Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine, as are McCallister and Nestor. Enjoy!
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149 – What Vexes All Men
For justagirl8225
"Oh come on."
"It's no use, Yuffie." Aerith said, hands on her hips, "You're wasting your breath."
Yuffie ignored the older girl, glaring at Leon, "It is, like, a bazillion degrees."
"No." Leon said, staring ahead at the waves instead of at her.
Cid snorted at the girl, sitting back in his lawn chair, beer in one hand, cigarette in the other. This was the first beach-worthy day of summer, and the whole Restoration Committee had decided to take the day and run with it. He figured the girls just wanted to traipse around in their new bikinis. They were adults, do what they want, but if that horndog Jake Alms showed up, he would send that little dweeb packing.
All of the beaches around the sea were rock hard and covered in sharp shards, so everybody always went to the beach of Radiant Garden Lake. Not as glamorous as the ocean, but big enough to accommodate everybody.
The youngest of the group seemed determined to get Leon into the water, or more importantly, to notice her new swimming suit. Cid knew she'd never admitted it, but Yuffie had been trying to impress Leon since day one. Deep down, the quiet young man had a soft spot for her, but in an annoying little sister kind of way, not the way Yuffie wanted to have soft spot.
But what did Cid know of that mess?
While Yuffie harassed Leon, Aerith plopped back down into the sand beside Tifa and started working on a sand castle. They were both too old for sand castles, but they were too young to be beach codgers like him and Merlin, so whatever. The old sorcerer had dolloped a mass of white sunblock on his big nose.
"She's got a point." Cid reclined in his seat, "It's hotter'n hell and that don't mix with black leather pants."
"Ha!" Yuffie pointed at his support.
Leon ignored Cid completely and looked at Yuffie flatly. "I don't do shorts."
He looked past her distractedly and seemed to pause for a long moment before averting his eyes back to the waves. Both Cid and Yuffie followed his line of sight. A small rogue wave of the tide had lapped up onto the pathetic looking castle that Aerith and Tifa had been plodding away at, and by some grave misfortune, sand had ended up on Tifa's ample front. She absently tried to brush the sand away from the…provocative zone…hence Leon's distraction.
Cid laughed at that, "No, but I bet Tifa could get you naked right now if she just looked over here and told you to."
He'd never seen so much blood fill a face so fast.
Yuffie balked, "Ack, Cid!" She made a face, turned, and stomped off, though it turned into a sort of whimsical saunter as she reached the waves, so she couldn't be that upset.
"What did you say?" Aerith said in that tone.
Cid lifted his shoulders as Leon abruptly stood, mumbling something about 'stupid' and 'hate sand'. "Nothin'!" He said innocently.
Merlin lifted his sunglasses from his eyes from where he sat a few yards away. "Something about Tifa getting Leon naked. Or vice versa. I'm not quite sure."
Aerith lifted a hand to her mouth to stifle the laugh. Tifa didn't try to stifle hers. Leon turned even more red, if that was possible, and turned to leave the beach. Even the back of his neck was scarlet. Tifa pursed her lips hard to cut down the laughter.
"Aw, we're just kidding, Leon." Aerith said, while Tifa threw a wad of sand at him.
"Yeah, I promise I won't try to get you naked." Tifa added, then looked to Cid. "How on earth did you guys get on THAT subject?"
"Oh I don't know, Sandy." Cid made a vague gesture.
Tifa looked down, snorted, and snatched up her towel, wrapping it around herself and jogging after Leon, who was making good headway to get the hell outta there. The man didn't turn around when she called after him, but his stride slowed a bit to let her catch up. As she exited stage left, Cloud entered stage right, eyebrow lifted.
"What was that?" He asked, pointing his thumb after Tifa.
Merlin lifted his sunglasses again, "If I follow correctly, they're going to get naked." He frowned, "But I don't find that very appropriate."
Cid guffawed at Cloud's expression as the poor guy looked to Aerith for clarification.
The flower girl was absolutely no help, however, as she just shrugged her shoulders. "It IS about a bazillion degrees."
And Cid just burst out laughing.
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150 – Up to the Highest Height
For justagirl8225
It was a blustery afternoon in Radiant Garden. On the walk back from Merlin's, Leon was nearly run over by a herd of ten years olds—and Yuffie—who were eager to dust off their kites and send them skyward in the first mild day of the spring.
Now the blue sky was dotted with the brightly colored kites, swishing to and fro. Some seemed to dive bomb out of sight when they caught the wrong wind current. The park was a field of insanity, with all the kids romping around and kites attacking people, but he figured that was where Tifa would be. And he was right.
Most of the Restoration Committee was there actually. Yuffie was running around, trying to physically throw her kite into the air. Aerith was laughing at her energetic failures. Cid wasn't smoking for once, but Leon doubted the liquid in that big jug was water. Cloud was sitting on the park bench next to Aerith, but he looked amusingly out of place. Leon didn't see Merlin immediately, but he didn't doubt the tottery old wizard was out in the park somewhere.
Tifa was in her own little bubble, not too far from the rest of the gang, but far enough that idle conversation was effectively ruled out. Cid spotted Leon and sent a wave. He returned it, ducked Yuffie's Stealth Bomber-esque kite maneuvers, and nodded to Aerith and Cloud before making his way over to Tifa.
"And you say I lurk." He greeted.
She was lying on her back on the grass, gazing up at the kites and the clouds in the sky. "Shut up. I'm not lurking."
"You've stationed yourself away from the main group," He commented, standing over her and following her gaze. "You're not talking to anybody, and you look like you're in deep thought…You're a lurker."
She swatted at his leg. "Shut up." She smirked, "You're blocking my view."
"Well, can't have that." He exhaled, sitting on the grass beside her.
She grunted, "You're in a good mood today…Kites cheer you up or something?"
He lifted his shoulders, "You're lurking; I'm in a good mood…These things do happen."
"Yeah, yeah." She patted the grass next to her. "Take your good mood and lie down or go away."
Leon snorted and reclined on the grass beside her. His shoulders had hardly touched the grass when Tifa shimmed over, turned her body, and dropped her head on his chest. She fluffed her hair off the ground and resumed looking at the kites.
He paused, blinked. "I'm not a pillow."
"Close enough." She said, "I was laying on a rock anyway."
She made no motion to move, and he exhaled, just letting her be. He couldn't figure out if she was in a 'weird mood' or not, but he thought it best not to poke the bear…Besides, this was almost comfortable…so…whatever.
At the edge of his periphery, he saw Yuffie's kite take another nose dive toward the trees, a little too close for comfort. Tifa shifted slightly in surprise. Leon smirked and looked up at the sky again. It was like a sky army of pinks, yellows, and reds darting around in the wind, long tails and ribbons trailing after them.
Aerith was laughing across the walkway, but he didn't look over.
"I think maybe I should—" Tifa started.
Leon lifted a hand and placed his palm over her mouth. "Shush."
She made an annoyed noise and shook her head to dislodge his hand. He grinned and kept his hand in place to mess with her. Tifa grunted and promptly licked the inside of his palm.
"Ah." He lifted his hand, wiping it on his pant leg. "You're disgusting."
She gave a triumphant little laugh that he felt in his ribs, where her head still was. Yuffie was hollering something nearby, and Leon saw the top of her head bob by, nearly dragging the kite after her in another desperate attempt to get it in the air.
Instead, the kite careened sideways, on a direct trajectory to them. Tifa yelped and rolled sideways, lifting her hands to her face. Leon raised a hand. "Aero."
The brief wind spell caught the underbelly of the kite, sending it skyward so fast that the string was nearly ripped out of Yuffie's hands.
"Ah ha!" She yelled. "Told you I'd do it! You owe me ten munny, Cid!"
"I don't owe you nothin'!"
Leon looked sideways to see Tifa looking at him, framed by the sky full of kites. She suddenly smiled and without a word, returned to her spot, her head almost on his shoulder now. He blinked, nonplussed, and settled back into the grass; his arm involuntarily dropped to her shoulders. Before he could take it back, she leaned into it. So he just left it there.
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151 – Part of the Plan
For justagirl8225
Broken glass and heated steel littered the molten ground across the computer room in Ansem's office. The latest breakdown in the security system had let the Heartless break into the old office wing of the castle. From the looks of things, the Heartless themselves hadn't come inside. They had launched a few fireballs, though.
There was enough damage to stop work on Space Paranoids for a few weeks. Leon grunted, stepping over one of the smoldering lumps of ash.
"Tron, are you still online?" He asked, ducking around a few raw wires that were hanging down from the wall.
"Ye-ye-yes." Was the staticked response. "I'm ha-having di-f-f-f-ficulty rebooting the sys-syst-em."
"Power down." Leon said, glancing around the mess. "Don't overheat."
"Right." The computer screen dimmed and the control panel went dark.
Leon stepped around the partially collapsed projector and nearly jumped out of his skin when he spotted Tifa sitting on the very edge of the control panel, hugging her knees.
"Tifa." He exhaled, "What are you doing here?"
"I was working on the computer when the attack hit." She offered with a shrug.
He looked at her incredulously. She looked uninjured at least… "Where are your shoes?"
"Er…" She looked down at her bare feet. "They got wet."
He glanced at the flaming wreckage around them. "How exactly?"
"Well…before." She gave an absent gesture. "There was a sinkhole and it got all in my boots, so I took them off to let them dry and…How was I supposed to know the Heartless would try to set the whole place on fire?" She huffed.
He rolled his eyes and stepped over to her, shards of glass crunching under his boots as he walked across the sizzling steel floor. "Are you okay, at least?"
"At least." She snorted, "Now get over here and help me."
"I'm coming, I'm coming." He sighed, crossing over to her. "Where are your shoes?"
"Um…" She glanced over at the main mess of burning rafters. "They WERE over there."
Leon was in no mood to dig through that mess, so he just walked the rest of the way to the spot where she was sitting. "Here." He offered a hand.
She loosed her arms from her knees, but didn't take his hand. Instead, she made a turn-around gesture with her fingers. He rolled his eyes and turned his back to her. She scooted to the edge of the panel and moved her arms around his neck, hooking her legs around his waist. He slipped his arms under her knees to secure her there and promptly stepped away from the control panel.
"This'll teach you to keep your shoes." He grumbled, carrying her piggyback toward the main office where the least damage was.
He could almost hear her grinning. "They were soaked, don't give me that."
Her breath was warm on the back of his neck and it made his skin tingle. He cleared his throat and kept walking, careful to keep her balanced back there.
"Oh, Leon, you're so strong!" She teased in a fairy voice.
"Shut up." He grunted, "You're lucky I was here. You would have been stuck there for a while." He quickly crossed the catwalk into the untouched portion of Ansem's office.
"Just because I don't have shoes doesn't mean I'm helpless." She tutted, locking her arms more tightly around his neck, "This is just more fun that using a ton of Blizzard spells to cool the floor."
"And the glass?"
"And using a ton of Aero spells to blow the glass away."
"Well, that's resourceful."
"I'm never without a plan."
"So the sinkhole…"
"…shut up." She ruffled his hair, just to annoy him.
Leon grimaced and deposited her on the desk. She let go of him and sat there for a moment, and when he turned around, he realized that in the light of the office, she actually had sustained a mild burn on her jaw. He sighed and offered her a Potion.
"Never without a plan, huh?"
Tifa took the bottle and winked, "You're always part of the plan."
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A/N 150: Title from the Let's Fly a Kite song from Mary Poppins…which was stuck in my head whilst writing this…No affiliation or ownership!
Lovely prompts! Thank ya bunches!