Author's note:A last-minute little surprise gift for Scribbleness, because I'd completely forgotten it's almost Christmas and that I can draft a short story to present as a gift (Who knew!) and I got reminded by reading her secret-Santa CloTi fic! Merry Christmas Scribble, it's extremely rushed, and unrefined, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters! I only own a copy of the game and this story!
Winter Gift
Summary: It's time for the annual Christmas celebration of Shin-Ra electric company and Tifa is used to managing everything herself. This year, however, she is surprised by the company's new president.
The worst thing about being an administration manager for a huge corporation like Shin-Ra co., was having to work late on Christmas Eve, in order to make sure everything would be ready for the company's holiday banquet that same night, while everyone else had already left hours ago to get ready or spend time with their families, leaving Tifa alone to pick up the slack.
Having double-checked the guest list and making sure the presents for the company's associates have already been sent (a basket with an assortment of wines Tifa had hand-picked herself, the day before) and would be delivered on time, after endless phone calls with the delivery company, the only thing left to do was to check in with the catering company and DJ and ensure the venue was already decorated and ready to host the party.
After another hour of phone-calls and last-minute adjustments, she had finally made sure that everything was in order and no unexpected mix-ups would ruin the celebration. With a tired sigh, she logged out of the server and turned her monitor off, getting ready to leave the company building and drive the one-and-a-half hour distance to the rented venue, to examine, hoping she'd still have enough time to pick up her dress and go home to prepare before making the trip back to the venue in time to check the setlist, oversee the setting of the buffet and welcome the first guests, certain that the new President would make a fashionably late entrance, much like his predecessor, putting the strain of hosting the party on her shoulders.
The first thing she noticed was the two Turks stationed at the entrance of the venue, but she overlooked them, thinking they were there to secure the place, the new president must be even more paranoid than his father, she thought apprehensively and approached the entrance, fishing her company badge from her bag in order to get clearance to enter.
"The venue's closed for a private party. State your business." One of the Turks stated before she even had time to greet them. He had a broad intimidating build and a serious expression, half-hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses, despite it being already sundown.
"Merry Christmas to you, too." Tifa replied dryly, unamused by the cold greeting.
"Tifa! Merry Christmas! Shouldn't you be at home dressing up for the party?" The second Turk greeted joyfully, recognizing the young woman.
"Hi Reno!" Tifa greeted the familiar redhead. "Ah, you know how it is, no rest for the admin manager!" she replied with a sigh.
"How are you managing both that and the bar?" Reno asked curious, being an old patron of Tifa's old bar, the 7th Heaven.
"Jessie took over the bar, after I got the job at Shin-Ra. I'm only helping out at weekends." Tifa explained. "You should visit again, sometime, during a day off, Jessie's redecorated the place!" she offered kindly.
"Sure thing! I haven't been over in years!" Reno agreed, turning to his colleague to extend the invitation, getting an excited nod in response, causing Tifa to smile.
"Well, it was nice catching up, but I should head inside, don't have much time if I want to have any time left to head back home and get ready!" Tifa excused herself, feeling the pressure from the lack of time.
"Sure thing, go on ahead!" Reno stepped aside, allowing her entrance in the building.
Once inside, she was greeted by the sight of people busying themselves by carrying tables and chairs around and setting up decorations, the venue's workers no doubt, and she walked around, examining the progress, while looking for the manager to give the seating chart she'd prepared to and make sure there would be enough dancing space allowed between the DJ booth and the tables.
"You're a bit early for the party, we're still setting up!" A voice called out to her.
"Ah, I know, I'm Tifa Lockhart, administration manager of Shin-Ra co., must have talked together on the phone, on the planning of the event?" Tifa offered, her gaze preoccupied on the clipboard in her hands, where she was ticking off the boxes on her checklist that she'd noticed where already in place. "I came to check on the progress and brought over the seating chart." She concluded, looking up and offering a kind smile, before realizing that the person who had called out wasn't the venue's manager.
"I thought I'd given the day off to all my staff." Rufus said. "Are you coming straight from the office?" He asked, noticing the woman's suit.
"Ah, yeah… I'm in charge of taking care of the banquet since I started working for the company. The late Mr. Shinra didn't have the time to bother with such trivial matters." Tifa recited her old boss' words when he pushed the task on her two years ago.
"You mean he was too lazy to plan his own company party." Rufus corrected, causing the woman to let out an unintentional chuckle at the truth of the words and how close they hit to home.
"Uhm, well…" she tried to cover up, hoping her chuckle hadn't been noticed or offended him.
"It's alright, I know my own father." Rufus offered, to put her at ease and got a relieved smile in return.
"I guess it's safe to assume you've yet to pick out a dress for tonight's festivities, considering you've been working up until now?" Rufus asked, motioning to another Turk to approach them.
"Correct." Tifa nodded in affirmation opting to leave out the fact that she'd most likely wouldn't have the luck to find a single store open by the time she was finished checking the final details for the party.
"Tseng, please accompany miss Lockhart to JENOVA'S, for her to pick up a dress and shoes she fancies and put it in the company tab." He said, fishing his company issued credit card from his coat's inner pocket.
"I couldn't possibly accept! Besides, I'm not even done here, yet." Tifa argued.
"Well, I think I'm perfectly capable of overseeing the final touches here." Rufus said, gently prying the clipboard from Tifa's arms. "Besides, it looks like my task will be extremely easy, you've done an admirable job so far!" He offered, checking her list.
"So, pick out a dress and then go home and rest for as long as you need, you've more than earned it." Rufus suggested, gently taking her shoulders, and guiding her to the exit, Tseng following close behind.
"Ah, miss Lockhart I presume?" A retail assistant greeted them, once Tseng drove her to the ridiculously expensive store, despite her protests.
"Uhm, yeah, hello…" Tifa replied, unsure.
"We've been expecting you, this way please." The woman motioned for Tifa to follow her inside the store, which should have already closed judging by the complete lack of any other customers.
"Aren't you closed? I don't want to impose…" Tifa said, worried that she was keeping the workers over hours.
"Oh, Mr. Shinra informed us of your arrival, don't worry about store hours, we're at your disposal for as long as you need!" The woman replied with a smile, making Tifa feel horrible for the inconvenience she was putting them through, but understanding there was no way out of it with just a look towards Tseng, and she made a mental note to select a dress in less than 15 minutes if possible.
The retail assistant led Tifa through a corridor lined with formal dresses and selected a few for her to try on, after asking for her preferences in style and color.
Tifa chose the first dress that fit her well, a long, backless, silk, purple dress with black lace trim, which flared at the bottom on an "A" line and a slit that reached above her knee, for her to walk and dance easily on it, despite feeling it might have been a bit too low-cut for a company event, but not wanting to bother the staff than she already had. The assistant then proceeded to provide her with matching silk, purple heels with black straps that closed with a flower around her ankle and matching lace chocker ending on a bow with the same flower design on the middle, which Tifa tried to refuse, but Tseng insisted she try on.
Changing back to her own clothes, Tifa went to the cash register only to find the items she'd tried on already waiting neatly sorted into bags and paid for, Tseng adding a hefty amount of cash in the tip jar.
"How long have you been working for Mr. Shinra, Tseng?" Tifa asked on the way home.
"Since I first joined the Turks." Tseng answered.
"So, you must know him well… Is there anything he might like for Christmas?" Tifa asked. "He paid for my dress, it's only fair I get him something in return." She reasoned.
"You can ask him at the party tonight, since he's better suited to answer that question." The Turk replied with a chuckle.
When Tifa arrived back to the venue, most of the guests had already arrived and Rufus was diligently making a point of greeting each and every one of them, wishing merriments and making small talk in an attempt to get to know each of his employees.
Work-mode kicking in, she noticed that the buffet table was already set, the DJ in place, playing remixes of classic holiday songs and soft jazz and enough servers walking about with trays filled with champagne flute glasses, enough to serve everyone. Everything was perfectly in order. Her eyes scanning the room, she found the now-familiar head of platinum slicked-back hair and noticed that Rufus even had found the time to change into a formal white costume, himself, noticing that he had paired it with a purple tie, a similar shade to her dress, a fact that she wrote off to chance, but dreading of what rumors her gossipier co-worders, like Scarlet, would spread around for the fact.
"Miss Lockhart, you look lovely. Did you get enough rest?" Rufus approached her in greeting.
"President Shinra, just Tifa is fine! I did rest well enough, thank you." She replied.
"Alright, as long as you call me Rufus, as well!" he said with a smile, causing her to blush thinking of how handsome he was.
The music changed to a slow holiday blues song and people started coupling up and taking the dance floor, drawing Tifa's gaze, causing Rufus to look back in curiosity as to what would draw her attention.
"Shall we?" he offered his hand in invitation for a dance and she shyly accepted, allowing him to lead her in the middle of the dance floor.
"Thank you for the generous gift." She said during the dance, taking a step back to motion at her dress, before stepping closer again in a graceful step. "You didn't have to go through the trouble though." She concluded.
"From what I gather, you more than deserve it." Rufus replied.
"Oh, how so?" her curiosity took the better of her.
"I've studied your work file, impressive resume!" He spoke. "From what I understand, it's thanks to you I even have a company to run. Without your attempts at keeping some executives like Palmer in check, the company would be in ruins long ago." He explained.
"I'm just doing my job…" Tifa offered.
"You're too humble." He refuted as the dance was coming to an end and she regretted not having gotten the chance to ask what present he would have liked in return, as he politely and somewhat reluctantly excused himself to do some more rounds of greeting and mingling with the rest of his employees.
"Tifa! Looking GOOD!" Reno stressed, moving towards her, Tifa lowering her head in embarrassment at the scene.
"Reno! You're already wasted!" She commented in disapproval.
"It's such a good party! Well done!" He commented, lazily throwing his arm around her shoulders, garneting a glare from the young woman and, unbeknownst to her, from Rufus as well, at which, Reno promptly gathered his arm back to his own side, before Tifa had the chance to smack it way herself.
With a sigh, she led her old acquaintance to a chair and offered him a glass of water, to help sober him up before he made more of a fool out of himself and, making sure he was comfortably seated, proceeded to look for his serious partner from before, to help keep an eye on him.
After that, the rest of the night went smoothly with Tifa looking out for any of her drunk co-workers and making sure they were behaving, and she made a point of calling a driver agency for any who were unable to drive themselves home, making sure their own cars would be delivered to their homes the following morning.
"You should try enjoying yourself a bit more." She heard Rufus' velvet voice next to her during one of her "breaks" to hydrate herself.
"I am!" she said, turning to face him.
"All I've seen is you working all night long, to make sure everyone's taken care of." He pointed out.
"Well, someone has to… It's no bother to me, anyway. I'm simply happy everyone seems to be having a good time, they've worked hard for it." She said with a smile, noticing his expression soften at her response.
"What about you?" he asked.
"Whatever you mean?" she inquired, confused at his question.
"Are you having a good time? This celebration is as much for you as it is for them, especially considering you've worked more than anyone for it." He explained, motioning to the last few people remaining in the room.
"Ah, you're being too kind." She quickly deflected the compliment.
"I'll take that as a not too much" he said with a slight frown. "How about another dance, to make up for being such a bad host to you?" he asked.
"There's no one else on the dancefloor." Tifa replied, a pink tint dusting her cheeks.
"Is it a bother?"
"No, not really." She said, after a bit of contemplation, accepting his extended hand for the second time that night.
"Are you intoxicated, Mr. Shinra?" Tifa asked, amused, after he guided her in an elaborate turn, concluding the dance move with a dip.
"Just Rufus is fine" He mirrored her earlier sentiment, guiding her back in a straight position. "Maybe a bit, but not nearly enough to cloud my better judgement, or make me forget of this lovely evening, miss Lockhart." He replied, with a sly smirk, before bowing and moving her hand to his mouth, lightly pressing his lips on her knuckles, as the song came to an end.
"Ah, I've been meaning to ask you…" Tifa said, trying to get her mind off the hotness of the blood rushing to her cheeks. "Is there anything you'd like as a Christmas gift?" she asked. "I tried asking Tseng after our shopping trip, but he advised me to ask you directly." She explained.
"What about you find that out by getting to know me better over a date?" He boldly asked, looking like he was taken aback by his own question, immediately after.
"I would like to have the opportunity to get to know you better." He added firmly, noticing her hesitance.
"Alright, then." She agreed with a shy smile, after a bit of contemplation.
"I'll pick you up at seven in the afternoon, on Sunday, then, for dinner." He reinforced the plan with an almost boyish, excited smile, walking away to see the last of his guests home.