Work Text:
It's mere minutes to Midnight in the town of Morioh, the population retired to their homes so to escape the season's piercing bite of late fall air, opting to retreat to their own personal realms of dream, the reality beyond. A lone silhouette approaches a stranded streetlamp, the light unveils Okuyasu Nijimura stumbling into view. His breath protrudes a thick white puff, and despite the agonizing cold he can't help but wonder what his best friend is dreaming about right now. He shakes the thought off, or at least gives his best effort to.
Clouds stand ominous, consuming the night's sky and rendering the silver beam of the stars powerless to the fog. Alone Okuyasu treks his way across town, the echo of his footsteps and the unrelenting thump of his heart are all he can hear. He looks up, noting the absence of the stars. Suddenly irritated by the bleak atmosphere he inhabits, he forces himself onward ignoring the desolate mass looking down on him.
It isn't long until he's passed every house up the block, until the Higashikata household lay before him, a shiver rocked his body as the structure was caught in his gaze. He has no choice but to move. Adrenaline is the only thing propelling his legs forward. Pain engulfs him, but he desperately pushes all the imagery his head produced to the darkest depths of his mind. His friend, his best friend. His lo-
He's ran for so long he can hardly remember what he was running from in the first place, he's got to stop and breathe or he feels as though his lungs might collapse. The Higashikata house is far gone but remains stuck, burned into his eyes, his mind, his heart. As he hunches over, he hears what sounds like rain. A single drop, he raises his head and stares up to watch the incoming downpour. Nothing. He straightens his posture, now standing up he glares up one more time. Still nothing.
He finally realizes where the drop came from, and aggressively brushes his eyes with his sleeve. He jams his hands into his pockets, and once more moves on. His destination awaits right across the street, a large estate of a most eccentric architecture. It's still lit inside, and from what light remains visible outside reveals a handcrafted wooden sign, carved in Kanji reads the name "KISHIBE".
Okuyasu slowly treads towards the massive premises, and ever so cautiously mounts the small series of steps on the way to the front door. Each creak underfoot multiplies his heart's aching beat. At the ultimatum of his odyssey, he can't help but pause, frozen stiff. His eyes bore holes through the door before the thought of knocking even crosses his mind. What's been buried within himself can't be contained any longer less he seeks to dig his own grave. In a flurry he bangs on the door, despite the illusion of hours passing with each smack it's only seconds before he's face to face with Rohan Kishibe.
"There's a doorbell you know."
"Oh... 'm sorry."
Rohan typically would be on Okuyasu's case in an instant, his pointing finger already cocked the moment he cracked the door open, just aching to rant and rave at the absurdity of the hour and the disruptive bangs that caused Rohan to nearly ruin this month's Pink Dark Boy manuscript. However when he sees the state of the juvenile, he wills the rhetoric and lectures away. The kid who stood before him was utterly breathless, sporting a complexion that mirrored the moon, and clearly appeared to be on the verge of some sort of breakdown.
Nevertheless Rohan stood annoyed, but not annoyed enough to put Okuyasu back out on the street. Who knows? Maybe he’s hiding some great dramatic material for future reference? Indulging his own morbid sense of curiosity was about the only way Rohan Kishibe could ever display generosity.
“Despite how horrendous your sense of timing is… I don’t see any stands attacking us or any plum pompadours tailing behind you.”
And with a pained grunt and a welcoming gesture, Rohan allows Okuyasu to enter the home. Once the two figures are inside the door slams shut.
"Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to indulge you for the moment, but firstly... how did you even know I'd be awake at a time like this?"
Okuyasu’s thoughts stay dormant at this prompt for only a few seconds before his memory and mouth click as one. Upon realization his eyes very briefly light up, as though a cartoon lightbulb suspended above his head finally blinked.
"Oh! I was hangin' with Koichi after school a few weeks back, and like, he told me once that you would stay up late at nights because it was quiet and you liked workin' that way. And what I wanna talk about is... real private. Ya' know?"
As his eyes slant, Rohan minds himself to think up a way to punish Koichi for being the cause to such an intrusion, but that would come later.
“Well then, what is it you want from me?”
Simply put, Rohan doesn’t quite feel up to dealing with this all night. Okuyasu remembers now why he came, and crawls into himself, stumped. For a time it seems as though he just doesn’t even want to remember, like he wants to leap out of his own body and make off as a ghost without ever having to meet his own responsibilities.
…And Rohan’s about a fraction of a second away from turning him into a book and getting this done with by the time Okuyasu comes to. His words form slowly and shaken, fear tightens around his neck as he tries in vain to voice his problem. Hazel eyes trace Rohan’s room unable to form proper contact with whom he speaks to.
“Y-you see, I have this friend. We’ve been hanging for what seems like ages and…”
As he begins to recollect, Okuyasu’s stance takes on a surprising change. His spine straightens out and his shoulders rise up. With a chin up, a great smile forms across his lips, spreading from cheek to rosy cheek. If Rohan didn’t know any better he’d suggest Crazy Diamond’s healing abilities having a hand in the sudden change in demeanor
“We’re just like, the best of friends. We see each other almost every day, we hang out, play Super Mario, eat ice cream, hell we even do boring stuff like homework together and it’s still really fun, but…”
And then the mood changes, and Okuyasu starts to appear more confused than anything. His shoulders droop, arms hanging low and motionless as though despair had taken root within him. He can barely manage to release a dying sigh before continuing. Rohan would never outright admit it, but most foreign empathy starts bubbling within him at seeing someone so hopeless.
“I think there’s something wrong with me.” Okuyasu drags his head down, eyes on the floor. “I can’t stop thinking about him, when I’m alone or even when we’re together in class. I keep starin’ over at that handsome face of his, or those pretty purple eyes, wondering what he’s thinking about.”
At admitting his attraction Okuyasu’s face alone is enough to heat up the entire room. Rohan’s expression transitions into one of pure perplexion, he certainly couldn’t have anticipated such a confession, and despite his complete uncertainty of how to handle the situation, he boldly prompts.
“Okay then, but where do I fit into all of this Okuyasu? What do you expect me to do? Ask him out for you?”
In an instant Okuyasu starts to regret his decision to come here, waving his hands in a defensive gesture he cries out.
“No! I mean, hell no! It’s just that this friend, h-he has no idea how I feel or at least what I think I’m feeling… and when I think of how he might take it I get sick to my gut. He’d just be freaked out, more than I am right now. I’ve never felt this awful about anything before… I didn’t ask for any of this, y’know?”
His voice breaks at one pitch too high as that last sentence falls out of his lips.
“I don’t wanna’ lose him, hanging out with him has been the coolest part about my day for so long, I can barely remember what it was like without him.” Hanging off that last sentence his body trembles with nostalgia of a desolate upbringing, neglect, and abuse before forcing himself back to the present, back into composure. He burns with his weakness, but the real shame stems from his open display of it. Once more he wipes at the shame with his dry sleeve, hoping the bitter sting of tears trickling down his face will finally withdraw and leave him be.
Before Rohan can properly assess this horrible turn of events and maybe even console the tearful youth, Okuyasu brings the entire situation to a head.
“Rohan I need you to use your stand. I-I need you to use Heaven’s Door so I don’t feel about him this way anymore! I don’t want to hurt him!”
And all this time, Rohan had brazenly considered himself to be the master of plot twists.
--
Okuyasu leaves the Kishibe premises a different man. Although fortunately, not because of Heaven’s Door. With Rohan’s furious refusal still ringing in his ears, he calmly walks down the front steps and tries to start on his way back home, but not before something catches his eye. Looking up at the previously vacant sky, he notices something different. A single star captivates his vision, shining on brilliant and luminescent into the pitch darkness and unknown. The clouds have vanished.
And suddenly, a jolt of inspiration passes over him. Tomorrow after class, Okuyasu tells himself.
--
Back at the Higashikata household, Josuke Higashikata lay comfortably in his sheets and covers, warm and snug. Immersed in a fantasy of his own desire, he sits in isolation among an unspeakably beautiful assortment of flowers and wildlife in a jungle that could only ever be reached through dream. Stranded on a lone park bench enjoying the scenery, his peace is suddenly shattered by noises of twigs breaking underfoot and leafs being rustled by a mysterious silhouette passing through the seemingly endless, vast jungle that stood right ahead. However as the figure approached, the light reveals that it's Okuyasu Nijimura stumbling into view, and Josuke smiles.