Negotiations

Chapter 11

It was storming hard. Yuffie hated winters at the city. Flooding was always an issue and it was like it was always angry.

She had crawled into bed hours before, but couldn't settle down. For some reason, she was antsy. Thinking that a glass of water would help, she went to the bathroom and remembered that Marcus had reclaimed all the dishes she had pilfered away.

That didn't leave her a choice; she had to go downstairs. A sliver of light shone from under the library door as she passed it. Curious, since it was late and she knew Rufus slept in the front room, Yuffie quietly opened the door.

She hadn't gone into the library since she moved back. There was nothing to prepare her for the mountains of papers she saw there. Newspapers, magazines, reports, reference books, print outs. There was barely a path that wove between the piles and Yuffie carefully navigated through it in the semi-darkness. Only a single desk light was on, but as she approached it, she saw that Rufus was not near the pool of light.

"You should be getting some rest." Rufus's voice was soft, almost inaudible over the thrashing rain on the large windows. Yuffie caught Rufus's shape as lightning flashed behind him. "Go get some sleep, Yuffie."

"What's all this?" She ignored him. It was their first conversation in a long time and Yuffie wanted to know what he could possibly be working on that would require so much work.

"Research. For so long, the company has been focused on using mako reactors to create electricity, but now we use solar, wind and hydraulics to create electricity. But there have been talks of whether electricity is the product that is really best." Rufus was playing with something in his hands as he spoke, but he put it down on the window sill before walking towards her. "We're looking for a new power, a new product, to develop for the people."

Yuffie hadn't been so close to Rufus in several weeks, ever since they fell down the stairs. Dark circles stood out in stark relief against his porcelain skin and his lips looked chapped. Unconsciously, Yuffie ran her tongue across her lips to moisten her own.

"Why are you still awake?" Yuffie noticed his sleeping attire. Usually, Rufus fell asleep five minutes after changing.

"I don't sleep much, nowadays." Mindlessly, he picked up the top sheet of paper on his desk to read what it said.

"How long since you last had a solid night of sleep?" Yuffie had a guess. She hoped she was wrong.

"Four months. Three weeks. Five days."

Yuffie was right.

He hadn't had a full night's rest since they slept together.

Paper shuffling pulled Yuffie from her revere. Placing her small hand over the sheets, she pressed them down to the desk where Rufus finally let go.

"Come on." She took his wrist, flipped off the lamp, and led Rufus through his deathtrap maze, using her ninja skills, out of the room. Her grip tightened slightly as she felt him resist at the foot of the stairs, but he followed at her single persistent tug.

They got to their room and Rufus stopped. He hadn't slept in their bed for months. It wasn't "theirs" so much as it was now "Yuffie's."

"Get in and sleep." Yuffie pushed him to his side as she kicked the door slightly so it slid mostly shut.

"Are you certain, Yuffie?"

"Did I stutter?" Yuffie climbed into her side and snuggled into her pillow. She didn't hear Rufus move. "One…Two…"

The bed shifted as Rufus laid down and settled himself into the foreign feeling of a bed.

"Good night, Yuffie. I love you." He whispered before sighing and falling blissfully asleep.

"I know." Yuffie whispered back, half in her dream world as well.

It had been a long time since she slept so well on her own. Four months, three weeks and five days, to be exact.

000000000

Wake up Cat's meows woke Yuffie and Rufus at the same time. The wide feline eyes peered down at the couple and their, suddenly, awkward realization of their positions.

Yuffie untangled her limbs from where she had entwined them with Rufus's. The removal of her warmth was like jumping into the snow with only the thinnest of clothes. He looked away sadly at how fast she scrambled away from him. There wasn't anything he could do, but grin and bear it.

"Good morning, Yuffie." He wanted to ask how she slept, but watching her hands busily try to straighten her clothes and hair, he opted for something else. "Thank you for letting me sleep in the bed. It's been a long time since I've gotten such good sleep."

"Uh…yeah. No prob." Yuffie mumbled. "Sleep in the bed whenever you want. With all your work, you should get good rest."

She bustled off into the bathroom, leaving Rufus in bed to pet the cat.

Surprisingly, Yuffie also ate breakfast in the dining room with Rufus. The atmosphere was a little tense, but it wasn't bad, either. It passed like a silent game of tag; where one tried to steal a look at the other, but when their eyes looked up, the first would flinch away.

There was the arrival of Yuffie's car and, as she stood up to leave, Rufus bid her farewell. "I love you, Yuffie. Have a good day at work."

"You too."

Neither knew which "too," Yuffie meant. Rufus was hopeful and looked up at her in question. She had a furrowed brow and just shook her head as she left, confused herself.

Throughout the day, Rufus found himself smiling. Something that frightened the employees just as much as his temper. It was progress. Whatever it was. Rufus had all intentions to cultivate the precious seed that was planted until it grew so he could see what fruit it would bear.

Yuffie, on the other side of town, found her mind wandering often. Her words flitted through her mind, then the memory of the warmth she felt while she slept. She gave up on paperwork at midday. Taking part in a survey team, she went into the ruins of Midgar. Things were different in the quiet rubble.

It was amazing, Yuffie thought, that one man had created the entire, multi-level city. Rufus's father had been awful. Building an empire and forcing his people to divide into classes, into slums. But Shin-Ra was built by a strong willed individual.

She saw that same trait in the son. But Rufus had something his father lacked; compassion. Yuffie was sure he learned that from his mother. As she did.

Never, in all her years, did she meet Mrs. Shinra. Had she, they would have had long talks about being the wife of a Shinra. Yuffie had a million questions to ask about Rufus. Things a mother would know; only what his mother would know.

Yuffie did not like thinking of the past. Of the deceased. She knew Rufus lost his mother, as she did. The circumstances were different, between their mother's deaths. Hers was by mortal wound, his by prolonged illness. Though both stemmed from the War.

There was no precedence. Yuffie had never dated before, didn't know the way of the heart.

Aeris's church was nearby. Yuffie went in to think.

The water glittered, pure, shining. Sinking into a bench, Yuffie allowed her mind to clear, to mirror the state of the water. It was much easier to let everything slip away in the holy sanctuary, in the healing place.

A breeze ruffled her hair, making small ripples in the pool. It was hypnotizing and Yuffie let it lull her. Whispers entered her mind.

Women. Words of love and care of every kind seemed to come from the water.

Aeris said once, one night when Yuffie was feverish and in pain, that healings came in all forms. The simplest could be a caring touch or a kind word. She said that there is no true pain that can be born from a kindness; no pain that cannot be healed by kindness.

"But, Aeris, you never said where kindness comes from." Yuffie breathed.

"It comes from inside, silly." Aeris's voice echoed, a smile in her words. "It comes from the truth inside your heart."

"Easy for you. You couldn't hate anyone. Not Tseng, Sephiroth, Hojo, Shin-Ra, Jenova…"

"Oh sweetie, you just let those things get in the way. Move them aside. Move your hate, anger, fear, aside; and let your other emotions free. Everything else will come to you."

"And you wonder why everyone calls you 'Mother.'" Yuffie laughed as she roused her mind back to her physical surroundings. There was a faint sensation of her shoulder getting shoved as she looked around the church again.

00000000000000

Yuffie was tapping her foot while she surveyed the library. The mountains of work were atrocious. Most of the papers were months old, the piled books weren't even from their own collection. In her study of the piles of papers, Yuffie came across something most intriguing.

A picture frame. Simple, plain, easily overlooked.

She stifled a gasp at her own image.

She remembered that day. Rufus had taken off for the city to take pictures of Wutai. He had returned when she was playing in the river with her friends. That was when he must have snapped the picture.

As to the reason why he had it, Yuffie was completely baffled. Biting her lip, she paced the cramped room, taking her fingers along the frame as she thought. Their home had become a second office, a prison, for Rufus and he was drowning.

Many good people were lost to their work. They had nothing else. Yuffie did not want to admit that Rufus had nothing other than work. She did not want him to have nothing. Worse yet, she did not want to deny the one thing he wanted because she was too afraid to try.

"What happened to all the books?" Rufus's voice floated up the stairs when he got home. There were sounds of shuffling as he poked around the library.

"I boxed them up and sent them to your office." Yuffie said from the doorway. The look of surprise that crossed his face was near hilarious. "I couldn't even recognize that this was supposed to be in our home."

"So, everything is back in the office?"

"Yes."

"What am I supposed to do then?" He looked like a lost moogle.

"Maybe you could relax. Do something fun, even?" Yuffie walked into the room.

"Did you pack everything yourself?" Rufus asked.

"Yes. Don't worry, I lift with my legs, not my back."

"Oh, good." He shook his head. "No, not that. There was something, personal, in here—"

"You mean the picture of me? Don't worry, it's somewhere safe."

"May I have it back, please?"

"I rather like where it is." Beckoning, she led Rufus to the living room. He noticed that all of his things were missing. "What do you think?"

There was a table along the wall by the door. For the past ten months, it had been bare, but now pictures adorned it. AVALANCHE after Kadaj's defeat and after Deepground. The best of their wedding pictures. And in the center, the picture of Yuffie.

Rufus stood in front of them.

"I don't know if there are other pictures you want up. I never had a camera and I don't know where you would have put yours. And asking Reno is like opening a water dam of trouble." Yuffie stood close to him, stealing a bit of his warmth. It was raining again outside.

"Why? All of a sudden?" Rufus half turned to her.

"I don't know." Yuffie sighed. "I don't know how to express everything that's going on in here."

Yuffie's fingers wiggled crazily around her head. It was extremely Yuffie-esk of her and it made Rufus smile. Taking his hand, she pulled him to the couch.

"I want to try, though. You've been patient. Maybe too patient?" Yuffie said, raising an eyebrow at her picture. "I feel… maybe we don't understand each other. And I think I want to."

"Is that why you got rid of my work?" Rufus settled into the couch.

"Home is home. There's work to do here already." Yuffie mimicked Rufus and snuggled into the soft couch they never sat on together. "Will you help me?"

"For you? Anything."

They spent the rest of the evening alternating between conversation and long pauses of silence. Frivolous topics like the weather and current trends were the bulk of their interaction. Having not talked in a long time, they both automatically tried to ease towards getting used to each other's voice again.

That night, Yuffie went to sleep with a heart free of guilt and smiled the entire night. Rufus was glad on two fronts, to finally connect with Yuffie and, more importantly maybe, that he was able to sleep. He too, slept with a smile.

000000000000

Yuffie started working out in the mornings again. It wasn't that she wanted to leave the warm bed where she could smile like a twitter-pated girl, but she was finally feeling like she wanted to exercise. The first day, she felt a little guilty, not wanting Rufus to get the wrong idea and also because it meant she was finally over her miscarriage.

Her first worry was not a problem when she saw Rufus watching her from their balcony, as he used to, toothbrush in his mouth. What she found out later was that he had been sad that she had stopped doing something that was her lifelong routine. Now that she felt comfortable enough to return to her old habits, she was more likely to go back to her cheerful self.

She scowled and stuck her tongue out at him, retorting that there was nothing that would completely stop her from being cheerful again. "Arrogant, egotistical and self-important" was how she described him as he thought he was so great as to bring lasting ruin to the Great Ninja Yuffie.

"I'm glad to hear that." Rufus gave her a smile that made her heart skip. She punched him in the arm and ran away in embarrassment.

"I'm going to get a heart attack from you."

"Stop running around like a chocobo without a head, then." Rufus yelled from where he sat. When Yuffie popped her head back in to reply, he cut her off, saying, "Thanks for admitting that I can make your heart beat irregularly."

The wink he gave her was almost as bad as the smile. She huffed, tossed her long hair and gave him a haughty smile.

"Time for work. See you later."

"I love you, Yuffie." Rufus called after her. She threw him a happy smile and wave through the window before crawling into the WRO car.

That night they went out for dinner. Marcus's wedding anniversary was that day so Rufus gave him the night off. Rufus surprised everyone when he showed up at the WRO office to pick up his wife. Whispers flew up the floors to Yuffie to make sure she wanted to go with Rufus; otherwise, the armed employees were all too happy to escort him to his car.

After thanking them for their concern, Yuffie waved her coworkers away before greeting Rufus.

"This is a surprise."

"I thought we could eat out together. We've never done it before and since Marcus isn't cooking…" Rufus opened Yuffie's door. She paused, giving him an overly dramatic stage gasp.

"My! President Shinra, are you asking me out to a date?"

"It's just dinner." He hid his bashfulness under his motion of sweeping his hair out of his eyes.

"Sure. Just dinner." Yuffie hopped into the car.

It was raining when they left the restaurant, so they opted for another winter night in. The weather had been gradually warming up, but the occasional shower still rolled around in preparation for spring.

Humming lightly, Yuffie tapped her fingers to the time of her own mental soundtrack. Beside her, Rufus just smiled at her antics. She might playfully push it aside, but she was definitely falling back into her carefree self again.

During the dinner, she hadn't even noticed that she was invading his space. Not that he minded. She chose to sit beside him at the small square table, rather than across from him. Because of that, her arm would brush his as she would reach for her glass and her leg bumped his as she crossed them. The first time he felt the light pressure below the table, Rufus jumped a little and the water spilled out of his cup and onto his cuff.

Innocently, she asked what was wrong as she patted his arm dry with her napkin. He managed to breeze through the excuse of, "I thought I felt something touch my leg," quite well. Until she responded.

"Oh, sorry, that was my foot."

Somehow she managed to kick off her sneakers without anyone noticing.

"I know, it's weird. I just don't like eating with shoes on if I can help it. It's a Wutai thing, I guess."

The rest of the meal went without further mishap and they got home fairly dry.

"Your hair's all wet." Rufus touched the ends of Yuffie locks as a few droplets fell as she took her off her jacket. "You should probably shower and put dry clothes on."

"I thought it was traditionally the woman's job to be fussy." Yuffie headed to the stairs. "But you're right. Your hair is fine since you have so much product in it that it isn't even wet."

"Sassy princess." Rufus jested.

Yuffie went up and stepped into the shower, letting her skin warm up. She was surprised at how easy it was to talk with Rufus. She never had to watch what she was saying, he never yelled at her for being loud or crass like her father did. Also, he was trying to take everything in stride. There were some things she said that made him sad, some things he said that that made her upset, but they would apologize and move on. They had become friends and they were starting to understand each other a little better.

There was still a long way to go and there wasn't even a clear end goal, but Yuffie wanted to keep going forward. If that meant going with Rufus, then she was convinced that she was going to do it as best she could.

She dried off and put comfy clothes on before drying her hair. Rufus went up as he heard the hair dryer and went into the shower to wash the gel out of his hair.

Yuffie was brushing her hair flat when Rufus walked out of the shower room with just a towel around his waist. She oogled secretly at his reflection.

"I still don't believe it." Yuffie commented to his back as he went for his closet to grab clothes.

"Don't believe what?"

"Ten years? I mean seriously. There must have been someone even remotely attractive enough who threw herself at you that you slept with." Yuffie waited ample time to let him slip boxers and pants on before entering the room with a dry towel for his hair.

"Fifteen."

"What? That many? You slept with fifteen women when you said none? Why even bother lying?" Yuffie was outraged on the inside. Only the towel twisted in her hands showed her anger.

"No. Fifteen years." Rufus sat on the bed and looked at his wife as she crashed beside him. "I never corrected you before.

"Wait…"

"I referenced Meteorfall when I took the position of President. What I did not tell you was that I hadn't been with anyone since my mother passed away." Rufus looked at his hands, water trailing down to drip onto them. Noticing that, Yuffie covered his head with the towel and started drying it.

"Why not?" Yuffie was now running her fingers through the golden strands, fluffing air through them and massaging his scalp.

"I was out… with someone…and didn't say…" He stopped, took a deep breath and focused. "Didn't say good bye. Never told her thank you and I love you. I let her die; alone."

Yuffie rubbed soothing circles on his back, giving him comfort as best she could.

"I think she knows. And you know what?" Yuffie cupped his cheek and turned his face towards her. "I think she would want you to let it go. To remember happy things."

Rufus melted into her touch.

"Thank you for sharing with me." Pulling his head down, she let it rest on her shoulder as she gave him a warm hug. Nodding silently, Rufus sat still, enjoying the feeling of her small arms. They sat like that for a few moments before Yuffie spoke again. "You told me something. I should tell you something. What would you like to know?"

"Did you know that I get jealous?"

"You?" Yuffie chuckled. "What good does jealousy do? You can have whatever you want. Why mention this?"

"Yuri." Shifting, Rufus turned his head up to stare at Yuffie. "Will you tell me?"

"An old friend. He helped me when the others turned against me." Yuffie sighed. The memory of her father's betrayal, the country hating her, the blame of bringing Geostigma from Midgar. She told him of the entire thing. How she tried to cure it. But how, in the end, she left to help Cloud and the others.

"You never?" Rufus asked, attempting to discern her emotions towards this Yuri character.

"I thought. Maybe a brief moment. But, he was dying." Yuffie bit her bottom lip. "I didn't. I didn't love him. Maybe I should have. A little. But I didn't want to be hurt again."

"But you cared. For all of them." Rufus sat up and wrapped an arm around her waist. "You can't help it."

"Guilty as charged. But, see, no need for jealousy." Yuffie patted his knee in assurance.

By the end of the night, they were curled up together under the covers, laughing at old stories until they fell asleep.