"Dinner is ready!" Tifa called.
Gina came into the kitchen and watched her friend making a tray ready.
"You made your cheese stew?" she grinned. "Do you want to impress him?"
"This will help him to renew his strength" Tifa said smiling.
"You don't hate him anymore?" the woman asked.
Tifa made a guilty face.
"I guess I punched all my anger into him…" she said. "And I realized that I would not be standing here in front of you if he wouldn't have taken me with him that day".
"So you see him now as your lifesaver?"
"No… but it was definitely wrong to react like that and that I could be a bit nicer to him" Tifa meant thoughtfully.
"And he is a good looking guy in your age" Gina meant giggling.
"Gina!" Tifa pointed out blushing.
"Don't tell me that you didn't notice that" her friend said with a wink.
"I have definitely no intention to start something with a ShinRa!" she sneered took the tray and when past Gina.
"That was the third time I helped you!" a voice besides Rufus sneered. "You should really be more careful"
He opened his eyes.
"Third time?" he asked sleepy.
"You nearly kicked the bucket again boy!" the voice laughed.
Rufus sat up in a shot. It was the image of his father again.
"What are you doing here!" he asked angrily.
"Be careful in the future! I left the scar over your eye as a reminder" the voice of his father sneered again. "If you die then I die too!"
"You are already dead!" Rufus pointed out. The image had vanished. Tifa stood in the door and looked shocked.
He pointed at the place where the figure just had been standing.
"Did you see that!" he asked beside himself.
"Did I see what?" she asked with wide eyes.
Rufus looked again at the spot he was pointing at and felt ridiculous. He covered his face with his hands and fell back on the pillow.
"Nothing… I am sorry," he said. "I guess I just had a bad dream".
Tifa began to smile and came to his side putting down the tray on the table next to the bed.
"Must be the fever" she said and took a wet towel from the tray. "But I am sure you will get well again"
She took one hand from his face started to cooling it and sat down on a chair next to the bed.
"It is ok. I feel much better already" he said and took the other hand down. "My nose isn't even aching anymore. I really thought it was broken," he said with a sly smile. "You really have a good right hook."
"The injury over your left eye already closed" Tifa said smiling and touched his forehead. "And your fever is nearly down"
She looked down on him and to his leg.
"What about your leg?" she asked. "Does it still hurt?"
He closed his eyes again and shook his head.
"Can you move it?" she asked concerned.
Rufus looked down on himself and lifted his leg.
Tifa took the blanket away.
"Move your toes," she said.
He did and Tifa sighed in relief.
"But I cannot bend my knee" he said.
"The injury was pretty bad," she said. "I guess that will take some time"
"Are you hungry?" she asked.
He only nodded sat up against the pillow.
"Let me help you! Bend forward" she said and corrected the pillow behind him.
"Thank you," he said surprised bending back again and felt much more comfortable. He widened his eyes in total surprise when she raised a fork with stew to his face. He eyed her suspicious.
"C'mon! You have to eat," she said encouraging.
"You beat me up some hours ago" she said with narrow eyes. "And now you want to feed me?"
She did not take the fork away.
"I really can do that alone! I am a grown-up boy!" he sneered.
"And put the tray on your lap where it presses on your injury?" she asked.
"But." he began but could not end the sentence because she already had put the fork in his mouth.
Rufus watched her blushing and began to chew.
"Good boy" she said smiling.
He gave her a sly grin and gulped.
"That tastes good," he said praising. "Did you make that?"
She blushed at his compliment. Cloud had never complimented her for her cooking skills.
"Yes, thank you" she said and raised the fork again to his mouth.
He hesitated for a moment but opened his mouth well knowing that she would not accept a no anyway.
"Can I ask you a question?" she caught his attention again.
"Hm?" he made still chewing encouraging her to ask.
"Where do you have the scars from?" she asked silently.
He gulped and raised his hand to his forehead.
"That?" he asked.
"No… The ones on your back" she said blushing.
"On my back?" he asked surprised. "I don't know anything about scars on my back."
"But I have seen deep scars on your back!" she pointed out.
"Where?" he asked with wide eyes not knowing very well where he had been injured as well and bend forward again.
She widened her eyes when she saw no trace of a scar. Only the smooth white skin on his back.
Rufus sat back again and watched her.
"Is there anything?" he asked concerned.
"No…" she said in awe. "There is nothing"
"Hey! Don't frighten me like that," he said annoyed. "I am scared already that I get out of that and look like a patchwork!"
"I am sorry…" she apologized silently and looked down.
How could those deep scars disappear?
Gina had seen them too. They could not have been mistaken both.
"Hey! It is ok… my mind play tricks with me too sometimes" he said comforting and looked again at the place where the image of his father had been standing. He looked back into her troubled face.
"Everything ok?" he asked.
She only nodded not looking at him.
"Ehm… Miss Lockheart?" he began. "Can I have some more?"
She looked at him and smiled again when she saw that he already had opened his mouth.
"Sure!" she said and raised the fork again to his mouth. They said nothing for a while. And he only looked at her while she kept feeding him.
"Could you please explain me what happened in the crater?" he asked suddenly. "You defeated Sephirot. Am I right?"
"Yes" she said. "Me and Avalanche"
He nodded smiling and she told him all what happened when she and her friends were in the crater while she kept feeding him.
When she was finished he just nodded.
"I said he when I saw you guys on the roof of the ShinRa building and I say it again. What a crew" he said.
"You simply went there and did what me and my company was not able to do!" he continued.
He looked at her and smiled. And this time it was a real smile.
"We all owe you our life" he said and raised his hand to her. "Thank you Miss Lockheart"
At first she just saw at his hand in awe but then took it and they shook hands.
"Please just call me Tifa," she said blushing.
"Ok" he said. "Then thank you Tifa"
They looked at each other and said nothing. She was lost in his aquamarine coloured eyes.
"Can I have my hand back?" he asked suddenly.
"Of course" she said blushing and released his hand. "I only never imagined to shake hands with president ShinRa!"
He only laughed.
"Hey! I just shook hand with the saviour of the planet!" he pointed out. "And anyway. I am not president anymore!"
"What will you do now?" she asked him.
"Well… I retired," he said scratching the back of his head. "So I don't know. At the moment I have no plans. I directly came here after I woke up after the explosion"
He sighed.
"Why did you come here?" Tifa asked him curious.
He said nothing for some moments as if he was thinking if it was wise to tell her. Then he shrugged his shoulders as if it would not matter anymore anyway.
"I had contacts here once," he said suddenly. "And I did not know where else to go"
"Contacts?" she asked and pulled the chair nearer to the bed.
He smiled and his eyes gazed blankly in front of him.
"Yes" he said silently.
"A girl?" she asked now even more curious.
He looked at her and smiled. Then he laughed silently and shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know…" he answered. "I only know that it was a member of Avalanche calling himself Jessie".
"Jessie!" Tifa said in awe.
"Right…" he said.
"She died in that incident." Tifa meant holding back the urge to cry.
"So it was a girl…" he said silently. "I never met her in person".
They were silent for a moment.
"I was in Junon when it happened…" he breathless. "She should have followed my advice"
"What do you mean?" Tifa asked.
"I contacted her a few minutes before that happened right after I was informed about the plans of my father. I told her to get out of sector seven and promised her to do everything to stop this disaster. She asked me to hack into the security system column to stop it…" he explained not looking at her. "I was not fast enough… I failed"
"Because of that they were already in the column when we arrived to warn them" Tifa said in awe. "And that is how she got the security codes and plans of the reactors?"
Rufus nodded silently.
"The vice-president and an Avalanche member?" Tifa said surprised. "How did you meet each other?"
"I told you that I never met her in person" he told her and looked at Tifa.
"We contacted us accidently when she tried to hack into the system of the company" he told her and chuckled.
Tifa smiled at him.
"Sounds really like Jessie" she said. "Why did you help her?"
"I had plans to get a budget for researches of alternative energy. Everybody knew that one day mako-energy would run dry" he answered. "My father did not listen. I thought that the acts of Avalanche would show that mako-energy has a weak point"
"But you used mako-energy too!" Tifa pointed out.
"A few days after I took over the place of my father I founded a research department for alternative energy resources" he explained. "It was quite successful. We where so close to find a solution" he continued holding up his thumb and index finger in a small distance. "I only needed more time."
Tifa only nodded not knowing what to say.
"What was that source?" she asked finally.
"I only say that we found a totally new way" he said and blinked with one eye. "But I failed again as in saving sector 7, saving the planet and to find a new way" he continued bowing his head.
"Hey!" she said in a cheering way. "It was you who destroyed the barrier at the crater! So you did your part too or not?"
He gave her a weak smile.
"I really don't need you to pity me," he told her flatly.
"Do you want to be alone now?" she asked.
He thought for a while.
"I don't know,…" he said shrugging his shoulders. "I am not used anymore to have it silent around me and I am not used to sit around and doing nothing either."
There was a silence between them for some minutes.
"Tell me… why did you come back to Midgar?" he asked suddenly.
Tifa looked up at him in surprise.
"I wanted to move back to my hometown and take Gina with me" she told him.
"To Nibelheim?" he asked smiling.
"Yes!" she pointed out. "How did you know?"
He looked at her smiling.
"Our files about your group are very extensive" he simply answered.
She frowned. Suddenly she was remembered to whom she was talking to. The president of the ShinRa Electric Power Company.
"What's wrong?" he asked surprised by the look on her face.
"Nothing…" she said plain.
Rufus had seen this look often before and he knew exactly what it meant. It was the look he often got when he was introduced.
"Tifa…" he began plain. "I thank you for your kind help. Please don't worry… I will go again as soon as possible".
His look became stern again and he did not look into her eyes.
Tifa did not know how to react after this statement and his behaviour.
"What is suddenly up with you?" she asked.
"Nothing… I only just realized that I will never have a normal life" he said and smiled sly at her.
"A normal life..." Tifa thought silently. A life without fighting. A save life. This was something she wished herself.
"Rufus..." she began and touched his shoulder and smiled. "I am sure that you will find a way. And everyone deserves a new chance"
"You mean even a ShinRa?" he asked with a sly smile.
"If not a ShinRa then Rubens!" she answered encouraging. "And you can stay here as long as you wish"
He nodded and gave her a weak smile.
"I have still some clothes from the other Avalanche-members downstairs" she followed. "I am sure they will fit you better than the old rags".
He looked at his old suit.
"Thank you Tifa" he said and meant it.
"Hey! Indirectly you are also a member of Avalanche or not?" she said and showed him a smile.
Rufus grinned and shrugged with his shoulders.
"Very indirectly" he said.
She took off her hand from his shoulder and he looked up again.
"Can I ask you a question?" she began again.
He only nodded.
"Why do we still have electricity?" Tifa asked curiously. "All mako-reaktors are destroyed!"
He began to grin again.
"Yes and no" he said grinning.
"So the new way you talked about is already working?" she asked in awe. "Then how..."
"Maybe I am not president anymore Tifa..." he cut her off. "But there are still secrets I have to keep"
"What will happen to ShinRa if there is no successor?" she asked.
"The company will go down" he said plain. "Only a ShinRa can take over the company.. There is only one option that another can take over."
Her curious look told her that she wanted to know.
"High treason of the president" he explained. "But that wasn't an option before."
"But you .. " she began.
Rufus only nodded.
"If somebody finds out that I worked with Avalanche.. Then I would not only be dead" he answered her unasked question. "Then somebody else could take over my position because I have no heir".
"Did you ever think of that?" she asked him curious.
"Well… I am sure I erased my traces really good and I never told someone before about it" he explained.
"No… I mean.. Did you ever think of children?" she asked blinking.
He looked at her surprised and started to laugh.
"Tifa!" he explained. "For that I would have at least a private life and this I never had!"
She looked at him with big eyes and he laughed even more.
"Have you ever noticed articles in newspapers about President Rufus' private life?" he asked still laughing.
She shook her head.
"Ever read an article about President Rufus' secret affairs?" he asked even more laughing.
She shook her head again.
"That has a reason," he explained. "The gossip press is about efficiently like the Turks".
He looked at her again smiling.
"There was just never time for that" he said plain.
"This is sad" Tifa meant regretting.
"Yes" he just said and looked down on his hands.
"So you really never had a girlfriend?" she asked carefully.
"No.. I never had a girlfriend" he said with raised eyebrows.
"And if I had a girlfriend then it would have been a girl who would have been suitable for the reputation of the company. But not out of love. Is it that what you wanted to know?" he continued with a grin on his face.
Tifa blushed and did not answer.
"I am sorry. I am not used to talk like this" he apologized. "It was not my intention to make fun of you"
He touched her hands, which was lying on her lap.
She jumped from the chair.
"It is ok" she said still blushing. "I should not have asked private questions like that!"
"And if I would be offended by this kind of question I would not have answered" he said smiling. "Sit down again. Please!"
He had to admit to himself that he appreciated this talk with her very much. In fact he was thankful that somebody was interested in what kind of person he was.
Noone ever was interested in him. Only in is reputation and his money.
"Do you really expect uprisings this night?" Tifa asked more to change the theme.
"I expect it as possible" he answered. "But I hope with the boards in front of the window everybody expects this house to be left"
Tifa sat down again.
"What do you think will happen to the people without the ShinRa Company?" she asked.
"I don't know it Tifa" he said honest. "But is this not what you fought for? A world without ShinRa?"
"I fought for the life of the planet" she explained. "I admit it! I hated the ShinRa Company and I blaimed it for the death of my father and for many bad things!"
She lowed her gaze.
"But now I know that you wanted to change it too… " she said silent.
"And now you think the planet would be in better hands?" Rufus asked.
"Yes…" she admitted. "Will you rebuild the city?"
He leaned back against the cusions and rubbed his eyes.
"That would mean that I would have to return" he said plain.
He did not continue.
"The people will need support now… and that would give them hope" Tifa meant.
"Tifa… I've been thinking of that for the last two days now" he meant tired. "I am burned out and I have still about a week time to decide this"
He looked again at her.
"Give me a few days time to think about it" he said.