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Two individuals, one sticking extra close to the other as if their very life depended on it, were slowly maneuvering their way around one of the many plazas of Italy. The one being trailed was of course the blonde, and he couldn’t help but roll his eyes constantly at the other’s childlike manner.
Golden rays of the fresh, early morning Venice sun enveloped their figures in light as they continued towards the gondolas that would take the two of them to meet Caesar Zeppeli’s Hamon instructor.
The harmonious chirping sounding from the birds fluttering over their heads filled their ears; light chatter filled the air, a generous offering to the atmosphere by the townsfolk surrounding them.
Caesar drew in a deep breath and allowed himself to get lost in the calming manner of the town he dearly loved. There wasn’t anything that he could think of that could ruin perfect moments like the…
The sensation of the younger boy behind Caesar bumping into him and nearly knocking him onto the pavement violently tore the blonde away from his pleasant thoughts. “Gah, what the hell…” He turned around, steadying himself as he locked eyes with the brunette. “Really, JoJo?”
Of course, he had nearly forgotten… leave it to Joseph Joestar to somehow always find a way to ruin one of these perfect moments. If it hadn’t been for the boy’s already established ability to guess people’s next sentences, Caesar would’ve deemed moment-ruining his super power.
“S-sorry, Caesar. I guess I’m just kind of nervous,” Joseph mumbled, fumbling with his fingers.
Caesar opened his mouth to respond with a witty retort, before taking note of Joseph’s clearly frightened demeanor. From the way that the boy was frantically wiping his sweaty hands on his pants, to how fidgety he was acting with his hands in the first place. Surprisingly, maybe Joseph was telling the truth about his emotions… perhaps their recent encounter with the Pillar Men had enabled the boy to learn to act more seriously for once.
Caesar’s face softened as he took this into consideration and decided to change his approach, slowing his pace a bit to match the younger’s. “You? Nervous? Just relax, JoJo. You’re acting like you’ve never met a woman before.”
Not even the slightest hum had come from Joseph’s direction. Caesar immediately turned towards him in an accusatory manner, eyebrows being tugged upward by sudden interest.
“I am wrong, correct? This isn’t your first time?” The blonde questioned, his facial expression quickly changing into one of pure amusement.
Caesar continued prodding at the taller boy, quickly raising his hand to Joseph’s hair and ruffling it up before the brunette had the opportunity to wriggle himself away. “Aw, JoJo! You’re going to pass out, aren’t you? Do we need to turn around and go back?”
“Of course I’ve been around women, you jackass. I was just thinking about something is all,” Joseph mumbled, grabbing hold of Caesar’s arm and attempting to force him away. “And hey! Hands off.”
“Don’t push me!” Caesar ordered, shoving back against Joseph.
Soon the two were engaging in an awkward-looking pushing match. It didn’t take long for them to begin catching the eyes of wandering passersby, a mix of irritated and concerned glances being casted in their direction.
When an elderly couple paused their meandering to whisper something about the two, directly in front of them at that, Joseph and Caesar immediately took note of how silly they looked and put an end to their strange fighting. They ducked their heads, quickly deciding to instead focus on their walking and increasing their pace.
The conversation wasn’t continued until the two were a safe distance from the judgemental lookers. They had ended up taking a slight detour and were now standing amongst a garden-like area, with vibrant green trees and assorted flowers surrounding a few benches.
The two would say they headed elsewhere to allow them to continue their previous conversation in peace… but it was mostly because if they were to “miraculously” get into another shoving fight, there would be no strange looks.
“Alright, now tell me JoJo… why are you actually nervous?” Caesar demanded, heading over to one of the benches and sliding into the seat. “This really isn’t like you. Before yesterday, I was certain that ‘nervousness’ was an emotion that had failed to be programmed into Joseph Joestar.”
“I was too, before I got engaged to two buff historical rock men,” Joseph pouted, plopping down into the seat beside Caesar. “It’s just… I dunno... maybe I’m nervous because… well, she’s the female version of you.”
He didn’t really take note of how this might have sounded until he noticed Caesar hadn’t yet returned with a response after a few minutes. Joseph frantically began attempting to give some elaboration on his last comment. “... D-Damn, that sounded kinda weird. What I actually meant was…”
“Do you get nervous around me, JoJo?” Caesar questioned suddenly.
“What?!” Joseph cried immediately, nearly falling out of his bench seat. It was a good thing there were no longer any onlookers. “Nervous? Around you? Caesar, are you hearing yourself right now?”
“I’m being serious,” Caesar insisted, instinctively fishing around in his pocket for his pack of cigarettes. “No need to take silly jabs. If you don’t get nervous around me, then there’s no reason for you to be nervous around Coach.”
Joseph, who had thought for sure the conversation was about to take an entirely different direction, breathed out a slight sigh of relief before nodding quickly. “O-oh. In that case, I see what you mea- ugh, are you really about to have one of those smelly things right in front of me, Caesar?”
“Oh. Sorry, habit,” Caesar replied truthfully, releasing his grasp on the box that had barely made it out of his pants pocket. He for once decided against the habit he had known for so many years, in favor of appeasing Joseph.
Turns out they were both acting uncharacteristically on this strange day.
Joseph took note of this, allowed his eyebrows to raise a bit, and trained his focus elsewhere. Caesar brought himself to do the same, but as he was turning caught sight of a heavenly patch of golden flowers stemming from the ground.
Flowers he admittedly couldn’t help but be drawn to whenever he caught a glimpse.
The older boy picked himself up from the seat, edging himself closer and closer towards the exhibit of nature.
“So anyways, do we have to meet up with your coach now?” Joseph questioned, resting his head in the palm of his hand. “Cause I’m kind of hungry, and I mean…. maybe we could, I dunno…”
His voice quickly trailed off as he realized the older boy was heavily in pursuit of something; he was moving slowly and carefully across the green grass as if he were a slender cat tracking an unsuspecting mouse.
“Whoa, Caesar, where are you going? Did you see a girl you need to chase after or something?” Joseph chuckled, trailing after the blonde much like he had done for the majority of the morning.
“Shhhhh!” Caesar loudly hushed him, his abruptness admittedly making Joseph jump a bit.
Caesar let the air between them hover a bit longer before he added more unto the conversation, sounding almost embarrassed as he spoke. “I… wanted to get a better look at the sunflowers.”
Joseph paused, waiting for more to tumble from Caesar’s lips. As he realized there was nothing more to be said, he couldn’t stop the amused smile growing on his face. “Really, Caesar? That’s what you’re so worked up about?”
“What?” Caesar cried, defensively. “I wanted to come and look at them. They’re beautiful, and they have a joyful aura about them.” He turned his head a bit, narrowing his eyes at the brunette as he said, “Can’t say the same about you.”
“Okay, first of all, ouch,” Joseph muttered, placing a hand over his chest as if the blonde had just sent him the most degrading insult. “And second of all, Caesar, they’re just flowers!”
“Grazie, capitan ovvio,” Caesar muttered under his breath, delicately rolling his eyes.
“The way that you hushed me when I walked over here, I thought we were going to be looking at some delicate sleeping animal or something!”
Caesar remained quiet for a moment before he brought himself to head away from the flower patch. “... Yeah, you’re probably right…”
Joseph took note of how visibly dejected Caesar seemed all of a sudden and couldn’t quite understand why. Had he made him upset?
“Oh, and my shushing you had nothing to do with the sunflowers, JoJo,” Caesar commented, meeting Joseph’s eyes. “I just needed a break from your mouth for a moment.”
There was the Caesar that Joseph was expecting. “Well… that’s not the first time someone’s said that to me,” the brunette mumbled under his breath.
Caesar let out a soft chuckle, before looking out to the silently crashing rolls of ocean ahead of them and realizing they still had to complete the task they had come to take care of initially.
“Come on, alright? We’re probably running late.”
♡ ♡ ♡
It had now been roughly two weeks since Caesar and Joseph had first begun their Hamon training. Two weeks since the two tackled the Hell Climb Pillar together, and two weeks since the sunflower conversation. To Joseph, however, it seemed as if it had taken place nearly eons ago.
Hamon training. The endeavor’s relentlessness seemed to only press harder with each passing moment. Joseph already missed the days where he and Caesar could converse with each other freely, often talking about the silliest and most irrelevant things. Even though Caesar liked to act as if Joseph involving him in conversations like these was such a pain, he would always entertain him… and Joseph appreciated that immensely.
Though they were with each other for the majority of the waking hours of the day, Joseph couldn’t help but feel as if he barely got any time to spend with Caesar anymore. Definitely not as a training partner (because Lord knew he had had enough of that type of interaction) but as a friend.
He couldn’t help but wonder if Caesar was feeling the same. Daily, after their new training routine, they’d be off to their rooms, speaking nothing more but a few pleasant words to each other before being apart for a few hours. They would eat soon after, and lately the two had been much too tired to even attempt to entertain conversation anymore.
What would then follow would be the two heading to their rooms once more, but this time for the night; to allow themselves a few uncomfortable hours of sleep before waking up bright and early to repeat the brain-rotting practice all over again.
Tonight, however, Joseph wasn’t following his expected schedule. The earlier activities had fallen into place, but he was now having trouble with the last one… attempting to sleep. Something… no, someone was distracting him.
It hadn’t exactly been the first time this had happened, either, Joseph realized as he laid with his eyes fixated on the ceiling and his arms tucked behind his head. A few nights earlier, this same distraction had pulled him from his slumber once more. That night, however, the Joestar had decided to sneak from his bed to go and carry out a sudden plan he’d crafted from the entire state of affairs.
He’d get into that later, though.
Tonight, the aforementioned distraction, Caesar A. Zeppeli, wasn’t following his normal routine either.
It was another night to add to the list of those where the Italian had trouble sleeping and needed something to alienate him from the terrible anxious feelings taking him over.
Caesar found himself out on the balcony, head tilted upwards towards the sky. He was on the verge of tears, biting his lip to keep them from spilling out. The reminders of the struggles his father (and his grandfather, for that matter) had endured were laced deep within his mind.
The memory of his father, however, held a different weight, causing an entirely different sense of ache and pain to tinge his chest. Caesar couldn’t help but continually blame himself for his father’s death. It seemed as if each time he laid down to bed, in his dark room by himself, the recollection of that night only grew stronger and more intimid…
“Caesar?” A voice suddenly whisper-called from the doorway.
Caesar knew there couldn’t possibly be anyone else whose voice that belonged to. After all, aside from him, Messina, and Loggins, there were no other carriers of male voices on the island.
“Long time no see,” the voice continued, a smile undeniably accompanying his comment. It was a shame the Hamon mask was hiding it. “Well, you know what I mean. It’s been a while since we’ve talked while not all sweaty and smelly!”
“J-JoJo? What are you doing up this early?” Caesar breathlessly stuttered, whirling around on his feet as his hands tentatively reached behind him to find the railing.
“I can ask the same of you, technically,” Joseph insisted, stepping closer. His hands seemed to be mischievously hidden behind his back, Caesar took note. But he paid no mind once Joseph continued talking “However, this isn’t something I’m a stranger to. I’ve heard you out here before.”
Really? Caesar thought. That’s a bit embarrassing. His bottom lip instinctively entered his mouth in worry and anguish as he watched Joseph with widened eyes. “Y...you have? I wasn’t being that loud, was I? You didn’t think Coach heard, do y…”
“Caesar, are you alright?” Joseph asked genuinely, cutting Caesar off from his worried question. Studying the blonde, he couldn’t help but sense an emotion hidden behind his green eyes that he hadn’t detected before: vulnerability.
The boy’s breath hitched in his throat as he wracked his brain for a proper response. Was he supposed to share the stories of his father with Joseph? Caesar wanted to, but at the same time, he questioned whether or not it was the right choice yet.
However, if he decided to brush it off completely… what could he possibly say that would get Joseph off of his case?
It seemed as if Caesar’s silence had spoken enough, though. Joseph shifted as the blonde remained silent, taking this as a hint towards him not wanting to fill him in. “Well, if you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t push,” Joseph mumbled.
Silence lingered in the air between them for a few seconds before Caesar made a gesture towards the brunette’s arms, still tucked away behind his back.
“S-so… Are you hiding something, JoJo?”
“What? Me? Hiding something? Of course not,” Joseph chuckled awkwardly, the seriousness fading from their conversation completely.
Caesar’s face changed into one of pure skepticism, raising an eyebrow as he knew the words tumbling from the boy’s lips were nothing but terribly obvious fibs. Joseph continued staring into Caesar’s eyes, trying to see how long he could hold out… until he ultimately gave in and brought his arms out from behind him.
Immediately Caesar was stunned.
“JoJo…”
Joseph had brought him sunflowers.
They were the golden yellow flowers that the two had talked about just weeks before, and Caesar was beyond touched to realize that Joseph had actually listened to him. That he had actually remembered something about Caesar that seemed so minor, so unimportant, so silly. Joseph had taken the time to recall their conversation just for this moment.
Of course, Caesar remembered that the sunflowers were also what Joseph had poked fun at him for being so enthralled by; but he decided he would let that slide because of the Joestar’s generosity today.
Part of Caesar couldn’t fathom the thought of Joseph actually being careful enough to go and collect as many sunflowers as he had; but overall, the detail most perplexing was the fact that the boy had gone through the trouble of making the gesture in the first place.
“You’re probably wondering why I brought you these,” Joseph commented, watching Caesar’s face. “Well, I knew that I wanted to get you something to cheer you up, but I had no ideas. Like seriously, I had none! Then I remembered the day we first went to meet Coach, and those mean old people were staring at us, and then you found those sunflowers. I remembered how obsessed with them you were…”
The brunette took a breath before continuing, Caesar watching with pure softness in his eyes.
“...so I found some, a few nights ago,” Joseph continued, before pausing again. “It took a while.” He lingered a bit longer as if he was wondering whether or not he should continue speaking, but decided to anyways. “Don’t worry about paying me back, though… you know, unless you want t…”
Caesar suddenly stepped forward, his previous hesitation fading away. Enclosing the space between them, he softly pressed his lips against the part of Joseph’s cheek that was exposed. However, he quickly jumped back and froze up when he came to the realization of how lost in the moment he’d allowed himself to become.
“I, um… I don’t know what came over me,” Caesar mumbled softly, averting his eyes as Joseph’s breathing quickened. “I just… must be tired. Goodnight, JoJo.”
Caesar then attempted to go around the taller boy ahead of him and head back into the building, but was gently stopped by Joseph.
“It’s okay,” Joseph commented softly, fingers wrapping around Caesar’s wrist. He kept eye contact with him for a little longer before showing his true excitement, reaching up to brush the place where Caesar’s lips had just been. “That was a much better payback than I was expecting!”
Caesar immediately relaxed himself, allowing a smile to grow on his lips as he watched Joseph. The two met eyes again slowly after, both unable to control their smiles… though one couldn’t be seen.
Eventually, Caesar gestured back towards the flowers, wanting to bring Joseph’s attention back to them. “Tell me, JoJo… Have you always been this much of a sap?”
“Nope,” Joseph replied truthfully. “But, uh… do you remember the other conversation we had on that day? When we were talking about how surprising it was that I was actually nervous for once?”
“Yes, I believe so,” Caesar replied after thinking about it briefly. “What about it?”
“I guess this is just another one of those instances,” Joseph admitted, looking down at the ground. “Where I’m experiencing a new emotion.”
Caesar waited long enough for Joseph’s eyes to move back to his before he gave his response. “I think… that I’m experiencing it, too.”