Feasts and Fools
By Rhino7
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This bit of insanity is mine.
So the tale behind this one is spawned from a subplot in my collection of ditties called Good Enough for Me. In one arc of it, there was reference to a 'Traverse Town favor' that Leon owed to Tifa. Several readers were curious about what that favor was, so I started mulling it over, and this is what ended up coming to me. Considering how Leon paid back this favor, I think this prequel is quite appropriate. Enjoy!
..:-X-:..
Traverse Town had never been so lit up.
Lanterns, streamers, and ribbons every color under the sun had been strung across the Third District, and overflow had decorated most of the Second District as well. The street lamps were all glowing in the perpetual night of the refugee world. Music was blaring from the Third District, along with loud, drunken laughter and bad singing, carrying the tune throughout the rest of the world.
"Come one! Come all!" The mastermind of the event was chanting, prancing around in a ridiculously colorful costume, pulling random people in dancing circles.
The latest group of survivors had had an annual festival…and losing their world to the Heartless would not, they declared, ruin that tradition. They could wallow in despair and mourn their losses tomorrow. Today, they would celebrate surviving.
Masquerade masks, beaded necklaces, fluffy boas, elaborate dancing, drinking, roaring laughter…This had to be one hell of a party…every year too. It was hard not to smile at everyone else enjoying themselves. Their good spirits were contagious. What with the wine and the confetti and the—
"COTTON CANDY!" Yuffie ran past, a giant wad of fluffy pink in her hands.
Merlin laughed and Tifa smirked at Leon's horror-stricken face at the sight of the teenage girl and what was essentially colored sugar running rampant amongst the costumed dancers. Of all days for them to end up in Traverse Town, with a busted up Gummi Ship, they chose the day that this…great bacchanalian salute to idiocy was taking place.
They called it the Feast of Fools.
Scantily clad women with tambourines and musical bells took turns dancing about the groups of costumed people. The inhabitants of Traverse Town, initially wary of the festivities, were soon drawn into the energy…Well, the men were…
Tifa grinned as some kids managed to steal Yuffie's cotton candy, invoking her ninja wrath as the girl chased them around the Second District, where the party had moved. Tifa sat on the railing above the fountain, watching the drinking and dancing and the awkwardly amusing combination of the drinking and the dancing.
Merlin was practically bouncing on his heels, humming along to the drum beats as the impromptu parade pranced around behind the skinny gypsy man. Leon side stepped around the wizard's enthusiasm and stood beside Tifa. She twisted her neck to look up at him. He looked so uncomfortable and awkward that she was tempted to…she didn't know…throw him in the fountain or something.
"Two hours." He muttered, arms folded as he glanced around. "It takes two hours to fix one thruster?" He shook his head.
Tifa slapped her hand to the concrete beside her. "Park it."
He grunted and shifted from one foot to the other. "I'd rather not."
"What? You afraid you might actually have fun or something?" She said cheekily.
He snorted at that and gave Merlin a startled look as the old sorcerer started…what he apparently considered to be dancing. Tifa shrugged and looked back out at the festivities. The beat was pretty catchy, actually. Not that she was anywhere near the mood to start dancing.
Drinking was a possibility though.
After chasing Cloud all over damn Radiant Garden for the past two months, she deserved it, surely. When the level of frustration had nearly reached its peak, she'd eagerly signed up for this gimmick mission to Traverse Town with Leon, Yuffie, and Merlin.
It had all started when Leon wanted to check on the progress and status of the refugee world. Yuffie had wanted to tag along to see some old friends. Merlin had wanted to see what they were doing with the old swamp where he had lived for a while. And Tifa had wanted to get away from Radiant Garden. Leon had been quick to tell Yuffie no, Merlin politely no, and Tifa no. Half an hour later, all four of them had been piling into a Gummi and fast on their way.
Now Merlin was dancing, Yuffie's eyes were surely dilated from sugar intake, Leon was annoyed, and Tifa was pleasantly preoccupied. She watched some of the people organize into concentric dancing circles, keeping to no particular dance style that she could discern. Off to the side, some colorfully dressed men were chugging from bottles of rum. It looked like they were trying to out-drink each other.
Tifa abruptly pushed off the wall she had been sitting on.
"Where are you going?" Leon asked, looking ruffled at the idea of her leaving him alone in the midst of all this…uncontrolled partying.
She pointed to the group. "Bottle of rum with my name on it."
If he said anything after that, she didn't hear him, making her way past the swaying hips and chiming bells to the bench where the drinkers were. One of the more self-aware men looked at her appraisingly as she neared.
"Got any sauce for a fellow a sufferer?" She asked.
The man looked at her, one lazy eye drifting to the left, hiccupped, and handed her a corked bottle.
With a hasty thank-you, she popped the cork out with one hand and just let the foam of the champagne splatter her arm and fizzle over her other hand. It was far from chilled, but she hardly cared at this point. Grinning at Yuffie, who was happily munching on her cotton candy while the kids who had stolen it earlier limped away, Tifa took two sharp pulls from the bottle.
The bubbly hit the back of her throat and she coughed lightly. Now she was in the thicket of the celebrating, since most of the dancing had overtaken the courtyard, the sidewalks, and some of the rooftops. The air felt warmer and thicker where she was, forcibly banishing her dampened mood. She watched in amusement as a woman on stilts wove around the people and a guy rode a unicycle while eating a whole chicken leg.
Fools they might be, but boring they were decidedly not. People were getting pies to the face, water balloons to the crotch, and streamers and confetti clinging everywhere else. It was quite a sight. Sipping at the bottle this time, Tifa saw some of the dancers pass around some elaborate masks, strapping them onto their faces and clapping their hands. If this was some other tradition of the festival, Tifa figured she might as well indulge.
Hell, she might actually find herself having fun.
Snatching one of the offered masks, she slid it over the top half of her face, grinning at the gypsy who tossed it to her. He saluted and bounced off to rejoin the center of the party. She slid the bottle between her knees to hold it there and clapped her hands to the beat, chuckling at Yuffie, who had gotten a hold of one of the gypsy's tambourines and was banging away with it near one of the dancing groups.
Light exploded over them in three plumes of gold, red, and green. Everybody cooed and hollered at the display as the fireworks expanded across the sky, the thunder of it booming across the rooftops. Tifa looked back to see Merlin swinging his wand around, sending the magical jets of light out of the tip and into the sky.
Icing on the cake.
No, the icing on the cake was when she spotted Leon.
Before Tifa knew him, apparently Leon had been a regular presence around Traverse Town, much to the delight of several teenage girls. And now those girls had an outlet to be as ridiculous as they wanted around him. There were three of them that she could see, but there were probably more, dressed up in Notre Dame fashion, dancing around and obviously giving their all to drag him into it.
Leon, for his part, looked torn between finding an escape and assuming the fetal position. Tifa watched with a stupid grin as a particularly leggy young lady and her curvy friend with a low-cut dress haplessly tried to pull him into dancing, while a third girl laughed and bounced between joining their efforts and watching the fireworks.
The leader gypsy, the mastermind costumed caper, had produced a scepter and was marching the dancing party across the courtyard, singing loudly and leading the masquerade. Yuffie skipped over to Tifa and snatched up the champagne bottle. Tifa just as quickly took it back.
"You're still a teenager!" She said.
Yuffie pouted. "So I can fight in the war but I can't drink?"
"Not for another two years you can't." Tifa chuckled. "You on sugar is scary enough. I can't imagine you on alcohol."
The ninja looked like she wanted to argue, but then she just tilted her head, "True." She slid her mask back over her face and followed the dancers, yowling loudly.
Shaking her head, Tifa set the bottle aside and glanced back to see that the girls had overpowered Leon and practically dragged him out into the crowd. She quietly cheered them for getting him into the thick of it. Maybe a little foolishness would help wipe that just-ate-a-lemon look off his face.
This did not prove to be the case as his struggling only fueled their efforts, and soon others in the crowd were trying to coax him into drinking and dancing.
Ha, just imagining THAT almost brought a laugh to her lips.
But he did almost look like he was in physical pain, so she should probably help him out…Pursing her lips, she reached over and picked up the champagne bottle…She'd help him out after she finished this.
Now Yuffie was crowd-surfing and several gypsies were lining the sidewalks, clapping and clinking their bells, chanting for their sisters, three or four lavishly-costumed women who were taking central stage near the fountain. Merlin was still 'dancing'.
"Hey! That was on purpose!" One man drunkenly slurred, brandishing a jagged top of a bottle at another man.
The second man looked around, swaying on his feet, grabbed at Tifa's bottle, smashed it against the bench, and aimed the jagged glass at the first man with a flourish. Tifa looked back at them as they made angry faces at each other. Then one of them promptly passed out and the other blinked, took up a fresh, full bottle of rum, and traipsed off, appeased.
Well, that settled that then.
Hopping off her seat, Tifa decided to go save Leon from his estrogen-packed admirers. Slipping into the crowd, several streamers ended up looped around her shoulders and confetti landed in her hair, matching the mask she was still wearing. The drums and the singing and the laughter added a bounce to her step and she soon found herself less hurrying to him than prancing with reckless abandon, linking arms with a few people and swinging in a few circles on her way.
By the time she caught sight of Leon again, a masquerade mask was slung sideways on his head and most of his shirt front was soaked in red wine. Only one persistent woman remained, her bosom about to pop out to say hello, and wearing enough mascara to blind someone.
The dancers were splitting into pairs, clinging to each other and skipping around together in some haphazard, drunken, chaotic free-style. It was like watching bees in the catacomb: nobody was hitting each other, no matter how wildly out of control they were, and the pairs just wove around each other.
Getting an idea, she slunk up behind Leon and slid her elbow through his.
"Hello, dear. I thought for sure I'd lost you!" She guffawed loudly.
Madame Bosom's eyes shot to her and then glared at Leon before slapping him across the face.
"That's what you get for hitting on me!" She barked, stalking away.
Leon made a confused noise and looked to Tifa with eyes the size of dinner plates. "What—"
Tifa spotted the leggy girl and yipped. "Come with me if you want to live!" She tugged him.
Leon staggered and, still off balance from Madame Bosom's assault, had to follow her. Tifa pulled him by the elbow before nearly side-swiping one of the pairs. Another light bulb went off and Tifa spun around.
"Dance with me."
"What?" Leon snapped.
But Tifa had already snatched one of his hands and slung her arm around his shoulder, "It's me or them!" She jerked her head toward the girls, who were regrouping for another attack.
Without waiting for a response, she sharply back stepped and took them straight into the middle of the courtyard. Leon choked something out, but Tifa ignored him and focused on staying upright.
She had never been around dancing like this. These people were just holding hands and running in circles! There was no structure, no real steps, nothing…just…freedom. As good a description as any, and she latched onto it, spinning around and nearly throwing Leon into the wall.
"Come on!" She giggled through her mask.
"I don't—Stop it—let go—" He was stammering.
"You let go!" She yelped and spun them away from a projectile pair of dancers.
"This isn't—"
"Just go with it! Get the stick out of your ass and dance with me!" She laughed out the words.
Leon briefly looked down, as though to figure out what the Hell he was doing, and two little kids who were trying to get in on the couple-dancing nailed Tifa in the hip, sending her careening in the opposite direction toward which she'd been leaning.
She let go of Leon's shoulder to steady herself, but she held onto his hand, which he returned the grip of to keep her balance. Tifa straightened herself out and curtly spun herself toward his arm, into his comfort zone, and nearly tripped on her feet in the process.
Everyone continued their running-dance around them and for a brief moment, she could feel his heart hammering against her shoulder. Then he gave a long-suffering sigh and shifted his arm, causing her to roll away slightly.
"Fine." He grunted, looking none-too-happy about this.
Before Tifa could form a witty response, he'd drawn her up close again. His arm wound around her side and caused her arm to slide up over his shoulder.
"Le—" She started.
He ducked and pulled her forward and then they were dancing. Fresh pounds of confetti toppled over the crowd and the laughter seemed to increase in volume, if that was possible. Tifa felt Leon take the lead and she gave it to him in shock…Leon knew how to dance?
With a light shrug, she let go and went with it, running and bumbling through the steps with him as they avoided smashing into everybody else. She was glad Leon had taken the wheel; he was maneuvering them through the chaos like a pro. This was definitely not his first crazy-running-dance party…which was an odd prospect to consider.
As the Second District slurred in a mess of bodies and color, the alley that led to the Third District swished into view and Tifa whipped her head around to keep it in sight.
"Alley?" She piped up.
"On it." Leon yelled back over the noise.
She leaned back, found an opening in the moving bodies, and took it, pulling him after her. He staggered for half a step before recovering and sliding out of the main crowd with her. Tears of mirth making her vision double, Tifa laughed as they reached the corner and rounded it quickly.
Then just like that, Leon let go of her and the dancing stopped. Slightly out of breath, Tifa struggled to stifle the helpless giggles that were building up. Leon saw no humor in the situation, however, and just peered around the corner.
"Oh shit…they're coming." He jumped back.
Straightening, Tifa saw the Leon Fanclub heading their way with the crowd, which was mobilizing again. Her eyes drifted sideways and she saw a rickety ladder leading up to the rooftop bordering the Third District.
"This way." She said, gripping the highest rung she could reach and swinging the rest of her body up onto it.
Leon wordlessly climbed up after her, all too eager to get away from the flirtatious, hormonal girls. Tifa shimmied up the ladder and rolled over onto the rooftop, overlooking the marching group, which looked like it was going to rejoin the original party in the Third District now. Leon crawled onto the rooftop beside her, the mask still slung around the side of his head and now a bunch of fallen streamers hanging around his neck.
Upon closer inspection, Tifa spotted Yuffie riding the shoulders of the stilt-lady and Merlin crowd-surfing this time. Oh, she had to see where this was going. Straightening, she turned and saw a hatchway leading through the roof and aiming toward the Third District. She jogged over to the opening.
"Tifa? What are you—"
"I want to see—" She cut herself off, ducking and plodding through the short tunnel.
"Oh for the love of—" It sounded like he was following her.
The hidden passage opened onto a short little corner balcony that overlooked the entirety of the Third District. It was also devoid of any party-ness save for two lanterns. Sliding out onto the concrete, she brushed some confetti out of the eye-holes of her mask and looked down.
The party in the Second District had spawned and branched out of this one, the sun in this solar system of a festival. There were tables set up lining the walls, laden with whole turkeys, hams, cakes, and other foods she couldn't even put a name to. More people on stilts, more masked dancers, more chiming gypsies, and more ridiculous costumes: THIS was exactly what she had been needing after such a terrible two months of absolutely nothing.
Leon emerged after her, brushing the streamers and confetti off of his person with a comical frenzy. Tifa snorted, covering her mouth with one hand as she looked back at him.
"What. Was." He said, shoving off a wad of streamers. "That?" He looked to her as though for an explanation.
"That was me saving you through the art of dance." She quipped.
"That was not dancing. That was…Hell." He shook his head.
"Well, it was either that or get gang-banged by a horde of women." She shrugged. "Lesser of two evils, I say."
He made an incredulous noise along the lines of 'puh' and finally looked out at the mess of people and colors and flying food…and Yuffie with castanets. Tifa gave him a sidelong look.
"You seriously aren't having any fun?" She asked, perplexed.
"One of them bit me in the neck." He pointed to his collar. "Does that sound like fun to you?"
Tifa lifted an eyebrow, "I never knew you could dance."
"You never asked." He said, rubbing his neck and then checking his hand for blood.
Most of the dancing had culminated and now the leader was assembling several people in the most elaborate costumes, for some kind of contest it looked like. Whatever it was, Yuffie was waving one arm around, bouncing on her feet in a wild 'pick me!' dance. Merlin started shooting off more fireworks. Tifa chuckled and watched.
Leon checked his watch. "Ship should be ready soon. Sooner it's ready, the sooner I'm out of here." He grunted. When he got no answer, he half turned, "Are you stay—"
"Will you stop being such a downer?" She lifted an eyebrow. "You're so eager to get out of here, but the only thing waiting for us back at Radiant Garden is work, work, and more work. Take the little breaks when you can get 'em." She gestured to the Third District.
He just pointed at his throat again. "Teeth. On my neck."
"Oh, it could have been worse." She waved him off.
He huffed at that and looked down at the Third District with her. "I guess I owe you one then."
"Damn straight." She tutted.
The head gypsy had found all the worthy contestants by then and was prancing around in front of the line. "Now, we will crown this year's King of Fools!"
Everyone cheered and clapped.
Leon snorted and Tifa looked at him. He pointed toward the far right side of the crowd. "Winner."
She followed his gesture and saw Yuffie, who had managed to get her hands on a set of stilts herself, chasing after Merlin and cackling with glee.
..:-X-:..
A/N: I might have gone a bit overboard with the celebration activities, but it's Fourth of July eve and people around where I live are already barbecuing and shooting off fireworks early this year…It got me all jazzed to write fireworks and party time. Happy Independence Day!