Work Text:
You were just finishing cleaning the kitchen when the phone rang. It’s almost eight, pretty late for a call, you thought to yourself as you set the rag down and made your way over to the phone.
“Hello?” You whispered, trying not to wake Holly in the next room.
“Hey, Y/N. It’s Jotaro. Sorry I’m calling so late, but this was important. I thought I should let you know that we’ve found where we need to go, so I’ll call you back once we’re done here.”
“Oh - alright. Good luck. Is Kakyoin there?”
“Yeah. One second.” There was a pause, and some static. “It’s me. We’ll probably be home within the next few days. How’s Ms. Holly?”
You paused. “You guys have been gone for almost 50 days, so, I mean, you can kind of figure out how she’s doing right now.”
There was a sigh on the other end of the line. “Yeah, I know. We’ve finally made it, though, so she’ll be fine soon. I hope.”
“You guys have been through hell and back before even making it to Cairo. You’ll be fine. I’ll make you both ramen when you get back! The kitchen in the Kujo’s house is insane.”
“Joseph’s bought at least ten different vehicles since we’ve left. I’m not surprised.” Kakyoin said. “We’ve got to head out now. Try to not get into any mischief before I get back. It isn’t like you can handle someone stealing your wallet again.”
You rolled your eyes. “Have some faith in me, loser. If you guys can survive multiple plane crashes and a submarine sabotage, I can hold onto my wallet for a few more days. Tell Jotaro he better come back in one piece, too, or I’ll tell his mom he hasn’t quit smoking yet.”
Kakyoin laughed. “I believe you. I’ll see you soon. I love you.”
“Yeah.” You smiled. “I love you too.”
The phone clicked as you set it back in the stand. You checked in with the Speedwagon doctors quickly to see if they needed anything else, then packed up your things and headed home. It really had been a while since you’ve seen the two of them and your last interaction was nothing more than a hurried goodbye before they ran off to the airport to save Jotaro’s mother. You couldn’t wait for them to get back - the pile of schoolwork sitting on the floor of your room looked like it was about to topple over any second, and you’d just found this great cake recipe in one of your mother’s cookbooks that you knew they’d love.
The three of you - Jotaro, Kakyoin, and yourself - had been a trio for years. Jotaro was too busy ignoring all the girls at school who oogled him, and somehow, you and Kakyoin had ended up together. It didn’t really change the dynamic, especially considering that neither you or Jotaro would want to date each other unless your life depended on it.
It was nice, being with Kakyoin - he’d just gotten you an emerald pendant for your birthday, refusing to tell you the price, telling you that as long as you enjoyed the gift, he didn’t care about the price. Every Friday, after class, the two of you would buy a soda from one of the vending machines near school and watch the clouds until it got either too cold or too dark to stay out. One time, he’d surprised you after midterms with a picnic. Your only complaint was that you never felt like you were doing enough for him, but he brushed it off, saying that he didn’t need anything if he could just spend time with you.
Maybe you’d marry this man someday, you thought to yourself as you started getting ready for bed.
Hopefully he’d call you when you woke up. Killing a vampire shouldn’t take that long, right?
The next day, you found yourself staring at the phone in the Kujo’s kitchen, waiting for it to ring. What were you being so anxious for? They were probably on their way back already. It took at least twelve hours to get to Cairo from Japan, so it wasn’t like they’d be home by the end of the day. Her mother had arrived the day before, so you knew the Speedwagon doctors definitely didn’t want to handle any more guests.
Next thing you knew, you were being shaken awake by a pair of hands. You didn’t even remember falling asleep. “Hey.” A deep voice came from behind you. “We’re back.”
“Jotaro!” You turned around, craning your neck up to get a better look at him. “Where’s Kakyoin? How was it? How’s Ms. Holly?”
“I mean, I made it back in one piece, and so did the old man. Holly is fine, she’s in the other room right now.”
“Is he on his way here?” You asked, feeling a ball of tension growing in your chest.
“I need to tell you something, Y/N.” He said, pulling out one of the chairs seated around the table and sitting down.
“What do you mean, something? Is he injured? Is that why he isn’t back?”
He sighed. “No. It’s something else.”
“What?”
“He’s not coming back.”
A nervous laugh broke out of you. “What do you mean, he’s ‘not coming back’? Did he meet an Egyptian baddie and choose to stay back?” The ball started to grow, enveloping your chest in a pressure that made you feel like you were suffocating.
“Dio killed him in Egypt. He’s not coming back.” He pulled his hat down and averted his eyes.
“This is a joke, right? Like he’s going to come through the door in a few minutes completely fine? Don’t play with me, Jotaro.” Your voice cracked as you tried to keep it steady, but tears started to build up in your eyes as you attempted to keep your voice level.
“He’s dead, Y/N. Dio killed him. Punched a hole through his stomach and left his body in a water tower. He’s gone.”
Oh.
You opened your mouth in an attempt to respond, but nothing came out except a choked cough as your throat started burning and those tears you’d tried so hard to hold back started spilling out.
“I’m sorry.” Jotaro said as he pulled you into his chest. “I wasn’t there. There wasn’t anything I could do.”
Your sobs started shaking your entire body as you buried your face in the fabric of his shirt. A small part of your brain was trying to tell you that Jotaro was joking, that Kakyoin would walk through the door in a few minutes, ready to punch Jotaro for making a joke about his death, but the rest of you knew that he wasn’t kidding. He wouldn’t lie about something like this.
It was funny how just yesterday you were laughing to yourself thinking you’d marry him. When he first asked you out, it didn’t even feel like you were being asked out. The two of you were just sitting in your room doing homework when he said, “Hey, let’s go out sometime.”
“Like, to dinner? The three of us literally did that yesterday.” You looked over at him, with his body hunched over his notes. He stopped writing, and turned his head towards you. “No, like on a date, genius.”
“Yeah, sure.” You responded, before turning back to your work. It wasn’t like your homework was going to finish itself. “Sweet. How does Friday sound? 7pm? We can just go to that cafe you always talk about.” You nodded, smiling to yourself as the two of you continued to work in silence.
That’s how your relationship with him was. It was comfortable, dating someone you’d known since you were a kid. There weren't any awkward early dates, getting to meet the family, or introducing each other to friends. The atmosphere between you, Jotaro, and Kakyoin, didn’t change much, either. Even though you and Kakyoin were dating, when the three of you spent time together, it never felt like Jotaro was third-wheeling. You never would’ve thought being friends with an angry teenager with a smoking problem and another with a weird cherry obsession would’ve made you so happy.
Your mind snapped back to the present as a gust of wind blew through the open door, lightly stinging the back of your neck. Jotaro still had his arms wrapped around you, and was resting his head on top of yours. Your chest was on fire from the pressure of your crying as he held you without saying a word, holding you still as your sobs racked your entire body.
It felt like hours had passed until you started to run out of tears, and what had felt like the brink of hyperventiliation started to fade into a dull, throbbing pain resting in your throat that didn’t seem to go away. You pulled away from Jotaro, refusing to look into his face in fear that you’d break down crying again. Your hands were shaking as you brought them together in your lap, beginning to pick at the dead skin around your fingernails in a poor attempt to keep yourself busy.
Another wave of pain shot through you as your hands moved to your neck to make sure you were still wearing the necklace he gave you. You were momentarily convinced to just rip it off and throw it into the yard so you wouldn’t need to be reminded of the person who gifted it, even though you knew that, if you did, you’d spend hours trying to find it just to hold onto the only piece of him you had left.
Honestly, it was funny, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to take you out to dinner or help you with your homework. You two had talked about college together one evening, saying how it’d be nice to go to college in Tokyo and get out of the suburbs for once. After graduation, the three of you had talked about maybe traveling to Europe for a few weeks, or America so Jotaro could see his grandparents.
You never even got to buy him an anniversary present. You’d spent hours talking about it with Jotaro, trying to figure out how to one-up Kakyoin for your one-year anniversary because you knew he’d be trying to do the exact same thing. What was it that you wanted to get him again? It was probably a new pair of cherry earrings, considering you always laughed at the ones he wore because they looked like little more than a red ball on a string.
Maybe it was that new game he was always talking about. Jotaro had never touched a video game in his life, so it was always you attempting to play with Kakyoin so he didn’t need to play alone, and getting your ass beat every time because you barely even knew how to use the controller. You should’ve tried harder to learn. He probably would’ve had more fun. Not that it mattered now.
“Hey.” You asked Jotaro, looking up to see him cleaning up your homework for you. “Can I stay here tonight? I don’t want to deal with my parents right now.”
“Yeah.”
“Thanks.”
“Y/N?” Jotaro said, placing your bag next to the doorframe.
“What?”
“You know he loved you, right?”
“Yeah.” You smiled. “I do.”