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In a school like Night Raven College, where trouble was rampant, it was slightly more concerning than normal when a student wasn’t in class one day. While other schools will just assume the kid decided to skip, NRC finds themselves asking questions like, “Did they get injured?” “Were they kidnapped?” “Did they die?” Or god forbid another overblot is going to occur. All of these situations have happened to some extend on this campus, so it wasn’t even like the students were being paranoid. These were the reasonable assumptions to make.
It was even more concerning when it was one of the several royal figures on campus that was missing, as then Headmage Crowley began to complain about the political conundrum he would find himself in should the student be injured in anyway; that is without mentioning the money he’d have to pay in compensation. Everyone knew how much the headmage hated paying literally any kind of bill. He could afford the traumatization of all of his students, maybe even sacrifice a talentless first year or two, but money was apparently out of the question.
Today’s problem in particular was the absence of Leona Kingscholar, the second prince of the Sunset Savana. Now, typically his absence wouldn’t be anything noteworthy. He was known for skipping class on the regular, usually to go nap in the botanical gardens or anywhere else he could find. In that case, teachers would ask Ruggie to go find him and drag him to class. While the dragging him to class part only worked about half the time, he was usually able to locate the lazy lion just fine. The reason for the concern at his absence today was because Ruggie couldn’t find him. At all.
Apparently Professor Trein had asked the hyena boy to find Leona during morning classes, so Ruggie headed towards Leona’s typical napping spot deep in the gardens. Only he wasn’t there that day. Ruggie continued to search the rest of the place, in the shady and sunny spots, in the open grass or among the foliage, and there wasn’t even a single lion hair in sight. Not even with his heightened beastmen senses could Ruggie find him.
So he moved on. Maybe Leona had simply returned to the dorm and decided to nap there. Still, a whole rundown of the dorm turned up nothing.
Ok, nothing to worry about, Leona probably just changed napping spots in an attempt to throw off Ruggie or anyone else searching for him. But no. He wasn’t among the fields where PE class took place, nor in the woods behind the school, or hiding among tables or desks within the school. It was like Leona had disappeared into thin air.
Yet Idia Shroud, exhausted from a long school day and socialization, now found the sleeping lion in his own bed, all the way in Ignihyde dorm.
A small screech escaped from his mouth as he recognized what the motionless lump on his bed was upon walking into his room, his startled movements causing him to slam his door shut for the entire dorm to hear.
“Idia? Is everything alright?” Ortho called from outside the room.
Idia’s head darted back and forth between the now closed door and his bed, searching for any kind of excuse that wouldn’t result in Ortho breaking down the door in concern for his brother. No one could see that Leona was in here.
“Yeah! Uh, just a uh… a spider jumpscare!” Great excuse Idia. Just great. You’ve speedrun how many horror games now? And you got jumpscared by a spider? Totally believable.
“Huh, really?” See? Ortho didn’t believe it in the slightest! “If you say so…” Wait. He believed it?
Sighing a breath of relief at the Nat 20 he just pulled on deception there, Idia now turned his full attention to the problem in his room. With the smallest of steps, Idia approached the side of his bed and took a look at the carnivore peacefully asleep there.
Leona’s hair was rather undone, strands from the front braids sprouting out and begging to be freed from their ties. Brown hair rippled down his back and over the surface of the bed, the remnants of which Idia will likely be finding even weeks after this. Round (cute) little lion ears flicked the air around Leona and his sharp canines were displayed prominently as his mouth hung open, covering Idia’s sheets in drool. Idia couldn’t help but stare at Leona’s face for a moment, letting his mind relish in the relaxed muscles in Leona’s expression, for once his brow not creased with annoyance or fatigue. Heat rushed to his face as he admired the sight, and he had to shake his head fervently to snap himself out of the trance.
Focus Idia! There are bigger problems to worry about, and those problems aren’t about how effortlessly hot and adorable your boyfriend is!
But as Idia reached his hand out to shake Leona awake, he noticed something else. Underneath the navy blue blanket Leona had laid over himself, the lion was wearing Idia’s hoodie. It was what Idia usually wore along with his pajamas, painting Leona in a dark blue shade that was completely alien to the other colors Leona typically wore. While meant to be oversized, Leona was slightly larger than Idia, so the sleeves just barely stretched out past Leona’s wrists and his muscles could still be noticed from underneath the material. The front remained unzipped, revealing the typical tan shirt Leona wore as apart of his dorm uniform, with his chest peaking out from below the shirt’s low collar.
Why was Leona in Idia’s hoodie!? And why did he look so good in it??
Focus Idia! Idia snapped himself to attention again. He couldn’t be this much of a simp right now. He had to get Leona out of his room somehow without a single person noticing.
“You finally gonna say something?” A low mumble came from the bed as Leona’s eyes began to slowly muster themselves open.
HOW LONG WAS HE AWAKE FOR!?
Wait, had he been awake the whole time? Did he notice Idia just standing there like a weirdo; notice him standing there, staring at him. Oh Sevens, he probably thought Idia was some kind of freak now… if he didn’t think that already.
The heat that rushed Idia’s face now spread to the very sparks that lighted Idia’s head, the once cool flames flaring into cherry pink at every tip. He found himself so flustered that he couldn’t find any of the right words to say, including his frustration with Leona’s amusement at Idia’s embarrassment, with the former not even trying to hide his drowsy smile.
Idia stumbled over his words, trying to figure out which question or accusation to even start with, but there were simply too many. After too many seconds of half said words and repeated stutters, Idia finally was able to verbally form the question, “What are you doing in here!?” He tried to keep the question at a whisper, but the cracks in his voice made a few words quite distinct.
“I needed somewhere to sleep,” Leona replied, turning over on his back listlessly. “Somewhere where a little pest won’t find me.”
Idia raised an eyebrow at Leona calling his own dormmate a pest, only to shrug as it was actually perfectly in character for the prince. “Ok, but why my room? People think you’re dead or something! What if someone found you here and thought I kidnapped you!?”
“Ah yes, you kidnapped me and committed the dastardly deed of… taking me to another place on campus. History books will put you alongside the greatest villains for this scandal.” Leona could barely hold back his laugh, meanwhile Idia could do nothing but scowl. Then Leona reached a hand out from beneath the blanket, stretching it out and grasping Idia’s wrist, as his nails dug into Idia’s pale skin. With a single pull and a yelp from Idia, Leona brought the flustered boy just a few inches away from his face. “And you? Kidnap me? Really?”
Idia continued to frown, determined to not let Leona break him. He was also very tempted to point out that he technically has kidnapped Leona before, in the form of Styx capturing those who had been overblot victims at NRC, but he didn’t exactly want to remind an only recently awoken Leona of that.
Tugging at his own arm, Idia finally got himself free of Leona’s grasp, only to realize he had done so because Leona himself had decided to let go. “Ugh, whatever, can you just get out of here? People are on all kinds of side quests looking for you. And give me back my hoodie!”
“Eh, sounds like a hassle to me. I’m already comfortable here after all.”
“Oh come on, you are such a–” But before Idia could finish his complaints, Leona was already asleep again. Snoring away peacefully as if he wasn’t trying to be the most annoying person ever.
A sigh was let out by Idia, before he started to assess his situation. He had to figure out a way to get Leona out of his room, all while that is the last thing Leona wants to do. Well, Ruggie, supposedly dragged Leona out of bed every morning, so it shouldn’t be that hard to do, right?
Hands trembling, Idia let himself approach the sleeping lion once more. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was expecting to happen, but what he did not expect was for Leona to reveal himself to be feigning sleep once more, for he had opened his eyes to gaze on Idia once more and took the hand Idia had reached out and pulled him forward. Idia was almost literally swept off his feet, as he dropped onto the bed and meeting Leona’s level when he rose up from the bed slightly.
A smirk crossed itself across Leona’s face, and Idia felt his frown start to break, his lips trembling as he attempted to keep up his facade of dismay but failing in conflict with Leona’s narrowing emerald eyes. Without words, Leona buried his face into Idia’s shoulder, letting the warmth of Idia’s flames wash over him. His head turned slightly, letting his hot breath graze Idia’s neck as he mumbled out his next words. “Just a little longer.”
Idia sighed once again, this time in defeat. He let himself melt into Leona’s presence, raising his right hand to let it run down Leona’s hair, like petting a cat, while his other hand raised to rest itself on Leona’s shoulder.
“Fine… just a little longer.”
Leona could be “missing” for just a little longer. After all, it won’t be Idia who will have to respond to a whole panicked dorm who thought their housewarden died. He’ll leave that trouble for the lion himself.