Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Leona looked at the chessboard in front of him. Despite how short this game had been, it was the first time in months since he went against a somewhat decent opponent.

“Ceckmate.” The lion said, feeling his own lips curl into a smile.

Idia Shroud rolled his eyes.

“You know I’m no match for you, Kingscholar. Why do you even keep inviting me?” He said in a moment of boldness.

“Because always playing by myself is boring.” Leona replied, letting his head fall over the headrest of his seat and closing his eyes to let his brain rest for a moment. “Would you be kind enough to leave me alone now? I need a nap.”

“Tsk, you’re as pleasant as always. Well, not that I have much in my favor either.” Idia replied sarcastically, having already moved his eyes onto the screen of his phone.

“Be grateful that I at least waited until our match was over to sleep.”

“Dude, I already told you to find someone better!” Idia cried.

“Quit yer yapping.”

“Talk about being polite. That lame attitude won’t get you far.” Idia blurted without a care for the implications of his words.

He wasn’t known for being considerate of other people’s feelings.

Well, that was until Leona’s head jerked up and he glared at him. Idia sunk further into the cushions of his chair.

Using the game board as he pleased, Leona scratched the black and white tiles with his claws, throwing every pawn left to the sides of the table and making all the blood in Idia’s body run cold.

“S-shit-” Idia muttered. “H-How about we talk this through?”

Even though just seeing the color drain from his already pale face was enough for Leona, he decided to keep the prank going for a little more, so, instead of just standing up quietly, he put some of his strength into pushing the table forward until it had Idia pinned against his chair without any room to escape.

After being done with teasing the housewarden, his eyes drifted off to the distance and he walked towards the balcony of his bedroom, leaving the poor boy behind.

Boring, he thought to himself.

"Look, I may have come off wrong about it but my point still stands.” Idia spoke again “you’d do well finding someone whose stats are on par with yours."

But Leona wasn't in the mood for that kind of conversation, much less coming from someone like Idia Shroud. If he didn't even take Ruggie's advice into consideration, why would he bother listening to an emotionally unstable hervibore?

After realizing that none of his words were getting to him, Idia sighed heavily. Later, using whatever strength he had, the boy pushed the table away and prepared to walk out of there with hopes that the beastman wouldn’t want him coming over any time soon. Not like he’d accept his invite.

Alone again, Leona threw himself into the nearest couch for a much needed nap without a care for taking his shoes off. As usual, it would take him some time until he finally fell asleep but he hadn’t expected anything else. In the meantime, he tried to make sense of the dots blinking in the darkness behind his closed eyes until they started to bring back memories from a certain recent event.

Lately, even his sleeping, the only thing that had kept him away from the nightmare his life was, was full of nightmares.

For being the housewarden of Savanaclaw, the dorm whose students excelled at both physical activities and martial arts, Leona couldn't care less about the Spelldrive club’s activities. Sure, he did get to blow off some steam every now and then, but it still didn’t change the fact that it felt like a waste of time.

In the end, he was only there because he had to be.

He hadn’t always felt like this, though. Leona could still remember the adrenaline he used to get going against other powerful mages during his first years at school. Especially because he didn’t really get many chances to meet other magic users back at the palace.

Another thing he used to enjoy a lot more was playing in tournaments, especially because they motivated him to keep up with the practice. Although that was before a certain goal got in his mind and ruined everything. Beating Malleus's team.

The first time someone made him taste his own blood had felt more exciting than frustrating. As contradictory as it sounded, the idea of there being someone who presented him with a real challenge and didn’t hold back made him feel like the world was finally seeing him. This time, it wasn’t a matter of status or birth order, he had actually a place where the only thing that mattered was who was the best at it.

If only things could hav stayed like that forever.

In reality, he knew that aiming for that goal was meaningless compared to becoming the king of Savanna, and that's why it could only take his ambitions so far. Still, the moment Crowley announced that he was planning to invict Malleus into the hall of fame without even making him fight for it, the only sliver of hope that Leona had managed to light in him was turned to sand.

As it turns out, the world truly didn’t care about hard work at all.

The sun burned against his skin hotter than any average herbivore could stand. The practice had been going on for almost two hours before they decided to call it a day and Leona couldn't be more glad to know he had made it through another day.

The housewarden searched for Ruggie until he spotted him across the field chatting with some other students, probably making plans to go out for dinner and take advantage of their extended curfew now that the weekend had started. Having lost interest, Leona dried the sweat off of his face with a towel that probably wasn't his and gathered his things.

If Ruggie would be out that night, that would normally mean he would have to go get his own dinner from the dining hall himself, but as it turns out, he could always relay the job onto someone else.

Havint that part of the day solved, Leona went to his bedroom to take what he expected to be a short nap but ended up stretching late into the vening instead. Since Ruggie was always there to wake him up for dinner, Leona hadn’t considered he would end up oversleeping.

Leona yawned and stretched his arms above his head. Right now, the moon was already out and all the students were already getting ready to go to bed while he was only just getting up. After brushing off the drowsiness, Leona exited his room and, just as he’d expected, there were no students walking around the hallways.

Under any other circumstances he would’ve gone back to sleep until the next day, but this time his stomach was too hungry to really let him pass a meal, thus the job of getting himself some dinner was all on him.

A short trip later, Leona walked through the deserted halls of the school’s building. Despite the lack of illumination, it didn’t take him too much effort to reach the kitchen he visited almost every day for the past years. The act of walking around campus past the curfew wasn’t something he hadn’t done before a first for him, thus running into a couple locked doors wasn’t really an obstacle for him.

Before another growl escaped from his stomach, Leona was already inside the school's kitchen looking for something he could eat that suited his taste. After serving himself some of the leftover meat and pasta, Leona took a seat in one of the kitchen stools.

Back at the royal palace, the food he ate every night was always prepared by professional chefs from all over the region and served at any time of the day he wanted. Compared to that, the school’s buffet did leave a lot to desire considering the amount of royals and celebrities that assisted the school. But Leona was okay with anything as long as it tasted decently and didn’t have any vegetables, in fact, he found himself enjoying meals when eaten alone in silence like that time than served on a golden plate.

Plus, he happened to enjoy food that wasn’t paid with a whole kingdom’s taxes.

Just as he was about to give the last bite to his steak, a faint sound of footsteps coming from the other side of the door caught his attention, making him put the fork down.

From the top of his head, Leona couldn’t think of anybody else who would have any business in the kitchen at that hour other than the headmage or the ghosts, but he soon discarded the latter when he realized those creatures didn’t make any sounds when they walked. As for Crowley…he was probably the first one to clock out for the day in all of the school.

Leona remained still for a moment, waiting to let the presence come closer so he could get a better sense of their presence and decide whether he should get out or not. Much to his displeasure, the smell coming from the other side of the door belonged to the last person he wanted to see that night.

A tall and slender figure was revealed the moment the door was opened.

"Draconia." Leona scoffed, not giving the man the chance to greet him.

"Good evening, Kingscholar." Malleus replied, wearing a sly grin on his lips as though the lion’s presence was entertaining to him.

Because they weren’t supposed to be there in the first place, neither of them could take the luxury to turn on any of the lights, leaving them no choice but to rely on the moonlight and their night vision to get them around.

"What are you doing around here?" Leona was clearly irritated by the housewarden's presence, far too annoyed to mind hiding it.

"The same I could ask of you. It is well past dinner time." Malleus replied. "I'm not used to abiding by the same laws of time as humans so I always end up arriving late for dinner. Ah, but it seems the same could be said about you."

Leona let out a huff through his nose and crossed his arms defensively. His eyes followed Malleus’ every move as the fae walked towards the fridge and started searching for something only to end up taking a pot of ice cream.

“Never saw you doing it before.” Leona spoke.

"I usually come here later than this." Malleus explained, taking one spoonful of the desert into his mouth.

The room was so awkwardly silent that, if anyone were to walk in, they’d immediately choose to leave. For his part, Leona knew the other wasn’t really intending to disturb his Friday night, however that didn’t make him resent the fae any less.

His stomach was now too full to eat another bite, so, with his business there finished, the beastman jumped off the stool and moved on to put his dishes inside the sink, ready to stop breathing the same rotten air as Malleus.

"You’re gonna leave those in there?" Malleus said, pointing a finger to the sink.

Leona stopped in his step and raised a brow.

"What about it?"

"Don't you think it's a little rude to make others take care of your waste?" The fae said.

"None of my business." Leona shrugged.

The fae didn't reply, keeping himself busy with his food. Something about this attitude irked Leona, though. Who did the fae think he was to ignore him? For some reason, though, the next thing Malleus did bothered him even more. The fae had simply decided to wash the dishes himself.

With a click of his tongue and heavy feet, Leona dragged himself towards the sink and took the fae’s spot without bothering to excuse himself and just shoving him away with a soft push.

At simple sight, it was more than evident that Leona was not used to taking care of his dishes, especially because what would normally take anyone a minute ended up taking him more than five times that. But what made it even more annoying was having Malleus standing behind him, looking over his shoulder like a dog, all the way through it, even though he had long since finished eating his food.

"Having fun?" Leona said through gritted teeth.

"Not really. It is actually most frustrating seeing you do it all so wrong. You are wasting a lot of water, too.” He replied.

"Well, in my opinion everything about you is wrong.” Leona barked, his brushing growing more intense.

Malleus shook his head. "Didn't your parents teach you basic survival skills?"
The lack of touch and the bluntness with which the housewarden of Diasomnia spoke about Leona somehow ended up reminding him of Idia Shroud and the words he’d spouted during their last game of chess. This, of course, made the beastman get even more annoyed which translated into the amount of force he applied to cleaning the dish in his hands.

"I’ve been doing well all this time, who cares about that." Leona replied.

"Mhm you have a point. I always end up doing the dirty work for you after all."

"What on earth are you talking about?” Leona made a pause to look at him.

"Every now and then I find some dirty dishes when I come to get a late night snack." Malleus explained,"I always wondered why they were left here, though. But it seems I finally have my answer."

"Whatever. I don’t owe you anything. If you decide to clean my trash, that's on you." Leona said angrily.

"And to think someone like you has the title of prince. Well, second prince, but royalty nonetheless." Malleus said.

"Why don't you show me what's befitting for a royal, then?"

Leona's anger scalated to the heights of his self-control until his hand was gripping into a fist. Suddenly, a sharp and cold pain spread through his hand, making him come back to his senses.

It wasn’t until the lion looked away from the other housewarden’s face that he realized that the source of his pain came from a cut in his hand infringed by the now broken dish. It seemed the poor thing had decided to take its revenge before being snapped in half by the lion.

"Your hand." Malleus pointed without making any changes in his expression. “Does it hurt?"

Leona, however, didn’t bother answering his question and instead focused on washing off the wound before closing the tap and searching for some kind of cloth he could use to stop the bleeding, all the while trying not to get any of his blood on the kitchen’s floor.

“If you’re not gonna be of any use then get out.” Leona snapped at last.

But Malleus didn’t move and Leona pretended to ignore him for the sake of not breaking anything else. That is, until a cold hand grabbed his forearm and started dragging him through the halls of Night Raven.

Under any other circumstances, Leona would have simply tried to resist the fae’s touch, too disgusted by his mere presence to allow the man’s hand over his body. This time, however, the act had taken him so much by surprise that he didn’t really snap out of his trance until they had reached the mirror chamber.

And soon enough the two of them had entered into Diasomnia’s territory.

“Let me go, will you?!” He finally snatched his arm away from the fae’s grasp. “Why did you bring me here?”

“To ask Lilia for help with your injury.” Malleus replied, matter of factly.

“Vanrouge? In any case , I don’t need your help. You have already done enough damage as is.” Leona argued.

“Why do you make it sound like it’s my fault? If I remember correctly, you were the one having problems controlling your anger.” Malleus replied.

Leona let out a frustrated sigh and wondered if getting into a discussion with this man was even worth anything.

“Let me treat your injury. If it helps, jsut think of it as my apology.” Malleus added.

“I don’t need an apology from you. Just leave me alone.”

“Will that make you happier?” Malleus asked.

“Yes, very much so.” Leona asserted.

“Very well, let me walk you back to-”

“Stop right there. I’m going back on my own.” But as soon as he turned he felt his arm being grabbed once again, this time with a lot more strength.”Hey! I told you to leave me–”

Leona was in the middle of his sentence when he was met by the sight of a confused Lilia Vanrouge standing only a breath away from him. Seeing that he was the one holding onto his arm, the lion couldn’t help clicking his tongue angrily.

“Good evening, Leona.” Lilia said with a smile. “I heard your voices and came down to see what was going on. What a surprise to see the two of you together.”

“Well, enjoy the sight because I’m already leaving.” Leona replied.

“What happened to his hand Malleus?” Lilia ignored him and suddenly changed the topic.

“Nothing.” Leona replied in his stead.

“My, my, what a troublesome kitten. Was it Malleus’s fault? Come on, let me take a better look at it.” Lilia insisted, sounding almost too pleased with himself.

Within the blink of an eye, Leona felt his body being dragged towards the vice housewarden, almost as if he had been possessed. It seems Ruggie’s signature spell wasn’t one of a kind, after all.

“I can’t let a child go around with this kind of injury. You could attract some really unsavory presence with this smell.” He joked while examining the cut in his arm.

“Who are you calling a child?” Leona frowned.

“Now, don’t be so upset. Let’s get you inside so I can take off the shards.”

With a swift move of his hand, Lilia made use of his magical pen to control Leona’s body once again and forced him to walk with them inside the dorm’s building. Once inside, they moved to the common area where Malleus made himself comfortable while Leona was forced to stay put against his will.

After Lilia excused himself to go get the first aid kit the silence between the housewardens went back to its former state, only with the added bonus of Diasomnia’s stuffy atmosphere making it worse. By this point of the night, Leona had already thought of ten different ways to turn that place to sand.

Malleus seemed to be plenty entertained watching him suffer, though.

“What are you looking at?” Leona scowled.

“Your hand is not bleeding anymore. Is that normal for those of your type?”

“Wow, you’re really more socially inept than Shroud.” Leona sighed. “Dunno about the rest, but I can quickly heal myself with my own magic just fine. All of this is unnecesary.”

“Lilia’s medicine is very effective as well. But maybe you’re right, you’re a very powerful magician after all.” Malleus reckoned even though the tone with which he said it didn’t seem to imply anything in particular.

Still, it did make Leona feel weird being called that way by Malleus. Not like he would admit it, anyways.

“Sorry for the wait guys.” Lilia’s voice rang through the halls. “Oh? You’re practically as good as new.”

“Of course I am.” Leona scoffed.

“In that case let me just rub this on you so it doesn’t leave a scar.” He insisted, taking out a blue ointment from the first-aid kit and rubbing it on him.

The smell of the medicine reminded Leona of the sickening scent of cosmetics Rook Hunt always carried around that he despised so much. Still, Lilia didn’t need to know he would be rubbing it off as soon as he was out of there.
After what felt like an eternity, Leona finally regained control over his body and turned around to get back to his dorm more than ready to cleanse the sight of those two from his eyes.

“Come back any time Leona-kun! Diasomnia loves having guests come over.” Lilia called behind his back.

But Leona kept walking without looking back. The last thing he needed was to see what kind of expression Malleus was making and end up doing something he would add to his long list of regrets.

Chapter Text

Despite the grey clouds looming over the sky since early in the morning, it still didn’t look like the rain would be bringing relief any time soon. 

The spring’s humidity clung onto the walls of the chemistry laboratory like a moth to the light, which made Leona’s mood worse than it usually was, and, to make things worse, there were still another forty five minutes until class was over and he could return to the heavenly dry weather of his dorm where he could sleep away his frustration.

A few minutes before the bell rang, professor Crewel called for the entire class’s attention, making all of the students raise their heads from their experiments to focus on him. 

"Okay class, before we're done for the day I have an announcement to make. This term is still far from over, but since this is your last project as third-years I expect nothing but excellence from you,” The man made a brief pause, "Hence, I thought it would be great to give you one more chance to get to know each other before you start your internships away from here. Youth is the most beautiful thing in life and it's also the best time to make long lasting bonds, after all." 

As the teacher went on with the emotional speech, Leona noticed that all the other students around him were pointlessly trying to set up a work team of their own and rolled his eyes. Having known the man for so long, Leona knew it was more than likely that Crewel had already set them up himself.

"That being said, I'll be assigning you all a group and a research subject so make sure to come by my desk before leaving the classroom," Crewel announced at last and the room was filled with groans, “Oh, one last thing…Kingscholar, please try your best to stay and talk to me when class is over."

Despite this request, as soon as the bell rang, Leona was all ready to run out of the classroom so he could hide within the crowd of students.

"Kingscholar! I believe I said we needed to talk," Crewel’s yelling cut through the student’s chatter.

Having abandoned all hopes of escaping from the man, Leona turned around and walked against the tide of students leaving the classroom until he reached the teacher’s desktop.

“I’m here," Leona said without bothering to hide his annoyance.

“There’s a certain issue I wished to discuss with you. It’s about your finals,” Crewel spoke more calmly as he handed out the last assignment sheet to him. “Under normal circumstances I would try to come up with a pair that has the perfect balance by taking their abilities in consideration, however…” He trailed off.

“However?” Leona pressed.

“Well, the thing is that, putting your absence and lack of compromise aside, you have more than good scores and I doubted anyone here would be of much help to you. That’s why I decided to pair you with someone similar to you in those aspects. Although he’s not, uh–the point is, I’m sure that your positions as housewardens will make it easier for you two to get along," Crewel finished explaining with a forced smile between his lips.

Before Leona had the chance to ask for his partner’s name, he took a look at the names printed on the sheet and his scowl deepened.

“You want me to work with the lizard?!” Leona growled.

“Malleus is an excellent student and I’m sure he won’t slow you down at all. Isn't that great? all you’ll have to do is get out of that stubborn head of yours and find a way to make it work, okay? I'm not taking a no for an answer," The teacher said and crossed his arms.

Although the housewarden couldn’t resist the urge to complain a little more about it, he knew doing so would be a waste of words given how serious the man looked. Of course, he would be. No one in their right mind would actually agree to work with Malleus, but Leona’s reasons for that were completely different, so he could see why it would be slightly easier for Crewel to do it this way

“Doesn’t seem like I have a say in this," Leona scoffed, crumpling the paper with one hand.

“I’m glad you understand. Now, be a good pup and let your partner know, since it seems you two have the same naughty habit of missing class," He said with a disapproving look.

Staying around him any longer would only make his mood get worse, Leona decided, so he made the choice to turn around and leave the room as soon as the man had spouted his last words.

“na– Leona. Slow down, will you? Man, I’ve been calling you for minutes, what’s wrong with you?” Ruggie demanded.

Without noticing, Leona’s anger had made him so blind that he’d ended walking all the way across the building without even noticing Ruggie’s presence trailing behind him all along, or the fact that he still hadn’t changed out of his lab wear.

“I'm busy," Leona blurted without bothering to listen to him.

“Yeah sure, late for your nap? Anyway, what’s gotten you so worked up? Did you get into another argument with Jack?” Ruggie inquired.

“Jack? No, it’s not him," Leona replied.

“Mmm, right,” Ruggie hummed in thought, “Let me guess, is this about your brother?”

“Ugh, of all the times you could bring that person out it had to be now?!” The lion growled, “No, this isn’t about him. Now, leave me alone."

“Oh man, you’re no fun as always,” He rolled his eyes, “Well, I hope you grow out of your tantrum by diner because I'm not putting up with your moody ass all day, okay? See ya." 

Leona watched Ruggie walk away. But since the only reason the hyena would ever approach him was because of his money or for simple entertainment he didn’t think much about it.

Despite how badly he’d been craving to sleep under the warmth of Savanaclaw’s sun, the moment he stepped inside the dorm’s terrain, his already heavy mood worsened. Something about being greeted by the bright sky and clear skies when his mood was that bad made him feel like a joke.

Even though he'd always preferred Sunny days over any others, it didn't change the fact that standing under its light was a painful reminder that life kept going despite him wishing it could just stop. 

All the people back at home would always warn him about staying away from the shadows, and that a clear sky was a blessing.

Blessings were not enough for him, though. He was not the kind of person who would leave his fate to beliefs and traditions, which was the main reason why everybody thought of him as a threat to their country.

But he was okay with it, most of the time. Even if living like that meant he would have to wake up with the taste of ink lingering in his mouth every day, at least he wasn’t dancing like a monkey for a council of fools like his brother. That much, he still took pride in.

His pride wasn’t worth much for the rest, though. Ever since he could remember, all the people around him always seemed to be better off living in a cramped reality where traditions dictated their everyday life, even if they were outdated or discriminating, rather than questioning the nature behind them and standing up against it.

Before he could even grasp the dimension of the damage all of that had caused him, people had already labeled his case as “a spoiled brat’s tantrum” and forced him to deal with it, but it was hard to give a proper fight when, even the victims of such a reality, didn’t want to acknowledge their position.

Leona had no intention to make things work with a person that didn’t take him seriously. 

Ever since his overblot episode, Leona had been waking up with terrible headaches most days. According to the nurse in charge of his rehabilitation, it was just another side effect of the stress his body had accumulated, but that day in particular the pain was so bad he could barely gather the strength to open his eyelids. And to make things worse, he was woken up by a certain hyena’s yelling.

“Leonaaa, wake up already. You have visits!” Ruggie called from behind his bedroom door.

Leona buried himself deeper into his sea of pillows in hopes that the hyena would eventually go away if he didn’t reply.

“Oi, wake up!” Ruggie called again, this time more impatiently.

During the next five minutes the high-pitched voice tortured his ears and brain, breaking his patience until he had no choice but to accept his fate.

“I’m up, okay?! What the hell d’you want now?” Leona growled back.

Still struggling to keep the balance, Leona got out of bed and walked toward the door, only opening it enough to see Ruggie’s face.

“Great, now come out. You have visits," Ruggie demanded.

“What the h–let go!” 

Despite his headache, Leona couldn’t help yelling when, all of a sudden, Ruggie took him by the braids to force him to follow after him.

“No, I’ve been calling you for ten minutes and I'm not letting you go now. I don’t know what you did now to make him come, but make sure you take it outside if things get ugly between you two, okay? I don’t have time to clean up after you," Ruggie said.

“Him? Who are you talking about?” Leona frowned.

“Malleus Draconia," Ruggie replied.

“What the hell does he want now?” Leona scowled and Ruggie’s response to that was a shrug.

“I don’t know what he wants but make sure to not cause me any trouble, Leona, I’m serious here–” But before Ruggie could finish lecturing him, Leona was out of his sight.

As soon as Leona entered the main lobby he was greeted by the sight of the Diasomnia housewarden sitting comfortably in one of their chairs, and everyone who happened to be there left the moment his feet crossed the threshold.

“Draconia,” Leona called in a demanding tone.

“Good afternoon, Kingscholar,” Malleus said, his expression completely neutral, “I apologize for the sudden intrusion, but I was recently notified that we are assigned together for a project which I hadn’t heard about. Care to explain?”

“I've got nothing to tell you. I’m not planning on teaming up with you,” Leona explained, crossing his arms defensively.

“I see," Malleus replied.

“Is that all?” Leona urged.

“No. I was told by Crewel to do whatever it takes to convince you. He also said he’ll expect the two of us to put on a presentation or he’ll make us fail this term,” Malleus added, “Furthermore, I think it would be a good idea if we could arrange scheduled meetings according to our available time. Although I may not have much time in my hands, we can–” 

“Hold it right there,” Leona cut him off, “Did you not hear what I just said? I don’t care about what that old man said, I’m not doing this."

“So you don’t mind falling behind another term?” Malleus inquired.

“That’s not happening either."

“So you have another plan in mind? If that’s the case I’ll have to report this to Crewel so he can set me up with another partner,” Malleus said.

“That’s not happening either,” Leona said, “That would only make things more of a hassle.”

“Well, if I’m not mistaken, the only one who doesn’t want to do the work here is you," Malleus replied.

“You think you’re being very funny, huh?” Leona moved to one of the sofas and let his back fall back against it.

Once again, there was no response from Malleus. Instead the fae simply focused on observing him in silence like some sort of experiment.

“Stop doing that," Leona demanded and Malleus promptly snapped out of his thoughts.

“Excuse me?” 

“You keep looking at me like I’m some sort of creature," Leona explained

“Are you not?"

At that moment, the only thing that kept Leona from jumping away from his seat and digging his claws on the boy’s throat was the thought that Ruggie would, most certainly, not leave him alone the rest of the day, making him pay for it by destroying his ears.

“Every time you open your stupid mouth I keep getting surprised at how dumb you can be,” Leona growled, “Whatever. I’ll agree to doing the project with you if that gets you out of here sooner."

“Excellent. Shall we set up a few meetings, then?” Malleus replied.

Leona let out a long, tired sigh, and closed his eyes before returning a distressed, “Whatever." 

But instead of discussing what they were supposed to do, the room fell into the most annoying silence Leona could imagine. But what aggravated it the most was that Malleus kept staring at him like a painting on the wall until he got bored and moved on to examining the room.

Leona observed quietly as the fae walked around the place. The way he curiously traced his fingers over the top of the shelves or how one he stopped to admire one of the decorations his brother had sent him as a Christmas gift that, for some tasteless reason, Ruggie insisted they should keep, somehow reminded him of a child.

The day had barely just started and Leona was already wishing it would end. Malleus had had the worst timing possible in coming to his dorm on that day, and, whatever he had in mind by doing this, Leona couldn't care less. In fact, he wanted the man out of his territory and, if possible, out of his life as well. 

Without giving it much thought, Leona retrieved his magical pen from one of his pockets completely ignoring the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be using magic outside of classes. Once he had his target, the vase Malleus had looked so fascinated with, secured, he used a little of his signature spell to turn it to sand and send it flying straight to his face.

For a brief moment, Leona rejoiced in the idea of seeing the other housewarden’s mouth and eyes being filled with sand. However, despite his childish demeanor, Malleus was more alert than Leona had imagined, and, instead of that, the pile of dust froze in place and fell into the floor with a dry motion without even getting close to him.

"My, you really are immature," Malleus said. 

Despite him keeping an even tone to speak, some of the irritation that made him feel still managed to seep through his facial gestures.

“No wonder people avoid your sour ass like the plague," Leona retorted.

Even though his plan had failed, Leona still got the pleasure of seeing Malleus’s annoyed face, so he would do anything in his power to make him feel even worse.

“Shall we get back to business?” Malleus said through gritted teeth.

“What’s the hurry?” Leona smirked.

“I’d rather not be held responsible for whatever happens to this place if I have to put up with your behavior any further,” Malleus replied.

“Is that a threat?” Leona replied with a scowl, “I wouldn’t be so confident if I were you. I’ll remind you neither you nor your herbivores are welcome here.”

“Very well, I won’t intrude your territory any further, so I’ll leave as soon as we settle on a date,” Malleus conceded.

“Took you long enough.” Leona scoffed.

After they discussed their subject, and since neither Malleus nor Leona had much difficulty with potionology, the two agreed that they could just get it done one week before the presentation, so that, in the meantime, they wouldn’t have to see each other anymore.

Two weeks had passed since that encounter, and, even though Leona still had to share a few classes with him, as long as they kept a decent amount of distance from each other, he was able to manage it and, sometimes, even forget about his existence. 

On the other hand, the rumor about Malleus visiting Savanaclaw had spread all over school already, and with that, Leona had to deal with strangers bringing up his overblot while they gossiped behind his back until they got bored and moved on instead.

In order to avoid any more unpleasant situations, Leona had decided not to leave the dorm that Sunday and simply relied on Ruggie to get his food or anything else he might need like usual. But, once noon arrived, Leona came out of his room to find the hyena, only to find him playing with a pair of freshmen.

“Hey Jack, check this out," Ruggie said.

Despite the hot weather, the group had decided to spend their free time practicing some tricks for their Spelldrive team under the scorching sun. Lately, Leona noticed, the pair had become significantly closer to the point they no longer jumped at each other’s throats all the time, and, for his part, Leona was just relieved that Ruggie had found another person in the dorm to spend his time with instead of chasing after him all day.

There was also the case of that other ambitious freshman from Pomefiore that kept coming over to play with them. 

Despite the boy’s clear admiration for his fellow teammates, and his high spirited personality, kids were just not Leona’s thing. His relationship with Cheka being a big proof of that. 

Compared to his nephew though, he didn’t mind the Pomefiore student’s presence at all. He even found himself indulging him in a match every now and then to teach him and Jack new things. And, every time he did so, Leona ended up lamenting the waste of potential Epel was by being assigned to a dorm where their housewarden didn’t even know how to hold a disk.

It was yet another reminder that this world didn’t care about talent and hard work.

“Good evening Leona-senpai," Epel said from under one of the tree’s shadows.

“Hey kiddo, won’t your housewarden yell at you for being out in the sun?” Leona said, but all the purple haired boy had to say was an uninterested shrug.

“Came here to play?” Ruggie jumped in once he noticed his presence.

“Oh, Leona. We were practicing some tricks, do you want to join us?” Jack spoke.

“Please join us! It’s been a while since we trained together," Epel insisted.   

“Sure. But I’ll join you after I get something to eat.” Leona replied, throwing a glance in Ruggie’s direction.

“What, now? Sheesh, fine. But I’ll get something for me too,” Ruggie replied.

Some minutes later, Ruggie abandoned the group to get their food and Leona took a seat in one of the chairs to watch the pair play.

"Thank you for training with us senpai," Jack said, "It's very rare for you to agree to join us but I'm glad you did,"

"Hmm I didn’t want you two to drag the rest of the team with those mediocre skills," Leona replied.

"Nah, I think Jack's right, though. I mean, I didn’t know much about you before coming here, but lately you look a lot more like the player Jack always talks so highly about," Epel said before choking on his bottle of water when his friend gave him a nudge on the stomach, "Uh, ah, sorry if that was weird. I really appreciate you for letting me hang around here so I guess what I mean is, uh–" 

But suddenly Epel's voice was cut off by the weight of a familiar hand resting over the top of his head.

"Whatever. The very least I expect from you two coming here is that you learn how to defend yourselves properly," Leona changed the subject.

Despite his responsibilities as a housewarden, Leona had never seen much point in worrying about the future of his students. In fact, sometimes he could barely believe that most of them were worth that much save for a few exceptions. It wasn't as though he would be around to see them change, either way. So, instead, he lived by the idea that, as long as they learnt how to fend for themselves, his job there was done.

That being said, Leona took his hand away from the Pomefiore student’s head and started to walk back towards the field’s changing rooms to get ready for their match.

For months, Leona had tried to avoid replying to the hundreds of unopened letters he got from his brother every month asking him about his plans for the future or about his current situation. He simply believed it was none of his business, but, even if it were, there was nothing Leona felt like reporting to him. 

Even though he believed that thinking about such things was a waste of his time, it was not something he could just stop doing. Every waking moment, the idea of building himself a future where he had to accept his role as the second-to-none made him feel disgusted at himself, which ended up making him make all of his decisions based on that. 

That’s why, whatever offers his brother or the school tried to make him, even if he had to accept any of them in the end, they still made him feel like stepping inside a cage of misery and shame.

Malleus never had dreams. Staying up until later and having to attend classes in the morning just didn’t leave him enough time to do so.

Although he had tried changing his nocturnal habits during the first year at school, nothing had seemed to work. And, in the end, Lilia became an addict of online games, and Malleus became the source of all the rumors about a mythical creature roaming around campus at night. Even so, no rumor was enough to stop him from admiring the ruins at Ramshackle’s dorm with a never ending wonder every night. 

As he strolled through Diasomnia’s halls that night, Malleus noticed a loud chatter coming from one of the common areas. And, upon entering the room, he saw at first glance what looked like Silver attempting to help Sebek with his homework and not slaughtering him in the process. 

Although it wasn’t odd for them to be awake at such high hours of the night, Malleus didn’t remember ever seeing them cramming their duties at the last minute. Those two were very diligent in every aspect of their lives, after all.

“Sebek, if you don’t understand this there’s no way you’ll get the rest done. It only gets more complex from here so pay attention," Silver commanded.

“Don’t treat me like a kid, Silver. I just missed a bit of the explanation because of those two unruly Heartslabyul students who kept distracting the entire class," He argued with a deep frown.

Being met with Sebek’s usual hotheadedness, Silver could only let out a heavy sigh in response.

“Whatever, just focus on this so I can go back to sleep,"

“How kind of you to give up your sleep to help a friend, Silver," Malleus spoke at last, making his presence known.

But despite his good intentions, the two students were quickly startled by his appearance, making them almost jump out of their seats.

“Malleus-sama!” Silver said.

“Good evening, my liege. I apologize for the disturbance," Sebek’s body tensed into a perfect stillness.

“Oh, I apologize for the interruption. I just saw you two studying and I got curious,” Malleus explained. “So you got distracted by students of other dorms?”

“It’s nothing my liege should preoccupy himself with. I promise to not let it happen again," Sebek reassured.

“I saw you hanging out with that troublesome pair and other freshmen a couple of times, though," Silver added.

“I was not doing anything of the sort. They just…happened to be around," Sebek refuted. 

“That’s a shame. It will be too hard to make friends for you if you keep being so stubborn," Silver replied.

“E-excuse me? You are in no position to talk to me like that when–”

“Oh boy, why so loud? The rest of the dorm will complain later," A fourth voice chimed in, cutting Sebek off at the middle of the sentence.

Even though Lilia was hardly an irritable person, everyone knew that it was better to not unleash his anger at all, thus the two boys finally stopped arguing as soon as they saw him enter the room, and uttered a prompt apology.

“Good. So what were you talking about?” Lilia asked curiously and took a seat on one of the nearby couches.

“They were saying something about Sebek’s new friends," Malleus replied, joining him on the opposite chair.

“Then, what are all of those textbooks for?” Lilia inquired.

“I…was asking Silver for some help with my assignments," Sebek stammered.

“Oh!” Lilia suddenly gasped. The realization of something only he could understand glimmering in his eyes, “So you finally reached your rebellious phase? Ah, youth is such a nice thing,” He giggled.

Malleus couldn’t follow much of the conversation but still found himself fascinated with it. It had been a while since the four of them were reunited like this after all.

“N-no, that’s not what happened," Sebek corrected.

“Why do you look so happy with this, Lilia?” Malleus questioned.

“Oh, just because,” Lilia explained, “I for one am glad you’re making friends, Sebek. But if that’s getting in the way of your studies too much you should probably take a break from seeing them until you catch up with your assignments," He advised.

“Yes, sir. I promise not to involve myself with filthy humans and to not stain your names with my carelessness," Sebek replied.

“Now, now, don’t be like that. I never said you shouldn’t make friends. Otherwise what would be the purpose of your coming here?” Lilia sighed, “The same goes for a certain someone…” He then said under his breath.

Totally oblivious to it, Malleus had soon enough forgotten all about his plans to visit Ramshackle and made himself comfortable to hear the other three chat.

"What about you Malleus? Aren't you usually out parading around the campus at this hour?" Lilia pointed.

"I was about to visit the gargoyles when I ran into these two," Malleus explained, crossing one leg over the other.

"There you go again with the gargoyles,” Lilia sighed, "Oh, right. How about Leona-kun? Has his hand healed?" 

The vice housewarden’s perceptiveness was not to not be taken lightly. The sudden change in topic took Malleus by surprise. As much as he was used to Lilia’s unpredictability, he couldn't have imagined he would bring up that topic. Especially the moment he'd finally managed to forget about it. 

"He looked better the last time I saw him," Malleus replied vaguely.

“You’ve been seeing each other? Is this perhaps the beginning of a new friendship?” Lilia raised his eyebrows.

“Is that true, Malleus?,” Silver asked, “But what about what happened in October?”

“Hmm I get where you're coming from, Silver. But aren't people constantly evolving? Perhaps the lion prince has finally gotten out of his high horse," Lilia said.

“I don't think that's how he sees me, though," Malleus replied with a pensive look on his face.

“Is that so?” Lilia assured. “In that case, make sure to invite Leona-kun some other time again, ok? That way you two will get closer.,"

“W-wait! Are we sure you are okay with letting that arrogant human come here?," Sebek questioned.

Both Silver and Lilia seemed to agree to it, though. Especially after seeing their housewarden’s beaming face. 

“Ok, boys. Let this old man help you with those assignments so we can go to bed already," Lilia suggested, changing the topic once again.

Upon entering the classroom, the history teacher announced he would be needing a couple of minutes to set up the equipment he would need and the classroom became filled with the energetic chatter of other students.

For his part, Leona decided this was the perfect chance to make himself comfortable and fall asleep over his desktop without being noticed among all the chaos.

Sleeping in a classroom was nowhere near as comfortable and easy as falling asleep in a place like his bed or the greenhouse, thus it would take him some time before his consciousness drifted off. Still, before that could happen, his ears perked up at the sudden mention of his name.

"I'm sorry gentlemen, but there seems to be a problem with the equipment and I'll need one of you to assist me by bringing another one from the library,” The professor spoke up, "Kingscholar, I'm sure you won't mind doing it, right?"

Without getting any room to refuse, Leona raised his head from between his arm pillow and stood up from his seat. Given how bad his relationship with the current teacher was, the lion didn't even bother arguing and, instead, he walked out of the classroom carrying the broken device in his hands.

The library was expected to be a quiet place so the door always remained closed. Leona had a talent to make himself invisible, though, so he didn’t have any difficulty walking inside without making his presence known to the librarian ghosts. He left the equipment on one of the study desktops for someone to pick it up later and kept walking straight.

Although he normally didn’t frequent that area of the school, Leona made it a point to keep a mental list of all the best napping spots on campus just in case. Turns out, the school’s library happened to have a place like that hidden behind the long hallways filled with books and documents. 

One of the reasons this particular spot qualified for a perfect sleeping area was because of how abandoned it was. Even though the staff still took care of cleaning it every now and then, that place barely hosted any students after the school decided to build more and better places to hang out outside of classes.

Upon reaching the last bookshelf in the section he wandered in, Leona took one last glance behind his shoulder to make sure there were no people around before entering the abandoned area, and proceeded to find the best couch to sleep on. 

In the end, the spot he decided on was the one closest to the window where some of the morning sunshine still passed through. Feeling that warmth against his skin, Leona didn’t wait too long before his senses started to fade as his mind became more quiet.

All of a sudden, a strong and familiar scent reached his nose, making him open his eyes once again to inspect the area once again only to find the source of it standing right in front of him.

“Oh, did I interrupt something?” Malleus spoke.

"What do you want?" Leona said.

“I woke up late today so I decided to pass the time here until the next period. I never imagined someone else knew of this place," He explained.

"I have the impression you have been saying that to me a lot lately," Leona scoffed.

"Hmm. In any case, what’s your reason for being here?" 

"The exact opposite of you. Since I woke up early to go to class, I'm now making up for my lost hours of sleep," Leona said, turning his back to the fae in an attempt to fall asleep.

"Won't the teacher notice you're gone?" Malleus inquired.

Leona shrugged his shoulders at that, "He made the mistake of expecting me to come back in the first place." 

It seemed his response was satisfactory enough though, since he felt the other housewarden's presence getting further from him, and he suddenly stopped making questions. So, as soon as everything became quiet, Leona went back to sleep.

One last thought  popped into his head, though. It was hard to ignore that this wasn’t the first time Malleus skipped class for something like that, but that was not what bothered him at all. Instead, it was the entire school’s attitude towards it.

Sure, Leona was able to get away with it if he was clever enough, but Malleus most certainly didn’t even need to try, and he had seen it many times to know it. No teacher or student dared scold him or go look after him all around campus when he skipped classes, sometimes for weeks on a row.

Although he did get a sense of familiarity when he remembered that living in a place where people dreaded your existence so much that they would prefer acting like you weren’t even there in the first place wasn’t easy at all.

Unfortunately, he was already used to falling asleep with those kinds of thoughts looming over his head.

Malleus had lied to Leona. Although the part where he fell asleep that morning was true, the part where he skipped class and went to the library to kill time had been an innocent way to hide the truth from the lion. He had intended to come clean about it later, though. Even if that never happened.

What really happened was that, as soon as he was about to reach the classroom, Malleus noticed the Savanaclaw housewarden walking out of it, and, before he knew it, the teacher was asking him to follow after him to make sure he actually came back. 

But once Leona turned his back to him, Malleus realized it would be more bothersome to actually convince him to come back than to just let it be and let him deal with the consequences later. So he took the other man’s actions as his way of not consenting to go back to class and decided to act accordingly by letting him sleep alone.

The one lie he didn’t have an explanation for was the one he told the teacher later, though. One about the lion feeling badly and asking him to bring back the equipment while he stopped by the nurse’s office. But before he realized what he had done, the teacher was dismissing him back to his seat with a satisfied look on his face.

Despite the difference in the way time passed for his kind compared to how humans experienced it, Malleus noticed that the class had felt shorter than usual that day. Maybe because he kept thinking about his lie for the entirety of it and paid almost no attention to the teacher’s explanation. So he was surprised when the bell rang and the students around him had already left the classroom.

So once he finished putting his things away, Malleus walked out of the classroom and went back to the library to find Leona, who, as expected, was still sleeping in the same position he had left him in, totally unfazed by the world moving around him.

Since he had already taken the trouble to go all the way back there, Malleus decided to stay until the end of the break.

He took a look around the space to find something to do and noticed some old board games resting in one of the shelves, and soon after taking one out, he started setting up a chess board over the coffee table in front of the couch where Leona was sleeping and started playing by himself.

During the next half hour, Malleus’s entire focus was directed at moving the pieces one after the other, taking his time to think about his next move and then switching sides. At some point, the body laying in the background had shuffled around and now Leona was observing his game in silence.

"Mmm not bad, lizard," Leona spoke up at last.

It took Malleus a moment to become aware of the lion’s presence and raise his sight from the pieces. Before he could reply, Leona’s fingers were stretching out to reach one piece and move it around, changing the direction of the game entirely without his consent.

“But doing this instead is more efficient," He then said.

Although he didn’t appreciate the lion’s intrusion, he couldn’t say he minded the company. Especially since he wasn’t a big fan of playing chess, much less on his own. So he made his move in silence.

For a long time it was just them and the board. Malleus could count the number of times he’d been so immersed in something with the fingers of one hand, and playing chess with the housewarden of Savanaclaw was one of those. 

Trying to match Leona’s pace was so entertaining to him that he forgot many times about the rules of the game, finding himself on the edge of making a deadly mistake in front of his rival. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t feel bad about losing the match, even if the lion kept booking at him with an air of superiority that made him want to blow some hot air into his face.

“So you do know how to have fun," Leona teased.

“And it seems you are capable of putting in the effort, too," Malleus sneered, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Well, only when my opponent is taking it seriously," He shrugged.

“Are you trying to imply something?” Malleus said.

“No. I don’t imply things, I just tell them how they are.”

Malleus gave him an annoyed look, “It seems it takes more than a humiliation to get rid of your arrogant character." 

“Hah, that was hardly an humiliation. Not that people like you could understand," Leona frowned.

“That’s right. That’s the kind of person you are, after all."

Although that last part was spoken out loud, Malleus didn’t really intend for Leona to hear it, thus he lowered his voice accordingly. But even if the lion had managed to hear it, he didn’t make any commentaries about it. 

"I shall take my leave,” Malleus spoke again after an interval of silence, “I do hope you will play with me again." 

But even though he had expected the lion to reject his proposal without even considering it, he was surprised when the other didn’t argue and instead replied with a,

“I hope you play better than this the next time.”

Chapter Text

Falling asleep had never been hard for him before. Not even when his brother ascended to the throne or when Cheka was born. No, those days were the ones he had wanted to sleep the most, and so he did.

That night, every time Leona closed his eyes his mind was flooded with images of a chess board, long fingers and an annoying smile. No matter what position he tried to put himself into, the memories of his chess game with Malleus always found a way to keep him awake.

It was addictive. In his mind, the more Leona pushed, the more Malleus seemed to enjoy it. Even if in reality it was nothing more than a game of chess, the intent of Malleus's play had done more than enough to awaken some sparkle of motivation in him, which, reasonably enough, made him feel furious with himself.

Malleus was not the most sensitive person in the world, yet he still somehow managed to make Leona’s devious mind feel challenged, and, playing with someone who took him seriously, even if they lost in the end, was the closest the lion had felt to being known. 

Suddenly, the words Idia had told him about finding a worthy opponent a few weeks ago resounded in his mind and Leona couldn't believe someone as socially inept as him could be so right. It was a hard truth to conceal, but, even after going through all those lengths in life, the one thing he was looking for all the time was hiding in front of his eyes.

Too tired to keep arguing with his own thoughts, the beastman reached out to retrieve his phone from his bedside table and searched for a simple distraction that helped him forget about all of it. Even though he had never been too interested in using his magicam account, he opened the application without giving it much thought and started scrolling through it. It had been many years since he first opened his own account but still never made any posts on it. In fact, he found the thing so uninteresting that he had only bothered to follow a few counted people, and because of that, he found himself running out of new content to see rather fast and soon the oldest posts he had missed on had started to show up.

The first one was a picture from his sister in law celebrating Halloween with Cheka, the very thing he wanted to avoid seeing. Quickly scrolling to the next post, a picture posted by Vil popped up, making him immediately stop. Just like the previous picture, this one was also dated from a few weeks back during Halloween. Leona remembered the exact moment they had taken that picture, Vil had insisted that he wanted a picture with both the housewarden of Savanaclaw as well as the housewarden of Diasomnia showing off their costumes. 

In the end, Malleus agreed to it and the actor managed to make Leona strike a pose as well.

All things considered, the picture was a good one. This was his first time seeing the final product, though. The blonde had warned him that he would be posting it on his social media, but the lion had many other things in his mind at the moment so he never really took the time to check it out. 

In all his four years of school, Leona didn’t remember taking many pictures of himself or with others. Just enough to have something to look back on in the future. But, even though his relationship with these two people was as good as it would get, there was something appealing about it, so much so that he considered asking the model to send him a copy later.

Leona ended up falling asleep a lot later than expected after that, and as a result, it took more than fifteen minutes of Ruggie yelling his name and many snoozed alarms for him to wake up the next morning. 

Even though nobody had asked him, the hyena had gone out of his way to do everything possible to get him up on time for his study session with Malleus. It wasn't as if Leona wouldn't show up at all, though. He’d planned to arrive just on time to find the fae already having started their work. 

Still, as he got up and started to get dressed, Leona suddenly realized that there was no reason at all for Ruggie to care so much about it in the first place. But before he could get the chance to question him, the Hyena had left the room, only to come back minutes later with company by his side.

"You’d better be ready, Leona. We're coming in," Ruggie announced, pushing the door wide open, "Sorry but I couldn’t risk anyone seeing Malleus here again. Okay, my job is done, I’ll be taking my leave.”

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Leona scowled, halfway through putting some pants on when he noticed the fae’s presence lurking behind the hyena, "Why did you bring him in here?!"

"Why are you blaming me? This gu-uh, Malleus suddenly showed up at our dorm again! You two should be thankful nobody but me was awake to see it," Ruggie complained and Leona clicked his tongue in response, still annoyed that he’d let the other housewarden walk into his bedroom so deliberately and finally let the hyena take his leave.

Despite having just intruded into someone else’s room, nothing about Malleus’s demanor indicated that he felt out of place being there which made Leona feel even more disturbed. Even while in his laboratory uniform on a Saturday morning and waiting for Leona to finish waking up, the man still managed to wear a blank expression.

“Shall we get started now?” Malleus chased straight to the point.

But before uttering any response, Leona sighed trying to come to terms with the situation he had been thrown into and reached for his own laboratory clothes, eager to go out and get some fresh air once and for all.

“Yes, the sooner we start working on this, the sooner I can get rid of your ugly face, ” Leona replied, expecting at least a little show of annoyance from the fae.

“The topic for the assignment is the role of natural steroids in other forms of life," Malleus replied instead, “And our theme is fairy dust."

“You don’t say,” Leona replied sarcastically, "So what are we supposed to do with that?"

“I took the freedom to list some samples we could make use of for the presentation,” Malleus explained, “We should go to the laboratory and see if we can find them first.”

“Fine…I hope you know what you are doing,” Leona said.

“Of course,” Malleus replied with a satisfied grin.

After they finished discussing their plans for the day, the two housewardens left the room and walked towards the school’s laboratory trying to keep a decent amount of distance from each other. 

As expected of his luck, Leona soon noticed that every student they passed stopped and stared at the pair of white robed students.To make things worse, as soon as they reached the laboratory and started searching for the materials, Malleus announced that some of them were missing and their brief appearance in public turned into a whole morning of parading around the school grounds together to get their hands on the things they needed for whatever experiment Malleus had in mind until, somewhere around noon, the lion grew tired of it and decided to take a break even though the fae was dead set on continuing their work. 

Watching Malleus work on his end of things was the most exasperating thing Leona had to deal with in his whole life. For starters, the man liked to take his time with each step and measure every ingredient at least five times before adding it to the blend. Sometimes, the lion wondered if he was even aware that they were on a deadline but opted to keep his mouth shut about it for the sake of not adding more stress.

Another thing he didn’t appreciate in the least was the boy’s habit of snooping around his own work and constantly reminding him to do things he had already taken care of or telling him things he already knew like he was some kind of inexperienced child. Although more often than not, Leona could tell that he was only doing it out of concern given how delicate the materials they were using were, he couldn’t help lashing out at him.

Because of their difference in personality and temperament, as well as their lack of communication, the amount of work they could get done within the next three days of working together turned out to be a lot less than what Leona had imagined at first. And, because of this, Leona soon started to grow impatient and decided to take in more of the work for himself in order to get some progress done. In the end, what Leona thought would be a few hours long project became a nearly whole week of coming back to his dorm and scratching at its walls after every meeting with Malleus until they finally got it over with. 

For the last task in their list, Leona was in charge of writing the report for the samples Malleus was tasked to assemble. Fortunately, deciding who would take on which part of the job wasn’t difficult at all. In fact, Leona knew from the very beginning that he would take care of gathering the information and bibliography, being what he did best and all.

As much as it hurt his pride to admit it, and despite the shortcomings they had in the process, being partnered with Malleus had been a lot less dreadful than what he pictured the moment Crewel announced it to him. Compared to most of the herbivores in their class, Malleus’s experience and common sense made up for all the other things he lacked and it also made him a trustworthy person.

The subject ended up being interesting, too. Although he had done a fair amount of research on fairy dust in the past and thus assumed the assignment would bore him out of his mind, Malleus had managed to find a different way of approaching it that Leona wasn’t all that familiar with and accomplished to give him a new experience in a world he had long assumed had nothing new to offer.

Among all the types of fairy dust nature had to offer, the one that the pair ended up choosing for their assignment was the blue type. Due to its ancient legacy but also mysterious rarity, it made for the perfect topic to lead a research on. Even though the methods to obtain it were a lot less nice than the common types, Leona wouldn’t let any chance at learning something new pass by.

Overblot waste. According to what Malleus had previously explained to him, it was through the catalyzing of this dangerous element along with the application of other things present in nature like tree sap that one could obtain the much sought after blue fairy dust. Compared to the other types of dust most fairies fabricated, this one had an artificial origin and it couldn’t just be found laying around in the woods.

But once the end product was in their hands, Leona realized he had more questions than answers about it. Because of the lack of information existing when it came to overblot, it was hard to imagine what kind of motivations could lead a person to experience with the remains of blot other than to dispose of the toxic waste. 

Perhaps he would get the chance to ask his fellow housewarden Idia Shroud more about it one day. Even if he intended to keep it a secret, Leona didn’t need to do any research to tie the third year’s last name to the mysterious STYX organization that, as far as he’s heard, played some important role in the investigation of blot. But, in order to keep his head attached to his body, he would have to wait until a good chance presented itself to reveal how much he knew about it to him.

The day of the presentation quickly arrived and the classroom became a mess of students rushing to fix last minute issues with their work or reviewing their memo cards to make sure nothing escaped their memory first thing in the morning.

Leona and Malleus were sitting each on their own desk, quietly waiting for the class to start. Their efforts to split the information each had to learn had been futile at best. Every time one asked for a part, the other rejected it, so, in the end, the closer they got to prepare a presentation was agreeing that whoever got to speak first would get the benefit of saying the things they thought were more interesting and leave the rest to the other.

It wouldn’t be too hard to do, Leona believed. As long as they could keep their complaints about the other to themselves, the rest was just simply repeating the information they already knew.

“Good morning everyone," Crewel said upon making his entrance, “Today’s finally the day I get to see the beautiful works of art I’m sure you prepared. To make things more fair I’ll make one member of each group draw a number to set an order for the exhibition."

Nobody in the room made an effort to hide the lack of enthusiasm. Everyone had already felt rather disappointed at not being able to choose their partner thus the least they expected was for the teacher to set a fair order instead of leaving things to luck.

Leaving the fae to do the job of retrieving a number was a good choice at least. Malleus ended up drawing the last number and seemed rather content with it to which Leona had nothing to complain about.

“I’m going to sleep now, wake me up before it’s our turn," Leona said.

But it only took half a second before he was interrupted by the fae again, this time nearly giving him a stroke when he saw him scoop next to him in his seat.

“What are you doing?” Leona complained.

“Crewel said we should sit in groups to make things easier," Malleus explained and Leona could swear he saw his lips make a satisfied grin.

“Tch. At least show some manners and leave me some personal space, will you?”

But despite his complaints, Leona could still feel Malleus' presence too close for his taste which made any attempts at getting any precious sleep futile. In the end, he only managed to keep his eyes closed and doze off to the voices in the background and fae’s strong scent of fresh earth mixed with something sweet, unknown to the lion’s taste buds.

Some hours later, Leona was brought back to the present with a gentle tug of his shirt that no other herbivore would have noticed and found Malleus standing up, readying himself to walk in front of the class first and get the first word to himself.

Soon realizing that the fae had no intention to put any effort in waking him up in the first place, Leona jumped out of his seat and walked all the way to board through the opposite side of the classroom as fast as he could without looking too dumb.

"Okay, next up we have Draconia and Kingscholar. I’ve been eagerly waiting to see what you have prepared," Crewel smiled pleased. 

After a brief roll of his eyes, Leona stood in front of the class at the same time Malleus did. Compared to how much of a ruckus the students caused in between presentations, as soon as the teacher announced the next expositors, the room went dead quiet.

“It’s okay, you can start now," Crewel motioned with his hand.

Using the intimidated looks everyone was giving the fae as an excuse, Leona placed his hand on the back of Malleus’ arm to let him know he would be going first and took a few steps forward, earning the entire class’s attention.

With a satisfied grin, Leona cleared his throat and started reciting his self-proclaimed part of the presentation. Although he tried to keep it simple so Malleus could go further into detail later with the demonstration, it was evident that the other housewarden was not happy at all with it, but he continued doing it anyway.

After giving a brief preview of what they worked in, explaining the process and going through other more bibliographical facts, Leona decided that was enough for him.

“For the next part my partner will go further into detail by presenting the samples we collected as evidence," Leona said and took a couple of steps back.

They only had fifteen minutes left before their time was up but, as expected, Malleus didn’t experience any trouble adjusting himself to match the lion’s presentation and immediately picked up from where he’d left off, smoothly picking the samples one after the other and explaining them to the class. 

Lost in his own thoughts, mostly because of how bored he was getting waiting in silence behind his partner’s back, Leona suddenly snapped out of his daze when he saw the fae pull out one extra sample from inside the box they’d prepared that he had never seen before.

“We have prepared one last demonstration to give the class a better look at what happens in each stage of the application of blue fairy dust," Malleus said. 

All of a sudden, the tension that had somehow started to dissipate came back. Not only the students had started to look at each other with doubt, but even Leona couldn’t help wondering what this was all about.

“Uh, Draconia? Can you please explain what this is about?” Crewel asked nervously.

“I will be using this insect type known as grape berry moth, whose appearance is similar to the common type of moths, to show how each dose of blue fairy dust affects their metabolism. In this case, I picked an old specimen so that even those changes beyond the physical limits are visible to us," Malleus introduced the insect he was now holding in the palm of his hand.

A thousand questions popped into Leona’s brain. Why would he pick that insect of all things? What was he hoping to gain from doing this? Was it even safe? But before either him or Crewel had time to ask any questions, Malleus sprinkled some of the blue dust he kept inside a phial.

It didn’t take Leona to see what kind of expressions everyone was wearing to know the entire class was frozen with fear. All except for himself, who very much wanted to see what kind of idiotic prank the fae was trying to pull, were ready to jump out of their seats and leave the room, already sensing something bad would happen.

“Although it is not visible at simple sight, this short amount is already starting to take effect on its system,” Malleus said, and then sprinkled some more dust, “But after applying a second, more aggressive dose of the dust, we will start seeing the physical changes.”

The speed at which the magical powder had an effect on the insects body was something nobody would’ve anticipated, yet Malleus didn’t seem to bat an eye when the moth began growing in size within the grasp of his own palm at the pace he’d calculated beforehand.

“As we all know, the entire body of common-type fairies differs greatly from the human body. Every single bone and muscle, all of their systems, metabolism included, require a higher amount of energy to function accordingly, thus, the amount of dust sprinkled on this moth would not suffice to generate such a controversial change in their structure,” Malleus spoke, “That is the reason why I chose this insect as our experiment’s subject. Blue fairy dust is not easy to gather after all, and just this small amount was already hard enough to get our hands on.”

Making short pauses in between his speech, Malleus kept spreading more doses of the blue dust into the insect’s body, watching it grow bigger and bigger, even making the color of its wings change to a pale blue in the process. Despite how much his instinct told him not to trust the fae with it and to make him stop before Crewel gave them a bad grade, it was too hard to peel his eyes away from the magic unfolding before him.

Under any other circumstance, Leona would have never found the notion of size-changing magic interesting. He had seen and heard plenty of it during his lifetime, after all. But the way blue fairy dust worked was something beyond that simple effect. Not only did the moth in Malleus’s hand grow in size or change in appearance, but it also seemed to have become more energetic and strong in comparison to how weak and defenseless it was at the beginning. 

It was a very intriguing concept that neither of the other students seemed to have grasped as deeply as the lion had, but Leona couldn’t stop thinking of all the possibilities held within that type of magical element. Just how many lives could something like this change if used properly? What effects would it have on the human body? Could it really bring back to health any weak or aging body?

Many minutes went by until Malleus finally used the last remains of blue dust left on the phial. At that point, the moth had grown almost to the size of a pigeon and started flapping its wings all over the place, trying to escape from Malleus' hard grip.

Looking back at their teacher, Leona noticed all the color draining from Crewel’s face as he tried to get the class in order without causing alarm, as if he knew something about that experiment that the class should not hear about.

“Draconia, please kill that insect right now,” Crewel suddenly said.

Leona was promptly brought back to reality with those words. Even though he had never hesitated to kill a bug before, the way the older man spouted those words so coldly made the lion swallow hard, something similar to pity for the insect settling in his stomach. In the end, he couldn’t allow his own curiosity to extend any further and he soon drew out his magical pen, aiming it at the moth’s body, ready to turn it to sand.  

But just as if it had sensed the killing instinct coming from the beastman, the insect’s behaviour suddenly turned more aggressive and an unsettling noise, similar to a high-pitched scream, came out of its mouth. For only a second, Leona’s finger twitched and he had to steady himself once again, readjusting his aim. In the end, there was no need for him to do anything at all, though.

After noticing the insect’s disobedient behaviour, and watching it direct its rage at Leona, a deep frown settled in Malleus’ face and, with just a move of his lips, spouting some words nobody but him could hear, the insect became frozen in place and soon started to shrink back to its initial form until it died in Malleus’ hand.

There was a moment of stillness within the classroom before everyone, Crewel included, let out a relieved sigh.

"What a waste," Malleus said underneath his breath as he stared at the motionless body resting over his hand.

Soon after putting the remnants of the insect inside a jar, Malleus finally looked back at  Leona, only to find him staring back. He was completely unaware that the lion had been staring only at him for almost five minutes now.

Finally concluding with their presentation, the pair stepped away from the board and silently returned back to their places, each sitting at their own desk this time, and awaited for the final devolution from their teacher to come once the class was over. After two more groups gave their presentation, the bell finally rang and everyone started leaving the classroom, some of them faster than others, but both Malleus and Leona were the only ones who had to stay behind after Crewel’s voice cut through the classroom requesting that they talk to him before leaving.

“Is anything the matter, Professor Crewel?” Malleus asked once the two of them approached their desktop.

“Indeed there is, Draconia,” Crewel sighed, “First of all, let me ask you, Kingscholar, if you knew anything about that little act your partner just threw.”

“Can’t say I didn’t,” Leona lied.

“Is that so? I had the impression you were wiser than to allow something like this,” Crewel said, “In any case, I must educate my pups well so I won’t tolerate what you just did to pass unnoticed. What you displayed in front of the class today was very dangerous, lethal even, and scared the entire class to death. At the very least I hope you were aware of the extents this could have reached if Draconia had kept the insect to live after that.”

There was a silence between them as Leona waited for Malleus to reply for the two of them, considering how he had just lied about knowing what was happening.

“I do,” Malleus said, “I apologize for going overboard with the experiment, however, I don’t consider there was any possibility of damage involved. As you have seen, I was able to apprehend the moth just fine and also deal with it later.”

“Yes, that is correct. However, just because things went right this time, it doesn’t mean they couldn’t have ended in the worst case scenario. And need I remind you we are still inside a school where I am the teacher in charge of ensuring your well-being,” Crewel reprimanded, “That is why I won’t tolerate something like this to happen again, both during my class or outside of it. Is that clear?”

The two housewardens nodded.

“In order to make sure you have learnt your lesson, I’ll have each of you write an extra essay on the subject we learned last week and hand it to me before Friday,” The teacher said, “Even though I was positively impressed by your performance today, I can’t give it a good evaluation after what happened so I expect you to make up for that bad score with this.”

Everyone was already gone to their dorms by the time they escaped the professor's lecture. Leona still had no idea what to say or think about the situation as they walked through the hall in silence but everything looked a lot worse to him now that he had gotten punished for something he had had no participation in whatsoever.

To make things worse, Malleus looked like nothing had happened. The only reason why Leona had decided to take half of the blame in the matter was because, judging by the initial reaction from the teacher, he had a hunch Crewel would keep the more important details between himself and Malleus otherwise, so he had hoped to learn more about the effects of the blue fairy dust by joining the conversation.

In the end, things didn’t work out like he’d expected and he would have to learn more about it on his own. Even though he could still ask Malleus, chances were the fae wouldn’t tell him anything beyond what he’d already seen, seeing how he went out of his way to exterminate the insect before it let out more than he desired. Moreover, there was a big chance that he’d planned to kill the moth from the very beginning and the reason behind it had something to do with why he never told Leona about all of this in the first place.

Contrary to how other people behaved around Malleus, Leona never found anything scary or intimidating about him. Perhaps it had something to do with their similar status or it was just a matter of pride. As a matter of fact, there were times when the other’s indifference to any mortal being awakened a desire in him to unveil what was hiding underneath all those layers of mystery and silence and see if having all that power was really as good as he made it seem.

But Malleus seemed to be thinking of an entirely different matter and all of a sudden the expression in his face turned from a blank one to a full fledged, joyful smile. Leona was suddenly broken out of his line of thought and stopped in his tracks to look at him with a slight annoyed frown. 

“Is this funny to you?” Leona said.

“Ah, excuse me. By no means I intended to make fun of this situation,” Malleus replied, the long smile still stretching from each corner of his lips.

“Then what are you looking all delighted for?” 

“I simply enjoyed today’s class. Despite my initial concerns, your company for this assignment turned out to be most entertaining,” Malleus confessed.

“Can't’ say the same about you,” Leona scoffed, resuming his walk and getting a few steps ahead of Malleus.

“Is that so? I was under the impression that you were quite enjoying yourself back there. Your eyes never parted from my demonstration after all,” Malleus suggested.

“Of course I didn’t, you are too much of a menace to be left alone,” Leona replied, “I still can’t believe I got myself involved in this, too.”

“You are right. Although this project involved our joint participation, that last part was all on me to execute so I’m rather confused as to why you decided to take the blame as well,” Malleus mused, joining Leona on his walk a few centimeters behind.

“I had my reasons,” Leona said dismissively.

“I see. It still doesn’t bode well with me to let you take the responsibility, though. Please let me help you with the essay in return,” Malleus offered enthusiastically.

“Why on earth would I agree to working with you again?”

“I was just offering,” Malleus replied, “But if you don’t agree with it then I’ll have to think of some other way to pay you back.”

“No thank you. I already had enough of you for an entire lifetime. The greatest favor you could do me right now is leaving me alone,” Leona said in an annoyed tone.

“Very well,” Malleus said, suddenly turning to the right as soon as the road split, “I’ll leave you for now but I’m looking forward to our next meeting.”

And with those last words Leona watched the fae disappear into the crowd from the corner of his eye.

Chapter Text

Something reeked of bad news. Leona had yet to open his eyes that morning, but the familiar scent of someone he wasn't fond of had already made him awake. Dreading to meet the person waiting for him, the lion buried himself deeper below his comforter and turned around.

"We know you're awake, Leona," The familiar voice said.

"...”

"This is not how royalty is supposed to greet their visits, you know?" 

“You're not my visits and I'm not greeting you,” Leona spoke at last in a hoarse and tired voice.

There was a short and suspicious silence before the beast man could hear the voice say something like “Yes, you can go now,” through the pile of fabric covering his entire body.

All too suddenly, there was a small and heavy weight pressing against his chest accompanied by a pair of small hands that started tugging at his hair with a youthful and cheerful laugh. Gathering all the strength within his body to keep himself from sending the small creature flying to the other side of the room, the lion finally sat up and revealed his angry face to the pair waiting for him.

"What the HELL do you want now, Falena?" Leona scowled, eyes now wide open and fangs bared at the child that had been thrown into his bed, yet both the kid and his father did nothing but smile back at him.

"Good morning brother. We came to visit," Falena greeted.

"Hello unca!" Cheka spoke next, raising both of Leona's braids in the air and making his head tilt upwards.

"Why did you come? Is it not enough that I'm going home in a week?" Leona complained.

"That's why Cheka insisted on coming," The monarch explained, softly petting the head of his son. "He said he wanted to ride the…flying rug again. There’s that and some other business I had to attend to in the area."

"You've got the wrong person, then. Ask Ruggie to show you the way to Scarabia," Leona said.

"But I want to ride it with you, unca!" Cheka's loud voice rang through his ears making him let out a pained hiss.

"Get down! I don't have time to play today," Leona argued.

"But you're not doing anything right now unca Leona!" The child protested.

"Falena do something about your son," The housewarden ordered, hands busy trying to pull the kid away from pulling at his braids.

"I'm glad you two are getting closer," Falena smiled.

"Does this look like we are close to you?!" 

"I want to play spelldrive with you, unca!" The kid interrupted again.

"You can't do that Cheka. You're still too young," Falena ignored his younger brother’s demands to focus on his kid.

"That's not fair! If you don’t let me play spelldrive I’ll never become strong like my unca," The boy cried back.

“Hahaha you’ll never become strong at all if you keep crying like that, son," The monarch laughed,"How about we get something to eat first?”

Content with his father’s suggestion, the kid’s mouth quickly turned into a smile before he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a stomach rumbling coming from behind him.

“It seems your uncle liked the idea too," Falena pointed.

“No, I don’t," Leona replied.

“I want bacon!" Cheka said.

“Go get it, then. And don’t come back," Leona sneered, expressing the last words in a lower voice to avoid reaching the kid’s ears.

“Very well Cheka, let’s go find uncle’s friend Ruggie and ask him to show us around," Falena said cheerfully, then, “Perhaps we can get him to tell us a bit of how his studies have been going,"

Fully aware that this was his brother’s way of manipulating him to make him cooperate, Leona emerged out of the sea of sheets and pillows either way. If his brother were to find out about his poor grades things would get bad enough, but if Ruggie were to tell him about the little accident that Malleus caused in Crewel's class last week on top of that, then not even Leona could tell what his brother was capable of doing. 

Even though his time in Night Rave College wasn't the most fun experience he’d had in his life, and leaving aside the fact that he didn’t even need to be here in the first place, this was still a thousand times better than forcefully living in the shadows of someone he had absolutely no respect for.

"You really enjoy having things your own way," Leona said sarcastically while putting some clothes on,"I'll give you until noon and then I want you two out of here."

"Will you be playing with me?!" Cheka asked, eyes full of expectations, before his father could even utter a response to what Leona had said.

"Tch. Keep your greasy hands out of my hair." 

At this point Leona couldn't be bothered to hide the lack of excitement he was experiencing. On the other hand, his brother couldn't look more delighted to see everything was working according to his plans.

"Very well, brother. Let us go get something to eat before you two get to spend time together," Falena finally said.

"Don’t make it sound like I’m consenting to this," Leona complained but was once again ignored by the older man. 

During the half hour it took them to eat their breakfasts, Leona had to shove food down his throat to keep himself from yelling at his brother to shut up several times. Still, the two of them had had worse encounters in the past and Leona started to think that perhaps he'd either become more tolerant, albeit numb, of his brother’s overwhelming personality or Falena was just going easy on him that morning for some reason he ignored.

On the other hand, satisfying a young and spoiled kid like Cheka was a much more difficult endeavor. No matter how many yards his little legs ran or how many people he talked to, the kid always had more energy to keep going and Falena's presence made everything harder for him, too. Although Leona kept trying to run away or dump the kid with whoever poor soul crossed their way first, his brother was always a step ahead with his threats of paying a visit to the director Crowley and whatnot, not to mention he consented to each and every of his kid’s demands. 

Leona let out many tired sighs throughout the morning. Perhaps this visit was the universe’s way of making him pay for his deeds.

At some point of the day, the two brothers finally found some time to sit together as they watched over the kid playing soccer with some other students that happened to be in the middle of their training but didn’t hesitate to let a member of the royalty join them. Even though the little kid kept falling behind, his fascination didn’t decrease at all as he stubbornly chased after the ball.

"May I talk to you, brother?" Falena suddenly asked, his previous joyful smirk now fading back to the expression of the Sunset Savanna’s king.

"Do I have any other options?" Leona rolled his eyes, "Just make it quick."

"Very well. I'm worried about you, brother–I mean, I am always worried about your future and your well-being, but…" Leona witnessed his brother falter for the first time in his life, "A few months ago I had a certain dream about you. I can’t remember all the details but I do remember seeing your body laying on the floor and people screaming your name. As you realize, it was a very unsettling dream and it left a sour taste in my mouth ever since," The monarch paused, “I actually intended to visit sooner, but after seeing you were doing alright I told myself to trust more in you. Still, now that I’m here with you I wanted to remind you that you can speak to me about anything you need.”

Just like always, nothing escaped his brother’s grasp. Ever since Leona could remember, everyone in the kingdom adored him not only for his position of the first born but also for his charming personality. Or at least that’s what most people in the palace praised him for. In reality, Leona knew that the biggest reason why they were so pleased with him was because, just like his mother, aside from his very powerful magic, Falena had the ability to foresee the future through his dreams.

Compared to a spell that turned everything to sand, being able to predict the future and act accordingly was a more resourceful skill for a king to have.

"Is that so? I don't see why I would want to keep things from you of all people, brother," Leona lied, “In any case, I can take care of myself just well. Besides, it’s not like anything dangerous could happen to me in such a boring place like this.”

His brother sighed.

"Must you always be this hard to approach? I'm simply asking out of concern here, Leona," Falena insisted, Leona's judgment holding nothing against his steeled gaze.

"Perhaps there's a reason why I don't accept your worry, Falena. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe I'm doing just great on my own? That I don't need you stepping on my tail like I'm some cub?" Leona clenched his fists, trying to keep his tone even to avoid letting out more than intended.

"You know very well that that's not why I'm doing this," Falena confronted, his expression fixed.

“There’s nothing you need to know,” The housewarden insisted, holding back the urge to say there’s nothing someone like you can do to help me.

“If that is the honest truth, I’ll believe you. I just wish you could trust a little more in us," Falena’s eyes looked into the distance.

“Why don’t you just ask me about what you want to hear, then?” 

“Very well. I heard that there were some disturbances in the Spelldrive match," Falena said, completely oblivious to the way Leona’s posture suddenly tightened, “ I heard some students from Savanaclaw were involved, and you’ve been acting differently from the last time I was around here. Things feel much more calm but not in a good way.”

Leona didn’t have an immediate reply to this, too caught off guard for it. Although he thought of dismissing it as just a baseless rumor, he worried that playing that card so soon would raise suspicions on him. Either way, seeing that his silence only added to his impatience, the housewarden ended up deciding to let out just enough information to ensure his brother would leave him alone.

“There were a few incidents before the tournament in which my students participated. It wasn’t anything as serious as you’re making it sound, though. Just regular teenage drama.”

With just a glance at his solid expression through the corner of his eye, the king realized there was no way he would get the answer he was looking for before he gave up with a long sigh and raised up from where he was sitting beside him. Leona still didn't dare to look his way, too burdened with his own emotions to trust himself with that. 

"I’m glad to hear it. I think it's about time we go back, there is some paperwork I still need to get done," The king said, "I still hope you do come by during your break next week, brother."

"It's not like I have a choice," Leona scoffed, eyes still fixed on the field before him. 

"I wish you could see things in a better light than this,” Falena added, “Life is more than what you’re making of it.”

In the end, things always ended the way he wanted. Something about those words, especially coming out from that mouth, made Leona’s blood burn and this time he wasn’t capable of holding it back. Whatever his brother meant by that Leona couldn't agree any less and he was fully aware that the king knew that. 

"Maybe if you stopped making everything about yourself other people would listen to you more, don't you think?" Leona spouted at last.

Upon seeing the offended look the king was looking at him with, Leona realized his words had stung his pride harder than he’d imagined and swore this conversation would end up turning into another of their heated arguments. 

"You've gone too far this time, Leona," Was all that came out from his brother's lips instead. 

That’s what this was about, Leona realized. A dirty conscience to clean, a reason to feel better about himself and go back to being a victim. But despite his brother's act of sentimentalism, Leona wouldn’t let such a thing get to him so easily. Far were the days when he bothered responding to his brother’s feelings out of obligation. 

Despite the burning sensation in his chest and the voice roaring in his ears seeking retribution, the housewarden simply stood up from his seat and turned around, starting to walk the opposite way from him towards the only place where those emotions could have a place to run wild.

Nobody in the spelldrive club had uttered a word when Leona showed up to practice only a week after his overblot and asked one of his teammates to switch positions so he could start playing in the defensive. At first, everyone had assumed he was being lazy as always. But the cold truth behind it was that he could no longer cast any spells powerful enough for his position. 

According to the doctors, his power loss was just a side effect of the physical burnout he’d experienced that would eventually pass if he rested properly and whatnot. But, if there was something Leona hated more than wasting his energy in meaningless things was wasting his time sitting around doing nothing while the world kept spinning, and that's why he kept showing up for practice and trained on his own during his spare time.

Despite the limitations, nothing was able to change the amount of adrenaline he felt whenever he stepped into the field of the large stadium, probably the only worthy thing in the entire school. Especially on days when he felt frustrated, not even the burning pain in his body would stop him from throwing disk after disk. 

That's why the first place he thought of going to after arguing with Falena was the school’s coliseum. But the emotions he was left with were on another entire level of frustration. Even with all the energy and mental focus the sport required of him, his mind still managed to go back to the conversation with his brother. 

Had this been about any other person, Leona would've long forgotten all about it and moved on with his life, but his brother was not any person to him. Even though he tried to show through his actions that he wasn't intimidated by the oldest when they were face to face, it was hard to resist the voices in his head reminding him of his inferiority.

From up above where he sat on his broom everything looked so small and insignificant. The air was already coming out of his lungs with great difficulty but Leona kept on riding the magical artifact at the fastest speed he could go. Although this could have been considered a form of self-harm, Leona needed to feel the wind hit against his face with all its might just for a little longer, so if he could push his body just a little more, just for another minute or two, then…

Soon enough, his senses went back to him when he saw the disk approaching straight to his face. Far from being alarmed, the lion only gave a click of his tongue and lifted his arm once again, ready to push it away with a spell in the same way he had been for the past hour. However, it seemed that not listening to his body’s warnings in time had been a bad idea. 

Even though Leona kept working forth spell after spell, the amount of magic his body could conjure at that moment was too limited to make it stop. In less than the blink of an eye, the giant metallic object stood mere centimeters away from him, ready to crash against his body, and the beastman had no choice but to accept his fate given the proximity of it.

Preparing for the impact, Leona shut his eyes and clenched his teeth out of reflex and many seconds that felt like an eternity went by before he opened them again, only to find that the disk had changed its trajectory completely and was then free-falling to the ground beneath. Filled with suspicion, his eyes quickly scanned the field searching for anything that could explain what had happened before they landed on a black and green silhouette standing idly on the grass. All the adrenaline in his body suddenly washed off as soon as he recognized Malleus’ grinning face and little by little, the small amount of magic he had left to keep the broom afloat started to run out leading him to drive the artifact back to the ground.

"Did I interrupt something?" Malleus said the moment he was approached by Leona’s unhappy face.

"What are you doing here?" 

"I was just passing by and I thought I recognized you," Malleus dismissed with his hand. "It seemed like you were in trouble so I took the liberty to give you a hand."

"Nobody asked you for it," Leona said in a low voice.

"Maybe so, but my help saved you from getting a blue eye," Malleus replied.

"I had it under control," Leona asserted, immediately turning his gaze towards the opposite side to where Malleus was.

“I can see that much," Malleus replied with a hint of teasing, “Your magic has become weaker but most of your teammates failed to notice it, right? It seems that not even being in such a delicate position can stop you from acting rashly."

“That’s none of your business," The lion turned around and glared angrily at him.

“It’s not my intention to meddle, I was just speaking out the facts," Malleus replied calmly.

“What do you want?” He demanded.

“Excuse me?”

“Why are you here? Why do you keep talking to me? What are you trying to gain from helping me?”

“I was passing by when–” 

“That’s not what I meant," Leona angrily cut him off, “I’m not sure what it is that always makes you say and do the wrong things at the wrong time, but most people wouldn’t dare talk to me if they ever saw me looking this pissed.”

Malleus fell immediately silent as if the words the lion had told him were a piece of completely new information he had to take some time to process which made Leona even more upset than before. Not content with invading his privacy, it turns out the fae hadn’t even given it any thought before intruding, much like his brother always did.

“Never mind,” Leona said after a while. He wouldn’t bother waiting for an answer from him.

Even during the time it took Leona to pick up his things, Malleus had still remained silent. It had been many years since the last time someone had ignored him like this; Especially since his arrival to Night Raven Colllege, everybody had always tried to do and say the right thing in front of him, and only very few people didn’t try to pretend to be someone else to gain the favor of royalty. Being a royal himself, it only made sense that Malleus didn’t try to please anyone.

It’s not as if the lion enjoyed being showered with hollow praise and fake smiles, though. But, if there was something growing up surrounded by people of the highest status had taught him, it was that money didn’t equal a good personality. In most cases, powerful people always felt better after looking down on someone and, judging by the way Malleus kept showing up at the worst times, nothing indicated he was any different.

Eager to lose Malleus out of sight, Leona passed him by and quickened his pace towards the changing rooms before the fae’s voice stopped him once again.

“Wait.”

“What?” Leona growled, not bothering to turn around.

“You should wait before leaving,” He said, “I saw your brother outside the coliseum before. He seemed to be looking for you.”

“How–”

“Everyone knows of the bitter relationship between the Kingscholar brothers,” Malleus cut him off, “And by the looks of it, it seems you already have enough on your plate to deal with him today.”

“Is that why you came here? To tell me my brother was looking for me?” Leona asked, turning around to face him with his arms crossed.

“No. As I said, you appeared to be in distress and it made me curious.”

Leona took a few seconds to examine his face looking for any signs of insincerity and came up empty. But whether the fae was telling the truth or he was simply good at lying, Leona decided to leave his judgement for another time.

“Whatever. Just don’t cross my way when I’m angry. I won’t be this forgiving the next time,” The lion replied and turned around again.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Malleus’s eyes watched as he walked away.

“Good.”

The sun had finally set for that never-ending day. Leona listlessly watched as several students rushed in and out of the dormitory trying to finish their business before their curfew through the balcony of his bedroom, and, even though half an hour had passed since dinner was served, the lion showed no intention to leave his room that night.

He could barely remember the last time he felt real hunger. Ironically enough, even though everyone insisted that eating properly was important to clean the residual blot from his system, most days it felt as though his body rejected the very thought of eating. Were it not for the fact that Ruggie always took care of his meals, the beastman would’ve probably starved himself by now.

Along with food, there were many other things he had lost interest in lately. He didn’t want to be there, hear this, talk about that or see anything beyond his balcony. There weren’t good days too, just days that weren’t so bad to make him wonder if being sucked by the phantom of his overblot was truly such a bad fate to suffer. But, to his heart full of pride, losing interest in the outer world wasn't as painful as to admit that maybe his life was always meant to end by someone else's hand.

A buzzing in the background interrupted his thoughts. Leona moved back to his bed and picked up the phone from where it laid over the mattress and took an uninterested glance at the screen. Although she always showed concern for him in different ways, his sister in law only ever called him when there was something really important to discuss, too aware that she shouldn’t bother because he wouldn’t pick up her calls otherwise.

Internally wishing he’d followed his heart and gone to sleep early instead of waiting for his dinner, Leona picked up the call and greeted the woman trying not to sound too disrespectful.

“Good evening Leona. You sound tired, that’s weird coming from you,” The woman spoke cheerfully.

“You have your son to thank for that,” He said, “What’s the call for?”

“Yes, Cheka has been talking non-stop about you today. As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what I’m calling you about,” She said.

Leona rolled his eyes, “The cub misses me already?” 

“Don’t be like that, he really looks up to you and you know it. Anyways, the thing is he mentioned something I wasn’t sure I could ask your brother about, so I decided to call you instead," There was a slight change of tone in her voice as she uttered those last words that let Leona know it was about a private matter, “I thought it was worth discussing it."

“Okay."

“Apparently Cheka saw you talking with Malleus Draconia today and mentioned that you two looked very, um, close" The queen explained, “We actually met him the other day when we accompanied your brother to a conference in the Queendom of Roses and Cheka accidentally tripped with Draconia’s gown by accident. Apparently he left a memorable impression on him since he sounded too excited to see you were acquainted with ‘someone so cool’.”

Leona couldn’t find the right words to express the many emotions that made him feel, so he simply let out a big breath and focused his eyes on the clock hanging in the wall in front of him, then to the papers over his desktop, and lastly back to the stars in the sky outside. Of all the things he expected the woman to bring up, especially after the discussion he and his brother have had, this was nowhere in his list.

“Leona? Are you still there?” The woman’s voice rang through the line again after a few long seconds of silence.

“Sadly," Was the best reply Leona could come up with.

“Is what Cheka saw true? If there’s anything going on between you and–” Yet, before she could finish the sentence Leona interrupted her with a deep sigh.

“Enough. There’s nothing to explain because there’s nothing going on between that person and me, okay?" He blurted.

“That’s odd…” She said.

“ How is that odd?” 

“Well, as far as I’ve heard about him, many people avoid inviting him to celebrations because they’re afraid he might bring down the mood or something," The queen explained, “Apparently the prince of Briar Valley is too eccentric to deal with humans but now my son tells me that you, the least charismatic person I know, is walking around campus with him?”

“What are you trying to get at?” Leona pressed a little anxious.

“You know what I’m trying to say. Kids are very perceptive, Leona. And you two of all people getting along…it just makes sense to me, okay?" She explained.

“Are you implying I am lying?”

“I’m just saying it’s too much of a coincidence."

“Sure,” Leona scoffed, making sure his annoyance was clear to her, “You’re letting your imagination run wild. That horned bastard and me couldn’t be anything farther from getting along."

“Horned bas– Is that what you’ve been calling him?!" The woman yelled, “You’d better not be calling him that in his face, Leona. Dear Sevens, and here I was suggesting you two could be friends,” She sighed.

“Of course. I just call him lizard,” He replied, a pleased smirk tugging at the corner of his lips at the thought of how pale his sister in law’s face must’ve turned, “Is that all? I’d like to get some rest after the long day your fur ball made me go through.”

“Well, I actually wanted to talk to you about something else, but…I suppose you must be too exhausted for this, so we can talk about it any other day,” The woman said with a resigned tone.

“Mhm, you shouldn’t go around digging your nose into other people’s business," The lion said, “But then again, I suppose that’s why my brother and you get along so well.” 

“Don’t be like that, Leona. I’m simply worried about my family .”

Even though it had been many years since they had met, Leona still couldn’t get used to being called family by his brother’s wife. Ever since his mother’s death, none of his blood relatives had done anything to make Leona feel like a member of their family so he couldn’t really understand what the woman was talking about when she used that word with him, too. Then again, it’s not like he understood what being family really meant, so rather than starting a pointless argument with her, he simply let her have her way with it.

“In any case, I’m sorry for bothering you this late but I’m glad to hear you’re okay. Have a good night, Leona,” The woman spoke again, this time in a more calming voice.

“Sure. See you later,” He replied and waited a few seconds before ending the call.

Less than a minute passed before Ruggie walked into the room carrying a bag full of food and started complaining to him about how messy his room was. And, even though the lion was certain he’d actually come back a while ago but decided to wait before entering to listen in on his conversation from the other side of the door, he didn’t mention it. 

Many things could happen in three months inside a school filled with so many extraordinary students as Night Raven College. Different events would take place every day, at any time and anywhere. But, just as much as this appealed to some, it also caused many headaches to others. As a result of this, people had already seemed to forget all about Leona’s overblot and had moved on to talk about something else already. 

Everyone save for him, of course. No matter how much he wanted to run away from the nosy teachers, the school’s nurse or even Crowley himself, they always threatened him with taking other more bothersome measures or getting his family involved as well.

It wasn’t just them either. Ruggie and Jack still refused to leave him alone for too long and always came up with an excuse to make him skip spelldrive training or to eat something. Still,  even though they never expressed their concern out loud, Leona wasn’t the type to be easily fooled by some sloppy excuse. Although he never exposed them for that.

That day it was Ruggie who had run into him “by accident” as Leona made his way to the nurse’s room for his weekly checkup. According to the hyena, he also needed to see the nurse so, after they walked inside the infirmary and found she wasn’t around, they each took a seat on different sides of the room and waited.

It wasn’t hard to guess Ruggie’s intentions. Judging by the lack of physical injuries and his energetic laughter every time something funny popped up on the screen of his phone, Leona could easily tell he was just stalling for time there, probably making sure the housewarden didn’t try to ditch his checkup, and not in need of medical help. Although he didn’t appreciate being kept under observation, back in the castle nobody would have had the time or the interest to make sure he took care of himself so he couldn’t really be sure whether this was a good or a bad thing.

A long period of time, enough to make himself comfortable in one of the beds, went by before the echoing of heels rang through Leona’s ears and he was knocked awake from his brief nap. By the time the nurse entered the room, Ruggie had already left and it was just the two of them there.

“Good afternoon. I’m glad you decided to come in today too, Kingscholar," The nurse said, looking at him evidently relieved that she didn’t have to chase after him all around school this time.

“Sure," He shrugged.

The nurse didn’t seem to mind the lack of interest in his expression. She had probably dealt with many patients like him in the past. Instead, she quickly moved on to getting everything ready for the examination.

“Your friends must be really worried about you. I’ve run into Bucchi and Howl a couple of times these last weeks and they always ask about your progress," She then said. 

“I wouldn’t really call that worry." Leona replied and let out a faint yawn.

The nurse seemed to completely ignore his response and laughed it off while she moved on to measuring his vitals. Not being interested in making small talk, Leona couldn’t be more grateful for that. Still, that pleasant silence only lasted for so long before the woman grew bored of working in silence and brought up other topics of conversation that the beastman only listened to partially until, sometime close to the ending of the appointment, the woman mentioned something that finally made his ears perk up.

“I’m sure you have heard the rumors of your fellow housewarden’s overblot already. This is the first time in all my years working here that I’ve seen a case where three different students suffer an overblot in such a short span of time,” She sighed.

“Hmm, yet who knows what strings that old man Crowley is pulling to keep the affair a secret from the public,” Leona commented, earning a soft chuckle from the nurse.

“You’re right. I suppose it does take a complicated person to take care of a complicated institution,” She replied, “Even so, I don’t think even someone like him expected something like this would happen. As far as I know, the teachers are very meticulous about controlling their students’ magic use.”

“Then maybe they never had students with such great abilities. The more great mages there are, the riskier things get,” He argued.

“I wouldn’t quite leave it at that," The nurse objected, “The problem with a magic user having an overblot doesn’t lie simply within their magical abilities. In all my years of experience I treated many patients whose magic pools weren’t nearly as impressive as yours but still managed to make a lot more damage to themselves. In other words, the most determinant factor is always the state of their mind.”

The way the last sentence left her lips reminded Leona of a hunter's arrow being shot somewhere in the woods. It was something too dangerous to ignore, but not close enough to fear it would hit him.

“In other words, despite the mage’s potential, as long as their feelings weren’t heavily damaged the damage can be reverted more easily?” He said.

“Hmm. I wouldn’t say you're wrong about that but it’s just not all there is to it. You see, in the medical field we usually say an overblot is only the body’s “immediate response”, not only because it could explode at any unexpected moment, but also because the way it’s dealt with when it happens is crucial," She explained, “For example, if a weak recipient suddenly overblotted and the reason behind it were something like years of accumulated resentment then it could go too wrong too soon. In the same way, if this very recipient overbloted because of a simple argument they had with someone, it’s important that the situation isn’t aggravated any further or the outcome could be the same as the former example. In other words, emotions that are left untreated for too long and or fueled by the environment will, more often than not, determine the end result."

Listening to the explanation, Leona couldn’t help feeling his stomach drop. 

“More often than not?” 

“Yes. There’s too little information on this subject to be certain. Even though this is the theory that has prevailed for longer over the rest nobody knows if this could change.”

“In other words, the best way to avoid this is having at least one decent source of support,” The housewarden asserted.

“Right. Of course your mental strength and all the work we have been doing here also plays a very important part to get you back to normal," She warned, almost as though she could hear the beastman’s intentions to quit.

“All right,” Leona halfheartedly reassured, “But what about the time before? If there’s a way to reverse it, is there also a way to prevent it?” 

“Well, that’s a whole different situation," She said. “Although there are many signs that could indicate someone is about to overblot, there isn’t enough information going around to make a solid case,"

“So there isn’t.”

“I never said that–There’s a reason why we try to ingrain the concept of good rest and healthy habits into magic users from a young age, after all.”

The conversation quickly dies after Leona is met with an unsatisfying answer and the examination is over soon after that. By the looks of it, there was only so much information a school nurse could provide him, yet it still bothers him how both Malleus and Crewel knew more about it than someone who had been into direct contact with the victims. But, if there was something he learned after the incident during the presentation, it was that neither of them were willing to share their knowledge for free. 

Just like how Leona wasn’t willing to pay them for it.

Chapter Text

Five minutes into the first class of the day Leona already knew he wouldn't be keeping up with it at all. The only thing he could hear was a sort of white noise coming out from the teacher's mouth and even the leaves floating outside the window seemed to stick more inside his brain than his lesson.

Before any attempts to bring back his attention to the class were made, the lion ducked his head between his arms and closed his eyes, allowing his senses to rest since he couldn’t fall asleep in such a crowded place. Even after turning twenty years old, Leona never felt any different from when he was considered a teenager by his peers. Sure, many things around him had changed and so did his mindset regarding many things, but something important was still missing to make him really feel like he finally owned his life.

Just the day before, Leona had received a letter from his brother reminding him that they were expecting him to come back by the end of the week to spend the holidays in the castle attending boring social events and participating in the new year’s welcome ritual as an spectator. Although that last part wasn't explicitly written in the letter for diplomatic reasons.Although in the past he’d made the decision to accept the letter of invitation with the goal of escaping the angry eyes of all those who deemed him a curse in mind, he still had a little hope to find a better life or a purpose left deep inside.

Unfortunately for him, the internships, the only worthwhile thing that school could provide him, wouldn’t start until the next year and he’d be stuck wasting his time until then. Not like he actually missed anyone back home.

But, despite his position as the king–the one person in charge of listening to the kingdom’s ideas–his brother didn’t seem to care much about the bad blood between his people and his brother and he always demanded that he should go back to visit, especially during the holidays, dismissing his feelings by telling him to “ignore them”. 

It was already Wednesday, which meant that, unless he could come up with an excuse that his brother would approve of enough to allow him to stay, he would be forced to show his face in the castle by Saturday morning, leaving him less than half a week to sort it out. Thanks to that painful reminder looming over his head, the entire morning moved painfully slow and before he knew it the sun was already setting outside and all of his classes ended without a single note in his notebook.

“Ah, Leona. I finally found you," A familiar voice called him from behind.

As soon as the lion turned around he was greeted by a small and pale head hanging upside down from thin air. Although he was not disturbed in the least by having Lilia Vanrouge invading his personal space in a creepy way, he still felt his body tense up at the idea of a Diasomnia student looking for him.

“You were looking for me ?” Leona raised an eyebrow.

“Mhm that’s right," He said, “Relax, I'm not here for a fight. Although I can't deny that it's a good opportunity to make you taste some real sand," Lilia let out a chuckle.

“Bad for you but I'm not in the mood for playing around. Are you going to spill it or what?”

“All right, I have the impression you were not notified by your brother yet so I might as well just say it," He said.

Just hearing the words “your brother” was enough to make his jaw clench as much as physically possible before breaking, but hearing it coming from a Diasomnia student no less made it even worse. Dreading to hear the story, he still waited patiently for the other to finish his speech.

“What about him?”

“It seems your brother has recently come into contact with the Queen and brought up the topic of your new friendship with Malleus,” Lilia said with a wide smile on his face, “And ever since she heard that Malleus was making new friends at school, the Queen has been constantly asking Malleus to invite you to visit Briar Valley as soon as the opportunity arise."

Every word that left Lilia's mouth gave way to so many new questions in Leona's head that by the end of it he didn't even know where to begin, but not in the mood to keep the conversation going for too long he chose the simplest one of them.

“Is this some kind of joke?” 

“I'm very serious about this," Lilia replied.

“I’m being serious here. What's the catch?”

“There's none whatsoever, Leona. I'm just relaying to you what the Queen told me," Lilia insisted, his expression turning slightly more serious.

After receiving that response, the beastman couldn’t help but release a frustrated groan at the same time he pulled a handful of his hair backwards.

“Did I say something wrong?” 

“Do you really have to ask?" Leona growled, and then whispered “This is all that damned brat’s fault.” 

“In all honesty I was under the impression that the two of you were finally getting over your differences. At the very least Malleus has been looking a lot less…well, just a lot less since that time you and him worked on that project together," Lilia explained, not bothering to keep his personal opinions to himself.

“Good for you I suppose but that’s got nothing to do with me, okay?”

“I see. Well, I did my job here to deliver the news so I guess it’s up to you whether you take us up on the invitation or not. If I’m not mistaken, the Queen was expecting your visit during the holidays, but if you talk your brother out of it then I suppose there’s nothing much I can do about it," Lilia sighed.

“The holidays?! For how long have these two been in contact?” Leona inquired.

“Ah no, that’s just how the Queen is. Your brother and Her Majesty have only gotten in touch for the first time very recently but she’s always very eager to receive guests, especially when it’s about Malleus," Lilia explained, “You could say she was just really looking forward to this exact moment for many years."

When Lilia put it that way it was even harder to reject the invitation. Not only did he make it seem like he would be very rude and leave a really bad impression on all of Briar Valley if he rejected her hospitality, but it would also become a greater pain if his brother got disappointed with him any further. In other words, there was never a choice to make there, just another compromise made in his stead that he had no way to get out of.

At the very least this solved the initial dilemma of finding a way to avoid showing his face back home.

Leona closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He found it impossibly hard to muster the strength to keep lying to others yet he was fully aware that this was the only choice for him for the time being.

“All right. Tell your Queen I’ll be there this Saturday. Don’t expect me to bring a thank you gift though," He said, fully aware that his brother would force him to bring one nonetheless.

“Hahaha I knew I could count on you!” Lilia laughed in relief, making Leona realize he was not the only one whose head would end up on the chopping table if he rejected the invitation, “We’ll be waiting for you at the mirror chamber this Saturday then!"

Their exchange was over after what felt like an eternity and Leona could finally see the last streaks of pink hair disappear into the distance, leaving him with more unsolved frustrations to deal with.

Many messages about his trip were exchanged with his brother before Saturday morning finally arrived. Only carrying a small suitcase and having barely bothered to brush his hair, Leona made his way through the group of students that still hadn’t left the campus and joined them on the queue to use the magic mirror before he recognized a pair of horns standing out among them.

“Ah you made it at last," Malleus greeted upon being approached by the lion, “Lilia and the rest should be here at any moment."

“They left you alone? I was starting to think some kind of bad curse tied the four of you together," Leona mocked.

“Mhm, it might not seem so inside the campus but back at home we don’t really spend that much time together," Malleus argued.

“I see. I guess that makes things easier for me since I won’t have to deal with more Diasomnia people than needed, especially the guy with the green hair. He seems to have a very special hatred towards me."

“Sebek? I don’t think we’ll get to see him too much. His family is always too happy to see him when he visits to let him leave the house," He said.

“Good."

There was a short silence between them before Malleus suddenly asked, “What about your family?” 

“What about them?” 

“Well, I’m sure they also had plans for you during the holidays, right? Won’t they miss you?”

“Not at all, if anything this makes a lot of things better for them," Leona replied.

The people of the council would certainly be jumping of joy when they found out he’s not coming back to sour their petty party.

Even though his expression was miffed when he spoke of his home, Malleus knew not to pry any further and simply acknowledged him with a nod of his head. 

It only was another couple of minutes until Lilia, Silver and Sebek showed up and that conversation was forgotten either way. 

Thankfully neither of them bothered too much with useless pleasantries. There was only a short exchange of greetings between them followed by a last-minute check for any forgotten belongings before their turn to cross the magical glass came and they abandoned the campus at last.

“Ah, it’s always good to be back," Lilia was the first to speak as soon as they reached Briar Valley territory, “It’s somewhat comforting how it never changes."

“We weren’t gone for too long though, father," Silver pointed.

“Hmph how dare you talk to Lilia-sama like that?" Sebek reproached.

“Now, now, boys. We should get moving already, this room is not for standing around chatting," Lilia laughed nervously trying to quickly change the subject.

But even if he was concerned about the outsider's presence, Leona wasn’t really paying them enough attention to keep up with their conversation. 

After giving the new place a quick scan, the beastman still had no idea where the magic mirror from their school had connected them to. The only certain thing was that they already were within the castle grounds which he could tell because of how expensive and antique the decorations were.

They finally left the room and kept walking for a while all across the building. Many meters separated them from the main building but they finally reached their destination, a massive door that gave way to an even more spacious room, and stepped inside. Of all the other areas he had seen so far this one felt like the most utilized of them all. If Leona had to take a guess, that room was definitely some sort of study or play room used to entertain important guests.

“This is the Queen’s study. She said you could wait here until your room is ready," Lilia explained, “Malleus will keep you company until then since we have other things to do, though.” 

Although neither of the boys seemed too happy about leaving Malleus's side at that moment, they all nodded in agreement to his words. 

“Very well. I’ll come back tomorrow to greet Her Majesty, Malleus. Make sure to keep Leona good company until then,” Lilia said.

“Take care, Malleus," Silver added.

“Don’t you dare try anything funny in here, human," Sebek’s yelling pierced through Leona’s ears.

Once the three of them gathered their belongings and walked away it was just the two housewardens standing there in silence, letting the reality that they would be spending the next days together sink in. Eager to escape the uncomfortable atmosphere as soon as that happened, the first thing Leona directed his attention at were the rows of titles displayed on the bookshelves. Just as expected, the place was filled with many ancient texts that did more than just pique his interest. Of course, it’s not as though he could just simply pull one of those books out like it was a public library and start reading it, but it wouldn’t hurt him to just memorize the titles for later when the occasion arose.

It had only been a brief moment, but the way Malleus had managed to conceal his presence with the shadows by keeping quiet almost made him forget he wasn’t alone there. It wasn't until the fae moved from his static position that the lion was brought back to reality.

“Are you really going to stand there watching me until my room is ready?” Leona asked.

“Is there a problem?”

“You know you don’t really have to keep me company, right?”

“It’s okay. I don’t have anything planned for today either way so I might as well be a good guest of honor," Malleus said.

“Well, it’s not like you invited me in the first place so I don’t see why you would have to be responsible for it," Leona argued.

“That’s fair. However, this place is my home and you are a fellow student from my school so it won’t hurt to do this much," Malleus reassured him.

For only the briefest of moments, it seemed to him as though the fae treated that entire room as his own personal kingdom, doing as he pleased with it. Not like he had seen too much about him to be sure, though. Leona watched as his fellow housewarden moved away from him to take a seat in one of the armchairs closest to the fireplace.

“What about we have that rematch?” Malleus asked, changing the topic to point at the chessboard sitting on the table next to him.

“Rematch? That was barely a match," Leona huffed upon remembering their last game.

But no more words were needed, as soon as Malleus showed him a sly grin Leona took the chair across from him.

Aside from that one time they challenged each other at the library, it had been many months since he’d last played. In fact, Leona could say this was his first time being offered to play instead of the other way around in years too.

The two of them spent the next three hours silently communicating  with nothing but the pieces in front of them as a means to convey their thoughts to the other and, while Leona hated to admit it, a voice in the back of his head really wished he’d tried playing chess with Malleus a lot earlier. All of his senses were put on the game. At some point in the middle of their match one of the servants even came to announce that the bedroom was ready but he  barely paid it any mind. 

Compared to how much he was enjoying this, his first game against Malleus had been a pastime at most. Seeing the other man’s technique had improved in such a short span, realizing how seriously he had taken their game, and being pushed into a wall, forcing him to up his own game in the progress felt like satisfying a hunger he didn’t know was there. Even after their last game was over and Leona claimed two victories to himself, the result didn’t seem to spark any special emotions inside of him as much as the game in itself had.

“You played well," Malleus said, his eyes still fixed on the board.

But Leona didn’t fully agree with that statement.

“Likewise."

Once again there was silence between them. Although they hadn’t really spoken much during the last hours, Leona didn’t really notice the silence with all the noise coming from the board.

“Would you like to get some lunch?” Malleus finally spoke, bringing Leona back to a reality where they weren’t the only two people in the world.

“Sure," He replied.

Even if he was certain it would be a long time since he could feel genuine hunger again.

The rest of the day went by far better than he would’ve imagined three days ago when he’d received the invitation. Malleus, without his shadows following him all around, was a lot less annoying to look at and the fact that he wasn't the type to make small conversation made his presence considerably easier to bear.

By the time night came around Leona was finally all set up in one of the guest rooms. Even though the servants managed to leave the place spotless, he could tell it hadn’t been used much in the past anyways. Unlike the Sunset Savanna, it seemed that the citizens of Briar Valley weren’t used to having people from abroad if the way the castle’s staff kept throwing weird looks at him was anything to go by. Another thing he quickly noticed was that there weren’t many rooms that received natural light from the outside and most of the decorations were old enough for Leona to notice they barely served a purpose in the modern age anymore. In other words, the place would have made good material for a haunted house were it not for how well kept it actually was. 

Sometime in the middle of the night Leona sensed movement from outside the window but didn't bother to chase it. Although the castle seemed to be more than well guarded and he had no reason to be alert, that’s not really why he decided to leave it alone. He’d recognized Malleus’s scent already.

Leona had heard other students talk many times about how Malleus, being the nocturnal creature he is, was always being seen roaming around campus at night, scaring more than one poor soul in the process. It seemed nobody really had a problem with him doing that here at home though, so the prince was able to climb his way to the rooftop and sit down to watch the gargoyles in the middle of the night without any worry. Leona's old self would've probably rolled his eyes sarcastically to hide his jealousy.

After observing him through the window for another couple of minutes, Leona decided he’d already seen enough of the show Malleus and his shining lights were putting on outside and decided to close the long curtain before going back to bed.

But no matter how hard he tried to fall asleep that night, he kept being jolted awake by the image of a pair of green, deep eyes staring back at him. The bed suddenly felt too small, the sheets too heavy and the pillow too hard to get a good night's sleep in them, even though in reality that was just his body overreacting. It seemed as though spending a whole day with Malleus had already had a bigger effect on his brain than he'd thought. 

In the end, he ended up staying awake to see Malleus’s silhouette coming back to the castle at the break of dawn through his window.

It was past noon before he woke up the next morning. Thankfully, the servants didn’t seem to mind it, being too used to their master’s sleeping habits, and after being served a late breakfast and replying to some of the emails he’d left unread from the day before Leona still had some spare time before his meeting with the Queen and decided to take a stroll outside. 

Although he didn’t really know what their meeting would be about, he didn't doubt  it would be full of annoying conversations about “his and Malleus’s friendship” but, on the bright side, that meant he wouldn’t have to suck up to his brother and sell the Queen a good image of him which felt like a fair enough price in exchange of just having to suck up to Malleus instead.

He sighed, trying to empty his brain for a moment and let it take in the view of the gardens of Briar Valley’s castle without making any further judgements for a change.

Unlike his hometown, Briar Valley wasn’t all sunshine and clear skies and the cold of the soon approaching winter had a much bigger impact on its temperatures compared to the very few degrees the temperature actually decreased in the Savanna so he was forced to wear a few extra layers. He could now understand why Malleus and his three musketeers were all so pale.

After walking for a while, Leona finally reached a spot deserted enough to spend the rest of his free time resting in. All different types of vines and bushes grew in there, some he knew, some he didn’t, but they all seemed to have been carefully chosen either way so he tried to be careful with them, especially because there could always be a small fairy hiding amongst them.

Many hours passed in peaceful silence in which he drifted on and off from sleep with nothing but his own company. As usual, even when a cold breeze made his body shiver or an unpleasant thought crossed his mind, Leona never opened his eyes, refusing to remember he was still in the real world. At some point his ears picked up the sounds of leaves ruffling in the close distance though, finally making him open them.

“Ah, there you are," Malleus said.

Seeing who’s presence stood in front of him, Leona closed one of his eyes again.

“Were you looking for me?” He asked.

“ Yes, although I must say it didn’t really take me too much effort. I had a hunch you would choose this place to come and hide."

Although the lion hadn’t really come to this place with the intention of hiding as much as enjoying the quietness, he didn’t bother arguing back.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” Leona changed the subject.

“It’s almost time for the meeting with my grandmother so I thought we could go together," Malleus finally said.

But Leona took a moment before replying to process his words. In the end he checked at the time on his phone and realized that the man had half a point.

“Is this another part of the plan?” 

“What plan?”

“The whole plan to strengthen relationships between our kingdoms like my brother and you people planned," He said.

Malleus stared back at him in silence.

“Don't tell me you didn't know," Leona raised a brow at him.

“I'm not certain I follow your words."

“Well, it's just as you heard. The only reason why I came here was because my sorry excuse of a brother found another thing about my life he could take advantage of for his sake. In this case, he thought we had a great friendship even though I repeatedly insisted we don't and decided that, well, what's the point in friendships if you can't reap any benefits from it, right?”

Even after he was done speaking, the fae didn't utter a single word, his eyes now falling to the sides of the lion's body.

“Anyways, I guess you have to bear with my presence because of my family," Leona added, making a little roll of his eyes.

“Don't–" Malleus finally muttered.

“Sorry?”

“Don't apologize," Malleus finished, still keeping a low voice, “I suppose it is my fault for being so ignorant about this."

Even though this wasn't the first time Leona struggled to make sense of what Malleus's words meant, something felt a lot more different now from the other times. He knew he was trying to imply this was something serious to him with his tone but he didn't understand why .

The two of them fell into a deep silence, the tension between them feeling almost crushing.

“In any case, it is almost time. We should get going," Leona finally said.

But Malleus still didn't reply.

Both Silver and Lilia were already waiting for them outside the dining hall when they arrived. Leona had forgotten those two were supposed to join them and, for the first and probably last time in his life, he felt a little relieved to see their faces and know he wouldn’t be the center of attention that night.

“Ah, there you are," Lilia greeted.

“Good evening Malleus, and you too Leona," Silver said.

“Welcome back," Malleus replied, “I suppose my grandmother has not arrived yet."

“Yes. She said she was looking forward to hearing about what we've been up to at Night Raven so she must be about to arrive," Lilia sighed, “Sebek wanted to come too but his grandfather insisted that he should spend more time with him and what not. That's just something the old man would say,"

“I see. Well, maybe we should go inside now."

Once inside, the servants made sure to escort them all to their respective seats, except for Malleus who already seemed to know which one he would take. Although Leona hadn't been served alcohol many times in the past, this was not his first time drinking it. He wasn't a big fan of it though, but he supposed accepting the cup one of the waiters served him was just the modest thing to do.

“How is it?” Lilia asked, “This is one of Briar Valley’s most famous drinks. The fae in particular consider it even more precious than water."

“It's… sweet. I thought it would have alcohol in it," Leona said.

“Oh it does, just a little. There are other versions of this beverage that contain more alcohol, though. This one in particular was chosen for the occasion since Silver is still not of age to drink and also it goes better with the food," One of the servants behind Leona suddenly spoke.

“As expected of Her Majesty’s cook," Lilia praised.

Even though it wasn’t uncommon for Malleus to remain silent in a group, anyone who actually bothered could see that this was not a part of his usual behavior. The tension in the room only began to fade a little when the group chose a lighter conversation topic about local wines and other popular beverages to pass the time, but, in reality, it wasn’t much of a conversation as much as it was just Lilia rambling with the occasional comment from Silver or Leona.

Some time later, one of the servants finally announced their host’s arrival and the four men stood up from their chairs to greet her. 

The Queen was a woman almost as tall as Malleus who looked as equally delicate as powerful. Leona had no real reason to feel intimidated by her, but, coming from a country where women were highly respected for a reason, he decided to keep his distance and put on the best performance a noble person could just in case.

“Welcome home Malleus," The woman spoke slowly, “And I'm glad you could join us today Lilia, Silver."

“I’m glad to see you’re in good health, grandmother," Was all Malleus said while he took the woman’s hand in his and escorted her to her seat.

“The same goes for us. And thank you for the invitation, Your Majesty," Silver added, slightly bowing his head.

“You've grown a lot since the last time I saw you, Silver. Time sure flies for your kind," She smiled.

“Yes, I'm already in my second year at Night Raven," The gray haired boy announced.

“I suppose you must feel really proud of him, Lilia."

“Of course, every day is full of excitement," Lilia replied, the look on his face being that of a proud father rather than that of a fellow student.

Leona didn't question it.

Taking the brief silence made after Lilia and the Queen stopped laughing as his opportunity to present himself, Leona took a couple steps forward in her direction, cleared his throat, and spoke up.

“It's a pleasure to meet someone so remarkable as yourself, Your Majesty. I'm deeply grateful for your kind invitation.”

Just as following the steps of a dance, Leona proceeded to bow his body before the woman as a sign of respect. Despite the procedures of royal etiquette differing from country to country, the people of Sunset Savanna refrained from touching or kissing other people's hands unless it was a special occasion. 

“The pleasure is all mine," The Queen said, letting some space between every word and showing him a subtle smile.

“I can only hope I'm not imposing any trouble for Your Majesty during my stay here," Leona added.

The Queen paused to look at him for a while, making sure she could catch every single detail of his face in the process.

“I am always more than happy to receive any friends of my grandson. Besides, your brother and I agreed that it would be beneficial for you two to travel more. I hope the next time you'll be willing to open your doors for Malleus as well."

“We would be more than glad. Our doors will always remain open for the people of Briar Valley," Leona said, forcing himself to ignore all the voices in his head calling him a liar.

After getting more formalities out of the way, the Queen finally invited everyone to take a seat and then dinner was served. 

Malleus was a quiet person by nature but certainly not shy. Anything he wanted, he claimed, and anything he felt, he acted on it. Or at least that was the impression everyone, Leona included, had about him. So why was he keeping his head low throughout their entire conversation?

Although the topic of conversation never strayed from anecdotes of their school days, Leona couldn't help feeling that every word that left his mouth was wrong. But the worst part of it was that the feeling didn't even come from himself but from the way Malleus kept avoiding even as much as looking his way which he didn't even understand why it bothered him so much.

Yet things got worse as soon as the Queen mentioned she wanted to hear more about their “new friendship”.

Even so, in order to avoid ruining the moment and out of respect for the other people present, Leona did his best to carry on with the conversation on his own. It was probably not the best solution, but, deciding it was still better than having a full on argument with Malleus in front of the Queen herself, he went on with it.

The plan was as much of a fiasco as he'd imagined it would be.

Just like dealing with a spoiled kid, none of the people present made any mention of Malleus's behavior but Leona didn't need them to, the fae prince wasn't even trying to be subtle about his discomfort and even the Queen threw a glance at him every now and then. 

Dinner was only about two hours long but Leona had begun to feel a throbbing headache less than an hour into it. By the time the Queen finally allowed her guests to leave, Leona had schemed ten different ways to make the lizard pay for making him entertain the Queen on his own to cover up for his childish tantrum.

“It's been a lovely evening. Thank you once again for accepting our invite, Kingscholar. I hope you can enjoy the rest of your stay here as well as the festivities," The Queen said.

“Festivities?” Leona questioned.

“Ah, yes,” Lilia chimed in, “Her Majesty is referring to the celebrations to commemorate the beginning of winter. It’s similar to your end of year festivities but, instead of that, we Briar Valley folks celebrate twice a year. First during the beginning of summer and then again during the winter.”

“Everyone gets involved in the preparations for this celebration so I hope you can attend and learn more about our kingdom," She said.

“I will, I’m looking forward to seeing more of this place," Leona replied not entirely lying, “Thank you once again for everything."

“Please think nothing of it. it’s not everyday my grandson makes friends who can keep up with him," The Queen smiled.

Either ut of distraction or feigning ignorance, Malleus, who was standing only a few meters ahead of them didn’t offer any commentary on her grandmother’s words and, as soon as pleasantries were out of the way, he escorted the woman back to her study leaving Leona and the other two on their own.

Two seconds went by before Lilia turned himself around and walked towards Leona looking unmistakably unhappy.

“What was that all about?”

Having braced himself for this exact question a while ago, Leona let out a long huff and crossed his arms 

“How would I know?" Leona countered, “Maybe he is sick or something. I don’t see how it has anything to do with me."

“I don’t think so. Fath–Lilia is right, Malleus is always more cheerful around the Queen but he was too quiet tonight," Silver added.

“Look, all I know is that something happened. Whether it was your fault or not I’d still like to know more about it. What exactly happened before you two came here?"

This whole situation was too annoying for him, Leona hated the way those two were so eager to make him the center of attention. Even though he had no idea how Malleus behaved around his family the signals were clear enough for any stranger to see.

And he also couldn’t deny the fact that he’d also noticed how that change was brought about by their last conversation. 

“We had a conversation before coming here but even I couldn’t understand what he was going on about, okay? It’s not my fault that your dear prince has such a childish way of expressing himself," Leona said brushing some hair off his face.

“A conversation?” Lilia asked.

“Yes. He came to me saying he wanted us to arrive together but stopped talking after I told him it wasn’t necessary to play nice with me just because my brother and his grandmother arranged this."

Lilia sighed at the same time as Silver’s brows knitted into a frown.

“Well that could explain a lot and nothing at the same time," Lilia hummed, “As you have seen, whenever he gets too much inside his own head he tends to deal with his emotions the wrong way."

“I agree. Malleus tends to avoid getting too close to others without realizing it," Silver spoke.

“In any case, I think I have an idea of what may have upset him but I’ll see if I can get anything out of him. For now I think it’s important to let you know that he sometimes needs a little push from others to understand his own emotions. Not that I think you’d appreciate the information but maybe it can save you a few misunderstandings during your stay here," Lilia concluded.

Fragments of the conversation he’d had with the school’s nurse popped into his head almost automatically. It was too soon to start jumping to conclusions when he was barely getting to know Malleus but, if the opinions his closest friends had of him shared were anything to go by, it didn’t take a very creative mind to reach the conclusion that Malleus could easily become one of those people who overblotted from a simple misunderstanding that was just left undealt with for too long. And he’d hate to be caught in the eye of the storm if that happened.

The sweet wine from earlier had left a sour aftertaste in his mouth.

Chapter Text

For the next three days before the winter celebrations started, Malleus had not shown himself in front of Leona anymore. Although the incident during the dinner with the Queen had left him in a terrible mood, it was only a matter of time before his mind moved on to something else. 

His morning had been off to a good start for the first time since he arrived there, after eating breakfast and taking a long bath, Leona decided to see what the festival Her Majesty had mentioned was all about. The entire town had already woken up decorated accordingly for the festivities and a big fair was set up all over town with hundreds of stalls for the local merchants and artisans to sell their products, along with other forms of entertainment.

Even though Briar Valley had always been considered an isolated region, it seemed that it was far from being anything of the sort in the present. Even among all the faerie who’d gathered around to celebrate, there were a few humans and beastmen who’d traveled all the way there for this special opportunity. Because of this, the stalls were brimming with customers and the local economy was benefiting greatly.

Just as Lilia had said, festivities in Briar Valley were truly an entirely different thing from what they did to celebrate the new year in the Sunset Savanna. Leona was greatly impressed by how warm and happy everyone looked celebrating yet another winter among the thousands in their long lifespan. Back in his hometown, the only special thing about the new year’s celebration were the fireworks lit at night and the speech from the King which he considered both boring and a waste of money.

There was no room for comparison, really. Even someone as uninterested in celebrations as him was able to understand why the people looked forward to it. At the end of the day, it was a celebration dedicated to cherishing their land and showing the world what they had worked on during the year. What could be a better way to keep the people satisfied than to make it the center of attention?

A little before sundown a big bonfire was lit up attracting the attention of countless citizens that had started gathering around. Leona found himself joining the multitude and quietly watched as the rest threw things into the flames as an offering. He’d read somewhere that some regions still maintained these kinds of rituals but he always found them more of a traditional thing than a genuine way of attracting good luck. 

It took him a while to realize this but, as soon as someone accidentally bumped into him and apologized in a casual manner, Leona noticed he’d been standing and walking in the middle of a crowd for hours where, even though he’d certainly been recognized by a few people, nobody had tried to attack or harass him. Back at home, something like this would never happen. Not only was he forbidden from being in public without permission, but, even if he tried to go out, he’d only be met with his own people’s displeasure.

“Are you not going to participate?” A familiar voice suddenly called from behind his back, interrupting his line of thought. 

Leona slowly turned around and bowed his head as soon as he met the face of the woman standing before him.

“Good evening, Your Majesty. No, I was simply observing since I have nothing to wish for myself," He replied half lying, half not.

“I see, that's an acceptable answer as well. It may be because of my position but I don’t usually partake in making personal wishes, either," She confessed.

“I see. Back in the Savanna it’s the King’s duty to bestow his blessings upon the people. Although I’m not my brother, it would feel wrong to do it the other way around," Leona said, doing his best to keep a composed look.

There was a shadow of a smile on her lips that disappeared as soon as the beastman blinked. 

“Is he the reason why you were looking so miffed just now?”

Leona’s mouth opened to speak, but his mind decided against saying what he was thinking of in the end.

“The King of Sunset Savanna looked like a good and honest man when I met him. That being said, it seems to me like you have a far better judgement than him. "

“My apologies if I’m wrong but, is that supposed to be a compliment?" Leona asked, finally finding an excuse to put himself on the defensive side, “I just doubt Her Majesty is someone who would offer praise to others.”

“Rest assured, I mean no ill-will. You’re right to assume such a thing and this is just my personal opinion. Perhaps, while you do agree that being dishonest is bad, you also know when it’s the right time to show one’s own intentions. On the other hand, your brother leads a kingdom of full transparency in which everyone has a right to express their opinions for better or worse and that has caused a lot of problems to worsen over time," She explained, each word leaving her lips slow and clear.

“Impressive. I should feel bad that even an outsider could tell as much from just one meeting with him, but it’s always been my word against an entire council of simple-minded people with too much money to burn," Leona said, huffing a sarcastic laugh at the end.

It was true that his bad relationship with Falena had been an issue for as long as he could remember, but it was also true that his desire to become the king had nothing to do with it. He would never let his own personal emotions get in the way of an entire country's future. 

Leona had long since noticed the people staring at them and wondered how much more time would pass before they were finally interrupted. Even so, he didn’t have anything in particular he wanted to speak about with her so he allowed for a moment of silence and inner reflection to happen. His eyes were fixed on the flames the entire time, as if trying to absorb or gain something from it but also letting it burn his thoughts away. 

“Someone like you shouldn’t be satisfied with a crown," The Queen’s words suddenly made the lion’s ears perk up, “You care about history rather than tradition. But history is something that can be written in many forms while tradition will only persist if someone fears it enough."

It took Leona a few seconds to make out a proper reply. He wanted to laugh from the bottom of his stomach at hearing such a claim come from someone like her, but decided against it for the sake of good manners and public impressions.

“I wonder what kind of important secrets the Draconias are trying to protect, then.”

This time, it was the Queen who let out a soft chuckle. Although she always kept a fearsome expression, it still didn’t feel out of character to hear her make such a sound at that response. Not even Leona could believe he had actually said that.

“My grandson has a good eye for making friends. I hope you know this conversation has raised my expectations of you,” Was all she said as a response.

But no matter how vague, Leona could still hear her hidden intentions loud and clear. The Queen of Briar Valley wouldn't go so easy on him just because it was clear she chose him over his brother. If anything, the lion considered she was being too generous by letting him know that she was keeping an eye on him. His mouth opened and closed again. It was not like him to hold back this much in front of anyone, no matter the status, but something about her presence inspired a lot more wisdom than Leona could ever imagine anyone capable of to be so careless.

Perhaps, this was what it was like to have respect for someone.

As soon as nighttime came around, the usually empty castle's banquet hall became full of faces he didn’t know and laughter. The sound of the instruments played by a group of fairies filled the room, making the building's somber atmosphere dissipate into a festive one where even the most skeptical ones danced and celebrated.

Leona took a cup from one of the waiter’s trays and played with it between his fingers. It was hard to believe he’d actually agreed to attend the banquet without anyone threatening him. He was certain the Queen would not even notice if he was missing from the list of guests, but he had been in a surprisingly good mood since morning and thought it was worth at least seeing what it was about. Just like with everything else, Leona only assisted to satisfy his curiosity. Although a country’s culture could be learnt through textbooks, he also took some sort of pleasure in bathing in other customs for a change of pace. 

Besides, this was the only time and place where he was certain to run into Malleus.

Just as expected, it didn’t take too long before he spotted his fellow classmate standing in a corner of the big room. Hopefully, the fae wouldn’t mind having his conversation interrupted. Although he hated having to perform pleasantly in front of others, Leona wasn’t stupid enough to break a fight in Draconia territory so he just hoped for the best and used the opportunity to get the man's attention while he still had his guard low. With just enough luck, they might get through the pleasantries without insulting each other.

Although the clothes Maleus was wearing made him feel distant from the rest, it only took a short greeting from Leona to remember he was just a student like him after all. The fae had been too distracted talking to another couple to realize it was Leona who’d suddenly approached and greeted him. Things changed as soon as his brain caught up with his mouth though, his brows knitting ever so slightly. But just for the sake of saving himself some face, the prince kept acting pleasantly until the people he’d been keeping a conversation with were out of sight.  

In the meantime, Leona kept himself entertained by looking at all the shining details hanging from the other housewarden’s dress and trying to decipher what possible meaning could be behind all the ornaments in his hair. Given his past impressions of him, it was hard to imagine Malleus wearing something so delicate–even though the man looked more comfortable in those clothes than in anything else.

The prince finally excused himself and turned around to face Leona. Before any of them said anything else, the lion grabbed his arm and dragged the fae to a less crowded area of the room, his steps keeping a calm and unhurried pace despite the beating of his heart.

“Is anything the matter?” Malleus said, “I assume you have something important to say if you bothered to bring me all the way here.”

“Not really," Leona replied, slowly taking his hand away from his arm and focusing on the sensation it left.

“Your eyes seem to differ," Malleus pointed.

“It must be your imagination," He lied.

“Is that so? I had the impression you were staring at me a little too much back there. Do I look that good?”

In the presence of that question, Leona couldn’t stop his own saliva from going down through the wrong pipe and choking on it.

“So that 's it," Malleus concluded.

The conversation had to be interrupted while Leona took a couple sips from his glass and waited for his breath to go back to normal. Judging by his stoic expression it was hard to tell whether the fae was joking about it or not, but that wasn’t something he wanted an answer for.

“Will you tell me now what you wanted to say or should I keep guessing?” Malleus pressed impatiently. In contrast to the face he was making a while ago, he now looked like a child sulking.

“You seem too happy to be here. At home,” Leona said.

“Should I not?”

“It’s not that," He explained, “It just confirmed my theory that I was the reason you were so upset the other day."

Malleus didn’t reply. Suddenly, the words Lilia had told him about giving Malleus a little push came back to him. Was that one of those times? But, rather than doing that now, Leona preferred to bring up a different topic of conversation to test the grounds.

“You really fit in here," Leona added, “Your people looked delighted to see you.”

“Ever since I was born I grew up hearing everyone talk about their love and admiration for my grandmother and my mother. I suppose they must be seeing some of that in me," Malleus explained.

“You don’t seem bothered by it at all, though."

“I don’t see why I should be. I am the heir apparent of Briar Valley so it’s only fair that these people have high hopes for me.”

“Don’t you ever wish they didn’t?” Leona inquired.

“I guess such a thought has never crossed my mind before, no,” Malleus replied.

“Don’t you ever get lonely, tired of being looked at from a distance?” But just as soon as that question left his mouth, Leona cleared up his throat and tried to fix it, “Uh, it’s nothing. Forget I said that.”

“If you insist," Malleus said, the expression in his eyes contradicting himself.

There was a short silence between them. Leona took another sip from his glass and realized that this drink was a lot more bitter than the others he’d tried. Before he knew it, the glass was empty in his hands. It might not be the best circumstances after what he’d just said but talking now would be better than dying with doubt.

“I actually wanted to talk about the other day…You were upset about something but I don’t understand why ," He finally spoke up. 

It took a while before he received Malleus’ reply but, after giving himself enough time to order his thoughts, he finally started talking.

“I apologize for the misunderstanding. In truth, I simply felt put off by your commentary. It hadn’t occurred to me that the reason you were invited by my grandmother here was out of compromise.”

“Yes, I know that much. What I’m asking here is not that, though,” Leona replied, “Why did that of all things upset you? And why did you get upset with me and not your grandmother?”

“I…felt disappointed," Malleus replied, leaving some space between the words, “I intended to become friends with you so I felt elated when I heard you accepted the invitation. But while my grandmother did extend her invitation as a compromise between rulers, it bothered me to know you only accepted it out of duty as well.”

“Why?” Leona interrupted.

“Excuse me?”

The beastman let out a long sigh and pulled a strand of hair out his face.

“I’m asking why someone like you would want anything to do with me.”

“Is that wrong?”

“Yeah, probably. All this time I’ve seen and treated you like a stone in my way. Everywhere I went, you were always there to disturb me," Leona’s eyes drifted away towards the sea of people dancing, “I never gave you any real reasons for you to consider me a friend.”

“I suppose you did make that very clear during the spelldrive tournament," The fae reflected.

“No. I didn’t just make it clear , Malleus. I attempted to kill you. You and my own students. There’s no reason why someone like you, who has everything, would need to keep a second-hand failure like me around.”

There was a lot of bottled up hatred in his words but none of it was directed at Malleus. It was stupid and a little embarrassing to say all of this to him of all people, but Leona didn’t regret getting that weight off his chest so he stood firm and made sure his point got across.

“I’m not so fragile as to die because of some sand," Was all Malleus said in the end.

Yet, surprising as it was, Leona found himself laughing at that answer. It was the first time in years that he felt his eyes wet and his stomach hurt from how funny he found all of it. 

Even though he had heard everyone say it many times, this was the first time he could accept the reality for what it was. In the eyes of everyone, Malleus included, Leona’s fit of rage was nothing but a tantrum, a display of emotional immaturity. People were so foolish that instead of fearing him, they laughed at the idea of him trying to kill anyone because “he was incapable of something like that”.

Of course, Leona had doubted his own intentions many times in the past. Just because he lashed out at anyone who tried to deny it, it didn’t mean he hadn’t reached the same conclusion. Perhaps that’s what hurt the most in the end. Unlike him, the fae was powerful enough to walk forward without minding his surroundings, but never fool enough to assume he was the only one walking through it. And the fact that he wanted to earn his friendship not only demonstrated that he had acknowledged him in some twisted way.

He’d been so focused on playing his weakest moves and calling it a day when it didn’t work, pretending to be serious about it while in reality he was just taking the easy way out, waiting for someone to crush him so the voices that called him worthless could win that anything beyond that sounded like a fairy tale, something people like him should never aim for.

It was not an inferiority complex though. This was the only way he could think of to make the world around him make sense. His brother, older and wiser as everyone might deem him, could never become the ruler their country needed but people refused to see that even if it cost them their very lives and futures, just to protect some worthless tradition. Living in a  world so twisted he couldn’t understand was even harder when he had to be the one to take the blow for it to work properly. 

That was until one day he realized that maybe , just maybe , if he had a real reason to feel shame about himself, then maybe he could understand why nobody looked at him with respect, why nobody saw any potential in him. Life would certainly be a lot easier if he had an answer for his existence. If he became what everyone said he was, then things would be easier. 

But he never realized that this kind of logic only worked within his own, small world. It had been so many years living in the shadows, being called a curse, unwelcome in his own house, and even hiding his face from people in a lower position than himself, that letting go of the old reality would take more than a few hours in the sun. 

This entire experience had been the biggest proof of it.

“Yes, you’re right. You’re not an easy pest to deal with," was all Leona said in the end.

“Pest?” Malleus asked, baffled by the comparison.

Despite how vulnerable these thoughts made him feel, at least the tension between them had dissolved. Even though their time to speak without being interrupted quickly ran out, Leona was satisfied with just that. He never intended to truly befriend Malleus after all.

It was somewhere past midnight by the time Leona entered his bedroom, too tired to join the nocturnal creatures until morning. As soon as the banquet was over, Leona was quick to excuse himself and walk away from all the noise that left his ears ringing.

The room had been cleaned and warmed up for him while he was gone so that he could better enjoy his stay as a guest, so the first thing he did was take off his suit and make himself comfortable. He walked towards the window and stared at the snow starting to pile up outside. It wasn't anything he enjoyed thinking about, but something about the dark sky, devoid of any stars, made him miss the sight from his balcony back at the palace and wish he didn’t have to hide somewhere like this to get some peace of mind.

He stepped away from the glass and closed the curtains. Even though half of his shirt was still buttoned and he hadn ’t taken his pants off entirely, the lion headed straight for the bed and closed his eyes. Just as his brain was starting to drift into deep slumber to the sounds of the fireplace and the wind hitting against his window, the sudden noise of footsteps woke him up again.

Since most of the servants were busy attending the other guests at the party, Leona was quick to assume someone else had decided to wander around the castle. Perhaps a bored guest with too much guts. But as soon as that thought popped into his head, he sensed the footsteps come to a stop in front of his door and a familiar scent of pine and mint seeped through the edges of the door, giving his new visitor’s identity away.

Even when Malleus knocked on the door, Leona didn’t bother fixing himself up to attend him. The two housewardens shared a moment of silence to take a look at the other before speaking, but nothing about the fae’s appearance seemed to explain what he could possibly want.

“May I come in?” Malleus questioned.

In all honesty, Leona was too tired for whatever plan Malleus had in mind, but even so, he still took a step back and silently allowed him to come in.

“Couldn’t this have waited until tomorrow? I’m tired,” Leona complained.

Being born and raised between those four walls, Malleus didn’t hesitate before making himself comfortable inside the room and working the glass door that led to the balcony open. Unlike Leona who felt his body tense up at the drastic change in temperature, Malleus wasn’t bothered by it in the slightest.

“Oh, I apologize for interrupting your sleep but this room has the best access ,” Malleus explained, confident that his words were making enough sense.

“Access to what?” Leona asked, not even bothering to think of some possible answer.

“To the gargoyles. The ones on this wing of the castle are the most antique ones and thus the most delicate ones. I wouldn’t dare risk breaking one of them by landing in the wrong place so I prefer to climb up there instead of flying," Malleus explained.

It was hard for Leona to believe someone like the fae could ever fail at something so simple. Even if the boy ever committed such a mistake, it wouldn’t require him any efforts to put everything back in place with his magic. Even so, Malleus was already inside his room and there was no point in trying to call him out for being such a bad liar.

Instead of replying, Leona stared at him in silence and decided to let him do whatever it was he needed to do there with the intention to go back to sleep right after. Of course, that implied that the fae would break the window open at some random moment of the night to get back in again, but luckily enough the lion would’ve been too deeply asleep to notice it by then.

“Let’s go," Malleus said all of a sudden.

There were no traces of doubt in the housewarden’s face. Rather than inviting Leona to join him, Malleus was certain that he would join him of his own accord. In fact, the fae didn’t even seem to think that rejection was a possibility.

“What?” 

“Let’s go to see the gargoyles together.”

“Sure, like I would like to freeze my ass over some rocks,” Leona objected, “What on earth makes you think I want to go with you?”

“I presumed you’d be interested in learning more about this castle’s history,” Malleus said, “We still have some time left before we have to return to the school campus, so you should take every opportunity to learn something, right?”

There was only a partial truth in the statement Malleus made. Even though Leona was interested in learning, he never meant to say he was interested in any and all forms of history within the castle. Besides, as he’d said earlier, he was too tired for that now. But just from taking one look at his face, Leona knew he wasn’t giving up on it so easily, so he went back to get his coat and buttoned up his shirt again.

“I’m only going out to get some fresh air so don’t get too excited,” Leona clarified.

“I’ll try not to,” Malleus smirked, earning a tired sigh from the lion.

Climbing their way through the roof was easier than expected. It helped a big deal that the two of them were in good physical shape and could see well in the dark. Malleus took the lead this time. While none of the heavy accessories and the cape seemed to be holding the fae down, Leona’s head and body were already suffering the consequences from all the alcohol he’d drunk. But he still carried on in silence.

A small selection of hand-carved gargoyles greeted them as soon as they reached the rooftop. Down below, everything dissolved into the darkness of the night. According to Leona’s memory, this was the highest point of the entire building so it would be no surprise if nobody noticed they were there at all.

The cold wind hit against his face so mercilessly that he felt his drunkenness wash off immediately and, to nobody’s surprise, Leona became bored of looking at the gargoyles in a matter of minutes. On the other hand, the sight he got from there was a far more entertaining pastime.

After giving him a tour of the area, Malleus proceeded to tell him the urban legends behind the ancient artifacts. In the end, not even the fae could help being skeptical about most of them, but he still did believe that those carved stones had a wonderful story to tell.

“Have you ever seen them move?” Leona questioned.

“A gargoyle…moving?” For some reason, this idea seemed to spark an unexplainable amount of joy in Malleus.

“I wouldn’t put it past these guys to start talking any time now,” Leona shrugged, “Aren’t you curious about why most of the stories you just told me make them sound like real human soldiers?”

Malleus pondered that idea for a moment and Leona suddenly realized he’d probably done some kind of serious damage to him.

“Gargoyles are all so magnificent, so I always presumed that the people responsible for passing down these stories were all just as fascinated by them as I am,” He confessed, “I shall look deeper into it.”

“For someone who’s lived this long you really have a very narrow view of the world,” Leona said teasingly.

“You know how old I am?”

“It only takes a little bit of world history knowledge to know the year you were born in,” The lion shrugged, ”But I can now understand why you always struck me as a selfish bastard in the past. Your people, this entire country, seems to truly hate humans and the like, after all. But even though the rest of the world sees you guys as an isolated country that refuses to interact with the outside, you have a strong sense of kinship and love for your land. At the end of the day, I’d say that having such a narrow view and knowledge of how the outer world works is just to be expected after spending so many years working hard to protect your home.”

“Is that how you saw me all this time?” Malleus inquired.

“You can’t blame me for it. I mean, even someone like me still showed up for housewarden meetings and all that crap while your vice housewarden was always apologizing in your stead,” Leona explained, “There’s also the fact that you can’t have a proper interaction with almost anyone without sounding like an asshole.”

“Like you’re one to talk,” He said while rolling his eyes.

“At least I sound like an asshole by choice,” The lion countered.

“What a pitiful excuse,” Malleus grinned.

But despite his current expression, the lion could tell something was a little off. The fae loved making himself unknown to others by always keeping the same blank expression no matter the circumstance, but now his eyes were distant yet brimming with light, similar to a child holding back tears. His lips were also pursed into a thin line like he was holding something back and, most importantly, he refused by all means to make any contact with Leona.

“ Aside from the occasional royal events, there were never many chances for me to talk to other people as a child. That’s why Lilia insisted so hard that we accept the invite to Night Raven,” He explained, “But even after these last three years, this is the longest conversation I’ve ever held with someone outside of him, Silver and Sebek.”

“Not even someone like you can’t have it all, huh?” Leona blurted, letting out a deep sigh.

“What is that supposed to mean? What else is there to have ?”

“Seriously?” Leona despaired, “I don’t think I’m anyone to tell you what you need, though.”

Malleus wasn’t happy with receiving such a vague answer at all but he was already accustomed to living with that doubt in his mind. Even if he tried to pry any further, he doubted a mere human could explain what was going on in his mind. But Leona felt just as uncomfortable with the silence as he did, so it was only a matter of seconds before they changed to a lighter subject of conversation. 

“Are you cold?” Malleus asked all of a sudden.

“Yeah, it’s frozen as hell in here.”

It had been more than an hour since they climbed to the rooftop and Leona could start to feel the cold seep through his bones. He tried burying himself deeper into his coat at some point, but there was only so much the piece of cloth could do to keep the snow from reaching his skin.

“Are you not using any insulation magic on yourself?”

Even though he had been expecting to face that question since the topic came up, Leona’s jaw still clenched defensively.

“No,” He blurted out, “Just a little bit of exhaustion is enough to burn me out so I still can’t use magic when I’m tired.”

Upon receiving such an answer, the only thing Malleus could think of as a fitting response was a silent nod. Everyone in school was aware of his condition but nobody was brave enough to mention it. Instead of prying any further on the issue, the fae moved closer to him intending to simply solve it.

“Let me help you," Malleus said, his warm breath suddenly crashing against Leona’s cold face,“I’ll use some of my magic to keep you warm until we get back.”

From all the years they’ve known each other, Malleus knew Leona wouldn’t easily accept his help, but just because he knew it it didn’t mean he wasn’t going to offer it. That’s why, instead of waiting to be granted his permission, he made sure to keep him distracted while he worked the spell on him.

“Tch, who said I needed your help?” Leona scoffed as soon as he felt his body warm up.

“I do not wish to be responsible for making our guest of honor become sick,” Malleus said with a pleased smile on his face, “Now we can head back.”

At this point, Leona wasn’t even surprised that he failed to dodge Malleus’ spell in time. Not only had he been awake for a long time, but his body had also become less perceptive since the overblot. In the end, the two of them made their return to Leona’s room in silence with their own thoughts to keep them company and, back in the privacy and warmth of the bedroom, Leona rushed to close the glass door behind him and close the curtains.

“Thank you for your company. I will think of more places to show you later if you’re interested,” Malleus suggested.

“Sure, it wasn’t so bad.”

“Of course it wasn’t. Every person in this kingdom would die for a chance to see those gargoyles from up close,” Malleus replied proudly.

“I don’t doubt it,” Leona said sarcastically.

There was a pause before any of them made another move. Even though the right thing at that moment would’ve been for Malleus to turn around and leave, there was a soft force wrapping around his wrist when he tried to do so. The fae went back to face Leona only to find out it was him who was keeping him from leaving.

“Leona?” Malleus called, this time a little confused.

A pair of green eyes shining brightly in the dark. Piercing through him, claiming everything to themselves.

“Let me kiss you,” Leona spoke at last. 

There weren’t any traces of doubt or fear in his voice but he also didn’t try forcing himself on the other. In other words, he was certain that Malleus would accept. Even so, Malleus’s body still stiffened a little under his touch. 

It shouldn’t have taken him too much effort to break away from it, he realized; Leona’s hand was firm but not strong enough to keep him locked in place, much less to hurt him but, soon enough, his chest started hurting again just like it did many times in the past when he parted ways with him, and he completely forgot how to even breathe. All of a sudden, their bodies became closer and Malleus’ brain still refused to make any judgments on it, simply allowing it to happen. Green. Everywhere he looked, those green eyes found their way back to him, clouding all of his senses until he ran out of reasons to run away from them. Even though he really should’ve been running away. When the other noticed his lack of resistance, he used that opportunity to close all the distance until their noses touched.

Their first contact was soft, simple and bold. Lips touched each other a little cautiously, sending waves of excitement all over their bodies. The two of them remained still for a moment, probably waiting for the other to pull back first, however, as soon as Leona moved his hands to each side of Malleus’ waist, they were certain that this was really happening and deepened the kiss.

Leona could easily tell that something like this was new to him, even so, Malleus didn’t hesitate before reaching his arms to him and wrapping them around his neck like he knew that's where they belonged, like he knew that's what the lion wanted from him. To break all forms of distance. At some point the beastman had tangled his hands beneath the fae's thighs and picked him off the ground, feasting on the sweet nectar spilling from the corners of his mouth until he finally opened it for him to eat straight from his tongue where hunger and emptiness alike disappeared within the first touch. 

Too lost in his own thoughts and feelings, Malleus only noticed that his feet were no longer touching the floor when Leona started to walk and he could no longer break free from the hold. The way in which the other managed to carry him into the bed and let him down with such care all while not breaking away from their kiss was worth praising, Malleus thought. But even though he wanted to let the other know he was happy with this, he couldn't bring himself to split from the kiss.

Things became much easier when they laid together on the mattress. Malleus could now use both of his legs to bring Leona's body even closer than before while Leona used his free hands to trace sweet caresses all over Malleus's face and hair. For just a moment, they saw the other smile.

“Are you okay?” Leona spoke softly against his mouth.

“Yes,” Malleus replied, now feeling his face grow a little hotter under the lion's sight.

“Are you tired already?” 

“Not at all,” he said, “You do look exhausted, though. I should leave.”

“I am,” Leona agreed, “I have the feeling you put some spell in me with that kiss just now.”

“Would that be good?” Malleus asked.

“It depends on how sweet my dreams are tonight.” Leona replied, pressing another soft kiss on his cheek.

The two stayed pressed against each other for a while. Leona seemed to have taken a liking to the feeling of Malleus's hair against his fingers and so he kept brushing it again and again, completely unaware of the tickles this caused the other. In the meantime, Malleus decided to rest his face in the place between the lion's neck and shoulder where his scent of sunshine was strongest.

Neither of them wanted to be the first to say what was on their mind, so they didn't. Even so, it wasn't too hard to guess from the way they kept clinging onto each other that one wanted the other to stay just as much as the other wanted to stay. Something like that shouldn't be said out loud after all, it was still too early for that, even after doing what they had done. Instead, they simply agreed that having the other in their arms like this was more than a sufficient answer and took cover under the sheets, letting sleep find its way to them at the same time .

During the days that followed, there was complete silence in Leona’s mind for the first time in years. Following Malleus around, or rather, being dragged around by him, ended up being a good excuse to build a routine. During the day, when the fae was soundly asleep in his bed, Leona would wake up and take leisurely walks around the many forests that surrounded the castle, relying solely on his sense of smell and hearing to guide himself. Even though he always felt more at home with burning sand below his feet, there was something about wandering into a sea of trees that calmed him.

An hour or two past noon, Malleus would finally wake up and ask him to join him for a late lunch. In all honesty, there was no reason for the beastman to wait until the other woke up to do this, yet when he was asked if he’d had anything to eat yet he’d always reply that “he’d lost track of time” and accept the offer. The first couple of times were very quiet but surprisingly comfortable. It wasn’t until Malleus finally decided to ask about what sort of things Leona did while he slept that they finally broke the silence and got to know each other better.

Even though the fae still considered that time of the day still too bright for his taste, he seemed to have gotten better at handling it after entering school. They didn’t spend much time outside anyways, but Leona found himself plenty entertained burying himself in the endless books and board games that the Draconias kept in their library and that Malleus kept recommending to him. Day after day, they would repeat the same process while keeping each other company.

After the first night they spent together and for all the time they spent in Briar Valley, neither of them would sleep alone again. Some nights Leona would visit Malleus’ bedroom and kiss him until he fell asleep. Other nights it was Malleus who would make his entrance through the lion’s room window at the break of dawn and drop a few kisses on his forehead before joining him in bed for a couple of hours before Leona woke up.

They never really talked about what was going on between them. The closest they ever were to something like that were the few times when Malleus was called in for work and went out of his way to let Leona know that he wouldn’t be around for a couple of hours. Even though the beastman wouldn’t have minded if he didn’t do it, he still thanked him for it and told him not to mind him. It’s not as if they weren’t interested in maintaining their closeness in the future, but just talking about their future at all didn’t feel very appealing when their present was more than perfect.  

Despite the domesticity, it never went beyond something casual. Even in front of the Queen or Malleus’ friends, the couple refrained from displaying any form of affection that could give out their new relationship. In Leona’s opinion, it didn’t matter to him if the public noticed that they’d become inevitably closer after spending so much time together, yet keeping a safe distance was for the best until they could finally sort out their feelings. 

Malleus was impossible to crack in that regard. It was hard to tell whether the other shared the same feelings about it or if he was looking for something else just from observing his behavior. Sometimes, Leona had the impression that he was the type of person who would tell a joke or make a threat with the same blank expression on his face. It was only when they were finally alone, kissing and biting each other’s skin that he would make all sorts of different expressions, one more exciting than the other.

Whenever that happened, Leona found it very hard to contain himself. He found Malleus more beautiful each night and that only made his hunger stronger. Not only did he wish for physical contact, but he also wondered what kind of faces he would make in different situations, what kind of answers he would give to his questions or what kind of stories he kept to himself. It was suffocating at times but he still found pleasure in it.

There was pleasure in wondering how many things he still had left to learn about Malleus Draconia.

Even during their last night before returning to Sage’s island, neither of them felt sadness or dread at the thought of coming back. Leona kissed Malleus’ neck softly, trying to avoid leaving any marks that could bring up questions the next day while Malleus tangled his cold fingers in his endless sea of hair, giving it a few thugs whenever the lion kissed him in a pleasant spot. 

Throughout the last month, he’d seen the fae wear many different types of jewelry and sometimes even fell asleep to the sounds they made as their owner flipped a page or shifted while reading a book. Brilliant and expensive things were never appealing to him. While he did own his share of exclusive items, he’d never understood the charm of wearing accessories beyond the traditional ones. To Leona, wearing a necklace or a ring should have a meaning just like anything else he did but, after seeing the way Malleus’ green eyes shined brighter whenever he wore a set of pearls or chains, he realized that even things that were made only with aesthetic purposes could hold some kind of value.

That night, after the fae returned from his last work meeting before returning to school, Leona could witness that sight once again and found himself thinking over and over again of ways to show his appreciation. In the end, even if he’d tried to avoid thinking of the future for so long, those glistening green eyes looking into his own murky ones made it hard to think of a life where they weren’t present. Just like the stars outside his balcony in the Savanna, Malleus’ eyes became another source of comfort and grounding to him.

And it was all happening too dangerously fast.