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Morioh is inching its way towards Tanabata on the day Okuyasu finds Josuke on the beach, knee deep in the water. He's rolled up his uniform pants, but not far enough for the waves on today's ocean, and the cuffs are soaked through. Okuyasu hums his disapproval; Josuke's usually super careful with his clothes. He seems off today, though, so Okuyasu keeps it to himself.
"Hey, man, you good?" he half-yells. No answer. He pulls off his shoes and rolls up his pants, above the knee, and wades out to Josuke in the water. "You don't gotta be all enthusiastic, just a 'Hey, I'm in here!' would be alright." Okuyasu grins, a little. He doesn't wanna freak Josuke out with too much enthusiasm, but he's not gonna just shut down because Josuke's bummed out, either. That wouldn't be fair to either of them, and Josuke wouldn't like it anyway. He's funny with empathy like that.
Josuke doesn't say anything. But the slope of his shoulders tilts in acknowledgement towards where Okuyasu is standing at his right, and Okuyasu knows this is as good as he's gonna get at the moment. He can work with that. So he works with it.
His face relaxes a little and he says, "You don't have to be all strong and silent like Jotaro-san, y'know. If something's wrong, I'll listen. And you know I won't judge."
Josuke exhales through his nose a little harder than normal, and takes a very long breath in. Wow, Okuyasu thinks, he's not even saying anything yet. This can't be good. But then Josuke is talking and he has to pay attention, so he pays attention.
"I dunno, I'm just. messed up about Kira, I guess. Sheer Heart Attack...that was really fucked up, and it doesn't usually get to me like this but it is today, and it's kinda stupid, I know, to be trying to protect our whole town and I'm getting hung up on this one Stand fight that I wasn't even a part of, but I saw and it was so awful and there was-"
-and Okuyasu cuts him off with a hand on his shoulder, because Josuke's started spilling his guts, and if he doesn't do anything Josuke's gonna talk himself into a hole. "You gotta calm down, man. You're gonna talk yourself to pieces."
Josuke takes another deep breath, and exhales through his nose again, and closes his eyes and says, "You're right, man, lemme calm down a second. Okay, okay." Another breath, inhale, exhale. He opens his eyes.
"I guess I'm just worried, y'know? Koichi and Jotaro-san...they got really fucked up. And you know, if anything happens, I can fix it, but what if I couldn't have gotten there in time? It already happened before, with my grandpa. There's no saying it won't happen again. And that's scary, y'know? Not knowing if you'll be there in time when people are depending on you, when it's life or death."
And, oh, how Okuyasu knows that feeling, something awful settling in your chest. The nagging feeling after a fight, that little voice saying if you had just used your stand like this or if you had just dodged this attack or if you had just gotten there in time. The sense of failure when someone you were supposed to take care of gets hurt. But he's never been good with the finer points of comforting another person, and he doesn't have the right words to say what he wants to say anyway, so he gives what he hopes is a sympathetic nod and says, "Yeah. Yeah, dude."
Josuke is quiet for a little while after that, and Okuyasu just. Stands there. Looks at him, too. Josuke looks tired, and Okuyasu doesn't like that look on someone so full of energy, but something about it smoothes out the planes of his face. Josuke is really young, he thinks. They both are, he knows, but he's been 16 since last October, so he's really nearly 17, and Josuke's birthday is in May. And then he realizes that Josuke had still been 15 when Okuyasu and Keichou had been going around shooting people with the Stand Arrow, and if that doesn't make his heart ache. They're just kids. It's not supposed to be like this. But it was never supposed to be like this for anyone and he knows things never turn out how they should. It's how he and Keichou got messed up, it's probably how Jotaro-san got messed up, it's how countless other kids he'll never know are getting messed up every day.
He turns to look at Josuke a little more, and nearly cries, because Josuke's still got the last bits of baby fat on his cheeks, and his lips are parted just enough for Okuyasu to see the brackets on his braces, and Okuyasu knows there are stretch marks on his hips where he grew too tall, too fast and he still has them because he's still a kid. And in the odd light of the sun through the clouds he can just barely see a slightly-too-dry patch of skin where Josuke forgot to moisturize, which he's always anal about, God he must be worried, and he sees the way Josuke's uniform is a little too big in the sleeves to be wide enough for his shoulders, and he sees the gaudy gold pins on Josuke's uniform that he must have gotten from that shitty hobby store that only the local kids and grandmothers really shop at.
And he wants Josuke to know that it's okay, and he doesn't know how to tell him, not really. But he says, "You know, I don't think it's stupid that you're worried. That's not stupid at all. You care about your friends. If anything, I'd be more concerned if one of the people protecting this town wasn't messed up about his friends getting hurt. That's...dude, that's perfectly fine." And he really means it, it would be so terrifying if Josuke didn't feel anything for them, or about them. He knows sometimes people have trouble with that, like Yukako, but she's still kind and she makes an effort to understand people. If Josuke didn't even try? There'd be a problem.
Josuke sighs a little, and says, "Yeah, I know." He's staring out over the ocean, where it gets choppy and deep blue out past the sandbars. The clouds start to break up where the sea is wide open, and the wind coming off the water is pushing that hole in the sky towards the town, so Okuyasu knows it'll be sunny sometime soon. It smells like salt, like always, but also like something else that he can't quite place.
An hour passes, just like that, Okuyasu staring at Josuke staring at the ocean. He looks, Okuyasu thinks, like he's searching for something, like the water took something out of him and he wants it back. He looks pinched, and bitter, and sad. None of which suit him in particular, but he's feeling what he's feeling. Josuke hasn't said a word, and Okuyasu doesn't feel the need to fill the silence. That's not what he's here for. So he lets Josuke stand in the water, even as his own shins get stiff and achy from standing in the sand. He's not going to leave him. Okuyasu watches Josuke and the tide going out like that, quietly.
Another deep breath pulls Okuyasu from his thoughts. Josuke had sort of hunched over, but now he unfurls to his full height and raises his shoulders up high, before dropping them and straightening his back. He turns to Okuyasu, and a smile has started to come back to his face. A gentle one, and his eyes are still sad, but that's progress. He turns and walks out of the water towards where his shoes are on the sand, and Okuyasu follows.
Neither of them put their shoes or socks on. They walk on the warm sand barefoot, and it sticks to them in a way that reminds Okuyasu of being younger. Happier, maybe. He doesn't quite know, but something like nostalgia sits heavy in his chest. As they walk, they lean in closer to each other, all the way until their shoulders touch, and they go just like that up the beach. Josuke is warm through their uniform jackets, and Okuyasu suspects he feels much the same from Josuke's end.
And then the tear in the clouds finally, finally moves itself over Morioh, and the sunlight comes through. It's late afternoon, and the light is just starting to make its way towards gold, and Okuyasu looks up and sees the tops of clouds stained yellow-white against the sky. Josuke sees him look and looks up too, and he sees it. There's a gull circling on an updraft, and the white of its plumage is bright against deep, almost cornflower blue. Okuyasu notices it a second after, and when he turns to look at Josuke again, there's a smile on his face. A real one, so deep it makes his eyes crinkle up and his teeth show even though Okuyasu knows he doesn't mean to do that because he prefers to smile with his mouth closed. And Okuyasu sees his smile and the purple brackets on his teeth and the gold pins on his jacket, and grins back, and thinks, Maybe everything will be alright.