Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. These ditties are mine, as are Duke and McCallister. More lovely prompts from reviewers are answered! Thank you guys for challenging me on these! I hope to keep up this pace until I go back to school in two weeks. Enjoy!

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105 – Top Dog

XxOoSolanaSkylarXxOo

"No."

"But she is beautiful!"

"No."

"She makes everybody around her smile."

"No."

"And she loves you."

"McCallister!"

"Well excuse me for stating fact." McCallister said, rolling her eyes as she followed after Leon, her arms laden with a large box of paper files.

"I'm not going to subject her to something this degrading."

"Aw…someone cares."

Leon groaned, turning to face the private. "Don't you have files to organize or…floors to wash with a toothbrush?"

"Sir," She exhaled, "She would blow away the competition—"

"I know that." He blurted out before he could stop himself.

McCallister pointed at him. "Then you admit that she's a winner."

No turning back now. He ran a hand over his face.

"Of course she's a winner, but…No." He waved her off as one would a fly.

McCallister didn't pursue him, but called after him. "She deserves better!"

When had the private become so brazen? Leon thought about sending her on a mission to Atlantica just to spite her, but Tifa poked her head out of her office, distracting him.

"Who deserves better?" She asked, her head sticking out of the doorway.

"Duke." Leon grumbled, "McCallister got this hairbrained idea that she should be in a…competition." He frowned at how ridiculous it even sounded. "Like a contest."

Tifa would back him up with this. Surely she saw how stupid this sounded—

"That sounds like a great idea!" Tifa grinned, "She's a wonderful dog."

Leon scoffed and walked into his office, grasping the door. "No."

"Nestor's father breeds golden retrievers as sporting dogs." Tifa input. "I bet Duke could whoop anything Nestor enters into the competition."

Leon glared at her, with her mischievous grin that said she knew how much he disliked the Council member. "I'm not exploiting my dog to show up that ass-hat."

He closed the door, alone in his office now. It was a dumb idea…

But it would feel good to finally beat Nestor at his own game.

(to be continued…)

..:-X-:..

106 – Kiss the Cook

For raiko. EXE and justagirl8225

'Best wishes' from Disney Castle.

'Thinking of you' from Olympus.

Five or six 'Happy Birthday's from Radiant Garden citizens.

And one postcard from…Andrea.

Tifa ignored that one for the time being, reading over the other letters that others in the Alliance had sent her for her birthday, tucking them carefully back into their envelopes after she was done with each one. The warm words were meant to make her feel loved and all that, but after the grueling day she'd had, they just weren't doing the trick.

"Hey." Leon greeted as he walked into the apartment, closing the door after himself.

She turned around and noticed three things instantaneously. Firstly, the pot of chili that she had left on the burner was smoking. Secondly, Leon had gone pale like he'd just remembered something terrible. Thirdly, she was still wearing the gaudy Kiss the Cook apron that McCallister had given her as a gag gift. Clearly her attempts at cooking had gotten out.

And, if the pot on the stove was any indicator, she was still in the 'attempt' phase instead of the 'success' phase. Tifa groaned and moved the pot off the heat. "Great."

She stirred through the gloppy red mixture. A bubble of steam popped out of the middle of the concoction and she grimaced.

"So much for that." She looked over at Leon, "What's wrong with you?"

He had that ohcrapohcrapohcrap look on his face.

"Er—nothing." He shook his head and when he looked at her again, his normal flat expression was securely in place. "What's with—" he gestured to the apron.

"Oh," Tifa looked down at herself, "McCallister gave it to me. She thinks she's funny, and…well, I could use all the help I could get." She looked back at Leon, who was hastily scanning the living room. "I figure wearing it would help me channel my inner chef." She lifted an eyebrow, "Why are you being weird?"

"I'm not being weird." He said quickly, "How, uh, how was your day?"

He was being evasive, but she was too exasperated to press him at the moment.

"Irritating." She replied, waving smoke from the ruined chili. "The order I put in for potion supplies for the town got lost in the paperwork and they sent me 500 rolls of duct tape instead. Then the power shorted out in the department and I lost the entire report I was working on. Oh yeah, it's due tomorrow." She ranted, shuffling through the mail. "Then my shoulder bag ripped, and spilled all of my files all over the place, but it was all right, because I had plenty of duct tape."

She gestured to her satchel on the table. Most of the underbelly of the bag was solid silver and some of the shoulder strap had been taped up as well.

"There was a raid on the residential district in my charge, so at least I got to beat up on some Heartless before reading this…disgustingly sweet postcard from Andrea, who's on her prolonged honeymoon in Atlantica. Prolonged, Leon. It's been two months!" She said, gesturing to the postcard, which had a posed picture of Andrea and her new husband on the other side, lit by fireworks and moonlight. Nauseating.

"Oh, that…that sucks." Leon said, moving into the kitchen. "Here, let me."

Tifa backed away from the pot, which she realized had bubbled and frothed all over the stove top. She ran a hand over her forehead and watched him pull on one of the horrid oven mitts that Tifa had bought as a gag gift for him last year. Partly because he was a freakishly good cook, and partly because it was one of those creepy mitts with a face on it, the hand part creating a mouth. Somehow they had never actually bought real oven mitts, so…they made do with the creepy-face oven mitt gag gift.

"Sorry." She sighed. "I doubt even you could save this…monster." She gestured to the chili.

He peered down at it, and she could practically hear his jaw fighting back a grin. "I think you're right on that one." He managed.

When Tifa did not look amused, he covered the pot with a lid and started to tug the oven mitt off his hand. He paused, looking like he'd gotten an idea better than sliced bread.

"Hey, let me make you a cake." He said.

Tifa's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

"Well…yeah…I mean—"

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You hate cake."

"I do not. That…thing…you made last week was NOT cake." He huffed, opening the cabinets. "Besides, you do like cake, so…chocolate?" He offered.

"Oh my—you're kidding me." Tifa felt a smile tug at her lips and she didn't fight it. "You forgot."

"What?" Like a deer in the headlights.

"You forgot that today was my birthday." She put her hands on her hips.

For a frozen moment, Leon just stared at her. Tifa stared back. The creepy oven mitt on his hand stared at the baking supplies in the open cabinet.

"Nnno, I didn't." He said, his lips barely moving. Then immediately, "Okay, I did."

"And you think you can fix that with cake?" She said, grinning and pretending to be mad.

Truth be told, the lack of lovey words and exuberant hugs was refreshing after the sugarcoated day from Hell that she'd had. While, yes, it sucked that her closest friend had forgotten her birthday, it was also nice not to go through that. Leon got weird around birthdays and holidays and general days of cheer.

"I can try." He said, as though taking up a challenge.

"Well, if you must." Tifa said, sinking onto a stool by the counter. "Who am I to say no to cake?"

Leon looked like he was trying to gauge her, like this was some kind of trick. Tifa untied the back of the apron, but didn't remove it. She massaged her temples with one hand.

"Sorry you had a crappy day." He said, resuming the cake making.

Tifa closed her eyes. "Thanks."

"And…sorry for forgetting your birthday."

She snorted. "It's okay."

"No, it's not." Even with her eyes closed, she could see him frowning.

"You're busy. I'm busy. Heck, I nearly forgot it was my birthday until I saw the date on my cell phone." She said, pushing her hair out of her eyes, staring at the letters on the counter.

"Yeah, well, I should have remembered."

She didn't miss the slight emphasis on the 'I'.

"Hey, I'm getting a guilt-cake. I'm not complaining." She cupped her cheek in one hand.

Leon just grunted at that and Tifa looked at him. "What?" She asked.

He didn't say anything for a long moment, just eyed her like she had two heads.

"What?" She sat up straighter, "I'm allowed to be crabby on my birthday. After the chaotic 12 hours I've had, I deserve it."

He gave a light shrug and went back to mixing…whatever he was mixing…she hadn't been paying attention. She took that as an invitation to continue.

"I mean, how do you honeymoon for two months?" She glared at the sappy postcard. "She shuns me into oblivion, then invites me to her wedding, where she humiliates me, and now she…what…wants to make amends? No." She fluttered the letters so that the card was covered up. "I'm severing ties. That two-timing, self righteous—"

Leon cut her off by swiftly reaching over and covering her mouth with his hand. The hand that wore the creepy oven mitt. Tifa stopped talking as the material covered the lower half of her face. She looked from the mitt, to Leon, and back to the mitt, whose button-eyes were looking in two different directions.

Satisfied that she was neutralized, he pulled back, but not entirely. His hand in the oven mitt sort of hung there in front of her face, as though he'd simply forgotten to move it. Tifa snorted and glanced down, only to read the upside down writing on her apron: Kiss the Cook.

Letting out a laugh, she looked at the oven mitt face and back at Leon. "Thanks."

"Er—you're welcome."

She chuckled and patted the oven mitt like a loyal dog before taking off the apron. Maybe she'd make a habit of wearing that when she attempted to cook. And maybe today wasn't so bad.

"I'm still sorry about forgetting your—"

Like a broken record.

"Cake, man, cake!"

..:-X-:..

A/N: Please keep the requests coming! These mini-challenges are refreshing. It's also been more challenging than I thought to move these two toward more romantic interaction. I combined two prompts in 106 because the ideas I had for them individually just flowed better together. Hope you guys don't feel cheated for that! This is my first time working with requests, so I'm learning as I go.

Looking forward to your prompts!