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#1: Tifa Lockhart
If she were ever asked, Tifa would argue endlessly that she was the first person to notice the changes that happened between Yuffie and Rufus.
At first she'd tried to ignore it, to deny that such a thing were even possible- because honestly, who would ever think that Yuffie would ever have been able to get along so well with the young president of a long-dead, slowly-being-revived company, let alone fall for him? And that said president would do the same for her?
If anyone had seen it coming, that person certainly hadn't been Tifa. At first, anyway. Now? Well...
Tifa smiled to herself as she set the newly dried glass on the rack, her back to the two people happily chatting away behind her.
Now, she'd have to be blind to not see it.
“Oh come on Shinra! You can't seriously be trying to convince me that you've never played 'never have I ever'! Everyone's played that game!”
“And who, pray tell, do you think I'd have played with?”
“Well, you have the Turks, right? I bet Reno can play a mean game of 'never have I ever'!”
“...we stopped letting Reno decide on drinking games to play after he dared Rude to steal Elena's underwear and give it to Tseng as a birthday present.”
“I...I'm sure Tseng enjoyed that.”
“To my knowledge he never returned them and Elena never asked for them. I can only assume you're right, and that's all I'm willing to think about on that topic.”
“...yeah, me too. Alright, then you can play with us! Tifa's good at that game, aren't ya Tifa!”
Tifa turned away from the sink she'd been using to finish up washing the last set of glasses, an amused smile on her face as she took in the duo seated at the bar table. “Don't you remember last time we played that? I don't think I'd ever seen Barret pass out from drinking so quickly.”
Yuffie laughed. “Yeah, well, at least now he should know that even he can't handle taking two shots every time, especially with us around!”
“Yeah,” Tifa chuckled, then turned her attention to Yuffie's companion. “So where are you guys going this time? You went to Kalm last week for the festival, right?”
Rufus nodded. “There's a new theater here that just opened a few days ago- we decided to check it out and see what Reno's been raving about.”
“Ah, that. Reno's been trying to get Cloud and I to go there too. He's persistent, isn't he?”
Rufus sighed as he stood, and motioned for Yuffie to do the same. “You have no idea.” Gesturing at the empty glasses on the counter, he added, “thanks for the drinks. The show starts in 30, so we'll be taking our leave now.”
Tifa waved off his thanks with a flick of her hand. “Don't worry about it. Have fun you two- tell me what you think, alright? You guys would probably be a better judge than Reno is.”
Yuffie mocked a double-finger salute. “Will do. See ya later, Tifa!”
After finishing the goodbyes, Tifa watched them leave for a few moments before grabbing the used glasses off the counter, a small laugh slipping out. They had no idea how date-like their weekends were, did they? Not that Tifa was going to fill them in about it.
–
#2: Reeve Tuesti
Reeve didn't get to where he was in life by being unobservant. When he noticed something, he reacted to the best of his ability and wasn't often thrown off if something unexpected happened- he couldn't be, not as the leader of the WRO. So seeing Rufus's reaction to his head of espionage shouldn't have surprised him as much as it did.
But...it did.
To be fair, Rufus was a young, single man, and Yuffie was a young pretty (hotheaded, good-natured, sometimes borderline crazy) woman. She knew how to act around Rufus which, Reeve knew, Rufus appreciated- Yuffie didn't treat him like he was a man with any sort of power, or a man who destroyed everything, a change of pace that Rufus admitted only to Reeve that he never expected to enjoy. And considering how many times over the past few months the two of them had chosen each other to spend time with rather than other people...
Reeve really shouldn't have been so surprised.
The corner of his mouth curled up slightly in a secret smile as he watched Rufus watch Yuffie make her way to her office, her hair bouncing around her shoulders and a cheerful smile on her lips as she happily greeted everyone she passed. Rufus was pretending to read the report Reeve had given him, but Reeve could see plain as day that the younger man's attention was entirely on the woman passing by- stealth, it would seem, was best kept as being Yuffie's specialty.
Reeve cleared his throat to draw Rufus's attention back to him, an eyebrow raised in question. He gestured loosely at the report. “So what do you think? Is Shinra capable of providing the increase in funds, or will we have to search for a second benefactor?”
Rufus closed the report as if he'd actually read it, but Reeve could read the concealed look of confusion in his eyes. “An increase of this amount should be no problem for us to handle. If that's all...?”
Reeve didn't even bother to try and stop the laugh from coming out. “You do realize that you just agreed to give over all the remaining funds that Shinra has, right?” He smirked, his head tilting ever-so-slightly toward Yuffie's office. “Or did the exact amount escape your notice because of a...minor distraction?”
To his credit, Rufus didn't react like he'd gotten caught sneaking a peek, but Reeve didn't actually expect him to. Rufus's ability to cover up with an impenetrable poker face was something that never stopped impressing him, but Reeve was one of the very few people who knew that look for what it was: a cover up. “We may be trying to rebuild, but funding both projects, regardless of the amount increase, should not be a problem. I am still the richest person alive, as you well know.”
“One of the most stubborn people I know, as well,” Reeve muttered to himself just as an enthusiastic rapping hit his closed door. Yuffie was just on time as always; this time he resisted the smirk as Yuffie walked into the room uninvited as was her prerogative. “We'll continue this conversation at another time, President. I'm afraid I have a meeting scheduled with my department head here. Feel free to take the report with you- I have plenty of copies.” A silent 'and do actually read it this time' accompanied his words in the form of a raised eyebrow that Rufus ignored.
Both men stood and shook the hand they'd both put out. “Until later, then.” Rufus released Reeve's hand and turned to face Yuffie and greeted her with a, “Yuffie, I didn't expect to see you here. Reeve told me that you weren't expected to return for another day.”
Reeve responded with a blank stare to the suspicious look Yuffie sent him. “Did he? I coulda sworn I called and told him we'd be back early this morning...in fact, this meeting is a debriefing of that mission.”
“Is it?” Rufus glanced at Reeve with a calculating look before visibly dismissing him. “Right, well, I'll leave you to it. The Turks are supposed to be arriving soon- they'll be expecting me downstairs.”
Yuffie grinned. “Tell 'em I say 'hi', alright?” Rufus nodded and started to walk away, only to be stopped when Yuffie spoke again. “Oh, and Rufus! We're still on for tomorrow, right? Those tickets weren't easy to get y'know!”
Rufus partially turned, an eyebrow raised. “When have I ever canceled? I'll be there, seven o'clock. Don't be late.”
With that he left, closing the door behind him.
Out of the corner of his eye, as he'd been staring at the closed door in amusement, Reeve saw Yuffie scoff. “I'm late once – once! - and he acts like I never arrive anywhere on time. Jerk's late more times than I am.”
“He probably does it to annoy you,” Reeve said as he motioned for Yuffie to take the seat Rufus had vacated. “He's like that with the people he likes- always has been.”
“Well that's stupid. Who decides to be a jerk to the people they like?” Yuffie grumbled as she sat, her body freezing when a thought came to her. “Wait. I know way too many people who do that- heck, I think I've done that to Cloud and the others before! Oh man,” she groaned, “when did I become such a hypocrite?”
“I don't know about that,” Reeve said laughingly, “but if you're like that to Rufus too, does that mean you return his feelings?”
Yuffie sputtered out a denial that their relationship was like that and how did Reeve even come up with such an idea anyway, but the blush Reeve knew she was doing her best to fight off was all-telling.
Rufus and Yuffie were tottering on the edge of friendship into the lands of relationship, and it didn't look like the change was going to stop any time soon.
Reeve was just glad to see Rufus act like the young man he was, even if he were the only one who could see it.
–
#3: Reno
Reno hardly missed a thing where the President was concerned- it was kind of expected, considering what his job was, but he was willing to bet that only Tseng could claim to know Rufus better than he did.
He and the others Turks knew just what kind of man they worked for, even beneath the cover that he presented to everyone else, and what they knew cemented their loyalty to their leader and friend. That was obvious to pretty much everyone they met- the bond between the Turks and Rufus wasn't ever going to be easily broken, if it could be broken at all. It's that very bond, Reno is sure, that lets him see the President at not only his best but his worst as well.
He has to concede that in all the years he'd known Rufus that he'd never seen the other man crushing on someone though, and he's pretty damn confident that even Tseng had never seen him like that before either.
Reno has to stifle a laugh at the glare Rufus sends Yuffie. He didn't know what she'd said to earn such a reaction – oh how he really wanted to know though – but from where Reno was sitting in the second-story restaurant across the street, the glare was so obviously fake it was ridiculous- if he didn't know that it really was Rufus down there, he'd have been convinced that the person with Yuffie was a very good imposter.
Rufus Shinra did not do playful, and he definitely didn't do borderline flirty in places like Edge where anyone could recognize him or Yuffie and interrupt their...date? Reno didn't even know what to call it- sure as hell looked like a date, whatever it was.
Looked like it was their fifteenth date, really, if he counted all the other times he'd seen them like this (alone and enjoying only each other for company, basically). Their being in one of the more popular dating spots probably didn't help their case to the contrary any (if there were a contrary, now that Reno thought about it. Nobody had asked Rufus if he was dating Yuffie, had they? Funny, seeing as they'd been doing this for months now...).
Down below Yuffie didn't even bother to act like she hadn't just stole the last piece of chicken off Rufus's plate as she happily threw the bite-sized morsel into her mouth. When Rufus steals the last of her drink in retaliation, Reno can't fight the grin that threatens to cover his face. This...this is a side of the President he rarely ever sees.
Reno cares for Rufus, and likes him no matter what kind of mood he's in. But this carefree, everyday-guy mood that Yuffie puts him in when it's just the two of them? Reno thinks he likes this best- he's happiest when his friends are happy (and safe, of course), and Yuffie making Rufus happy just makes everything else all the better.
Meaning, he'd give Rufus a week before beginning the teasing. It was the least he could do.
–
#4: Cloud Strife
Cloud didn't so much as suspect as have the idea planted in his brain.
Truthfully, he'd really rather not have ever known about the development between their youngest friend and their ex-enemy; with his delivery service growing to what it was, and with all the errands Reeve asked him to do for the WRO, he really did have better things to think about and do with his time. So, no, he hadn't been all that receptive to Tifa telling him that Yuffie might be getting a boyfriend in the shape of one Rufus Shinra soon- it wasn't really his business no matter how much Tifa tried to make it his, and weren't those deliveries due in Kalm by tomorrow?
Marlene and Denzel bringing it up to him nearly every chance they got didn't help him not think about it any, either.
So when Yuffie and Rufus walk in just as he was getting ready to leave for Kalm, the first thing he thinks about is, well, them.
And he just about hates himself for it.
“Hey guys, long time no see! Especially you, Cloud! You're never here when I am- it's like you're avoiding me or something!”
Cloud knows she's teasing, but for a moment he wishes that were true. If he'd been avoiding her, he wouldn't have been here at this time, and wouldn't be thinking about whether or not she and Rufus were hooking up on the side somewhere. He cared about Yuffie like she was the little sister he'd never wanted, but really. Sometimes he wished people would tell him things on a need-to-know basis so he wouldn't have to think about things like this because his friends thought he'd be interested in hearing about it.
And they actually wondered why he hated answering his phone.
“Not avoiding you, just busy. I'm on my way out now, actually,” he said as he quickly stuffed the rest of the items he was meant to deliver into the large sack he used to transport them in. That done, he slung the bag over his shoulder, turned, and came face-to-face with Rufus.
It was all just too much- he was tired, and he still had a few deliveries left to make before he could call it a day. He needed a full night's sleep before he could be remotely ready to think about Yuffie and Rufus in the same sentence, let alone in a relationship.
As he silently slunk away, he told himself that he wasn't running away- it was a tactical retreat, away from people who wanted him to think on things he never wanted to think of, and away from his own thoughts. Because for a moment, and just a moment, he could imagine the two of them together years down the road, and that...that was not something he wanted to ponder on four hours of sleep.
–
#5: Aeris Gainsborough
Aeris spends a lot of her time watching over her friends, and has no trouble discerning their true feelings at any single time. So Yuffie's crush on Rufus, so glaringly obvious if you knew where to look, didn't surprise her at all, least of all because she'd watched it grow into the intensity it burned at now.
And, considering she didn't want to see her friend end up hurting because of one-sided feelings, she, of course, as Zack would put it, stuck her head in places it didn't belong.
It was there she found feelings, though more hidden and carefully looked after, that were stronger than Yuffie's own- a discovery that Aeris would admit made her change her opinion about just how well Rufus would treat Yuffie if he were ever to find out about Yuffie's crush on him. And, being the meddling woman she was (Zack's words, again, spoken with all levels of affection of course) she couldn't help but try and get someone to open up about how they felt.
It was a much harder task than she'd thought it'd be. Cloud was so easy to convince compared either Yuffie or Rufus, although realistically speaking her motives of operating for Yuffie and Rufus were very very different than the ones she had for Cloud.
In the end, though, after nearly a week of gentle prodding in dreams that nothing bad would happen if they confessed or made a move on the other, her work (“meddling”) paid off.
It was obvious in the way that Yuffie stood outside the small house Rufus occupied, and by the way Rufus held himself, like he was trying to keep up appearances by standing stock-still. Aeris didn't stick around long enough to see what happened, but it wasn't hard to guess.
–
+1: Elena
Only one person actually catches real concrete proof of Yuffie and Rufus dating.
And as a result, she kind of wants to bleach her brain because seriously, she never wanted to see her boss making out with his girlfriend. Ever.
“I'm so sorry!” Elena yelps as she yanks the door shut behind her, the bang from it shutting echoing loudly in the otherwise quiet hallway. Any moment now, she knew, the other Turks were going to come running to see what the noise was about, but...seriously. That was far more action of that kind than she ever wanted to see the President engaged in (and engaged he was, her brain supplies unhelpfully). Breathing deeply she leans back against the door and proceeds to slide down the length of it until her butt touches the chilled floor, her head bowed far enough for her chin to touch her collarbone.
This, she was sure, was what going into shock must be like. Because she shouldn't have been able to identify the girl but she did, and God this was way more messed up than she ever wanted to think about.
Down the hall Elena could hear the steady tromp of Tseng and the others as they made their way to where she was, but it wasn't until he called her name did she look up into their worried faces.
“Elena, what's wrong? Is everything all right?” Tseng spoke sternly, but Elena heard the anxious undertone lining his words.
Silently, she shook her head. No, nothing was all right. It'd never be all right, never again. The image of Yuffie and Rufus, sprawled over the small couch in his office, lips and hands touching and running places she didn't want to know about...it wasn't ever going to disappear, seared into her brain as it was, and that was never going to be okay.
“Elena, where's the President? Didn't you come up here to tell him that dinner was done?”
She nods weakly, her body slumping over until her forehead meets her knees. Slowly she raises her hand, and thumbs at the door. “He's in there, but I really wouldn't go in-”
The door pushes at her back, cutting off the rest of her sentence. The men in front of her share a glance then pull her onto her feet and out of the way so that the door could open fully. Elena's attention is on the floor, but she still sees the two pairs of shoe'd feet that belong to her boss and Yuffie.
Elena can feel her cheeks flushing darkly as she looks away, her gaze locking onto the much safer sight of Reno and Rude's dark, Turk-standard shoes.
Above her, Tseng speaks. “Sir, is everything all right? It sounded like something happened up here, and Elena's not elaborating.”
“It's fine, Tseng. If something happened, you'd know. Elena's just surprised, is all.”
'Surprised'. Understatement of the year. 'Mentally scarred' was probably more accurate.
“Are you sure? Because she doesn't look too g-”
“Tseng. It's fine. Drop it. Now, Yuffie and I have some business to attend to, so we'll be late for dinner. Just put ours away- we'll eat them later.” Rufus and Yuffie's legs pass through Elena's field of vision as they swiftly walk passed and down the hall, presumably to the entrance to leave the building.
Elena breathes a long sigh of relief.
“Yes, sir. We'll...he just ignored me, didn't he.”
“Yeah, I'd say he did. Hey, did anyone else notice the hickey on the President's neck? I bet I know where they're going.”
A long sigh which, upon hearing Reno's casually spoken words, she promptly chokes on.
She was never going to be okay, ever again.
(She was happy for Rufus though, really. It was just going to take her a while to quit seeing them like that.)