Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. These ditties are mine, as are Duke and McCallister.
..:-X-:..
091 – Favors
Leon had really soft hair, Tifa concluded. Like the kind you wanted to just run your hands through. She snickered to herself as she tried to imagine the horrified look on his face if she told him that.
"What are you doing?" He grumbled sourly.
"Just envious. You've got great volume. I'm jealous." She chuckled.
"That's it. You're fired." He started to move away.
Tifa grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "All right, all right, I'm done. Just sit still and I'll make it quick." She brandished the scissors. "And you can't fire who you're not paying."
"I shouldn't have said anything." He grunted. "Should have just done it myself."
She laughed at that, "Good with a sword, yes, but with scissors you are not."
He glanced back at her hotly, but she just forcibly turned his neck back around so she was looking at the back of his head.
"Leon, you couldn't cut a straight line through paper. You'd just end up slicing your scalp open."
He just sulked and she grinned victoriously, resuming her self-appointed task of cutting his hair. He really looked like a shaggy dog. It was embarrassing. He'd caved easily enough, anyway. Must have figured she was more tolerable than anybody else.
"As for payment…" She teased.
"…what?" He said, sounding resigned to whatever bizarre odd job she'd blackmail him into.
"Well, there're always just sexual favors." She said jokingly, waiting for his reaction.
A beat passed.
"As opposed to what?" He said, going along with her humor.
"Fixing the engine on my Jeep."
Another beat.
"I'll think about it."
..:-X-:..
092 – Defender
Their captors had tied them up so that they were facing each other. So that one was forced to watch the other being tortured. It was a double-interrogation situation. Hurt one enough, either that one would spill or the other would.
Tifa could taste blood from where she'd bitten her lips as they worked Leon over. He had the highest pain tolerance of anyone she knew, but after the last hour and a half, the men in the masks had gotten creative and even gotten him to scream. Blood, broken bones, broken skin: it was nauseating.
Neither of them had said anything over the course of it, though it felt like Tifa had swallowed knives by the stabbing anger and guilt in her stomach. McCallister had to be tracking them down by their cell phones. They just needed to hold out until she brought a squad to kill these bastards.
The masked captors had moved away from Leon now, who looked three colors past out of his mind with pain, and they began to approach Tifa. She gritted her teeth and stared them down, wishing her mouth wasn't so dry so that she could spit on them.
"All right, now let's see what you look like on the inside, missy." One of them said lightly.
"Don't…" Leon spat out a mouthful of blood, only able to open one eye to glare at them. "Don't you touch her."
Tifa's jaw worked furiously and she wriggled against the chains binding her. "Sick bastards."
One of the two just grinned and let the tip of his knife trail down her cheek, over her throat, and across her collar, slowing putting more pressure on it…just enough to sting. She glared hatefully at them.
"I'll kill you." Leon snarled, looking pitiful and feral in the same breath. "If you…hurt her…I'll kill you all."
His threats were unnecessary as two slugs punched into the captors' skulls, dropping them like stones: announcing McCallister's arrival with reinforcements. Relief crashed over Tifa and she saw the same feeling make all of Leon's joints loosen. They both slumped in their tied-up positions.
As the soldiers fanned out to secure the area, Tifa kept her eyes on Leon, who was teetering.
"Hey…stay with me." She pleaded.
"…'kay." He groaned, because at this point, he couldn't deny her anything.
..:-X-:..
093 - Wedding Part 4
Andrea shook off Tifa's grip. "What do you want from me, Tifa?"
"I just want you to listen, hear me out. I came to apologize and you seem determined to fight." Tifa said placatingly.
Andrea sighed, "I'm done trying to fight you, Tifa. You've never heeded my advice before. So I'm…I'm just done."
Tifa blinked. "Andrea, I didn't need advice. I just wanted you to listen. I'm not this damaged, tainted person you think I am. I spent all that time looking for Cloud because I was worried about him. He was a close friend and he was in trouble."
"You've got a hero complex, honey." Andrea tilted her head. "Cloud was a big boy who could take care of himself. You were just in denial that he didn't need you."
Her words stung and Tifa flexed her jaw.
"And you've always been like this." Andrea continued. "You seek out these guys who have eyes for some other girl, who don't need you, and you convince yourself that they do need you."
Tifa exhaled heavily. "No I don't."
There was no way she could possibly explain the Sephiroth-darkness-light-Cloud situation.
Andrea looked infuriatingly sympathetic. Tifa's temper flared.
"I don't!"
Her raised voice drew the attention of several guests inside the hall. Andrea glanced around, smiled at the people, and looked back to Tifa.
"Honey, you used to be one of my best friends, so please, take this last bit of advice." She said, dropping the condescension just long enough to say quietly. "Stop trying to be everyone's hero."
Then, without further comment, Andrea patted Tifa's arm and returned to her party. A rush of cooing and 'ooh's and 'ahh's accompanied her as the wedding party hailed their focal point bride.
Tifa stood alone in the hallway outside the ballroom, feeling humiliated and cheaper than she had ever felt. Andrea didn't know…Andrea had NO fucking IDEA what the situation was. Tifa did NOT chase after Cloud out of some ill-placed sense of heroism. Her feelings for Cloud had had nothing to do with her actions!
Then why did she feel so mortified?
(…to be continued…)
..:-X-:..
A/N 091: Because putting Leon and Tifa in the most unlikely and weird situations is amusing.
A/N 092: I know I already did a Leon-gets-tortured one, but the situation itself is a little different, so…whatever. Shamelessly beating up Leon is fun too, what can I say?
