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

..:-X-:..

113 – Duke's Day Out

For kikofreako

5:37 AM

Get up. Bark at the window. Get kicked out of Master's room. Probably for barking but…it was the window!

6:04 AM

The woman returned from outside, tired and reeking of Dark. She exchanged words with Master and disappeared into her room. The shower started to run and Master left. Duke followed.

6:17 AM

Master went into that tall building. Duke didn't follow, splitting off to go into the Marketplace.

9:42 AM

Steal an ice cream from that dressed up duck. Salty but sweet.

11:28 AM

Take a nap in the sunlight on the cool rocks of Dark Depths.

2:14 PM

Play with the kids in the Borough. They chased her. She chased them. One of the merchants wheeling his cart threw a ball.

2:22 PM

Still chasing the ball.

4:19 PM

Saw a really flashy, bright blond retriever bounce out of the car of that man that Master didn't like. Nest—Nost—Nirs—something. Duke barked in greeting. The other dog turned up his nose, tail up in the air, and trotted after his master.

4:21 PM

Pee on Nest-something's car.

5:53 PM

Nobody looked up when she followed a group of soldiers into the big building. A few funny expressions followed her when she walked into the hallway. She didn't care. She knew where she was going.

6:43 PM

The white box that made food hot was beeping. The plucky little woman that Master ordered around sometimes pulled out the food and sat at the table.

"Hey, Duke." She greeted, tossing a piece of chicken to her.

Plucky Girl was okay.

7:11 PM

Spotted Master holding that talking stick to his ear, yelling at it. Duke licked her nose and trotted into the woman's office. She curled up beside the desk and took another nap.

9:39 PM

Spent a few hours in Master's office, chewing on the little paper wads that he threw off the desk. Chased that blasted little light that danced on the floor. Master was amused as she chased it all over his office. Something about that little black stick in his hand had to do with the light, but she couldn't be bothered to figure out what.

10:02 PM

Left the tall building with the Plucky Girl and ended up back at the apartment. Neither Master nor the woman were home.

10:24 PM

Finished chewing the lid off the dog food container and started eating the food that spilled out onto the floor. The woman came home and just sighed, sitting on the couch.

11:57 PM

Master returned home, tired and grumbling under his breath. Duke wove around his legs and keened, licking. He and the woman talked for a long time before the woman went to bed.

3:23 AM

Get kicked out of Master's room for barking at the window. Why didn't he understand?

..:-X-:..

114 – Take Me or Leave Me

For raiko. EXE

Eventually Leon ended the drill. The past half hour had been useless. The new recruits were hardly putting any effort at all. Or they were over-enthusiastic to the point of tripping over themselves.

"Are you kidding me?" He finally snapped, calling them all to attention.

Wandering eyes. Unbelievable.

"If you morons can't buckle down and give me one good day of practice, then stop wasting your and, considerably more important, my time and just go home." He barked.

Now all eyes were back on him.

Frustrated, he turned to walk away from the line, to give himself a moment cool off and pick his words wisely, when he noticed the terraced seating of the amphitheatre weren't empty. One lone body sat near the top row, forearms on her knees, watching. Tifa.

Suddenly it all made sense.

"Five miles." He ordered.

A ringing silence of stifled groans hit his ears.

"There are many women who serve on our force." He turned, glaring at the line. "They will win this war on their own while you idiots are gawking." He raised his voice a notch to keep their attention. "This is not the chivalrous thing to do, and if you can focus enough to, I don't know, KILL Heartless instead of stand there like you've never seen a woman before, then maybe when the time comes, Brigadier General Lockhart or Private McCallister won't accidentally shoot you in the balls on the battlefield." He drew a breath, "Now five miles."

The soldiers broke the line and started running their assigned miles.

Shaking his head as they ran, he crossed the landing and started up the stairs to where Tifa was slowly applauding.

"Stirring speech, Major General." She smirked, "I think you're getting through to them."

Leon stood a few steps down, looking up at her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm…observing." Tifa shrugged.

"No, you're distracting my squad." He pointed out. "I need them focused."

"It's not my fault they have raging hormones." She said. "I'm just sitting here. You want me to leave or something?"

"That might be a good idea."

She laughed. "What, so they can stop and stare during a real fight? If they can't focus in training, how can you expect them to focus during real battle, when there are a thousand things going on around them instead of just one hot body?" She grinned.

Leon wasn't amused. "Then send one of YOUR recruits to stand here and…be curvy."

He frowned at his word choice, but he could tell Tifa was getting a kick out of it.

"So you're not as pissed at the fact that they're distracted, more that they're distracted by me." She glanced back, watching his recruits run laps around the stadium. "Maybe they need even MORE distraction."

"No, they don't." He said, not liking the look in her eye.

"Maybe undo one button." She gestured to her shirt. "Or sit more provocatively. Some Nobodies resemble women to lure in gullible men."

Before Leon could argue, she had loosened the top button on her vest and crossed one leg over the other. She looked down at him from her seat with a high brow grin.

"You're not helping." He grumbled.

"You want to get back at me? Come lurk at one of my close combat training sessions. Those girls could use someone to gawk at so I can yell at them too." She said smugly.

Leon rolled his eyes, glancing back to his squad. They were still running, but more than a few of them were looking up the bleachers again. She might have a point. These soldiers were in their twenties going on fifteen years old. Only a handful was married, and even fewer had girlfriends. Well…they'd just have to learn some damn self control and stop thinking with their—

"I'm staying." Tifa was saying. "I need to observe weapon combatants from a distance to teach defense against them."

"Fine." Leon caved. "Just…take it easy, okay? They can't handle you."

Tifa looked like she was swallowing a smart remark, but shrugged. "Fair enough."

Leon turned to return to his troops, half of whom were watching. He took one step before Tifa reached out and smacked him on the bum. Pausing, he glared over his shoulder at her.

Tifa looked at him with a grin. "Just giving those kids something to think about."

..:-X-:..

115 – Sharing is Caring

For justagirl8225

Biting the inside of her cheek so hard she nearly tasted blood, Tifa peeled back the scrap of cloth from her forearm. Still bleeding. The laceration cut deep, more deeply than both of them had thought, carving from the middle of her forearm to directly under her elbow. She couldn't even bend the arm without nails of pain hammering up to her shoulder.

The rancid smell of fish and soggy wood permeated the air, and she coughed, gingerly untying the knot and tossing away the makeshift bandaging. Leon made his way back over to where she was sitting, just outside the wreckage of the Gummi.

Fifteen minutes ago, or an hour, she couldn't tell, their ship had been abducted by an unidentified—oh shod it, you know what? They were swallowed. Swallowed by that beast Monstro. And it sucked.

"Found one." Leon said, walking like an old man as he reached her. "As far as I can tell, all of the others were broken in the crash."

He set the one surviving green potion bottle on the beam of steel beside her. Then he straightened up…well, as straight up as he dared, she figured, and looked around.

"The other wreckage in here seems pretty old. I doubt there's anything in here with enough juice to heal anything." He said, looking at her. "That bottle should be enough to heal your arm."

"Thanks." Tifa picked it up with her other hand, holding it between her knees as she uncorked it. "Did the signal go out?"

"As far as I can tell, your signal managed to beam out before interference cut everything off." Leon said, slowly sinking down to sit on the ground beside her.

Something was dripping farther down the throat of the whale.

Tifa eyed the angry gouge up her arm as she lifted the potion bottle. It felt like she had gasoline under her skin and someone had dropped a match against the red canyon. Blood was still oozing from the open veins, and just looking at it was making her woozy.

Steadying her hand, she splashed a dribble of the potion over the laceration. She closed her eyes in relief as the liquid worked its magic, stitching veins and muscle back together. It was only enough to close the deepest damage and take the teeth out of the pain. She was tempted to dump the whole thing over her arm until the skin was smooth, but she refrained.

Leon was playing tough guy, but Tifa had spent enough time growing up with Cloud to know bullshit when she saw it. He was in some serious pain, but he wasn't bleeding, so he thought he could hide it. By the way he was moving, or not moving, his ribs had to be killing him. While Tifa had landed on a jagged piece of broken control panel and cut her forearm, the bulk of the steering rig had been rammed into Leon's chest, pinning him to the seat until the ship dropped into the cavern of the whale's mouth.

"Drink up." She said, holding out the rest of the potion.

He grunted, waving her off. "No, I'm fine. Your arm is—"

"You're not fooling me." She held the bottle out farther. "I saw you slam into the steering. You've at least got broken ribs. Maybe internal bleeding. And who knows how long it'll take for the others to get to us…if they got our transmission at all. I'd rather we both had body temperatures in the upper-nineties when they get here."

He stared at her, jaw flexing in annoyance or pain. It didn't matter.

"There's a first aid kit in the ship." She said, standing. "I took enough potion to stop the bleeding. There's no bandaid for broken ribs."

He looked reluctant, but her reasoning seemed to get through that thick skull and he took the potion bottle, tilting it back and taking a moderate drink from it. Tifa saw some color return to his face and she stood, holding her arm close to herself as she trudged into the Gummi to get the first aid kit.

After digging it out, she stepped out of the ship and sat beside him again, popping it open.

"Better?" She said, wiping some of the blood away from her arm with the thigh of her pants.

Leon just grunted, offering her the last bit of the potion. "Here. I'm good."

"You're good?" She said, not convinced.

He grunted again and shifted in his seat to face her. "Let me see your arm."

She surrendered the first aid kit and her arm, letting him dress it up.

"Stupid whale." He mumbled, unraveling a roll of gauze.

..:-X-:..

A/N 114: Title taken from the song of the same name from Rent. Musical muse this round!