Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine, as is Duke. Enjoy!
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125 – Top Dog Part Five
For The Glaistig
To Leon's surprise, Duke was well behaved through the flashing cameras and the judges prodding at her coat and her teeth. She licked one of them and kept trying to circle around Leon's legs, otherwise she stood still.
He was no dog trainer like Nestor's grandfather was. Nestor wasn't even on the floor. He was in the stands, watching his golden retriever Anthony trot around. Leon also didn't put Duke on a leash too often. The few times he'd tried it when taking her for a walk, she'd gone from zero to running so fast she nearly ripped his shoulder out. So…free roaming usually won out.
Anthony was a pure breed, even Leon could tell that. His hair was so blond and sheer that he looked like a canine Barbie doll. Duke's fur was more red-gold than blond. Maybe he was biased, but she looked more lively and healthier than the other one. However, the judges took quick liking to Anthony. He was poised and regal-looking…whereas Duke's tongue was lolling and her tail was flapping around like it was on a spring.
The only other real competitor that Leon saw was a lean retriever with curly hair that belonged to a middle aged woman. The dog…Barkley or Barnaby or something…had big eyes that were constantly looking around. The woman looked like she'd swallowed a lemon, but that hard exterior cracked a little when Duke unexpectedly barked, and a grin escaped.
Duke had that effect on people.
Tifa was somewhere in the stands, but Leon was trying not to look at the small crowd that had gathered to watch the dogs. He still felt silly for allowing himself to be talked into this, but Duke seemed to be enjoying all of the attention.
"Now for the Best of Breed." The head judge stepped out, a wiry man with bifocals.
Really? They'd survived enough eliminations to be in the running for that? Duke didn't look surprised, tail wagging so enthusiastically that it was slapping Leon's thigh. Her ears were up, watching the judge as he walked along the remaining contenders with an appraising eye.
Barney or Buckwheat or…Number 17…was shifting on big paws and the lemon woman held her leash more taut, keeping the canine in line. Anthony's trainer, a frumpy man who kept glancing over at Nestor, looked just as serious and by-the-book as Anthony.
The crowd looked far too engaged in what the wiry judge was doing, Leon thought. This was just a dog competition…Duke seemed to share the sentiment…then again, he doubted she knew what was going on…only that everyone was paying her attention. That was good enough for her. He looked down at the dog. She looked up, licked her nose, and wagged her tail.
The judge pushed his spectacles back up the bridge of his nose, pacing along the line. "Number four." He finally said, gesturing to Anthony.
A collective breath smattered the crowd. Inhales of cheers and exhales of disappointment, like a whoosh of air across the open space. Leon thought he heard a 'woohoo!' somewhere, but he didn't look around. The blond canine didn't move more than a tilt of the head and a swish of the tail as the wiry judge pinned the blue ribbon to him. Nestor was grinning like an idiot a few rows off the line.
The other contenders were led off to give the winner the floor. Well, at least it was over, and he didn't have to pretend to—He hated losing. With a frown, he reached down and unlatched the leash from Duke's collar. She licked his hand and barked happily at her freedom, romping around his legs.
The crowd was getting a little too enthusiastic now, and Leon nudged Duke's shoulder with his knuckle, wriggling through the people. She trotted along beside him, like that was where she belonged or something. Guess she did.
Leon wasn't sure what he had been expecting. Nestor's grandfather bred these animals just for competitions like this one. Trainers and pure breeding and statue-like temperament. He was just a guy with a mutt. Still, okay, maybe deep…really deep…down, he kinda maybe thought he could win it. That Duke could win it.
"Oh, what does he know?" Tifa had materialized out of the crowd like a ghost on his other side. "The guy looked barely thirty and he had bifocals."
Leon snorted and looked at her. "You're right. He's only a trained dog judge with nearly ten years of experience. I'm sure it was all a mistake."
Duke bounced on her fore paws and Tifa patted her head, "Second place isn't bad for an amateur."
"Second…" Leon hadn't even been paying attention that part. "Ah." He exhaled, kneeling down and scratching under Duke's jaw. "Second is for losers. You're not a loser."
Her tongue licked full across his face and she hopped almost on top of him.
"Nestor's going to gloat. You wanna get out of here?" Tifa offered.
"Let him gloat." Leon shrugged, standing and wiping his face, "Let's see his dog face off against a blood hound like this one did." He said, unable to hide a proud grin.
Tifa smiled, "Home then?"
"No," Leon looked at Duke, who wagged her tail at him, and then to Tifa, "I'm taking Duke to the park. She deserves to chase some squirrels after behaving all day."
"The park it is." Tifa bobbed her head as Duke barked at the word 'squirrel' and started bouncing anxiously on her paws, ready to get underway.
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126 – Simple Joys
For Lett
There was something about the sound and the feel of stepping on dried leaves. It was a simple pleasure that Tifa took advantage of every autumn. A childhood habit. She and her scruffy friends would walk down the sidewalks of Radiant Garden, stepping only on the leaves.
There was no sidewalk in Radiant Garden, just bricks and cobblestone, but the crunch under her boot and the simple enjoyment was the same. A small smirk graced her lips as she left Merlin's house, the crisp, cool air greeting her.
There weren't all that many trees in Radiant Garden either, not since the war anyway. The Alliance was building on what the Restoration Committee had been doing: rebuilding and reconstructing, but also reintroducing trees and plants and wildlife to the rocky, charred and war torn landscape. So far, the grafts had been growing.
Still, not as many leaves as she would have hoped.
Tifa walked toward the residential district where the apartment she and Leon shared was. Her childhood friends had tried to devise the best ways to get the maximum crunch out of the red and orange leaves. Stepping on them with their feet, crushing them in their fists…but the winner was always making a massive pile in the park and jumping in.
Four kids scrambled past, chattering about this and that, but giggling hysterically as they trampled through the leaves that had fallen across the cobblestone. Tifa smiled at their antics, nostalgic for the time when the biggest problem she had was trying to prove to her friends that stepping on leaves made the best crunch.
Growing up with Cloud and the other 'urchins', as her mother lovingly called them, Tifa had learned a few things. Most of her friends growing up had been boys. The girls were too catty and obsessed with sitting around and talking than doing…anything. And until they were teenagers, running around and wrestling and having fun was comfortable. Then suddenly it was uncomfortable and the guys started acting weird around her. By then it was too late to make girl friends, not that she had been hurting for those but…
She huffed, stepping on a cluster of leaves and finding satisfaction in the loud crunch they gave her. The guys got weird and the girls got jealous…of what, she had soon figured out, but…Puberty sucked.
Not liking this whole reminiscing thing, she looked up at the transplanted trees. All had changed to colors of red, gold, and orange, drifting down to the cobblestone. Some were just turned, but some of them were dried and curled almost completely inward: the super crunch.
"Hey." Leon's voice came from her left.
She looked over. He was leaving the apartment building just as she was getting ready to go inside. "Hey." She replied. "Where are you going?"
"Patrol. You?"
"Sleep." She said.
He snickered at that, "Have fun with that."
"I intend to." She said, slipping through the door as he held it open for her, having just walked through it himself, only in the opposite direction. "You too with patrol."
"Ha." He stated flatly. "See you later."
She gave a little wave and stepped inside, glancing back after him for a moment. Maybe it was the haphazard angle, but she could have sworn she saw Leon step a little out of his way to put a boot on one of the curled up leaves.
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127 – Oh No You Didn't
For WishingDreamer5
"Now, you didn't get the traceable currency did you?" The one-eyed man said, sitting forward to go through the loot.
"Course not, boss. Just the gold bars, like ya said." One of the sky pirate's two flunkies said, bouncing on his heels as he tied the hostage's wrists together.
The leader opened one of the canvas bags that the two flunkies had filled with gold bars from the Radiant Garden local bank. Munny meant nothing nowadays, gold always spoke to people. Besides, the bankers were starting to track stolen munny. The two blithering idiots were lucky they had HIS brains to run this operation, otherwise, they'd be sunk.
"Good." He said, adjusting his eye patch. "Any authorities see you?"
"Nope, didn't trip no alarms." The other flunky shook his head, guffawing and obviously very proud of himself. "And only took one hostage, like you said."
The leader groaned. Why he depended on these idiots to bring in the loot, he had no idea. However, every successful pirate needed cronies to do the dirty work, carry the heavy stuff, what have you. He eyeballed the unconscious body on the floor.
"Idiots, I told you to grab a lady." He spat to the side, standing, "This guy's bigger than botha you's put together."
"He jumped us." One of them shrugged. "Jimmy managed to knock him out from behind, so we just brought him with us."
"Yeah, like ya said." The other bobbed his head.
The leader rolled his eyes, pushing the body onto its back with his foot. "Well, at least you knocked him out fir—Crap!" He jumped back.
The other two jumped, startled.
"What's wrong, boss?"
"Yeah, we think that's an ugly scar too."
The leader glared, eyes wide, "What did you DO?"
"We robbed the bank and took a civ." One of them gestured to the gold and the body.
"This is no civilian!" The leader fumed, "That's Squall Leonhart, you imbeciles!"
They both looked at him dumbly.
"Squall…"
"Who?"
"Leon!" The leader felt himself start to sweat. "The Restoration Committee? The Alliance? Were you dropped on your heads when you were born?" He grabbed up the frying pan that he'd found in the abandoned warehouse where they were hiding out in Twilight Town.
"Did we mess up?"
"Yes, you messed up! Big time!" He snarled, "You couldn't grab a child or an elderly person or even a woman…No, you went and kidnapped the most…the…this guy!"
"Uh…he's unconscious, boss. Unarmed…I don't really see the problem."
"The PROBLEM, you nit wits, is probably on its way to kill us all right now." The leader started closing the bags of gold. "Load up, we have to leave. We have to get out of here."
"What about…"
"No. We'll ditch him on the edge of town before we get out of dodge." He said, throwing one of the bags at them. "With any luck, our trail will be lost."
"By who? He's one man. Who's gonna—"
Leon groaned then, shifting slightly as he started to wake up. All three of the pirates froze momentarily. Then one of the goons snatched the frying pan from the leader and bopped him on the head with it, letting loose a girlish shriek of fear. Leon went slack, unconscious again.
"There." The goon said, "Hey…why don't we just kill him? Then he can't talk."
"That'll only make it worse. Oh, dammitdammitdammit, whywhywhy." The leader scrambled for their Gummi Ship. "Come on, get him, get the gold, and let's get out of here!"
He should just leave them here, the fools. If they loaded the gold first, he'd take off while they were busying themselves with Leonhart.
"But if we let him go…He saw our faces, boss."
He spun to face them. "It doesn't matter. If we turn him over with just a bump on the head, we might survive, but no blood, don't break anything. We just need to get out of here now."
"Why? Nobody saw us land here."
"Because the whole host of Hell itself is about to rain down on us if we just sit around and wait for her to catch up to us."
"Her—"
But it was too late, and they all realized this in unison as the warehouse door was kicked in, swung wide, splintering at the hinges, and Tifa walked in, shoulders hunched.
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A/N 127: I got this idea as soon as I got the prompt 'pirate' and I wrote this between the fits of giggles that came with it. Keep the prompts coming, guys! Ya'll are awesome!
Also, the poll has closed and the top two results for this pairing are: Hart-shipping and Lefa! So I'll be referring to them as such from now on. Thanks for voting! I've put up a new one regarding the full length Lefa (tee hee!) story that I'm planning titled As the Sun Sets on Mushroom Clouds. Check it out!
Lovely prompts as always!