Mom Friend™️

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Mother’s Day for Ruggie! feat. Val[OC], Leona, and Jack

Rating: E for Everyone

Warnings: None

Word Count: 921

Notes: Did I take my own idea, run with it, and schedule it for Mother’s Day? Maybe, you can’t prove anything.

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Ruggie heaved a sigh as he paused in the middle of the bridge spanning Savanaclaw. Usually Sundays were for sleeping in, but with the interscholastic Spelldrive tournament coming up every day meant rigorous practice. He was up before the sun, cleaning up the dorm commons areas before going to Leona’s room and stirring the ever ungrateful lion. He’d dragged Leona out of bed and forced him to the couch, lecturing his senior on how important practice was while brushing and braiding the thick dark hair before twisting it into a high ponytail. Then it was a dash to the kitchen to get breakfast made. On the way back to Leona’s room he crossed Jack, who had popped a seam on his jersey. Ruggie told him to hang tight and, leaving Leona with the lingering threat of dousing him with cold water if he fell back asleep as he hastily dropped the tray of food on the table, hurried back to his own room to retrieve his sewing kit. Jack’s shirt expertly repaired, he dashed back across the dorm to change his clothes, stopping for a moment on the bridge to critically eye a splintered board. He sighed, thinking about how he’d have to arrange for it to be replaced, when a ruckus from behind caught his attention.

“Ruggieee!” It was Val, darting down the hall and leaping onto the bridge, making it bounce as she positively sprinted towards him. He grunted, grabbing the rope to keep his balance. She’d caught him off guard with the jump. Her arms were bursting with various packages and bags and before he could ask what was up she’d stopped, slightly out of breath. Her wide eyes glittered in the early morning light. “Happy Mother’s Day, G!”

“Happy…what?!” His brow furrowed and his ears flicked back in confusion, but Val was already shoving things into his hands and he squawked in surprise. She was talking a mile a minute and he could barely keep up.

“Trey made the donuts, Cater got the dried salted plums, the apples are from Epel, Ace and Deuce picked out the shirt and pants, yes they fought about it, the gift receipt is in the pocket if they don’t fit -“

“Oh, is that today?” Jack’s head poked out of his room and Val huffed in his direction, whining ‘Jack!’ in an exasperated tone. Jack shrugged and disappeared, reappearing a moment later and tossing something across the open area. Val snagged it, as she now had one free hand, and glanced at it approvingly before shoving it too on Ruggie’s pile. It was a small hyena pendant carved out of a dark marbled stone, threaded on several looping strands of leather.

“What’s all the noise for?” Leona came swaggering down the other side of the bridge, yawning widely. Val bristled in his direction, glaring and hissing a low ‘Leonaaa…” Leona looked from her to Ruggie, who was still swimming in confusion, and flicked his arm offhandedly. “Oh, that, huh.”

That’s when Ruggie noticed Leona was tossing a fist sized velvet sack in his hand. With the air of someone offloading an unwanted gift, Leona dropped the sack on top of the other packages. “Here,” Leona said with all his usual lazy disinterest. “I got too many shiny little trinkets cluttering up my desk.”

Ruggie’s tongue felt too big. From the sudden weight of the sack he knew they weren’t just ‘little trinkets’. What Leona had given him would probably be sold on the next trip home for enough to keep his grandma and the neighborhood kids well fed for half a year. Before he could utter out a thank you Leona was ruffling his hair and pinching his ear for good measure. “Also told Sam that whatever you got for the next week was on me.”

Ruggie made a sound like he’d been punched and Val laughed. “Well, that’s hard to beat!” she said, shoving several more brightly wrapped boxes into his full arms. “There’s cards attached to everything, you’ll figure out what’s from who.” There was only one thing left in her hands: a crown woven from white and yellow flowers of various sizes with shapely green leaves. Ruggie looked from her to Jack, who was leaning in his doorway, to Leona, and back to Val.

“I’m…I don’t understand.”

“Well seeing as how you’re just about single-handedly responsible for keeping like, at least 40% of the school population alive and well, we thought we should show you our appreciation.” Val, reached out, carefully maneuvering the flower crown around his ears and letting it rest on his head. “Let’s face it, you’re the closest thing to a parent this school has on hand.”

“I don’t see it, personally.” Leona added with a smirk.

“That’s a nice ponytail there Leona, do that yourself?” Val teased. Leona growled and she shrugged, lifting her hands and looking around innocently.

“Hurry up and go get changed,” Leona said suddenly to Ruggie. “You wanna be practicing in the middle of the day? Move it.”

Ruggie bustled off, barely managing to open the bedroom door and trying his best to gently deposit the pile on his bed. He looked down at the glittering hoard before catching sight of his reflection in the mirror. He slowly lifted the crown off his head, taking care not to crush any of the flowers. He didn’t want it to get ruined during practice.

“Mother’s Day,” he snorted, shaking his head in disbelief. But the smile on his face was radiant. “How ridiculous.”