Ruggie's return was met with odd fanfare by the other beastkin students. He had been given a strict potions regimen, since he had strained his body rather badly by jumping into Hyper Dying Will Mode with no training like that. His heart in particular worried the doctors, which was why he had to take it easy for the next few weeks.

If he had the money to afford a proper healing potion, he could have fixed the issue in a few days at most, but one look at the hospital bill for the emergency care had nixed any ideas to that end.

Most of the Savanaclaw students were both thrilled and relieved to see Ruggie walking around normally. After all, Ruggie had directly confronted Leona's behavior for them, and no one else. Had gone to extreme lengths to insure that not only they would survive, but Leona too. Had even competed in the Spelldrive tournament, despite the doctors confirming that doing so had made his condition worse.

Jack in particular was happy to see Ruggie back, as he looked up to the older teen.

"So what did the doctors say?" asked Jack in concern.

"I need to take it easy for at least a month, and take a specific potions regimen for the next two weeks," said Ruggie. "Apparently I strained a lot of things I really, really shouldn't have, my heart in particular. I'm lucky the nurse had the sense to send me to a proper hospital, because it would have been worse."

"What exactly was that? You were creating craters and nearly caved Leona's head in!" said another beast kin.

"It's called Hyper Dying Will Mode. If you have the right affinity for it, you can pretty much pull off bullshit moves like that. There's another trick that goes with it, but I was pushing it by holding it as long as I did without training my body to handle it first," admitted Ruggie.

"Wait...are you saying you could have done that without nearly killing yourself first?" said Jack.

"I was trying not to use it unless I had to. I know how to slip into Dying Will mode, which is a lesser version, but considering how close Leona was to Overblot pulling out all the stops seemed like a better option," said Ruggie. "The main reason I nearly died is because I went from zero to a thousand without preparing my body to handle it first."

He heard a growl behind him, and knew from the sound alone it was Leona. What he was pissed off about this time, he had no idea. He just hoped it wasn't because of the fact there was another alpha to challenge him properly in the dorm now.

Two weeks later...

Leona was not in a good mood. Ruggie had been avoiding him, and his condition was getting worse. For someone who was supposed to be taking it easy, the hyena had been taking on extra shifts at his little side jobs.

Ruggie's face looked pale all the time, and while Leona knew damn well that he was taking the potions (he could smell them), Ruggie wasn't giving his body a chance to rest.

Any attempts to talk to the hyena were met with mostly failure, as Ruggie had been avoiding him for weeks. He still cleaned the room and kept the place tidy, but he had a sixth sense for when Leona was absent and was practically a ghost.

Leona...didn't like that.

Didn't like the fact Ruggie was avoiding him, avoiding the conversation that needed to be said.

Worse, even he could tell Ruggie was pushing himself too hard, too fast. He was genuinely worried for the idiot.

Ruggie was at his limit. Crowley had worked out a deal with him regarding the bill, as they hospital had taken off as much as they legally could considering the situation. Finding out that he had barely prevented an Overblot from occurring earned you a lot of leeway in that regard.

So Crowley tacked on the remainder onto his tuition fees, at least until it was paid off. The problem was that he had barely been keeping those up to begin with, and now he had to take on extra shifts just to have anything to eat.

He still hadn't talked to Leona about the whole mess, terrified he'd be rejected again by someone he cared for.

He had taken this new chance to properly enjoy the dating scene, since his last life wasn't exactly conductive towards it. Kinda hard to date someone when you have to worry about them having an angle, or worry about them being a honey trap.

Every single person he attempted to date ended up rejecting him. Rejecting the possible harmony he instinctively represented, all because their fragile egos couldn't handle the fact Ruggie wanted an equal partnership, not one where they weren't the one making all the decisions.

Call it a personal quirk of his, but he was honestly better at the domestic stuff and leaving all the leadership crap to someone else. He didn't mind following orders, but when it came to taking care of people, he was the boss.

A fact his previous boyfriends didn't like at all, and had in fact attempted to come to blows over. Or would have, had Ruggie not beaten the shit out of them first and then gone all alpha mode on them complete with Mom voice.

Considering the near miss with Leona, who he would openly admit to avoiding because he didn't want to be rejected again, Ruggie had taken to staying at Ramshackle with Yuna, the otherworlder.

The two had just...clicked...the moment Ruggie came and politely asked if he could spend some nights in the dorm until he figured out where he would go next.

While he hadn't officially been kicked out by Leona, he'd rather just avoid the whole mess and switch dorms.

Since he refused to be a mooch, Ruggie helped the girl and her familiar cleaning up the rooms and making the place a bit more livable. He also pointed her in the direction of a few study guides to make it easier for her and Grim to keep up with homework. He had found them last year with his intuition.

Yuna, while being grateful to Ruggie for the help, also knew he was merely avoiding the main issue.

"So what's the real reason you're hiding here?" she asked, while helping him dice the vegetables.

"That obvious, huh?"

Yuna nodded.

"I'm avoiding Leona," he admitted. "Every alpha I've stood up to because I won't tolerate their shit has rejected me. And I went above and beyond what I normally do with Leona. I don't want to deal with that again, so I've been trying to feel out the other dorms to put in a transfer."

"Has he said he wanted you out?" asked Yuna.

Ruggie shook his head.

"No, but there's a reason Savanaclaw doesn't have a vice. It's because all the idiots who've tried to hold the post eventually get it in their head they don't need to follow orders and challenge Leona. He got tired of that shit, so he refuses to accept anyone for the position."

"And the fact you're overworking yourself to the bone, despite the fact you almost died?" she said pointedly.

"I know my limits. I've almost overworked myself to death before, so I know what my body can handle. Only reason I had to be hospitalized is because I went from zero to a thousand without preparing my body's natural tolerances for it," said Ruggie dismissively. "Besides, Crowley made it clear that if I miss more than a month's due of payments he'll be forced to kick me out."

Yuna winced.

"That bad?"

"The school's finances took a hit because they had to send me to an actual hospital, which isn't cheap. Add in the potions and everything else they had to use to keep me from dying, and the expenses added up fast. And that's on top of the repair bill to the stadium," said Ruggie simply. "I'm here on a scholarship for the lower income students...if I can't make up the difference I'll be screwed long term."

Yuna put her hand on his arm in a show of support. Ruggie's eyes conveyed the gratitude he didn't want to voice aloud at the moment.

"Feel free to stay as long as you need," said Yuna simply.

Ruggie nodded. Grim's loud demand for food broke the moment they were having, before they went back to work cooking dinner.

A few days later...

Yuna knew and did not care one iota that Leona just 'happened' to be within range of her chat with Jack. The wolf likely didn't realize she had set it up deliberately so the lion would know exactly where Ruggie was hiding this whole time, since he had been unsuccessful in tracking the hyena down.

Ruggie's ability to hide in plain sight had surprised everyone, Leona in particular.

Leona rolled over, waiting for the Otherworlder to leave with Jack. He would have to plan his approach very carefully if he wanted to catch the wayward hyena, and it irritated him in ways he couldn't fully explain that the other teen had been avoiding him this entire time.

Meanwhile, in the Monstro Lounge

Azul had been skeptical of Ruggie's offer to act as the in-house barista, but one sip of the coffee produced with substandard beans had been enough to convince him. He would openly admit to being hooked on the first cup, and had happily paid for a quality machine that could handle larger orders for the lounge.

Ruggie certainly didn't mind teaching some of the staff how to handle it on his days off, but he was an exacting teacher and even Jade would admit to being impressed by his extensive knowledge.

Ruggie snorted.

"As if that absolute coffee snob would allow me to be anything less than perfect when it came to his damn espresso. I swear that man would come back from the grave to berate me for being useless at his 'simple' order of extra dark espresso," said Ruggie dismissively.

Reborn would have used him for target practice for twelve hours if he had dared to be anything less than exceptional when it came to his coffee. The man was a snob about the damn things, and would be extra pissy if even a single step was missed and loudly lecture any poor bastard who got his order wrong.

By this point Reborn's usual order was ingrained in his very soul, and he could make it on autopilot.

Azul was pleased because business had surged in the lounge with access to quality coffee. Ruggie wasn't the least bit surprised...this was a college after all, and if there was one universal truth, it was that good coffee could keep a student going during important exams.

Riddle was one of his best customers, and if it wasn't for the fact the red head was so damn uptight about the rules, Ruggie might have considered transferring to Heartsabyl.

In the spirit of fairness, and as an incentive for the regular employees, Azul had a firm tip sharing policy. The bartenders and barista would split any tips made and share among themselves, while the cashiers split their own tips. If the amount came up uneven, then the remainder would stay in the jar for the next day to share then.

It was only thanks to this that Ruggie was barely keeping afloat with his payments.

Heading back to the Ramshackle dorm, Ruggie merely noted that Yuna had been nice enough to leave him some food to eat since she knew he'd be tired upon coming back.

He did not notice the fact Leona had been waiting for him to return until the lion literally scooped him up and began to carry him back to the hall of mirrors to drag him back to Savanaclaw for an overdue talk.

The other students took one look at the complaining Ruggie and the expression on Leona's face...and wisely turned a blind eye. Besides, Ruggie had been avoiding the housewarden since the incident.

Falling down onto the ridiculously soft bed that was in Leona's room only made the gravity of the situation hit harder. There was no way Leona was going to let him out of this, so Ruggie didn't bother trying.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" he asked simply. "For that matter, why have you been overdoing it with all these extra shifts you've been taking when you're supposed to be serving me?"

Ruggie immediately quashed the hope in his chest that came from the way Leona worded that. Like he still expected Ruggie to stay by his side after he challenged him so blatantly.

"Most alphas take it badly when the submissive hyena they've been bossing around suddenly reveals they're strong enough to kick their ass," said Ruggie simply. "As for the work issue, it's because Crowley tacked on the remaining hospital bill to my tuition fees and made it clear I'll be kicked out if I can't pay it off."

Leona glared at him.

"You really think I can't handle having another alpha in my presence?"

Ruggie gave him a flat look.

"I not only challenged you with plenty of witnesses, but I would have beaten you had I not held back," said Ruggie. "Last time someone seriously challenged you, they ended up leaving the school entirely."

"You honestly think I'll reject you for challenging me in public and almost winning?" said Leona. There was an odd note in his voice Ruggie couldn't quite place.

"Considering past experiences in the matter, yes," said Ruggie flatly, his ears flat.

Leona stood up, and Ruggie did his best not to flinch at the hit he was almost certain would come. That was how the fight usually started before the rejection came.

So you could imagine his surprise when he felt a gentle hand on his check instead. Opening his eyes, he found himself staring into Leona's deep green ones who looked at him with surprising concern.

"I'm sorry."

"What?" said Ruggie, eyes wide.

"You're right in that I don't tolerate alphas who dare to challenge me, especially as blatantly as you did. However even I can admit I was an idiot that day, and if you hadn't challenged me, then I might have done something I could never take back. I never meant to let my pride and ego go that far," said Leona softly.

He had taken the therapy his brother had forced him into seriously, and the therapist had pointed out that if Ruggie hadn't challenged him like he had, then things could have gone horribly wrong.

Leona wasn't angry at Ruggie for the challenge. He was angry at himself for letting things get so out of hand that Ruggie had to go that far and almost kill himself to prevent it.

Ruggie couldn't believe this was happening. Every time he had challenged the alpha he was dating, they would always, always reject him for showing a spine.

He found himself being pulled down to the bed, not for any fun bedroom activities...but so Leona could start to groom him. It was so soothing he found himself drifting off to some much needed sleep. Leona would softly growl if he attempted to escape his grip, and would nuzzle his ears.