Chapter Text
“Hello ! My name is Marla Paz, nice to meet you!” A short blue haired girl took a bow in front of Josuke who had just finished healing someone who had tripped.
“Oh hi there, I’m Josuke Higashikata. You must be new here huh? I don’t recognize your face”
He gave a warm smile which only added to the verbal welcome.
She smiled back “yes! I’m a transfer student and I couldn’t help but notice you have a spirit thing like me!”
He looked at her thoughtfully.
“So you’re a stand user?”
Marla nodded.
“You call them.. stands?”
“Yep! This right here is Shining Diamond. He can return things to their original form and he’s pretty quick with his hands.”
“Woaah, that’s really cool! Mine is named Cupid’s Bow. It’s kinda strange since the name doesn’t really correlate to my stand but.. I’ll let her say hi”
Next to Marla appeared a naked figure on all fours.
It’s spine was elongated with a very skinny middle and the ribs seemed to protrude just like the nubs of its spine.
It had no face and it’s hind legs looked human but were very long to the point it had to shift them upwards. It’s knees went past it’s ribs so it’s feet could touch the ground.
Josuke visibly looked spooked by Cupids Bows appearance. It wasn’t the most comforting sight to be met with considering most stands looked armored. This one was hard to picture as human related.
“Don’t worry she won’t hurt you, she’s really sweet actually”
Cupid “looked” straight at Josuke before quickly crawling towards him and extending a slender arm in front of him. It’s palm lay flush against the ground but it’s fingers propped themselves up. They thinned out into sharp needle like things and looked stained with a black liquid.
“Oh, I think she wants to tell your fortune”
Cupid wagged it’s thin tail expectantly.
The end of it held a shape like the tip of an arrow.
Josuke could tell it was Extremely sharp.
“Right.. ah I don’t mean to be rude but your stand looks like a freakin sleep paralysis demon”
“Oh! If she unsettled you I can put her away. I’m sorry-“
“No, it’s alright, you said she tells fortunes?”
Marla nodded.
“The tips of her fingers have ink. I don’t have much control over who she wants to draw a fortune on but she’ll put symbols on the skin. These symbols stay on there until the fortune happens in reality.”
Josuke knelt down to Cupid’s face level.
“Alright.. I suppose it couldn’t hurt”
He said while lifting his sleeve to expose his wrist.
Eager, the stand immediately traced its needle like fingers across his skin.
Josuke held in a grunt when the thing pierced through his skin.
‘I guess I take that back about it not hurting..’ he thought.
Marla watched expectingly but Josuke was confused by the expression she gave once the fortune was finished.
“ so.. an apple and an X? What does that mean?”
Her eyes were wide with surprise and worry but she quickly composed herself.
“Oh.. uh, it means that someone’s going to kiss you!” She smiled.
”One rule. You can’t show this tattoo to anyone! No matter what.”
Before Josuke could ask any more questions she retracted Cupid and began walking away.
“Anyways I gotta go, thanks so much for your time haha see ya later!”
Marla ran off without another word exchanged between them.
Josuke scratched his neck.
“What a strange girl.. I wish she would’ve told me why I can’t show anyone”
That was several days ago.
Josuke wasn’t sitting well with her expression so he decided to look up the symbols himself.
Sure they could be complete gibberish that only she understood but an apple and an X didn’t seem like unknown symbols.
He searched up the Apple first and what came up confused him a bit.
‘Apples appear in many religious traditions, often as a mystical or forbidden fruit.’
“Okay, maybe the X will help tell me something...”
It actually confused Josuke even more because the first 5 results all had different meanings.
The first one being that X meant to cross over into another dimension.
He kept reading through more results until he got to one that finally made some sense.
‘In the UK, 'X' is commonly used at the end of a message to represent kisses’
Oh right..
He remembered.
“It means someone’s gonna kiss you!”
“..forbidden kiss..?”
That conclusion made sense but at the same time he couldn’t think of how exactly he would be participating in a “forbidden kiss”
Unless it meant Koichi or Okuyasu we’re going to kiss him?
He couldn’t see that happening though..
tired, Josuke decided to just let fate run it’s course. Whatever it was would probably happen sooner or later and the marks would disappear like the Marla said.
“you cant show this tattoo to anyone!”
That was easy enough, or so he thought.
Of course it had to happen.
That fateful day when Josuke had to reach something high up for koichi, his sleeve retracted just enough for his friend to see the marks.
“WOAH josuke you have a tattoo?!”
Okuyasu joined in on the excitement.
“Wait you have a tattoo how come you didn’t tell us?”
‘Damn it! Why couldn’t the fortune happen before they saw it?’ It was just his shit luck.
“Ahaha sorry I actually was told not to show anyone”
“Really? Why’s that?”
Koichi asked.
“Oh! Is it like some kind of curse ? Wait are we gonna be cursed too?!”
Okuyasu’s gruff voice chined in.
“No, no. nothing like that.
I got a fortune from the new girl. She’s a stand user. She told me not to show it to anyone but I don’t know why. The ink won’t go away until the fortune comes true”
Naturally Koichi and Okuyasu had to know more.
“So what’s the fortune ?”
“Well.. it’s not clear to me but she said someone’s gonna kiss me? I don’t know who or when..”
Okuyasu already looked teary eyed.
“Aw man, now BOTH of my friends are gonna have girlfriends! I’ll be the single odd one out!!”
Josuke tried to comfort his friend.
“Hey get it together! A kiss doesn’t mean I’ll be going out with anyone, it could be a friendly peck on the cheek for all we know”
Koichi spoke up “so, the X must mean kiss.. but there’s an Apple beside it too. Does that mean anything ?”
Josuke really didn’t want to say what he found on the internet but who else was he going to talk to about this?
He sighed.
“I don’t know.. I looked it up and found that it means forbidden fruit. The only thing I can think of with these two together is..”
“.. a forbidden kiss” Koichi finished.
Okuyasu’s face went sour.
“ oh no, I hope that doesn’t mean your moms gonna kiss you like thAt or something.”
Their faces mirrored the mutual disgust.
“I doubt it, unless it means a ‘have a good day son’ mommy kiss on the cheek”
Josuke said thoughtfully.
But the emphasis on forbidden..
None of them had any ideas.