Work Text:
Tucked away in his backyard, Kakyoin Noriaki cultivates a garden.
It's a regular garden, by all means. He grows whatever seeds he can find for cheap, waters them every day diligently, and sometimes uses them for painting references on the sunny days that grace Morioh most of the year. Honeysuckle trails up the short white fence separating his backyard and the neigbour's, and occasionally, one can see Kishibe Rohan settled on a wooden stool with a sketchbook in his hands, staring at the flowering plant and drawing intently.
Despite having a variety of plants, all through the year, there's one particular flower that aggravates Kishibe Rohan to no end, and it's for that sole reason that Kakyoin Noriaki grows lavender.
"Get rid of that infernal plant," Kishibe tells him one day, when they're both outside sketching. His pencil stops, just for a moment, to point its tip at the offending spurts of purple. "It annoys me, Kakyoin."
"Oh?" Noriaki returns, not taking his brush off the canvas. He looks up though, and sees Kishibe's eyes narrowed in a stubborn glare, and he sighs. "And here I thought you enjoyed seeing the real-life plants for references. Weren't you the one that ate some of my honeysuckle and sunflowers?"
"Well," Kishibe protests, and licks his lips. "I don't deny that. But the smell is too much. How can I concentrate with pollen puffs and heavy lavender smoke around me?"
Noriaki blinks. It's not what he's expecting, but he supposes it fits the weird palette of Kishibe Rohan perfectly. "I'm not killing some innocent plant just because you don't like the smell of all things, Kishibe," he frowns, a bit offended that his neighbour would think that he'd stoop that low. "And it's my garden, so I think I'll keep it the way I like, thank you very much."
It reminds him a bit of the plants in Singapore, in that beautiful garden where he met Polnareff. He remembers bursts of smoke, a burning statue, and an enemy so serious that when Jotaro removed the flesh bud, it was bizarre how much of a one-eighty Polnareff did- becoming the jokester of their group, the one that held people together not by seriousness like Avdol nor age like Mr. Joestar, but by getting into such hilarious situations and living to tell the tale.
Kishibe had a riot reading about Polnareff, and in the next issue, there was a new character named Gail based heavily off of the man.
"Well," Kishibe says decisively, "some of your plants go into my garden, so they affect me as your next-door neighbour. Therefore, I reserve some of the rights to your plants, and I demand that you remove those plants, Kakyoin Noriaki."
"Well, Kishibe Rohan," Noriaki bites back just as decisively, slashing his brush across the green just a little harder than intended, "I planted the seeds, so I'm responsible for the plants, and I determine the lavender's scent to not be an issue to my beloved next-door neighbour."
The scent really isn't that bad, Noriaki thinks as Kishibe launches into an argument about how heavy scents can affect the senses and even make hands shaky, and how as a fellow artist, Noriaki should appreciate how nice the absence of scents are, especially as a painter, et cetera et cetera.
The lavender really isn't that heavy at all. It's sweet, with a hint of honey-like heavy sweet, not the soft sweet that accompanies powdered desserts and sprinkles of sugar in tea. The scent is heavy, like it sticks to the air itself as it travels, and it smells inexplicably purple-pink, much like the flower itself. It's sort of weird to think that such a heavy scent comes from such a delicate flower, like how heavy flour can be for something so light.
"Let's see how other people think of it," finishes Kishibe, and Noriaki blinks. What did he miss?
At his dumbfounded expression, Kishibe huffs before snapping his sketchbook shut and slinging it over his shoulder. "Let's see how other people think of your lavender," Kishibe clarifies. "I'll call over Josuke, Okuyasu, Koichi, and Jotaro. Let's see how they think of this smell."
"There's no need to summon everyone in Morioh for this," Noriaki says dryly, split between feeling exasperated and interested at the prospect. Unfortunately, Kishibe knows him a little too well, eyes him, and says-
"So you don't want to know what people think of your lavender."
"I never said that," Noriaki replies, and sees a flash of something in Kishibe's green eyes, something so infuriating and familiar that he adds on, "go on, call them. See what they think of it."
Kishibe smiles. "I will."
"You called us here," Jotaro deadpans, so wonderfully like the Jotaro he knows, "to judge your flowers."
"They're good flowers," Noriaki defends himself, jerking a finger at a smirking Kishibe, "which he says is disrupting his property and ability to focus. Bullshit, I say."
Josuke pokes at the wavering stems from his crouch on the grass and mutters under his breath, "Yeah, that sounds like Rohan all right," and Noriaki has to stifle a chuckle at that and settle for delighting in Kishibe's murderous expression.
"Well, Higashikata Josuke," says Kishibe pompously, "unlike me, you have no taste, and unlike you, I don't use ten different hair products a day styling my hair to resemble a cannon."
"You bastard-"
"I like your flowers, Mr. Kakyoin!" Okuyasu interrupts, flicking one of the purple clusters and sniffing them. Josuke and Kishibe stop their argument, and Noriaki takes the opportunity to look at Kishibe smugly.
"Thank you, Okuyasu," Noriaki says, just to be petty and see Kishibe's expression as he wheels on Jotaro and demands his opinion on the matter, which knowing Jotaro, will either be nothing or a muttered statement that's completely neutral.
Sure enough, Jotaro answers, "Flowers are flowers," in the same deadpan he always has. "If the scent bothers you, move away."
"Oh, how could I possibly forget that," Kishibe snarks, rolling his eyes. "Move away. How helpful, Mr. Jotaro."
"You're rich, you can afford to," Josuke snarks back, scuffing at the grass as Koichi leans down to look at a bee settled on one of the flowers with Okuyasu. "I'm sure Mr. Kakyoin would be happy to be rid of your annoying presence, Rohan."
"That's Kishibe-sensei to you, brat-"
"You really have no opinions on my lavender?" Noriaki turns to Jotaro teasingly, crossing his arms. Jotaro shifts his hat and mumbles something, and his lips tick up. "The smell's not too bad or anything, right, Kujo Jotaro-san?"
"Shut up," Jotaro says louder, tugging on the brim of his hat, the same as ten years ago. Tsundere. "They're- They're fine, Kakyoin, so just leave it, why don't you?"
"You licked a spider when we first met you, Rohan-sensei," Koichi's saying to Kishibe when he turns his attention back to the teenagers and the child, "so I don't see why you don't want real lavender growing near you. What if you need to sketch it out for a cover or something? A lot of mangaka I see do that…"
"It's not the plant I have trouble with, Koichi-kun," Kishibe answers, pointing to the flowers with his brows folded, "it's the scent. Don't you smell that lavender? Isn't it so distracting?"
"I think it's relaxing!" Koichi chirps, and it's the first time Noriaki's seen Kishibe genuinely annoyed at something Koichi says rather than Okuyasu or Josuke.
Noriaki looks at Kishibe, smiles at Koichi and says smugly, "Why, thank you, Koichi," because why not.
"Fuck you," Kishibe says shamelessly.
"Fuck you too," Noriaki answers back out of reflex.
"Both of you can fuck yourselves," Jotaro grumbles, and the kids break into laughter.
Kishibe Rohan does not move away, and Kakyoin Noriaki keeps his lavender.
And in the next volume of Pink Dark Boy, the main character makes an appearance on the cover page shrouded in purple flowers.