Handyman -- Traverse Town [OPEN]

[landofcanaan]

Aerith stared right up at the gaping hole in their nice, sturdy roof with a frown. A nice, pile of snow had gathered right in the middle of the hallway by now, and the flower girl was a little miffed that no one had bothered to temporarily patch it up until Dante and Zack actually got around to repairing it

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[grumpy_lion]

Leon did not doubt for a moment that Aerith was capable of taking care of herself, but he still felt obligated to warn her. Dante didn't come across as the gentlemanly sort, after all. He raised a brow at her but said nothing as he finally leaned pressed his back against the opposite wall. He continued to keep an eye on her for any sign of her losing her balance.

He didn not miss the implication in her words, shifting uncomfortably. To be perfectly honest, he felt less inclined to apologize to Zack after what Sephiroth had told him regarding Axel. Zack had always gotten on his nerves without exercising much effort, but this was beyond ridiculous. He should have given Sephiroth the chance to annihilate Axel from the start, or at least injure him to severely so that the bastard would think twice about abducting people for his experiments. How the fuck could Zack allow someone so dangerous to roam free, let alone defend them?

He sighed, pressing his fingers against his brow, an old habit of his that easily betrayed his agitation. "Cloud? I should probably have a word with him, too. It's been a while," he remarked, folding his arms again.

"Do you have a journal?" he asked suddenly. "We should trade usernames."

[landofcanaan]

"We're all supposed to get together to share what we know about the Heartless situation some time soon," Aerith offered, fastening to second to last clip without too much trouble. "You should come too. It'll be me, Sephiroth, Cloud, and Zack." After all Leon knew quite a bit about their current situation... Maybe even more than she did.

Oh, journals! She hadn't even thought of that. She had Cloud's and Sephiroth's, but not Leon's, which was kind of weird. With the last bit of curtain to be pinned up in hand, the flower girl turned around, a touch too quickly to reply. She swiftly lost her footing and fell from her perch, grasping the curtain reflexively as she fell and subsequently tearing down all her hard work and a few, more pieces of roof along with it.

[grumpy_lion]

The severe look on Leon's face cleared slightly as Aerith mentioned the meeting. So, things were finally going to start getting serious around here? It was about damn time. He could finally do something about the cargo he had yet to collect from that junk heap of a gummi ship he'd left in Cid's shop, too.

The old lion wasn't able to give it much more thought, however. He reacted almost immediately, pushing himself off the wall and darting forward to catch Aerith before she could come to any harm. His hands found her waist and guided her towards him, but the momentum of her fall was far too great and Leon lost his footing as well.

He stumbled back and fell with a grunt, wincing when Aerith fell on top of him. He's managed to cushion her fall, at least. "Fuck." Grimacing, he glanced up at the ceiling. The hole was larger now. "You all right?" he asked Aerith after several moments.

[landofcanaan]

It all happened so quickly, that Aerith simply didn't have time to react. She'd braced herself for the hard landing and was sort of surprised when it didn't come. With the relatively soft landing, she noticed that she'd squeezed her eyes shut and decided now might be a good time to open them.

She honestly should've expected Leon to catch her and felt a little guilty that she hadn't when he'd been there so many times in the past. To be fair, though, it was kind of hard to think such things through when you were falling from a high enough distance to at twist and ankle and be sore of several days.

As awkward as their position probably was at the moment, Aerith's face was quickly clouded with concern and such realizations were not immediately entertained.

"Leon! Are you alright?" she asked worriedly, ignoring his own inquiry. "You didn't break anything, did you? Geez, I'm so sorry!"

[grumpy_lion]

Leon stared at Aerith in disbelief. Well, that answered his question. If the flower girl still had it in her head to worry about his well-being, then she had to be all right, at the very least.

He realized somewhat belatedly that his hands were still clasped around Aerith's waist and quickly let go. he felt an unexpected rush of heat spread across his cheeks, and he shifted uncomfortably. Leon suspected that he would be sporting some pretty interesting bruises in a few uncomfortable places before the night was over, but otherwise...

"I'm fine," he said a little stiffly, looking away. "Could you get off?"

[landofcanaan]

Finally realizing their position herself, Aerith hurriedly scrambled to her feet and offered her hand to Leon to help him up. Not that it would be much help, but the flustered, young woman assured herself that it was the gesture that counted.

"I'm really sorry," she apologized again, feeling just terrible that she'd ended up making a big mess of everything after she'd come so close to actually proving her status as a bonified handyman. Aerith sighed, looking a little annoyed with herself now that all the embarrassment and awkwardness had had time to pass. "Wow, I ended up making an even bigger mess, didn't I?"

[grumpy_lion]

Leon didn't say anything as he got to his feet. He rolled his shoulders back as he took a quick assessment of the acehs and found everything to be fine, just as he had assured Aerith. Once he saw that he was still intact, he focused his attention back to the hole, now made wider thanks to Aerith's skills as a handyman.

He brushed her apology aside with an impatient wave of his hand. "Just means more work for that idiot," he remarked, but he didn't sound very pleased about that particular notion at all. More work for Dante meant that Dante had to stick around longer, if the man even owned up to the damage he caused. Leon did not want to have to see that swaggering idiot anymore than he had to.

Whatever.

"It'll be better if I cover the hole from the outside instead." After a pause he nudged a piece of the ceiling Aerith had brought down with her with his toe. "We should clean up."

[landofcanaan]

Aerith sighed and shook her head. There was no one to blame for the mess but herself. Well, maybe whoever had caused the mess too. At least Leon wasn't as irritated as he could've been, considering...

"You're probably right. I should just leave the handyman stuff to you boys from now on." Aerith laughed and smiled up at him. "I'll handle things in here then and keep an eye out for you in case I need to return the heroic rescue."

[grumpy_lion]

Leon simply could not fathom how Aerith could smile or even laugh at a time like this. The old lion had just about reached the end of his rope, far beyond the point of even getting angry anymore. It was almost comical how many disasters -- all of varying degrees -- he had run into since his return to Traverse, and he had yet to get an adequate amount of sleep, a meal or even a shower.

Then again, she wasn't the one who had landed on the hardwood floor. Leon suppressed the urge to sigh.

With the way things have been, he thought as he bent down to pick up the curtain, I wouldn't be surprised if I did fall off the fucking roof.

[landofcanaan]

As Leon retrieved the curtain, Aerith picked up the broom she'd used to sweep up the powdery, white snow moments earlier. She didn't immediately begin to sweep up the debris, however, as she wanted to spot Leon and be certain that he wasn't about to fall.

"I don't think I'll be able to give a boost..." she admitted with a frown. Sometimes not being one of the stronger members of the bunch was a pain. "Do you want me to look for a ladder or something?"

[grumpy_lion]

"We have a ladder?" Curtain in hand, Leon straightened and fixed Aerith a look that clearly said If we have a ladder why didn't you use it? Once again, there was no sense in getting irritated about these little things, even if the hole on the roof was slightly larger due to such oversight.

Sigh.

Leon shook out the curtain before he began to fold it. "I was thinking about climbing onto the room from one of the balconies," he said. There were chairs and tables there he could use to boost himself up, but with this snow Leon expected that it would be slippery and possible dangerous. The roof itself was probably no different, but he would deal with that once he was up there. "If you can find a ladder, that would be helpful."

[landofcanaan]

"Well, I'm not sure. I guess wasting time looking would be a bad idea since the snow is starting to pile up again," Aerith admitted. It wouldn't make sense to spend the rest of the say searching the hotel for one when the hole needed to be patche dup immediately. Besides, Leon was a capable, strong guy. He'd be able to handle himself just fine.

"I'll spot you, though. Just be careful?"

[grumpy_lion]

The lion was feeling exceptionally pessimistic tonight, but he refrained from making anymore comments. Better to hold his tongue than hurt Aerith's feelings. She was, after all, only trying to help, and taking his ill luck out on her wouldn't be fair.

He did fix her a look that said, You're kidding, right? as he bent over to pick up the clothespins. Stuffing those into his pocket, he turned and headed for the nearest room, clearly expecting Aerith to follow.

[landofcanaan]

Sheesh, he really wasn't happy about all of this. Not that the flower girl could really blame him. At least he wasn't yelling.

Yet.

Aerith thought about chatting about something random to try and coax a faint, almost-not-there-at-all smile out of him but thought better of it as she trotted along after him. After the roof was temporarily patched up, Leon might be in a better mood. All she could do right now was help out and hopefully not botch anything else.

Hmmm... He'd probably have to help her up onto the roof, but she assumed he'd be able to figure thought out on his own. Aerith had never been the most athletic of their group...

[grumpy_lion]

It was just as well that Aerith kept to herself. Leon was in no mood to converse for the time being, and it showed, though his ire was clearly not directed at the flower girl. She simply had the misfortune of being there while he was ready to knock some teeth out. Preferable Dante's.

He swept through the room without pausing to see whose it was, stepping out into the balcony overlooking the waterway. The view was surprisingly pretty, rooftops gleaming white under the night sky, where clouds ere just beginning to break to reveal stars. Leon did not pause to consider the view, however, moving to the table and brushing off the snow that had gathered there before climbing onto it, standing carefully to see if it would hold its weight. It did.

Small miracles.

Leon finally turned to Aerith. "It's not slippery," he informed her. He then turned and took hold of the edge of the roof -- it wasn't a far reach -- and pulled himself up with surprising grace. Within moments, Leon was crouched on the edge of the roof, peering down at Aerith. "You coming?" he asked.

[landofcanaan]

Aerith herself had to pause to look out over the beautiful scene spread out before them. It sure was cold, but somehow the snow coupled with the starry night managed to make a pretty scene out of what was otherwise a fairly plain sight. The flower girl smiled, staring off into the distance for a second before she realized that they weren't out here to admire the scenery.

Aerith shook her head and offered Leon an apologetic smile. They really didn't need to be out here any longer than was necessary.

"I'm sorry. I spaced out for a second. I'll be sure to be more diligent when I'm spotting you," she laughed. Slowly and a good bit less gracefully than her friend, Aerith managed to climb up onto the table, taking a few moments to keep her balance as she slowly stood up. From there she held her hands up to Leon. There was no way she was going to be able to lift herself onto the roof.

"Can you give me a hand?"