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Jolyne doesn’t spend a lot of time at her dad’s house. Their relationship has improved greatly, but there were still certain points of contention that just makes it easier if she holds him at not quite arms length. That way the likelihood of him doing something to piss her off is significantly less.
But she still finds herself walking into his house, backpack slung over her shoulder, calling out for him.
“Hellooooo? Anyone home? Dad?”
The one that pops around the corner isn’t him, however.
“Jolyne? What are you doing here?”
Noriaki. She frowns at him, putting her hands on her hips, “Do I need a reason to visit?”
Noriaki raises an eyebrow at her as she slams the door behind her, walking into the living room. She throws her backpack on the couch and looks back at the man standing at the edge of the room, his arms now crossed.
“Where’s Dad?”
“Getting dressed.”
Jolyne looks at the clock on the VCR, “It’s almost two o’clock.”
He sighs, “Exactly.” He turns back in the direction of the bedroom, “JoJo! Hurry up, we're going to be late!”
He walks away then, and Jolyne shakes her head. She’s never been the biggest fan of Noriaki, her dad introducing him to her when she was ten. And yeah, it probably didn’t matter who he had introduced, she wasn’t going to like her dad’s new boyfriend. Especially one that worked with the very people who kept her dad away and traveling all the time. So she’s never really taken the time to get to know him, even after everything that happened with Pucci. She knows her family loves him, especially her grandma. Her mom though has always been skeptical of their relationship, especially since Dad would sooner run off somewhere exotic with his boytoy than show up for Jolyne.
She now knows why that was, but it still doesn’t quite get rid of the sting.
She flops down on the couch and turns the TV on. After a couple minutes her dad appears, adjusting a watch on his wrist. He stops when he notices Jolyne seated on his couch.
“What are you doing here?”
“Your boyfriend asked the same question. Can I not just come over to hang? Is that a crime now too?”
He rolls his one good eye, and Jolyne looks him up and down.
“What are you so dressed up for? You going somewhere?”
Though, ‘dressed up’ might not be the right words. He wasn’t in his usual long coat and boot-pants, but was instead in black pants and shirt, a white vest over the top. He didn’t have a hat on his head either, and it was almost weird to see this much of his head at once.
“We’re just running down to the courthouse.”
Jolyne curls her lip at that. If she never has to step foot in one of those buildings again it’ll be too soon, “What are you going there for?”
He shrugs, ignoring Noriaki coming into the room in his usual high fashion, “Just some family stuff we need to sign off on.”
“Oh is that all this is?” Noriaki says as he makes his way to the front door.
Jolyne squints, “What kind of family stuff? I’m in this family you know, I should probably be aware of what’s going on.”
“It doesn’t affect you.”
“You don’t know that!”
“Yes, I do.”
“Jotaro, did you not tell her?”
Her dad turns to face his partner, “No, because we agreed not to tell anyone, since it really isn’t that big of a deal.”
Noriaki sits on the bench next to the door to pull his shoes on, “We also agreed to not hide it, either.”
Her dad sighs, “Good grief. We’re going to the courthouse to get married.”
Jolyne shoots off the couch, “What?! And you weren’t going to tell me that?”
He turns and starts walking away, “Because I knew you’d react like this.”
“You haven’t even given me time to react yet, asshole!”
He doesn’t answer her, and Jolyne hates the angry, twisting knot that takes residence in her gut. She clenches her fists.
“Does Mama know?”
He does turn to face her at that, “Why would she need to know?”
Jolyne swallows, “Well, you guys were married once, you have a child together. She should be aware of these things!”
“Well, we aren’t married anymore, and that child is in her twenties. I think she’ll understand.”
“Does anyone know?”
Her dad puts his hand on the wall as he pulls his shoes on. His balance isn’t the best anymore, but it’s a lot better than it was a couple years ago.
“No.”
That made Jolyne feel a little better at least.
“Are you still going to be here when we get back?”
Jolyne sits heavily on the couch, “Probably. I’m gonna eat all your food.”
Her dad opens the door, “Knock yourself out.”
Noriaki gives her a small wave before he follows Jotaro out, the door shutting gently behind him. She scowls at it, the TV still playing some cartoon in the background. Her inaction only lasts a couple seconds before she reaches for her phone.
Josuke is headed for his “lunch” break, and his…well…everything, is already killing him. Night shift always wore on him more than any day shift ever has. Not to mention that a number of patients were just not having it today, so that drained him even further. So he makes sure to grab another coffee with his lunch, sitting down at his usual table. He enjoyed being a nurse, he really did, but it was days like today that made him envy Okuyasu’s line of work at the garage.
Josuke had hardly gotten his food situated before one of his work friends, Himari, sits down across from him.
“Hey Higashikata, you look like shit.”
Josuke sighs, “I feel like shit.”
She nods to herself, unwrapping her sandwich.
“How’s Mr. Nijimura?”
Josuke nods, sipping his coffee before opening the clear container in front of him, “Good, he’s actually-”
He’s interrupted by the buzzing of his phone against the table. Josuke looks at the name on his screen, his brows furrowing seeing his grandneice’s name and picture pop up. He immediately picks it up and answers in English.
“Jolyne? Is everything alright?”
There is always a certain kind of fear that shoots through Josuke whenever a member of his family in the States calls. It sucks that that’s the case, but with all the shit his family gets involved in, he can’t help it.
“Not really.”
That sends that cold shock through his gut again, and he tries to remain calm as he talks to her.
“What uh, what kind of problem are you having?”
“It’s a personal one, Josuke, unclench.”
He frowns, she must have been able to hear his worry in his voice, “How am I supposed to know that when you open like that?” He moves to take a sip of his coffee.
“Sorry, sorry, whatever. Did you know that Dad was getting married?”
Josuke inhales suddenly, and he coughs around the excess fluid in his throat. Himari reaches across the table and pats his back, her face full of concern.
“Are you okay? What happened?”
“Who are you with?” Jolyne asks.
“I’m fine,” Josuke answers in Japanese before switching back to English, “and just a coworker.”
“Oh. Can she hear me?”
“Even if she could, she can’t understand you, she practically failed every English class she’s ever taken.” Josuke says it with a sweet smile aimed at Himari. She flips him off, despite not even knowing what he said.
“Anyway, I’m going to take the choking as you didn’t know that.” Jolyne says.
“Uh yeah, no I didn’t. Who is he marrying?”
“Noriaki.”
That’s right, gay marriage was legalized in Florida last month. But that makes sense, those two have been together for forever by now, and have known each other for even longer. However, Josuke knows of Jolyne’s less than favorable opinion of the man her father is supposedly marrying.
“How do you feel about that?”
She sighs, “I’m not sure. I guess I’m happy for them? But the fact they didn’t tell me until they were walking out the door to go do it is irking me.”
“Huh? They’re getting married right this second?”
“Oh yeah, when I said getting married I didn’t mean in a month or a week or even tomorrow, I meant right now. They’re probably almost to the courthouse.”
“That’s insane.”
Josuke tries to let this information sink in properly. It’s not the weirdest thing that’s ever happened in this family, not by a long shot, but it was still strange for Jotaro to be so secretive about this whole thing. Well, maybe it’s not that strange for Jotaro, but for Kakyoin to just go along with it?
“No shit it’s insane. I just…why not tell anyone about it?”
Josuke sighs, pushing some rice around with a fork, “That’s Jotaro for ya. Have you told anyone else?”
“Nah, you were the first person I called. Well, first person I’ve talked to, second person I’ve called.”
“Thanks.”
“Sorry but you don’t outrank Ermes, Uncle.”
“Is she not with you?”
“She’s at some training thing for work, it’s part of why I even came over here, I don’t like being alone in the apartment for that long. Didn’t think my dad would also ditch me.”
“Why not go to your mom’s?”
Josuke knows about the rocky history between Jolyne and her father, so he knows that his place isn’t exactly her first choice of places to go.
“Weekend girl’s trip with her friends.”
“Ah.” Made sense.
“Wait, what time is it for you?”
“Like three-thirty in the morning.”
“Ah, night shift huh? Well I should probably let you get back to it. I’ll let you know if anything happens, I guess.”
“Please do.”
They say their goodbyes, and Josuke puts his phone face down on the table before scrubbing a hand over his face. What a Jotaro thing for him to do; get married again and not tell anyone about it.
“Who was getting married?”
Josuke looks at Himari, eyebrow cocked, “How did you know that’s what I was talking about?”
“I’m a connoisseur of western rom-coms, I know some vocab. Spill.”
Josuke sighs, gesturing loosely towards his phone with a hand, “My nephew.”
Her eyebrows shoot up, “Your nephew? You have a nephew? Wait, you have siblings?”
“Mhm.”
“Well that’s exciting, right?”
Josuke makes a so-so gesture with his hand, “Eh, the problem is that he didn’t tell anybody about it.”
“Oh, so they eloped?”
“Basically? But they didn’t exactly run off anywhere, just down to the courthouse and then they’ll probably just go back to their house.”
“...How old is your nephew?”
“Oh, forty-five? No, forty-four.”
“Oh wow. Did your…brother? Sister? Have him super young or something?”
“No, my sister and I are just really far apart in age.” And just, in general. While he’s been able to get his head around Joseph being his father, and Holly being his sister, it still feels strange. He’s not super close to either of them, even if they’ve gotten closer since they met. He tries not to tell people that he has siblings, since he was really raised as an only child.
“Huh. Interesting. How come I never knew any of this about you?”
Josuke leans forward on the table, propping his cheek against his palm, “I try not to talk about my messed up family dynamics.”
“It’s interesting though.”
He huffs, looking down at his barely touched food, “I’m glad you think so.”
He’s gonna have to tell Okuyasu about Jotaro and Kakyoin when he gets home. Unlike Josuke, Okuyasu doesn’t mind hearing about the drama, enjoying the ‘exciting’ twists and turns of his family life. Part of it, Josuke thinks, is that for once it isn’t Okuyasu’s own family being a mess.
Though it’s about to get messier if what Jolyne says is true. He has a feeling that Holly is not going to take her son getting married (again) behind her back very well, and if he knows the Crusaders (he doesn’t, but he’s heard enough) they’re never going to let them live this down.
Jotaro knew they shouldn’t have told Jolyne. He also knew the first thing she was going to do was go and blab to everyone who knows how to work a phone. Jolyne was still on their couch when they returned, Jotaro walking through the living room with his hands shoved in his back, pants pockets.
“How long do you want to stay?”
She doesn’t even look up from her phone where she’s furiously typing, “Why? So you know when you can leave for your honeymoon?”
He rolls his eye at her, “Good grief, you came to my house, I-”
“Jotaro, phone.” Noriaki says from the kitchen. Jotaro pivots to look over.
“Can it wait?”
“I think we’re in enough trouble, so just come over here.”
Jotaro looks down at his daughter who has finally looked up from her phone, and she just shrugs at him.
He shakes his head as he walks over to the island where Noriaki is standing, his phone laying flat against the granite. Jotaro feels dread at the name on the top of the screen: Jean-Pierre Polnareff.
“He’s here.” Noriaki says, hands on the counter.
“Jotaro Kujo! Were you really not going to tell us?! After everything we’ve been through?!”
“Because I knew you were going to be weird. How did you even hear about it? We just got home.”
“Holly called Avdol.”
Jotaro thought it would have made it to the old man first and then he would’ve called them, but Joseph Joestar isn’t really in the best of health so it’s probably best he doesn't get involved.
“This is a big deal guys! You’re the first of us to get married, and we don’t even get to celebrate with you.” His voice sounded incredibly dejected at the end, and it only made Jotaro more annoyed with him.
“We signed some papers, we could still have a ceremony if we wanted.”
Jotaro looks over at Noriaki, and he’s sure his face portrays the betrayal he’s feeling.
“We never discussed anything like that.”
Noriaki looks at Jotaro with a small, albeit almost smug looking smile, “I don’t see why not, it might even be nice to, oh I dunno JoJo, celebrate everything we’ve been through together.”
“Come on Jotaro! Let us celebrate you guys!”
Jotaro turns his back to the phone, leaning his lower back against the edge of the counter looking at Noriaki, looking at his husband, “I dunno, Nori.”
“We’ll talk about it.”
Jotaro huffs, and then they hear Avdol speak, “Good luck with that, Kakyoin.”
“Hi Avdol.” Both Noriaki and Jotaro say.
Avdol continues talking, “It is a big deal though, Jotaro. There was a time when we never thought any of us would be able to get legally married.”
“Do you guys have rings?” Polnareff asks.
“We will.” Noriaki says.
“Nice.”
“We didn't get married for the hell of it, just so you know.” Jotaro says, talking over his shoulder.
Noriaki leans forward on the island, resting his weight against his forearms, “Well yeah, it’s mostly for the benefits. At least if he gets hurt again I’ll be able to visit him.”
The words were dripping with venom, and Jotaro has fuzzy, half memories of Noriaki ranting to him about how the hospital wouldn’t allow Noriaki to be with him at all while he was in the ICU after the whole Pucci thing.
There was a moment of silence before Jotaro couldn’t take it anymore, “We’ll talk about it.”
“Just think about it.” Polnareff says, and with that Jotaro was done with the conversation. He gives Noriaki a quick kiss to the side of his head as Nori continues talking before he walks back into the living room where his daughter was. He sits down heavily on the couch next to her, and she looks over at him.
“Are they mad?”
“Annoyed, I think.”
She looks back at the TV, “They should be.”
“It’s not that big of a deal.”
Her head whips back towards him, “Yes it is! You got married and didn’t tell anyone, that’s a big deal!”
“Nothing is going to change, Jolyne. We already live together, already attend family events together, we aren’t changing our names. The biggest difference is that we can visit each other in the ICU and when I die he can legally have half my shit.”
“You really don’t understand, do you?”
Was there something else to understand? He gets that weddings are supposed to be this big declaration of love, but Jotaro doesn’t feel like that’s necessary. Noriaki already knows that he loves him, and he knows Nori loves him back. He would hope that his family knows that they love each other, so what does spending all this extra money on a ceremony to show it do for them? He’d gone through it once before, and it was nothing to write home about.
Maybe it would be different since it was Noriaki Kakyoin, a man he’s loved for most of his life at this point. But that’s a lot of unwanted attention, and Jotaro just really doesn’t want to go through the whole ordeal again.
When Jotaro just stares at her, she sighs, “You really are hopeless.”
“I am your father.”
Her nose wrinkles as she swings her leg up and kicks him in the shoulder. “Jackass.”
But she’s smiling, even if it’s just a little, and Jotaro’s chest warms.
“Ermes can come over for dinner, if she wants.”
She looks at him for a moment before shrugging, “You know what why not? Free food is free food.”
And she did, they had hamburgers, Noriaki and Jolyne trying to convince Jotaro to go through with a ceremony, and shockingly Ermes had taken Jotaro’s side.
“They’re expensive and noisy and long and I totally get why you wouldn’t want to have one, Mr. Kujo.”
“You’re supposed to be my girlfriend, Ermes.”
“I’m just saying I get it!”
Nori looks between the two of them, “You two will be having one though, right?”
That gets both of them stammering, faces pink.
“I mean, someday maybe.” Ermes says.
“Yeah, someday.”
Noriaki continues his line of questioning, and he gets accused (good naturedly) of changing the subject. Jotaro sits back and watches, just happy to see everyone getting along.
Later that night, when laying on his back in bed beside his now husband, listening to him breathe in the silence of the room. He’s been told not to trust your thoughts past a certain time, and he knows he’s going to regret saying this later, but something is pulling at his heart.
“Nori? Are you awake?”
Noriaki hums, rolling over to face Jotaro. He’s squinting at Jotaro in the dark, an eyebrow raised.
“I want to do the ceremony.”
That wakes Noriaki up, and he props himself up so he can look down at Jotaro.
“Are you sure?”
Jotaro nods. He’s not entirely certain what exactly changed his mind, maybe it was his daughter, or maybe it’s the idea of having an excuse to get his whole family together, or maybe it’s Noriaki’s desire to do it, but he feels like it’s the right thing to do.
Noriaki leans down and kisses Jotaro, something he easily returns.
Noriaki pulls back slightly, “You can change your mind whenever you want, okay?”
He nods again, grabbing the back of Noriaki’s head and bringing him down for another kiss. Something tells him that he won’t be changing his mind.