A Valentine for You

A.N: So, here's another story about Rufus and Tifa...I really like them together, sad that they don't though xD anyway, I thank you to those people who gave me inspiration to write this one. So...yeah, hope you enjoy it, read and review, thanks :)

P.S: I don't own final fantasy nor its characters, just the story and plot though :)

CHAPTER 1

Rufus walked down the busy streets, revelling in the fact that he was able to escape from the eyes of his Turks, despite the fact that they had the best training ever and was surprised that he easily managed to slip away from their knowing gazes, and that here he was, downtown, walking, tired, hungry, and with no money.

It was hours ago when he escaped Tseng and Rude who were behind him and Elena and Reno in front. It's really a miracle. He says to himself, continuing to walk as he looked at the blank screen of his dead phone. Giving another distressed sigh, he sits on a bench beside a lamp post.

"You look to young to sigh like an old man." A voice, who seems to be the person who was sitting beside him said. He looked up to see a raven haired girl who was eating ice cream like some child, and she looked like a person in her early twenties. "And you don't look that young to be eating like a child." he countered and closed his mouth immediately, scolding himself as to why he was putting all his anger on her. But he saw her smile and shrugged. "Touche, mister. But I like ice creams, as the saying goes, live your life to fullest, no?" she said and licked at it again.

Why was he having a conversation with a stranger again? He asked himself and let out another sigh.

"Will you stop sighing?" she snapped, still smiling, but then her mouth turned upside down, pouting. "It's depressing! Here I am, a childish twenty-one year old woman, enjoying her Wednesday afternoon eating ice cream like a seven year old, with a man, who looks like thirty-two, sighing like someone who happens to be sixty years old."

Rufus stared. "How did you know I was thirty-two?" he asked, and she stared and blinked. You're thirty-two? Seriously?" She gaped and it made Rufus to smile to see her cheeks go faint crimson. "Well...you looked...er..." and that was when he laughed. It felt good to laugh, Rufus thought, imagining his life without laughter, boy, that was one boring life, he said to himself as he cast another glance at the lady.

"I didn't catch your name." he said momentarily, and that made her blink her, what, ruby...no, blood red eyes, then she stared point blank. "It's because I didn't give it."

He eyed her. This was the first time a woman has ever talked to him that way. Along the way here, he had to hide his face from the public knowing him, he would be seen even in a crowd of thousands, however, this was the first time a girl didn't talk politely to him, let alone recognize him.

"Wait a minute." He voiced a few seconds later, and she turned her head a bit, still concentrating on her ice cream. "You don't...recognize me?" he asked in disbelief as he watched her eyes stare at him and blink, twice. "Should I?" she said.

He was actually taken aback with that answer. There was actually someone that didn't know me.

Rufus turned his body this time placed both hands on her shoulders and turned her as well. "You really don't know me?" He asked again, and that made her frown this time. "Okay, old man. What part of 'should I?' did you not understand?"

Old man? Rufus stared angrily. He was just thirty-two, and that wasn't an old man's age.

"I'm thirty-two, it's not old, miss...?" He blinked, trying to signal her to insert her name in that sentence.

"Tifa." she said, finally finishing that annoying ice cream of hers. She took out a handkerchief and wiped her hands with it then offered it. "Tifa Lockheart." she introduced, and Rufus took he hand and gave a light shake. "Rufus Shinra."

Tifa stared then made an O shape with her mouth. "Oh, so you're that hotshot in the business world." she said as she pulled her hand from his. "So you do know me." He sighed, and she just shrugged. "Know isn't really the term. Maybe heard is the right term. Yes, I've certainly heard of you, but I don't really know what you look like. I'm not the kind of person whose eyes are glued to the television, so I didn't really know what the Rufus Shinra looked like." she glanced at her and looked at him from his shoes to his face. "But I didn't expect you to be so young. Whenever they talked about you in the radio, they made you sound like some fifty something tyrant...or something. I'm surprised that you're actually that young." she finished, leaning against the backrest and stretched her legs a bit.

She was wearing fitted jeans that really touched every part of her, since Rufus couldn't see a wrinkled part or whatever. Her shoes were regular sneakers that made him think of people headed to the gym, but on her, it was quite stylish, and a fitted black tank top beneath a white parka jacket.

"Um...thanks, I think."

"What's a man like you doing here downtown instead of in your office doing work?" she asked bluntly, and Rufus found himself actually liking her company more and more. She was like a breath of fresh air. Tifa was not like the people in his office that pretended to like hi just because of his money. She wasn't like those managers that suck up and compliment him everytime, even if they weren't even true. Tifa would say anything, blunt or not, painful or not, and he liked that. She was a new experience to his life, and he wished that he met her sooner, so that he could've experienced a lot by not...Well, as the saying goes, Better late than never, fits in the picture.

"Well..." he said as he looked as the passing cars. "the office has been working me to the bones, and I haven't slept for over three days already. They won't even let me sleep for even just a few hours. I'm dead tired, and they asked me to go to the secretarial building, which is here downtown. When my employees were busy viewing stuff, and my turks were still keeping an eye on me, I noticed a crowd just near me and jumped in the middle then escaped through the other end of the crowd and just ran. So here is where I ended up." he finished, rotating his ankles, trying to get comfortable, while she stared at him. "Is that so?" was her only reaction.

Silence engulfed them, until she broke it by getting up and standing in front of him, her hand outstretched. "Come with me then. Maybe I can help you relieve your stress a bit."

Rufus stared at her hands for a few seconds, noticing how elegant and slim her fingers looked...how perfect they'd look in his hand.

Giving a mental shake, he takes her hand and follows her as she begins walking. She directed him by heading left from where they were and another left when the path headed left, then that was when they entered a bar named '7th Heaven.' Wow, so she's the kind of chick that goes to bars? Rufus silently asked when he made her sit one of the stools in front of the bar then went around it to stand behind the bar, "So, what are you having?"

He stared. "What are you doing there?" he asked, surprised, and blinked in surprise when she giggled. "Right. Sorry." she said. "I own the place." she said, as-a-matter-of-fact. "Own it?"

"Yep."

"So...a twenty-one year old owns a bar?"

She smiled. "As you can see."

He sighed and rest his arms on the bar. "I'll have vodka then."

"Vodka it is." she said as she reached for one of the bottles on the shelf and took a glass flute from somewhere below the bar and poured in the vodka, and placed an olive inside it and a cube of ice then handed it. "There you go. The olive will help you relax a bit. You look all tense and stiff you know." she commented as he picked the glass up and perched it on his lips. "Thanks." he said before sipping from it.

"My pleasure." she smiled at him as she poured another glass for the person three seats away from him, and a few minutes later, she was now sitting beside him with a drink for herself. "I had the bar made when I was nineteen, so it's been almost...it's been two years, today is actually the day I had it made two years ago." he looked at her. "Happy birthday to your bar." she curved her lips upward and took a sip. "Thanks. 7th heaven appreciates it."

They both sat silently again, since Rufus wasn't used to starting conversations. In business meetings, yes he can always start up conversations, but if it's casual talk, he can't. He wasn't used to it, and wasn't comfortable with it.

"Come on." he heard her say when his mind went back to the present and saw her slowly getting up and placing her hand on his shoulder. It was an intimate gesture and he was familiar with it, but then he stood up and followed her, where she lead him to a staircase that went up two floors and to a hall. She opened the first door to the right and they entered. Rufus gasped when he saw that it was a bedroom, and various thoughts had ran through his mind. She seemed to have read what was going on because she was chuckling and went to the bed and sat down on the side of the pillow. She pat the space beside her, and like a robot, he followed.

She was still chuckling when he sat beside her and grabbed him by the neck. Rufus tensed and went stiff. Her fingers were cold on his neck and it made his inside jumped that it made his eyes close and concentrate on her fingers.

Later, he found his head resting on something, making his eyes open, and that was when he saw that his head was resting on her lap. "Uhh..." he opened his mouth but was silence when her cold finger pressed against his lips. "Shh." she said and stroked his hair with her other hand. "Go to sleep." he looked up at her and opened his mouth again, and this time, she covered his eyes. "Sleep, or I'll punch you to sleep." he frowned and then shifted a bit. "Alright. But wake me up if anything happens." he saw her nod before he dozed off, his consciousness finally fading.

To be continued...

A.N.: Okay then, that's the end of chapter one, hope you enjoyed it. :)