Part IV

I'm really, truly, honestly, going to make this the last part. Damn you oneshot! You didn't want to be a oneshot! This is taking me more time then I ever planned to spend on it. I better get crack-a-lackin at this so I can get to my last three planned projects. After that I am retiring from fanfiction! On to original work, huzzah! (Then again, fanfiction is a lot like crack. . . we'll see if I can make it through the withdrawal.)

Sorry if this doesn't seem like a believable romance, but know that in an attempt to make it so I actually ended up making this a chaptered fic. . . so it could have been worse.

Disclaimer: (See Part I)

"Please, President Shinra, the expense of this is going far beyond the estimates that you asked me to project for you. . ." Mr. Jancy's hoarse voice was a distinctive timbre as the accountant tried to catch Rufus' attention. At the moment, Rufus seemed more intent on the contracts he was looking over for the fireworks at the closing ceremonies later.

Rufus gave Jancy a piercing glance over the piece of paper in front of him and the other man visibly quivered. "Those projections were not based on my current expectations. I of all people know you have to pay through the nose if you want quality, and this celebration is going to be big. Why else would I arrive early?"

Jancy looked nervous. It was difficult to determine what exactly the mood of their fearless leader was today. Rufus Shinra's moods had never been exactly. . . positive. They seemed to range from frigid disinterest to murderous but well contained rage. The Rufus before him today was, to put no fine term on it, happy. This was not something a Shinra was when not looking at successful quarterly reports. Jancy wanted to run away before something terrible happened to him. Rufus Shinra had finally come unhinged.

"Have the other arrangements I asked for been seen to?"

"Oh yes, sir." Jancy twisted the paper he held in his hands and he could hear it crinkle. "Is there anything else you may need?"

"I'll let you know. Take this out of my sight." Rufus tossed the papers onto the desk and Jancy moved in like a nervous mouse picking up cheese in front of a cat. With excuse to leave in hand, Jancy scurried away.

The chair was ill fitting for his form, Rufus noted as he leaned back. His father had been a much more rotund man and Rufus' slim form was practically swallowed by the thick leather. The trip over had been good. Rufus had had time to think and he had come to a conclusion about what he was going to do with Tifa. Tonight he was going to ask her to stay indefinitely. Tomorrow was his parade and he wanted her there beside him. He had reserved an entire restaurant to assure he had the privacy he needed to tell her a few things. Unfortunately, some disclosures would have to be made to clear the air before he could ask her to stay with him. Privacy was essential to making her feel comfortable with telling him and yet unbalanced by his presence. If he was lucky maybe he'd manage to get more than the chaste kisses he managed to plant on her by surprise in the past couple days after that first one. The bruise was even gone from the slap she had given during the second one. She hit surprisingly hard.

What was she doing right now? Rufus chuckled and clicked a pen as he pictured her discovering the clothes. They were hastily purchased from stores in town so it wasn't the best quality, but they would be serviceable. She was probably picking out the plainest thing among them and hiding that delectable body of hers. It was his attempt to see how delectable during the second kiss that had earned him the solid and well deserved slap. At least now he understood he had to wait for her go ahead to try that again. Waiting for things frustrated him, but in this case he was willing to wait as long as he needed to and he wasn't even internally raging at that. Tifa was more than a beautiful body to him, and that's why he would gladly delay gratification.

"Hn!" The absent fiddling with the pen had managed to discharge a lot of deep black ink onto his desk and speckled his pants and coat. "Since when was I a clumsy fool?"

Tifa's face wandered through his thoughts in conjunction with a word that he tried to deny. He wanted her to stay because he liked her presence more than any other woman he had met. Words like that one got people into trouble. What was love anyway? He had loved lots of women physically. That love faded quickly and he had not felt like he had had his balance altered when he had been around them. The things they had talked about and the things he had wanted to tell them had all been superficial and that had been perfect for him. Rufus had given in. Tifa was different, and he didn't know why, but he wanted her around more than a few days. He might need the rest of the year or longer to figure this out. Years even.

Not even the ink on his pants could wipe the smile off of his face when he thought about Tifa beside him over the next few years. It seemed right.

The button on his desk was impressed and the nasal voice of his secretary politely asked what he wished. "Bring in the mayor; I assume he's on time for our appointment. Oh yes, and could someone bring me a change of clothes?"

The overalls were calling her name, but Tifa resisted. The voice that demanded she rebelliously turn on Rufus at every opportunity had become a whisper in the back of her mind rather than the overt screaming force it had been. He had told her they were going out somewhere nice, but that she could dress as casually as she wished to. Then Rufus had ended his words with a caress of her cheek, his face expressionless. Tonight felt like it was marking something important and she wanted to let him know she understood.

But she also wanted to make him as uncomfortable as possible. It would be sweet revenge for the days of disturbing her with physical closeness. Her only weapon in return had been mental closeness, and she had wielded it less perfectly than he had his. It had started when they had shared a cabin on the ship. That she had managed to make him sleep on the cold metal floor each night had been a bitter sweet victory. That last night she had gone so far as to feel guilty for it. If she had set up a firm barrier and they weren't sharing blankets. . .

Tifa shook her head to clear it. That was all in the past now. That Rufus' back had made awful cracking noises at the end of the night, and the way his hair had stood out at odd angles were all stored away along with their many conversations. It was interesting today when she picked up the newspaper she had insisted on being given and found that it contained a five page spread about the old and new president of Shinra Inc. There had been no news hinting at her companions or Sephiroth, but all the papers were own by Shinra so that was not unexpected.

It was funny when she picked up the paper and did what she called 'fill in the blanks' at the end of each sentence once Rufus had left to go about his business. It had started as fun game to pass the time but it took a serious turn.

. . . and the last President will be missed. "Just like a chronic head cold."

The new President, Rufus Shinra, will be welcomed in to take the mantle he had been born and bred for by his capable father. "And the many boarding schools and nannies he had."

Rufus, in his early twenties, is expected to bring new life and new innovative ideas to the Shinra corporation and its subsidiaries. "As in the old president made a mess and now Rufus has to clean up after him before he can do anything on his own agenda."

In a press release handed out by his current top aid, Mr. Desmond Trelebor, the new President said that he was confident that the transition would be smooth and the reevaluation of the company and its projects would be carried out in the next few months. "To see who he needs to fire, I'm sure."

The entire world is anticipating the parade to formally welcome him in which shall be broadcast live on the following stations. . . "Of course they anticipate it. With apprehension, with fear, with curiosity." She cut off the words she had been mumbling. They were the same feelings she carried for him to varying degrees mixed in with an unhealthy amounts of admiration and fondness. Tifa found herself noting his habits, even the way the left side of his lip curled when he thought of something distasteful, as if these subtle signals were important. She was the kind of person who wanted to be closely connected empathetically with the people she cared for, and that was one of the signs that even if she protested that Rufus had accelerated himself into that elite category. Mere days had moved him from a position of like to caring and given enough time she was afraid it would be more. Those feelings had been reserved for Cloud, but with his withdrawal from her she wondered if all that love was just trying to find the most convenient outlet.

No, that wasn't quite right. Sure it was some of it, but the way she felt when she was around Rufus was markedly different than how she felt around Cloud. Cloud had been her ideal, a dream, but Rufus was real and she wanted to pull away from him. Rufus was not Cloud, and even though Tifa had always known in her heart that she loved Cloud, at the moment she felt more closely connected to Rufus.

In light of that, she knew tonight, whatever else happened, she had to come clean and tell Rufus the truth. She was Tifa Lockhart, a bartender from a crushed section of Midgar and a terrorist who should pay for her crimes. The debt she had left for all the destruction she had done to regular people's lives was eating at her as badly as her continued lies to Rufus. Tifa would confess and Rufus would see that she wasn't special. Rufus was never interested in worthless things. This confession would determine everything.

And on that note she needed an outfit she had confidence in. The search continued anew as she threw aside the overalls.

Tuxedoes were not his favorite, but Rufus wanted this to be a good impression if it was possibly the last. The corporate mogul didn't often think in defeatist terms, but Tifa seemed to be running late and already visions of disaster flashed through his brain. She could have run off now that they were in Junon, or she could have had an accident on the way over, or she could have been detained by one of his many enemies. The possibilities, although not endless, were all dire to the nervous man.

In defiance to his apocalyptic visions Tifa walked in leisurely, and the long dress flowed around her. It was fitted to her body and the rust velvet brought out the strong red tones in her eyes. He was glad she had chosen something equally formal for tonight and Rufus offered his arm to her to lead her through the empty restaurant to their chosen table.

"Fashionably late, just like a society woman. Is it the dress?"

"It was the shoes. Or rather. . ." Tifa stopped and pulled the hem up of her skirt to reveal the heavy work boots she had demanded back before they set sail. "These were the only shoes I had. Some of your aids searched around frantically for an open shoe store when I got into the car and told them. I tried to tell them it was no big deal, but they seemed really scared of you and what you'd say."

"And if one of them had been standing here I would have been properly infuriated, if for nothing else but to keep up my reputation as an ogre. I could care less now that you're here."

Tifa laughed in spite of herself. "If I told anyone you were all show, they would never believe me."

Rather than let her know that she was the exception to the rule regarding his behavior, Rufus gestured to a table and they took their seats. Dinner proceeded smoothly as they talked about Junon and the parade. The food was good, but she could barely taste it. Tifa felt her heart beating so loudly in her chest that she was sure it was going to break her rib cage before dessert.

In her hands, the cloth napkin she had been pulling at finally tore with a rip that caused both of them to pause mid-meal and Tifa in particular to blush furiously. Rufus set his fork down on the plate and concentrated an unnerving stare in her direction. Having eyes that intense was criminal, she thought to herself.

"Is there something the matter? You've hardly said anything this evening."

"We haven't talked about anything." She felt exasperated with herself, but it came out as accusatory at Rufus. "All you can ever talk about is superficial things."

Rufus felt his natural stress reaction set in: nastiness. "You can complain about it, or you can do something about it. I've been holding up all the conversation, or rather, the entire monologue."

"You don't need to take that tone. I've just had something on my mind." Tifa felt hurt at his change in attitude. "But right now I don't think you're in the mood to hear it."

"You always try to make it about me, Tifa, but I think that you're too preoccupied with yourself to see what's in front of you." He was stoic, distant.

Why did he sound so resentful? Tifa threw down her torn napkin over what was left of her entrée and rose quickly from her seat. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but I think I'd rather be somewhere else right now." Her heavy footsteps carried her across the tile floor towards the exit.

Rufus went after her. Halfway across the empty restaurant he vaulted a table to block her path. "Stop. Before you storm out of here, I want you to hear me out."

"No, I want you to hear me out." Tifa jabbed him in the chest with her finger. "Because I have to confess something, and once I do you'll want me to keep moving towards that door."

Rufus crossed his arms over his chest and waited with a bland look on his face. Tifa took a cleansing breath, gathering her courage, and put aside her misgivings. They were both on edge, she could see that, and getting all clouded up in her confused emotions would not make this any easier.

"When you captured me, you made a mistake. . ."

"Oh?" His cool demeanor made Tifa feel all the more unsure about what she was going to say next.

"You see. . . that is to say. . ." Oh spit it out girl, her mind chided her. "I never have been nor will be an Ancient and all this time I've been lying to you." The rest of the air in her lungs came out in a whoosh and Tifa made herself go through with her thought. "I had planned on dying in your labs or by the hands of your security officers, or whatever it took to buy my friends that much more time to accomplish what they had to. I'm only telling you the truth now because you had promised to let me go anyway, despite thinking I was the Ancient and that made me trust in. . . why are you laughing?"

"Silly little Lockhart. If you really were the Ancient, do you think I would have let you go?" Rufus uncrossed his arms and moved in closer to her, making her shiver. "I've known ever since the day we failed to have breakfast because of a mutual display of temper. It took me another day to figure out what I was going to do with you after that."

Tifa, who expected more shock than domineering condescension, was slightly put off. "And you're saying if I had been the one you tried to capture then I would have been with the scientists right now?"

"In a heartbeat." His now smiling face and lit up eyes were scaring her somewhat. "But you had to take away my easy solution and force me to deal with you. I could have thrown you to the scientists and forgotten about you if you had been that other girl."

"That's despicable."

"That's me. Only you ever thought I was a good person. I know myself too well." Rufus tilted his head to the side. "Is this thing, your lie, the reason you've been so cold to me tonight? If that's all it was then I'm glad. I expected far worse from the way you were acting."

It was a lot to take in at the moment. Rufus knew who she was. Rufus would have used her in experiments. The faith she wanted to have in him and the challenge he constantly presented to that faith were warring. How much of it was his bluster?

"Now that the air has cleared between us, I'll tell you what has been on my mind as well. Do you need to take a seat? You look like you're going to be ill." His solicitous attention only made her feel sicker at heart and she waved at him to continue. "Ah, very well. The time has come, I think, to let you go. While I shall be a man of my word and let you walk out of this place if you so choose, I would like to ask you to stay."

Tifa's mind had been wandering but her eyes locked with his sharply when his meaning filtering through her whirlpool of thoughts. "What?"

"Stay with me, Tifa. Indefinitely, and not because you're under any threat or order. I'd order you to if I thought you'd obey. I've never had to ask for anything before." Rufus looked proud but the way he was so stiff, tense to the point of shaking, told her that he was unsure. This actually mattered to him and damn it if she didn't want to give him a snap answer: yes.

But, knowing her, if she was hasty as she had been with past decisions then she would be stuck with the responsibility of it if it was a good idea or not. Starting a bar, joining AVALANCHE, Cloud. . . her life was full of impulses that had become commitments. This time she wanted to be more circumspect.

"Can I have a day to think about it?"

Rufus' body seemed to sag. "Tomorrow, before the parade, give me your answer."

"I can do that." She wasn't going to call him on that bad habit of demanding things considering that right now she was the one with all the power in this situation.

They nodded to one another and Tifa began to walk away when it occurred to her that he had done a brave thing asking her when he was still so unsure of the outcome. That he hadn't locked her up somewhere until she gave in was a sign that his thinking was heading in better directions. It was the little things that let her know she was having an impact on him. But being his conscience was not enough if that was the only reason she had to stay. This would take some thought.

Rufus was facing away from her, leaning his palms on a table and trying to let her go gracefully. Tifa tapped him on the shoulder and when he turned to face her she grabbed him by the head and pulled him forward for a kiss. Without thinking about it, her body molded against his and his arms tightened around her. The contact that she had forbidden herself to make with him up until now seemed too natural, too easy, and the sudden flood of sentiment prompted her to pull away. She had almost been ready to agree to stay with him, but she wasn't going to be swayed so easily by the clamoring cries of her body.

"See you tomorrow." She watched him wave, and knew that things would turn out the way they should. Tifa had good instincts about these things.

She left the restaurant with a smile on her face and wandered into the streets of Junon.

A coat, some money, just about anything would have been a good idea to take with her. As it was all she had as she wandered the cold and dark streets was the rust colored dress, her good boots, and a grim set of thoughts. It wasn't as if it was particularly frigid out, but it was definitely colder than she wanted to be dealing with at the moment. The temperature was a distraction from other more troubling problems, and she didn't even think about where she was walking as her mind vacillated between the two. Before she knew it she was facing a sleepy looking guard at the top of an elevator. When he noted her appearance he snapped to attention.

"Miss, I don't think you want to be going down to lower Junon at this time of night. There's nothin' down there."

Telling her she couldn't do something was the best way to stubbornly make her want to do it, and unthinkingly she managed to argue her way onto the elevator despite the alarmed looks she got from the guard. There was flashing lights and then a blur of motion in the shadows beyond the platform on which she stood and Tifa found herself at ground level again. It was like Midgar, she belatedly thought, with the upper level being much better cared for than the lower level. This poor fishing village was probably what the town had been before Shinra created a major port here, and a poor fishing village it had stayed. If it were anything like Midgar, it was polluted as well and nearly unlivable, but people were stubborn when it came to their homes.

"What's a lady of quality doin' down here at this time 'a night? I suggest you get back to where you belong, miss." An old man with a bundle in his arms gave her a concerned but disdainful look. Tifa recognized it because she had regarded people from the upper plates with the same mistrust back in Midgar. It was strange to be on the other side from other people's perspective.

"I don't belong anywhere and I'd rather stay here for now." Tifa offered to take his bundle for him, but he resisted, saying she'd dirty up her pretty dress. "Please let me help." Something about her lost look or the tone in which she spoke seemed to get to the man because he told her she could come with him.

While Tifa held the bundle, the old man tried to stand up a straighter and began to make casual conversation when Tifa proved to be silent for whatever reason. "Yes, my granddaughter had a close call today. Thought I'd show my thanks the only ways I can, by giving old Mrs. Graham some food since she's putting them up tonight for me. Everyone in town is grateful, and we stick with our own."

"It seems like it's hard for you all down here."

He nodded sagely. "Ever since Shinra came its been one disaster after another. Before they came we were poor, but at least we were satisfied with our lot for the most part. Now, everything is so much worse. . . never thought I'd see the day I was even poorer and dirtier than that winter thirty years ago when the catch was so bad that—oh look, here we are." Tifa's mind had been wandering. At some point, while she had been enjoying herself in Rufus' company, she had forgotten what life had been like in the squalor that the Shinra companies created. What would Rufus say if he saw this? He'd probably blame them for not doing something about it on their own, most likely. Rufus was all about people taking initiative in their lives. She had a feeling he respected her more for her involvement in a terrorist organization if for nothing else then that she had taken an active role in changing her life. If she was with him more then she could be the one to look out for the little people like this old man and his granddaughter in lower Junon and this old woman and. . . Barret?!

"Tifa!"

"Barret!"

"Tifa!"

"Aeris!"

"Tifa!"

"Er. . . Red XIII?" The animal nodded.

"Tifa!"

"Who are you?"

"I'm Yuffie, but I heard a lot about ya." The teenage girl with the oddly assorted armor smiled and came over to pat her on the back. "So you escaped from Shinra did'ja? That's great! It means one less thing we'll have ta figure out. Cloud an' Barret were bustin' their heads over it the whole time I've been with 'em."

Barret threw a friendly arm over Tifa's shoulder and led her back while the others pressed together to whisper to one another and ask the old man questions about how he had found her.

"What the hell happened to you Tifa?" Barret looked her up and down, trying to see if she was harmed in any obvious way but seemed more perplexed by her total lack of injury. "We had no idea what happened to you after you got captured. We haven' t run across another patch of Shinra until now and we were going to question someone as soon as we could, but now we don't have to worry and can go on and kick some Sephiroth ass instead. How'd you escape?"

She tried to think if there was any way she could put it that wouldn't horrify her old friend but nothing came to mind. "I haven't quite escaped yet. I have to meet someone tomorrow and then everything will be settled. No one will even come for us."

"You sure are lucky to have found someone on the inside, Tifa. Never knew you had it in you to be all sneaky like that. Good job!" He gave her an overenthusiastic clap on the back and she coughed as she tried to put some air back into her lungs. "Think your contact would know anything about Sephorith?"

"I dare say he would, but I don't think I can ask any more of him then I already have. We'll have to do that part on our own." Tifa looked around. "Where's Cloud?"

Barret's mouth split into a toothy grin. "The poor guy is passed out on the bed upstairs. And I mean really passed out. Couldn't wake him up. Probably needs some time to rest up after the day we had. Damn big monster attacked us. Some mutant or something created from Shinra pollution. I hate them so much." Tifa could see the warning signs that Barret was about to shoot off his gun and she tried to change the subject before he peppered this poor lady's house with bullet holes.

"You should go get some food and talk to that old man again. He wanted to thank you for something you did earlier today, I think." Barret, remembering the little girl, said something under his breath about Marlene and walked over.

Before he got too far away, Barret turned his head to tell Tifa, "We missed you somethin' awful. I don't know what this trip would be like without you." She waved him away with a fond smile playing on her lips and made her escape upstairs to see the sleeping Cloud.

It was dark and the stairs creaked, but that didn't bother her as she checked the rooms until she saw a distinctive spiky head in the light that shone in through the window. He was sleeping, and if Barret was right he wouldn't be getting up until morning but she made sure to close the door quietly behind her anyway. Tifa wanted to stay by his side, just for tonight, and think about what she was going to tell Rufus tomorrow. Looking at his form, she thought about what they had been through and knew in her gut that while she still loved him that a significant part of herself had already been given to Rufus Shinra.

But while Cloud needed her, Rufus wanted her.

Tifa sat down by his bed on a chair and leaned the front half of her body down on the blankets. Surely someone would come to wake her up in a while, and she didn't want to go down and talk to anyone tonight about her supposed escape. Any information she gave would only lead to her spilling out the entire story about her time with Rufus and that's the last thing she wanted. No, her escape would have to remain a mystery, and she was pretty sure her friends would allow her this grace even if they wouldn't understand why their usually open Tifa was being oddly private about something she should be ecstatic over.

This was her moment of grace, when everything had yet to be decided or realized, and she was welcomed with open arms no matter where she was. The comfort of a simple home, a warm room, and her mental exhaustion combined to set her to sleep. The answer was upon her about what she needed to do, even if she didn't much like it, and all it had taken was seeing Cloud to know that it was the right decision.

"Tifa." Rough hands smoothed hair back from her face and she awoke to face the Mako blue eyes that used to steal the breath from her throat. "I just had the craziest dream, and I think it might still be going on."

"It isn't a dream. I'm back." He seemed to shake off the last of his sleep and pulled his hands away from her quickly. Tifa heard music in the distance and wondered if he was right and she was dreaming too. If she were dreaming then she wouldn't have to do what she knew she had to do today.

"How?" He looked at her as she sat up and stretched out her stiff body. Sleeping slouched over half on a chair was not something that was good for her in the long run. "And why are you in that. . .?" It wasn't like Cloud to notice a change in a girl's clothing, but it was a warming thought that this dress was remarkable enough to cause even Cloud Strife to take a second look.

Music. The parade. Oh no! If they were rehearsing already or even worse if it had begun then she would have missed her deadline! She couldn't let Rufus think that she would be so callous as to end things that way. "I'll tell you some other time. I'll be in upper Junon, there's an airship I know they were working on but no one will be anywhere near it today. It's like a holiday. . . just meet me near that, ok?"

Cloud nodded dumbly and watching as Tifa dragged a hand through her messy hair and straightened out her somewhat wrinkled dress as she dashed for the door. "Tifa!" She stopped with her hand on the knob, eyes wide, as she waited. "Do you remember. . . five years ago. . . I needed to see you alone, like we are now. . . but I can't think of why. Do you know?"

A look of nostalgia, then pain crossed her face. "It's the past. Right now is more important and right now we all have jobs to do."

"You're right," Cloud gave her a rare smile and she felt her heart speed up. He still had such a strong effect on her. Tifa gave a cheery wave and ran downstairs. Yuffie and Red were at the table with Mrs. Graham and tried to call out to her as she ran past but she didn't spare a moment to explain. Cloud would have to tell them.

The man guarding the bottom of the elevator seemed to leer a little at her rumpled appearance, but he still let her through. Even in a wrinkled dress she still had enough of a regal bearing to be mistaken for that upper class she had never considered herself a part of even if she was posing as one for the moment. Once on the upper level she elbowed her way through crowds of people who seemed to materialize out of nowhere to get to where she knew the parade was going to start. She got there with minimal trouble, but the soldiers guarding here were more stubborn about not letting her get anywhere.

"I'm telling you that Rufus Shinra is expecting me, and if you make me any later than I already am then I'll have to do something about it." Tifa wasn't in a mood to make deals and she was going to do whatever she had to in her quest to talk to Rufus.

"Sorry lady, we've got our orders and I'm sure if it was that important then you'd be on the list."

"You don't have a list!"

The men near the man she was speaking to laughed. "Yeah, fancy that. It's in my mind, miss smarty pants, and you're still not on it."

"I don't have time for this." Tifa wound up a fist and let it fly. It had been a while since she had been in a position to fight for any reason, but it felt good to make her way through those guards. The tight dress had to rip in places to accommodate some of her more flexible kicks, but the material was thin enough to do so with ease and she found that after she had knocked out the first four that she was perfectly warmed up for the next four. To get out so much aggression felt healthy and she knew that she hadn't entirely lost her touch.

In the break she had between shifts of guards she would have to make a run for it. Probably she would be attacked on sight now, and that was the position that the rest of her friends were in too so it didn't matter much. Being wanted for one reason or another was something she had mentally adjusted to a long time ago.

All she needed to do was look for someone dressed all in white. . .

"Rufus!" She yelled it across the courtyard and took off sprinting to catch him. He was making quick tracks for a side door, and if he got inside she might well lose him again among the maze of rooms that made up all the buildings of Junon that she had been taken through. "Rufus Shinra!"

Like a ghost, he disappeared into the door, and Tifa burst in not a minute later. Where would she find him now? It was only minutes before the parade was to start. Of all the days she had to oversleep. . .

A hand pulled her into a closet of some sort. The smell of cleaning chemicals burned her nostrils and a chord to the light above them swung after having been viciously pulled. "You make too much noise." Rufus spoke gruffly, but he looked pleased.

"I'm sorry, but how was I to know you didn't hear me?" Tifa felt her body hum after all the exercise she had put it through. She hadn't been training regularly so she might be a tad sore the next day.

"You're lucky I'm even seeing you. No one has ever been late for an appointment with me. I should have ignored you."

Tifa moved forward to hug him. "I'm glad you didn't." Rufus stiffened and then allowed his arms to circle around her loosely.

"What happened to you? You look like you got into a train wreck."

"Nothing I couldn't handle." Tifa looked up at Rufus, forgetting everything about how this moment was wrong. If she had her way she wouldn't have been telling him this in a janitor's closet, her dress torn, her hair messy, and her body covered in bruises that were going to start smarting as soon as she gave them a thought. But this is the moment she had and she would work with it. She had learned that things never seemed to you like you planned when it came to love. Cloud had been childish pining, he had been the consequence of her need for a hero and his need to be noticed and liked. Tifa had grown beyond that. She could be her own hero, and at present what she wanted was a villain. Not that she, in her heart, thought of Rufus as truly evil. It was not the time to argue about what a change in perspective could do to a person's character. Here, at this time, they were merely two people trying to find a way to be together.

Tifa took a deep breath. "You must know that I want to stay with you more than I want anything else right now." He tightened his grip on her. "But before I can be with you, there are things I need to do. We both have responsibilities and mine start with my friends. They need me. I know that they do, and for them I am going to put aside my own desires. Please tell me you understand."

"If this. . . if I am what you really want then I don't see why anything should stop you."

Hah, Rufus not understanding why someone wouldn't get their way. Something inside of her told her she knew this would happen, and she was prepared. "If I told you to choose between me and your company, which would you choose."

That he paused at all filled Tifa with warmth. "My company."

"Then understand that while I want you, I want us, what I need to do is take care of some things first. Obligations come in more forms than monetary ones."

Rufus let her go and they pulled away, only attached by one hand which Rufus refused to let go of. "If I took care of Sephiroth. . . would that bring you back to me faster?"

"Yes."

"I see." Rufus reeled her in by the hand he still held and bent in as if he were going to kiss her but stopped short. "Then you better hope you get to him before I do. I don't like it when people stand in the way of the things I want."

"I'm not a thing."

"I know." This time when their lips met it contained more than the mutual expression of need. It was so pleasant in his arms that she didn't even mind when his hands wandered, playing with the high slit in her dress she had torn. She responded in kind by slipping her hand under his shirt and feelings his muscles jump at her touch.

They broke apart only when they heard someone frantically calling out Rufus' name. It was almost time for the parade to start, it seemed, and to have him missing would be a disaster.

"Anytime you want to see me. . . drop me a line. Telegram, phone call, message, whatever. I'll be there as soon as humanly possible, I swear it." He slipped something into her hand and pulled the light chord so that they were enveloped in darkness before he stepped out of the closet to rejoin the outside world.

Tifa waited until she couldn't hear anything except for the parade and then she stepped out of the dark closet. In the empty hallway with its flickering fluorescent lights she looked at Rufus' present.

It was a ring, but as she picked it out of its box it was followed by a long chain. He remembered how she didn't like to wear things on her hands because they got in the way when she fought. She had only mentioned it once, and she was delightfully surprised that he should remember. It was nice that he had given her something to remember him by, but she was not likely to forget. Tifa settled the chain around her neck and felt the cold weight of the ring as it normalized to her body temperature against her chest. Rufus was not such a fool that he did not know what giving her a ring obliquely promised.

Maybe someday. . .

The sharp opening notes of the parade music knocked her back to her present where she needed to run if she was going to meet her friends by the airship. They had a lot to do today and dreaming of the future was as bad as lingering on the past. Cloud had been her past and Rufus promised to be her future, but in the middle she had to deal with Sephiroth. It seemed attractive men were both a bane and blessing in her life.

With sure steps, Tifa walked back out to face the day.

AN: So, the way this goes. . . I couldn't help it. I mean, the way I planned it all I realized that there was no way she would abandon her friends even if she really truly had feelings for Rufus. Think of it this way. . . when you get to the Golden Saucer and have the "date night" then you have effectively made your choice about who Cloud likes best (naturally in my game he chose Tifa ) but the deck is stacked to lean you towards choosing Aeris. If I ever made a follow up to this about their encounter at the Golden Saucer (because for the purposes of the story Cloud would then go out with Aeris and Tifa would be forced to confront a more solid rejection, and then that coupled with meeting Rufus. . .) well it would be a slightly different kettle of fish.

Tell me if you want to write, (since I'm open to it), the Golden Saucer follow-up to this story in a comment, or an email or whatever. I'm just a person with not enough free time making too many pieces of fanfiction. So far as I'm concerned, this is done. (In my mind, even they can have a happy ending though, and know that I meant it that way.)

Peace out

AOD