Chapter Five
oOoOo
"Tifa was really upset about you arriving later than your expected time of arrival for your trip to the market." Vincent pointed out to Yuffie as they were eating some rice toppings at a cheap Wutaian restaurant in an area near Sector 7 with Denzel.
Yuffie clenched her jaw with food still in her mouth. Slowly, she swallowed and eyed Vincent like she would eye an adult scolding her for doing something bad. "Well… something came up in the market and I had a hard time haggling with the prices because of the limited amount of money she gave me." She answered.
Vincent narrowed his eyes at her. "Bloody hell, don't tell me you stole those goods?" he asked in disbelief.
"Hey, hey! I people might mistake me as a thief, but I'm a ninja, and like, yeah, just for the record, like, I only steal materia, okay?" she answered back in defense. She hated it whenever people would accuse her of something that she did not do.
Vincent just sat still and eyed Yuffie carefully before turning his attention to Denzel. When he saw some stray rice on the boy's chin and cheeks, he got a tissue and wiped them off. "Careful, Denzel." He told him.
Denzel sniffed and nodded before continuing to eat. "Why are we eating here? Isn't there any food in the house?" he asked.
"We have food in the house. However… it's not enough to feed too many people. So maybe this afternoon I might volunteer to go shopping for Tifa. Would you like to accompany me?" Vincent asked.
"Oh that's very nice of you." Yuffie told Vincent sarcastically.
"Sure. There's nothing to do at home anyway." Denzel told Vincent.
Vincent turned back to Yuffie. "And you, Miss Kisaragi, you can do the laundry and clean the upstairs bathroom." He told her.
"What? Why?" Yuffie demanded in annoyance as she dropped her chopsticks on her bowl. "I don't do bathrooms, okay?"
"There's no one else around the house to do all the household chores. You might as well help out." Vincent told her.
Yuffie's eyebrow twitched as she frowned. "Why not let the sick boy upstairs clean the bathroom?" she asked airily.
"Rufus is sick. He can't do strenuous activities." He answered.
"I can clean the bathroom." Denzel volunteered.
"No, you're coming with me to the grocery." Vincent told him sternly.
"Man, you're starting to sound like someone in authority around here…" Yuffie muttered as she picked up her chopsticks again and continued to eat.
"Because you're too spoiled…" Vincent was thinking to himself quietly. "You're like the more talkative and noisier female version of Rufus ShinRa…" he muttered in a volume he thought that would be audible enough for only himself to understand.
"You're saying something?" Yuffie demanded with a frown on her face.
"…No." he answered simply before he continued to eat.
Yuffie's frown deepened. "…I totally heard that. You said I'm like Rufus." She pointed out. "I'm a ninja. I was trained to have a keen sense of hearing." She added as an explanation because she knew he would be wondering how she could have heard what he said.
Vincent was just dumbfounded but he did not let that affect him very much. He just ignored her, realizing that any further conversation about the matter might make her too aggressive.
oOoOo
It was 2:15 when Rufus ShinRa opened his eyes from his afternoon nap when he heard Tifa calling out his name gently. "Rufus,"
She was just standing by the bed and looking at him curiously. "You awake?" she asked.
Rufus grunted and sat up. "What time is it?" he asked.
"2:15. We have to leave now." She told him.
He nodded. And just as he hung out his feet from the bed to the ground, he was surprised when she crouched down and put on his shoes for him. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm putting on your shoes." She said with a cheerful tone.
He frowned slightly, feeling a little uncomfortable. "…Aren't you spoiling me?" he asked.
"I am not spoiling you. You are ill and weak and I'm just helping you." She told him as she got up and got a comb to fix Rufus's hair. "Do you want to brush it back?" she asked.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Rufus asked, feeling like he was suddenly in the twilight zone.
"Do you want me to brush it back for you? Like how you used to do it two years ago when I first… saw you?" she asked, feeling embarrassed at the end of her question.
Rufus eyed her curiously. "No, thank you. It's fine this way." He told her.
She sniffed his hair.
"Bloody…what the bloody hell are you doing?" he asked as he moved slightly away from her.
"When was the last time you had your hair washed?" she asked.
"…3 days ago." He answered, feeling a little embarrassed. When he was still well and even back in the days when he was in the Healin Lodge, he would insist on having his hair washed everyday. Now, he was not sure if he could even condition it.
She ran her fingers through his hair mindlessly. "You really have nice hair. It's still soft and it isn't oily and sticky yet even if you haven't washed it for three days already." She told him with an amazed smile on her face. "Oh well. You're a rich boy. You're like a god; a golden boy." She said, shrugging as she combed his hair again.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked, feeling so weird.
"Nothing. I'm just amused by the fact that you're here living the simple life with us." She said before putting the comb aside. She stepped back so that he could stand up.
Rufus could still feel like he was in the twilight zone as he stared at Tifa unbelievably. "…it's the fact that you're a ShinRa, Rufus." He was scolding himself as he looked away from her and got up carefully. He picked up his mobile phone and his wallet and shoved them inside the secret pockets of his blazer while Tifa was not looking.
As they got out of the room, Tifa called out to Yuffie, "We're leaving now! If we're not back by 5, start worrying and start cooking dinner for them!"
Yuffie, while scrubbing the floor of the shower area grunted. "Like, yeah, sure, fine, whatever." She answered, rolling her eyes.
"What's she doing in the bathroom?" Rufus asked.
"Vincent told her to do the laundry and to clean the bathroom afterwards. Anyway, he's doing the grocery shopping with Denzel." Tifa explained.
"That's odd. I mean Yuffie scrubbing toilets…" he told her as she guided him in descending the stairs.
"Why do you find that odd?" she asked.
"She's Wutaian Royalty. As far as I'm concerned, she's very spoiled and she's a daddy's little girl." He answered.
"You knew her before?" she asked in disbelief.
"Well she was still very young back then. My old man visited Wutai to discuss business with Lord Godo Kisaragi and he took me with him. I was only 13 and Yuffie was only 8. She kicked me in the groin when I refused to play with her." He pointed out with an annoyed look on his face.
Tifa laughed at what he said.
"Well who would want to play with such a bratty princess? She wanted me to play dolls with her, for the love of cake!" He complained as they got out of the house and began to walk down the streets of Edge. "It's the same with Aerith when I was 7. She's a year older but that did not stop me from playing authority figure, after all she was just staying in the laboratory back then for some tests…"
"You knew Aerith?" Tifa asked in disbelief.
"Of course I did." Rufus answered with a ridiculous look on his face. "I'd never forget the time when I visited the lab, she was there and Sephiroth was also there… I could recall him telling me to play with Aerith because he didn't want to. Since I was too nice back then, I agreed. When I saw Aerith, she whacked my head with this weird-looking doll with blonde spiky hair. Those spikes really hurt!" he told her.
Tifa laughed again. She was glad that Rufus was opening up to her and that he was actually talking to her. They were not aware, however, that people were staring at them as they were passing by, and that they were holding hands as they were walking.
"But Aerith is a nice girl, really." Tifa told him.
Rufus laughed slightly. "Oh you don't know the rest. Sometimes I thought my old man favored her instead of me. Or maybe he just bought her all those presents to keep her interested in staying in ShinRa so that Professor Hojo could experiment on her…" he told her. "One time she was asked to join me for dinner by my old man. She sat next to me. I couldn't believe Dark Nation liked her. I got so jealous of her but I couldn't do anything because my old man was there." He explained.
"So… you weren't nice to her?" she asked.
"I tried to be nice. I didn't hurt her or anything… but she would sometimes throw her dolls at me especially whenever she's having a bad day in the laboratory. I guess looking back now, it's understandable." He explained.
Tifa smiled gently at him. Rufus looked at her curiously. "Anything wrong?" he asked.
She looked away. "I've always thought that you weren't the talkative type. But you're… just… gabbing away! Haha." She said, chuckling.
His eyes widened when he realized that he had been talking so much to Tifa about himself. He looked away. "But it… seems fun talking to her. I've never really talked to someone who's really interested in what I have to say…" he thought silently to himself before telling her, "Alright then. Tell me something about your childhood. Cloud told me he grew up with you in Nibelheim."
Her smile faded. "Nibelheim…" she began to miss her life there with her father… and the fact that it had been destroyed by Sephiroth who was from ShinRa, plus the fact that ShinRa had it rebuilt to hide their wrongdoings made Tifa feel bad… and to think that she is currently walking with a ShinRa only made her feel guilty because she could remember vowing to hate that name forever. "No. Rufus is different…" she was just starting to think of that when Rufus chimed in, "I know what's on your mind. You're thinking about what my old man did to your hometown…"
She was surprised by what he said. How could he have guessed?
"I feel bad too… it was my mother's hometown. She grew up there." He told her.
She looked at him curiously. "Really?" she asked in awe.
He nodded. "Part of the World Restoration that I'm planning is returning that town back to its old state… to when it hasn't been burned yet by Sephiroth." He explained with a low tone. He sounded hopeful though.
She smiled at him gently. "That's nice." She said softly.
"So, tell me about your childhood." Rufus said, wanting to segue.
Tifa took a deep breath and looked straight ahead, focusing on the road. "Well, Cloud and I did not basically grow up together. We were so apart. He was… one of the loser kids and I hung out with the popular kids back then so we'd exclude him from our games. We all thought he was weird because he was the only one who had this weird accent, which turns out to be Midgarian. He lived alone with his mother but we thought she was weird as well. So as much as possible, we avoided the Strifes." She explained.
Rufus smiled slyly. "What about your crush on him?" he asked.
"Oh blimey! It was just a childhood crush that went on until post-adolescence. It just faded away through time." She answered with a giggly tone. "What about you? Any crushes?" she asked, not wanting to dwell on the Cloud Strife subject anymore so she decided to change the focus of the subject.
Rufus frowned. "No." he answered.
"What? Are you abnormal? Not even a classmate from school or a teacher or a female Turk or something?" she asked in disbelief.
"I am from an all-boy school, and I'm not the type of person to crush on somebody older than me." He answered.
"Didn't you like Aerith?" she asked.
"No." Rufus said simply. "And you, did you happen to like anybody else aside from Cloud?" he asked, deciding to shift the focus of the subject back to her.
Her eyes widened and her cheeks flushed. "Uh… no." she answered. She just remembered someone else…
"You're bluffing." He told her.
She frowned at him. "How do you know I'm bluffing?" she demanded.
"The tone of your voice and you're flushed." He answered.
She pouted. "Well I was only 7… there was this boy… he was 8 and… but daddy told me that he's bad so I just tried to forget him. And then one day the universe conspired and…" she trailed off.
"And then what?" he asked curiously.
"…never mind." She answered simply, bowing down her head.
Rufus just shrugged it off as they continued to walk.
"I still can't believe you survived the Diamond Weapon attack. The explosion was… pretty strong." Tifa told him honestly.
He just took a deep breath, remembering every single bit of what happened to him on the 70th floor as the Diamond Weapon fired toward his direction. "I know. It's hell when you're in my shoes." He told her softly.
"A near-death experience, I suppose." She told him.
He just stared straight ahead with a deep frown on his face.
"But aren't you glad you survived?" she asked with an optimistic tone.
He took a deep breath as he looked up at the skies. "I'm still alive; I guess that's something to be thankful for…" he said softly, although she thought that he was being sarcastic.
"You don't sound so happy about being alive." She pointed out.
He frowned at her. "Well I am glad." He answered before looking away again, not wishing to divulge everything to her regarding his feelings about his survival.
She still wasn't sure whether he was being sarcastic or not. She just took a deep breath.
"What about you? Ever had a near-death experience?" he asked, wanting to stir the topic away from himself.
"Well yes. I was around 14 back then. I attempted to stop Sephiroth with his own weapon, but I ended up getting hurt by him instead." She answered.
"What about that time when you were asleep for seven days because you got knocked-out by this gust of wind?" he inquired.
She blinked. "When was that?" she asked.
He frowned slightly. "Blimey. You couldn't remember?" he asked in awe.
"Well I can remember getting knocked-out by a gust of wind and when I woke up you told me that… that you're going to have me executed!" she told him directly.
He widened his eyes at her. "I can assure you, it was just for a show!" he told her.
She gasped. "What?" she demanded.
They were suddenly talking too loudly that more people eyed them curiously.
"How could you do that?" she demanded in annoyance.
He just smiled slyly.
She felt appalled by his reaction. "Oh you think that's funny? What the bloody hell are you smiling about?" she demanded.
He chuckled lightly. "The fact that everyone bought it." He flipped his hair. "Oh, I'm such a good actor." He said with a pleased look on his face.
"Well that's not funny! I thought I was going to die!" she snapped, feeling offended as she turned her gaze away from him. "I'm sure you know the feeling of thinking that you're going to die and… you suddenly realize that there are a lot of things left unsaid and unrealized…" she stated with a trembling tone.
Rufus then noticed that he had been holding her hand for quite some time already because he felt his own hand getting warmer against hers. He withdrew his hand from her and shoved it inside his pocket, feeling uncomfortable. "…For example?" he asked, pretending not to know what she is talking about.
She did not answer as they crossed the street but once they got to the other side, she just remarked with a slight smile on her face, "But come to think of it, you had everybody fooled with your act. You could win an award."
He did not say anything. He just kept on walking with her. Meanwhile, she changed the subject and started to talk about the people living in her house. She began to describe them and what she thought about them to Rufus, whose facial expression indicated that he does not seem to be listening to a single word she just said; even though, he really paid attention. He just did not want to look interested and too eager.
She just stopped talking once they reached Marlene's school.
"Just in time." Rufus pointed out as he flashed a friendly grin towards the little girl with braided brown hair running towards them. "Rufus! Tifa!" Marlene cried out happily.
Tifa blinked. "Well you certainly look happy today?" she asked, putting her hands on her waist with a look of wonder on her face. Much to her surprise, Marlene hugged Rufus.
Rufus was overwhelmed as well. "Anything interesting happened?" he asked the little girl, maintaining the friendly smile on his face. Tifa was eyeing him carefully, wondering whether his smile was sincere or not. Her mouth twisted into a slight pout. "Well he seems sincere. I guess he isn't that stuck-up after all…" she thought silently to herself, and as she did so, her mouth was twisting into a satisfied smile.
Marlene showed Rufus her drawing. "I got 10 stars! A perfect 10!" she announced proudly.
Rufus and Tifa stared at Marlene's drawing curiously.
Marlene smiled cheerfully. "It's us, Rufus!" she said proudly.
It dawned the two adults that the drawing was a tall man clad in white with blonde hair and he is carrying a little girl with brown hair on his back and they were walking in a flowery field. "Oh. That's nice." Rufus decided as she got the drawing to take a closer look at it. He could see that even though it was a child's drawing with crayons as its main medium, it still looked very accurate in a symbolic manner regarding colors representing the elements and figures present in the drawing. "You can become a very good artist in the future, Marlene." He said proudly as he patted her head and gave the drawing back to her.
Marlene smiled happily. "Nah. I think I'll become a nurse." She decided as she folded her drawing and placed it inside her bag. "Wow! You and Tifa fetched me today! I think I'll draw a picture of the two of you later on!" she said happily.
Tifa's smile faded and she felt her face flushing. "Well… yes." She said softly.
Rufus observed Tifa through his peripheral vision and fought the urge to smile. With that, he turned back to Marlene and carried her up on his back again. "There you go!" he said.
Tifa's eyes widened when she saw what he did.
Marlene, on the other hand, was cheering happily. "Whee!"
"Do you want some ice cream?" Rufus asked.
Marlene nodded. "Uh-huh!" she answered eagerly.
"Now, Rufus, it might spoil her appetite for dinner!" Tifa told him sternly.
"No, it won't. It's just a little ice cream cone. It won't harm her appetite. Besides, it's only 3, and you regularly have dinner at around 7, I suppose? So by then she'd be hungry again." Rufus told her reassuringly.
Tifa observed the look on his face and it amused her to see him looking so pleased with what he's doing. She just shrugged and rolled her eyes. "Fine, do as you please, just don't end up spoiling her or we'll have trouble with her father later on." She advised with a teasing smile on her face.
"Daddy won't hate Rufus. Rufus is nice! I like him, Tifa. He's like daddy; he carries me up on his back!" Marlene said happily.
Tifa just smiled at Marlene as she and Rufus began to walk down the street.
oOoOo
As promised, Cloud was able to pay the whole 20,000 Gil to the Old Man by 3 in the afternoon. He was also surprised that the old man had already packed up his bags and his things and was just waiting for a ride to town.
After thanking the Old Man, Cloud decided to take a look around the big house.
"Well, Cloud. Here you are. Home sweet home."
He smiled upon hearing her voice.
"You're planning to move in here?"
He shook his head slightly. "No. Not yet. But someone has to take care of this place… and I think Rufus will like living in this secluded area." He decided with a slight smile on his face.
oOoOo
Tifa, Rufus and Marlene arrived back home by 4 in the afternoon.
"You guys are back and alive." Yuffie welcomed.
"And you're finished with your chores?" Tifa asked, eyeing Yuffie suspiciously.
"Yeah." Yuffie answered before rushing to the living room to watch some TV.
Rufus placed Marlene back to the ground. "Thank you for the ice cream, Rufus." She said gratefully.
"You're always welcome, Marlene," he said before handing her some chocolates. "Here you go. I bought that while you and Tifa were buying ice cream. Why don't you share that with Denzel?" he asked nicely.
Yuffie took a glance at them. She could not believe what she was hearing. "Rufus Shinra being so nice to children? What's going on? Is the world going to end soon?" she asked in disbelief.
Tifa just ignored the ninja's remark.
Rufus watched as Marlene rushed upstairs. "Denzel!" he heard her call out her friend's name.
Tifa clutched Rufus's arm in a firm grip. "I think we need to get you upstairs now. You're flushed and you're sweating." She said softly.
He did not look at her but his smile faded away. He never realized how tired and feverish he was already until she told him about his face being flushed. He just let her lead the way, guiding him upstairs.