Work Text:
Jamil shivers at the temperature change as he steps through the octavinelle mirror. The scarabia vice-dormleader makes his way to monstro lounge, adjusting the heavy books in his arms. How can someone so precise leave these heavy books behind?
As he steps into monstro lounge he's greeted by Ruggie dressed in the octavinelle dorm clothes, serving customers as if he belonged in the lounge. Jamil stares longer than needed to , gazing upon Ruggie in form fitting clothes. Contrasting to his usual hand-me-down oversized clothes, Ruggie looks cleaned up, smaller and.. cute. He shakes his head at the last thought, remembering his task at hand.
Upon seeing Jamil arrive, Ruggie saunters towards his direction and greets the vice dorm leader with a customer service voice.
" Welcome dear customer! Table for one?"
Jamil scoffs at the sickly sweet tone.
"Regrettably no, I'm not here to eat at the lounge."
"Shishishi thought so. I don't think I've ever seen you willingly walk in here." Ruggie relaxes as he drops his server formality and casually rests his hands behind his head.
Now that Ruggie was closer Jamil noticed that the borrowed uniform he was wearing was still slightly oversized on him. The collar of his shirt, though buttoned up all the way, was agape slightly showing more of his neck. Despite his usual school uniform that showed the same amount of skin, seeing it contrasted to the octavinelle uniform gave off a different effect. Jamil cleared his throat.
" I don't want to be in here longer than I have to…" Jamil holds up a stack of books between the two. "I'm looking for Azul.. He forgot his books in the classroom."
Ruggie eyed the textbooks."Ahhh.. He's off on some business excursion and won't be back til later tonight. "
He straightens his jacket as his ear flicks." That's why he's payin me extra to make sure the lounge is running smoothly! Better than pinching whatever change is left in the couch left by customers…" He mumbled the last sentence more to himself.
"Oh.. then are Floyd and Jade here?" The Scarabia student scanned around the lounge for the two.
"Nope! They had to accompany Azul"
Jamil rubbed the edge of the book in place of his chin.
'Weird.. it's unlikely for the three to leave the monstro lounge in the hands of Ruggie… being able to close a business opportunity while keeping the lounge running.. Then again.. Ruggie is quite reliable with handling money..And he stays true to his job if the reward benefits him.'
"Azul must be rewarding you handsomely to run his business without him or the twins breathing down your neck."
"Nyeh, it's not hard work I can't handle. If it means trying out the new menu items with bonus money, how can I refuse!" The hyena hums as he takes a nearby menu and wiggles the seasonal items.
Jamil then looks at the problem in his hands.. Literally. He doesn't want to keep the books in his possession longer than he has to, especially since the project tomorrow requires one of the books to be studied, nor does he want to absently leave it where it could cause azul to spiral. He has to decide quickly, as he still has to return to Scarabia to start cooking dinner for Kalim. He looks back at the cheeky cute hyena who's staring back expectantly, as if he understands the predicament that Jamil is in.
Jamil sighs as he mulls over his options.
" If you want… I can return Azul's things for you when he returns later…"
Ruggie offers as he opens his hand.
"For the right price that is~"
Of course.
" I'll give you a portion of tonight's dinner" Jamil sighs in defeat.
"Deal!"
The hyena perks up as he swoops the books out of the other student's hands.
" I'll swing by scarabia later tonight" He called back as he made his way to the back of the lounge.
Jamil muses as watches the shorter one prance away, not missing how the other's tail swished side to side happily. A smile creeps up to his face but he quickly wipes it away to regain composure as he's still at the entrance of the lounge. He turns on his heel to return to the hall of mirrors, mentally taking note to retrieve more groceries.
—
Ruggie knocked twice before entering Azul's office, practically skipping, he set the books neatly on an open spot on the paper riddled desk. The octavinelle dormhead looks up from his papers, obviously not in a business excursion, and looks at the hyena expectantly.
"So.. did it go along as planned?" Azul questioned as he retrieved his books.
" Yup! " The blonde affirmed as his tail swished slightly.
" You really have a round about ways of getting food from Jamil. You're lucky I remembered to leave my books."
Ruggie rested his arms behind his head.
"Ya don't understand Azul, you're in the same class as him! It's hard catching him by himself."
"What about Kalim?"
Ruggie flicks his ear as he looks to the side.
"Whenever I go to kalim.. He'd always want to join whatever we're doing.."
"Ohhh I see ~ So you wanted one-on-one time."
The hyena's ears turned down in embarrassment.
"So what of it?"
"Oh nothing...But do remember to uphold your side of the deal since it's set in motion."
"Yeah yeah, I'm working the day with no pay..." The hyena furrowed his eyes then relaxed, remembering his true reward later that night.
"Ahaha, a truly big price… Especially for you! Hopefully it's worth it." The dorm leader directed his attention back to his desk and picked up another document. " Now back to the lounge, you better not break your deal."
"Riiiight"
–
Night fell as Jamil said his goodnights to Kalim, finally relieved of his duties for the day. He made his way back to the kitchen to store the rest of the leftovers, making sure his expected guest has a hearty portion. As he places the extra tupperware into the open fridge the cool air skids across his arm, his mind wanders back to Ruggie in the octavinelle outfit. He smiles to himself
"Ooh it smells good in here" A familiar voice coos from behind.
Jamil whips his gaze around to see the one overtaking his thoughts , but this time he's wearing his usual school uniform, eyes closed and nose upturned.
" I was wondering if you were going to show up, I was just about to put your payment away" Jamil replied as he gestured to the sizable tupperware on the counter.
Ruggie opened his eyes and gazed upon his reward, then towards the food on the counter. He trotted over to the tupperware and popped open the lid, his mouth watered as the aroma intensified.
" What did you make tonight?"
" Chicken coconut curry." Jamil replied as he watched the other student's reactions.
"...You wouldn't mind if I eat here right?" Ruggie's ear flicked as he returned the gaze.
Jamil raised his eyebrows at the thought, He did want to have his usual wind down time. But he didn't mind spending that time with the hungry student in front of him .
"It's just that, I was working reeeally hard today and I might collapse making my way back to my dorm." Ruggie knocked his head back with his hand resting on top of his forehead. "I practically stumbled my way getting here!"
Jamil scoffed with a smile as he watched Ruggie dramatize his fatigue. He glanced around the kitchen to make sure no other scarabian students were in the vicinity and rummaged through the drawers to find utensils.
"We wouldn't want you fainting with perfectly good food in your hands." The Vice-dormleader retorted as he offered a spoon.
Ruggie's eyes shined as he sat on the nearby stool, grabbed the spoon, happily said his thanks, and plunged his spoon into the dish. Jamil leaned against the counter as he watched the other stuff his face with his cooking. Ruggie then started to recall some of the encounters he had while working at the lounge.
Around this time of night Jamil would be unwinding his hair and reviewing the tasks he had to work on for the week… and for Kalim… But here he is, somehow sitting closer to the Savannaclaw student talking about nothing important at all. Usually Jamil had to mentally brace himself with similar encounters with Kalim, but here he was content hearing about the mischievous things Ruggie had done. Letting Jamil make comments back while the blonde continued to take more bites of curry, this went back and forth until the container was practically licked clean.
" This was delicious Jamil!" Ruggie licked his spoon savouring the last bite.
" Thank you Ruggie…" Jamil smiled, but his gaze lowered. " Wait you have a little.."
The Hyena looked back with a brow raised as he felt soft hands touch his cheek. A quick swipe of a thumb grazed the corner of his mouth, Ruggie's eyes widened and darted his gaze back to the empty container as he felt his ears flatten and face started to warm up.
"O-oh. Ha! Sorry im a messy eater"
Jamil realized what he had done and pinched the edge of his hood with his clean hand, flustered.
"I apologize, I do this all the time with Kalim… It's just become a reaction ."
" Do you do this with anyone else?"
"Yes..."
Jamil looked down to his thumb hesitating, heart pounding.
"But not this"
Then raised his thumb to his own mouth to lick it clean.
Ruggie stared with his face red and mouth agape as he watched the tongue retreat back into the owner's mouth.
Jamil breathed in sharply while fully shrouding his hood over his head and stood up from his stool, turning away hiding his embarrassment for acting out of character.
He cleared his throat as if it would cover up the action he just did.
"I'm sorry. That probably made you uncomfortable. Since you're done I should probably start cleaning this-"
He then felt nimble hands grasp his wrist, stopping him from straying too far. The hooded student looked back to big blue hopeful eyes. A gaze that was teetering on a fine line of running away or going all in.
" I-I think there's still some left on my face.. You might have to clean it directly…" Ruggie muttered as he tightened his grip on the sleeve.
Jamil stared back at his comment for a minute while his mind started to race.
Realizing that the both of them had said something so incredulous. He started to snicker, evolving to a laugh that reverberated from his chest.
Ruggie stared back at him dumbfoundedly, then gradually joined along with his hissing laugh. Both of their embarrassment melted away.
Ruggie tugged Jamil closer making him step into his space, tilting his head up giving the hooded student an expectant smile. Shaken out of his nerves Jamil leaned down meeting Ruggie half way to kiss him gently on the lips. Light small brushes that lingered longer and harder. Jamil raised his hands to up freckled cheeks, kissing more confidently. The savannahclaw student returned the gesture by threading his fingers through the long black strands of hair.
He gently bit the scarabia student's lower lip, making the latter gasp, taking the opportunity to slip his tongue in. Both melting in each other's touch, not caring that they were in the middle of the kitchen at near midnight.
*BZZT BZZT*
Ruggie pulled away out of breath grumbling as he felt rumbling from his jacket pocket. Finding messages from his dorm leader demanding that he brings him food. The pause of Ruggie tapping away at his phone made Jamil take a moment to clear his head, hands now resting on Ruggie's shoulders. Both of them catching their breath with their cheeks dusted with a blush.
"Sorry.. Duty calls.." Ruggie groaned as he pocketed his phone, blue eyes locking back in with coal eyes.
"... I guess you owe me." Jamil said after a long pause.
"What do you mean?" The blonde stared at him in confusion.
" For helping you clean up your face." Jamil teased as he pinched soft cheeks.
Ruggie's ears perked up in surprise then chuckled in embarrassment.
"yeah yeah whatever, just name your price." He played along as he tugged the hood off of the other's head, pulling him down in one last kiss.