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Joseph couldn’t focus on his homework to save his life.
He was sure that he had shared a piece of his attention with everything else in the room but the assignment in front of him, even though he was trying his hardest.
High school Joseph hadn’t exactly had the best track record when it came to his school work. Or suspensions, attendance, and grades for that matter.
However, all of that had happened before he met Caesar Zeppeli; and now that they were dating, after months of flirty banter with one another, Joseph felt as if it were his responsibility to keep up his grades and good behavior for his boyfriend's sake.
At the same time, he was sure Caesar wouldn’t mind if he took a small break every now and again. (That was just his way of convincing himself that his homework could be completed later.)
The sense of relief Joseph felt as he put his homework papers away for the day was astonishing. The burdensome amount of nonsensical chemistry problems were going to be hidden for a little while, and at least a few hours more would pass before he had to touch the devilish pages again. If he was lucky, he would be able to remember he had work to complete before drifting off to sleep… but he wasn’t betting on that.
Soon, though, Joseph realized that he didn’t have anything else to do. Caesar was still yet to show up as he usually did after his last class of the day ended.
Joseph had recently begun at the same school as Caesar. It was in such close proximity to his home that he could still live with Granny Erina and Uncle Speedwagon.
The only problem was that he was still a freshman, and Caesar was a year older, a sophomore; he felt a little silly following Caesar around at times when they were at school and had time to spend together. It was never a big deal when the two were alone, but it was during times when they were among other people that Joseph realized how much more of a serious nature Caesar had when it came to things like their studies and whatnot.
Sometimes he wondered why Caesar put up with him, when they could be so different at times and Caesar seemed to be perfect in every single way. But whenever he said this aloud, Caesar always told him that he was the one who was undeserving of Joseph, regardless of what the Joestar thought.
Either way, they were still together…. so he was doing something right. And here Joseph was… waiting for Caesar to show up and serve as a genuine reason for him to not finish his homework just yet.
All of the untouched books lining the shelves in Joseph’s bedroom appeared to be boring, he took note of as he continued looking for something else to do. The television on the floor below was being watched by his grandmother and uncle, and he didn’t want to interrupt anything going on there… even though Erina had earlier assured him that there wasn’t anything going on by beating him with an umbrella.
Who knew that trying to find something to distract yourself from what you were distracted from in the first place was so difficult?
Before Joseph had the opportunity to change his mind and pull his schoolwork back out, however, he heard the echoing of a knock downstairs. A knock on the front door.
Immediately, he peeled himself up from where he had been previously laying on his bedroom floor, and hurried to impatiently wait by the steps for someone to open the door. Of course, he could always go down there and open the door himself... but he wanted to steel himself at least a little. His excitement was definitely toppling over the brim, but he wanted to trick himself into thinking he could manage to wait just a bit longer.
The door eventually clicked and squeaked open, but by Joseph’s standards it had taken much too long.
The light sound of rain pattering against the pavement outside suddenly entered the house, along with the pleasant “Good evening, Signora” that tumbled from Caesar’s mouth the moment he met eyes with Granny Erina.
“Hello, Caesar,” the elder woman smiled, surely used to seeing him drop by around this hour. “It’s always a pleasure to see you. You’re here for Joseph, I presume?”
‘Did someone say Joseph? I’m Joseph!’ The brunette thought to himself, as he had heard his name from his stance on the top of the stairs. He peeked his head down a bit farther so that he could get a better listen. He still couldn’t catch a view of his boyfriend downstairs just yet, but he assumed it would just make for all the better surprise later on.
Caesar let out a small chuckle, nodding. “Yes, and there’s barely anybody else that I get around and visit.”
“Come on in. He’s upstairs.” Granny Erina nodded sweetly and allowed him into the house. The blonde allowed his eyes to briefly drag over the setting he knew all too well, eventually catching the eye of Speedwagon, who was sitting on the living room couch. The two greeted each other briefly before Caesar headed toward the steps and began to climb them.
Upon hearing the steps creak, the clear indicator that somebody was putting them to use, Joseph panicked. He immediately threw himself away from the banister, and nearly tripped trying to get back into his room at such speed.
He didn’t want to seem too obvious, so he busied himself with a random trinket he found laying in the corner. It was a cube… one of those puzzle ones, with the different colored tape plastered over the squares on each side. Joseph had forgotten the name of it.
“You don’t even know what to do with that,” a voice commented all of a sudden, and the sentence hadn’t even finished before Joseph rushed over to the source and wrapped his arms around him. The blonde chuckled a bit at Joseph’s impatience, but of course didn’t hesitate to do the same.
“Like hell I do. I don’t even remember what it’s called,” Joseph mumbled into Caesar, the vibrations tickling the blonde’s shoulder as that’s where his mouth was rested.
“It’s a Rubik’s Cube, cretino,” Caesar responded, rubbing Joseph’s back sympathetically, and the latter acted as if the information was useful, letting out an “ohh” as if he had been wondering all along.
He asked Caesar to excuse him for just a moment and headed over to the door, deciding to push it closed further, but leave it slightly ajar so that anyone who decided to pass by would know that nothing extreme was going on.
As soon as this thought crossed Joseph’s mind, he felt the sensation of an arm being wrapped around his waist, and before he knew it he was pulled back against Caesar.
However, something had changed in the way that the blonde was looking over him. Instead of the delicate gaze he had been sending Joseph earlier, his stare had become more narrowed, more suggestive, more demanding.
It didn’t take long for his eyes to be met with the same intensity from Joseph. The blonde’s mouth suddenly drew closer, resting for a few seconds over Joseph’s parted lips before leaning in slowly, Joseph following suit. They advanced at a leisurely pace, taking time to relish in every second leading up to the final moment where their mouths eventually connected.
Their eyes shut automatically, it was nearly second nature. They started kissing each other slowly at first, gradually picking up the pace but not pushing it too much. Joseph tilted his head to the side as Caesar placed his hands against his face, steadying the blonde from completely losing himself in the slightly taller boy.
Joseph opened his eyes for a second and caught a glimpse of the shimmery rain drenching Caesar’s blonde locks. He considered poking fun at him later for dripping water all over his floor… but decided he wouldn’t say anything. Instead, he embraced it, combing his fingers through Caesar’s wet hair as their lips continued moving together masterfully.
Over time, Caesar managed to take control of the kiss; his lips attempted to invade each crevice of Joseph’s mouth hungrily, while Joseph tried his hardest to reciprocate the energy. His mouth was already growing tired, but all he knew was that he wanted to keep going.
Their mouths were moving together rougher, needier. Figuring things were going to go further, Joseph brought one of his legs up to slowly curve around one of Caesar’s, his hands continuing to nest their way through the sea of blonde atop his head.
All of a sudden Caesar released his intensity, taking gentle hold of the hands Joseph had wrapped around his head and pulling them down. He noticed the clearly confused expression on the Joestar’s face afterwards and sent him a small smile. “I, um… thank you for the warm welcome, il mio amore.”
“Is that all that was?” Joseph questioned breathlessly as he shamefully dropped his leg and Caesar let go of his hands.
Caesar didn’t respond; instead he headed for the backpack that was laid slouched in the corner of the room, by the front door. Joseph didn’t realize when Caesar could’ve managed to drop the bag on the floor, but it didn’t matter to him too much.
“Bleh, Caesarino… why are you taking your stupid work out?” Joseph mumbled, watching him as he brought the bag back and retrieved the papers Joseph had brought attention to.
“Because I have something that I need to do,” Caesar replied simply, before tapping him on the nose. “And I’m sure you do too.”
“Yeah, and it'll get done later. Schoolwork, schmoolwork, who cares about all that? Kiss me some more,” Joseph pleaded, trying to reach for Caesar.
“As tempting as that sounds, I can’t,” Caesar mumbled, lacing his fingers with Joseph’s. “I’ll be completely honest, bambino. I have a test in two weeks that I should be studying for, but for once in my life I don’t have a single damn clue what’s going on.”
Two weeks? Pshh. Joseph thought he was being a bit too generous with his time, but he entertained him nonetheless. “You? Not having a single idea what’s going on in school?” Joseph teased, before sliding in beside him. “Last time I checked, that was my job.”
“Me too,” Caesar replied softly, and Joseph quickly deducted that by the way he was acting, the stress was weighing really hard on him. “Studying was never really something I did too much. I’ve always managed to listen in a lecture and then later read over the textbook to get the information to stick, but... this time it isn’t, and I don’t know what to do.”
If it was Joseph in the situation, he probably wouldn’t have let Caesar in on the fact that he didn’t know any of the material on the upcoming exam; it wouldn't be because he didn't trust him, though, but more so because he wouldn't want Caesar to know about it. It'd make him feel a bit self conscious, seeing as he was someone who unknowingly compared his abilities to Caesar's quite a bit.
So the fact that Caesar hadn't sugar-coated anything, and told Joseph how confused he was straight away... it meant a lot to him. It helped enforce the idea that no matter how confused, discouraged, or lost the two could end up, they still had each other. Joseph was going to put his all into making sure Caesar passed the test... one way or another.
“Why don’t I help you study?”
Caesar turned to face Joseph almost immediately, staring at him as if he had grown another head. “Are you serious? JoJo, amore mio, I know that you want to help, but there’s absolutely no way that you could know how to do this when I don’t.” He nudged his shoulder gently. “Besides, like you said, having no idea what’s going on during class is your job. How are you going to know what to help me with?”
“That’s all true, but I’m bored and want to spend time with you, and you need to study... so I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Joseph insisted. “Besides, what could go wrong?”
“Ah, let’s see… what could go wrong while the two of us are supposed to be studying together,” Caesar questioned sarcastically, pretending to think about the answer. “Too many things, JoJo.”
“I don’t even need to know the actual material. I’ll just read off something to you,” Joseph pressed on, looking around the small pile of assorted school-related items that Caesar had pulled out. “Don’t you, uh… have flashcards or something?”
“I have my lecture notes,” Caesar explained to him, reaching for the paper he had used to scribble down information on the subject earlier. “I had no idea what I was supposed to be writing, so I tried to write down whatever I picked up on since I didn't want to skip out on anything. But all of these notes don't change the fact that I’m still confused. I get overwhelmed just looking at it all.”
As Caesar had explained earlier, he’d always been the one who never got perplexed in the slightest when it came to his schoolwork. Literally always. The blonde never seemed to break a sweat when taking a test or quiz...he just held this aura that made it seem like he always knew he was going to pass, no matter what. In high school, before the two had begun dating, Joseph’s friends would’ve called Caesar stuck-up without question. Joseph knew now that it was just the way that Caesar carried himself, and nothing more.
Because of this, he knew that this test was really stumping him. Seeing Caesar be so certain that nothing could help, well... it made Joseph doubt his ability to provide his assistance adequately a bit… but, he figured he’d try the plan he had come up with nonetheless.
“Can I see them?” Joseph questioned, holding his hands out, and Caesar casually handed the page over, in a manner that looked like he was saying “go nuts.” He was surprised for a second that Caesar hadn’t taken what he said literally and just held the notes up to his face, but maybe he was feeling too out of it for that.
Joseph took a few minutes to skim over his handwriting. “Hold on,” he ordered after only a few seconds, jumping up from where they were sitting. Caesar watched, confused, as Joseph went to grab a pencil and another sheet of paper. He opened his mouth to question him, but Joseph shushed him before he even got the opportunity.
“Alright, here’s my idea,” Joseph proudly announced a few minutes later, once he was done. He held the paper up, briefly showing Caesar who was still watching him perplexed. “I made this little practice test thing. I’m going to read off one of these questions to you, and the answer choices, and then you’re going to give me your best attempt at an answer, and…”
“Well, that is how practice tests work,” Caesar replied teasingly, before expressing how surprised he actually was. “But I can’t believe you went through the trouble of doing this for me to pass a single exam. Do you use methods like these with your own studies, JoJo?”
Joseph hesitated, “M-maybe, but it’s about your studies right now Caesar. You’ve already helped me with countless other stuff, anyways, so allow me to return the favor.” He lifted his finger as he proved his next point. “And this is different from other practice tests, Caesar, because I have an incentive. Every time you get a question right... I’m gonna kiss you.”
Caesar stared at him blankly for a few seconds before responding. “JoJo… isn’t this supposed to be helping me study? This is just going to distract me.”
“This is how I’m going to help you!” Joseph insisted, a bit upset that the boy beside him didn’t seem too on board with the idea. He’d formulated the plan thinking that it’d be a great reward for getting answers right… and it was also because of the fact that he just wanted to kiss Caesar again.
“Well if we’re going forward with this plan… it’s a good thing I kissed you earlier, then,” Caesar murmured on, resting his head on his hand. “Since I don’t know jack shit about this topic, it probably won’t happen again tonight.”
“Don’t be such a downer. I’m sure you know at least something. You’re the smartest person ever,” Joseph insisted, before reading over the first question and answer selection he’d formed out of Caesar’s notes. “Gimme an answer.”
According to the quiz he had written out, the correct answer to the question was C. Joseph looked up at Caesar, sending him a wide smile: his way of assuring him that he’d get the answer right.
But Caesar wasn’t having it. He shook his head, reluctant to show Joseph how clueless he truly was. “Ugh… Can’t we do this another way?”
“Just give it a try!” Joseph cried enthusiastically. “You’ll never know unless you try, right?”
“B,” Caesar guessed after a few seconds, his eyes narrowing.
Joseph looked down to familiarize himself with the answer again, his smile faltering a bit afterwards. He decided he would give Caesar a different question. “Err… What about this one?"
The answer was D.
“A,” Caesar replied, after briefly thinking about it. “Am I correct?”
“Well, umm…” Joseph scratched the back of his head, trying to find a way to make the situation a bit lighter. “If there’s something you were ‘correct’ about, it might be that whole not kissing me tonight thing.”
“I told you I don’t know any of these definitions, ragazzo sciocco,” Caesar exclaimed, crossing his arms. “And you’ve really lost faith in me already, huh? What a supportive person you are.”
“I am supportive, dumbass,” Joseph insisted, picking up the lecture notes and handing them to Caesar. “And I'm going to support you into a passing score."
"Be my guest."
"So here's what you're going to do now. Go through the notes and look at the first sentences of whatever you've written. Those are usually your topic sentences, and they're important," Joseph began, before going into a quite lengthy explanation of what Caesar should look for when going through his notes. "...Also take note of any people, dates, or vocabulary words mentioned, cause those are always important too."
Caesar stared back dumbfounded. Since when had Joseph become so diligent about studying?
“I know, I know," Joseph warned, catching the surprised look in Caesar's eye. "Granny Erina has made me do this for countless tests. It's kind of a habit now, when I actually get around to studying.”
Caesar smiled warmly. "That's adorable."
“You’re adorable,” Joseph replied smoothly, not being able to let the chance slip by.
Caesar’s lips broke out into a grin, and Joseph couldn’t help but get momentarily distracted by how especially delicate he looked at the moment. His eyes looked especially soft and welcoming, his messy strands of blonde hair framing his face perfectly. Before Joseph knew it though, his eyes were focused back on his mouth.
Ugh, his smile.
Caesar was famous for doing his uninterested half-smirks, but the smile that he was showing Joseph at the moment was one that actually showed his teeth. The brunette found solace in the fact that he was one of the only few allowed to see his smiles. They were beautiful.
Joseph would just love to feel his mouth against Caesar’s smiles constantly.
But there was no time for that. If he wanted to help Caesar, he had to pay attention and act seriously... well, as seriously as Joseph Joestar could manage.
“Anyways, though...,” Joseph continued, suddenly understanding what Caesar had said earlier about how things could go wrong if they were trying to study together. “...after you find the important words and phrases, you color them in. You know, with those pen things you use to go over words when you're studying."
That was more of the way that Caesar had been expecting Joseph to act. “Did you really just say ‘pen thing’? You mean a highlighter, JoJo?”
“Look at that, you’ve gotten a question right already!” Joseph cried out suddenly, causing Caesar to roll his eyes. The younger boy brought his face closer to his partner’s, trying to get Caesar to indulge him. “I think that deserves a little something. On your mouth.”
“Distracting,” was all that Caesar said in response, pressing a hand against Joseph’s mouth and pushing him away before he could strike. Joseph apologized a bit before placing his hands in his lap and deciding he wouldn’t interfere anymore. He’d have to simply stand by while Caesar was busy highlighting.
A few minutes passed, and Caesar showed Joseph the paper that he had marked with neon yellow. “I’m done,” he commented, capping the marker. “What do we do now, signore?”
“Well, let’s see… in order for you to remember what you’ve highlighted, I think it helps to make one of those word thingies. You know what I’m talking about? The ones you write down the side…” Joseph began explaining as he used his hands to gesture. “And then each letter of the word stands for another word… help me out, Caesar.”
“An acronym, JoJo. You know... it’s become clear to me just how many brain cells I supply you with daily,” Caesar sighed.
Acronyms weren’t something that Caesar had ever tried to come up with before. He knew that Joseph had just explained that his grandmother had assisted him with this studying routine, but he couldn’t stop the sneaking suspicion that he hadn’t done acronyms before either. He didn’t even know what the term was in the first place. But Caesar decided that he would give them a try since he had been so generous as to offer the idea up.
The pair went through Caesar’s written notes, paying attention to what the boy had marked down and finding ways to relate them to random sentences that Caesar could remember. Joseph didn't hesitate to insert himself in some of the examples, telling Caesar to remember his name whenever he saw the letter 'J'. Of course.
They did this a few times and went back and forth referring to the highlighted words until Caesar felt a bit less confused about the previous unintelligible ocean of words on the page. Finally, Joseph was ready to enact his plan.
“So, let’s try this again!” He cried, feeling hyped now. He was certain that Caesar had gotten something out of their work for the past few hours. In order to begin testing his knowledge, Joseph decided to try the first question he had asked him again. “I asked you this one earlier, but I’m going to ask it again to see if you learned anything.”
“Oh,” Caesar began, before going deep into thought. He heard the answer choices, and thought about the J in the question, and he managed to link them together with the strange sentence Joseph had created for him. “Is it... D?”
“Yes!” Joseph cried as he threw the paper, obviously much more excited than the Zeppeli. He had been waiting far too long to kiss Caesar again and all of the boring studying talk had only made it worse.
It didn’t take long before Joseph’s lips were back on Caesar’s, and in even less time they managed to gain as much enthusiasm as the two had held earlier. The kiss that was only supposed to serve as a reward for a correct answer had managed to unsurprisingly turn into something more, and Joseph found himself wondering what it was about Caesar that was so addicting.
It was the spark that he felt every time he kissed the blonde. Like Hamon, full of energy and life. Whenever his mouth was intertwined with Caesar’s, Joseph realized how different the energy about him was. He had never felt so lively, so passionate, so energized. He wanted to slide himself into Caesar’s lap, he wanted his hands to explore Caesar as if his body was unknown ground, he wanted his tongue to pass Caesar’s lips and heighten the bliss they were each in at the moment. His thoughts were overflowing with ways that he could ramp up the intensity of the emotions that they were feeling in his cramped bedroom.
Then Joseph realized that his mind had unknowingly travelled farther than it was allowed to at the moment, and he remembered where they were and what they were supposed to be doing. He also remembered that the door to his room wasn't closed, and that Caesar’s hair was still a bit wet, and that Caesar hadn’t even yet proven himself capable of passing the test because he had only answered a single question correctly. Meanwhile, they were celebrating as if he had already received his scores.
Reluctantly, Joseph pulled himself back, deciding that they wouldn’t make it too long. After all, he was sure he’d be giving him a lot more later. “Mwah!” He cried out after they pulled away, overjoyed.
“Holy shit, your idea actually worked,” Caesar replied after catching his breath, genuinely surprised. He hadn’t expected an idea from Joseph to work out so well.
“I told you I’m supportive,” Joseph retorted.
“Yes, you are. And you did an amazing job at setting this up, JoJo,” Caesar admitted, leaning against Joseph’s shoulder affectionately. “But don’t get cocky just yet.”
“Let’s try the next one,” Joseph offered, bringing the paper up to where he could read. He followed the usual routine: asking the question, listing the answer choices, and then awaiting his boyfriend’s response.
“It’s C,” Caesar replied smugly, feeling as if he were on top of the world with how much information he had managed to retain from something he originally didn’t believe would work.
“But are you certain?” Joseph questioned, raising an eyebrow.
“Wa…” Caesar’s voice faltered suddenly. “Is… is it wrong?”
“No, I just wanted to make you squirm,” Joseph chuckled, his laughter only increasing in volume when he spotted the annoyed look Caesar was sporting.
The two were still in close proximity to one another, as they had been for most of the night, so it wasn’t too difficult for Joseph to bring himself towards Caesar’s face once more.
“You’re right again, Mr. Zeppeli.”
♡ ♡ ♡
Another hour passed, and the two eventually found themselves with their backs pressed against the side of Joseph’s bed, having small conversation. They had gone through about three quarters of Joseph’s make-shift practice test, with Caesar getting a good amount of the practice questions right. He was feeling overly thankful for having someone so willing to help beside him.
“I really can’t thank you enough for helping me,” Caesar mumbled after their previous discussion ended, turning his head towards Joseph to let him know that he really meant it. "Ti voglio molto bene."
“I love you too,” Joseph whispered softly, taking Caesar’s hand in his. “And of course I'd help you. We can ‘study’ again tomorrow, too, and the day afterward, and any other day leading up to your exam.” They both knew it probably wasn't the best idea to continue spending time with each other when they were supposed to be focused on Caesar's work... but they'd do it nonetheless.
“I’d like that a lot,” Caesar replied, his deep green eyes continuing to pierce Joseph’s.
“And then when the day finally comes…” Joseph continued, moving his other hand so that it could also grasp ahold of Caesar’s, “you won’t have to feel nervous about anything, because I’ll be there with you!”
“Sorry, but I don’t think you’re able to do that,” Caesar replied jokingly, staring at Joseph as if he had just let the most nonsensical comment slip. “Walk through the door during an exam and you’ll get chewed out for sure.”
“I meant metaphorically, pinhead.”
“Whatever, stupido.” While still managing to keep his hand in Joseph’s, Caesar let out a soft yawn and stretched as best as one could whilst laying on the floor. “I’m a bit sleepy. Do you think that your grandmother would allow me to sleep here again?”
“Of course, she loves you,” Joseph insisted, without even needing to give his question much thought. “But the night’s still young. Let’s have another study date…”
He made sure that Caesar’s eyes were focused directly on him before he dropped his voice a few octaves, trying his best to set the mood that they were preparing to enter. “And this time without the notes.”
“Oh?” Caesar questioned mischievously, matching Joseph’s glare. “In that case, I think I’ll quiz you this time.” He quickly tightened his grasp on Joseph’s hand and brought himself around to sit between his legs. “Let’s see… what one person do I love more than anyone or anything else in the world? Choose wisely.”
“Oh, what a hard one. But I’d have to guess that their name is Joseph Joestar,” Joseph guessed, after smirking teasingly. Caesar rewarded him.