Chapter Text
Jotaro breathes heavily, as he watches some of the paramedic’s take care of the dead Kira, putting a white sheet over his face.
Anger courses their his veins, the same type that kept him moving and functioning for hours. This fucking man almost killed his uncle and before he even knew it, he takes a step forward towards him.
Jotaro just wants to give him one more punch.
Josuke’s moans of pain are what pulls him out of his rage, disappearing like smoke. He didn’t even hear Koichi’s voice as he ran over to the teenager. He kneels down onto the ground and his eyes carefully scan over him. There was red blood dripping down his face, making him squint one of his eyes to avoid it from coming into it. There’s a big gash on his shoulder, the skin was torn completely making more blood come out of it, ruining the perfect uniform Josuke worked so hard to style as his own.
Though, that wasn’t the worst part.
In his right leg, there were two pieces of blue wood impaled into his thigh and calf, sinking deeper into his skin the more he moved, blood squirting out ever so slightly with these movements.
Jotaro feels the way bile crawled up to his throat, the disgusting taste coating his tongue. The sinking feeling in his stomach was telling him to throw up on the spot, but he swallowed it down, making the bile retreat back to where it once was. He adjusts himself to where his legs were crossed and then right before he was about to open his mouth, Josuke looks at him, with a surprise glint in his bright green eyes as he gives him a lopsided grin.
It amazes Jotaro how even through all the pain, he can still smile and see the positive in things.
(Sometimes, Jotaro wishes to be like Josuke because having that ability is so rare and too much of his life has taught him to be a little bit more cynical.)
“Mr.Jotaro?” Josuke whispers, the happiness of seeing him there was evident in his voice.
Jotaro fights back a smile.
“Josuke, I told you not to call me that.”
Josuke laughs softly at that until he lets out a hiss of pain, grabbing onto his right leg. Fear crawls up Jotaro’s chest and with trying to help the boy, he grabs onto his wrist, hoping it would bring him some comfort. The paramedic shots him a dirty look after hearing the hiss he makes. His eyes twitch when seeing this and lets out a snarl.
“Something the problem?”
The paramedic sinks into himself after hearing the angry tone in his voice and quickly looks away from him, cheeks flushing in embarrassment. He quickly works on Josuke’s shoulder’s, desperately trying to ignore Jotaro’s presence.
Jotaro felt a tiny bit bad about treating him like that but his focus changes back to Josuke.
“You shouldn’t laugh, Josuke,” Jotaro scolds lightly, starting to rub his wrist gently trying to make the pain better somewhere.
Josuke’s eyes widened as he saw the way Jotaro starts rubbing his wrist. His smile became bigger as he once again started laughing, which led to him groaning in pain. Jotaro narrows his eyes as he gives him a disapproving look.
“What did I just say, Josuke?”
“Well, my dear nephew,” he starts, both a teasing glint in his green eyes and vice. Jotaro actively does not look at the paramedic’s boring gaze at him. (Of all the time he could have called him that, this is the time Josuke decided to do so?) “It’s just not everyday, you're this soft.”
Jotaro rolls his eyes as he pulls his hat down. He lets out a tired sigh. He doesn’t even have to move his hat up to see the shit-eating grin on his uncle’s face.
“That's the Jotaro I know!”
Jotaro sighs once more as he continues rubbing his wrist. Josuke babbles on to him about something involving his school, but he really wasn’t paying attention, his focus more centered on the injury on his leg. He desperately tries not to let his mind wander to Cairo, letting those pieces of wood be replaced with the knives Dio threw at him. His ears perk back up when Josuke winces in pain.
Jotaro looks up and sees the way Josuke has his eyes harshly closed, getting his teeth as he moves away from the paredmic. He turns his attention towards the paredmic and how tightly he has wrapped his shoulder, holding the last piece of the gauze high in the air. Jotaro throws him a dirty glare.
“Be gentler,” Jotaro seethes and he doesn't realize how his grip tightens around Josuke’s wrist. For another fleeting second he felt bad for the way he treated him, since he was doing his job but that quickly went away when he let out a frustrated noise.
“If he stopped moving, then maybe it wouldn’t have hurt as bad.”
Jotaro could almost feel the way he was about to call this man something he would have said if he was 17 again, but he restrains himself by keeping his jaw set, aching with how fierce he was clenching on it. He throws one last glance at the man before looking back to Josuke, trying to come up with a solution to keep him from moving. The gears in his brain work together as he slogs through a solution, until finally a sweet little voice he has been longing to hear comes into his head.
__________________________
“Daddy! Hold me!” Jolyne told him, as he brought the band-aid to her knee, wiping away the fat globs of tears from her eyes, not used to seeing all the blood on her knee and the pain that came with it.
Jotaro could feel himself melt as he wrapped his arm around her, bringing herself closer to him as he put a band-aid on her knee. She led onto him tightly as he applied it, grip tightening when he pressed his hand on top of the cut.
“Daddy, it hurts.”
Jotaro started to rub her back.
“I know, but it will be over soon,” Jotaro says as he puts the last end of the band-aid. He removed his hand and used it to completely wrap her up in a hug. “There. Done.”
Jolyne hesitantly removes her head from his black turtleneck and with one eye, looks at the fresh tan band-aid. After seeing the way all the blood was gone and how the pain was slowly going away, she turns to him and gives him a bright smile.
“That wasn’t so bad!”
Jotaro chuckled lightly.
“Told you it would be over soon.”
Jolyne threw herself at his neck, wrapping her small arms around it. Jotaro put his head on top of her shoulder as she snuggled into him.
“Thank you, Daddy.”
Jotaro smiled into her shoulder.
“You’re welcome.”
__________________________
(God, how he aches to be with his daughter right now. He feels himself go mad everyday not being with her. Being away from her for 5 months made his head split into two.)
He just needs to hold him as the solution, he realizes. (He’ll thank his daughter for it later, when he returns home). He turns his attention back to Josuke.
“Josuke,” Jotaro calls out to the boy. His uncle slowly opens his eyes again and moves his head so he could be looking directly at him. He blinks as he waits for the answer, the pain making it hard for him to speak.
“Don’t be surprised with what I am going to do.”
Josuke’s brows furrow, a confused expression comes over his face.
“What are you talkin—”
He puts his hand on top of the teenager’s chest and as gently as he could (because he knows what it is like to get their shoulder ripped open) brings him until he is laying on his chest. Jotaro lifts his hand once he feels the way Josuke seems to sink into him. It reminds him a little too much like his daughter.
“Jotaro—”
“If you keep still, there will not be a lot of pain. So, just stay still,” Jotaro answers the question that was on the tip of Josuke’s tongue.
“Oh.”
Then, Josuke stills.
Jotaro and the paramedic make eye contact with each other, his brown eyes meeting his blue. He nodded gratefully at Jotaro and finished wrapping his shoulder up. Jotaro grabs his uncle’s hand again and with his thumb, rubs his palm. With every pass against his palm, he could feel all the new scars on his hands, the roughness of his skin giving them away. He hates finding this out because Josuke’s too young.
He’s too fucking young to have scars like that.
(He’s only 16, 16 . Josuke’s a year younger than when Jotaro had to get those scars on his hands.
Jotaro hates how much he sees Josuke in him.)
Josuke didn’t say much as the paramedic continued to clean out and cover his wounds. Once his shoulder was firmly wrapped, he started on the injury about his eyes, getting some peroxide and putting it on onto his forehead. Josuke lets out another grunt of pain as he dabes on the antiseptic. Without knowing it, he squeezes Jotaro’s hand, grabbing onto it painfully. Jotaro knows he needs some form of comfort with this, so he squeezes back, showing he isn’t going anywhere. His grip became tighter the longer the man continued to clean his face, but Jotaro doesn’t mind, he grips back just as tight. Eventually, the paramedic stops, so Josuke’s grip loosens just as he puts a bandage onto the wound.
“Thanks,” Josuke whispers to him.
Jotaro just hums.
The paramedic pulls away from his uncle and puts his supplies back into his little red bag. Jotaro thought he was going to grab something else from that bag, but instead he glanced back at both of them and Josuke’s injured leg nervously.
Irritation builds up inside him.
“What?” Jotaro asks, annoyance clearly in his voice.
The paramedic gives him one last nervous look before he clears his throat.
“Sir, to get him the treatment Josuke needs for his leg, he needs to go to the hospital.”
Jotaro blinks at him.
“And?”
The paramedic gulps.
“And, we need to get Josuke into the ambulance.”
Jotaro blinks one more time before he looks back at Josuke.
“Listen, we are going to need to help you walk to the ambulance, so me and the paramedic are going to help you get there and onto the stretcher. So, can you put your arm around my neck?”
Josuke nods as he lifts his arm up and puts it around his neck. Jotaro grabs onto both his arm and his back, and lifts him up ever so gently. He always paused whenever he let out a grunt of pain and whenever Josuke gave him a nod, he continued to bring him up to his level. Once the teenager was standing at his full height with his head hanging low, Jotaro stared back at the paramedic.
“Well, want to help?”
The paramedic shakes his head violently as he makes his way towards the kid. He followed what Jotaro did and grabbed onto both his arm and back and lifted him to where he was slightly above the ground and no pressure was applied onto his leg. Jotaro glances back towards his uncle.
“You ready?”
Josuke nods again.
They both walk at the same pace, Jotaro going slower than he normally does. They both are aware of not making any movements that might make his injury worse, so the paramedic keeps a good distance away from the teal wooden pegs. They stop once they reach the stretcher. Jotaro glances back at him again as the paramedic is about to let him go.
“I’m going to lift you up and put you on top of the stretcher. Once you are on, the paramedics will put the straps around you and make sure you got into the ambulance safely. And if I cause you any pain, just grab onto my turtleneck, okay?”
Josuke nods once more.
The paramedic lets go of Josuke right after and quickly, before his leg hits the ground, he puts his arm underneath his legs and his back and lifts him up in the air. Josuke lets out a yelp of pain as his leg was bent and grabbed a fist full of his black turtleneck. The cry sounded so similar to Jolyne’s that he feels his heart clench.
(He should be the one that got their leg impaled, not Josuke.
He should have been there quicker.)
“It’s just for a little bit, Josuke,” Jotaro consults him as Josuke clenches his eyes tightly. As he brings his head down closer to Josuke’s, everything he has done with Jolyne running through his head (since he knows him being closer always made his daughter feel better), and starts whispering to him softly. “The pain will go away as soon as I lay you down on the stretcher, okay?”
Josuke opens his eyes slightly, the surprise of his voice shines in his eyes. Though, Jotaro sees the deep trust inside them as well.
“Okay,” he whispers back, as he curls more into him, trusting him with his every being.
He’s such a good kid.
He brings his head back up and as carefully as he could, places him down onto the stretcher. He helps to unbent the wounded leg as a couple of other paramedics help to stretch Josuke in. Once done, Jotaro steps back, ready for them to finish their job and take the boy to the hospital, but Josuke’s tight grip stops him in his tracks.
His teal eyes look back at his uncle, brow raised.
“Josuke?”
Josuke’s lips pout out as he glances in the other direction.
“Can you stay, please? I—I just need someone with me.”
(He remembers every time Jolyne tells him the exact same thing whenever she is hurt, always wanting her father’s presence to make her feel better and stronger about herself.)
Jotaro squeezes back like before and returns back to his side. Josuke’s huge signature smile appears on his face again. Just from seeing that alone, he could feel the way his shoulders drop, relief flooding through his system.
The paramedics, of course, start making a fuss because they were not aware that they were related until the one that was helping them before pipes in.
“Wait, this man is this kid’s—”
“I’m his uncle,” Jotaro responds, voice neutral, eyes never leaving Josuke. He needs him more than ever, so just giving him his undivided attention would help with that.
The paramedic makes a confused expression.
“I thought Josuke said—”
“I’m. Josuke’s. Uncle,” Jotaro answers, voice stern and filled with finality. The man once again withers and avoids his gaze. Jotaro is not in the mood to explain their weird ass family tree and if he has to, there might be another person that would been in an ambulance soon.
As they rolled the kid onto the ambulance, Jotaro held his hand the entire time. It feels like an awful second home as soon he walks onto it, one where he never wants to be invited again. They were about to direct Jotaro to where the seats were, but he instantly sat on the one next to Josuke. If they were surprised, they didn’t say anything and instead quickly hurry to the front of the car.
Jotaro’s been in too many ambulances to know where everything is.
One of them shouts, “let’s go!”, and the car jolts to life. They cross over a bump as it first starts driving across the road and Josuke hisses in pain, squeezing his hand tightly.
“It’s usually painful when the ambulance starts to drive.”
Josuke chuckles as he throws another glare at him.
“Josuke, what did I say about laughing—”
“So, does it get better or worse?”
Jotaro blinks, surprised by the question. He leans back as he answers it.
“Usually better, since mostly the roads are bumpless.”
Josuke hums as he turns his head towards him, a small smile on his face. He was about to give the kid a smile back when suddenly another pandemic steps in front of him, this time a woman.
“Sir?”
“What?”
She wasn’t fazed by his annoyed response and instead starts putting rubber gloves on her hands, making a loud slap against her skin. She looks back at him.
“Your cheek and knuckles are bleeding.”
Jotaro’s eyes widened at this revelation and he instantly touches his cheek. The warmth of his own blood could be felt on his fingers and as he brought them to the front of his face, the smell of copper filled his nostrils. He stares at the blood for what seems like an entirety, fascinated by how Kira was able to get a scratch at him. (The knuckles make sense since anything that happened to Star Platinum, happened to him). The smell of blood should have made him want to puke his guts out, but just like the ambulance it felt like another unwelcoming home.
Blood is a sight all too common to him.
Being so lost in his own blood, he didn’t notice the way the woman was beginning to put a bandage on his cheek. Jotaro moves away from her.
“Don’t.”
The paramedic’s brow raises.
“Why?”
“You should worry more about, Josuke,” Jotaro deadpans, hoping to get the women off his back. She just stands there, with the bandage in hand and sighs
“Sir, with both of you on here, you two are both of our concern,” the woman responds, not backing down and persisted with putting the bandage on him. Jotaro dodges her, as if were a child. He could hear the way she lets out a frustrated sigh.
“Sir.”
“Just focus on Josuke.”
“I can focus on two people at once.”
Jotaro grits his teeth and for the first time, he feels the way blood drips down his cheek.
“Josuke needs more assistance than me.”
She rolls her eyes.
“You need assistance as well,” the woman states as she practically shoves the bandage to his face. Jotaro dodges it again.
Jotaro almost growls as he starts speaking his next words, baring his teeth.
“Josuke is more important than me!”
Before he could even react, she is successfully able to put the bandage onto him, the softness of it comforting his skin. The paramedic then backed off right as he was about to grab her wrists. She gives him a knowing look.
“You’re just as important as Josuke, sir, but for now, I’ll just put the bandage on you and work on helping Josuke, okay? I'll wrap your knuckles up later.”
Jotaro hums, a good enough answer for her as she walks away and back towards the ambulance, getting the supplies needed to help with Josuke. A squeeze to his hand brings him back towards Josuke.
“You’re important, Jotaro,” Josuke says, concern glowing in his eyes.
He brings his hat down, not daring to look his uncle in the eyes.
(He looks too much like Jolyne right now, Jotaro can’t cry right now.)
“You’re more important right now, Josuke. We have to get those pegs out of your legs.”
Josuke gripped on tighter, his hand starting to hurt.
“But you’re injured too, Jotaro. You need help.”
He shakes his head slightly, lifting it up ever so slightly to convince him that he’s fine.
“It’s just a couple of scratches, kid. I’ll be fine.”
A frown appears on his lips as he squints his eyes, not believing it. Josuke’s growing concern made him want to hide in a corner of the ambulance, wanting to not be stared at with so much care in his life.
He’s really not that important right now, Josuke is.
“But—”
“ Josuke ,” Jotaro interrupts, voice strained and sternful. Josuke's mouth shuts.
Everyone knows that whenever Jotaro uses that tone of voice, there was nothing more you could do to change his mind. Fighting with him would be useless since he made his final decisions and no matter what you could do, nothings going to change it.
Josuke sighs, one that sounded very defeated.
“Okay, fine, you win.”
Jotaro’s mouth twitches up slightly. Though, that quickly went away when a smirk appears on the kid’s face.
“But, I’m going to use Crazy Diamond to heal you at the hospital.”
Jotaro’s face hardens.
“Don’t strain yourself, Josuke.”
The kid rolls his eyes.
“It will be fine.”
“Using your stand will only make your injuries worse, Josuke,” Jotaro half-whispers to him. Most of these people do not have stands and him saying this out loud makes him be on high alert, ready for one of them to turn towards them and he can always see that look of familiarity whenever someone mentions a stand.
He can’t go through another stand attack, not even in an ambulance. Then, Jotaro will truly lose his goddamn mind.
Josuke’s eyes widened.
“Oh…right,” Josuke responds as his eyes turn towards the floor, cheeks turning pink from forgetting the obvious.
Jotaro leans his head against the back of the ambulance, the cool metal helping with the throbbing in his head, bringing himself some relief.
Silence fills the room. Nothing was spoken between the two except for the constant squeezing of each other’s hands. Finally, a crinkling sound from the pillow made Jotaro move his head from the wall.
“Thanks for staying,” Josuke tells him, sincerity in his eyes. Jotaro lets a smile on his face.
“There’s nothing to thank me for. It’s just common decency.”
Josuke still continues, a warm smile on his face as he breaks contact with him.
“You know, you’ve felt like a dad to me for the past few months.”
Jotaro covers his face with his white hat again, completely bringing it down his face. He desperately tries to cover the tears welling up his eyes.
He doesn’t deserve those words. He hasn’t felt like a dad in these past five months with constantly failing to respond to his wife’s and Jolyne’s calls. Everytime he did, he heard the little crack in his daughter’s voice as he knew the tell-tale signs of tears welling up in her eyes as she asked ( pleads ) as she asks, “When are you coming home, Dad?” Everytime, his mouth clamps up, throat too tight to give her an answer as his silence gives her the one she doesn’t want to hear. She usually hanged up after her quiet “I love you.” He stopped answering them because he couldn’t stand himself hearing those tears anymore, tearing him apart every time.
(It’s odd because he can feel like he can hear their eyes.)
So, he just chose to ignore them, like he always does with his problems.
Though, no matter what he feels at the moment, he couldn’t stop the smile that crept up on his face.
“Just get some rest, Josuke.”
The anesthesia knocks the kid by the time Jotaro says those words.