Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine, as are the OCs. This is a lighthearted chapter. I threw some snark and fluff in there for funnsies. Enjoy!

..:-X-:..

082 – Let Me Love You

Alone in the apartment, Rinoa inched out of her bedroom, leaning her head around the corner to scope out the living room. For the past twenty minutes, the quiet of the apartment had been constantly interrupted by the clicking claws of Aerith's grey cat Piper moving around. The noise was making her paranoid.

She edged out of her bedroom, unsure where the furry beast was lurking, and made her way sneakily into the living room. She paused when a low 'mmmmmmmmmrowwwwwww' growled out from under the couch. Rinoa froze, trying to lock onto where Piper was hiding. Chewing on the side of her lip, she started inching forward again.

"Hey, kitty." She cooed softly. "Please don't kill me. I just want to be your friend."

The low, throaty growl sounded again, and Rinoa huffed, moving closer to the couch. The cat's grey head popped out from between the couch cushions and its feline eyes glared into Rinoa's soul.

"Why do you hate me?" Rinoa whispered.

The cat situated himself on the seat of the couch, tail swishing back and forth. Narrowed eyes stayed on Rinoa, but Piper stopped growling. Rinoa took that as a positive and dared to push her luck, apprehensively reaching out a hand. Piper's ears flattened, but he didn't growl. Riona exhaled slowly, closing the distance and gently petting the cat's head.

"Whoooooo…See, there. I don't bite." Rinoa said softly. "I just want to show you a little affection. Is this so bad?"

Ever since Aerith had adopted this cat, Piper had proven to be nothing other than a devilspawn with fur…and the unnerving ability to hide and leap out at you without warning. So far, the cat had hissed and growled at Rinoa, Aerith, Leon, Cid, Tifa, McCallister, Eddy, Yuffie, Merlin, and Jake. Cloud was the only one that Piper didn't show any aggression toward.

It was a rude awakening after being around Leon's pet for so long. The difference was that the only danger that Leon's golden retriever Duke posed was that she might love you to death. Piper…might actually try to kill—

The front door of the apartment opened and Aerith swooped in with an exhausted sigh.

The suddenness of her entrance made Piper twitch, and Rinoa yelped, withdrawing her hand. THAT sudden movement was interpreted as a threat by the cat, who hissed, sprung to all fours, and launched himself at Rinoa.

"Bah!" Rinoa shrieked, as Piper landed square on her chest.

She backed up hastily, and the coffee table behind her caught her knees. She squawked, still clawing at the beast that was attacking her, and toppled over, crashing to the floor.

Aerith gasped. "Rinoa, are you okay?!"

"He's shredding my boobs!" Rinoa screamed, trying to pull the cat off of her. "I'm being assaulted! Booby trap!"

Aerith darted to her side, "Piper, no! Bad!"

"He's a demon cat; he doesn't heed you, human!" Rinoa screamed as the cat's claws continued to dig into her chest.

She finally got her hands around the creature's middle and tore him away from her. With a loud cry, she rolled onto her side, flinging the cat across the room. She reversed her roll and wound up back on her feet, hands flying to her scratched up chest. Piper's claws had wrought havoc over the bare skin from her collarbone to the low cut of her tank top.

Piper landed on his feet and shot into Aerith's room. Aerith hurried over and closed the door, sealing the cat inside. She immediately turned back to Rinoa, eyes wide and looking horrified.

"Oh my goodness. I am so sorry. Are you okay?"

Rinoa looked down at herself. There were red lines cross hatching her skin, stinging and angry. She waved her hands lightly, refraining from touching the cuts. Tears of pain were hitting her eyes against her will, and she looked incredulously to Aerith.

"Am I OKAY? Your cat just used my cleavage as a scratching post!" She barked, stomping into her adjoining bathroom to inspect the damage with a mirror.

Aerith followed. "I'm getting him de-clawed this weekend." She nibbled her lip. "Maybe he just got startled."

"Last week, Jake jumped out of a closet and pounced on Duke. THAT was startling. And Duke licked his face." Rinoa snapped, "You opened a door and your cat attacked me."

Rinoa took out her first aid kit and started cleaning the deeper scratches. She glanced up into the mirror again and caught sight of Aerith's pitiful and remorseful expression in the reflection over her shoulder. Rinoa sighed and closed her eyes briefly, turning back around.

"I'll…" Aerith said, deflated. "I could take him to the animal shelter tomorrow…or have Cloud watch him until I can find a new owner for him."

Rinoa grimaced. Even though Piper was a demonic little hell cat, Aerith had somehow grown an attachment to Piper. The flowergirl had been through a lot lately; Rinoa couldn't bring herself to put an end to one of the few things that had helped Aerith de-stress.

"No." She moaned out. "You don't have to do that."

Aerith looked up hopefully. "Really? You're sure?"

"Yeah." Rinoa pointed threateningly at her. "But you get that beast de-clawed."

..:-X-:..

083 – What Boredom Leads To

"Tom Laurel."

"Medical."

"Emily Hahn."

"Aeronautics."

"Lillian Gold."

"Weapons."

Cloud looked up from the files spread across the table. "Really?" He asked flatly.

For the past three hours, he had been locked in the large meeting room in the Alliance headquarter building. His own office was too small for the duty at hand: which was to sort through all of the applications and resumes by the new soldiers in his basic training program and try to narrow down which soldiers were going to be filtered into which specialized departments. Given that the latest group numbered in the upper 300s, he had enlisted Tabaeus McCallister to help him wade through the paperwork.

"Yes." The private didn't look up from the file on the table in front of her. The entire surface of the table was covered in the papers. "She dismantled and re-assembled an M15 assault rifle faster than any other in that exercise."

Cloud pursed his lips and went with it. "Okay. Paul Hill."

"Aeronautics."

These were all just suggestions, of course. Aerith and Cid and Leon and the others had to approve any newbies into their departments. Given that Cloud had been putting them all through the loops, he was supposed to have a good grip on where their individual specialties might lie…but dammit, there were almost 400 of them.

Hence, McCallister.

"Kyle Blake."

"Magic."

"Mindy Tallman."

"Hell."

Cloud looked up again, twiddling a pencil between his fingers. "Not sure we have jurisdiction there."

The soldier was already looking at another file, but her neck was turning red in anger. "What about Boris Helm?"

"Yuffie called dibs on him." Cloud said absently, lifting an eyebrow at her. "I'm sensing hostility."

"I'm a hostile person." Was the flat response.

"What's your beef with Tallman?"

"She's a smart and capable soldier. I just hope she falls into a volcano."

"Leon said you nearly split a skull when she showed up." Cloud pressed.

It wasn't often that one got to see Leon's right hand soldier lose her cool. He was curious to see what would happen…and he was bored…Three hours was a long time to look at messy handwriting on repetitive applications. He absently pondered if McCallister would hulk out into a giant green rage beast if she got angry enough.

"So what is she? Former classmate? Neighbor? Ex-friend? Did she steal your prom date or something?" He teased.

"How's that whole 'time travel' thing working out for you?" Private McCallister raised her eyes from her files just long enough to shoot him a dry glare.

Cloud stared back at her for a long moment. She was baiting him. He wouldn't fall for it. Leon had mocked him so much over the past few weeks about the 'Agent Mike' event that McCallister was just throwing pebbles at this point. "Was she the popular girl where you come from? Did she embarrass you in some way?"

"Sir, can we please not?" She said, thumbing through another file. "Roberta Manns."

"Merlin's." Cloud made a note. "Did you even go to prom?"

"No." She said dismissively.

"Why? Did no one ask you?" He teased.

She scribbled on another file. "As a matter of fact, no, they didn't. Hostile, remember?"

He snorted, "Yeah, I can't even imagine you in a dress."

"The sad thing is that I have seen pictures of YOU in one." She glared. "Purple isn't your color, sir."

Cloud smirked but had mercy on her. "Do you believe in time travel?"

"If I did, I would go back in time to stop myself from agreeing to help you with this." She grumbled.

"You're starting to talk like Leon, y'know."

"Thank you, sir."

"Not a compliment."

"Whatever…Send Tallman to Aeronautics. I don't care."

..:-X-:..

084 – Sleepless in Radiant Garden

Sleep. All that Tifa wanted was sleep. She was exhausted in body and mind and should have fallen asleep easily. But between her thoughts being glued to the whole situation of Sora remembering Project Stasis and the baby kicking her for hours on end and her inability to get into a comfortable sleeping position—even with the body pillow and the maximum safe dosage of heartburn medication—she was no closer to falling asleep than she had been two hours ago. This was just getting ridiculous.

After glaring at the flashing red numbers on her bedside clock, Tifa groaned and released the pillow, rolling slowly onto her back and letting her hand wander to Leon's side of the bed. When her fingers only met cold sheets, she glanced over and found herself alone.

Huh, well, she must have dozed off at some point, if Leon had manage to slither out of bed without her noticing…Not to mention that Leon could be extremely stealthy in many situations, but getting out of bed in the middle of the night was not one of those situations. The man was the most inelegant midnight snacker that she had ever encountered.

Come to think of it, she could see light under their closed bedroom door. So she wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep tonight. Resigning herself to that fact, Tifa climbed out of bed. The act was becoming more and more difficult with her swelling stomach. Being just a few weeks shy of nine months pregnant was not comfortable…AT ALL.

Tifa opened the bedroom door and traced the dim light from downstairs to the kitchen. As she made her way downstairs, she could smell something like warm baking. Apprehensive now, she stepped off the bottom stair and maneuvered into the kitchen. And there stood her husband, putting the finishing touches on what looked like an apple pie. Duke was sitting at attention like an alert soldier beside him, ears raised and tail still, just waiting for him to drop something.

"What…are you doing?" Tifa greeted through a yawn.

Leon glanced over, looking unsurprised to see her—was she really that noisy coming down the stairs now? "Did I wake you up?"

"No, your daughter never let me fall asleep." Tifa leaned against the doorway to the kitchen. "Pie, huh?"

"Pie." He nodded, pouring flour into a mixing bowl.

Tifa sighed, "Well, the world only knows that you're sexy as all get out when you're cooking, but…at two in the morning? I've got a baby using my ribs as a punching bag, what's your excuse?"

He huffed, slapping his hands together to rid them of flour. There was a small puff of white smoke, and Duke sprang to her feet, looking curiously at the flour cloud. "Knee."

Tifa nodded knowingly, dropping her eyes to his knee, though she couldn't see the problematic joint through his pant leg. "And…apple pie will fix it right up?"

"I already tried icing it, heating it, wrapping it, stretching it." He grumbled. "I did the physical therapy exercises. It just…" He flexed the leg slowly, "…is being stupid."

Tifa chewed the side of her lip for a beat. "You know the doctor said that your knee would probably…be stupid…for the rest of your life. You messed it up pretty good." At his sour look, she straightened, "Hey, you've been back on active duty for months now. You hardly ever limp anymore. You even beat Yuffie at a race last week."

"We both just happened to be jogging in the same direction." He excused.

"And your smug look after you reached Merlin's house first had nothing to do with that?" She lifted an eyebrow, "It was a race."

He looked at her flatly and resumed his baking. "Has Sora called back?"

Tifa leaned her elbows forward on the counter top, watching him roll dough. "No. I sent him a copy of everything we have. Told him my door was open if he needed anything. But Riku remembers all that, so he should be—"

"But he wasn't there." Leon pointed out. "It's different."

There was a rumble of low thunder overhead.

Tifa lifted her shoulders, "And it's not like Kairi can help." She stretched her arms over her head and inhaled deeply, exhaling after a beat as she lowered her arms.

Leon eyed her figure. "You okay?"

"Ask me in about a month and a half." She said, running a hand through her hair.

"You get sassy when you're tired." He observed.

"And you randomly bake comfort desserts." She smirked. "Not a bad match."

"Ah, I see." He muttered, sliding a new pie into the oven and stretching his knee again. "You just married me for my cooking skills."

Rain started to tap on the roof, pattering against the window glass.

"Now, don't sell yourself short." She pointed out. "You have a cute butt too."

He snorted. "At any rate, I hope you like permanent limps, because I doubt it's going anywhere."

"Better or worse, richer or poorer." She bobbed her head. "Hey, you know how some old people can sense when it's going to rain because of their joints?" She pointed.

Looking toward the rainy window, Leon scoffed, "You…That's…shut up."

She snorted. "Hey, cut me a piece of pie. Might as well while it's still hot."

..:-X-:..

Preview for next week: "Though all of Radiant Garden would like to think him dead, I can promise that you will find him Nowhere."