Midgar the Soap – Season One: Episode 8

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8

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In honor of the sedate feel to the day, Yazoo dressed down for his after-launch shopping trip with Elena. The Grand Opening of the Science Division at ShinRa Headquarters had been a gala event complete with boisterous party afterwards where Yazoo—as Rufus’s wife—had been expected to play the role to perfection. After so many years it was as natural to him as breathing and he genuinely liked chatting with others and enjoying their company. Elena had ridden home with them, trading oddly venomous looks with Rufus, and had waited while Yazoo changed.

Though he dressed himself for effect, Yazoo never took chances, thanks to Rufus making him so paranoid. Even when going casual he took pains to ensure he would not be exposed. The light sweater he chose was long, and he belted it at his round hips and bloused it so that only one side of his pert backside was visible along with one embroidered back-pocket of his fitted jeans. He was careful to loop a soft cashmere scarf around his neck and leave his hair down, and was abjectly grateful to slip his sock-clad feet into his fleece-lined snow boots—a recent comfort that Marlene had introduced to his wardrobe and a welcome change from the stilettos he usually wore. In all, he looked relaxed and natural, and that was exactly what he was going for.

They decided to head to the shops along Wharfside, all of which were boutiques dedicated to this and that which made them expensive enough to discourage all but the most quality-dedicated shoppers. Yazoo preferred the Wharfside shops because the crowds were less likely to make a fuss over him, so he could relax. Also, it was close enough to the Boardwalk he could hear the shrieks of laughter and imagine what it must be like to have such fun. It was a pleasant pastime, and Rude never hurried him.

Today, however, Rude merely glowered his disapproval of the whole ordeal, trailing the two chatting women in his somber suit and ever-present sunglasses.

Yazoo was actually surprised at how eager Elena was to be friends with him. He’d always had the distinct impression the woman couldn’t stand him and could never figure out what he’d done to earn such enmity. Now, however, Elena was giggling and almost fawning, something which Yazoo didn’t really like but didn’t know how to change.

“How about this one?” Yazoo suggested, holding out a skirt. He really disliked Elena’s habit of flaunting her body. However nice the merchandise was it didn’t need to be displayed with such ugly intent. Yazoo did his best to steer her towards more tasteful designs, and the shops on Wharfside didn’t sell the kind of clothing Elena obviously preferred.

“I don’t know,” Elena said, a frown creasing her pretty face. Her blue eyes slid over the skirt with barely concealed distaste and she asked, “Don’t they sell anything here my grandma wouldn’t wear?”

“This is a store for ladies,” Yazoo softly reminded her, examining the skirt for himself. “Ladies don’t want to look like tarts.”

Elena stifled a laugh, but gamely took another look at the skirt.

“I think I’ll get this one,” Yazoo idly said. “My seamstress has been asking after me, this will give her something to—”

“Mrs. ShinRa!”

Yazoo nearly dropped the filmy skirt he was holding, he was so startled. In a place like Emile’s, people did not shout.

He glanced around for the source of that yell and found himself once again confronted with the White Rose of Wutai—now busily bouncing towards him, laden with bags and grinning like a recent escapee of a mental institution.

“I thought that was you!” she crowed, and shoved her too-big sunglasses up on her head, pushing her black hair into frightened poufs above them. She was wearing a get-up Yazoo couldn’t make sense of and he quickly stopped trying before it gave him an awful headache. “How are you?”

“Fine,” Yazoo assured her, carefully replacing the skirt on the rack and smiling at the young woman. “And yourself, Miss Kisagari?”

“Tops, thanks!” Yuffie cried, and turned to glance around the store. “Nice place.”

“Yes, I like it,” Yazoo said, a little at a loss. “Miss Kisagari, please tell me you aren’t wandering around without your father’s guards.”

“They fell behind somewhere at the chocolate shop,” Yuffie said, apparently unperturbed by it. She shoved some of her bags at Rude and said, “Here, hang onto this for a sec.”

“Uhm, Miss Kisagari, I—” Yazoo tried, eyeing Rude’s disgruntled frown.

“Who’s your pal?” Yuffie asked, blowing a bubble with her gum and popping it to chew noisily.

Elena bristled, offended by her at once, but Yazoo couldn’t be rude. Unwillingly, he introduced them, saying, “Yuffie, this is Elena Lügner—Elena, this is Princess Yuffie Kisagari, the White Rose of Wutai.”

“Charmed,” Elena said, sounding anything but.

Yuffie popped a bubble at her, clearly not impressed. When she looked at Yazoo, though, she lit up with a grin and asked, “Mind if I shop with you for a while? Can I call you Yazoo?”

“I really don’t think we know one another well enough for that,” Yazoo reminded her, but smiled a little. She was a persistent little thing, he had to hand it to her. “But where are my manners? Of course, Miss Kisagari, please join us.”

“Thanks!”

---

Kadaj felt no better after he’d slept, his mood not improved by the fact that Reno was still asleep snuggled around a pillow instead of him.

“Is afternoon sex too much to ask for?” he asked, and sourly pelted the man with his pillow as he got out of bed.

Reno groaned a complaint at him but didn’t respond except to gruffly shout, “Close the fucking blinds!”

Kadaj yanked the heavy curtains closed and went to shower, still furious over his predicament. The more he thought of it, the more he realized Tseng was right. Reno used him to run his business, but he didn’t need him anymore for anything else. Kadaj was still young, still able to do something with himself. Perhaps he should leave him. Perhaps it wasn’t too late to start new with someone who would put his cunning business skills to good use. After all, if Kadaj could run an Empire of flesh at his tender age, an Empire made of money should be easy. It wasn’t like money back-sassed or bitched or got the shit beat out of it or needed fillings or shots or physicals. He could only win with such a situation… couldn’t he?

He stepped out of the shower and quickly brushed his teeth and dressed. For as pretty and vain as he was he spent surprisingly little time on his appearance, trusting to his natural beauty to carry him through. Today he had to run to Reno’s various establishments and empty the safes. Of course, he would also deliver the books in person to Tseng.

It was a thought that filled him with a different kind of fear. Yes, the man terrified him. Yes, the man was clearly a killer with little conscience or need to be forgiven. Yes, he still made Kadaj nearly bloodless with terror.

But it was all wrapping itself around the thrilling knowledge Tseng would do anything to have him. Such dangerous desire was heady stuff, and Kadaj was young enough to be seduced by it.

He skimmed out of the suite with his souba strapped to his hip, a soft smile on his young and lovely face.

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The trio spent the early afternoon shopping and browsing and, surprisingly, Yazoo found himself more entertained with Yuffie than with Elena. The odd little Princess was bubbling over with hare-brained opinions and outrageous comments, all of which she voiced at max volume, more than once drawing laughter from Yazoo. She seemed to be genuinely attempting to contain herself, though, and Yazoo caught the young lady surreptitiously watching him with anxious dark eyes to see how Yazoo moved and gestured. It made Yazoo wonder if the young Princess had been somewhat forgotten in her massive household of degenerate siblings and simply hadn’t had the same instruction as other young ladies of royal breeding.

Elena, though smoothly cultured and amusing, proved to be far less of a relaxing companion. It seemed the icy blond merely wanted to return to Yazoo’s home and “ditch the brat” in favor of wine and a game of cards.

Yazoo found himself strangely reluctant to part company with Yuffie, and when the young Princess popped out with the suggestion they should eat at the Overlook, Yazoo immediately agreed. He very rarely ever dined out without Rufus and he had a deep love of seafood he wasn’t often allowed to indulge. The Overlook was on the pier and built out into the deep shelf of the ocean, a view that simply couldn’t be rivaled, and their seafood was to die for.

Rude called Yazoo’s driver and had him come collect the packages before he would follow them down to the pier. He wanted both hands free, just in case. It was a precaution that made Yazoo give him a grateful smile, reassured at least one person cared whether he made it through another day or not.

“So, Mrs. ShinRa,” Yuffie started, and looped her arm through Yazoo’s, busily smacking her gum. “I was wondering if you could maybe teach me them manners you got.”

“Why, Miss Kisagari!” Yazoo said, smiling at her. She was wearing heeled boots and Yazoo was in his snow boots but he was still much taller than she. “What a compliment, thank you! Are you sure?”

“You know, Yazoo,” Elena cut in, looping her own arm through Yazoo’s free one and smirking at Yuffie since she got to use Yazoo’s given name. “I think you should probably let an etiquette teacher deal with this one. She’s Wutain, so her customs aren’t like ours—”

“Yeah, we wash our hands after we shit. We don’t make the servants wash them for us,” Yuffie snorted, and immediately cast an apologetic look up at Yazoo, who merely sighed and shook his head. “Sorry…”

“Oh my my! If luck isn’t on my side this evening then I have no idea where she’s gone!”

Yuffie cringed and stopped in her tracks as a tall, slender, auburn-haired man came strutting down the pier toward them with no less than four other people in tow.

Yazoo recognized him immediately and blushed, both ashamed of Rufus’s actions and desperate to meet him.

“My dearest little darling Rose!” he cried, placing his hand over his heart. He was dressed in a way that almost dared fashion to oppose him—flaunting it and flouting it all at once in a combination reporters had come to term as “Rhapsodese.” He fluttered his lashes at Yuffie and gave her a tragic pout, adding, “I have been out of my mind, darling! Where’ve you been? Night and day, I searched for you! My love, how could you wound me so?”

“Uh, Genesis,” Yuffie said, shame-faced. She ended with a lame, “Hi.”

Genesis scowled at her and sighed, hands on hips, and scolded, “Yuffie, my love, you were kidnapped from my play, held hostage overnight in a hostile and—I must add this, dearest—absolutely unutterably rude household, and then sent off to parts unknown without ever even a text!”

He paused for a breath, and added with a twinkle in his light blue eyes, “All I can say, my Rose, is that he had better be phenomenally gorgeous!”

Yuffie giggled and threw her arms around his neck, trading air-kisses on his cheeks and laughing, “I don’t know, Genesis, I passed the fuck out!”

She turned back to Yazoo, who was stricken with nerves, and Elena, who just looked like a cat that had been dunked in a tub.

“This is Mrs. Yazoo ShinRa—” she started, but Genesis swooped in before Yuffie could finish the introduction and snatched up Yazoo’s hand.

“My my, if it isn’t the renowned Cetran Swan,” he purred, and gallantly kissed Yazoo’s knuckles, which brought an immediate blush. “Your beauty, my lovely lady, has not been exaggerated one whit. I find myself recalling a request signed by yourself? Consider it granted, madam! I had only awaited the opportunity to be graced with your presence.”

Yazoo stifled his pleased, surprised giggle behind his free hand, surprised to be so blatantly flirted with by a man who was outspokenly homosexual.

“Oh, and that’s Elena,” Yuffie added.

“Well,” Genesis said, and gave Elena a smile, though his blue eyes raked her with scrutiny. “Charmed, I’m sure.”

“Likewise,” Elena scowled, and tugged Yazoo’s arm down to loop her own around it once more. “We were just off to eat dinner. I would invite you, but you’ve got quite the entourage and I’m afraid we won’t get seating.”

“Nonsense! It sounds fabulous!” Genesis cried, and shooed his followers with sweeping motions of his slender hands. “Off with you, my babies! Go on! I’ll call for you in a bit. Bye bye!”

“Come on,” Elena muttered, and surged ahead, dragging Yazoo along with her.

“Well, you’ve been busy,” Genesis breathed, smiling down at Yuffie.

“Back off, I saw her first!” Yuffie snapped, slapping his offered arm and scowling. “She’s gonna teach me manners!”

“Honey, she might as well just hit herself in her pretty head with something hard and splintery because you are a lost cause! Besides,” he added, grinning at Yuffie and tipping a wink at Yazoo when she looked back at them. “She’s perfect! I’ve been trying to meet her for ages. I want her to endorse my new line.”

“I saw her first!” Yuffie repeated, squealing in fury.

“Well, then,” Genesis teased, leaning close. “May the best girl win!”

They both laughed and headed after Yazoo, arm in arm and Rude shadowing close behind.

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Rufus settled into his comfy chair in his den and smiled, a glass of whiskey in hand and his favorite cigar smoldering in the ashtray next to him. He was pleased with himself, pleased with how things were going to play out.

It couldn’t be anymore perfect, he knew it. He’d been after the Jenova fortune for a very long time now, and had hoped having Yazoo as a spouse would entitle him to a decent percentage—something in the way of a dowry, maybe? Much to his consternation, in the manner of their people, only the firstborn sons inherited. Daughters merely got the status of their father’s houses and lines, but nothing beyond a stipend, an allowance. Granted, Yazoo’s allowance was lavish enough to make him swoon, but it still wasn’t enough to satisfy Rufus.

“Well, now I’ll have something, won’t I?” Rufus asked himself, smirking and smug.

It was almost too perfect. With proof of Yazoo cheating he could and would blackmail the Jenova family into handing over everything they owned in Wutai. It would be beautiful to see so much more money. He ignored the nagging voice that told him if he’d just worked hard, if he’d actually tried at his position instead of waiting for his father to die, if he’d just save the money the Jenovas sent him monthly for their “daughter” then he’d be a very rich man already. As it stood, he burned through money faster than he burned through cigars and he desperately wanted their holdings in Wutai. Though they had tried to convince him they were worthless holdings, Rufus knew better. He assumed their tactics were to simply put him off of the trail.

He never once considered they were telling the truth.

The plan was almost shocking in its simplicity—Reno would seduce Yazoo, manage to get incriminating and compromising pictures of it, and he would have his Wutain overlord Tseng blackmail the Jenova family into giving over the deeds. The best part was, he would give them incentive by adding that Rufus would be devastated to know about the affair and it would surely lead to an ugly fallout if the pictures were to surface. It was almost delicious, it was so good! This way, Rufus was in the clear!

Nothing could be traced back to him, and if that nutty family decided to seek a little vengeance, then they could track down Tseng and deal with him because Rufus’s hands would be squeaky clean.

He tipped his glass to the portrait of himself on the wall opposite, and winked at it.

“You are one helluva  smart man, Rufus ShinRa,” he complimented, and tossed his drink back with a satisfied smirk.

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