Archive of Our Own

Rohan loved the zoo. He loved the botanical gardens too. And the library. But most of all he loved the zoo.

First of all, it was huuuuge. Second, it was right by his house so he could go every day. His parents even let him walk through the exhibits on his own, and today they’d even bought a disposable camera for him to take pictures of his favorite animals. The tiger, definitely, and maybe the penguins and monkeys too. He’d mastered drawing lions last week, so he’d lost interest in them already. 

He glanced up at the park map to decide where to begin. It seemed like he was already by the Reptile room, so he might as well start there. The young artist jogged down a narrow trail until it widened into a full enclosure, empty and quiet except for the gurgling of the pond taking up its far side. Just how he liked it.

Rohan set his knapsack beside him on the ground and pulled out his colored pencils. He was always doubly careful by the tide pool, because he’d already lost his favorite cerulean when he’d sat too close and a fish knocked it into the water. And his mother had yelled at him for it! Stupid fish. He hmphed and picked a safer spot over by the turtles. At least he still had all of his greens, so maybe he could sketch them for today.

“Hey, turtle.” He peeked over the edge. A big, old, fat turtle swam right up to the side of the pool. Rohan chuckled. “D’you want a treat?”

The turtle snapped its jaw, and he thought he heard a gasp! from somewhere behind him. 

...That was weird. 

Rohan swiveled, but couldn’t see anyone else around. Maybe it was just one of the other animals? He sighed and picked up his pad of paper. Whatever it was seemed to be gone anyways, so it was time to start working.

Drawing was second nature to Rohan Kishibe. He’d done it for as long as he could remember, and he was good at it. Really good. Any time he completed a piece it went straight on the blackboard, and he had even won an award in class last year for his breakout hit debut short manga, The Barking Dog of Morioh Town. 

He pinched off a leaf from one of the decorative ferns and held it out to the turtle. It lumbered up closer and took the sprig into its teeth, gnashing slowly. As it ate Rohan started his sketch. 

“Whoa.”

Rohan jumped. 

Somehow, some kid had snuck up behind him and was leering over his shoulder. Big blue eyes were trained on Rohan’s paper, then up to the water. The older boy scoffed.

“What, have you never seen a turtle before?”

The boy finally looked over at him and for the first time Rohan noticed his… weird hair. It looked greasy and messy, half-piled on top of his forehead. Totally different from the pudgy cheeks and half-toothless kid attached to it. 

“I have too seen a turtle! Just—” His voice got suddenly quiet, “not this close...”

His eyes bounced back to Rohan’s drawing and the artist tugged it closer to his chest. 

“Well, there it is. Now will you leave me alone? I’m busy.” He sighed. This always happened when other children saw his drawings. They’d want him to draw them, or want to keep his sketches, even though they was his. And his art was meant to be appreciated, not crumpled up or tossed in a bookbag. Rohan was already gearing up for an argument when he noticed the boy climb up to sit on the ledge. Not close. Not far. Just… there.

Rohan rolled his eyes. Well... at least he was quiet again. He sat back down, making a show of turning his back to the younger boy. He started a second sketch, this time from the top-down. The different whirls and ridges on the turtle’s shell were really interesting.

He picked another leaf and tossed it into the pool. There was another excited noise behind him.

What an idiot.

Before he knew it, Rohan had filled a whole page full of turtles. And a few fish, when he needed to fill the small gaps in the margins. He grinned as he appraised his work. 

“Wow, you’re good.” 

“Gah!” He shuddered again. “Stop sneaking up on me, you weirdo!” 

The other boy blinked back like he didn’t understand, then broke out into a cherry red blush. “I-I’m not weird! I was trying to be nice!” 

“It’s not nice to stare, or to hang around when you’re not wanted. And didn’t you ever learn not to talk to strangers, dumbass?”

“You shouldn’t say that!” He was pouting now, standing up on the ledge of the pool. He still wasn’t as tall as Rohan. “That’s not a nice word, and you’re not nice either. Even if your drawings are good.”

Rohan scrunched up his nose. This dumb brat was insulting him? But he had also complimented his art. He was caught between pride and disgust. Just as he opened his mouth to hurl some very mature insult, a voice called out from the entrance. 

“Rohan-chan? We’re leaving,”

He felt his cheeks light up. Of course his mother would embarrass him at a moment like this. He huffed, threw his supplies back into his bag, and cast a glare over his shoulder to the other boy. He stuck his tongue out.

“Are you coming back tomorrow?”

Rohan blinked. What? Why would he ask that? 

“...I dunno. Maybe.”

Why had he answered?

The younger boy grinned again, showing off the gap where one of his incisors had fallen out. 

“Cool.”

Rohan scoffed and turned to leave again.

“Wait!” 

What now?  

“I’m Josuke! Come back tomorrow! Please!” 

Rohan pretended not to hear him, and jogged out of the enclosure without looking back. 

He’d been there for 30 minutes already and there was no sign of Josuke. 

...Not that Rohan had wanted that little nuisance to show up. More that he just wanted to be sure that he wouldn’t. He swung his feet idly, kicking against the stone ledge with every motion.

Alright, it seemed safe. He sighed, opening up his bag and pulling out his supplies again. 

“Rohan-chan!” 

A shrill yell scared all the fish away and made the artist drop his pencils. He jerked his head towards the voice and, unsurprisingly, there was the same mop of dark hair, somehow even more strange now that it was arranged in a tidy pompadour. Or at least he guessed it was tidy, judging by the slicked down sides and shiny surface. 

Rohan fixed a sneer on his face, even if his cheeks were red. 

“Don’t call me that!” 

The younger boy jogged over and attempted to help pick up the mess, but the older shooed him away. Instead, he just put on that bug-eyed stare again.

“What d’ I call you instead, Rohan-chan?”

Rohan pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t want this brat calling him anything, but… 

“Rohan-senpai.” He stated confidently, then— “Wait, no! Rohan-sensei.”

“Er, which one’s that?” 

Ugh, stupid! “You always call famous mangaka ‘Sensei’! You know, like Toriyama-sensei, or Inoue-sensei!”

Josuke tilted his head. “You’re a famous mangaka?”

He scowled. “I’m going to be! So lucky for you, you get to call me Sensei first.”

The younger boy smiled at that, and ran up to the edge of the pool. “Okay, Rohan-sensei. Can you feed the turtle again?”

All that, and he didn’t even want to see his manga?! 

Rohan puffed out his cheeks. “No, do it yourself.”

Josuke’s eyes grew wide again—how was it possible, they were already so big—and it was like the wind had been taken out of his sails. Well, good. He couldn’t work with all his talking anyways.

He scooped up the remaining pencils and nudged himself backwards to rest on the wall, leaving Josuke gawking at him from across the water. Whatever, it wasn’t his job to babysit some weird kid who didn’t even like manga. 

Instead, he let himself get carried away with his art. Rohan loved the feeling of letting his mind wander, focusing only on whatever he was sketching or trying to figure out how to put his thoughts down on the page. Drawing was much easier than talking, but he was trying to get better at that, too. He’d read lots of old issues of Shonen Jump for ‘research,’ but his mom said he just sounded like a delinquent now. Too informal. Like he was always trying to fight.

He glanced up at Josuke on instinct. At least Rohan didn’t look like a delinquent. Hmph.

Just as he looked back down at his page, he heard a shriek. His sketchbook clattered to the ground, and before he realized what he was doing Rohan was at Josuke’s side.

And… wow, okay, that was blood. 

“W-what the hell?” Rohan stuttered. He hadn’t anticipated this. Josuke was cradling his hand into his side, and it looked like his finger had been split open. “What did you do?”

Josuke looked up at him. His eyes were clouded over with tears, but he hadn’t actually started crying yet. It wasn’t until Rohan interrogated him that he started to sob, and the older boy fell to his knees in an effort to get a handle on the situation. “H-hey, are you okay? What happened?”

“I-I…” He struggled to control his sniffling, “I was trying to— I watched you do it— I thought—” It was no use. Josuke glanced down at his hand and started crying all over again.

Oh, shit. That stupid turtle had almost taken a finger off. If it hadn’t already.

Rohan was so dead.

“Gimme a second, okay Josuke?” 

 He was panicking. Of course he hadn’t kept an eye on the dumb kid, but what was he gonna do if he told his parents? Or worse, got him banned from the zoo? Maybe if he could distract him, or get him to just stop crying for five seconds so he could think, he could— 

Wait! 

Rohan sprinted over to grab his knapsack and dumped the contents onto the ground around them. 

…right there!

“H-here, uh, gimme your hand.” He held out his own, and Josuke gently placed his into the older boy’s palm. Rohan steeled his nerves to look down and, thank goodness, it was just a cut. That geezer turtle had taken a chunk out of his index finger, but it wasn’t anything like the geyser he’d been expecting. He took a tissue from a small pack and wiped off what he could of the blood. “It’s not bad, see? You’re just… just being a crybaby.” 

Josuke chewed his lip, like he was thinking hard about something. “I’m…” He paused and Rohan was convinced he was about to break into hysterics again. But then Josuke wiped his eyes with the back of his good hand, steeling himself, and put on a scowl. “I’m not a crybaby.”

Rohan found himself biting back a nervous laugh. What the heck was up with this kid?  “Hmph, you sure looked like one.”

“I’m not!” Josuke stomped his foot. It was like he’d completely forgotten about his injury.

Rohan tossed the ruined tissue to the side and picked up another. The younger boy glanced down at his hand again before quickly pulling it away. 

“C’mon, I’m almost done.”

“I don’t need it.”

Rohan furrowed his brow. “Yeah you do.”

Josuke shook his head wildly. It made his hair bounce. “No, I’m okay! Just—” He turned away, holding his hand to his chest, “H-huh? Why isn’t it—”

“I told you, just let me see.” Rohan grabbed him by the arm again and finished cleaning the cut. It wasn’t that bad. Everything would be fine. He had even managed to find an old bandage crammed in one of the pockets of his bag. “There. Be more careful next time, stupid.” He considered ruffling the kid’s hair, but thought maybe that was a bit too affectionate. So he settled for flicking him on the forehead.

“H-hey!” 

Josuke shrieked again, and Rohan finally chuckled, quiet and light and under his breath, and let himself relax a bit. Sure, this kid was dumb and loud, but at least he was kind of interesting. Unexpected. Like he literally didn’t think of anything before doing or saying it. Maybe he should have his own exhibit at the zoo.

Rohan sat back against the pool’s edge, lazily picking up his scattered belongings while Josuke fretted over the angry red mark on his face. He couldn’t even see it, really, under that weird hair of his. 

After a few more minutes the younger boy came to sit besides him. He was pouting, alternating between rubbing his hand and his head, and wouldn’t look anywhere besides the ground. But Rohan didn’t think he was really angry. Probably just embarrassed. Or didn’t have anything to say. And he could understand that. 

Actually, maybe he could understand a lot about Josuke. Rohan had definitely had his share of… unfortunate accidents because of his curiosity. The infrequent pain on his left side was a reminder of that. But typically when stuff like that happened, he’d get chewed out or punished— How could you put yourself in danger like that? —Easy, because he wanted to. Why was that hard for adults to understand?

So maybe Josuke had just been curious. Rohan could respect that. They sat in silence for a bit. 

“Can we go to the monkeys tomorrow instead?”

Neither one of them looked up. Rohan laughed. What a weird kid.

“Yeah, sure.”

He didn’t have any plans. And maybe Josuke was just a bit of fun.

As promised, they sat near the Monkey enclosure the next day. And then the butterflies the day after that. Josuke had hated that one, but he was some sort of bug-magnet and it made it much easier for Rohan to get close to draw the details. He’d made him sit still for 45 minutes before a sneeze had knocked most of them off. 

Three days later, Josuke had appointed himself Rohan’s ‘bodyguard.’ Rohan had refused every time, rolled his eyes, but eventually just went with it once Josuke started threatening to beat him up, all full of unearned confidence. Like he could. 

He was annoying as hell, but Rohan almost found himself looking forward to the company. 

Best of all, though, was that whenever Rohan sat down to draw, Josuke would get really quiet and just watch. Like it was an event, or something special. That feeling of having an audience was infinitely thrilling. 

…But something was weird today. They’d only been in the Panda room for about 15 minutes, yet Josuke kept glancing over towards the door. Usually he’d have at least pressed his hands and face up to the glass, leaving dust and crumbs from the snacks they’d share (not that Rohan ever got more than a few bites before they had disappeared.) But now, he was just wringing his shirt and biting his lip.

“Do you have to go to the bathroom or something?” Rohan asked, quirking an eyebrow when the younger boy jumped out of his skin.

“N-no! I already went!”

“Ew, don’t tell me!” 

“Then don’t ask!” 

Josuke stuck out his tongue and Rohan dropped the subject, instead focusing on taking a few photos. 

“Josuke-kun?” 

An unfamiliar voice chimed through the room. A woman?

“Josuke-kuuun, are you in here?”

Rohan finally looked over, only to find his companion running over to the young woman’s side. He placed the camera on the lip of the window and tried to put on an air of annoyance.

“Are you his babysitter or something?” He folded his arms, and the woman tilted her head. “‘Cause if so, you’ve been doing a bad job. I’ve been stuck with him all week.”

“Oh, have you?” She took a few more steps closer, before jutting out her hip and planting her hand on it. “Well, I’ve got a few complaints about you too, Rohan-sensei. ”

H-huh? How did she know his name? Rohan’s eyes flitted over to Josuke for a moment and— was that terror he saw? He could feel his cheeks light up.

“Seems like my little Josuke-kun got kinda roughed up the other day. You wouldn’t know anything about that, right?”

“N-nope.” 

“And I’m guessing you don’t know how he afforded all those sodas either?”

Rohan pursed his lips together and shook his head. He really wasn’t a great liar.

The woman sized him up for a few more moments, before extending her free hand out to him. Rohan looked at her oddly before recognizing that she wanted a handshake, and took her hand in his own. Very professional-like.

“Thanks for looking after this little brat for a bit,” She tugged him out from behind her, “I’m Josuke’s mom, by the way. But I guess I’ll accept being the babysitter, too.” 

And then she broke out into a smile and Rohan immediately recognized it as Josuke’s. 

“Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

“Ouch, from babysitter to ma’am? Josuke-kun, is your friend always so rude?”

Josuke puffed out his cheeks before answering. “Yeah.”

“Hey!”

He stuck out his tongue in retaliation, and the two hurled insults back and forth while Josuke’s mother laughed. That sounded like Josuke’s too. 

“Did you already give it to him?” She said, looking down at her son as he broke into a full-body blush. Josuke shook his head. It knocked a few locks of his hair loose. “C’mon, you don’t have all day.”

What did she mean by that? He wondered. But before Rohan had a chance to ask, Josuke was fumbling with something in his pocket. He tugged out a small square of paper and started to unfold it, eventually kneeling down to try and smooth the creases against the floor. Once it was satisfactory, Josuke crossed the short distance between them and held it out. He wouldn’t look at him.

Rohan examined the boy with suspicion. Something was definitely up, this was too weird and formal for just a normal afternoon. He took the paper gently, flipping it over to see what was on the other side. 

It was… a turtle? A green blob, more accurately, but he could guess based on the frowning stick figure with a pompadour messily drawn next to it. And then a tiger with scribbled-on stripes next to a taller figure which Rohan assumed was supposed to be himself, judging by the spiky headband and green hair. Lastly, ‘ thank you, i had fun ’ in the top right corner. 

A poor art project, he thought. But there was a dreadful twinge settling in his chest the more he thought about it.

“What’s this supposed to be?”

Josuke frowned. “It’s us. That’s you, and that’s me, and that’s—”

“I know that. But… why are you giving me this.”

It wasn’t so much a question as a statement. They hadn’t given each other gifts, they’d only known each other a week, why would this dumb kid have gone and drawn something so mediocre when he could have asked him, Rohan Kishibe, for lessons? He’d have told him that he should have started with an outline first, or that coloring in the same direction would be neater, or— 

“Rohan-sensei?” 

He looked up. He hadn’t even really realized he’d sat down. But Josuke was looking down at him with those big blue bug eyes and all he wanted to do was throw a punch at this stupid kid. This dumb idiot who’d followed him all over and said his drawings were good and had collected all the torn up shreds of the ones Rohan hated because they weren’t good enough. Who’d eaten all his snacks and whined and cried about animals looking sad, and asked ‘ are you coming back tomorrow?’ every single day like he was gonna get a different answer.

Rohan didn’t want to go back to being alone all the time. 

It was kinda nice having a friend. 

He wasn’t ready to give it up.

Josuke’s mother looked concerned. Josuke did too. He hated it. 

“You got my headband all wrong.”

Rohan tried to muster a smirk. Everything was fine, he was fine. If Josuke left, there’d be a thousand more people lining up to see his work. He’d show him. 

“I did not!” 

Josuke was smiling. Like it was understood that they should fight again, maybe one last time. 

“Did too. You made me look ridiculous.”

“You do look ridi— ridicicule— weird!” 

“Maybe if you paid a little more attention instead of jumping around and making faces at the animals, you’d have learned something about art.”

“Well maybe if you stopped being a big stupid jerk— “

“Josuke!” 

“ Sorry! If you stopped being such a big mean jerk,” 

Rohan huffed, and Josuke rolled his eyes, and Josuke’s mother tried to hide her smile as they shouted back and forth. By the time the afternoon was over, Rohan had done a full seminar on how to draw faces and Josuke had insisted on ignoring every single piece of advice he’d given. He’d be an ugly stick figure forever. 

“Josuke-kun, we should head out.”

Josuke nodded, and turned back to his companion. “Hey, Rohan-sensei, watch this.” He grinned that stupid toothy grin and held up his bandaged hand, and proceeded to rip the bandage right off. “See? All better.”

Rohan chuckled. “Just don’t shove your hand in any more turtle mouths, idiot.” Tomoko shot him a warning glare and he immediately deflected. “Or... be careful. Or something.”

“Got it.” 

The younger boy stood up to leave. He hadn’t asked if Rohan was coming back tomorrow, but he was too afraid to ask the other boy himself. 

“Hey, Josuke.”

Rohan flipped through his notebook until he found the page, and then carefully tore it along the perforation. He tried to ignore the heat across his face as he signed his name in the lower left corner. 

“Here. Take that. It’s gonna be worth a lot of money someday, so don’t fold it up!”

He held out the page from that first day, the one with all the turtles and fish, but now it had ‘Rohan Kishibe’ scribbled on it in the fanciest calligraphy he could manage with colored pencil. Josuke scrunched up his nose.

“Gimme one with a cuter animal! Like the one with the monkeys—”

“Hey, you’re lucky to get anything from me! So just take it already.”

Josuke did, and he noticed the soft smile from his mother as he gently handed it to her. Good, he didn’t trust Josuke to not ruin it anyways.

Rohan closed the book, but it felt heavier now. Josuke grinned and waved his hands and ran to the entrance to the enclosure, but his mother doubled back. “Go on, Josuke-kun! Gimme just a second.”

The woman turned to face Rohan again. He held his breath.

“Thanks, really.” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and Rohan shied away.

“Is Josuke not coming back anymore?”

Tomoko’s eyes grew wide—like she hadn’t expected that question. Or maybe that she had expected him to already know the answer. “No, he’s not. Maybe someday, but we’re going back home for now. He… was pretty sick for a while. But he’s back to being… well, Josuke, again.”

“I think Josuke needed a friend. And I’m glad you got him to toughen up a little, too.” She winked. Rohan wasn’t sure how to respond, really, so instead he kicked his toe against the concrete. 

“Well, it was nice meeting you Rohan-ku— ah, sorry, Rohan-sensei. Thanks for letting Josuke be your first fan!” 

The woman waved and jogged back to her son, who turned again to mirror her action. Rohan raised his hand a final time, and that was it. 

It had been, what, ten years? And then another two on top of that. And that idiot Josuke Higashikata had never said anything. 

It was like he genuinely didn’t remember. Or was doing the worst, longest prank of all time. But god knew that Rohan Kishibe wasn’t going to be the one bringing up their… history. If it could even be called that. 

It was just a coincidence. Or a twist of fate, or that weird saying that stand users were drawn together... Drawn back together. 

Rohan took a sip from his cocktail. He was done thinking about it. Instead, he cast his gaze across the Higashikata home’s living room.

Josuke was running between groups of friends, laughing and smiling in that frustrating way he always had. But not with him.

He hadn’t minded at first. Honestly, he’d almost forgotten about the boy at the zoo entirely until he’d noticed the small scar on Josuke’s index finger. Which could have been anything, really, except then Josuke mentioned his fear of turtles, and Rohan had laughed because of course, of fucking course.

Josuke had furrowed his brow, but ignored him. He’d been doing that more lately. Just looking at him oddly and turning away. 

Rohan hated to admit it, but Josuke was… handsome now. Had been for a while, probably, but he’d spent a year or so in overall denial that there was any possible way that he had wandered back into the orbit of that pompadoured brat. 

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around. 

Oh, shit.

Tomoko Higashikata was staring at him, baring her teeth in a sly grin that he recognized as Josuke’s own. 

“I knew it.”

His eyes blew wide. She knew what?

“Hello, Miss…?”

“Higashikata. Nice to see you again, Rohan-sensei.”

Ten-plus years had barely aged her. He could so clearly remember the young woman teasing him in the middle of the S-City Zoo Panda Exhibit. 

"Oh, of course.”

He tried to force a smile, even if his cheeks were hot and his palms were sweaty. But no, Rohan Kishibe refused to be intimidated by a woman almost 10cm shorter than himself.

“Y’know, when Josuke mentioned having an artist friend, I sort of hoped it was you. Didn’t think it actually would be, though.”

“Mom!” 

They both turned to face Josuke, who’d suddenly appeared in the hallway. 

Rohan coughed, and Tomoko found some excuse to disappear into her bedroom, leaving them alone for the moment.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Josuke grimaced—scratching the back of his head while Rohan finished his drink. “Everything alright?”

“<Great,>” He co-opted the teen’s phrase while wracking his brain for an escape route. It was one thing to admire him from afar, but completely different to face him one-on-one. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,”

“You got a second?” Josuke smiled, and Rohan felt his face flare red again. He hated the way he looked down at him now. Stupid kid. “Just a second, promise.”

But… It felt rude to refuse.

“Fine, sure.”

And Josuke ushered him into his room.

That felt like a tipping point. Right? Right.

“Thanks for coming, Sensei. I— er, I mean, do you—” 

Josuke had shoved his hands into his pockets and was avoiding eye contact. Which was fine, because so was Rohan. He pretended to be interested in the gnarled wood desk shoved against the wall, covered in ‘Congratulations’ cards and his gakuran. Couldn’t tell if the second button was still intact. Whatever.

He tried to take a sip of his empty drink. 

“Higashikata,”

Rohan sighed. Josuke glanced back up, and it was hard not to see that goofy, loud troublemaker. Mostly because he still was, for the most part. But he was also… mature now, and still quiet sometimes, and had helped him even when Rohan had tried over and over to push him away. Just like before.

There was no way he didn’t remember. Rohan wouldn’t allow it.

“Are you busy tomorrow?”

“Huh?”

He clicked his tongue, feigning annoyance. “I’m going to the zoo tomorrow, and I need an assistant. Are you free?”

Josuke stiffened, shooting a not-so-subtle look down to his desk before nodding vigorously. “Uh, yeah! Sure!” 

“Alright. 7AM, my place. And if you’re late, I’m leaving without you.”