Chapter Text
“Nooooooo…” Leo whined. “Five more minutes…”
“Leo, come on…” Hugo said. “We’re supposed to meet up with Celia and Michelle right now.”
“Wanna sleep more…”
“Didn’t you get plenty of sleep last night?”
Leo groaned at that and pulled the blanket over his head. He must’ve fallen asleep at some point since he was awake now, but he sure didn’t feel rested.
“…don’t tell me,” Hugo said, “you were too excited for the holiday and barely slept at all?”
“No.” Leo denied from under the blanket. It wasn’t the holiday itself that Leo was excited for in the first place…
“Leo…” Hugo sounded like he was probably shaking his head right now. “You’re such a kid sometimes…”
“Just go on ahead without me…” Leo changed the subject. “I’ll catch up later…"
Hugo usually dragged Leo out of bed when he said that, but he gave Leo a resigned little sigh instead. “Well, I guess there’s no harm doing that since it’s a holiday… Just don’t get sidetracked helping people when you’re on your way to meet up with us, Leo.”
“Okay…” Leo yawned. “But no promises.”
The last two things Leo heard before he drifted back to sleep was Hugo’s amused chuckle and the sound of their door closing.
Leo was going to be late.
It wasn’t too bad when he woke up and got ready to go out, and he was doing a pretty good job not getting lost on the way there so far…
But…
“Oh dear…” a little old lady was standing in front of a bunch of bags. “I bought too much again… I can’t carry all these on my own.”
Ignoring a little old lady who needed help wouldn’t be very noble! It didn’t take long to help her either because Leo was pretty strong.
“My crate!” An older man was trying to push a loose plank of wood against his broken crate while a bunch of carrots spilled out onto the floor. “You there, boy! Could I ask you to hold this for a second, so I can run and get my repair kit?”
Well, he did ask Leo for help directly, so he couldn’t just walk away. He helped pick up all the carrots after the crate was repaired too. That took a little longer, but Leo could still make good time if he ran at full speed!
“Someone please catch her!” A cat quickly ran past Leo while a little boy chased after her.
The cat was just right there, so Leo could probably catch her and then go meet up with everyone… Besides, Leo had longer legs than both the boy and the cat, so he could catch her a lot faster!
Running after a cat was a pretty bad way to catch one, though. It took a long time to follow the cat as it ran around the marketplace, but it didn’t take too long to gently coax her down after she climbed up a tree and got stuck there. Leo hadn’t noticed till she walked into his arms, but the cat had two different eye colors! Just like Celia!
Celia…
Leo almost forgot he was supposed to meet up with everyone! He returned the cat to the boy and made his way to the meeting spot.
No more distractions this time! If someone else was in trouble, then…then… Well, Leo still couldn’t just ignore them, but…
“It’s not cute at all!”
Leo turned in the direction of that loud voice and got smacked in the face with something…soft? “Wh-what-?!” Leo looked around, then looked down, and found the unidentified object that must’ve hit him. “What is this…?” Leo picked up the soft, ball-shaped…toy? It had blond hair and dark skin, and it was wearing a smaller, rounder version of the academy’s uniform. The face was…uh… “Is it supposed to be…Hugo…?”
“Oh, did that hit you?” one of the girls from Hugo’s fanclub ran towards him. “I’m so sorry!” She bowed so deeply that Leo felt bad for her spine.
“I-it’s okay!” Leo said, urging her to raise her head. “I’m not mad… It didn’t even hurt!”
She stood up straight again, and Leo could see that she was pretty tall compared to most girls. She pushed her bright red glasses back up and brushed one of her longer bangs behind her ear, drawing attention to her mature and elegant face.
“Maybe it didn’t hurt you physically, but it must’ve inflicted some sort of psychic damage… Since it doesn’t have an ounce of charm.” She said, looking at the plushie in Leo’s hands with a sharp disdain he only saw on Instructor Lisette’s face. “I can’t possibly win the ‘Best Hugo Plushie’ award with that…”
“‘…Best Hugo Plushie’ award?” Leo echoed. Come to think of it, Lucien’s fanclub had something like that too… It was an annual competition sponsored by a wealthy noble lady who had fallen for Lucien’s disarming good looks…and wanted more varied Lucien merchandise. So Hugo’s fanclub was big enough to do something like that too?
Leo looked down at the plushie in his hands. The face was… Well, it actually looked just like the face Hugo made when he thought he’d already won! On Hugo, it could get frustrating sometimes, but on the plushie, it was more funny-looking than anything. He could see there were more details than he expected on the toy’s little uniform despite its simple-looking shape. This girl must’ve been watching Hugo pretty closely…and she must’ve worked really hard to achieve this level of detail!
“…I think it’s pretty cute,” Leo said.
“Are you alright in the head, Little Noble…?” She sounded like she was genuinely concerned for his mental well-being… “Just calling it ugly would be too much of an understatement.”
“Harsh!” Leo hugged the poor plushie closer to him. Hearing it get so coldly rejected by the person who made it… Maybe the plushie didn’t have feelings, but Leo did, and he felt bad for it! “And my name’s not ‘Little Noble…’”
“Oh, my apologies then, Fourcade.”
“Better,” Leo said. “…and well, Hugo does make this face sometimes!” Leo turned the plushie around to show her its expression. “Just look at this little guy! What’s he so smug about…? He takes forever thinking about his next move before doing anything.” Leo looked at the plushie’s expression himself again and smiled. “I don’t get why it’s ball-shaped or why it has fingers,” Leo lifted the plushie’s bigger hand, “but it’s big and soft and cute!”
The girl’s eyes widened a little before she hurriedly pushed her glasses up again.
“I-is that so?” Her voice sounded a little weird, high-pitched and unstable in some areas… “Well, it does make me a little happy to hear that…”
“So you’ll enter this little guy in the competition?”
“Absolutely not.” The girl laughed, but she didn’t sound like she was making fun of him. “But if you like that ‘little guy’ so much, then you can have it, Fourcade.”
“Really? Are you sure?”
“Yes,” the girl said. “In fact…”
She gently took the plushie from Leo and then attached the toy’s hand, the bigger one with the fingers, to his shoulder.
“Huh?” Leo lifted his arm up and down, but the plushie stayed stuck to his shoulder. “Whoa, how’d you do that?!”
“…I still have to make another plushie to enter the competition, Fourcade; I can’t just give away my trade secrets.”
But it wasn’t like Leo was going to enter the competition too… She didn’t need to be so secretive… Leo unattached the plushie from his shoulder, a little surprised that it came off so easily. Then he put it back on. Took it off again. Then stuck it back on. Took it off.
“This is fun!”
The girl laughed again. “I think Huggy Hugo’s in good hands with you!”
“‘Huggy…Hugo…?’” Leo echoed. “That’s what this little guy’s called?”
“What?”
“It’s just… It’s a weird name.”
“I think it’s pretty cute,” she said. “And it’s alliterative too.” She thought the name was cute, but not the plushie itself?
“But aren’t there other words you could’ve used? Like ‘Helpful Hugo’? Or uh…‘Handsome Hugo’?”
“It’s neither of those things.” (Harsh… Leo hugged the poor thing closer.) “All it does is cling to your shoulder.”
“Why does it do that anyway?” Leo asked. People didn’t normally make plushies clingy, did they?
“Well, I am a member of the Hugo Simon fanclub, Fourcade,” she said this like she was talking to Leo about the weather. “And hasn’t every member dreamed of being embraced by our dangerously handsome prince at least once?”
So she designed Huggy Hugo to cling to her because she wanted a version of Hugo to cling to her…? Or something? Leo looked down at the plushie in his hands and moved its thin, stringy arms with his thumbs.
“…it’s a little too small to ‘hug’ anyone,” Leo said.
“I suppose that’s another point against its design…” the girl shook her head. “It’s not cute, and it’s too small to hug anyone back. I need to come up with something better!” She smacked her open palm with the side of her fist and startled Leo. “Something worthy of winning the ‘Best Hugo Plushie’ award!”
“Okay…” Leo nodded. Despite her refined looks, she was just like any other love-struck girl! …who had weird naming sense! “Good luck!”
She gave him a cheerful smile, warmer than any expression she’d worn before, and then left with a sparkle in her eyes. Leo still thought Huggy Hugo would’ve been a…unique entry, but if this was what she really wanted, then…
Huggy Hugo…
Hugo…
Leo still needed to meet up with everyone!
Even though Leo was late, his friends seemed much more interested in Hugo’s plushie version than hearing his explanation…
Well, if Leo was in their shoes, then he’d probably want to know more about the cute plushie that looked like Hugo too! Everyone seemed to have a different opinion about Huggy Hugo’s cuteness, though…
Michelle…probably thought Huggy Hugo was more funny-looking than cute… She didn’t say much except that it looked “unbalanced,” but every now and again, Leo would find her staring intensely at it… If she wanted to play with it too, then she could’ve just asked! Michelle was so reserved sometimes…
Celia probably thought Huggy Hugo was weird at first. Leo didn’t blame her… The shape, the big fingers, the…the face… He could admit those were all weird too… Even the name was pretty bad! But after she did a little curious poking, Leo could see Celia’s eyes light up as she fell for Huggy Hugo’s unique charms too.
And Hugo was just mean! Leo could agree that Huggy Hugo was a little weird, but Hugo didn’t have to call the plushie “creepy!” Twice!
Hugo could be harsh sometimes, but he didn’t usually direct that harshness towards stuffed toys… At least, Hugo never insulted the tiny bunny plushie Leo had when they were kids.
Maybe Hugo was mad that someone made a plushie of him without his permission? That probably was pretty weird when Leo thought about it… Hugo seemed annoyed with the face and kept insisting that it didn’t look like him too.
But Huggy Hugo was so cute! And Leo could tell a lot of love and effort went into making this little round guy! Couldn’t Hugo at least appreciate that part of the plushie?
Leo caught Hugo glaring daggers at the tiny plushie attached to his shoulder and concluded that no, Hugo didn’t seem to appreciate any part at all. He sighed a little and took comfort in the fact that at least Celia had an eye for cute things.
He tried to keep his new plushie out of Hugo’s line of sight, hoping that Hugo would just forget about it and enjoy his time off. It’d been a long time since Hugo could join them on a holiday, and they planned to do a lot of stuff that Hugo liked today.
But despite Leo’s efforts, Hugo didn’t look like he was having any fun… He didn’t seem thrilled about all the new books that came in today at the bookstore, didn’t comment on the new menu items at the food cart that came here every few months. And he ignored an artist who was telling them about all the different sights she painted during her travels.
And Hugo loved sightseeing stories! Especially about rare places where the mana from multiple Primordials mixed together! He always asked for details about unique effects on the surrounding environment too… If an opportunity like this didn’t pique Hugo’s interest, then…maybe there was something more serious on Hugo’s mind?
Leo wondered if it had anything to do with those classified missions Hugo kept getting, the ones that were usually only assigned to their seniors in Blaze. Even on days when Hugo didn’t get those missions, he tended to return to their dorm room after Leo was already asleep. Hugo might be more stressed out than he thought…
“Hey, Hugo…” Leo put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine.” Hugo did not sound like he was fine.
Hugo also sounded like he didn’t want to talk about whatever it was that was bothering him, so Leo wordlessly took his hand off his shoulder. There wasn’t a lot he or Celia could do when Hugo got aloof like this besides giving him some space…
Leo turned around to see what Celia was up to and ended up looking at the plushie’s funny-looking face as it bounced with the movement of his shoulder.
Huggy Hugo looked so silly like that… Leo couldn’t help but smile and laugh. He unattached it from his shoulder and happily hugged it.
“…it’s getting late,” Hugo said quietly, with a sharpness in his voice that wasn’t there before… “We should probably get back to the dorms soon.”
“We might want to hurry too,” Michelle said, “if we want to make it before curfew.”
The day was already over?!
“Leo, come on,” Celia said, “you look like you dropped your food… We’ll have more holidays to spend together!”
“I know…” Leo stuck Huggy Hugo back on his shoulder and hurried after them. He just wished things had been different…
Leo didn’t even get a chance to spend any time with Hugo at all. And he’d been looking forward to that more than the holiday itself. They safely made it back to the dorms before curfew, and Leo took his new plushie to bed with him, hugging it tightly.
Leo had gotten used to returning to his room and not seeing Hugo there. He knew Hugo was probably just busy, but…that reality didn’t make him feel any better.
He looked at his bed and saw a familiar, adorable face on the sheets there. Leo walked over with a big smile and picked Huggy Hugo up.
“You’re actually super cute, huh?” Leo said. “I wish more people could see that…” Leo lowered the plushie and hugged it to his chest, rubbing his cheek against the toy.
When he was a kid, he always felt a little better after hugging BunnyBun, the tiny bunny plushie his grandma gave him. Hugging Hugo’s plushie always made him feel a little better too. It almost reminded him of those peaceful days back in Le Sant…
Back when things were so much simpler. Back when he used to be able to hug Hugo as easily as he could Celia…
Leo quietly thought back to the first time Hugo returned from a mission he couldn’t talk to anyone about. Hugo didn’t even tell him that he was on a top secret mission to begin with, so Leo had gone looking for him everywhere. The second he’d spotted Hugo’s back, Leo ran right for him.
Sometimes Leo could knock him over if he jumped with enough force, but Hugo stood there solidly even when Leo took him by surprise. Hugo turned around while Leo was still hugging him and smiled when he saw it was just Leo.
Hugo put his hands on Leo’s lower back and pulled him into a tighter hug, pressing their bodies fully against each other as he leaned into Leo. It was casual and quick, but different observations kept hitting Leo every second the hug lasted.
Like how Hugo felt pretty hard and firm everywhere. Or how Hugo was closer than usual, so Leo could easily breathe his scent in — the same smell as the forest where they grew up. Or how intensely warm Hugo was right now compared to his usual (lack) of body heat. Or how Hugo had a bit more muscle on him than Leo remembered… He always thought Hugo’s waist was pretty thin too! Where did those abs come from?!
Leo was still a little dazed by all the sudden new information overloading his mind even after Hugo had let him go, but he was fully aware of just one thing…
His heart had been pounding just like how those girls described it in Courtly Romance!
But why?! All he did was hug Hugo and get hugged back like usual! His heart didn’t go all crazy when he hugged Celia… It just didn’t make sense!
Luckily, Leo still managed to ask Hugo where he’d been in a normal enough way, and they had one of their usual conversations again. Hugo probably didn’t notice anything…or at least, Leo hoped so…
It had happened a long time ago, but he could still feel his face heat up from the memory.
Well, Hugo was still just Hugo even if he was a little taller now! …but Hugo had also changed in a lot of ways that Leo hadn’t noticed before. They weren’t kids anymore.
Leo looked down at the plushie in his hands before hugging it tightly. At least Huggy Hugo would always stay the same! It was too bad Leo couldn’t bring it to class or on missions, though… If he could, then he would take Huggy Hugo everywhere and show it how big the world was! But he didn’t want the little guy to get confiscated, and he needed to take his responsibilities as a knight-in-training seriously too.
Besides, having Huggy Hugo with him during breaks was enough to make Leo smile whenever his friends’ teasing hurt a little too much. Just having it in the room he shared with Hugo made studying less boring too. That funny-looking face always made his troubles feel lighter!
Leo returned Huggy Hugo back to his bed and went to take a shower before he got ready to turn in for the night.
…he didn’t expect to see Hugo had come back after he got out of the shower.
Leo was even more surprised to see Hugo holding the plushie version of himself! Hugo wouldn’t even look at it half the time, much less touch it… Maybe Hugo was finally getting along with the little guy?
“…I do not make this face,” Hugo said, like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else… Leo was almost disappointed.
“You totally do,” Leo said, startling him.
“Wha-?” Hugo looked so funny like that, like he wasn’t sure if he was more surprised or offended by Leo’s opinion. Most people tended to think Hugo was the most mature one out of him, Leo, and Celia, but right now, Hugo looked like a very stubborn child…
Hugo really should just accept that Huggy Hugo looked like him… And that he made the same face sometimes too! Like when they played chess yesterday, when they studied modern history the time before that, and that one time when Leo ended up on his back in their last sparring match… That last one really stung too…
Well, Leo was still just happy that they could have a normal…enough conversation while Leo got dressed. He didn’t know how long it’d been since they could just talk like this. Leo didn’t know how much he had missed it till now either.
But he did want to know why Hugo had been harsher lately… He was making that angry, stubborn face again.
…it couldn’t be just because Hugo didn’t like the plushie, could it? Would Hugo really hate a cute, tiny plushie of himself that much? No, it’s got to be something else! …Leo just didn’t know what that “something else” was yet. If only Hugo didn’t always keep his worries to himself! It was a such bad habit of his…
Leo sighed and picked Huggy Hugo up after he was finished dressing. “Hey, Hugo,” he said, “you look like you’ve been in a bad mood lately…”
“Huh?” Why did Hugo sound so surprised? Was he really that unaware of his own feelings…? Sometimes Leo really worried about him.
“If something happened, you know you can always talk to me and Celia, right?” Leo said. “That’s what friends are for, aren’t they?”
For a second, it looked like he was willing to tell Leo what was on his mind, but then he just shook his head.
“It’s nothing,” Hugo said. “Don’t worry about it.”
Leo sighed again, resting his chin on top of his plushie. He expected this much from Hugo by now, but at the same time… “You always did like to keep your thoughts to yourself,” Leo said, “even when we were kids…”
“Well…” Hugo started again, “the reason I’ve uh…been in a bad mood is…” He sounded so awkward… But Leo appreciated that he was trying! At least until Hugo said, “it’s a dumb reason anyway. Just forget about it.”
That ticked Leo off a little.
“Who cares if it’s ‘dumb’ when it’s obviously still bothering you…” Leo said quietly, hugging his plushie closer to him. “It’s like you don’t think your own feelings matter…” Hugo always did this… Leo wished he would just talk to him!
“Leo?”
“It’s ‘nothing,’” Leo said, showing Hugo that he could keep his feelings to himself too. He turned his plushie around and lifted it up, feeling better already when he saw that familiar face. “At least Huggy Hugo would tell me if something was bothering him, wouldn’t he?”
Leo could hear Hugo say something in response, but he ignored it (Hugo was probably just being mean to the plushie again anyway!) and lied down on his bed while his plushie rested on top of him.
Leo was tired.
Avoiding each other after a fight because things got awkward was another thing that reminded Leo of those days spent in Le Sant…
It was almost like they were kids again.
Hugo tried to talk to him a few times, but he seemed clueless about why Leo was mad at him in the first place. Leo didn’t want to talk to him if he was going to keep ignoring his own feelings in this conversation! Leo would rather talk to the plushie at that point.
If Hugo couldn’t figure it out, then they were just going to end up fighting again.
…but Leo didn’t mean to push Hugo to the point that he eventually stopped trying.
“Leo, can you ju-”
“Did you hear something, little guy?” Leo raised the plushie’s little hand, the one with the fingers. “No? I guess I was just imagining it.”
“Fine.” Hugo sounded so cold it made Leo shiver. “Have it your way then.”
If Leo thought Hugo had been in a bad mood before…
He let out a big sigh. It was hard to make up when Leo didn’t know what was going on… Hugo always acted like things were fine as long as everyone else was happy, but there was no way Hugo could be happy doing that all the time… Whatever weight was on Hugo’s shoulders was probably going to crush him someday. If he’d just let someone help…
Leo’s plushie was sitting next to him as he quietly ate his lunch. Leo looked down at Huggy Hugo’s funny-looking face and wondered what Hugo was doing now. Preparing for his next top secret mission? Researching something complicated at the library?
The longer Leo looked at that little face the more it felt like it was judging him for being so mean to its bigger version…
Leo turned back to his meal and pouted. Whenever his fights with Hugo got this bad, there was only one person they could both talk to… “I wonder if Celia knows why Hugo’s been in such a bad mood lately…” He’d be a little sad if Hugo told Celia his troubles and wouldn’t tell Leo too, but this “avoiding each other” situation didn’t make him feel any better either.
So he finished eating and went to look for her. He found Celia practicing her archery down at the training grounds. She always looked so cool when she was drawing the arrow back in her bow like that, eyes completely focused on the target…
“Hey, Celia!”
“Wah?!” Celia let the arrow fly and still managed to hit the bullseye in front of her. Then she turned around and gave Leo her usual, angry annoyed look. “Leo, you almost screwed up my shot!”
“Looks like you still got a perfect score to me…” Leo looked around at the other targets. All of Celia’s arrows hit their mark dead center. She was so good at this!
“You still could’ve waited till I was done before scaring me like that!”
“Okay, okay…”
“And you don’t sound sorry at all…” Celia shook her head. “Well, what did you want to talk about anyway?”
“Um…well, I was just wondering…” Leo said, “did Hugo…say anything to you…? About why he’s been so irritated all the time?”
“Huh?” Celia looked up like she was trying to recall something she’d seen before. “Hmm… Well, he didn’t say anything to me, but you’re right! He’s been in a pretty bad mood lately! Did you two get in a fight again?”
“Yeah, but…” Leo mumbled. “But he was already in a bad mood even before we fought! I was just trying to get him to tell me why, but…”
“But he told you ‘it’s nothing,’ and ‘not to worry about it’?”
“Yeah…” Leo unattached Huggy Hugo from his shoulder and hugged it tightly. “I know he always does that, but…”
“But it doesn’t make it any less annoying, right?” Celia sighed and shook her head. “Well,” Celia gave Huggy Hugo a quick, affectionate glance, “I think I might have an idea on why Hugo’s being such a pain…”
“Really?” Leo wondered what she figured out… He was a little jealous of how observant she was sometimes.
“It’s just a hunch, so I could be wrong, but…” Celia put a hand on Leo’s shoulder and confidently raised a fist. “You know what, just leave it to me! I’ll go talk to him!”
Leaving it to Celia… It made him remember his remedial lessons with Instructor Lisette, and how he and Hugo had always relied too much on Celia without really thinking about it. Even when they were kids, Celia would quietly bring Hugo with her to apologize to Leo after he and Hugo had a really bad fight…
“Sorry we’re always causing trouble for you, Celia…” Leo said.
“Wh…where did that come from, huh?” Celia laughed. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, but… You ended up needing to step in again just like when we were kids…”
“Oh, Leo…” Celia gave him a fond smile. “You always stepped in whenever me and Hugo had a big fight too! By bursting into tears and sobbing until we promised to have a proper conversation…”
“H-hey, don’t bring that up!” What if someone overheard her?!
“That’s what you did back then! And Hugo always panicked when we had a big fight before he sat us down and listened to both our stories.”
“And sometimes he still panicked after we patched things up…”
“Because he’s such a worrier!” Celia shook her head again. “But this is just what friends are for! Even when it gets tough, we gotta talk things out properly and make up.” She beamed at him. “And we have to stick together to get through anything!”
“Yeah.” Leo smiled back at her. “You’re right, Celia!”
“I know,” Celia said. “So just leave it to me!” There were little bits of pink on her cheeks before she turned away and quietly said, “I’ve got a feeling I know exactly what Hugo’s going through right now…”
Leo watched her leave the training grounds, but… He still felt like he pushed his problem onto Celia somehow. If only he could figure out what Celia’s hunch was!
He hugged his tiny plushie again, but all he touched was his own chest. “Huh?” Leo looked down to find that Huggy Hugo wasn’t in his arms anymore… He looked around the grounds and couldn’t find a single hint of his plushie anywhere.
Huggy Hugo had just…disappeared?!
But how did…?
Well, if he just stood around asking questions, then he wouldn’t get anywhere! Leo left the training grounds running, looking for any clue he could find.
He nearly crashed into Michelle on his way out.
“Whoa!” Leo managed to avoid hitting her, but he smacked into a bench instead. “Owww…”
“Le…Mr. Fourcade!” Michelle looked him over with a worried face.
“Are you okay, Michelle?” Leo asked. It didn’t look like she got bruised or anything as far as Leo could tell. What a relief!
“I should be asking you that question…” She said. “I thought I’d find Celia here, but what’s got you in such a hurry?”
“I lost Huggy Hugo…”
Michelle looked at his shoulder again, at the spot where his plushie would usually be, and frowned at how empty it looked. “Oh no… Where did you last see it?”
“That’s the weird thing!” Leo said. “I was carrying it while I talked to Celia earlier, and then it was just…gone…when we were done talking…”
“That is weird…” Michelle looked up from her thoughts. There was a flash of surprise on her face before she gave him a small, reassuring smile. “Don’t make that face, Mr. Fourcade… I’ll help you look for it!”
“Huh?” What kind of face did Leo make?
Before he could find out, Michelle was already moving towards the marketplace. If Leo were any good at directions, then he would’ve gone somewhere else to cover more ground, but… He ended up tagging along with Michelle as they searched and asked questions.
Well, they usually searched and asked questions, but if Leo found someone who needed help…
“Oh dear…” that same little old lady was standing in front of a bunch of bags again.
“I’ll help you with that!” Leo picked a few up and looked back at Michelle. “Sorry, Michelle… It won’t take long!”
“It’ll be quicker if I help too,” Michelle said as she put her staff away and picked a big bag up.
“But that looks pretty heavy…”
“It’s fine, Mr. Fourcade.”
Michelle still looked like she had trouble with it, though… Her arms were so thin compared to Celia’s that it made Leo worry a little. But the more he tried to insist, the worse Michelle’s mood got, so he eventually decided to stay quiet…
The little old lady thanked them after they were finished, and then they asked her if she had seen a big round plushie anywhere. She told them about the “strange doll” she saw on one of the shelves at the dye shop, so they went there next.
But Leo didn’t expect to find another familiar face at that shop…
“Well, if it isn’t the boy who helped me repair my crate!” an older man said. “You really saved me!”
“Oh, I was just doing what any noble guy would do!”
“‘Noble?’”
“You can ignore him…” Michelle said. “Have you seen a ‘strange doll’ around here?”
“A strange…? Oh, you must be talking about that weird thing!” the man went to the back of the shop and returned with a familiar plushie.
“Huggy Hugo!” Leo happily took the plushie back while the shopkeeper looked genuinely surprised to learn that that was the plushie’s name. Well, Leo didn’t blame him for that reaction…
“How did it end up here?” Michelle wondered.
“I just saw it at the entrance when I came back from my break… I had it displayed on the shelf for a while since its little tie is the exact shade of green I make with my carrot tops, but…”
“But?”
“It’s not cute at all… Marketing my dyes with it seems like it’d be bad for business.”
“That’s understandable…” Michelle nodded.
This was yet another reminder that only Leo and Celia could understand Huggy Hugo’s charms… Leo hugged his little plushie tighter.
“Well, take care not to lose that weird thing again, boy!”
But Leo didn’t even know how it disappeared the first time… He still thanked him for finding it before they left the shop, though.
“I’m glad we could find Huggy Hugo without too much trouble!” Michelle turned to look at him. “You looked so sad when you lost it that I was afraid you’d start crying…”
“Wha-? I wasn’t that upset about it…” Leo was more surprised and confused than anything; Michelle must’ve had the wrong idea!
“Hmm?” Michelle cocked her head. “You always have it with you every chance you get. I think you’re more attached to Huggy Hugo than any of your other belongings.”
“Well, that’s only because-…?!” Leo was in the middle of sticking Huggy Hugo on his shoulder before all he squeezed was air… “H-huh?!” The plushie wasn’t in his hand anymore… “Seriously?!”
“Wha-?!” Michelle looked like she couldn’t believe her eyes. “You’re kidding! Didn’t we just get it back?!”
At the same time Michelle said that, they heard a cat’s angry yowl. “My cat!” a familiar boy’s voice yelled. “Someone please catch her!”
Leo wanted to know how and why his plushie disappeared a second time, but… “I’ll get her!” He ran after the cat as it went into the forest.
“I’ll come too!” Michelle followed after him.
Running after a cat was still a pretty bad way to catch one, though… But they were lucky that it didn’t take long to follow the cat to its intended destination, a big tree surrounded by colorful flowers… While Leo and Michelle were awed by the sight, the cat slowly climbed up the tree. That cat was going to get stuck again… Well, Leo would just have to climb up after her if that happened!
They watched the cat climb up and spotted Huggy Hugo sitting in…was that an Ecru nest?
“How did Huggy Hugo end up all the way here?”
“I didn’t even lose him that long ago either! How did he get up there so fast…?”
“This whole thing is so weird…” Michelle watched the cat climb into the Ecru nest. “And the cat’s just…trying to get it back for you…?”
“I don’t know about that… Cats kinda just do whatever they want to do!”
“But she really went out of her way just for this… I think that cat might like you a lot, Mr. Fourcade.”
The cat loudly meowed at them from the Ecru’s nest.
“Looks like she got stuck in a tree again…” Leo laughed. “I’ll go-”
“It’s faster if I just knock everything down,” Michelle said, summoning one of her wolves. “You can catch her, right? I’m counting on you, Mr. Fourcade!”
“Huh?” Leo watched her give the signal for the wolf to charge. “Michelle, wait!”
The summoned wolf rammed into the tree and knocked the whole Ecru nest loose. Leo managed to catch the frightened cat, and a familiar soft weight stuck itself to his shoulder.
He turned to find Huggy Hugo was really there, safe and sound. Leo was surprised that it didn’t look like it had been carried off into a forest and stuck in a nest… If anything, the plushie looked as new as the day Leo first got it… But he was relieved to see it on his shoulder again in any case!
The cat he caught started meowing and tapping her paw on his arm. Leo looked in the direction the cat was staring, and spotted something shining in the grass. He knelt down and let the cat walk out of his arms. The cat made its way to the shining thing and picked it up with her mouth, showing it to Leo.
“A collar…?” Leo looked the cat over. He didn’t notice that she had been missing her collar the whole time they followed her. “So that’s why you ran off like that! You wanted your collar back, huh?” He wasn’t sure how the cat knew her collar would be here, though… Did whatever took Huggy Hugo here nab the cat’s collar too?
The cat dropped her collar in front of Leo and meowed expectantly at him.
“You need me to put this on you?” Leo picked the collar up. The cat meowed again and walked closer to Leo. “Okay, okay…”
The cat made a lot of happy-sounding noises after he finished putting the collar back on her. She must’ve really missed that thing! Well, Leo could relate! He turned to see Huggy Hugo’s funny-looking face was still there, and unattached it from his shoulder.
“Please don’t suddenly disappear again, little guy…” Leo hugged the plushie tightly.
“I’m starting to think you might love Huggy Hugo more than Hugo himself.” Michelle laughed.
“Huh? No way,” Leo said. “I mean, I guess I’d be really sad if I lost Huggy Hugo forever, but I…” Leo loosened his hug and looked down at the plushie’s face. “I…don’t know what I’d do if I lost Hugo…” Leo didn’t like that Hugo was barely around anymore, but he would take that over never seeing Hugo again at all.
Hugo was irreplaceable.
“Mr. Fourcade…” Michelle smiled. “You really love Hugo, don’t you?”
“Well, yeah! ‘Course I do!” Leo thought that was obvious to anyone who knew them. “He’s like family!”
The cat meowed at them and started walking. After a few steps, she stopped and looked back at them before meowing again, louder this time. That was probably their cue to head back to town now… They followed the cat out of the forest and returned her to her relieved owner.
After a long day of nobly helping people, Leo finally returned to the dorms. He wasn’t surprised to find his room was empty again. Hugo was probably buried in some books at the library or something…
“I wonder if Celia got Hugo to talk to her…” Leo unattached the plushie from his shoulder and looked down at it. “What do you think, little guy?”
Huggy Hugo couldn’t answer, but that funny-looking face made Leo feel better anyway.
Leo shivered and pulled the plushie into a hug. He didn’t notice how cold it was now… Leo glanced at the empty bed across from his and wondered if Hugo would be okay on his own.
When it was this cold in Le Sant, they always bundled themselves together to keep warm. They even shared a bed when they had sleepovers too. Hugo always felt cool to the touch even back then. He only warmed up when Leo and Celia cuddled with him.
Leo wondered if he’d still be able to keep Hugo warm when it was just him now… Would he still be enough without Celia helping them?
Would Hugo even want to share a bed with him now…?
“I’m beat…!” Leo threw his arms into the air and ended up tossing Huggy Hugo onto the bed. He could worry over Hugo some more tomorrow! Leo was tired! He took a shower and got ready for bed.
On a normal night, Leo would’ve only woken up in the morning with Hugo’s (sometimes aggressive) help.
…but it was so much colder than Leo thought it was. He woke up shivering and heard the sound of water splashing against tile. Hugo must’ve come back while Leo was sleeping! He got up and went to Hugo’s bed like he used to do when he and Celia stayed the night at Hugo’s house.
It was only after he found himself sitting in Hugo’s bed that he realized this was probably a little weird.
But it was cold! And if it was this cold for Leo, then wouldn’t it be even worse for Hugo, who always felt cold?
What if Hugo ended up freezing?!
There was no time to stay mad at Hugo when Hugo could turn into an icicle! And Leo didn’t want to stay mad at him in the first place anyway.
…the longer Leo stayed in Hugo’s bed trying to justify his decision to himself, the more awkward it got. He thought about returning to his own bed and just cuddling with Huggy Hugo, but…
But nothing would change if Leo backed down now. And…and what he really wanted was…
“Leo?” Hugo’s voice pulled him away from his thoughts. “Is something wrong…?”
A lot of things were wrong! But the most pressing problem right now was…
“It’s cold,” Leo said.
“Uh…yeah…?”
Leo let out a loud and tired sigh. That one…was mostly Leo’s fault for not elaborating; Leo could admit that, but Hugo was supposed to be smart! He could’ve figured that out on his own! Come to think of it, Hugo was pretty bad at this when they were kids too…
Looks like the direct approach was best!
“Let’s share the bed, Hugo,” Leo said. “I don’t want you to freeze.”
“H-huh?”
“Do you not want to…?” Leo asked.
Before Leo could even think that maybe Hugo was still mad at him, Hugo had somehow slid under the sheets and dragged Leo with him. It all happened so suddenly that it took a minute for Leo to realize that the less-than-noble squeak he heard came out of his own mouth…
Hugo was hugging him so tightly… Leo probably wasn’t the only one who had missed this! He couldn’t help smiling to himself at that discovery.
And Hugo felt cold just as he suspected! Leo reached around behind himself to touch Hugo’s hands. Cold. Stretched his legs a little to reach down and poke Hugo’s foot. Cold. Moved his hands back up to tap Hugo’s cheek a couple of times. All cold! He knew Hugo would freeze if they didn’t share a bed together!
“Even when we were kids,” Leo said, “you always feel so cold…”
“Sorry.” Hugo said that as if he should’ve known better or something. As if he could control any of that!
“What are you apologizing for?” Leo laughed. “…I’m just glad you’re not in a bad mood anymore.” Leo shivered and then cuddled closer to Hugo. Cold or not, Leo still liked hugging Hugo all the same! He felt…different compared to when they were kids, but Hugo was still Hugo after all! “I really missed your hugs…”
“That’s why I’m sorry…” Hugo said. “I should’ve just admitted I was jealous sooner…”
“‘Jealous?’” What did that have to do with anything? Were they still having the same conversation?
“It’s…” Hugo sounded like he cleared his throat on purpose before he finished his sentence… “It’s dumb, but I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, okay?”
He would?! Celia must’ve gotten through to him after all…
“Promise?” Leo probably sounded just like a little kid again… But this was important.
“Promise.”
“Then that works for me!” Leo happily snuggled up to him more.
He didn’t expect Hugo to enthusiastically return the favor… It was like a dam broke, and all the affection Hugo had held back since he started taking those top secret missions flooded over him. Leo’s heartbeat was starting to pick up the pace again, and the…weird feelings came back!
Why did they have to come back right when he made up with Hugo?! Leo could feel his face heating up to the point that Hugo didn’t even feel cold anymore. They were so close together that there was no way Hugo wouldn’t notice how Leo’s heart was racing…or how red his face probably was… And Leo couldn’t just push him away now when it was this cold! Hugo would freeze!
He could only hope that Hugo wouldn’t comment on anything as they quietly cuddled.
Leo sleepily blinked in between his worries and remembered how easily he fell asleep back when they were kids sharing a bed at a sleepover. Hugo was always the first one asleep and the first one awake back then… Leo wondered if he was asleep right now.
He looked up and saw Hugo…making the same expression that was always on Huggy Hugo’s face…
Who was he even making that face for? Some rival he made up? Hugo was so weird sometimes. Leo wanted to tease him, but he ended up just sleepily telling Hugo that he was making the face again before he finally nodded off.
“You’re gonna tell me what’s been bothering you, right?”
Hugo quietly groaned from his seat on the edge of his bed. It both looked and sounded like he was regretting his decision already.
“It’s too late to get out of it now,” Leo said. “You promised.”
“I-I know…” Hugo said. “It’s just…it’s so much easier to tell Celia about it compared to you…” Hugo covered his face with his hands and groaned again.
If it was going to be this difficult to talk about, then Leo was starting to feel bad for making Hugo promise now… Leo pulled Huggy Hugo into a tight hug against his chest, and Hugo peeked at the plushie through his fingers. Hugo dropped his hands and glared daggers at the toy in his arms.
“You really like that thing, huh?” Hugo said. “I think you’re even more attached to it than you were with that bunny plushie your grandma gave you…”
“You think so?” Leo cocked his head. “Well, I guess Huggy Hugo does kinda beat BunnyBun…” Leo pulled the plushie away from his chest and turned it around, so he could look at its face. “Because just looking at him reminds me of you.”
“I’m…” Hugo sighed. “I’m such an idiot.”
“Hugo?”
“I thought…” Hugo couldn’t look Leo in the eye anymore. “I thought you liked that dopey-looking egg more than me and not because of me…”
“What?” Leo almost dropped his plushie. “Why? Huggy Hugo’s really cute, but I definitely don’t like it more than I like you!” Come to think of it, Michelle seemed to think Leo liked the plushie more than Hugo too… Did it really look like that to people? “What made you think I liked Huggy Hugo more?”
“Because it’s always clinging to you, and you’re always hugging and cuddling with it…” Hugo said as he looked at the plushie with frustration. “You don’t even hug me that often anymore.”
“Well, that’s becaus-…” Leo abandoned his sentence. He couldn’t just tell Hugo that he stopped hugging him because it made his heart race and gave him weird feelings… Hugo would probably start teasing him for it.
“I know,” Hugo said. Leo felt his face heat up, worrying that Hugo had found him out already. “It’s because I’m never around now. You can’t hug someone who’s not physically there.”
“Huh?” That’s what Hugo thought? Leo almost sighed in relief… “O-oh, yeah… It’s because of…that…”
“But even though I know that logically now, I couldn’t help feeling…” Hugo looked at the floor. “…a little…jealous…”
“Jealous?” Leo echoed. “You were…?” Leo looked at his plushie. Then at Hugo, who was still avoiding his eyes. Then back at his plushie. “…of your own plushie?” Hugo covered his face with his hands again. “Seriously?”
“Yes, Leo,” Hugo almost groaned, “seriously…”
Hugo was just…jealous? Of a cute plushie with a funny-looking face? This whole time?
“Well,” Celia gave Huggy Hugo a quick, affectionate glance, “I think I might have an idea on why Hugo’s being such a pain…”
So this was what Celia meant… Leo couldn’t stop himself from laughing. Of course Celia would’ve guessed it before Leo did! She probably knew exactly how Hugo felt since she was the one who got jealous of BunnyBun when they were kids.
He couldn’t believe it had been this simple!
“It’s not that funny.” Hugo frowned at him and crossed his arms. “…this is why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“Sor-sorry…” Leo tried his best to calm down. He didn’t mean to ruin Hugo’s mood again. Leo was all too familiar with people not taking him seriously and laughing at him after all…
And if everything Hugo wanted to hide from him and Celia was this embarrassing, then maybe Leo shouldn’t push him so hard to say what’s bothering him next time. Celia had been pretty embarrassed when she admitted to being jealous of BunnyBun when they were kids too… Those two both deserved to have their own secrets, and some things…were probably better left alone.
Hugo looked so flustered and grumpy right now that Leo thought he’d start pouting.
…but Leo had more of a right to be mad! He thought Hugo had witnessed unspeakable things on those top secret missions, and he’d been so worried over him only for Hugo to just be jealous this whole time!
“You know,” Leo said, “it really was dumb of you to be jealous.” Leo held up the plushie in his hands. “Just because this little guy gets hugs all the time doesn’t mean there’s none left for you! I’m not gonna run out!” Hugo straightened his posture when Leo got up from his bed and walked to Hugo’s bed. “And you should stop getting the wrong idea! I might like Huggy Hugo a lot, but I like you waaay more! It’s not even a competition.”
Hugo blinked up at him in surprise before he gave Leo a warm smile. The way Hugo looked right now, no one would’ve guessed that he’d been grumpy and irritated for several weeks…
“‘Not even a competition,’ huh?” Hugo repeated, like he was confirming it for himself before his mood turned completely sunny. “You’re that confident? Of course you are… You’re right, Leo. I’d like you the most too even if a plushie version of you showed up later.”
“Yeah, I can believe that…” Leo laughed.
Hugo kinda already chose Leo and Celia over anything and everything… His favoritism was something else even if he didn’t seem aware of it half the time.
He loves them way too much.
There’s just no competition.
Leo smiled and gave Hugo a big hug when he tried to get up from the bed.
“L-Leo?!” Hugo seemed too surprised to hug him back. “We-actually, you need to get ready before we're both late…”
“Five more minutes!”
“Huh? O…okay…”
Leo didn’t expect Hugo to give in that easily… He couldn’t help smiling at the small victory he scored for once.
…at least until Hugo hugged him back.
Suddenly, Leo seemed all too aware of the tough muscles in Hugo’s arms, how Hugo’s whole body was hard and firm compared to the plushie he’d gotten used to cuddling, how Hugo was so much bigger than Huggy Hugo, and how Hugo’s face was right against Leo’s chest as his heart started racing…!
“Y-you know, I um…!” Leo shoved him away. “I-uh…I should…my hair’s a mess! I need to start taking care of it right now!”
Leo bolted to the bathroom and locked the door before Hugo had any time to react, face flushed red as he tried to calm down from those…
…weird feelings!