Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. These ditties are mine, as are Duke and McCallister. More randomness and some shameless fluff for your enjoyment!
..:-X-:..
049 – Noobs
The new recruits were…green. 'New' lived up to every sense of the word. These boys still had the sparkle of glory in their eyes. Heroes and dreams were the equivalent of war to them. Fortunately, they had been placed under 'weapon specialist', and thus sifted into Leon's zone of training. Well…fortunate for the war effort…not so fortunate for the soldier-wannabes themselves.
Three hours into the first round of drills, half of them were throwing up and the other half was in tears. Some overlapped the two options. Pathetic. Leon only hoped Tifa was having more luck with her hand-to-hand combat recruits. Speaking of…
Over the heaving, sweaty heads and shoulders of the newbies, Leon spotted Tifa walking across the terrace of the training area. Huh, she must have told them all off and ended training early today. He grimaced. That wasn't a good sign.
Dropping his gaze slightly, he saw a handful of his recruits watching her as well…parts of her anyway. The corner of his eye twitched, and he cleared his throat loudly.
All of their heads snapped back to him immediately, fear in their eyes. Fear. He liked that, but the damage was already done. He looked at the group that had been distracted by Tifa's…by Tifa.
"Three miles." He jerked his head toward the Great Maw.
They groaned and climbed to their feet.
"Four." He added for the way their guttural whining grated on his nerves.
"But sir—" One recruit started, but was nearly elbowed into a punctured lung by his comrade.
"Five." Leon replied.
They clamped their jaws shut and hefted up the weighted swords over their heads, starting the five mile run around the Great Maw. At least they could learn; he watched them go a moment before looking back to the others left in his group.
"Back to the drill." He ordered.
They hastily obeyed.
..:-X-:..
050 – Brain Ninjas
"Ten!" Tifa belted out, ducking.
Leon looked to his left in time to block the Nobody aiming its claws for his neck. He threw it off his Gunblade and reversed so he and Tifa were back to back. Tifa lifted her fists as the Nobodies launched their attack on the Marketplace. McCallister and other soldiers were securing the perimeter.
"Drop." Leon muttered.
Tifa let her legs go out, landing on her knees as he swept the Gunblade around in a 360 degree swing, taking out all of the Nobodies in a three foot circle. Simultaneously, Tifa rolled sideways, coming up on Leon's right and pulling into a roundhouse kick, slamming into the clammy bodies of three Nobodies.
McCallister emptied her first clip into the crowd of Nobodies surrounding the items' store and began to reload as another private started firing in her stead. Tifa rolled up to her feet as Leon launched a Firaga spell at the recovering swarm. Just outside his peripheral, she saw a large Sniper Nobody roaring out of the concrete.
"Down." She barked, taking one long stride.
Without looking at her, Leon finished driving the Gunblade forward through a Nobody's body, staying in that bent position. Tifa rolled her back across his, gaining momentum by shoving off of his shoulders and slinging her fist into the Sniper Nobody's throat. It choked and staggered back, giving her the opportunity to finish it off.
"That's amazing." The private beside McCallister gawked. "Are their brains synchronized or something?"
McCallister lifted her rifle and took careful aim at a Samurai Nobody far below them. "Will you focus? You only WISH you could EVER be that good." She shot down the Nobody in three shots.
Their unit finished off the attack and the private looked to McCallister.
"You think we'll ever have that kind of shorthand?" He smirked, clapping a hand on her shoulder.
McCallister mustered up her best Leon-glare, "You want to keep that hand?"
The private quickly took his hand back and got back to cleaning up the marketplace.
..:-X-:..
051 – Happy Place
"I'm not a cheerful person."
Note to self, Tifa mused, pain killers made Leon too talkative…and open…and a stater of the obvious.
"Oh? I hadn't noticed." She played along, looking under the heavy gauze dressing at the back of his neck. The wound had at least stopped oozing blood by now.
"I mean, why should I be?" Leon was mumbling. "We've got enough stupid happy people running around."
Tifa blinked, brushing the hair away from his neck to make sure all of the stitches were still in place. "We must be in two different towns, because all I see is un-cheerful people around here."
He grunted. "It's easier just…being this way."
"What? Grumpy?" Tifa snorted, "Cold? Taciturn? Stoic?"
"…yeah."
Tifa smirked. Even imagining Leon as a bubbly, smiling person was impossible…and scary. Still, it was no reason for him to have a stick in his ass all the time. The difference between his good mood and his bad mood was a little more sarcasm and a little less narrowing of the eyes.
"Are you happy?" She found herself asking.
Hell, if he was ever going to be honest with her…On pain killers was the way to do it. She couldn't see his face from where she was standing behind him.
"No." was the simple reply.
It was a dumb question, in hindsight. Tifa frowned, unsure what had possessed her to ask in the first place. Missing someone for almost half your life and rebuilding a town that thought you were doing it all wrong, and with Sora being all out of whack, that was just pure betrayal the way he'd been lately.
Was SHE happy?
No, dammit, she wasn't going to turn this around on herself. Not today. Not after watching Leon get impaled in the neck by a Heartless claw. She was happy that he was alive after that.
"But…" Leon was saying. "…if…When I see…When I imagine myself happy...you're there."
Her fingers stilled over the gauze and she stared at the back of his head.
Feeling her freeze behind him, Leon half turned and looked up at her from where he was sitting, eyes clouded by the medication and way, way too open. Tifa blinked and drew a careful breath, looking away from him and wiping her hands off on a towel.
"Are you saying I'm your happy place?" She said, throwing an awkward little laugh at the end.
He dropped his gaze to the floor. "I guess…Never thought about it that way before."
"You're delirious on medication." She said hastily. "You…you should go lay down."
"Nah, I'm okay." But he stood and obediently turned toward his room.
Tifa watched him go and then sighed, running a hand over her face, thoroughly perplexed. Pain killers must have shorted out his stubborn-mechanism. Chewing the side of her lip, she wondered how they would affect his memory.
"Leon?"
"Yep?" He…chirped, looking back to her.
"You're…" She exhaled, "You're my happy place too."
He grinned, because even pain killers couldn't coax a full smile out of him, and went into his room. After his door closed, Tifa groaned and went for her emergency stash of whiskey. She had NOT signed up for this, but she couldn't stifle the tiniest of smiles before the rim of the bottle met her lips.
