A few days later, I was allowed to go back to work, and I was actually looking forward to it, surprisingly. Being out for health leave bored me out of my freaking mind. Maybe a little sojourn from the WRO had been just what I needed! I was surely going to have a wonderful Monday!

Six hours into doing the gigantic overload of paperwork that had been left on my desk in my absence, I was thinking, DEAR, SWEET LEVIATHAN, GET ME OUT OF HERE, as I stared at the clock and willed it to be five p.m.

Finally, it was, and I could swear that Da Chao was just making the hands tick slower today to play tricks on me, the mean bastard. But never mind all that! I was free, I was saved, I could go back to Seventh Heaven and have a stiff drink and try not to think about all the paperwork I was going to have to do the next day as well! Ah, fuck it all.

Before I could make it completely out of the building, someone came from behind and snagged my elbow. I whirled and snarled, preparing to bite some poor lackey's head off, but then I realized I was staring at the zipper on someone's blue Turk suit. There could only be one guy that big that would ever dare to touch me, so I relaxed.

"Oh. Rude, it's just you."

He looked down at me from behind his sunglasses and grunted. "Hn."

"What do you need, big man?" I asked, stepping back from him so I wasn't craning my head to look him in the face.

He shrugged, and I gave him a strange look. "You've been acting kinda weird lately, bud. Sure there's not something going on with you?"

He shrugged again, his face inscrutable behind his stoicism and his sunglasses. "Okay, well, if you ever need to talk," I said, "just let me know." Then I turned to leave.

To my surprise, he followed me as I walked out the door, and instead of letting me go the direction I wanted to go—namely home to Seventh Heaven so I could bitch to Tifa about my day and admire Marlene's new crayon creations of her and me fighting Marlboros back-to-back (I couldn't actually tell that's what they were supposed to be, she just liked to tell me that's what they were)—he took me by the elbow again and lightly steered me in the opposite direction.

"Uh, Rude, what are you doing? I want to go home. Home is Seventh Heaven right now. It is in the opposite direction from the way we are going. Namely, the other way. Which means we are not going to Seventh Heaven. Which means I will not get to relax. Rude, seriously, what are you doing?" I was babbling, but I was also tired, and I was distracted by his gloved hand still on my elbow.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see," he murmured.

I sighed with exasperation.

Only about five minutes went past, and then Rude was leading me into a tiny, hole-in-the-wall café. I blinked as he made a beeline for a secluded, candlelit corner in the intimate establishment. He made a motion for me to sit, and I did so, watching with curiosity as he slid into the seat across from me in the booth.

I cocked my head to the side. "Rude, what are you doing?"

He coughed into his hand. That was when it hit me.

"Rude," I deadpanned, "why are we here?"

He just looked at me impassively from behind his sunglasses.

I sighed, exasperated. "Rude, while we're here, can you at least take your sunglasses off? I can't talk to you when I can't see your eyes. It's like having a conversation with a brick wall."

He hesitated and looked around.

"Look, if anyone says anything about your awesome eyes, I will kick him or her or it in his or her or its face. No one's going to say anything to you—especially not with Yuffie Kisaragi in your company."

He frowned at me.

"Okay, and there is the fact that your hands are the size of trash can lids. But seriously, Rude, no one will bother you. I promise."

He deliberated for a moment and then took them off, slipping them into a pocket inside his blue suit jacket. I relaxed at being able to see all of his face with no barriers, and I felt like we were on more equal ground.

"So," I prodded, "you didn't answer my question."

He shrugged. "Thought you might be hungry."

My eyes narrowed. I was sure there was more to it than that, but I would figure it out later. Right now, I realized, I actually did want something to eat, so I started to peruse the menu.

I ordered a traditional Kalmish dish (I had always found the food there interesting) and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The rest of the evening consisted of me blathering at Rude and getting the occasional amused expression or raised eyebrow or short response when I directly asked him a question. I told him about my long day at the office in the Pyramids of Paperwork, admired the warm glow of his eyes in the dim lighting of the cafe, and just generally enjoyed his company.

It was weird, enjoying Rude's company like this. I always thought I would need someone to talk and talk and talk like I do to be able to relate to them and have a good time, but I found that the occasional lapses in conversation and the silences filled with chewing and inscrutable glances were actually rather…comfortable. This was a whole new experience for me.

After we had finished our meals, Rude escorted me home, walking me to the door of Seventh Heaven and waited until I got inside before departing.

Slow as I was, I continued to wonder, What was all that about?

-

Luckily, I had Tifa to tell me, "Duh, Yuffie."

"What? Why 'duh'? What did I miss? Am I completely oblivious?"

"Yes."

Two days later, I was sitting in the bar with Tifa. It was Sunday night, and the place was like a ghost town.

I leveled my most murderous look at Tifa. She actually backed away a couple of steps, hands raised. "Whoa, whoa, whoaaaa. Calm down. I'm just joking, though you are a bit dense if you don't understand."

"What am I missing?"

"Rude took you on a date, Yuffie."

I blinked. "Oh."

"How could you not tell?"

"Uh, I dunno, I've never really…been…on a date."

Tifa stared at me, one eyebrow slowly, ever so slowly rising to altitudes that I did not know could be achieved by normal humans.

"What?"

"I just…you've never been on a date? Yuffie, you're twenty-one years old. I mean, what happened?"

I avoided her eyes, watching her hands restlessly cleaning glasses with a rag that looked sort of too dirty to clean bar glasses. "Cloud. Vincent."

Tifa's hands stopped moving. I looked up at her face, seeing the pitying expression there. I scowled at her. "Do not pity me. Okay? It's my own fault for being stupid."

She chewed her lip ponderously. "Well, okay, the Cloud thing, yeah. Maybe. That was a little dumb. Especially with Aerith around. But I can understand that. I've been there and done that, obviously." My eyes darted to the shiny engagement ring on her left hand. She smiled at me. "But Vincent led you on, and I will never forgive him for hurting you like he did."

"Oh, c'mon, Teef. Sure, I had a thing for him, but he didn't hurt me that badly."

Her wine-colored eyes speared me. "You can't lie to me, Yuffie Kisaragi. I saw you after he rejected you."

I blew my bangs out of my face, toying with the hem of my shorts, suddenly self-conscious. That stupid subject still made me burn with shame and regret and anger and hurt feelings, and it had been four months already. Four months was ample time to get over stuff, but that didn't mean it still didn't make me hurt when I saw him.

"He didn't really reject me, per se."

"You still have not told me what happened. Are we ever going to be able to talk about it, Yuffie?"

"Basically, Tifa, he acted like himself. Part of me hates him for it, but since that was why I fell for him in the first place, I almost can't blame him."

"Acted like himself?"

"He just told me that I was too good for him and that he couldn't let himself taint my purity and blah blah lookit me I am an emotional, sensual idiot. Oh, the pain! Oh, the sorrow!" I fell back against the bar, my hand on my forehead femininely.

Tifa's mouth tugged down at the corners. "Why, that bastard."

"Calm down, Tifa," I said. "This is pretty much why I never bothered to tell anyone. It's all just so stupid."

"Gods, Yuffie, I'm sorry. You seem all right now, at least."

"Yeah—truth is, Vincent really hurt me—"

"Oh, hey, Rude," Tifa said, eyes suddenly wide, "I didn't even notice you come in."
I whipped around so fast I was surprised my head didn't fly off. What a fine mess that would've been too. I can just imagine the conversation between me and The Bald, Mute Wonder.

"Oh, sorry, Rude. It seems my head is lying on your shoe."

"Hn."

"I promise I'll polish them off, really."

"You'd better."

Perfect.

Rude had come in through the back hall, so it was no wonder Tifa and I hadn't noticed his entrance. The front doors had little tinkling bells on them to alert us when a customer entered. He had apparently grown used to coming in that way from when he was visiting me in my sickbed.

"How long—" My voice cracked, so I stopped and cleared my throat, wincing. "How long have you been standing there, Rude?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. I narrowed my eyes at him, feeling like he was being just a little too smooth about things.

"Long enough, eh?" I said quietly.

He hesitated.

"It's okay, Rude. Just…forget about it."

"What did you need?" Tifa chirped brightly, setting down the mug in her hand with an overly loud crack.

He cleared his throat. "Came to see Yuffie," he said, nodding in my direction.

I saw a curious glint flash through Tifa's eyes. Not just any glint either. Oh, no. I had seen that look before. Several different times, actually. When Cloud asked her what she wanted for her birthday. When Cid hesitated about proposing to Shera. When Reeve expressed interest in Elena. Why were my palms suddenly sweating?

"Oh?" she said. "What for?"

He started brushing lint off his clothes. Too bad I didn't see any lint. Maybe he was being overtaken by little lint aliens that only guys with bald heads and sunglasses could see.

"Are you free?" he asked me.

I checked my watch. The time was seven p.m. "Uh, yeah," I said, surprised. "Why?"

A smile broke across Tifa's face, that scary glint still in her eyes. "Go ahead and ask her, Rude. Be a man."
His head turned toward her, and his eyebrow lifted incredulously.

"Wow, Rude, she just challenged your masculinity," I said, as seriously as I possibly could. "Are you going to let her do that?"

He cleared his throat, coughing into his gloved hand. "Yuffie, wanna go out?"

"Go out?" I put on my best stupid look, my eyes wide and glassy and my face blank. I was enjoying this way too much. "What do you mean?"

He frowned at me as if knowing what I was up to. Hell, he probably actually did know what I was up to.

"To dinner."

"Oh, sure, with who?"

Tifa broke into a fit of coughing that sounded suspiciously like laughter. "If you two will excuse me," she said, winking at me.

Once she was gone, Rude visibly relaxed, his shoulders slumping just a bit, his spine shifting just that much.

I wondered at when I had learned to read him so well. "Wanna go out to dinner with me?"

"Of course," I said.

And so we did.

-

"So," Tifa said one night over dinner in the dining room in the back of the building, "has he kissed you yet?"

I spewed my water all over Cloud, who glared at me so hard, I could swear one of my kidneys stopped functioning. Marlene and Denzel giggled, watching the scene play out and masking their attention with the potatoes they were eating.

"Why, Tifa," I said. "I have no idea what you might mean."

"Yuffie," she said, exasperated, waving her fork dangerously close to Cloud's ear, "you don't mean to tell me that he hasn't even kissed you good night yet, do you?"

I sighed. "Nope, not even so much as a squeeze on the hand. He's just so…private."

Cloud cleared his throat. "Uh, could somebody tell me what's going on?" he asked. "I mean, you guys seem to be intent on endangering my life with this subject, so…" He dodged Tifa's incoming hand.

"Nope," I said, at the same time Tifa said, "Rude's been taking Yuffie on dates."

This time it was Cloud's turn to spit all over me. Marlene giggled again. "Hey!" I said. "You did that on purpose, you ass." I glanced at Marlene and Denzel. "I mean, uh. Butt. You butt."

Wiping the mouth with the back of his hand, he exclaimed, "Rude!"

"You're damn right it was rude, you dumbass. Now apologize for ruining my beauty with your cooties."

"No, I mean, Rude? When did this happen?"

Tifa hummed thoughtfully. "Hasn't it been about a month now that he's been taking you places, Yuffie?"

I nodded. "Yep."

"No, seriously, what? Rude? How did this happen?"

"Don't be so astounded, Cloud," Tifa reprimanded, waving her fork in his face, dangerously close to clipping his nose. "Yuffie is perfectly capable of getting a boyfriend, y'know."

He held up his hands quickly. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I never said she couldn't. But how?"

"This roast is awesome, Tifa," I said. "I never stop being amazed at your cooking, y'know."

Tifa blushed becomingly. "Aw, thanks, Yuffie."

Cloud deflated in his chair, muttering into his potatoes. I suppressed a grin.

-

"Tifa, I don't think he's interested in me," I said morosely, nursing a drink.

"Sure he is!" she encouraged. "It's just, well, Yuffie…I think Rude moves at his own pace. Even if you did make the first move, it's not likely that he's going to respond well until he's good and ready."

"You think so?"

"Just you wait, he'll act when the time feels right for him. I bet it's not you at all—he's just Rude. His way is the best way for him. Be patient."

"Okay," I sighed. "If you say so."

She gave me a cheery wink, that glint back in her eye.

"Tifa, you're in that scary place again, aren't you?"

"No idea what you're talking about."

I stared hard at her, then decided it was better to just wait and see what she was going to do.