Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine, as are Duke and McCallister. Enjoy!

..:-X-:..

110 – Top Dog Part Two

For Fantasy0Girl

"I brought nail polish remover, toothpaste, and hairspray." Tifa was saying, standing in the doorway of Leon's office.

The intern at the front desk in the hallway looked up at the odd combination.

"Just get in here and close the door." Leon grumbled.

Tifa sighed and walked into the office, closing the door after herself. The intern blinked, shrugged, and got back to work. He'd learned not to ask.

Duke lifted her head from her prone position on the floor, sprawled out on her back. Leon was sitting in the chair, rubbing her belly with his boot. One elbow was on his knee, and his cheek was cupped in one hand, watching the dog and then looking up at Tifa.

She grinned smugly and walked over, setting the bottles on his desk before turning on her heel, hands on her hips, eying him. "So…what happened?"

Leon exhaled, not moving except to stop rubbing Duke. The dog rolled around on her back for a moment before ending up back on her paws, tail swishing and tongue lolling.

"I thought I washed it all off." He mumbled.

Tifa eyed the dog. When Leon had called half an hour ago asking her to bring something that could remove dried glue, she had figured that Duke had gotten into something. The dog had been hanging around in his office ever since Leon had been persuaded to consider entering her into a competition…Only to spite Nestor, of course, but Tifa knew Leon never got into anything unless he intended to win it.

Looking at Duke now, Tifa could tell she'd been brushed very thoroughly. Her coat was shiny and sort of poofy, but there was no sign of any glue or places of where glue had made her fur lump together.

"She looks fine to me." Tifa said.

"Not her." He said it so quietly that Tifa wasn't sure if he'd even spoken.

She tilted her head and noticed again how he was sitting. "Oh?" She started innocently.

He glared at her and turned around, hand still on his face, looking at the bottles. "She got into the glue, but made more of a mess on the floor than on herself." He explained, "I cleaned it up, but…apparently not all of it."

Tifa lifted an eyebrow, "Spit it out, dude."

Leon frowned, but the back of his neck was turning red, as it did when he was getting embarrassed and annoyed. He didn't say anything, but shifted his elbow, pulling his thumb from his cheek…the only finger he COULD pull from his cheek.

Tifa hastily lifted a hand to her mouth to block the laugh that was about to erupt. He stared hard at her, daring her with his eyes to say a thing. She kept her hand over her mouth, taking in just how awkward he looked, like he'd been frozen while slapping himself.

"S-so." She squeaked, forcing her voice to stay level. "Let's t-try toothpaste first."

He said nothing as she picked up the toothpaste, unscrewing the top and squeezing enough out onto her fingers to make a lather.

"How did…I mean…Do I want to know…" She said.

"I'll do it." He grumbled sourly, reaching for the toothpaste.

"With one hand? I don't think so." Tifa started working the lather at the base of his palm, where the glue was loosest. The skin was pink and raw: no doubt he'd tried to just pull it apart by force before giving her that sullen call.

The paste worked well enough and Tifa managed to get his palm and two fingers free before he shrugged her off, getting enough wiggle room to peel the rest of his hand away. His cheek was red and angry looking at the abuse. He cursed and rubbed it with his other hand.

Tifa capped the toothpaste. "I also have papers about the next dog competition in Radiant Garden. It's in two weeks. They're still taking contestants. Forms are in my office."

He grunted noncommittally, squinting one eye closed as he made sure he wasn't bleeding. Tifa snickered and looked to Duke, whose ears were up and her eyes wide at the weird redness on Leon's face. Oh yeah, Tifa eyed the dog, she was a winner.

"That should be back to normal before then." She said, poking his cheek.

Leon swatted her away.

"So…was it glue sniffing?" She teased. "Because I've heard you can get addicted to that."

"Get out." He said, as close to a 'thank you' as she was going to get.

"I'm just saying," She said, as he ushered her to the door. "You're too pretty to turn into a junkie!"

(to be continued...)

..:-X-:..

111 – They Call Them Weak

For kikofreako

If Aerith's extra-wide smile today was any indication, it had finally happened.

The painfully-shy blond had finally up and confessed his feelings to Aerith, and her giggliness said it was mutual. Leon would be a liar if he said he wasn't happy for them. It was about time, he figured. Those two had been beating around the bush for years. Cloud still had his bad days, but they came less and less as he spent more time with the flower girl.

Leon and Cloud had always gotten on each other's nerves, for various reasons and differences of opinion, but the main reason came knocking on Merlin's door after everyone else had gone home in the wee hours of the morning after the news broke out. Because even though most of Radiant Garden knew Cloud and Aerith were as close to soul mates as things went, or whatever other way people talked about that stuff…somehow nobody got around to telling that to Tifa.

It had been raining earlier, but Tifa was completely dry when Leon opened the door to find her on the doorstep of Merlin's house. If the haunted look on her face was any indication, it had finally caught up to her. He bit back a grimace and opened the door completely.

"You're out late." He greeted with a sigh, "Come on in."

She didn't say anything, just walked past him…well, she sort of staggered. So far, Leon had seen her take this development with more elegance than he could have thought possible. She seemed genuinely happy that Aerith was happy, and Cloud to some extent. He didn't pretend to know how a woman's heart worked, but he knew that hollow look on her face well enough.

"Sit down." He offered. "Before you fall down."

She despondently sat on the patched-up couch against the wall. She was drunk, all right, but only enough to be aware of it. A beat of mildly awkward silence passed, and Leon cast his mind about to find something to say or do to make it…less awkward.

"What's wrong with me?" Her voice was small and…broken.

In the next heart beat, Leon found himself sitting on the couch next to her, though he didn't remember consciously going to her. "Nothing." He said firmly.

When she looked at him, her eyes were dry, but if he looked hard enough, he could see a lake boiling behind her gaze.

"Then…why?" The alcohol had made her eyes glassy. "Why wasn't I good enough?"

So maybe she was drunker than he thought, if she was this low. And he had nothing to say. There weren't words to make this better. There was no way to make 'sorry he didn't pick you' sound comforting. Well…what did she want to hear?

"You…" He paused, digging deep. "You deserve to be with someone who will make…who won't hurt you. Who thinks…who sees how amazing you are. Maybe—"

Her mouth was on his then, nearly pushing him back into the couch. Leon floundered slightly, taken aback. She tasted like whiskey and her kiss was off-center and shaky. She hadn't been planning on doing this. He regained himself and grasped her biceps, sliding her up and away, to break the liplock.

"Tifa, wait a minute." He said, slightly breathless. "You're upset and—"

"Oh God." Tifa abruptly sat up, hands on her face. "Oh God, I'm sorry. I didn't—dammit, I'm screwing EVERYTHING up tonight." She leaned back, bleary and unsteady.

Leon didn't move for a beat, now certain as Hell that he had no idea what to do. Tifa stared determinedly at the coffee table's edge, avoiding his eyes. She was drunk enough to not be embarrassed yet, but not too drunk to realize what'd she'd just done was…

Was what? Wrong? Over the line? Where exactly was the line with them?

Nope, he shook his head, standing, not going down THAT train of thought. Not tonight.

"Come on, you're staying here tonight." He said, offering a hand.

She looked at him tiredly but didn't move.

"No one else is here. You can't walk home like this." He said, glancing toward the stairs. "There's a guest room upstairs. I'll…" He looked back to see that Tifa had curled herself up on the couch, eyes closed and feigning sleep, though the moisture gathering under her eyelashes gave her away. He exhaled, running a hand through his hair and looking around the living room.

"Sorry." She whispered. "For all of this."

Leon looked at her and leaned over slightly, "You're okay." He gently pinched her cheek and placed a brief kiss to her forehead, "Sleep it off."

"Thanks, Leon."

For what, he wasn't sure, but he got her a blanket…and then a beer for himself.

..:-X-:..

112 – Anything You Can Do

For raiko. EXE

Tifa pointed across the Ravine Trail, at the twitching shadow on top of the wall. "There's one."

Leon followed her eyes and spotted the Heartless, "You can't reach that."

Tifa huffed, "The one in Dark Depths was even farther away and I took it out with space to spare."

"That was level ground. This is different."

"How?"

"It's—" He gave an absent gesture, "—higher. Harder to hit."

"What, so you can hit it but I can't?" She said.

"Probably." He shrugged.

"Nuh-uh."

"You throw punches. I throw knives. It's different."

"I throw knives too. I could totally hit that, you sexist."

"Sexist—It's DIFFERENT!"

"It's just fifty feet away, one well placed Thunder Spell and you owe me ten munny."

"That's not fifty feet. There's no way it's less than eighty. Besides, I'm not betting you munny to hit that Heartless."

"Twenty then." Tifa put her hands on her hips. "And why, you scared?"

"Tifa, it's a Heartless." He paused. "Fine. Fine, a bet then?"

"My Thunder Spell against your crazy throwing man-skills." She taunted.

"WHEN I take it out, you get rid of that ugly-ass couch."

"Deal! Doesn't matter, because WHEN I hit it, you take my patrol shifts for a week!"

"Deal."

"Deal?"

"Fine."

She looked from the Heartless to Leon, "Why the couch? Why do you hate my couch?'

"I've told you a thousand times. It looks like you stole it from a crackhouse. I'll be glad to be rid of it when I win this."

"You won't win."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Then do your little spell and we'll see."

"Okay, I will."

"I'm waiting."

"Don't pressure me!" She barked.

The familiar tinkle and whoosh noise of the Security System made them both look up. The Heartless disappeared with a screech and a poof of purple as the small column of light swallowed it.

A beat passed.

"Twenty munny." Cid said, walking up behind them.

They both turned and looked at him, smoking against the wall.

"My system." He pointed when they didn't say anything. "I win."

When neither of them responded, he chuckled and walked away, but he'd hold them to it.

"I still could have hit it before you did."

"Oh stop it."

"I could have."

"Nuh uh."

..:-X-:..

A/N 111: Title taken from Standing Outside the Fire by Garth Brooks. I hope they weren't outrageously OOC in this one. I was listening to sappy music when I wrote it.

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