Disclaimer:
Storyline = Mine
Characters, Locations, Everything Else = Square Enix's

Notes:
'text in italics' represents thoughts
'regular text' is speech/narration

If Only Love Was Simple

RufusxTifa

Chapter 4:

Tifa slowly opened her eyes and groggily turned to face her alarm clock, only to find it missing. As the events that had occurred the day before came flooding back into her half-awakened mind, Tifa suddenly remembered that she had spent the night in Marlene's room and that she had left her alarm clock, which was still set for 7:00AM, in her room, where Rufus was sleeping. Tifa jumped out of bed and ran down to the first floor to look at the time.

"7:15?!" she shouted. "I'm late!"

On weekdays Seventh Heaven opened at 8:00AM, which left Tifa with only 45 minutes to shower, get dressed, make something for her and Rufus to eat and finish a few last minute preparations before opening the bar.

Tifa dashed back up the stairs to her room and quietly opened the door. Rufus was asleep, but had obviously been awakened earlier by the alarm, as her radio alarm clock was turned sideways and the white flower that had been lying next to it was now on the floor. Tifa quickly picked up the flower and placed it back on the nightstand before quietly rushing to her dresser drawer to pick out some clothes.

Despite her best efforts to be quick yet quiet about gathering her things, Rufus was able to hear her movements in the room and began to wake up. Giving a sleepy groan he stiffly sat up and squinted his eyes to see what was going on.

"Morning." Tifa said cheerfully "Sorry I woke you up. It's just that the bar opens in less than an hour and I'm running late."

Rufus yawned. "There was an alarm that went off about 20 minutes ago."

"Yeah, that was the time I woke up yesterday. I forgot to reset my alarm for an earlier time, and take it into the other room with me last night. Tifa responded, continuing to gather her things. "I'll bring up breakfast for you after I take my shower, okay?"

Rufus nodded in approval and let out another yawn as he watched Tifa hurriedly leave the room. Laying back down, Rufus stared at the ceiling, knowing that it would be futile for him to try to go back to sleep now that he had been disturbed a second time.

Focusing his attention to his current predicament, he realized that the worst was over. All that was left to do now was call Corneo and wait for the Don to come and get him and take him back to Shinra. Only one thing posed as a possible threat to his survival now: his father.

By now his father would know that the chopper had crashed and that his son's body was nowhere to be found. Because a few of the Turks had watched Rufus board the helicopter that morning and because a copter shooting would be too risky to stage, the idea of some sort of a plot to fake his death and betray the company would be ruled out. Also, as there was no demand for ransom, the President would conclude his son as missing and would have the company begin a search for him.

Rufus just hoped that his father would be intelligent enough to not make a public announcement about his disappearance. Now that his hostess' feelings about the Shinra Company had been confirmed, there was a possibility that things could turn fatally dangerous for him if she were to learn that her rich guest from Junon was actually Shinra's Vice President.

Getting himself back into a sitting position, Rufus decided that he felt recovered enough to try and walk. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed and lowering his feet to the floor, Rufus slowly added more and more pressure to them until he was standing upright with his hands behind him on the bed for balance. He had never felt so stiff and sore in his life. Carefully, he removed his hands from the bed and took a step forward. At first, Rufus was a bit unsteady and his legs were filled with a dull pain, but he found that the more steps he took, the easier walking became.

Rufus slowly made his way to the window and looked outside. Ramshackle houses and trash lined the streets, a few kids dressed in stained mismatched clothing were laughing as they kicked around a tin can and a number of equally grubby looking adults were walking around or sleeping next to piles of garbage.

Above him, the Plate put the cherry on top of the sundae of filth and poverty that was below it, by only allowing in enough light to illuminate the dust particles floating in the air; giving the entire atmosphere a hazy, poisonous feel.

Suddenly, the sound of running water in another room made Rufus remember that he was just about as disgusting as his surroundings and that he desperately needed to take a shower, or perhaps three or four, himself.

Tifa rushed through her shower and the rest of her morning routine, in record setting time, not even bothering to dry her hair or put her makeup and other bathroom accessories away before flying down the stairs to make breakfast for Rufus and herself.

There was no time to cook a full breakfast so a quick alternative would have to do. Reaching into the pantry, Tifa pulled out the first cereal box she saw and ran over to the cupboard to get bowls and spoons.

Glancing at the box to see what she had grabbed, a grin spread over Tifa's face. "Well, I sure hope he likes 'Ton-Berries', because that's what he's getting." She thought to herself as she speedily poured the sugary, berry-flavored, children's cereal and some milk into the bowls.

Tifa poured a glass of apple juice, grabbed a spoon and one of the bowls of cereal and carefully walked with them up the stairs to her room.

As the door opened, Rufus broke his gaze on the town below and turned around.

"Here's some breakf-- You're standing!" Tifa said as she looked towards him, happy and surprised to see her injured guest up and moving around.

"Yes, I'm feeling much better today."

"Good, I'm glad. Here, I made you some cereal." She said putting the cereal and the glass of apple juice on the tray from the night before and taking away the used dishes. "It's no first class meal, but I just don't have the time to make you anything better today."

Rufus, who was more interested in getting clean than in filling his stomach, automatically responded "I'm sure this will be fine…" before inquiring "Would it be okay if I use your shower after I eat?"

"Sure, it's the second door down the hallway to your right."

"Thanks."

"Yep." Tifa looked over at the clock. "Actually, I've pretty much caught up from being late this morning so if you want, you can put your clothes outside the bathroom door and I'll throw them in the wash for you while you're in the shower. A friend of mine who lives here has some clothes that would probably fit you, so I'll bring you some of his clothes to wear while yours are being washed."

"You're sure he won't mind?" Rufus asked, a little skeptical about wearing a stranger's clothes.

"Oh he's on vacation right now so he'll never even know. Well, I've gotta go have something to eat myself before I get the bar open. I'll be downstairs if you need anything."

Rufus nodded and grabbed the tray with his breakfast on it as Tifa exited the room. Sitting down on the chair that Tifa had sat in the night before, he put the tray in his lap and looked at the cereal; poking the colorful kernels that faintly resembled lanterns, knives and little reptile-looking creatures and pushing them around with his spoon.

It wasn't that Rufus didn't know what cereal was; he had seen advertisements for it on TV, on billboards and in magazines, he even knew a few higher-ups in the cereal business; he had just never actually tasted it. Scooping up a spoonful of the cereal and putting it in his mouth, Rufus found it to be crunchy, overly sugary and very foreign and artificial tasting, and by the time he was finished eating it, he was left wondering how it ever got to be so popular.

Putting the used dishes and the tray on top of the nightstand, Rufus took his ID and other belongings out of his pockets, put them under the mattress for safekeeping, and made his way out of Tifa's room and into the hallway.

Rufus opened the door that Tifa had instructed him led to the bathroom and flipped the light switch. The bathroom was small; very small. It was also quite messy. The large puddle next to the bathtub and the scattered articles of makeup, hair accessories and other things cluttering the sink made it obvious that his hostess had rushed with great speed through her normal routine. Forcing himself to overcome claustrophobia, Rufus shut the door and began to prepare for his shower.

After removing his clothing down to his boxers, Rufus paused and wondered if she had actually meant to wash all of his clothing. Quickly, he mentally debated whether it would be worse to wear his own underwear that had already been worn for a day, or to wear a stranger's. Deciding the latter to be the greater of the two evils, Rufus folded up his clothing, except for his underwear and his socks, and placed it in a neat pile outside the bathroom door, before finally removing his remaining clothing and his bandages and stepping into the shower.

Already beginning to feel refreshed with the hot water running down his body, Rufus turned to the small selection of bottles and found that there was only one choice of shampoo. Putting a huge glop of it in his hand, he began to scrub in into his hair, digging his finger tips into his scalp to make sure the shampoo got all the way down to his roots.

When Rufus had finished thoroughly washing his hair, he stepped into the water to rinse it. A surge of stinging pain shot through the front of his legs as the soap ran over the cuts and gouges on them. Wincing, Rufus looked down at his legs and saw that since Tifa had only tended to the injuries on the top half of his body, the injuries on his bottom half hadn't begun to heal as nicely. Making a mental note to ask Tifa for some kind of medicine he could put on his legs, Rufus repositioned himself in the shower so the soap wouldn't run over the front of his legs and returned to rinsing his hair.

In between washing up the dishes she brought down from her room and setting out the most popular choices of alcohol on the counter behind the bar, Tifa downed spoonfuls of 'Ton-Berries' and drank gulps of her apple juice. After finishing her breakfast, she put her dishes in the sink and hurried into Biggs' room.

Pulling out a set of his clothes, she folded them nicely and went to the bathroom door to lay them there for Rufus. As she arrived at the door, she found Rufus' clothes folded neatly in a pile. Tifa gave the pile a skeptical look, surprised that, not only did Rufus care enough about his clothes to fold them when they were dirty, but also that he actually knew how to fold them.

"Too bad Barret, Wedge and Biggs aren't here. They could learn a thing or two from Rufus about how to fold clothes."

Tifa replaced Rufus' dirty clothes with Biggs' clean ones and ran off to the washing machine. Looking through the clothes to find the washing instructions, Tifa found that half of Rufus' outfit: his pants and jackets all said 'DRY CLEAN ONLY'.

"Is there even a dry cleaners in the slums? Oh well, at least I'll be able to clean the shirts under his jackets."

After throwing all the 'DRY CLEAN ONLY' articles of clothing into a separate pile, Tifa tossed his black turtle neck to the side for later, threw his white shirt into the washing machine and turned it on.

Rushing back downstairs, Tifa quickly washed her breakfast dishes and was just finishing drying up the counter by the sink as her first customer came in.

"Mornin' Teef. The usual." He said, sitting down on one of the barstools.

"Morning Rob." Tifa replied as she poured Rob, who was one of her weekday regulars, a glass of his favorite beer. "How's life been treating you lately?"

"Ah, the same, the same… Hasn't got any better, hasn't gotten any worse… Thankfully… Work still barely gets my bills paid, Charlotte still hangs up on me when I call her and I still need a few beers in the morning to make it through the day and a few more after work to make it through the night… And that's where you come in darling: without you, life wouldn't even be bearable." he replied raising up his glass of beer to her in a toast before taking a big gulp.

Tifa playfully rolled her eyes at Rob's toast and his stereotypical story that she was sure to hear several more times throughout the day in slightly different variations, from the bar's other patrons.

"What about you beautiful, anything new happening in your life?" He asked her, setting his glass back on the counter.

"Not really, just looking after the Marlene and the bar until Barret and the others get back. What an exciting life we both have she said with a laugh, purposely not mentioning her special house guest in an effort to keep gossip from spreading.

As a big wave of customers came into the bar, Tifa was torn from her conversation with Rob and had to get to work. The morning rush had begun.

After thoroughly washing his hair a second time, conditioning it and using one-fourth of a new bar of soap, making sure to be especially careful around the wounds on his legs, Rufus was finally done with his shower. The hot water had gone out shortly after he had finished washing his hair, which had made the rest of his shower cold and miserable and Rufus was happy to get out of the cold water and dry off.

Opening the bathroom door a crack, after he had finished drying off and putting on the articles of clothing he had kept with him in the bathroom, Rufus grabbed the replacement clothes and unfolded them to see what they were like. The outfit consisted of an army green pair of pants, an olive green shirt, a red headband, brown gauntlets with a metal rim around the wrists, a black belt, a strange, extra brown belt with pockets that seemed to be meant to fall loosely around the waist, and a shoulder device that looked like a parachute harness without the parachute.

Realizing that it probably would have been a good idea to have asked to see the clothes before he agreed to wear them, Rufus sighed and, forcing himself to come to terms with the fact that his only other option was going around in nothing but his underwear, he began to put them on.

After slipping on the pants, Rufus dug through the bathroom cabinets in an attempt to see if he could find some sort of medicine to use on his remaining injuries. His efforts failed to produce any sort of medicine, but to his pleasant surprise, he did end up finding a hairdryer and a comb.

When his hair had been blow-dried to his satisfaction Rufus put on the shirt, which he discovered was made of a fabric that was annoyingly itchy, collected the other strange parts of his new temporary apparel, and walked back to his room. Laying the other items on the bed, Rufus decided that his efforts to comply with the dress code of the slums ended before the red headband and he proceeded to put on the other accessories.

While Rufus was engaged in a fierce one-on-one battle with the 'parachute harness', Tifa, slipped through the door unnoticed. After briefly watching him struggle, she let out a chuckle and decided to assist him.

"Here, let me help." She said, walking over to him and helping him buckle the strange apparatus correctly. "There. How do you feel now?"

Brushing his bangs out of his face, Rufus studied his image in the mirror and found himself struggling to remain straight faced. "Absolutely and completely ridiculous."

Tifa began to laugh, causing Rufus to turn and crack a questioning half-smile in her direction.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm sure my friend would feel pretty ridiculous in your clothes too." Tifa replied, attempting to quell her laughter.

There was no doubt that he looked very out of place in Biggs' clothing, but despite the awkwardness he obviously felt, Tifa still noticed the same charming, elegant presence about him that she had noticed earlier when he had been unconscious on her bed. Since she now knew that that he came from a wealthy family, those vibes were no longer strange or surprising, but they still managed to give him an almost make-believe quality that made him an intriguing, exciting break from Tifa's daily life.

Suddenly her eyes locked with Rufus' and she realized that she had been staring at him for a few minutes. Tifa's eyes widened at her realization and she immediately lowered them to the ground and wracked her brain for something of some importance say to end the embarrassing moment she had brought upon herself.

"I, heard the shower stop so I just came up to check on you and tell you that there isn't a dry cleaners around here so I can't wash your jackets or your pants; but I am able to wash your other shirts." Tifa said, forcing herself to look up at him again.

"Mmh. Well, at least she knew better than to wash my suit anyway and ruin it." He thought to himself.

"When I take my lunch break I'll make you something to eat too. Until then feel free to read a book," she said pointing to the bookshelf "or sleep or whatever you want. You can also come down stairs and sit at the bar and watch TV if you like."

"I think I'll just stay up here for awhile, thanks."

"Okay, well I'll see you at lunch then." Tifa replied before walking through the door and closing it behind her.

Rufus walked over to the bookshelf and scanned the books for something interesting to read.

"Let's see what we have here: 'Fitness and You', 'Martial Arts: Enhancing Your Life', '101 Quick Exercises for a Busy Lifestyle', 'Secret Desires', 'A Promise Kept', 'Forbidden Passions'- ugh." Rufus flashed an expression of annoyance before skipping over the remaining Romance Novels and continuing his scan of the bookshelf." 'Raising Children: Toddlers', 'The Dos and Don'ts of Raising Kids', 'Coping With the Loss of Loved Ones', 'Life Isn't Fair, Get Used to It', 'Keys to Being a Successful Entrepreneur'- Hm. She must actually be serious about running this bar." Rufus picked up the last book and skimmed through it. Some of the pages' corners were folded and some lines of the text were highlighted throughout the book. All the things in the book were very basic things that he had learned before college, but it was still impressive to see that a person from the slums would care enough about work to buy a book on running a business and take it seriously.

Rufus put the book back on the self and turned around. Suddenly, a familiar container on top of the dresser caught his eye. Approaching it, Rufus discovered that it was the medicine that Tifa had used to tend to his injuries with the previous night. Noticing that there was no lock on the bedroom door, Rufus made his way back to the bathroom to remove his pants and applied the medicine to the cuts and bruises on his legs before redressing himself and heading back into the bedroom.

After he had reentered the bedroom, Rufus directed his attention to the old piano he had seen in the corner of the room when he had first regained consciousness. Walking over to it, he pushed a few of the keys, surprised to find that the piano was not as out of tune as it looked. With nothing better to do at the moment, Rufus flipped through the music book that was sitting on the music stand, found a song that looked interesting, sat down on the piano chair and began to play.

Tifa's stomach grumbled as she stood at the counter, mixing drinks for her customers.

"Only eight more minutes 'till lunch." She thought, looking at the clock. Tifa took her lunch break at 11:30 every day, that way she could start work again in a half hour and not miss the lunch rush. After she had handed her last customer his drink, she went over to the refrigerator and the pantry and pulled out the ingredients she would need to make tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

As the clock ticked closer to 11:30, most of the customers said their goodbyes and left, except for an elderly group of Tifa's regulars that she trusted, who stayed at their table, talking and watching TV.

With only a minute left to go, Tifa flipped the grilled cheese sandwiches on the stove and was setting out plates, cups and bowls for Rufus and herself when she heard someone come through the door.

"Sorry, I'm on break now. We open again at noon." Tifa said without looking up from setting the table.

"All I want is a place to sit and think." He replied before sitting down by himself at the table closest to the pinball machine.

"Oh... Well, I suppose you can sit there if you like, but you're going to have to wait until 12:00 if you change your mind about ordering something."

The man made no reply and Tifa cautiously went back to her cooking.

When everything was ready to eat, Tifa set the stove on warm, placed an "On Break" sign on the bar's outside door knob, headed to the laundry to throw Rufus white shirt in the dryer and his turtleneck in the wash, and went up the stairs to tell Rufus that lunch was ready. As she walked up the stairs, the sound of piano music faintly caught her ears. Opening the door a crack, she found Rufus sitting at her piano, playing intently.

Quietly, Tifa slipped into the room and sat down on the bed to listen to him play. The song was lively and cheery with hints of a military-like march in the accompaniment. Tifa watched Rufus' fingers glide speedily and smoothly across the ivory keys as he played, never missing a note. Near the end of the song Rufus began to play the melody in octaves and increased the pressure he put on the keys, before finally finishing off the song with a string of staccato chords, putting the full weight of his fingers into the last one. Tifa started to clap and a startled Rufus forced himself to not show his surprise as he turned in the direction of the clapping.

"How long have you been sitting there?" He asked with one eyebrow slightly raised.

"Not too long. I came in during the middle of that last song… You're really good. How long have you been playing?"

"Since I was four. My old man heard that playing piano was supposed to make kids smarter, so he got a private tutor for me… You play piano too, then?"

"Yeah. I'm not quite as good as you are though. I started playing when I was seven but I'm very out of practice. I haven't played in a while."

"I haven't played in quite some time myself. Work, among other things, has kept me very busy." Rufus responded, seeming to drift off into his own world of thought.

"Well, lunch is ready, so come on downstairs and we'll eat." Tifa said, as she started to make her way towards the door.

Rufus followed Tifa down to the kitchen, annoyed at the presence of the seemingly needless, extra belt on his outfit that was irritatingly brushing against his legs as he walked. Rufus took a seat where Tifa had set a place for him and was glad to see that the bar was mostly empty of customers.

"Hey, Tifa. Could I make a phone call after lunch?"

"Sure." Tifa answered, setting the food down on the plates she had set out and sitting down on a stool she had moved to her side of the bar, across from Rufus. She pointed towards a door near the back of the bar. "It's in that storage room over there whenever you're ready."

Rufus, who had already begun eating, nodded in response and looked in the direction Tifa had pointed. After seeing the door, his attention was directed next to it, where several awards in cheap frames, a few of which had cracks in the glass, were hanging.

"This must be quite a popular place around here." he said, motioning towards the awards.

Tifa saw what he was referring to and gave him a modest smile. "The people here seem to like Seventh Heaven a lot. It's no 5-star restaurant, but it's a nice place for people to take a break from the stress of their daily lives. The slums here in Sector 7 are also pretty quiet, as far as slums go. We don't have near as many fights or robberies as the other slums like Wall Market, so I guess people feel safer here too."

"Oh, I see."

"Yep, we have a lot of regulars." She said nodding in the direction of the table that was still full. "Those guys hang out here every day before they start their afternoon shifts. The bar is technically closed right now, but they're a good, quiet group so I usually let them stay. …That guy over there in the corner though, I've never seen him before."

Rufus slyly stole a glance in the direction of the stranger. The man was about Rufus' own height with a slightly bigger build. He was dressed in what Rufus had come to know as the normal apparel of the people of the slums, and had dark facial features and an expression that said he'd fought and won more than his share of fights.

Rufus turned back to face Tifa. "Well, in my opinion, he's just as suspicious and shady looking as everyone else down here; but if he seems off to you, you should keep your eye on him. You know the people around here better than I do."

Tifa nodded and paused, realizing that he had just insulted people of the slums. "So, am I suspicious and shady looking too?" She asked with a hint of daring in her tone.

Rufus gave an amused chuckle and looked Tifa straight in the eyes, surprised that she was not only able to return his gaze but also that she was bold enough to ask him a something like that. Up until now she had seemed almost shy.

"You, Miss Lockheart," he said, folding his hands on the counter with a smug expression on his face, "are the one rare exception I have encountered as of yet."

Remembering, suddenly, that he should be trying to stay on as good as possible terms with his hostess, Rufus quickly put an end to the fun little heated discussion he had just started, put a serious look back on his face and whipped up an apologetic excuse.

"But please don't be too angry at that comment, Miss Lockheart. It's a completely different world down here than from what I'm used to. This is my first time in the slums after all. It's hard to tell the good people apart from the bad, since you all seem the same to me. In comparison, people from my society probably all seem very similar as well, from your point of view. And I would be very surprised indeed if there wasn't a generic, negative stereotype that the people down here have for the wealthy."

He was right, now that she thought about it, Tifa realized that she generally thought of all rich people as self-centered, arrogant, greedy, Shinra supporters and she was embarrassed at the sudden realization that her hate for Shinra had made her as prejudiced towards the rich, as Rufus was towards the poor.

"I guess you have a point."

Rufus inwardly grinned, happy to have been able to successfully BS his way out of the mess he had almost created. "I suppose that makes us equal then, doesn't it?

"Yeah. I suppose it does."

After inquiring Tifa about her abilities in martial arts and getting a new conversation started, the rest of lunch went along smoothly until finally, Rufus looked down at his plate and found it empty.

"I think I'm going to go make that call now."

Tifa nodded and began to clean up the dishes they used for lunch as Rufus made his way to the phone.

"Hey, Tifa." One of the regulars called, waving her over to their table. "So who's that lucky young fella?" He asked her when she had reached their table. "And what happened to his clothes? If I'm not mistaken, the clothes he's wearing happen to belong to Biggs."

"Barret and the others take off for a couple days and you finally get your chance to have a little fun, huh?" Another playfully added.

Tifa could feel the heat from her face turning red as she realized what it must have looked like to them when they saw Rufus come down the stairs to eat with her. She gave an embarrassed smile and vaguely explained the situation to them, to which they responded with half-believing smiles and 'if you say so'-like comments. A tap on the shoulder made Tifa jump and turn around to find Rufus standing behind her.

"Would you happen to have a phone number database of some sort?"

Tifa was relieved that Rufus had not seemed to overhear the conversation she had just been having.

"You don't know the number?" She asked.

"It was in my Contacts List in my PHS, which was destroyed in the accident, so I never had to memorize it."

"Oh. Well does a phone book count as a phone number whatever-you-called-it."

Rufus shot Tifa a questioning smirk."Yeah, it does."

Tifa walked over to the drawer behind the bar where she kept the phone book and brought it back to Rufus. "It might not have the numbers for the Plate in it though."

Fortunately, Rufus didn't need to call anyone from the Plate. The majority of the people living there had unlisted numbers to begin with, so even if the phonebook did contain a listing for the Plate, it would still be practically useless.

"It's worth a try though. Thanks."

Rufus walked back to the storeroom and set the gigantic, outdated method of looking up phone numbers down with a thud on a counter, flipping through the pages to 'Cor'. After finding the Don's number: which was impossible to miss because it had its own separate box containing a mugshot of the Don, his name in big letters, his regular phone number and a special 'hotline' for girls interested in working at the Honey Bee Inn, or in him; Rufus mentally shuddered in disgust at himself for having to stoop this low for help, before dialing the number into the phone.

Notes: Well, here it is: Chapter 4. Sorry if I bored anybody with the lack of plot development, but hopefully you liked it anyway because I liked writing it. XD The good news is that this chapter is actually only the first part of a longer chapter that I decided to split into two because it was too long. So instead of having to wait another half of a year for the next chapter (which, by the way is much more crucial to the plot of the story), you should only have to wait a couple weeks at most for me to put the finishing touches on the second part and get it uploaded.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed/favorited/etc. my story since my last update! Review if you wish and I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!