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In hindsight, Kakyoin should of known better than to try and get some sleep early, especially in such boisterous companies. Nights in the desert were positively brumal, and keeping close to the fire was the only way for him to actually feel comfortable in that itchy sleeping bag of his. He’d had a long last few days comprised solely of walking, scratching his sunburn, more walking and asking, no, pleading to find out when they’d finally reach that town Mr. Joestar was sure he’d seen on the map somewhere near here and more walking. It had been dreary, tiresome and boring and Kakyoin had had it up to the metaphorical ‘here’, and was determined to get at least a few hours of solid rest before continuing onto another day of sand in his shoes. Saudi Arabia was quite unforgiving.
From about 10 feet to the left of him, Mr. Joestar and Polnareff were hooting and hollering about this and that. Kakyoin was never one to eavesdrop, but since they were being so kind as to keep him up, he figured he’d lend an ear for a little while and find out just what was so important.
It didn’t take much listening to figure out what all of the hullabaloo was about. Being on a life or death road trip, one tends to lose track of the date. Today was December 24th, 1987. Christmas eve, as one would call it. Kakyoin had never really cared about Christmas, nor did anyone else around him really, so he wasn’t all that beat up about forgetting. It just wasn’t something that was celebrated as widely in Japan as it was in the rest of the world, so it wasn’t as hard wired into his mind like it was for Mr. Joestar or Polnareff. Kakyoin had half a mind to just tune them out, but as the older of the two started a rather botched attempt at singing ‘White Christmas’, he figured he’d have a much easier time getting some rest away from their cheeriness.
The sand beneath his heels made a pleasant swoshing sound as he hauled himself and his sleeping back up the closest dune. It was quieter over in this direction, and much colder as well, but Kakyoin was petty enough to put up with it if it meant an end to their incessant howling. His lungs gave a grievous huff as he came to his knees at the lip of the dune, heaving his sleeping bag up onto the top where it was more level. It took some struggling, but he eventually made it, and finally felt some makeshift form of tranquility as he smoothed his bedroll out.
“Hey..”
Jotaro’s voice never ceased to scare Kakyoin. It was deep, and low, and seeped into his bones further with each word. One could almost describe it as a growl, if it wasn’t for the fact that he was a seventeen year old teenager who’s ‘growl’ cracked whenever he tried to seem intimidating.
Jumping in ungraceful terror, Kakyoin looked over his shoulder at the other, brow furrowed. The larger of the two flustered for a moment, tearing a hand away from where it was buried in his pocket to adjust his collar just the slightest. He was always so fidgety.
“Oh-- I scared you again, didn’t I...”
“It’s fine, Jojo, just-- Don’t sneak up on me, okay.” Kakyoin’s features softened just a bit as he came to sit with his back to the others, “What are you doing up here, anyway?”
“That’s what I was going to ask you.”
Kakyoin couldn’t help but snort, jerking his thumb in gesture towards the two man band down at the base of the dune, “Take a wild guess.” The taller of the two casts a long, drawn out stare down at the others, pursing his lips before he looked back at him.
“Want me to go tell them to shut up for you?”
“Oh, you’re so sweet.” Kakyoin gave a dismissive wave, “Let them have their fun, I’ll just stay here until they go to bed. Don’t worry about me.”
Kakyoin said for him to not worry, but he knew that he would anyways. If Jotaro was going to be overprotective of anyone, it was going to be him. It was almost flattering really, and the redhead felt a bit special with his 6’3” behemoth of a guard dog hovering over his shoulder at all times. Grunting in effort, Jotaro sat down a comfortable distance to the left of Kakyoin, hands still stuffed in his pockets.
“Gramps says.. that we shouldn’t go off by ourselves, so I’ll hang out here with you, if you’re okay with that.” There was an awkward silence, Kakyoin fiddling with the green cloth of his uniform before he cleared his throat a bit and nodded.
“I guess that’s true. Uh, thanks.”
“N..No problem.” His voice cracked...
That aforementioned awkward silence continued on for what felt like millenia, which was quite normal for them at this point in their relationship, if it could be called that. They’d only known eachother for a short time, and maybe it was the fact that they were kids who’s lives we’re always in danger, and they took some comfort in eachother, but they’d been enacting on some form of pseudo dating for the passed week. There was no communication, just stares that went on for a little too long, hesitant and sweaty hand holds, and the occasional head on the shoulder.
Affection was neither of their strong points, and what little interaction they had was always short lived. Not out of fear or unwanting, but out of unbridled embarrassment. It was kind of pathetic, really. It was pathetic, but they were okay with it. It was better than not having anyone to turn to when you’re fighting tooth and nail in a war that you didn’t know you were going to be drafted into when you were brought into the world seventeen years ago.
“Nori.” Once again, Jotaro’s voice jolted him out of his daydream, dragging him back to reality by the knees with that silly little nickname. Kakyoin blinked and eyed him out of his peripherals, straightening his posture just the slightest.
“Ye... Yes?” Smooth.
“Do you uh... Do you know what Christmas is?”
Sometimes, Kakyoin forgot things about Jotaro. Things like how he was double jointed, and how he thinks that sticking two cigarettes up his nose and lighting them is funny, and how one time, he found him staring with eyes like saucers at a salt water fish aquarium in a restaurant. He, also, forgot that his mother was a white woman from the United States, and that he’d most likely had a lot of contact with western traditions. In this case, Christmas. Kakyoin menaced at the word for a moment. He wasn’t going to escape it, was he.
“Well, yes? I know what Christmas is.”
“No, like... Christmas Christmas. The stories and stuff.”
Kakyoin exhaled through his nose, before pausing and shaking his head, “No, I can’t say I do. Christmas isn’t that big for us, you know.”
“Yeah.” Jotaro shrugged, looking down at his feet as he kicked some sand down the slope of the dune, “My mom really likes Christmas. We used to get gifts from my Grandma Suzie every year, and she’d make me help her with the tree.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah you... You get this big pine tree--” Jotaro paused, taking his hands out of his pockets to pantomime the vague shape of a tree, “And you put stuff like lights and garland and tinsel and pearls and ornaments on it.. And then on Christmas, when Santa comes, he puts stuff under the tree and then like, eats the stuff in your fridge.”
“I...” Kakyoin was following, up until the term ‘santa’ was brought up, “Can you repeat that last part..?”
“What? About Santa?”
“San-tuh.” The smaller of the two squinted, the name of this mythical beast coming out awkward and horribly jumbled, “I feel like an alien pretending to be human or something.”
Jotaro rolled his eyes, and for just a moment, Kakyoin could see a half smile creep into the corners of his lips, “He’s this guy that comes down your chimney and puts stuff under your tree if you were good, and then eats the stuff you leave out for him as payment or something? He’s fat and dresses in this red coat--”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Kakyoin started to laugh a little, scootching closer to Jotaro and extending a hand in question, “You’re telling me that half the world has this cultish tradition, where you cut a tree down and decorate it, and then some man dressed in all red comes and commits proper home invasion and burglary in order to give you boxes of which the contents are a complete mystery to you, and then demands that you feed him?”
“I mean--” That horrible little giggle Jotaro did all too well edged his voice, “If you put it that way, it sounds weird...”
“It is weird, Jotaro! That’s illegal!” Kakyoin nudged him with a surprising amount of force, grin splayed on his face and a faux sense of urgency in his tone, “People go to jail for that! Why are you laughing?”
The two practically collapsed into a giggling mess on each other, Kakyoin’s fingers curling around the edge of Jotaro’s coat as he laughed against his side and held it in some sense of affection. It was sloppily done, but Jotaro couldn’t help but hook an arm around him, his chest thumping with bemusement and... some other emotions. Kakyoin was warm, and in the cold of the desert, having him close and in good spirits made some kind of twisty feeling writhe in the pit of his stomach.
Their laughter died after a few minutes, neither of them letting go of the other. Realization set in and, like scared animals, they both just stiffened up. Jotaro could feel as the other fiddled with the cloth between his fingers, and smell his gaudy cherry perfume that he always insisted on carrying. In turn, Kakyoin could feel the muscles in Jotaro’s arm tense up as he shifted a bit, and could almost taste the sea salt that clung to that uniform of his. Suddenly, the world felt very, very, very small...
“Uh.. I’m-- sorry.” Jotaro mumbled, awkwardly pulling his arm back.
“No it’s..” Kakyoin paused, moving away from him, “It’s okay, I.. don’t mind.” He couldn’t believe he just said that. Jotaro shifted to look at him, obviously a bit more than surprised at the sudden turn of emotion. He’d honestly expected something else out of him.
Silence drifted over the both of them after that. The distant sounds of Polnareff and Joseph had died down as well whilst they horfed whatever dinner they could cook up, and the fire was already starting to dim. Whatever it was that they had just shared, Kakyoin... liked it. He loved it, in fact. It was the first time in a few weeks that he’d felt safe, and close to another human being. It was nice that, even for a few minutes, he could relax. He could relax without having to fear someone was going to come and stab him in the back.
“Jojo.” He maundered once he was tired of the quiet, sparing him a glance. He didn’t get a reply, though he did see the smallest shared look back. Kakyoin cleared his throat, before shifting to face him completely, “Can you tell me more..?”
“About Christmas?”
“Yes please.”
Jotaro thought for a moment, fiddling his thumbs before he glanced up at the sky. Stars, nebulae and planets filled the never ending expanse of blue that lay above them like a blanket, and as he tried to think of what to say, he closed his eyes.
“I remember when I was a kid, my mom would wake me up on Christmas and she’d make this big breakfast. Pancakes, french toast, you name it.” He maundered, shoulders tensing, “It made her happy, so I humored her I guess. No one else was in the house for her to spend it with, so she always went overboard... It was nice though, just me and her.”
Kakyoin suddenly felt very solemn at the mention of Ms. Kujo. He’d forgotten in their little bought why he was on this trip in the first place...
“It's dumb but... I guess i'm kind of sad that I can't spend it with her this year.” Kakyoin’s demeanor softened ten fold. He’d also forgotten just how much Jotaro really cared about his mother. She was really all he had, and he didn’t show it, but he could tell that he was worried sick about her. Menacing for a moment, he sighed through his nose and moved to lean his head on his shoulder, closing his eyes.
“I don’t.. know if it means anything to you but, I’ll spend Christmas with you, Jojo.” The amount of courage it took for those words to leave his mouth was staggering, and as they did so, he could feel the other tense up again.
“You... You don’t gotta say stuff like that, Nori..”
“I want to though. If... If it will make things easier on you, then I’ll try.”
Jotaro shifted a little to look down at him. That’s all he did for awhile, just sitting and staring at this kind soul whom he had the privilege of spending Christmas Eve with. His heart twisted in his chest and, mustering what little confidence he could, he shifted to wrap the right side of his coat around him, keeping him close as if he was afraid of him leaving. Kakyoin swallowed a pebble of uncertainty that rose in his throat, and buried his face against Jotaro’s shoulder. He was so small compared to him.
“Nori, I uh--” Jotaro trailed off.
“Hm..” Kakyoin’s voice was muffled against the cloth of his shirt. He still smelled like sea salt, and there was just a hint of that horrible cologne that Polnareff wore everywhere. Jotaro had tried it out in his unrelenting curiosity, no doubt.
Jotaro was silent for a long while, his fingers coming up to tangle sheepishly in Kakyoin’s red locks. It was awkward, and not well thought out, but it helped put his anxiety at ease. His gaze shifted all over the place, before coming to rest upon him again, his brow softening into something that looked almost lovesick.
“You’re too nice to me...”
“I know.” Jotaro could feel a small smile creep up onto Kakyoin’s face, and he had to stifle a squeak as a thin hand came to shift him a bit, “But... I think you deserve it.”
Throughout the entire world, there was the audible and palpable sound of glass shattering as Jotaro felt something foreign. Something he’d only felt from one other person before. Something that was so alien to him that he had to stop himself from toppling over. Soft, tender lips pressing against the skin of his cheek, and a small hand pressed against his chest. He began to question everything. Where he was, what time it was, why he was there, what he was doing. Why had it lead up to this moment. The moment where he, Jotaro Kujo, was sitting in the middle of the Saudi Arabian desert with the boy he was oh so hopelessly and endlessly head over heels for kissing him, Jotaro Kujo, in some weak and meager show of affection. It was just a kiss on the cheek, it didn’t matter that much, but it was still exponential. What did he to to deserve this? Jotaro had never really seen himself as a good person.
“Jojo..?”
Jotaro’s horribly mangled thought process was so rudely and thankfully interrupted by Kakyoin’s voice. He sounded almost worried about him. Shaking his head, Jotaro leaned back a bit and put his hand out behind him in some weird attempt to stop himself from just laying down. His mind had a proper reply to Kakyoin, but all that came out instead was;
“Hi, yeah, that’s me-- I’m Jojo--”
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I... I uh. I am. I am very strong.” He was laying down now.
Kakyoin covered his mouth to hold back a snort, failing partially. He knew that Jotaro couldn’t handle his emotions well, but this was positively ridiculous. Out of some kind of pity, Kakyoin moved to lay down next to him, hands at his sides. They didn’t say anything for a solid 15 minutes, instead choosing to watch the stars above them, or, in Jotaro’s case, rethink every step and breath he’s taken up until that point.
“Noriaki.”
“Yes?”
Kakyoin’s bedroll made a light swishing sound as Jotaro’s fingers found Kakyoin’s, and threaded together. His hand was clammy, and Kakyoin could feel his heart positively racing. It was a small display, but he appreciated it none the less.
“Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, Jojo.”