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Kakyoin looked over his book as he tried to relax in the sleeper car. It was difficult to shake the strange atmosphere in the room, but Kakyoin didn’t know how to broach the issue. Jorii was lying on the lower bed across the small space, back to Kakyoin. With her jacket and hat discarded and her hair bundled into a thick messy bun, there wasn’t anything to disguise the tension in her shoulders. Every now and then, Kakyoin tried opening his mouth to start a conversation—not even ask what was wrong, he just wanted to chat—but he couldn’t muster the courage to talk.
Things had been odd since the previous day. Jorii wasn’t a chatty or expressive person by nature; Kakyoin hadn’t been friends with her for long, but he knew that was rule one of interacting with Jorii. But this was different. Jorii was had been avoidant since she and Anne returned to the hotel after their run-in with Yellow Temperance's Stand user. As she gave the group a run-down of what had happened, Kakyoin couldn’t help but feel ashamed when hearing the description of his imposter’s behavior. He apologized after each transgression, grimacing at the image of someone with his face acting so abhorrently. Jorii seemed to accept the apologies in the moment, though as the conversation went on, she looked more and more annoyed. But he initially wrote it off as generalized Jorii annoyance.
Boarding the train proved that wasn’t the case. Yes, he and Jorii had a nice chat while they were eating—he even got extra cherries out of the deal—but since they left to rest in their cabin, Jorii’s interactions with him had been clipped. Again, Kakyoin had assumed that she was done with people for a while, so he left her alone to read. But a few hours had passed at this point, and Jorii still looked tense enough to summon Star Platinum.
Was Jorii mad at him? Kakyoin didn’t think that he said or did anything that would offend her directly, unless lounging by the pool was a grave offense to Jorii. But what if she was associating the actions of the Stand user with Kakyoin himself? His own actions he could apologize for, but how could he get her to relax after someone wore his face and tried to kill her? If asked, Kakyoin would openly admit that he wasn’t super experienced with having friends, but this had to be a strange conflict even for the most popular person.
Right?
Taking a deep breath, Kakyoin turned to the bed. “Hey, Jorii?”
Jorii didn’t turn to acknowledge Kakyoin, but she did let out a small “Mm?” to show she was listening.
Kakyoin chose to take this as permission to go on and bite the bullet. “The Stand user didn’t say anything to you personally? Or did anything?”
Jorii groaned and replied, “For the fiftieth time, no! Stop asking!”
“Okay.” Kakyoin looked down at his book and tried reading again but he found himself turning back to Jorii after a second. “I was just wondering if there was anything that you didn’t mention—."
Jorii aggressively swung herself into a sitting position on the bed. Her glare was intense, like she was ready to start swinging. She leaned forward, one elbow on her knee and her other arm wrapped around her abdomen. With a sweat beading on her brow, she struck the intimidating figure, even while sitting on a bed barely large enough to hold her.
“Kakyoin, you are going to drop this now. The bastard tried to kill me, and Star Platinum and I worked out that stress. Do you want to follow his lead?”
“…no, thank you.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re polite about it.”
She exhaled, face softening slightly in the Jorii style of showing anything akin to happiness. Suddenly, her expression hardened yet again, and her mouth twisted into a grimace. She dropped her head into her hands, and her shoulders heaved into as her breaths became heavier. Kakyoin set his book to the side and rushed to her side. He ducked down to get a look at her face, and for the first time, he noticed that she had a rough flush across her cheeks.
“Are you okay?”
Jorii gave Kakyoin a side eye. She tried sitting up, but the movement made her look like she wanted to throw up. At this point, the flush moved onto her forehead as well. Instead of responding, she gasped and ducked back down onto herself.
“JoJo? What’s wrong?” Kakyoin started looking around the cabin. “Did another Stand user find us?”
Jorii pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “No, Kakyoin. There’s no Stand user. It’s just hotter than goddamn hell in here.”
Kakyoin blinked and looked around the room. Sure, it was a little warm in here, but Kakyoin wasn’t even uncomfortable enough to remove his jacket. But apparently, it was a different story for Jorii, who had started tugging at her shirt to create more air movement.
“Are you sure there isn’t a Stand here? It seems like the heat is affecting you to extremes.”
Jorii let out a low, quiet “yare yare daze” before turning to Kakyoin with an annoyed glare. She vaguely gestured to her abdomen until Kakyoin got the picture.
“Oh,” Kakyoin said with a calm nod. After a second, he jumped up and looked at Jorii with wide eyes. “OH!” He started frantically looking around the room and patting his pockets. “What can I do to help? Do you need me to get pain killers?”
Jorii rolled her eyes, but there wasn’t any bite behind her expression. “No, I’m fine there. But I might send Star Platinum out to steal some water for me.”
“I’ll get it!”
Kakyoin was running out the door before Jorii could get a word in edgewise. He sped walked to the dining car and requested some water for her. He finagled a few extra cups of water by claiming his roommate was overheating in their room. It felt a bit like lying, or at least hedging the truth, but maybe Jorii would say that there’s not a difference to her? He clutched a cup in each hand and balanced the other two using a combination of pressure and Hierophant Green’s unraveled form. He couldn’t afford to drop the cups, so his walk back to the cabin was the most trepidatious journey that he’d ever taken. When he reached the door, Hierophant Green stretched out and tugged it open. Neither of them wanted to trouble Jorii by forcing her to get up when she was clearly uncomfortable.
Seeing the number of cups in Kakyoin’s hands, Jorii’s lips twitched into a small smile. “Got enough there?”
Kakyoin laughed nervously and set them on the small table. “I wasn’t sure how much you needed. Here.”
Jorii accepted the cup and thanked him. Kakyoin expected her to start chugging like she was dehydrated, but she calmly sipped at the water, occasionally releasing an uncomfortable sigh. At least her flush was a bit lighter by the time half of the cup was polished off.
After a while, Jorii cracked an eye open and stared down Kakyoin. “What?”
“Oh, sorry. I’m just surprised to see something bothering you. I’ve seen you fight with your life on the line while keeping your cool. I didn’t think anything could get under your skin.”
Jorii raised an eyebrow. “Those are problems I can punch. This,” she gestured dismissively toward her body, “I just have to put up with.”
“How do you deal with it at home?” Kakyoin leaned forward, ready to take mental notes to help his friend.
“A shit ton of fans. The freezer is chock-full of ice packs too.” She laughed to herself, but there was a sadness in her eyes. “Dad started keeping them when he found out about my heat sensitivity during my period.”
Kakyoin smiled. “That sounds like Hollis. What a good dad.”
Jorii set her near-empty cup to the side. Her eyes were locked on the floor, and Kakyoin didn’t press her to talk further.
“Well, I think I’m going to set up my bunk. Who knows the next time we’ll get a chance to actually rest.” Kakyoin stood up, reaching pull down the stowed bed. Jorii took that as a cue to lie back down on her bed. Once his bed was in place, Kakyoin shut off the lights and climbed up. He was nearly settled on his pillow when he heard a voice from the lower bunk.
“Hey, Kakyoin?...Thanks.”
He smiled and turned to his side so she could hear him better. “You’re welcome. Let me know if there’s anything I can do, whether it’s finding more water or backing you up in a fight. I'll be right there.”
There was a pause before he heard the sound of a cup being set down. “I’ll keep that in mind.” The lower bunk shifted as Jorii found a comfortable position. “With any luck, we’ll be back home before this becomes a problem again.”