Disclaimer: KH II belongs to Square-Enix and Disney.

A/n: You may have noticed, it's been forever since I updated this. And I admit, I've been working on some new projects. Thanks for all the reviews, I really wasn't expecting this story to get any followers, but I guess I'll just have to keep writing now as long as people are reading.

Chapter Four

"Sometimes running away is your only option, but is it really running away if you have someone to run to?"

Heaving a sigh, Tifa slid down the wall to the floor. She brought her knees up and wiped the sweat from her forehead wearily. The last heartless in the hall let out a shrill screech as Yuffie's giant shuriken sliced through it, and the two watched as the creature's heart spiraled up into the air and vanished.

"Well that was a pain in the ass." Yuffie groaned, kneeling down beside Tifa on the floor.

Tifa smiled over at her and handed her a bottle of water. "Any idea how many are left?" She asked the younger girl. Yuffie paused for a moment before shaking her head timidly.

"Not really…" She said quietly, taking a long drink from the bottle before handing it back. Tifa found herself feeling sorry for the girl, she didn't mean to cause so much trouble, bad luck seemed to go out of its way to find her.

"Let's just hope none of them got into the city, if anyone gets attacked Leon's really going to have our heads." She nearly startled herself by saying his name, and she was sure if Yuffie had been paying any attention to her she would have noticed the blush that colored her face for a moment. Come to think of it, Yuffie seemed pretty interested in the end of the hallway. Tifa leaned over and crawled forward to see if there was something interesting there.

"Do you hear that?" Yuffie asked, her voice wavering worriedly as Tifa glanced at her.

She opened her mouth to tell her she didn't hear anything when the floor beneath them shook and a distant pounding echoed down the hallway to them. A curse escaped her lips instead and Yuffie's eyes shot over to her innocently, as if to ask her exactly what 'fuck' was supposed to mean in this instance. In moments, Tifa was on her feet walking cautiously down the hall to investigate. The pounding sounded far away, and she broke into a run as Yuffie called out to her from down the hall. Weaving down hallways and through doors, across a balcony and down a flight of stairs and Tifa found herself in the lift stop, across from the library. There was a sharp crack and another loud boom, and Yuffie had hardly caught up to her before she had taken the lift to the library entrance.

Huffing in exhaustion, Yuffie leaned against the table on the upstairs balcony of the library, peering down at the mess of books and broken shelves on the floor below them.

"Leon is going to kill us." She whimpered, glancing over at Tifa's shocked face as three large body heartless clambered around a broken bookshelf to one of the remaining shelves. They began to push against it and Tifa snapped out of her stupor, leaping over the banister at them. Yuffie cried out in shock and dove after her, shuriken gleaming in the light from the window as she swung it ahead of her, landing rudely on one of the creature's faces.

Tifa ducked around behind one of them, delivering a devastating kick and leaping away again as it spun around to punch the floor where she had just been. Jumping over its head, she attacked again, ducking down as it swung a giant arm above her head and shattered a section of the bookcase. Books began to fall down from the broken shelf, and Tifa stumbled as her foot was caught on a board, sending her reeling over backwards to avoid being smashed by the heartless' fist as it tried to grab her. She landed on a pile of books and scrambled to her feet, darting back in to kick the heartless in the back and send him to his knees.

"Tifa! Watch out!" Yuffie shrieked, throwing her shuriken just as the third large body swung a fist at Tifa, cutting into the creature's arm. It growled in anger and swung its arm back around, hitting Tifa in the chest as she tried to duck around behind the bookshelf. Yuffie watched in horror as her friend's limp body was throw against a bookshelf on the far wall, cracking the shelf and sending books down on top of her as she landed in a crumpled heap.

Yuffie ripped her shuriken down the back of a large body, finishing it off on her way to her best friend's side. Tifa groaned in pain as the young ninja kneeled down to throw books off of her. She cursed as she noticed the heartless lumbering up behind them, and shoved Yuffie aside as it slammed a huge fist into the floor inches away from them. Tifa rolled to the side, clutching her ribs painfully and gasping for air.

She was vaguely aware of the figure poised above her as stars exploded in her line of sight. Her head was swimming and she struggled to focus on the blurring shapes around her, but she was fairly certain of just who it was that was now screaming at Yuffie, brandishing an odd sword, and mangling the large body that had been about to demolish her. Squeezing her eyes shut as the pained screams of the heartless floated up into the air, she prayed it wasn't really him.

He was beside her now, putting Yuffie on a guilt trip and leaning over Tifa to check for any major injuries. She felt his fingertips move quickly along her ribcage, sliding down her stomach to inspect her legs for any unusual lumps where bones might be protruding. If there hadn't been three of him leaning over her, she might have tried to slap him, but given the situation she found it much easier to detach herself from reality.

"Tifa, what hurts?" Leon asked, noticing that her eyes weren't quite focused on him. She gave a small grimace, and he wondered for a moment if it was because of their awkward situation.

"I'm not sure…" She mumbled, looking away from him in disappointment when her head began to clear.

To her surprise, he pulled her up into a sitting position and slid his arms under her, lifting her gently off the ground. She glanced over his shoulder in time to catch the small smirk on Yuffie's face before it melted when he turned to glare at her.

"Yuffie, I want you to start picking up this mess. I'll be back in an hour so you can explain everything to me, so think carefully about what you're going to say." He growled threateningly. The young ninja watched miserably as he carried Tifa out the door.

x:X:x

Tifa looked around them suspiciously as Leon began walking in the opposite direction from they way back to town. The ceiling above them arched beautifully, and she stared around them in wonder as he carried her toward a large set of double doors.

"Where are we going?" She asked curiously, straining to focus her eyes on the scenery around them as they emerged on a balcony overlooking the mountains.

"Somewhere where we can talk." He said simply, walking along the balcony. Tifa looked up at him nervously, it had only been four days since their "party", she wasn't sure she was even ready to have a decent conversation with him yet. An awkward silence passed between them as Tifa stared out at the clear blue sky, the only clouds visible along the mountain range across the sea.

"You don't have to carry me, you know." Tifa said defensively. She regretted it immediately as he paused and dropped her on her feet, watching with interest as she cried out in pain and hit the ground like a rock.

"What was that for!" She cried out, glaring up at him and pulling herself up on the railing. She leaned over and grabbed her leg, finally noticing the long gash down the back of her knee.

"You said I didn't have to carry you, I assumed you were serious." She glared back up at him and thought she saw s smirk before it quickly vanished.

"You could have been gentle about it." She accused, nursing her wounded leg as he crouched down beside her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you." He said quietly, handing her a potion and leaning against the wall behind her. She busied herself with cleaning up her leg, too tired to fume about him any more. He watched her for several minutes before getting up again and crossing the balcony to take a seat on the thick stone railing.

The air was almost alarmingly still for how high up they were, and she stared out across the expanse in slight awe. If she hadn't been in so much pain she would have enjoyed the view, but her head was pounding and the presence of the restoration committee leader was making her somewhat flustered.

"So what are we doing out here?" Tifa asked almost bitterly, looking up at the man expectantly as he stared out across the bright balcony of the castle.

"This spot has a great view, you can't see the bay from the other side of the castle. And I was hoping we could talk about what happened the other night." He replied, looking back at her as she struggled to her feet.

"There's nothing to talk about, we were drunk, we did what drunk people tend to do. You're supposed to forget about it the next morning back where I'm from." She was getting defensive, and snapped at him. Despite her attitude, he seemed thoughtful and calm, watching as she brushed past him, limping back the way they had come.

"Well I think there is something we need to talk about." He stated, crossing his arms. Tifa stopped several feet away and sighed, leaning heavily on the railing. She slowly turned back around to face him, looking almost guilty.

There was that familiar pain in her eyes again, and Leon hesitated as he tried to think of how to phrase his question without offending her.

"You don't have to answer if you think it's too personal, but I was wondering…" He cleared his throat and Tifa watched him suspiciously. "I was wondering who you saw the night we spent together. Was it really me you saw, or was it Cloud? I was curious." He felt awkward, it hadn't come out as nonchalantly as he'd hoped.

Tifa couldn't believe what she had heard, and for a second she wasn't sure she'd heard him right. He looked over at her expectantly and she felt her cheeks flush, opening her mouth to angrily tell him off. Something stopped her, and she nearly reeled back in shock at the underlying meanings behind his question.

Without even glancing back she turned and walked as quickly as she could back into the castle, nearly dragging her injured knee behind her as she felt his eyes on the back of her head. She didn't know what was so terrifying about him and his question, the fact that she wasn't sure if it had been Cloud she had really been thinking of that night, or the possibility that Leon actually cared.

x:X:x

She avoided him the rest of the day, busying herself with helping Yuffie clean up the mess in the library. All the debris from the ruined shelves had been dragged into a pile in the corner, and books were stacked everywhere waiting for Cid to finish making new shelves for them. Leon came in every so often to check on them and lend help where he saw fit, usually uncomfortably close to Tifa as she tried to sort books alphabetically for when they would be put back in proper order.

After hours of sorting out books and chunks of wood, Tifa shoved open the door to her shared apartment and stared around her in the dark. Walking slowly across the kitchen, she flicked on the light and sat down wearily at the table. Minutes later, Yuffie dragged herself in behind her, nearly collapsing against the door as she closed it and yawned widely.

"What a horrible day. Nothing about that went as planned." She complained, flopping down in a chair across from Tifa and resting her head on her arms. Tifa groaned in response, finding it hard to stay awake after working so hard all day.

"Has Leon gone nuts over you or what?" Yuffie blurted out, snapping Tifa awake.

"What? I told you, we're just friends, we-" She rushed to defend herself, nearly panicking as the ninja started to giggle.

"Oh come on, Tifa, you know it's possible for 'friends' to fall for one another right?" She interrupted, smirking across the table at the flustered woman. She blushed again and buried her face in her hands miserably.

"But it's not like that! He, you know, I don't…" She peeked over at Yuffie, who was starting to seem a little frustrated.

"Leon likes you, I don't see why it's such a big deal. What's wrong with him?" She huffed, crossing her arms. Tifa wanted to melt into the floor and disappear.

"There's nothing wrong with him, I'm just not ready to think about any kind of relationship." Tifa tried to explain. Yuffie didn't seem convinced, and pushed herself up to her feet.

"You know, it took him a long time to recover, I can't believe he even let you this close. You can't dwell on Cloud forever, you might as well move on while you have someone to fill that empty space." Her voice was bitter, and Tifa was shocked as the girl walked purposefully out of the kitchen. She couldn't help but smile knowing that though Leon was so tough on her, she was still such a faithful team member.

x:X:x

The wind blew gently through his hair, splaying it out gracefully before he brushed it out of his face. He shoved one hand in his pocket and gestured with the other, seeming to point at Yuffie as Cid scowled from beside him. Even from her place on the opposite side of the landing platform she could hear Cid's angered bellow, shouting something rude to the poor girl as she turned and stared back at the two men with a hurt expression. Tifa's attention was drawn back to Leon when he put a hand on Cid's shoulder, shaking his head and saying something that made the older man look a bit guilty.

A happy squeal from the young ninja nearly started her out of her thoughts, but she forced her gaze to stay on Leon as Cid made his way forward after Yuffie. The brunette didn't move, crossing his arms and gazing after his friends somberly. To Tifa's horror, with the other two gone, she found him staring right back at her.

He was walking towards her now, and she looked away. She had only really been staring at him to keep her mind off the real reason they were all gathered around the landing platform, she wasn't sure how much she wanted to talk to him after what Yuffie had said to her.

Her eyes traveled over to the only thing in the area she would rather talk to Leon than face, and she felt her heart tighten in her chest. He was smiling, holding her hand, pulling her closer as their friends gathered around them to welcome their home coming. Spiky blonde hair waved in the afternoon breeze and his eyes glittered almost unnaturally as he seemed to glance around for her. He saw her, smiled, waved, and started toward her.

Cid got in the way, Cloud paused to talk to him, and Tifa let her head fall in her lap. She didn't want to run away, she really did want to talk to him, but the entire time Aerith was hanging on his arm, and she wasn't sure she could face the other woman without someone getting hurt. If she tried to leave now, it would be obvious that she was upset, everyone would know and they would all talk about it, and she knew she couldn't face him again if he knew just how much he had really hurt her. She didn't want him to feel sorry for her, she just wanted to be left alone.

"Tifa."

Her heart nearly leapt into her throat and she held her breath, almost choking on it as she shot back up in sudden fear, nerves wrenching painfully.

Leon was, once again, standing over her, blocking the sun from her view and casting a halo around his head. She felt an involuntary smile tug at her lips when she realized what a beautiful sight he was in that instance. He held out his hand and she stared at it for a moment, deep brown eyes studying it carefully as she thought about the situation.

Glancing behind him, she could see Cloud, still held up by the others and looking over at her helplessly as he tried to fend them off to see her. Aerith tugged on his arm when he failed to answer one of Yuffie's questions, but his gaze didn't leave the martial artist as she took Leon's hand and stood up. He couldn't believe his eyes, watching intently as they turned and walked away from the group, barely catching the small smile that played across Tifa's face as she gave him a quick wave goodbye. It wasn't long before Aerith caught his startled gaze and covered her mouth with a hand in shock.

"Tifa and Leon..?" She murmured, looking over at Yuffie.

Yuffie shrugged as she watched the two disappear out the door. "I don't know, they can't seem to figure out what's going on." Her voice was casual, and Cloud glared down at her almost accusingly before pushing away from the crowd to follow them.

"He knew I wanted to talk to her and he took her away!" He growled angrily. Aerith started after him in surprise, worry etched on her face.

End of Chapter Four