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If I Die

Summary:

Sometimes, Star Platinum acts strangely, even among stands. Jotaro is the only one who notices, and wonders.

Notes:

“If I die, my ghost is going to haunt you !” – Jonathan Joestar

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

 

 

There's something about Star Platinum that bothers Jotaro.

 

He doesn't know what exactly. After all, it's not like he really knows a lot about Stands. The expert is Avdol, and he didn't say anything besides commenting on his strength so he has to be imagining it.

 

And yet, the thought lingers in his mind, quiet but here. It's during moments like these, when Star Platinum stares at him or even Joseph when no one is watching with wide and awed eyes, like he can't quite believe that they are here, that they exist. It's how he whispers a soft “ora” and how his face briefly falls when he hears what came out of his mouth. It's how, when Jotaro calls him an evil spirit, his eyes darken, but not in anger like Jotaro first thought. It's how they darken with guilt and sadness and self-loathing.

 

Star Platinum isn't a normal Stand. He thinks, and almost says it outloud but can't manage it. He knows how the others would react – with nods and whispers of admiration in front of its amazing strength and speed. They won't understand what Jotaro means. He himself doesn't.

 

Old. He decides finally one night, after remembering how his stand looked at him when he did something particularly disrespectful or rude. Almost like Joseph who, despite trying to act young, couldn't hide the fact that he grew up in the 40s. But different.

 

What convinces Jotaro is one night, just one where he chose to stay awake longer to enjoy the calm before the inevitable morning. He stays in his bed, Kakyoin sleeping in the one next to him, and keeps his eyes closed but his mind awake.

 

He doesn't notice immediately. It's only after a couple of seconds that a sound makes him open his eyes.

 

Star Platinum is digging through Kakyoin's bag, and Jotaro tenses and is about to tell him to stop when the Stand seems to find what he was looking for. He smiles, always gentle and soft, and it takes Jotaro a few seconds to realize that he is holding one of Kakyoin's sketchbook. Star Platinum slowly tears away a few pages before putting it back in the bag.

 

“What are you doing?” Jotaro whispers, harsher than he means it to be, and Star Platinum glances at the still sleeping Kakyoin before uttering his eternal “ora”. Jotaro stares at him a few minutes, but his stand doesn't try to move closer and seems content to hold the pages in his purple hands.

 

Jotaro's eyes narrow and an idea sparks in his mind. He huffs and digs through his own bag under his stand's curious gaze before gripping his pen. It's one that Kakyoin lent him earlier when he was reading a marine biology magazine and wanted to circle what interested him. It was stupid, but he still accepted it and now it can actually be useful.

 

He beckons Star Platinum to come closer. The stand blinks, but obeys even though he looks confused.

 

“Here.” Jotaro says and hands him the pen. Star Platinum freezes, his wide eyes glancing at the pen then at his user, like he can't believe it. Jotaro glares at him, mildly offended, and the stand starts drawing.

 

The pen looks strange in those purple hands, fragile and terribly breakable, but Star Platinum handles it carefully, like it's some sort of treasure or glass ready to shatter at any moment. His movements are fast, like he always is in fights, but there's something new about it, something noble.

 

Slowly, the portrait of a beautiful woman appears on the white page. She looks young, maybe twenty, and her hair are tucked back in a ponytail. A necklace is around her neck and a ring is visible from where she's ticking a lock of hair behind her ear. A wedding ring, Jotaro thinks without knowing why.

 

The woman is smiling, sweet and seemingly innocent, but there's something in her colorless eyes, like a fire burning. It's beautiful and amazing how obvious it seems even without colors.

 

Jotaro looks at his stand. Star Platinum is gazing at his drawing with a strange light in his eyes. He looks sad, almost mourning, but also incredibly proud. Jotaro doesn't know what to think.

 

“It's not bad.” he whispers, and Star Platinum's eyes widen almost comically. It hurts to think that he doesn't expect kindness from Jotaro, but he supposes he deserves it.

 

He watches his stand and the drawing and doesn't sleep. When the morning comes, he hides the portrait of the woman in his bag. If Kakyoin notices that some of his pages are missing, he doesn't say it and Jotaro doesn't ask.

 

The following nights, Star Platinum keeps drawing. He mostly draws people - a man with a scar across his face and a weird hat, another older man with an even weirder hat and a severe expression, a little boy - but sometimes other things, like a dog and a manor. He draws it twice, once beautiful and standing under the sun, and once burning in the night.

 

Once, just once, he draws a boy with a mean smirk and cold eyes. Star Platinum's expression is somewhere between hatred and love when he looks at it, like he wants to destroy it but can't bring himself to. This drawing, Jotaro doesn't let him keep it. He burns it, feeling irrationaly vindicative, and Star Platinum smiles. He looks like he wants to cry too, and Jotaro hates the boy in the drawing even more.

 

After everything, once back in Japan with nightmares haunting his every step and grief under his skin, Jotaro buys Star Platinum his own sketchbook. He hopes it makes up for calling him an evil spirit.

 

He never shows the drawings to his grandfather.

 

Notes:

I'm tired and I really need to sleep, but I also needed to write this. Pretty short, but I hope you liked it. Tell me in the comments !