Work Text:
When Kishibe Rohan returned home (much later in the day than he would’ve liked), he expected to brew a quick cup of tea, head straight to his desk, and make up for the working hours he had lost by being forced to venture outside. He didn’t expect to be interrupted by the sound of overly enthusiastic knocking before the kettle had even had the chance to boil. And he definitely didn’t expect the source of said interruption to be Higashikata Josuke standing on his porch, clutching a pink wicker basket under his suspiciously gleeful grin.
“You’ve got until my tea’s ready to tell me what you want.” Rohan announced, one hand remaining on the door in an empty threat of closing it in the boy’s face.
Josuke raised his arm, proudly presenting him with the basket again as if that was supposed to explain anything at all. When he received only a sharply raised eyebrow in response, he pointed to the lollipop sticks, pompoms and googly eyes haphazardly attached to the front, which Rohan belatedly realised were meant to represent the face of a rabbit.
“It’s a bunny. Like the Easter Bunny? Cause it’s Easter today.” Josuke explained, as if Rohan’s confusion was directed at his craft skills rather than his reason for showing up on his doorstep.
“I’m aware.”
“Well, I thought it might be nice to do something together.”
“What gave you that idea?” Rohan knew how blunt his question sounded, but it came from genuine curiosity rather than rudeness. While things had been more... tensely civil between the pair in the few years since Kira had been gone, he would hardly have expected to be Josuke’s first choice to spend time with.
“I just thought it would. Is that a crime?”
“That depends on what you’re trying to get me to do.”
Josuke sighed, feeling the familiar difficulty that came from trying to communicate with the other man.
“Why aren’t you with Okuyasu?” Rohan asked, deciding to get right to the point.
“He’s busy.”
“Hm. So you’re only here because your first choice wasn’t available. If I wasn’t aware that was the case from the start, I might’ve been hurt.” He ignored the faint voice in his head reminding him that he was in fact, just the tiniest bit disappointed.
“Hey! It’s not like that!” The basket in his hands swung wildly enough to almost smack Rohan in the bare stomach as Josuke took an angry step forward.
“Hurry up and tell me what it is like, then.”
“I heard about people doing these chocolate egg hunts, and I just thought, y’know, you’re real nosy, so maybe you’d like the ‘finding hidden stuff’ part?” Although he would’ve preferred to word it in a more flattering way, even Rohan had to agree his natural curiosity was undeniable.
“I can’t fault your logic, I suppose. But I’ve already wasted too much time today, I don’t have any spare to spend entertaining... this.” He reached one thin finger out to poke the ‘rabbit’ on its fuzzy nose.
“Yeah, I thought you’d probably say that.” Josuke nodded in understanding, but he also didn’t seem to be making any moves to leave.
“Still, at least this went better than when Mr Joestar tried to get Jotaro to take part, I heard-“
“Wait, Mr Joestar? Is that who gave you this idea?”
“Sort of. He sent over enough chocolate to feed the whole town. Me and Okuyasu ate till we were sick and there was still way too much left.” Rohan wrinkled his nose in disgust at the mental image.
“So you thought you’d pawn the rest off on me under the disguise of some kind of game?”
“No! Well, maybe just the flavours you’d like.”
“As if you’d know what those are.”
“I think I can guess- anything bitter, for one.” Josuke might’ve mumbled the last part, but Rohan caught it anyway.
“You’re doing a fantastic job at convincing me to waste my working hours with you.”
“Whatever. I guess I’ll just wait and see if anyone’s free to hang out tomorrow.”
“If you’re that excited about it, why don’t you just badger Okuyasu to change his plans. I know you said he was busy but whatever he’s doing can’t be that important.”
“He’s spending today with his dad, actually. I’m not about to get in the way of that.” Josuke’s tone was indignant enough for Rohan to take notice, humming in approval at his rare display of maturity.
“I gave him some of the spare eggs so he could hide them around the house for him to find. Same with Koichi, he’s going to do some for Yukako too.”
“Have you just been wandering around town trying to give away free chocolates to everyone, like Morioh’s very own holiday ambassador?”
“So what if I have? Is it so weird to think people might want to have a bit of fun together when they can? Mr Joestar told us all about this huge treasure hunt he organised for Shizuka and I just thought it sounded cool, ok?”
Rohan leaned against the door frame, watching with intrigue as Josuke’s expression turned wistful. He didn’t need Heaven’s Door to figure out that the boy’s relationship with his father was bittersweet, to say the least, and it was one of the very few subjects that he had never felt like antagonising him about.
Thankfully, before the quiet atmosphere could linger on any further, the kettle squealed at them from the kitchen, signalling to Josuke that his allotted time for making his case was over. He wasn’t confident that he’d been successful at convincing Rohan to spend the afternoon with him, but the fact that the door remained wide open as he sauntered off into the house had to be a good sign. Josuke decided to take the chance and follow him inside, which appeared to be the correct decision, as he heard a soft voice coming from the other room.
“So you don’t want to intrude on anyone else’s plans because you think they’re too important, but it’s fine to interrupt my day? And what’s more, the thing you think is worth putting my work on hold for is a game designed to occupy the attention of small children?”
“If that’s a ‘no’, then just rip the band-aid off, man.”
“I never said that.” Rohan countered, returning through to the living room with a teacup in hand, sitting down delicately while Josuke bounded over, taking his statement as a sign of approval.
“Go on then, get everything set up, as long as you’re quick about it, I’d like to make something productive of today after this is over, at least.” Suppressing a small smile, he looked off out the window with an air of nonchalance, as if he wasn’t about to use his stand on the younger man the second his back was turned.
“Ah, well, that’s the best part; I’ve already hidden it all! You can start searching straight away!”
Rohan’s pretty green eyes were sharper than the pen nibs that had once pierced Josuke’s face when the implication of his words set in.
“Are you trying to tell me that you broke into my house and rummaged around in all my things? I knew you were up to something!” He hissed, leaping out of his seat towards his visitor.
“No- NO! Wait!” Josuke’s hands waved frantically in front of his face, silly pink basket swinging around from the movement, causing the enraged artist to flinch backwards to avoid being struck in the forehead.
“I didn’t go in your house, I swear! I only put stuff around the garden!”
Although Josuke was telling the truth, he decided to leave out the fact that he had seriously considered the possibility of sneaking inside the mansion to hide the presents. After all, between Crazy Diamond, and Yukako very generously offering to help him pick the locks when he had discussed his plans with his friends earlier, he would’ve been able to do so with no problem. However, considering that the whole goal of this effort was to get the other man to actually have fun with him, Josuke quickly realised that invading Rohan’s privacy would not be in his best interest. And seeing how irate he had become at the mere possibility of Josuke being in his house unsupervised, he knew he had made the right choice.
“So you’ve been prowling around outside when I’m not here? My neighbours probably think I’ve got some kind of crazed stalker. And it sounds like that’s not far off.”
Josuke felt his face go beet red with heat at the accusation. He wanted Rohan to view him as a potential friend, but that was hardly going to happen if he thought he was a creep. ‘He’s even less likely to give you a chance as ‘more’ than a friend someday in that case too’, a tiny, unwelcome inner voice reminded him, but he shoved that stray thought away before it could cause his skin to get even warmer.
“When did you even... Hold on- Is that why Koichi sent a text begging me to pick up a gift for him this morning- so I’d be out of the house long enough for you to organise this? I expect such nonsense from a brat like you, but don’t go dragging a nice boy like Koichi down to your level.”
“Actually, that was Yukako ‘borrowing’ his phone. I wouldn’t ask him to trick you; I know you two are good friends so it wouldn’t be fair.” Rohan considered that sentiment slightly better, but nevertheless, he could find plenty of other things to complain about.
“I didn’t have her pegged as particularly eager to do favours for others.”
“That's true, unless it means she gets to keep her ‘beloved’ to herself all day without me interrupting their date, then she can be pretty helpful.” Rohan nodded in understanding (he was all too familiar with the girl’s possessiveness when it came to their mutual friend), before remembering that he was supposed to be annoyed.
“Hey- if this was all planned already, what was the point of giving me the sappy backstory and sad puppy eyes a few minutes ago? Making things up just to get me to feel bad for you... You should know better than anyone else how I feel about liars, Higashikata.”
“Don’t just assume stuff! I didn’t lie about anything!” Josuke began to protest quickly, feeling as though his genius plan to begin befriending the artist was devolving into a disaster, before he was interrupted.
“And another thing- Were you really so sure of your ability to persuade me to go along with your game that it was worth setting it up before even hearing my answer?”
“Well, I mean, you did agree. So I was kinda right.” Josuke had the guts to look proud of himself even when Rohan’s nostrils flared in anger.
“How cocky... You must know by now that making such an arrogant statement is the quickest way to make me change my mind.”
“If that’s how you really feel, then I can go out and tidy everything away.” Josuke offered, despite giving no indication that he was going to move.
“Make sure you do.” Rohan instructed.
“But... if I did that, then you’d never ever know where I chose to hide everything.” Josuke watched the other man’s face twitch, knowing that he was on the right track. By now, he had spent enough time with him to have learned a thing or two about how to hold his own in their silly mind games. At least, that’s what he liked to believe.
“I don’t care in the slightest.”
“Even if it means missing out on the chance to get a deeper insight into someone’s thought processes?”
“That simple mind of yours is of absolutely no interest to me.”
“Maybe. Or maybe you’re scared that I picked such good hiding spots that you wouldn’t be able to find them.”
“Ridiculous. I’d solve whatever you could come up with and we both know it.”
“But you don’t know that for sure. Not unless you see for yourself. The only thing we do know here, is that your curiosity is going to get the better of you.”
The pair stared each other down, neither one willing to back off first until Rohan decided to try and take charge.
“Here’s how this is going to go. I’m going to drink this tea before it gets any colder, then I’m going to demolish your game, you’ll be forced to admit that I was right, and then you’ll go back home so that I can finally get some work done. Deal?”
“Deal!” Josuke readily agreed, simply relieved that he had been able to claw his plans back from the brink of falling apart.
Rohan took a sip of his tea, which was too close to lukewarm to be truly enjoyable. He wasn’t overly concerned though, since by this point the drink was nothing more than an excuse to get Josuke to turn his back to him in a few minutes time, when he would order him to take the empty cup into the kitchen. Before then though, there was still some awkward silence to enjoy, with the only sounds in the room coming from Josuke idly picking at the weaving of the basket after finally setting it down.
As the boy waited impatiently for him to finish, Rohan assured himself that he definitely didn’t feel guilty in the slightest about using his stand in order to get this event over with as quickly as possible. After all, as was always the case when that brat was involved, the whole thing was clearly nothing more than a lame attempt to get one over on him for a laugh. The fact that he had agreed to it so quickly and without really needing any persuasion, despite knowing this, was irrelevant. And it definitely was not an indicator that he didn’t find Josuke’s company as awful as he always claimed. Not at all.
“Y’know, getting everything ready beforehand- it was just so you could start quicker cause I knew you’d want to get back to your manga as soon as possible. I kinda thought you’d prefer it like that.” Josuke broke the silence, feeling a physical need to let the artist to know that that his intentions had been good.
Rohan was especially grateful for the teacup in his hand at that moment, as it allowed him to ‘subtly’ cover up the tiny smile that had settled on his face. That was... surprisingly thoughtful, he had to admit- not that he would say as much out loud so easily.
“You don’t have to try and butter me up, I already told you I would do it.” He offered instead, unintentional fondness in his tone softening the sharpness of the words.
After bringing his expression back to one of neutrality, he leaned down to assume his typical posture of resting his chin in his palm, and held out the empty cup towards the younger man. His eyebrows lifted so high in confusion that they could barely be seen under his hair, so Rohan gestured his head towards the kitchen, trusting him to get the point. Josuke sighed in response, annoyance prickling under his skin at being ordered around. But, that sort of tingling irritation was just what it meant to spend time with Rohan, and that was what he had asked for, after all. Making sure to grumble his displeasure while doing so, he stalked over and grabbed the cup from the artist’s waiting hand before completely falling for the trap and turning his back to him.
Rohan watched him walk, waiting for the perfect moment to strike to ensure that the delicate china would land on the nearby couch rather than the hard floor when Josuke inevitably dropped it. Once the positioning was just right, he grabbed a pen (as the world’s greatest mangaka, one was never out of reach), and called out for Heaven’s Door.
The boy’s back unfurled into a flurry of pages as he slumped over the side of the sofa, and Rohan worked quickly to read through the locations of every hiding spot that had been chosen in the garden.
The first few were by far the most obvious placements, unceremoniously dropped at various intervals amongst the grass while Josuke had tried to think of better ideas for the rest. Then there were the handful that had been arranged around the porch area, one near the front door, one by the steps, and one under the table where they had held that disastrous dice game long ago. He reassured himself that the fact he had failed to notice the shiny coloured foil on the eggs earlier was simply because he had been in such a rush to return home, and was absolutely not a sign that Josuke had done a good job at hiding them.
For the next set, he must’ve been hitting his stride, as the locations were at least a little bit more creative, camouflaging an egg next to some similarly shaped stones and incorporating the surrounding plants to make a proper disguise for one more.
Reading on, Rohan was almost ready to pay the younger man a compliment for his hard work, until he saw that he had decided to leave the final gift (contained in a bag this time), precariously dangling from a branch high up in a tree. The line ‘I can’t wait for this one!’ caught his eye, and the artist fumed at the thought of being mocked. If the brat thought that he was going to get a laugh out of watching him climb a tree and/or fall out of it, then he had another thing coming.
Still, Rohan considered, Josuke had indeed contained his nonsense to the garden rather than invading his house. Respecting his privacy... taking his work schedule into consideration... the boy was really trying to be on his best behaviour, it seemed. The artist scoffed, shaking the thought away; that would be giving him far too much credit.
While the information was readily available, and with no chance of it being a total lie like earlier, Rohan briefly considered reading back a little bit further to uncover the real reason why Josuke had chosen him specifically for this idea. There was obviously the pranking aspect, but he wondered if there was another dishonest motive involved, such as trying to con money out of him again, which would explain why he had sunk so much effort into the scheme.
Just as he was about to flip it over, Rohan felt the page between his fingers move as the body in front of him started to stir. Cursing the fact that his nosiness was going to have to go unsatisfied, he quickly wrote in a command to ensure that Josuke wouldn’t realise he had been read, and retreated to his previous pose as if nothing had happened.
Josuke blinked away his brief spell of dizziness, wondering why the very light exercise involved in egg-hiding had been enough to tire him out that much. When his vision cleared, he grabbed the teacup from where it had landed safely onto a cushion, hurrying off to the kitchen to inspect it and breathing out a heavy sigh of relief upon seeing that it was completely fine. No matter how easy it would be for him to repair it anyway, repeatedly being responsible for destroying Rohan’s stuff wasn’t a good look. Feeling lucky, he returned to the living room with a grin, confident that the rest of their afternoon together was going to go well.
Meanwhile, satisfied that his stand usage had gone successfully unnoticed, Rohan stood up and headed outside.
“Well, I can’t imagine this’ll take long.” He announced, already figuring out the quickest order to collect everything in.
“Don’t say that just yet!” Josuke teased, slipping out the door right behind him, pink basket back in his hands.
“What’s this? You can just wait inside.” Rohan tried to wave him away, but he put his height to good use and didn’t budge, very much embodying his family’s famously solid genes.
“No way- what would be the point in that?”
The artist re-routed the optimal path around the garden in his head, accepting that he was going to have to pretend like he didn’t already have all the answers now that he was under supervision. He wondered if the other man had found him out and was deliberately messing with him, but it wasn’t likely; if Josuke had realised that he had technically cheated, then he would be rubbing it in Rohan’s face mercilessly.
“Fine. Come on then.”
“Where are you going to look first?” Josuke asked, hovering around the artist and watching like a hawk for his next move.
“Let’s just start here.” Rohan decided.
“Oh! Well...Ok.” The younger man's eyes widened for a second before he went back to observing, noticing that the mangaka was remaining completely still.
“Uh... it doesn’t look like you’re searching very hard?” Josuke commented, peering over at the other man.
“I’m searching by thinking. Let’s see... if I was an irritating, obnoxious, sneaky brat like Higashikata Josuke, where would be the first place I would hide something?”
“Hey... There’s no need for that, man...”
“Then stop questioning my methods and let me get this over with.”
In truth, Rohan was just stalling after being called out; putting on this act was making him more difficult than usual.
"Hm. Here’s the first one already, practically in plain sight.” He announced, picking up the egg that he already knew was sitting behind one of the pillars in front of the door.
“And another. Looks like this will be even easier than I thought.” He continued, snatching up the one that was tucked in beside the porch steps before ascending them again, almost crashing into Josuke who was still in the process of following after him.
Both occupying the same step, Rohan tried to decipher the look the other was giving him, unsure whether it indicated suspicion or something else he was unfamiliar with.
“Well, those were the easiest ones anyway. So don’t get a big head- you won’t get the rest so fast.” Josuke glanced away, moving back to make more room between them.
Fired up by the taunt, Rohan stalked off around the corner, to the table where they had once sat to play Cee-Lo, and wasted no time reaching around the base to retrieve the next egg.
“Is that so? Get ready to be humbled, Higashikata.”
“Eh!? How did you know there was one there?”
“With such a prominent established memory of this area, of course it’d be one of the places you’d think of.”
“I guess that’s true... Still...” Josuke’s eyes remained narrowed as they scanned Rohan’s smug face. As much as the artist was getting some enjoyment out of ruining the boy’s fun, he knew he was going to have to slow down a bit before he got caught.
He despised having to draw this silliness out any longer than necessary, but he made a show of examining a few more spots around the porch, voicing his ‘disappointment’ when he came back with nothing.
“So the rest must be elsewhere, then.”
“I’m saying nothing.”
“That’d be a first.”
Ignoring the boy’s cry of offense, Rohan offered him the eggs he had previously collected.
“Hold these, let’s hurry this up.”
“Stop ordering me around, asshole.”
“I can feel the chocolate melting; if it gets on my hands I’ll wipe them on your jacket.” Josuke flinched backwards at the threat.
“That’s too far! Just carry them yourself- why do you think I brought this?” He asked, twirling the basket around in front of the artist’s face.
“You can’t seriously expect me to walk around outside with that.” If Rohan thought that the tacky thing looked embarrassing enough being held by Josuke, then it would look downright ridiculous clashing with his own carefully crafted outfit.
“Are you implying that you’d be happy to model such a style for me if we were inside the house?” The younger man wiggled his eyebrows, before realising how that looked and immediately stopping.
Deeming that comment unworthy of a response, or unable to think of one thanks to the static noise buzzing in his head, Rohan moved on, heading out onto the lawn.
“It’s humiliating enough having you following me around like a giant dog, carrying something is the least you can do to make up for it.”
“If either of us is a dog, wouldn’t it be the one who’s sniffing out chocolate and fetching things?” Josuke teased, easily matching Rohan’s walking speed and stopping in front of him.
“Listen, you-“ The artist raised his hand to point up angrily at the taller man, which Josuke used as the perfect chance to hook the basket handle onto his slender arm.
Cutting himself off mid-sentence, Rohan didn’t miss a beat before peeling away a piece of blue foil from one of the eggs and reaching out to touch the softening chocolate to Josuke’s clothes. He yelped and moved to cover the fabric, but Rohan was faster and repeated his own trick against him, hanging the basket onto his wrist before yanking his hand back out of reach of retaliation.
“Just go along with it, it’ll be more fun...” The boy pleaded, recovering from the surprise attack and shoving the handle towards the artist again, who just crossed his arms in silence.
“Please?”
“...”
“Rohaaaan?”
“...”
The man’s expression remained stone cold, but Josuke got his hopes up anyway when he moved his hand, only to find his own being pushed away towards his chest. He pushed back, and the pair got caught up in an increasingly intense back and forth, before he decided to try pleading again.
“Come on...”
Rohan’s face darkened drastically, and Josuke prepared a sigh in advance, already knowing exactly what the artist’s next words would be.
“I refuse-“
“Can you two really not do anything without fighting?”
Both men snapped their heads in sync towards the new (very exasperated) voice that had interrupted their spat. Koichi and Yukako stood on the footpath, watching them like a pair of disappointed parents.
“Hey guys! Are you having a nice time?” Josuke called out, giving his pals a big smile, which to Rohan’s surprise, looked slightly strained.
“Of course. Certainly nicer than you, it seems.” Yukako taunted. For a second, it looked like Koichi was about to laugh along with his girlfriend, but to his credit, he gently tugged at her hand as if to say, ‘please don’t be too mean to my friends.’
While Josuke shifted uncomfortably upon hearing the comment, Rohan chose to ignore the girl, and addressed the grey-haired boy at her side.
“What did you mean by that?” He demanded.
“Huh? Oh- It’s just that, every time you see each other it seems to end in some kind of fight.” Koichi started to explain.
“Even now, it’s like you’re just completely incapable of getting along.”
Suddenly, Josuke felt the man next to him go unnaturally still, and when he looked over, he could practically sense the artist’s sharp mind working away behind his uneasy gaze.
“I don’t know what you mean. This is simply how Higashikata and I express our friendship.” Rohan announced, emphasizing his point by plucking the wicker basket from Josuke’s hands and dropping the chocolate eggs into it one at a time, keeping his expression deadly serious, daring anyone to question him.
“Clearly, we’re having fun.”
Nobody knew quite how to respond to the unusual display, but at least Rohan was happy now that he was the one making others feel mildly awkward, and not the other way round.
Despite the fact that they had only been standing there for a minute, that was more than enough time for Yukako to get sick of sharing her boyfriend, so she started to pull at his sleeve.
“Um. It was good to see you, but we’d better head off; we’ve still got lots to do.” Koichi said, breaking the strange atmosphere.
“No problem! Have fun.” Josuke replied.
“Oh we will. And we already have, too. You should’ve seen the size of the egg hunt he organised for me earlier.” Yukako cut in, turning her boyfriend’s attention back in her direction.
“Well, we should really thank Josuke for that, it was his idea.”
“Maybe, but you did such a good job hiding everything.”
“Ah, I just wanted to make things special for you.”
“It was. And so was the walk through the park afterwards. And I’m sure that the cafe will be just as romantic when we get there.”
Yukako might have been staring deeply into the eyes of her beloved while she spoke, but Josuke and Rohan both got the sense that her bragging was being targeted towards them instead.
“See you later! Try not to... physically harm each other, please.” Koichi requested sincerely, giving one last concerned look over his shoulder before the two lovebirds went on their way.
“No promises.” The remaining pair said under their breath at the same time, before giving each other a disgruntled look.
“That was nauseating.” Rohan stated, making a beeline for one of the eggs amongst the grass.
“Tell me about it. Does she have to be so smug?”
“She’s showing off to try and wind us up.”
“Right! Exactly! Everyone already knows how perfectly happy they are. No need to rub it in.” Josuke ended his complaint with an eye-roll. The action didn’t go unnoticed by the observant artist, whose lips twisted into a smile when he realised the cause of it.
“I thought Okuyasu was the one who was jealous of their relationship?”
“Eh?”
“It’s written all over your face.”
“I’m not jealous! I’m just... um...”
Josuke fumbled for a better excuse.
“Terrible at hiding things, that’s what you are. I mean, did you just throw these anywhere and hope for the best?” Rohan sighed gently, pointing to another small lump in the lawn and showing some mercy for once by changing the subject.
“No! I even picked the green ones specifically so they’d blend in to the grass...”
“Some good that did.”
“Such an asshole...” Josuke mumbled, disappearing from the artist’s sight for a moment while he kept walking.
“Still, at least you’re finally getting into the spirit a little bit.” He said, catching up to Rohan and gesturing to the basket that he was surprisingly still holding.
“Hardly. They said I was incapable of something and I wanted to prove them wrong.”
“But why would that bother you? I mean, it’s kinda true. And I’m pretty sure you said the exact same thing to me yourself once before. Probably more than once, actually.”
“It’s different when someone else says it.”
Josuke paused, not expecting that the other man’s sentiment would match his own. While Koichi’s assessment of their interactions was pretty accurate, it didn’t mean that he had enjoyed hearing it summed up like that.
“Yeah.”
The single word answer lingered in the air until Rohan kneeled down to pick up the third and final green egg, only to find that there was nothing there. He parted the grass, double checking just in case, despite knowing full well that he was in the correct spot.
He turned his head, ready to demand why the brat had tampered with one of the hiding places, before realising that it would give away how much he knew. Instead, he got back to his feet and began the process of methodically checking the yard, starting at the very corner next to the fence.
“Something wrong?” Josuke teased, looking pleased with himself as he appeared right next to Rohan’s side.
“No. It’s simply quicker to search this way. Like doing a jigsaw puzzle, it’s faster to work around the sides in a clear order and then inwards, rather than just picking pieces up at random.”
“Maybe. But what makes you so sure that there’s another one in the grass anyway?”
“You gave it away when you mentioned organising them by colour. I’ve seen this brand before; the green ones are mint flavoured, and the set always comes with 3 of them.” Josuke’s face fell.
“Damn, nothing gets past you, does it...” He wondered where the hell Rohan had even learned so much about foreign holiday chocolates, but it wasn’t worth thinking about too deeply; the artist had always had a bizarre but impressive mixture of knowledge.
“Exactly.” He agreed, reaching the end of the fence, before taking a few steps to the side and then turning around to go back again. The process got repeated till he had thoroughly examined about half of the yard, with Josuke following behind him as close as a shadow.
“Are you really going to hover over my shoulder like that the entire time?” He wondered.
“Obviously. Otherwise, how would I be able to see your face when you realise I’ve beat you at something?” Josuke grinned upon receiving a withering scowl.
“But if it bothers you that much, I’ll move.” He offered, raising his hands in submission and taking a few steps back.
Now safely out of sight, he located the last egg, which he had moved once before, and gently rolled it over to the area that Rohan had already combed through.
He had to work very hard to stifle a cackle when the artist reached the end of his route, his face contorting in a combination of confusion and anger at having failed to find the egg. The green-haired man quickly calmed himself down, and started another lap of the yard, this time in the opposite direction.
Josuke waited for the perfect moment to repeat the manoeuvre, successfully nudging the prize out of Rohan’s path again while remaining unnoticed. By the time he got to the other side of the garden, his glare had become thunderous, and the younger man’s laughter was so difficult to suppress that he was almost vibrating.
Rohan closed his eyes and breathed out through his nose, before setting off once again. Josuke knew it was risky to try and trick the artist for a third time, but the allure of seeing him get even more enraged was too tempting to pass up, so he took the chance.
“YOU!”
Josuke froze in place as Rohan stormed over, having finally noticed the strange shuffling noise coming from behind him.
“What are you doing?”
“Uh...”
“Stop messing with the grass or you’ll put a hole in my lawn.”
“Ah, right. Sorry.” Josuke scratched the back of his neck, relieved that he hadn’t been found out. He waited for the search to resume, but the mangaka didn’t seem satisfied, grabbing a handful of the boy’s sleeve and dragging him over to the starting point.
“What happened to telling me to go away?” Josuke wondered, as Rohan’s grip on him only tightened and yanked him even closer.
“You’re up to something, so you’re going to stay right where I can keep an eye on you.” He announced, finally releasing the arm from his grasp and beginning the walk again.
“I really hope none of my neighbours see this.” The artist sighed, reaching the end of the fence and turning around.
“Is it that shameful to be seen spending time with me?”
“Yes.”
Josuke laughed, already anticipating that answer.
“Well, sorry to disappoint, but Fungami Yuya said he was gonna take his girls out for a date today too, so you’ll just have to hope that they don’t come through this direction.”
“Was he another recipient of your leftover chocolate?”
“Yes, actually. They wanted to do an egg hunt for him, but with a nose like his there would be no point in hiding them.”
“Imagine how quickly he could put an end to this, then. If only.”
Despite his words, Rohan’s walking pace was unhurried. Josuke decided not to mention it, since the other man would only speed up just to spite him, and he wanted to drag out the relatively calm moment a bit longer. The close proximity caused their shoulders to brush against each other, but when the artist showed no sign of irritation, he decided to push his luck and stay right where he was.
While Rohan loathed the thought of them being spotted together, Josuke just wondered what they must look like from afar. Between the way they were huddled together, their meandering speed, and the wicker basket, he couldn’t help but imagine an old-fashioned elderly couple taking a stroll through a park or something. He laughed a little at the mental image, earning a curious stare from the other.
“At least one of us is enjoying this torture.” Rohan said quietly.
Josuke didn’t bother trying to deny it; no matter how prickly his companion could be and how much they riled each other up, the truth was, he was enjoying every minute.
Their walk came to an end as the artist inevitably found the 3rd and final green egg, since the younger man hadn’t been able to move it this time under such strict supervision.
“I knew it. And I know you did something, but I’m not going to waste the time trying to argue about it.” Rohan announced, already heading around to the front of the house towards the pair of border displays.
“Well done, I guess.” Josuke offered. He stuck his hands in his pockets, hoping that the ‘casual’ pose would mask his mild disappointment. But there was nothing casual about the way his eyes widened and eyebrows shot upwards when his hand made contact with whatever was in there.
By the time Rohan registered the sound of rushing footsteps, the boy had already vanished somewhere, so with nobody to put on a façade for, he decided to take the chance to collect the next set of eggs as quickly as possible. He plucked the first one out from where it was tucked in between some stones, and made his way over to where the next one was hidden under a cover of leaves.
Josuke’s breathing was laboured as he hurried back out of the mansion, only coming to a stop when he saw the artist crouched down next to the border, gently picking through the foliage. While he had never been one to carry a sketchpad or camera around, unlike Rohan himself, he could suddenly see the appeal of being able to capture an image like this at a moment’s notice, as he doubted that he’d be able to see the man looking so peaceful in his presence again. The mangaka stretched and stood up, taking the view from serene, to beautiful, and settling on painfully cute, as Josuke noticed that he was still holding the tacky pink basket despite making such a fuss about it earlier.
Busy lamenting his lack of a camera, he nearly missed the question that was being directed at him.
“Where did you run off to?”
“Hm? Ah, the bathroom.”
“In my house? I don’t remember saying you could do that.”
“Well. It’s better than the alternative.”
Rohan scrunched his face up in disgust at the implication, which did nothing to detract from how adorable he looked.
"Uh, anyway. If you got these two, then there’s only one left.”
“You mean the one hanging from the tree over there?” The artist pointed up at the branch, revelling in the younger man’s shocked face.
“That was fast.”
“It’s not exactly well disguised, is it?”
“Whatever. It doesn’t count till it’s in the basket.”
“It counts when I find them, which I’ve already done, so I win.”
“No way, you’ve got to collect them all too.”
“I’ve beaten your ridiculous game, Higashikata. Now go and get that down from the damn tree.” Rohan ordered.
“...”
“Ok.”
The easy agreement made the green-haired man blink in surprise. While it could be said that he was the one perpetuating their spats more often than not, Josuke had never been a pushover either.
Although it would’ve been endlessly funny for him to watch Rohan struggling against a tree, the younger man had instead decided to take the chance to try and make himself look cool.
Picking up a small pebble, Josuke thought back to what he learned a few years ago on that afternoon he had spent rat hunting with Jotaro. He summoned Crazy Diamond, who matched his confident pose as he aimed perfectly at a thin enough point of the tree branch, before flicking the stone hard enough to snap it in two. Still showing off, he repaired the twig with a flash, before repeating the process on the pouch of chocolates, just in case they had been smashed up from the fall. Looking proud of his stand, Josuke took the bag from his large pink hand and presented it to Rohan.
The artist appeared outwardly indifferent to the display, but he did take an extra second to inspect the gift, no doubt noticing that what was inside was different than the regular chocolate eggs.
“These ones are ‘tea infused’ or something. I kinda thought you’d like that.”
“Hm.”
It wasn’t much as far as praise went, but Josuke decided he would take it.
“Well, as we agreed earlier, now that I’ve won, I’m going back to work. Finally.” Rohan stated, sighing in relief.
“But you haven’t won yet, I’m afraid. When I said there was one left before, I meant there was one left outside.”
“I honestly don’t know why I expected anything different from you. I suppose that’s what you were actually doing in my house a few minutes ago?” As tempting as it was to explode with rage, the mangaka knew it wasn’t the quickest way to get what he wanted.
“Yep.”
“Let’s get this over with then.”
As they reached the porch he gestured for Josuke to enter the house first, and for the second time today, he immediately fell for the trap.
In even more of a rush than he had been earlier, Rohan rifled through the boy’s pages as soon as they opened, but his haste caused him to land too far back. Flipping forward, he arrived at the entries from a few days ago, but before he could turn another page, he caught sight of a line that didn’t make any sense.
‘I’d like to do an egg hunt for Rohan. I think it’d be fun.’
That was it. There were no hidden motives, plans to extort money out of, or worse- make fun of him in sight, even when he scanned the rest of the page multiple times to be sure. To question the truth of the words in front of him would be to question his own ability, which he would never dream of doing, but it was still hard to get his head around. The shock had caused him to waste enough time for Josuke to stir, and as he quickly scribbled in the same command he had used earlier, he realised he had never even gotten the chance to read where the last egg was.
As the boy came to his senses again, Rohan cursed the fact that he was now going to have to find the damn thing properly. Not that he would have any difficulty doing so, of course; it was just that he wanted to get some semblance of a regular day back as fast as he could.
“Man, I must be hungry or something... Keep getting dizzy... Hey, uh, I don’t suppose I could have some chocolate?”
When the artist looked over to answer him, all he could see was the sincere sentiment that was still waiting right there under his skin.
‘I think it’d be fun.’
All they’d done was argue all day. Surely that wasn’t what the brat had imagined as ‘fun’.
“Are you ok? You look kinda weird...”
Rohan stopped staring off into space and brought his attention back to the present.
“I’ll be fine once I’ve won.”
Without the use of his stand to help him, working methodically through each room was the only option, but with a house as large as his, that sounded like a nightmare. Still, he got to it, checking inside drawers and underneath the few objects he had on display as they ticked off every room. With each one that turned up nothing, Rohan grew more frustrated, which in turn seemed to make Josuke even more amused. By the time they were down to the last few options, the artist was practically in a frenzy, storming into the kitchen and opening the cupboard doors with enough force to shake them.
“If you’ve cheated at this somehow Higashikata, I swear I’ll kill you.”
Josuke tried to protest his innocence but it was hard to get the words out properly over his laughter.
It all came to an end when Rohan decided he needed a cold drink in a feeble attempt to calm down, opening the door to the refrigerator and coming face to face with the final prize. Forgetting all about his thirst, he grabbed the thing and marched over to his enemy.
“There. I win.”
“Congratulations.” Josuke offered, laughter dying down into a smile.
The artist glared silently for a moment, expecting the other to pull some kind of trick again, but when none came, he sighed in relief.
“It’s finally over. I’ve never been so glad to see a hunk of chocolate in my life. You remember the deal, don’t you?”
Rohan lifted the gift in his hand to point it accusatorily at the other man, only to see that it wasn’t chocolate at all.
“Don’t worry, I remember. I’ll stick to my word and leave you to it.”
The mangaka didn’t reply straight away, too busy looking inside the bag at the set of little wooden decorations that looked like they were ready to be painted.
“Josuke.”
“Hm?”
“Were these from Mr Joestar too?”
“Nope, they were my idea.”
Rohan looked at him curiously- at the fact that he was still smiling at him despite everything, and wondered if he was to use his stand on him again right now, what his pages would have to say about their afternoon. He didn’t dare consider what it would inevitably say in his own.
“Anyway, see ya!”
“Which one do you want to do first?”
“Huh?” Josuke stuck his head back in to the kitchen, hopeful but not certain if he had heard the other man right.
“I said, which one of these do you want to paint first?”
☆☆☆
The only sounds in the room were the soft sweeping of paintbrushes against wood, and on occasion, the creak of a chair as Josuke tried to lean over and steal a glance at what Rohan was making. The artist huffed and blocked his view every time, but he had been doing the same thing right back, albeit a lot more subtly. Josuke returned his attention to the bunny ornament in his hands, trying his absolute hardest not to waste any of the expensive art supplies that he had been given permission to use, but also not wanting to keep the other man waiting too long. He suspected that Rohan had finished his own painting quite a while ago (he could’ve completed the entire set by now if he had wanted to), and was just pretending to not be too far ahead.
“Let’s see what you’ve done then.” Josuke heard from across the table, before he had even set the brush down, as if the artist had already been watching him.
He held up the ornament, but Rohan took it from him anyway, nimble fingers easily avoiding any wet paint. He examined it closely, and Josuke found himself eager to hear what he thought. While he might not be a professional like the man across from him, he was pretty pleased with his creation anyway.
“For someone whose hands look so awkward holding a brush like that-”
Of course an artist on his level would be hard to impress.
“You’re actually surprisingly gentle.”
“Can I see yours now?” Josuke asked casually, trying not to give away how happy he was to receive the almost-praise.
Rohan revealed the design he had painted on the wooden egg, causing the younger man to burst into a laugh. His sharp eyebrows furrowed in hurt for a moment, despite logically having no reason to feel self-conscious. Realising his mistake, Josuke was quick to clarify himself.
“No- it’s amazing, I really really love it, actually- it’s just, I didn’t expect us to have had the same idea.” He pointed to his rabbit’s ears, painted in the same pattern as Heaven’s Door’s hat, and then at Rohan’s beautiful recreation of Crazy Diamond.
“Trust me, I’m as shocked as you are.” The artist said, relaxing again upon hearing the explanation.
“It won’t happen with the next one.” He stated confidently, offering the bag to Josuke so he could take another decoration out.
“Don’t be so sure about that.” The boy teased, picking up another bunny and already imagining how funny it was going to look once he drew the mangaka’s green headband on it. Across the table, Rohan smiled to himself as he mixed up the right shades of purple to paint Josuke’s infamous pompadour onto the baby lamb he had chosen.