fantasia | various

stay with me ↛ twisted wonderland

twisted wonderland | leona x gn!reader |  warnings: none | notes: reader is Yuu, use of they/them pronouns, Yuu is an adult, cross-posted on AO3 and Tumblr, no beta read we overblot like men | summary: Leona and Yuu have a fateful encounter at Vargas' Training Camp.

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Leona knew he was done for the moment Vargas had ambushed him earlier that day. Truly, it was impressive that the coach was able to sneak up on a beastman so stealthily, especially a one as keen as Leona Kingscholar.

After Vargas had revealed himself from his disguise, Leona couldn't help but nearly hiss; he already had to go on this infuriating "training camp" and waste his precious napping hours, but now he had to deal with the egotistical coach's punishment for trying to slack off. Worst of all, he had to be stuck with the most troublesome of the Chaos Quartet (a nickname given to a very specific group of first-years who infamously broke an expensive chandelier earlier that semester).

"Man, Vargas is really running us through the wringer," Ace sighed, sliding down the cabin wall before picking up a water bottle. "I mean, is he even human? How the heck does he keep an eye on every student to see who's slacking?"

Savannaclaw's housewarden remained quiet, his annoyance bubbling under the surface of his skin. He knew Vargas was good at his job, as both a teacher and an athletic musclehead (this included being good at magic), but it always irked him that the older man was able to sneak up on Leona like that.

Stupid Vargas, stupid training camp, stupid punishments. The words looped nonstop in Leona's mind as he too grabbed a water bottle and took a sip.

Suddenly, he felt a heavy hand land on his shoulder, and Leona nearly squeezed all of the water out of his bottle at the contact. Vargas' loud voice boomed in his ear; Ace jumped in his seat and choked.

"I can assure you I am fully human!" he laughed loudly. "In fact, I have the ghosts to thank for helping me supervise you rowdy bunch."

As if on cue, one of the ghostly assistants appeared out of thin air, giving a wide grin, before disappearing again. Leona scowled and shook Vargas off subtly. Ace groaned. Vargas placed his hands on his hips, staring down his two students.

"I've had my eyes on you specifically, Kingscholar," he stated. "But Trappola? I expected much better from you."

"Wh~at?" Ace sang, an angelic grin painted on his face. "C'mon, coach, I just needed a few seconds to catch my breath!"

As the Heartslabyul student babbled on with the coach replying in a way that grated his ears, Leona forced himself to tune out their voices. He went further into the cabin, in a corner away from its other two occupants. Leona looked out the window and watched as the sun's rays disappeared slowly, day turning into yet another night. Barely did he register Vargas' voice, which was now directed at the prince as well.

"I will give you a break for tonight, but tomorrow, your punishment continues until we leave for the school. If you two even think about leaving the cabin, I can guarantee some extra lessons will be in store for you."

Leona rolled his eyes and got himself comfortable; no way was he going to pass up this opportunity to take a nap. Leona could hear the wooden floorboards creak as Ace shuffled about, but the freshman was careful to be as quiet as possible, and was respectful enough to know when a nap was due. After all, with Vargas' torturous all-day workout as a punishment, both slackers could use as much rest as possible.