strangers like me
I want to know, can you show me?
݁⋆⭒˚.⋆ leona kingscholar x reader
synopsis: You're magicless, failing Vargas’ PE class, and completely at the mercy of Leona who couldn't care less if you passed or failed. But the more time you spend together on the practice field, the harder it gets for either of you to pretend this is just about passing a class.
wc: 2.9k
content: fluff/crack(?), some very mild kissing, some cursing, spelldrive club (literally just ruggie and epel ) appearance
soundtrack: “strangers like me”- phil collins
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Being from another world, you didn’t exactly have a natural affinity for Spelldrive.
Unlucky for you, if you didn’t get better at it somehow, you were gonna fail your physical education class with Vargas.
And even unluckier for you, your assigned “tutor” was none other than the prince of the sunset savannah, Leona, who honestly really couldn’t care less if you passed or failed.
“Look, Leona,” you huffed as you attempted to keep up with him as he walked out of class, “I know you probably hate this arrangement, but I really do need your help…JUST WAIT A SECOND!” you yelled before attempting to grab onto his sleeve but missed and toppled over.
Only then did he stop to look back before letting out a sigh of reluctance. But hey, at least he stopped.
Even through clenched teeth and your eye twitching out of anger, you managed to continue, “If you don’t help me, I’m going to fail and then Crowley is going to kick me out of Ramshackle and then I’m going to get kicked out of school and be homeless-”
“Enough, I get it,” he said, scratching his head in annoyance. “I don’t have time to teach anyone, especially someone who is magicless,” he finally looked down at you, “even if you enchant your broom to fly and manage to learn how to balance on that, that barely scratches the surface-”
“But I can do it!” You didn't mean to yell as dramatically as you did, but desperation made it burst out. “Whatever you do, I’ll do it too.” Your plea was clear, and you stood up, eyes filled equally with determination and desperation. He studied your face for a moment, conflicted, before sighing again and rubbing his hands over his face debating with himself.
“It’s not going to work, you’re gonna have to find someone else.”
Even after all that, he still wouldn’t budge. As you looked down at your feet, you scanned your head for your next move, a rebuttal, an offer, anything…
And then it clicked
“Well, thanks anyway…I guess I’ll just go ask someone else. Maybe Malleus will be able to help-”
“Meet me at the field at 8pm and don’t be late,” he said before walking away.
Who knew all you had to do was use his ego against him.
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“Again,”
Maybe asking him for help was the wrong decision. It had only been 20 minutes since you had started, and he already had you run the length of the field 4 times, do a (attempt) at a 3-minute plank, and kept forcing you to get up on this stupid broom that you enchanted until you could stay on for 5 minutes without falling off.
You could feel your whole body getting bruised as you hit the hard ground again and again. “What the hell,” you grumbled as you ripped some grass out of the ground in frustration, “You’re the worst teacher ever, you can’t just say ‘again’ and expect that to help me.” You threw the grass out of your hand as you sat down in defiance.
He glared back slightly more out of annoyance because, to his dismay, you had a point. He got up with his silent but commanding presence following his every footstep. As he reached you, you looked down at your defeated state. But for some reason, his intense gaze wasn’t from a place of anger; you could feel it coming from an unreadable yet different place. With one movement, he picked you up and sat you back down on the broom. “Here,” his voice was weirdly more gentle than before, “Straighten your back and bend over slightly so your center of gravity is in line with the broom.” He applied a bit of pressure to your back that sent a wave of shock through your spine. His hand lingered probably a bit longer than it should’ve, but it felt comfortable, it felt right. His other hand moved to your knee to further stabilize your form on the broom, which really did you in.
You had been looking forward thus far, but out of the corner of your eye, you were able to see him intently looking down at you with a focus and intention you hadn’t seen him have up close ever.
Had he always been this handsome?
A blush began to crawl onto your face as you tried to keep your focus forward. In that moment, he began to release his hold on you, and you realized that you had begun to balance on the broom.
“Ha,” a smile crept onto your face, “I-I’m doing it, I’m actually doing it!” You turned to Leona, who was standing only a few inches away, “Thank you, you’re a good teacher when your hands are on after all,” you beamed at him for the first time since practice began. It was so fast that most people would’ve missed it, but his eyes widened for a split second before he ran his hand through his hair, muttering, “Don’t thank me yet, we’ve barely started”. He walked back to lie down at his spot on the ground, a few feet away. “You still have to stay on there for 5 minutes”.
You smiled lightly, now even more motivated to improve than before.
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“58…59…done,” Leona counted off as you slid off the broom back first onto the ground.
You panted a bit from getting the air knocked out of you and exhaustion, “See ha…” you attempted to laugh, “I told you I could do it.”
He crouched next to you, clearly seeing you were one more syllable from passing out. “Congrats,” he said semi-sarcastically, “But we’re done now.”
“What?” you sat up abruptly, “But, this isn’t nearly enough to help me pass, I still need yo-”
“…for today,” he finished his sentence as he put his hand back on your back, “and don’t sit up so quickly, you can barely talk, do you really wanna pass out?” he lectured.
You looked behind you at the hand on your back before looking at him, to which he quickly removed his hand and stood up. “Same time tomorrow, don’t be late, we have a lot of work to do”, he said, digging his hands into his pockets before walking away.
“…same time tomorrow’ you faded into a whisper as you sat on the ground. “What is wrong with me? Why am I getting so… bothered by Leona? I mean, sure, he’s handsome, respectful (at times), great body, nice muscles…” you stopped yourself before palming your forehead, “but he’s an asshole, and he’s just helping me so that Malleus can’t one-up him! Yeah…totally”.
You totally didn’t have a thing for your tutor.
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The next day, you took it upon yourself to get some extra practice in early in the morning before your night session with Leona.
You woke up at the crack of dawn, running through the conditioning drills he gave you yesterday, before getting warmed up on the broom again. Now that you had learned to balance, you wanted to impress Leona by practicing being able to move a bit on the broom.
Unbeknownst to you, the actual spelldrive team was doing their practice on the adjacent field. “Is someone over there?” Epel asked as he adjusted his practice bag on his shoulder.
Ruggie looked up from his phone, “Wait, yeah, I think it’s y/n,” he squinted, trying to get a better look. Epel and Ruggie watched you as you got on the broom, moved a bit, then fell off, only to get back on it multiple times. Ruggie was attempting to stifle his laugh while Epel looked more concerned, attempting to walk over to you to offer you help.
“What are you two doing?” an all-too-familiar voice emerged from behind them.
They both immediately turned around with strained smiles. “Leona…” they looked at each other, “We were um, just watching the sunrise! Wow, it’s so beautiful it makes you forget all the sleep you could’ve gotten if not for this practice,” Ruggie nervously rambled.
Leona cocked an eyebrow at them with a slight glare. Ruggie nudged Epel’s shoulder, “But who cares about the sunrise? Practice is obviously more important, let’s go,” he grumbled at that last part, dragging Epel quickly away before they got in any more trouble.
Leona lingered for a little longer, noticing what they were really staring at: you and your attempts to get more practice in. Even though you were kinda painfully failing and falling often, you were managing to move well a couple of times. It seemed that you didn’t notice the group, and that gave Leona ample opportunity to continue to watch you.
There was something about the raw determination on your face, no matter all the scratches, bruises, and failed attempts, you kept getting up, kept trying your best.
Something was stirring in Leona. Whatever he was feeling felt so abnormal, like emotions he had never known from some other world far beyond this place. And yet, he found himself not able to look away.
He wished he could be beside you right now.
The thought ripped through his mind and pulled him out of the trance he was in. What the hell was he thinking just now? He tore his gaze away from you and tried to set his focus on the actual practice he and his teammates came there to do.
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“You're late” you said, stretching on the ground as Leona approached you.
“I’m late cause Trein was nagging me after class again, so I really don’t need that from you too,” he grumbled, throwing his bag down and halting above you.
“I’ve been practicing,”
“I know, I saw everything earlier this morning.”
You looked up at him in surprise, face heating up in embarrassment, “E-everything…?” you stuttered.
He didn’t respond. “Let’s put your practice to the test,” he shoved a broom in your face before dragging the spelldrive disk from out of his bag.
With that, you took hold of the broom, steadied yourself on it, and took off into the sky alongside him.
He first tested your flying abilities, making you go back and forth the length of the field while flying high and dipping low.
Before you could even celebrate doing that, he interrupted, “Don’t get too excited, this is just the beginning.”
He than ran a drill where you’d pass the spelldrive disk in between the two of you, getting further and further away from each other each time. By using what he taught you about aligning your center of gravity with the broom, you were able to keep your balance even with the added weight of the disk.
With every successful pass, Leona noticed how your smile kept getting wider and wider, and something in him kept feeling prouder and prouder (even though he of course ignored the feeling)
“Okay final test,” he said, stretching his neck side to side before adjusting his grip on the disk, “if you want this disk, you’re going to have to take it from me.”
“Well, I don’t really want the disk-”
“You have 5 minutes to try and take it from me, otherwise you're going to have to start all this over and find another tutor.”
The threat was enough to get you to lock in.
He started his timer, and before you could register anything, he had taken off towards the other end of the field, leaving you behind in a gust of wind.
“Shit” you muttered before zooming off. You tried to catch up to him, but every time you got close, he would keep making these concisely evasive moves that would leave you stranded in his dust. When you finally caught up a few moments later, he decided to show off and fly backwards.
“Okay now you’re just being an asshole,” you yelled as you attempted to grab the disk.
His lazy smirk was only adding insult to injury. “What’s wrong? I thought you’d be able to at least touch it by now…” he taunted as he kept dodging your every attempt.
You furrowed your eyebrows in annoyance with both him and yourself, but you weren’t out of it yet.
You had one more plan.
On the last couple of attempts, he’d only been dodging you by either moving left or right, so assuming he’d continue to do that, there might’ve been a way for you to get that disk.
You revved up to put your plan into action, face full of focus, while keeping it hard to read.
You sped up and lunged towards Leona and the disk with one of your hands, and just as you expected, he dodged to the side to avoid your reach.
Perfect.
Without looking back, you reached the other hand behind you, and in a split second, you grabbed the disk right out of his hand as you flew by.
Leona blinked before looking down at his empty hand. You looked down in shock at the disk now in your hand.
“Ha….”
“I DID IT,” you yelled, raising your hands in the air in celebration, “I’M NOT GONNA GET KICKED OUT!”
Even though he was still shocked, Leona couldn’t help but crack a small smile at how proud you were of yourself. He flew in up to where you were. “Congrats, I guess all that practice did pay off,” he lightly smiled, crossing his arms.
“As much as I want to rub it in your face,” you hesitated for a moment, looking down at the disk in your hand before meeting his green eyes, “I wanna thank you”.
His eyes widened a bit as a blush crept onto your face, “I couldn’t have done it without you…seriously.”
He paused for a second before looking away, “….don’t mention it…”
A moment of silence stretched between the two of you, and you could cut the tension with a knife.
Before you could open your mouth to say anything, you suddenly felt the broom dip.
Fuck
You didn’t even register that you were falling out of the sky until you were. Of course your broom had to run out of enchantment power now of all times and now you were hurdling towards the ground.
Just as you were about to hit the ground, Leona came fast, sweeping you mid-fall by your waist and pulling you onto his broom with him face to face. He quickly pulled up on his broom to get some distance from the ground before slowing down to a calm float. With all the adrenaline coursing through both of your veins, you didn’t even notice how you were face-first in his chest with your hands covering your eye to hide from your previously impending doom. But it soon settled in that you were in quite the compromising position.
“Oh, oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” you rambled, using your hands to attempt to push off his chest and create some distance between the two of you . But to no avail cause the hand on your waist that had saved you never quite left, gripping onto you harder and pulling you slightly in as you tried to back away. He looked down at you with half-lidded eyes that had only relaxed once you were safe, scanning what felt like the entirety of your face.
They say people sometimes mistake fear for attraction. But I think it's safe to say that there was no such mistake here.
You looked down at his hand, turning back to look him in his eyes, now realizing that you were even closer than before.
“Fuck it”, you thought.
In the heat of the moment, you leaned in ever so slightly with lips slightly parted, trying to gauge the vibe.
Leona leaned in a little more, hesitating for less than a second before capturing your lips in his
The moment they connected, it felt like the world around you had melted away, and you two were the only things that mattered. As your lips gently moved with his, one of Leona’s hands gripped your waist firmer to make sure you wouldn’t ever fall again, while the other slightly touched your face.
You both wanted to stay here forever but you had to have some self-control. He made the first move to gently pull apart, leaving you both to look at each other in between soft breaths. He used his magic to slowly lower the two of you back down to the ground, just enough for his feet to touch the grass below.
Leona sighed before leaning his forehead on your shoulder, “You scared the shit out of me…”
“…yeah, I scared the shit out of me too,” you slightly laugh, brushing your hair behind your ear. You tapped him twice on his shoulder, which got him to sit up again. “I think I might need some more lessons…you know, so that I don’t like, fall to my death again” you smiled half jokingly, half a little embarrassed that you couldn’t come out and say you wanted to keep seeing him.
He thinks for a second, humming ever so slightly before speaking, “I don’t know, I have a pretty busy schedule,” he teased, a half smirk crawling onto his face. You hit his shoulder a little bit before you both hopped off the broom and faced each other again.
“But I think I can make some room for you”.
──────────── a/n: hope you enjoyed ;)