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“Polnareff?”
A voice calls his name.
He feels himself being shaken.
Fear pools in his gut, wringing it with harsh fingers.
Is he under attack?
“Polnareff!”
A firm hand is on his chest.
The shaking continues.
“Polnareff! Wake up!”
Polnareff woke with a gasp, hand shooting to his chest. He grabbed with force, and he heard a pained squeak from next to him.
“Kakyoin?” He let go.
It was. He was kneeling beside him, rubbing his now red hand. “Yes,” he said, turning his gaze from his hand to Polnareff’s wide eyes. “You were having a bad dream, thrashing around in your sleeping bag. I thought I’d return the favor and wake you up,” he explained, offering a slight, pained smile.
“Oh,” Polnareff said, “thanks.”
Kakyoin’s smile faded slightly, a frown creasing his brow, as if he was remembering something unpleasant.
“Did anything… unusual happen in your dream?” he asked carefully.
Polnareff shook his head, “Just a normal dream.” His eyebrows furrowed slightly. Odd question, he thought.
“Good.”
Odd response.
A moment of silence ensued.
“You had a bad dream a few nights ago, didn’t you?” Polnareff asked, looking for something to continue the conversation with, and out of curiosity. Something strange was going on, and it had something to do with dreams.
“Yes, I did,” Kakyoin answered, his voice cautious. “What makes you ask?”
“You said you were ‘returning the favor’ when you woke me up just now.” He paused, his voice taking on a more serious, concerned tone. “I remember now. You were terrified. Did you wanna talk about it?”
Polnareff had been worried for Kakyoin recently. He’d woken up screaming several times, accused a baby of being a Stand user, and had even carved letters into his arm to prove his point. Everybody had thought he’d lost it, that the stress of the journey had gotten to him. He’d had to knock Kakyoin out with Silver Chariot last night so he wouldn’t do anything rash.
But the next morning, he was completely fine. He wasn’t making claims that the baby was an enemy; he even got up early to make food for him. The cuts on his arm were gone, and he seemed perfectly fine. How they’d vanished so quickly, Polnareff didn’t know. There weren't even any scars. Maybe he was the one going crazy himself.
Kakyoin’s gaze turned to his hands, a sad smile tugging the corners of his lips. “If I tell you,” he said, his voice pulling Polnareff out of his thoughts, “you’ll think I’ve gone insane again,” he said.
Polnareff took his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “You’ve already proved you’re not.” All Polnareff knew was that Kakyoin was his friend, and that whatever was going on with him, he wanted to help. Somehow, he knew in his gut that Kakyoin was sane.
Kakyoin’s gaze snapped up to meet Polnareff’s, seemingly startled by the unexpected contact, his cheeks ever so slightly red. “Okay, fine.”
He shifted slightly, but did not remove his hand from Polnareff’s.
“Remember the baby that I said was a Stand user?”
“Yeah,” Polnareff nodded.
“Well he was one.” Kakyoin stopped, waiting for Polnareff to protest, to call him crazy.
He didn’t. He just patiently waited for Kakyoin to continue.
“His Stand had the ability to attack people in their dreams while they sleep, and he controlled the dream world. It was like an amusement park, except there’s not a soul to be seen. If you get injured in there, your actual body gets harmed too. You can’t summon your Stand in there unless you had before you’d fallen asleep. The biggest problem with him, though, is that unless you’ve summoned your Stand, you forget everything that happened in the dream, which was why I had to carve a message into my arm, so that I would know that he was an enemy.
“I don’t remember exactly what happened the first two times. Just the fear, and something about eyes…” He shivered.
Polnareff just looked up at him, feeling some kind of morbid awe. Kakyoin was incredibly strong for having made it through that without any help, but no 17-year-old should ever have to go through something like that. Polnareff still remembered the gut-wrenching fear he had woken up with those two times he was attacked. He’d wanted to throw up then curl into a ball and cry. Kakyoin had been attacked thrice, and the last attack was still with him. Polnareff couldn’t imagine what it felt like.
Polnareff didn’t know what to say.
“The third time, though, I remember fully because I summoned Hierophant before you knocked me out.”
Polnareff rubbed the back of his neck, an embarrassed smile warming his face. “Yeah… sorry about that…”
Kakyoin chuckled, “That’s what you did when I told you that in the dream. In a way, it was you who helped me defeat him. If you hadn’t got me with Chariot, I wouldn’t have had Hierophant.”
“Right… Glad I could help.” He gave a nervous laugh.
Kakyoin shivered again, the smile fading somewhat from his face.
“You okay?” Polnareff asked.
“Oh, I’m fine. Just a bit cold, I suppose.”
Polnareff hesitated. “I could… I could join you on watch, if you want. Wouldn’t be as mind-numbing as watching the sand alone.”
Kakyoin’s warmth returned, “Yeah, that would be nice.”
Polnareff tugged his sleeping bag from his legs, hugging his arms to his chest. “And I thought the desert would be hot,” he mumbled. Kakyoin had been sitting in this cold the whole time?
Kakyoin gave a laugh. “Yeah. All we get is the two extremes. Lucky us.”
This coaxed a laugh from Polnareff.
“Yeah,” he said, looking at Kakyoin, “lucky us. So… Where do you wanna sit?”
“Here’s good,” Kakyoin replied, sitting down near the center of their encampment. “It’s not like there’s anything around to obstruct our view.”
“True,” Polnareff said. He sat behind Kakyoin, back to back, the most prominent feeling being Kakyoin’s uniform against his shoulders.
Neither of them said anything. He may have been imagining it, but Polnareff could’ve sworn he felt Kakyoin lean into him slightly.
“Even though it’s cold, at least the stars are bright out here.” Kakyoin broke the silence.
“Mhm,” Polnareff agreed. “No city lights to block them out.”
“I like to think that they watch over us.” Kakyoin said after a moment or two, something profound in his voice. “I know that they’re just balls of fiery gas into outer space, but I guess it’s nice to have something to fall back on.”
“Yeah, though I like to have good friends to fall back on,” Polnareff said, giving Kakyoin a light, good-natured nudge with his elbow.
Kakyoin was silent for a moment.
He’d never even considered what Polnareff said before. Having friends to fall back on was unthinkable to him. He’d given up on trying to make friends a long time ago. Why try when they could never know the real him?
It was unthinkable, until now.
Now, he had made friends with people just like himself. Polnareff, Jotaro, Mr. Joestar, and Avdol all understood him and his struggles.
After seventeen years, he had finally found genuine human connection.
He liked Polnareff especially. For whatever reason, the two had just clicked. They and their Stands worked well together in combat, They even had their own secret handshake. Kakyoin smiled whenever he thought about it.
It was nice having something more material than stars to rely on.
“I guess that is better,” Kakyoin agreed. “Having friends is quite nice.”
He hesitated for a moment, then reached for Polnareff’s hand. He clasped it, and Polnareff did the same, his calloused fingers giving Kakyoin a reassuring squeeze.
“Thank you for being my friend, Polnareff,” he said, voice wavering slightly from emotion. “It’s nice to finally have someone like you to be with.”
“My pleasure, mon ami.” Kakyoin could hear the smile in his voice.
Kakyoin leaned back some more, the back of his head resting on Polnareff’s as he gazed up at the sky.
It was nice to have stars, but it was nicer to have friends.