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It’s hard to keep balance when there is nothing around to keep you upright. Harder yet to see in a void of emptiness, pitch black with inky darkness surrounding you from all directions. All you can do is let yourself fall into the endless space, disorientated and alone without any indication of anyone else in nearby.
Apart from the soft sobs of tears.
But could they even be classified as an indication of another?
Dio knew the cries well. He hadn't heard them in full since his childhood, and it made sense, seeing as they were from his childhood. The distant yet familiar sound serenaded him as he fell, deeper and deeper into nothingness. He couldn't help himself as the tears of his own being, 20 years later, began to slip through his eyelashes and down his cheeks, without a sound. He’d learnt that nothing good came of crying loud enough for others to hear you and, despite it being a rare occasion, he never forgot how to silence his pitiful whimpers of weakness.
He could hear the echoes of his father’s voice reprimanding him and shouting with an addled mouth that reeked of alcohol. The voices of his past tormenting him with harsh words and old forgotten insults. He could hear it all too well...
Unfortunately, it didn't last long.
“Dio.” A voice spoke, lighter than air, a lilt to the tone. Not just any voice. Jonathan’s voice.
“Dio!” The voice laughed, and Dio could only see the image in his head so perfectly. JoJo and his usual grin, his fangs poking his bottom lip, his tail swishing back and forth, but when he opened his eyes (or maybe they were never closed at all) that wasn’t what he saw.
“Dio… Why…?” Jonathan slumped forwards, impaling himself further on the knife that was held steady in Dio’s hand. He fell backwards with a resounding thud as blood pooled from out from him. Dio promptly dropped the knife and to his knees, fear striking a chord in his heart as he realised what had happened.
Not again.
"Dio..." Jonathan's voice grew thin, but Dio didn't know what to do. He kneeled there, his hands shaking in the air as he couldn't bring himself to even touch JoJo, and he watched the boy he'd grown up with die again. A veil of blood covering his body and the colour draining face, and then Dio was falling again. Falling down, further and further, away from where Jonathan's body lay lifeless in the void he found himself in.
He landed hard on a surface that he couldn't see and there was a wretched gasp of breath taken in, and it was then that Dio realised that he was still crying. Only now it was not for himself but for JoJo. The air tasted foul and heavy on his tongue as he choked to catch his breath and his sight - or rather, his lack of - was blurred through his tears. He pounded his fist against the ground as he caught his breath and willed the tears to stop.
They didn't.
He dug his fingers against the ground, shutting his eyes tight, and when he opened them again he was back at the church. A welcomed change in scenery and yet still every bit as unnerving as before. Cautiously, Dio looked around to find himself lying on the floor just outside the door, and an ethereal light by his side. It shone brighter than anything he'd ever seen before yet it did not hurt to look at; it simply felt warm.
The being raised a hand to Dio's cheek, soft lips pressed against the space between his eyebrows, and a whisper resonated in his ear.
It was time to wake up.
He opened his eyes again, blinking once, twice, and a third time before he could see properly. Worried blue eyes stared back at him, intense with emotions enough to make Dio himself hurt. He sat up and JoJo sat down on the bed, pulling Dio into a hug. Dio tensed up, surprised by the display of affection, but JoJo only seemed to hold him closer.
JoJo was quiet for a moment as if choosing out his words carefully, "You were crying in your sleep..." He finally spoke, and Dio raised a hand to his face to feel a damp trail across his cheek.
"It was a nightmare. The fickle imagination of an idle mind." Dio replied through gritted teeth, wiping his face with the back of his hand. "Why are you in my room again?" He pulled out of the hug and glared at the incubus, no real intent behind the look. They both knew it didn't mean anything.
"I came to check up on you; are you alright?"
Dio managed a pitiful excuse for a laugh, "Of course I'm alright. Foolish of you to think I wouldn't be." He moved away further from JoJo, lying back down on the bed. "It's the middle of the night, I need to sleep." Dio rolled over to face away from the obviously concerned incubus and closed his eyes. JoJo made no move to get up, instead sitting there and looking down at Dio's figure on the bed.
After what seemed to be an internal war with himself, Jonathan got up from the bed and sighed, about to walk away, but his shirt got snagged on something. He looked down to find the cause of it and try unhook himself so he could leave but his hand brushed against Dio's and he didn't need the other man to say a single word to know what he wanted.
He spread his wings and smiled gently, tucking them away before lying down in the bed with Dio. He contemplated putting his arms around the other man, hoping it would help put his mind at ease, but before he could, Dio turned around and lay facing him, on arm holding tight to JoJo, his blunt nails digging into the incubus' back just enough to pinch his skin, and JoJo pulled him closer.
"I'm sorry for everything, JoJo."
"I know." He hummed, stroking Dio's hair carefully. "It's okay. It's all in the past now, and after all, you've changed so much since then. You're okay, and I'm okay."