Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

★. "Johnny?"

An irritated voice was all it took to snap said man out of his little daydream of not fucking being here, "Yeah, I'm coming Diego. Jeez." Johnny muttered, waving a hand dismissively as he got out the car and into his wheelchair. He shot a warning glance at Diego, his best friend but even bigger pain in the ass- as the British jockey made the mistake of absent mindedly reaching to help push Johnny, "I got it myself, asshole."

"Ah, right, right." Diego put his hands up as if Johnny were going to randomly pull a brick out his pocket and start violently attacking him, "Sorry." He muttered before reaching into his own pocket to pull out his phone, "HP's waiting inside, by the way," Diego reminded Johnny for what felt like the 10th time as they strolled up to the big tan building that held a big obnoxious and eyesore of a sign; 'DENNY'S'. If this were a normal day, they'd all meet up at their good friend Hot Pants' place where they'd cook up a mean omelet for Johnny and Diego. But it wasn't a normal day at all, in fact it was Johnny's birthday (it was common knowledge among his two close friends that the hated his birthday, however they still tried to make it at least enjoyable), as the blonde man wheeled himself into the building as Diego trailed behind him texting away to whoever was on the opposite side of the screen.

"Johnny, Diego." A familiar voice greeted them as Johnny felt a hand on his shoulder, "Happy birthday, JoJo. How do you feel?" It was the myth and legend; Hot Pants. They had a hot pink baggy sweater over their fishnet shirt, perfectly complimenting their black ripped jeans accompanied by a pair of pink and black platform boots. Their makeup could make old religious white women faint and TikTok edgelords bang against the table with how they wore it, layers upon layers of mascara and eyeliner, and very- EXTREMELY vibrant pink lipstick. When they first met, Johnny was a little bit intimidated by this choice of style. However, as the years passed he thought it was very fitting for his dear friend.

"I feel like shit. I hope I choke and die on my pancakes," Johnny sounded harsher than he wanted to come off as, but Hot Pants just silently gave a smile. "But.. Thanks for the wish, HP." He wheeled himself to their table and climbed in the booth Hot Pants so graciously got before they got here so they wouldn't have to wait an hour for someone to leave for a table.

"Hey Joestar," Diego's annoying voice cooed over to him as he put his phone on the table, sitting directly in front of him. Johnny didn't have to verbally reply to allow Diego to keep going, instead he shot an annoyed glare at him. "Didja know you're more likely to die on your birthday?" He let out a 'hey!' as Hot Pants elbowed him roughly,

"Oh really? Cheers to me getting violently hit by a car." Johnny deadpanned as he opened his bag and reached for his laptop, he opened said device and started to continue working on that essay he was expected to turn in by tomorrow... Is what would've happened if he remembered to bring it. Letting out a defeated sigh, he closed his bag and sunk to the side of the booth as Hot Pants leaned on the table with their head resting on their hand.

"Hey, JoJo..."

★.

The last 30 or so minutes were easy to block out, replying to any texts he may have gotten during the awkwardly pathetic car ride with Diego. He felt a finger push his head back and that's when he groaned and shifted his eyes towards Diego, who nodded at someone.

And this is where Johnny's morning had gone from shit to 'holy fuck I could sing a Disney song right now!' Instead of making eye-contact with your regular waiter that you'll only remember the name of for a max of 2 minutes to seem polite, he had the sheer luck to make a firm eye-contact with a set of piercing green eyes belonging to a man of above average height with a pants pissingly 'interesting' beard, and painted green lips to match with his eyes. He heard a snort leave Diego's mouth as Hot Pants put their hand over his mouth.

"Nyo-ho," the nameless waiter let out a chuckle, "Have I scared you? My apologies!" The man spoke with a thick Italian accent, and Johnny would be lying if he said it didn't drive him absolutely crazy, "The name is Gyro Zeppeli! I'll be serving you today." Gyro leaned on the table, playfully giving Johnny a wide grin. And that's when Johnny noticed his very much gold grills, and the man couldn't stop himself from thinking, 'damn, how much did that cost?'

Johnny broke the eye contact, his face heating up on his pale skin. "O-oh, thank you, thanks. Yeah... Thanks... Thank you for.. Yeah." Is all that came out of his mouth as he internally exploded himself, the waiter eyed him curiously before bursting out into a hearty laughter while poor Johnny could only feel his face getting hotter. "I'd like those berry pancakes.. With the fucking- banana's 'n stuff." He blurted out, using his phone as an escape; only daring to look up when Gyro finished taking the other orders and strolled off.

★.

He came back, Gyro Zeppeli himself- came back! Johnny felt himself actually looking forward to that piece of eye-candy as soon as said man left, he walked carefully as he placed down Diego's monstrous looking plateful of hashbrowns, eggs, and bacon, before giving Hot Pants their very much deserved plate of waffles loaded with strawberry syrup and strawberry chunks with their coffee. As Gyro turned to Johnny to give him his order he gave a teasing wink, which made Johnny's little closed off heart flutter; teasing was something Johnny HATED, yet in this moment- he craved more of it. Call him pathetic all you want, but at least this pathetic man got a wink from arguably the hottest man in existence.

As Gyro put Johnny's plate down and spun on his heel to go back to wherever he came out from, Hot Pants's voice managed to grab his attention. "So, flirting with the waiter for a tip, are we?" They joked with a sip of their black coffee, "I kid, I kid. Don't worry. But he totally seems your type." They shrugged while cutting into one of their fluffy waffles,

"Really? I thought his beard looked weird. Johnny-boy, you interested in havin' your face tickled by fucked up beards now?" Diego snickered while taking a long sip of his orange juice before going back to scarfing down his hashbrowns with his bare hands. Johnny rolled his blue eyes as he waved his hand in dismissal (a usual habit of his),

"You'd be a blushing mess if a hot 6 foot something man came up to you and started cooing at you too, you know." Johnny huffed as he saw Hot Pants think about his statement for a moment, before shrugging it off,

"Would I now?" Diego challenged "Us three both know my preferences, alone and carefree, baby!" He leaned back and cackled, it wasn't very funny but his confidence in himself made Johnny chuckle a little bit.

"Oh yeah? What about Cody from Street Fighters f-" Johnny was interrupted with a 'Happy Birthday!' from a familiar italian man with a few of his co-workers, followed by a embarrassing (for Johnny) happy birthday song Diego immediately joined in a snarky tone, Hot Pants (monotonously) following in. Johnny wanted to hide his face and disappear from the world, who made singing Happy Birthday in public so... Embarrassing? He felt eyes other than the teams and his friends on him, only for them to join in singing, this truly wasn't his day.

★.

After the whole singing fiasco had it's 30 seconds of fame, they awarded Johnny for not making an attempt on his life out of embarrassment with cheesecake. And he'd admit that it was extremely good, but something caught his eye in the meal. A pill? No. A cyanide packet? No. Any sort of drug that could harm him? No, not really. There was a tiny card on his plate that had a green heart on it. Gulping, Johnny opened it half expecting it to have his exact address in it- however, rather than his heart stopping from fear, it stopped from a rush of 'holy fuck.' He read exactly;

'Mia cara stella, text me! xxx-xxx-xxxx. -Gyro Zeppeli.'

Chapter Text

★. "Fuck."

That's all that left Gyro's mouth as he put his phone and other items into his work bag before leaving the building. The night breeze hit him as he walked through the parking lot, it wasn't those cold breezes, but rather those annoying hot ones.

Gyro got into his car, releasing his long blonde hair from the ponytail he had it resting in as he eagerly checked his phone, as if on queue a familiar 'ding!' sounded and a message popped up at the top of the screen,

> Unknown
| hey.

Now, getting a text from an unknown contact was eerie.. If you weren't as outgoing as Gyro was during the days, chatting with new coworkers, cracking jokes with families as he served them, occasional harmless flirting with the customers; he REALLY tried to be as likeable and get as many tips as he could. Gyro hadn't even bothered to start the car as he eagerly texted the stranger back,

| Hey, is this my little stella?

Hoping the mystery customer he'd served a few hours before wouldn't mistake his petname 'star' as someone's actual name, he'd wait for a response silently as he started his car.

★.

It had thankfully taken a fair while for 'Unknown' to respond, for Gyro managed to make it back to his apartment safely without his little mystery man distracting him. Gyro sat his bag and phone on his counter as he searched his fridge for something to eat.

Of course, he'd only find a can of soda and really nothing else. But it didn't bother him as he can always just order food online, cheers to modern technology. But as relaxed and laid back he was at the moment, his body filled with adrenaline as he heard a notification from his phone.

> Unknown
| asshole. my names johnny, not stella. are you that guy that served me and my friends? i was the one with the stars.

It felt like Gyro had won the lottery, although chuckling at the fact Johnny had done what Gyro feared the most, mistake his petname for a random womans name.

| Haha, yes that's me! d'you not know what 'stella' means, or do i have to teach you a little bit of italian?

> Unknown
| star, eh? nice. but i never said you can call me that.

| you never gave me your name, I think it's quite fair

★.

After almost forgetting to save Johnny's number, and texting about nothing- hell, even showing him an improvised song Gyro made about pizza and mozzarella, (which Johnny pretended to save it in his drafts for 'music inspo') the two men decided to move things to video chat- where Johnny was laying in bed, his blonde locks sprawled out underneath his head and his face flushed with teary eyes from laughing and wheezing so hard; and Gyro on the other side of the phone sitting up smiling confidently into the camera as he insisted his joke was not in fact a 'dusty old man joke.'

Gyro caught himself staring at Johnny's soft blue painted lips for longer than he meant to, as he heard the loud cackles slowly come to an end, "What? Do I have something on my face, ya weirdo?" Johnny laid there, face still flushed as he tried to catch his breath from a pathetically corny joke Gyro stole from a website.

"Mmh? No, no, of course not, stella." Gyro waved his hand with a light chuckle, "It's just that your beauty is like a sort of mini-flashbang for my eyes, but in a good way!" He managed to tremble out the last part in a promise. Johnny looked at the screen, wide-eyed and mouth hung open as he tried to think of something to say. It was an awkward silence until his roommate 'Diego' came in and started talking in a loud and snarky voice;

"Hey Joestar, since you like talking to that waiter guy so much.. How about you invite him to our gamenight on Saturday!" Well, Diego certainly had a way to introduce himself on some topics, but instead of looking surprised or at the very least scared shitless, Johnny turned his head while scrunching up his nose in an almost annoyed manner.

"How'd you know who I'm talking to?"

"I can recognize that accent everywhere, plus you keep hollering that wacky name I saw on the waiters nametag! Keep it down, I'm trying to watch my shows."

Johnny rolled his blue eyes as he turned back to the camera, shifting his position in bed. "Hey 'wacky name', wanna hang out tomorrow night? There'll be alcohol so you won't even remember the hell you'll go through." The boy playfully invited, Gyro assumed he wasn't expecting him to accept his small offer because his eyes once again widened at the screen with raised eyebrows. "You'll regret it."

"If it's a night with you, I'm sure I'll love it."

"Hm. I'm goin' to sleep. Night, shitty beard."

"Buonanotte amore mio."

Chapter Text

★. One knock, two knocks, pause.... And a flurry of knocks.

Johnny was sitting in the tub when he heard the front door being absolutely pounded on, in the middle of scrubbing away his anxious 'what if' thoughts. He heard Diego scramble past the bathroom door as he shouted 'Coming!' in almost a squeak, Johnny's phone buzzed as he looked at the notification.

> H.P.
| bringing pizza. what toppings.

Hot Pants had always been a.. 'dry' texter, but it amused Johnny every time on how they'd always come off as demanding- even when asking questions.

Johnny prepared for the situation of Gyro arriving while he was still bathing, and luckily he hadn't shrugged it off as a, 'that'd never happen, idiot!' moment and brought his star printed whatever inside of the bathroom. His usual beanie, blue and white star shorts, gray socks, and and a complimentary hot topic Gorillaz shirt Hot Pants gifted him for his birthday a few years back. As soon as the blonde boy was ready to face Gyro, who by now has probably heard every single embarrassing story Diego has about him- he helped himself up using his crutches and walked himself in the living room.

Diego turned to Johnny as he was in the middle of telling Gyro about how Johnny once tried to walk without any type of support and totally ate dust with a obnoxious, "JoJo! Glad to have you here, see- your little hunk of a boyfriend is here!" Which caused Johnny's face to heat up slightly, hopefully it was subtle enough for Gyro not to notice.

"H.P. asked what toppings do you want on the pizza." Johnny sat down next to Diego, trying to distance himself from Gyro as much as he could. "If you force all of us to eat Hawaiian out of spite again, I'll take all your teeth while you're sleeping." And to which, he heard a small scoff from a certain blonde italian sitting not-so-far away from him.

"It was deserved- oooh, but I'd kill for the meat lovers pizza!" Diego perked up and fiddled with his fingers, "Make sure to ask for ex-"

"Extra limes, I know." Johnny pulled up his phone and informed Hot Pants on the monstrous order they all had to eat for tonight.

★.

Hot Pants arrived with pizza's, soda, and wine bottles in their hands as they walked in through the front door. Instead of the usual alt over-the-top clothing they'd wear all the time, they'd taken it easy with a lounge cropped t-shirt and baggy sweatpants. "Yo." They muttered as Diego snatched the wine and eagerly poured some for the four of them. "Miss anything?"

"No, we're just getting ready to play videogames!" Diego replied with a face full of pizza, "Johnny and Gyro are too busy stealing glances at each other, doesn't that just ruin your appetite?" He didn't make any effort to whisper, instead yelling it- causing Gyro and Johnny to flinch and flush slightly.

"For someone without an appetite you sure are eating your fill," Hot Pants smirked smugly, plopping themselves beside Gyro, causing the tall man to scoot over. The silence in the room was loud, the only sounds coming from the movie that was playing on the tv but even that felt faint, Johnny was not having a good time. In fact, Hot Pants and Diego had trapped him and Gyro by sitting on either sides of the two men.

★.

A pale, shaky hand reached for the wine bottle before pouring the crimson liquid out into a wineglass. This had been Johnny's 3rd-ish glass, he'd been acutely aware of how many glasses he consumed just in case he did something he'd regret- he could blame it on his intake with embarrassed rants. Him and Gyro sat close. Johnny was almost leaning on the older man as he brought his wineglass up to his lips, meanwhile Gyro and Diego were obviously fighting over Mario Kart and other cheesy party games. He felt his eyes slowly wandering around his friends body. First his broad shoulders, his neck, his sharp jawline, and then his face; it had a pink tint on it from all the alcohol that was consumed and his lips pulled up into a wry smile, flashing his golden grills.

Hot Pants looked out of it, like they were going to pass out any second as they clutched their rum bottle- only taking a few tired swigs every few minutes. Johnny felt himself chuckle at the sight of his vibrant pink friend as he looked down at his hands before deciding it was too stuffy inside the apartment and gingerly getting from his seat. He couldn't find his crutches anywhere, possibly due to his spinning head and droopy eyes and lack of caring all together, so he made the choice of leaning on the wall for support as he made his way to the balcony.

He'd let his mind slip to a few guilty fantasies about Gyro, I mean.. Who wouldn't? Above the average height, dirty blonde, vibrant green eyes that reminded him of limes, a beard so shitty not even a runway model would try to pull it off.. And his thick, deep, Italian accent. He found some habits of Gyro that were easy to pick up on, how like he'd switch to Italian if he couldn't find the correct words in English- or how he'd go 'nyo-ho!' whenever he would laugh at his own jokes. But some habits weren't easy to pick up on, like how he'd clench his jaw down when drinking wine. Johnny would find himself letting out a deep sigh into the night lights of the city, leaning on the balcony's railing as he had his face resting in his palm. Why was he so head over heels for a Denny's waiter he just met two days ago?

"Qualcosa non va, Johnny?" Gyro's voice interrupted his lovesick thoughts as he stood beside the shorter male, giving a concerned frown. Johnny couldn't help but think; 'he looks so cute like this.' As he watched Gyro's expression with wide eyes. "What, I got pizza on my face or something?" The older of the two chuckled.

"I don't speak Italian, asshole." Johnny snapped his vision back to looking over the city's lights, trying to avoid the dangerous gaze of Gyro's at all costs.

Gyro took a moment to reply, his eyes raking over Johnny's pale, smooth face. "Right," he drew a shaky breath as he followed Johnny's blue gaze over the city. "Something wrong?" Gyro put his elbows on the railing, taking a big sip from a bottle with a low grunt.

"No, nothin' is wrong.. What, my attractive and brooding nature worry you or somethin'?" Johnny's accent became thicker, which it only ever did when he was tipsy or sleepy as he felt Gyro scoot closer to him.

"Of course, like always." Gyro nudged the blonde man slightly, grinning at him as their eyes met. "Oi, Johnny, are you related to Jean-Claude Van Damme?" He cleared his throat, his confident smile turned into an awkward tense one, which rightfully gave Johnny goosebumps. Who the fuck was Jean-Claude Van Damme?? Did they have disputes or something?? Would that turn their friendship upside down??

"No..?" Johnny raised an eyebrow as Gyro barely hold his snickers in, "What? You got some rivalry with 'em or something? If so, don't count me in i-"

"'Cos Jean-Claude Van Damme you're sexy!" Gyro let his held back laughter spew out, holding his stomach as he slapped his knee. Johnny's expression quickly became unimpressed, his fist clenching as if he were going to throw a mean punch at the goofy long haired man. Gyro's laughter died down as he wiped a either fake or real tear, "Oh Johnny, you wound me!" He playfully huffed out.

"...Mhm." Johnny rolled his eyes and watched the beautiful sight of Gyro losing his drunken mind over his own stupid pickup line not even a highschooler would use to ask his crush to prom. "Anyone ever tell you how much prettier you look when you're not telling cheap pickup lines? Cause damn." Johnny added a whistle at the end of his sentence just for good measure.

"Wait, wait.. I have another trick to show ya!" Gyro perked up and Johnny let out a strained sigh, closing his eyes to prepare for the worst. But what came next wasn't a cheap joke, but rather a big hand- much bigger than Johnny's- on his cheek, his eyes fluttered open at the feeling of a pair of lips firmly pushed on his own, and Johnny simply melted. The younger male eagerly kissed back, placing his elegant fingers on Gyro's cheek; it had only lasted a minute, their eager lips clashing with one another made it feel like an eternity as they pulled away for air.

The what was supposed to be magical and romantic moment, turned into an embarrassing memory Johnny wanted to kick under the fridge and wait til someone else notices it as he heard a loud 'click!' from a phone. The two lovebirds slowly turned towards the glass sliding door as Diego held up a picture of them practically shoving their tongues down each others throats, Hot Pants standing beside him with a drowsy and out-of-it grin. "Gyro! Look what you fucking did!" Johnny let out a whine as he harmlessly and softly beat at Gyro's chest, "Now I'll be the end of all of his jokes! Fuck you, asshole!"

Gyro burst into a frenzy of wheezes and laughter, nudging Johnny's side as he struggled to catch his breath, "Oh yeah? If that happens-" He cut himself off with a wide, in-character smile, showing off his grills that Johnny just now realized had 'Go! Go! Zeppeli!' engraved on them, he confidently announced. "Tell 'em to go eat shit, Johnny!"

"..Tell him yourself!"