Takes place during Chapter 10: A Garden Spat, after Leona and Ruggie exit.
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"....Ruggie."
The hyena beast-boy, strolling along beside Leona with his hands crossed behind his head, flicked an ear, looking sideways at him.
"Yes, Leona-san?" He asked innocently, that trademark grin of his curling the corners of his lips.
"What the hell was that back there?" Leona asked flatly. "Why'd you stop me from teachin' that herbivore a lesson?"
Ruggie sighed loudly.
"Ah-ahhh... So ya picked up on that, huh? Too bad... An' here I thought I was being pretty slick, too... Well, that's the dorm head for ya! Nothing slips past you... Well-- almost nothing."
He snickered under his breath, ears twitching in amusement.
Leona growled, low and deep, curling his upper lip to show a hint of fang.
"Ruggie," he rumbled again.
"Gimme a straight answer, or I swear I'm gonna rip off that ugly little tail of yours. What's the deal? Why'd you step in like that? Since when did you start sticking your neck out for weaklings?"
Ruggie shrugged, not seeming too concerned.
"I just thought maybe you might regret it later," he replied casually. "Wouldn't want anything clouding up that squeaky-clean conscience of yours, ya know?"
Leona growled again-- even deeper this time.
"Ruggie."
The shorter boy winced, looking guilty. "Alright, alright! Geez..."
He shot another sideways glance at Leona. "So-- you really haven't heard, huh? I mean, it's all anybody's been talkin' about for the last couple a' days..."
"What?"
"That that herbivore back there's a girl."
Leona blinked.
Then he came to a halt, ears flattening as he stared in shock at the hyena.
"A GIRL?!" He repeated, voice actually rising a few octaves.
"Are... Are you sure?!"
"Pretty sure," Ruggie replied, shrugging again. "Doesn't seem like she's trying to keep it a secret or anything... I mean, apparently she even said it herself during the ceremony, when the Headmaster brought her in an' was talking to you dorm heads."
They stood in silence for a few seconds.
Ruggie tilted his head, leaning forward to get a better look at Leona's face.
"Leona-san? You good, man?"
"A girl," he muttered under his breath, staring blankly at nothing. "God..."
"Sheesh..."
Sucking in a breath through his teeth, Ruggie stepped back, shaking his head.
"Guess you really ARE shook up about this, huh... But-- more importantly, why weren't you payin' attention to what she was saying at the ceremony in the first place? Woulda' probably saved you a LOOOTTA trouble.."
"Shut UP, Ruggie," Leona snapped briefly.
Shaking his head, he put his fingertips to his temple, staring blankly at the ground.
A girl.
A WOMAN, actually-- they-- she...
Seemed to be a little older than the first and second-years. Eighteen, maybe? Or... Even the same age HE was?
She was human, so there was no way she was older than that...
Why was she here? HOW was she here?
...Well, okay, it wasn't like she was even SUPPOSED to be here in the first place. She was totally magicless... It was already weird enough that she got summoned just from that fact alone.
But she was still a woman...
...And he'd almost hit her.
He'd almost hit a woman.
......God, if his mother ever heard about this, he'd be dead.
Or his brother's wife-- well, okay, no, she wouldn't actually DO anything to him.
But she'd give him that-- that LOOK...
That regal, motherly, disappointed look that made anybody on the other end of it feel about five years old.
It was bad enough back when he was a kid and she and Farada were still teens, canoodling and being disgustingly in love all over the place...
But after years of being the queen in all but name, it would be better qualified as a deadly weapon.
God...
"Uh," Ruggie said after a few seconds.
"Not to sound like one a' those 'equal rights, equal fights' kinda losers, but-- you didn't actually end up HITTING her... And, even if you DID, I mean-- she's a human, right? And she looks more like the scrawny, bookworm-ish type than anything else... So, like-- what's the big deal?"
He winced a little as Leona shot him a sizzling glare, curling his upper lip again.
"That is NOT. The damn POINT. Ruggie," he snarled. "It doesn't fuckin' MATTER if she's a human, or how strong she is, or any of that shit. A woman is a woman-- and you never. NEVER. Lift your hand to a woman needlessly."
Ruggie took another breath through his teeth.
"Okay, okay, geez..."
After a second, Leona started walking again.
Ruggie trailed a few steps behind him, hands behind his head again.
"...Hey," Ruggie piped up after a few more seconds.
"I was kinda wonderin'... I mean, it's not that I don't get it, up to a point, but-- is it, like, a royal family thing to really drive home the whole respectin' girls thing? Like, don't get me wrong, I've seen the royal guardswomen back home, and they're real intimidating, but... I mean, is it because the royal court used to be mostly lionesses back in the King of Beasts' day, or what?"
Leona stayed silent for a few more seconds, jaw working tensely.
"...I guess," he muttered after a second. "That's probably got somethin' to do with it... But also-- ugh..."
Grumbling, he ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back from his face.
"There's a lot of different reasons, basically. For one, a lotta' different countries are ruled by women. The Queendom of Roses, for one... The crown still only goes to the daughters, even though the monarchy's mostly just a ceremonial position now. Slip up with the wrong lady, and you might set off an international incident... Even if you're only a second prince, heh."
Giving a mirthless snort of laughter, he shook his head, lip curling a little again.
"So I guess it's pretty much been drilled into me from day one that when it comes to women, it's better safe than sorry... And--"
He stopped.
"And... What?" Ruggie asked after a second.
"....'S nothing," Leona grumbled, shoulders hunching a little bit. "Whatever."
"No, what?" Ruggie asked, and Leona could hear the grin making its way into his voice. "C'mon, Leona-san-- you can't just stop in the middle of a sentence like that after you've gotten a guy's curiosity all nice an' piqued!"
"I said it's NOTHING, Ruggie," Leona snarled, turning his head to glare sharply at the sandy-haired boy. "DROP it."
Ruggie recoiled a little...
But not by much.
The two looked at each other for a moment.
Then Leona gave a long, begrudging huff, tilting his head back to look up at the sky.
"....How much do you know about the king who came before the King of Beasts?" He asked.
"Uhhh..."
The note of surprise was evident in Ruggie's voice.
"N-Not much.... Well-- I know he was his brother, right? Aaaand-- he... Was kind of a dunce? Like, all brawn no brains kinda' guy?"
"...Yeah," Leona grumbled. "Apparently, under his rule, the kingdom was practically a wasteland. Even though he already had plenty of meat available whenever he wanted, he ordered the lionesses to keep hunting and hunting...."
Huffing again, he ran his hand through his bangs once more.
"Of course, this ended up causing a chain reaction in the ecosystem. Not enough herbivores keepin' the plants in check, the plants grow outta control and choke the rivers... So on and so on, you get the fuckin' point. And when one of the ladies of the royal court-- head of the hunting party or something, I dunno-- tried to warn him about it, he... Hauled off an' hit her. Real bad, too-- this wasn't, like, a slap upside the head or anything. If she wasn't a lion, he probably would've killed her..."
"Ooh," Ruggie muttered. "Yikes..."
"Yeah," Leona muttered again.
"So-- I guess, ever since then, it's been kind of a... Superstition in the court that raising a hand to a woman's the mark of a doomed ruler. Or... Maybe the other way 'round, depending on who you ask."
"Other way-- ohhh," Ruggie said, realization dawning in his voice. "Yeah, okay, I see... Like breakin' a mirror, you mean?"
"Something like that," Leona grunted.
A few more moments of silence as they walked.
".....I didn't think of you as the superstitious type, though, Leona-san," Ruggie said eventually.
"I'm NOT," Leona retorted, tail giving an irritated lash. "But... Look, nevermind. Whatever. The point is-- girls-- women... It's just better not to mess with 'em. Even the human ones-- especially since humans, they... Seem to have some weird ideas about women. Sociologically speaking, that is."
"Ohhh," Ruggie mused slowly, nodding again. "Okay, sure... I see."
.....They walked in silence for about another minute.
"What're you gonna do if you run into her again?" Ruggie asked after a while. "Like-- you gonna apologize to her, or...?"
Leona huffed another irritated growl, shoulders slouching.
"Tch- yeah, right... 'S not like it's gonna be very likely that we run into each other again. She's a first-year, right? So-- it's not like we're gonna have classes together or anything like that... Hopefully, we'll just be able to stay outta each other's hair."
Raising his eyebrows, Ruggie sucked in another breath through his teeth, shaking his head again.
"Ohh-kay... Sounds like you're just tryin' to run from your problems, but whatever you say, Boss-Man."
"If I wanted your opinion, I'd'a ASKED for it, Ruggie," Leona snapped back, turning his head and glaring. "And-- I doubt it needs to be said, but... Don't tell anybody about this, you got it? One word about this and you're dead."
"Jeesh-- okay, okay, I got it," Ruggie said hurriedly, raising his hands again. "Lips zipped-- ix-nay on the whole 'girls' thing, a'ight?"
"Yeah, you better," Leona growled.
Falling into silence again, the pair kept walking towards the castle, with only the occasional twitch of Leona's tail and the sound of their footsteps across the ground.
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Tfw you were just doing your usual anime bad-boy 'ore-sama' thing but accidentally almost did a misogny without knowing it
.....I think this was just an excuse for a little more worldbuilding, TBH.
And partly an excuse to see Leona S H O O K E T H.
.....Is Leona's mom alive? His dad's alive but super sick or something, so Farada does pretty much all the king stuff for him, but...
....I'm just gonna say that she is. It's easier that way.
Yeah, the actual events of the movies have gotten pretty mixed-up over the years, so... Nobody remembers that the King of Beasts, aka Scar, was actually the foolish king who raised his hand-- or paw-- to the lady of the royal court, aka Sarabi, and that the one who deposed him was actually his nephew, aka Simba.
They've got the general events right, but kind of skipped over the part in the middle with the Shakespearean family lineage drama.
All they remember was 'kingdom bad place, one king goes bye, new king comes in, kingdom good again', but forgot which guy was which, since this was all probably passed down through oral tradition, and by actual animals for part of it.
And since apparently the animals had some kind of tower of babylon event at some point after Simba's dynasty, there was probably some mistranslation/miscommunication involved in that at some point.
Rip.
I know I say this pretty much every time, but it keeps being true: I enjoy writing Leona and Ruggie more than I thought I would. Especially together. Their dynamic is very fun.
.....I wanna see Cheka's parents.
We have a rough idea of what Farada looks like (a little lorger/buffer than Leona, probably same or similar hair color as Cheka) but I wanna see TWST!Sarabi.
Literal queen. Please step on me.