Beyond Seven
By: General Quistis (generalquistis@yahoo.com) and Xu (zhakeena@yahoo.com)
Disclaimer: Oh, ya know… it goes a little somethin' like this… we don't own anything but the story plot and our sanities… duh… whatever… -_-
Authors' Notes: This is part of our plan to sow the seeds of the Rufus/Tifa shipping um… whatever! So there!
Chapter Three
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Tifa closed the door of her house. She smiled particularly to no one, apparently because she had a good feeling that work would be good. She started on her way to her new bar in Nibelheim. After all the ruckus with Sephiroth, she chose to have a job, rather than to live with her old gang. She needed a break from everything, and living again in her old home was it.
The sun was already setting; evening was close. She smiled at everyone she met, and they were glad that Tifa was living there again. On her way to work, she always passes by at the Old ShinRa mansion, the place where, as a little girl, she and her childhood friends stared at the 'really really rich people' living in there. But to her surprise, a faint light could be seen through the second floor window. She raised an eyebrow at this, for even at the times that Vincent was asleep in there, nobody ever used the lights.
Not really caring this time, she walked a few more steps to the bar where she worked. The bar was owned by this rich nobleman who just settled in that little provincial town. The moment the nobleman had finished building the bar, the reconstruction of the ShinRa mansion took place. Tifa asked why the remaining old servants of the ShinRas would even bother to rebuild the old mansion, and her boss replied, "Oh ya know, in honor of the young President who died. They're gonna look for his body and they're gonna bury him inside."
Tifa thought of that as absurd. "Oh well, after all, I think Rufus was really something special for some of the servants," she thought as she finally entered the bar and greeted her boss. "Good evening, Miss Lockheart," he greeted. He was rather old, about 67 but he was still active.
"Good evening, sir." Tifa greeted back before she headed for the dressing room.
Her job at that bar? She's a bartender and at the same time, she would go up the stage and sing with the piano and sometimes, the sax… or whatever instrument played together.
"Hey, Tifa," her co-worker greeted.
"Hi," Tifa greeted with a smile.
"Have you heard the latest news?" the redhead asked.
"What latest news?" Tifa asked.
"They've found the ShinRa brat's body." The redhead replied.
"ShinRa brat?" Tifa laughed. "Where did they find it? They went down to hell and took it away?" she joked.
"No, really, this is serious. Didn't you see the 3 Turks passing by and they were carrying this body of a woman with them?"
"No. And Rufus is a man, not a woman." Tifa replied.
"That's what they said, coz the Turks had him disguised so that no one would stop them and mash the body into bits! They said that it doesn't even look like a corpse."
"Oh whatever." Tifa muttered, feeling so uninterested in the topic. "So, what's on the playlist tonight?" she asked.
"Mostly jazzy tunes." The redhead replied.
"Not again…" Tifa thought.
***
Rufus woke up with a start. To his surprise (and disgust) he was in his old home, where his mother was murdered, with the Turks around him, half asleep.
"Wha… what the bloody hell?…" he muttered.
Elena snapped back to consciousness the minute she had heard this. She had fallen asleep while guarding him. "Oh, good evening, your excellency!" she greeted with a sheepish smile.
Rufus tried to get up but he felt extreme pain from his injured leg. "Oh shit!" he muttered in annoyance.
"Just lay back, sir. You're still not well." She said.
Rufus felt the heat around the room. "I thought my room's air-conditioned?" he demanded.
"Uh… we're still trying to fix it. We just rebuilt this place. Tomorrow, they're certain that the air-conditioners would work already." She explained.
"Well then open the window!" he commanded.
Elena nodded and rushed to the window. She opened it to let the cool evening air in. Rufus felt the cool breeze hitting his face and he somewhat calmed down. He recalled the days when he and his mother would sit by the window before bedtime and she would read him bedtime stories about faraway castles. During the process, the First Lady would leave the window open and Rufus usually loved the cool evening breeze of Nibelheim. He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Reno and Rude wake up, yawning.
Rufus made a face. "Cover your mouths when yawning, it's annoying to look at your big mouths!" he snapped.
"Gee… sorry sir," Reno replied.
"You should be ashamed of yourselves if you're supposed to guard me and then you fell asleep!" Rufus stated with a threatening look on his face.
As much as Elena, Reno and Rude would hate to admit it, they missed that look in Rufus's eyes. "I think they're deranged. How come they're not replying?" Rufus thought as he scratched his head.
He looked out the window again. "Look, you jerks are probably tired of looking after me… why don't you get out of here or something… take a break… I need to think…"
A little bit groggy and surprised at this remark, the Turks managed to stand up and salute. Then, they ran out the room.
Once he was alone, Rufus flipped his hair back and looked back out the window. He inhaled the cool night breeze, and listened to the Nibelheim folk create the usual night noise. He missed those days, when he and his mother would talk about how their day went. But, this noise was different, Rufus thought. Because, this time, he heard light jazz music from somewhere near.
He frowned slightly, thinking, "How am I supposed to sleep if there's someone singing from somewhere in the world?" he tried to stand up, and suddenly, he remembered what Aerith had told him.
You can't stand up.
"Yes, I can," he muttered before he had finally managed to stand up on his own two feet. "Now, to walk to the damned window…" he thought as he tried his best to walk like nothing hurts. He finally made it to the window and after he did so, he recalled Aerith's other words: "Can you tell Cloud to wait for me?"
"How the hell am I supposed to find that spiky-headed jerk?" he thought. He sat on the windowsill and looked down from where he is. "It doesn't look so high than from the last time I looked…" he thought. Then, he searched the little town from where he is and finally settled his gaze on the new bar near the house. "I thought so," he muttered.
***
Tifa bowed after a song. The audience applauded excitedly, demanding an encore. Tifa was nervous at first, but something from deep inside her gave her courage to sing another song. "Okay then… this one is for…" she trailed off, remembering Cloud. She clenched her fists as she tried to blink back her tears away and smiled back at the audience. "This one is for those who have loved and lost." She said with trembling voice.
***
Rufus leaned his head against the windowsill as he listened to the song. Whoever was singing had a lovely voice and he somewhat felt relaxed upon listening to it, like all of his past troubles had faded away; even though he knew that once the singing stops, everything will turn to black once again.
The song was familiar to him but this time it sounded different because the pitch was meant for a girl. He waited for a star to fall while listening to the words,
"…I'm not, not sure, not too sure how it feels to handle everyday. Like the one that just passed in the crowds of all the people… remember today, I've no respect for you, and I miss you, love. And I miss you, love…"
What caught his attention was the line after the instrumental break "I love the way you love, but I hate the way I'm supposed to love you back."
A shooting star caught his attention and for the first time in several months, he smiled once again. "A shooting star…" He remembered what the First Lady had told him about them; if you see one, it's your chance to make a wish, for it was sure to come true. "A fairy tale… but, what have I got to lose?" He closed his eyes and opened them again, after chanting a wish in his mind.