#ffvii:remake

~ First and foremost, yes, I know he’s a jerk. But he’s a jerk who almost died, and is now not as much of a jerk. He’s working on it! He’s so young! He has time to improve! I mean Sephiroth almost destroyed the Planet a few times, and Genesis kick started the mayhem, but we still love them!

~ Rufus has dated before the events of FFVII, so if you’re one of the poor unfortunate souls that tried to pursue him before his near death experience... (*sighs and pats your shoulder sympathetically) 

~ Pre-FFVII Rufus learned all his relationship tricks from observing his father’s habits and behaviors from when he was young. Namely, pursue what you’re interested in without hesitation.

~ Pre-FFVII Rufus would never pursue anyone he considers lower than his station. In fact, ‘the help’ pretty much don’t exist in his eyes much like they don’t exist to many other rich folks. Any attempts to catch his sky blue eyes will be unnoticed.

~ He’s only learned to spoil the individual of his affections with materialistic things. Emotional vulnerability isn’t something that he knows how to express to someone that he should treat as an equal without it being related to business.

~ His near death experience humbles him an immense amount. It is around this time that he’ll take notice and respect those who weren’t born into affluence

~ It is very unlikely that any relationship Meteorfall would last. The world, and Rufus, had changed too much to continue with the old as if nothing happened.

~ But you must be wondering about how you’d fallen into this man’s life if he was so unavailable to the normal populace. 

~ You were an AVALANCHE plant into Shinra, where you worked as one of the staff that attended to President Shinra and Rufus Shinra. Your cover story was that you were orphaned in recent years due to escalated conflict between AVALANCHE and Shinra. You were taken in by your mother’s sister, who was sickly and unable to work. As a result, you decided to get a part time job while you completed schooling. Normally, this wouldn’t fly, as you were two years younger than Rufus at the time, but Shinra was never bothered by child labor.

~ You had originally volunteered to spy on the Company executives as a Turk trainee, but Elfie, the leader of AVALANCHE at the time, didn’t wish for someone so young to be put in a place where you were at the mercy of Shinra.

~ Still, working as a maid was hardly dignified work when your employer had a habit of leering at the staff. You had more use as a chef due to having to cook for yourself from an early age.

~ While President Shinra has little problem bribing and seducing members of the work staff into his bed each night, you noticed that Rufus Shinra had not shared his father’s sentiments... at least, not to the same extent that his father did.

~ Rufus Shinra did not take random maids into his bed every night. No. If he ever took a woman into his bed, it was some social climber or heiress that he’d met during a company gala. He would strive to enjoy her company to the fullest of his ability, but rarely did the women he brought back last further than a month with the company heir.

~ You did your best to stay anonymous while feeding information back to AVALANCHE, barely even causing a need for concern when your talents as a chef were discovered and you were transferred to work the kitchens. Even when Rufus had been kidnapped by your fellow troops, and his plot to betray his father revealed, you remained dutiful and inconspicuous.

~ Eventually, you were sent with some of the Turks and part of the main staff with Rufus when he was placed under home arrest. President Shinra had attempted to pursue you during the years of your employment, but you’d remained steadfast and unwilling despite the loyalty that you’d demonstrated during your years of service. Which was why he decided that you were trustworthy enough to spy on his son for him. The humor in the situation was not lost on you.

~ Rufus, in turn, had the Turks under his command run background checks on all the staff that had followed him from the main Shinra estate.

~ Normally, Rufus would have taken zero interest in you. You were, after all, an average civilian by all means. But the one thing that he really took note of, was that you’d been part of the cleaning staff at first before somehow getting transferred into the kitchen staff. Rufus had been impressed by the quality of his food as of recently, so he was pleased to put a name and face to the work.

~ And then he noted that you were younger than him and fairly attractive. He wondered if you had ever slept with his father for money.

~ When Tseng reported that you had been one of the only members on staff that hadn’t slept with President Shinra, Rufus found himself intrigued. Most commoners only ever showed interest in pleasing the rich for their money. For you to turn down the excessive amount of money that his father normally offered in payment... well, you were rather strange.

~ He kept an eye on you after that. Just a notice of what you were doing every so often. Sending his compliments whenever you cooked a particularly delicious meal.

~ After the fiasco with Elfie and Veld, AVALANCHE needed people within Shinra more than ever, sending others into the company to spy. With your established presence in Shinra, you were tasked only to spy on the comings and goings of the executives that visited Rufus, or monitor any business dealings that the newly appointed Vice President was involved in.

~ For a while, you were content with your job cooking meals and occasionally sending out encrypted correspondences to your superiors. And then Rufus left the island for a business meeting that was supposed to be several days long... only to return within the same night because he simply refused to eat anything other than what you cooked.

~ It had been around midnight when Reno sheepishly roused you from your sleep, stating that the vice president was back and he hadn’t been able to eat a decent meal all day. In the back of your mind, you stressed and screamed how it would be possible to cook a full course meal in such little time alone.

~ Still, you hurried to wash your face and brush your teeth, not bothering to change out of your nightwear as you left the room, feeling that haste was more important than propriety. It’s not like Shinra ever comes into the kitchen anyways. I’m going to have to change out of these clothes when I finish cooking. You sulked, not wanting to go to sleep in pajamas that smelled like cooked food.

It is when you were in the middle of making the meal, with a black apron draped over your pajamas, that the door to the kitchen opens. Expecting Reno, who normally came in to snack on whatever you were making, you didn’t turn around. “Reno, for the last time, when I’m cooking for Mr. Shinra, you’re not allowed to mooch for scraps!”

“Does Reno often enter the kitchens to steal food?”

When you were asked by Elena and Reno what your reaction was, you denied being overly startled... even if you did drop the wooden stirring spoon into the large pot of broth.

Quickly fishing the utensil from falling further into the broth, you set the spoon aside and turned to face Rufus Shinra with wide startled eyes. “Mr. Shinra! I... um apologize for my lack of professionalism.” There’s an unasked question to your expression as your gaze darted back and forth between the stove top and your boss. What are you doing in here?

Rufus, for his part, only smirked and gestured to his own attire. Black button down and loose sweatpants, his normally brushed back blonde hair hung in his face. “I believe I’ve inconvenienced you enough by asking you to wake up to cook, Y/N.” His smirk widened, “Don’t mind me, continue as you would.”

The nervous smile on your lips betrayed your thoughts as you turned back to finish up the meal, trying and failing to ignoring the observant blue eyes directed at your back. After a time of silence, with just the vice president staring at you as you cooked, you spoke up with a stutter, “Um... Reno does occasionally come into the kitchen for a snack. B-but it’s not that much of a bother!” You didn’t want to get the friendly Turk in trouble.

“I can have him removed from the kitchen, if you’d like, Y/N.”

The way he said your name sent strange shivers up your spine, and you turned to peek at your boss. “Um... n-no. That’s really not necessary, Mr. Shinra. Reno’s like an annoying big brother. I can handle him.”

Silence settled over the kitchen once more, and you turned to continue stirring the soup, checking the oven for the roasting vegetables. “If you don’t mind my asking, Mr. Shinra... why have you decided to come into the kitchen today? You normally wait in your office or the dining room for the waiting staff to serve you.”

After a beat without answer, you’d begun to think that you’d offended the vice president... and then, “To be honest, I wanted a change of pace from the usual propriety. Eating alone gets tedious and frustrating after a while.” His eyes took on a glint as he stared at you, “And I found myself curious as to who you were. I can’t say I’m disappointed.”

Your shoulders were so tense that you were sure that you’d wake up the next day with an ache. “So, I take it that you’ll be eating in the kitchen?”

Rufus smirked, “That would be a correct assumption, Y/N.”

~ After that night, Rufus would often take his meals in the kitchen unless he was particularly weighed down by work. This caused quite the panic among the kitchen staff, and only served to annoy you when he laid off half the staff in favor of just having you as his private chef. Simply put, you went everywhere that Rufus did.

~ Despite the professionalism you exhibited, serving private meals to Rufus and his dates helped you learn more about the young man. There seemed to be two sides to him, Vice President Shinra, and Rufus.

~ Vice President Shinra was ruthless and fearsome. His business savvy rivaled only the harshest of businessmen, and he treated others with calculated cockiness and false generosity. He often acted in this manner.

~ The other side of him, Rufus, was quiet and reserved despite his business upbringing. This man rewarded loyalty and human gestures, he had a weak spot for desserts, and often made sarcastic comments. He was immensely lonely despite his power and renown, though he hid this part of him behind layers and layers of arrogance. If you were honest with yourself, you had become fond of Rufus Shinra.

~ It is the brief glimpse of humanity that was the reason you found yourself in Shinra Headquarters as Diamond Weapon approached the city.

~ You hadn’t been given orders from anyone in AVALANCHE in a long time, and took that to mean that the organization had shifted its focus elsewhere. This meant that you were free to do as you pleased. And with how close the Diamond Weapon was to Midgar, you found yourself racing to the President’s Office to get the stubborn man out of the building.

~ You reach the office at the same time that the Turks did. They shot you questioning looks as you shoved your way into the office. Out in the distance, a bright light lit up the metropolis, and you didn’t have much time to think before you’d jumped over a desk to pull Rufus to cover. Only a second later, the entire office was blown up.

~ After assisting the Turks in escorting Rufus out of the building and onto an evacuation helicopter, you revealed who you were to the Turks and Rufus. Although you were interrogated further on to what you’d been doing while in Shinra, the worst that you were punished with, was to be let go from your position.

~ Nearly a year later, after you’d used your savings (more than eight years worth of your salary) to open up a small cafe in Edge, you had moved on from your time with Shinra. While you still thought of Rufus and the Turks, you’d never allowed yourself to hope that they might stop by and visit.

~ And none of them showed up, until after you were afflicted with Geostigma.

~ It was a strange moment, when Reno and Rude both walked into your cafe, a cocky smirk on the red head’s face and Rude stoic professionalism. You’d been summoned by Rufus... well, the exact wording was that you were invited to join Rufus for lunch. And while you were slightly peeved at having to leave the cafe to your employees for the day, you went with the Turks regardless. You were just glad to have the opportunity to see them again.

~ Seeing Rufus in the wheelchair at the Healen Lodge, with cloth and bandages covering him... prompted you to reflexively clutch at your own bandaged arm, which was hidden from sight by the jacket you wore. Still, Rufus had always been an observant man.

~ He’d confessed to you his theory that Geostigma was caused by the lingering malicious will of Sephiroth in the Lifestream. And although you’d never blamed Shinra for the plague that was Geostigma, you could tell that Rufus didn’t want you to blame him for that state that you were in.

~ There was no cure, you were told. For you, and for Rufus, your time was short. And then a proposal, “Would you like to return to your previous position?” Somehow, you weren’t quite so sure that was what he meant to say.

~ It is later, when Rufus had retired for the day, that Elena pulled you aside and explained that while Rufus had missed your cooking, he’d missed the companionship that you’d provided. His words, “Would you like to return to your previous position?” was Rufus’ way of asking, “Would you like to spend the rest of your life with me?” or perhaps more accurately, “Would you stay by my side as I die?”

~ And damn it, you were always a bleeding heart, weren’t you.

~ The next morning, when Rufus awoke, a grant breakfast awaited him, with you already sipping your coffee, apron still on.

~ The two of you eventually fell into a comfortable routine as you moved into the Healen Lodge, running your business from afar while remaining by Rufus’ side. At some point, Rufus had taken to holding your hand during meals or when you’d rest against him on the sofa. He’d started to walk around you without the bandages and sheet, only using the wheelchair when the Geostigma became too painful.

~ You didn’t even know that you were dating Rufus until Reno said that he’d get in trouble for flirting with his boss’ s/o. Rufus had been in the room at the time, and did not refute the sentiment, only reinforcing the fact by lacing his fingers with your own and stroking the back of your palm with his thumb.

~ It is so like Rufus to be absolutely certain that you returned his affections. Stupid stubborn fool.

~ Rufus is sweet when the two of you are left to your privacy. He’s as much a cuddler as you are willing to put up with, and he’ll put up with any amount of cuddling you desire.

~ He’s prone to spoiling you, though when you tell him that you would prefer more meaningful gifts, he starts to think about what is useful to you rather than simple showering you with designer clothing or jewelry. He learns to clean and cook just to make you happy.

~ He’s stubborn, refusing to acknowledge that he’s severely weakened even to himself. But it’s during these times where you need to support him the most. Because eventually, the disease will take its toll, and you have to be there to catch Rufus when he falls.

~ It’s almost like the two of you are living each day like your last, except for the fact that Rufus, ever stubborn and determined, has been using his resources to find a cure. Because he can’t accept that the two of you are going to die. Not when he’s only lived his life in a way that he now regrets.

~ At night, when he presses chaste kisses to your lips and pulls you close, Rufus often recounts the things that he regrets most. And letting you go after Meteorfall was his biggest.

~ “It’s my biggest regret. And now, when I have you here by my side, what I want more than anything is more time with you.”

~ The Geostigma doesn’t take either of your lives. Within the month, Elena and Tseng go missing when the remaining Turks are sent to retrieve JENOVA’s remains. Though you don’t wish to go, Rufus sends you away from the Healen Lodge. Some time later, a miraculous healing rain descends from the sky, healing you and Rufus of your Geostigma.

~ That same day, Rufus Shinra proposes to you. ;)

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