Make It Better
By Rhino7
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This little blurb is mine. Just some more fluff for my Leon and Tifa friendship obsession. Join me, would you?
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"Holy shit."
Tifa didn't mince words.
Still, the surprise in her voice wasn't exactly reassuring. She cleared her throat.
"That's, uh…shit." She folded her arms and leaned in closer.
It was one of those bruises that you couldn't tear your eyes away from, no matter how painful it looked. She was amazed Leon was still able to walk, much less swing that Gunblade around and fight Heartless. People got on disability payments for less than this.
"Are you done ogling?" He sounded irritated.
Well, Tifa knew she'd be irritated too if half of her back was black and blue and…was that green too?
"Almost." She said, "What did you to yourself?" She asked incredulously.
"I didn't DO anything." Leon said sourly. "Heartless snuck up on me."
"On the mighty Leon?" Tifa tutted in mock-disbelief. "Let me guess, there were fifty of them and they were each ten feet tall?"
"Shut up." Leon grumbled at her and started to get up.
"Down, boy." She tapped him on the shoulder. "Or I'll poke it, I swear."
Leon cast her a look that would have burned ice cream and sank back to his stomach begrudgingly. Tifa had long grown immune to the glare and just scanned his back again. He'd had to discard his whole shirt for her to inspect the entirety of the bruise, and Tifa would be a filthy liar if she said the view wasn't spectacular.
That was beside the point.
"What did they hit you with? A minivan?" She remarked smartly.
Sprawled face down on the couch, Leon mumbled something at her. He'd effectively turned his face from her, but the back of his neck was turning red, so it must have been embarrassing. She decided not to press him further about it…right now anyway.
"Have you taken any pain killers?"
"No."
"You might have broken a few ribs…or bruised a kidney." She said, in all seriousness.
"That's why I asked you to look at it. I can't see it to check." He said, as though he was speaking to a slow person.
Tifa cuffed him on the back of the head and inspected the bruise again.
The discoloration started at his right shoulder blade, spreading around his ribcage and along his spine, stretching around to his left hip. The bruise colored his back like a storm cloud: all blacks and blues and purples and even that yellowish green color at the edges. Sprinkles of brighter red suggested broken blood vessels, and some of the muscles were tight and swollen, causing the skin to be raised and hotter than the rest of his back.
It looked like Hell. Tifa couldn't imagine what it felt like.
"Sorry about this, but I need to check for breaks and fractures." She apologized in advance.
Leon visibly tensed and was obviously trying not to look like he was tensed. Tifa pretended not to notice and ghosted her fingers over the warm, swollen skin. He twitched and she ran her fingers down the ridges of his spine, careful not to put any more pressure on the bones than was necessary. The bruising wasn't so bad around the spine, so she wasn't too worried.
"No dislocated, herniated, or otherwise fractured vertebrae. Yay there!" She offered, gingerly moving her prodding fingers to his ribs.
Leon bit back a hiss, but the way his shoulders went straight was a telltale giveaway. Tifa bit her lip but couldn't let up any more. She had to make sure he wasn't going to roll over and puncture a lung with a broken rib. That surely wouldn't make things better.
"Can you lift your hands above your head?" She asked.
"I'd rather not."
"Not will you, can you?" She reiterated.
"Yeah…" He trailed off, leaving unsaid the 'but it really hurts'.
Tifa pursed her lips, gently withdrawing her hands from the bruised portion of his back. She stood up from her position perched on the coffee table and shuffled the three steps from the tiny break room to the equally small kitchen of the newly constructed addition to Merlin's house. She dampened a hand towel and shuffled back to the couch.
"What's the verdict?" Leon asked, not lifting his face from the armrest.
Tifa snorted and straightened out the hand towel. "A few very bruised ribs, but nothing's broken. Hold still."
She draped the cloth over the worst area of the bruising. Taken off guard, Leon gritted his teeth and a terse groan escaped.
"Sorry." Tifa winced with him, reaching behind her and picking up one of the cold compresses. "This should help numb it up and remedy some of the swelling."
She broke the brick of the compress over her knee and started kneading it with her fists to get the cold going. It would take a minute or so for the compress to become cold enough to have any effect, so she set it on the coffee table and stood up.
Merlin was a real stickler about alcohol. That had never bothered Tifa. She was only aware of the prohibition in the house because of Cid's ranting and cussing about it. That meant she was also aware of the man's secret stash of whiskey under the sink. And behind the microwave. And above the fridge…Not that she kept track or anything. Smirking to herself, Tifa traipsed into the kitchen and opened the cupboard under the sink. Just as she'd expected, half a bottle of hard whiskey. Nature's way of easing pain.
Snatching up the bottle, she was surprised at how chilled it was and sauntered back into the break room, twisting the cork out of the neck of the bottle. It released with a soft spwah sound and the aroma of the liquor wafted out immediately. Whoo, Cid had been holding out on everybody. Having been a bartender before the war, Tifa recognized good whiskey when she smelled it. This was it.
Tifa took a sip from it and savored the fire of it as she swallowed. Clearing her throat, she nudged the bottle against Leon's elbow as an offering. The cool glass made him turn his face out of the armrest and blink at it. Tifa held it up and he took it wordlessly.
While Leon downed a few pulls from the whiskey, Tifa lifted the cold compress, found it satisfactorily like liquid ice, and muttered a short warning before easing it on top of the wet towel covering the massive bruise. Leon stiffened again, but he covered it well.
Tifa pushed her hair out of her eyes, stretching her legs and flopping into the patched up recliner. She picked up the remote and flipped on the television, skimming through channels. News, news, news, talk show, news, talk show, news special report, news…Food network.
Grinning, she propped her feet on the coffee table and set the remote down, watching the homely woman in the apron mix what looked like flour and vegetable oil. The crowd cooed at her apparent magical cooking skills.
"What is THAT?" Leon grumbled, setting the whiskey on the floor.
Tifa snorted, "It's either this or news on the war…or that one talk show lady talking about sexual predators."
Leon grunted and leaned his head back to the couch's armrest. Tifa held back a snicker. All draped over the couch, too-long legs hanging off the other end, all bruised up and sour-faced: Leon looked like a downright pathetic creature. Everybody deserved some down time though, and Tifa decided to count herself one of the few that Leon would ever allow to see him in such a state.
Thinking about it that way, she almost felt special.
"So I guess this makes us friends now, huh?" She prompted, looking at the television screen as the hostess started mixing tuna and noodles in an overlarge bowl.
"How do you figure that?" Leon asked.
Tifa just tilted her head as the woman started adding more random vegetables to the mix. He hadn't asked Aerith or Yuffie or Cid to take a look at the bruise. Aerith was the most likely choice, anyway, being all gentle and motherly. Leon didn't strike her as the kind of guy who liked being mothered. Yuffie was a spaz and Cid would just tell him to rub some dirt in it. Tifa was impartial in his book.
They both fell quiet and watched the Food Network.
"Thanks." He muttered after a few minutes of silence.
Tifa folded her arms and looked at him as the woman pulled out a baked-to-perfection tetrazzini casserole from the oven.
"What're friends for?" She snickered. "But if you really want to pay me back…" She pointed at the golden, steamy tetrazzini on the screen. "Bingo."
Leon blinked at the screen, regarding the television flatly. "Don't bet on it."
He sank back onto the couch begrudgingly. Tifa glanced over at him.
"You gonna make it, soldier?" She asked.
He just grunted in response. Tifa took that as assent and reclined further into her chair. They both just sat there, watching the woman move on to another dish while the audience oohed and ahhed at her creations. Tifa tilted her head; maybe she should take up cooking. The woman held out a deep roasted turkey on a platter.
Tch, right, like she could ever cook a bird like that.
She'd stick to mixing drinks.