Switching Places
By: General Quistis
Disclaimer: I neither own Final Fantasy 7 nor the characters. Duh.
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Chapter Eight
"Happy birthday, Sir Rufus!"
Cloud covered himself with his blanket when he heard the loud voice coming from Scarlet as she entered his room one early December morning on the 23rd.
"I am certain that my birthday is on the 19th of August…" Cloud thought miserably as he forced himself to sleep again.
"Kyah… get up from there, we need to take you back to Midgar because your father wants you to celebrate your 20th birthday there!" she said as she pulled the blanket away from him.
Cloud opened his eyes and gazed up at the blonde woman. "If he wants me back in Midgar, how come he sent me here in Junon?" he mumbled as he got up.
Dark Nation yawned and nuzzled her head close to Cloud's arm. "Meowrrr…" she purred happily.
Cloud patted her head before proceeding to get his robe.
"Kyah… you're the Vice-President, sir. Your father assigned you to take care of Junon," Scarlet said.
"And what are you doing here? I thought you're supposed to be in Midgar attending to him?" he snapped.
"Kyah… just arrived here at around 4 am to fetch you, Sir Rufus," she said quite cheerfully.
"How did you come here?" he asked as he faced the mirror and checked his hair.
"The chopper, sir," she replied.
Cloud gazed out at the gloomy skies from outside his window. "It's winter in Midgar, right?" he asked.
"Yes, sir." She replied.
With that, Cloud turned to the couch and saw a white suit all ready and pressed. He frowned as he approached it. "What's this supposed to be? You're gonna make me look like a snowman!" he told her.
"Kyah… you love white, remember?" Scarlet asked, but at the back of her mind, she was thinking, "I think they failed to make him drink the formula last night…"
"No, I don't like to wear that. I'd like something blue," he began as he went to his closet.
"But sir, if you wear a blue suit, you'll end up looking like a Turk!" Scarlet reasoned.
"Okay, fine… I'll wear black." He said as he began to rummage through his closet.
"Kyah… you don't have black suits," Scarlet said, beginning to become impatient as she proceeded to the door. "I'll just go down for a while to get your vitamins, sir," she said before she got out.
Cloud could not figure out what those vitamins are for… but he knew that every time he took them, he starts to blank-out a little and then end up getting confused… but Heidegger said that it was for his own good if he wants to stay smart.
He just closed his closet and got the white suit that had been prepared for him earlier. "Shit…" he muttered.
He was interrupted when Scarlet entered again with a glass of water and three red capsules. "Here you go, Sir," she announced as she approached him and handed him the items.
Cloud shoved in the three capsules in his mouth and then drank some water. After he swallowed everything, he headed for the bathroom to get dressed. "Wait for me outside and take Dark Nation with you," he commanded from inside.
***
Rufus had awakened from the sound of music coming from piano in Tifa's room. He shivered for a while when he felt the cool air within his own room. He realized that it only began snowing that morning as he looked outside the window. "Today's my birthday," he realized with a slight smile on his face before he got up and got outside his room, heading for her room.
He slowly opened the door and peeked in. He smiled gently when he saw her wearing a black knitted sweater and a long black skirt as she was playing the piano while singing softly.
She only stopped when she heard the door creaked and she instantly turned her gaze to the door and smiled happily. "Rufus!" she got off from the piano seat and ran to him excitedly and gave him a tight hug. "Good morning and a happy birthday!" she greeted cheerfully.
He was somewhat stunned, but he forced a smile on his face. "Uh… thanks… you're up early?" he asked.
"Well… yeah… made some breakfast downstairs. C'mon, let's go while it's still hot!" she said before grabbing his hand and dragged him downstairs.
The moment they reached the dining area, his blue eyes widened in awe upon seeing a small birthday cake with a small white candle on top of it and beside it was a present.
He frowned slightly. "T…Tifa, you shouldn't have…" he began, feeling embarrassed.
She giggled and dragged him nearer to the table and forced him to sit down. "But I just did! Now, make a wish and blow out the candle," she said as she sat down on the other chair beside him.
Rufus stared at the flame and he had this cold look on his face upon remembering his father. "I wish that he would die now," he said aloud.
Tifa blinked. "What?" she asked.
Rufus shook his head. "Nah, that won't work… I might get unlucky the whole year if I wish for something bad, right?" he asked as he winked at her.
She smiled gently. "I knew that you're not like your father," she told him.
He smiled proudly at her before turning back to the flame and thought for a while. With that, he smiled gently with a silent thought in his mind, "I wish that I could always be with Tifa forever…" and then blew out the flame.
Tifa was silent but she was smiling at him as she asked, "What did you wish for?" she asked.
He shook his index finger carefully by his lips before saying, "That is a secret," and winked at her.
She made a face.
He laughed at her. "C'mon, you also didn't tell me what you wished for last May 3!" he said as he nudged her before he got the present and opened it, revealing a long shotgun.
He fell silent upon seeing it. "You shouldn't have, Tifa… I mean… I already have one of these…" he stammered as he pulled it out and examined it.
"I thought you could use a new one since you also gave me new fighting gloves on my last birthday," she told him with a sweet smile on her face.
He turned to her and smiled gently. "Thanks a lot, Tifa." He told her.
She just looked back at him with a loving smile on her face.
"Is it loaded?" he asked, turning back to the shotgun.
"No. But there are several bullets inside that box," she told him.
He was silent for a while before he put down the shotgun on the table and got up with a hard look on his face. "I'll be back in a few seconds. You wait for me here," he told her before rushing upstairs.
Tifa felt herself getting a little nervous upon his sudden reaction, but she just remained seated, clasping her hands together in her lap as she lowered her gaze to the floor. "What if he didn't like what I gave to him…" she thought nervously, but she snapped out of it when she heard him coming down again.
She watched him as he sat down again beside her and showed her red velvet box. "This is supposed to be for Christmas but I can't wait that long for me to give this to you… so," he opened it with a sly smile on his face, revealing a heart-shaped silver locket with ShinRa engraved in its usual characters on the lower right corner of the top flap. She gasped in awe and covered her mouth with her right hand. "Oh my God…" she said as she slowly touched it. "I… I can't accept this… where… where did you get this? I…" she stammered.
"Old man gave me a credit card when I was only five. I still know the numbers so I just asked the store to charge it there." he told her with a proud look on his face before he got the locket and wore it around her neck.
She smiled shyly at him as she reached for his hand and squeezed it. "Thank you, Rufus," she said softly as her tears fell.
Rufus felt his heart sinking when he saw her tears and he instantly took her in his arms. "What's wrong? Why are you crying? Didn't you like it?" he asked.
She shook her head as she embraced him tightly. "No, of course, I liked it! Very much, Rufus. I can't thank you enough… I… I'm just thankful that you're here with me…" she admitted with a trembling voice as she smiled despite her tears.
It was true; she was very thankful that he was there with her. She could not really imagine what her life would be like if he hadn't come along when they were seven years old…
It scared her to think of the what-ifs…
What if he was still in ShinRa? Would she still be in Nibelheim? Or in another place like the slums of Midgar?
Or there could be something more dangerous… something that could kill everyone including the Planet…
Or there could be another person whom she would fall in-love with…
"No, I don't want to… it's only Rufus now… he'll be with me forever… he promised me that…" she thought with a hard look on her face before looking at him with a sweet smile on her face.
She was about to thank him again, but she just thought of it in her mind when he leaned forward to give her a kiss on her lips…
***
Cloud finally arrived in Midgar, but when he was about to get down from the helicopter, Heidegger had stopped him. "Stay inside." He commanded.
Cloud had this confused look. "Why? What's going on inside?" he asked.
They were interrupted when they heard several gunshots coming from inside the building.
"Kyah! I think I should take Rufus some place safer," Scarlet told Heidegger.
"Gyah… do so, please," Heidegger responded before he stepped back and decided to just close the door of the chopper, but Cloud stopped him. "No! I want to know what's going on," he demanded with a fierce look on his face.
"AVALANCHE," Heidegger responded.
Cloud thought for a while, trying to remember what AVALANCHE is.
Heidegger spoke up again with a frantic tone, "Gyah! It's a terrorist group against ShinRa! Against all of us here!" he explained.
Cloud's frown deepened before he grabbed his enormous sword from under the seat, pushed Heidegger away and jumped off from the chopper.
"Rufus!" Scarlet yelled.
"Stop him!" Heidegger commanded from the Soldiers.
Cloud just ran inside, avoiding everyone. "Nobody messes with ShinRa just like this!" he thought angrily.
"Kyah! What is he thinking! He could get killed!" Scarlet screeched as she jumped down and rushed inside the building with Heidegger.
***
Cloud stopped running when he heard a very loud explosion from somewhere outside the building. "There goes another Mako reactor," he thought before proceeding inside President ShinRa's office, only to find the said man dead on the floor, lying on a pool of his own blood.
Cloud's mouth dropped open as his grip tightened on the handle of his sword. "What the…" he turned to one corner of the room where he found a big fat man with a gun-arm frowning at him. Surrounding him were bodies of five dead Soldiers.
"Well… looks like some foo's been left behind!" the big man said with a rather nasty look before spitting at the dead President.
Cloud cringed a little. "How uncouth," he thought disgustingly before preparing himself for battle.
"Who are you?" the man demanded.
"Rufus ShinRa. Vice-President of this Company that you are trying to trash out," Cloud responded in a rather cool manner.
"Oh, so you're the heir of this fucked-up company, eh?" the man said mockingly.
"What is your name?" Cloud asked.
The guy started to target him, ready to fire. "It ain't important anymore, you darn foo'! I'm from AVALANCHE… and all of you should just die to end everything! You're sucking the life out of Planet!" he snapped.
"Don't you think that we could discuss this calmly?" Cloud asked, trying to make a deal.
"There's no time for that." He responded.
Cloud was about to attack but he was interrupted when he heard a girl's voice from behind him, shouting, "Barret! Are you there?"
Barret did not say anything, but the moment he caught him off-guard as he turned around to look at the girl, he just shot Cloud.
The girl's green eyes widened in shock upon recognizing the blonde guy in the white suit, but all she could do was gasp and run to him, catching him in her arms before he could land on the ground.
Barret was surprised upon seeing her do that. "Aerith?! What the… what the hell are you doin'?! Let go of him!" he commanded frantically as he ran to them.
Cloud let go of his sword as he clutched his bleeding left shoulder.
Aerith was about to heal him, but Barret grabbed her hand and dragged her away from him, causing Cloud to just fall to the floor painfully with a loud "thud".
Cloud screamed in pain.
"No!" Aerith called out as she tried to break free from Barret's strong grip on her right wrist. Her left hand tried to reach out for Cloud. "Why did you do that to Rufus?" she demanded from Barret as she started to cry.
"What's wrong with you? Did those nasty Turks hit your head or somethin' and now you wanna help that ShinRa brat? Let's go back to HQ!" Barret snapped impatiently as he hurried up a little, giving Aerith a hard time keeping up with his speed.
Cloud tried to sit up but the pain was too much for him to bear. He just fell back. "I can't die like this…" he thought miserably.
To his relief, he heard some footsteps rushing to him.
"There he is!" he heard Heidegger say.
Cloud just closed his eyes, feeling his head aching.
"Sir Rufus!" he heard Reeve's voice call out his name.
"Kyah! He's injured…" Scarlet's voice.
"What happened to Sir Rufus?" Palmer's voice.
Cloud cringed as he tried to open his eyes again, but all he could see were blurred faces as he felt some hands lifting him up. "N…no… that's not my name… I am not Rufus… I'm… Cl…"
He lost consciousness.