Chapter 20: Playing Papa
A/N: I know it's been a while but I'm blaming writer's block. I thought I would to a belated Father's Day chapter seeing as I haven't had time to post it on actual Father's Day.
Here's to all the dad and father figures out there!
Happy Father's Day!
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7 or Naruto; I just own my oc's.
Enjoy!
/
"God I hate missions" Mikomi complained.
It didn't matter how many times she said it, she always hated missions. She thought that being a ninja would be really fun, but it turned out it was far from it. With the village short on man power, she had to do double missions and do double the paperwork.
Being a ninja sucked.
Jiraiya patted her shoulder in a good manner.
"Aww, cheer up, kiddo" he said.
"At least you're getting paid good money for it"
Mikomi rolled her eyes and groaned.
"Yeah and all of that money is going to go towards Naruto's bill at Ichiraku, I just know it"
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that" Cloud said.
"I threatened to ground him if he went off with your paycheck again like last time"
Jiraiya snorted.
"Man, you're evil" he said.
Cloud just shrugged as he walked.
"Someone has to be strict with him and I don't see you doing it"
The Toad sage made a face at the insult. Just because he acted childish and wasn't around a lot to look after his godchildren didn't mean he had to be treated like an idiot. It was a stab to his pride.
"Hey! I don't need you saying you're a better person than me!" he declared.
"I'm a god damn sage!"
Cloud just gave his a sour look.
"Like that means anything" he said.
"Last week while you were off doing your 'research' for your trashy novels, I had to train Naruto…when you were suppose to"
Mikomi rolled her eyes and groaned.
"There they go again" she thought
She knew that Cloud really didn't like Jiraiya and thought of him as an idiot. He found it selfish that a grown man would act like a stupid child and did whatever he wanted when he had two godchildren that needed his help. The Akatsuki were on their tails and they needed all of the protection that they could get.
Bottom line, Cloud thought it was wrong that he had to play the parent when it should have been Jiraiya. He hated people who didn't own up to their responsibilities.
"I'll have you know that I was not doing research!" Jiraiya declared.
"I was doing something totally different!"
Cloud scoffed.
"Oh yeah? What?"
Jiraiya opened his mouth to say something, but closed it when he didn't have a valid answer.
Cloud just rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"You're just pathetic" he said.
"Even Yuri is more responsible and that's saying something"
Jiraiya made at face at that. It was true that his crazy cousin acted more mature than him when it came to Naruto and Mikomi's safety, but he didn't want it rubbed into his face.
"God, will you two just give it a rest?" Mikomi complained.
"You're giving me a headache"
She was starting to feel sick when the left the inn that they stayed for the night. Jiraiya had ordered sushi for them to eat and she had a feeling that she might have gotten food poisoning.
The two men went quiet but gave each other nasty looks.
The rest of this trip was going to be long and tense.
/
About half way on their return home, Mikomi kept throwing up in the bushes. It seemed her food poisoning was getting worse and she couldn't keep anything in her stomach for very long.
Heck, she almost threw up the water Cloud gave her to drink.
The blond look at his sister sadly and saw how miserable she was. Her face looked pale, she was breaking out in a cold sweat and she kept gagging every step she took.
"Why don't we stop at an inn for the time being?" he suggested.
"I don't think we'll get far with the way Mikomi is now"
Mikomi shook her head but regretted it since she felt like throwing up again.
"Don't worry, Ni-san…I'm fine" she managed to say.
"We're almost there"
Cloud shook his head and took the water bottle from her.
"We need to get you something that will help with your stomach" he said.
He picked her up and placed her on his back.
"Try not the throw up on me" he said.
Mikomi just groaned and snuggled into him more. Man did she feel awful.
Jiraiya looked at her sadly and rubbed her back in a soothing manner.
"Take it easy, kiddo" he said.
"We'll rest soon"
Mikomi just whimpered and closed her eyes. She really wanted this mission to end.
/
She was totally out of it when the made it to the hotel. Cloud was careful when he placed her on the bed, knowing that any sudden movement could upset her stomach. She just whimpered in pain when Jiraiya pulled a blanket over her and fluffed up her pillow.
"Try to get some rest, kiddo" he said.
Mikomi sluggishly nodded and snuggled into the bed.
Cloud ran a hand through his hair and sighed.
"I'm going to find some medicine that will help her out" he said.
Jiraiya looked at Mikomi for a moment. It was his fault that she got sick so he had to fix it.
"I'll help. I know a few places that carry good medicine"
Cloud gave him a doubtful look, but didn't say anything. His sister was sick, so taking care of her was more important than arguing with Jiraiya.
"Don't piss me off. I'm not in a good mood" he said.
The two men left the room to let Mikomi sleep and hopefully feel better.
/
"Ok, I know Mikomi can take certain medications. If she takes the liquid kind she'll just throw up even more and it's the same for some of the pill kind"
Jiraiya watched in amazement as Cloud went over what kind of medication Mikomi would need in order to feel better. It upset him that the blond knew his goddaughter a lot more than he did and that he only knew her for such a short time. He really was acting like a father to her.
Cloud listed off what kind of medicines sounded good for Mikomi to take. Even though Yuri was a medic, some of her medicines tended to make everyone violently ill, so he made a mental note of which ones were bad and which were good.
He turned around when he didn't hear Jiraiya didn't say anything about his idea and raised an eyebrow.
"What's wrong? See a girl you want to flirt with?"
Jiraiya made a face and glared at the blonde.
"No, and my mind isn't always in the gutter" he said.
Cloud rolled his eyes.
"Could have fooled me" he said sarcastically.
Jiraiya growled.
"Why must you be so negative with me? What have I ever done to you?"
Cloud returned the harsh stare.
"It isn't me, it's Mikomi" he said.
"You're her godfather, so you were suppose to act like one"
Jiraiya crossed his arms. So he was mad that he didn't take care of Mikomi after Minato died? He had some nerve.
"Oh, so you're saying that I'm a bad guardian?" he asked.
"Do you need me to spell it out for you?" Cloud retorted.
"What do you know about me anyway? What gives you the right to say that I was a bad godfather to Mikomi when you don't know the full story?" Jiraiya snapped.
Cloud just growled.
"Because you left when she needed you the most" he said.
Jiraiya bit his lip. Cloud hit it where it hurt the most and he knew it.
"Mikomi told me a lot about herself when she stayed with us in Gaia" he said.
"She talked about her past, about how her parents died and how Yuri was the one who took care of her. When you came around I asked her if you took care of her as well and she said you shortly left after words. Do you know how horrible that sounds?"
Jiraiya kept quiet as Cloud vented some steam.
"You appear after being gone for so many years and act like you know everything about Mikomi and think you're her best friend. You act like nothing's changed since you've been gone when you know that it has. You think that despite the fact that you left she'll just forgive you and think everything's alright"
Cloud glared at him.
"You want to know why I don't like you? It's because you act like everyone else who claims that they know her but they don't. She doesn't need that, she needs someone who cares about her and has her best interests at heart. She doesn't need a friend, she needs a fatherly figure"
He turned around and stormed away to the nearest clinic shop.
Jiraiya just stood there with a solemn look on his face. It was horrible knowing that a stranger knew his goddaughter better than he did.
/
The two of them didn't say anything as they returned back to the hotel. After Cloud pretty much chewed Jiraiya's ass out, the sage didn't even utter a word.
Cloud didn't know if he went too far with his rant, but he knew that it needed to be said. He cared about Mikomi and wanted to keep her safe. If Jiraiya wasn't going to be a father figure to her, then he would. It was the least he could do for her since she helped him so much.
"I'm just afraid"
Cloud stopped at the sudden statement Jiraiya said. Looking at him, he saw the sage wore a blank look to his usual pervy face.
"I'm just afraid of hurting her" he said.
"I never meant to leave like that, but I felt like I had to. It was the only way to keep her safe"
Cloud gave him a harsh stare.
"How is leaving her alone keeping her safe?" he asked.
Jiraiya crossed his arms and looked at the sky.
"I was always a failure at everything" he said.
"I was never a skillful ninja like Orochimaru or wooing my secret crush. I was an ok writer with regular novels, but they were never as good as my so called 'trashy novels'. The only thing I thought I did good was being a teacher to Minato. He always believed in me and thought I was an amazing teacher. We were such good friends that he made me the godfather as his children. I thought for once in my life I did something that I didn't screw up at the end. It was great until that horrid day"
Cloud didn't need to think hard about what day he was talking about. It was the day that Minato died.
Jiraiya sighed weakly.
"When Minato died, I felt like it was all my fault. I felt like I didn't teach him enough or showed him how to be a better ninja. It was like watching my own child die before my eyes. No one wants to see a family member die in such a way. The one thing that I thought that I did right died horribly. It's true that I was suppose to take care of Mikomi when Minato and Kushina died, but I was so afraid that if I stayed near her then she would suffer as well"
He gripped the fabric of his shirt tightly to the point that it might rip.
"If anything happened to that little girl, I would never forgive myself. That's what I always told myself. I didn't want to leave her, thinking that I was afraid of her, but I didn't want her to suffer. So I left, hoping to find out who was responsible for the Nine Tailed fox attack. I kept in touch with Yuri on occasion, but I wouldn't go back until a found something out. When I did finally came back, I found out that she made friends and that one of them took the extra step to be the father figure that I could never be"
He looked at Cloud seriously.
"You're right, I have been an awful godfather, but that doesn't mean that I never stopped caring about Mikomi" he said.
"Even when I did came back, I knew better than to just suddenly step into the fatherly figure when you were doing a far better job"
Cloud sighed and looked away. Maybe it was wrong of him to jump to conclusions. Jiraiya did care for Mikomi, but he showed it in a different way.
He still didn't like him, but he was able to respect him a little more than he did before.
"I'll admit that I was wrong to chew you out like that" he said.
"But you're still an idiot"
Jiraiya cracked a smirk.
"And you're still an annoying brat"
Cloud just rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything.
"Might as well give Mikomi her medicine before she throws up a lung"
"Now that would be interesting to see" Jiraiya said.
Cloud just ignored him and decided to return to his sister before she got worse.
/
"I'm not going to lie, this stuff looks nasty"
Mikomi looked at the medicine that they got her for her food poisoning. It was a green sludge type of a substance that gave off a bad smell.
"I think this will make me throw up instead of preventing it" she said.
Cloud just held the bridge of his nose and pushed the glass in her hand.
"I know it looks bad, but it should do the trick" he said.
"Now drink it up"
Mikomi made a face and shook her head.
"No way!"
Cloud was about to argue with her when Jiraiya stepped in.
"Come on, kiddo. Be a good girl and drink it up"
Mikomi made a face.
"No!"
Jiraiya sighed.
"Fine, we'll do it the hard way"
Grabbing her chin, she opened her mouth and forced the medicine down her throat. When it was all in her mouth, he quickly covered it with his hand and kept it there.
"Now swallow" he said.
With much difficulty Mikomi managed to swallow the medicine down without getting sick. She made a face when Jiraiya pulled his hand away and stuck her tongue out in disgust.
"That was horrible" she said.
Jiraiya snorted.
"Sorry, but you had to take it" he said.
He looked at Cloud.
"When Mikomi was little, she always hated taking her medicine" he explained.
"It took Minato hours just for her to take it so I would have to convince her to take it or else make her swallow it like I just did. It's one of the few tricks I've learned while being near her"
Cloud just watched as Jiraiya gave Mikomi a glass of water and tried to make her feel better. It seemed that he was wrong when he thought that Jiraiya didn't care enough about Mikomi. He cared about her and loved her in his own way. It may have not been the kind of love that she wanted and needed, but it was still evident. It seemed his thoughts about him changed a little.
But he still thought he was an idiot and that would never change.
/
A/N: Aww, don't you feel bad for Jiraiya. He wanted to be near Mikomi, but after what happened to Minato he was afraid the same thing would happen to her. He didn't want to jinx her pretty much.
At least Cloud is slowly changing his mind on him though. Maybe now he can see him as a godfather rather than an idiot.
Please review and tell me what you think!
Ja ne!