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The stress of the whole trip mounted on them, certain that at any point they'll all break. Jotaro wasn't even sure he was doing the right thing at first. He wants to save his mother of course, but he wasn't about to be sentimental about it.
Still, the idea of a vampire with the most impossibly powerful Stand sending out minions to do his dirty work left an awful taste in his mouth. What kind of all powerful god decides to hide in the middle of the desert hoping they won't find him?
Jotaro sighs, taking a sip of refreshingly cool water. At least in Cairo they have found better amenities.
Something in the conversation switches from dull small talk about their plans, because Polnareff suddenly lights up. Frowning, Jotaro braces himself. An excited Polnareff usually means he's going to embarrass himself or all five of them. He tips his hat down as a precaution.
Oi! That's nothing compared to this!
Polnareff brags.
He leans back in his chair, flicking his lighter and lighting two cigarettes in his mouth. Around the table, the crusaders watch intrigued, and Jotaro even adds a raised eyebrow. Apparently an enemy Stand user disguised himself as Jotaro when Polnareff tried his cigarette trick, prompting the Stand user to recreate Jotaro's infamous five cigarettes.
Jotaro watches this time. Polnareff also reportedly failed with even one cigarette, so Jotaro can only imagine how two will go.
Lip quivering, Polnareff attempts to stand the cigarettes up and over his teeth to fall painlessly into his mouth. They all hold their breath. One cigarette still leans too far forward. Jotaro knows from experience that if not corrected, it will lead to a bad burn or ruined shoes depending on where the cigarette falls.
Polnareff carefully balances, urging them to become even again. From the corner of his eye, he watches Avdol breathe in careful time, as if practicing the trick vicariously. It makes Jotaro's lip quirk. What does Avdol have to worry about a flame? He could easily outmatch even Jotaro if he tried.
Instead of watching Polnareff clumsily flick his tongue and move his jaw, Jotaro instead watches the scene through Kakyoin's eyes. For the most part, Kakyoin has an air of mild interest, as if he's this close to being indifferent.
The redhead watches with amusement, however, ready to see the consequences of Polnareff's ambition, successful or not. Gentle long fingers bring his glass of iced tea to his lips. Jotaro idly notes that pianists would be jealous of the perfect shape of Kakyoin's hands.
It's not that Jotaro thinks about Kakyoin much, but he always seems to notice the tiny details. How, besides his curled bangs, the shorter bangs in the center of his forehead no longer cover a flesh bud, and seem all the more gentle for it. How Kakyoin always leans his weight to one foot when standing, creating an intriguing silhouette if it weren't for his bland green school uniform.
How his violet eyes sparkle like gemstones when he's fully engaged, whether in a battle, in a chase, or in interest. Said violet eyes flicker, eyelids snapping shut, the scars over his eyes crinkling.
When Jotaro looks back over to watch Polnareff's show, he finally makes it over the last hurdle. His eyes are shut tight in fear over his success. They hold their breaths. With a smirk, a burst of smoke flies from Polnareff's nostrils. Avdol and the old man beside him break out into applause.
Aww, merci, merci,
Polnareff bows after spitting the dead cigarettes onto his plate.
Jotaro pulls a face when an ash bounces onto his knee, but Polnareff's show could have ended worse. The conversation winds back down. Partially because the waiter warned them that other customers were enjoying their meals quietly. Jotaro is just glad they're listening and shutting up for once.
Looking back up, Jotaro's gaze meets Kakyoin's. A chuckle of amusement still lifts his shoulders, and his knuckles hide his lips in that annoying habit of his. Jotaro offers a slight curl of his lip that could potentially be called a smile.
Kakyoin's eyes pick out every detail of Jotaro's expression. Lifting his hat by a hair, Jotaro let's Kakyoin in, in a figurative sense. He mirrors the small almost-smile, his lips smoother than Jotaro's own. There are times that Jotaro almost wishes he weren't already so rugged; he is only seventeen. Mostly, he's thankful his unapproachable look makes him just that, unapproachable.
Everyone knows that Jotaro can never show an emotion, and Kakyoin has to remind himself not to expect anything more. He's no exception to Jotaro. He just happened to have a similar destiny to stop DIO from ruining so many lives and manipulating so many innocent people like Kakyoin. The more he thinks on it, the more infuriated he becomes.
Mr. Joestar may have his own way of getting into trouble, but no one else asked for this either. Jotaro was an unfortunate teen like himself, roped into something bigger than himself. Avdol, even, lived as he was, presumably undisturbed, and now he wonders if Avdol will ever be the same tame spirit. Polnareff may have always had the potential to seek out his own destiny, but his hand was forced to join theirs.
Kakyoin sighs.
He realizes Jotaro is staring at him again. Or staring into the space he's occupying, sometimes with the shadows on his face it's hard to tell. Regardless, the paranoia that grips him conflicts with the reasoning that the chill of feeling someone watching him had almost always been confirmed to be Jotaro.
Damn it all, why Jotaro?
Perhaps it's when Jotaro's leg brushes his under the table by accident as he crosses them, or perhaps it's the fact he actually apologized for the disturbance. But Kakyoin knows one thing now.
If Jotaro is Kakyoin's fated soulmate, then he'll have Kakyoin's name written all over him by now.
-
Days turned to weeks turned to months. Is it normal for someone to be restrained to the hospital this long? It's certainly not normal to fight Stands, nor to be punctured straight through the abdomen by one.
The very thought always pulls at Jotaro's gut, as if trying to rip his own stomach open to feel the pain Kakyoin went through. He sacrificed all but his life to face DIO head on and discover his secret. The fact that he survived is almost lost for how angry it makes Jotaro that he even tried the suicide mission for their sakes. For his sake.
As soon as DIO told him that he took care of Kakyoin, Jotaro finally remembered the tan kanji. They say the placement of your soulmate's name is significant, but Jotaro hadn't been able to figure out why Kakyoin Noriaki
was written in a confined circle in his lower back. It was almost dismissible, except for now.
Jotaro cannot stop thinking about it.
As soon as Jotaro thought Kakyoin might be dead, he realized the significance of wearing Kakyoin's name. As soon as he saw the wound, entering through his front and exiting his lower back in a crude circle, Jotaro understood the placement.
Kujo Jotaro does not fall easily. It takes days, weeks, months for him to realize how he feels. The lightness in his heart that caused a tightness in his chest whenever Kakyoin blushed or said something just perfectly - whether to insult Polnareff or meet Jotaro's harsh banter beat for beat. The weight on his shoulder and the pressure in his head when he stressed over how the others viewed them when Kakyoin would rest his head on his shoulder to sleep in the car. Or, even worse, how Kakyoin insisted on sharing rooms in hotels.
The cross-eyed vision trying not to stare at him fresh out of the shower is the same as he gazes down on him now.
They managed to change Kakyoin into his own pajamas instead of the hospital issued ones. It fit Kakyoin better, but Jotaro swears to himself that he saw Kakyoin relax when he was made more comfortable. Jotaro bought cafeteria food and brought it up to Kakyoin's room to eat.
When his parents visited and left behind Kakyoin's games, Jotaro helped himself to see if he couldn't one day compete with him. Two months of practice should make up for lack of experience right?
It's just past midnight when Jotaro hears a foreign noise. Glancing around the room, he stands on edge, Star Platinum double checking. The noise again, more of a groan. His gaze immediately snaps down to the patient. All this time, he had been frozen in his unconscious state. It gave Jotaro the uneasy sense of stopped time.
A growl rumbles low in his own throat. If he had been there, Jotaro could have at least gotten Kakyoin out of the way, but without the experience, they may have never learned about how The World worked. Kakyoin nearly sacrificed his life to discover the world's darkest secret.
It was when DIO so fucking casually informed Jotaro that he took care of Kakyoin. His blood boiled and his spirit snapped. If Stands are physical manifestations of a person's soul, then it's no wonder that Star Platinum met The World blow for blow.
It's not until now, watching eyelashes flicker and eyelids squint as Kakyoin registers the waking world. It's not until another soft sleepy groan escapes him, instinctively moving his arms back to sit up, but halting in favor of clutching his abdomen. It's when he lets out a whine as he falls back against the bed. It's when Jotaro falls to his knee at Kakyoin's bedside, blessing his freakish height that he can still meet Kakyoin's eye level.
Violet eyes track around, fingers reaching. Jotaro meets his seeking hand. He cradles the slender hand in his own large palm with such gentleness that Jotaro didn't even know he even possessed. These thoughts don't matter when Kakyoin registers Jotaro's hands holding his own, then up to his face, then letting the first truly peaceful smile light up his face.
Sure, maybe Jotaro had been falling for him, had been thinking about him more as the journey came to an end, had even wondered how to feel about Kakyoin's name on his back. Worried day in and day out in a hospital room, not knowing if he would even get a chance.
But it's only now that Jotaro realizes he's been in love this whole time.
He helps Kakyoin stretch out as much as his body lets him, and Jotaro has to convince Kakyoin to stay laying down to not aggravate his healing wounds. He fills a few gaps in Kakyoin's memory, retelling the defeat of DIO. He leaves out his emotions from the story, because that would overwhelm the recovering man.
Kakyoin simply blinks up at him.
So I was right? His Stand stopped time?
His voice is filled with awe and uncertainty. There couldn't really be any other explanation that Kakyoin saw, as he tried to warn Mr. Joestar of DIO's power, but they learned quickly on their journey that anything is possible. Jotaro nods reassuringly.
We would have never known if you hadn't figured it out,
Jotaro's voice hangs. Kakyoin doesn't need to hear it though. He can read it all in the shimmer of blue eyes: We would have never known if you didn't almost die for it.
Jotaro, I…
his voice trails off.
Why is it now, of all times, when his heart feels ready to confess? It's been a while since he's been harboring feelings from Jotaro with nothing in return. He checked all the common places for a name to appear every night before bedding down in whatever hotel they stayed that night. And yet he could never find Jotaro’s name.
But the hands holding his, the gaze waiting patiently… A chuckle escapes him. Since when does Jotaro pay an ounce of attention when he doesn't need to? And more impressively, since when did Jotaro have patience?
Jotaro doesn't say anything, but Kakyoin doesn't feel like continuing. He doesn't give into the silence that prompts him to explain. In a way, he thinks that maybe if Jotaro never knows his feelings, he'll never have to feel rejected.
As if hearing his thoughts, Jotaro stands, letting Kakyoin's hand fall from his. The black jacket falls from his shoulders with the jingle of his chain. He turns his back to Kakyoin as he pulls his shirt over his head.
Kakyoin hadn't been paying attention, knowing that if he saw Jotaro's exposed chest he may never be able to keep his mouth shut. However, Jotaro makes it a point to stand there with his back to Kakyoin, waiting.
What was he waiting for? Was he waiting for Kakyoin to beg him to come back? Kakyoin isn't as prideful as Jotaro, but he has enough self-respect. When Jotaro looks over his shoulder with his mask of seriousness back on, Kakyoin knows he has lost.
But when his eyes catch the faded letters on Jotaro's back, Kakyoin's heart drops.
So his name did appear on Jotaro. Jotaro is his soulmate. If that's true, then shouldn't he have Jotaro's name on him?
I don't know if mine has showed up on you yet,
Jotaro admits with a bitter tone. He pulls his shirt back on, but leaves his jacket off to the side. I don't think I realized until now.
What, my name, or…?
That I love you,
Jotaro forces out, hiding behind his hat because this is all too much, but taking Kakyoin's hand back.
A slight electric pulse runs up his arm, his hairs standing on end. The long faded scars burn again on his forearm, and Kakyoin pulls a face. Surely the cuts he made to spell Baby Stand
are long gone?
Lifting his sleeve, he finds a completely different mark. They both stare, Jotaro from under his hat, and Kakyoin gaping from the bed. He looks up. The letters on his skin feel so much more… real, when Kakyoin puts a face to the name.
Kujo Jotaro.