Chapter 2: Who's the New Girl?

She had always fascinated him with the things she did. She wasn't elegant or graceful, but rather clumsy. That, to him, was amusing yet fascinating. She always seemed so serious, but would crumble under the slightest acknowledgement of her presence.

He noticed during board meetings the way she would stare at Tseng with admiration and the way she would puff out her cheeks with annoyance every time Reno would kick her under the table. She was incredibly easy to read, yet Rufus felt like he knew very little about her.

Yes, the newest member of the Turks had caught his eye. He wasn't sure why he had suddenly gained a certain attraction to her, but he couldn't stop thinking about her. Couldn't stop trying to analyze her. Something told him that her behavior was absolutely no inflection on what she could do as a Turk.

Despite her having been at the company a little over a month, Rufus didn't know her name. He hadn't bothered to look up her file, afraid of ruining the mystery of the young woman.

It wasn't until she had quite literally ran into him in the hallway that he finally learned a little about her. He had been walking with Tseng, discussing the havoc Avalanche had caused them, when all of a sudden the clumsy girl, looking at her feet in what seemed to be dejected anger, walked straight into him and landed on the floor.

Next to him, Rufus heard Tseng give an exasperated sigh and simply said, "Elena." It was as if he were talking to a child he was tired of having to look over. Rufus couldn't help but feel annoyed in the girl's—in Elena's—defense. However, he said nothing, and did nothing, curious to see how the situation would play out. It ended with Elena frantically climbing to her feet, apologizing to both of them repeatedly, saying "sir" a considerable amount of times, then scurrying off.

Rufus chuckled at the way she ran off, her face turning red in embarrassment.

"She'll start acting like a Turk eventually, I'm sure," Tseng said, almost in doubt of himself.

"Elena, you said her name was?"

Tseng chuckled with his own amusement. "You're only just now finding that out? I figured you would have memorized her employee file by now."

"I wanted her personality to be a surprise."

Tseng raised a brow skeptically. "You hate surprises."

Rufus smirked in reply, "Of course."

Two months later found Rufus in his office at 6:30 in the morning. He didn't usually go into the office until around 8, but he had been up early anyway. Unfortunately, there was not much to do so early in the morning, so Rufus had grabbed a pen from the pen holder on his desk and pulled back his sleeve. For some reason, Rufus had always been in the habit of doodling on his arms whenever he got bored. His father always chastised him for it, but this didn't stop Rufus from doing it. He just started keeping his arms and hands covered so no one would see.

He dragged the pen smoothly across his skin, connecting curved lines to look like the petals of roses and lotus flowers. He always found himself drawing some sort of floral design. Flowers were simple and elegant. Everyone expected them to be perfect, yet they were full of beautiful imperfections. They reminded him a little of himself: the perfect embodiment of imperfection.

He stopped drawing on his arm when his phone rang. It was Tseng, asking to speak to him later about how Elena had performed in the Mythril Mines. Rufus didn't really think much of her performance. Sure, she revealed classified information to their enemies, but the Turks' job has quite the learning curve. This was her first assignment and she didn't reveal anything vital to the success of the company. Just the location of Sephiroth. Honestly, if Avalanche wanted to take on Sephiroth, by all means. It would save him a lot of hassle.

When Rufus hung up the phone with Tseng, he quickly scrawled a reminder on his arm in black ink, over the blue of the flowers so it wouldn't get lost.

It was about noon that day when his secretary had buzzed the intercom, letting him know a Turk was on her way up. He was slightly confused as to why Elena would be visiting him, but he wouldn't object to it. He was curious what she had to say.

The sensors on his security monitor flashed red, alerting him the the presence of someone at his door. He pressed a button on his desk that allowed the doors to open.

On the other side of the doors was Elena, looking nervous and quite frazzled.

She took a few steps in, then passed, the doors closing behind her. He could tell she was taken aback by his office. After sometime had passed, he had cleared his throat softly to remind her he was there. He couldn't help but be amused by her astonishment of the office and her embarrassment of simply standing in the middle of the room.

He motioned her her to sit, which she did, then he asked, "What brings you here, Elena?"

At the question, Elena looked even more frazzled than she had before. Surely it wasn't that hard to explain?

At her lack of response he prompted, "Well?"

"W-well…" She stammered. Rufus raised an eyebrow, curious and amused.

"Ok, well, you see, I was talking with Reno and he said that I should talk with you because a really weird thing happened to me this morning. I was in the shower—"

Rufus cut her off with a smirk on his face. "Elena, I really don't need to know about your personal life. And I believe any advice from Reno should be wisely ignored." Rufus knew that from personal experience.

Elena shook her head in exasperation, "No, you don't get it, look at this!" She pulled back her sleeve to reveal doodles just like the ones Rufus had put on his arm that morning. Rufus furrowed his brow, confused and skeptical of what this could mean. There's now way she could simply be playing a joke on him. How would she even know he doodled on his arm like that?

"Elena, I don't—" But she interrupted him.

"Look, I know this is stuff you've been writing on your arm because Tseng said he had a meeting with you and it was at the exact time that this note says that a meeting with Tseng was going to take place and Reno said it was some kind of weird soulmate thing and I don't know if I completely believe that but I can't ignore the markings on my arm, like they're there, and I just—"

"Elena," He interjected calmly, yet with a stern tone to his voice. She stopped talking and looked down into her lap. "I admit that this is very strange, but I highly doubt this connects us in any…" how did he want to put this.., "romantic way."

"Maybe not, but I just thought it was something I should point out," she said, somewhat dejected.

Rufus looked at her arm, which was still visible from her lap. He smirked. "Well, I appreciate that."

"Yeah…" She trailed off. Rufus could tell she was feeling awkward, but still had something on her mind. He was about to ask what it was when she blurted out, "Why were you and Tseng talking about me?"

Rufus couldn't help but chuckle at her blunt question. "I promise, it wasn't as bad as the reminder on my arm makes it sound."

She seemed to accept the answer, before asking another question, "Why do you draw flowers on your arm?"

Rufus could feel his face heating up, taken aback by the question. How could he explain that to her? There wasn't really a simple answer as to why.

He cleared his throat and regained his composure, the heat in his face not going away. "I just always find myself drawing them. I like the simplicity of the patterns."

"They're really pretty," Elena says, catching Rufus off guard again.

He wasn't sure how to reply to that. Every time Elena spoke, it seemed to be without much thought. He found that trait of hers annoying because she continuously challenged how well he could keep his composure around her, but at the same time that made her blunt way of speaking all the more endearing.

Finally, Rufus says, "Let's just keep this between us, shall we?" Even as he said that, he found himself embarrassed by the fact that Elena had already told Reno all about it.

That night, Rufus went home late, still thinking about the conversation he had with Elena.

Soulmates? There was no such thing… right? Well then what had connected them like this? He wanted to think there was some logical explanation to it all, but at his lack of a conclusion, he decided it could be the universe trying to tell him to go after this girl. He had been fascinated by her for a while now, but never really found it in him to approach her. He had no reason to. Nothing to say.

Nothing until now.

Rufus sat on his couch with a pen in his hand, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He wanted to write something to her, wanted to reach out. He could feel his heart thump against the inside of his chest. Why was he so nervous all of a sudden? Her presence never caused him to feel like this, but there was an intimacy in leaving a message for her through this strange link between them that he simply was not used to.

He took a deep breath and placed the pen on his arm, writing two simple words he hoped would let her know he was still thinking about her:

Goodnight, Elena.

That would have to suffice until he could speak with her again.

I'm sorry if parts of this seem a little redundant, but I rewrote this chapter like 20 times from Elena's point of view, moving forward in the story, but it just didn't seem right. Something was telling me "It's kind of a soulmate AU! Focus on both of them!" So here you go. Some exploration into Rufus's character. I think as I continue this story, I'll be switching back and forth between the two because I just feel like that's the right direction to take this in.