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Holly Joestar's son is. Different, after Egypt.
Jotaro has always been quiet. During high school it manifested as solemn glowers punctuated by bursts of frustrated violence. His senior year, right before the trip in particular, had been the worst. There were limited problems a seventeen year old had that could be solved with punching, but damn if Jotaro hadn't done his best with all of them. Probably his Stand at work, Holly thinks, in retrospect.
His last semester, he becomes a dedicated student, brings his grades up, and starts thinking about college. They spend a lot of nights around the kitchen table after dinner, sifting through papers, comparing biology programs. He brings home a lot of pamphlets from American colleges. Holly doesn't quite know how to feel about that.
"Look at this one." University of Tampa. He's focused in on Florida in particular, for some reason. She looks at the requirements. "I could do that."
"I still think you should apply to Florida State, too."
He scowls. "They only take fourteen undergrads. I'll never get in."
"Just in case." She touches his wrist, just barely. He adjusts his hat.
He doesn't get into Florida State. He does get into Tampa, and in August she helps him pack a light suitcase and drives him to the airport.
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you, honey? It's no trouble, I promise. I can buy a plane ticket right now."
"It's fine. It would be a waste for you to fly all the way over and then fly back just to see me off."
"But you know I would if you wanted me to, right, Jotaro?"
He'd stared at the floor. So quiet, "Yeah, mom, I know."
"Call me when orientation is finished, okay? And at least once a week! I want to know what's going on with your classes!" She kisses his cheek, and he doesn't fuss. He's been much better about that since he got home, though he still gets a little belligerent when she does it in public.
Now, though, he hugs her. Lifts her off the ground a little, even. His breathing is unsteady.
"I'm going to miss you, sweetie," she says, because he won't. Not out loud, and not in so many words.
"Yeah."
Jotaro calls her every day his first semester. Usually when it's the middle of the night in Japan, but, well. Holly is empty nesting hard, and there's only so much time she can stand to spend with her neighbors. She's relieved to hear from him.
They talk for hours, sometimes. Jotaro listens, like he always has. She imagines him curled up in a chair by the hall phone, pulling on the brim of the new hat she got him before he left. A soft smile on his face.
He complains, mostly, when it's his turn to talk. About his bed - "what the fuck is a fitted sheet, mom, why can't they just make the mattress better" - about his roommate - "he talks about me while I'm in the room like I can't understand what he's saying. Like I'd fucking go to school in America if I didn't know even a little English. Asshole" - about the food - "everything's just. Mush" - and about the humidity. If she presses, she can get a little here and there about his classes and some of the events on campus and the classmates he finds tolerable, and, eventually, a girl.
Well, not specifically a girl. A friend.
Between August and when he comes home for winter break, she teases information about her out of Jotaro slowly. Her name is Lauren Dunken. She's two years older than him, and a lab assistant for his organic class. She's an environmental science major, and wants to work for an organization she interned with in high school. She runs cross country on the schools track and field team. Holly can hear the smile in her son's voice when he talks about her.
She avoids needling him when he comes back to Japan, though. Mostly because she knows it won't do any good, since her husband is home, and Jotaro gets. Funny, around his father. They are both so quiet, and more so around one another, so Holly fills the voids of conversation, happily, as she has done for twenty years.
He brings Lauren to Japan in the summer, at the end of his freshman year. Only for a week; they both have jobs lined up for the season and seem to want a little time to themselves too. But Jotaro insists she meet Holly.
(Her hair is red. It's the first thing Holly notices, a soft reddish brown. Nowhere near as red as Kakyoin Noriaki's. But.)
Jotaro tries to grab her suitcase from her at the airport, but she pulls it out of his reach playfully. His mouth quirks up a little. Lauren approaches Holly first and shakes her hand. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Kujo. Or. Kujo-san? Holly-san?" She looks to Jotaro, who shrugs.
"Jotaro! You mean you haven't taught her Japanese yet?"
He shoves his free hand into his pocket. "Like I could teach anyone. Let alone in a year."
"He taught me how to curse!" Lauren offers. "And 'yare yare daze'."
"Of course he did!"
"It's how we started talking, actually, he kept saying that under his breath and I thought he must be calling me a bitch or something. I called him out in front of the whole lab."
"Yare yare dawa."
"Oooh! Curveball!"
"I'll make you two your own rooms. Unless you want to share."
"We don't need to share," Jotaro says, a little too quickly.
Lauren laughs. "What, you don't want to have sex in your childhood home?"
He pulls his hat all the way down over his eyes. "Fuck's sake, Lauren." But he's still smiling.
Lauren seems to be a talker. Their dinner that night, just the three of them, involves a lot of questions from Holly, a lot of enthusiastic answers from Lauren, and a lot of Jotaro watching both of them with the faintest ghost of a smile on his lips.
"You see he got fat, right?" Lauren says when they've finished.
"Fuck off."
He is thicker, especially around the middle. But his clothes still fit, from what Holly can see, and he doesn't seem bothered by it. He's leaning back on his hands in a way that accentuates the extra weight. Lauren pokes him lightly.
"Still got abs though. Which is not fair."
"Good Joestar genes," he says.
"You look fine, honey," Holly reassures him.
"I know."
"It's pretty hot, actually." And Jotaro goes red.
"Fucking. Do not," he sputters. "That's my fucking mom."
She's grinning. "Holly - "
" - please - "
" - your son is hot." Jotaro flops onto his back on the floor, hat down over his eyes. Muttering. Lauren leans over him and taps his belly. "And I like him fat."
"I fucking hate you."
He's grinning. Holly can't remember the last time she saw him so happy.
She can't help but worry a little about the talking, though, if Lauren always so energetic, always wants answers when she speaks. But she finds Lauren and Jotaro in the library one night, sitting - not even reading - in total, comfortable silence. Holding hands. Lauren is pressed against him and Jotaro leans over, completely unprompted, to kiss her hair.
(There is, of course, the other time she accidentally finds them, Lauren pinning her son to a table, bruises the exact size of his hands on her thighs - )
She likes Lauren a lot, she decides.
Jotaro is three months shy of his twentieth birthday when he tells Holly she's going to be a grandmother. She almost drops the phone.
He's so young, she thinks. Only halfway through his sophomore year.
But he doesn't seem afraid, despite the unexpectedness. His voice shakes, but she can hear excitement. "She's due in May. Can you ask Grandpa if he can find a place for us? Somewhere close to her work - "
"You should call him yourself, sweetie! He'd love to hear the news from you." There's silence on the other end. "I can't make you, but I think you should tell him." More silence. And Holly starts to worry: "Are you happy, Jotaro?" she asks in Japanese, on the off chance Lauren is listening.
Another pause. Then, so softly, "I'm so happy, mom."
Holly misses her granddaughter's birth by ninety-six minutes.
She stops outside the private room. Peeks through the window for just a moment. Lauren is asleep, curled toward Jotaro, her hand on the bed like he'd been holding it not long ago. His hat is hanging up on the IV stand. And Jotaro -
He's leaned back in his chair with his baby on his chest. Looking down at her, like she's the only thing in the world. One hand covers her back, and the other touches her tiny hand, counting fingers. His lips are pressed to the top of her head and Holly wishes she could get a picture without him seeing.
Instead, she opens the door.
He looks up. His eyes are red from crying, but he gives her a bright, radiant smile, the sweetest one she's ever seen. Holly goes to sit next to him. Touches the little girl's back.
"Mom," he says with some effort. "This is Jolyne."
"Hi, Jolyne!" Holly whispers. She's crying now too. She brushes the thick black hair that dusts Jolyne's head. Kisses Jotaro's cheek. "You had hair like that when you were born, too."
His grin widens, and he kisses Jolyne again. Chuckles. "If I ever give you shit for kissing me again, just hit me. Hit me right now, actually, for senior year."
"I'm afraid I can't, honey. You're holding a baby." Another kiss. "Babies make excellent shields. I used you on your father all the time. 'Sadao, you can't be angry with me! Look, your son is here!' Worked every time."
He sniffs and wipes his eyes. "God, she's only been alive for like an hour and I've probably kissed her twenty times. How do you let me live half-way across the fucking world?"
"It gets easier, I promise."
"How?" he whispers.
She wished she knew what to tell him.
Holly stays with the new parents for two months. She teases her husband over the phone. "I'm the one who's gone for once, Sadao! Will you be able to survive without me, I wonder?" He tells her he loves her and their granddaughter.
It's summer. Jotaro is done with school for the year. Lauren goes back to work full time after only two weeks, eager to get back to it, so he and Holly are home with Jolyne during the day.
Jotaro barely lets Holly do anything to help. He insists on feeding his daughter, and playing with her, and bathing her and changing her. He even takes naps with her, passing out from exhaustion with her on his chest in the office they turned into a second bedroom and decorated with a painted garden. It's almost disappointing. Holly cooks, and takes her turn calming Jolyne in the middle of the night, and is present for all the rest, but that's just about it. No matter how many times she tells him he should let her take some duties, let him have some time to himself while Holly is still there, he never gives in.
"That sounds like something a baby thief would say," he tells her once, a week before she leaves. He has Jolyne on her back on a blanket in her room. Lies next to her and watches with fascination as she works on discovering her feet, tickling her toes with his finger tips, that tiny content smile in his eyes. "Don't you think, Jojo? I think Grandma wants to steal you." Jolyne kicks, as though in agreement. "Sorry mom, we're on to you." He kisses her belly and gets a kick in the face, so he grabs both her legs and blows a raspberry into her now chubby cheek.
(There's something beneath the sweetness that makes Holly nervous. How he literally seems terrified to let Jolyne out of his sight. How, even though they'd bought a crib, Jolyne sleeps between her parents in their bed most nights, and when she does sleep in her own room, Holly often finds Jotaro on the floor near her head in the morning. She chalks it up to being a new parent, tells herself it will get better...)
Jotaro refuses to have a wedding. Lauren too - they really are good for each other, Holly thinks, only a little bitter. She supposes she should be grateful he called her to tell her; she'd always feared, when he first moved away, that he would show up at home one year with a wife she'd never met.
(He's barely twenty-one.)
It's late April, over the weekend, so Jotaro doesn't have to miss class and Lauren doesn't have to miss work. They get married in the courthouse. Holly makes Jotaro wear his suit - "like I'd get married in fucking jeans, mom" - and Lauren wears a sundress. Her parents don't make the time to come.
"It's fine," she insists, and god she sounds like Jotaro. She lifts Jolyne - who Holly's dressed in a frilly green easter dress and matching shoes she keeps pulling off her feet - up above her head. Jotaro looks like he's about to have a heart attack.
He's yet to get over his protectiveness, Holly notes. There's something else mixed in with it now, though. Fear when he's not touching her, and more, different fear when he is. Like he could break her. She wonders what happened.
They have a tiny reception in their apartment, the four Kujos and two of their friends. Megan and Will, Holly learns, who bring potato chips and enough alcohol for a much larger group, who compliment the lunch she makes but keep their distance.
Lauren shotguns cheap beer with their encouragement. Jotaro holds Jolyne on his lap and watches fondly, but doesn't participate.
She crushes her third can down to a disk. "Your turn, Jotaro."
"I'm okay."
"Come on, babe! I talked to one of your friends in Japan - "
" - fuck my friends in Japan - "
" - you're like a legend! Let your mom hold her. Or Will."
He pulls Jolyne a little closer. "Will's drunk."
Will is drunk. "Do not hand me that tiny human, Lauren."
"Your mom, then." She turns to Holly. "Mrs. Ku - Mom." She lights up as she says it. "You want to hold Jolyne, right?"
"I'd love to, but only if he'll let me - "
" - see, hand her over and have some fun, baby, I'm begging you."
"I'm fine."
Megan adds, "Jotaro's a good Japanese boy who doesn't need to drink to have a good time." She tosses one of her beer disks at him.
He snatches it out of the air. Growls at her and pulls Jolyne to his chest. Lauren looks at her friend, appalled. "Megan, what the fuck - ?"
"Don't you fucking throw shit at my kid - "
"Chill out - "
"No, Megan, don't throw shit at my baby!" Lauren's on her feet. "What's wrong with you, what if that cut her? Are you fucking kidding me?"
Will chimes in, "That was pretty fucked up, Meg - "
" - shut up, I knew he'd catch it - "
" - not the fucking point - "
Jolyne screams. Jotaro storms out, and Holly is caught between three angry young people she barely knows, the last place in the world she wants to be. She follows her son.
They're in Jolyne's room, sitting on the soft green carpet. He has her in his lap, holding her hands and trying to distract her from the shouting that they can hear through the apartment's thin wall. "It's okay, Jojo. Daddy will keep you safe. I'll always keep you safe, Jojo. Promise. Promise, promise, promise."
They're both still crying. Jolyne loud, confused wails, and Jotaro as quiet as humanly possible.
Holly closes the door behind her. Sits next to him and kisses his cheek. He covers his eyes. "Why don't we read a story, Jotaro?" He nods, slides over to the little bookshelf full of children's books and picks one. "Will you let me read it to her, honey?" He nods again, and they settle against the wall, Jotaro pressing his lips to Jolyne's head, and Holly reads:
"Once upon a time there was a Little House way out in the country. She was a pretty Little House and she was strong and well built. The man who built her so well said, "This Little House shall never be sold for gold or silver and she will live to see our great-great-grandchildren's great-great-grandchildren living in her.""
They're on book number three, and Jolyne is asleep when Lauren comes in. Her steps waver a little; she's had more to drink. She sits next to Jotaro and puts her head on his shoulder. Holly listens like a fly on the wall.
"She's never coming over again," Jotaro says.
"She was drunk. But yeah."
"I don't fucking care if she was possessed - "
" - babe, I'm agreeing with you." She touches her daughter's head. "Poor Jolyne. Tired herself out. You too, big guy." She kisses his cheek.
"I'm fine."
"Who's tomorrow?"
"Martinez. I can take her, he doesn't care."
"M'kay. I have field work tomorrow and Tuesday."
"I can't - Lauren, I have lab Tuesday, I can't miss another one - "
"Well, it's fish sampling, and Katherine already hates me - "
"Lauren - "
" - And the new boss would love an excuse to hire James full time - "
" - they can't fire you - "
" - I could conveniently start to lose all my projects though, because they're 'just trying to be considerate of my home life' - "
" - Lauren?" Holly's not even sure they'll hear her. But they do. "Honey, I can stay until Tuesday. I can stay all week if you need someone to watch her."
A little tension flows out of them. Lauren laughs. "Can you just move over here, Holly?"
"Don't tempt me. Do you really want me to - ?"
"You don't have to move here, mom."
" I know I don't have to. But I could. You can say you don't want me around, Jotaro - "
" - don't put words in my mouth."
"Well don't shut her down if she's offering, babe - "
" - this isn't your business - "
" - um, excuse me, husband - "
" - knew it - "
" - Jolyne is my daughter, if it involves her, it's my business. End of story - "
- Jolyne stirs. All three of them go still. She rubs her eye, gurgles, and grabs Jotaro's shirt with her tiny hands. Stays asleep. There's a collective sigh of relief.
A minute later, Holly's instincts tell her it's safe to talk again. "I'm not trying to be rude, Lauren, but do your parents ever offer to take her? Don't they live in Texas? I know it's not exactly close, but it's not Japan, either."
Jotaro looks in Lauren's direction. She bites the inside of her mouth.
"My parents."
"Are assholes," Jotaro finishes when she trails off. She snuggles into him. Holly can't read the expression on her face.
"They weren't happy when I told them I was pregnant. And they were even less happy when they met Jotaro - "
" - called me a 'jap'. Like it's fucking nineteen forty or something."
"So I told them to go fuck themselves. They don't have the address here, or the phone number. And they're never going to see Jolyne if I can help it."
"Honey, I'm so sorry. I didn't know - "
" - it's fine." She wraps her arms around Jotaro and moves her head so she can kiss Jolyne. "I'm happy."
That Tuesday, when she's alone in the apartment with Jolyne, Holly finds a small photo album.
It's not the one she gave them for pictures of Jolyne - that one's almost full already. The label on the inside reads, in handwriting that is neither Jotaro's nor Lauren's, "Jotaro's _____ ______", two words aggressively scribbled out.
In it are a few dozen pictures of Lauren and Jotaro in the months before Jolyne was born. Will and Megan appear in a number of them in the background, usually the object of their attention in a way that feels deliberate on the photographer's part. They sit or stand, side by side: on their couch, on the floor of someone else's living room, in their kitchen. In every single one, Jotaro has a hand resting gently on Lauren's belly.
Holly smiles. She'd missed that, hadn't, at her son's insistence, visited once while Lauren was pregnant. They'd had too much going on with moving, with Lauren starting her dream job, with Jotaro cramming extra work in so he would be finished before she was born. They didn't have anywhere for her to sleep yet. Silly excuses, but Holly had pretended to buy them. They wanted to have their last few months alone, without an overbearing mother around. But she's grateful for this person, who took these few sneaky pictures of Jotaro showering his girlfriend - his wife - with affection.
The last picture is the best, dated a week before Jolyne was born. Her son - her children, she thinks - on the floor, leaned up against the couch. Dozing. Coffee table covered in a layer of textbooks. Lauren has her back to Jotaro's chest, and both his hands are low on her belly, like he's cradling their daughter.
Holly wants to keep it, but she knows that won't go over well. Maybe she'll make a copy.
Jolyne is three when she makes her first trip to Japan. Holly goes all out at the airport with a sign that says, 'Welcome, Jolyne!' with butterflies painted around the edges.
(Her granddaughter loves butterflies. The last time Holly visited, she demanded Nana paint more on her wall - "'cause. 'Cause daddy can't paint." Holly has a surprise for her at home.)
"Nana!" Jolyne shrieks when she sees her. Jotaro is carrying her in one arm, a rolling suitcase in the other.
She flails wildly in Jotaro's grip, turns herself upside down, making grabby hands at Holly and -
- for a second, her son's expression is one of absolute terror. His hand turns white on Jolyne's hip, and Star Platinum appears next to him, arms outstretched under her -
Lauren touches his shoulder. "Babe, you're hurting her - !"
Star disappears and Jotaro's hand goes slack. Jolyne kicks and squirms and reaches for her mother, then Holly, unable to decide where she wants to be. Jotaro kisses her forehead. "Sorry, Jojo," he whispers. Jolyne just whines.
"She's cranky from sitting still," Lauren explains. Lifts her out of Jotaro's arms, who takes it like he's being punished. "But she was so good on her first plane ride, weren't you, Jojo?" Lauren is just as free with her kisses as her husband. "Do you want to tell Nana what you did on the plane?"
"Colored."
"And?"
"And. Look at a fishes."
"Jotaro brought his homework," she explains.
"I have to do it sometime." He squeezes Jolyne's leg. "What else did we do?"
"Take a sleep."
"We took a long sleep, didn't we, Jojo! And Daddy put your hair up, didn't he?"
Holly laughs at the two messy buns on Jolyne's head. "That explains it!"
"Leave me alone."
He's not smiling.
"Jo~lyne!" Holly sings. Brandishes a package wrapped in green paper. "I have a surprise for you, Jojo."
She's at the table with Jotaro, coloring insects with wide, messy crayon strokes while he makes notes from four different textbooks spread over the table and the floor. He raises his head, but she doesn't, intensely focused on her work.
"I told you she doesn't need anymore stuff, mom."
"But this is good stuff, honey." She sits next to Jolyne. "Would you like to open it, Jojo?"
Jolyne finally looks up. She stares at the package in confusion. Looks at her father. "Birthday?"
"No, Jojo, it's not your birthday," Holly says. "But Nana's like to give their Jojo's presents sometimes even when it's not their birthday. Because they saw something she would really like and wants her to have it."
"Because Nana wants a spoiled grandchild," Jotaro mumbles.
"What was that, sweetie?"
"Nothing."
Holly puts the package in Jolyne's little hands. She opens it so carefully, finding the seams. She makes a face when the paper tears a little. Then, it lights up when she sees: "Bu'erflies!"
A whole package of them, all different kinds, made of plastic and rubber. "They're all made to look like real ones, isn't that neat, Jojo? Maybe you and your daddy can look them up in the encyclopedia and see where you can go to look for them, wouldn't that be fun?"
She gets up and runs to Jotaro. Shoves the bag at him with both hands. "Would you like me to open them, Jojo?"
"Pease."
He takes it from her with a smile, prying open the cardboard with the same care she showed with the paper. "You're so polite, Jolyne. Thank you for being so polite." He hands her one of them as a reward, a dull green one.
She eyes it suspiciously. "Bu'erflies isn't green."
"Aren't green, Jojo." He consults the packaging, where there's a list of the species and their names. "And this one is. It's called an Olivewing. Don't put that in your mouth, please."
"Kay." She takes it out, but presses the wing to her lips. Deliberately testing him.
"Jo-lyne," he says, soft but stern. His Dad Voice. (Her son has a Dad Voice now.)
She sits and folds her hands in her lap. Sets the butterfly on the table. "Sorry, daddy."
"Why are you sorry?"
"Didn' listen."
"That's right. Thank you, Jojo." He kisses the top of her head. One by one, he closes the books and stacks them on the far side of the table, and Jolyne lights up and it breaks Holly's heart. "Let's look at the other butterflies."
He takes them out one by one, handing them to her and telling her their names. She holds each reverently, whispering things like, "Beau'iful," before placing them in careful rows on the table.
"And what do we say to Nana?"
"Fank you, Nana!" Jolyne says with a radiant smile. "Fank you Nana for bu'erflies! I love them!"
Jotaro tucks a wisp of hair behind her ear and thanks Holly too.
Jotaro calls regularly, but she doesn't see her son for three years, until he's in Japan again for work. He's been busy, first with school, and then with whatever the business in Morioh was. He tells her about it, very briefly, about his thesis, about her brother - her brother! - and the rest of the teenagers who'd helped him on his assignment.
He's avoiding something, though. He's pulled his leg up to his chest, a habit he'd mostly grown out of in recent years, and fusses with his tea cup. Holly knows not to press. And, sure enough, after a long, mostly comfortable silence, he says:
"Lauren and I might get a divorce."
"Oh." Holly tries to keep her voice neutral, but sympathetic. "I'm sorry to hear that, honey."
"We're going to try to work it out. But I'm subletting a place from my mentor this year and. I'll get Jolyne Wednesday through Friday night."
She scoots around to sit next to him. "Do you want to talk about it?"
He huffs. "No." Grabs the brim of his hat, and suddenly it seems like he's in high school again, Not Talking about Kakyoin Noriaki. Holly knows him better than to take it at face value. She rubs his back, and sure enough, he continues. "She just stopped giving a shit."
"About Jolyne?"
"About me." He switches his legs. "She just. She never used to say shit like 'why do you always look angry' or 'why won't you look at me'. 'Why do you always get depressed in January'." Holly kisses his cheek, her chest tight. "I don't know what she was thinking. Maybe that I'd grow out of it. It just sucks, you know? I thought she'd be different.
"Then there's everything I do. Being a shitty dad - "
"Honey - "
"You don't have to make me feel better, mom, I know I am." He takes one of Noriaki's earrings out of his pocket and rolls it between his fingers. "She was sick, while I was over here."
"Jolyne?"
"Yeah. She had an infection, she was in the hospital for two weeks. And I could have gone over there. But I always freak out when she's sick, and she's old enough to notice now." He covers his face. Trying desperately not to cry. "She's such a sweet girl, mom! She had a stomach bug last year and she kept asking me if I was okay! Because I couldn't stop crying."
"That's because of you, Jotaro. You and Lauren, teaching her to be thoughtful, and loving, and sweet."
Jotaro sobs. "She deserves a better dad."
It breaks her heart. But she knows better than to try to placate him with empty words. "Maybe. But you're her father. You can't take that away. You just have to do your best."
He sniffs. Then, so soft, says, "I think this is my best, mom."
She can almost feel him shut down. Pack the emotions away so he doesn't have to feel them anymore. His shoulders stop shaking, but he switches legs again. "It's better for her if I'm not around."
"You really believe that, don't you?" She kisses his temple. "You silly boy."
"I'm not a kid anymore, mom."
"No, but you're always going to be my kid."
His lips quirk. "Do you remember - ?"
"No."
He giggles. It was a long running joke between them, when Jotaro was younger, before his angry streak and Egypt. Her son's memory worked in such a strange way, narrowing in on certain details for years while he forgot other things within minutes, without any pattern that Holly could discern.
"There was a show on one time. I was probably like. Ten?" he adds, and she beams. The age has always been an important detail for her, even if he couldn't care less. "They were talking about how you sometimes get a person who just. Knows you. And you said I was your person."
She doesn't remember. But it sounds like something she would say. And it makes her feel warm that he would remember something like that, through the months of his performative hatred and the almost eight years since.
"I think," he continues, and his voice is thick again. "I think Noriaki might have been my person."
Oh. "You think so?"
"Besides you, I mean." Holly smiles to herself. "And I thought Lauren was but."
"You're missing him a lot, huh?" In response, he leans on her shoulder, lets her take his hat off his head. "You've never called him Noriaki before. Are you sure he doesn't have anything to do with this?"
"I'm not leaving Lauren because of Kakyoin, mom. He's. He's been gone a long time."
Maybe not, she thinks as she strokes his hair. But I do think you're leaving her because you've never talked about him. Or Egypt. I think those two months are still eating you up inside, and you're pushing everyone away.
Holly had thought, when he first came home, that things would be fine.