Chapter Ninety Six - I catch the eye of another man

Leon and Sun had not lingered long, the whole room had stank of piss, so best move on. Sun had rolled his eyes as Leon had staggered out, humming out of tune, a beaming smile on his half-dazed face. What a light weight! Still, it was kind of... sort of... maybe just a bit... amusing.

The alchemist landed flat upon his face after tripping over his own feet, his body splayed upon the cold stone floor. Sun held his hand over his mouth attempting not to laugh. "O-ow!"

"Ha ha ha," Sun laughed, grabbing his side as he tried to help Leon to his feet, but ended up falling on his own bottom. For some reason, he found this really funny and continued to laugh. Whether he realised it or not, he was actually no better than the commoners at drinking; his loving mother had been watering down the alcohol her sons and daughters had been partaking for years. Leon looked up at the giggling boy and found himself chuckling as well.

The two boys finally, after several minutes of merriment, managed to get to their feet and Sun began to lead the way back to the stands. Leon began to hum again as he followed, but a crowd of drunk youths came bounding past singing their own ditties and knocking into the smaller man. He fell again, losing his glasses in the process and as he sat there for a moment, he wondered, had such not happened before?

"Are these yours?" A shadow asked standing over him suddenly and Leon squinted hard just making out that that person held something, which he could only assume were his glasses.

"Th-thank you," he said, reaching for them, but the man kept them out of reach, causing Leon to frown. He rose to his feet and tried to grab them again, but to no avail. "P-p-please. If you h-have m-my g-g-glasses, m-may I have them b-back?"

"Ho, I do have them," the man replied, leaning forward so that Leon could just make out his features and believed them to be somewhat familiar. "But surely, I deserve a reward for finding them."

Leon's brows furrowed further. "A r-reward?" Leon questioned, he supposed he did have some pills, but if this person was who he thought, surely he had access to better here in the inner school. Ugh, his head felt fuzzy, it was too hard to think. So he would simply have to ask; "W-What t-type of reward?"

The man said nothing, just grabbed his wrist and began to tug at him, dragging him in the opposite direction of in which the arena lay. Leon stumbled as the man pulled him. "W-Wait!"

"Tch," the man clicked his tongue and picked Leon up into his arms and over his shoulder and continued upon his intended path. From Leon's view, seeing the world turn upside down was actually not much different to right way up seeing as his glasses were in this man's possession and not in his own. However, for his dizzy head and liquor filled stomach, it was not a happy situation to be in.

"W-why?" He managed to blurt out safely.

"I can't very well collect my reward in this corridor," the man chuckled, but there was an undertone of something that Leon did not like the sound of in his words.

"I d-don't understand!" Leon complained and decided that he was not happy about this and curled his hands into small fists and pounded the back of the man. A pity his were like small raindrops falling from the sky.

"Behave," the man told him, "I know what your type is."

"T-type?"

"Men, you like men, don't you," he said this in a manner of a statement rather than query. "Well so do I, my young friend." Leon froze as the words sank into his muddled brain.

"B-but what d-does that have to d-do with m-me?" He asked, the barrier between his understanding and common sense too thick with drink at that moment to truly comprehend.

"Indeed, what does that have to do with him?" The voice came from behind them, heavy with distaste and a touch of restrained anger. Ah, Leon knew that voice and glance up with a small smile and a wave in the direction it came from, before he felt himself spin around. Ugh.

"This is a private matter," the man whose shoulder he still lie upon said to the other. "He said he would reward me for finding his glasses. You don't need to interfere."

"Oh, really," Jin Li sneered as he eyed Gother with much disdain. So the wind user still could not obtain the attention of that other youth so sought to take his alchemist instead? His eyes narrowed and his hand gripped on the sword at his side. The capturer saw this and calculated the risk, before he noticed two other seniors heading this way and ones he definitely could not match in skill.

With a click of his tongue, he offered a repentant smile. "This is just a misunderstanding," he said finally. "The boy was just a bit unsteady on his feet and I was taking him to lie down to sleep it off. Nothing more!" Bowyer and Pike glanced at each other, clearly doubting his words, while Jin Li believed them less so.

"P-Put me d-down!" Leon said, suddenly, causing all to look his way... or rather at his upturned bottom. Gother rolled his eyes, thwarted and moved to grab the youth off of his shoulder. However, he was not quick enough and that which Leon had tried to keep in his stomach decided to reappear down Gopher's back. There was a lot.