FFVII - Rude/Tifa
Sep. 6th, 2010 02:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lirillithTitle: Employment Opportunities
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Characters: Rude/Tifa
Length: 1027 words
Summary: Rude and Tifa in Midgar. A follow-up of sorts to Human Touch, my first long Rude/Tifa fic.
Warnings: None to speak of.
Notes: For 30_kisses.
****
"Maybe I'm running a fever," Tifa said, hopefully, a laundry basket full of her work slacks propped against one hip.
"You look like you're coming down with something," Rude said without conviction, and she sighed.
"I just don't want to go back to work.... Reeve owes me so many bottles of expensive wine for helping me find this awful, awful job. His old college buddy hires really sucky people."
"Except for you."
"Except for me."
"Thought you didn't like wine."
"I don't, but Reeve does, and it's expensive. And I'm never going to learn to like the good stuff if I don't get to practice."
"Tried talking to HR?"
"HR is just Melanie, and there's this whole thing where she and Zara have known each other for years and kind of hate each other, and it'd either get to be personal, or if she thought Zara was right, I'd be in really deep shit. I mean... this is a tiny little company. Too big for me to do everything, but it's not Shinra. It's just not fair! I swear, I handle the incoming bills, I cut the checks, I mail the checks, I get all the expense sheets and half the purchase requests even though I don't do that, and I process payroll so I know I'm being paid less for all of it than the receptionist! Yeah, I have no accounting experience, but they knew that and they keep giving me all this work anyway!"
He'd heard most of that Friday, when she called him on her drive home from work, furious and miserable, but maybe she needed to get the last of it out of her system, with Monday looming. "...it seemed like a good idea at the time," he said. She'd wanted to get out of bars, try something new, and Reeve had suggested this company, because apparently the executives were much easier to get along with than the accounting department.
"And it's not like Zara... I mean, I was backlogged, I knew it, I was working on it. And all this week I'd been trying to explain, you know, and she'd just say 'it's fine, I understand, you're swamped,' and then Friday, holy crap. She just went on the warpath and I have no idea where it came from."
"Multiple personalities?"
"No, she's just... everything's a crisis with her. She makes me crazy. Have you ever known people like that?"
"When we had a crisis, things were blowing up. Never had that problem with bills."
"You just didn't know about it," she said. "Your accounting department was probably, like, floors away from you, and you never bugged the poor accounting assistants to find you a vacation request form when all you had to do was search for it on the network."
"...hang on a second," he said.
"Huh?"
He got up. He wasn't quite sure what had made up his mind, but clearly, he needed to give her the gift he'd been saving. "I have something for you."
"You do? Our anniversary isn't for another month."
"Doesn't matter."
"Okay..." she said.
The box was stashed in the back of his silverware drawer, but he hadn't wrapped it, and didn't want to do so now. "Close your eyes," he said.
"Why?"
"...because."
"Open your mouth and close your eyes and you will get a big surprise," she said in sing-song. "I never fell for that - what was the surprise supposed to be?"
"Something disgusting, I guess. Never fell for it either," he said. "You can open your mouth too."
"Yeah, right," she said, then apparently changed her mind and opened her mouth wide, saying 'ahhhhh...' like he had a tongue depressor. He just watched her for a moment, amused; she stuck her tongue out, then closed her mouth. He leaned down and kissed her quickly, deposited the box on her lap, then stepped back.
"Open it," he said. Now that she had it, he was anxious to see her reaction to it, and a bit nervous. He watched her face as she lifted the lid; her eyes widened as she took in the sight of the gun, and she looked up at him, mouth half-open.
"You want me to be able to put myself out of my misery?"
"No!"
"You want me to put Zara out of my misery?"
"....if you want."
"It's... a very unusual surprise."
She'd missed the point, he realized. "Look at the barrel."
She looked down for a moment, then back to him. "I didn't know Turks was an acronym."
"It's not. But most other things at Shinra were, so someone started using T.U.R.K.S. as one as a joke and it stuck."
"Looks a bit better engraved on a gun, I guess."
"Not that it's exactly the Turks anymore, secret service, but... it's still the Turks. And there's a place for you if you want it."
Her eyes had filled with tears, and he looked down, confused and feeling guilty. "It's fine if you don't, too, but we know you're good..." He trailed off as she stood, and then her arms were around him and she was kissing him again.
"You are the best thing that's ever happened to me," she said, when she pulled back for air.
"...that means you want to join?"
She sighed, and rested her head on his shoulder. "I don't know. I never would have thought I'd even consider it, and here I am, thrilled about the idea. I shouldn't make a decision like this just to flee my current crappy job. But it sounds incredible, something I'm actually good at, where I'm actually a desirable employee, and you can't make a cheesy crack about desirable, by the way."
"Damn."
"I need to think about it," she said. "I want to just say yes, but I need to think."
"There's no rush," he said. At least, there was no rush from his end. Monday evening, she informed him she was taking the offer. And then she went on to tell him about her day, as she'd been doing for nearly eight months, but this time, for the first time since summer, she was smiling.
****
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Characters: Rude/Tifa
Length: 1027 words
Summary: Rude and Tifa in Midgar. A follow-up of sorts to Human Touch, my first long Rude/Tifa fic.
Warnings: None to speak of.
Notes: For 30_kisses.
****
"Maybe I'm running a fever," Tifa said, hopefully, a laundry basket full of her work slacks propped against one hip.
"You look like you're coming down with something," Rude said without conviction, and she sighed.
"I just don't want to go back to work.... Reeve owes me so many bottles of expensive wine for helping me find this awful, awful job. His old college buddy hires really sucky people."
"Except for you."
"Except for me."
"Thought you didn't like wine."
"I don't, but Reeve does, and it's expensive. And I'm never going to learn to like the good stuff if I don't get to practice."
"Tried talking to HR?"
"HR is just Melanie, and there's this whole thing where she and Zara have known each other for years and kind of hate each other, and it'd either get to be personal, or if she thought Zara was right, I'd be in really deep shit. I mean... this is a tiny little company. Too big for me to do everything, but it's not Shinra. It's just not fair! I swear, I handle the incoming bills, I cut the checks, I mail the checks, I get all the expense sheets and half the purchase requests even though I don't do that, and I process payroll so I know I'm being paid less for all of it than the receptionist! Yeah, I have no accounting experience, but they knew that and they keep giving me all this work anyway!"
He'd heard most of that Friday, when she called him on her drive home from work, furious and miserable, but maybe she needed to get the last of it out of her system, with Monday looming. "...it seemed like a good idea at the time," he said. She'd wanted to get out of bars, try something new, and Reeve had suggested this company, because apparently the executives were much easier to get along with than the accounting department.
"And it's not like Zara... I mean, I was backlogged, I knew it, I was working on it. And all this week I'd been trying to explain, you know, and she'd just say 'it's fine, I understand, you're swamped,' and then Friday, holy crap. She just went on the warpath and I have no idea where it came from."
"Multiple personalities?"
"No, she's just... everything's a crisis with her. She makes me crazy. Have you ever known people like that?"
"When we had a crisis, things were blowing up. Never had that problem with bills."
"You just didn't know about it," she said. "Your accounting department was probably, like, floors away from you, and you never bugged the poor accounting assistants to find you a vacation request form when all you had to do was search for it on the network."
"...hang on a second," he said.
"Huh?"
He got up. He wasn't quite sure what had made up his mind, but clearly, he needed to give her the gift he'd been saving. "I have something for you."
"You do? Our anniversary isn't for another month."
"Doesn't matter."
"Okay..." she said.
The box was stashed in the back of his silverware drawer, but he hadn't wrapped it, and didn't want to do so now. "Close your eyes," he said.
"Why?"
"...because."
"Open your mouth and close your eyes and you will get a big surprise," she said in sing-song. "I never fell for that - what was the surprise supposed to be?"
"Something disgusting, I guess. Never fell for it either," he said. "You can open your mouth too."
"Yeah, right," she said, then apparently changed her mind and opened her mouth wide, saying 'ahhhhh...' like he had a tongue depressor. He just watched her for a moment, amused; she stuck her tongue out, then closed her mouth. He leaned down and kissed her quickly, deposited the box on her lap, then stepped back.
"Open it," he said. Now that she had it, he was anxious to see her reaction to it, and a bit nervous. He watched her face as she lifted the lid; her eyes widened as she took in the sight of the gun, and she looked up at him, mouth half-open.
"You want me to be able to put myself out of my misery?"
"No!"
"You want me to put Zara out of my misery?"
"....if you want."
"It's... a very unusual surprise."
She'd missed the point, he realized. "Look at the barrel."
She looked down for a moment, then back to him. "I didn't know Turks was an acronym."
"It's not. But most other things at Shinra were, so someone started using T.U.R.K.S. as one as a joke and it stuck."
"Looks a bit better engraved on a gun, I guess."
"Not that it's exactly the Turks anymore, secret service, but... it's still the Turks. And there's a place for you if you want it."
Her eyes had filled with tears, and he looked down, confused and feeling guilty. "It's fine if you don't, too, but we know you're good..." He trailed off as she stood, and then her arms were around him and she was kissing him again.
"You are the best thing that's ever happened to me," she said, when she pulled back for air.
"...that means you want to join?"
She sighed, and rested her head on his shoulder. "I don't know. I never would have thought I'd even consider it, and here I am, thrilled about the idea. I shouldn't make a decision like this just to flee my current crappy job. But it sounds incredible, something I'm actually good at, where I'm actually a desirable employee, and you can't make a cheesy crack about desirable, by the way."
"Damn."
"I need to think about it," she said. "I want to just say yes, but I need to think."
"There's no rush," he said. At least, there was no rush from his end. Monday evening, she informed him she was taking the offer. And then she went on to tell him about her day, as she'd been doing for nearly eight months, but this time, for the first time since summer, she was smiling.
****
