Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine, as are Duke and McCallister. Enjoy!
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140 – Of You and Me
For Handwritten
"Maybe we just get the day off."
"That's stupid, Cooper. The Major General doesn't give days off."
"Oh, and your theory about being 'sick' is plausible, Harper?"
"Will you two knock it off? Here comes somebody."
The recruits in Major General Leonhart's squad stood at…relative attention as Private McCallister stepped through the door of the training room and walked across the lit chamber toward them. Cooper and Marcus exchanged looks. If the Major General was sending his errand girl—as they quietly referred to the private—then the boss himself really wasn't going to show.
All of the subordinates had seen McCallister around. For a private, she was very well known…mostly because of that big hoopla last year…but from what all of them could tell, she was a submissive woman who seemed to come to attention like a Labrador anytime the Major General so much as e-mailed her.
This was going to be an easy day if she was their instructor for the day.
Then again, she had been the Major General's first hand intern for two years and survived…That had to mean something.
"Everybody loose?" was her two-word greeting as she approached them.
They all exchanged looks.
"Didn't the Major General teach you how to stretch properly?" She said, the low-brow look on her face making them edgy.
"What if he got sent on a mission and got blown up?" One of the recruits murmured.
Harper rolled her eyes. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." She whispered back.
McCallister just stood there while the recruits completely ignored her, murmuring among themselves and trying to figure out where the 'real' boss was. Sick day. Vacation day. Trapped in a submarine at the bottom of the Radiant Garden Great Lake. The theories became more and more ridiculous as the seconds stretched.
"Or maybe he and the Brigadier General Lockhart finally just ran off together." Cooper snorted with a grin.
"Or maybe," McCallister's voice raised a notch, but dropped a tone. "he got so sick of all of your whining, lackluster, lazy ass selves and found himself some new recruits who are actually worth a shit." She absolutely hissed.
They all looked at her.
"Stand at attention." She snapped, eying them all dangerously.
This time they obeyed hastily. Those two interning years had apparently carved the Tone into her voice.
"Ma'am." Harper asked, "Permission to ask about the Major General."
"Denied." McCallister said flatly, "It doesn't concern you, any of you. Major General Leonhart does not have to clear anything with you. Your recruits, pukes, gum on the sidewalk. Wipe that smile off your face, Cooper. I'm not kidding." She pointed at him.
Cooper stifled the smirk and McCallister stepped up to him.
"Maybe he should know all of your colorful theories about his personal life." She glared hard at Cooper. "I'm sure he'd love to take time out of his busy schedule to listen to you gossip like a bunch of junior high girls. Do you want that?"
"No, ma'am." They chorused.
Yeah…she had been his intern all right.
"Questions? Comments? Concerns to share with the class?" She went on before anybody could say anything. "Now run laps."
Harper opened her mouth. The others glared at her to 'shut up, don't say anything', but the words were already out. "How many laps, ma'am?"
McCallister cast her a sideways look. "Until I say stop." She looked down the line, "And until you green recruits learn to stop flapping your mouths about things above your paygrade."
The recruits kept the grumbling minimal as they started running their laps. McCallister watched them and huffed. Brigadier General Lockhart's squad had at least hopped to as soon as she gave them instructions. Those two had better get back from the mission soon, she thought, or I'm going to end up killing all of their recruits.
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141 – Break the Mold
For justagirl8225
The entire living room of Merlin's house was covered in multi-colored powder. It was in the air, drifting around the light fixtures, and settling on every surface in the room. For the most part, it was harmless. It made the fire burn green. The magical furniture began to tap dance. Duke bounced off the ground like an astronaut every time she barked.
And then there was Leon and Tifa.
Tifa had a fistful of bright yellow dust in one hand and a bottle of some purple liquid in the other. Her hair had been turned shock white and the skin on the left side of her face was extremely shiny and buffed, like she'd just had a facial. Green and blue herbal dust had tinted her clothes, and her eye lashes were heavy with the stuff.
Leon was hardly better. Practically coated in red dust, his hair was saturated with green spellwork liquid and, like Tifa, his skin was really shiny. He was armed with just one large clear jar of blue powder the size of a basketball.
A cloud of dust was buffeted around them, like a rainbow tornado, as Tifa threw her fistful of yellow dust at his neck and Leon nearly dumped the entire container of blue powder on her head.
For a moment, Yuffie just stood in the doorway, transfixed by the sight of the two normally very composed adults throwing the glittery powder at each other like two children left alone in a toy room.
Barely an hour had passed since Merlin had left Leon a list of potion ingredients to pull from his shelves. Most of them were on the top two shelves, Yuffie knew, because the old codger had made her organize them all by potency…or some category…she didn't bother to remember…nearly a month ago.
That was all she had to go on here: Leon left alone with a floor-to-ceiling shelf full of old dusty potions and powders. Duke had been chewing on one of Cid's boots, and Tifa hadn't even been here. Now it looked like a clown's cocaine stash had exploded in here.
The young ninja gawked, for once at a loss for words. The mass of blue powder that had spilled over Tifa's shoulder was making that half of the woman's body grow some kind of fur. The yellow splash that had nailed Leon in the throat was causing him to grow a beard. Duke was covered in a pound of golden dust, and a smudge of pink was across her noise.
"What the blue blazes did you two get into?" She finally made her presence known, planting her hands on her hips.
Both Leon and Tifa stopped throwing the multi-colored powder at each other, ammunition in their hands, eyes on Yuffie, guilty as sin. A helpless smile curled Yuffie's mouth. This was fun. She never got to bust Leon with anything. He was like the freakish eldest sibling that never did anything wrong. Now his hand was in the cookie jar and she would get to rat him out to everybody…especially Merlin.
"That old fart is going to KILL you." She did a little bounce on the word 'kill', surveying the powder and dust that was circulating in the air around them.
Duke barked and the motion made her rise nearly a foot into the air. Yuffie didn't know anything about potions and all that magic crap outside of a good battle, but it looked like the dog had been doused in some of Tinkerbell's pixie dust. How Merlin had gotten his hands on that little doozy, she couldn't fathom.
"She was—"
"It's a—" The two guilty parties started simultaneously and abruptly stopped.
Yuffie grinned like an idiot. "And you call ME immature?"
Leon and Tifa looked at her for a moment, glanced to each other and exchanged a look that Yuffie couldn't interpret, and then they both reached back, lifting up two massive jars of silver and green powder that she hadn't noticed earlier.
"What're you—" She took a half step back.
"If we go down, you're going down with us." Tifa cackled, her white hair making her look like Frankenstein's bride.
Leon looked like Jesus in leather with a scar. "Yeah, we can blame it on you."
"What? No!" Yuffie tried to shield herself, but it was too late.
The two mountains of magical dust smashed into her and she ducked and tried to roll away. Her legs went loopy and her hands grew to twice their normal size under the mixed spells' powers. Tifa was laughing at her, but Leon was going for more ammo.
"Oh, you've DONE it now!" Yuffie grabbed for the closest jar of dust she could reach, uncorked it, and joined in the mayhem.
Duke barked, and this time the pixie dust lifted her clear to the ceiling, and there she remained as the three continued their magic powder snowball fight.
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142 – Return
For Lett
Tifa caught the phone in the middle of the first ring, sliding it between her ear and her shoulder without breaking her eyes from the text on the computer screen. "Hello?"
"Tifa." Aerith sounded breathless and pitchy.
"Hey," Tifa greeted, pausing her fingers on the keyboard, "Are you okay? You sound—"
"Where's Leon?"
"He's—"
"I need to speak with him immediately."
Aerith's normally calm, level voice had a tone of urgency to it that got Tifa's attention. Frowning, she leaned back in her seat and looked across the living room through Leon's bedroom door. It was five am, and he had gotten off shift at four. Unless someone was dying, she really didn't want to wake him.
"He's asleep." She answered, eyes wandering back to the living room.
"Wake him up." Aerith was nearly squeaking now.
"What's wrong?" Tifa asked, but then the phone beeped, "I've got another call coming in."
"That's what I'm calling about. It's—"
"Aerith, hold on for just a minute." She assured. It would only take a minute to tell the other caller that it was a bad time, and then she'd finish calming Aerith down.
"But—"
Tifa clicked the line to the other call, "Hello?"
No response.
"Hell-oo?" She tried again, preparing to terminate the line.
"…Squall?"
It was a soft, higher pitched voice, but the tone gave her pause.
"Hello?" Tifa asked again.
"Er…Hello." The woman on the other end greeted lightly. "Is Squall there?"
Tifa narrowed one eye at the phone with a sigh. She didn't know any 'Squall' character.
"No, I'm sorry. I think you have the wrong number." She said.
A confused beat, "Oh, this isn't…" The other end rattled off the phone number.
Tifa frowned, "That's right, but I don't know any—"
"Squall Leonhart? The flowergirl from the square told me he lived here."
Leonhart? Tifa eyebrow shot up and she looked toward Leon's bedroom door again. He hadn't moved, splayed on his stomach in bed. Dead to the world. She didn't know if he had any living relatives…Then again, she knew he had changed his name…though it was long before she had met him.
"Squall Leonhart?" Tifa tilted her head. There was a grunt of movement in Leon's room, but she didn't look over. "I'm sorry…Who is this?" She asked, looking into the living room again.
"Oh! Sorry." The other voice chattered. "You probably think I'm some crazy person."
The thought did cross my mind, Tifa thought, but didn't say anything.
"This is Rinoa. Rinoa Heartilly. I was hoping—"
The phone kept talking, but all of the blood drained from Tifa's upper body, joining her insides on the floor. This…No, she had misheard. Surely…That…this wasn't possible…
"—and it HAS been nearly 12 years, so…Oh, geez, he doesn't think I'm dead, does he?" The woman…Rinoa…was chattering on. "Hello? Are you still there?"
"Sorry." Tifa said, barely above the whisper, eyes wide and stomach churning.
"Good." A little chuckle on the other end of the line. "Does Squall live with you? Wait…who is this? Do you know who I'm talking about?"
But Tifa heard little else as her stomach lurched. She lunged for the trash can and abruptly threw up. The phone stayed in her hand, but her knuckles around it were white. When she lifted her face out of it, trembling and in shock, she saw that Leon had lifted his head up and was looking at her. And then the reality crashed into her and she nearly got sick again.
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A/N 140: Sort of channeled the Drill Instructor Hartman from Full Metal Jacket a little bit...or as FMJ as McCallister can get, snicker, snicker.
A/N 142: This is an excerpt from As the Sun Sets on Mushroom Clouds. I haven't written it yet, so this scene may not be exact in the actual story. Details may change, but the scene itself will remain the same. Tease, tease!
As always, lovely prompts!