#featuring grim

Leona outright glowered at the Prefect from his bed while they grinned at him like a sleep-deprived fiend from where they stood. Hands on their hips and at a safe distance from his bed, despite the fact they honestly looked like they’d reached a point where very little beyond success mattered to them.

Letting them stay here, in Savanaclaw, had most definitely been a mistake. He would’ve been better off just sending them away like he’d initially planned on doing and having to put up with both Jack and Ruggie nagging him.

After all, it really wasn’t his problem that the Herbivore had been ousted from the house by the cephalopunk. They were the idiot who’d decided to essentially make a deal with the devil so they could deal with the aftermath of their own stupid decisions.

He didn’t care if they’d done it for their friends or the demented talking cat who made up the other half of their student status. It was their problem, and he shouldn’t have to be involved. Even if it was funny to watch them try and figure out what was going on with the trio of Octavinelle goons.

But none of that amusement from watching them scurry about while he parsed them along with tiny nuggets of information was worth any level of the sleep deprivation they were currently causing him.

It hadn’t been so bad when they’d just kept to themselves, but they’d gone and gotten bold.

It was true, of course, that their best shot at beating the cephalopunk at his own game was to get Leona on their side, but Leona hardly cared to be used by anyone. Much less the Herbivore themselves.

Especially since he’d already lost to the Herbivore, of all people, once.

Because while he could claim that the overblot situation was the only reason they’d won and simultaneously put a hard stop on his scheme to ensure Savanaclaw won the Spelldrive tournament against that blasted lizard and his rabid Draconian fans, Leona knew perfectly well that he’d been soundly beaten by the magicless Prefect.

But none of that changed the current situation.

“Quit. It.” His words were growled as he stared down the Herbivore. Almost impressed that they didn’t flinch away at his irritation. 

When he'd first met them, they’d fled with their tail between their legs, but evidently enough that had changed. And he wasn’t sure the change was for the better.

But then they’d already dealt with two overblots now. One of which had been his.

In a bizarre way, he was almost amused that they’d grown a spine, but now he was wondering if he’d underestimated them. Again.

As if to prove his suspicions, they tilted their head. Their eyes staying locked with his as they continued to grin all-too-smugly at him. As if their victory were assured as they spoke with an idle gesture to their cat, “Let's take it from the top, Grim!”

Grim, spiteful little furball that he was, cackled with malicious glee as Leona felt himself tense. Already knowing what was coming right before the racket began anew.

“A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh,” The blasted cat was out of tune, and the lyrics made no sense, but this was the umpteenth time he’d started the same accursed song that the Ramshackle duo had been yowling at him the entire night.

Yowling, which was notably accompanied by Grim beating on absolutely anything he could find that would make a racket so that Leona was cringing in what amounted to physical pain at the perfect den of noise that the cat alone was making.

And the Prefect, for their part, smiled oh-so-sweetly as they started singing like they were some sort of demented pop star who was determined to put Vil to shame, “In the jungle, the mIgHty jungle, the lion sleeps toni━!”

They cut off with a shriek as Leona could all but feel his temper snap into pieces as he dove at them with a snarl. 

The sheets fell in a wrinkled pile as he practically exploded out of them, and the Herbivore fled. Scrambling around the bed at impressive speeds as they shouted back at their feline companion, “Keep going, Grim!!”

More obedient than Leona had ever seen him, the flame-eared feline kept up his yowling that soon proved too much to take, and Leona switched targets.

He almost caught the four-legged monster, but Grim managed to wriggle under a cabinet right as the Herbivore started up their own caterwauling in what had to be the worst form of opera ever.

Leona’s ears flattened, and he spun. A curse slipping from his lips as he darted after them again. 

Had he been in a better mood, he might have been impressed at their evasive maneuvers that almost perfectly mirrored the motions of a panicked rabbit scrambling through underbrush as they dug their way across his bed and away from him.

And when he’d just about nabbed them, the cat started again. Making some sort of demented gurgling sound before zipping back into those piercing notes that almost had Leona clapping his hands over his stinging ears.

“FINE!” The Prefect and cat both froze in place, their eyes wide as they fell blessedly silent at his bellow as he seethed. His narrowed eyes darting between the two of his harassers while his tail flicked back and forth agitatedly.

“I’ll help you with your stupid scheme, so just keep your mouths shut and let me sleep!” The Herbivore had the good graces to flinch as he snapped out his surrender.

But Leona wasn’t about to be fooled by the relieved smile that crept onto the Herbivore’s face as they looked towards Grim, who was cackling like the villain he was. At least he wasn’t pretending to be anything he wasn’t.

Leona knew the Herbivore for what they truly were now, though.