Work Text:
Jotaro-kun : “If anyone sees Josuke, text me or Jolyne.”
Okuyasu was one of the first people to read the group text, although he wasn’t the first to reply to it. The flood of messages made it hard to get a word in for a minute:
Jolyne-chan : “He went out yesterday and never came home.”
Ermes-chan : “Woah, seriously?! :O”
Anasui-kun : “Have you tried calling him?”
Jolyne-chan : “He left his phone here >_>;”
Kakyoin-kun : “Do you think he was attacked by a stand user?”
Jonathan-san : “Or one of Dio’s minions?!”
Joseph-san : “Doubt the pillarmen would go after him. Maybe he’s just avoiding you guys. Did you insult his hair? :P”
Caesar-san : “If it’s any consolation, I just punched Jojo for you -_-‘ Anyway, do you want us to look for him?”
Speedwagon-san : “Gimme five minutes and I’ll get Iggy started on it.”
Polnareff-san : “Ha! Good luck with that! XP”
Avdol-san : “I have one more client today, but I can cancel the session if you need me to help.”
Jotaro-kun : “Yare yare. Everyone calm down. This is normal for him. Sometimes he just disappears for a couple of days and then comes back. Just text us if you see him so we know he’s okay.”
Jolyne-chan : “He’s right, this is pretty normal for Josuke when something’s bugging him. We only brought it up because of the storm- we don’t want him getting sick :P”
Okuyasu stopped reading the messages for a few minutes after that, but he still felt the phone vibrate in his hand every time another text was sent.
Josuke ran away? That couldn’t be good..
He had a feeling something had been bothering him since their last fight against some of Dio’s stand-using minions. Josuke had gotten separated from the others for a while, but he’d been fine when they found him.
Well, physically fine, at least.
Okuyasu couldn’t put his finger on it, but, when Josuke didn’t think anyone was looking at him, he had this look in his eyes like he was asking himself a million depressing questions. It had only gotten worse over the days that followed, all culminating in the sudden lack of communication from his boyfriend yesterday afternoon. He’d written it off at the time as him being busy or something, and now he wished he hadn’t..
Me : “Don’t worry- I’ll find him.”
Okuyasu typed out the message and sent it before throwing on a pair of work boots and a ratty old jacket, barely remembering to grab his umbrella until he was half-way out the door. He switched his phone to silent as he left his apartment and stuck it in his pocket, still feeling the buzz of each message in the chat but not bothering to check them anymore.
After all, if anyone could find Josuke, it was him, right?
He may have spoken too soon…
Okuyasu had spent the better part of two hours searching for Josuke, but hadn’t seen hide nor pomp of his boyfriend anywhere in the rain-drenched streets. The fact that the storm had gotten progressively worse certainly didn’t help things any, nor did the setting sun plunging the town into an even darker landscape.
Frustrated and annoyed by his lack of progress, Okuyasu was about to go check the park next when the faint strumming of a guitar caught his attention. “??” He followed the sound when he heard a familiar voice singing along to the melody. “Josuke?!” The symphony of sounds lead him to a covered walkway bridge where the music echoed off of the enclosed walls. Then, he saw him- sitting on the ground with his guitar in his lap and the guitar case set against the wall beside him. “Josuke..?” He approached the other teen, but apparently he’d caught him between songs as he’d already begun playing a new one by the time Okuyasu said his name.
“I’m standing on a bridge..” Josuke began while strumming out the notes on his guitar with his eyes closed. “I’m waiting in the dark..I thought that you’d be here by now..” He leaned his head back against the wall behind him, his soft voice enhanced by the area’s acoustics. “There’s nothing but the rain..no footsteps on the ground…I’m listening but there’s no sound…”
“……” Okuyasu frowned slightly as he listened to the sad song, deciding to close his umbrella, take a seat across from the other boy, and wait for him to finish- it just didn’t feel right to interrupt him like that..
“Isn’t anyone trying to find me? Won’t somebody come take me home?” Josuke opened his eyes again, but they went straight down to watch his hands as they skillfully played each note. “It’s a damn cold night..Trying to figure out this life..” His eyes slowly drifted up until they met Okuyasu’s gaze, not looking surprised in the slightest to see him there. “Won’t you take me by the hand? Take me somewhere new…I don’t know who you are, but I..I’m with you~” The corner of his mouth lifted into a faint, barely there smile that just looked more sad and tired than anything in that moment. “I’m with you..”
“……” Okuyasu offered his boyfriend a small, hopefully more reassuring smile of his own. He even gave a silent wave, but he decided not to talk sine Josuke continued playing.
“I’m looking for a place…I’m searching for a face…Is anybody here? I know…” Josuke sighed, his smile slipping back into the unreadable expression he had when Okuyasu first walked in. “Cause nothing’s going right..and everything’s a mess..” His pitch faltered slightly on that last line, sounding like he’d bitten back a sob as his head tilted downward. “And no one likes to be alone…Isn’t anyone trying to find me? Won’t somebody come take me home..?”
As Josuke relapsed back into the chorus, Okuyasu took the chance to fully take in the other boy’s appearance: His hair still had its usual basic shape, but it was drooping considerably and had water dripping front the ends. There were bags visible under Josuke’s eyes, so he probably hadn’t slept last night. His clothes were all practically glued to him, so he must have just gotten here recently. Most disturbingly of all was the deep, painful sadness that was visible in the normally bright-eyed teen’s colorful eyes.
Okuyasu had never seen him this bad before..
“Oh! Why is everything so confusing?!” Josuke’s voice crescendoed with the intensity of the bridge, echoing off the walls so powerfully that it nearly drowned out the thunderstorm still raging outside of their shelter “Maybe I’m just out of my mi~ind!” The litany of “ye~ah”s that followed broke Okuyasu’s heart as they sounded more and more pained, some closer to sobs of anguish than actual notes, all reaching a peak when let Josuke belted out one loud final “YEEA~AA~AH!” before going quiet for a moment, the only sound being the now considerably softer playing of his guitar. “……It’s a damn cold night…Trying to figure out this life…” His voice had gone as quiet as his guitar for the moment. “Won’t you..take me by the hand? Take me somewhere new..” He finally looked back up at Okuyasu with a sad, broken smile and fresh tears in his eyes. “I don’t know who you are, but I…I’m with you~!” His voice crescendoed again, as did his playing, and he repeated the chorus a couple more times.
Okuyasu frowned with tears in his own eyes as he quietly got up and moved over to the other side of the bridge to kneel down beside his boyfriend. “Josuke..” He whispered as he slowly brought his arms up around the longer-haired boy’s shoulders on the end of the third repetition of the chorus.
The effect was instantaneous- Josuke let his guitar rest in his lap and all but melted into the tender embrace. He turned his upper body so that he could hide his face in Okuyasu’s shoulder, clinging tightly to him as his beautiful voice now let out a muffled chorus of sobs and wails that the other boy was just as willing to hear as he was his earlier song.
They stayed like that for a long time, Okuyasu letting Josuke get every pained noise out of his system until he calmed down.
After he’d finished, Josuke finally pulled away and wiped at his eyes using his sleeve, but that ultimately just made his face wetter. “Sorry, Oku-” His apology was stopped from going any further by the same arms that had been previously wrapped around him now lifting him up to his feet. “Okuyasu?”
Instead of receiving an answer right away, Okuyasu just took Josuke’s guitar from him and put it back in its case. After carefully closing it up, he next unzipped his jacket and put it around Josuke’s shoulders, not caring about it getting wet or about how cold it was now with the damp air clinging to his skin. Once his boyfriend had a warm coat on again, Okuyasu retrieved his umbrella, opened it back up, slung the guitar case’s strap over his shoulder, and wrapped his arm around Josuke’s shoulders with two simple words.
“Let’s go.”
Josuke blinked, looking confused by the statement. “Go..?”
Okuyasu side-eyed him with a confident grin. “Yep. You said it, remember? You’re with me.” He squeezed Josuke’s shoulder where his hand was resting on it, holding him close against his side. “So, let’s go.”
“!!” Josuke’s eyes widened slightly before his look shifted into a much more tender, grateful smile- one that was less heart-wrenching than the one he’d had while singing. “Yeah..” He relented with a barely audible chuckle that shook his shoulders. “I guess I DID say that..” He took the umbrella from Okuyasu and held it in the hand closest to his boyfriend in an attempt to shield them both from the storm. “Let’s go- I’m with you.”
Once they got back to his apartment, Okuyasu started a hot shower for Josuke and pulled out some spare pajamas for him to borrow. While he got warmed up, Okuyasu went to the kitchen to get some food prepared, figuring the other boy would be hungry since he hadn’t been home in a while. He didn’t have much to work with at the moment, but he did find some left over rice, vegetables, chicken, and even some yosenabe broth from various meals he’d had throughout the week, so he quickly threw them together with some beaten eggs to make a pot of zōsui.
By the time he had everything chopped and mixed and the pot had come to a boil, he heard the sound of Josuke’s bare feet on the tiled floor of his small kitchen. “That smells good..”
“Thanks.” Okuyasu grinned and turned to face his boyfriend. “It’s just some zōsui, but it should be pretty-” He froze for a minute when he saw Josuke standing in the doorway. He was wearing the clothes that Okuyasu loaned him, looking much better in the baggy white shirt and striped blue pajama pants than he had in his soaking wet clothes from earlier. What made Okuyasu freeze, however, was the fact that Josuke’s hair was down. No pompadour, no styling, nothing- he’d just combed it out and left it like that. “You can use my gel if you want, I’ve got plenty.”
Josuke shrugged and walked further into the room, trying to sound calm. “I wasn’t in the mood, I’ll do it later.”
Oh.
Oh no.
Josuke was NEVER not in the mood to do his hair in its iconic style. The only times he’d let it slide were when he was too injured to do it himself, and even then he complained about it until someone else was able to do it for him.
This was way worse than he thought…
“Uh, okay, sure…” Okuyasu tried not to sound as shocked as he felt, turning instead grab two bowls so he could dish out the zōsui. Once he had the bowls filled he grabbed two spoons and sat down at the small two-person table in the corner of the room. “Come on, let’s eat- I’m starving!” He gave Josuke a smile that he hoped didn’t look forced and held the other boy’s spoon out for him.
Josuke smiled back, but it still felt off. “Me too.” He said before taking the offered spoon and sitting across from his boyfriend to eat their simple but warming meal.
They ate in silence. A tense, uncomfortable one that made the weight of what hadn’t been said yet nearly suffocating to Okuyasu. He honestly thought that he might accidentally choke on the food a few times with how hard it got to swallow, but he pulled through. After all, he had to make sure that Josuke was taken care of, right? That’s what good boyfriends- and friends in general- were supposed to do, right?
……
The problem was that he didn’t really know what to do in this situation. This was probably the worst he’d ever seen the other teen since they’d met. Sure, he’d seen the faces and scars and feelings that Josuke had never wanted anyone else to see, and he knew how to comfort him and take care of him when it came to that sort of stuff.
THIS, though..THIS was new.
There was something wrong with Josuke and Okuyasu wanted so badly to fix it and make everything better, but he didn’t even know what was wrong.
He could ask, but he knew Josuke would probably say he was fine like he always did when something was bothering him..
He could try calling Jotaro and Jolyne to see if they had any ideas, but he didn’t want to make them panic and come all the way there in the storm..
He could try distracting him with some TV or something, but it might just feel more tense and awkward..
God, it was times like these that he cursed his stupidity. If he was smarter, then the answer would probably be so much easier to see! He was so useless, he-!
“You ever wonder what life would be like if you weren’t around?” Josuke’s voice suddenly interrupted his self-deprecating thoughts.
“Huh?” Okuyasu blinked in surprise and stared at his boyfriend in confusion. “Whattaya mean?”
“I dunno..just..” Josuke shrugged, looking down at his nearly empty bowl as he idly poked at the last bits of rice and egg at the bottom with his spoon. “Have you ever thought about what everyone’s lives would be like if you weren’t in it? If they would be…better off..?” He seemed to pick up what words were about to come out of Okuyasu’s mouth and re-worded his question. “Not in the ‘I’m going to run away or off myself because I’m a burden to everyone’ way, but just…I don’t know…just asking yourself if you really do anything to make everyone’s lives any better or worse than they already are…”
Okuyasu still frowned slightly at the idea behind the question. “Geez, man..I don’t know..I’m not that smart, so I don’t really think about that sort of stuff…” He let his chin rest in his hand that was propped up on the table, giving the question some thought. “If we’re talking about me, then, yeah, some people would probably be better off if I weren’t around..I mean, my bro would probably still be alive if he hadn’t shoved me away when Chili Pepper attacked…” He frowned a bit more, the memory still painful even after more than a year had passed. He shook his head, trying to dispel the sadness as he returned his gaze to his boyfriend. “But, if we’re talking about you, then no, I can’t think of anyone who’d be better off without you around.”
Josuke gave a short, deprecating laugh, his eyes still staying on his unfinished food. “I can..” He frowned as he stirred the meager contents of his bowl endlessly while he spoke. “If I was never born, then my mom wouldn’t’ve had to drop out of school to take care of me- she could’ve gotten a good job, still lived with her family, and maybe even married a nice guy who actually loved her, unlike my shitty old man. Speaking of him, if I wasn’t born, then his marriage wouldn’t have been ruined and Jotaro’s grandparents would still be together. Then there’s Jotaro and Jolyne, who’d probably have had a better childhood if they didn’t spend it constantly looking out for me.” His grip on his spoon became white-knuckled as he talked, his shoulders trembling slightly. “My grandpa would probably still be alive if someone else had been around to save him…Koichi would still be a normal high schooler and wouldn’t have gotten involved in any of these bizarre adventures…Shigechi would probably still be alive if he hadn’t met us…” He finally stopped moving the spoon and his head tilted downward, both of his shoulders shaking now. “I just…make everyone’s life worse…”
“What about me?” Okuyasu suddenly asked.
“You?” Josuke shook his head, giving another short laugh. “You’d probably be fine without me..hell, your brother might even still be around..”
“Are you kidding? I loved my bro, but even I knew what he was doing was messed up- he’d’ve probably gotten himself killed some other way, even if you never showed up.” Okuyasu stood up from the table and walked around to Josuke’s side, kneeling on the ground so he could force the other boy to look him in the eyes. “And everything else you said is bullshit.” He held up his fingers as he counted off every claim he made. “Your mom said that she never got along with her family anyway, right? Even if she didn’t have you, she’d probably have found some other reason to leave. Besides, she tells me all the time that you were the best thing to ever happen to her! She loves you a lot, Josuke.” He smiled slightly before rolling his eyes on his next point. “And don’t get me started on your old man. He chose to cheat on his wife and then left you and your mom by yourselves- he’s an asshole, if you ask me!” He looked back up at Josuke sympathetically. “And you know Jotaro and Jolyne don’t blame you for what happened- their mom doesn’t either. They LIKE having you around- you’re practically their little brother! And Koichi likes being your friend, so he doesn’t blame you for what happened, either! Sure, his life’s gotten pretty weird, but now he’s got way more friends than he did before, a hot girlfriend, and he gets to go on awesome adventures. As for your gramps and Shigechi…” He paused for a moment, looking away with a frown. “That…was pretty bad…but Angelo was gonna go after your gramps anyway, but you stopped him from getting to your mom or anyone else…and Shigechi…well…that one’s on both of us, if you wanna look at it that way..but most of the fault goes to that bastard Kira.” He sighed before looking back up at Josuke’s face, or at least what he could make out of it with how his head was tilted down and his hair hid his eyes. “Besides, if you weren’t around, my life would be a billion times worse: I’d still be following Keicho, doing what he said and listening to him tell me what an idiot I am…I wouldn’t have any friends…and,” He reached up with both hands and carefully pushed Josuke’s hair out of his face, revealing watery purple eyes. With a teary-eyed smile, Okuyasu cupped Josuke’s face between both hands, wiping away the other boy’s tears with his thumbs. “I wouldn’t have met the guy I wanted to spend my life with.”
“!!” For the second time that night, Josuke stared at Okuyasu in surprise before his expression grew into a tender, adoring smile. A watery laugh found its way out of his throat while his hands found their way to Okuyasu’s own face to wipe away his tears in return. “The guy you wanna spend your life with? You sure you can say that after just one year?”
“Hell yeah, I’m sure- I would’ve said it after one month if I’d thought of it back then!” Okuyasu smiled more, gazing at the person he loved with all of his heart. “You’re the greatest guy I know: You’re smart. You’re fun as hell. You’re cool. You’re beautiful. You’re funny. You’re talented. You’re the most amazing person in the world.” He blushed slightly and looked away out of mild embarrassment, but his smile never faltered. “We’re still pretty young, and I don’t have anything I can give you right now- hell, I can’t really afford a wedding yet..but..I know it’s true..” He looked back up at Josuke, ignoring the way his heart pounded and his face burned just looking into those glistening eyes that enchanted him each and every day. “I love you, Josuke. I don’t care if I have to wait two years or twenty years to make it official, I just know that you’re the one I wanna spend the rest of my life with. So…don’t think for a second I’d be better off without you around, because I don’t ever wanna think of my life without you in it!”
Josuke was quiet for a while, simply staring at the other boy. Then, without warning, Josuke unceremoniously slipped out of his chair and tumbled right into Okuyasu’s arms, knocking both of them down onto the ground. Okuyasu was about to ask if he was okay, when three little words reached his ear.
“I’m with you.” Josuke propped himself up on his forearms on either side of Okuyasu’s head and gazed down at him with a grateful smile and a look of pure love and adoration in his eyes. “As long as you want me around, then I’m with you.”
Okuyasu grinned up at the other teen, wrapping his arms around Josuke to pull him back down on top of him. “So does that mean I get to keep you around forever?”
Josuke laughed at that, a bright, genuinely happy laugh that was so much more beautiful than the pained and depressed ones he’d let out before. “If you want me forever, then I’m with you forever, Oku.”
“Works for me!” Okuyasu exclaimed happily before pulling the other boy down into a loving kiss, one that was quickly and eagerly returned.
A couple of hours later, the pair of lovers had moved to Okuyasu’s bedroom. They were currently cuddling under the blankets with Okuyasu lying on his back and Josuke lying with his head on his boyfriend’s chest as he slept. Okuyasu wasn’t quite asleep yet, but he was working on it. For the moment, he was content to have Josuke there in his arms.
He probably would have fallen asleep just like that if he didn’t feel a familiar buzzing in his pants pocket. “??” Moving as carefully as he could to avoid waking Josuke up, Okuyasu managed to get one arm free and retrieved his phone from beneath the covers.
Looking at the screen, he found a text from Jotaro that was sent separate from the usual group chat.
Jotaro : “Any luck finding him?”
Okuyasu was about to type back a simple reply of “Yeah”, but looking at Josuke’s sleeping, peaceful face gave him an idea.
He raised the phone up high and took a picture of the two of them, smiling up at the camera while gently running his fingers through Josuke’s hair. There’d be time for explanations and stories about what was said and what their plans for the future would be. For now, he just wanted to enjoy this moment.
With that in mind, he sent the picture, along with a fitting caption:
Me : “He’s with me.”