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"It's not all bad, being an orphan, JoJo, you know this." Robert tried his best to smile and reassure the boy who had shared a room with him for almost four years now.
"I still miss them though. Why haven't they come back yet?" JoJo curled into a ball on his bed, willing the tears to go away.
"They will. Some day. I know they will for you. They promised after all, didn't they?"
When Jonathan first met Giorno, he had thought it was all a terrible terrible joke. No one in their right mind would believe it if someone came up to them and said they had to go to the future in a time travelling car because their entire family depended on it.
And yet…
"I can take you to see your parents, you just have to do what I say and keep trying with your dream. I promise." That simple sentence gave Jonathan more than enough reason to go with Giorno.
So there they were, sitting in an apparently time travelling car, Giorno in the drivers' seat despite not having any licence of any kind to be operating such a vehicle, and JoJo thought he had to be going crazy to actually go along with the boy.
Then the engine started, the car moved forward, Giorno got a strange twinkle in his eye and he slammed his foot down on the gas making the car zoom forward in an instant and off the roof of the Joestar mansion and just as JoJo shut his eyes, in fear of falling off the building to his death, his body felt lighter than before. With hesitation he opened his eyes again coming face to face with a flash of blue and a sudden pop of colour all around.
The world was brighter, livelier, and so much more vivid than he had ever seen and the architecture and the vehicles and the everything was all so strangely futuristic that Jonathan had to believe that Giorno really did have a time travelling car. And that he was in it. And that he was now in the future.
"You brought me to the future to read books... in your garage?" How ludicrous! With all the opportunities at his fingertips, now he knew that time travel was possible, and with every possibility to see things he never would have been able to previously he was being sat down by a boy barely older than him to read books in a garage. Granted it was a very nice garage and very well kept, but nonetheless, Jonathan wanted to see more, meet people, asks questions.
"It's too dangerous, Jona- Okay, if I'm going to let you stay here you have to use a fake name." Giorno grimaced at the mention of Jonathan's name for the xth time since the two of them had met and let out an immeasurably tired sigh. "From here on out, if anyone asks, which they shouldn't because you have to stay in the garage, your name is now Giovanni."
"But I-"
"No buts! We can't risk anything, please!" With Giorno practically begging him, Jonathan couldn't say no. Instead he nodded in agreement and went back to reading his books.
There were various pieces on archeological digs, stories of a nameless man who had done a number of impressive things in his life, and other seemingly inconsequential things that seemed to be nothing more than encouragement for Jonathan to keep on going with his dream of being an archeologist. They weren't boring in the least, just too much for him when his mind was running away with the idea of doing other thing in this practically new world.
A beeping noise came from the coat pocket of Giorno and the boy frantically pulled out a mobile phone, eyes flitting back and forth reading some message he'd gotten. With each line he read downwards, Giorno's smile seemed to drop more.
"Damn it, I didn't- I thought-! Argh! Jonathan, do not go anywhere!" Giorno ran back and forth between the table at the side of the room, the time travelling car, a pile of books, and Jonathan, moving items to and fro and snatching up the keys of the car in case JoJo got any funny ideas. In his rushed state, Giorno managed to put a white hat on JoJo as well as shove a pair of circular spectacles on his face. "Don't take those off, don't go anywhere, I'll be back soon."
And with Giorno zooming off to who knows where, JoJo found his chance to go exploring.
When Giorno found JoJo, who was thankfully still wearing the hat and glasses he'd forced on him, he was in an utter disarray. Worse, he couldn't even say anything outright at the moment he'd found him because of course Jonathan had to run into the worst possible person he could have run into.
"Giorno, who is this?" His father asked, brow furrowed and looking at Jonathan a little too carefully for comfort.
"His name's Giovanni. He's a transfer student, I'm taking him back home soon, don't worry." Giorno explained as calmly as he could despite his heart hammering in his chest a mile a minute. "I'm sorry Papa, I didn't think he'd end up disturbing you." He added for good measure, grabbing Jonathan by the sleeve and ready to take off back to the garage as quickly as possible.
"Don't be ridiculous, Giorno. It gets dark early these days and neither of you should be wandering the streets in the dark. He can stay here until tomorrow; dinner will be served at 8pm sharp."
"Y-yes, Papa." Giorno knew better than to argue with his father and he took off with a hurried step with Jonathan in tow.
As soon as the two of them were round the nearest corner, Giorno pushed open a door and tugged the both of them inside, making sure it was an empty room. He sat Jonathan down on the nearest chair he could grab and stared him down.
"What did I tell you?"
"You're barely older than me, Giorno, I had to go exploring." Jonathan answered rather matter-of-factly crossing his arms and pouting. It was a childish thing to do but he was still that after all. He didn't know what Giorno was doing, acting all mature and in charge - it just made him want to disobey for some reason.
"Who did you meet and what have you learnt?" Giorno didn't seem angry as much as on edge about the whole thing, which Jonathan didn't get but he replied anyway. He did feel the slightest bit apologetic for not staying put in the garage.
"Alright. Johnny and Gyro are married but Johnny has two sons, George and Marco. George is married to Mary and they're the parents of... your dad?"
"Yes, keep going, why the pause?"
"Sorry, I just... Well. Your dad has two step-brothers, Joseph and Jotaro. Joseph used to be married to Suzie, but is currently married to Caesar and they adopted Shizuka, and also Josuke is... Joseph's illegitimate child. Jotaro's daughter is Jolyne. Vanilla Ice is the butler, and Josefumi and Kira are...?"
"Not a clue. They just live here."
"Uhm. Josefumi and Kira have a son called Josuke who isn't the same Josuke as Joseph's son and this Josuke is going out with Yasuho. That's it, isn't it?" Jonathan finished hoping he got it all right.
"You're forgetting someone." Giorno cleared his throat and pointed at himself.
"Oh! And you're is the son of Dio and your other dad, who's name is...?"
"Unimportant. What is important is no one realised you're not from this time. "
"I don't think so, no, definitely not."
And with that single answer, Giorno's entire physique relaxed and he shut his eye with a content smile.
"Giorno, what did you do?!" Dio's voice was that of a lion, roaring down the dinner table in the direction of Giorno and Jonathan, the latter of which had lost his glasses and hat when a fork chucked by Joseph missed the back of Jotaro's head and pinged off the wall hitting Kira in the face, causing him to kick Joseph under the table but missing horribly wrong and accidentally hitting Jolyne instead, who in being wrongly attacked threw her spoon back at Josuke, who was sitting across from her, and when he ducked and made that spoon bounce off the wall and change trajectory, it went flying right at Jonathan who had fallen backwards off his chair in his hurry to not get hit. The impact of him falling on the ground caused his hat and glasses to fall off and there he stood before all of Giorno's family, and there was a horrified look in Dio's eye down the other side of the table.
"It's not what it looks like!" Jonathan butted in as quickly as he could, he didn't want Giorno to get into trouble at all but he felt as though he'd already done that just by being there.
"Giorno. You will take him home this instant." Dio spoke with a quiet danger in his voice, not even acknowledging what Jonathan had said.
"But Papa! He has to be here!"
"Don't you see the potential danger you're putting us in? That you're putting us all in?" Dio asked, and as he spoke the entire table turned and looked at each other in silence, as if they were communicating without even speaking, as if they all knew what was wrong and Jonathan was the only one without a clue.
"Giorno promised I could go meet my birth parents! He promised me I could see them before I had to go home - he said he knew where they were." And as Jonathan spoke out against the family he had come to know in the few short hours of the day they had been together.
A flash of regret passed on the faces of many of the members, but the clear longing that Jonathan has spoken with was still there, lingering in the air.
"J… Jonathan, we have to go." The silence was broken by Giorno who tugged on his sleeve without looking him in the eyes.
"It's not you. We swear. It's not your fault." Mary spoke up out of nowhere, and George was quick to hush her.
"We all love you, Jonathan. We really do." Said Joseph, but the way he said it was so different from the expression he wore. Jonathan didn't understand. He didn't know what to think.
These people who acted so friendly and kind had all turned on him because he no longer wore a hat and glasses. It was poppycock, ridiculous, unbelievable.
"Quick, we have to go." Giorno all but pulled him out of the room and away to the garage, back into the car while he could overpower the shocked Jonathan.
"You promised." Jonathan's voice broke as he held back the tears of being betrayed once again by people who once showed him love and made promises.
"I did."
"JoJo, where did you go yesterday? I know you were upset about not getting the college you wanted but you disappeared." Robert waved a hand in front of Jonathan's face. He hadn't done much after Giorno dropped him off back home, back in the orphanage, back to his old life and dying dreams. No matter if it were in the future or in the present, familial love was something he didn't get to keep for long.
"I'm fine. I'll give up on it and go into a placement when the next school year starts." It didn't take much for Robert to notice the lack of drive in Jonathan. Nothing had gotten him so down in the dumps before, but that being said Robert had no idea how to remedy the situation either.
"I still think you could do it. Get into a history course somewhere else and live the dream of being an archaeologist."
Tap!
Tap!
Tap!
Little pebbles barely capable of leaving scratches flew at intervals at Jonathan's window that afternoon. The tapping continued even after Jonathan had shut the blinds, rolled over on his bed, pulled out a chocolate bar he'd stashed under his pillow, and ignored it. So, with reluctance, he got out of bed and looked down to the street below, where he spotted a golden haired boy with emerald eyes staring up at him. He opened the window.
"What do you want?" His voice was cold and apathetic and showed how he was not at all up for the games Giorno played with his emotions.
"I'm sorry! I was wrong! I shouldn't have done anything rash and I did and I'm sorry." His apology seemed sincere enough but what was Jonathan meant to believe now? Time travel was real and yet it couldn't do anything to help him. Giorno continued as he saw Jonathan reach to close the window again." Wa-wait! I can show you how to find your family! Right now. You just have to come to the college with me."
Maybe it was a last strand of hope, pushing Jonathan to reach for his dreams, maybe it was a stupid thought of what if that spurred Jonathan on to join Giorno. Whatever it was, it took Jonathan by the hand and compelled him to follow after Giorno one more time and find his family and future.
A while into their journey, as they walked down the street, Jonathan watched the ground and his feet as they carried on down the concrete path. He didn't pay attention to where Giorno was leading him, he didn't want to be betrayed once again after hoping too much.
"When we went to the future, I did show you your family, JoJo." The statement came out of nowhere, a confession made by Giorno that made no sense. "I mean, I didn't mean to but you found them anyway, and they do- they will love you."
"What are you talking about?" Jonathan asked, shaking his head in defeat. He never met any family that could be his own, all he'd met were Giorno's eccentric relatives from all over his family tree.
"I did. I have." Giorno reiterated, stopping in his steps and gesturing to the college they'd arrived at. It was the posh school, one that you had to pay for or get a scholarship for, that Jonathan had never even considered purely because it wasn't possible in his eyes.
The people there were a cut above the rest, in terms of wealth and in terms of intellect - Jonathan didn't believe in himself that much.
"Giorno, you-" But when Jonathan turned around Giorno was gone, run off somewhere he supposed. Jonathan sighed a heavy breath and turned to face the college again. Just another impossible future.
As he turned to leave the site, Jonathan bumped into a boy the same age as him with the most beautiful eyes JoJo had ever seen and yet strangely familiar.
"I'm terribly sorry, I wasn't looking where…" Jonathan's apology trailed off as he looked a touch closer at the face of the boy he'd collided with and he flushed red. The boy was utterly gorgeous, like if a rose has a human form, or if an angel had come down from the heavens, or if a demon of seduction was putting him into a trance with his eyes. Then it all came falling into place. "Dio?" JoJo asked, the name foreign and familiar to him all at once, and he realised all of a sudden just why Giorno's dad had gotten mad at the dinner table the other day, why Giorno's family had said they loved him even when it didn't seem like it, and why Giorno had said he'd already shown him his family.
All of those articles he'd read in the garage were about things he'd done, his family did come back to him, he'd fallen in love and, and, and! Giorno was his son.
It had stared him in the face so blatantly and he was the missing piece all along.
"I'm Jonathan." JoJo smiled, looked at this young Dio with a newfound spark in his eyes as he realised what he needed to do for the future Giorno must have come from. He'd been given all the pieces and all he had to do was join them up.