Chapter Text
Today's the 23rd of December, and I couldn't be any happier right now.
My son, the intelligent, handsome and diligent offspring of mine has invited me to spend Christmas Eve with him and his family in Italy this year. Not only, but Pucci was invited too. May I tell you, my dear spectator, the joy of fulfilment I felt in my heart when my good friend announced the fine news to me, I could barely contain myself as I took victory silently over… why do I even have to waste my precious breath with that brute?
Anyway, the fact that my greatest creation has appreciated the priest who I, Dio, have appointed for his wedding so much to invite him over for Christmas Eve, without me having to say anything in the matter it's something that goes beyond satisfaction. I looked at the unpacked suitcases on top of my bed, still deciding what will I bring with me to Naples. If it was for me, I would just put the entire wardrobe inside the suitcase, although the words of my baby boy boomed again in my mind.
"Padre, there's no need to put anything too… ehm… fancy for the dinner. It's just a family dinner."
I huffed, that was such bullshit, how could I not wear whatever I felt proper for the night? Eh well, probably because I could easily outshine everyone within the radius of 5 kilometres with my immaculate magnificence. Not that it was only a mere dress that made me such a presence to behold, to be clear.
"Terence!!" I yelled the butler came instantly at my door.
"You called me, master?" He said. "Yes, prepare the suitcases for me, I'm going to take a shower. Also make sure that Vanilla is ready with the car by 8, with Pucci already on board." Terence nodded but he looked a bit bewildered.
"Is it something in the matter, Terence?" He widened his eyes a little, as if I caught him off guard, then he shook his head while putting himself to work. "It's nothing, but you seemed eager to make the suitcases yourself when young Giorno called. If I may ask, what made you change your mind?"
"He's not a kid anymore, Terence. He has become a grown man, enough to tell me, Dio, what to wear at the dinner. 'It's just a family dinner' he said." I used deliberately a mocking tone to the remark the absurdity, the absolute aberrancy of that statement. "What does he suggest? That my fashion style is not adequate for this kind of occasions?" A muffled laugh was caught by my ears. I slowly spun my head towards my butler, who was barely keeping the last few moments of composure he had in check as his body was violently twitching as much as my right eyebrow.
"Terence…" his shoulders immediately tensed, his figure shrinking with each footstep that echoed in the room. "You know, Pet Shop hasn't eaten in a while, and unfortunately for him, I won't be around to feed him…" I grasped his left shoulder blade, his heart was going crazy under my touch, I know he's scared of my feathered companion, everyone is actually. Only me and Giorno are able to feed him by hand without having any repercussions, the latter in particular, since whenever Goldenlocks comes back home it just flies on his arm asking for head pats.
"Would you be a dear and give him food while I'm gone?" He swallowed loudly, like if he had a fishbone stuck down his throat, then he turned to look at me, wearing one of his professional smiles.
"It will be done, master Dio." He said.
"Good." And with that, I walked out of the room, the butler shook by the prospect of having to deal with the eagle again, went back to his work and closed the first suitcase.
Today's the 23rd of December, and I couldn't be… What's up with this sense of Déjà-vu?
"Jotaro, c'mon. We'd be late for the flight." I heard Emily shout from outside the house, I looked quickly at the clock hanging on the wall. 7:26. Good, I've still got some time to set the automatic feeder in the fish tank. "There you go. Now you won't starve in these three days." I slightly tapped into the tank glass, they didn't seem to be extremely bothered by it, except for this teardrop butterfly, who swam all the way to my finger to lightly peck where I was pointing.
I chuckled at the playful display, wondering if it was doing it with a clear purpose of affection or it's mindlessly trying to get some food off my finger in vain. The loud noise of the taxi's horn filled the room, thus breaking the natural quiet of the morning. I sighed, are they trying to wake the entire neighbourhood up?
I grabbed the suitcase and went outside, locking the door behind me. The taxi driver was drumming aggressively on the side of his car, Emily was waiting for me with the door open, waving her hand frenetically as if she was telling me to hurry up.
"Relax, okay? We'll arrive on time at the airport eventually." I said.
"Not if you move so slowly. Come on, we gotta go now, I don't wanna risk to not see my precious Jojo." As I put the suitcases into the trunk of the taxi, my wife reminded me of what this was all about.
My daughter, my beautiful, quirky, little mermaid has invited us to spend Christmas Eve with her and her family in Italy this year. It was so nice to hear from her again, especially when we were still undecided on where to go for the holidays. Normally we would have gathered all together with the rest of the Joestar family in Japan, with my mother's household being the only place big enough to host such a large event. Although it's a real pleasure to enjoy the company my family offers, it comes with the fact that they are really… really… REALLY loud. And I am simply not cut for that, at all. No, scratch that, it upset me very much, not as much as someone who isn't even worth to be mentioned here, but still...
So when my daughter told us that we could join her for Christmas, it pretty much came as a blessing from the skies, with the whole angelic choirs and heavenly melodies which harmoniously caressed my ears.
"Dad, I know you don't like too much noise, so I thought you two could come over this year… you know… to change things up a little."
Good grief, I didn't know how much I needed to hear these exact words until now, just imagine the possibility of passing a normal Christmas without someone half-drunk shattering your eardrums with his voice. Gosh, I feel like with each year that it passes, the more I relate to that Japanese serial killer guy that I've learned about from that documentary… Well, minus the hand fetish and the murders stuff, obviously.
I finally got inside the taxi, that immediately drove off as soon as the door closed. My wife was smiling all the time, this is the happiest I've seen her in a while. She was particularly excited for it, especially right after the call, when she literally dragged me to the mall for gifts.
I laid back onto the seat and closed my eyes a bit, this is going to be a long trip.
16 hours later, Aeroporto Internazionale di Napoli.
24th of December.
So many peasants, I haven't seen so many peasants all closed up in one place since my child's wedding.
I had my foot tapping involuntarily as I waited for all my suitcases to arrive at the baggage claim. For fuck's sake, I paid for the first-class treatment, shouldn't my luggages be first priority?
"Patience's a virtue, my friend, they must be on the way by now," Pucci reassured me, easy to say it when you have already retrieved yours. They better have not damaged one of my three suitcases or, dear God, lost them somewhere between here and New York, otherwise, I'm flooding this place with lawsuits.
"Look, there they are." I focused my attention on the convoyed belt again, scanning all the luggages in search for my own set of leopard printed ones. As Pucci accurately pointed out, my suitcases were indeed coming towards me, no signs of inappropriate handling so far. I grabbed all three and inspected them one by one, there's no detectable damage in any of the three, not even a dent, meticulous as they always should be.
"Let's get outta here, Pucci," I said, the priest following right behind my heavy footsteps, "I can't stand here one minute longer, I need some fresh air and a damn coffee." I somehow sped up my walking without noticing that the priest was trying to catch up with me. "I apologize Mr Dio, but we have to get through the security board first." He told me among a pant and the other. Oh, you gotta be kidding me.
“It’s rather chilly around here." I turned to my wife, shivering next to me, closing the gap between us while we were walking through the terminal with our trolleys rolling right behind us. "We aren't in Florida anymore, Emily, everything is chiller the more we go up in longitude." She pouted, my eyebrow naturally arched itself in confusion as she looked away from me.
"You never miss a chance to sound clever, you smartass," She said, "after all these years I thought you could take a hint." She continued a little irritated, but little did she knew that I already took off my coat and wrapped it around her shoulders while she wasn't watching.
Flooded by the unexpected warm sensation, Emily directed her gaze back to me, genuinely surprised by my action. "No, but I'm working on it." She smiled sweetly as she scooted more at my side, her arm snaked around my back, then she laid her head against my shoulder. Yes, this old man still got it.
"Hope you don't mind all the dust on your coat afterwards." I glanced at Emily for a moment, then immediately at the floor beneath us. The tail of the coat was indeed sweeping the ground due to our height difference. I tugged my hat down on my face while she laughed wholeheartedly. "At least you tried, Jotaro." Good grief, she knows me better than anyone else, myself included.
As we started to descend a short flight of stairs, a frustrated voice let out an irritated sigh.
"Finally, we made it out of this godforsaken place." I stomped my way outside of the terminal, gosh the things I've been through, they were really testing my tolerance to people today, uh? The guy at the security board, for example, took his sweet time to check my suitcases back and forth with the x-ray machine before pulling me to the side.
My hands are still shaking with furious intent since that brat had the audacity to empty my luggage of my neatly folded clothes and shoes only to put them back like he had never folded an article of clothing before in his entire miserable existence. He has to thank that Pucci was holding me back because I was so tempted to strangle his life out of his body.
But now that the worse was behind us, all we are left to do was call a taxi, get on said taxi, give the driver the right address and wait until they drop us to my handsome baby boy's home, right in his open arms.
I can't help but fantasize what my golden prince would whisper to me as I hold him tightly between my mighty arms. "Oh Padre, I missed you so much." He'd say, tears threatening to spill out from his eyes, I'd listen to him vent as I wipe his cheeks with my silky handkerchief. "This marriage is a prison, please take me back to New York with you."
"Of course, my brightest star in the sky," I hugged my body like if he was right there, "I'll do anything for you, even bring you back home, away from that wen-"
"Mr Dio…" my eyes snapped open, my fantasy vanished into thin air as I was brutally brought back to reality. "What?!" I asked way too aggressively at Pucci who, poor man, he wanted only to warn me that there was a free taxi on the other side of the road.
Emily just called our daughter, she told us she had a few things that held her back from coming directly to the terminal and take us home herself, which my wife simply replied to calm down and that we'd be on our way as soon as this queue was done.
"I'm very sorry mom, I wish I could teleport the two of you here already." I heard her voice coming through the phone, slightly distorted by the speakers.
"Don't worry Jojo, there are only two people in front of us. We would be there sooner than you think." She said, an affirmative hum came in response as some squealing on the background overwhelmed Emily's hearing. "Looks like I have to save Coco Jumbo from a little monster." Suddenly the older woman lit up, as she tightened her grasp on my arm, "he's got speedier and the poor turtle… sorry, the poor tortoise can't outrun him anymore." She corrected herself, fully knowing I was listening too.
Then the two bid their goodbyes, closing the phone call soon after. I can tell she was getting impatient with the queue, now that she's got a glimpse of what is expecting us in the house. Almost as that blond man yelling from across the street. That voice, and that hair… they look awfully familiar…
"What do you mean he's on a break?!" I shouted, Pucci held his hands up while the man in question was sitting on the passenger seat with his leg outside the car. I had sent the priest forward to talk with him since between the two he has a better knowledge of the Italian language, but after a few minutes of unfruitful discussions, the man kept saying the same thing over and over again.
"Sono in pausa per un'ora, se volete un taxi dovete fare la fila come tutti gli altri. Ora sparite dalla mia vista."
"He's right Mr Dio," Pucci began, "No man shall be denied of their moment of rest, as even God himself took a break on the-"
"On the Seventh day of creation, yada yada yada…" I cut him off before he could continue, "I know the drill Pucci, but this ain't about God, it's about me, Dio." I walked over to the taxi driver, great, not only I have been on edge since I got here in Italy, now I have to negotiate with this nuisance, plus I got this bad feeling of someone watching me. Not that I'm complaining though, for I am always in the centre of the attention.
"Listen to me you simpleton," I spoke with an imposing tone, "you better start the engine right now or I'm calling an Uber." I tried to get him on his nerves, but he seemed unfazed by it. "Be my guest, I'm not moving," He said quickly, my eyebrow started to twitch, then the bastard smirked greedily as if he smelled opportunity.
I still looked at the two men shouting at each other from the distance, the third guy on the left was covering his face in shame. I kinda understand him, I'd also feel ashamed if my companion started to make a scene like that, but I'd probably intervene to stop such a mess instead of standing there doing nothing. Lucky me I don't know that man.
"Jotaro, look." She tugged the hem of my coat, pointing to the incoming car, which was pulling right in front of us. Finally, it's time for us to get on and go. Emily immediately launched herself inside the taxi, the driver wasn't understanding what was happening behind his back as the woman was already on her phone, typing as fast as she could. Me, on the other hand, I replicated the same moves I did 17 hours ago back in Florida. Open the trunk, put the trolleys inside, close the trunk and get on the car.
While I do so, I can't help but glance from time to time back at the blond man, who seemed to have managed to convince the resting taxi driver to move. Lucky bastard, I bet he shits money from his ass every morning, judging by the awful looking set of baggages.
"Where are we going, signori?" The driver asked us, oh right the address. My girl instructed me to write down the address on a piece of paper in case we weren't uncomfortable enough to speak in Italian. I wanted to try, to be completely honest, reminiscing the old days where grandma taught me a little her native language on Sundays, but Emily snatched the note out of my pocket and gave it to him before I could do that. I stared at her in disbelief, she deemed me worthy of a side glance and a shake of her head.
I heard you practising, sorry but I'm not risking it.
"Ah Posillipo, you're quite lucky, you have the best sight of the gulf from there." He informed us, shifting into the first gear and pressing the gas pedal, which caused the car to move forward. Looking better at the driver, I can tell he has years, if not decades, of experience and probably knows the city by heart. "There's no hotel or BnB name here, are you visiting someone over Christmas Eve, right?" I nodded. "Well, whoever they are, they gotta wait 30 minutes before we get there. So sit back, relax and enjoy the view."
I agreed to pay him double the ride, my hand has been glued to my forehead for 25 minutes by the sheer force of will to not murder the man driving the taxi and the embarrassment of getting in a similar situation. This bastard, doesn't he think I know he's taking the long way to raise the price?
My blood is boiling inside my veins, I'm one of the most requested lawyers in all Manhattan, for crying out loud, how could I even get tricked so badly by a lowly taxi driver? It was reversed psychology 101.
You know what? Who cares. No amount of money can separate me from my precious child, it's gonna be worth it in the end. See? I'm getting calmer already, just thinking about my son helps me relax my raging spirit, my heart is slowing its pace to a more controlled rhythm. Breathe, Dio, breathe.
The priest's body grinded again against the leathered seat, my heart started pumping blood in a newly found anger, this has been the 11th time he has shifted uncomfortably on the seat in less than 7 minutes, the 23rd since we got inside the car. Something is bothering my friend, and I, Dio, am going to find out what it is.
"It's something on the seat annoying you, Pucci?"
She flinched, as if I caught her with a hand stuck in the cookie jar moments before dinner. Emily has been acting strangely in the past couple of minutes, always in an active search of something to do to distract herself. I got convinced that something was going on by the moment she started reading the same message on her phone over and over, never scrolling down to continue.
"There's nothing wrong with the seat…" she replied nervously.
"Then what is it?" She bit her lip, never a good sign. When she gets this fidgety, it's either when she has a doctor's appointment or when she knows something that I'm not supposed to learn about, like a secret birthday party.
"Please don't get angry."
"Pucci, I'd never get angry at you," I said, trying to keep my voice low, to not give away my irritation for the repetitive noise. "It's been a long and exhausting trip, my nerves have been tested numerous times but I'm not gonna blow off my steam at you." I try to assure him that I mean no harm to him, perhaps it is something I did that upset him.
The priest seemed to relax a little, he adjusted his vest as he turned his torso towards me. I can see he's putting on a more confident façade, but I know better, this is daily bread for someone in my working field.
"It isn't anything that happened before this conversation…" he started a bit hesitant, betraying instantly the persona he wanted to project before going back on his steps, "but rather what awaits for us once we get to the house."
"You mean Giorno?" I asked, my eyelids blinking in perplexity. "It has been years ago, Emily, I've made peace with myself and accepted him as my son in law." I sincerely do, we had our hardships. Not with him in specific, mind you, he and my daughter were inseparable during preschool days, before ehm… the divorce and being taken to another country thing. I still remember the tears my little mermaid shed at his departure.
"It's not f-fair…" she sobbed, tears rolled down heavy in her silky skin. "Why can't he stay here? Why does he have to be in the middle?"
Fortunately for them, Fate made them meet again at Rome, both of them were frequenting the "Sapienza" university at the time. That's probably where the sparkle happened. When she introduced him to me, I admit I was scared that he turned like his… father… but time has proved me wrong, that despite his rough upbringing, he had grown to be a nice man worthy of my daughter's hand.
"You mean my daughter in law, Jolyne?" I snorted, "She might be a Kujo, but at least I can tolerate her presence if my goldenlocks is nearby." I still wonder what passed through my son's head when he proposed to her.
I'll give some context now to you and for your ears only, you better not tell another soul or I'm going to send you to the afterlife myself. I… have not been a good father to Giorno. I've made lots of mistakes in the past, mainly the affairs and letting his mother take full custody. Only in the recent years, we started to reconnect, to make amends with each other, but right as I felt I managed to seal the last wounds, she had to reappear and pry him from my caring hands.
From there I've been put away, outside of the spotlight, and I hated it. Pucci has been there for me, his major accomplishment was making me realize that as long as I know he's happy with her, I'm happy too. Speaking of the devil, the priest was still glaring at me, it was obvious I gave him the wrong answer, what was it then? It's so frustrating.
Then I started to think more about it…
And I came to a sudden and awful realization.
"You're fucking with me, right?"