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Josuke wasn’t exactly sure when it happened, when the shift from “Okuyasu is my best bro” to “Okuyasu is my best bro and I totally want to kiss him hard. On the mouth.” happened but it had. When he first started noticing he might have a little crush Josuke did the logical thing, he denied it. Every time Okuyasu sent him a look that made him blush, every time he caught himself thinking about his friend before falling asleep, or being the first thing on his mind after waking up he chalked it up to a fluke. He totally was not blushing and best friends think about each other all the time.
Unfortunately this only seemed to make things worse. It’s as if his brain decided that if he was going to pretend this crush didn’t exist then it was going to have to up the ante. It soon went from mild crush to fantasies about kissing Okuyasu among other things and he could no longer deny it. He’d come to terms with it. He wasn’t happy about it but he accepted his fate. Josuke had a crush on his best friend. Now he just had to figure out what to do about that.
The first logical choice was to turn to his friends for help; friends who weren’t Okuyasu. That meant Koichi and, by association, Yukako. They were currently seated outside of their favorite café as Josuke had invited them out after school. Okuyasu had to stay after class for extra tutoring. Koichi sat next to Yukako, her hair lightly wrapped around his shoulders and Josuke sat across from them.
“Hey can I ask you guys a question?”
Koichi took a sip of his soda. “Sure. What’s up?”
“Okay so say you had a crush on someone… but you really didn’t want to have a crush on this particular person because this could like ruin your friendship or something…” Josuke made a vague wiggly hand gesture, “Do you think it’s possible to like get rid of a crush?”
Yukako put down her soda and gave a disinterested look at Josuke. Koichi looked deep in thought.
“I mean I don’t think it’s impossible to get rid of a crush” said Koichi, “But wouldn’t it just be better to tell the person in the first place? I mean if this person is your friend I’m sure they’d understand.”
“You make it sound so simple!” Josuke moaned and put his head in his hands.
“Look” that was Yukako speaking. Josuke lifted his head up to look at her. “Just tell Okuyasu you like him so you can stop agonizing about it already. Your angst has been bringing Koichi down and I don’t like it.”
“Yukako!” Koichi whispered loudly and Yukako responded by wrapping her hair around him a little more tightly.
“Who says this is about Okuyasu?!” Josuke put his hand down on the table and narrowed his eyes at her.
“You have like two friends and both of you are practically attached at the hip” Yukako took a sip of soda not breaking her deadpan stare.
Josuke’s hand became a fist. “H-hey! I have tons of friends! I’m really popular! I’m a cool guy with cool hair and everyone likes me right, Koichi?”
“Uh… yeah! Right.” Koichi coughed.
“That’s it! You two are no help.” Josuke stood from the table, “I’m going to someone who can actually do something about this.” He hoped at least.
Josuke knocked on the door bouncing up on the balls of his feet nervously. A few seconds later the door opened.
“Josuke?” Rohan stood in the doorway looking less than amused. “What do you want?”
“Listen, Rohan, I need your help I need you to use your stand on me!”
Rohan sneered. “And give me one reason why I would consider doing that?”
Josuke thought quickly. “Um… Your manga! That’s right” He gestured to himself, “Use me as inspiration for your manga.”
Rohan crossed his arms over his chest; he looked like he was really considering it.
“Alright what’s your problem?”
“Y’see I have this crush on someo— Hey!” Josuke yelled as Rohan had stepped back and begun to shut the door. “Wait!”
Rohan stopped. “Josuke, I have no interest in having romance in my manga or in my life. Goodbye.” He went to shut the door again.
“Wait, wait! Rohan-sensei, please!”
Rohan stopped again. “Why don’t you just tell Okuyasu you like him and get it over with. Your mood has been bothering Koichi and I don’t like it.”
“You knew, too?!”
“Yes, and I’m not using my stand to erase the fact that you’re gay for your best friend.” Rohan stated.
“I’m not gay! I’m uh, I guess I’m bisexual.” Josuke scratched the back of his head in thought.
“Great. Go be bisexual somewhere else,” and with that Rohan slammed the door.
Looks like it was time for plan C.
“Hey, Tonio! My main man, what’s up?” Josuke burst cheerily into the Italian restaurant. There were a few diners who looked up from their meal at his loud entrance but quickly went back to eating.
Tonio looked up from where he had just set a plate down in front of an elderly gentleman.
“Josuke!” He walked over quickly, smiling. “Always a pleasure! What can I do for you this evening?”
“Well…” Josuke chewed his lip nervously, “It’s kind of a personal matter.”
Tonio nodded and guided Josuke over to an empty table off to the side and offered him a seat. Tonio sat opposite him looking troubled.
“Are you having intestinal trouble? Your mother’s not sick is she—“
Josuke waved his hand dismissively, “No, no it’s nothing like that. I kind of… I kinda have this crush and I really don’t think it’s for the best and I just—“ Josuke started playing with the silverware in front of him trying to think of how to best phrase this. “Your stand can fix problems right?” He looked up at Tonio hopefully.
Tonio was actually smiling fondly. It was a little disconcerting considering Josuke had just revealed a serious problem to him.
“Josuke my stand can only help with physical problems. It can’t do anything about matters of the heart.”
“Ugh!” Josuke put his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand. “This sucks!” he pouted.
Tonio was still smiling, “Why do you say it ‘sucks’? Love is a wonderful thing to be in!”
“It’s not exactly wonderful when you’re pretty sure the person you’re in love with doesn’t feel the same way back” Josuke said, his voice slightly muffled by his hand.
“You don’t know that. In fact—“
“Yo, Tonioooo!” Tonio was interrupted by someone who had just burst through the door. None other than Okuyasu Nijimura. Perfect. Josuke would have banged his head against the table but he didn’t want to risk the damage to his hair.
Tonio stood up quickly, walking briskly over to Okuyasu. “Okuyasu, I’ve been expecting you! I have your spaghetti ready to go.” He headed for the kitchen.
Josuke bit the figurative bullet and turned around, waving from his seat, “Yo, Okuyasu!”
“Josuke?” He smiled and Josuke cursed the world.
Why was his smile always so bright and so genuine? How could he smile so much anyway? Josuke knew about his home life, with his dad. Hell, he’d watched his brother die right in front of him. And yet Okuyasu was probably the most positive person he’d ever known in his entire life. It was like being friends with literal sunshine. …If sunshine were a loudmouthed high school student who loved strawberry ice cream and occasionally aided him in beating people up. And put that up there for one of the sappiest thoughts Josuke had ever had in his life. He had it so bad.
Okuyasu walked quickly over to the small table where Josuke sat. “Dude, I didn’t know you were coming here tonight.” He threw himself into the chair opposite Josuke.
“Yeah, I uh, I actually needed to ask Tonio for something. I’m um, doing a paper on Italy, see and—“
“And I was telling him all about the history of beautiful Napoli.” Tonio had returned with a sealed container. “You know, Okuyasu, I could plate this and both you and Josuke could just eat here.”
Josuke looked up at Tonio, shocked at the suggestion and Tonio just smiled back that fond smile.
“It’ll be on the house. What do you say?”
Okuyasu looked like he was about to get up and hug Tonio. “Are you serious, man?! Hell yeah! You hear that, Josuke? Free food!”
Josuke forced a smile onto his face, “Great!”
Tonio left for the kitchen and Josuke and Okuyasu chatted idly for a few moments, only for him to return with Okuyasu’s spaghetti, tortellini for Josuke, and a bottle of red wine.
“Cabernet pairs excellently with dishes that feature tomato sauces.” Tonio said knowingly, filling their glasses.
“Jeez, we get wine, too, Tonio?” Okuyasu asked, examining his glass.
“Only the best for my favorite customers. Enjoy!” Tonio smiled at the two of them and left to attend to other guests.
Okuyasu put down his wine glass and started digging into his spaghetti.
“Y’know this is really fancy,” he said between bites. “It’s almost like a date or somethin’.”
Josuke, who hadn’t even been able to pick up his fork was now sure that he wasn’t going to be able to stomach any food.
“What if this was… y’know like, like a date,” he picked up his wine glass and swirled the liquid inside, focusing on that and trying to act casual.
Okuyasu looked up at him, “Us? On a date? Like the kind of date you’d take a chick?”
“Y-yeah,” Josuke put down the wine glass and chanced a look up at Okuyasu who, surprisingly, didn’t look disgusted just very confused. He pressed forward. “Like the two of us going out on a date. We could call this a date?”
And at that Okuyasu laughed. Josuke felt a twinge of regret and also a feeling of relief. Good, now if Okuyasu thought anything about this was weird he could just pass it off as a joke and—
“Why would you want to go out on a date with me? I mean, I never get attention from girls.”
Okay this wasn’t the direction Josuke thought this was going to go.
“I mean, you’re super popular with the ladies, they love the hair!”
Josuke nodded, I mean it was true. “Right?! Tell that to Yukako and Koichi…”
“Man, all they see is each other. They don’t see how girls look at you.” Okuyasu laughed and shook his head, “I don’t know why anyone as cool as you would wanna go on a date with me.”
And that Josuke just couldn’t have. He couldn’t have Okuyasu putting himself down like that. He couldn’t have the most important person in his life feeling like he wasn’t worthy of going on a simple date. Not when he was worthy of that and so much more.
“Because I like you.”
Okuyasu had stopped smiling. “What?”
“You heard me,” Josuke took a deep breath and steeled his glance at Okuyasu, “I would want to go on a date with you because I like you.”
“You… you like me?” Okuyasu said as if he didn’t understand the language he was speaking.
“Yeah, dude. I like you.”
“Like… you like me like me?”
“Yeah I um, I like you like you. A lot actually.”
Okuyasu put his fork down and furrowed his brows as if he was still trying to understand.
“Me. You like me. Me? Are you sure? Are you serious?”
“More serious than I probably will be about anything, dude.”
“So…” He gestured to himself, “You actually seriously like me enough to want to go on a date with me?”
This was getting ridiculous. Josuke stood up out of his seat and planted his hands firmly on the table, rattling the silverware, and leaning towards Okuyasu.
“Yes. I, Josuke, like you, Okuyasu, and I would want to go on a date with you because I, in fact, LIKE YOU!” Josuke stated.
The restaurant quieted down a bit as people looked over at their table. Josuke flushed, cleared his throat, and sat back down.
“Sorry,” Josuke apologized.
“No, bro, I…” Okuyasu shook his head, “Sorry, I’ve just never been asked out on a date before.”
“Oh.”
“I mean, what do you even do on dates? I guess I’m lucky I don’t have to worry about payin’ tonight.”
Okuyasu looked relieved; meanwhile Josuke was still a bundle of nerves.
“So… this is a date?”
“Well you’re the one who asked me so… yeah! Yeah, this is a date. I mean…” Josuke could see a slight red tint in Okuyasu’s cheeks, “You’re my best friend. I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather go on a date with. Like, who’d be more fun than you?”
And that was another thing Josuke admired about Okuyasu: his honesty. And honestly right now Josuke felt like a thousand bucks. He was on a date with his best friend who, as far as he could tell, liked him back. His every nerve was buzzing but he channeled that energy into finally digging into his meal.
The rest of the date went pretty much like every other dinner Josuke and Okuyasu had ever spent at Tonio’s. In fact, it was almost surreal to Josuke that everything could be so the same and so different all at once.
They finished their meal, said goodnight to Tonio, and started walking home together just like always. It was only when they were stopped in front of Josuke’s house that Okuyasu even brought up the fact that this was technically a date.
“Y’know, this all seems so normal.” They were standing under a streetlight, “I mean we’re on a date, right? So how is it different than any other time we hang out?”
“Hm.” He had a point, “I guess the difference is…” Josuke stepped closer into Okuyasu’s space, “That now I can do this.”
He put a hand on Okuyasu’s cheek, leaned in, and pressed a soft kiss to the other boy’s mouth. It was chaste, and closed-mouthed, and didn’t last long, but when Josuke pulled back, smiling, Okuyasu’s face was beet red.
“O-oh” he stuttered, covering the lower half of his face with his hand as if to hide his blush.
Josuke was sure he was blushing, too, and he also couldn’t stop smiling. “Yeah.”
Okuyasu leaned forward suddenly grabbing Josuke in a big hug and then he leaned back, arms still around Josuke.
“One more for the road?” He smiled.
Josuke laughed and planted another quick kiss on Okuyasu who broke away from their hug to fist pump the air.
“Yes!” He turned and started walking towards his house when suddenly something occurred to Josuke.
“Hey, Okuyasu!” Josuke called.
Okuyasu stopped and turned around.
“You wanna go to the zoo tomorrow? Jotaro was telling me about this really cool exhibit they have on dolphins!”
“Sure! That sounds awesome, dude!”
“Great. It’s a date then?!” Josuke called back.
“Yeah! It’s a date!”