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The second there was a chill in the air, Savanclaw turned the heat up. Every year when the seasons change to something colder, Savanaclaw has always been the first ones to turn their heat on. Their dorm was typically hotter than Scarabia, which was a huge surprise considering they have a literal desert surrounding their dorm. Savanaclaw has to keep turning up their thermostat to make sure there wasn’t a nip in the air.
Until one day, their heater broke. Every student woke up in their bed shivering and freezing. None of them brought any heavy weight items to keep them warm since they were always in the heat. They were totally unprepared for this to happen. They woke up their dorm leader, who also didn’t have a clue on what to do except tell the Headmage.
When the Headmade saw the Savanclaw waterfall had been turned to icy slush, all the students had to evacuate. They grabbed their essentials. Then everyone had to meet in the Mirror Hall where the Housewarden and Vice Housewardens of other dorms awaited them.
Crowley explained that he wasn’t sure when someone could come and turn the heat back on, much less how long it would take. And he asked the other houses if anyone could take in a few extra students.
Nobody really wanted to go with Riddle, although he was already handing out a copy of the Heartslabyul rulebook to any student within his vicinity. Azul was asking if anyone had worked in the service industry before, and would want to try it out. Lillia was bouncing all around thinking he was going to create a massive sleepover in the Diasomnia lounge.
Jack was already talking with Vil to see if he could stay with him in Pomefiore. Vil was a little too happy to oblige. Then he was asking Jack about his measurements to get him a fitted uniform. Although, he shouldn’t be staying in the dorm long enough to need one.
Leona stood off the side watching everyone prance around like flamingos in a lake. This was so boring, and he already knew where he was going to end up.
“Leoooooonnnnnnaaaaaaaa!”
Leona expertly moved out of the way before Kalim could jump on him. Missing his target, Kalim slid a bit on the floors. When he caught himself, he turned to the beatman.
“Leona! I can’t believe your dorm is frozen solid! When the Headmage told us, I cried thinking of everyone sitting in the cold!” There were actual tears in the corner of his eyes. “Don’t worry! You can come stay in my room! I’ll take in everyone and we’ll throw a whole feast!”
The lion's ears folded down on his head from all the noise. “Do you ever shut up?” He mumbled as Kalim kept talking.
Jamil reached a hand on Kalim’s shoulder. “Kalim, our dorm is already as full as it is. We can’t really take in any students.”
Just then, Ruggie emerged clinging onto Kalim’s legs. “Oh, woe is me!” He dramatically laminated. “I have nowhere to go now that our dorm has become the Arctic. I might even have frostbite from the cold trenches of our dorm. If only someone could give me a warm meal… preferably a big feast if available.”
Ruggie must have overheard Kalim talking to Leona, and rushed over at the mention of free food. Leona was almost impressed at the hyena’s new low of begging skills. At least it was working for him.
Kalim gasped and picked up Ruggie from the floor like he was a ragdoll. He held him as close as possible.
“Poor Ruggie! Jamil, we have to take him in!”
Jamil sighed, putting his hands on his hips. “How many times do I have to tell you, we don’t have room?”
“It’s okay! Ruggie can sleep in my bed!”
“You can’t give up your bed to everyone,” Jamil scolded him.
“It’s fine,” Leona said. “Ruggie can take my spot in Scarabia. I got somewhere else to be.”
“There’s not a spot to take!” Jamil yelled, growing more upset that nobody was listening to him.
Ruggie peeked his head out from where Kalim was holding him. “Where are you going, Leona?”
“The guy I’m staying with isn’t here.” Leona turned on his heels and left. There was nothing else for him to do. Everyone can sort themselves out.
Ruggie didn’t understand what he meant. But he didn’t want to deal with Leona’s cryptic nonsense. Right now, his priorities were getting a hot meal and sleeping in a luxury bed. He could catch up with his employer later.
Where Leona was going was very dark and dreary. Not even the screens in the hallways helped light up his path. It was late enough in the night that nobody else was really around, but he knew one person who was still awake. He knocks on a steel bedroom door until it slides open to him.
Idia Shroud was sitting in his gaming chair with a controller in his hand. Half of his headphones off. All the lights in his room were on like it was an average time to be active. He barely glances at Leona.
“Oh, hey. What’s up? Did I miss a text from you or something? I’m kind of in the middle of a battle right now.” He gestured to the monster on his computer screen.
“Nah, do your thing.” Leona waves a hand, and Idia falls right back into his game.
Leona falls into Idia’s bed, and starts to pull the blankets over himself. He could do without the lights on, but this would be fine. It was comfortable enough.
“Starting today, I’m gonna have to live here with you,” he stated plainly.
“Cool. You know where- Wait! Pause! WTF?” Idia curses. An explosion happened on the screen with “Game Over” in bold letters of blood. “Shit. Ugh, I just died.”
Idia takes off his headphones. He gets off his chair and goes over to his boyfriend. “Resume. What did you say?”
“Heat in Savaclaw is busted. I’m gonna stay here awhile.”
“Oh, uh, how long?” Idia shuffled around nervously.
Leona scowls at him. “If you don’t want me to stay, Kalim was jumping at the opportunity for me to be in his bedroom.”
“No!” For a split second, the tips of his hair turned red. “It’s just a… big commitment.” He sheepishly glanced the other way.
“Jeeze, radish sprout, we’re not moving in together forever. I thought my boyfriend would want me to stay with him.”
“I do! I just wasn’t expecting it at all.”
“Didn’t the Headmage send you a message about it?”
Idia shrugged. “IDK. I put him on silent. Ortho tells me if there’s anything important. But he’s charging in his room right now.”
Leona closed his eyes and rolled over in bed. “Can you turn the lights off? It’s been a long night and I want to sleep.”
Idia snapped his fingers and the lights turned off. He gave Leona a look asking if he was impressed. Leona tilted his head like it was nothing to be surprised about, but Idia could tell he was impressed.
There was no way Idia could sleep. He already couldn’t sleep like a normal person, but now he was in bed with his boyfriend. Right next to him. At any moment, he could reach over and touch Leona. Okay that sounded worse than he imagined it to. He meant it in a totally non creepy way.
Was this considered the one bed trope? Idia wasn’t sure since it was already his bed. But he didn’t have any extra mattresses lying around so it wasn’t like Leona could sleep anywhere else in the room. Oh god, Idia really was living his one bed fantasy. He could hear his heart going crazy from the thought.
It’s okay. He had played enough otome games and read plenty of shoujo manga to get through this. All he needed to do was think about what his heroines did in those situations. Usually the other person was awake, and the couple would realize neither of them can sleep through the night.
Carefully, Idia turned over expecting to see Leona’s fresh face. Instead the guy was completely asleep. Eyes were closed as he laid on his back.
Idia couldn’t believe this guy! What an asshole! What a dick! How dare Leona sleep peacefully while his boyfriend is worrying about them sharing a bed. Idia was so irritated that he was the only one bothered by the situation. Thinking of weird sexy scenarios in his head. They were dating after all! Why wasn’t Leona trying to proposition him? Not that he wanted that. But the ideas did cross his mind.
Idia was about to kick Leona to make him wake up. But he knew he would get yelled at, if Leona woke up at all. The only way to quell his frustrations were to turn back the other way. He didn’t want to keep looking at Leona’s stupid handsome sleeping face anymore.
After Idia rolled back over, Leona popped an eye open. He wondered what was making Idia roll around in bed so much. Although, he was really surprised Idia was trying anything on him. Leona thought he should probably actually try to sleep now.
Some of Leona’s stuff had been dropped off to Ignihyde. There were still no reports on when the heating would be fixed at Savanaclaw, so he might as well make himself comfortable here. Which was proving to be a challenge since Idia had his own messes all around the bedroom.
He shoved a box in the closet when he saw a black blazer hanging in the back. There was no way this was actually here, he told himself. Then the Ignihyde ribbon flashed in the light, and he knew he was right.
Idia walked right into his bedroom, totally forgetting Leona was staying with him. He wasn’t as shocked to see Leona as he was seeing what he was holding. A crisp black blazer with the Ignihyde ribbon across the forearm. He had the undershirt, the tie, and everything else for a school uniform.
“I can’t believe you actually have a school uniform,” Leona teased. “I figured you lost it a long time ago or something.”
“What the hell are you doing rummaging through my closet?”
“Relax, radish sprout. I needed to put my clothes somewhere. There’s not much room in this mess.” He gestured to the floors with books and soda cans all over it.
Idia shrunk inside his hoodie from embarrassment. He never expected anyone but him to be living in his room. Well, maybe Ortho, but that was different.
Leona pushed the outfit onto Idia. “Try it on.”
“No way in hell,” Idia grumbled, backing away like the uniform was on fire. “That thing is so tight that I look like a skeleton wearing those clothes. It’s horrible.”
“I bet it’s not that bad,” Leona tried to coax him.
“Says you! You got muscles. You pop open your shirt buttons and let your boobs hang out! I can’t!”
Leoan looked down at his open chest. “My boobs?” He questioned. Sure he let a few buttons open because he didn’t like the tight neck.
“Try it on,” Leona attempted again. “I’ll be the only one to see it.”
“Why do you even want me to?”
“Because I want to see you in it.”
Idia crossed his arms. “You just think it would be sooo funny to see me in it, don’t you?”
The silence that followed was too long. “No,” Leona said after a while.
Idia grabbed the outfit from Leona and stuffed it back in his closet. “You’re never gonna make me wear it! It’s staying there until I graduate.”
Leona frowned watching Idia put it away behind various other costumes and outfits from their school adventures. Idia may try to bury it, but Leona wasn’t going to forget.
There was a knock on their bedroom door. When the door slides open, Ruggie is standing there holding out a plastic bag from Sam’s shop.
“Food delivery! And I do accept tips,” Ruggie smiled.
Idia stood confused. “I didn’t order any food…”
Leona pops up behind Idia. He’s so close, Idia can feel the beastman's breath in his ear. “I got it for us.” He hands Ruggie a few bills. “Took you long enough.”
“Hey, I had to go from Sacrabia, get to Sam’s, and then come here! Are you even gonna invite me in?”
“Nope.” Leona closes the door. He was certain Ruggie had a meal waiting for him back at the other dorm. Jamil was probably cursing up a storm as he cooked right now.
After the door shut, Idia wanted to protest and let Ruggie in. Honestly, he knew there wasn’t enough space for everyone.
“I don’t think you should force Ruggie to run all these errands for you. The guy has a life.”
Leona raised an eyebrow. “You make Ortho do it for you. The only difference is I pay Ruggie.”
Ashamed, Idia couldn’t believe his boyfriend would call him out like this. But he was dating Leona Kingscholar, so it was to be expected.
Idia followed Leona to the desk that they were using as a makeshift table. Idia was happy he still had his handheld gaming devices. It was kind of cozy that they had a communal eating area. And Leona hated crumbs in the bed, so this was the best option.
Leona got himself a deluxe meat sandwich. He passed everything else to Idia, letting him choose something. After picking around all the food, Idia grabbed a little bag of chips. He opened them and leaned back in his chair.
“That’s all?” Leona narrowed his eyes.
“Ye-yeah. I don’t eat much.”
The realization hit Leona: he’s never seen Idia eat a full meal. They don't have lunch together. Idia doesn’t go to class, and Leona tries to nap during the day. Most of their time together has been spent talking or hanging out.
“What do you like? Ruggie can- …or we can get you something else.”
Idia thought for a second. “I like cup noodles, gummy worms, energy drinks,” he listed off a few.
Leona felt his stomach turn at the thought of all the sugar. “What actual food do you eat?”
Idia tilts his head. “Do cup noodles not count?”
Their conversation divulged into talking about food. Idia hated raw fish. Leona was a total carnivore. They both agreed vegetables were the worst.
Monday finally came around. First day of classes since all of Savanaclaw froze over. A typical morning would be Ruggie waking Leona up and getting him ready for classes. Today, it was Ortho.
Idia’s body didn’t move at all when Ortho knocked on the door. Leona had to be the one to get up since the corpse next to him wouldn’t do it. Ortho’s nonstop banging was driving him crazy.
“Leona Kingscholar, good morning!” Ortho’s cheery voice rang out.
Leona was too sleepy to give a response.
“Sorry to disturb you, I came to make sure my big brother is awake and attending his classes today.”
Leona stretched. “I’ll make sure he gets up.”
Ortho hovered off the ground to be eye to eye with the beatman. “Really? You truly mean that?” He asked excitedly.
“Uh, sure. Why?”
The question fizzled out as Ortho zoomed around a bit. “Thank you! Thank you! That’s a huge relief. If you ever need anything, please let me know! I know my big brother can be stubborn sometimes. I’ll leave him in your hands.” With that, Ortho flew down the halls.
Leaving Leona confused over what that whole interaction was. Anyway, he was awake now. Time to get going or else Ruggie might run over here and bang on the door.
Gently, he shook a sleeping Idia. He knew the guy was already awake. Idia was a very light sleeper. Leona couldn’t move his arm without Idia jumping out of the bed.
“Oi, get up. We got class.”
Leona started turning on all the lights in the bedroom.
“I’m not going," Idia muffled into his pillow.
Leona turned towards the mass under the blankets. “I can’t hear your mumbling, but I assume you said you’re getting ready.”
Idia turned around on his back. “I’m not going. I didn’t sleep well last night-”
“You never do.”
“Let me finish! I don’t feel good, so I’m gonna stay in the room and play video games.”
“Let me get this straight,” Leona said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “ You didn’t sleep well. So you’re going to hole yourself up in your room playing video games all day?” Idia nodded. “That’s not gonna fly.”
In a swift motion, Leona grabbed the blankets off the bed. Idia yelped at his comfort suddenly vanishing before him. He scrambled to get out of bed and put some pants on. Suddenly, the hoodie he wore everyday was being thrown at his face.
“I promised Ortho you would go to class, so you’re going.”
Leona dropped the blankets off to the other side of the room. He finished getting himself dressed and ready to go.
“I’m not going, Leona.”
It was too early in the morning to argue. It was bad enough Leona was forcing himself go to class, but now Idia was throwing a whole tantrum about not wanting to leave. This was a new headache for him. He wasn’t going to put up with Idia’s recluse lifestyle anymore.
In a swift motion, Leona picked up Idia and threw him over his shoulder. He was met with kicking and screaming. Idia was eerily lightweight so his punches didn’t phase Leona at all. The guy was about as heavy as a sack of potatoes, something Leona would have to worry about later.
Everyone parted in the hallways as the Housewarden of Savanclaw was carrying the defeated Houseward of Ignihyde. Idia pulled his hood over his head like it would cover him from everyone’s stares.
“Okay! I’ll go to class. Will you please put me down now?” Idia said with a shaky voice.
The last thing Leona wanted to do was make Idia cry. He put his boyfriend on the ground and watched him awkwardly stand in place.
“Why don’t you want to go to class?” Leona finally asked him.
“Be-because if I do, then everyone is going to stare at me. They’ll be like ‘the freak suddenly showed up,’ or ‘who even is that guy? I haven’t seen him all semester.’ And I can’t stand that.”
“How do you know that’s what they’ll say?”
“I just do! I would think the same thing about myself,” Idia said.
“Maybe we need to change how you think about yourself. You always act like the smartest guy in the room when I’m around. You just need to act like it when you go to class. Because you are the smartest guy in the room.”
Idia played with a stand of his fiery blue hair. “So, you’re admitting I am the smartest guy in the room…”
Leona smothered the smile that was forming on his lips. He was always fond of Idia’s arrogant side. It was easy to lose himself in indulging this rare behavior from his boyfriend.
“And if anyone gives you grief, I’ll fight them for ya.”
Idia snickered. “You’re a total warrior class, Leona.” He leaned his shoulder against Leona’s. “Thanks.”
They walked to their classes. Leona was a bit late to his own, but nothing was new.
The couple were eating popcorn and watching tv on the computer when there was a knock on the door. Idia sighed as he got up to answer it. They were right in the middle of the final fight scene!
Idia opened to a frantic Ignihyde student. “Housewarden! The screens in the lounge went completely blue!”
A loud groan effused from Idia as he ran his hands down his face. “Alright,” he said with a strain. “Let’s go see the damage.” And he left with the other student.
Since they couldn’t watch their show, Leona decided he would go see what all the commotion was about. In the Ignihyde lounge there was a tall tunnel running from floor to ceiling made of metal tubes and technological pieces that didn’t seem like anything special to the average person. At the base, there was a gaggle of students gathering. All of them were watching Idia furiously type away on a holographic keyboard.
The multiple screens that were always projected, were now completely blue. There was text on them that Leona didn’t bother to read. It was obvious some sort of error was occurring.
“Aren’t your screens always blue?” Leona asked, startling a few skittish students.
“But this is the blue screen of death,” One student explained. Leona’s stone face gave way to his internal thoughts about how that meant nothing to him.
Another vocally annoyed noise came out from Idia. “Why is this happening?”
“Can you fix it, Housewarden?”
“What are we going to do?”
“Is it the CPU or the motherboard?”
Idia faced the crowd. “It’s probably the RAM since this keeps happening. I need to replace the part. Where’s Ortho? I need him to carry the ladder.”
“He’s at his club right now.”
“I can carry your ladder.”
Everyone stared at Leona. He paid no mind to having all these fidgety people watch him.
“Uh, are you sure, Leona? I mean it’s pretty heavy.”
Leona scoffed. “If you don’t want me to..”
“No, no! We do, we do!”
Not just Idia, but other Ignihyde students were asking Leona for help and to not leave them. This was a new feeling for Leona. A feeling to be wanted by people. To be needed.
Leona turned the other way. “Show me where the ladder is.”
There was a storage room as there was in every dormitory. The Ignihyde one held more computer parts than anything else. As Leona grabbed their ladder, a student stopped him.
“Hey, would you be able to grab that box up there?” He pointed to one at the very top of the shelf. “It’s pretty hefty, so we usually ask Ortho to get it.”
“Damn is everyone in this dorm weaklings,” he complained, but got them the box nonetheless. The box was pretty dense, but he held himself back from showing any strain.
He gave the box to the student, who started fumbling to the ground as he tried to carry it. Soon somebody else came by to help him lighten the load.
Leona dragged the ladder out, and put it where Idia asked him to. Idia gave a quick thanks. Catching Leona completely off-guard, Idia stripped off his hoodie leaving him only in a black tank top. Idia grabbed a couple of tools, and a green circuit board someone handed him from the box Leona got down a minute ago.
Idia climbed up the ladder and began unscrewing the plate in the center. Three triangles with a skull in the center. Leona chuckled thinking about how Idia always has to sign his work somewhere.
“Shit!” Idia shouted in panic.
While other students backed away, Leona ran towards Idia. He was ready to catch him or do whatever it took to keep him safe.
“You alright, radish sprout?” He asked.
Idia squished the metal plate against his chest and the cylinder. He was obviously struggling to hold it upright.
Leona wasted no time as he got on the other side of the ladder and quickly climbed up. Once he got to the top, he grabbed the metal plate out of Idia’s hands. It weighed a ton.
“Jeeze, radish sprout, did you have to make your emblem so heavy?”
“Thanks for beaming up. I totally thought I was gonna drop it, and reload from my last save point.”
Idia worked on getting the old board and replacing it with the new piece. There was a slight flex to his muscles every now and again. He had to have some upper body strength from all the gadgets he put together. And Leona was taking in the sight.
“Damn you look hot right now,” he whispered.
If the tips of his hair hadn’t turned pink, Leona would have thought Idia electrocuted himself from the way he yelped.
“Le-Leona! You can’t say that in front of my dorm.”
“That’s why I whispered it, dumbass,” he kept his voice hush. “Maybe I should break the computer in your room. Then when you take your hoodie off to fix it, nobody will be there to interrupt us.”
Idia’s hair bloomed into a deeper shade of pink. He didn’t need Leoan’s sultry voice in his ear right now.
“This is a delicate job, could you please, knock it off.” Idia then promptly dropped the old piece he had just retrieved from inside the machine onto the ground.
“Delicate, huh?” Leona raised an eyebrow at him.
“We don’t need that trash in our inventory box.”
Idia went to work on installing the new piece. When it was in there safely, Leona put the cover back in place, and Idia screwed it in. Then they both got down from the ladder.
“None of your herbivories better try that stunt we did, okay?” He didn’t want to create any dangerous habits in the students. They all nodded in agreement.
Idia got his keyboard back up, and began typing away. One by one, all of the screens came back to life. The Ignihyde students cheered.
“Thank you, Housewarden!”
“That was awesome!”
“Yeah, thank you, Leona!”
“We couldn’t have done it without you!”
About half the students were giving thanks and praise to Leona. The beastman bashfully waved them off.
“Whatever. You guys can’t rely on Ortho to do everything, okay?”
“Okay!” They all cheered.
Ignihyde was very different from Savanaclaw. Everyone knew that. But the people at Ignihyde were more thankful and showed gratitude than those in Savanaclaw. Leona never did anything for his roommates because he knew they could do it themselves. And they never gave acknowledgement to those who helped them. They were in the dorm of pride, after all.
Having all these students look up to Leona, something he wasn’t used to. But it gave him a sense of fulfillment and purpose to help those who actually needed him to step in.
“I know they all said it, but thanks again for your help, Leona,” Idia said while he watched Leona put everything away.
“Enough of that crap,” he tried to shoo it away.
Idia came up behind and ran a finger along Leona’s back. “I know you like it. I can see it in your kitty-cat ears.”
“Enough.” Leona grabbed Idia’s hand and walked them back to their bedroom. “Do those guys always ask you to fix stuff?”
“Yeah, pretty much. If they can’t solve it, they come to me. Or Ortho depending on where it is. He’s pretty user-friendly.”
“I didn’t know how hospitable you are to the other herbivores,” he joked.
“So were you,” Idia pointed out.
Leona chose to ignore that. “Didn’t know you did so much around here.”
“Well I do! But, uh, if Savanaclaw ever needs a technologist, I can make a house call.”
Their hands held a little tighter. Idia clung a little closer to Leona. Who noticed his boyfriend's hair was turning pink again.
“I heard you have a computer that’s broken?” Idia asked, pointing towards their bedroom.
Remembering the comment he said earlier, Leona broke into a lustful demeanor. “Yes, I do. Let me show it to you.” He opened the bedroom door.
“Do you know I like to roleplay?” Idia said breaking the illusion.
“You don’t say.” Leona feigned surprise.
Every single day. Every single day Leona trips over the same set of wires in the middle of the bedroom. Even when he remembered to not trip over them, he still managed to do so. Every little slip was another straw breaking the camel’s back. Today was no exception as his foot got caught on a stray wire, and then he stumbled a second before catching himself on the desk.
“Hey, you unplugged my charger!” Idia yelled from the bed.
That was what caused Leona to go over the edge. “Damnit Idia! Move your wires somewhere else, they’re all over the place! Why do they have to be in the middle of the room?” All around the room were boxes of miscellaneous items and piles of manga. There was no longer any free space on the ground. “Your whole room could use some sprucing.”
Idia rolled his eyes. “Sorry I don’t have a maid named ‘Ruggie’, your highness. And I’ve been to your room plenty of times, it’s not much better!”
“I’m not tripping over chords and stepping over boxes everyday!”
“Neither am I. It’s just you.”
Finally reaching his breaking point, Leona began unplugging everything from their power strips.
“No! My PC”s!” Idia jumped out of bed grabbing all the stray wires. He held them close to his chest as if Leona’s next step would be to cut them into pieces. “Stop, Leona, or you’re going to ruin their performance rate!”
Leona shot daggers at him. “It’s ruining my relaxing rate. You need to find a better spot for them.”
“Are you serious?” He dug a pointed finger into the other man’s chest. “It’s not like you can organize anything, so why should I have to do it?”
Leona moved the finger off of himself. “I can organize stuff. I don’t want to.”
“Oh really?” Idia folded his arms. “Then what solution do you have for this, Mr. Marie Kondo?”
The reference was lost on him, but Leona tried to think of something anyway. “Why don’t you tape or hook the chores against the wall?”
“Well…” Idia thought and then he took in the state of his room. His headstrong nature did not want to give into the good idea Leona had. “I would have to move some of my furniture out from against the wall. I can’t do that, and neither can you.”
His boyfriend’s strong-will was always something Leona found sexy. He enjoyed seeing Idia get heated about something. Yet, it was better when they weren’t arguing. Leona didn’t want to be on the receiving end of Idia’s uncooperative side.
There was a shot being taken at Leona’s pride. “What do you mean ‘I can’t’ of course I can.”
While Idia was rambling about how heavy all his furniture was, and he wasn’t willing to take everything out of his closet to move, Leona grabbed the wardrobe and pulled it back a few feet. A smug look on his face.
Idia glanced between Leona and the closet for a minute. Without saying anything he turned around. Leona was about to reach out for him when Idia spoke up.
“I’ll see what kinds of cable clamps I have.”
They worked together to get everything set-up. When Idia had to climb around the bed, Leona couldn’t lay down. He decided to pile up some of Idia’s boxes on some shelves, and put a few books away. The comment about being unorganized didn’t hurt his pride at all. He knew to put books on shelves at least. Finally all the stray wires were up against the wall, and all the furniture was moved back into place.
The couple sat on the bed with their backs against the wall. It took awhile, but it was finally over.
“Let’s never do that again,” Idia said.
Leona nodded. “In the future, you’ll know how to secure your chords better.”
The tips of blue hair turned a lighter shade. “In the future, huh…” Idia whispered knowing Leona could hear him.
Idia leaned his head on Leona’s shoulder. Leona wrapped an arm around Idia. Both of them were already thinking about their lives outside of school. Lives they could live together.
As if a lightning bolt had struck him, Idia shot upright in the bed. He knew something wasn’t right. Typically, he woke from a jerk in his muscles. He would be insanely tired but could never fall back asleep. Until he would play some video games into the late hours of the night. But Leona’s new habit was stopping his boyfriend from doing that, and actually made him go to sleep.
That night, Idia didn’t wake up at all. In fact, he felt totally fine. Restored and energized, as if he was back to full HP. No groggy brain fog clouding him. All these good feelings made him sense something was off.
Fantically, he searched the room to check what time it was. All the movement must have awoken Leona, who peered his eyes open.
“What time is it?” Idia asked before Leona could question what was going on.
Leona grabbed his phone and checked the time. “It’s 8am.”
“What?” Idia leaned over to see the time. “That’s impossible. You dragged me into bed at 11. How can it be 8am? I didn’t wake up at all during the night.”
“You got a good night’s rest, congrats,” Leona groaned.
He grabbed the back of Idia’s shirt and pulled him back into the mattress. Idia was too shocked to care. The words “good” and “rest” had never been used to describe his sleeping habits. Only when he was really young, had he ever slept through the night.
A hand rubbed small circles into his back. Then, Idia remembered how he fell asleep: with Leona rubbing his back. He didn’t expect the beastman to be good at backrubs, nor did he actually think someone touching him would help him fall asleep.
Maybe it was because it was Leona soothing him to sleep. That was how Idia was able to let go of his anxieties. His body usually tensed up, and his thoughts would never stop racing through him. Having Leona ease him into comfort, made Idia sleep well.
“Let’s rest in bed for a while longer,” Leona whispered.
He didn’t need to say anything because Idia was already unconscious. Leona was proud of himself for getting his radish sprout to calm down and actually snooze.
Leona would never admit this, but he loved watching Idia sleep. No worried wrinkles on his face, no eye twitching, no jerking around, and no biting his lip when he got anxious. All of those things melted away. Beautiful flawless skin that could only be appreciated when Idia wasn’t trying to hide away in his jacket.
Leona could even take in features of Idia’s that he never noticed before. Like his long blue eyelashes. The same color as his bright fiery hair that reminded Leona of the clear blue skies at the Sunset Savannah.
One day, Leona wanted to create a future where Idia could be as care-free as he appeared when he was sleeping. For now, he would try to get his boyfriend to rest as often as possible. Even if this meant he would have to rub his back for the rest of their lives. Leona would happily make the deal.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Idia mumbled in the bathroom as he dressed in the school uniform.
Him and Leona were playing a card game. Leona had the bright idea to make a bet. If he won, Idia had to put on the school uniform Leona had dug out of the closet earlier in the week. Idia thought this was a strange request, but went along with it. All Idia wanted in return was to watch an anime movie! This was not equal in his mind.
“You would think I’m asking you to shave your head. Like this is torture for you,” Leona said on the other side of the bathroom door.
“I hate the way I look in the uniform! I’m never wearing this again!” Idia yelled.
“Just come out already.” Leona was growing impatient. Surely this wasn’t Idia’s first time wearing the damn thing.
After mustering up all the courage he could, Idia slowly opened the bathroom door. Shuffling out as fast as a slug with pink tip hair, Idia stood in the middle of the bedroom wearing the black suit.
“I, uh, don’t think I got the tie right. So ignore that…” He messed with the black and white striped tie.
Leona didn’t mutter a word even though his mouth was open. The more Leona stared all over his body, the more anxious Idia got.
“Say something… please. I don’t care if it’s about how bad it looks, I can’t stand here without you saying anything.”
“You look really handsome.”
Huh? Idia knew his hair was fully pink at this point. He never heard someone say he was handsome before. And with Leona saying it, Idia knew he wasn’t lying to him.
Leona stalked over to check out the outfit himself. “It’s tailored to fit your body perfectly.” Idia swore he could hear the beatman purr as he ran a hand along the lapel. “You’re right not to wear this out. Everyone would look at you because you’re way too sexy.”
There wasn’t a chance to flubber words before Idia’s lips were locked with Leona’s. Leona kissed him so deeply that Idia stumbled back towards the bathroom door. Leona caught his waist, and pulled him close so their bodies were pressed together. An electric chemistry built up between them from rubbing against each other.
Once their lips separated, Leona buried his face into Idia’s shoulder. Idia’s lips were still tingling, and his heart was racing.
“Is that… Is this how you felt when I wore that suit from the ghost marriage?” Idia asked with a shiver still going through his body.
“Nah. You were too frightened then. But right now, you look sharp, and it highlights the best parts of your body.”
Idia’s confused noise turned into a yelp as Leona firmly grabbed his ass.
“Oh, uh, um.” Idia always felt the need to fill the silence in these moments. “So, um, the suit stays on… during sex?”
Hot breath from a laugh paired with the vibrations of a deep chuckle ticked the neck of Idia’s skin.
“Just the tie will do.”
The news was out: the heat was back on at Savannahclaw. Everyone would have to wait one night for everything to warm back up, but by the end of classes tomorrow, they could go back to their usual routines.
“You think in a school of mages, someone would have used magic to fix it,” Idia said. He took a bite of spaghetti, which was the only thing Leona was able to get him to eat as a proper meal. It took him half an hour to convince Idia to eat it with the meat sauce.
Leona shrugged. “Whatever. I’ll be out of your hair soon enough.”
Idia made an odd expression at that. “You weren’t ever in my hair. I mean, you were when you had your hand it in, but you weren’t in the way or anything! I actually…kind of… enjoyed this.”
Leona watched the pink flames dance around his boyfriend. “It wasn’t too bad,” he said, trying to downplay his own emotions. “Glad I could get you to class, and make you clean your room.”
“I’m glad I got to see your Ikeman side when you were helping people out. Also, you are good at cleaning up. Maybe you should take Ruggie’s job,” he teased.
“And leave him to fend for himself? That would make me heartless,” Leona joked back.
They couple chuckled as they finished off their meal. Idia played with a stand of his blue hair as he leaned back in his seat. “Uh, I will miss eating with you all the time. And sleeping next to you every night.”
“Then, we should try to make a habit out of it.” He reached over and gently grabbed Idia’s hands. “At least, until we actually live together one day.”
Idia stared up into his boyfriends bright green eyes. The words came out that they were both thinking: this was insanely domestic. A trial run of them living together. It was only a few days, but it was enough to have them both come to terms that they wanted to be together for a longer time than they thought about previously. Now, they are creating a future together. While they didn’t say all of it out loud, they knew what the other was thinking.
“I can’t believe you saw the state of my room, and you actually want to live with me?” Idia joked.
“Don’t make me regret it,” Leona said, taking his hand back. A grin spread across his lips. “Maybe the AC will bust out in Ingihyde, then you’ll have to stay at Savanclaw with me.”
Idia had a haunted expression on his face. “Don’t jinx us Leona. We already had a close call during the fairy gala when all of our PCs were about to overheat.”
Leona rolled his eyes. “Don’t remind me. I had to prance around in that dumb costume for hours. It was a pain.”
“But you made the whole plan work in the end. How could you not when you have a real SSR prince who is total husband material standing right in front of you?”
“‘Husband material,’ huh?” Leona cooed.
Idia’s eyes bounced around everywhere that wasn’t the beastman in front of him. “Well, uh, you were wearing all white and stuff. What was I supposed to think?” He tried to defend himself.
“It’s just a… big commitment,” Leona teased by repeating what Idia said when Leona arrived at his room after the heating broke.
A raspy chuckled snuck out of Idia. “At least I already have a suit for- or if we- or I ever get married.” Thinking of the outfit he was forced into during the ghost marriage.
“I guess this means we both have wedding attire, huh?” Leona asked.
Another shared moment. They both danced on the edge of what they meant. Something more permanent in the future of their relationship. Neither wanted to ask the question lingering in the air. At least not yet. Not until they had some more time together.
“We should try living together first.”