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This is it. This is the end of our relationship. Johnny thought as he stared down at the shattered glass at his feet. It was Gyro’s favorite glass, the one he got from his brothers before he left Italy, and Johnny dropped it. Of course, Johnny was not surprised that he had done that. Ever since the accident, he has been everything except useful. This had happened many times before and Gyro had always forgiven him. He caused countless troubles to Gyro and he has been wondering what the tipping point would be. Well now he knew. Just like the glass on the ground, he could feel his relationship with Gyro, as well as his sanity, slowly shattering into little pieces only to be picked up and thrown away like last week’s stew.
Johnny felt tears well up in his eyes and silently slip down his face. He couldn’t even cry out because he knew it was going to happen sooner or later and he should be grateful it lasted this long. Gyro was going to be home in an hour or two, so he may as well clean this mess up and go pack his bags. He’d have to pack as much as possible because leaving here meant living on the streets again. He leaned down to pick up the shards of glass littering the floor and gasped when his wheelchair rolled out from underneath him. He fell straight into the pile of glass and bit his lip expecting pain to flower throughout his body, but was surprised when nothing really hurt. He looked down and noticed that most of the glass had wedged itself into his legs, and the ones that were in his torso and arms were fairly small. The ones in his legs were pretty insubstantial, but there was one sticking out of his right thigh that was causing quite a bit of blood loss. He sighed as he rolled over onto his back, hoping to stem the blood loss somewhat. It worked to a degree, but he was still bleeding out rather profusely; however, it wasn’t really fatal, so Johnny chose to ignore it.
He lied there, completely still aside from his breathing. He stared at the ceiling, thinking about what his life would be like if the shooting hadn’t happened. If he hadn’t been a jackass and lost his limbs because of the inflated sense of pride he had. What it would be like if he had never met Gyro and if Gyro had never met him. He thought about how happy Gyro would be, with some girl and their absurd amount of children (Gyro always wanted to adopt kids, but Johnny didn’t really like them). He wondered if Gyro would be distraught if he were to just die of blood loss right here in their kitchen. Probably, but he would get over it. He’d likely be more angry about the fact that I broke his cup and bled out onto his floor, he decided.
Johnny stared up at the ceiling and found himself focusing on a stain lying right above him. The stain that was put there when Johnny decided he wanted to surprise Gyro and cook him dinner before he got home. Johnny had never cooked for Gyro before, so he wanted it to be good. He really didn’t want to fuck up like he usually did. Of course, when does anything ever go right for him. The stove ended up catching on fire, effectively destroying Gyro’s entire kitchen. When Gyro got home, Johnny was crying while the fire department was putting out the fire. Gyro went to Johnny and asked what had happened and when Johnny told him, he looked incredibly surprised. He told Johnny it was okay and that he could get new appliances, but Johnny knew he was pissed at him for destroying his house.
Johnny clenched his jaw, reliving the painful memories as if he was there again. He pulled up his arm and covered up his face with his hand as he sobbed quietly.
“Why do you do this to me?” He whispered into the air. “Is this my punishment for getting Nicholas killed? Is this why you didn’t take me when I was shot? So I could suffer and bring torment to everyone I love?” Johnny was crying harder now. He turned his body onto its side, ignoring the pain throughout his upper body, and curled himself into a ball. He cried for what felt like an eternity, but when the tears stopped coming his voice dropped to a whisper again.
“I get it… I deserve everything that’s happening to me. I took away the only thing that my dad loved and I’m paying for it. I shouldn’t be allowed to be with anybody I love, let alone love anybody. This is my punishment for taking away my brother’s life before his time and it’s my responsibility to live through it and suffer.” Johnny continued to repeat these phrases to himself and closed his eyes tightly. As he continued recite this mantra, he started to remember the time during the shooting. He was an asshole and deserved to get shot, but he should have died then. That would have been the ultimate punishment.
“I should have died then. Why didn’t I die then?” Johnny started to chant quietly to himself. He was so absorbed in his inner world that he didn’t hear the door open and Gyro call out to the house that he was home. He didn’t notice when Gyro walked into the kitchen and gasped loudly. He barely noticed when Gyro turned his body and held his torso in a strong, but gentle, hug. Johnny stopped talking when he heard Gyro sniffle and felt Gyro’s tears on his shoulder.
Oh, Johnny thought, Gyro’s home. I didn’t even get to pack my stuff. He’s probably noticed the cup by now and he’s probably pissed that he’s going to have to clean it up along with my blood. Or maybe, he’ll have me clean it up and then throw me out. Maybe he’ll give me my wheelchair before he throws me out so I won’t have to crawl.
These thoughts echoed throughout Johnny’s mind as Gyro continued to cry into his shoulder; however, he was forced back into reality by Gyro picking him up. Johnny held onto him tightly wishing he never had to let go, but knowing it was inevitable. He was surprised when Gyro brought him to the bathroom and not to Johnny’s room. Johnny looked at Gyro, confused, and had to immediately look away. Gyro’s face was absolutely soaked with his tears and a little bit of Johnny’s blood. Johnny’s sense of guilt had skyrocketed when he looked at Gyro.
“What are you doing?” He asked quietly, being careful to not look Gyro in the eye even when Gyro looked at him like he was crazy.
“What am I doing? Well, obviously I’m cleaning you up. We need to get this glass out of your legs so that you don’t get an infection. Just because you can’t feel them doesn’t mean they can’t kill you.” Johnny was confused for a second but then laughed slightly.
Of course he’s going to get me cleaned up. Even if he’s done with me, he’s still Gyro. He likes to take care of people. Johnny thought as he was put down on the counter. Gyro reached underneath him and grabbed a first aid kit, as well as some tweezers and a cloth to put the glass on. Gyro grabbed his left leg and started taking out the larger pieces of glass that were sticking out of his jeans.
“What happened?” Gyro asked quietly as he got near Johnny’s thigh. Johnny’s throat tightened. He really didn’t want to tell Gyro what had happened, but he knew that no matter what he was being thrown out so he may as well tell him.
“I-” Johnny started, throat dry and raspy from his earlier crying. He cleared his throat and started again. “I just wanted a glass of milk. I pulled myself up onto the counter to get to the cups and they were all dirty except for yours. I know you don’t like me using it, but I didn’t really want to wash anything.” Johnny’s voice started to quiver slightly. “So I grabbed it and put it on the counter next to me. A- And usually I am so careful when I get off, but my hand hit the cup as I fell into my chair and it fell on the ground and shattered.” Johnny was crying again and clenching his hands into tight fists at his sides. Gyro’s hands stopped for a second as if he was trying to understand what Johnny just said.
“I’m really sorry Gyro. I knew that cup meant a lot to you and I shouldn’t have been touching it. It’s your only thing from Italy and I broke it.” Johnny said between sobs. Gyro stood up and help Johnny’s face in his hands. He was smiling sadly, but smiling at Johnny nonetheless.
“It’s okay Johnny. Calm down, it’s okay.” Gyro was wiping away Johnny’s tears with his thumbs. “Yeah I loved that cup and it did mean a lot to me,” Johnny flinched, “but what I really want to know is why you were laying in it and why it’s sticking out of your body like this.” Johnny swallowed loudly and looked down at his legs. Now that the glass was out of his left leg, he could really see the damage that it had caused. There was blood dripping off his foot and his jeans were more or less soaked.
“Well, when it happened, I knew you wouldn’t have wanted to clean it up, so I leaned down to pick up at least the big pieces. But I fell out of my chair and into the pile.” Johnny said, staring at his legs. Gyro lead his face up to look at him and kissed his forehead.
“Alright, alright. That’s okay. When exactly did this happen?” He asked, keeping his eyes locked on Johnny’s. Johnny looked away, trying to remember when exactly it happened. He remembered looking at the clock beforehand to see how long it would be before Gyro got home.
“Um, about three I think?” He said, looking back at Gyro. Gyro’s eyes widened in panic. He kissed Johnny’s forehead again and moved back down to his legs.
“It’s almost six now!” He said, resuming taking out the glass. “We need to get these cleaned out as quickly as possible!” Gyro started moving quicker, but retaining the same amount of caution when pulling them out. It was silent except for the noise of Gyro pulling out the glass and Johnny’s halfhearted sobs. When Gyro was done pulling out the large pieces, he carefully took the cloth and threw it along with the glass shards into the garbage. He then hurried back and picked Gyro up. He started to head towards the front door and Johnny started to panic.
“Gyro. Gyro can you at least grab my wheelchair?” Johnny asked as they went out the front door. Gyro looked at him with a confused look of his face.
“What? Why would I grab your wheelchair?” Gyro asked, and Johnny’s heart dropped. Gyro was angrier than he thought if he didn’t even want Johnny to have his wheelchair out there.
It’s okay… Johnny resigned. I don’t deserve a wheelchair. I deserve to crawl and grovel on the streets. It’s my punishment for putting Gyro through all of this…
“There are going to be wheelchairs there, Johnny. I thought you knew that.” Johnny tensed in Gyro’s arms.
“Huh? What do you mean there are going to be wheelchairs there? Where are you taking me?” Gyro set Johnny into the passenger side of his car and moved to sit in the driver’s seat, all the time confused as to why Johnny was freaking out.
“What do you mean where am I taking you? I’m taking you to the hospital where you can get treated for these cuts. Where did you think I was taking you?” Gyro asked, pulling out of the driveway and driving as quickly as he could to the hospital. Johnny didn’t respond so Gyro took a quick look over at him and saw Johnny was crying harder than he was in the bathroom.
“Hey hey, Johnny boy. What are you crying so hard about? Do the cuts in your arms hurt that bad?” Gyro was starting to freak out. He touched Johnny’s shoulder with his right hand and Johnny almost jumped out of his seat. “Johnny you have to talk to me. Why are you freaking out like this?” He said softly, trying to get Johnny to calm down. This only served to make Johnny sob louder. He was on the verge of hyperventilating and Gyro was seriously starting to freak out. He couldn’t figure out why Johnny was having such a hard time answering him.
“Why?” Johnny asked through sobs.
“Why what, Johnny?” Gyro questioned.
“Why are you taking me to the hospital? I- I thought you didn’t want anything t- to do with me anymore. I thought y- you were just going to leave me on the s- street somewhere. I thought you were going to abandon me like m- my dad did.” Gyro’s breath stopped. So that’s what it was. Johnny thought that Gyro was going to abandon him. Gyro sighed and leaned over to kiss Johnny when they were stopped at a red light. Johnny looked at him through red-rimmed eyes and flinched when Gyro touched his eyelids.
“Johnny.” Gyro whispered, laying his forehead on Johnny’s. “Why would I do that? Why would I leave you? I love you.” He moved back to the driver’s seat when the light turned green and continued driving to the hospital. When Johnny didn’t respond, Gyro snuck a quick glance at him again.
“I mean it,” he continued, “I really do love you and I would never leave you.” Gyro put his fingers in his hair and started to ruffle it slightly, trying to calm the crying boy down. Johnny nodded and sniffed, trying his hardest to stop crying. It was quiet for a minute or two when Johnny started to talk again.
“Gyro…” he whispered. “Gyro, I’m starting to get really dizzy.” Gyro bit his lip and nodded, knowing that Johnny was losing more blood now that he took the large shards out of his legs.
“It’s alright Johnny. You just need to stay awake until we get to the hospital. It’s only going to be a couple more minutes alright?” Gyro looked at the small boy out of the corner of his eye as Johnny nodded. Gyro sighed again, Johnny may have nodded, but he could see his eyes drooping as he looked at the dashboard.
“Alright Johnny boy, we’re going to play a game.” Johnny looked over at him, confused and intrigued. Gyro smiled and started to explain the ‘game.’ “You’re going to look out your window and look at the shops and houses that we pass, and you’re going to tell me anything that you know about them.” Johnny chuckled lightly and shook his head.
“That sounds stupid Gyro…” He said, pushing his hair out of his face. Gyro gasped loudly, startling the young man.
“How dare you Johnny Joestar! My games are not stupid, they are fun and you love them.” Gyro stated as Johnny started to laugh quietly.
“Whatever you say, I still think they’re stupid. Just like somebody’s jokes.” Johnny retorted. Gyro was laughing with him, glad that Johnny was starting to sound more like himself.
“Come on Johnny boy, humor me. I’m driving, so I can’t look at the buildings and I want to know more about them.” Gyro nudged Johnny’s shoulder with his elbow as the smaller boy sighed.
“Fine fine…” Johnny relented, looking out his window. “That small white house belongs to the old man that used to yell at my brother and I for playing in the street. Two houses down is the home of the young, well she’s not too young anymore, lady that would give me candy when I raked her leaves or mowed her lawn.” Johnny stopped for a second, looking for something else he recognized.
“That car dealership we just passed was the place I bought my first car, which I wrecked a few days later.” Gyro laughed slightly at that comment.
“How did that happen?” He asked, between chuckles. Johnny sighed remembering the incident.
“It wasn’t really my fault. There was this drunk lady swerving around in front of me so I went up and passed her, not really wanting to deal with looking at her car. Like a minute later, I’m stopped at a red light and suddenly someone slams into the back of my car at like full speed. I was fine, just a few scrapes and bruises, and so is she, but my car is completely totalled. You can imagine the tongue-lashing I got after my dad came to pick me up from the police station. ‘You should have been paying attention, how are you going to get around now, I’m not going to drive you around,’ stuff like that. Even after I told him it wasn’t my fault, he still blamed me for it.” Gyro cleared his throat, noticing Johnny talking about his father was not helping his mood.
“Anyway,” Gyro interrupted, “What about that little run-down shop we just passed?” Johnny looked over his shoulder to see the shop in question. It was a tiny shop with a small neon sign of the name on its front, a few of the letters on the sign had long since stopped working. The side of the building was one large mural depicting a man on a horse riding through a field. Amazingly enough, unlike all the buildings surrounding it, there was no graffiti. Johnny smiled remembering the shop and what it meant to him.
“Ahh…” he sighed. “That’s a little shop that sells gas station stuff, but it also doubles as a small restaurant. Nicholas and I used to come here all the time. Nick even ended up getting a job here and I would come to see him whenever I could. The food is really good, and everything else there is super cheap. We should go there sometime…” Johnny’s voice drifted.
“Hey hey Johnny. No falling asleep on me now.” Gyro said, nudging Johnny awake. “Just a couple more corners and we’ll be there.” Johnny sighed, and tried to sit up straight.
“Alright alright, stop nudging me…” Johnny said, scratching his head.
“Hey Johnny, I’ve got a joke for you.” Gyro said, turning a corner and seeing the hospital.
“Yeah? What is it?” Johnny asked, looking over at Gyro. Gyro flashed a toothy grin and started to tell his joke.
“What do you call a bagel that can fly?” Johnny sighed.
“I don’t know Gyro. What do you call a bagel that can fly?” Johnny asked sarcastically.
“A plain bagel!” Johnny groaned and put his head in his hands. Despite looking so utterly disappointed, he was still laughing. Gyro laughed with him as they pulled into the ER. Gyro parked the car and went over to the passenger side. He reached inside to pick Johnny up, but Johnny pushed him away.
“No no no. You know how much I hate being carried. Just go get me a wheelchair or something.” He said, rejecting Gyro’s arms. Gyro clicked his tongue and picked Johnny up despite his complaints.
“Nyo ho! You know as well as I do that that isn’t going to happen.” Gyro said as he started walking to the doors. Johnny hid his face against Gyro’s shoulder and lightly punched him with the hand he wasn’t holding Gyro with. Gyro laughed as he quickly walked through the doors. As soon as the nurses saw Johnny covered with blood, they called a doctor and got him set up for treatment immediately. Gyro put Johnny down on a stretcher and held onto his hand as he was hurried to a treatment room. Johnny looked lucid, but Gyro could tell he was having a hard time staying awake. Gyro squeezed his hand to let him know that he was here and that everything was going to be okay.
Despite being a doctor himself, he wasn’t allowed to go with Johnny into treatment. He sighed but gave Johnny one last squeeze and walked down to the waiting room. He sat in one of the uncomfortable chairs and slouched down, putting his face in his hands. He sighed and moved his hands through his hair. He tried so hard to convince Johnny that he wasn’t as worthless as he thought, but sometimes it was just so hard. Being with Johnny has put Gyro under extreme amounts of stress and he doesn’t know how to deal with it. Most of the time he can just work it out of his system at work or by working out with Johnny at home, but right now that wasn’t really an option. All he could do was sit and wait for Johnny to be done with his treatment.
Gyro leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. Despite it only being 6:30, Gyro was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. He looked over at the young nurse at the front desk and mouthed to her to wake him up when Johnny was out. She smiled at him and nodded. He smiled back at her and looked up at the ceiling before closing his eyes. Wondering how Johnny was doing, Gyro drifted into sleep.
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The nurse woke Gyro up a little over an hour later and informed him that Johnny was done and he was in room 231. Gyro got up and thanked her. He stretched a little before heading down the hallway to find Johnny’s room. After getting to the room, Gyro sighed and opened the door. Johnny was laying on the bed, staring out the window. He looked over when Gyro looked in but quickly looked back outside. Gyro chuckled and pulled up a chair to sit at the side of his bed. He grabbed onto Johnny’s hand and squeezed it when Johnny tensed up. Johnny was biting his lip as he squeezed Gyro’s hand back. They sat like that for a while, Gyro rubbing the back of Johnny’s hand with his thumb and Johnny staring out the window at the people coming and leaving the hospital.
“Sorry.” Johnny said, finally speaking up. Gyro looked up at him and smiled.
“It’s alright Johnny.” Gyro said, really meaning it. Johnny squeezed his hand and looked over at him, tears threatening to roll down his cheeks. Gyro reached up and stroked Johnny’s cheek as Johnny shook his head.
“No it’s not Gyro. I do this all the time and it’s gotta be really tough on you. I know that you would never leave me, but I always convince myself that it would be better if you did. It’s unfair of me to push these thought onto you and I don’t know why you put up with it.” Johnny was biting his lip and he had stopped looking at Gyro. Gyro blinked, not expecting Johnny to understand what exactly was wrong. Gyro smiled and started to laugh. Johnny looked up at him, irritated at his sudden outburst of laughter.
“Don’t laugh you idiot, I’m being serious here.” Johnny said, his face contorting in anger. Gyro continued to laugh, but put his hand on Johnny’s head and ruffled his hair.
“I know I know. You’re just so stupid.” Johnny’s face contorted with anger.
“What? Why are you calling me stupid. I’m seriously trying to apologize to you and all you’re doing is calling me stupid and laughing at m-” Gyro cut him off by giving him a chaste kiss and looking him in the eyes.
“I love you.” He said, staring deeply into Johnny’s eyes. Johnny’s eyes went wide and his face started to turn red.
“W- What does that have to do wi-”
“I’m never leaving you, because I love you. I, as you so eloquently put it, put up with you because you are the love of my life and I don’t know what I would do without you.” Johnny’s face was bright red as he swallowed loudly and brought his hands up to cover his face. Gyro grabbed them before they could reach his face and kissed Johnny again, deeper this time.
“You are never getting rid of me. Even if you get sick of me and want me to leave, I won’t. If you kick me out of the house because you got tired of my jokes, I’ll stand outside the window and sing until you let me back in. I’ll keep coming up with skits to perform before I go to work every morning, just to annoy you, and you will love it. I will always be here for you, and I am never, you get that, never leaving you.” Johnny had started to cry again and was laughing slightly.
“Maybe I should make you leave,” Johnny said in between chuckles, “that sounds like hell.” Gyro laughed loudly along with him and kissed his forehead.
“You know you love me.” Gyro said, sitting back down and continued holding Johnny’s hands. Johnny looked at him through his tears and smiled.
“Yeah, I do. I don’t know why, but I do.” Gyro feigned shock and slapped his hand on his cheek.
“What do you mean you don’t know why?” He said, pretending to cry as Johnny laughed.
“Oh, shut up.” he said, yawning. “I’m really tired, so I’m gonna go back to sleep.” Gyro nodded as Johnny moved onto his side facing Gyro. Johnny looked into Gyro’s eyes and smiled.
“You really won’t leave me?” He whispered closing his eyes. Gyro leaned forward and kissed his nose.
“I promise.”