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

ch17. I meet you, at last, but am I f*cking ready for this?

ALFIE'S FACE nuzzled in Hannah's lap whilst her hand stroked his mane. She was holding her phone in the other hand, fumbling through the contacts till she found her brother's. She found it hard to press the buttons and call. For all she knew, her brother thought she was dead. Hannah Sinclair never walked out of the rubble. She was left where they had left her, and she had pulled the trigger of the gun that her beloved had handed her.

Hannah chuckled bitterly and she tossed the phone by the table of her living room. She let her body rest back in the soft pillow of the one couch that fitted in her small apartment, and she focused on petting Alfie. Her brother would be furious if she called and told him you know what? I'm alive. Changing her name had both its perks and its disadvantages, apparently.

But... Rufus... Rufus had Geostigma. She needed to see what kind of case he was suffering from. She needed to know if he was suffering a lot or if he wasn't. She needed to know if he was okay. She needed to know how much time he had left because she just- No. She shouldn't. Hannah had kept that gun and that bullet. As bitter as it sounded, they were the only things she had left of him and her heart ached for him whilst it shouldn't.

She should just forget him. Forget it all and move on, and be Hannah Scanlon. She had to be that new person that she had created trying to escape from his sight.

Hannah chuckled again. Her problems sounded so small and nugatory in her mind. The world was in the verge of extinction. Hundreds were dying every single day. She should forget all those stupid problems and focus on the real problem. Geostigma. She had to keep aiding in the research because there must have been some way somebody could cure this thing.

Hannah sighed as her hand reached for her phone again. She flipped it open and she found her brother's contact for the fifth time. She finally pressed the buttons and pulled the phone to her ear. She instantly regretted doing that, but there was no turning back now. She sighed heavily, and she dreaded him picking it up.

"Hey, sis,"

Okay. That was certainly not the response that she expected. She knew she should probably say something else because the two siblings hadn't spoken to each other ever since that day, but "How do you-"

"You're not exactly discreet when you walk to Uni every morning. I saw you yesterday and I was fucking blown," He did not sound pleased. "Why the fuck didn't you fucking tell me you're fucking alive!?!"

Hannah raised an eyebrow, cringing slightly as his loud, angry voice hit her eardrum. "Why you think? You work for the guy who crushed my company and my fucking heart! I wanted to disappear, okay?!"

"For fuck's sakes, Hanney, I fuckin' buried you. Why didn't you just let me know?!"

He sounded hurt. His voice slightly cracked and Hannah bit her lip. She didn't want to do this through the phone. She wanted to be there and pull him into a hug because, hell, she hadn't seen her brother for two whole years. Even before, they would meet every so often but now...

"A phone call. A phone call was all that you had to fucking do! Why didn't you just think of me?!"

How could he say that? And how could she feel so bad even after everything that she had done for him? She knew she was going to hurt her brother by letting them know she was dead. She knew he'd get mad when he'd find out that she had survived but she just never had the courage to call him and tell him. She was so selfish and she had hurt him, but there hadn't been a day to go by without thinking of him.