Chapter Text
“C’mom, Boss. Y’gotta go” Ruggie groans. He was sitting on Leona’s couch, slouched over it with his arms crossed on the arm, head buried in them. “Y’already promised me compensation for watching the dorm” he grumbles into his arm.
Leona glances to the side from where he’s lying on his back in bed, then moves an arm over his eyes and sighs loudly. “Fine,” he growls. “But if ya keep pesterin’ me I’ll put you on a platter for the frosh.” Ruggie grins, sitting up straight and saluting.
“I’m counting on it, Boss.” He starts rummaging around through Leona’s dresser, looking for the nice suit Farena sent him months ago for some big gala Ruggie was too poor to understand. He found it easily, throwing it at Leona, who glared from under the garments. “Get dressed, Boss. I have a dorm to run.”
With that, Ruggie left. Which left Leona alone with the damn suit. He grunted as he sat up, hearing more bones crack than he should’ve, and contemplated telling Ruggie to screw off in the form of a box full of shredded suit. No, Ruggie had access to his room at all times. And bought him food.
Leona drags himself out of bed, picking up the suit and, begrudgingly, changing into it. He checks his watch - a gift that a friend had gotten him before he came to NRC. It still worked, and it may be the only gift he’s ever been grateful for. 19:27? Damn Ruggie had woken him up early. The third year dance didn’t start until 20:00.
Did he still have time to back out? It wasn’t that important. It’s only a dance. Sure, its a completely teacher-free dance, and their last time seeing each other before spring break, but isn’t that just more trouble for him? He can already see the first time drunks stumbling into things and places and people they shouldn’t. He lays back down, ignoring the oddly Ruggie-sounding voice in his head that tells him he shouldn’t lay in bed with a fancy suit on.
He must’ve fallen asleep. The light coming in from his window is dimmer, and it’s colder now. He checks his watch. 19:52. Well, so much for being early. He gets out of bed with the speed of a man who doesn’t have anywhere to be, then makes his way to the Mirrors. It was being held in the gymnasium, seeing as there was only 198 third years going.
The first thing Leona notices upon entering the gymnasium is a fairly wasted looking Cater. He’s swaying in place as he talks about some Magicam post with some random kids he assumes are part of Heartslabyul. He’s slurring a lot, and Leona is already making a mental note of staying away from him. That fails before he can even finish his thought.
Cater is walking - stumbling - over to him, some bright blue alcoholic drink with rock sugar floating in it in his hand. “Leona! Never thought I’d see you here!” he grins, then holds out his drink. “Have you had anything to drink yet? I saw this on Magicam so I brought some and its sooo good! Have some!” Leona cringes as he looks at it.
“No.” Leona states plainly. How the hell does he get out of this?
“Cmon! I’ll leave ya alone if ya try some!” Cater insists, trying and somewhat succeeding to wink. Leona sighs, reluctantly taking the cup. He wouldn’t normally cave that easily, if at all. But he’s tired and socially drained, so he will do anything to get rid of Cater at the moment. Maybe the alcohol will loosen him up.
The first thing he does is smell it. It is not what he was expecting from Cater at all. It smells strong, and salty. He realises now that the aforementioned ‘rock sugar’ is salt. He slowly brings it up to his mouth, tipping it back. It tastes putrid. The strong alcohol is tequila - Cater must hate himself to be drinking this much of it - and the salt is much stronger than he was hoping for. There’s another taste that he recognises as lemon-like juice. He grimaces, giving the cup back to Cater. His mouth has never been more dry. “Do everybody here a favour and get rid of this shit.”
Cater laughs. “Not for everyone I guess!” Leona glares, walking away. He barely makes it five steps before running into Vil.
Vil looks him up and down, appraising. “I didn’t know you were capable of wearing nice clothing.”
“I’m a prince. It comes with the territory.” He rolls his eyes. Vil scrunches his face up with distaste.
“Hm, I see…Well, have you seen Rook anywhere?”
“No.”
Vil sighs, then walks away without a goodbye. Once he’s gone, Leona hears something, or rather someone, behind him. He whips around to see Rook himself.
“Roi des Lions! Would you care for a drink?” He extends a plastic cup, thankfully not filled with Cater’s Sevens’ awful shitjuice.
“Yes. But not from you.” He huffs, glaring at the dull brown drink. Rook was somebody Leona could never get a clear read on. During the sabotage, even Ruggie couldn’t figure anything out about the guy other than his weird thing for poetry. It gets under his skin.
“Ah, don’t be like that! I only wish to offer you a drink.” Rook keeps smiling. Its creepy as fuck. Leona goes to walk away, but Rook grabs his arm. “It’s just beer, fret not.”
Leona falters, before sighing. He had said he was going to get another drink or two. “Fine, give me the damn beer.” Rook hands it to him, and he downs it all in one go to get rid of the offending taste of tequila. He walks off to get another drink, and Rook follows. There is a surprising amount of alcohol here. He grabs the fanciest looking one.
“Ah, a magnifique choice. Roi des Dragons brought this.”
“The lizard? He was actually invited?” Leona asks, slightly surprised. Mostly he was annoyed.
“Oui. there was quite the commotion upon his arrival,” Rook smirks, “Well, do not let your drink collect bugs.” Leona scowls, but moves to take a hesitant sip.
It tastes slightly fruity. Leona doesn’t really mind, but it’s not his go to. He drinks another cup anyway in spite of the Lizard. He grabs another cup, walking over to the punch. Rook is still following him. He fills the cup with punch. In all honesty, he hasn’t drank punch since he was a little kid, but he doesn’t think it tastes spiked, even if it has an odd kick. Rook takes out a cup (when the hell did he get that?) and fills it with punch as well.
Now it’s time for the part Leona dreaded the most. Socialising. Ruggie told him he had to socialise to keep up his image, as if he cares. He’ll start with Rook, maybe he can finally get some information out of him. “Didn’t take you as the type to party.”
Rook raises an eyebrow. “I could say the same for you.” Leona sighs. Just because he’s right doesn’t make the response less irritating. The asshole didn’t even give him any insight. Rook stares at him, and Leona ignores every instinct in his body telling him to deck the boy right now.
“Wasn’t exactly my choice,” Leona grumbles, “my family wanted me to go and Ruggie wouldn’t let me ditch.” Now Rook had to tell him why he was here, fair exchanges and all that.
“Ah.” Rook hums. Leona waits for him to keep going, but he never does. Leona decides in that moment that it isn’t worth it, walking away to get more punch. He’s actually starting to loosen up, which is unusual for him. Must be from getting away from Rook. Two more cups manages to cool him down enough to go back out into the crowd. He heads over to a random group, who seem to be talking about…Magift? Now this he could get down on. He listens to the conversation for the most part, very scarcely putting in his own piece. At some point, he notices more people have joined. When the hell did that happen? Eh, he’s not in the mood for this big of a group.
He gets up, swaying a little, and grabs another cup of punch before heading off in the direction of another group. Before he can get there, somebody taps him on the shoulder. It’s the stupid lizard, Malleus. He huffs.
“What d’ya want, Lizard?” he scowls.
“Hm? I merely wanted to ask a question.” Malleus says, a confused look on his face at Leona’s annoyance.
“Well you can ‘merely’ piss off.”
“There is no need to be aggressive, Kingscholar.” Malleus frowns.
Leona is starting to get agitated, about to respond harshly, when he hears a familiar voice interrupt.
“Mon pote, let’s not escalate.” Rook chuckles, putting a hand on Leona’s shoulder. Leona glares, about to shrug him off, when Rook speaks up again. “Come on, Roi des Lions, you are swaying. Let us go sit down.”
The last thing Leona remembers is following Rook to a secluded area, apparently meant for staff. He wakes up in his bed to the sound of a call. A call from his father. Leona lets it go to voicemail, but the phone rings again. And again. And again. He picks it up with a growl.
“Leona.” His father’s voice carries over the phone, cold and harsh. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Reth asks rhetorically. But the thing is, Leona has no idea what his father is talking about. “You have disgraced our land, our family’s name. You will not be coming back for break. In fact, you will not be coming back until I find a suitable wife for you.”
Leona’s eyes widen. For a moment, he doesn’t know what to say. “Fine,” he grits out, “yeah, fine.” Reth hangs up without any pleasantries.
What the hell was that about? Spring break starts today and now he decides to tell him not to go home? Disgraced the family name? Suitable wife?
He unlocks his phone, only to see 7 messages.
(09:42) Ruggie: wtf
(09:45) Ruggie: boss?
(09:46) Ruggie: are you still asleep?
(09:51) Ruggie: check Magicam
What was that all about?
(06:27) Falena: Father is not happy.
(12:34) Falena: He tried calling you.
Leona checks the time. 12:45. The second one is recent.
(03:13) ###-####-####: Did you make it okay?
Who the hell is that?
Leona sighs, deciding to take Ruggie’s advice and check Magicam. His eyes widen at the first recommended video from Cater Diamond. It was posted at 01:52. The caption is illegible, the boy clearly having posted it while drunk. But the video is unmistakable. It’s shaky, and the room is dim, but its a clear shot of him and Rook. Making out on a couch. Cater can be heard giggling in the background before the video abruptly ends.