Chapter Text
Ruggie has learned, through close proximity to you, that you are very good at running around.
He catches glances of you occasionally and if you’re not running to your class you’re running after Grim. Or running to try to stop the latest ‘incident’ on campus. Or running away from literally any of the third years, or Rook. Most people run from Rook.
But one place he can count on running into you is the school store.
“Afternoon Sam. Ruggie.” You nod at the two of them as you walk in. Ruggie’s got a basket full of snacks as Sam pops up from underneath the counter to place a brown paper bag along with them. The snacks are a cover. He’s here for Leona, but the timing was too good.
Sam smiles at you in the way he always does. Shrewdly with a hint of fondness. “Ah! Good afternoon my Ramshackle Imp. I will be with you in a moment! Mister Bucchi here requires some special items that I need to dig around for.”
You wave your hand at him. “Take your time. I’m just here for my monthly drop so there’s no rush.”
He winks at you. “I’ll have them out as soon as possible. But first…”
Sam whisks himself away behind the counter, back towards some shelves that you can’t see from your position. You look at the snacks in Ruggie’s basket while he gives you his trademark lackadaisical grin.
Showtime.
“No Grim today?” He asks, tilting up an eyebrow and taking a deep breath. “Did you foist him off onto tweedle dee and tweedle dum?”
You shrug. “He cares more about goofing off than running errands.”
He laughs and then flashes you a more mischievous grin than before. “That it? Or did you get ridda him ‘cause you don’t wanna explain what a tampon is to him yet.”
“He hasn’t found out so far. I don’t plan on him finding out any time soon.” You tell him with a huff.
Ruggie’s very observant.
He knows what times you usually go to the store, which days, around what time you run out of supplies, when Grim needs his Tuna restock, etc etc.
He also knows when your period’s gonna hit. He probably knows your cycle better than you.
Your androgyny helps you out when you’re with others. He’s pretty sure the Heartslabyul guys know, to some degree, that you’re not a guy. Everyone in the Savanaclaw dorm knows. They’ve known since your introduction at Orientation. You carry yourself differently, you smell differently, you act differently. He was one of the first few to bring it up to you, and you’ve somehow miraculously managed to conceal it from literally every other house. You’re the same height as Epel, so it’s really a miracle that rumors haven’t trembled through the school yet. Then again, Epel gets mistaken as another gender more often than you do, and there’s a lot of idiots on campus.
You can’t hide it from anyone in Savanaclaw. Not on your life.
“He’s gonna find out eventually.” He tells you, fiddling with one of the many trinkets on the counter. “Might be better to tell him sooner than later, but what do I know. It’s not like our whole dorm doesn’t already gossip about it.”
You narrow your eyes at him. “Funny I haven’t heard any of this gossip.”
He snickers. “Thank Leona. He told everyone to shut the hell up about it. Anyone who mentions it gets an hour of Spelldrive in the morning, even if they’re not in the club.”
Because Leona told them all that if anyone lays a finger on you he’ll turn them all to ash, he thinks to himself.
“Why would he do that?”
He shrugs. “Beats me. Probably ‘cause he doesn’t wanna deal with anyone’s dumb shit. Our dorm-members get into more trouble than it’s worth already. Pickin’ up after the fallout of a rumor that scandalous is just bothersome. It’s easier to just tell people to shut up and have ‘em listen the first time.”
Everyone in the dorm now thinks that he’s courting you, and everyone in their dorm has taken an obvious step back from that fiasco.
Sam turns around the corner before you can open your mouth to reply to him.
“All done~” he says as he places a glass vial of some kind of pale green powder into Ruggie’s hands. “Mixed fresh just now. Put it into Mister Kingscholar’s tea and his ailment will whisk away in no time.”
You give them a quizzical look. “Leona’s sick?”
“Somethin’ like that.” Ruggie quickly puts the vial in the basket. “Just put it on Leona’s tab~”
Sam smiles. “Can do! And for you, my other little imp…” He pulls out a bag with what is presumably your monthly shark week fodder. “Painkillers aplenty! And some extra things to help.”
You smile and take the bag, following Ruggie’s lead. “Just put it on Crowley’s tab. It is technically a medical emergency.”
Sam waves the two of you out. “You’ve got it~ I appreciate your patronage! Until next time, my little imps.”
You head out of the store with Ruggie on your tail.
He’s got time, it’s not like he’s needed immediately.
You look at him once he catches up to you. “So, what’s wrong with Leona?”
“Dumb Beastmen stuff.” he says, pulling out a candy bar and opening it with his teeth. “He’s goin’ through a rough patch and is basically quarantined until it boils over. It happens once a year but I helped him deal with it last year so, this year should be a breeze comparatively.”
And then you ask The Question. The one question that everyone who knows nothing about Beastmen asks.
“What is he, in a…rut? Or something?”
Ruggie hisses out laughter and shoves the rest of the candy bar into his mouth, quickly swallowing it. “God that’d be rich! None of us would survive if he ever fell into a rut. Nah, it’s nothing that serious. It’s basically a fever that has him super aggro right now. Sweating, vomiting, blown out pupils, chills. It’s not contagious, it just happens to him. It usually dies down after like, a week. You should stop by when it’s all over~”
You press the question. “Is rut normally a thing for beastmen?”
There it is. An opening. He steps into your space a little closer than you were expecting and it startles you. “Sometimes. Why? You interested in learning about it~?”
You grab his face and shove him out of your space with little fanfare and he snickers at you. “There’s no Beastmen where I come from. Or Dwarves. Or Elves or Fairies. I like getting my information from the source.”
He chuckles and grabs the hand you shoved his face away with and holds it, pulling you close to him. “Y’know, there’s a lotta things you can get from the source, like an up-close anatomy lesson on Beastmen~”
"You're horrible." You snag your hand back from him. "You're the worst vice-warden in the school."
He blinks. Oh right, they don’t know. "I'm not a vice-warden. Our dorm doesn't have one."
You blink back, puzzled. "I thought you were Leona's second in command. Retainer? Is that the word?"
He shrugs. "Shyehehe. Nah. Couple of guys challenged him at the beginning of last year when he became Housewarden and they all lost. I just give enough of a lick to boot him outta bed and get work done. I'm not like Jamil, or what have you. I'm just a guy lookin' out for what's in his best interests. If Leona's in a good mood, we're all in a good mood."
You nod down to the basket. "Minus right now, of course."
"It'll be over soon enough." He reassures you and leans in to nudge your shoulder with his elbow. "And when it is, you can come over and help us celebrate his recovery."
You nudge him back. "I'll consider it. I have afternoon classes so I have to go. Good luck with Leona."
"Good luck with Grim." He calls after you as you walk toward your dorm. "If you ever want me to take him off your hands, I charge a fair market price for babysitting!"
"Get fucked Ruggie!" You yell back at him as you disappear behind the gate to your dorm.
He grins to himself.
If only you knew.
The whole dorm knew about you, it wasn’t a secret. It was obvious to most of them from the very first day, and even after Leona’s Overblot incident. If anything, your close proximity to Leona is the only reason why everyone’s leaving you alone about it. His dorm’s full of thugs and brutes, but none of them are stupid enough to challenge their Housewarden at this point. He himself would lose in an instant in a one-on-one fight with Leona.
But when it comes to you, well…sometimes things change. They’ve all learned that. You can fool the rest of the school, but you can’t fool them.
Ruggie personally doesn’t think you’re that bad looking, but he also doesn’t care for the act you put on around the other houses. He wants to see you in things other than your school uniform, or the ceremonial robes. He wants to see you under him with as little clothing on as possible.
He won’t tell Leona, but he probably doesn’t have to.
Jack also seems to have taken a liking to you, but he’s not sure if it’s platonic or romantic or what. He knows that wolf Beastmen usually don’t have ‘flings’ and are pretty adamant about mating for life, but he sees everything. Jack holds himself back with you, in a weird way, and if Ruggie can monopolize on that….
He's got some work to do.
The trek back to his dorm takes longer now that he's alone, but he doesn't mind it. It gives him time to plan, to scheme. To think, even.
When he asked if you were interested in Beastmen, you didn’t say no.
A full plan has formed in his mind by the time he reaches Leona's room. The two students stationed outside acting as guards stiffen as he approaches.
"Anything?" He asks them.
One of them shakes their heads. "He hasn't left the bed to eat or drink anything since you've been gone."
The other one steps forward "Are you sure he's going to be okay?"
Ruggie clicks his teeth. "Of course he's gonna be okay. He's Leona Kingscholar. You're both dismissed. Tell everyone else to stay away from this wing, got it?"
"Yes sir!"
He watches them go and quickly slips into Leona’s bedroom, closing and locking the door behind him. Nobody else needs to see him like this. He’s their housewarden, he needs to keep up some semblance of appearances.
Everyone else thinks it’s just a cold anyway.
“Leonaaaaaa.” He walks over to the bed and puts down the basket, pulling out a water bottle and a protein bar. “Get up and drink something before you pass out from dehydration.”
He reaches the bottle out towards the lump of blankets on the bed and a hand shoots out to grab his wrist, stopping him. Leona Kingscholar’s bright green eyes, pupils blown out to hell and back, glare at him from the comfort of the covers. Leona’s grip tightens enough for him to drop the water bottle, and then his hand is dragged towards Leona’s. He takes a deep breath, exhales, and continues to glare at him.
Ruggie smirks from his place. “Caught that, huh? I’m not surprised. Your nose is better than Jack’s. Ran into them while getting your medicine from Sam. They asked if you were in rut.”
“What would they know.” Leona all but growls out before emerging from the covers, pulling Ruggie down until their faces are inches away from each other. Leona takes a few sniffs and growls out again.
Ruggie’s not having that. He shoves Leona’s face away from him and pushes him back into the bed. “Down! They hit me in the face. Don’t get weird about it. Let go of me and take your medicine or the whole place’s gonna know you’re overheating.”
He shoves Ruggie away. “‘M not overheating.”
“Then drink something and stop being stubborn.” Ruggie tries yet again to shove the water bottle in Leona’s direction. “You’re not in rut, you just have rut symptoms and a fever. Same as last year.”
“Last year I didn’t have options.” Leona takes the water and downs half of the bottle in one go.
Ruggie scoffs at him and opts to throw the protein bar towards his head. “You don’t have options this year either! What’s gonna happen when you graduate? Are you just gonna walk around your fancy palace and grab whoever’s closest to you and fuck their brains out every time you strike a fever? You’re lucky Sam has so many weird things at his shop and that this stuff can tamp it down.” He shakes the vial of powder from his spot.
His housewarden goes uncharacteristically silent as he nurses the water bottle, staring out the window into the middle distance in a daze. Ruggie sighs and pulls the rest of the supplies, setting up some hot water in an electric kettle to make the tea for the medicine.
“You’re gonna have to talk to ‘em eventually.” He tells him as the water boils. “The whole dorm’s keepin’ their secret under wraps now ‘cause you told them to, but they’re not stupid. And besides, if you don’t make a move, someone else will~”
Leona narrows his eyes at him. “You wouldn’t.”
“Already have~” Ruggie puts his hands behind his head and grins at his Housewarden “Why d’you think I got hit in the face. Besides, it’s not like you’ve actually made a move yet, so it’s fair game, yeah? I’ll take whatever opportunity I can get.”
Leona smirks and downs the rest of the water, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “You think you can challenge me and walk away, Bucchi?”
The kettle finishes boiling and Ruggie checks the vial with the powdered medicine. How much of this should he use? A spoonful? A spoonful sounds fine. He lets the tea steep and turns back to Leona. “Who says it has to be a challenge?”
Leona raises an eyebrow at him “The hell’s that mean?”
Ruggie snickers and brings the medicine over to him, leaning over as he hands off the piping hot cup. “I think you’re reeeeeeally gonna like what I’ve got planned.”