Switching Places

            By: General Quistis

            Disclaimer: I neither own Final Fantasy 7 nor the characters. Duh.

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Chapter Three

            Rufus opened his eyes when he felt the sunlight hitting his face from the window. He blinked twice, adjusting his vision… then he just fell out of bed and hit the floor with a loud thud when he realized that a girl was sleeping beside him.

"Ow…" he groaned before standing up again and holding his hip.

The little girl had awoken to the sound of his fall and she was looking at him in awe. "Are you okay?" she asked with concern in her crimson eyes.

Crimson eyes.

Rufus finally remembered everything that happened from last night and then he began to cry again.

The little girl reached out to him and helped him up the bed again. "Aww, why are you crying?" she asked.

Rufus did not answer.

The little girl smiled at him. "My name is Tifa. What's yours?" she asked.

He sniffed before wiping his tears away. "No use crying now…  you can't change the past…" he thought silently with a sad look on his face. "R…Rufus…" he said with a trembling voice.

Tifa examined his features. "You sure your name is Rufus?' she asked.

He stared at her. "Why?" he asked.

"You look like someone else that I know, but his name is Cloud. He lives down the block… I could've sworn last night that you are him, but I thought twice about it when I saw your hair." She said as she held his hand.

Rufus pulled his hand away from her, since he wasn't really used to other people touching his hand especially girls. "Why, what's wrong with my hair?" he demanded.

"Nothing. It's nice. Compared to Cloud, his is spiky." She said before giggling. "Maybe if a lizard fell on it, the poor reptile will die! Heehee!" she explained.

Rufus could not understand what she was talking about, but he could remember the spiky-headed boy from last night. "I see…"  was all he said.

They were interrupted when Tifa's father entered the room. He was wearing an apron.

Tifa jumped out of bed and ran to him to embrace him. "Daddy!" she cheered happily.

He embraced her. "Hey, girl! G'morning. How was your sleep last night?" he asked before turning to Rufus. "Hello there, young lad. You're finally awake, I see… placed your clothes in the laundry so I let you borrow my old clothes from when I was a little boy your age," he told him.

Tifa let go of his father and then turned back to Rufus. "Daddy, I'd like you to meet Rufus." She said with a shy tone.

Rufus smiled weakly at the man, somewhat jealous at Tifa since she could hug her father. "I never received hugs from my own dad…" he thought sadly.

The man stared at Rufus, examining his features. "How come I've heard that name before… from ShinRa… if I remember right, the President has a son named Rufus…" he thought quietly; but he just smiled gently at the boy. "Did you sleep well last night?" he asked.

Rufus nodded. "Yes, sir," he replied, though he really felt uncomfortable with his current surroundings. He got used to waking up in his own big room, but this time, he was in a different room. A much smaller room. A girl's room. But he thought about it again, "At least I'm away from my father…" he looked up at the man. "You're not going to ask where I came from and then send me back there, are you?" he asked with a nervous look on his face.

The man studied the look on Rufus's face. "He must've been through a lot…" he thought silently before shaking his head. "No, Rufus. I won't take you back to where you came from… but I need to ask you some questions. Who knows, your parents could be looking for you now and…" he trailed off when Rufus's eyes grew wide. "I have no parents! My mother is dead… my father killed her last night… he… he shot her… and…" tears streamed down from his face again and he just covered his face and began to cry helplessly.

"Rufus," Tifa said, approaching him and hugging him. She could also remember when her own mother died. It was really hard for her.

"Don't worry, Rufus, I'm here… if you feel lonely because of your loss, I'm here. I also lost my mother so I know how you must've felt…" she told him reassuringly.

Rufus looked up at her and she tried his tears with her own hands. He felt so amazed by her but he did not say anything.

Tifa's dad smiled gently at them. "Breakfast is ready downstairs, kids. I'll wait there," he said before leaving.

Tifa sat down properly, facing Rufus. "You can tell me everything that happened to you if you don't want to tell my daddy everything… I promise I won't tell," she said with a reassuring smile on her face.

Rufus sniffed and looked down, clenching his fists. "I… I was… having dinner with my mom last night… and my dad came home smelling so bad… like beer or something… She asked where he had come from but he got angry and started to shout at her… then… I don't know what happened… they just stormed out of the dining room and headed upstairs… I followed them, telling them to stop fighting but my dad won't listen… and then the next thing I knew, my mom… my mom was already hugging me like she's protecting me from something… and I saw the gun… my dad's holding it… and then… there's a gunshot… blood all over the place and… and…" he could not go on as more tears streamed down from his eyes. He turned his gaze to Tifa's eyes, smiling bitterly at her. "…and the next thing I knew, she's dead!" he continued.

She felt her heart sinking upon sympathizing with him, so she reached out to him and embraced him, wanting to comfort him. "Oh, Rufus, I'm so sorry about what happened…" she whispered gently, and surprisingly, she could feel her tears welling up in her eyes.

Unbelievably for Rufus, he could not even understand himself why he told her everything even if he knew all along that this girl was still a stranger… and she's hugging him?!

Tifa moved slightly away from him and smiled sweetly before wiping her tears away. "Where did you come from?" she asked.

He sniffed and wiped his own tears away as he looked down. "Th… the big house… ShinRa…" he replied softly, feeling so afraid that she might scream at him for finding out that he's a ShinRa.

The name was really popular all over the world…

Tifa blinked. "ShinRa?" she asked before touching his face. "You're Rufus ShinRa?" she asked.

Rufus moved away from her and nodded his head. "Please don't make me leave just because you know that I'm a ShinRa… I know that the name is cursed because of my father but… please, I don't want to go back there… he's going to kill me!" he said.

"But… but you need to tell the authorities that he killed your mommy!" she pointed out with a concerned look on her face.

Rufus shook his head. "I…I can't… ShinRa is the authorities…  they wouldn't believe me because I'm just a kid and daddy is the President…" he explained as he clenched his fists. "And if I go back there, he'll just abuse me… I'm so scared, Tifa," he said as he hugged himself.

Tifa swallowed hard as she nodded her head slowly. "I can't let him leave if that evil man is just going to hurt him…Rufus is a good boy…" she thought silently as she looked into his eyes and smiled gently as she took his hand and squeezed it gently. "Don't worry, Rufus… I won't tell daddy that you're a ShinRa. It'll be our little secret… just between the two of us, okay?" she asked.

Rufus smiled gently at her and nodded his head in agreement before hugging Tifa. "Thanks a lot, Tifa…" he told her happily.

Tifa giggled. "I'm sure you're already hungry. You wanna go downstairs now and eat?" she asked.

He nodded.

With that, they got out of bed and walked hand-in-hand down the stairs going to the kitchen.