An Hour With Tifa

By generalquistis

oOoOo

Running a bar/restaurant in Edge became more tedious for Tifa especially since she she decided to expand her business by changing her business hours. Now the place is open by 7 in the morning until 2 in the morning. The bar/restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, coffee, and drinks. It is now basically a place where anyone is welcome to dine whenever they want to.

It all started when Cloud Strife befriended Rufus Shinra and the latter suggested that they become business partners. Cloud integrated his delivery service with Shinra, and then the 7th Heaven followed thanks to the persuasion coming from Rufus.

Rufus is a great businessman. He knows how to do business talk the right way and unfortunately, Tifa fell for it. To her, his offer was very hard to resist. "1/3 of your earnings will support the funds of the WRO."
Knowing that she wanted to contribute to the improvement of the Planet, she gave in.

But she is not managing the bar on her own. However, funds are still low and Rufus is cost-cutting for the sake of restoring the Planet so he provided her with help in the form of the Turks. Even the former Turks, who happened to be alive and living in the slums all along, decided to help out.

One particular Friday at 11:45 in the morning, she received a text message from Rufus inviting her to have lunch with him so they can discuss about how business is going. Although she was not in the mood for a meeting with anyone (since she was used to being her own boss), she decided to go but she replied that she would only spend an hour with him because she needed to supervise the work in 7th Heaven.

Much to her surprise, Rufus is holding his new office at a not-so luxurious place. It was hard for her to believe that he is staying at a 12-storey apartment that looks a little run-down. However, inside, the place is equipped with the necessary amenities to keep him comfortable and to make running a business more convenient. He isn't even occupying the highest suite.

"Hello, Tifa." he greeted nonchalantly from behind his small desk as he looked at her from his laptop. He looked bored.
Like she would always do when meeting with acquaintances, she smiled at him. "Shall we?" she asked.
He carefully got up from his chair although his legs still felt a little wobbly.
She went over to him. "Cloud and Tseng reminded me that you shouldn't be walking too much. Let me get your wheelchair..." she began.

"No, no, it's alright. I can walk." he told her stubbornly.
She looked at him unbelievably. "A stubborn sick man you are!" she said teasingly as she insistingly got the wheelchair and forced him to sit down. "Besides, the building has an elevator." she told him reassuringly.

Rufus looked a little bothered by the fact that he is sitting on a wheelchair but he just kept quiet. Tifa failed to notice that he looked a little stiff as she wheeled him out of his office. "I thought you had an automatic wheelchair?" she asked.

"It's the one I use at home. I try to refrain from using it, though. I need to walk." he told her.

"Right." she said mindlessly. "You have recovered from Geostigma but your injuries from Diamond Weapon are still giving you a hard time walking so don't over-exert yourself." she said.

He took a deep breath as he tried his best not to clutch the armrests of the wheelchair and show that his knuckles were already white. Truth be told, she wasn't good with the wheelchair. She's going too fast and was rather careless. She did not even realize that they passed through a few bumps on the hallway because of uneven and creaking flooring.

By the time they got to the elevator, Rufus just wanted to stand up and leave the wheelchair. In his mind, he could hear Cloud's voice telling him, "I gotta warn you though. Don't let her wheel you."

"I think I'll walk, thank you very much." he told her as he got up and went ahead inside the elevator.
Tifa kept a straight face as she wheeled the chair inside the elevator. "I'm still bringing this with me just in case." she said with a determined tone.

Rufus stood as far away from her as possible inside the elevator to the point that he was already standing against the corner. Tifa noticed his distance from her so she moved closer. "Claustrophobia." he reasoned.
She looked around. The elevator is quite small compared to the Shinra elevators. She smiled reassuringly and giggled as she hooked her arm around his. "Aww, that's so cute. Don't worry, I'm here. I won't let the walls close down on you!" she said playfully.

He could feel his heart racing but he could not say anything. Still, he maintained his usual poker-faced expression.

The moment the elevator door opened, Rufus was the first one to step out. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Tifa followed with the wheelchair. "You look distraught. Here, sit down," she said.
He had to admit, the elevator ride made his heart race in a way that he did not expect. To avoid fainting spells, he just agreed to sit down. However, once she began to wheel him again, he realized that maybe sitting down on the wheelchair again is a bad decision. He could've just walked.

It was sunny and the sun was too high in the clear skies. She marveled at sunny weather and asked what he thought of it. She seemed to have forgotten that she was not in the mood to go out on a meeting with Rufus.
"Uh... it's okay." he answered stiffly.
"So where are we eating?" she asked. Then she saw that he was dressed in his 3-layered suit. "Oh you must be warm in there. Here, let me help you." she said before forcefully removing his blazer and draped it over her arm instead. "There you go!" she said brightly.

Rufus felt awkward but he did not say anything. When he felt his face sweating along with the warmth he felt on his ears, he wondered it if it was the weather.

"Where are we eating?" she asked.
"What about your bar?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Nah. It's full when I left. You know, it's lunch time and it's quite hard to find good seats. Why don't we try somewhere else?" she asked.
"Got any suggestions?" he asked.
She thought for a while before wheeling him to the direction of the main street. "Uh... Tifa, I don't think wheelchairs are allowed on the main street." he told her.
"What? Why not? There are sidewalks there, right?" she asked.
"Yes but the cars tend to move fast there so it's still dangerous. I've laid out some laws about it." he told her.
"You're the law-maker so you can violate it without problems." she said nonchalantly.
"That's not really setting a good example for the public." he pointed out.
She was surprised with his answer so she stopped. She smiled discreetly and shrugged. "Alrighty then." she turned the wheelchair around and wheeled her to the designated areas where there are more sidewalks.

"Where do you want to eat?" she asked for the third time.
Rufus knew he had to say this if he wanted to save: "I'm alright with somewhere that isn't quite expensive."
She blinked. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"I'm sure. I can't be nitpicky when the world needs my money more than I do." he replied.

They ended up eating in a food kiosk that serves ramen. It was Rufus' first time eating in that kind of environment. There were cars zooming behind them, a drainage ditch to his right that smells a little bad, and strange people staring at them in wonder. What worried him was the presence of flies around the area. Strangely enough, when Tifa reassured him that the food is clean because it's one of the places that she usually buys food from, he calmed down a bit.

The cook smiled at them as he served their ramen and their drinks. "10 Gil for both." he said.
Tifa brought out her wallet but Rufus stopped her. He brought out his own money and handed 50 Gil to the man. "Keep the change, sir." he said.
The cook was impressed. "Wow. Your boyfriend is very generous, Tifa!" he said in amusement.
"Boyfriend?" she repeated. And she smiled weakly. "He's not. We're business partners." she said.
Rufus just kept quiet as he began to eat.

In the middle of their discussion about putting up another branch in the newly-renovated Sector 7, Tifa suddenly freaked out because a big cockroach came out of the drainage ditch. Rufus was amused that a tough girl like her was afraid of cockroaches. Without thinking, he just stepped on it. It gave out a loud and disgusting CRUNCH and when he removed his shoe from it, the white insides of the roach spilled out on the ground. "Looks like I'm going to have to ask one of the Turks to clean my shoes again." he mumbled.
Tifa cringed because of the sound. "I... think I just lost my appetite... but thank you." she said, forcing a smile at him.
"You didn't seem like the type of person to be afraid of roaches." he pointed out.
"I thought you're also afraid of them." she said.
He shook his head. "I was. But I figured I'm bigger than them and they're pests after all." he said.
She breathed in. "That kind of mentality doesn't work for me. Even Cloud and Barret told me that and I just shunned the idea away. At home, when there are cockroaches, I'd ask another person to kill them for me!" she explained before she started eating mindlessly again.
Rufus observed her quietly. "I thought you just lost your appetite?" he asked.
She blinked and laughed. "Oh yeah. Haha. I got over it!" she said sheepishly and she smiled at him. "Talking to you makes me feel at ease for some reason." she admitted.

Rufus kept a straight face but he could feel his heart racing again. "It's official. The palpitations aren't not caused by the warm weather and the nasty living conditions of this place." he confirmed in his thoughts.

"You know I'd like to live in a place that is cockroach-free. I hate those pests! They contaminate everything! I'll bet you never have problems with those pests because your home is clean and well-maintained." she told him.

He a soft smile played on his face as he got his glass of water and examined its contents for floating things. There were none. "Well, maybe someday you can live in that clean and well-maintained home you're talking about." he said.

She laughed. "Nah, that's impossible. Earning money is harder these days." she told him.

Rufus felt a little disappointed that she failed to get his point but he just kept quiet and drank his water.

An hour later, they resumed to doing their own tasks in their respective workplaces. Rufus received a call from Cloud asking how the "date" went.
"It was... splendid. I killed a roach for her." Rufus said rather proudly that it made Cloud laugh.

Later that evening, at Tifa's bar, while observing Elena listing down some orders, it was only then that she realized what Rufus had meant by what he said earlier about living in the same quality of home like his. Suddenly she could not fight the warmth she was feeling on her cheeks an her ears that she had to turn away before the other Turks could notice it.

Carefully, she slipped to the back room and decided to send a little text message to Rufus, "How about another meeting tomorrow? This time, dinner."

oOoOo

-THE END-

Author's Note: This was originally published in one of my LJ accounts (it’s called “ofcourseyoudid”) where I publish stories that I feel nobody would care to read because majority of them fail to target the right kind of readers. But anyway, I’ve decided to take the risk and publish this one here. A RufusxTifa. I don't like bashing so don't. I don't care whether you review this or not but if you'll just bash on the review, just go back to the forest and eat your bananas. Pshaw.