Royal Pride (Leona Kingscholar/Yuu)

30 ~ Little Furball

As promised, the Savanaclaw team left the tournament covered in injuries from all of the other opposing teams that they'd angered. Diasomnia reigned victor, but that was to be expected.

Yuu would've loved to explore the streets full of vendors that had come just for tournament day with Leona, but he was passed out in the infirmary. After all, he hadn't gotten time to recover after his Overblot and was thrown straight into getting beat up by six other Spelldrive teams.

She perused the stalls with Silver, who seemed surprisingly awake. "Today was rather invigorating," he responded when she asked. "It feels like I've drank ten cups of black coffee."

They'd had a pleasant time strolling around the streets, buying from the vendors, and chatting. They'd even run into Malleus, who seemed delighted when they asked if he'd like to join them. But soon enough, night fell and everything began to close up.

"Yuu," Malleus started. She turned to him curiously. "Are you not going to visit Kingscholar?"

She tilted her head. "I was planning on walking with you two back to the dorm and then heading over. Why do you ask?"

A mischievous smile played on his lips. "Maybe I should pay him a visit, too." Silver started choking on what he was drinking and Yuu started laughing uncontrollably.

"I meant it as a joke, but was it truly that humorous?"

Yuu nodded, lighter laughter still escaping her. "That was the highlight of my year," she reassured him, patting him on the back. "But if you did wanna come, Your Highness, no one's stopping you."

It was Malleus' turn to laugh. He let out a few chuckles as he said, "I think I'll pass. Though I am tempted to go just to see the look on his face."

"We should head back before he decides he really wants to go," Silver sighed. His tiredness seemed to be returning, so Yuu walked the two of them back to the Mirror Chamber before heading to the infirmary.

'I've been to the infirmary more times in the last month than I have my whole time at this school.'

She rapped on the door and entered without waiting for an answer. Leona was sitting in his bed, Ruggie sitting on the edge of his bed, and Jack sitting on a stool talking to Ace and Deuce.

"Hey!" She greeted, sliding onto the bed next to Ruggie and ramming into him. He clutched his arm in pain. "Dude, I'm injured! Chill out!"

She rolled her eyes. "That's what you get for pushing people down the stairs and making people butcher their hands with knives~"

"No one was even aiming for the disc," Leona growled. "They were aiming for us instead."

"Once again, completely warranted," she laughed.

"Diasomnia only won because of how tired out everyone else got us," Ruggie whined, crossing his arms.

"Next year I'm giving it my all, no matter what I have to do," Leona said with a smirk. Yuu raised an eyebrow. "I hope that doesn't including hurting other people?"

He let out a laugh and Ruggie snickered, "You might get pushed down a flight of stairs if your not careful..."

"I'm gonna be on the roster next year for sure!" Deuce said, cheering himself on. Yuu smiled at him. "I'm sure you will, with your capacity for magic. You did well holding your own during the whole incident."

His face automatically flushed, and Ace started to tease him. "Well, I'll make sure to beat all of you up next year during the tournament," Yuu joked.

"Sometimes I forget you're in Diasomnia," Ruggie said. "You're so much less uptight than the rest of them!"

Ace nodded. "Yeah, I could only tell 'cause of your uniform!"

"Throwback to last year," she muttered, and the three upperclassmen began to laugh. She patted Ruggie's head. "It's literally because of you that I'm like this now."

Leona raised an eyebrow. "What about me?"

"We hardly even talked until this year."

He opened his mouth to respond before being interrupted by a shrill, childish voice. "Unca! I finally found you~!"

All of his muscles tensed up and he shut his eyes, letting out an exasperated sigh. "Tch...looks like the furball found me."

A child with red hair launched himself at Leona, hugging his arm. "Unca Leona!"

"Is this your nephew?" Yuu laughed, recalling him telling her about how irritating the child was and that he was the reason he left his home. The others, however, were stunned speechless.

"Yeah, this screech-box is my nephew. His name's Cheka." They all stared at him, not processing. "Y'know, my brother's son?"

They all gasped in surprise. "So... this is who's next in line for the throne?" Ruggie asked hesitantly, staring at the child who had fixated on Leona with his large brown eyes.

"Unca! Teach me how to pway the next time you come home! You were so cool!" Cheka squealed, wiggling Leona's arm. He let out a groan. "Fine, fine, just stop screeching in my ear."

He patted Cheka's head. "Where are your attendants? They must be tearing their hair out, looking for you." Cheka beamed up at him. "I couldn't wait to see you, so I left them all behind!" He giggled.

"He's such a precious angel," Yuu whispered, smiling at the child. Leona rolled his eyes. "Yeah, if tiny, hyperactive screech-boxes are precious. I'm never having kids."

"Shame," Yuu said at the same time Ruggie joked, "What if they're Yuu's kids~?" warranting Yuu to start coughing violently and Leona to turn red-faced, yelling at Ruggie to shut it.

Cheka sat on Leona's stomach and excitedly started barraging him with questions about when he was coming home next and whatnot. Ruggie whipped out his phone and started taking pictures, and Leona turned even redder in embarrassment.

"Are you all Unca Leona's friends?" Cheka asked, his attention finally shifting from Leona to all of the other people in the room.

Ace smirked. "Yeah, we're all your Unca Leona's besties! Ain't that right, Unca Leona?" He started snickering as he spoke, and soon the rest of them joined them.

"I'm not gonna forget this!" Leona snarled, though he didn't do anything to remove the child from his stomach. Cheka then turned and faced Yuu.

He beamed up at her. "Are you Unca Leona's girlfriend?" The boys started laughing even harder but toned it down so they could hear her answer. "Cheka!" Leona hissed, clearly embarrassed.

She patted Cheka on the head, causing him to giggle. "Not yet, but I will be~," she told him in a sing-song tone. The boys couldn't hold back their laughter anymore and they all ganged up against Leona to tease him.

He shut his eyes before asking, "Why not yet?" She stopped laughing and stared at him for a few seconds. "For real?"

"Yeah."

"...Nah," she responded. "I'm still extremely upset with you."

He rubbed his neck wordlessly. Cheka stared up at her and crawled into her lap, curiosity shimmering in his eyes. "Why are you upset with Unca Leona?"

"We had a little fight earlier," she told him, "So I'm waiting for him to say sorry!"

Cheka turned to Leona. "Unca, say sorry so you can date Miss Yuu!"

"HAH! Your nephew's trying to hook you up!" Ruggie was guffawing the hardest of everyone.

"I'm sorry. There, happy?" He grumbled. Cheka turned back to Yuu, bright-eyed. "Now you can come home with Unca Leona for Christmas!"

Leona was the one who audibly started coughing this time, caught off guard. Yuu let a smile form on her face as she gave Cheka a gentle hug.

"Alright, I'll make sure to come by and visit for Christmas."