Chapter Text
part one
tell me, bucchi, how far are you willing to go for your dreams?
chapter one
... you have no idea
SOMETIMES WHEN HE USED TO close his eyes, he would still picture the dancing dust clouds being carried by the wind delicately as the gravel on the ground beneath him would form a kchhh – sound. He would still see the slums where he used to live, all the little children on the ground trembling with excitement as he would give them whatever food he could scrounge up from the garbage.
He was bonier then. A skeleton, even. His legs were quick like the wind and yes, his hands were sneaky and greedy, ready to take anything he wanted but still – his skin felt nothing more than just a thin layer on his bones.
It was hard for him to imagine the contrast of his current situation and the one from back then. Rags that used to drape around him like an oversized towel now were replaced by a black uniform – still oversized, but it was still better. Hair that was unkempt, unwashed was now clean and tidy. His stick-thin arms and legs grew a healthy amount of fat and muscle and his pale face began to glow more. Of course, life was still hectic for him as always – it still required him to be quick and sneaky and think creatively, but there was more safety in it, and for that, he was grateful.
‘Course, now that he was at Night Raven College, he still had responsibilities that he previously didn’t have.
“Leona!” He sighed, putting the washing bag down, as he shook the prince, “Leona! You have to get up! You have classes to attend!”
Leona Kingscholar wasn’t the easiest master to attend to. He was lazy, he was stubborn, and he was extremely unwilling to do any of his responsibilities like attending classes or dorm leader meetings or do anything other than eat or sleep. In another world, he would have just given up and left Leona. But this is not that world – no, in another world, he could afford to leave Leona. But he couldn’t – he needed the money because damn, did Leona pay well.
And there were other things – weak, sentimental, whatever, whatever – that he had for the prince, he supposed.
Leona was still, unmoving and anybody other than the seventeen-year-old boy currently shaking him so hard would have thought he was dead. But this boy had been serving Leona as his errand boy for quite a while now so he knew better by now.
“Leona!” His voice became more annoying, louder, at a higher pitch – any higher and you’d think the boy was trying to audition to sing for an opera – “Leona! Get up!”
This time, a concrete sign that Leona was awake – a quiet tsk from him, the furrowing of his eyebrows, an annoyed expression on his face. He clutched his pillow tighter before in a flash of a second, he had brought the covers higher on his face.
The boy stared at him with a deadpan expression and sighed. The usual song and dance was beginning to bore him now. He took the blanket from the bottom and heaved, sending it almost flying in his direction as Leona groaned.
“I don’t want to get up.” Leona buried his head in his pillow like a petulant child. The boy couldn’t even see his face, only his mahogany hair which – somehow, due to luck bestowed upon the prince by the Great Seven, he supposed – still looked silky.
“Leona.” He sighed, “You have to. You have classes to attend – ”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you and I both know that I’m not gonna attend them anyway.” Leona shifter a bit, a sliver of his face beginning to show – a singular green eye of his peeking up at him, a slow, lazy grin on his face, “So what’s even the point?”
“You can’t stay in bed forever.” The boy groaned, putting his hand on his hip as if he was some chiding mother, “You’re going to get up at some point.”
“Yeah. Some point being later. Now. If you will excuse me – ” Leona reached out to pull at his sheets but the boy snatched them away.
Leona stared at him dumbly before tsking again, “Damn thief.”
“That’s why you hired me, ain’t it?” The thief teased him before dragging them away further from the bed, “C’mon, Leona. Chop chop.”
And after what felt like an hour of negotiating with Leona about why he should get out of bed like this was some damn business deal or hostage negotiation, Leona finally got out of bed with a dramatic sigh, stretching around at first before yawning and glaring at the boy before he went to the bathroom to get ready.
The boy looked around the room for clothes he’d have to do laundry for. Spotting some on the chair, he took it and put it into the washing bag. Carefully separating the clean ones from the dirty ones, Leona finally walked out of the bathroom, still shirtless but looking fresher than when he first woke up at least.
“You know what your first class is?” The boy said, just to annoy his master.
“Damn you, you know damn well I don’t.” Leona grumbled.
The boy was sure Leona did know. Leona knew so much more than he appeared to. He just didn’t care about at least ninety nine percent of it.
“Sure, sure.” The boy said carelessly as he picked up the pile of clothes and threw them all into the washing bag. Leona huffed, turning around to fish around his closet as he put his shirt on grumpily and got dressed. Crickets hummed in the background as the morning dragged on.
“How’s your tail, by the way?” The boy almost snickered as he filtered through the memories of that day.
The lion beastman prince growled, as his tail began to flick, “It’s fine. It ain’t that sensitive to get so damaged just because some absent-minded magicless herbivore decided to step on it.”
Ah. Right. That day.
…
The boy supposed it was a few weeks ago when it happened. Before the Heartslabyul’s dorm leader’s overblot, for sure. He had grumbled as he went to the greenhouse. Sunlight made its way through the windows, giving the entire scene a golden filter. The grass looked brighter, the plants happier. Had the boy had the time, he would have stopped to stare.
But no. He had to get Leona – of course.
The boy walked casually through the familiar walls of the greenhouse when the voice of his dear master reached his sharp, hyena ears. His pace became faster, quicker when he heard someone else with him too. Leona’s voice was sharp, threatening, slow and for Sevens’ sake, what happened –
To his surprise, the person with Leona was that magicless prefect and his little pet, the magic cat. Leona had been sneering at the poor Ramshackle boy while the pet looked ready to claw Leona’s eyes out.
So –
“Leona! There you are!”
The prefect’s head whizzed around and his eyes, full of gratitude and thanks, met the boy’s as he continued, “I knew I’d find you here!” He clasped a hand on Leona’s shoulder as Leona winced for half a second, before promptly looking bored and annoyed, “We got after-school classes today, remember?”
“Ugh…” Leona had rolled his eyes and closed them, rubbing his forehead wearily, “And now I’ve got this guy on my tail…”
“Leona.” The boy had chided, “You’ve already had to repeat one year.” The prefect looked like he was about to laugh and the boy quickly grinned at him, “If you get held back again, we’ll be in the same grade!”
“Oh, put a sock in it already.” Leona had sent him a murderous glare. Years ago, that would have made him piss his pants. Now? Nah, “I’m tired of all yer yappin’, Ruggie.”
Ruggie sighed, “Look, you think I like always being on your case. C’mon, man. You act like it’d be hard for you. You could skate through this life easily if you just tried.” The glare Leona sent Ruggie became more intense and this time, he did almost piss his pants, “Come on!” He began to pull at Leona quickly, “Let’s go already!”
Somewhere along the way as they left, the magic pet had harrumphed, “What a rude groundskeeper!”
Ruggie almost tripped as he and the prefect laughed from the different ends of the greenhouse.
After that, Ruggie had asked what that was all about and why Leona was talking to the magicless prefect and his pet who made that whole ruckus during orientation but Leona merely said, “Damned brat stepped on my tail.” before telepathically sending daggers at Ruggie in his mind, he was sure, as Ruggie began to cackle.
…
After Ruggie had settled his silent laughter, he went on with his usual day. The morning slipped past him as Ruggie wore himself down, going to class after class. It was tiring, it was draining and he wouldn’t have it any other way, not when he had people to provide for back home – his old, ailing grandmother who would take care of him in place of some real parents; his siblings and cousins and neighbours who were the reason Ruggie would wake up in the morning to hurriedly scour the garbage for any food for.
Because that was what he was here for. His future. A future full of his dreams where he could finally be financially stable and provide for his current family and maybe even a future one. A future where he wouldn’t have to dig through trash to find even one meal for the day. A future where he could feel free.
Ruggie then looked at Leona, who was still getting ready, decisively. Leona who was arrogant. Leona who was lazy. Leona who was careless.
Leona who…
Leona who was going to help him get there.