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"Josuke."
Jotaro's voice intruded on Josuke's wandering thoughts. He blinked and shook his head. "Sorry, what?"
"I asked if you were alright."
"Oh. Uh," Josuke looked out the cab window at the city passing by, avoiding Jotaro's gaze. "Yeah. I'm fine. This is just a little weird for me. It's hard to believe it's real."
"Mm."
"I mean, until this year I didn't even know I had a father, let alone that he was still alive. And now I have two sisters I didn't know about, too." Josuke sighed and reached into the baby carrier that was strapped securely into the seat between them, letting Shizuka play with his finger. She chirped happily. "It's a lot, you know?"
"It only gets more complicated from here," Jotaro said grimly.
"I don't know if I can believe that."
Jotaro snorted. "You will, sooner or later."
The cab rolled to a stop in front of a large front gate. Jotaro opened the door on his side and reached back to unbuckle the baby carrier. "We're here."
"Here?" Josuke said in disbelief, looking up at the gate. The placard to the side definitely said Kujo—Jotaro wasn't pulling his leg. But the house was big, probably ten times the size of his own back in Morioh. Josuke could hear the sound of running water from a fountain on the other side of the wall.
Jotaro ignored his surprise and pushed the gate open. "Come on."
"Hey, wait up!" Josuke jogged to catch up with Jotaro before he got left behind.
The house really was huge, once Josuke was standing on the other side of the fence. He'd been expecting...well, he didn't really know what he'd been expecting. Something like home? He'd almost forgotten that the old man was loaded.
"You really grew up here?"
Jotaro nodded.
"It's really nice."
Josuke did his best to swallow his nervousness as they walked over a bridge that crossed a large koi pond and approached the front door. He wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, but he was scared to meet Jotaro's mother. He had no idea what to expect. It seemed reasonable and even likely that she would be angry with him—after all, his existence was the cause of a wave of trouble that had rippled through their entire family. He bit his lip, trailing behind Jotaro, his feet faltering as they drew closer.
The small blonde woman who answered the front door was exactly the opposite of what he was expecting.
She looked nothing like Jotaro, for starters. She was a full foot shorter and had green eyes instead of blue. She had a delicate face, with a number of fine lines that showed she smiled often, just like she was now.
"Jotaro!" she chirped happily, throwing her arms around him. "I'm so happy you came to visit."
"Hi, mom." Jotaro bent down and kissed her on the cheek.
She pulled back, looking him up and down approvingly. "How's Jolyne? I haven't seen her in so long."
"I know. I'm sorry." Jotaro fiddled with the brim of his hat.
"Who's Jolyne?" Josuke interrupted, his curiosity overcoming his fear.
Jotaro looked away. "My daughter."
"You have a kid?"
"She lives with her mother in Florida. I travel a lot for work."
Holly Kujo sidestepped her son and looked at Josuke . "You must be Josuke," she said with an easy smile. "You look so much like Jotaro when he was younger. You can call me Holly, since I'm your sister after all!"
Josuke wiped the look of shock off his face and bowed low. "It's nice to meet you. I'm very sorry for all the trouble I've caused—"
"Don't be silly! None of what happened is your fault. I was mad at Papa for hurting Mama for a while, but I already hit him with my slipper so everything is fine now. He's in enough trouble at home as is."
Still strapped into the baby carrier, Shizuka let out a wail. Holly bent down and peered into it, smiling with delight at the sight of her. "She's beautiful!"
"It was a long trip," Jotaro said, shifting the carrier to his other hand. "I think she's tired."
"Hmm." Holly unbuckled the baby, dodging her flailing little fists, and picked her up. "Shhhh," she said, cradling her in her arms. "Everything is alright."
"Careful," Josuke warned. "If she gets too upset she'll turn you—"
Holly caressed Shizuka's cheek with her hand, and the baby immediately stopped crying. Josuke gasped, eyes wide. Trailing from Holly's hand were vines, not unlike the old man's Hermit Purple. These were green, though, and had berries and leaves on them that resembled a raspberry bush.
"She's just wet and hungry," Holly said to Jotaro. "I'll get her cleaned up while you show Josuke to his room."
"Those—" Josuke swallowed. "You're—"
"A stand user," Jotaro finished. "Yes."
Josuke opened his mouth and then closed it again. "I have literally a million questions."
"Later." Jotaro slipped off his shoes and then turned and headed into the house. "Come on, Josuke."
"Hey, wait up a second!"
"Dinner will be ready soon," Holly said, smiling. "We can talk then. Please make yourself at home!"
Josuke glanced from her to Jotaro's retreating back. With an exasperated groan, he yanked off his shoes as quickly as possible and ran to catch up.
Jotaro led him through the house, stopping at the entrance to a bedroom. "This one is yours," he said with a nod. "I'm down the hall."
"Thanks." Josuke set down his bag just inside. "Hey, Jotaro?"
"Hm?"
"Your mom's really nice. Thank you for bringing me here."
"Wait until you taste her cooking," Jotaro said with a small smile. "See you later."
"Yeah."
Jotaro vanished into the house, and Josuke was alone. He sat on the floor and looked out into the garden, listening to the low burble of water and the sound of birds chirping in the trees.
So that was Holly Kujo, huh? Josuke had been expecting something...different. Based on his interactions with Jotaro, he'd been picturing someone more like his own mom. It was hard to believe that this small, relentlessly positive woman was his sister. Never mind the fact that she was almost old enough to be his grandma.
He thought of his own mom, back in Morioh, with a pang. It had taken a lot of convincing for her to even let him go on this trip. Jotaro had finally had to intercede on his behalf for Josuke to finally get permission to leave with him. He could tell that his wanting to leave had hurt her, though she'd done her best to hide it. He bit his lip, thinking of her sitting in the house by herself worrying about him. He didn't like leaving her alone. Not since gramps died. She needed him to take care of her.
Maybe he should have let the old man see her, after all.
No. It was better this way. Seeing Joseph Joestar after all these years would only have upset her. She'd been through enough in the past few months.
A knock on the sliding door startled him out of his thoughts.
"Dinner is ready," Holly said, peeking around the jamb. "Can you get Jotaro for me, please?"
Josuke nodded. "Sure."
He found Jotaro sitting at the desk in his room down the hall, in the middle of what sounded like a terse conversation on the phone. Josuke cleared his throat awkwardly to announce his presence and Jotaro looked up.
"Sorry to interrupt—your mom says that dinner is ready."
Jotaro nodded and turned away. "Look, I'll call you back when I can, okay?" he muttered into the receiver, his voice low. "Yeah. Bye."
He hung up the phone and pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh.
"Is everything okay?"
"It's nothing you need to worry about." Jotaro stood. "Come on, follow me."
Holly was waiting for them in the dining room, with Shizuka already settled into a baby seat and drinking happily from a bottle. Josuke followed Jotaro's lead and sat, eyeing the noodle dish on the table in front of him curiously.
Jotaro glanced at his mother. "Is this...?"
"Spaghetti al nero di seppia," Holy replied in perfect Italian.
"You made the old man's favorite?"
"I was hoping he'd be able to have dinner with us, but he had to fly back to New York ahead of schedule."
"Thought you were still pissed at him."
"He's my father. Mama already forgave him, and besides, I can't stay mad at him forever." Holly shot him a reproachful look.
"Good grief." Jotaro looked away, avoiding her gaze.
"I didn't know you were Italian," Josuke said, desperate to alleviate some of the awkwardness.
Holly smiled. "On my mother's side. She was born and raised in Venice. It's where she met my—our—father." She laughed. "Oh, my. This is weird, isn't it?"
"Sort of," Josuke admitted. He felt a little better having acknowledged it. "I'm glad to be here, though. Thank you for inviting me."
Holly smiled. "I'm so glad you decided to come." She gestured at the still-steaming food in front of them. "Let's eat!"
“Thank you for the meal!” Josuke dug into his plate, twirling inky black spaghetti around his fork the way Tonio had taught him to. Jotaro wasn’t kidding; his mom really was a great cook. Her Italian food was at least as good as Tonio’s, and the fact that it didn’t do weird things to his body after he ingested it was always a bonus in Josuke’s book.
Dinner passed uneventfully. Josuke cleaned his plate and went back for seconds, savoring the tangy flavor of squid ink on his tongue. Tonio had been trying to talk him into trying this forever. Something about the color had initially put him off, but now Josuke regretted that he hadn’t just trusted the cook’s judgment. He’d really been missing out.
The baby started fussing toward the end of dinner, and Holly picked her up. “You boys finish up,” she said, getting to her feet. “I’ll put her to bed.”
“No, I’ll do it.” Jotaro got to his feet and took Shizuka from her, cradling her delicately.
Holly smiled at him. “When did you get so helpful?”
“Sometime after I learned firsthand how hard it is to be a parent.” Jotaro nodded at Josuke. “Besides, I’m sure Josuke has questions for you.”
“Alright,” Holly agreed. “Let me just clean up the dishes, then.”
“I’ll help!” Josuke got up and helped stack the plates and cups and carry them to the kitchen. He stood by awkwardly while Holly filled the sink up with hot soapy water, and then did his best to make himself useful by drying the dishes as she finished washing them.
He did this at home with his mom a lot. Both of them hated housework, and the only way anything ever got done was if they both suffered together. Left to his own devices, Josuke never would have washed a plate in his life, but he kind of liked doing dishes with his mom while she told him about her day. He’d get caught up on the latest drama at her office, and she would listen to him complain about schoolwork and occasionally give him advice when he was arguing with a friend.
“So,” he said, fiddling with the dishrag as he turned a plate over, looking for stray water droplets. “You’re a stand user, too?”
“Yes!” Holly laughed, bubbles floating up around her as she squirted more dish soap onto the sponge. “I gained my stand ability at the same time that Jotaro got his, and I assume you got yours?”
“Yeah.” Josuke set the plate down and took the next one as she passed it to him. “I was four years old when it happened, and my mom didn’t know what was going on. The doctors thought I had a bad infection. I was in the hospital for almost two months, and one day I suddenly got better. My mom couldn’t see Crazy Diamond, so she thought he was an imaginary friend I made up. I didn’t know anyone else had abilities like mine until I met Jotaro.”
“From the sound of things, you’ve met quite a few more other stand users since then.”
“You can say that again. At this point, I think it would be easier to make a list of everyone in Morioh who doesn’t have a stand ability.” He glanced at Holly. “Is it rude to ask—”
“What mine is?” Holly finished with a smile. “Of course not. We’re family, after all!”
She placed the cup she was washing back in the water, dried her hands on a dish towel, and then extended one of her hands out toward Josuke. The raspberry vines were back, wrapping around her fingers and forearm, seemingly growing out of her skin. They undulated slightly as if caught in a breeze.
“This is Houses of the Holy,” Holly said with a kind smile. “It’s very similar to Papa’s Hermit Purple, but instead of spirit photos I have empathic abilities.”
“What does that mean?” Josuke said, peering at them as closely as he dared.
“It means that if I touch someone with it, I can sense their emotions. I can’t read minds—” she clarified, seeing the look on Josuke’s face, “—but I can get a general sense of what a person is feeling. I can also influence their emotions, to a limited degree.”
Josuke nodded slowly, remembering how Shizuka had stopped crying earlier when Holly touched her with her stand. “So that was how you calmed the baby.”
“It does come in handy sometimes!” Holly retracted her hand and fished in the sink for the cup. It slipped through her fingers and shattered. “Oh, shoot. Where’s the broom—”
“Don’t worry!” Josuke said with a grin. “I can be useful sometimes, too!”
He knelt down and held his hand over the shattered pieces of the cup, which flew back together. He handed it back to Holly, who took it carefully.
“Thank you, Josuke!” she exclaimed in delight.
He looked away, blushing. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s wonderful!” Holly scrubbed the cup, rinsed it, and set it on the dish rack.
“Ms. Holly, can I ask you something else?” Josuke said after a moment.
“Of course.”
“Do you live here all alone? What happened to Jotaro’s father?”
“My husband Sadao passed away in 1992 from a sudden heart attack,” Holly responded, sadness apparent in the lines of her face for the first time that evening. “I’ve lived alone since then.”
“I’m sorry.” Josuke looked away. “I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s alright,” Holly said with a sad smile. “You had no way of knowing. Jotaro doesn’t like to talk about him.”
“Why not? I mean—I’m sorry, that’s intrusive, isn’t it?”
“He’s angry.” Holly shrugged. “He won’t talk to me about it, but I can tell that he is. You’d have to ask him about it.”
Easier said than done. Josuke bit his lip.
“But anyway,” Holly said, wiping her hands on her apron, “I think that was the last of the dishes! Thank you for your help, Josuke. You’re a wonderful young man. Your mother must be very proud.”
“I try to give her reasons to be.” Josuke rubbed the back of his neck.
Holly smiled kindly. “I think I’ve kept you in the kitchen for long enough. Why don’t you go find Jotaro? He should be finished putting the baby to sleep by now.”
Josuke nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”
Holly hummed cheerfully to herself as Josuke slipped away, heading toward the back of the house where his and Jotaro’s rooms were. Man, this was weird. Everything about this was weird. He’d been expecting some awkwardness, maybe even flat out hostility from Jotaro’s mom, but she’d accepted him into her home as readily as if they’d been raised together. What he hadn’t been expecting was this glimpse behind the curtains of Jotaro’s life. The older man never talked about himself, not really. The revelation that he had a life and even a child back in the United States came as a shock to Josuke. How could someone hide that much of themselves? They were supposed to be family, weren’t they? Why hadn’t Jotaro said anything?
He passed by his own empty room and continued on to Jotaro’s. The door was open, but the lights were out and there was no sign of him. Josuke frowned to himself, continuing to wander around toward the back of the house. He was bound to be around here somewhere.
The scent of cigarette smoke on the breeze told him he was heading in the right direction. Josuke found Jotaro around the back of the house, sitting on the edge of the engawa and smoking a pack of Seven Stars. He looked well and truly exhausted, the lines of his face aging him significantly. The cordless phone sat on the ground nearby.
Josuke sat a few feet away, looking out into the manicured garden. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Jotaro returned with a nod.
“I didn’t know you smoked.”
“I don’t do it as much as I used to. I’m trying to quit.”
“What are you doing out here? It’s almost midnight.”
Jotaro gestured vaguely toward the phone. “It’s morning on the east coast. I was waiting for a phone call, but…” he trailed off, shrugging.
“Earlier, when you were on the phone—?”
“I was talking to Jolyne’s mother.” Jotaro took a drag on his cigarette and sighed it out.
“You’re married?”
“Divorced,” Jotaro replied flatly.
Josuke winced. What the hell was it with the men in this family and relationships? Was it some kind of curse? Shit, was he doomed to this sort of fate, too?
“I’m sorry,” he said after a moment.
“Don’t be. It happens. You had no way of knowing.”
“Apparently, there’s a lot that I don’t know,” Josuke said, looking up at the night sky. “I thought I had a handle on this stuff, but once I started asking questions I realized that there are a million things I don’t understand.”
The ghost of a smile crossed Jotaro’s lips. “Welcome to the family.”
Josuke snorted. “It really is a mess, isn’t it?”
“That would be an understatement.”
Josuke glanced sideways at Jotaro, watching him ash his cigarette into a pilfered mug. “Can I have one of those?”
Jotaro paused and raised an eyebrow. “Since when do you smoke?”
“I don’t.” Josuke shrugged. “Can I have one anyway?”
Jotaro looked as if he were wrestling with himself for a moment, and then handed the pack over to Josuke. “Knock yourself out. But only this once, and if you breathe a word of this to your mother or mine, I’ll kick your ass.”
“Thanks.” Josuke knocked a cigarette out of the pack and held it to his lips with uncertain fingers. It took him a good three tries to get the lighter to stay lit, and when he took his first drag he coughed and spluttered.
Jotaro snorted. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Josuke wheezed, his face flushed red. “Shut up.”
It was weird to hear Jotaro laugh. It was weird to even see him smile. He was usually so stone-faced, bowing under the obvious weight of the things he carried on his shoulders. Josuke didn’t fully understand the work that the Speedwagon Foundation had him travelling around doing, but it was obvious that it had taken its toll over the years.
“You said you’re trying to quit, right?” he asked after a minute.
“Yeah.” Jotaro lit another cigarette off the end of his old one and dropped the butt into the mug.
“Then why are we out here hiding from your mom?” Josuke took a cautious drag and coughed again. Man, this was lame. He’d pictured something cooler, but the smoke hurt going down, and it tasted like stale leaves. He made a face.
“There’s a lot going on right now. It’s harder not to when you’re stressed.”
“Is it because of me?”
Jotaro shook his head. “No.”
“Then what?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Try me.”
Jotaro blew smoke in a long stream up toward the night sky. “I’ve told you about Egypt.”
“Bits and pieces, yeah.”
“Some good friends of mine died there. The first time I met Kakyoin, we got into a fight and I messed him up pretty badly. The old man and I brought him back here to treat his wounds. If I hadn’t done that, he probably would have died right then—Dio had planted a flesh bud in his head to control him, and it was consuming his brain.”
Josuke made a poorly-disguised sound of disgust under his breath.
“I removed it with Star Platinum, and saved his life. He decided after that to come with us on the trip. It’s my fault, really, that he was in Egypt in the first place. He could have gone home to his parents and forgotten all about us, but for some reason he felt like he had to come.” Jotaro looked away as he ashed his cigarette. “Coming back here always stirs up old ghosts for me. It’s why I don’t visit often. I know mom wishes I would come back to Japan more, but…” he shook his head. “I don’t know.”
"But you won, right?" Josuke said with a sidelong glance. "You defeated Dio, and saved me and your mom."
Jotaro was quiet for a moment. "Yeah. I did."
Josuke waited. Jotaro sighed.
"There's more to a fight like that than just the outcome, Josuke. It leaves scars."
"I can—"
Jotaro shook his head. "Not scars that you can heal, or that other people can see. I have plenty of those too, but you already know that."
"Yeah," Josuke said, remembering with a wince the time he'd seen them in all their twisted glory when Jotaro had enlisted his help with a research project on the beach. He hadn't understood until then why the older man always wore long-sleeved shirts, even during the hottest part of summer.
"I thought you might understand," Jotaro said eventually. "After what happened with Kira."
Josuke swallowed. "I uh...I try not to think about it too much."
"But you dream about it sometimes, don't you?"
Josuke looked away. "I'm fine."
"If you say so." Jotaro took a long drag on his cigarette.
They sat quietly for a while, with only the sound of the night breeze rustling through the trees to punctuate the silence. Josuke bit his lip.
“Hey, Jotaro?”
“Hm?”
“What was your dad like?”
Jotaro brought his cigarette up to his lips. “He wasn’t around much.”
Josuke realized suddenly that his own failed attempt at a cigarette had burnt down to the end and gone out. A column of ash wobbled at the end of it. He dropped it into the mug that Jotaro was using as an ashtray. Never again. His mouth tasted disgusting.
“I don’t know.” Jotaro sighed out smoke. “I guess he was quiet. Even when he was home he was barely here, and when he was on tour we sometimes wouldn’t hear from him for weeks at a time.”
“On tour?”
“He was a jazz musician.”
“Hang on—” Josuke blinked. “You mean your dad was that Sadao Kujo?”
“Yeah.”
The huge house suddenly made sense. Josuke was pretty sure his mom still had some of Sadao Kujo’s records sitting around their house somewhere. She used to listen to them all the time when he was a kid.
Man, could this get any weirder?
"You know the old man didn't leave you and your mom alone on purpose, right?"
"Huh?" Josuke looked up, startled out of his thoughts.
"He has his faults, but as annoying as he can be he's a pretty good dad. If he'd known about you, he would have been there. There's no doubt in my mind about that."
"I guess, yeah." Josuke rubbed the back of his neck. "It's not...I'm not angry with him. But it's hard to make up for lost time. It's just been me and my mom my whole life. It's weird to have someone turn up all of a sudden and expect to be my parent."
"I get it." Jotaro leaned back against the railing and looked up at the starry sky. "He means well, though. I won't tell you how to live your life, but you should give him a chance. He only wants to know you."
"Yeah. I know." Josuke sighed. "You think he's still mad at me for stealing his wallet?"
Jotaro chuckled. "You are absolutely his son."
Josuke laughed too, feeling strangely lighter than he had before he sat down. Jotaro didn't usually talk much, but when he did his advice usually helped Josuke clear his head. He was going to miss having him around. It had been nice having family in Morioh, especially after Gramps died.
"Do you think you're ever going to come back? To Morioh, I mean."
Jotaro hummed. "Depends on where my work takes me. I'd like to, though. It's a nice town."
"You know you can always just stay with me and my mom, right? You don't have to get a hotel room. If that's not too weird for you."
Jotaro nodded. "Thanks." He sucked on his cigarette thoughtfully. "I might be back," he said after a moment. "I'm defending my thesis in a few months. Depending on what my mentor thinks of the draft, I may have to collect more data."
"And after that?"
The hint of a smile curled Jotaro's lips. "Then I'll be Jotaro Kujo, PhD. I'll probably take a teaching position at the University for a while and go from there."
Josuke grinned. "Make sure you tell me how it goes. I think Koichi might be more stressed about it than you are."
Jotaro chuckled. "Sure." He stubbed out his cigarette and dropped the butt into the mug with the others. "It's late. I think I'm going to go to bed."
"Yeah. Me too." Josuke stretched and yawned, and then got to his feet. "Hey, Jotaro?"
"Hm?"
"Thanks for talking to me."
The other man nodded.
As Josuke made his way back toward his room, he could hear the faint sound of Jotaro dialing a number on the cordless phone.
He fell asleep on his futon that night thinking about family and how it was complicated and messy and frustrating, but at the same time a wonderful thing to be a part of.
~~~~~~
The weekend passed uneventfully, and though Josuke came to really enjoy Holly's company and the daily routine of waking up to a lavish home-cooked breakfast, which was often eaten one-handed while he balanced Shizuka in his lap and fed her with the other, when Sunday finally drew to a close and his bag was loaded into the taxi waiting out front he was ready to go home. A new perspective was always nice, but some things could never replace his mom's half-burnt scrambled eggs or late nights spent playing video games in Okuyasu's tumbledown house or walking to school with Koichi. This trip had reminded him of all the things he loved about Morioh just as much as it had taught him to appreciate the things he was still only learning that he had. Siblings. A father. Nieces and nephews. People who would take care of him if he needed them to, and that he would take care of in turn. He looked forward to the chance to see them again. To meet the rest of them, one day.
Holly gave him an enormous hug when they said goodbye, and slipped a packed lunch into his bag. "Don't hesitate to call," she said with a smile. "You can come to visit anytime you like."
"I will," he said, smiling back. There was something about Holly Kujo. He couldn't help but feel at ease around her.
The taxi pulled away from the curb, carrying Josuke, Jotaro, and Shizuka through the city. Josuke's stop was first—from the train station, Jotaro and the baby would travel on to the airport and fly to New York.
Josuke leaned into the baby carrier and kissed Shizuka on the forehead before he got out of the car. "Give the old man hell for me."
She squealed happily, batting her little hands at his face.
Jotaro smirked. "I'd put good money on that."
Josuke closed the car door behind him and picked up his bag. He turned to head into the station and then stopped short. "Jotaro?"
"Yeah?"
"When you get to New York…" Josuke wrestled with himself for a moment. "Tell the old man to call me sometime, okay?"
Jotaro smiled, and it was a real one this time. "Yeah."