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As Ruggie was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he noticed that his bed table was dragged to the foot of his bed.
Huh?
On top of the table were piles of papers.
What?
Ruggie scrambled out of bed and nabbed the note laying on top—written with big, lazy handwriting he could recognize from a mile away: "It was a long time coming.”
Huh??
Tossing the note over his shoulder, the first paper from the pile of fifty read the following:
Application for Vice Housewarden of Savanaclaw, Approved.
WHAT?!
Ruggie slammed open his room's door after slipping on his usual set of a barely buttoned shirt, wrinkled pants, and untied shoes (in record time!) sprinting towards Leona’s room (in record time!), then tackling a yawning Leona flat onto his bed — all in record time! Wow! Anyway, there were more important things to worry about, and as expected, these very important, very life-changing things weren't worrying Leona at all.
"Practicing for Spelldrive this early in the morning?" Leona rose, shoving Ruggie off with ease. "What dedication."
“What? No.” Ruggie scrambled back up, tousling his own already messy hair in frustration. "Why would you decide something like that?"
Leona yawned, slowly blinking at him.
Losing patience, Ruggie shoved the paper in Leona's face once, then twice. "Look at what you've done," he exclaimed, pointing to it frantically. "Vice Housewarden? Vice? Housewarden?! I didn’t ask for this!”
After shoving away the paper, Leona looked at Ruggie once, then twice, having the audacity to be surprised at what he saw. "Well," he paused to consider his words — the first time in a long while, Ruggie started wondering what Leona was going to say, "You are one now, so… Just deal with it.”
Right. How could Ruggie expect! Anything! From! Leona!
“No!” Ruggie gripped Leona’s shoulders, shaking him back and forth in dismay. “Change it!”
To top it all off, Leona rolled his eyes with growing dissatisfaction. "Can’t this wait?”
How busy Leona was, laying on that bed of his.
“It really, really can’t,” Ruggie insisted.
“It can,” the stupid lion declared, pulling his blanket back over himself, “and it will.”
And just like that, Leona was out like a light.
Hm.
Well…
Nothing you can—
What was he saying! There was absolutely something he could do!!
Ruggie yelled, “Wake back up, damn it, we’re not done talking.”
No response.
“I’m going to pour cold water over you.”
No response.
“I’m going to scream in your ear the list of Housewarden duties you’ve yet to do.”
“Alright, alright, just—” Leona yawned again. “Think about it, then we’ll both talk when the day is done, deal?”
It was Ruggie’s turn to be surprised. “Deal,” he echoed. “What kind of deal is that, leaving one side to just ‘think about it’, it’s not exactly a fair exchange…you’re already asleep, aren’t you.”
Leona was.
Ruggie heaved a long, long sigh, as he closed the door behind him.
His day then went something like this:
“How could Leona just do something like that?” Ruggie muttered to himself.
Ace deadpanned. “Give back my sandwich.”
“And choosing me for Vice, no less? Did I do something that I don't remember?”
“Dude, I don’t care. Give it back.”
“I don’t even think I’d be capable of being one...”
“Wh—stop! Stop running away! My sandwich!!”
Azul let out an amused hum. “…Interesting.”
“Right?” Ruggie said, leaning against the counter.
“You know, it sounds as if he’s,” Azul hesitated, “fond of you.”
“No way, no how! I bet he doesn’t even know what ‘fond’ means.”
Azul, Jade, and Floyd looked at each other in mutual doubt.
Kalim looked at Ruggie as if he had two heads. “…Wait, you weren’t the Vice Housewarden?”
Ruggie: “??????”
With more questions than answers and the sun set in the west, Ruggie opened Leona’s door again with unmatched exhaustion.
Incredibly unbothered as always, Leona lazily looked up from where he propped up his arm on his desk. “You look like you’ve been through a tornado,” he said with a smug grin.
Ruggie scoffed, looking at the mountains of papers. “And you look like you’ve slept through all your Housewarden duties.”
“Then it’s up to the Vice to help, don’t you think?”
Right, the fact of the matter. With a sigh, Ruggie shuffled over to lean on Leona’s desk.
“About that,” Ruggie started, then began speaking quickly, “I’ve been thinking about it all day, as you asked, and I can’t help but feel even more confused; everyone just completely accepted it like it was meant to be — man, Kalim even thought I already was Vice, isn’t that something — and I just kept on circling back to you and how unbothered you are about…”
Ruggie stopped, shame blossoming across his face as he glanced back at Leona.
Huh. He was… patiently waiting for Ruggie to go on.
The tips of Ruggie’s ears twitched as he slowly concluded, “My point is, I just… don’t know why you’d give the role to me.”
After a moment of thought, Leona hummed. “I thought that you wanted this.”
“I—I…” Ruggie trailed off. “What do you want me to do in exchange? I'll make it up to you, something like this is a big deal so I don’t mind doing anything—”
Leona clicked his tongue. “Enough,” he stated, leaning back on his chair and staring at the ceiling. “Do you or do you not want to be the Vice Housewarden?”
No response.
“I won’t care if you say no.”
No response.
Leona sighed. “Don’t make me say all the… sap.”
“What sap?”
With a sharp inhale, Leona got up and plopped himself right beside Ruggie — and just as Ruggie was about to ask what the hell he was doing, Leona leaned over and flicked his forehead.
It was absurdly gentle.
Leona spoke over Ruggie’s growing confusion, “You’re capable. Everyone knows it, even those Diasomnia pansies,” he said. “Whenever I think of someone to be the Vice Housewarden, who else could it be but you?”
Leona finally looked back at Ruggie, and immediately he was left coughing from Ruggie’s wide eyes, trained right on him.
“And I figured,” Leona continued as he scrambled to look away, “that I’d make it happen as… a gift… to you.”
An inordinate amount of silence followed.
“Really?” Ruggie finally murmurred.
Feeling a bit helpless, Leona shrugged and got up. “Whatever, the position hasn’t been made official yet, so I’ll go change—”
“No!” Ruggie exclaimed, grabbing Leona’s arm. “No, don’t change it, I—I’m just surprised that you…”
He trailed off, gazing at Leona.
Ruggie then slowly asked, “Are you sure I can be the Vice Housewarden?”
“Yup.”
“And there’s nothing you want me to do in exchange?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“You just did it because you can?”
“Why else?”
“Well,” the hyena said, a grin forming, “I heard that a certain someone might be fond of me—”
“Get out, Ruggie.”
And so, Ruggie Bucchi became Savanaclaw’s new Vice Housewarden.