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"Dio..."
His lips struggled to form a smile, but he did so regardless, "Jonathan." His name alone had stolen all air from his lungs, it had been more than a century. One hundred and thirty two if he was counting. He had been. He'd always been.
And looking at him like this, in the night outside what used to be the Joestar Manor all those years ago... Shame drenched him like a heavy rain after drought, as if trying to compensate for all the time lost. Overwhelming, suffocating, drowning him as he stood above land.
"You look well." Dio startled at those words.
Of course, I've taken the best care of your body. Of our body.
"I... Thank you. Its..." Jonathan smiled at him still.
He hadn't been like this in a long time. The last time he'd even shown such weakness, felt it so strongly... Was when Dario was alive, when his sire had imagined ailing from consuming his closest friend and when he saught approval from someone beyond himself.
Jonathan was always this way, "things have changed. Ha-hamon has waned..."
"I know about stands." The wind brushed over them, rattling leaves in its wake and forcing him to squint. "I'm sorry, about what I did."
Dio shook his head, he meant trying to kill him twice over. The memories haunted him, but not in the way he'd wished why had he fought so hard to live even after. "I've always been a survivor." Dio joined his hands at his naval, trying to look as small as he felt for once. "I did worse, far worse-"
"You were young." Jonathan said with a small smile.
Dio ground his teeth, there it was. That attitude of his, how could anyone leave such a person be? "You were young too, and I came into your home and-"
"you were orphaned, grief can cause a world of pain. And people function well in that pain."
"Jonathan, please!" Dio shouted, pleaded. "I didn't grieve him, my father was nothing like yours." he raised his hands to brush his hair back. They went all the way behind his head and hung on his neck like a clammy scarf. "They had two things in common; they were both men and they had a son. That is all, I wanted nothing more than to rid of him. And when your father took me in..."
He remembered him, the fourteen year old with that annoying dog of his. The hope and innocence in him that he'd wanted to take from him. To wrap around himself and see the world in his way, where he needn't work hard just to live as the boy would. Where he'd see a rival enter his domain and choose to make him a friend.
"You made me miserable, yes." Jonathan crossed the space between them. His eyes still shone, as bright as they always had been. "But it would be foolish not to think it didn't hurt you either."
Dio wanted to argue, "you're right. It hurt more than you imagine."
"And why is that, Dio?"
"Because I loved you, I love you, I always-" he gave pause. "I was going mad, and then there was your blasted wife." he said the words with venom. The thought of Erina made his blood boil. He was stupid enough to love a man, and a man who's loved a girl for longer than he'd know him. "I wanted to resent you. I think I did."
Why else did he try to hurt them both? Right? She because she stood in his way and Jonathan because... Because? "I lost my mind."
I can't believe I'm here, with him. Talking, spilling all of this.
Dio release his neck, looked at his hand. At Jonathan's hand. He moved to touch the base of his neck, near his shoulder where the joestar birth mark remained. "I wanted to be so close to you. So close I even wanted to wear your skin."
And I am. And my head looks great on your shoulders. And we are one, more than anything is capable of being. More than two people swearing in front of witnesses to love each other. Our unity has lasted far longer than that flimsy marriage. So long as i live... so long as I and your body live.
"What are you thinking?"
Dio blinked sense into himself, "how I succeeded in that." He flashed his fangs at him. "And then grief truly struck me." Dio took a step backwards so he could look at the first Joestar he wronged, "and my youth can't ever excuse that, Jonathan."
"I've hunted your bloodline for so long. I've taken your descendants blood. Uprooted their lives like I did yours. And I can't understand it." Dio blinked.
As if finally realising what he'd done, "I missed you so much. Why did you have to die?"
He'd killed him, yes. But Jonathan had done the same to him. And he survived. So why didn't he try harder?
Why was he here?
"And why are you standing there smiling at me, as I tell you that my greatest act of love was stealing your body during your honeymoon?" Dio was lashing out. He missed how reactive Jonathan used to be, how he still held help for him and life.
Death had changed him, Dio realised.
"I have found you in this life, wanting to grasp as revenge. But... You're not worth it."
Dio felt like he'd fallen through ice, he'd been called worthless many times before. Why did it make him feel like this with him? Like he should flatten all the buildings in their vicinity before the sun rose burn him.
"Not worth it?"
“You're suffering."
OF COURSE I AM.
A hand cupped his cheek, a step closed the flimsy distance he'd tried to put between them. And he realised. They were the same height.
It felt like lightning struck.
He wanted lightning to strike him when Jonathan's hand moved to hold him by the jaw. Hard, and harsh. His eyes almost as cruel as the Cujoh boy's. And finally his stand manifested, "Breath of Love."
"Jojo." Dio stopped time. He couldn't do it any longer. With The World's assistance he saught to think. And stare, to oogle that look on Jonathan Joestar's face as he decided his worth.
Time resumed, lips touched lips. And Dio forgot to breathe. And when he remembered to he couldn't, his body weakened against its true owner's. A fire burned and he forced his closed his eyes open.
He was stealing his breath, all the air in him. He know it to be true, but he couldn't seem to care. He would let him do whatever he saw fit. And then he stopped, "go on and live without that love of yours. Live with the memories."
Dio felt the weight of what he'd done. He felt weight less, so much he couldn't anchor himself to a single emotion worthwhile. Just searching.
Longing.
And when he took a look around him, Jonathan Joestar was gone. He's stolen his heart twice over and like the first one. He wouldn't get it back.
But that wasn't Jonathan's fault was it?