Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine, as are Duke, McCallister, and Nestor. Enjoy!
..:-X-:..
137 – If I Only Had a Brain
For justagirl8225
"I take it the mission didn't quite go as planned?" Leon said, keeping the smirk under control as Tifa and the other three soldiers tromped out of the Gummi Ship.
Tifa glared, straw clinging to her person and sticking out of places that straw did not belong. "You." She pointed at his face, "Shut it."
McCallister coughed, stepping out from behind Tifa. She was covered in bits of metal, tin, and some sort of silvery powder, like a robot. One of Tifa's male subordinates was swatting the accumulated blond fur off of him. They looked like the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion…all that was missing was—
The pilot, a very young looking woman, probably still in her teens, bounced out in a blue dress that was cut too short, hair in braids. "I told you to hang on the overhead bars." She reprimanded.
"We didn't know you flew like a maniac!" McCallister snapped between coughs, brushing the metal bits off of her person.
Tifa was clawing at every opening in her clothes that she could reach, plucking out the straw. "I hate straw. It gets everywhere and it friggin' ITCHES."
The other subordinate had given up on de-furring himself and was just grabbing up his equipment to get out of the hangar. McCallister was rinsing out her mouth and the pilot was just laughing at them all. Leon looked at the girl.
"How'd it go?" He asked.
Tifa answered before the pilot could, "Terrible. It took two hours, first of all, to just get past the wormhole—"
"But we survived, didn't we?" The pilot chirped.
"—and then Halloween Town was in their weird Let's Do Christmas funk, so everything was all backwards and Jack kept trying to hug me—" Tifa attacked her hair now, tugging out the pieces of straw that had settled there.
"She's just peeved because she landed in a pile of straw after the mission." The pilot said.
Leon subtly slid between the two women, in case Tifa attacked her—and she looked very capable of attacking someone at the moment. He wordlessly picked up Tifa's equipment bag and aimed her shoulders toward the door.
"At least it's over." He attempted to placate.
"Yeah but…guh, straw…everywhere—"
"You look prime to be strung up in a corn field."
"I hate you."
"You'd terrorize every crow in Radiant Garden."
"Jerk."
"Or maybe just the Yellow Brick Road."
"Leon, I swear—"
He snorted at her expense as they walked to the other end of the hangar. Once he got the teasing out of his system, he shifted the bag to his shoulder. "Seriously though, how does Halloween Town look?"
"Well," Tifa was tugging pieces of straw out of her hair bit by bit as they walked. "From what I could tell, productivity is high. Oogie Boogie's influence is all but gone, but this whole Christmas business is bothering me."
He grunted at that.
She paused and then snorted.
He looked at her sideways, "What?"
"We really did look like we'd escaped from Oz, didn't we?" She giggled.
He lifted one eyebrow, "You didn't get much sleep, did you?"
"Not three hours in the past two days." She said, looking irritated, slap happy, and tired all in the same expression. "If you had come along, you'd have been the Horse of Many Colors."
"Really."
"Yeah…because every time I end up in the stupid mission, you turn into a horse's ass."
"You're a jerk." He watched her yawn widely, "And you need sleep."
She lifted a fist, locking her other arm through his elbow, "To Oz!"
..:-X-:..
138 – Positives and Negatives
For Kiss of the Breeze
"Dear, dear, what have we here?" Tifa stood, one hip cocked, touching her chin thoughtfully. "This is quite the…situation."
Leon glared at her, but he couldn't exactly do anything…That was the whole 'situation'.
Tifa glanced to the construction worker on her right, "And the entire control panel was damaged?"
"Yes'm." The guy scratched his receding hairline, eying Leon's…predicament. "The only way to turn it off would be to sever the entire main cable."
"Then DO IT." Leon hissed.
"Ah, ah." Tifa wagged a finger, enjoying this too much. "That would take nearly an hour anyway, and cost nearly 100,000 munny to replace."
"Then…" Leon's voice was strained to remain level, but he was glaring daggers at Tifa. "What do you suggest?"
The massive magnetic crane had been lowered for maintenance when the two had arrived on the scene to investigate the accident sight. The control panel of the machine had been damaged, rendering the magnet on high. Several coins and little bits of metal had shot like bullets to the six foot circle that was resting on the ground, still connected to the crane.
Not five minutes after arriving, Leon stepped too close to the magnet and…well…He really should have known better…wearing all those belts and clasps and things…
"We could just wait until the call to the company patches through and they give instructions on how to override the control system." She offered. "But that could take all day."
"Tifa…" He nearly snarled, face and neck red.
She tilted her head and grinned at him before looking to the workers. "Maybe check the control panel again."
"Ma'am…"
"Just…humor me." She waved them off.
As soon as the men stepped aside, Tifa walked up to Leon and started undoing the metal bands around his forearm.
"Honestly," She said, shaking her head, "Are all of these necessary?"
"Shut up." He grumbled, staring into the distance while she loosened the bands on his forearm and started on his other arm.
She snorted and then knelt down.
"What are you doing?" He asked, unable to move still.
He hated being immobile. Tifa knew that and she was exploiting it because…when you get Leon immobile…you have to take advantage and embarrass him silly.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" She said, starting to unbuckle the belts around his waist. "You want to be free of the magnet right?"
"Tifa—"
She removed the first belt and got to work on the second one, practically feeling the heat coming off his face, even though she was level with his stomach. "And this is the fastest way. So suck it up," She dropped the second belt and got onto the last one, "And take it like a man."
"You are just eating this up, aren't you?" He grumbled, starting to wriggle one arm free from the loosened bands on his forearms.
"No, but if those workers come back around, they sure will." She teased. "This is your penance for laughing at me last week for that Oz bit."
"This is not even—" He was cut off as she finished unbuckling the last belt, grasped the end of it, and ripped backward. The belt slid all the way around his waist and snapped out of the belt loops like a whip.
Tifa snorted at the shocked and slightly pained look on his face, and then looked sideways at the two workers who had just walked around the machine. They gawked for a moment, and Leon shimmied off the magnetic wall, skin red where the bands had cut into his arms, and his face red from…everything else.
"Not cool." He grumbled, picking up the belts and not looking at the workers.
"On the contrary," Tifa chuckled, "That just made my day."
He kept muttering under his breath, but Tifa ignored him. He was going to get her back, she knew, but for now, she would revel in her little victory.
"Dude…" One of the workers said, "…You better buy her dinner now."
Oh yes, revel she would.
..:-X-:..
139 – Been There Before
For Handwritten
The new seats were…oddly shaped. Not uncomfortable, but Leon quickly found out that just folding them down and lying down in the back of the jeep was more comfortable than lying across the seats.
The press conference today had been brutal. Neverending questions, always the same questions, and no one ever happy with the answers. Radiant Garden had been patient, but now they expected results that wouldn't be plausible for another three months…And Nestor wasn't helping, with his catering to the public the way he was…forcing Leon to play bad cop.
He just needed to get away, just for a little while, after nearly two hours with cameras and microphones and overeager reporters in his face. So he just lay there, in the back of Tifa's rusted out jeep, with the seats folded down, eyes closed, relishing the silence. Just for a moment.
The back end of the jeep bowed and then shifted back as another weight eased onto it. Leon didn't open his eyes, didn't acknowledge Tifa as she climbed into the back of the jeep with him. She knew how much he hated press conferences. He needed this decompression. She usually just left him alone for a while every time he was obligated to face the reporters. It was almost an unspoken…rule was a strong word, but…
It seemed like a lot of unspoken rules were being broken lately. Then again, it had been a rough few weeks. They were both sleep deprived and irritable, and remarks made in exasperation and even just good humor hadn't quite come off that way. The little pranks and teasing had been aggravating all last week. He figured she had felt that just as he had, because they both sort of avoided each other the week after.
He still didn't open his eyes, but felt her plop onto the floor of the jeep beside him, not saying anything to him as he didn't say anything to her. It was natural, he supposed, to get irritated with someone when you were around them all the time…but he didn't like it. Who else was he supposed to vent at? McCallister? He almost snorted at how the private would react to that...
Tifa shifted until her head was on his shoulder, the top of her head brushing against his jaw. Leon opened his eyes at that, staring at the ceiling. Neither said anything, and his peripheral revealed that most of her body was angled away from him. She wasn't trying to cuddle up on him or anything—thank God—but why she felt inclined to put her head there…He had no idea.
The warm weight of her head against his neck was oddly comforting and he swallowed, inhaling slowly. Her hair smelled like some sort of vanilla shampoo, and there was also that combination of coffee and freshly cut grass that was a scent she somehow always carried around. The dark locks were soft, and he found himself almost leaning into it.
Why was she doing this?
The thought sounded harsh in his head and he pushed it away. This was her way of…not really apologizing…She hadn't done anything wrong…nothing more than he had…They had just gotten irritated with each other that week and avoided each other…This was just Tifa Speak for…
I missed you.
He wasn't sure what to do with that.
She seemed perfectly comfortable, as though breaching his comfort bubble was something she was entitled to do every now and then. And it didn't feel like a 'breach' either. The more he thought about it, the more he considered that having her this close wasn't uncomfortable. It was unexpected, yes, but not unwelcome, because…He frowned…Maybe he had missed her too.
Damn, these awkward seats were oddly shaped. The curve of the base of it was pushing into his back, but he didn't want to move. Tifa yawned beside him, shifting so that her knee was propped up.
Before Leon completely registered that he'd done it, he found that he'd dropped his cheek onto the top of her head. He stared at the ceiling, at that one little rusted spot that refused to close, no matter what sealant he used. She fell still, the softness of her hair tickling at his jaw.
Maybe he didn't hate this jeep so much after all. It was quiet, after all, and isolated, sort of like a rusty Fortress of Solitude. He almost smirked at that thought and looked as far down as he could, but he couldn't see past the top of Tifa's head, but it felt like her eyes were open, staring at the ceiling too, probably. Comfortable.
If she wanted to move or say something, she didn't act on it. In fact, she almost seemed as reluctant to move as he was. For a fleeting moment, he wondered what it would feel like to have an arm around those shoulders. He blinked once, narrowed one eye, and decided to push that thought away.
He doubted Tifa would appreciate that, he thought dryly. She was still reeling from whatever emotional trauma Cloud had put her through, and something else had been bothering her recently, but she hadn't voiced it.
He was practically using her head as a pillow. So what exactly was he doing?
Maybe it was just a 'I missed you too'…Yeah, that was it.
..:-X-:..
A/N 139: Title came from the lyrics of Hold My Hand, covered by Committed, which was my musical muse for this ditty, oddly enough.
This chapter came off awkward, I think. Not my best work, but the best I could do with my insane schedule. College would be awesome if I could just get out of that whole class thing, haha. Anyway, more to come.
Lovely prompts, as always. Thanks guys!