Characters/Pairings: Rufus/Elfe
Rating: PG-13 (non-explicit sex)
Summary: Things change from when you're young. Elfe and Rufus and the strange truce that is their relations.
Notes: Written for
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whitemage and Wei. Also an entry for Chocobo Races. Yeeeah."I'm surprised you've managed to get the desire to murder me out of your system."
There was a comfort to Rufus's complete lack of morality. It meant that for all the emotions she had gone through since meeting him now, as surviving adults in one annoyingly melodramatic world. Elfe had the opportunity before to get revenge for his betrayal, but she didn't particularly like the taste of it. Especially when he wouldn't react in a satisfactory manner.
"Murdering you would be a waste of my time."
He smirked like they were in on the same joke, which wasn't far off of the truth. This shaky alliance between the remains of Shinra and the remains of AVALANCHE wasn't as unlikely as it seemed to any of the newer people. For the origins of this Shinra and that AVALANCHE had been with the two of them.
"It also surprises me how reasonable your lot have been about all this."
"It surprises me how little backstabbing you've done recently. I heard all about the deal with the severed head, very flashy."
Elfe also found it comforting that they could still engage in quips whenever their underlings weren't around to hyperventilate over their level of ease. It was almost enough to forget that the past six years or so hadn't happened. Almost.
"Impressed?"
"I would have been if you'd done it without the safety net."
Betrayals or not, Rufus thought in transactions when she thought in ideologies. And it had said more about Elfe than him when at first she had taken it personally. She'd gone over the edge over several men's ambitions. He'd gone over the edge simply because there had been no one around him to say no.
"I really do hope you'll take me up on my offer to serve in the new government we're planning. It'd be a better use of your time than arguing with your father."
She really wished Tseng would make up his damn mind already about whose side he was on. Elfe should have known that he wasn't just coming over for tea to get Veld up to speed; he was probably coming back to Rufus with the same things.
"Are you going to throw a tantrum if you don't get your way? If, I don't know, I decide to go back to Cosmo and stay the hell out of world affairs for a while?"
"I'm not a teenager anymore, Elfe. And you already know that."
No, they certainly weren't teenagers anymore. Adulthood looked better on him, though she suspected there were times when he pouted at things like he used to. Consistency through change, that was what was giving her this hopefully not false sense of security.
"Fine. I accept the offer. If only so someone will be around to tell you know without shooting you in the head."
---
Rufus was pleased to see that Elfe still kept a cool head in the most pressured of situations. It was one of the things that had set her apart from her other terrorist friends; not cold like Fuhito, and not a complete hot-head like Shears. The middle ground, like how he preferred his bath water.
“I can understand wanting to back the WRO with what’s left of your fortune, but you can’t be serious in wanting to actually run for election.”
He’d been amused when he was younger at her ability to assert herself in his presence. No ‘yes Vice President’ or ‘of course, sir’ from her, unless she was being sarcastic. It was ironic, really, that she was raised in such a culture where advancement was so divorced from bloodline and she actually had a genetic right to the Turks, back when they existed under such a name.
“Well it’s not like I can simply resume my position as it was.”
“Considering your complete lack of restraint during your tenure, public office is out of the question.”
He knew that she wanted him to say something about power corrupting absolutely. In reality, it had just been the wrong method, much like his father’s method had been foolish. Things had been so much easier aligning himself with these people that he wondered why he’d fought them at all. It was a waste of time and resources trying to kill off what would simply not die. If he could not learn from his mistakes and still lead, then he really was better off dead. Sides didn’t matter as long as you were winning.
“What, people can’t believe I’ve turned over a new leaf?”
She tried valiantly to keep a straight face, but broke down into a fit of the giggles. When was the last time someone had genuinely laughed with him?
“Rufus, you are consistently beyond both good and evil, which is a little hard to swallow for most people.”
But obviously not her. Rufus wondered, was it a family trait? Now that she was older, wiser, he could really make out the similarities to her father; and still wondered how that had snuck up on him. Nearly derailed all his plans to set up his base of power. Fathers really were always getting in the way.
“Which is why you have to be my running mate. Considering how you’re nearly a folk hero in some areas. Nothing says I’m not an evil bastard like having you standing next to me in a smart business suit.”
The suit was optional of course, but he was frankly quite curious to see what she looked like in something properly tailored. No matter how much she or he might have matured Elfe still dressed like she was going to be hiking through a jungle at a moment’s notice, and not be back for weeks.
“Naturally you’ve been working this out in your head since you found out I really wasn’t dead, haven’t you?”
“That and preparing for the likelihood of you trying to kill me.”
It was as close as he was going to get to confessing that he knew the execution was a farce and that he hadn’t sent anyone after them. That he’d taken a gamble with her and the former Director. Rufus still didn’t know entirely why he didn’t see to it that they stayed dead. Perhaps it would have been a waste of talented people.
“Well, it’s not like I’m not used to lost causes.”
---
Politics in the public arena were a lot of frustrations, piled on top of annoyances. People acted like children, and it took a lot of self control for Elfe not to pull out a weapon and make them get along. Sure it was the immature idea of kindness with an iron fist that she had tried to grow out of, but some people really deserved it.
She had trusted Rufus’s judgment when it came to image, because if there was one thing he did flawlessly, that was it. And once she’d found shoes she could actually walk in, it didn’t turn out to be that bad. And Elena had been quite a bit of help in finding what worked for her as far as professional wear went, and found that vests and shirts with long enough tails and slacks that actually fit her stupidly large rear were quite flattering.
But it was after the first of several debates with the other candidates, and she had kicked off her shoes and untucked her shirt and propped her feet up on the desk of the main campaign headquarters. The staffers had gone home for the night and it was just her and some tea; it had been far too exhausting for her to drink anything stronger.
“It has always been surprising how much of a natural you are politics. Not exactly stirring speech sort of charismatic, but competent and very likeable.”
Elfe smirked. “I almost strangled the candidate from Junon with his own microphone cord. Pompous windbag.”
Rufus had been on the phone, talking with people worried about the poll numbers for the past two hours. Of course, she’d stayed out of exhaustion more than worry or solidarity. Even without a corporation, he still had people to protect him, and people to stick around if he didn’t want to be alone. And not all of them were paid, even.
“As entertaining as that would be, we are unfortunately dealing with a civil campaign here. Still. That would be something.”
He settled into a chair near her, and ran his hand through his hair. Elfe rather liked how he kept it now; longer, sleeker. It suited his aesthetic much more than the tousled mop that he used to have.
“I almost wish you were still the amoral head of a corporation. We could just kill off all the idiots.”
“Ah, but I thought you didn’t want me to make people disappear?”
“Right, that’s wrong. Don’t use this as evidence that I’m less than the perfect angel of justice that the press wants to see.”
And what the press would give to see them, with their tailored clothes wrinkled, the fatigue evident on their faces, joking about knocking people off for annoying them.
"I think perhaps we should stay here the night. Avoid the press which is likely camped outside, waiting to get statements from us about the debate."
She was ever vigilant about the line between them. Elfe had crossed it before, and she had to say it was her attachment that had disappointed her the most. Rufus thought in transactions, she had to realize. Though he was not so distasteful as to leave money by the bedside, there was a sense that anything personal was just another facet of the professional.
"I call the couch in the lounge."
But she had been raised Cosman, and frankly she couldn't assume any calculation on his part. Sleeping with him hadn't made her any more or less loyal back then, and it certainly hadn't changed how they did business. Elfe wasn't going to be the kind of woman who was going to wait around for something to happen which was completely unrealistic. She'd seen too many of those, and was starting to suspect that was just fallout from a previous generation's tragic romantic entanglements nearly destroying the future.
"It's a pullout for a reason. Surely you don't think me that reptilian?"
Of course, when he put it that way...
---
Rufus knew quite a few things about trust, which is why he'd avoided any sexual escapades with the admittedly attractive Elfe Dragoon. It was probably her underlying violence that was most attractive, like how Sephiroth used to attract women and men in droves with more than just his effeminate features. Of course Elfe wasn't completely insane, which helped.
And even though he saw nothing wrong with resuming the more athletic part of their previous relations, Rufus had learned enough about people to just sit and wait with the more delicate matters.
"I am about ninety percent sure that if any press try to get into here, they'll be stopped by your bodyguards. No exits but one and no windows."
He hadn't realized that he'd been waiting in anticipation for Elfe to do her usual chucking of social conventions and stick her tongue in his mouth for most of the campaign. She had enough self-preservation to do so outside of the main room of the campaign headquarters, and the staffers had been celebrating the election win long enough that they slipped away virtually unnoticed.
"Clearly you've thought of everything."
"I'm only going to tell you to shut up once."
Sex with Elfe was not unlike an extended sparring session, only without any hitting. Biting, pinning, various holds... those were all fair game. When they were younger he’d assumed it was a result of her fringe lifestyle, but to see that she hadn’t changed her approach--no words, all action--made him wonder if fighting merely made her feel alive.
And it was nice, for a while, to not have to give out orders or be asked for them, to merely respond to the physical assault in kind. Rufus wondered if she knew how overwhelming her energy was, allowing for no passivity, no routine. There were scars on her body that he didn’t remember, veins that showed more clearly than they had when they were quite young. He had to grapple with her a bit to take it all in, re-learn her curves while trying not to think about how dirty the floor probably was.
Rufus had to wonder how many of her previous partners had failed to appreciate her likelihood to bruise and be bruised. Had failed to see the evident challenge and had simply given up. He felt some satisfaction in being on top when she came, short fingernails digging into his shoulders and legs clamped around his waist. Elfe made a point to look straight at him, disarmingly, allowing him to finish some time after her.
“Is that the reward for political victory?” The no talking rule was voided as long as they weren’t doing anything.
“The last thing I’m going to do, Rufus, is incentivize sex.”
---
“I’ve been a good political partner for the past few months, the least you can do is stop complaining about the mud.”
So maybe they had fallen into a similar routine as before. But Elfe knew that it had changed; for one, they were actively rebuilding the world, and continuing to build on it. There were no more overlords to destroy or fires to set. She found she didn’t really miss it much.
“I will never understand your obsession with tent camping. Or mud.”
The future was still rather frightening, considering that she now had the ability to talk Rufus into such things as camping. But then again, hadn’t she put on a suit and made speeches with him? After all, he was all about transactions; and he’d figured out how to pay her back for her own investment in what he wanted.
“I’m not obsessed with mud. It simply happens, you know, when it rains?”
Had they actually figured out a fair rate of exchange? Rufus was never going to be like a normal man; after all, to some extent she was a rebound for a ruined city. When she was younger she would have been offended by the concept. But Elfe couldn’t help but enjoy Rufus being around, no matter how difficult or focused on certain things he would get. If she’d expected romance, Elfe wouldn’t have walked the path she had at all. She would have gone and married the first Cosman boy she could stand and sat around doing absolutely nothing while the world burned.
“You were right about the view though, I’ll give you that. It’s like looking out the window of a skyscraper... only without the window.”
She had to admit that he had a point. Was the view any different from a mountain than it was from a skyscraper? Even here, far from the most densely populated areas on Gaia there were still evidence of human settlement down there, little plumes of smoke from fires or cleared areas for farms.
“They’re both pretty good views, I admit.”
Elfe was willing to call it a truce. A truce on expectation, betrayal, and emotions. She leaned her head on his shoulder as they sat, taking in the view and letting out the breath they had probably both been holding.
“It would be a nice place to build a house. You know, for times when tent camping isn’t going to cut it.”
She rolled her eyes and detached herself from Rufus, getting up and offering a hand to help him up too.
“Some places are better left undeveloped.”
Maybe in a few years, the terms of the truce would be renegotiated. Business was personal, after all.
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