this is just a special before the final chapter that is coming up UwU
***
It all started with a crime.
A wallet in hand, a smirk plastered on his youthful features, Ruggie Bucchi at the age of seven came dashing across the streets with a stream of outraged grown-ups behind him, all out of breath from his agility. A normal day was what he thought, he would bring all the wallets he had collected from as many careless adults as he could before buying food for the slums. The other hyenas were perhaps hungry by now and he overdid it by stealing three wallets more than what he was supposed to — that shouldn't be a problem if he needed to save some for health problems going on in the slums, either.
Turning around and poking his tongue out at the crowd behind him, he received a pleasing wave of grunts and curses. Above him showered with the decorations for an upcoming festival, colours of the rainbow that was unreachable from where he was currently. His dream, something he had resolved to ever since he met his grandmother, was to climb the tower and be recognised with fame. Ruggie shifted his footing as he dashed to the narrow pathway between two tall buildings, knocking his arm on the wooden crates stacked on the entrance, he found himself snickering to himself again as the confused shouts echoing behind him notified that they had all fallen for his trick.
That was if he found out that there was a dead-end of a towering fence in front of him. He immediately clicked his tongue, looked left to right, then realised that he was indeed surrounded by walls.
Then, he looked up.
A conveniently fixed rope tied around the leg of the balcony. If he was fortunate, he would be able to escalate right in time to swing to the other side of the fence. Ears twitching in turbulence, he dusted his palms before grasping onto the thin rope, then accumulating as little of his body weight as possible as he climbed further up — stopping at an appropriate height just right above the top of the fence, he kicked the wall with his leg, causing him to swing to the other side. Instantly, he let go of the rope to find his plan work, the fresh air that gently carried his hair as he glided down.
Ambers.
Round, shimmering ambers was what he thought, yet that wasn't the first thing he should have been noticing the second he propelled through the air — was the fact that he was almost landing on someone, a kid, his own eyes widening as he slipped his footing from the ground in order to avoid the figure in front of him. Landing on the ground with a thump, he let out an exhausted groan, the numerous wallets scattering on the dirt around him, causing the figure to rush to his aid.
Now, he could no longer see the eyes of the child in front of him. She was wearing a tan hooded cape that covered her hair, the hems of the hood shading over her face. Under her cape was a pinafore dress over a white sweater, her feet clad with strappy black sandals that were perfect for the summer weather. Within her delicate hands were a woven basket blanketed with a cloth.
"A-Are you alright!?" The soft voice frantically called, he heard her desperate bolt towards him as he rose from the dirt, his baggy and patched shirt already dirty despite him doing the laundry in the morning. Swivelling his head to the origin of the voice, he was engaged with aggressive shaking of her arms from his shoulders, the childish sobbing of the unknown girl whom he had just met for the very first time.
"If you keep shaking me like this — I'm actually gonna die!"
"Oh!"
In pure realisation, the girl suddenly let go, causing him to almost land on the dirt once again. She let out a cliche giggle, scratching her cheek in nervousness before standing up from the ground. Stretching out a hand, she curled her lips in a smile, hoping for him to grasp it.
"Are you just gonna help me like this?"
The girl tilted her head to the side in complete confusion.
"Huh?"
"There are wallets on the ground."
"I-I see that..?"
"And yer helping me who has all these wallets."
The unknown figure then lowered her head, her eyes through the shadow skimming through the details below her. Indeed, were several wallets sprawled around them, some flipped open to show their IDs — none of them had belonged to him at all. She blinked before stepping back from the wallets she had just observed.
"Y-You're a bad guy!" She pointed, a trembling finger peeping through the hem of the long cape. Ruggie found himself sweatdropping at the naive female in front of him who was spinning around in circles.
He rested a hand on his temples as he sighed. "You just noticed?"
"But you don't give off bad guy vibes!"
B-Bad guy vibes? Was that a thing?
"That said, shouldn't you be running? One mistake and I'll gulp you up."
Upon hearing the word 'gulp', the human shifted further away from him by a mere few steps. She then realised that she was taller than him by a few centimetres — perhaps due to the lack of food he seemed to eat causing him to resolve to stealing wallets as a living. Swallowing her saliva, she refused to walk away from him and hopped closer instead. This caused Ruggie to wrinkle his eyebrows, his field of vision focusing on the latter who had swallowed her saliva and breathed in, comically hopping back closer to him instead of what he had wanted. To his surprise, she bent down to collect all the wallets, then stuffed them into the inside pockets of the cape.
"No!"
"No?"
The girl fluttered her amber orbs open, finally putting it into view as she adjusted her hood. It was still on, but the hyena could finally see the sparkling eyes as clear as a diamond — the pale round cheeks and the soft cherry pink lips that nervously curled forward of a girl around the same age as he was. Albeit being the same age, they were both too distinctive: one was rich and one was poor, one was happy and one was unfortunate — yet both their lives intertwined somehow.
"My mama told me I can't talk to bad guys, but you don't look like one."
"Nah, nah, no matter where you look I'm the bad guy — so return those wallets and let me be."
"Then I'll just have to make you good!" She resolved as she let out a cheeky huff of triumph. Unleashing the cloth on her woven basket, Ruggie's ears immediately twitched and his tail perked as he smelt the sweet scent coming from it. "Today's mission~! If you successfully take me to my papa, I'll give you all these doughnuts!"
"All of them!?"
"Mhm!"
"Y-Ya gotta be lying — how could you resist the urge of doughnuts?" he denied as he shook his head, slightly backing away from her this time. The girl furrowed her eyebrows and stamped her foot on the ground, causing a whisk of dirt to be sent to the air.
"I'm not! Good people don't lie! Anyway, sweet things are my favourite, so if you won't help me then I'll be the one to gulp these doughnuts down in a jiffy," she stated, a pout rested on her lips as she crossed her arms. Instead of influencing him any further, the girl walked passed him in an aggressive manner, equivalent to as if she was not a noble. A peasant, rather. "Well, that's your loss. What a shame~ these freshly baked doughnuts will have to be devoured all by me. Wow, there's the original glaze, chocolate, strawberry, caramel—"
The girl stole a glance behind her as she was walking out of the road only to find the boy following her slowly. It worked, after all, she thought for a moment as her round orbs settled at his slightly droopy ears. His stance caught her attention, causing her to warily shift her body to his direction.
"It looks like you're going to steal the entire basket even if you say you want to help."
"Naaah, definitely not~!" He snickered under his breath just loud enough for her to hear. The female slightly squinted her eyes at him in suspicion before slipping back ahead to where she was walking, focusing on the roads to where she was to go next, what perked her interest was the crowd of adults that were swaying their heads from side to side, weapons in hand as if they were hunting someone down. In an instant, their heads faced the two children who were visible from the intersection of the roads, causing them to shout in victory.
"The damn thief had an accomplice!"
"Catch them—!"
The hyena growled as he grabbed her hand, then sprinted to the other end of the intersection without a second thought. As they ran, he finally took notice that who he was dragging was a female, perhaps brittle, provoking him to turn around to hope that she was alright with getting caught into the mess that he had produced. To his surprise, she wasn't breaking a single sweat.
"Are those the people you stole the wallets from?"
"Y-Yeah — anyway, are ya not tired!?"
She let out a little giggle as they crossed another gap between the buildings. "I've been told my stamina is inhumane."
"Well it is."
"Ouch."
Before they knew it, their interesting conversation had died down when they had realised the adults had stopped catching up to them, mere children who seemed to have the entire world to themselves, then swivelled around to make sure that there were no traces of any of the victims. For a moment, Ruggie wondered why she didn't mind tagging along with him; because of his carelessness, she was now caught in his own situation without much of an explanation. The sun's rays shone down at them as they took comfort behind the various stalls aligned in rows in the town.
"So?"
The female turned around to meet the grey orbs that squinted in confusion.
"What?" She asked, examining the woven basket to see if the doughnuts were damaged.
"You could've let go."
"But I didn't," she innocently smiled as she stretched her arms. "You're not a bad guy, after all."
"But they ain't either."
"Hmm, unlike you, they gave off bad guy vibes," she hummed as she began to doubt herself. "I'm sure I've seen them somewhere in the newspapers before — I have a suuuper good memory! Anyways, this is kinda fun, so let's keep running."
"Fun!? We're gettin' chased for our lives—!"
"I've never run like this before!" She childishly snapped as she folded her arms. Finding herself acting like her age, she decided to sit down and rested her chin on her palm. "Where I'm from, I have to act like a rich kid who's educated and has good morals — but that isn't who I am at all. I can't sprint around the place, can't eat all the food I want, can't learn the things I'm interested in — I'm jealous of you."
His ears perked forward, furrowing his eyebrows to decide whether he had heard wrong. Jealous? Someone was jealous of him? It was the first time anyone had said something like that to him, furthermore, a girl with wealth and status.
"B-But I can't eat the food I want either," was all he could say as he settled down with her. Taciturnity descended between them, all he could smell were doughnuts and all she could think about was staying for a bit longer.
"I think they're over there!" A thick voice beckoned as the two abruptly apprehended the troublesome steps coming from the opening of the stalls. Ruggie sighed before rising up, stretching a hand out in front of him to the girl who perked up from staring at the deep beige ground. A cheeky grin spread on her face as she took it, pulling herself up with his help as they picked up their pace. They both signalled each other to sneak out once the crowd of adults got to the centre.
The girl suddenly thought of a plan. She didn't know whether it was going to work nor was it going to help them at all; it didn't hurt to try. Gently tugging on his shirt, she decided to whisper her scheme. At first, he gave her an unsure expression as if she would not be able to execute it very well, yet he knew that it was probably the best solution to get rid of the trouble. Nodding, they both got to work.
🌻
Checkmate.
For a moment, Leona Kingscholar wondered why people could still recognise him despite the plain clothes he had worn along with the tortilla rags covering his dark hair and ears. They had rushed to him as if they were zombies looking for meat, yet they thought they could beat a lion? With a scoff, he looked at the piles of bodies lying on the ground, all knocked out from trying to fling themselves in groups in an attempt to harm him.
It wasn't long until he was going to get caught by the palace for taking a breather outside, it wouldn't be the first time either. The reason why he escaped was because Farena, his older brother, had some duties to complete due to being the first son of the Kingscholar family. Leona was frustrated by the fact that his brother was being pulled from place to place without his consent, not even complaining or venting his frustration to himself who was meant to play chess with him in the evenings. Now, he decided to let all his worries fade by sleeping at a place with the best weather and shade.
"Now!"
His ears slightly twitched as he turned to the origin of the commotion that was being held on the other side of the aisle, two children who were cornering and knocking adults out with their surprisingly athletic abilities. His eyes wrinkled as he realised that perhaps he wasn't the only one caught in a similar situation, wondering why two younger children were being chased. Another side of his mind, though, didn't want to be caught any further into the quandaries of the Afterglow Savannah.
Leona decided to head back home.
"Do you think I'm afraid of you kids!?" An adult hissed as he brought out a pocket knife from his breast pocket, then pushing the blade length to intimidate the two. Leona found himself cringing at the adult — if anything, the mob had looked more afraid than the children who were sweatdropping at his sudden aggressiveness. At this rate, though, it seemed that the two weren't going back home without at least a wound, causing Leona to roll his eyes, adjust the rags covering his head and stealthily making his way towards the back of the man.
"Wow! There's something there!" The girl pointed to Leona, causing the adult to hiss at her.
"I'm not gonna fall for that good ol' trick!"
Leona smirked, then launched a kick to the side of the man's neck as the two children watched in astonishment. He then dusted his hands and removed himself from the man who now fainted, now focusing on the girl who seemed to be protecting the doughnuts.
"If he fell for the trick, he would've caught me," Leona clicked his tongue as he rested his emeralds on the two children. "Now you two hurry back ho—"
He paused when his emeralds met a strand of dark green yet luscious hair that was immediately tucked back in.
— Amber orbs meant one thing, but dark green hair meant another.
"Hmm, I kinda would," The girl answered with a tone as if it was obvious enough. Instead, she bent forward and turned her head to the sudden crowd of people that blocked their way. "But there are more bad guys here~!"
The two boys instantly faced to where she was pointing to. Certainly, there were groups of people who seemed to know what was going on, finding out that the hyena had stolen something yet again. A bright smile on her face, her amber eyes shone as she then grabbed the two boys' sleeves.
"So I've been thinking," she began as she signalled an exit in between two buildings. "Let's go on an adventure!"
On cue, she immediately dashed, causing the two to get caught in her own game of chase as the large crowd — more like the entire town, decided to hunt them down.
"O-Oi, this is the third time we're running—!" Ruggie grunted as he looked behind him, feeling slightly intimidated by the number of people storming through the streets because of three youths. She returned a chuckle, a hand securing her hood so it wouldn't flutter and the other still grasping the woven basket of doughnuts.
"Tsk, why did you bring me into this?" The lion snarled despite still dashing along with them. Ruggie noted that he slightly recognised the face underneath the rags — he wasn't sure where he had seen him, yet he knew that the older figure wasn't someone he should mess with. "Anyway, what did you guys do that stirred up this commotion?"
"Hyena-san stole!"
"You didn't need to reveal me like this—!"
"Hmm, but I was sure our plan would have worked if it wasn't for that guy to have a knife," she innocently pouted. Albeit all three children still running without breaking a single sweat, it seemed that already half of the crowd had dissipated back to where they had belonged. In fact, it was oddly confusing for her to comprehend — in such an abrupt time, already so many people had given up on getting their revenge from the hyena whom they knew to be the talk of the town for being a frequent thief.
Their strategy when they had cornered some of the men was a smart one. First, Ruggie and the girl would remove all the cash inside their wallets besides for their IDs, then pile them up in the corner before whistling to gain their attention. They would hide in the corner of the building and make sure that the adults had crowded around the wallets to find which were their's, then attack them from the back by dropping the heavy crates stacked from the balconies of the buildings. That way, they would both be able to trick them into thinking they had gotten their money back.
She then stopped her pace, alarming the two as she turned around to see nothing.
Nothing, she thought, there were no signs of people — people standing. Furrowing her eyebrows, she tentatively waddled back, discovering some of the residents on the terrain sleeping soundlessly.
"That's weird," she said aloud.
"Not as weird as a Mademoiselle like you wandering in a territory full of animals," a voice called.
She strained her neck to look at the figure perched on a tree, a blonde with a bob-cut and sharp shamrock orbs — despite trying her best to see from afar, the summer sunlight that illuminated the interplay of the leaves through the trees. The girl's ambers squinted in difficulty, then gave up by waving her hand without a hint of social anxiety.
"Mademoiselle?" She repeated in confusion. "Sorry, I don't speak big-brain language — but was it you who helped us?"
"Indeed, it was I," the boy said while doing a little bow. For a moment, she wondered whether she was surrounded by a group of adults more than children around her age. She was, certainly, an average seven-year-old girl who was invited by her father for an adventure, holding tight in his grasp a maroon grimoire that looked older than any of the grimoires he had stacked into alphabetical order in his study. Not that she knew why, he was more than pissed every single time she had suggested the idea of travelling to various places when he was busy working. It was a question that wrecked her mind when she had decided to think about it, yet she knew that perhaps the best way to solve things was to stay silent.
She ignored his use of complicated wording. "Oh, then thank you very much."
"My—! A 'merci' isn't needed from a kind young maiden like you," he beamed as the two shook hands. It might have been his imagination, yet his sense of surroundings and sensitivity to details were shockingly sharp, yet he felt like he heard growling coming from the two who were not familiar with his very existence. Instead, he dismissed their presence once he noticed the round amber orbs from the girl. "May I have your name?"
Rule number one.
Never tell your name to anyone who you are not familiar with.
Rule number two.
Never take your hood off at all times.
Rule number three.
Run from any trouble you see.
The girl blankly gawked at the terrain, feeling sweat trickle down her cheek as she finally discerned the laws that limited her independence. In fact, she should have obeyed the commands in the first place; she shouldn't have met the hyena who caused the trouble, she shouldn't have dashed and made the lion tag along without his consent, she shouldn't have suddenly appeared before the mysterious boy with his sharp mind.
She should have listened.
"A-Ah," she withdrew her hand from his, giving them an oddly off-guard expression behind the shadows of her hood. "Look at the time—! I need to find Papa or else he'll get mad at me~ today's little game of tag was fun!"
"E-Eh? Yer already leaving?" The hyena asked — the first thing she saw were his ears slightly drooping. Her train of thoughts then clicked, reminding herself that albeit having to find her parent by herself, she still needed to provide compensation for him travelling with her the entire time. Shooting him a smile, she hopped over to him and clasped her hands on his.
"Here!" She glowed, passing the entire woven basket of doughnuts. "And hold on a moment, I have a purse somewhere that can store the money you stole from those bad guys."
Struggling to rummage through her thick clothing, she finally found her pouch and folded the notes into the sack. Ruggie's eyes widened, finally realising that in spite of going through all of the catastrophes, perhaps he shouldn't have taken his time with her for granted. She was leaving, leaving until who knew when they would meet again. All he had caused was trouble, he knew that; even now, it was surprising enough that she had helped him escape the roars of the citizens who only thought of him as a pest — yet she still supported his scheme and even gave him doughnuts?
"I've been meaning to ask," Leona started, scratching the back of his neck in thought to form his words properly. "Aren't you that Mir—"
"Miraculous Ladybug!? Maan, I've been wanting to be like her ever since like,,, a-a month ago!" She jokingly laughed, wishing that she could send a message to him via telepathy to get a hint. "Fun fact~! The meaning behind choosing a ladybug and a cat is because a ladybug is lucky whereas the other is not. Does that answer your question?"
"No, not really."
"Shame," she frowned genuinely. Ambers then caught the wristwatch that was secured around her wrist, showing the time that was going to pierce her in the heart by the time she had gone back to find her father. Sighing, she turned her back, recalled something she had seen from one of her parent's chunky books locked in the study. It was a simple magic trick, simple — but not so simple; she had to sacrifice her cape in order to perform it.
Losing something was a thing, yet she wanted to leave with a cool exit.
"Hey," she smiled as she loosened the collar of the hood and the cape. She wasn't going to let go of it so that her hair could be revealed, but she needed to somewhat loosen it so she could take it off easier once she had completed her magic trick. "Do you guys like magic?"
"Magic, you say?" An eight-year-old Rook repeated in an interested tone.
"Haaah, I'm sleepy — let's just get this over and done with," Leona yawned as he stretched his arms.
Ruggie, on the other hand, suspected the randomness of her style of speech. What was she going to do? Summon something? Make it rain? Knowing how mysterious she was, perhaps she could do more than what an average being could do. There were barely any TVs where he could freely watch the news, someone casting interesting magic tricks or even knowing the weather for the day after. In such a short time, he mentally noted, he had already expected great things from her.
However,
the moment he lifted his head up to say something like 'don't go' or 'we haven't introduced ourselves yet',
she had already disappeared, her cape hitting the floor —
and the final evidence of her existence was a letter reading:
Bonsoir, my golden nuggets, bonsoir.
🌻
"—ggie."
Slowly, the girl managed to hear the latter slightly stir awake. He was still sleeping, dreaming whatever he was dreaming, yet she could not afford to let him cut class and let her thighs go numb; especially since she also had to go to her own class.
"Ruggie," she called again, this time, in a slightly louder voice. To her disappointment, only his ears twitched, his eyes still closed and consciousness yet to be awoken. Scoffing at his resistance to her calls, she decided to test out of her theory was true: whether he had good hearing or not.
One.
Two.
Three.
"GUCCI BUCCHI — THERE ARE DOUGHNUTS FOR SALE AT SAM'S SHOP!"
"Where!?" The hyena immediately jumped up from his back, vision still blurry from his sleep — only to find out that the girl beside him was lying the entire time. An irk mark popped on his head, causing him to groan in exhaustion from the false hope bottling up in his mind. "Seriously~! You didn't have to shout so loud!"
"If I didn't, you wouldn't be awake," Mira smirked as she dusted off her pants, stretching her limbs from the stiff position she had to sit through for who-knew-how-long. Amber orbs then flickered as she noticed his arms wrapping her around her waist, the same exhausted look as if he had just finished his part-time job at Mostro Lounge. Furrowing her eyebrows, she lifted a hand to caress his ears. "What's wrong? A bad dream?"
"...Do ya like sweet things?"
Mira paused her hand. "Nope."
A girl who is naive.
A girl who loves sweet things like doughnuts.
What he remembered was different from who she was now, yet for some reason, he wasn't very astonished.
"Shishishi~ you two aren't very different, huh?"
"Two?" Mira wrinkled her face further. "Who are you talking about?"
"No one~"
"Don't tell me — you had someone before me!?" She snorted facetiously, hand on her mouth and giving him the most exasperated look that she could execute. Ruggie followed the exact same reaction once he realised how she mistook his wording, then grasped her tighter in response.
"NO!"
"Was it Leona!?"
"That's not it!"
At the end of the day, they both had a little game of tag in order to explain themselves about their little misunderstanding, taking into account that they had gotten into trouble by Ashton Vargas who was patrolling the school grounds.
***
sorry if this special is a little short lmao this week has been TERRIBLY busy for me
i have like,,,
five in-class exams and two assignments due this week and trust me,
this is just the beginning.
looking at my assessment schedule even though it is only term 2 being like: