When History Repeats || Leona Kingscholar

Chapter 6

"Can't sleep?"

"Wow, you're up so late, did you finally lose it?"

Every time Dorothea asks a question as an answer, it always makes Leona feel just a little bit more irritated than usual. It was a horrible habit she has, and she doesn't even have any idea she's doing it.

"Can you answer me, instead of asking me a question? I asked first." Said Leona, his tone harsh, as if it was going to bite off someone's head with its voice alone. Due to this, the princess stopped what she was doing.

"Yes, I'm not asleep." She answered the obvious. "Because you have been so busy sleeping, the headmaster decided to give the Housewarden's duties to me and--why are you looking at me like that?"

"So that's what you look like." He stated. "Huh."

"What did I look like before, a chimpanzee?" She asked, and she hears him laugh.

"Even if I wanted you to look like that, that's not it." He replied, his ears slightly twitching. "You were more invisible back then when we were children, as if you never existed and you were just a fever dream I keep on having."

Dorothea felt weird, strange even. He was never the type to open up about anything. Rather, he prefers to listen than to talk, as he always has his eyes closed but his ears are wide awake. But now, it was so different from the normal.

Because of how quiet the princess was, the prince just decided to continue his rant, thinking that maybe after talking a lot, he may be able to finally sleep.

"You were never there. We were engaged, but I, at least, didn't feel shit." He explains, laughing. "I didn't even know what I expected, but I wanted to hope something that I know will never happen."

"Which is?"

"You. There. Beside me." He responded, feeling more and more awkward by what the hell he was saying. "It was stupid, I know. But I was a kid, alright. I believed it things I shouldn't believe in."

"I.."

"I don't want to hear your forgiveness."

"I didn't know." Dorothea said, happy she hesitated earlier. "You already know my condition, Leona. The things you love doing are also the things I'm horrible at, and despite how hard I tried, I just can't do it."

There was this tense awkwardness as they both stayed quiet after that. The silence was like a bubble that's about to pop any second now, and the second prince decided to claw that fragile bubble with his claws.

"Why didn't you ask me for help?" He asks, his whole figure still calm and composed. But, he opened his eyes as he stared at the ceiling. "I could've taught you chess, or teach you the beauty of sleeping."

She smiled. He didn't.

"But, I--!"

"Insomnia doesn't have a cure." Leona cuts her off, to which Dorothea sighed about as she lets go of her pen. "But, I was not asking you to sleep with me. All I asked for was to just stay beside me, nothing else."

Dorothea wanted to protest, say something like having this kind of condition was not easy and it isn't something to just throw out of the window as if it wasn't bugging her whole existence such as this.

But, then again, Leona was right. All throughout their engagement when they were ten, she never really spent time with him, thinking that maybe he was busy again, and she didn't want to be a disturbance.

She was never there.

After all, Leona was right.

"Sorry."

"What did I tell you about not wanting to hear it?"

".. Right."

"Well, you could always make it up to me." There he goes.

"It's been a decade ever since that whole situation happened, Leona." Dorothea finally had room to protest as she shook her head. "And plus, it's not like we're still engaged. So, doing those kinds of things are inappropriate now."

"You do that with Ruggie."

"I only pat his head, there's nothing else to it."

"Then, you can make it sound like there's nothing more than that, either." Leona argued, as he pats her bedsheets. "Make it up to me, Dorothea."

She sighed, shaking her head as she looks back at the papers that still weren't finished. According to the headmage, these needed to be submitted tomorrow morning, and she was so close to being done.

However, her train of thoughts were shortly cut off by claws as she was picked up bridal style, her figure landed on her soft and pretty sheets. Just now, does she truly realize his scent was all over her room.

Unlike the prince, the princess was sitting instead, his head on her lap. It was so quiet that she swears she could hear the insects having a party outside of her room, how funny that thought was.

"You don't have to sleep." Said Leona. "Just stay close to me, and I'll give you permission to play with my hair."

"Wow, how tempting." Is what she sarcastically said, but she knew deep down she really wanted to touch those fluffy locks of his.

Sevens, kill her already.

"Hey, you should really cut the damn crap." Ruggie scoffed, opening the lady's curtains to let the sunlight go inside of the room. "If someone sees you always sneaking out and coming here, you'll be dead meat."

"Who's stopping me, the headmaster? Don't make me laugh, Ruggie."

"You know, you're not like the Leona I know. You're like a whole different person when you look at her." The younger boy replied, grinning. "The first time you saw her at the mirror chamber, your eyes were screaming how you miss her."

"Can you shut?"

"Never." Ruggie laughed. "Not when you spilled the tea."

"That's only because you wouldn't shut up and leave me alone to sleep."

"Well, good luck on getting her back." 

And with that, the hyena closes the door shut.

The lion huffed a breath, before yawning. Sitting up from her lap, he had a smirk painting his face as he sees her closed-eyed state. And here she always thought, she was never going to have a peaceful slumber.

He lets the princess sleep for a bit more as he slips her under the covers, before he gets up, messing his already messed-up hair a bit more as he went to her study table to finish the paperwork that was supposed to be handed out to him.

Leona raised a brow, impressed by the way she wrote her statements and how her penmanship improved. Of course, it did, she was smart enough to know how horrid her writing was back when she was still young.

He smirked, before sitting down on her chair and starting to finish her wok. Yeah, the headmaster will truly see a different between their penmanship, alright.

Looking at the side of her table, he sees the signature bracelet she has. She wore it everyday, even Emma knew that, but he didn't. Maybe, he was too blind to see that. Or, he wasn't there to see it.

 Dorothea, do you ever stop and think about me?