Chapter 1: "...and his eyes seemed to Gleam with a Youthful Brilliance."
Rufus, only twenty-one strolled through the doors of the large, glowing, building with Reno and Rude behind him. The strobe lights seemed to slow as everyone in the club turned and faced them. A man scampered over to Rufus with scotch on the rocks, he grabbed it and grinned. Everyone in the club stayed frozen until they walked completely through the front door, Reno snapped towards the D.J and the music and lights picked up again. Rude and Reno walked behind Rufus grinning at the women that began to gravitate towards them.
"RENO!" yelled one pushing out of the crowd,
"Tifa, what's up!" he said pulling her into a hug. They began making small talk and walking in unison with Rufus again. He sat down in a huge chair that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Women had begun to flock the second he sat and they tried to catch his attention. He was sipping his scotch when he noticed a very familiar girl walk through the doors of "Ascension", he waved a hand towards her and she strolled over. She had long black hair that swooped down to the top of her butt. She was wearing a blouse, black and grey, that had no sleeves and a V-neck. She completed the outfit with medium length shorts and black heels. Her blue eyes seemed to glow brighter than the lights.
"Evie!" said Rufus, shaking off the other women and embracing her.
"I still don't know why I hang out with you, with all these women and club trips, honestly Rufus!"
"He's trying to piss off his dad!" laughed Reno.
"I am assuming he is succeeding!" grinned Evie. This was the third club trip for the foursome of friends. Rufus smiled,
"He loves to show me that insane professor and I love to do this!"
Rufus awoke from the dream…er flashback, with a start. That was two days before his father's death. He had almost forgotten about those days.
"Are you ok?" asked Elena, who was standing in the doorway.
"Uh…WHAT TIME IS IT!" He bolted up,
"Its 10:30 am sir, I was just about to wake you up, the meeting is in a half an hour." She said calmly. She helped him out of bed and into the wheel chair and led him out into the hallway towards the bathroom where Reno was waiting for him.
"'Bout time boss!" chuckled Reno.
After Rufus was dressed and ready he was led out towards the company limo waiting to transport him.
"Hi!" smiled Evie kissing him on the check.
"Yeah, your girlfriend wanted to go boss!" smiled Reno closing the door and getting into the passenger's seat of the limo.
"You look beautiful as always." smiled Rufus, Evie blushed and they began to talk as they always did, easily, calmly, and with great vigor and emotion. After several minutes they pulled into the venue. Evie ran to the other end of the limo and helped him into his chair while Reno began to watch the paparazzi swarm.
"MR. SHINRA MR. SHINRA! WHO'S THE GIRL!" They screamed flashing picture after picture of the three of them fleeing into the large steel building.
After the meeting Reno pushed Rufus out into the hallway where they found Evie crying into her palms, her heels kicked off and her black dress getting wrinkled.
"WHAT HAPPENED!" shouted Rufus practically throwing himself towards her. She gave him a magazine with a picture of her pushing him into the building covering her face. In large print over the picture were the words: SHINRA HIRES PROSTITUTE FOR MEETING WITH IMPORTANT OFFICIALS! WHO IS THIS GIRL AND WHY HAS SHE BEEN SUCH A SECRET! OBVIOUSLY A LADY OF THE NIGHT!
"She's my girlfriend you bastards!" snarled Rufus.
"Why would people write that!" asked Reno.
"CALL UP THIS MAGAZINE! NO! CALL EVERY MAGAZINE! I AM HOLDING A PRESS CONFERENCE, TODAY! NOW!" Reno nodded and began dialing Elena's number to get all this information to headquarters. Evie stared at him,
"What are doing," she whispered.
"Fixing this." He tossed the paper down the hallway and rolled himself towards the elevator leaving Reno in a fierce phone conversation and Evie to be staring in disbelief of his behavior.
Evie sat backstage of the press conference hearing the voices of hundreds of reporters. She smoothed out the dress she was told to wear, a long black dress with grey and navy sequins running up the sides. Her black hair was up in a curled ponytail that traveled down the left side of her face. She was given long silver earrings and a high pair of heels, Elena and a "fashion team" were told to dress her up with everything they could, which annoyed her because she had always thought herself beautiful on her own and she truly though she didn't need their help, but apparently this was more of a different world than she had realized.
Out of nowhere she heard Rufus voice pick up on the speakers.
"Good afternoon and thank you for being here today, I know many of you have questions and I will be pleased to answer all of them, but for now I want to address the main topic of this conference. This 'women' that all of you are dying to know hear about. Her name is Evelynn Rose Falen and she is my girlfriend of five years. We have been friends for about seven years and began dating shortly after the death of my…dearest…father. She is here today and will be coming out shortly, she is just getting ready for all of you. She is as old as I am, which we will not be addressing with so many cameras," the crowd laughed and Reno walked towards her,
"It's time darling!" he smiled and helped her up, the dress was hard to move in, and led her towards the side entrance of the stage.
"I've never seen him like this before. He is being so…nice. Even to me….." she whispered.
"I know….so strange…he must actually like you." laughed Reno as he pushed her out onto the stage.
Rufus' eyes were ignited with the shimmering lights of the sequins hitting the bright lights in the conference room. Evie looked gorgeous, better than he had ever seen her. He felt his mouth drop open and tried to quickly regain his press conference face.
"Ladies and gentlemen Evelynn!" he said into the microphone. She waved towards them and took a sit next to Rufus.
"This is crazy there are so many people!" she whispered haphazardly. Rufus found himself, for the third time in his life speechless; the first being when his mother died and the second being when he had to give a speech at his father's funeral that he didn't hear about until the day of.
"I guess we will be taking questions now." said Evie quietly into the microphone.
"MR. SHINRA OVER HERE!" screamed one man. Rufus was awakened from Evie's trance and nodded towards the man.
"You've been dating for five years, what's the best part thus far?"
"Probably waking up and knowing that she is mine I mean look at her." He said awestruck. Evie starred at him, Rufus was usually very stiff and cold, especially after the Geostigma spread, put since about three days ago, he has been super sweet and couldn't stop starring at her, she couldn't help but be slightly concerned, the Rufus he was becoming wouldn't have done half of what he had for her let alone hold a press conference to clear her name. She sat back quietly in her chair and listened to him answer seven more questions. He then picked on a woman in a long skirt and blue blouse,
"Mr. Shinra, since you have been together for so long, why don't you marry her?" Evie blushed and was about to respond when Rufus interrupted her,
"You make a very good point there; I mean why haven't I married her!" Evie starred at him as if he were a mental patient. He snapped and Reno ran in and helped lower him to the ground. He braced Rufus so that he was on his knees but all of his weight was being pushed on Reno. Rufus reached into his pockets and pulled out a little black box,
"Evelynn Rose Falen, you are the most amazing and gorgeous women I have ever met," Evie began to realize what was going on, he was on his knees, making a speech, the box, "you have been with me ever since my father died, and you have supported me and backed me up on everything I have ever wanted to do." Evie began to sob into her hands, "You have helped me eradicate so many of my flaws and now I see you helping me through this…struggle…Evelynn, I love you more than I could ever love anyone, will you marry me?" Evelynn stood there sobbing for about two seconds before she realized he had asked the question and was awaited her response. Her voice squeaked out a little, incomprehensible sound, and then she gave up on speaking and nodded rapidly. Rufus slid the ring on her finger and Reno began to lift him upward.
"YES!" she screamed jumping in the air. She bent over and kissed him about five times before finally meeting his lips and connected with him. His lips seemed softer, his head seemed to fall easily in her hands, and his eyes seemed to gleam with a youthful brilliance.
Thousands of cameras snapped and applause erupted through the silence of the proposal. Over twenty broadcasting stations showed Midgar and so many other towns and cities what had gone on in the past ten minutes leaving Cloud Strife to join in a universal applause.