Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine, as are McCallister and Dr. Leng. Well, I think my muse is healthy enough to come off life support now. I hope that is the case anyway. Enjoy!
..:-X-:..
200 – Drunken Confessions
For raiko. EXE
Leon was drunk. Not buzzed, not tipsy. Absolutely hammered. Tabaeus McCallister could tell by the unholy amount of concentration he was expending just to remain sitting upright. If that didn't do it, the empty bottles on Ansem's desk were clear enough. She had never even seen him drink, much less drunk.
"What are…doin' here?" He grunted, sitting back in the chair, legs propped up on the desk.
She had no training for this.
"Did I…call you?" He squinted at her.
Technically he had called Tifa's office, been answered by her intern Blake, who transferred the call to Leon's department, where Private Marcus didn't know what to do, and he transferred it to Cid, who pinned it on Tabaeus.
"Yes, sir." She replied, awkwardly stepping into Ansem's old office.
He nodded, and then abruptly grabbed onto the arms of the chair, as though the world was spinning. Maybe his was. Tabaeus swallowed and started picking up the bottles, depositing them in the trash. He watched her with alcohol-glazed eyes. If Tifa wasn't in Agrabah right then, Tabaeus would have gotten her…but as it was, it was all on her.
"I'm taking you home." She said, walking over to the desk.
Leon looked at her sourly. "You're working for Cid."
"For a few months now." She moved his legs off the desk.
He flopped with the shift and she grabbed his shoulder. "You're not going to ask why I'm…like this?" He asked, looking both surprised at her and embarrassed for himself.
"Nope." She shook her head. "I'm not your mother. Now come on so I can make sure you get home without passing out on the sidewalk."
He smirked at that and stood, though he swayed dangerously. She grabbed onto him and slipped under his arm. He exhaled in exasperation.
"I was adopted." He mumbled.
Tabaeus blinked, "I'm…sorry?"
"You know what that means?" He looked at her, letting her help him walk across the room.
Tabaeus frowned. "Your parents are dead…Maybe you're biological parents are still alive?"
"It means I wasn't wanted." He remarked.
Oh god, why wasn't Tifa here? She grimaced, but looked at him. "That's stupid."
"No, it's not." He stopped walking, staggering slightly. "It makes sense, actually. Everybody leaves. Parents—"
"Dead." She pointed out.
"Real parents."
"You don't know that."
"Rinoa."
"Heartless." She reprimanded softly.
"You."
"Transferred…I'm here now, aren't I?"
"It's just the way things are around me. Sooner or later, Tifa will find a reason to leave too."
"No she won't." Tabaeus snorted. "She's in love with you."
He looked at her so fast that he had to grab onto her to keep from falling over. "Really?"
Tabaeus blinked. "Excuse me, sir, but for someone so observant…you're kind of blind."
He staggered again and his eyes glazed over. Before she could brace herself, he passed out, dragging her down with him and landing on top of her. She yelped out in surprise but could do nothing about it.
"Ahem." Cid said from the doorway.
Tabaeus thrashed, "It's not—get him off me!"
"I love her too." Leon mumbled.
Cid lifted an eyebrow and Tabaeus shook her head, "NOT ME!"
"Well, I figured that. He's a little outta your league." Cid remarked.
"Just get him off!"
..:-X-:..
201 – Such a Funny Pair
For raiko. EXE
"I can't—my grip is slipping." Tifa said over the radio.
"I'm almost there." Leon said, making his way toward the river. "Trust me, the branch will hold."
Static blasted back at him and he cursed, breaking into a run toward the massive waterfall where the Heartless had trapped Tifa. They had split up to cover more ground, and he had barely escaped a huge non-Heartless bear before Tifa called a mayday on the radio.
The Heartless had knocked her into the river, from the garbled mess she had been saying, and now she was clinging to a tree branch under his advice until he could get to her. Though by the sudden screaming over the radio, his advice was wrong.
Instead, he could only watch in horror from where he was as Tifa went over the waterfall, disappearing amidst the foam and the water and the few Heartless who clung to her. There was a hard splash and a cloud of purple smoke. The Heartless weren't bred to survive 80 foot drops into hard water. He could only hope Tifa was.
Adrenaline burned hot through his body, pushing him the last 20 feet and propelling him into the water. Slamming through the shallows, he pushed away from the embankment until the floor dropped off. Falls like that broke bones. He swam out toward the waterfall's base, cursing and praying the whole way.
When her dark haired head bobbed to the surface, he nearly stopped swimming in relief, but when she broke the surface with a scream of pain, he swam faster to reach her.
"Tifa!" He tried to grab her attention.
She momentarily slipped under the surface but then floundered back up, coughing and turning haltingly in the water to face him. He reached her at that point and slipped an arm under her shoulders to help her stay afloat.
"Leon." She sputtered. "My…my leg."
"Which one?" He said, spotting the closest embankment.
"Right." She grimaced.
He took more of her weight on that side and nodded toward the shore. "I've got a potion on the shore. Come on."
She nodded and put her arm over his neck, letting him lead. Together they paddled to the shore and when his knees hit the shallow floor, he stopped them from going forward.
"Left leg first." He warned, getting his weight back on his feet and keeping a hold of her.
She stepped forward on her left leg, finding the floor and standing. Once they had hobbled out of the shallows onto the marshy bank, they stopped and he looked down at her leg. He could see the unnatural bend in her shin, the bone pushing against, but not breaking, the skin.
"The potion—" She wheezed.
"I lied." He helped her sit on a rock nearby. "Are you okay?"
She pushed her wet hair back and breathed. "Fantastic."
He knelt down and gently grasped her leg, conjuring a Cure Spell. She winced at the touch but then relaxed under the spell.
"Sorry." He mumbled.
"It's okay. It doesn't hurt already."
"No, I meant—I should have taken the North side."
"Then you would have gone over the falls and I would have had to drag you back." She said, stretching her leg and gingerly standing.
He looked guiltily at her and she touched his arm.
"Hey, look at it this way. I get to see you soaking wet and you can't say I never literally 'fell for you'."
He narrowed one eye at her. "You're soaked too."
"Well, I rest my case." She said, and kissed him on the lips briefly before they started the trek back to the ship.
..:-X-:..
202 – In a Haystack
For WishingDreamer5
It had been four hours since Leon had been locked in quarantine, and he looked like Hell. He was sedated, but the muscle spasms kept making him twitch involuntarily. The monitors and IV lines plugged up to him were making Tifa's already frayed nerves stretch even thinner.
"How much worse will he get?" She asked.
Dr. Leng prepped the thick needle. "Worse enough for us to induce a medical coma, not worse enough to be fatal."
The toxin was attacking the nervous system in all five people who were initially exposed to it. The symptoms were too advanced for the antidote to help them any now, but it was still viable for those exposed after the toxin was already released, like Tifa.
"We'll have to keep an eye out for permanent nerve damage, but the toxin's active life expires after 24 hours, so he's got—" The doctor checked her watch, "—twenty hours left before he's in the clear."
Tifa looked back in at Leon and felt a pinch as Dr. Leng gave her the injection in her bicep. At least he got to be unconscious for this. He wouldn't be happy about being kept under for an entire day, but between the spasms and what Leng told her was painful lung constrictions, she would accept the aggravated comments and moody glare later.
"There." Dr. Leng said, withdrawing the needle. "Consider yourself inoculated."
Tifa flexed her hand a few times and folded her arms. "Is everyone else in the clear?"
"All but the original five, but the other four are in the same condition he is."
"Can I go in? Be with him, I mean." Tifa shifted.
"Of course…but it's going to be a rough 20 hours."
"All the more reason for me to be in there."
The doctor bobbed her head and hit the code to let Tifa through the sealed door. "It stops being contagious after ten hours, so no matter what, you're joining him in isolation for six hours if you go in there."
"Thanks for the warning." Tifa said, walking into the private hospital room.
It was all white; cold, stark white. And then Leon, red faced and twitchy. She walked over, shifting one of the plastic chairs to the bedside, but didn't sit down. She looked from his face to the monitors, and then back to him.
"You always have to be first, don't you?" She said, reaching over and brushing some of the hair from his eyes.
She could feel the fever on his skin and hear the hitch in his breathing. Aerith and the others were being administered the antidote now.
The Heartless were evolving. Paralytic venom, delirium poison, and now airborne toxins that set the nerves on the fire. The beasts were developing biochemical warfare, and they were targeting the Restoration Committee as practice.
The room was too quiet.
"You look terrible, by the way." She sank into the chair, dropping her hand to his wrist, feeling the steady thrum of his pulse.
The sudden wall of emotion that clogged her throat took her by surprise. She swallowed hard a few times.
"I envy your coma, because I'm definitely not looking forward to the next 20 hours." She remarked, but her voice cracked at the end. "But I'm not going anywhere."
She took his hand, grinning ruefully at what his expression would have been at the gesture.
"You're stuck with me."
And even though she knew it was the spasms, she told herself otherwise when his fingers closed around hers.
..:-X-:..
A/N 201: The world they're on is from Fox and the Hound. That waterfall in the movie was just a beast…as was that bear (shudders).