Hart to Hart
By Rhino7
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters storyline. This thing is mine. There really is no point or plot to this one-shot. I'm halfway through my final exams and I needed to do something other than study. Thus this was born. I don't know…I think Leon and Tifa would be awesome friends, and I was disappointed that they don't have a single cutscene together. I just think their dynamic would be…interesting. Anyway, this is my little attempt at bridging the gap and escaping the insanity of finals. Enjoy.
..:--X--:..
It didn't rain often in Radiant Garden, but when it did, it was in torrents.
The sun hadn't made an appearance in nearly two days. First the cloud cover, then the fog, and now it was just like somebody in the sky was draining the largest bath tub in existence. Between Merlin's leaky roof, Cid's complaining about Merlin's leaky roof, Merlin arguing with Cid about his leaky roof, and Yuffie trying to drown out their arguing with loud techno music, Leon found the ear-splitting thunder outside to be almost relaxing.
But, between Merlin's leaky roof, Cid's complaining about Merlin's leaky roof, Merlin arguing with Cid about his leaky roof, Yuffie trying to drown out their arguing with loud techno music, and the ear-splitting thunder, he finally gave up and braved the downpour for the solace of Ansem the Wise's old office across town.
Thanks to the electrical storm and the persistent rain, power had been out to the entire computer framework and the lights of the old structure. At least that guaranteed that no one was there to make a ruckus. None of the Restoration Committee lingered much in the old office except to look up Ansem's notes or tinker on the ancient computer system.
Even that responsibility had fallen to Leon, since Merlin barely knew what a computer was, Cid was easily frustrated with them and liked to hit things that frustrated him, and Yuffie…wasn't allowed near technical equipment anymore. Only Leon and Aerith really worked with the computer, and Aerith was working long hours with organizing the medical staff at the new hospital.
Leon flicked the light switch out of habit as he closed the door behind him. No lights came to life and he grunted, grateful that the hallway had been cleared last week so he didn't have to worry about tripping over anything. Instead, he kept a hand on the wall as he walked down the hallway, soaked from the rain, half deaf from the thunder, and unable to care too much at the moment, because the structure was empty and devoid of yelling.
Ah, peace and quiet.
Well, it was supposed to be.
Leon straightened at the sound of shuffling in the office up ahead. Frowning, he softened his footsteps and neared the closed door. Inconsistent light was reflecting off the wood between the door and the floor. Like fire or candles. Nobodies didn't like fire and Heartless were too spastic to be shuffling anything. They'd be tearing things apart. This sounded…organized.
That made even less sense. The only thing an organized burglar would find in the old office would be pounds of dusty volumes on psychology and heart-studies and that nonsense. Well, there was that stash of whiskey that Cid thought he'd hidden behind the case files on Enchanted Castle, but that was beside the point.
Gritting his teeth, Leon grasped the door knob. In one fluid motion, he turned the knob, pushed the door open, and snatched the throwing knife from his boot sheath. A startled gasp preceded a solid blow to his shin and a hard shove, knocking his knife hand away. Leon reciprocated by reversing the grip on his wrist and shoving the intruder against the wall. A grunt and the body twisted, driving an elbow into his ribs harder than he would have expected.
Winded, his grip slackened just enough for the intruder, by the voice pitch a woman, to wriggle free. Leon tripped her ankles out from under her at the same time she back handed him across the face. They both went down to the floor, but Leon managed to wrangle her onto her stomach, pinning her arms behind her back and keeping his knee between her shoulder blades.
"Get off me!" She writhed.
"Who are you?" He barked in reply.
"You first, and get OFF!"
"What are you doing in here? This is breaking and entering." He hissed, looking around the office.
Aside from the usual mess, more books and files were piled up on the desk and the floor. Whole file shelves had been removed from the cabinets and emptied. Perplexed, Leon leaned more of his weight onto his knee. She was much stronger than her frame and size indicated.
"There was no lock, so it wasn't breaking!" She snarled.
One of her legs swept out of nowhere and hooked around Leon's throat. Before he could register how the Hell her spine had managed to bend like that, he was on the floor and she was pinning him down expertly.
"Then why'd you attack?" He ground out, muffled by his face being pressed to the floor.
"You attacked me!" She yelled back.
"After you tried to break my arm."
"You had a knife!"
"Precautionary."
"Who are you?" She barked.
"Leon, Restoration Committee." He finally answered, because just yelling in circles wasn't getting them anywhere.
She was breathing heavily above him, no doubt trying to figure out if he was lying.
"Now," Leon said after a moment, "Protocol dictates you reciprocate with your name and you kindly remove your knee from my kidney."
A pause.
"Yuffie told me Leon fights with a Gunblade. Where's the Gunblade, 'Leon'?" She asked suspiciously.
"I wasn't expecting to get jumped in Ansem's personal library." He explained, annoyed.
Her weight shifted off his back and he twisted to get a look at her. Long black hair, olive skin, built like a martial artist…because getting his ass handed to him wasn't enough of an indicator…and hazel eyes. If she hadn't already shown her fighting prowess, he might have delusioned himself with thinking it was Rinoa in the dimly lit room. Fortunately or unfortunately, this woman was several rungs higher on the fighting ladder than Rinoa had been.
While he tried to evaluate her, her dark eyes locked onto the scar on his face with all the subtlety of an inspector to bad flooring. Well, it was his most identifying physical feature…Now thoroughly annoyed, Leon shoved her off. She let go of him and stood up, dusting herself off.
"My mistake. I thought you were…a Heartless or something." She said casually.
Leon pushed himself to his feet, working the crick out of his neck. "And I think you still might be." He exhaled heavily. "Again…Who are you?"
"My name's Tifa." She conceded. "I'd say nice to meet you, but so far, not so much."
Leon narrowed his eyes at her. "What are you doing here?"
"Looking for something." She said vaguely.
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "How do you know Yuffie?" He asked.
"We were friends before the Heartless invaded."
"You're from Radiant Garden?" He asked dubiously.
"Sort of." She was infuriatingly vague.
"When—"
"Is this an interrogation?" She looked at him sharply.
"Astute curiosity and confusion resolution." He answered. Then, "What are you looking for?"
Tifa eyed him suspiciously for a moment before plucking up the file she'd been holding before the scuffle. "Information on one of my friends. I've been looking for him for a while but he's just gone missing."
Story of our lives, Leon sighed inwardly, but asked. "We don't keep population files down here."
"Yes, I noticed that." She set the file down and looked to Leon. "What are you doing here?"
"I work on the computers here." He replied.
Tifa looked around and back at him. "Power's out."
He did roll his eyes at that, "I'm aware of that."
Leon looked around to see that she'd lit several lanterns and placed them around the office for lighting. He put an overturned chair back on its feet and picked a few books off the floor.
"Yeah, sorry about the mess." She said, her defensiveness lowering slightly. "I got frustrated with these old files…There's no organization in here."
"Well not anymore." Leon said, looking at her flatly as he closed a few scattered books and stacked them on the chair.
Tifa frowned and started putting the folders of paper back into some semblance of order. "Some of these files are decades old. When was the last time somebody went through them?"
"Probably five minutes before they were stuffed in one of these cabinets." Leon remarked, lifting one of the disemboweled file drawers.
While he aligned the shelf with the bracket inside the cabinet and pushed the drawer back into place, Tifa rearranged the scattered papers on the desk, stacking the files neatly.
"Who are you trying to find so desperately that you wrecked this office?" Leon asked, still slightly sour at her.
"He's a…friend." The hesitation, the slight blush, and the way she turned away from him made Leon roll his eyes again.
Women.
"Have you seen him? He's got spiky hair." She asked after a moment.
"You'll have to be more specific. There are a lot of people with spiky hair running around here." He replied. "What does he look like? Does he have a name?"
If she says tall, dark, and dreamy…so help me…
"Cloud Strife."
Leon couldn't hold back a snort at the irony and straightened to see Tifa glaring hotly at him, but also looking mildly confused.
"Yeah, I know him." He confessed with a sigh, sliding more books onto the shelves.
"Do you know where he is?" was the blunt question.
Leon turned to face her. A sharp-tongued retort died in his throat at the sincere, soft-eyed concern on Tifa's face. She was truly worried about her friend. Leon would be a lying bastard if he didn't admit that he empathized with missing someone like that.
"No." He admitted.
Tifa seemed to deflate. Her shoulders fell and she rubbed her forehead.
"I'll just keep looking then." She sighed. "When was the last time you saw him?"
"Last week."
"What?!"
Leon started slightly, looking back at her. "What?"
Tifa slammed her handful of files onto the desk. "I haven't seen or heard from him since he and Sephiroth disappeared in the middle of their fight over a month ago, and you frickin' saw him last week? What? Just strolling around? Too busy to let me know he was okay, that he was still alive? Gah!" She kicked the chair behind the desk.
Said chair shot back against the wall, the spine of it cracking and one of the legs breaking off.
"I wonder why he's avoiding you." Leon grunted snidely.
"I heard that." She seethed.
"I said it out loud." Leon threw over his shoulder.
When she didn't reply, he turned to see she'd staunchly turned her back to him, straightening more files and books coldly. He pursed his lips and picked the remaining books up off the floor and slid them onto the shelves. Yuffie had always said he had a way with words and comforting people. That's why SHE was the one always elected to cheering people up. He just cleaned up the messes.
"Last I heard, he was in Halloween Town. I don't know why or for how long, and last time I actually saw him was last week outside the Bailey." He said after an awkward silence fell.
Tifa didn't respond.
Okay, so now she was pissed off at him. Exhaling slowly, Leon turned around to try and make friendly. The power flickered and hummed back to life, illuminating the messy office and computer area. He blinked in the sudden lighting change, and in the fresh light, he could distinctly see how her shoulders were trembling.
Shit.
Now totally at a loss, Leon awkwardly shuffled out of the office and into the expansive computer room. The monitor was scrolling rebooting figures across the screen. He hoped the back-up files had been saved before the weather decided to unleash Hell on Radiant Garden. After a minute or so the computer beeped and Leon leaned over the keyboard to see that all of the functions were back up and running.
First thing to go right today.
The quiet in Ansem's office was making him nervous, so he looked around the corner to make sure the strange woman wasn't burning a hole in the wall with her eyes. To his surprise, he found the room completely empty and the door closed. Tifa had left.
While that should have been a relief, Leon found it wasn't. Someone with a right hook like hers wandering around Radiant Garden while upset was a public safety danger. Begrudgingly, he crossed the office and walked up the hallway, now dimly lit by the weak corridor lights.
Tifa hadn't gone far. Not even out the front door, technically. The rain and the clouds made the outside so dark that Leon would have walked right into her if he hadn't had eyes like a cat…Yuffie's words not his. As it was, the entrance door was wide open and Tifa had taken up residence sitting just inside the door frame, her eyes, dry thank God, watching the rain pound down.
"Now what do you want?" She asked before he could say anything.
"Just—making sure you're okay." He inwardly cringed. Did that sound as stupid as he thought it did?
Tifa heaved a sigh. "I will be in a few minutes." She lifted a dark bottle of whiskey. "I found this behind some old files in one of the cabinets. Not yours, is it?"
"No."
Tifa took that as consent and popped the cork out of the bottle, taking a pull from it. A brilliant flash of lightning illuminated the area for a brief second. A few seconds after that, thunder made the ground shudder around them.
"So," Leon started, "are you ok—"
"You don't have to do that." She interrupted.
"Good." Leon sighed in relief, folding his arms and leaning one shoulder against the frame of the door.
A beat passed.
"Does it always rain like this?" Tifa asked.
"No." Leon replied. "Radiant Garden is usually pretty dry, but when it rains, it pours."
"Cats and dogs." Tifa sighed.
Leon tilted his head at that and they both fell quiet.
A comfortable silence settled between them now. The rain continued to fall in a torrential downpour. Lightning forked across the low-lying clouds, spreading spindly fingers of light through the fog. Leon had missed comfortable silence. They were a rare luxury lately. Silence at all was rare when one was around Merlin, Cid, and Yuffie all day. If they were quiet, you had cause for concern. Aerith was the only one who didn't make quiet awkward, but contrary to common thought, she was usually very chatty.
As it was, Leon decided to enjoy the present silence for all it was worth.
Tifa wasn't actively drinking the whiskey. It looked like more just to have something in her hands than anything else. Cid would be relieved about that much. She looked zoned out, just watching the rain fall from the clouds to splash in murky puddles on the concrete. She had that distant, exhausted look that Leon had come to empathize with: defeat.
She said she had been looking for Cloud for a month. A month, and she was already that haggard and bone-weary. Leon had been looking for Rinoa for almost 10 years now. He grimaced at that. A decade of his life spent searching for someone who had: forgotten him completely and moved on, remembered him but moved on anyway, or was dea—missing. Ten years was a friggin' long time. Feeling more than slightly pathetic now, Leon frowned and reached down, plucking the whiskey out of Tifa's hands and taking a drink from it himself.
Tifa didn't fight him, didn't even look at him as she surrendered the alcohol. She just exhaled, sitting forward and propping her arms across her knees. Leon swallowed a pull from the bottle and felt it burn all the way down his throat. Not really feeling any better, he set the bottle on the floor and resumed leaning against the wall, watching the rain.
A lull in the rain set in, reducing the downpour to a lowly drizzle. The dark storm clouds remained persistent and thick overhead, but the intermission in the storm was enough to let the puddles settle.
"Well." Tifa started.
The quiet between them had been so complete and easy that Leon almost physically jumped when she spoke.
"I think now would be the best time to get out of your hair." She climbed to her feet, tossing her hair back. "Sorry for…attacking you and wrecking the office. Thank you for the booze." She offered one gloved hand.
Leon shook her hand, "Thanks for the quiet."
Tifa snorted and walked out from under the doorway. "Hey…Leon?"
He looked at her.
She paused a beat. "If you see Cloud, could you tell him I'm worr—" She stopped, giving Leon a narrow look, probably reading the 'for the love of…' in his eyes, and shook her head. "Never mind. See you around."
He just nodded once and she was heading on her way, disappearing around the ridge of the building. Leon picked up the bottle of whiskey and regarded it flatly. He could use a case of this stuff, but that wouldn't lead to anything good. Making an exasperated noise, he walked back down the hall to Ansem's office.
The room was actually cleaner and more organized now that Tifa had wrecked and consequently helped him pick it up again. He crossed the room and popped the cork back into the whiskey bottle, sliding it back behind the files of Enchanted Castle.
His phone started buzzing.
Leon took it out of his pocket and opened it, holding it to his ear. "What?"
"Yuffie said there's a group of Heartless running around the Dark Depths." Aerith greeted softly.
The background wheezed back a plethora of swear words from Cid and Merlin's cranky retorts.
"…maybe if you…ornery about the…" Cid was barking.
"Well, you listen here…baboon!" Merlin was yelling back.
"I found the duct tape!" Yuffie cried in triumph.
Aerith sighed.
Leon pinched the skin between his eyes, squinting. "I'm on my way."
"All right. I'll—Yuffie, that's flammable—" Aerith's signal went staticked and the dial tone droned on Leon's end.
Hanging up the cell phone, Leon turned right back around and left the office, stepping out under the clouds just as they decided to unleash another round of flood rain down on Radiant Garden. Leon just leaned into it and hurried to the Dark Depths while the rain fell in droves. Like cats and dogs.