Chapter Text
Leona leaned back on the many pillows on his bed, his eyes followed Ruggie’s smaller form as he moved around the room. He was cleaning the room, like he usually would at this time of day, or just generally whenever he entered Leona’s room, as there always seemed to be clothes littering the floor even if Ruggie had just picked everything up earlier that day.
Leona himself had been asleep when the hyena had first entered the room.
But it wasn’t long before he was awake, and at some point, he stopped pretending to still be sleeping, choosing to instead watch on as Ruggie moved through his room with familiar ease.
Ruggie was clearly aware of the lion watching him, if his slightly stiff form was anything to go by, but he continued cleaning. While keeping any comments about the lazy lion to himself, for now at least.
The lion, though, had other plans for today that didn’t necessarily involve cleaning, at least not the way Ruggie was currently doing it.
He continued watching, ignoring the way Ruggie quietly grumbled insults under his breath.
As it was a Saturday, and they therefore didn’t have any classes today, there wasn’t much that Ruggie could force Leona to get out of bed for. On top of that, it had been warmer than normal for the past couple of days, so there were many people, like Leona, who had opted for trying to relax indoors. Ruggie, though, wasn’t like the many herbivores they went to school with, which meant he was currently up and working like usual. He was also still wearing his school uniform, likely because he didn’t have that many other options, but he had opted for only wearing his shirt instead of putting on his usual vest, scarf, and gloves.
Leona, however, was mostly covered by a blanket, which at most only covered his lower half. Still, it wasn’t like it was covering anything Ruggie hadn’t already seen or had in him. They had been together for quite a while now, but they both preferred not to broadcast that fact to everyone on campus. So it was only other savanaclaw students or other beastmen that knew or had otherwise figured it out. Probably because they weren’t being all that discreet to begin with, what with Ruggie constantly being covered in Leona’s scent. Which sent a very clear message to the other beastmen at the school.
Even Cheka, despite being only five, had been quick to smell his uncle Leona all over the hyena beastman that was nearly always at his uncle's side. And despite not fully knowing what it meant just yet, he was very quick to label Ruggie as his second uncle.
To be honest, it was a wonder Leona hadn’t yet gotten a call from Falena, who he knew was sure to want to know more about this hyena that was covered in his scent.
But for now, Leona would focus on his boyfriend moving around the room, his tail moving back and forth slightly. He was clearly distracted and probably very busy insulting Leona in his head. So he didn’t notice the arm that moved out from the bed and wrapped around his waist, at least not until that arm was yanking him backwards, and onto the bed.
“LEONA!” He yelled, trying desperately, although knowing that it was likely to be fruitless, to get out of the strong hold the other had him in.
“Shh...” The lion’s voice came from behind him, as his hands made quick work of making their way under Ruggie’s shirt.
Confused, mostly by his sudden switch in position, Ruggie turned his head so he could hopefully look Leona more in the eye than their current position allowed for. But with Leona’s front pressed so solidly against Ruggie’s back, there was little chance of him moving before the lion let him go. But unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, for Ruggie, turning his head allowed for the perfect position for Leona to move in for a kiss.
It didn’t take long for Ruggie to completely melt into the kiss, barely registering when they switched positions, and he now had his back flat on the bed.
Before he knew it, they were breaking apart just long enough for Leona to slip Ruggie’s oversized shirt over his head, before connecting their lips again seconds later.
♥•••♥
Ruggie paced around savanaclaw common room. It was obviously something he had been doing for a while, judging by the slight marks that had been left in his wake.
But what really made both Jack and Leona pause as they made their way inside was the group of their dormmates watching the hyena with obvious nerves and bated breath. The only ones of them that looked thoroughly scared were a small group of three first years, who looked to be on the verge of hugging each other close and crying, all while begging for their lives. Or forgiveness, whichever one they needed more.
Both Jack and Leona had no idea what had happened while they were gone, and it wasn’t like Leona cared all that much to the point that he wanted to find out. As they were the last ones back from classes, simply because they had gone a little over time while practicing, along with the rest of their teammates.
Well, all except for Ruggie.
Who had had to skip out on nearly half a day of classes after getting sick and throwing up during lunch. Of course, he had originally tried to power through, but had quickly been maneuvered back to the dorm by some of his friends. Or rather to Leona, who hadn’t been all that pleased when he saw his boyfriend being led out of the cafeteria by others, even if they were the hyena’s friends.
Safe to say, Ruggie had quickly been placed in Leona’s bed, with the covers pulled up, and a bucket and some water nearby should he need it.
Thankfully, he seemed to be doing better now than he was before, despite looking like he had just stopped being absolutely furious and was now only angry, upset, and disappointed. Which was kind of funny to see, as the three very much larger beastmen, one had giraffe-like ears, another a cat, and the last seemed to be a wolf like Jack, were pretty much covering at their feet. Looking for all the world like small pups getting scolded by their parents.
Or maybe their mom, in this case. As Leona, who was their dorm leader, so you could therefore say that he was the dad to a bunch of unruly children, strolled right past everyone and went up to his room like usual.
“Overgrown furball…” Ruggie grumbled to himself when Leona fully disappeared down the hallway.
Jack took a second to quickly shake off his remaining surprise before he hurried over to ask his dorm’s unofficial vice how he was doing, and if he was ok, or if he needed to lie down again. He only stopped his fretting when the upperclassmen in question raised a hand, the other reaching up to start massaging along his brows. “It’s fine, I’m fine,” he said, kind of halfheartedly, “But I do have a headache, so if you all could try and keep the volume down, that would be great.” Jack, along with his other dormmates, was quick to nod their heads and promise to try to be on their best behavior.
With a quick but stern look from Ruggie, everyone who was previously crowding around began moving around the dorm once again. Some were going off to their rooms, others going over to the tables where discarded homework lay, the rest didn’t manage to get very far before an ear-deafening roar tore through the dorm. Causing many of the beastmen to cover their ears in panic or flinch from the loud noise.
The only one that didn’t react was the dorm's lone hyena, who only crossed his arms as a coy smirk appeared on his face.
“Ruggie…?” Jack asked cautiously, having caught onto the fact that the hyena had likely done something to upset the dorm leader. But Ruggie only turned his big smile onto him. “And you didn’t have to apologize for coming back so late, Jack. I know you guys just got busy with practice.” He held up his phone, waving it around slightly, having seen the bewildered and ready to start disagreeing with him, look on Jack's face. “Leona texted as soon as he realized.”
Neither got to say anything more as Leona made his back down the stairs at that very moment. From his appearance, Jack could guess he had been getting ready to shower, as his shirt was gone, and he was only wearing a loose pair of pants that he hadn’t been wearing earlier.
“Ruggie,” Leona almost growled out, “Is it true?”
If it were anyone else, they surely would have cowered a long time ago, maybe even before Leona had made it down the stairs. But Ruggie stood strong while fazed with a look that both had made and still could make any of their dormmates cower where they stood.
The coy smirk was back on Ruggie’s face, though this time it had taken a more flirtatious look than before. The hyena hummed slowly, clearly in affirming whatever it was Leona was asking, his tail moving back and forth in a happy wag.
Leona growled before he moved forward in a few large strides, and before anyone could react, he had scooped the younger male up in his arms. Forcing the hyena to quickly wrap both his legs and arms around the lion, laughing his signature hyena laugh as they made their way back upstairs.
Now left to their own devices, the rest of the dorm exchanged a few glances between themselves, but soon returned to what they would normally be doing.
It wasn’t until the next day, admittedly long after the first classes had finished for the day, that anyone, other than Leona of course, saw Ruggie again.
When he finally wandered into class, yawning as he took his seat, it was clear, at least to the beastmen and anyone else with a keen enough nose, why he was so late. Of course, it wasn’t that hard to guess. It was pretty well known that Leona would sometimes just outright refuse to get out of bed and instead drag his hyena boyfriend down to sleep with him.
But judging both by the very powerful scent of Leona that was clinging to Ruggie more than it normally did, and the countless marks that they could actually see littering the hyena’s skin, it was abundantly clear what had kept Ruggie and Leona busy for the past few hours.
The rest of the day went on pretty uneventfully. If you don’t count all the usual shenanigans the students at Night Raven get up to on an everyday basis.
When lunch time finally rolled around, Ruggie strolled into the cafeteria, like he usually did. Armed with Leona’s credit card and permission to buy whatever food he wanted, as long as he brought it back to wherever Leona had fallen asleep that day. Which was normally somewhere in the botanical gardens, something everyone knew by now, so not many people ventured inside there during lunchtime.
“Ruggie?” A familiar voice called while the hyena in question was busy waiting for the food he had just bought to be bagged and ready. He turned around to find Kalim sitting at a table, almost by himself, if not for the ramshackle students. The young Al Asim heir waved excitedly, gesturing for the other to come over.
After a quick moment of considering his options, Ruggie picked up his bags of food and made his way over.
He was surprised not to find Jamil, Kalim’s ever-loyal servant, also at the table, but figured that he had probably gone to grab something, at least judging by the food set out next to Kalim.
“Hey! It’s good to see you’re still alright. I got really worried when you threw up yesterday, and then when we didn’t hear anything else from you, I assumed you must have been really sick.” Kalim said, his concern showing through his smile ever so slightly.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” He tried to wave off their concern, “It was nothing all that serious, promise, and I’m not even contagious. But I will still have to get a doctor's note for certain classes, *sigh* so much work to do.” He said, mumbling the last part more to himself than for the others to hear.
But by their faces, he hadn’t managed to get them to not worry about him, even Jamil, who had only just returned to the table to hear the last bit, didn’t look convinced either.
“It doesn’t sound ‘not serious’ if you need a doctor’s note,” Yuu said, making air quotes in the air with their fingers for emphasis.
Ruggie sighed, somehow already feeling like he needed another nap. “Only for the rest of the semester, I have to arrange something with the school for after that point. At the moment, it’s either we continue as normally as possible, even if it will likely be very stressful, or I’ll be allowed to take a semester or two off.” He said, grabbing the bags, that he had momentarily sat down at the table before he left back out of the cafeteria to bring Leona his lunch. Not bothering with, or even caring all that much, about the expressions the four were currently sporting as he turned around and left.
“Two semesters off?!” Kalim and Grim yelled at the same time, getting the attention of some of the other students, before they were forcibly shut up by food being stuffed into their mouths, courtesy of Yuu and Jamil.
Outside, Leona was lying under the shade of a tree, clearly trying to look like he was already sleeping. Which would have most likely worked if the person coming near him wasn’t Ruggie and if his tail didn’t give him away, swinging back and forth in the way it mainly did when he was getting restless or irritated.
Though it was quick to snake around the younger man's waist as soon as he sat down beside him.
Leona lazily opened his eyes, still not moving from his current position of leaning against a tree with his hands behind his head. “You’re late.” He said flatly.
“Yeah, there was a big line today, lots of people wanting to get something to eat. Then Kalim called me over. He was pretty concerned after what happened yesterday.” He spoke while opening the bags and taking out their respective lunches.
He had ordered himself a bigger lunch than he normally would, even if he was using Leonas credit card to pay for it.
But he had promised both Leona and the school nurse that he would try to get some more meat on his bones. Even his grandma had chimed in with her own advice when he had called her yesterday, almost in tears.
Leona made a slow, grumbling noise before moving Ruggie onto his lap and nuzzling into the side of his neck. Ruggie laughed, feeling the way the lion's arms and tail wound protectively around him.
Their lunch continued in relative peaceful silence.
And before they knew it, all of the food had been eaten, and Ruggie was slowly falling asleep in Leona’s lap. It was clear that they wouldn’t make it to their next class, not that Leona cared all that much about making it to class.
♥•••♥
At a later date, both Ruggie and Leona could be found once again in the lion's bed, though this time Ruggie was very much asleep and cuddled up into Leona’s side.
Leona, however, though very unusual, was still awake.
He had his phone in hand, actually ready and waiting for the call from his brother that he knew was coming, rather than do what he usually did and ignore him.
So it was safe to say that when the phone finally rang, with an almost pissed-sounding Falena on the other end, likely because he had been surprised by the news but still chose to handle this cautiously. Unfortunately for him, Leona had no desire to tell him anymore than the information he had already decided to share with his family.
He nearly laughed, hearing the way Falena was sputtering on the other end, but he quieted when Ruggie made a noise of discontent. Something Falena likely caught onto, as he paused his barrage of questions for a few seconds, that felt like hours to Leona.
“Are… they with you?” He asked cautiously.
“He’s sleeping, but yes.”
Falena hummed noncommittedly, taking in the news of his younger brother having found a partner. Leona just hoped he would get on with it soon, so he could get back to sleeping, which was just made better with the fact that his boyfriend was currently cuddled up close to him.
“Leona.” His brother began again, slowly. Another reason he hated talking with his family, they always acted like he was some small, irresponsible cub or something, like Cheka, even though he was a fully grown adult by now.
So what if he was slightly irresponsible and lazy, he was still a house warden at Night Raven College for goodness sake.
“Falena,” Leona responded in the same tone, which only elicited a deep sigh from the other.
“So it’s true then?” He eventually asked, sounding extremely defeated.
“Hmmm… yep.” Leona responded, popping the ‘p’.
“Are you bringing him home with you for winter break? Cheka was very excited to meet his uncle Leona’s new partner, especially after finding out he was going to have some new baby cousins to play with, even if he has to wait for a little bit first.”
Leona listened as his brother talked, largely tuning him out. He knew what Falena was actually asking. It was obvious that his brother wanted him to come home for winter break and bring Ruggie with him at that. But he also knew that his brother wasn’t really asking, and that one way or another, Leona would be bringing Ruggie to the palace to introduce him to his family.
Instead of answering, Leona cut off his brother mid-sentence by hanging up the call.