[fic] 30_nights: Memories in the Rain
Prompt: 26 - Frozen moment at first sight
Title: Memories in the Rain
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Characters: Rufus Shinra, Tifa Lockhart
Rating: PG
Summary: Wherein a memory decides to haunt him so convincingly.
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy and all of its characters belong to Square-Enix.
Memories in the Rain
His memory had never failed him.
Dark hair like silk framed a pair of brilliant garnets that could express passion with such fiery intensity or love in warm hues. A heart-shaped face that could express elation or pain or anger so clearly. A slender neck holding her head up high, down her sloping shoulders to a lithe and shapely body, powerfully beautiful, lusted upon by males. Just as he remembered.
She had transformed from a hazy memory to a vivid dream to a remarkable illusion, seemingly untouchable in any way, even by a man of his distinction.
But the young woman who stood in front of him, illuminated by the dim light of a post lamp and surrounded by ethereal mist created by the pouring rain, was neither an image from a memory nor a creature from the dream world nor a made-up illusion. Her face was downcast, black hair falling over her shoulders like a dark curtain to hide her expression, and her body was slightly shivering from the cold. The strong and defiant fighter in his mind had faded into a vulnerable and fragile girl. Once a goddess, now a mortal, not anymore so untouchable.
Two years had passed since their last meeting and yet similar emotions tugged and seized him as he caught sight of a small mist forming near her lips. A sigh. Golden strands of hair fell over his blue eyes as he summoned his senses and his voice.
“Lockhart.” The name was not spoken for two years now and yet the name felt and sounded so familiar to him.
Her sanguine gaze met his sapphirine ones with a slight tilt of her head as if she was just as puzzled as him seeing her under the rain without an umbrella.
“Shinra.” Her voice was soft yet firm and she gaze back at him boldly, a swirl of emotions in those orbs. Civil greetings that they once never had.
A stiff nod from him and a furrow on his brows. “And what, may I ask, are you doing here?”
“I was walking.” Her reply was short, simple and light-hearted as if she didn’t care a thing. She took a step towards him, paused then took another step, her gaze averting to the overcast night sky. But even the nonchalant tone in her quavering voice was not enough to conceal the bitterness in them.
“I found out that I couldn’t sleep tonight so I decided to go for a walk.” She stopped once more in mid-step then turned to look back at him, the same inquiring look in her eyes. “And what is your excuse?”
A pale eyebrow rose at both the reply and the inquiry. “My excuse as to why I am currently standing in middle of the road, in the middle of the rain, in the middle of the night would be a member of AVALANCHE attempting suicide by jumping in front of my car.”
“I was not attempting suicide,” she retorted quite reproachfully, once more averting her gaze from him. “I merely… didn’t see you coming while I was crossing.”
The glint in her eyes spoke to him with different words. She was looking for something. Or rather, she was looking for someone.
The eyebrow remained raised. “You did not see me? How odd it is when obviously-” He glanced behind him, gesturing at the white sedan parked in the middle of the deserted road. “-my headlights seem to be working in perfect condition.”
“I didn’t see your headlights. Period.” She was trying to obliterate all grounds for argument.
He pressed his lips together, his temper quickly getting the best of him. Of all people who would be losing their tempers at the moment, he should be at the bottom of the list. He, after all those years under his dear old man, should have been the master of controlling tempers and mouths.
“You were not thinking straight. People who think straight do not simply cross a dark street without looking for any signs of a moving vehicle.”
Again, she threw him that reproachful, defiant glance, a frown line creasing her smooth forehead. Her temper, like his, was getting the better of her as well. “Why do you care? Why do you want to know? It shouldn’t matter to you. After all, you are Rufus Shinra, the man who never bled or cried. The man who never cared for anyone except himself.”
He expected such a remark, especially coming from her. Once more, their encounters from two years ago were filled with enmity, hostility and execution directives. For her to blame him for everything that had happened in her life was not new anymore.
A sigh, this time, coming from him, an irritated one. She was right. Why did he care? When did he care? He closed his eyes. With the rain pouring down on him, soaking his white suit which might not come out anymore right even by dry cleaning, and his paperwork, consisting of his plans to “return what he owed to the Planet”, weighing down on him, he shouldn’t care. She was right. He was Rufus Shinra.
“I care because I can’t seem to find the woman who tried to defy fate, even raised a sword against Sephiroth, and survived. So if you know where I can find her, kindly tell me so I can tell her that she was needed once more.”
The expression on her face was enough to tell him that he had said too much. With a slight nod and a wave of his hand, he turned heel and strode towards his car. He would have to thank Reeve Tuesti later on for sending his trusted Turks out on an assignment in Corel. He knew, deep down he knew, that his encounter with the female fighter would be the last they would have. She had a life of her own. Just as he had. Their lives didn’t and wouldn’t have reasons for them to meet once more. Perhaps it was better for him to suppress whatever feelings he had and might have for her, unsure as he might still be.
“Wait.”
He stopped in his tracks at the call and slowly turned around, meeting her eyes once more. There was that glint again, the searching glint in her eyes, that made him want to ask her what or who she was looking for.
He watched her pale hands clench into tight fists and he nearly took a cautious step back.
“I’m not sure if I could trust you…”
He flourished a hand dismissively. “I am not asking you to trust me fully after hearing those words. I can understand your misgivings about me, seeing that we had never gotten along together in the past.”
“I need a place to stay for the night,” she told him in a quiet voice, her gaze flickering towards his car. “And I can’t go back at Seventh Heaven so I was wondering if…”
“If I could drive you over to your friends’ place?”
Her next statement startled him inwardly but he made no remark about it. “No. I was wondering if you could let me use your shower for the evening and lend me a pair of pyjamas.”
To hear such words coming from her, of all people, was simply remarkable. Just like the different set of events that evening, from him nearly killing her to him saying that he cared for once in his life, it was a bewildering experience for him. Comforting, reassuring, but bewildering all the same.
A small smirk appeared on his lips as he pushed away his sopping hair from his face and he felt a surge of warmth across his chest, despite the rain still falling heavily upon them.
“You would have to sleep on the couch as I do not believe in sharing beds.”
She took several steps to walk up to him and with him to his car. “I don’t believe in it either.”
A memory. A hazy memory that his mind should’ve repressed from two years in the past due to inopportune moments. That was who she was supposed to be. And yet, he could not understand why such hazy memories could haunt him and his dreams so vividly. Or he could not understand why he would even want to suppress such memories.
Perhaps the way the word was used was synonymous to how the word was defined.
Title: Memories in the Rain
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Characters: Rufus Shinra, Tifa Lockhart
Rating: PG
Summary: Wherein a memory decides to haunt him so convincingly.
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy and all of its characters belong to Square-Enix.
Memories in the Rain
His memory had never failed him.
Dark hair like silk framed a pair of brilliant garnets that could express passion with such fiery intensity or love in warm hues. A heart-shaped face that could express elation or pain or anger so clearly. A slender neck holding her head up high, down her sloping shoulders to a lithe and shapely body, powerfully beautiful, lusted upon by males. Just as he remembered.
She had transformed from a hazy memory to a vivid dream to a remarkable illusion, seemingly untouchable in any way, even by a man of his distinction.
But the young woman who stood in front of him, illuminated by the dim light of a post lamp and surrounded by ethereal mist created by the pouring rain, was neither an image from a memory nor a creature from the dream world nor a made-up illusion. Her face was downcast, black hair falling over her shoulders like a dark curtain to hide her expression, and her body was slightly shivering from the cold. The strong and defiant fighter in his mind had faded into a vulnerable and fragile girl. Once a goddess, now a mortal, not anymore so untouchable.
Two years had passed since their last meeting and yet similar emotions tugged and seized him as he caught sight of a small mist forming near her lips. A sigh. Golden strands of hair fell over his blue eyes as he summoned his senses and his voice.
“Lockhart.” The name was not spoken for two years now and yet the name felt and sounded so familiar to him.
Her sanguine gaze met his sapphirine ones with a slight tilt of her head as if she was just as puzzled as him seeing her under the rain without an umbrella.
“Shinra.” Her voice was soft yet firm and she gaze back at him boldly, a swirl of emotions in those orbs. Civil greetings that they once never had.
A stiff nod from him and a furrow on his brows. “And what, may I ask, are you doing here?”
“I was walking.” Her reply was short, simple and light-hearted as if she didn’t care a thing. She took a step towards him, paused then took another step, her gaze averting to the overcast night sky. But even the nonchalant tone in her quavering voice was not enough to conceal the bitterness in them.
“I found out that I couldn’t sleep tonight so I decided to go for a walk.” She stopped once more in mid-step then turned to look back at him, the same inquiring look in her eyes. “And what is your excuse?”
A pale eyebrow rose at both the reply and the inquiry. “My excuse as to why I am currently standing in middle of the road, in the middle of the rain, in the middle of the night would be a member of AVALANCHE attempting suicide by jumping in front of my car.”
“I was not attempting suicide,” she retorted quite reproachfully, once more averting her gaze from him. “I merely… didn’t see you coming while I was crossing.”
The glint in her eyes spoke to him with different words. She was looking for something. Or rather, she was looking for someone.
The eyebrow remained raised. “You did not see me? How odd it is when obviously-” He glanced behind him, gesturing at the white sedan parked in the middle of the deserted road. “-my headlights seem to be working in perfect condition.”
“I didn’t see your headlights. Period.” She was trying to obliterate all grounds for argument.
He pressed his lips together, his temper quickly getting the best of him. Of all people who would be losing their tempers at the moment, he should be at the bottom of the list. He, after all those years under his dear old man, should have been the master of controlling tempers and mouths.
“You were not thinking straight. People who think straight do not simply cross a dark street without looking for any signs of a moving vehicle.”
Again, she threw him that reproachful, defiant glance, a frown line creasing her smooth forehead. Her temper, like his, was getting the better of her as well. “Why do you care? Why do you want to know? It shouldn’t matter to you. After all, you are Rufus Shinra, the man who never bled or cried. The man who never cared for anyone except himself.”
He expected such a remark, especially coming from her. Once more, their encounters from two years ago were filled with enmity, hostility and execution directives. For her to blame him for everything that had happened in her life was not new anymore.
A sigh, this time, coming from him, an irritated one. She was right. Why did he care? When did he care? He closed his eyes. With the rain pouring down on him, soaking his white suit which might not come out anymore right even by dry cleaning, and his paperwork, consisting of his plans to “return what he owed to the Planet”, weighing down on him, he shouldn’t care. She was right. He was Rufus Shinra.
“I care because I can’t seem to find the woman who tried to defy fate, even raised a sword against Sephiroth, and survived. So if you know where I can find her, kindly tell me so I can tell her that she was needed once more.”
The expression on her face was enough to tell him that he had said too much. With a slight nod and a wave of his hand, he turned heel and strode towards his car. He would have to thank Reeve Tuesti later on for sending his trusted Turks out on an assignment in Corel. He knew, deep down he knew, that his encounter with the female fighter would be the last they would have. She had a life of her own. Just as he had. Their lives didn’t and wouldn’t have reasons for them to meet once more. Perhaps it was better for him to suppress whatever feelings he had and might have for her, unsure as he might still be.
“Wait.”
He stopped in his tracks at the call and slowly turned around, meeting her eyes once more. There was that glint again, the searching glint in her eyes, that made him want to ask her what or who she was looking for.
He watched her pale hands clench into tight fists and he nearly took a cautious step back.
“I’m not sure if I could trust you…”
He flourished a hand dismissively. “I am not asking you to trust me fully after hearing those words. I can understand your misgivings about me, seeing that we had never gotten along together in the past.”
“I need a place to stay for the night,” she told him in a quiet voice, her gaze flickering towards his car. “And I can’t go back at Seventh Heaven so I was wondering if…”
“If I could drive you over to your friends’ place?”
Her next statement startled him inwardly but he made no remark about it. “No. I was wondering if you could let me use your shower for the evening and lend me a pair of pyjamas.”
To hear such words coming from her, of all people, was simply remarkable. Just like the different set of events that evening, from him nearly killing her to him saying that he cared for once in his life, it was a bewildering experience for him. Comforting, reassuring, but bewildering all the same.
A small smirk appeared on his lips as he pushed away his sopping hair from his face and he felt a surge of warmth across his chest, despite the rain still falling heavily upon them.
“You would have to sleep on the couch as I do not believe in sharing beds.”
She took several steps to walk up to him and with him to his car. “I don’t believe in it either.”
A memory. A hazy memory that his mind should’ve repressed from two years in the past due to inopportune moments. That was who she was supposed to be. And yet, he could not understand why such hazy memories could haunt him and his dreams so vividly. Or he could not understand why he would even want to suppress such memories.
Perhaps the way the word was used was synonymous to how the word was defined.