Vil's first question once he was properly awake was to ask about the lion. Fortunately, it wasn't sick...but it was badly injured and Vil's kick to it's bad leg hadn't really helped. Considering it had attacked him first and he was fighting for his life, no one said a word on the matter. However he did see Rook's father giving him an appraising look, mostly after watching that video.
"Where did you learn to toss a lion like that?" he asked, catching the attention of the younger siblings.
"You tossed a lion?"
"I have a friend who can turn into a full wolf, and he agreed to help me with a few maneuvers in case I ever caught myself in a situation," said Vil. "He was particularly intrigued with learning how to fight in his wolf form, since he only uses his signature spell sparingly."
Rook blinked.
"Are you talking about Jack?" he asked. Vil nodded.
"So what's going to happen to the lion?" asked Vil.
"We did a scan of the chip in him...it's from a lion pride not far from here," said Rook's father. "We're going to check on the pride later today to see what happened, since that injury doesn't look like an animal did it."
"I don't want to put him down, to be honest," said Vil. Rook's parents looked to him. "His leg seemed badly injured, and it's not his fault that he was so hungry he wandered somewhere he shouldn't."
"So you're saying you'd be fine if he was moved to a permanent sanctuary?" said Rook's father, an odd note in his voice.
"If he can be rehabilitated, I don't see why not. At the very least it'll introduce some fresh blood into the mix," said Vil.
Vil didn't learn this until later, but Rook's parents wanted to see how he would react to this situation once the adrenaline wore off. Most people would be demanding the animal be put down for daring to attack a human.
Very few would suggest moving it to a sanctuary instead. The lion looked like it hadn't eaten in at least a week or two, which meant this was just the first time it had dared to attack humans. There was still a chance to rehabilitate the beast, though he would be unable to roam freely as a wild animal again.
Rook's father came back a few hours later with some news.
"It looks like the alpha male of the pride has been replaced. There's a younger male there I didn't recognize. I also found these," he said, putting down some traps.
Rook's eyes hardened.
"I hate poachers."
Vil looked at them, and something was bothering him. He vaguely recalled an incident where someone was attacked by a male lion during a photo op shortly after Battle City, mostly from what Rook had told them in his second or third year.
Then it hit him.
The massive poaching case that broke in the Sunset Savanna around the middle of his second year. Rook had been following the case extensively, and it had interested half the dorm so he had kept everyone up to date on the details. Including parts that only those involved would know.
He must have gotten them from his father.
Vil turned to Rook with a wide-eyed expression.
"Rook...what was the serial number on that male lion's ID chip?" he asked slowly, once they were alone.
Rook blinked, before rambling off the numbers...and to his disbelief Vil finished the last three.
"Roi du Poison, what is it?"
"Remember that massive poaching case our second year?" said Vil.
Rook's face scrunched, as if trying to recall the details, before it hit him.
"Wait...you're telling me it's them?"
"I have a plan. Didn't the reports say they had two half-grown male lion cubs in their possession? What if they were the cubs of the lion that attacked me?"
"That would make sense," said Rook slowly. "What should we do though?"
"Ask your parents if it would be alright for us to look for any male cubs of the previous alpha. I'm sure any sanctuary would be happy to take them in, if only for breeding purposes. Besides, removing them would have the same effect as if the new alpha had found and killed them to bring the females into season early," said Vil.
Rook went to find his parents, and when they heard his plan they gave him another assessing look.
Still, they approved it so long as an expert went with them.
Vil waited for the cubs to be tranqed before calmly picking one up. It was ridiculously cute.
Once they were able to retrieve the two cubs, Rook noticed something nearby.
Everyone went quiet, and they saw some poachers enter the area, clearly looking for the cubs. Vil hugged the one in his arms tightly, as he recalled the emaciated condition they were in when the rangers found them the first time.
One of the poachers cursed, and assumed the animals had wandered off. Vil looked to Rook, and mouthed the word "spell". It took Rook a few moments to get what his lover meant, as he quietly cast his signature spell on a small rock.
It was a little tricky, but he was able to toss it into the hood of the jacket one of the men was wearing. He nodded to the others as they all quietly made their way to their vehicles.
"That was way too close," said Rook's cousin. "What did you do anyway?"
"My signature spell allows me to track people, regardless of distance. If we can narrow down the area where these fools are hiding, we might be able to bust them," said Rook.
"Smart move."
Rook grinned at them.
"It was Vil's idea."
Vil saw the way that the others looked at him. He knew they assumed he was a useless prima donna with no survival instincts who had taken out that lion by pure luck.
Back at Rook's house...
"That was exhausting," said Vil. He had one of the cubs in his lap, lazying about after the big meal it had. It was amusing how quickly they calmed under his hand once he brushed out their fur properly.
"Look at the bright side! Maman said she'd drop us off at a popular area for a date tomorrow," said Rook.
"That sounds like fun," said Vil, perking up. "With all the excitement I almost forgot to properly see your home town."
Vil let out a yawn, and began to drift asleep. Rook said nothing and waited for his beloved Vil to drift off before grabbing a nearby camera that had been on the table. He took a few pictures of Vil with the cubs on his lap. His hair was a bit of a mess, and he wore the bare minimum of make-up. His clothes were clearly well worn and well loved, and he wasn't wearing his shoes at all.
He looked rather relaxed, though he still radiated the royal aura Rook loved.
The next morning...
"Maman, where is the camera that was on the table yesterday?" asked Rook. He wanted to get the photos developed.
"Oh, that belonged to the photoshoot," she replied.
"What."
"One of the photographers left it behind, so I brought it with me and gave it back this morning."
Rook had a mild panic attack, and could only pray his beloved Vil didn't blow a gasket.
A few days later, Vil got an odd message to his private MagiCam account. He took one look at the photo and had to repress a smile, before sending his "OK" to use the photo.
It had been a month since the poacher incident, and the three lions had settled in nicely. The older male had integrated into a sanctuary with some nice female lions who had lost their mate, and the younger cubs had been sent to two different zoos for their lion exhibits.
As Vil suspected, it was the same international poaching group, and thanks to Rook's signature spell they were able to capture the ringleaders early on and break it. Countless animals were being rescued and rehabilitated, and some had to be put down because they were too bad of a condition.
Today was the day that the magazine article came out, and as expected Neige was on the cover holding some cute baby animal or another.
Vil didn't really care one way or another, honestly.
So you could imagine his surprise when the top photo trending on the internet wasn't Neige's little photo op, but the photo Rook had taken when he had fallen asleep with the cubs. His agent was not pleased.
"Why are you not upset about this?" demanded his agent.
"Because I already gave them permission to run the picture before they actually sent out the magazines," said Vil calmly. "I fully planned to write it off as charity anyway, having my photo in with Neige."
"With how much that photo is trending, you would have made a killing. I've had people asking why that photo of you with the cubs wasn't on the cover instead of Neige all morning."
"Rook didn't know the camera was from the photo op, he just thought his parents left it behind. I made it clear they run any candid photos they happened to take through me first before publishing," said Vil flatly.
Vil looked at the stats and was darkly pleased that the candid photo of him was the hottest trending picture online. Even better, the number of hits to the sanctuary's page had gone up so much they had to shut it down briefly because it was being overwhelmed.
When it came up, Vil was openly amused that the sanctuary was selling printed copies (with permission) of Vil with the baby animals that they had taken and edited from the video feeds.
Vil was very quick to make sure they didn't dare show that video of him tossing an actual lion.
So you could imagine his surprise getting an invitation along with Rook to visit the cubs in their new home.
If nothing else it would make an interesting date, and give Rook all the opportunity to show off his knowledge about the creatures inside the zoo.
A few days later...
Since news about his boyfriend had gone out, Vil planned to make it official. And what better way than to post pictures of them together on MagiCam?
Rook was more than happy to humor Vil on this, and even went to get his hair cut similar to how it was when he joined Pomefiore. He had been meaning to do that anyway as it was much easier to maintain than his shoulder length style was now.
By the time their date rolled around, Rook looked eerily similar to how he did when he switched dorms, just with a more casual outfit.
Vil was wearing a fashionable, but comfortable top that played to his androgynous appearance, as well as some shorts with a jacket he totally stole from Rook's room wrapped around his waist. He also wore his usual sneakers, which came from a brand that had sponsored him more than a few times that he found comfortable. They were his usual go-to pair whenever he knew he'd be doing a ton of walking. His hair was styled back and fit through a hat that he also borrowed from his boyfriend, and he had a face mask in his bag just in case.
As they went to the entrance of the zoo, Vil wanted to groan in exasperation the second he saw who their guide was.
Of course it was Leona. Even more amusing, he had Cheka with him. Odds were he'd been forced to babysit his nephew, as zoos were often popular areas for children.
At least he'd have the perfect chance to see if everyone who had been at STYX really did retain their memories, or if the few who had were just a fluke.
