Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine, as is Duke. No affiliation with the movies or music mentioned in 130. Enjoy!
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128 – The Illusions We Keep
For Lett
Tifa sat on the far side of the couch, knees pulled up, arms hugging her shins to her chest, eyes still as they stared at the jacket. The air conditioning hummed and the shower was running, but her ears felt fogged by her own thoughts. The jacket rested where Leon had haphazardly tossed it upon entering the apartment, complaining about the heat wave before marching off to take a shower.
She'd seen the jacket uncountable times. Leon wore it practically every day and she was with him practically every day. Black, leather, singed in a few places and shady patchwork where bullets had torn the fabric. Red wings on the back. Like bloody eyes glaring at her, mocking her, debasing her. Coward. Liar. Pathetic.
The moment she saw Leon after she left the Underworld, she knew she'd signed the death warrant of her conscience. Hades had flat out told her that Rinoa was alive, and she had flat out vowed not to tell Leon, the only person who mattered, that she was alive. She was flat out betraying him. And that small splinter of guilt had festered into a cancer, eating her alive.
He said he was done, letting go, moving on, done, but that was only because he thought she was dead. Tifa was letting him live in ignorance that his first love, the woman he'd spent a decade scouring the galaxy for, and possibly the love of his life, was dead. That he had let her down and let her die.
Tifa had told Hades that her friend thought Rinoa was dead just to lessen this weight that the lord of the dead had against her. Out of spite. Trying to convince herself. The truth was, she knew that Leon would fly across the universe to find Rinoa. She closed her eyes, but those two red wings were plastered across the back of her eyelids.
Leon had told her about the wings, where they came from, what they represented. He said he was okay, that he was done, but she could tell he wasn't. Leon didn't quit things, no matter how lost the cause was. He hadn't quit hoping that Rinoa was alive, and he hadn't quit trusting Tifa to watch his back…yet anyway…If he knew…
This was betrayal. This was no different than if Leon had known where Cloud had been when Tifa was searching for him all over, and simply chose not to tell her. Sure, Tifa had no idea where Rinoa was, but she knew that the woman wasn't six feet under.
Maybe she got a sick satisfaction out of it. Because…maybe…while he's ignorant of Rinoa's existence, he's still here. He's not leaving. Not like Cloud left for Aerith when he found out she had survived the Heartless Invasion. For once, Tifa wasn't second best, the runner up, the one left behind while the delicate flower was chosen. Leon wasn't 'with' Tifa, but, at least for the moment, he was choosing her. Maybe out of necessity, but he had chosen her.
Tifa opened her eyes again, blinking back the burning moisture building under her lashes. Or maybe she was only fooling herself. Lost in the illusion that maybe, just maybe, she could win this time. If and when Leon found out, and he would find out, he wasn't one of the most powerful people in the Alliance for his looks, he would hate her. He'd be furious that she'd lied to his face for her own selfish need to be needed. The shower stopped running in the other room.
She was a monster.
The simple admission elicited a sob from her and she covered her mouth, practically cowering on the couch, not looking at those vermillion eyes that drilled into her in the form of wings on the back of Leon's jacket.
She couldn't do this. She'd made a deal she couldn't keep. This was going to kill her, this guilt. What right did she have to hold this information? But if she told Hades…what? What would he do? She racked her brains, but couldn't remember the consequences of the breach of contract. They hadn't even discussed it. God, she had been so eager to hear those words 'she's dead', that she'd practically thrown herself at the demon.
The ramifications of dropping her end of the bargain and telling Leon had not been verbalized…but it wouldn't be anything good…Hades might just up and kill her and Leon, because a vindictive roach like him would think of that. The only guaranteed way to keep Leon safe was to let him continue in ignorance, to lie to him.
Coward.
"Tifa?" Leon had opened the door and noticed her melting down. "What's—"
"I'm sorry." She stood, letting her hair shield her eyes. "I can't—"
God, what have I done?
"Tifa…" He sounded concerned, but she ducked into her room and closed the door.
Hades was right. She was just sloppy seconds to a ghost. A ghost who wasn't even a ghost. A woman who was walking and breathing and searching for the man that Tifa couldn't bear the thought of losing…but she didn't even have him to begin with.
"Are you okay?" He was asking through the door.
Tifa closed her eyes and sank to her seat on the floor, letting the tears come.
She was a fool.
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129 – Like Sand Through the Hourglass
For Kiss of the Breeze
As soon as all of the sand filtered through the point in the hourglass, Leon languidly reached over and turned it upside down. And the process began again. It wasn't a real 'hour'-glass by any means; it was too small, but watching the jade-colored granules sift into the bottom chamber of it was oddly relaxing. Tifa was running late, which was an oddity, so he was waiting for her at the edge of the Marketplace, fiddling with this little hourglass that he'd found.
"Excuse me, son, but I think we're lost." An elderly man caught his attention.
"HE thinks we're lost. I KNOW we're lost." The elderly lady beside the man corrected with a gentle smile.
"Oh…" The man tutted, looking to Leon. "Either way, we're not sure where we are."
"Um…" Leon absently turned the hourglass over again, looking up at them when they addressed him. "All right. This is Radiant Garden—"
The woman giggled and her husband lifted a hand, "Oh, we know that much. We're not THAT lost." He chuckled. "We're looking for the Hollow Bastion Castle Library."
"It's where we first met." The woman said. "Fifty years ago today."
"Hush, Nancy. He doesn't care where—" The man attempted to stop her.
"Fifty years, Steve. I don't get to brag that every day, so you hush." She beamed.
Leon sat dumb for a moment, the sand filtering through the hourglass. He abruptly shook himself out of it and stood. "Well, the castle is actually—"
"Before the Heartless was even a thought!" Nancy regaled, "On a day with a sky so blue it hurt to look at…I was in the library being a bookworm and he was going to meet an old girlfriend to rekindle the flame."
"Here we go." Steve cast Leon an apologetic look through a helpless smile.
Leon stood there, feeling wrong footed but not having the heart to interrupt her now. Fifty years was a big deal, after all. Give them their bragging rights.
"He was walking past my table and tripped, catching on my handbag."
"She thought I was trying to steal her purse and clocked me right in the nose." Steve joined in on the storytelling.
Nancy laughed, "Love at first blood, eh?" She winked at Leon, reaching over and turning over the hourglass for him, which had run out. "Looks like we ran out of time, dear."
Steve snorted and shook his head, "It's been years since we've been to this world, so if you could point us in the right direction, that'd be real helpful."
Their ease was infectious and even Leon couldn't feel totally awkward. "Well, actually, the entire Hollow Bastion Castle is inaccessible…has been since the re-generation a few years ago." He gestured toward the Great Maw, where the Rising Falls used to be. He dropped his arm. "I'm sorry. The only way to reach the old library would be to climb—"
"Climb? Two old tots like us?" Steve put his arm around Nancy.
His wife pulled a camera out of her purse. "We'll settle with a picture. It's not every day you outlast a whole castle, after all." She looked to Leon, "Do you think you could—"
"Oh…of course." He took the camera, turning it over once before finding the power switch. By the time he lifted the device, the two had assumed the position: his arm over her shoulders and her head on his shoulder, like they'd been made to fit together that perfectly.
Leon focused the camera so that the castle ruins were in the background, snapped the picture, and handed it back to them. Steve took it and Nancy reached over, turning the hourglass over again, grinning mischievously. They thanked him for the directions—even though he didn't technically help—and the picture.
"So…have you been punched in the nose by a bookworm?" Nancy asked.
Whatever that was supposed to mean.
Steve sighed, "Leave the kid alone, sweetheart. We've bothered him enough."
Nancy tilted her head, shouldering her bag again. "I think you have. Good lookin' fella like yourself should have no trouble finding someone who turns your world upside down." She said, eying the upside down hourglass.
"Nancy…"
"Oh, I happen to recall you saying the same thing to that plucky little soldier girl who held the door for us…"
"Fine, fine…Thank you again, son." Steve offered a hand.
"Leon." He replied, shaking the hand. "And it was no problem." He smirked. "Thanks for the story."
As they walked away, he spotted Tifa just as she was making her away over from the Borough. She looked slightly winded.
"Hey, who was that?" She asked, reaching him.
"Just a couple on their anniversary. Fifty years, I think." He glanced back.
"That's adorable." She grinned, spotting the hourglass. "They leave that?"
"No. It was just…here." He shrugged.
"Huh." She reached over and turned the hourglass on its end. The sand started falling once again.
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130 – The Awkward Silence
For WishingDreamer5
The wild grab for the remote was so fast that Tifa momentarily thought they were being robbed. Leon had bolted for the thing like it was the last jar of peanut butter in existence. Still, his speed was hindered by the wild grab, and he couldn't change the channel before Tifa walked in, seeing the television screen.
"I'm flying, Jack!" The woman was saying, standing on the bow of a ship, arms spread out, standing in front of a man, the 'Jack' fellow.
Before Tifa could ask what the heck was Leon of all people doing watching THAT, he succeeded in changing the channel. Only this one was of a man and a woman standing very close in an old parlor of some sort.
"You should be kissed," The man was saying, "and often, and by someone who knows how."
Leon cursed, fumbling to change the channel again. Tifa smirked and closed the door, going to the table and opening her laptop. The back of Leon's neck was turning red, and she could understand the embarrassment. No grown man wanted to be caught watching that kind of movie alone…
"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." The new channel that Leon had flipped to wasn't helping.
While he batted at the remote to try to find a less…whatever…channel, Tifa wordlessly logged into the computer and opened the internet radio. Eventually Leon would give up and turn off the television…Then the silence would be awkward. She snickered and opened the radio in a new window. The station was in the middle of a song, but it sounded innocent enough…
"If I had the sun and moon and they were shining, I would give you both night and day, love satisfying…Feel like making…Feel like making love!" The band sang loudly.
Tifa quietly slid her hand over and closed the window, swallowing a laugh. At least it looked like Leon had found another channel, an old movie in black and white. A man and a woman standing on a moonlit sidewalk.
"Hey, that's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon, Mary." The man said.
Another attack on the remote and it clicked over to another black and white movie, but this time it looked like a bunch of police around a man who had just been shot. Leon relaxed a little, and Tifa snorted, shaking her head and looking at her computer screen again.
Silence filled the apartment for a while, aside from the soft chatter between the men on the television screen and Tifa's fingers clacking on the keyboard. Leon's neck was still red, and Tifa thought it was hilarious that not only had she caught him watching a romantic movie, but how he had freaked out when she walked in.
An 'awkward silence' between Leon and Tifa was rare. They'd been in enough dangerous, uncomfortable, and flat out bizarre situations that 'awkward' sort of fell on the way side. While Tifa found this moment amusing, Leon was sitting on the couch in a bubble that screamed "this is WEIRD!"
She recognized this movie, but for some reason couldn't put a name to it. They'd carted off the man who'd been shot and now just two men remained, watching an airplane take off from a strip. She stopped typing and sat back, watching from the table and trying to put her finger on where she knew this movie from.
Then she remembered and had to swallow a chuckle at Leon's luck.
"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
Leon turned off the television, stood, and snapped his fingers. Duke stood from her curled position and followed him to the door, eager for a walk. Without a word, he picked up his keys, opened the door, led the dog out, and left, closing the door behind him.
A beat passed while Tifa stared at the door.
Then she couldn't contain it anymore and burst out laughing.
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A/N 128: Connected to 118. I had to write this after realizing a few loopholes in it.
A/N 129: Nancy and Steve are a pun on a Haynette that I wrote called Only One Thing in Common, in which Hayner and Olette drunkenly call each other Steve and Nancy. I don't know why…I just did XD
A/N 130: Movies referenced (in order): Titanic, Gone With the Wind, Romeo and Juliet, It's a Wonderful Life, and Casablanca. I also used "Feel Like Making Love", a song by Bad Company. For the sake of awkwardness.
Thanks for the lovely prompts! Keep them coming!