Author's Note: I was feeling it, I hope you guys do too. It came to me this afternoon while I was thinking about what 2014 will bring. It is short, sweet, mostly fluff if not all fluff. You know how it is. Nothing like a little Rufena to start the year off, right? Mind you, this fic is not in the Flux universe, of Fluxiverse if you will, (though it does borrow a few things to come) so for those of you who read Flux, leave it at the door. That said, hope you guys like it :)
-vvv-
A Moment At Midnight
An hour before midnight.
An hour before a new year began and old things were put aside for new. This wasn't quite how Elena imagined spending the last day of what had proved to be an interesting year and the first day of what would surely be an even crazier one—thus the life of a Turk. She had taken one for the team, as Reno had eloquently put it, and decided to spend the evening with Rufus ShinRa on New Year's Eve instead of joining them down in the Junon streets celebrating a new calendar. She didn't know why she did it but someone had to—the last time they left him alone, he almost got assassinated.
What good was a Turk without a ShinRa to protect?
For her troubles, Reno and Rude and Tseng had taken it upon themselves to send her a photo of what they were doing down on the Junon harbor with the rest of the city. They were all smiling at the camera, Rude in his shy way, a slight smile—and for the occasion his actual honey colored eyes were staring into the camera instead of those dark shades; Reno with all teeth bared while wearing a ridiculous hat with the new year's numbers on it; and Tseng smiling a close mouthed smile that crinkled in a nice way around his eyes. There was a stranger in the picture, a random blonde girl who bared a slight resemblance to her except for having striking blue eyes and much longer hair, an aristocratic nose and face that wasn't as cheeky as her own. The message that joined the picture was from Reno saying "Found your clone. Still not the same. Wish you were here". The text was accompanied with a winky face and a stuck out tongue.
Jerk. She laughed softly to herself and texted back a sarcastic reply: no matter, I'm having a great time up here getting the crumbs out of my keyboard.
She hit send and glanced at the time.
An hour before midnight.
She was regretting her decision. Not because she didn't like spending time with Rufus—if you could call it that—but because she had never spent a New Year's Eve inside or alone...technically. She wasn't exactly alone because Rufus was hidden away in his office with the door shut. Even so, she was left to stare out of the window of the ShinRa offices, wondering what the crowds were getting into below.
In an hour, the sky would be alight with a stunning fireworks show. Sure, she could see it from here, but it wasn't the same.
As the minutes ticked by, her anxious energy grew. She paced around, wondering what she should do. She couldn't leave him alone, but maybe she could get him to go out with her. Surely no one would try to take him down on a night like this. They were too consumed in themselves to care. And help them if they tried something.
Taking in a deep breath, Elena turned on her heel and headed towards his office, past Reno, Rude and Tseng's offices on her way. She tried the silver handle on his black, glass door. It was at the end of the hall, furthest away from the only elevator that reached this floor. It wasn't locked. She wasn't sure why she had expected it to be.
She had a few minutes to convince him to come with her down into the streets of Junon and she had to make it count.
She pushed the door open and stepped over the threshold into his office. He didn't look up immediately, he was too busy looking at something in his computer screen. The office was simple, mostly glass, and had a modern elegance—a simplicity to it. There were no paintings, or decorations of any kind except for a random potted plant in the corner—something Tseng had given to him as a mock office warming gift. Rufus had the lights low, and he was sitting back in the chair, looking at the computer screen with a slight frown on his face. He was holding a pen in his left hand, tapping it thoughtfully against his chin. She watched him for a moment, uncertain.
"Is there something you need, Elena?" Rufus asked, finally looking over at her. His tone was light, calm and pleasant. When his sharp blue eyes met hers, she felt that odd little butterfly feeling in the pit of her stomach. She looked away as her face grew warm.
So far she'd been pretty good at hiding her feelings for Rufus Shinra. Not even Reno had called her out on it as he'd been so quick to call her out about Tseng. Maybe she was getting a little better at not being so easy to read. Maybe.
She inhaled slightly and began to do what she did best: run off at the mouth.
"Um, don't you think it is a shame to be inside for New Year's? Working no less? That work will still be here tomorrow, right? Even Tseng is off, and you know how he is. Busy busy," Elena added a smile to the end of her speech, but Rufus didn't return it.
"If you want to join them, go ahead. I can take care of myself," he said, returning his gaze to the screen. "Just try not to do anything that I wouldn't do," he added after a moment, a slight smirk on his face.
"Actually, I was hoping that we could go out together," Elena said with what she hoped was a careless shrug. She was hopeful, but also prepared to argue the point.
They had 35 minutes to get out there.
Rufus was silent for a moment, not looking at her, but not really focusing on the screen. Elena chewed the inside of her mouth and shifted from side to side. Rufus opened his mouth finally to speak, but Elena cut him off, just sure he was going to say no.
"Before you say anything," Elena said, "I will protect you, so no worries. I will beat someone with a wine bottle if it comes down to it. And you are also packing heat, so there's that. And the worse that'd probably happen is someone might puke on your shoes. No scratch the last part. I will catch the puke with my bare hands if that is what it takes to get you out there with me."
Rufus raised a brow, his expression quietly amused. He placed the pen lightly on the desk and turned his chair to face her, resting his elbows on the desk and bringing his hands together under his chin.
"You're not going to let this rest, are you?"
Perhaps he knew her too well.
"No sir. Not for the next several minutes," she said. Elena glanced at her cellphone, which was currently clutched in her hand. It was 11:35. She looked back at him, expectant.
Rufus looked at her for a moment, thoughtful. And then, "Fine," Rufus said, moving to stand.
"Yay!" Elena did a little hop and clap that instantly made her feel a little silly. Rufus ShinRa wasn't supposed to see that side of her. She said very soberly: "I mean. Good. I'll let you get ready." She grinned and retreated into the hall.
She went down the hall, heels clacking on the hardwood floors, into her own office. It was a bit smaller than her old office in Midgar, but had a nice corner view of the city from the one large tinted window in the room. Her desk was facing the window, her computer facing the door, so she could admire Junon without much effort. She rearranged it at least once a week either way. Her coat and outerwear was draped on the desk and the chair. She grabbed her things—a knitted cap, gloves, a scarf and coat, all black—and shrugged the whole mess on then made her way back down the hall only to meet Rufus coming out of his office.
His usual white ensemble was mostly covered by a tailored and very stylish dark gray double breasted coat, a dark gray, patterned scarf around his neck, and gloves covering his hands. Elena took him in, quietly admiring how handsome the president was, only to look away when he caught her staring.
He didn't comment on it, he simply gestured for her to lead the way out to the exit elevators.
20 minutes.
The air was bitterly cold as they stepped out of the inconspicuous, tall black building that housed the new ShinRa main office. She didn't mind. There was an electric chill in the air that was addicting, and it made her forget the cold. People were standing around, trying to keep warm, clutching steaming mugs of hot cocoa, coffee, and of course different alcoholic beverages. Most were in silly hats and glasses, others were running around with sparklers.
They exchanged a look. Rufus questioning this decision with a simple expression. She gave him an over-exaggerated shrug. He rolled his eyes humorously, and offered the crook of his arm—remnants of his aristocratic upbringing. Her face grew a little warm again, and she hoped he didn't notice her red cheeks. She placed her hand in the crook of his arm and led the way through the crowds.
They made their way across the busy streets, Elena slipping her way through the crowd efficiently. Rufus kept up with her easily. A few times, she had to nudge people with her elbows, but people were too jubilant to notice. The ShinRa offices weren't very far from the Junon Harbor so this would be quite a short trip. They didn't talk during the walk. Elena was on a mission.
Ten minutes before the new year, they made their way to the edge of the harbor, surrounded by strangers, but with more than enough space to feel comfortable. She slipped her hand from the crook of his arm and leaned on the railing, looking down into the dark, glassy water. On the other side of the massive body of water was a small smattering of lights against cliffs. The beginnings of new city.
Around them, people laughed and talked and took pictures and got boozed up and made as much noise as was humanly possible. She liked being with the rest of society, it was so easy to split everything up into Us versus Them, but no, really they were all in this together. And this was a night, an occasion that spanned all continents, the entire world.
She'd always liked New Year's Eve. She missed spending it with her family, but now she had a new, different family.
"Aren't you glad you came out?" Elena asked, shivering just a little as the cool air floated up from the still, clear water before them. As she spoke, her breath came out in white puffs and wisps.
"I'm not sure yet," Rufus conceded, looking out at the water.
"Have you ever done the New Year's thing?" She asked, stuffing her hands into her pockets for warmth. She imagined him going to big expensive parties with rich, powerful people. Everyone looking like a million gil. Watching the fireworks from their perches of exclusivity while they sipped expensive beverages and tittered with each other while unimportant the masses celebrated beneath them.
"Yes, but not quite like this," he said after a moment.
"Parties with people you didn't particularly care for?" Elena asked.
"How'd you guess?" Rufus said, a dry inflection in his tone.
"Lucky guess?" Elena said. "So, any resolutions?"
Rufus looked over at her. The cool wind had whipped his blond hair around and did what it wished to his locks. She liked the tousled look on him. As she looked at him, she felt that little butterfly feeling in her stomach once again, and a silly little smile tugged at her lips for seemingly no reason at all.
"Not in particular," Rufus said, sliding his hands into hidden pockets in his coat. "Resolutions are easily broken. I prefer to make substantial plans for the future and not wing it, as it were. You understand," he said, looking away at the water.
Elena grinned in spite of his serious response to a lighthearted question. This would be her second year as a Turk, and she didn't know Rufus ShinRa as well as the others knew him, but she knew Rufus to be a pretty serious man, not serious in the way Tseng was, but serious in that he was always trying to keep everything together, always in his office working on rebuilding the company. Everything he did, said, so calculated to keep up appearances.
"I have a few," she admitted. Unlike him, she was more than happy to share.
"Oh? Do tell," Rufus said. He seemed genuinely interested in what she was going to say, turning slightly towards her. Most people reacted like that to her once they realized that almost everything that came out of her mouth was bordering on ridiculous—especially the stories about her family.
"Yep," she said, "A few. Like I want to beat Rude in a sparring match for once. I want to take more chances. I want to stop letting Reno outsmart me so much. Stop taking everything so seriously—stop over-thinking it. I want to be less selfish and think more before I speak. I want focus more things around me and really notice the little things," she shrugged, exhaling a puff of white air as she laughed slightly. "I guess some of that will just happen with time. But my favorite resolution is to work hard. Play hard."
She'd spent the entire year trying to prove something, on being entirely too seriously, and all it had left her was a lot of mistakes and frustration. This year she was going to try to take a different approach. It wasn't that she wasn't going to care, but she wouldn't let everything bother her so much. Everything wasn't something worth getting riled up about. Wow, she never thought she'd learn something useful from Reno.
"Maybe," she said, "I kinda wanna beat Reno at drinking too. Drink him under the table."
"You've been hanging around Reno for far too long," Rufus said, looking sideways at her, beneath his thick, golden eyelashes. He smirked slightly at her. "Far, far too long."
Ignoring the little clench and flutter in the pit of her stomach that was the direct result of him looking at her like that, she said: "You could stand to play a little hard yourself. Be spontaneous sometimes, you worry so much. I mean, you have good reason to but sometimes..."
Even so, a second after the words left her lips, she was not sure if she should've said it at all. Did they know each other well enough for her to make critical assessments about him and how he decided to live and present himself to the world?
She and Rufus had a somewhat comfortable, professional relationship. It was very easy for her to even forget that they were the same age, if not only a few months apart, because he had the entire world on his shoulders, and, well, she was just one of his shadows.
She was never quite sure where she stood with him. Sometimes she'd push it by saying things that were just shy of something Reno would say to him while other times she would take the Rude approach and not speak to him for days, only saying "yes and no sir" or keeping it really curt and short whenever he asked her a question. Somewhere along the way, somewhere between Meteorfall, the aftermath and the relocation to Junon, she'd become drawn to him and wasn't quite sure how to smother that little flame until it died.
Surely it would die, right?. It took a while, but her thing for Tseng had died—though that flame had also had a bit of help in its death.
2 minutes.
"Maybe you're right," Rufus finally says after a moment. She barely hears him because the crowd has gotten a little louder, the air more electric as the moment draws near.
"Of course I am," Elena says, looking over at him and giving him a slight smile. He actually agreed with her?
Rufus returns the look in his own little way, giving her a closed mouth upward turn of his lips that showed slight smile lines on his smooth, fair skin. There was that flutter again, in the pit of her stomach.
1 minute.
The crowd started chanting, counting down the numbers as one day passed into the next and one year passed into another. Their voices high and excited. The crowd's energy had an alluring, wild quality that was getting under her skin and into her heart, making her breathless. She reminded herself to breathe.
2 seconds.
They say that no time is like the present. And Elena has never been one to think twice before doing something that she really wanted to do anyway. She would have to work on that, but not tonight.
As the fireworks shot off in the air in brilliant bursts of color that reflected on the water, signifying the first seconds of a new calendar, Elena did what Elena does did best. She behaved on impulse.
She kissed him.
Rufus' gaze had been turned towards the fireworks, the lights illuminating him in an almost magical glow, as he was lost in his own thoughts. In those first few seconds of the new year, she touched the side of his face to get him to turn towards her, and then she pressed her cold, chapped lips against his lips, placing her arms around his shoulders and standing on her tiptoes to apply pressure. She felt him pull back ever so slightly and his entire body seemed to tense up.
The sound of the crowd hooting and hollering couldn't account for the sound of her own mind rushing and the sound of her blood pulsing in her ears. It was only a short, hasty moment, but it seemed to last a lot longer than a few seconds. She pulled back from his lips, too close to look him in the eyes. She leaned forward, her lips near his ear.
"Happy new year, sir," she said, her voice shaky and high. She pulled away, her hands slipping down from around his neck and resting on the soft, textured fabric of his scarf that curled loosely around his neck, creating a cowl.
It was a rare thing to catch Rufus ShinRa off guard, and it only lasted for a moment, but Elena decided that this was the best face she'd ever seen him make. His eyes were slightly wide, his eyebrows raised, his lips slightly parted in an 'O' shape. She opened her mouth to apologize, to explain, to make light of the fact that hey, it was a New Year's kiss.
People expected the unexpected on a day like this, right?
Rufus recovered quickly, if she hadn't seen it herself, she'd think he'd seen it coming the entire time. He regarded her for a moment, looking down at her with a slight frown—though not an unpleasant one, his hair partially hanging in his face. She felt herself blush and she looked away, embarrassment creeping up her neck. The sound of the crowd was a deafening roar, but she could barely hear them anymore as she felt the rough, pleasant texture of Rufus' gloved fingers slip under her chin. He tilted her face up towards him and she found herself looking into his eyes.
He easily closed the space between them, gripping her upperarms and pulling her towards him. His lips met hers in a kiss. Where her kiss had been hasty and shallow, Rufus' was thoughtful, deeper and careful. As they relaxed into the kiss, he slipped his arms around her waist, drawing her in even closer. She breathed in his cologne, mingled with the cold night air, and relaxed against him, standing on her tip toes once again and sliding her hands up over his shoulders for support. Her heart felt like a bomb beating against a birdcage.
After a nerve-wrecking moment, it was over and Elena felt warm all over in spite of the cold.
"Happy new year, Elena," Rufus said softly, warmly against her ear before pulling away but not letting her go.
For once, Elena was at a loss for words as she stared up at him. The sound of the crowd was still muted, and she was only vaguely aware of the fireworks exploding around them.
Who knew what tomorrow would bring. Maybe he'd pretend it never happened, maybe they'd have an unspoken tension between them for a few weeks, maybe they'd try something out and see where it went, maybe it was just the magic, the insanity of a night like this. Whatever it was, she'd take each day as it came. Don't over-think it, right?
What good were resolutions if they didn't fail almost immediately? Eh, she'd over-think it tomorrow.