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

..:-X-:..

134 – Never Have I Ever

For raiko. EXE

"Your turn! Your turn!" The little girl was practically bouncing in her seat.

"Okay, okay," Tifa held up her remaining six fingers. "I've never had a pet."

Both Leon and the little girl, her name was Tiffany, lowered a finger. That left Leon with four and Tiffany with five fingers still up.

Tiffany's eyes were wide, "You've NEVER had a dog or a cat? Not even a pet rock!"

Tifa shook her head, "Never."

"That sucks!" Tiffany tutted, and then looked to Leon, "Your turn!"

Somehow Leon had been put in charge of keeping an eye on the little girl while Cid searched the district for her parents. Tiffany had been all upset and crying and…Hell, he didn't know how to handle that. So he'd roped Tifa into helping him babysit and had found her to be a catalyst for calm in the younger girl.

She'd sat her down, hugged her, said those comforting things that Leon could never quite come up with, and soothed away the tears like an older sister. Then she'd started this whole campaign to take Tiffany's mind off the ordeal with games…of the preteen sleepover variety.

"Okay…" He frowned. Tifa was enjoying this too much, and she was two fingers ahead of him. That wouldn't do. "I've never had my ears pierced."

Tifa sighed, lowering one finger while Tiffany did the same.

"My turn!" The girl said in a singsong voice. "Never have I ever…kissed a boy."

"Oh come on." Tifa lowered a finger. Ha, they were even now.

This admission nearly sent Tiffany into hysterics…for whatever reason. Tifa smiled at the girl's laughter and Leon rolled his eyes. What WAS it with women and…

"I've never kissed a girl." Tifa shot back on her turn.

"I would hope not!" Tiffany laughed, giggling harder when Leon dropped a finger.

This was a stupid game, he thought.

"I've never owned a bar." He snapped back.

She scowled and dropped a finger. Tiffany looked at her. "Really? With alcohol?"

"Yeah." Tifa admitted, looking like she was digging deep for a good one at Leon.

Tiffany took her turn, "I've never been in love."

The girl didn't burst into a giggle fit when both of them lowered a finger each this time, both of them down to two now. She looked…awed. And Tifa looked uncomfortable, though not half as uncomfortable as Leon suddenly felt. Playing a ridiculous slumber party game with a child was not a situation where he wanted to think about Rinoa, about the past.

And Tifa…well, he'd known her feelings for Cloud ran deep, but he'd never actually considered that she had been in love with the man. It made him further uncomfortable and bothered him more than he cared for.

"How…" Tiffany paused, looking from one to the other. "Are you two…"

"No." Tifa immediately shook her head, wrong footed. "Of course not."

"We're just friends." Leon added, unsettled by how quickly Tifa had replied to Tiffany's unfinished question. Not that he didn't agree with her…She and he weren't together…but the urgent tone she'd used to clarify that…kind of hurt.

"Oh, okay." Tiffany looked placated by that, "What's it like?"

Tifa suddenly looked like she was going to cry, but only for a brief moment. She gave her head a small shake, tossing her hair over her shoulder, and inhaled sharply. "My turn." She acted as though she hadn't heard Tiffany's question. "I've never broken my leg."

Leon was down to one finger now and Tiffany lowered one as well. "I did, a few summers ago." She said. "Fell outta my friend's treehouse."

"I've never…" Leon hesitated, ready for this game to be over. "Played tea party."

Tiffany giggled again, lowering a finger, "We should do that after this game—"

The phone rang and Leon lunged for it, seeing Cid's number on the caller ID. Thank the Maker…

"Yeah?" He answered.

"Found 'em. Both alive. Bring the girl over."

"All right." Leon replied. Stupid game.

..:-X-:..

135 – Not Quite

For justagirl8225

Tifa sat in the back of her rusted hull of a jeep. The threadbare upholstery of the seats, the torn and mangy carpet of the flooring, the back doors that were duct taped closed, and the back hatch that only opened when you pushed in, shoved it to the left, and then lifted: it was a shameful piece of machinery, but it was hers.

Who knew it would be her Fortress of Solitude?

She sat with her back against the right wall of the interior, legs stretched in a V toward the opposite wall. She'd found an empty paint can and propped it up there, acting as a goal for her as she flipped playing cards at it.

Valentine's Day was one of those well intending holidays that made people drink themselves into a stupor. More like Singles Awareness Day. Tifa huffed, roughly half of her cards missing the little paint can goal.

The office wasn't safe from the pink and ridiculous heart shaped cut outs and the smell of chocolate so thick you could FEEL the sugar on your skin…And people kept calling the apartment, trying to get a hold of her or Leon for some reason or another…

Frackin' ridiculous holiday.

At least, while hiding out in the jeep, she could turn off her cell phone and bask in the sweet silence of…being alone…Bah, she snorted, flipping open the white box that McCallister had desperately pawned on her. At least no one ever thought to look for her here.

The solitude was broken, however, as Leon abruptly stepped into view, pulled himself into the back of the jeep, and slumped against the right wall of the jeep like he'd just escaped the wildebeests in the gorge.

"Hey," Tifa quipped, "This is my hiding spot. Find your own."

He glanced through the plastic covering the broken window, saw no one following him, and turned back around. "No way I'm going back out there. Everybody's all…happy."

"Demented, s'what it is." Tifa pointed her remaining cards at him. "I've never seen so many balloons and heart shaped baubles as I did today in my life."

She opened the white box and the smell of sugary icing immediately ballooned inside the car. The little cake sat inconspicuously in the box, laughing up at her. Thank the gods it wasn't heart-shaped or Tifa would have speared someone.

"What is that?" Leon asked flatly, looking a little more at ease now that he was away from all the 'happy', as he put it.

"Jake Alms sent Tabaeus a cake." Tifa said, snickering. "She begged me to take it."

"He's—" One of his eyebrows went up.

"No, at least I don't think…Alms is a little—"

"He's a whore." Leon quipped, frowning. "She can do better."

Tifa chuckled, plucking out a plastic fork and carving a bite out of the cake. It was yellow cake, a nice change from the poisonous chocolate that had consumed Radiant Garden on this, the day of Valentine's.

"D'aw, you almost sound like her older brother or something." She took the bite of cake.

He rolled his eyes, "Jake Alms is a menace and if he starts harassing her—"

"She'll shoot him in the balls just like you taught her to." Tifa finished for him, chuckling, "Listen to you, all protective—"

"What are you doing out here?" He changed tact, gesturing to the jeep.

"I couldn't stand the 'happy'." She shrugged, plucking out another forkful of cake and taking a bite. "This stupid holiday is overrated and…stupid."

He grunted at that and leaned against the wall, looking as miserable and exasperated as she felt. Chewing thoughtfully, Tifa looked in the box and pulled out another fork. She poked his knee with it. He opened one eye and she offered up the utensil. He snorted, sighed, and took the fork.

"So while the rest of Radiant Garden is reciting soliloquies and making babies, two people are hiding in a broken down jeep eating a bribery cake with plastic forks." She prompted as he took a bite of the cake. "Romeo and Juliet would be ashamed."

Leon swallowed, "Whatever."

Tifa tugged her cards out of the paint can. After a beat, some renegade thought made Leon snort and stifle a smirk. She lifted an eyebrow and he glanced at her, shaking his head.

"What?" She asked, grinning suspiciously.

"Nothing." He bit another forkful of cake. "I'm just glad I cancelled the barbershop quartet that I was going to send to your office." He teased.

"I would have KILLED you." Tifa carved another chunk out of the cake.

..:-X-:..

136 – In the Rough

For Kiss of the Breeze

Women plus machinery…It never equaled anything good.

In fact, if Leon hadn't spent ten years dodging surprise attacks from the Heartless, he would have been killed by the metal…something…that flew out of the engine cavity of Tifa's jeep when he lifted the hood.

"Geez!" He dropped to the ground as the piece whizzed past his shoulder, bouncing and clattering on the concrete a few meters behind him.

After making sure he hadn't been impaled by anything, he tentatively got up and opened the hood more slowly this time. No projectiles rushed to greet him, and he exhaled, propping the lid up with the metal prong along the lip of the cavity.

Tifa had bought this ton of crap on wheels a few months ago. All her big talk of renovating the beast and driving it had ironically fallen silent after she started digging around in the ruined engine. Whoever had owned this rusted thing had attempted their own bandaid fixes before pawning it off on Tifa for a 'bargain' price. It was a field of rusted metal and…duct tape.

The jeep had been taking up space in the old garage where the Alliance worked on cars and ships that…I don't know…actually worked…So Leon had had it moved to a smaller local garage.

It had taken a week for Tifa to notice.

That opened up another flurry of big talk…She ordered new parts, replacement parts, the wrong parts, and some odd looking parts that had to be just for show. She seemed determined to actually get this thing running.

Funny how HE ended up being the one to work on the vehicle.

Leon found the renegade piece, the only non-rusted bit in the whole thing: a thick coiled spring. No wonder it had launched out of there like a rocket…It was slightly warped and the ends looked like they'd been jammed into place rather than professionally installed, but it was salvageable…one of few salvageable things.

Salvage…He snorted, starting to dismantle the old engine and remove it from the cavity. Tifa was a master of salvage. This monstrosity, that television in their apartment that never quite got the sports channel, and…the couch. She had never come off as a miser or someone who wasn't willing to spend money on things…She just seemed to rather save second hand things that most people would just shrug off as scrap, a lost cause, junk, beyond repair.

Once the engine was gutted and disemboweled on the garage floor, he noted that the body of the jeep itself wasn't in that bad of a condition. New passenger side doors—it looked like a Large Body Heartless had bearhugged it on that side—and an out of shape front fender…but otherwise it was manageable.

If Tifa knew he was working on this, she'd…ah, he didn't know. She had a weird defensive streak about it, like she wanted to fix it on her own, but then she barely paid it enough attention to keep a tree alive, so…bah, he was here, he was bored, might as well.

The jeep did have a sort of diamond in the rough—really rough—quality about it. Like something useful demanding to be plucked from wreckage. Leon tilted his head, surveying the pathetic body of metal, its innards scattered across the floor. He looked down at the coil in his hand and absently straightened out the frayed ends.

Was he seriously empathizing with an inanimate object? Come on, he shook his head and set about removing the ruined doors. The last time he empathized with something that wasn't human, he ended up with Duke…He didn't regret that at all, but an abandoned dog with giant brown eyes was one thing…a rusty, broken, ruined waste of steel was anoth—

The door came free surprisingly quickly and Leon lost his balance, hitting the floor…and the door came with him, landing hard on his chest. He grunted and shoved the thing off, sitting up and glaring at the beast of a vehicle.

"So that's the way it's going to be, huh." He muttered to no one.

Tifa's couch terrorized him enough, but now her car was going to be another thorn in his side? What was it with Tifa's stuff hating him? The feeling was mutual at least.

Then damn it all if he was going to let this jeep win. He'd fix it up, whether it worked with him or not…Crap, now he was getting competitive with an inanimate object.

He needed help.

Circling back to the engine, he leaned in to make sure the axles weren't bent. He hated metaphors, but something about this jeep was getting into his head. Tifa was giving it a chance like she was giving him a chance, so maybe that was—

The prong gave and the hood free fell, smacking him so hard on the head that he nearly toppled into the empty engine cavity. He swore and regained his balance, dropping the coil.

"Yeah, yeah, I hate you too." He grumbled, propping the hood up again.

..:-X-:..

A/N 136: For how Leon really ended up with Duke, check out Man's Best Friend (shameless advertisement!) Don't worry, the jeep won't turn into another couch thing. I've got plans for this car. Hehehe.

Still loving these prompts. Thanks guys!