Maybe Not The Best Distraction

[breyzyyin.livejournal.com]

Username: Yin (of breyzyyin)
Class: White Mage
Fandom: Final Fantasy IV
Title: Maybe Not The Best Distraction
Notes: A fic written for the Fic Prompt Party over at ff_minigames. The prompt was "Kain/Any FFIV character other than Cecil or Rosa: The second character trying to get Kain's mind off of the whole Rosa issue. Can be shippy or not." from the_404_error. Ended up somehow evolving into a fic with Kain and two other FFIV characters later on.
Summary: When the party goes back to King Giott's castle to check on a recuperating Cid, Kain ends up getting into a conversation with the airship engineer about how he's still thinking about Rosa. Edge overhears this and decides to step into the conversation, and both him and Cid attempt to give Kain advice on how to get past his feelings for Rosa. Their advice ends up falling more into the "not-so-helpful-for-Kain" realm and chaos later on ensues, though it still has the desired effect at least for a little while.
Characters/Pairings: No pairings, other than implied Cecil x Rosa at certain points. Kain, Cid, and Edge are the main focus of the fic with some mentions of other FFIV characters at times.
Word count: 2,101
Rating/warnings: G, mostly.

----Author's Note: Kain is harder to keep IC than I thought he would be. O_O Actually has Kain with two characters and talking to them. Not shippy at all among the three of them though. More of a friendship/family-type fic! Set in-game for FFIV, so some minor plot spoilers follow. I hope this turned out all right! I'm...not so sure it did, so I apologize about that. ♥

Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy IV or any of the game's characters, they are the rightful property of Square-Enix. This is just a short fic I wrote for fun! :) Please don’t sue me you wouldn’t get much anyways, lolz.----

The room that housed the injured at King Giott's castle was an incredibly efficient place, Kain mused. He leaned against the back wall, arms crossed over his armored chest in his usual manner when in a more relaxed state.

Though it was hard to see due to his helmet, his eyes were scanning the far side of the room where the dwarven nurses were busily tending to some of the more gravely injured of their charges. Their fussing and mending had a routine to it that seemed to never falter—something he couldn’t help but appreciate.

Outside in the hallway, he could make out muffled noises and snippets of soft conversation. King Giott had decided to visit the hospital wing to check on the status of his men injured in the line of duty. It was pure coincidence that their small party had decided to come here as well in order to check up on the condition of one of their friends: they had recently run into Yang recuperating under the care of the Sylphs in their cave, and that had made some of their group eager to check in on Cid again as well.

Because of that, however, Cecil was now conversing with the monarch about what had been happening recently with everyone. Since it had fallen into the realm of more pleasant conversation and wasn't anything vitally important, Kain had excused himself with a courteous nod of his head to the king and went back to the hospital wing they'd just exited recently. His friend was a polite and very pleasant speaker, and he had a feeling the conversation between Cecil and the king would last at least a few more minutes because of that.

Naturally, Rosa was still more than likely standing beside Cecil as he spoke at length with King Giott. Every once in awhile he could make out her softer voice interjecting something into the conversation politely when Cecil was unsure of what to say or the talk became stifled. The two complimented one another perfectly in that regard…they always had.

Kain frowned slightly in response to the thought, refusing to let the small pang of jealousy that forced its way unbidden into his chest become anything larger than that. He didn’t want to go down that path again.

"...Lad?"

The voice that spoke was shaky and hoarse. For a moment, he'd assumed he must have imagined it—and blinking slowly to shake his troubling thoughts from his mind, he glanced down at the bed to his right...half-expecting to see the eccentric chief airship engineer from Baron still sleeping as soundly as he had been when they'd first come here to see him.

A somewhat tired-looking Cid was definitely staring back at him with open eyes now, the brightness in them (at least as much as was visible underneath his thick goggles) matching the sharpness of his oddly colored one-piece mechanic's outfit.

"Kain, lad...you know I always appreciate a visit from a friend--but waking up to you scowling over me like that makes me a bit nervous." The older man told him wryly, making an effort to push his stout frame into a sitting position on the bed.

Though Kain's outward expression didn't change much, his eyes flashed towards the stone floor momentarily as a slight sense of embarrassment came over at him at Cid's innocent and rather harmless joke.

"...Sorry." He muttered, noticing the effort Cid was putting into maintaining his new position, "Do you need help? I can get one of the nurses if..."

Cid waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, his face red and sweaty where it was visible underneath his bushy beard and cap, "Psh! Those nurses will only try to make me lay down more or give me one of their awful-tasting sleeping tonics again."

"They probably think you need to recover quietly. Your injuries are still severe, no matter how robust you are." Kain reasoned, "It's not good to over-exert yourself so much in your condition, Cid."

"I'm not THAT decrepit yet." Cid brushed off Kain's concern with his usual gruffness when it came to thoughts on his health. Truly, Kain felt rather sympathetic to the genius' daughter who worried about him constantly in that regard since the older man seemed incapable of doing so on his own due to his exuberance and energy...as Cid inadvertently proved when he told the Dragoon, "There's still plenty left I have to do!"

He nodded his head in quiet agreement, his sympathy for Cid's daughter growing by the second, "Of course."

The sharp look that crossed over Cid's face made it quite obvious that he didn't buy Kain's response in the slightest, but he shrugged it off (besides, there was no way to dissuade worry save through action!) and instead focused on the Dragoon with an assessing look of his own.

"...Thinking about Cecil and Rosa again, weren't you, lad?"

"..." Kain glanced at the ground again, choosing not to answer. It was unfortunate that Cid had woken up at that exact moment. The older man had been something of an uncle figure to all three of them when they were growing up in Baron, and he was quite good at reading some of Kain's moods or thought patterns even when Kain tried not to let them show readily.

Because of that, Cid took his silence as a definitive confirmation of his question and sighed, shaking his bushy head, "Y'know, lad..."

"You mean you're still thinking about her?" A new voice cut off whatever Cid had been about to say, "Geez, talk about a one-track mind!"

Kain, not appreciating someone else butting into what was already a somewhat uncomfortable, not to mention rather private, conversation, set his mouth into a grim line of annoyance as he stared at the exasperated Eblan prince with a level gaze. The annoyance on Cid's pain-stricken face was much more evident as he openly glared at the younger man in silent anger at his interruption.

"...Weren't you going to visit the shops?" Kain asked absent-mindedly, hoping to steer the conversation in a different direction. Edge had excused himself a few moments into the king and Cecil's discussion and had left the area to explore the castle more on his own rather quickly, if Kain's memory was correct.

The prince shrugged, not really noticing Kain's tactic...or perhaps he did, and he chose to ignore it: one could never tell with Edge's mannerisms, as he seemed to be either oblivious to Cid's continued annoyance with his presence or was choosing to ignore that as well--deciding instead to move to the other side of the injured man's bed from where Kain was standing.

"I got bored so I figured I'd check in on the old man again while I had time."

"...Don't I feel lucky for all the attention." Cid muttered under his breath, focusing his attention on his suddenly incredibly interesting mattress.

Edge chose not to hear the sarcasm in the engineer's voice too, apparently. Instead, he gave Cid an appraising look, "Didn't expect to see you awake though, considering how out of it you were earlier. You're tougher than I thought, old man!" There was a hint of genuine admiration in Edge's voice: despite the younger man's haughtiness when it came to talking to Cid, it was pretty apparent that he actually respected the mechanic's capabilities--though it seemed as if he wasn't sure of how to express that accurately all the time.

However, Cid didn't seem to catch that tone of praise from how Edge had tried off-handedly complimenting him just then either, as his reddened face turned a darker shade of crimson underneath his beard and he started to mouth his own choice words at the ninja in response.

Edge's attention, though, was once again focused directly on Kain by that point: the Dragoon's diversionary tactic had only apparently given him a few blessed moments of reprieve, "But, back to you! You're still harping on Rosa?"

...Easy for him to say when it was fairly obvious there was still someone Edge had taken a strong fancy to. Kain resisted the urge to mention that, concerned that Cid might over-react to him saying so given what had happened the last time the engineer had noticed Edge fancying said person.

"...I wasn't aware I was making it a public issue." He chose to mutter dryly instead.

The twenty-six-year-old snorted, "It's pretty obvious to anyone who isn't blind or deaf where your mind goes if you let it wander." He sniffed the air pointedly and stuck his chest out in pride, "Besides, I might not act like it overly much...but I am a ninja, after all! We’re trained to observe things."

You're right. You don't act like it overly much. Kain thought wryly.

"Considering how that's pretty much a lost cause with her and Cecil as they are...it would do you good to get your mind off of her, you know?" Edge was talking quite emphatically, "The world's a big place, so instead of moping over the one who got away...you should be out there LIVING in it!"

"He's right, lad." Cid, surprisingly, agreed with the prince's sentiments, "Rosa is a sweet girl to be sure, but there are other opportunities out there too. And it would upset both her and Cecil if they felt like you were moping because of their relationship."

Truthfully, Kain knew that already. Considering how much hurt he'd already put his friends through, he'd been trying to be more careful about keeping his thoughts to himself in front of them for that very reason. The fact that they were still so obvious to at least two people disconcerted him somewhat.

"You need to get out and do something, you know? Go live it up and pub-hop sometimes even!"

"...That’s how I met my late wife." Cid interjected helpfully.

"..." Both Edge and Kain stared at Cid in dumbfounded surprise at the last statement.

The older man grinned back at both of them cheekily, "Oh, come off it! Where did you think I got all of the names for my prized airships too? ...Fond memories, those."

The conversation had taken a very bizarre turn. Kain glanced to the side, wondering whether or not he could come up with a plausible excuse to leave now without seeming too rude.

"Wow. I didn't think you had it in you, old man!" Edge definitely sounded more than just a little impressed now.

"Eh. I have a lot more experience than you under my belt, at any rate." Cid looked positively smug at the reactions he'd elicited from the two of them, "And considering how much of a looker Kain here is, he wouldn't have any trouble in that department either."

Kain was pretty sure he JUST wanted to leave now. Neither of his companions seemed to notice his discomfort, however.

Edge nodded his head earnestly in agreement with Cid's comment, turning it to the far wall as the door to the hospital wing began to open, "He's right, Dragoon. You definitely could attract quite a few ladies if you weren't so obviously hung up on one already. There are plenty of fish in the sea, after all...oh, hey, Rydia~!"

Edge's full attention immediately switched to the green-haired young woman who had just entered the room. Quicker than anyone could blink, he bounded over to her side with a literal skip in his step--as if he were a kid eager to open a present on his birthday.

His enthusiasm wasn't lost on Cid, who had developed a rather protective streak when it concerned the young girl. His face darkened considerably under his beard and he sat up straighter on the bed, preparing to shout at the ninja.

This caught the nurses' attentions, however...and the two dwarven women were already rushing to his bedside, their voices carrying an extreme air of fussiness to them: which promptly caused Cid and them to begin arguing as they attempted to force him to lie back down again so that he could properly rest.

Kain watched all of this go on in silence--wisely moving as far away from the flailing Cid and his persistent caregivers as he possibly could.

...While it was fairly obvious that neither Cid nor Edge were the best relationship advice-givers out there, he had to give them credit for one thing: he was definitely NOT thinking about Rosa at the moment.

The small, almost imperceptible, smile that found its way onto his face then lasted for the duration of the party's visit to King Giott's castle.


----THE END XD----