The Future In-Laws

Rufus was showing Tifa around without keeping in mind the time. She didn't know how much fun she was having with a complete stranger. He was older than her and he wasn't shy. She had found the right company for her vacation.

"So Tifa, what are you doing for dinner?"

"Dinner? OH YEAH… oops. I'm supposed to have dinner with my aunt and uncle." She checked her phone. There were 10 missed calls and it was 6:00pm. She was going to get scolded by Clara for sure. She had seen her scold Cloud for being 10 minutes late for their dinner one time and it was the longest 10 minutes of her life. She never felt more sorry for Cloud in those 10 minutes.

"Funny, my parents were planning dinner too but I'm skipping out."

"Oh really, if only I could do that but I can't. Well nice meeting you Rufus. I have to get going. Sorry…" She looked up at him and he patted her head.

"Go young one. Before it's too late." He winked.

She just nodded her head and ran as fast as she could back to the villa. Once she got there, she found a note on the table.

"Tifa, we're at the Sandy Beach Restaurant down the street. Meet us there when you're ready. Please look decent – no sand, no flip flops, no sundress, no sunglasses. – Love Auntie Clara."

Tifa sighed, all she wanted to wear are flip flops, sundress, and sunglasses. She shrugged it off and found something decent to wear.

At the restaurant, Clara and John were with their friends. They were all enjoying each other's company with storytelling and laughs.

"So this Tifa is the Lockhearts' child right?" The lady looked like she was worth a million dollars. She may be old but anyone could tell that she was part of the upperclass world from the way she talks to the way she moves. This woman knew what class meant because she defined the word itself.

"Yes. She's quite the beauty." Clara added.

"She has to be, being the daughter of Logan and Anna. She must be a Belle." The man was round and short. He had blond-turning-grey hair and was balding from the back. Despite the looks, this man was still married to that other woman. If anyone gave an assumption just based on seeing them, it would seem that he would have married himself a trophy wife, to say the least.

"Where's your son? We thought that maybe they would be able to meet tonight?" John asked them.

"Oh who knows where that boy is? He never really listens to us. They will meet eventually right? Logan and Anna did agree to it. We will surely make it happen." The lady said without any sign of concern.

John cringed inwardly at the thought. He knew that Logan asked him to carry out his plan for his daughter but it didn't sit well with him. Of course, he didn't mind if the two met and fell in love, on their own terms but to make Tifa marry someone else, wasn't in his best interest for her. Clara nudged him to get him out of his own head.

"Ah right. About that… don't you think that the children should agree to this first before guilt-tripping them into a marriage?"

"Oh John, you're such the romantic. Knowing our son, he will run away at mere mention of commitment. He won't be able to take over our company if he doesn't find himself a wife. The image of our company will depicted as a young man with many girls - manwhore. I'll not allow it. Anyways, Tifa needs a family like us. We could give her everything." She glared at her husband.

Clara looked offended. Tifa has everything she needs in her family why would she hop into the next family because they offered her more money. The girl she took in was not money hungry or power driven. Clara drank more wine. John noticed and tapped her leg to signal to not chug down wine like water.

"Diana… she's still 16 anyways. They don't have to get married right away John." The husband added.

"Oh Andrew, our son is in his mid 20's and you're getting older. Plus Tifa will add to the company. Her image, from what I can imagine, will be perfect." She said joyously as she sipped her wine.

Clara wanted to scoff at this woman. Tifa is not property or some object to be added to make something greater. No wonder she only saw this couple once a year. She ordered for another bottle of wine. John's eyes went wide and sighed. This night started off good but now it was wife vs wife talk. Right before the waiter came back with another bottle, Tifa happened to walk in.

"Oh my. She is the most beautiful thing. She is perfect." Diana said as she stared at the young girl. Tifa bowed and sat next to Clara who was practically drowning herself in wine.

After dinner, Tifa was feeling a little bit awkward because Clara got herself drunk and was pretty much the life of that dinner party. John had to carry her home. But Tifa could not shake off the feeling that Diana and Andrew were eyeing her very suspiciously. The thought kept creeping her out because it felt like they were aiming to buy her from the Strife's and Tifa didn't want to live anywhere else but the Strife home. She noticed that it wasn't just her that was feeling odd, but Clara seemed to get the feeling tis why she was drinking so much. Something was missing and her legal guardians failed to tell her anything.

Once they got into the villa, John put his wife to bed as she was muttering non-sense. It was the first time in the longest time he had seen his wife drunk and lively. He started to think back, the last time she was like this was when they were still dating. He laughed at the memories. Then he went to speak to Tifa.

"Teef, are you alright?"

"Who were they?" She wanted to know answers.

"They're our friends. You might have heard of ShinRa Company, well they are the ShinRa's. They were also friends with your parents."

"I didn't see them at the funeral." She scoffed.

"Yeah they sent their regards. Unfortunately the accident was too sudden and they couldn't get the time off as fast as they had hoped. We may be seeing them more often. Maybe." He patted her head and walked out of the living room. He left Tifa with just that. She felt like none of it was answered to her satisfaction. Out of frustration, she took a long walk along the beach side. Her eyes were fixed on the stars, it was beautiful. It helped cleared her mind from the incident with the ShinRa's. It was clear to her that she would not want to be a part of their world. Lost in thought, she didn't notice a dark figure sitting on the sand; it was gazing at the stars too. Again she tripped over that figure, ungracefully of course. Her face hit the sand and her legs dangled on the figure's body.

"You know how to bump into things very well." He dusted off the sand from his hair then politely removed legs from his shoulder. Then he decided to help Tifa out.

She remembered that voice but the main thing on her mind is getting her face out of the sand. With the help of that man, she sat up in a non-compromising position. She forgot that the dress she wore was the dress that Clara bought her for her birthday, a little black dress. Blind-sided by anger, she didn't change her clothing when she got to the villa so now she just ruined or dirtied her only pretty dress. After all that, her hair was still covering half her face in knots and sand. A hand pushed it aside.

"Rufus." So that was who the voice belonged to. "Sorry." She apologized immediately.

"You look – looked nice before the sand got you." He gave her a smile to make her feel better. It made her cheeks feel warm. He used his hand to wipe off the remaining sand on her face and all she did was stare into his eyes. His face looked familiar but she couldn't figure out who he looked like.

"It's alright. I got this." She pushed herself away from his touch and started to dust herself off.

"I guess the dinner was important." His eyes explored her figure, the young girl he met earlier turned into a woman.

"I guess, wasn't much fun though." She said truthfully.

Rufus decided to lie on his back to look at the stars.

"Lie down, you already dirtied your dress. It's nice to see the stars like this." His voice sounded so alluring and Tifa obeyed. She got the hint that he knew how to talk to girls properly unlike Cloud who went from hot to cold about 99% of the time.

"Why were you here?" She asked.

"I met someone that I'm starting to like. But the thing is, to like her goes against my nature. So I wanted to clear out my head and I came here." It was obvious to anyone else that he was talking about Tifa. But she was clueless.

"Oh really."

"Yeah and then she said not to try anything with her or else. So I'm not going to try anything but I want to. Then again I'm not the type for commitment. I'm at a loss, then I meet her again here when I'm trying to clear my head. It's a coincidence right."

Tifa just nodded. Her face was flushed because she knew he was talking about her now. From her peripheral, she saw him roll over to her side and she could feel his eyes on her.

"Don't worry. I won't try anything. You have my word."

"Mmhmm." They both just stayed there. Tifa didn't feel like moving, she liked looking at the stars and maybe she liked this guy next to her. If anything he helped her not to think about Cloud so maybe, she thought, maybe Cloud is just a crush; it's possible to get over him.

Sigh, there is no Zack or Cloud in this chapter; but the story must go on. Thanks for the r&r's (: (: Hope you all enjoy.