FFVII ~ 7 minutes in Heaven: Rufus

“N-nine?”
You look around to see who you've got. Your eyes dart the length of the room before you see someone getting up out of their seat. Rufus Shinra. Crap.

Trust you to get the big-shot boss. You've heard from Reno many-a-time that he's not someone to take lightly. He's powerful and strict and powerful and wealthy and...powerful. He has the ability to change lives with the click of his fingers. It scares you a little to know you'll be spending seven minutes with him; you like your life right now. It's quaint. You don't want him to change any of it, so if keeping him happy – something you're very good at as you're a massive pushover - is the way to make sure he doesn't, then that's what you'll do.
Rufus has already gone into the closet, and you rise to your feet to do the same. You make your way across to the closet and take hold of the door handle - only someone takes a grip on your arm suddenly before you can open the door. You turn your head to see the concerned faces of Cloud and Reno looking at you,
“Guys...?” Reno doesn't let go of your arm. You tilt your head to the side in curious puzzlement, “Uhhh....”
Cloud speaks first. He knows what you're like,
“____, don't let him push you around, you got it? I know you like to do what people say but-”
Reno interjects,
“____, you don't know what he's like! If you don't put your foot down with him right away, who knows what he'll do!?” He shakes your shoulder, “Be strong, okay?”
You know not to argue. Reno works under Rufus so obviously he knows what the man is like and well... Cloud's had enough run-ins to know what he's talking about. You nod your head, smiling reassuringly,
“Don't worry guys, I'll be alright.”
Reno looks at you another moment then reluctantly lets go of your shoulder, leaving you free to go into the closet.
You turn round again and pull the door wide, stepping forward into the dark. Before the door is closed behind you, you see the pair of eyes staring directly at you from across the closet. You shudder then it turns dark.
Rufus is quick to make a conversation,
“So then, ____, I hear your family is doing very well for itself at the moment. I'm glad.”
The hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Why is he talking about them? Maybe polite conversation? You don't think so, “And how are you doing for yourself? Well, I hope.” You're already beginning to get nervous and you've only been in the closet for a matter of seconds.
'Stop talking, stop talking, for goodness sake, stop talking. Don't drag my family into this!' You breathe shakily. 'Seven minutes. Seven minutes then you can run like hell. Stay cool, ____.'
You realise he must have noticed your lack of conversation because you can sense the eyes staring into you,
“Uhh, yes, they're doing very well- and uhh.. so am I... sir.” Best to be polite.
You don't see his smirk.
“Sir? Why ____, how formal of you. Please, relax. I won't bite.”
Your hairs prick up again. You can't tell if he's toying with you or being sincerely nice.
You shift your weight between your feet, bouncing nervously on your heels. You fall back into silence but then Rufus goes and ruins it by saying,
“____, come, stand next to me.”
You comply, much to – you know – Reno and Cloud's dismay. But surely such a simple request is innocent? He's only asked you to stand next to him.
You shuffle your feet across the dark closet, trying desperately not to bump into anything – especially not Rufus. You plant your hands against the wall and let out a small sigh of relief; that is until Rufus – from right next to your ear – says,
“So what would you do if your parents were both put out of work? Would you be the soul provider? Do you make enough now? At your job?”
Your breath sticks to the back of your throat. You can almost feel him smirking at you in the dark. Why does he keep bringing them up? What is he getting at?
You jump, feeling a hand slip onto your back. You spin round so fast your back hits the wall with a loud 'thud'.
You go to say something but stop yourself; you can't do it. You know, even after the warnings from Cloud and Reno, you know you must be nice to him. He has too much control over your life. An energy-supply to your house for one!
You feel Rufus step forward again, the tip of his shoes touching yours. You suppress a squeak.
There is a short silence between the two of you and then you hear him say; the devil's smile obviously fixed in place,
“Please, sit.”
You nearly collapse under a stress you hadn't realised you'd been squashed beneath until now. Inside you want to bury yourself in a corner and cry; he's playing horrible, horrible mind games.
You comply quickly, dropping to the floor so fast it seems as if your legs have snapped underneath you. You hit the floor with a thud and hiss, having hurt your tail-bone. You hear a low chuckle from above you and look down, hiding the glare staining your eyes.
Rufus lowers himself to the floor next to you and rests his head just away from yours against the wall. He stares at you momentarily, only able to see the vague silhouette of your eyes in the dark, then flickers his own eyes to the light under the door, becoming bored when you don't seem to do anything else to amuse him. It doesn't look as if the party outside has very much happening either; the light is very still. He sighs. He stretches his legs out; feeling a cramp coming on, only he bumps into something - your legs.
You jump a little, hearing Rufus' voice break the silence after bumping the side of your leg,
“____, move your legs.”
You panic and stand up quickly, moving away from him to give him enough room for his legs, then sit down again, muttering,
“Sorry,”
You drop your chin onto your knees, wondering how long you're going to have to go through this torture. You don't like how tame he's being – it means he must be building up for something. Something big and something evil. Of course, with all this running through your head, and the fact of how dark the closet is, you don't see Rufus furrowing his eyebrows in puzzlement at you. Why had you moved away from him so fast? And come to mention it, when he'd told you to sit down you'd almost broke the bottom of your spine to do so. He had thought you'd just been playing around, but...- There must be something up with you. Rufus leans his head back against the wall, thinking. Are you that-...of him?-... no. Not you. Surely not you.
You hear Rufus' voice again in the dark and hold your breath a little; half expecting it to be the doom's-day command you'd been dreading – of course when what comes out of his mouth actually comes out of his mouth you seem to think he's joking for a moment,
“____, get up and hop on one leg,”
You're that shocked by the request you don't seem to hear the hint of curiosity in his voice.
You pull yourself up to your feet and throw one foot up, holding it up by your hip with the help of your hand. You stand there, swaying now and then, then start to bounce up and down, slightly humiliated. You really don't understand the way this man's mind works; all you know is it's cruel and twisted...and he gives unusual punishments.
Rufus sits there, watching you hopping up and down like a rabbit and, amongst his thoughts of stopping himself laughing at you, he thinks of testing his theory further,
“Stop.”
The short command makes you bring your feet to a halt instantly. You can't see anything in the dark and Rufus isn't saying anything else. He's thinking and you know it. You feel your breath catching in your throat again and gulp in anticipation. He still doesn't say anything. You let out a long, slow breath to try and calm yourself. There must only be a few minutes left to be spent in here; you just have to survive that little bit longer. Easy.
“Strip to your underwear and run out to the others. Make sure they see you.”
You stop yourself spluttering by forcing your hand over your mouth. He can't.... he can't actually be serious?!
You decide then and there that the best thing to do now is to run out to the others – clothes still attached – and hide behind big strong Cloud and Reno.... although they won't be able to protect you forever, and they certainly can't stop him firing your parents from their jobs, or evicting you from your house.... Damn Shinra.
You start to fire off as many bright and colourful curses as you can think of in your head, imagining smothering Rufus with his own stupid white jacket right now. Oh he deserves it!
You close your eyes and take another deep breath, realising you've been stood for at least a good half a minute plotting Rufus' doom in your head. You don't waste any more time, not wanting to get him aggravated at all so you kick your shoes off. As you grab the button of your trousers you think to yourself if there's one good thing about the whole situation, at least Rufus can't see you half naked in private because it's so dark inside the closet!
The whole time you're undressing Rufus' eyes are on you – not like he can see anything anyway – but he's not trying to look at you, he's staring at you in shock. You're actually doing it? You're actually going to do it? Go out in front of all of your friends just because he's said so? Rufus feels something inside him pull painfully.
You finish pulling off your shirt and, now left in only your underwear and socks, you fold up your top and trousers neatly and put them in a corner of the closet. You turn and walk to the closet door, stopping when you get there to take one final glare at Rufus – one which you know he can't see. With this final feeble protest done you turn around and take hold of the door-handle, closing your eyes.
The plan is: run out, run into the middle of everyone, dance about a bit to get seen then run back in the closet to the smugly-proud, head-of-the-power-company Rufus, hopefully then having run out of time in the closet and you get to go about the rest of your life, forever shamed for having run around in your underwear but happy that you're still living in a house with electricity and a happy family.
You let out another shaky sigh, your eyes squeezed shut. You do a small count-down in your head,
'Five...four...three...two...one...'
You twist the door-handle and pull. Nothing happens. You open your eyes. You pull on the door-handle again but the door doesn't shift. You try again.
“Sir, I hate to be a bother but the door won't open.”
“I know,” says a sombre voice from just next to you. You look over your shoulder to no avail; it's still too dark to see anything. You reach up and feel for the light-switch; too preoccupied with finding out where Rufus is to care about what little clothing you're in. You find the switch and press it, filling the closet with a dull light from the one light-bulb over-head.
It's now that you realise why you can't open the door. Rufus' hand and foot and both pressed firmly up against it, stopping you. You peer to your left – where he stands – and look at him in puzzlement, though this quickly turns to shock when you see his own expression of hurt astonishment.
“W-what's wrong?” you ask, slightly taken aback. He takes his hand and foot from the door and nods his head slowly,
“I think you've had enough punishment.”
You cock your head,
“What?”
Rufus steps back from you, resting his back against the wall. He crosses his arms and laughs slightly in spite of himself,
“I had no idea I frightened you that much,” he looks at you directly, “that's why you're doing what I tell you to do, isn't it?”
You notice the hint of upset mixed in with his amused expression. Does he... does he not want you to be scared of him or something?
'Well,' you think, 'He shouldn't threaten my family then!'
You cross your arms loosely over your chest,
“I'm not scared of you, I'm just scared of what you will do-...” You fade off, seeing Rufus suddenly looking crestfallen.
It's now that you realise, looking at Rufus' expression after hearing what you've just said. You realise now that, throughout the whole time you've been in the closet together he hasn't once said anything about hurting you or your family. It's what you'd surmised.
“Oh...” you say, realising your mistake, suddenly starting to feel very guilty. “Sir- Rufus, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have judged you based on what my friends said...”
He looks at you again, shaking his head,
“No, your friends are right to judge me that way,” he pushes himself away from the wall and walks to the other side of the closet, “It's not like they're wrong,” he bends down and picks up your clothes, not making eye-contact with you, “I've had people thrown from their work and houses before, many-a-time.”
He turns round and holds your clothes out to you, looking at them to stop himself having to see your expression. You take the clothes from him and say,
“That's-”
“-But I'd never do that to you.”
You stop talking. You look at him to see him looking directly back at you. His eyes are firm. Maybe you hadn't heard him right...?
“What did you say?”
Rufus steps forward,
“I'd never want to hurt you, ____. You're important to me.”
You nearly choke. So maybe you've had him... all, completely and utterly, totally wrong? Well now you feel a bit stupid.
Before you have chance to say anything else, and because Rufus decides he wants to prove you even more wrong about his personality, he steps forward again and takes hold of your shoulders. There's a split second where your eyes meet and you realise what's about to happen, then Rufus pulls you forward and pushes his lips against yours; not painfully but longingly. As shocked as you are about the kiss, it doesn't stop you responding back. There has only ever been one thing stopping you from liking Rufus before now, and that was his power-crazy, dominating personality. Of course he still has that personality, but he's said he'll never use it against you, so that's good enough for you.
It comes as quite a surprise to Rufus when he feels you returning the kiss; he'd been expecting you to push him away.
With Rufus' arms making their way around your bare waist you press your lips closer to his, nervous about him but enjoying the closeness you're feeling and the surprisingly tender kiss he's placing against your lips. You pull apart from each other and he leans your head against his chest, stroking your hair,
“I'm sorry if that seemed sudden, ____, but I can't bear the thought of you being scared of me.”
You smile,
“Don't worry. I'm a pushover anyway, I'd probably still have done what you'd told me to do. I don't like seeing people upset with me; ask Reno. He's yelled at me enough times for getting into awkward situations.”
Rufus holds you back slightly, making you look at his face,
“Really? ____, that's a little worrying.”
You shrug,
“It's no big deal, I prefer not to get into arguments.”
Rufus sighs,
“Right, well,” you see his eyes turn mischievous – something you didn't know they could actually do, “perhaps I'll have to teach you how say no to people; teach you to be more dominating.”
You don't get chance to give your embarrassed reply because just then the door is opened and four faces peer in the room curiously. Rufus frowns.
“And what do you four think you're doing?”
At this, Elena, Reno and Rude turn on their heels and dash away from the closet as fast as possible. Tseng smiles in the doorway, ignoring the fact that you're still half naked. Rufus gives him a meaningful look so he gives a brief friendly smile to you then turns and walks away.
With everybody too scared to come and tell Rufus and you your time's up, you take it upon yourself to do so,
“We'd better get out. Someone else will be wanting their turn.”
He nods slightly, glancing out of the closet into the room full of people then back at you,
“Perhaps we can do this again some time, ____.”
You know he's not asking. You smile,
“I'd love to.”
He nods his head in acknowledgement, then looks out of the closet again, his attention suddenly diverted,
“Now if you don't mind, I have a certain red-headed Turk I need to have a word with about badmouthing his superiors.”
With this he turns, places a soft kiss against your cheek then steps into the living-room, looking for Reno (Who's actually hidden himself in the cupboard under the stairs because he knows what's coming, having had his ear pressed against the closet door the whole time you've been in there). The door to the closet swings shut so you quickly throw your clothes back on then head out into the room, ending up sitting next to Cloud on the sofa. He looks at you questioningly,
“Everything go alright?”
Your eyes drift over to Rufus yelling at Rude to barge the cupboard-under-the-stair's door down and laugh. Rufus' eyes flicker to you momentarily and he flashes you a smile. You watch for a moment longer then turn back to Cloud and say dreamily,
“It was great.”