PRIDE (Leona x Reader) [Twisted Wonderland]

Chapter 10

It was a rather plain day for the next few hours, as you found yourself once again trapped in Leona's room with little to do. At first you tried to read, but you couldn't focus on any of the words. After that, you tried sneaking out and spying on the dorm's spelldrive practice. It wasn't very interesting either, since all you could see from the common room's window was little specks moving around on the cliff. Almost all of the dorm seemed obsessively passionate about the sport, but even from all of the talk you heard through closed doors you couldn't manage to stitch together the rules of the game.

When Leona got back from practice, he didn't try to make any conversation. You received a quick 'hey' before he got in the shower, and after he got out, he moved on to what you could only read as outward scheming. In the past two days you'd really managed to put together what was Leona's 'thinking face', and you could gauge his frustration by the movement of his nose and upper lip.

As much as you wanted to believe he was only focusing on his spelldrive tournament or schoolwork, you knew he wasn't. The thing is, you didn't know what he was thinking about, either. You didn't know what Azul had told him in their secret chat, and you didn't know what he was planning to do to obtain the key that he had seemed so certain he would be getting. On his own.

What was it that he couldn't even tell you? It was your own escape plan and he wouldn't even let you in on it. Did he think it was too dangerous for you? He wouldn't go if it were risking his life or something, right? Or, did he just think you were going to get in the way? Had you been getting in the way? All of your past attempts had led to you getting caught, only causing him more trouble in covering for you. You couldn't blame him for wanting to go on his own. You would feel awful if that was the case—the first person to ever try to help you and you just kept messing it up for him.

Eventually, Leona halted his motions, catching the toy lion he'd been tossing into the air (kind of weird that he owned a stuffed animal, now that you thought about it) and putting one hand over his face in exasperation. He swore under his breath, and looked out the window. It was getting dark, both of you noted. Leona sat up. "I'm going," he said, stonily, a thousand times less casual than his normal tone.

"Going where?" you asked immediately. You had to lift your chin to look him in the eye, from where you were sitting on the floor, but Leona didn't stop to meet your gaze.

He set his hand briefly on the top of your head as he walked toward the door. "To get your key."

You had two options. One; you let him leave, and do his plan, or whatever it was, like he wanted you to. Or two; you snuck out and followed him, as discreetly as you could, and maybe you could figure out where he was going without getting noticed by him or any of his dormmates, if you were lucky. You didn't want to do either of those. You had no idea what the first one might entail, and the second one felt dishonest; not to mention likely to fail.

You pushed to your feet and grabbed Leona's uniform to pull him back toward you. "Wait!" He turned to face you, or was turned, you weren't sure, and you had to swallow before you could speak again. His ears had gone up in surprise, and his mouth had been made small. You snatched your hand away from his shirt, feeling your face warm as your blood tried to figure out where it wanted to go. "Can't... Can't you just tell me?"

Leona's eyes didn't leave you, which only added to your unwarranted embarrassment. Not just that, though, you were scared and confused, only just a little, especially after everything that had happened. Scared for him, mostly, since while he looked at you like this any prickle that he might be betraying you had dispersed like it never existed at all. And confused because, well,

"Why can't you tell me?"

"There's an unused key in the back of Sam's shop. It's not for sale, though. Not even for Azul. Apparently, Crowley won't let him sell it, so he just keeps it there." Leona flattened his mouth before he continued. "The only way to get it is to steal it."

You looked at him, trying to figure him out. Was that why he didn't want to tell you? He'd seen you try to steal from Crowley before, it wasn't like you would be against it. Well, stealing from some stranger wasn't great, and you weren't a thief. In your own time, you would never have even thought about stealing from someone. But here, it didn't seem as bad. There weren't as many consequences to it, after all. If you'd stolen that key from Crowley, you could be gone before he even knew, and there was no way those actions could come back to bite you. Well, that wasn't as true if Leona was the one doing the stealing, but all the more reason for him to have told you about his plan.

"I'll be back in under an hour," Leona said.

"No, wait." You bit your tongue. "Shouldn't I go?"

Leona shook his head. "It's better if just one of us went. And you don't know how to do magic."

So he did think you were weak. You hid your disappointment when you argued, "But you'll be in way more trouble if you're caught, right? You're a housewarden. What if they find out you stole it!?"

"And if you get caught, there's a chance that they'll kill you. One of those is higher stakes than the other, don't ya think?"

He wasn't wrong. Your life was on the line here. But still, he had already done enough for you, and some part of you wasn't willing to risk his livelihood—position, whatever—for your escape. Even if it was on a scale with your own life. You shivered and looked almost longingly at the brass doorknob. "I don't want you to go without me."

There were a couple of moments of silence. Leona was contemplating, trying to weigh this in his head. You didn't look at his face, not sure what you would find in his expression. You waited for him to say something. The warm air spiraled heavily around you.

"Okay," Leona agreed. "Fine."

You looked at him, taken by the sudden abidance. His brows were set low, and his lips were turned into a dim almost-frown. Still, though, he looked... soft. You wanted to ask him why, you expected him to ask why, but neither of you spoke, and Leona was already turning back to the door. You stared at him blankly. He held it open for you, standing in the doorway with his green eyes stationed on you. "Huh?"

"I don't want you to go without me either," he said lightly. Your mouth went dry. Together, then. There was something about this that you just couldn't process.

You walked past him through the door, eye to eye and so close, and you could've sworn you felt something flutter in your chest when your clothes brushed. He closed the door behind you, and those few tiny inches of distance between you seemed to lessen once again as you walked. The sky was dark again, the way it was when you'd met. Why did it suddenly feel like so much had changed in only twenty four hours, when nothing had changed at all?