Chapter Text
Noriaki could not even understand where he was right now. The only thing he realized was that he was lying on something. Not very soft, but not hard enough to be the floor either. The next thing he understood was that he could not move. His eyes refused to cooperate at all, behaving as if they had been wrapped in three layers of tape. The same went for his body. Kakyoin felt like a corpse preserved in formalin… except right now, Noriaki was very much alive.
While he lay there motionless, he managed to notice a few things. Despite being unable to lift his eyelids, the sun was shining directly onto his face. It was daytime. He also managed the slightest movement possible, turning his head to the side. He was not sure, but it felt like someone was sitting beside him.
Noriaki had already forgotten everything that had happened, but the moment the memories began filling his mind again like water flooding a bathtub, his eyes snapped open so suddenly and so wide that even his already injured eyes, battered by Geb, stung in pain. Blinking sharply, he realized he was in a hospital. A few seconds ago, when he had turned his head to the left, all he could see was the window and the sun silently sinking beyond the horizon. He no longer had enough strength to turn his head the other way.
He already wanted to open his mouth, to say at least something, to understand if he was alone right now, to understand if everything was alright, but…
Kakyoin suddenly felt a large, strong hand cover his eyes, effectively shutting them again. That same hand slid lower, carefully taking hold of his chin and turning his head to the right. It was not rough at all. Its owner moved with all the caution of someone who knew how to handle someone wounded, someone who's in a fragile state.
Wounded…
“Don’t say anything right now, Kakyoin,” a familiar, beloved, deep voice spoke. Had Jotaro been sitting with him this entire time? Really?
Noriaki obeyed the quiet command and closed his mouth again, though he probably would not have managed to say much even if he wanted to.
“You need to rest. We’ll talk later,” Kujo added, his hand moving to Noriaki’s forehead, brushing aside his noodle-like strand of burgundy hair. Kakyoin instinctively leaned into the familiar touch.
Noriaki had always liked Jotaro’s straightforwardness. He was always so unwaveringly… himself. It was something Kakyoin could never boast about, because he had never been able to fully be himself around others. He had always been certain that nobody would ever understand him, that nobody incapable of seeing Hierophant would ever truly get him. Ever since his Stand first appeared, he believed he had been doomed to eternal loneliness.
At least, until he met the Stardust Crusaders.
Those people saw him for who he really was. Despite the occasional arguments and misunderstandings, he considered them close friends unlike any he would ever find elsewhere.
With Jotaro, though, things were a little different.
Such heavy thoughts did not last long for Noriaki. He fell asleep again after only a few minutes. Apparently, whatever medication he was on right now was incredibly effective.
After that, Kakyoin drifted in and out of consciousness several more times… and every single time, Kujo stayed beside him, either holding his hand firmly or gently combing through his hair.
Sometimes Noriaki could catch fragments of conversations too. Those voices were just as familiar as Jotaro’s. Mister Joestar, Polnareff, Avdol… even quiet canine whining. So Iggy was there too.
Kakyoin could barely connect the topics of their conversations together even with a white thread, but he was not trying very hard anyway, still trapped in a half-conscious haze. Still, he managed to understand one important thing.
Jotaro had not left his side once during his entire stay here.
That simple fact made Noriaki, no matter how wounded and weak he was, smile faintly.
No matter how rough or careless Jotaro might seem at times, he cared deeply for those within his circle. And Kakyoin could not have been happier to be part of it.
“Noriaki?” The voice of the person Kakyoin adored reached him. Did he notice the smile?
Kakyoin had no idea how long he had already been lying in the hospital. And as for how they had even managed to save him from a fatal wound that had pierced straight through him, he was not going to ask. Noriaki would not say he felt better yet. His body felt stuck in some kind of limbo, distant and detached from him because of the drugs constantly being pumped into his battered system. But this time, he was finally able to answer.
“…Jotaro.” Kakyoin felt embarrassed and slightly humiliated by how scratchy and hoarse his voice sounded. But that was perfectly logical.
This time, he opened his eyes on his own, little by little.
“How are you feeling, Noriaki?” Jotaro’s voice was impossibly soft, vibrating through Kakyoin’s body because he had pressed his face against his boyfriend’s shoulder.
“Not really anything. It feels like I’m still asleep…” he answered after several seconds of thought.
Jotaro chuckled quietly. “You certainly act like it when you fall asleep in the middle of a conversation,” he explained, stroking Noriaki’s cheek.
Even though Kakyoin had heard the voices of his friends in his sleep, he still needed real confirmation. Feeling his strength slipping away again, he asked shortly and simply,
“Everyone… alive?” Jotaro noticed the gaze fixed on him and nodded.
Kakyoin exhaled in relief and suddenly flinched. Did he pull something just from breathing deeply? Well, not surprising. He would probably have to deal with many complications after such a severe injury.
But right now, none of that mattered. Jotaro was beside him, everyone was alive and… more or less healthy, which meant everything would be alright. After, darkness swallowed Kakyoin whole once again.
×
“Jotaro, you… really never left me while I was here?” Kakyoin asked several days later, once he could finally stay awake through conversations and actually remember them.
Despite fully regaining consciousness, Noriaki still lacked the ability to move properly. The most he could manage in his current condition was turning his head and moving his arms. He could not sit upright, since it would only worsen the horrific healing wound. The same went for any movement involving his legs, especially bending them. Kakyoin truly hated feeling this weak, but his happiness was endless because Kujo genuinely did not care.
Jotaro stayed beside him no matter the circumstances, helping every time Noriaki suddenly lost balance or when his vision darkened.
Kakyoin was the type of person who hated bending to others. Hated when people looked down on him, when they expected obedience from him despite him having absolutely no respect for them.
Kakyoin was not the kind of person who liked asking for help. In the end, he was used to doing everything himself.
But… with Jotaro, he did not feel like some pathetic weakling who “needed” help simply because he was pitiful. In Kujo’s gaze, which Kakyoin had long since learned to understand, there was no pity suggesting he saw him as pathetic. His eyes narrowed softly, carrying a tenderness Jotaro only ever showed people he would never throw away. There was no disgust or pity there, only love and sympathy.
“We’re leaving soon, Noriaki,” Jotaro whispered as he leaned down beside his ear. “I promise. Soon we’ll go back to Japan.”
Right. They were still in Cairo.
“Of course.” Kakyoin coughed lightly. “By the way… how long have I been here?”
Noriaki had absolutely no sense of time. He hoped it had not been too long, because his parents could already be panicking by now, and explaining all of this would be… difficult, to say the least.
“A week,” Jotaro answered shortly.
Oh no. They were definitely worried already.
Technically, Kakyoin had run away from home. Not exactly in the traditional sense, because his parents knew where he was going, to Egypt, but that was all. Of course, after Jotaro saved him from DIO’s control, Noriaki had called them and fed them a whole pile of lies about not being able to contact them for at least another month. But that had been about a month ago already, if not longer.
“I already called your parents myself, Noriaki. Relax.”
Kujo’s quiet voice made him stop. Sometimes it really felt like Jotaro could read his mind. Though considering he could stop time, Noriaki would not rule that possibility out.
“That’s great, thank you, but… what did you tell them?” On one hand, it would have been better if he could have spoken to them himself… but on the other, he definitely had not been in any state to say anything back then.
Jotaro always spoke directly, without sugarcoating. But he was still sensible enough not to dump the entire truth onto them all at once. Right?
“I told them you were in the hospital, but alive and healing,” he began, gently squeezing Kakyoin’s hand. “Then I lied and said it was just an accident. But of course, they didn’t believe me.”
Of course they did not. If some random stranger, who's not even a hospital worker, calls you to say your son, who technically ran away a month and a half ago, is now hospitalized, you probably wouldn't believe that either.
“Well, that was expected…” Noriaki exhaled and froze for a second after accidentally straining the wound again. This was definitely going to be… rough, but he was grateful that right now he could worry about something like this instead of his own life or the lives of his friends or a horrible evil like DIO was.
“Then they asked who I was and how I knew all this,” Jotaro suddenly added, making his injured boyfriend sharply turn his head toward him. Kakyoin thought the conversation with his parents had ended there, but apparently not.
“I immediately told them I’m your boyfriend.”
Kujo spoke calmly and directly as always, his tone unchanged. But his face told a completely different story. Jotaro lowered his head again, hiding beneath his signature hat, but because Noriaki was lying down, he could still see the faint blush spreading across his boyfriend’s cheeks.
Because of both Jotaro’s words and his expression, Noriaki could not stop himself from blushing too. Kakyoin won't even ask what they replied to that.
“Thanks, Jotaro,” Kakyoin said again, this time dripping with sarcasm. “Now we’re both sitting here like idiots and blushing because of you.”
Despite the slight pull on his wound the movement caused, Noriaki let out a genuine laugh.
For a second, Kakyoin almost thought Jotaro had been bragging to his parents about being his boyfriend.
“Anyway, I’ll definitely introduce you to them properly,” Noriaki promised, lifting his arms. Kujo immediately leaned down, unwilling to let Kakyoin stretch too far again.
His hands settled in thick, swept-back curly hair. Jotaro smiled faintly as he leaned into Kakyoin’s warm, large hands and let out a quiet chuckle.
“Thank you, Noriaki,” Kujo whispered directly into his ear, pressing his forehead against Kakyoin’s temple. “Without you, we probably never would’ve managed to win.”