Disclaimer: Don't own anything.

Pairing: small Rufus/Yuffie, small Thomas Shinra/Selena..

Warning: OOC

Note: This chapter takes place after Advent Children. I am NOT taking into account the book about "The Madien Who Travels the Planet"

"Why am I still here…"

"In this mansion…No, it is just a haunted mansion now…Where Hojo's experiments ran loose."

"I can't see my wife…She probably hates me for what I have done…Besides, she probably is in Heaven or something like that…I'm just going to go to hell, where I belong…"

Was what Ex-President Thomas Shinra thought as he was sitting on a box in a room in the Shinra Mansion. His form is not visible to human eyes, after all he is dead. Thomas' look and age was reverted back to the time before he lost his wife.

The ghost had to give a long-suffering sigh.

"Yuffie, come back here!" Came a voice that Thomas could recognize as his only son.

"NO WAY! I wanted to see those baby pictures that Veld and Vincent were talking about!" Yuffie shouted as she busted into the room where Thomas' ghost was sitting at. Rufus ran into the room a short time later, panting from trying to keep up with the ninja.

Yuffie looked around and saw a bunch of pictures in a basket. She ran over to the basket and only was able to pocket away one picture before Rufus snatched the basket away from her.

"Aww, Rufi, I wanted to see those pictures!" Yuffie whined as she pouted at the President.

"Don't call me Rufi! My name is Rufus! Want me to spell it out for you!" Rufus replied while rolling his eyes. Yuffie kicked the basket, making all of the pictures fly everywhere.

"Come on, this will be a great chance to learn about yourself!" Yuffie reasoned. Rufus gave a scowl and sat down, grumbling. Yuffie sighed, but sat down next to the stubborn blonde.

Yuffie grabbed a picture and showed it to Rufus. "Is that your mother?"

Rufus looked at the picture and made a face. "No, that's Teresa, my step-mom. Fuing bich….."

"Rufus…He really did hate her…I was too ignorant to see…That ignoring you hurt you more than that beating long time ago…"

Yuffie wisely put all of the pictures of Teresa back into the basket. She was really surprised to see pictures of Rufus' father, back when he was younger. He was skinny and smiling at the camera.

Yuffie showed one of those pictures to Rufus.

"Your father seems happy in this picture…"

Rufus looked at the picture and snorted. "He is just happy because he is dead rich with an infinite amount of whres at his call."

"That's truly what Rufus only thinks about me…He did eventually hate me with all of his being…Even trying to kill me with AVALANCHE… I don't blame him, but at he least he wasn't in pain when Sephiroth killed me…"

"Eventually, I was consumed by my greed for money…And when I had sex with a woman…All I could see was Selena…I did almost anything to soothe down the pain within me…"

Yuffie sighed and put away the pictures of just Thomas Shinra by himself into the basket. The ninja eventually found a picture of Selena and showed it to Rufus.

"Is this your real mom?" She asked.

This time, she was able to crack a small smile from Rufus. "Yeah, that's her…"

"What was she like?" Yuffie asked him.

"I don't remember her that much…She died when I was really young…I just know that she was a good mom…." He replied to her.

Yuffie smiled at him and put the pictures of Selena by herself in the basket. The ninja sadly noted there were no pictures of Selena, Rufus, or Thomas together in one picture, except the one that she pocketed.

"That's right…I burned all of the pictures of Rufus or my wife together with me, happy and smiling… I couldn't bare to look at those pictures without crying…I burned all of them but one…I didn't have the heart to burn away all of them…"

Yuffie grabbed the last of the pictures and smiled widely. "AWWWW! Look how you cute you were, Rufus!"

Rufus looked at the picture and his eye twitched horribly. "I was only like 4 years old in that picture!"

"But you look so cute with the little teddy bear in your arms like that! With your big smile and your chibiness!" The ninja teased.

Rufus chose to ignore her.

Yuffie pouted when she realized that there were no more pictures to show Rufus. Only that one picture that she hid before Rufus snatched the basket away from her…

"Rufus….Why do you hate your father so much…?

"…The earliest thing that I can remember about him was when he beat the sh out of me! He never cared, just ignoring me or being cold when I asked for his help. He just left me alone with Teresa! All he wanted was someone to run his company when he died. If that wasn't enough, he acted like he didn't care that his wife died and just went out with a bunch of whres! And he-" Rufus stopped his rant to look at Yuffie, who was crying over a photo.

"There are so many misconceptions between Rufus and I…If only he knew the truth…Maybe he wouldn't hate me anymore…"

"Yuffie? …Are you alright?" The shotgun user asked. Yuffie shook her head and let her tears land on the photo.

"Rufus…Just look at this photo…I'm just going to give you time to yourself….Maybe you'll realize what I have realized!" Yuffie shouted at him and tossed the picture into his lab. Yuffie then disappeared, probably outside of the mansion.

Rufus could only blink in confusion in what came over Yuffie. "It must be that period thing…"

Rufus sighed as he looked at the photo in his lap.

The picture had a smiling 32-year-old Thomas Shinra holding his 5-year-old son with one arm, while the young Rufus was grinning as wide as he could while giving peace symbols. Thomas had his other arm around a 28-year-old Selena's waist, hugging her to him while she gave a kiss to Thomas' cheek.

Rufus could only gawk at the picture.

"That's the only photo left of us…Back before that day changed all of our lives…"

"…I don't remember this picture…But we all look happy here…." Rufus mumbled to himself. "Does this mean…That I really misjudged him?"

"Why am I still stuck though…I don't want to be here…It is because I am too guilt ridden? Or am I waiting for something…?"

"When I have dreams…Sometimes they are flashbacks to my childhood…Back before my mother died…That I was happy, with my father. I thought they were just crazy nightmares….But could it be true….?" Rufus said to himself.

Rufus looked at the picture carefully, looking at a happiness that was lost 18 years ago. He heard from Teresa that his father would sometimes cry alone in his room, but Rufus thought he was crying because he lost money.

"Was I really wrong this whole time….? That my father isn't as bad as I made him to be? That before his wife died, that he was an actual human being with a conscience and a heart….?" Rufus wondered.

"Is Rufus really changing his opinion of me…? The kid who learned how to hate me with his entire being?"

Rufus sat there and started to put all of the pieces together. The flashbacks from his dreams, rumors from Teresa, why Selena married him in the first place, and the photo in his lap.

"He was consumed by grief when my mom died…Then maybe he hit me, cause he went insane for a while…After that…He distanced himself away from me, cause he was afraid that he would hit me again? That when he lost his wife and me, he became dead inside?" Rufus explained to himself.

"So…He figured it out himself…"

"That stupid idiot!" Rufus yelled as he started punching the floor beside him. "He didn't have to distance himself away from me! It made it worse! I would have understood if he hit me!"

Thomas Shinra being surprised was an understatement. He got up from his box and walked to his only son, who was giving out what could be described as a temper tantrum. The ghost reached out, placing a hand on his son's shoulder, gaping in shock as his form started to materialize.

Rufus stopped punching the ground as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He instantly pulled out his shotgun and pointed it behind him, not knowing who it was.

The President then slowly turned around to see his father who was sweating from the shotgun pointed between his eyes.

Crickets chirp. Chirp chirp.

Rufus blinked rapidly and said the first thing that came into his head, "HOLY HELL! YOU ARE SKINNY! AND YOU HAVE HAIR!"

Thomas Shinra gave his son a very flat look. "Nice to see you too, Rufus."

"How are you here?" Rufus asked, debating or not to put away his shotgun.

"After I died, it seems that my spirit is stuck here….I can't move on in the afterlife…Perhaps because this is the last place where I still had my humanity and happiness. Or maybe my spirit yearns for something here..." Thomas explained.

"I still hate you." Rufus bluntly said while putting away his shotgun. No use killing a dead guy after all.

"I know you do…And I don't blame you for hating me….I just wanted to say something to you for a long time…." Thomas quietly said.

"Then say it old man."

Thomas turned around, so that his back was facing Rufus. "That I'm sorry for distancing myself from you…For ignoring you when you needed help the most…Being cruel after Teresa screamed at you….And I know that I don't deserve to be forgiven….But can you forgive me anyways?"

There was a long silence afterwards. Thomas hopelessly sighed. He looked back at his son, who was surprisingly rubbing his eye.

"Stupid emotions….Stupid tears, I'm not going to cry in front of my old man…" Rufus mumbled as he refused to look at his father in the eye.

Thomas gaped at him, not caring if he looked like a total idiot.

"Stupid old man, thinking he needs to apologize when I tried to kill him. Stupid father, who wanted the best for me while I was being ungrateful.." Rufus said as he glared at his shocked father.

Thomas wouldn't be more surprised if Sephiroth came busting into the room doing the Can-Can.

"Rufus…I…" The Ex-President was about to say before he was interrupted.

"No, don't say anymore….You said enough….But….I…forgive you….Alright? ….I don't hate you, dad….." Rufus replied.

To Thomas, that was a lot more than he expected.

"Well, what is going to happen to you now?" Rufus asked.

"I think it was everyone calls "hell." Thomas sighed, he really didn't care about going there. But he won't ever be reunited with Selena…

"I don't think so MR. Thomas Shinra! You aren't getting away from me that easy!" Came a voice as a form visualized in front of the two blondes.

Thomas and Rufus both gaped in shock.

There was Selena, in front of them, smiling with full color in her face in a ghostly form.

"You! How! When!" Thomas spluttered as he thought he was going to get a heart attack, even though he is already dead.

"WHAT IS UP WITH THIS WORLD!" Rufus shouted, letting shock completely show in his expression. After being around Yuffie and the Turks, the President had a lot of trouble keeping his emotions in, unlike a couple years ago.

Selena smiled at both of them and patted Rufus' head before walking to Thomas. She hugged him and laughed.

"Don't be all shocked now! I would never leave you! The only reason you didn't go to the afterlife was because you were too guilt-ridden and wanted Rufus to accept your apology." Selena said to the astonished Ex-President.

"But you forgive me even after I killed all of those people?" Thomas blinked in amazement.

"Of course! You know why? It's because I love you, baka…."Selena whispered as she closed her eyes.

Thomas hugged Selena back and smiled, happy and at peace since he is with his wife again. Rufus decided that this was the strangest day of his 23 years of living.

Both parents looked back at Rufus, their ghostly forms fading away together.

"Love you…My little Rufi…

"Take care…son….Be happy…."

And with that, both forms disappeared completely. Rufus blinked for a few seconds, but eventually stood up. The President grabbed the photo from the ground and smiled.

"I was hating the wrong people for a long time…"

Rufus said as he placed the picture in his overcoat, for safekeeping. He then walked out of the mansion.

Yuffie breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the President walk out of the mansion. "Are you alright, Rufus?"

Rufus walked to her and nodded, "Everything is better now.."

Yuffie blinked and asked, "What happened?"

"I'll tell you some day later, I promise." Rufus smiled at her as he walked to the helicopter.

Yuffie gaped at his back. She quickly recovered and shouted, "HEY! Tell me right now, Rufus Shinra! I WANNA KNOW! YOU BIG JERK!"

The ninja stomped over to where the helicopter is, grumbling.

A month later

"Hey Rufus, wait up for me!" Yuffie shouted as she caught up to the President, who stopped at two graves.

"Run faster next time." Rufus replied as he looked at the two graves he stopped by.

Yuffie stuck her tongue out at him, but was content that Rufus eventually told her what happened at the mansion. Yuffie was not surprised in what happened, but was glad for it.

"So, is the 10th of every month the day when you visit your parent's graves?" The ninja asked him.

"That's right, after all, it was the 10th of last month was when I realized the truth about my father…" Rufus replied as he placed the flowers on both of his parent's graves.

Yuffie nodded and smiled at him.

"Rest in peace and stay happy…..mom and dad……." Rufus whispered almost inaudibly.

And somewhere in the Lifestream, Thomas and Selena smiled.

FIN