I haven't had time for long fic lately, and this occurred to me while driving the other day. Was nice to revisit Rufus and Tifa after all this time. Maybe the Remake will give this kind of obscure pairing more steam. But then I feel that was about all my rare pairs. If only...

Disclaimer: Squeenix got the stranglehold. I'm just playing.

The bald man opened the door to a beautiful woman in a burgundy evening gown and that seemed to be enough for him because he gestured for her to enter while she gave a wide smile. For her part, the woman was shocked at how easy it was to get inside this expensive townhouse given that Shinra Corp. was a tech company, among other things. Shouldn't there have been some sort of complicated protocol to get in to a VP's house?

Immediately inside, in a sitting room, a red-haired man was playing what sounded like some ridiculous matching game on his phone. Tongue sticking out, he twisted in an elaborate seated victory dance while his phone trilled and she saw a gun strapped to his side. Security detail number two.

A blond woman with serious frown lines, an immaculate suit, and a crisp bob came down a staircase directly in front of her line of sight from the doorway and the woman in red shifted in her uncomfortably high heels. The hands the blond woman had been holding behind her moved to the front to reveal a clip board.

"Don Corneo was told you were to wear blue. It isn't like him to miss a detail that obvious." The blond woman gave no indication that she disapproved of her boss hiring escorts, there was simply a checklist to manage and it looked like the woman in red wasn't allowing her to mark one of the boxes. "…you don't look like a 'Candy', either."

Swallowing with a hint of nervousness, the woman proffered the best reasoning she could for the slipup. "Candy couldn't make it. I'm a stand in. I didn't realize there was a, uh, color requirement."

"You also don't meet stated height and… other requirements." The blond woman was unreadable, but the woman in the red dress started to flush with anger. Clearly she was too busty, too muscular, and too short—this was already a bad idea but it was turning into an embarrassing disaster faster than she could have imagined.

"I assure you I'm fully qualified to stand around and look pretty," the woman in red said through lightly clenched teeth. She was aware that she didn't look like Candy, who was willowy and ash blond. Candy was the perfect representative of Don Corneo's models, and she wasn't, but she also was plenty attractive in this tight mermaid monstrosity she had procured. The foundation garments alone had been more trouble than they were worth, but the look they gave her in this dress was undeniably voluptuous. When had hourglass gone out of style?

"Elena, is there a problem?" Rufus Shinra appeared in his tuxedo from the upstairs and seemed to be straitening out cufflinks as his eyes skimmed over the woman in red. That calculating ice blue glance paused on her face longer than her chest, so she'd give him a little credit for that. The woman in red did her very best to hide her disdain and plastered the most empty-headed smile she could force herself to give on her face. She hoped it didn't look fearsome.

"Sir, Don Corneo has never let us down before but I fear tonight your requests were not heeded."

Rufus finished messing with his cufflinks and approached the woman in red. In her four-inch heels they were eye to eye, and as he got within a foot of her the woman in red didn't flinch so much as push back her shoulders and loosely balls her fists before forcing them to relax again. It was not the time or place for that, and she needed to calm down.

"Tell Tseng to put the sapphires away and fetch my mother's diamonds instead." Rufus spoke to Elena, but remained watching the woman in red for her reaction. She refused to break eye contact first, as if it were a contest for dominance. He may be rich but he wasn't better than her, and she brushed a lock of dark chocolate brown hair from her face overly casually. She should have put it up, she thought, as leaving it loose meant it was all the way down to the small of her back. It may have looked dramatic the way she had teased and curled it to poof up around her head, but it wasn't very practical. The urge to crack her knuckles was strong, but she resisted.

"Yes, sir." Elena said and walked back up the stairs. Not even a hint of surprise, merely professional agreement. The woman in red could respect this Elena more if she had used that efficiency to serve a better boss. While she had flicked her eyes over to the woman walking up the stairs, Rufus had remained fixated on her like he was appraising a piece of jewelry. It was disconcerting.

"And who might you be, if not a Candy?" Rufus rocked back on his heels in his perfectly polished evening shoes, and the woman in red suspected the Shinra heir's clothes would have paid the rent on her apartment many times over.

"…Tiffany." The woman supplied reluctantly, thinking on the faded birth certificate in a folder under her bed. She could have lied, but there were enough lies involved in tonight that stacking them would have been too hard. It was a good name for the moment, anyway. Appropriate somehow. He didn't need to know that every single person who mattered called her Tifa. Ultimately, he didn't matter.

"No last name?" Rufus tilted his head at her, curious.

"Did Candy have a last name?" Tifa asked with false sweetness.

Rufus gave a short bark of laughter, but his eyes narrowed. He thought her impertinence quaint for the moment, but Tifa was already pushing it. Time to reel herself back in a bit.

"A girl needs to have a little mystery," She was trying for coquettish, shifting her posture to prop her generous bosom up more. This is what he was paying for, surely, and at the very least that was usually a good diversion in her experience. Rufus' eyes shifted as she'd hoped, but then they shot back up to regard her warily.

A man with long black hair came down the stairs with as much gravity as the blond woman who had disappeared up it. In his hands was one large oblong velvet case and one small black case. Rufus turned with a vague smile and accepted the small case while the long haired man opened the oblong case to reveal a truly breathtaking necklace made of a cascade of diamonds. It looks like raindrops encased in white gold, and Tifa stood there in shock while the long haired man fastened this piece of undoubtedly expensive jewelry around her neck.

"I think this was the right choice, don't you agree Tseng?"

"Yes, sir." The long haired man barely even glanced at Tifa as he mechanically went about his work and then withdrew to give Tifa a brief nod, as if agreeing again with his boss' assessment now that he had thought about it. "Ma'am, I'll take the liberty of reminding you that these are on loan from the Shinra family collection and are not in any way a gift or payment. You will not be considered liable in the case of possible breakage from normal wear and tear, but should there be any evidence of larceny I assure you that you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

It wasn't totally shocking, but it was also super weird to Tifa that someone rich and not at all bad looking like Rufus Shinra needed to hire escorts to go to parties with him. It was additionally weird that he then decked out these hired women in his dead mother's famous jewelry. It was triply weird that she was one of these infamous women, even for a night.

"They're safe with me. I don't covet what isn't mine." It wasn't entirely true, but if the object was a person not a thing then surely it fell into a different category all together.

"Speaking of what's yours," Rufus drew closer again and Tseng stepped back, but as Rufus brushed back Tifa's voluminous hair he noticed something with a frown. The bald man had taken precisely one step forward when Tifa's hands had twitched up to push Rufus back out of instinct, but she hadn't made contact with his perfectly pressed suit and she wasn't about to forget the reaction of the bald man any time soon. Interesting. "Your ears aren't pierced."

"I, uh," She was catching whiffs of Rufus' cologne and she wished she hadn't because it was triggering a sense memory so strong she couldn't help but blush. There was another man she knew who used that specific scent. "I didn't realize that was part of the mysterious requirements."

Displaying the small diamond studs in the tiny box Rufus had taken from Tseng, he gave Tifa a curious look. "Typically I gift a token for the more important occasions, but I don't know what you're going to do with earrings you can't wear." He snapped the case shut and tossed it to the bald man who caught it awkwardly. "We'll have to figure something else out for you, Tiffany."

Hearing her given name, the one no one used, spoken by this slimeball gave Tifa chills. She reminded herself she only needed to tolerate him for an evening. He had paid money to force some woman to be nice to him all night and who knew what else after they returned from this stupid banquet or whatever it was. Patience would have to be her watchword tonight. She needed to stay on his good side long enough to accomplish her mission.

"Of course, Mr. Shinra." She tried to simper, but she wasn't entirely sure how so she would never know if she did it right.

"Call me Rufus, tonight." Extending his arm out to her, Tifa was proud of how she hesitated only a moment before taking it as gracefully as she knew how. If her grip was a little too tight, or her walk in the heels a little too wobbly, she never would have noticed. But Rufus certainly did.

"Another one of Don Corneo's famous angels?" A man in a slightly less well tailored tuxedo than Rufus' own approached them while Tifa swished the wine around in her glass and wished for a real drink. Gritting out a smile, she tried to give a quick nod. It had been a night of indignities already and she figured she knew what was coming. "I don't suppose I could make you a better offer tonight? Whatever Rufus is paying you, I'll double it."

"With that face of yours, you'll have to triple it at the very least," Rufus smiled his snake in the grass smile and raised his glass of wine towards the man in mocking salute. When his arm encircled Tifa's waist she could feel how thin it was. Not hiding any beefy secrets under that tux, then. She wondered briefly, the last time anyone had touched her this intimately in public without immediate and painful consequence. Probably years.

"He must be running out of women, she looks like she'd just as easily toss you over her shoulder as model lingerie, Shinra! But maybe that would be good for you to have a real woman instead of a stick insect." He laughed and clapped Rufus on the shoulder before walking away.

Tifa didn't even realize it was that slender but firm arm at her side that was all that had kept her from leaping at that Neanderthal. Rufus whispered in her ear, "Reeve doesn't mean anything by it. He's here keeping up appearances as well. He would have found something insulting to say no matter what you looked like. He's baiting you because he can't say anything to me."

"That doesn't mean I want to rip that goatee off his face any less," Tifa finally responded. She appreciated that Rufus was trying to smooth over her mood, but she also didn't want to feel even a drop of gratitude because humanizing him was the last thing she needed.

There was also the fact that Rufus hadn't actually removed his arm from around her waist. Subtle attempts to disentangle herself proved futile, so she sighed and tried to accept it as part of the job. The hand wasn't wandering anywhere, so Tifa could tolerate it.

"The wine not to your taste?"

Tifa looked over in mild surprise, given how she fully expected him to essentially ignore her and drag her around the room to chum it up with his office buddies. "I'm not really much of a wine girl," Looking around she saw how nearly every woman in the room held either a glass of wine or a flute of champagne. "When I get a choice, I prefer rum. But this doesn't look like a rum crowd to me."

"Don't be fooled. I'd bet you a grand that man there coming out of the bathroom did a line of coke. I know for a fact that a dozen people to the left of us have prescriptions for unspecified back pain that seems to mysteriously return only when they are running out of medication." Tifa gaped at Rufus. "Rum might scandalize them, but only because alcoholism is so mundane. Didn't I just say that everyone here is keeping up appearances?"

Tifa forced her mouth to close and took a determined sip of her probably expensive white wine. Is this how he entertained all his paid dates? By pointing out who among his peers were drug addicts? No wonder no one wanted to hang out with him.

"You don't like me."

Blowing some wine out her mouth in surprise, Tifa tried to recover by blotting the droplets on her dress with her cocktail napkin. His arm tightened around her waist and she wondered why she ever thought him weak because her ribs felt a little creaky. "I don't know you, Mr. Shinra."

"Rufus. I said call me Rufus. Tiffany." He said her name in that way that let Tifa know things were going south and it was up to her to turn it around. She was no actress and her disgust with the upper echelons and their decadent ways was bleeding out of her every pore.

"Rufus, then, how am I supposed to feel when I get paraded around like a piece of meat and insulted by every other person that encounters us? The women politely ignore my existence and the men make not very veiled comments about how I'm a whore." Tifa tried to make it about the people around them, even if she considered him nearly as bad.

Then again, if she were to judge him on actions alone he had been a gentleman from opening the car door to fetching her a drink and asking if she needed to get off her feet when she started shifting uncomfortably an hour into the cocktail time prior to the dinner and speeches. Rufus seemed like the kind of man who kept his collectible toys in the box, who picked up his room without being asked, who had ideas about chivalry. It didn't fit with what she had imagined, but it did weirdly fit with what she'd been told about how he was extremely particular about odd things.

"What they think doesn't matter. Truth is subjective anyway." Tifa felt like Rufus existed on a different planet. It must be by invitation only for people who had more money than sense. He set his wine down, largely still untouched. "Would you like to dance?"

That seemed so out of left field that Tifa wasn't sure how to react. He allowed his steel band of an arm to loosen and Tifa felt his fingertips trace down her arm until he grabbed her by the hand. It gave her a shiver down her spine, and darn it all if she wasn't a little dazzled by the boyish smile he flashed. She was nodding before she could think better of it. His hand was warm.

"It so weird there is a dance floor…" Tifa said as they took formal posture and swayed in time to the live band.

"This has been a staple since my grandfather's time. The event planning has never been modernized. My father doesn't believe in change." The last sentence held so much sneer that Tifa was reminded forcefully that this was the man she was supposed to hate.

That was a thought she had to bring to the forefront of her mind purposefully because it was easy to forget again as the soft nostalgic music lulled her. Rufus was in his own world as well, even as they were so intimately entwined. There was no way he hadn't received years of dance instruction because his form was perfect, and he was alert enough to steer them away from the few senior couples that had decided they also wanted to take a turn on the floor.

"Can I ask you something?" Tifa said, suddenly shy. As always, physical activity relaxed her and it made the entire situation awkward.

Rufus appeared to refocus on the here and now and actually seemed somewhat soft compared to the personality he had been displaying all night. "As you like. But I may not answer."

"Do you really own a panther?" Of all the stupid things, it just slipped out.

"Sadly, I used to. It was rehomed to a zoo in another city sometime in my late adolescence, much to Tseng's relief. Sometimes things seem like a good idea in the moment."

Tifa was relieved about that one. "The one about the glass eye?"

"Myth. I think it got started because I hold eye contact without blinking for as long as possible." The hand at her waist flexed and then gripped her before he spun them away from a somewhat drunk couple who was stumbling towards them. "Anything else?"

"Do you really never go out with the same woman twice?"

"Afraid so. Good or bad, tonight is all we'll have, Tiffany."

Tifa snorted, unimpressed. "Oh. No. Stop. My heart." She smiled at him, wondering what it would be like to be out of her painful heels and glancing up at him instead. Perhaps she would feel more feminine, and Tifa felt a sharp cut of longing for a moment like that. Her whole life was about being tough and there was something about this arrangement that was triggering the desire to be coddled a bit. It was a weakness she didn't welcome. "My friends call me Tifa, by the way."

"Are we friends?" Rufus arched a perfect eyebrow at her, and she could see how he was laughing inside. It made her feel silly and small.

Tifa shrugged, wishing she hadn't mentioned it. "Special trial offer, only good for tonight."

"Accepted. And unfortunately for you, it's also true that given even the slightest bit of power I will extract every bit of advantage from it, Tifa." He tightened his posture, bringing Tifa in closer and causing her to turn her head away lest their faces get so close she could smell the wine on his breath. Silently, she wondered if she had invited this, and hated him furiously for confusing her with his honesty. This is not the man she needed him to be for this mission to be satisfying. Unsure, she laid her cheek against his shoulder and swayed in time to his lead.

Dinner was the trainwreck she had been waiting for, as she sat on one side of Rufus and Tseng sat on the other at the round table near the raised podium. Corpulent, blond, and mustachioed, President Rufus C. Shinra Sr. ascended to speak as the main course was served. Rufus rolled his eyes and polished off yet another glass of wine, his fancy steak and tiny vegetables untouched. Tifa, who never met a protein she didn't like, was perfectly happy to pack her whole slab of meat away and watched with some worry as Rufus began to sway in his seat ever so slightly.

While President Shinra droned on about benchmarks and gave congratulations to various team members while polite golf claps cascaded around them, Rufus' smile grew more and more brittle. The mumbled comments in Tifa's direction about how that person was cheating on his wife with mistress number three, or that that woman had gotten her position by blaming her supervisor for multiple made up issues sort of put a weird spin on all the accolades.

"Don't you have anything positive to say?!" Tifa hissed at him as she politely clapped for someone Rufus assured her was buying up rental property in slums in order to raise rents and level it to build condos.

"Lazard was the optimist, Tifa." He gestured for a server to bring more wine, and Tseng looked on impassively as Tifa stilled Rufus' hand. "But here I am at another end of fiscal year banquet where all the executives and shareholders pat themselves on the back and my father hints at a retirement that will never happen so long as he draws breath."

"I think you've had enough, Rufus." Her voice was gentle this time, because she could see he was drinking to forget something that pained him. She had certainly been there as well.

Looking up at the president who was glorying in a standing ovation that didn't involve Rufus, he blinked hard and shook off Tifa's meddling hand. "Maybe I have had enough, at that."

"Who's Lazard?" Tifa asked, while Rufus took a deep breath and finally began drinking water.

"No one of consequence." Was Rufus' too sharp reply. "Just be silent and smile. That's what I'm paying you for." It was the cruelest thing he had said to her all night, and she figured it was a defensive response to her inquiring about this Lazard fellow. She thought about retorting, but Tseng caught her eye and shook his head ever so slightly. Tifa popped a knuckle or two in frustration, and then did her best to smile. It must have been a terrible smile, because when a server came to bring them more water, when she turned towards them the poor kid did an about face and almost spilled the whole pitcher.

Since it didn't look like Rufus was going to eat the cooling steak, she waited until he was talking about something to Tseng and switched their plates. Steak like this didn't happen in her world every day, and she didn't like seeing anyone wasting food. On her other side, some society matron seemed to notice that Tifa was on her second plate and curled up her lip as she settled her entire silk clad body a little farther away. Tifa didn't mind, this whole experience was a fluke anyway and as Rufus as said earlier in the evening 'what they think doesn't matter.'

"The catering is fantastic, don't you think?" Tifa said to the older woman, doubling down on cheerful politeness since she knew the older woman already wished Tifa would crawl back into her hole.

An amused snort next to her told Tifa that Rufus wasn't entirely insensible to her antics. A warm hand squeezed her knee once in a friendly manner. It was so annoying how likeable this blond bastard was turning out to be. Tifa forced herself to eat the entire second steak even as her stomach twisted with regrets. Promises had been made and money had changed hands. There was no going back.

It was like the inverse of the beginning of the evening as Tifa had to help Rufus out of the car and up the stairs to his bedroom in the townhouse. The red-haired man had chuckled at them and she had blushed furiously at what he must think was going to come next. The bald man, had helped Tifa get Rufus up the stairs, but refused to pass through to the room itself so Tifa was the one who actually dumped the still partially inebriated man on his own king sized bed. She stood there, hands on hips, wondering what to do about this situation when Rufus sat up with a groan.

"A glass of water would be appreciated." An order without being an order, Tifa considered not doing it, but she had been in this position enough times that there was empathy. In the end, with a twisting smile, she grabbed an empty glass from his night stand and walked over to the bathroom. It was just tap water, but he could cope. "You're the first one of my dates to see the second floor, for what its worth."

It had to be a lie, probably a lie he could use every time as no lady went out with him twice, but it still made her heart flop.

She sat down an arm's length away from him on the bed and ran nervous hands through her hair. It was the perfect moment and she was blowing it. Hesitation wasn't like her. How many times had her father told her that a Lockhart always keeps their promises?

"Lazard was my half-brother." Rufus said, still staring at the floor and most likely waiting for the spinning in his head to subside. "I still have at least two others, one older and one younger, and both fully and rightfully despise me." Those clear eyes may not be able to fully focus on her but he saw her. "Which one sent you?"

Had he known the whole time? Maybe her ruse hadn't been as clever as she first thought. "Cloud." Tifa choked out the name, thinking back on how passionately she had sworn she would carry her task through. How easy she assured him it would be.

"Ah. I should have guessed. Evan is probably still playing goth and running his mother's bar downtown. He always coped with our father's negligence better. Cloud can't let go of anything."

He was right. Cloud was still pining for a woman he only went on four dates with before she skipped town to find herself. Tifa was probably never going to catch his attention as the blond idiot stewed in his own rosy memories of the past and mournful ideas about what the future could have been, if only. That Rufus had effortlessly broken her heart regarding Cloud was something she could never admit to, and that anger brought her back to the immediate problem.

"When did you suspect?" She reached behind her neck and undid the complex clasp that held the diamond necklace on. It had been both brand and chain all night and she was glad to be rid of it. She set it carefully on the bed behind her, and Rufus watched her with that relentless intensity he was known for, that she was coming to admire.

"Don Corneo has a type, and you're not it, lovely as you are." Rufus smiled to himself. "And you're a terrible escort. Not deferential enough by half."

That actually made her feel fantastic. "Thank you. And here I was thinking I was caving in to everything. You know… weak."

Rufus edged closer and put his hand over hers. "I don't think you could project weakness if you tried."

"If you're trying to get on my good side, you're succeeding." Tifa said with an awkward smile. "So please know, and I swear as a Lockhart, this isn't personal in the least."

Both swift jabs were strategically placed so that he would have a black eye and a bloody nose. Truly, Cloud had paid for her to beat him within an inch of his life but she couldn't bring herself to go that far. Even a broken nose, which would have been a matter of one more forceful punch, didn't seem like something Rufus necessarily deserved.

"Fuck!" Rufus' exclamation pretty much captured it. There really wasn't a lot to say when a wee bit of girl beat your face bloody. It had been Cloud's goal to embarrass him, mostly, and she figured she met the spirit of her agreement rather than the letter.

"Ice it, and the black eye will go away in about a week. Trust me, I get enough of them."

Elevating his bleeding nose, Rufus was still trying to be charming. "You should break up with your boyfriend, then."

"Cute." Tifa watched him with slight concern as he leaned back and pinched his nostrils. "Really, it isn't personal. Under the circumstances, even with everything, I had a good time." On impulse she leaned down and gave him a lingering kiss on his cheek. "I'm not kidding about the ice. That's going to hurt a lot more once all that wine wears off. Take care."

Her hands skimmed the tops of Rufus' thighs as she pulled away from him, and she could feel how tense he was. What kind of man walks into a trap like this? One that hates himself, possibly, or one that thinks he deserves some sort of punishment. Maybe Rufus and Cloud had a stronger family resemblance than they suspected. All she knew was that she didn't want to be in the center of their family issues any longer. If Cloud wanted to get back at his half-brother he could do his own dirty work from here out.

Icy blue eyes followed her out of the room and continued to stare at the door once she had closed it quietly behind her.

"Boss!" Rude rushed to Rufus' side, fluttering around him and unsure of what to do. Clearly Rufus was bleeding, and there was a terrific bruise forming around his eye, but Shinra was acting as if nothing was unusual. Every so often he gingerly blotted at his nose with a reddening handkerchief, but otherwise he was acting normal.

"Fetch some ice. Quickly."

"Yes, boss!" Rude was off down the stairs, practically leaping down several at a time. Rufus followed more sedately and entered the sitting room where Reno was playing his stupid video game on his phone.

Knocking Reno's feet off the couch, the redhead came to attention immediately, letting his phone drop to the floor. It was past midnight and Rufus felt like he had been hit by a truck, but that didn't mean his mind could rest.

"You've been following Cloud recently, does the name Tifa Lockhart ring any bells?" Rufus was using the tone he reserved for evaluating reports in his office with subordinates. Typically, this signaled to Reno that he needed to bring his A game to the conversation.

"The MMA fighter? I think they go to the same gym… Barrett's." Reno couldn't help but elaborate though, since fighting was one of his favorite topics. "I'd heard she trains there, at least. Been tryin' to get a glimpse of her ever since I saw her knock that one chick out first round in a match a couple months ago. With a kick to the head, too, can you even imagine! Pow! She wasn't the top of the card, but she probably will be soon. I can't imagine she won't get a title shot with the moves she's got. If her arms and legs weren't deadly enough you'd think she could knock a man out just by hitting him with one of her huge ti—"

"So this Barrett has her contact information?" Rufus interrupted, somewhat testily.

"Yeah, no doubt." Reno finally noticed the state of Rufus' face, and Rufus had to remind himself that the reason he kept this idiot around was because he provided other value to the team. At the moment he was hard pressed to point out what value, though. "Boss! Your face! What happened?"

Rude ran in with the ice pack, and Rufus snatched it up and pressed it to his eye. "That's not important. Just be ready to take me to Barrett's gym tomorrow. I have some unfinished business."

"Sure, boss. Whatever you want." Reno gave a weird little salute and then picked his phone up off the ground. "But Cloud only goes there Monday and Wednesday, so if you're looking for him…"

Rufus shook his head. "I'm not interested in my half-brother's pathetic hobbies. Miss Lockhart and I have something to discuss, and I need this Barrett to give her a message for me."

"She got somethin' you want, boss?"

"In a sense."

Rude and Reno exchanged a glance as Rufus wandered back upstairs, ice clutched to his face. Twin shrugs pretty much said it all.