Chapter Text
Leona’s hands were soft, at least compared to Ruggie’s hands; all scars and callouses, bony and bent. They looked mangled in comparison to Leona’s, palms soft but firm, nails manicured but not overly so, veins were prominent but not too prominent— It was perfectly princely.
Ruggie bit his lip when the pads of his fingers trailed up Leona’s palms, catching on the creases of Leona’s fingers.
Ruggie had finished cleaning Leona’s room a while ago, he should have woken Leona up. Should have pulled Leona out of his bed, told him to get out, and let Ruggie make it. And then he should have left. Like he always did, before he invenitably returned in the morning to wake him up.
But he hadn’t— he’d just sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the older man for a while.
Leona looked untouchable, sleeping peacefully as the last of the sun's rays shone on him like a spotlight. A beautiful, untouchable, piece of art in some fancy museum Ruggie had never had the time or money to visit.
He couldn’t explain what compelled him to crawl across the bed until he was right next to Leona, to take Leona’s hand in his, to weave his fingers through Leona’s own. He knew Leona would look at him weirdly if he could see Ruggie like this, with their palms pressed together while the lion slept. It made him feel guilty, like he had stolen something. Not that Ruggie had ever really felt guilty for stealing things, he couldn’t afford to. It felt a little foreign.
Ruggie swallowed, glancing back up to look at Leona. He hadn’t moved, save for the slow rise and fall of his chest. Cast shadows had crept across his face, the left of his face almost entirely in shadow now, scar hidden under a combination of his bangs and the shadow. Even still, he looked good like that. Relaxed, a ghost of a smile had painted itself onto his lips. It made Ruggie’s chest feel tight, made his mouth feel dry, made his stomach do funny things he knew weren’t… entirely platonic.
And— He wasn’t stupid, uneducated, sure, but not stupid. Ruggie knew that he wasn’t helping Leona purely for the money at this point (even though that was still a part of it). It had gotten harder and harder to pretend he was. Because now— well. The Spelldrive Incident, the weird dream situation with Malleus, when he’d nearly thrown up when he learned Leona would finally graduate this year— painted a picture. No amount of telling himself he was just afraid of losing the income if Leona left him would make it any less there. He’d mostly accepted it, mostly.
Leona stirred, his brow furrowing as he shifted. His shoulder rolled back, and he tugged their intertwined hands up towards his head. He was still so fucking *strong*, despite his perfect cushy life and soft princey hands. It pulled Ruggie’s hand, still too caught up in his own head and Leona’s fingertips that he hadn’t realized it until Leona had half-pulled his whole body into a fall that would land him right on Leona’s chest.
“Shit—!” Ruggie hissed, barely caught himself before he fell face first into (his Boss? His Friend? His Leader?) Leona— barely safe right above Leona. His free hand had managed to have tangled itself into Leona’s hair, and the hand that he’d been using to hold Leona’s hand had been trapped by Leona holding it back.
Ruggie blinked down at Leona, unmoving. His heart hammered in his chest, so loud he could hear it in his ears. Oh he was so fucked— if Leona woke up he’d skin Ruggie alive (Proaba;y not, but he’d be annoyed, and that was always a pain to deal with). Stupid, stupid—
Leona sighed, expression smoothed over as he did. Ruggie’s stomach did flips. He could hear Leona’s tail swing over the bedsheets, still unmade— he was supposed to wake Leona up to do that— how had he ended up here?!
Leona didn't move.
Ruggie didn’t breathe.
The low drone of bugs filled the silence of the room, deafening. It made Ruggie more anxious; he couldn’t even hear the sounds of students in the halls. Left exposed, alone. Just him and Leona in this room, waiting as the world held its breath.
A moment passed. Leona didn’t stir.
Ruggie exhaled.
Ruggie had to fight the urge to laugh, better to let his gaze drift to his hands, intertwined with Leona's. His fingers shook, he wasn't exactly sure how to get out of this without waking Leona up.
Ruggie ran through his options, gnawing at his bottom lip as he thought, mind a jumbled mess. Pulling his hands out of Leona’s hand would probably wake him up, putting the weight of his body on his hair would tug on it, pissing him off, and waking him up. Putting all his weight on Leona’s hand would also probably wake him up. Sitting back would just have Ruggie half sitting on Leona’s lap and he couldn’t see where Leona’s tail was— if he caught on that Leona could wake up.
He couldn’t exactly wait for Leona to wake up, Ruggie had all but pinned him to the bed, a hand on either side of his head and face way too close for comfort. That would not fly.
This was fucked. He was fucked. So, so fucked.
He blinked, still staring at his hands, still intertwined with Leona's, his pale fingers still shaking slightly. It shouldn’t have been enough to break the dam, but it was.
More than enough to crack a smile between his lips, leaving Ruggie to hear himself laugh, uncontrolled, out of body. He could hear himself do it, and feel his shoulders shake. He couldn't stop it from bubbling up, nervous and—
Leona’s hand tightened around his own, the pads of his fingers pressed down onto his knuckles.
Ruggie gasped a little, gaze snapping back to Leona's face, it felt like cold water splashed onto his face.
Emerald eyes, glittering in the golden light, gazed up at him. Gorgeous and half-lidded and shadowed by dark eyelashes, Leona wasn’t asleep anymore.
Ruggie stared at him for a second, the last dregs of his laughter falling away as he realized what had happened.
“What's so funny?” Leona said, his voice still rough from sleep, brow arched as he looked up at Ruggie.
“I—” Ruggie gaped at Leona, caught red-faced and red-handed.
“What?” Leona hummed, grinning at Ruggie, mean.
“Shit— Oh fuck— Leona I just—“
“Just what?”
“I didn’t mean to! You’re the one who grabbed me! I just—“
“You grabbed me first y’know,” Leona drawled, tilting his head back, chin up as he looked down his nose at Ruggie, not smiling, not frowning, face unreadable.
“I wasn’t—! What the hell Leona!?” Ruggie sputtered, his neck felt hot. He could talk his way out of this mess, he always could. “I was just about to wake you up—! You didn’t needta’ grab me!”
Leona chuffed at Ruggie, regarding him, blinking slowly.
“You grabbed me first.” He replied smoothly,
Ruggie scowled at Leona, jerking his chin up defiantly.
“I dunno what you’re talkin’ about.”
“Yeah you do,” Leona frowned, just a little, the bottom corners of his lips twitching down. It was a crime how good he looked just like that, brow furrowed. unfair.
“No I don’t I just— Ugh— whatever,” Ruggie grunted, ears flicking back as he began pushing off Leona. He’d gotten about halfway off Leona before he felt something tug at his hand.
“Shit-!” Leona hissed, grabbing Ruggie’s wrist, his left hand still tangled in Leona's hair.
“Watch it.” he growled.
“Serves *you* right.” Ruggie snarked, setting his jaw and tilting his chin.
Leona glared at ruggie for a minute before dropping His wrist and falling back into bed, hair splayed out behind his head like a halo. The tightness in Ruggie's chest returned, full force.
“Nevermind then,” Leona said, before he yawned and let his eyes fall shut.
Ruggie stared at Leona for a second, incredulous.
“An’ What's that supposed to mean?”
“Means you’re being annoying and I don’t wanna deal with it anymore,” Leona cracked an eye open to glare at Ruggie.
Ruggie scoffed, rolling his eyes, “Yeah right, you’re the reason in the first place!”
“You were holding my hand, I just held it back,”
“Get real.” Ruggie grumbled, huffing as he leant back, “I wasn’t holdin’ crap— You grabbed me!”
“Don’t bullshit me Ruggie,” Leona’s voice cut him off, low. Angry now. It sent a shiver down Ruggie’s spine, the fur on his tail stood on end.
“I—…” Ruggie trailed off, before turning his head away from Leona, it was hard to lie to him like that, glowing green gaze boring into him.
Leona half growled at Ruggie, warning.
Ruggie didn’t look at Leona, for a moment, tail flicked nervously against the older man's thigh. What was worse, admit he was caught lying or let Leona get mad at him (and that never really went well, he hated dealing with Leona’s sulking). They both were bad— he could run, get off Leona and make a dash for it— Ruggie blinked, face heating, ah. He was still sitting on Leona, not the greatest for running away.
Ruggie glanced back at Leona, still staring at him.
“Well?” Leona said, raising his brow.
Ruggie didn’t know if his face could feel any hotter. There was no way Leona couldn’t see he was red.
“I— I didn’t mean to— it just—“
“Stop being pussyfooted,” Leona said, cutting Ruggie’s sputtering off.
“—!”
Ruggie grabbed Leona's stupid braids (grinning a little when Leona yelped), before cutting off any snarky replies Leona could have formed off with a kiss. Ruggie was sure it wasn’t very good, he’d just pulled Leona’s hair pretty hard, and was more Ruggie smushing their lips together at an awkward angle, Leona’s nose had dug into his cheek, but it felt so fucking good that ruggie really couldn’t be bothered to care. It was like a weight had been lifted off his chest.
The reality of Ruggie’s situation crashed down onto him a second later, his eyes snapping wide open to meet Leona’s equally shocked gaze.
Ruggie shot backwards, lips parted, half formed apologies already on his tongue, before Leona lips were pressed onto his again. Gentler than Ruggie had been, lips soft on Ruggie’s chapped lips.
Ruggie half-followed Leona as he fell back onto the bed, parting from Leona as he leaned back into the pillows. Ruggie stared down at him, blinking.
”What?” Leona grunted, gruff. It might have come off as angry if his ears hadn’t pinned back and cheeks hadn’t reddened so much. It was cute, he looked shy.
“Nothin’,” Ruggie said, breathless, not that they had done much more then chaste kissing, but— “You just look cute.”
Leona glared at him, nose wrinkling in disgust.
“Cute?” He grumbled skeptically, “I’m not—“
”Stop trying to be cool Leona, S’ not super effective when you’re like this,” Ruggie grinned, sinking until he was resting more or less on Leona’s chest, smug.
“You’re lucky I like you,” Leona rolled his eyes fondly.
“Yeah,” Ruggie crooned, a soft smile on his lips. “You gonna kiss me again? ‘Cause I still need to make your bed, I can always do that if you’d prefer~”
“Shut up,” Leona grumbled, leaned up and kissed Ruggie again, eyes fluttering shut as their lips met. Ruggie snickered, leaning down into Leona. They should probably talk about it, but Leona had always been better with actions than words, warm fingers finding their way to ruggie’s hair, tangling in golden strands.
He was still totally going to kick Leona off the bed to make it, just… later.