"Wrench."

One of the main water pipes had sprung leaks, and Cloud was 'helping' Leon fix it. The brunet was scowling at the pipe, grey eyes starting to cloud over with annoyance.

"Are you calling me a barmaid?"

Leon made an inarticulate noise. "Strife, for Hyne's sake, just give me the damn tool."

Cloud shrugged and handed him the requested tool. Leon was irritable today. Couldn't really blame him.

Cloud watched him fix the pipe for longer. "What were you in your past life, a plumber?"

"No. Elite mercenary. Shut up. I think it's nearly-" He had looked up to glare at Cloud, and the moment he had taken his attention away from the pipe, it sprung a leak. A high pressured leak. Right under where the man was leaning. His sentence had stopped as the cold water hit his face, and Cloud done the only thing he could think of when confronted with a glaring and wet Leon.

He laughed. And he laughed hard.

"Don't go to sleep tonight, Strife."

Leon fixed the new leak and started packing away. "Is that all for today?"

"Not including your nightly patrol, oh mighty Heartless slayer? Yes." Cloud flicked a blonde spike from his face. "We should move on, though. There are Heartless coming."

Leon sighed. Heartless, Heartless, Heartless. And now Nobodies too. For Hyne's sake, this was really getting annoying.

The pair started heading out.

On the way back to Merlin's, they had been attacked by fifty Heartless. Normally they would have been no problem for the two, but today was different.

Leon was being a klutz. The man was never a klutz.

Cloud watched him limp home, trailing blood slightly. He had gotten out unscathed. Leon had been scratched several times. It was…. Odd.

Leon opened the door, and started in. Unfortunately, Yuffie was dashing out and away from Cid who was trying to smack her with his spear. Yuffie collided with Leon and Leon dropped, onto one of the scratches. The man went as white as a sheet as Yuffie babbled an apology and continued running from Cid.

"…Leon? Are you ok?"

Aerith frowned at him as Cloud stepped over the sprawled man and into the living room. Leon made a noise that was probably a negative. Aerith sighed and knelt next to him and started to cast cure. Leon shook his head, batting at her lightly.

"Not yet. Something stabbed me." He sat up with some difficulty and felt the patch of blood on his back and pulled out a nail. He promptly went white again.

"Ow… I told Cid putting up that sign was a bad idea." She started casting cure again.

Leon looked up and groaned.

Restoration HQ. Leader: Leon.

"Leon, dinner's already ready."

He nodded getting up, and Cid and Yuffie came in. Cid was wheezing hard, and Yuffie was grinning like the cat that got the milk. They all trooped into the kitchen, Cid muttering curses. They grabbed their plates and sat. Aerith had always made them eat at the same time at the same table. Family time or something.

"This smells funny."

Leon looked at his dinner suspiciously. It looked normal. But the smell was off.

"Leon, don't be so paranoid. Just eat it. You must be hungry."

He sighed and followed the woman's wishes. It tasted like… steak and… potatoes and… What the hell was that?!

He gagged and ran out of the room retching.

"Whoops."

Everyone turned to see Yuffie rubbing at her hair smiling nervously.

"Wrong plate."

"Not my day—urk—I'm gonna kill that ninja—bleh—and dance on her remains…"

Cloud nodded, holding Leon's hair back as the man hurled again. He had been pressed by Aerith into hair holding duty, and was trying to avoid the smell attacking his nose.

Yuffie was a ninja. Ninja's were good with plants. Some plants had negative effects. As demonstrated by Leon. To be fair, she hadn't meant to do this to Leon. Cid had been he target after their argument, and she'd just done it to the wrong plate.

"I'm sorry! Please don't kill me! No dancing! I mean, it shouldn't have any long term effects or anything, like turning your babies into mutants- unless you ALREADY had mutant babies! OhMiLeviathan! LEON HAS MUTANT BABIES!"

It was at this point that Cloud threw her out of the room to face her punishment from Aerith. No doubt it involved cleaning, and Cloud gently took Leon's hair again as the man heaved.

"Finished?"

"Maybe… I don't have anything left…"

"You sound like crap, Leonhart."

"I wonder why." He sighed resting his forehead on the bowl. "Can we ditch the verbal sparring until I won't vomit on you? Or we could keep at it, and I could hurl on you, just to make my point."

"Point noted. Truce accepted. Desert?"

"There's a little oasis. And I think there's a tent with women in it."

They had started to use code to express concern with something when they were trying to keep their masks up. It saved face, if you will. No emotions involved.

"Do you have a fever?"

"Doesn't feel to bad, but I could use a drink."

"Let's see if Aerith wants to play Nurses."

"I'm going to see if Aerith can help you."

"Nothing too kinky, please."

"Fine by me."

…so, ya like? Better than before? *chuckles* At least it's longer. Just over 900 words. Poor Leon. I would kill Yuffie, too. Mind, I love the way she acts.