Chapter Text
HOW WAS Josuke supposed to concentrate? He had goals today, man, he had goals. There was a turtle by the fountain at his bus stop that everyone was fond of and he was too much of a wuss to be close to. All that scaly weirdness wasn’t a big deal.
Then he meets a giant. Josuke’s tall, but not like this. The giant is his nephew and the father Josuke’s never known is in town to bless him with money because he’s old as shit. Maybe having to put up with the turtle has him tapped, but he doesn’t care. The geezer can keep his money and Josuke, more polite than he thought he could be, declines. Jotaro, his nephew, walks off. No begging him to listen or promises or anything. He turns and leaves. Good. Fuck that guy.
Come lunch, Josuke is at his locker.
I’ll eat and head home. I don’t need that old man or my ‘nephew’ finding my mom and making things complicated.
He frowns. His mom would be pretty pissed if he skipped school. But it was for a good cause—
“Excuse me?”
The voice is soft and polite and Josuke is looking down at a fairly short kid with pale blonde hair.
“Sup?”
“Are you Josuke Higashikata?” Josuke raises a brow and the kid continues, “What did that tall guy want from you? He asked me about you and I just wanted to know if everything’s fine.”
Josuke smiles and scratches the back of his neck, “He’s not a problem. Just wanted to talk legal stuff with my mom. Hey, what’s your name?”
“Koichi Hirose. I’m in your class.”
Josuke’s known Koichi for ten minutes and he’s already been dubbed ‘Absolutely Precious’. He’s just that sweet. He has a dog, reads manga, his mom made his lunch extra special today and he offered Josuke one of his omelette rolls. Not popular with the ladies, though, as he sinks under the arrival of groupies around their table.
“Hi, Josuke!”
“How was your summer?”
“Amazing that we go to the same school.”
“Love your hair!”
Ah, his prized pompadour. An easy target and typical benchmark of a relationship. But Josuke never begs for an opinion. In fact, Koichi hasn’t said anything about it. So he either digs it or doesn’t care (which counts as digging it).
Josuke gets up from his seat, “Sorry ladies. My friend and I have to go.”
Koichi hurriedly gathers his things and follows Josuke’s lead. They find a quiet spot outside and are back to lunch. Josuke leans back, resting his head on his hands against the wall. Koichi sits nearby reopening his bento.
“First day of school and you already have your pick of girlfriends,” he says.
Josuke shrugs, “Maybe. High school romance could either be super lovey or kind of messed up.”
“Any romance, really.”
“Any of those girls your type?”
Koichi stuffs a whole rice ball into his mouth and his gaze is everywhere but on the guy beside him.
Josuke grins, “Fine, I’ll go first. She gotta be cute, fashionable but doesn’t expect me to buy her things I clearly can’t afford, long hair but I’m not picky.”
Koichi, having long swallowed, nods, “What would you like her to be like?”
A smile forms on Josuke’s lips, “Cuddly.”
Moment he steps inside, he’s pissed. There’s Nephew again, except he’s with a man older than his actual grandfather. Man looks like he’ll turn to dust at the next exhale. He’s got this stupid hat and this stupid cane and this stupid money probably sitting in some huge vault somewhere in New York. Now he’s too old to swim in it and he’s here to bother him.
Josuke scowls, “I told you we weren’t interested.”
Jotaro drinks his tea. This is clearly out of his hands. The old man, Joseph, merely squints at him. Trying to get a good look on the kid two-clicks from beating his ass for wasting his time. His returning glare is broken by his mother’s call. It’s a tone too gentle and sad for him to ignore.
“He didn’t know about you until recently. I’m at as much fault as he is.”
“Forget about it! We don’t need this–”
She’s in his face. This is the mom he knows. Not bogged down by heartbreak because, God help, whoever hurts his mother. Like this old asshole. He’s aware he wouldn’t be alive without him, but he wouldn’t exactly miss himself if he wasn’t born—and now he’s thinking too hard.
“You will at least spend time with him,” Mom says. She leans away, lowers the fists resting on her hips, and glances at Joseph and back, “This could be your last chance to know… anything.”
“A dying man’s wish~” Joseph chimes.
Josuke stuffs his hands in his pockets, gets a scolding for cursing, and goes to his room. This meeting can continue without him. At least Old Man Joseph, never to be referred to as ‘dad’, has the decency to not stay for dinner. Josuke doesn’t come down for dinner, really. He does his homework, naps, finds food in the fridge, and goes back to bed.