365 Hours with Rufus Shinra (FFVII: Rufus x OC)

ch14. forget me, I beg of you

HE HADN'T returned home till the night of the fourteenth day of their deal. He had work to do, and she knew it. Hannah just stayed back in his house in Junon and gathered her luggage. She was going to leave tomorrow. On the fifteenth and last day of their deal. Reno would come to pick her few bags, and he was going to take them back to her apartment in Midgar.

But Hannah still debated on how in the world she was going to ask him to stay. She was trying to find reasons. She wanted to stay there with him. No matter how much she tried to scold herself for making such a decision, she still wanted to, and she hated herself for that. She hadn't had so many nightmares because he was there. She hadn't felt insecure nor the need to sleep with a gun in her hand, because he was there and this estate was more than secure.

She felt safe. She had someone to talk to and she didn't care that he wouldn't always be there, especially now that he had an entire company and an entire City to govern. She too didn't have much time either. She too had a company to take care of. Gaia, was she relieved that her company was saved. She loved her company, but what she worried about the most was firing all those incredible people that she had worked with the last seven years.

But now she didn't have to do it. Now she was saved. Part of her hated that she relied onto a man so much, but another part of her it just... didn't mind. She had been so alone for so long. Reno was enrolled in the Turk Academy when he was fifteen and she was seventeen. A seventeen-year-old girl had only one place in a town such as Wall Market. Only one job that could promise enough gil to pay for her brother's tuition.

She had been through so much those few years afterwards. But Hannah just shook her head, and she shot the thought away, and for once it happened so easily. Usually, she would ponder on these old memories but now they just stopped bothering her. She had finished work. It was the afternoon of the fourteenth day. He hadn't returned home last night, and she hadn't expected him to. She knew he had work to do. But she waited, and waited, anticipating his arrival.

When Rufus entered the house and handed his coat and his bag to the maid, the piano's sweet sound reached his ears. It was coming from the living room. He remembered coming back from school every day and listening to the welcoming melodies that his mother used to play on that very same piano. He had moved it from Midgar all the way out here. And now he had just returned from work, and he was once more welcomed with that same sound. Rufus hadn't realised a smile that had started forming on his lips.

Even though he was exhausted, since the only sleep that he had acquired was the one of passing out on top of paperwork, he just followed the sound to the living room. He pressed some of his weight on the wall by the entrance of the room. He crossed his hands against his chest and he sighed as he stared at her playing. She was wearing a dark blue sweater and white pants. Her hair fell on her shoulders, messy but it didn't bother him at all.

He recognised the piece she was playing. His mother used to play that very same piece. He was acting against to whatever his mind told him to do when he sat beside her on the bench. His hands found the keys of the higher notes. She didn't stop playing. Hannah just turned and gave him a look and a smile. Before she moved closer towards the lower notes and she let him take care of what to play on the higher ones.

He was sloppier than she was, but he managed alright with the slow tempo. A piece that his mother had shown him how to play. He was surprised he still remembered it. He was surprised he still remembered how to even play the piano. He would just sit there on that bench and press those keys whenever something frustrated him. He had taken the time to learn on his own during house-arrest. He was now glad that he had.