Disclaimer: The Final Fantasy VII compilation does not belong to me. I do not own the characters, story, places etc. They are all the property, copyright and trademark of Square-Enix. I place no ownership/claim on them by using them in this work of fan fiction.

Chapter Thirteen: The Pull

Reno brought the cigarette to his lips and inhaled. He'd started cutting back recently, after Rude's constant lecturing about his health had finally gotten too boring. It was something of a success at first, but lately he'd found the cravings more and more difficult to resist. He blamed stress and the women that caused it. His gaze took in the early morning air that covered the city like a tattered veil. It was damp and cold, feeling unpleasantly heavy to breathe. His charge still lay asleep in bed, tucked up under the duvet in her own little warm cocoon. He was envious. Sleep didn't come easy to him at the best of times and when he did manage to fall under it's spell, it never lasted long enough. Even sex with her hadn't solved that problem.

It wouldn't be too much longer until she'd awaken. She had an assignment today, some checkpoint visit again; boring and routine. Perhaps if it went smoothly, they'd be back by late afternoon and they could have some fun. The red head tapped the ash from the quickly disappearing cigarette. She'd been a lot more open to it than he thought she'd be, in fact they had fallen into an easy intimacy that he'd not expected at all. Not that he was complaining. He wasn't one to not grab an opportunity when it came his way, especially one as rare as this one. She should have been out of his reach, the girl was going to be a leader of a nation in a few weeks for fucks sake and then there was the matter that she was probably going to marry his boss. Part of him reveled in the fact that Rufus would always be playing second fiddle to him, whether he knew it or not. It would be a mess if he ever found out, but Reno couldn't help but wonder what it would be like, to see the look on his face. It wasn't that he hated his boss of course, not really, but he didn't particularly like him either.

Suddenly a faint beeping could be heard from the young brunette's bedroom. He could hear the groan sound from her lips as she woke up under protest. Reno smiled to himself as he chucked the rest of his smoke out of the window. Those moments where she'd lose her temper, where she'd get so annoyed or frustrated at the most mundane things, they were always entertaining. The sound of the shower started up a few moments later and a smirk crept onto his lips as the thought of joining her crossed his mind, but then soon dissipated. Whilst it would be fun to surprise her, perhaps it wasn't such a good idea; there wasn't long left until they'd need to leave and he didn't like to rush these things. At least not with her.

He waited there on the windowsill until she exited her room, dressed in those damn jeans again and a white, sleeveless shirt. Her hair was still slightly wet and strands clung to her neck and the bits of her collarbone that peeked out from the opening of her top. The way her cheeks warmed as she saw him made he feel a small pang of regret that he hadn't joined her after all.

She gave him an airy smile, "Morning Turk."

The red head looked her up and down again, one of his brows quirking up as he met her eyes, "You'll get a cold if you go out like that."

She sighed at him, "I'll take a jacket."

He gave her another knowing look, "Your hair's still wet."

Yuffie ran a few pieces through her fingers, as if inspecting it, "It'll dry!" Her eyes twinkled as a teasing smirk pulled at her lips, "Why, are you worried about me or something?"

Reno chuckled, shaking his head, "No, but I don't want to have to look after you if you get sick. I imagine you're an annoying patient."

He watched her cross the room and pick up a dusty grey jacket that hung from the back of a chair, before pulling it on.

His eyes narrowed a little, "No breakfast?"

The young brunette shrugged and shook her head as she bent to pick up her boots, "I'm not hungry today."

"If you're sure." His brow still arched questioningly, even as he relented.

Reno lifted himself up, and made his way across the room, grabbing his own jacket on the way towards her. She was rummaging around in her bag, busily searching for something. He watched her with mild interest, as a little gasp of happiness escaped her mouth and she pulled out a chapstick. She twisted off the lid and glided it over her lips before rubbing them together. His gaze focused in on her mouth with a calculating edge. The moment she popped the lid back on and dropped it back in her bag, he made his move, snaking one hand round her waist and the other up her neck before tangling it in her hair.

Her eyes widened, "What-"

The young brunette's voice was soon muffled as he brought his lips down to her own, trailing his tongue over her bottom lip with a languid ease before pulling it between his teeth and tugging. The kiss ended as quickly as it had begun, as he released her after only a few moments. She looked at him in confusion as he licked his own lips, his eyes narrowing in contemplation.

He nodded as he came to his conclusion, smirking down at her in amusement, "Cherry?"

"Well, it was…" She was scowling at him, clearly irritated at him for having to now apply more. As she took it back out of her bag, she eyed him warily, "Don't you dare kiss me again!"

His brow quirked as he pouted in mock sorrow, "Not ever?"

Yuffie looked at him with her own brand of playful derision, "You know what I mean, idiot."

His eyes kept drifting back to the rear view mirror to watch her as they made their way to the checkpoint. She'd made the wise decision to go in the back today, seeing as the press might snap some photos of her getting out of the car and it would hardly look good for her to be so casual with a Turk, especially one like him.

She always looked so deep in thought when she was back there. He wondered if she was just worried about the assignment, or perhaps she was nervous about seeing the President again after their little 'date'. He hadn't pushed her for information, not since she'd made that comment the other night. It wasn't as if he could tell her not to do anything with him, after all she might one day marry the bastard and it wasn't as if he'd made her any such offer. Not that he could, even if he wanted to and he didn't want to. He enjoyed their 'relationship' as it was. It was fun, messing around with no ties, being able to come and go and not worry about the complications that so often came with real relationships. He didn't need to worry about her feelings.

Only he did worry about her feelings. It was annoying, but he couldn't help it. She was so vulnerable, so delicate. Not in a 'damsel in distress' kind of way, of course, she didn't fit that description. It was just that she was so open, so easy to read. He knew her to be dishonest and mischievous, after all in their previous dealings she had been quite the tricky opponent, yet the girl, or rather the woman, he'd spent the last week with was anything but.

She tried to hide it of course, acting tough and haughty, but it was obvious she didn't feel like it. It was all an act, a protective barrier against the world. He imagined she didn't know how easy it was to read her, but then it wasn't as if he was totally unaffected by her 'attitude', even if he knew it was only a defense. The other night when she'd rejected him, when she'd tried to hurt him, he knew she was angry at him, but that didn't stop him from getting just as angry at her. It had been an intense, primal sort of anger. The kind that made him want to walk out and go sleep with someone, just to spite her. Of course he couldn't. It wasn't just that he couldn't leave her alone in that apartment without protection, it was something more than that. The image of her face, her eyes wide and glistening as he told her she wasn't the only one who could fuck around with someone else, as he rubbed in the fact that he could break this off at any time and be okay, well, it wasn't something he ever wanted to see. He didn't want to hurt her. Not like that anyway.

His brow furrowed a little as the thoughts in his mind started to stray into a realm that was verging on dangerous. No, he wasn't attached. It would be such a fucking bad idea to even consider it. No, he was just having such a good time and he should make sure he took full advantage of it whilst it lasted. It would be something he could brag about in the years to come. Fucking the leader of Wutai was a pretty impressive accomplishment. Maybe he could use it to his advantage with the ladies once in a while.

He was brought out of his thoughts when the young brunette spoke, her voice soft and cautious.

"Reno?"

The red head's brow rose as he glanced in the mirror, "Yeah?"

There was a pause, as if she was considering what to say and whether to say it. Eventually she gave a small smile, her eyes as soft as her tone, "Yesterday was nice."

There was something about the way she'd said it, about the expression on her face, he couldn't pinpoint it, but it was oddly forlorn. After a moment he smiled back at her with a little nod.

"Yeah."

It was obvious the second they arrived that something was wrong. There was this feeling in the air that made the Turk's body tense with a kind of anticipation. He tried to not betray any sense of this impending situation to the young brunette, she seemed worried enough as it was and although it was in his nature to tease her, he didn't want her to get any ideas of jumping in to help. Not after last time.

As they approached the President and his bodyguards, the feeling in his bones only increased. They were all just as on edge as him. Something was definitely going on. As his boss noticed their arrival, he called over to them, or rather to her.

"Miss Kisaragi, would you join me a moment." His face was as unmoving as ever, though there was something about his tone that sounded forced.

Yuffie turned and gave Reno a little wave, her eyes making an effort to lock with his for a moment before she turned and made her way over to the President. The red head watched her go before turning towards a familiar voice that sounded to the left of him.

"Reno." The raven haired Turk had an expression eerily similar to the President's as he came to stop at his co-worker's side.

"Tseng." He gave a little nod before his gaze drifted over to the crowd gathering in the distance over at the checkpoint, "What's going on?"

Tseng's voice was as impassive as his face, "Trouble."

The red head nodded with a sigh, "What's the plan?"

"The President and Miss. Kisaragi are currently slipping away along with a decoy car. Once they're gone we'll proceed to the checkpoint. I'll explain more on the approach."

Reno gave his co-worker another nod in understanding.

So she wouldn't be here. That was good. She'd be out of his hair. She'd be safe. She'd be with him.

Reno's brow furrowed as he felt the urge to turn and look back to the place she'd joined the President only a moment ago. His eyes tried to find the young brunette amongst the group of bodyguards but she and her host had seemingly disappeared, seemingly having already made their escape.

He swallowed as his chest become uncomfortably hollow. He didn't really know, nor did he attempt to understand why, but he'd have liked to have caught one last glimpse of her before she'd left.

Rufus had found her oddly quiet during the ride away from the checkpoint. He'd expected her to be demanding answers, or raging as to why she couldn't stay and help, but she had been all too accepting. His brief explanation had been more than enough to convince her to slip away quietly with him and since she hadn't said much of anything at all. He was thankful of course, this way was much easier for him and much safer for the both of them. Still, he wondered what had brought on this change in her. Maybe she was finally beginning to accept the harsh reality of the responsibility of leadership. It was all well and good to be a protector of the people, but if you were dead it was all rather pointless.

It hadn't taken them long to get to his apartment. Tseng had suggested it, seemingly having gained intel that a number of safe houses were being watched and fearing they would be the first places to be targeted once the troublemakers found out their targets had disappeared. His apartment wouldn't have been his first choice, not with her there. It felt a little too personal, a little too intimate.

As they entered, the young woman spoke up, her voice curious but strained.

"Where are we?" She was looking around, perhaps noting that this looked nothing like the place her and Reno had taken refuge in.

"This is my home." He watched her as her eyes narrowed a little, confusion etching onto her face. The young man sighed lightly, with a reassuring smile, "Or rather, my real one, so to speak."

Realisation dawned and she nodded, "Oh, okay." Her voice was still strangely hesitant. He would have assumed it to be nerves, but couldn't quite understand why she was so much on edge.

He approached her carefully, keeping his voice soft, "Are you uncomfortable, Miss Kisaragi?"

She waved her hands in front of her in a nervous gesture, "No, no! It's just…" Her voice trailed away as her eyes flickered to the window, "I'm worried."

Of course she was. Rufus nodded in understanding, "About the checkpoint?"

"Yeah." Her hand crossed over her waist and clutched at her other arm, as if giving herself a comforting hug, "Will everyone be okay?"

He let his own gaze join hers as it looked out of the window, "They know what they are doing and we were luckily to get the warning we did. I have every confidence that they will snip this in the bud before anything destructive happens."

The young woman let out a little sarcastic huff, "Wish I could have your confidence."

He looked back over to her, his brow arching with his own blend of amusement, "I was lead to believe you had plenty of your own."

"Yeah." Her voice was quiet as she spoke, a sad sort of smile forming on her lips, "Nowadays I'm starting to worry that I used it all up when I was younger…"

His brow remained arched as he drew even closer, looking down at her with a challenging twinkle in his eyes, "If your well is running dry you'll just have to dig a little deeper until you find it again."

For a moment she looked at him as if he was a mythological creature, truly baffled and in awe at the same time, then all of a sudden she broke out into a fit of laughter. As she eventually seemed to calm down, she looked back up at him, fighting to catch her breath as she spoke, "Sorry, it's just…getting a pep talk and such an eloquent one at that from Rufus Shinra..it's just something you don't expect, you know?"

He considered her for a few moments, before his eyes again took on something close to playfulness, "I'll have you know Miss Kisaragi, I'm incredibly 'peppy'."

Her brow raised, once again expressing too clearly the surprise she must have felt at the strange air of easiness that was beginning to form between them. Shaking her head as if to rid herself of an unwelcome thought, she took a few steps further into the room, her eyes surveying it with interest.

"So, how long do you think we'll be here?"

Rufus thought for a moment before responding, "That is unclear. After they make the checkpoint safe again, they'll still need to make sure all the perpetrators are either neutralised or contained." He looked over at her as she gave a small nod, before beginning to walk over to take a seat in one of his favourite armchairs, lowering himself into it with a sigh, "We might be here a while."

They had been there for hours now and he was beginning to run out of ways to keep the young woman entertained. He had at first offered her the run of his rather rare collection of books, which she had taken interest in for all of a few minutes, before huffing with disappointment at the lack of a single one on the topic of Materia or ninjas; in this respect she certainly lived up to that reputation of hers. Then he had tried to ask her about her upcoming inauguration, but she had side-stepped the topic almost immediately, leading him to be forced to drop the subject. He had then offered to give her another dance lesson, something that she had seemed keen on, but they soon found the space of the apartment was not nearly sufficient, as she bumped into a rather expensive lamp, which luckily was saved the fate of breakage by her quick reflexes.

As his ideas had run dry, she had now taken to walking around his apartment and making comment on pretty much everything she found. It wasn't that he minded per se, but it was certainly a strange and exposing experience. He really wasn't used to someone taking such an interest in his personal life and he had to fight the urge to give the the shortest answers he could. She wanted to know the smallest things, from why he choose certain paintings she felt were too dark or uninspiring, to why his fridge was stocked with so much real food; apparently she had assumed he didn't cook for himself. Then she complained that his sofa wasn't soft enough, telling him he needed to use it more to break it in, to which a blush had formed on her cheeks for a reason he didn't quite understand.

As she scurried through another door, she came to a halt as she realised she'd entered his bedroom. He watched her as she seemed to debate whether she should just leave this room entirely, but something appeared to catch her eye as she slowly made her way over to a set of drawers, on top of which sat a handful of photos in silver frames.

Her gaze narrowed as it glided over them, before her hand hesitantly reached out and picked one up for a closer look. Rufus walked over to stop a little behind her, peering over her shoulder to see what had caught her interest so intensely. It was a photo of him as a child, at some formal event he no longer remembered. It was a rare photo to say the least in that it was one of the only few he had kept with his predecessor in.

She kept her eyes on the photo as she spoke, her voice soft and distant, "Did you like your father?"

He too kept his attention fixed on the image in her hands as he responded, his brow arching as he let out a heavy sigh, "That… is a difficult question."

The young woman turned to look up at him, her eyes wide with genuine curiosity, "Why?"

Rufus looked at her for a moment as he tried to decide whether or not to fully elaborate on the complicated history of their relationship. Eventually he decided against it, not wanting to reveal that darkness to her just yet. Instead he gave another sigh, a slight smile on his lips, "Do you like yours?"

She huffed with the kind of amusement that comes with no real satisfaction, "Guess it is difficult."

Her gaze drifted back and forth between the photo and himself, her eyes narrowing as the seemed to take in every detail of his face, "You don't really look like him, do you?"

"No." His own gaze fell to rest somewhere distant, as he tried to rid the emotion that was threatening to surface, "I… was often told I took after my mother in my appearance."

She dropped her eyes back to focus on the photo as she spoke, "Was their marriage an arranged one?"

The young man's eyes drew back to rest on her face, his voice sounding oddly tired, "I don't know the answer to that."

He didn't know, it was true, but part of him wished it had been something that was forced on the two of them. At least the lack of respect his father had shown his mother would be slightly less disgusting than if he'd promised her a marriage rooted in love. Only slightly less disgusting though. His father had certainly made the most of his position at the head of Shinra and had enjoyed many women; the handful of half siblings he had was testament to that. Of all the issues he took with his father, his constant sleeping around was something he felt he would never have been able to justify. Not that his predecessor had felt the need to justify anything he did.

The young man was brought out of his thoughts as he noticed the young brunette's attention was back on him, her eyes warm and bright as her voice sounded so softly in his ears.

"What was your mum like?"

Rufus shook his head just as softly as she had spoken, "I'm afraid I do not remember much about her. She died many years ago."

Once again, there was no lie. He remembered her face and the date she had died. That was all he could remember, or maybe that was all he could bare to.

She was looking at him as if she was seeing past his exterior, her eyes beginning to glisten with her own haze of memories, "Neither do I." Looking back down at the photo in her hands, she sighed and lifted it back to rest on top of the drawers, "My mum died when I was young too."

He took note of the way she smiled, it was sad but accepting and it resonated in him more than it should have. Sensing something dark falling down around them both, the young man made to show her a more reassuring smile.

"Would you like a drink?"

Rufus poured out two small glasses of the dark amber liquid, before walking back over to where she stood beside the window, her gaze flickering over to him as he approached.

He handed her one of the glasses with an arch of his brow, "I am aware you don't usually drink alcohol, but…sometimes it really does work wonders to act as a distraction from the more difficult aspects of life."

She gave him a hesitant smile as she eyed it warily for a moment, before slowly bringing it to her lips and taking a small sip. She swirled it along her tongue before swallowing, an amusing grimace forming on her face.

The young man chuckled softy at her expression, "A bit too strong, perhaps?"

Seemingly taking offense at being challenged on her ability to drink, she quirked her own brow with an air of defiance, "No, it's fine."

She took another gulp, much larger than the first. For a moment she seemed proud of herself, but the second she swallowed her eyes widened as she realised her mistake, a spluttering of coughs sounding from her mouth as the alcohol burnt down her throat.

Rufus held back his chuckle this time and was just about to raise his own glass to his lips when he noticed the trickle of whiskey that ran down from the corner of her mouth to her the tip of her chin. He didn't really know what possessed him. It was a strange sort of pull, an instinct of sorts that seemed to bring his hand to her face and gently brush against her chin, catching the droplets of liquid on the edge of his finger. He looked at it for a moment before slowly and purposefully raising it to his mouth.

He made sure to keep his eyes on her as he took it into his mouth and noted that she was looking at him with a fascination that only made him feel more of that pull.

It wasn't the right time. They hadn't reached that point. She hadn't opened herself to him. She wasn't ready. It was too soon. He was sure it was a bad idea and yet still he found himself unable to resist that damn pull.

His hand rose once again, catching her chin with his thumb and tipping it upwards as he slowly bent down, making sure to discern if there was any resistance in her eyes, before brushing his lips against her own.