Chapter Text
There was only one word to describe the relationship between Josuke Higashikata and Rohan Kishibe, and that word was bizarre.
Josuke had tried to be friendly with Rohan, only for Rohan to reject him. Then the opposite (sorta) happened, but that was just weird and creepy so Josuke started avoiding the mangaka wherever possible. But the annoying thing was, that no matter what they did, they just kept on bumping into each other randomly. One day, when Rohan spotted his best friend Koichi hanging out with Josuke, Rohan approached them and bluntly only invited Koichi over, Koichi, being the sweet angel he his, told Rohan that he was hanging out with Josuke right now, “maybe later” he said. Rohan sighed and said Josuke could join, both heads turned towards Josuke looking for the final verdict and he just shrugged “sure”, he said. It was odd, sure, but once everybody had a cup of coffee, sat on Rohan’s nice veranda, enjoying the sun, conversation flowed a lot easier than expected. At some point Rohan started sketching, Josuke was talking nonsense but Rohan found himself talking back with vigor. Sure, some sparks flew from time to time, but for some reason that only made talking that much more interesting. Yeah, Rohan came to the realization that he liked talking to Josuke, he was an odd fellow, very bizarre, but it was interesting nonetheless.
Then it turned dark and the boys went home. Rohan looked back at his afternoon and thought to himself that it had been pretty alright, but still, there was something he had been meaning to ask Josuke… he just… he couldn’t bring himself to do it in front of Koichi. Alas, Rohan knew that inviting the kid over on his own would be weird, so he wrestled with the idea for some time, that is, until he saw Josuke in a sweaty track suit running down his street. Morioh sure was small…
Chance had apparently chosen to present itself, and who was Rohan to ignore, so, he called him over.
Once he had offered the sweaty and disgusting teenage boy a glass of water, he asked him to sit down for a while, preferably inside the house where they were protected from the scorching summer heat. Once seated, Rohan calmly and passively spoke, “So, tell me Josuke, when are you going to do something about that big crush of yours?”
Josuke, the blundering fool he was, in shock, promptly sprayed his gulp of water all over Rohan.
The fragile twig that represented patience in Rohan’s mind snapped mercilessly, you could almost hear it. Gritting his teeth he said: “Aaah yes, thank you, it sure is hot out today hm? How refreshing.” he looked like he could murder the kid with just his eyes.
“Aw shit!! Oh my God! I’m so sorry Mr. Rohan!” Josuke said as he desperately looked around for something to dry him off.
Rohan raised his palm and silently subdued the panicking Josuke, he unclenched his jaw and tried: “No worries Josuke, I have a handkerchief” and with slow motions, he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out said handkerchief, very methodically wiping himself off.
Then he sighed, the momentary rage exhaled from his being. He looked up at Josuke who had seemingly forgotten how to breathe. Rohan wanted to laughed; at least he could conclude from the constipated look on Josuke’s, face that it had probably been an accident. “It’s fine Josuke.” He told him, but Josuke looked unsure. So Rohan rolled his eyes in annoyance, afterall, here he was earnestly forgiving the kid who had been a goddamn menace from the moment they first met.
Rohan figured he could drop the sweet talk, he didn’t deserve it.
“Don’t ignore my question Higashikata, I’ve seen the way you look at that boy, you’re so obvious it makes me want to vomit.”
Instantly, Josuke’s ears turned red in embarrassment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He managed to say, but Josuke knew exactly what Rohan was talking about.
Rohan looked at him with bored disbelief. “Riiiiiight.” He said, squinting his eyes at the student. “And you mean to tell me that you’re not gay too?”
There were tons of ways to react to such an accusation, especially when the only person Josuke had ever talked to about stuff like this was his mom.
He could go, “WHAT?! ARE YOU INSANE??!” + getting up and leaving. This however was mostly just violent homophobic behavior.
So he could go, “Where the hell did you get that idea from? That’s just fucking stupid.” + scoffing and huffing in disbelief. This was an alright answer, if not a bit too rude.
Or he could go, “hahahaha! That’s a riot! Me? Gay? Have you seen the girls I walk with to school?” + more bragging about girls. This was way too cocky though.
In the end, Josuke being the panicky fool he was, wasn’t really able to rationalize an intellectual and polite reaction that would be firm and convincing, yet didn’t come across as homophobic. No, Josuke just yelled. “You’re gay! I’m not gay!” He instantly regretted this however, since it did not even pass a single one of the requirements for a good reaction, and it was unbelievably infantile. Who could blame him though? He was only 16.
Rohan however, was as unfazed as could be. “Well well, what a mature answer Josuke.” The sarcasm was underlined by the sassy eyeroll. “You’re wrong about one thing though, you are most certainly gay. I can tell.”
Josuke opened his mouth to answer, the he stopped, then a pensive look crossed his face, and then his brows furrowed together in confusing before he looked at Rohan again. “Wait… so you’re actually gay?”
“Bravo.” Rohan told him as he golf clapped. “But it’s not like I was hiding it, so I won’t give you any points for perception.”
“Wait, so people know?” Josuke asked, intrigued at this development.
Rohan sighed in exasperation. “Josuke, it’s not like it’s part of my greeting! I don’t go “hello, oh and by the way, I’m gay” I just don’t keep it hidden, if people ask me I answer. That’s all there is to it!”
Jesus Christ, I’m already worn out. Rohan couldn’t help but mutter to himself mentally.
Then Josuke made a strange grimace. “Hey man no offense, but I don’t really… I mean, dig you, uhh that kind of thing? Umm…no?”
Rohan too could have reacted to this in a million ways, he mostly just wanted to gag at the sheer suggestion of him and Josuke getting together, but he wouldn’t want to be too rude to the boy, so he went with, “Josuke, you’re a real fucking idiot… I don’t actually dig, little kids like you; so calm down would you.”
Well, in all honesty, one couldn’t really call Josuke Higashikata a little kid, after all, he was freaking huge! A very fit and healthy specimen, but Rohan couldn’t say that. Had Josuke been anyone else, been less of an idiot… then yeah, he would probably have been his type. Still, even if Josuke wasn’t Josuke, he would have still been too young for him, 16 was a bit of a stretch… especially since Rohan liked older men.
Rohan could tell that what he had just said would undoubtedly lead to Josuke questioning his type, the kid was just too curious for his own good. So before that happened, he continued on to the main topic.
“Anyways, I’m pretty sure Okuyasu would be more than a little flattered if you told him how you felt.” Rohan stated, taking a sip from the lemon ice tea he had poured himself.
Josuke seemed like he wanted to protect himself again, try to argue that he was straight just like spaghetti. (But we all know what happens to spaghetti when it gets wet) So Rohan just shot him a look that demanded no bullshit. Seeing this, Josuke practically deflated. “Ugh how would you know? He’s normal, he likes girls. I would know… I’m his friend.”
“Nonsense” Rohan said simply. “Have you seen him? I’m not sure he can even tell male and female apart! I really don’t think he’s the type to care about something like sexuality.”
Josuke looked pensive. “Yeah, maybe… but that doesn’t really change anything. I don’t think he could ever fall in love with me.”
“God, you’re such a sap.” Rohan couldn’t help but mutter, then he took a deep breath and tried to channel his inner kind side. “Josuke, of course you know him better than I do, but Okuyasu… to me, he really just seems like the type of guy who would love to hear a compliment from anyone. Eventually, once he knew about your feelings, he would start to look at you differently and at some point he would most likely fall in love with you too. He’s too dense to notice how you feel right now, but I’m sure that if he knew, he would probably reciprocate your feelings.”
Rohan almost felt proud of himself. Surely, this good deed of his must have scored some points up above.
Josuke looked positively baffled.
“Uh, right. Thank you Mr. Rohan… I’ll um, be sure to do something about it.” It was as if Josuke couldn’t comprehend that such kind advice had actually come from the mouth of the arrogant mangaka. The look of disbelief however, morphed into one of excitement, and for some reason Rohan started dreading what this might mean.
“I have to finish my jog, but can I come over some other time??” He asked as he got up from the chair.
Oh no, Rohan couldn’t help but think, Ooooh no.
“Absolutely not.” He replied simply.
But Josuke, being the bizarre child that he was, just started grinning from one ear to the other. “I’ll be seeing you then Mr. Rohan!” and out he went.
Rohan face planted the table, he hadn’t meant for them to suddenly become actual buddies. But for some reason, Rohan found that he didn’t really mind.
~
Some time passed where Rohan didn’t hear anything from anyone. He was busy with his manga anyway, so it wasn’t all that bad. Still… for some reason, Rohan couldn’t help but feel a teeny bit disappointed. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious about how Josuke was doing with his crush, so once he completed the work for this week, he found himself truly bored. Josuke had told him he would come over, but there was no sign of him. Of anyone really.
Sigh. Perhaps he should go travel somewhere, after all, he had the whole weekend to do so… Getting out of Morioh for a while seemed like a great idea now that he thought about it. It had been a while since his last adventure anyway, there was bound to be something interesting he hadn’t seen in Japan yet. Suddenly a bit more energetic, Rohan started planning his trip, if he packed quickly, maybe he could even go today, what with it being a Friday and whatnot.
But then, just as the sun started to go down, there was a loud knocking on the door.
Rohan didn’t know how to feel about that, so cautiously he walked on over and opened.
Lo and behold, for there stood Higashikata Josuke in all his glory, wearing grey sweatpants, a t-shirt with a Prince logo on it, a black backpack and his hair ‘all-natural’; (His hair was freaking long!) but perhaps most infuriating of all, he had a big ol’ grin on his face. Truth be told, Josuke looked like he was ready for the sleepover of his life.
“Hi Mr. Rohan!” he said happily, Rohan couldn’t believe it. “I hope you’re bored, cause I sure was.”
Rohan sighed dramatically but at the same time he opened the door wider so his intruder could get in. “Why are you here Josuke?” Rohan asked as he walked behind him into the living room.
“Whaddaya mean Mr. Rohan? It’s the weekend, I came to have some fun yo! Look, I even brought snacks!” He said as he dropped the backpack onto the couch.
“Hey hey, cool it with the “Mr. Rohan” thing, it makes me sound so ancient… wouldn’t make sense for you to talk so formal when you’re obviously here to talk about boys, paint nails and watch movies, right?” Rohan tried ironically.
At this, Josuke turned around so quick that he should have gotten whiplash and he lit up like a beam, sparkles in his eyes flashing in excitement. “Oh my God! Can we do that?!” He asked.
Rohan couldn’t help it, a genuine smile made itself onto his face at that outburst. Josuke was a cute kid; a cute muscly manly kid. “Yeah, sure thing.” Rohan answered. “But bring your stuff up to my room, my VHS-player is upstairs and I don’t have the necessary knowledge to correctly install that machine in the living room. So, if it’s movies you want, then upstairs we go.” Josuke just nodded as he took the backpack from the couch and then Rohan led the way to his bedroom.
Rohan’s bedroom was really really huge. There was a king sized bed with tons of pillow a big tv and tons of big and small paintings propped up against his walls, a few plants here and there, thought Josuke suspected they were made of plastic. Then there was a walking-in closet… A walking-in closet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Holy mother of God.” Josuke started as he dropped his backpack on the fluffy carpet that covered the floor. “I think I should go to art school.”
Rohan snorted. “8% of the people that go to art school end up with a house like this, and only 4% of that is because of their actual talent.”
“Geez, alright… Then I’ll remember to drop by more often, this room is amazing! You have a freaking walk-in closet Rohan!”
Rohan smirked in pleasure; at least some people appreciated his priorities. “Ah yes, I have noticed that you do have some sense of style Josuke… Koichi, bless his soul, but he really has no fashion sense at all.” Rohan said as he went to pick up the box with his VHS movies, Josuke following suit.
“Yeah… I think he’s trying some new styles with his hair? I’m not really sure what he’s doing to be honest, but I think it’s because of his girlfriend.”
“Aah, Yukako, that was her name wasn’t it?” Rohan asked.
“Yep. She’s pretty scary, but she’s got good taste, Koichi is a good man.”
“No kidding, but not only does she have good taste in men, have you seen her? Her style is on point Josuke, she’s got class that girl. She should seriously consider being a model, the way she walks is very… hmm, powerful and elegant. I don’t know how she does it, but she can somehow transform a boring old uniform to something you’d see on a cat-walk.”
“Yeah, and have you seen her hair?? I wonder what she uses to make it shine like that… the way it moves when she walks, I mean, she must take real good care of it.”
“Speaking of hair,” Rohan started as he finally found the movie box and started laying the movies on the carpet. “It’s very interesting to see your hair down like this.” Rohan was careful with the words he picked when talking about Josuke’s hair… that was sensitive conversation after all.
Josuke blushed. “Ah, yeah well, I can’t sleep with hair spray and hair gel in it… so, y’know.”
“It’s quite long… Reminds me a bit of your mothers hair, though slightly more coarse and unruly. You could try a lot of hairstyles with hair that thick; could be fun.”
Josuke wasn’t exactly keen on that, so he just went “yeah… maybe”
Finally, all the movies were splayed out on the carpet, cover turned up “So, choose one.” Rohan told him, arms crossed as he waited.
Josuke looked down at the movies. “I don’t think I’ve watched any of these before… how about this one?” he asked as he pointed.
A smile spread on Rohan’s face. “Clueless, huh?”
Rohan finally understood why Josuke had been so intent on coming back here, why he seemed so happy, so excited. Rohan remembered when he accused Josuke of being gay… his reaction… Josuke obviously didn’t have anyone he could talk about it with. None of his friends were gay and there was only so much he could talk about with his mother. Now, the two had established a connection, something to really bond over. And from Josuke’s sense of style and choice of movies, Rohan was pretty sure this could only get better and better.
“Excellent choice.” Was what he said as put the movie in.
~
Time passed fabulously. Movie nights became an occasional thing, painting nails, talking, gossiping, face masks, eating snacks and just a lot of talking. Rohan even took Josuke to Tokyo at some point, just so they could do some shopping! Rohan led Josuke to all the good places, he even knew some people at Gucci and other places so he got a real good discount. Josuke was still a student of course, so he didn’t go home with nearly as many bags as Rohan did, Josuke however seemed to have a fascination with shoes, so that was mostly what he invested in. Rohan was happy, because to be perfectly honest, he didn’t really have a lot of friends. Acquaintances, sure, many connections here and there; but he had never really done something like this, had a friend like this.
Tonight they were getting some to-go food from Antonio’s and then sip some non-alcoholic drinks.
“Hey Josuke, look at this.” Rohan said as he took a mouthful of spaghetti, he moved his tongue around for a bit, and when he opened his mouth again Josuke was shocked to see a long spaghetti string wrapped around all of his tongue.
“Oh my God Rohan!!! How the hell did you do that?” Josuke asked in sick awe as Rohan closed his mouth and swallowed. “Wait! Does that mean you’re like… um, really good at you know..” Josuke asked, a light blush on his cheeks as he scratched his head sheepishly.
“Yes.” Rohan said, pride and sass dripping form the word. Rohan had always been proud of this skill of his, and yes, this did mean that he gave some killer blowjobs. Men were at his mercy. “Don’t be such a prude Josuke, you can say blowjobs in my presence.”
“I’m not a prude..” Josuke said as he looked down at his food, his ears turning red again.
God, those ears are such a give-away. “You’re such a virgin.” Rohan said matter-of-factly.
“Rohaaaaann” Josuke groaned.
“Okuyasu would probably be good in bed.” Rohan all but sang.
“Arrrgghh.” Josuke groaned again, now face planting the table in shame.
“Seriously Josuke, why haven’t you told him yet? I have a rule that says a gay man can only be attracted to a fellow gay man.”
“That’s not how it works Rohan” Josuke’s words were slightly muffled from the table being pressed against his face.
“Sure it is.”
“No, you just turn all the straight men you flirt with gay.”
Rohan considered that for a moment, hm, could be true. After all, he had never failed even once when decisively flirting and he had flirted with a lot of men… He couldn’t be so lucky that every single one was gay, after all, he always fell for those that seemed straight-ish. Weird.
“Must be my killer blowjob technique.”
“God! Stoooop.”
Rohan laughed heartily, but then he looked down at his friend, probably his best friend (Koichi never seemed to like Rohan as much as Rohan liked him…) and he got kind of sad. He really wanted Josuke to get together with that airhead, he always looked like he was on cloud nine when he walked around with him. It was funny really, that Josuke could be so full of confidence in certain things, but then be so humble.
“Josuke.” Rohan started, once again channeling his inner kind side, evident from how his voice changed. “You should ask him out on a date.” He told him.
Josuke looked up from the table, he was always so amazed when Rohan used his kind voice. “But… I don’t know Rohan.”
“Trust me Josuke, he would love to go with you.”
Josuke bit his lower lip. “Okay! Alright… I’ll ask him tomorrow. But…”
“But?”
“Rohan, can’t you come with?” Josuke asked, a pleading look in his eyes.
“Huuuh??” Rohan sputtered, all kindness stripped form his voice. “Are you kidding me? And be a third wheel to when you finally get lovey dovey? No. thank. you.”
“Pleeeeeeeeease?” Josuke tried.
“No way.”
Josuke bit on his lower lip again, but then, seemingly out of the blue, a metaphorical light bulb appeared over his head. “I know! Let’s make it a double date then!”
Rohan looked at him suspiciously. “And who would my date be?”
Josuke grinned at him deviously. “195 cm, intense green eyes, jawline game on point, doesn’t talk much, renowned researcher, really really fit and pretty tanned.”
Rohan had to hold back his laughter. “How would you know someone like that?”
Josuke’s smile turned even more devious, if that was even possible. “He’s my nephew actually.”
Now Rohan really couldn’t help the laughter that escaped him. “You have a nephew that’s 195 cm?? that’s just sad Josuke.”
This effectively wiped Josuke’s smirk of his face. “Heey! He’s 28 years old! Of course he’d be taller.” Josuke protested, a cute pout on his lips. But… this information intrigued Rohan.
“Hmmm, 28 huh.” Josuke could hear the interest in Rohan’s voice and instantly perked up again.
“Yeah, yeah and he’s single right now!” he added gleefully.
Rohan thought about it for a second, he hadn’t really gone on a date since who knows when, well, ever since moving to Morioh he guessed. The city wasn’t exactly abundant with handsome men… Well, there was Antonio, Rohan had considered making a move, but the chef was sort of… odd. There was a really strange air about him, maybe it was the curvy smile that threw him off…
“So he’s hot, tall and doesn’t talk too much?” Rohan asked as he considered.
“Yeah, he’s probably like a 10. And I’m not saying this just to convince you.”
Maybe this was a good opportunity… Josuke was pretty good looking, maybe it ran in the family?
“Sure, why the fuck not.”
Josuke leapt up from his chair and smacked Rohan with a big wet kiss on his cheek.
“uuugghh, eww” Rohan complained, but Josuke was ecstatic. “Thank you Rohan! You won’t regret this!”
Afterwards, they started to plan the date. They talked about locations, clothes, accessories, pick-up lines and a bunch of other crap. Soon, Rohan actually found himself pretty excited, on Josuke’s and his own behalf.