terrifying, but a lecture from the Tiny Titan himself was a whole world of worse. He didn’t really have a plan for what to do after asking the boy to wait, or if it didn’t work at all, but it didn’t matter. The command made Ruggie pause for long enough that Riddle could catch up.
The smallest of the three boys slipped past Idia and grabbed Ruggie by the ear, giving it a good tug. “You must have some sort of death wish, Bucchi!”
The hyena winced and subconsciously bit at his lip again, the ear not in Riddles grasp laid back on his head.
“And cut that out! Biting your lip will give you sores and inflammation! Not to mention possible infections! What were you thinking? Now I’ll have to clean that scrape again and clean your lip! You never take anything seriously, do you?”
Riddle paused, giving Ruggie a chance to answer, but he never did. Idia tried to take the chance to shuffle away. Tried being the keyword.
“Shroud, don’t go anywhere. You’re helping me get him back to my dorm.”
“I’d rather not. Any planet where I assist taskmaster Riddle in caging an escapee is not a planet I want to be on.” A desperate defense on his part, but it wasn’t strong enough. Now he was being dragged all the way to the hall of mirrors just to play spectator for these two sophomores. There were a million better things he could be doing, countless games he could be grinding on, why did he have to be doing this!
It was good he was there though, Ruggie made several attempts to flee and even if Idia didn’t do anything to stop him, his presence significantly decreased the number. He counted 23 times that the hyena eyed him, just to see if he was still watching.
Riddle was much more at ease having Ruggie confined to his room. At least if he tried to run, there was a whole dorms worth of boys he had on his side.
10 painful minutes later, Ruggie’s knee was cleaned once more and his lip was no longer bleeding. He rubbed at his knee where the bandage was under his pant leg. It was in a spot where bending his knee made the bandage stretch in an uncomfortable way, but straightening it was no better.
“This is stupid. It was only a small scrape, it would’ve healed in three days tops.” He kept his gaze down and his ears flat, a little embarrassed Riddle had done all that fussing. It seemed a little excessive, especially when he insisted two of the Heartslabyul members guard the door so he couldn’t run.
“It would have healed improperly. I can’t believe the nerve of you.” The scowl on Riddles face made Ruggie felt like he was 7 again, like he was being scolded by his grandmother for doing something stupid. “Sorry,” was the only thing he could mumble. He knew this was very tame for a Riddle lecture, he was very lucky, but he still wasn’t used to it.
The House warden sat down next to him on his bed with a sigh. He knew this was all within the realm of possibility when he and Ruggie started getting closer, he just didn’t think Ruggie would be so… so…
Ruggie rested his head on the shorter boys shoulder, keeping his ears back so they wouldn’t poke him in the face. The excitement of the chase had worn off and all his energy had fizzled out. He felt terrible, sure Riddle fussed too much but he had given him a good reason too. A good reason for Riddle anyhow. He wasn’t used to having someone like Riddle care so much about him.
Before he could get caught in his own thoughts, Riddle put a hand on his head. “I understand you aren’t used to having others help you. My hope is to change that.” Ruggie only hummed in response. He really wasn’t up for anymore conversation, especially knowing that two mystery students could be listening in. He was feeling rather worn out.
‘Worn out’ quickly became tired, which soon became exhausted. Before he knew it, Ruggie could barely keep his eyes open. Riddle noticed and oh so gently leaned him back until he was laying on the bed, granted, it was the wrong way. His legs dangled off the edge and his head was no where near a pillow. That would certainly be bad for his back, but Riddle decided the hyena had enough of being helped for one day. He could try again tomorrow.
And he knew that tomorrow, karma’s wounds would heal and there would be more ‘fussing’ to get done.