She had sent Hideki to his friend's house. She would have to tell him, eventually, sooner than she would ever like, but she couldn't do it. Not right now. There were others who had to know first. When she finally had Jiraiya alone, she turned to him, taking his hands. A sad smile stretched on her face, worn and exhausted with age. She looked remarkably like her Mother. "Jiraiya..." there was so much she wanted to say but knew she couldn't. In the end, she simply said, "I'm dying."
It was usually not all that indicative of anything when Akemi would pull Jiraiya aside for a chat. Usually it was hushed in another room, something about things Hideki had said or done or things like that. But when he realised she'd send him to a friend's house, he was worried. And when she took his hands like she did, gave that smile that told him more than he wanted to know, he almost didn't want to listen.
And the words came out of her mouth, swift and worse than he could have ever anticipated.
He froze - this wasn't right, this wasn't how it was supposed to go, he was supposed to go before she did - that's how this was supposed to work but now she was dying and she'd leave him and she'd leave their son and-
Eyes went wider and his mouth fell slightly agape - their son would be left without a mother, he'd have to take care of him on his own, this was all too much too fast too hard not okay-
"... A-Akemi, I..." he barely managed to get her name out, lump quickly forming in his throat as he went to speak again. It was too hard to think, it was almost too hard to breathe - he loosened his hands from her grip only to wrap his arms around her, pulling her towards him and hoping like hell she didn't notice the fact that he was trembling.
"I... I don't want you to... you to go," he murmured, "I don't want you to... to leave me... to leave us, Akemi, Hideki and I, we... we need you, Akemi," he whispered, voice failing him as something akin to a choked sob punctuated his sentence, trying desperately to ignore the reality of it all fora few fleeting moments.