Chapter Text
While nothing of major significance happened in their absence, Jotaro and Josuke were quickly thrown back into the hunt for Yoshikage Kira as soon as they returned from their trip.
Back in Morioh, their public interactions were unchanged out of necessity to keep their discretion intact. However, their private exchanges when alone together in Jotaro’s hotel room were far more intimate now. They were a bit more honest and forthcoming with their thoughts and feelings, which is why this evening they unexpectedly found themselves talking about an intense concept like “the future.”
“I hate to say it,” Jotaro said slowly, setting off Josuke’s nerves immediately. “But summer’s almost over. It’s almost time for the fall semester to start. If we haven’t tracked Kira down by then…”
Josuke laughed nervously, trying to stave off a hysterical edge from creeping into his voice. Of course as soon as they’d confessed their love for each other, they were going to have to address the reality of their situation. Jotaro had a job back in the States. One that was specifically tied to the calendar year. He had an adult life with a daughter and a house and responsibilities. He couldn’t just fuck off in a foreign country for an indefinite amount of time with no income, Stand users or not. Not to mention Josuke was still just a teenager. He was only in his first year of high school, still a dependent, not yet a legal adult. He wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. What was the long-term viability of this relationship?
Josuke still was afraid Jotaro was going to call the whole thing off prematurely, just to rip the band-aid off and get it over with. He didn’t want to think about going back to the way their lives were before. So he tried to pretend it didn’t exist.
“We don’t have to talk about that today,” Josuke said quickly, trying to brush the uncomfortable conversation away for another day. He wasn’t ready to address reality in the eye directly quite yet. He wanted to continue to live in blissful ignorance of the finiteness of their situation.
“Okay,” Jotaro said with a sigh. He was ready to talk about it, but reluctantly respected Josuke’s strong desire not to. It could be saved for another day. “We have to meet up tomorrow morning before you go to school,” he reminded him. “Get a cab downstairs to take you home. Make sure you get some rest.”
“Yeah, I know,” Josuke said. He headed for the door as Jotaro followed behind him. Josuke reached the door and turned around abruptly, Jotaro immediately in his personal space. Jotaro kept moving forward, putting arms on either side of Josuke’s head against the door. Josuke tilted up toward him, lips parting as Jotaro leaned down to meet him.
They kissed up against the closed door, taking their time saying goodbye. When they finally parted, Josuke cleared his throat, trying to repress the horniness from creeping up on him. It wouldn’t do to have to sit in a cab for a drive across town with a boner. Jotaro took a step back as Josuke tried to regain his composure.
Josuke turned back to the closed door, gripping the handle and opening the door just as another figure was reaching up to knock on the other side. He was startled to see an older man standing in the doorway, wearing a cozy jacket, floppy hat, and gloves.
“Oh, Josuke,” Joseph said softly, blinking with recognition. They seemed equally surprised to see each other.
Josuke struggled to shift gears quickly from ‘romantically affectionate with my nephew and still tasting him on my lips,’ to ‘in the presence of my elderly estranged father who I have a somewhat awkward relationship with already.’ The mental whiplash rendered him speechless. “A-ah…” was all he could think to say as the cogs ground wildly in his brain.
Joseph smiled pleasantly, taking the initiative to explain himself. “Shizuka is taking a nap and I wanted to see if my grandson was willing to watch her while I go downstairs to get a coffee.”
Jotaro was just behind Josuke, stepping in to answer. “Sure thing, Jiji. That’s fine.” His tone was casual, as if nothing intimate had been going on mere moments prior.
Joseph smiled at Jotaro, then to Josuke again. “You must be visiting Jotaro,” he said affectionately. “What do you say, Josuke? Would you mind taking an old man to coffee? Or rather, I’ll pay for the coffee.”
Josuke sputtered ineffectually, still trying to reboot his brain when Jotaro leaned in and put a hand on Josuke’s shoulder. “Of course he would, Jiji,” he said. Josuke started nodding in agreement, taking Jotaro’s lead. “Of course I would,” he parroted.
“Great,” Joseph said, taking Josuke by the hand.
“See you tomorrow,” Jotaro said to Josuke as he closed the door to his own room and headed next door to Joseph’s.
---
Joseph was smiling idly at his son as they sat at a café table downstairs, drinking cappuccinos from nice cups with a plate of cookies between them.
“A nice treat,” Joseph said pleasantly.
“Yeah,” Josuke said, trying very hard to be amicable and not awkward. He still had a difficult time thinking of Joseph as his father.
Joseph nibbled on a cookie. “You know, Jotaro talks about you so much,” he told Josuke cheerily.
Josuke’s interest was piqued. “D-does he?” he asked.
“Oh yes,” Joseph said with a smile and a nod. “To be honest, I’ve never heard him talk about another person as much as he does you.” He winked at Josuke. “A reserved boy, my grandson.” Josuke chuckled in response, nodding to himself.
“He’s told me that you remind him of me sometimes,” Joseph continued with an oddly fond tone in his voice. “In his words, we’re both ‘obnoxiously endearing.’ It may not sound like it, but that’s a compliment from him.”
Josuke started to blush, cheeks getting pink, but still imperceptible from across the table.
“Josuke,” Joseph said carefully. “I know I haven’t been the best father.” Josuke was surprised by this suddenly earnest and lucid moment from his father. “I’m sorry about that. I had no impact on your upbringing, so I can’t take credit for anything about you. But I see how your spending time with Jotaro has been changing him, for the better. I’ve known my grandson a very long time, and this is probably the happiest I’ve ever seen him since he was a child.”
The blush was creeping further down Josuke’s face as Joseph talked.
“What I’m saying is, I’m proud of you for becoming such a wonderful young man, in spite of your old man—or lack thereof.” Joseph smiled. “I feel very fortunate to have two such sweet boys in my life.”
Josuke’s head swam, face hot and pink with some intense, indescribable emotion. “Th-thanks,” he mumbled, voice tight trying to fight being overcome by his feelings. This wasn’t initially the most welcome surprise, but he was glad he ran into Joseph tonight.
They finished their coffees and cookies together and parted ways in the lobby. Josuke caught a cab, thinking about the plans for tomorrow. He and Okuyasu would go meet up with Jotaro and Rohan and Koichi in the morning, before school. They’d gotten a potential lead on Yoshikage Kira.
---
Only, Jotaro and Josuke didn’t get to meet up the next day. Because that was the day Yoshikage Kira found them.
It was a hectic encounter, to put it mildly. Jotaro had too many of those for a lifetime, yet here he was again.
Jotaro could only think of the moment he saw Josuke across the street, beaten and bloody, chunks of wood lodged in his body. Jotaro could only think frantically, “you can’t heal yourself.” Jotaro could only think about the short-range nature of his Stand. Jotaro could only think about how his disuse of power had dwindled Star’s time-stopping ability to being grievously limited for the situation at hand.
It all culminated in the longest Jotaro had stopped time in ages. It was fueled by a pure drive to protect, protect, protect. He felt blind and hysterical as Star Platinum pummeled Killer Queen and Yoshikage Kira into submission.
It was fortunate that ambulances were already present, for more reasons than one. Jotaro’s brain felt slow and stupid as he watched Josuke collapse. Luckily the emergency workers got to him quickly. Time felt like it was flowing in slow motion as they picked up Josuke’s unconscious body, as they carried him off in an ambulance. There was no scenario where they could have gotten him sooner. Odds were good. Jotaro still felt ill, scared and still inside. He cursed himself furiously. He wanted to cry, scream, express himself somehow, but felt utterly overwhelmed, unable to process what was happening. Outside, he was cool and stoic. That was the only thing he knew how to do.
He felt in a fog as he found his way to the local hospital.
---
Josuke felt hazy and distant for what felt like a long while. He caught flashes of Jotaro sitting near him, dozing in a chair occasionally. He felt unsure if it was a dream or not.
When he first awoke for real, he realized he was bandaged and stiff. His mother was standing at the end of the bed, talking to a doctor. They both seemed pleasantly surprised to see him awake.
“Josuke,” Tomoko exclaimed, eyes watering. It was the closest he’d ever seen his mom to being soft and hysterical. She usually had such a tough, take-no-shit attitude, Josuke didn’t often see her on the verge of tears.
Josuke attempted to clear his throat a few times, having a hard time finding his voice. The doctor gave him a cup of water, which he sipped slowly. “I’m okay, mom,” Josuke croaked out.
“Shut up,” she said with a laugh. “You’re not okay. But you will be.”
Josuke scanned the room, only seeing the two of them there. Tomoko picked up on his inquisitive expression.
“Are you looking for Jotaro?” she asked. “He’s here. He’s been here this whole time. He just goes and stands out in the hall when someone needs the room. Otherwise he hasn’t left.”
“…Ah,” Josuke mused on this information. All this excitement was about as much as he could handle at the moment, and he promptly fell back into unconsciousness.
---
Time passed. There were a couple of days filled with painkillers and sporadic bouts of consciousness. Wildly out of context snippets of daytime TV, punctuated with fuzzy periods of slumber. Brief visits with his friends—Koichi and Yukako, Okuyasu, even Rohan came to see him once. It was awkward and brief. He left a few volumes of his manga for Josuke to read, to pass the time. Joseph stopped in to say goodbye before he went back to New York on his own with Shizuka.
Josuke started getting better. The doctors eased back on the painkillers, and as he felt more, with that came consciousness, whether he liked it or not. Pain and discomfort. His body stitching itself back together. Jotaro would stay late even when no one else was able to. Life still had to go on—most everyone had to go back to school, work. Jotaro didn’t have those obligations.
They’d talk, ruminating on the bizarre summer and how things came to be. How they came to be. Decompressing from their shared trauma together, Jotaro thought to himself how necessary this was. He could have used something like this all these years ago.
“I guess it’s over,” Josuke said to him suddenly.
Jotaro looked at him quizzically. “Yeah, we defeated Kira,” he replied.
“No, I mean…summer’s almost over,” Josuke remarked. “I mean it’s, uh, probably time for you to…go back…” He trailed off. He looked like he was steeling himself to say something. “If…if we gotta…You’re gonna go back to America..and…you’ll…” Josuke’s voice started to hitch, getting choked up.
“Josuke, shut up,” Jotaro said decisively, cutting him off. “Stop. I fucked up by putting this off before, I won’t do it now.” He took his uncle’s hand in his.
“Okay,” Josuke said weakly.
“After everything that’s happened, I’m not going to lose you. Not to Stand users, not to distance apart. I have no idea how we’re going to make this work,” Jotaro told him, face extremely solemn as he squeezed his hand. “But we’re going to figure out how to make this work.”
A warmth spread over Josuke, working its way down his scalp to his cheeks and entire body. “Okay,” he agreed.
“I do need to go back to America and get my shit together,” Jotaro continued. “I have my life there that I need to get sorted. You need to go back to school. But we’ll figure it out. And I’m not leaving until you’re better,” he said decisively. “Even if I have to take a semester off. Family emergency.”
“It’s not a very good incentive to get better,” Josuke said jokingly. “But I promise I’ll try as hard as I can.”
---
It took some time, but Josuke’s recovery time was still wildly below that of a regular person. The kid was tough as nails. When he was finally released from the hospital, it was not quite time for the start of classes at Jotaro’s university. But close. It was time for Jotaro to leave.
Josuke did a good job of not letting his feelings show too directly for the most part. He was determined to be mature about this, not make a scene, not stress Jotaro out.
Until the last day Jotaro was in town, that is. All bets were off then.
Josuke came over to Jotaro’s room in the Morioh Grand Hotel one last time while Jotaro packed for his trip. It was oddly melancholy saying goodbye to this very fancy hotel room that had become his second home this summer. They had spent so much time together in it.
Josuke sat on the bed while Jotaro meticulously folded his clothes and reorganized his belongings. Josuke was telling him how his mom had a computer and he had made his own email address. He wrote it on a piece of paper and gave it to Jotaro, who chuckled upon reading ‘[email protected].’ Jotaro only had a work email for the university—it was the only one he’d ever needed at the time. He conceded he’d probably need to sign up for a personal email to keep his romantic long-distance correspondence with his teenage uncle boyfriend separate from his job.
Jotaro had gathered up Josuke’s hair styling products in a plastic convenience store bag. “These are yours,” Jotaro said, holding them out. “I don’t have a use for this, so you should take them.”
Josuke shook his head, pushing them back toward Jotaro. “No, uh…take them home with you. I’ll…use them when I come visit? Right?” His voice tightened at the end.
Jotaro was somber, but tried to sound positive. “Yeah,” he agreed. “I will.”
Josuke started to become overcome with emotion, eyes tearing up suddenly as he tried to keep it together. His lip trembled.
“Shh, Josuke no,” Jotaro said to him gently.
Tears started streaming wordlessly down Josuke’s cheeks, face red and hot with emotion.
“Shh, shh,” Jotaro said soothingly, whispering comfortingly to him as he fruitlessly brushed at the torrent of tears with his thumbs. Jotaro kissed him so gently that Josuke started hiccupping trying not to cry, holding back his sobs and failing. Jotaro knew this was more than Josuke could handle emotionally at this point, so they just settled onto the couch in the sitting room together.
Josuke’s body was still too fragile for anything more intense than gentle cuddling, so they just lay in quiet silence together, embracing each other for what they both knew was going to be the last time in a very long time.
Finally when Josuke’s tears subsided, the time came to finish packing, check out of the hotel, and go to the harbor. Jotaro did, after all, have a boat and then a plane to catch. He had a long travel home ahead of him.
Jotaro boarded the boat by himself, looking handsome and stoic as ever as he turned to look at Josuke on the dock one last time.
“I’ll…be patient,” Josuke said, trying his best to look positive and optimistic. He looked fondly at Jotaro as the boat pulled away from the dock, their eyes locked meaningfully as Josuke tried his best to keep it together. After a certain distance, Josuke couldn’t make out the features of Jotaro’s face anymore. Eventually he couldn’t even tell if Jotaro was still on the deck. Eventually the boat was just a receding shape in the distance. It was like he didn’t exist anymore.
Josuke turned his back and wept, finally overcome with emotion so intense he could do nothing but sob uncontrollably. As the reality of the situation crashed down around him, he felt a sadness so profound he felt unsure he could ever recover from it.
Josuke walked home. It was a fair distance from the harbor, but he needed the distraction. He took the long way home. He wandered and cried. He stopped in a park and sobbed helplessly on a bench for a while, then resumed his journey walking down the Morioh sidewalks with tears streaming from his eyes. He cried until his body felt devoid of moisture, utterly drained. The sun was setting as he arrived at his house and he felt exhausted by both emotion and exertion. He felt ready to pass out the instant he came inside.
Tomoko looked like she wanted to say something, but reconsidered when she saw Josuke’s face. She was concerned but didn’t want to pry. Josuke went straight to bed and slept for hours and hours.
When Josuke awoke in the morning, his mom had made him omurice for breakfast. It was his favorite. He ate the food quietly, slowly.
When he finished, he sat down in front of the computer in the living room. He let the computer boot up and connect to the internet accompanied by screeches and discordant noise. He logged into his email client. One (1) unread email. Josuke held his breath.
It was simply stated:
From: Dr. Jotaro Kujo <[email protected]>
To: Josuke Higashikata <[email protected]>
Subject: <Blank>
I miss you already.