Follow-up ficlet...
Here's a follow-up ficlet to the one I posted last night. Not exactly what I'd had planned, but I couldn't pass the idea up...
More crack.
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Cloud was relaxing on a bench in the middle of a small harbor town, soaking up sunshine; he glanced surreptitiously around before grabbing the obi he was wearing and giving it a firm yank, sighing in relief when some of the pressure was taken off of his chest.
Their ship east wasn't for two more days, and while Cloud had thought that he would have had a respite from his disguise, Aeris had had other plans... Cloud groaned at the thought, closing his eyes and allowing his head to fall back with a dull thump.
At the moment, his teammates were out scouting the town for some much needed supplies, leaving Cloud alone to fend off all of the unwanted advances. Speaking of which, the sunshine was suddenly obscured by a shadow, and it was all Cloud could do not to groan in frustration.
Lifting his head up, Cloud cracked one eye to peek up at the person, only squeak and jump up from where he was sitting, as he recognized the face grinning down at him.
"Hey," The man said to him in a cool tone, and Cloud knew a pick up line when he heard one.
'Oh Kami, no...'
Praying that this was some sort of cosmic mistake, he tried to ignore the man.
"Hey, hey! Wait!" The larger man jumped in front of him, waving his arms frantically. "I just want to talk!"
'Yeah, right...' Cloud thought viciously, before despair overwhelmed him once more. 'Oh, if only he knew who I am...'
"I'm sorry, I can't." Cloud replied not looking at the other, blushing furiously and cursing the Fates to deepest depths of hell.
"Oh, so you're shy, huh?" The man said as if suddenly understanding a large grin spreading across his face, and Cloud cursed him too for his dogged persistence. "Well, you know-"
Cloud felt as though he'd been blessed with Nirvana as the man was suddenly cut off by someone calling his 'name'.
"Koharu-san!"
Turning, he spotted his teammates coming up the street, and gave them a look that said, "Get your asses over here, right now!"
"Hello, Jiraiya-sama," Aeris greeted when they got over to the pair standing by the bench.
"Hey," Jiraiya greeted, and then asked, "What are you two brats doing here? And where's my stupid student's nephew?"
"Well, we're here to escort Koharu-san East." Zack replied, "And as for Cloud, well..." He trailed off, and his two teammates turned to look at him. Jiraiya followed their gazes, and Cloud's mortification returned two-fold as his eyes lit up in understanding, his mouth falling open in shock.
'Why? Why won't you smite me, gods?'
Cloud watched in horror as a flicker of mischievousness crossed the older man's face, and he found himself pressed to the man's chest. "Oh Cloud, you've grown into such a fine young woman!" Jiraiya crowed, and the blonde just wanted to die. Suddenly, he was jerked back, and Jiraiya looked him over with a critical eye, and asked, "Seriously, Cloud, why weren't you born a girl?"
Spluttering angrily, Cloud decided he'd had enough and stomped on the man's foot. Turning his back on the man's howling, he watched in satisfaction as the crowd parted before him and the waves of killing intent he was emitting.
Getting hit on by Jiraiya, who- though a pervert- was rather discerning in his tastes... he just knew no one would let him live this down.