Chapter Text
Kakyoin was getting really tired of soap operas.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have much choice so late at night. The TV buzzed quietly. As much as he knew he should replace the boxy thing, he couldn’t be bothered. The only time he used it was for nights like these, when he couldn’t sleep and tried to drown out his thoughts with subpar television.
Whatever. It wasn’t like he was doing much else tonight. Kakyoin sighed and leaned farther back into the couch. It was some American program about forbidden love, if he was following along right. The lead actress fell into her lover’s arms dramatically. Kakyoin rolled his eyes. These shows were always the same. If he had to listen to one more “but daddy, I love him!” he was going to lose his marbles.
It was still better than the alternative. After a few hours of shifting restlessly, the ceiling wasn’t nearly as interesting. Sleep evaded him, so he was stuck with the soap opera until he could fall asleep.
He was supposed to be happy, he knew that much. He was lucky to even be alive after Dio blew a hole straight through him. Being self-sufficient was nothing short of a medical miracle. It had taken months to get back on his feet, literally, but things had settled down since then. Most of the time he pushed papers for the Speedwagon Foundation, sketching when he had a minute. When he was lucky, he got to travel the world to take out troublesome stand users. After taking on a vampire with god-awful fashion taste, petty criminals didn’t scare him as much as they used to. Almost dying at seventeen changes a person.
Kakyoin crossed his legs absently, ignoring the slight creak from the braces. He had a stable job, one that included capturing felons like the American comics he’d liked as a kid. Friends were… more complicated, but it still should have been enough. He crossed paths with Avdol here and there in the Foundation, but their talks were usually short and stuck to business over the phone. The time difference made it difficult, but he wouldn’t have guessed that from how often Polnareff called him. Kakyoin smiled. The man would have owed a small fortune for all the international calls if it wasn’t for the excuse of work, though it hardly came up.
And for Jotaro… well. Kakyoin had woken up three months after the fight with an IV in his arm and metal strapped to his legs. A doctor he didn’t recognize told him in broken Japanese that he’d be okay, eventually. Everyone else had gone home long before then. Kakyoin couldn’t blame them, not when it was uncertain he’d even wake up in the first place. After he’d flown back to Japan, he’d tried to talk to Jotaro over the phone, but it just hadn’t been like it was during the trip. Jotaro needed to graduate. Kakyoin needed to learn how to walk again. They needed to return to their normal - separately. For the first year or so, Kakyoin wrote the occasional letter, but Jotaro never seemed to write back. He could take the hint, but it still stung.
Kakyoin angrily flipped the channel to a game show rerun. What a sight. He couldn’t sleep and here he was thinking about someone who hadn’t bothered to talk to him in years. They’d known each other for just under two months a decade ago. The time had been so short, so horrific with every ambush, and Kakyoin had yet to find someone that he clicked with in the way he had once enjoyed Jotaro’s company. Somehow, those fifty days were more full of life than the seventeen years that proceeded them.
The phone rang impatiently, startling Kakyoin from his thoughts.
His leg braces shifted as he stood, protesting against the movement, but he was grateful for the excuse to stop feeling sorry for himself. Egypt had been a lifetime ago. Kakyoin frowned. He’d yet to set up caller ID, and it wasn’t as if Hierophant could reach through the line and see who wanted to reach him so late at night. His stand rose behind him as if sensing his nerves. That was enough overthinking. He picked up the phone if only to stop the irritating noise.
"Kakyoin residence. Is it urgent?"
The line buzzed faintly with static. "Noriaki?”
It was official. The universe was out to get him. There was no way for him to be prepared for Jotaro’s crackling voice on the other end. His grip on the phone tightened. Well. Considering the evening he’d had, this was going to go swimmingly.
Kakyoin frowned, switching the phone to his other ear. "You better have a damn good reason for calling me at-" He glanced at the clock, mood souring further. Jotaro owed him, big time. "three in the morning, Kujo."
"Look. I have a favor to ask you."
"I figured as much." Kakyoin rubbed his temples and squashed the inkling of hope that threatened to bloom. Of course Jotaro wouldn’t call to catch up like a normal person. "What's so important it can't wait until dawn?"
"Oh. Timezones. Right.”
“Yeah.”
The silence stretched uncomfortably. For the life of him, Kakyoin couldn’t guess Jotaro’s so-called emergency. He scowled. If Kakyoin remembered right from chats with Joseph, he’d moved to the states with his college girlfriend and lived in the suburbs with a depressingly average house, wife, and daughter.
“It's Jolyne.”
“Jolyne? Your kid?” Kakyoin blinked. Joseph had shown him a photograph of her once, tucked safely away in his wallet for safekeeping. “If you didn’t get a father’s day present, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“No. Not that.” The phone went quiet with static as Jotaro struggled for words. Finally, he sighed. “Her mom wants full custody. She's not gonna be safe.”
“You and your wife are splitting up?” Somehow, Kakyoin doubted Jotaro was calling for emotional support. He snorted. That would require the giant to be aware of his own emotions.
“We’ve been split up,” Jotaro snapped. Kakyoin narrowed his eyes, though he knew he couldn’t see his glare from an ocean away. It wasn’t as if anyone had thought to tell him that, least of all Jotaro.
“I didn’t know that, Kujo. The only information I get is from Joseph, and his memory isn’t what it used to be. None of this explains why you called.”
“She's seven, Noriaki, and my family has too many enemies. I can’t leave her with her mom undefended. Someone will come. The judge has a history of favoring mothers, too. I'm fucked."
“So you’re gonna get the youngest Joestar taken away with no protection from stand users. Fantastic.” Kakyoin tapped his fingers on the table. “Can’t the Speedwagon lawyers help you?”
“They’ve tried, but it’s not so simple. Something about this being a domestic issue instead of an active threat.”
Kakyoin scowled. This didn’t add up. "Why tell me this?”
"My chances are much better with a partner. Someone else to prove I can care for a kid."
Kakyoin's heart dropped. "And?"
"Marry me."
For fuck’s sake.
The phone clattered to the table. Kakyoin’s pulse raced. There was no way he was being serious, but Jotaro didn’t joke. He said he’d tried everything, but this was too much. Kakyoin scrambled to pick it up, temper flaring. The cheap plastic cracked in his hand, knuckles white. "What the fuck, Kujo?!”
“I’m sorry, I know-”
“You don’t talk to me for nine years and you ask me to MARRY YOU?!”
Hierophant Green snaked behind him and pointed to the TV for emphasis. Son of a bitch, this really was something from a soap opera. At the end of the episode, the separated lovers would make up, but Kakyoin’s blood boiled. Jotaro’s audacity was truly gargantuan. Like hell they’d get along perfectly after thirty minutes of scripted dialogue.
“... I guess so.”
“You, Jotaro Kujo, are one entitled bastard.”
There was a sigh on the other end of the line, but Jotaro didn’t try to defend himself. “Look. I already know it’s wrong and I should have talked to you and this is too much. I know that. Just-” Jotaro paused as if trying to collect his thoughts. “This is the only option I have left. Please.”
Kakyoin’s thumb hovered over the button to hang up, but he hesitated. He remembered the picture of Jolyne. Wild black hair, a missing front tooth, and a star-shaped birthmark on her shoulder. Whether or not her mother understood, she was a Joestar. Her family line was as powerful as it was dangerous. Stand users would come for her. If she was left undefended… Kakyoin didn’t want to think about what could happen.
“I’ll do it. Not for you, for your kid. She shouldn’t suffer because her father is a fucking idiot.”
Kakyoin could have sworn he heard muffled laughter. “Thank you. Just- thank you, Kakyoin.”
“Only long enough for the court to see you’re a decent father with a safe home. Then I’m leaving and you’re going to be the single father with two divorces in three years.”
“I can live with that.”
“Good night, Kujo.”
Kakyoin put the phone back into the holder with a little too much force. It wasn’t polite to hang up like that, but neither was calling at fuck-o-clock in the morning with a marriage proposal. That was the least Jotaro deserved for that stunt. Hierophant Green gave him a judging glare.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Kakyoin leaned on the walls for support and limped back to his bedroom. “I’m not leaving a kid to be a sitting duck.”
His stand shook his head as if dissatisfied with the answer before fading from view. At least he didn’t have his astral self looking over his shoulder anymore. He sunk into the bed, mind muddled. Twenty minutes ago, he’d have considered a phone call from Jotaro a good thing. A sorely overdue thing, but a good one nonetheless. His daydreams of slowly reconnecting were dashed by a proposal, of all things. Slowly, he forced himself to sit up and began undoing the straps to his braces.
He was going to fucking kill Jotaro.
* * *
Three weeks and too many international calls later, Kakyoin found himself at the gates of Jotaro’s childhood home. The last time he had been here was a blur. His memory was fuzzy on account of the flesh bud that had been dragged out of his brain, but it was hard to believe he’d forgotten the large, lavish traditional home. Kakyoin shook his head. Between the Joestar fortune and Mr Kujo’s music career, Jotaro was loaded.
The gate was unlocked, so Kakyoin let himself in. Even if there was no one to directly let him in, it was clear they knew he was coming. It didn’t take long before he heard a woman humming along to the radio. Kakyoin smiled and ducked into the room. That could only be one person.
True to his guess, Holly Kujo was happily murmuring alongside an American pop song as she did the dishes. Even when doing such a dull, domestic chore, she was full of life and joy. Kakyoin tried not to stare. The last time he had seen her, she had been struggling to breathe with thorns wrapped around her neck and torso. Joseph had assured him when he had first awoken from his coma that Holly had made it out alive, but it was still strange to see her fully recovered. Besides a few new lines around her eyes and a prominent grey streak of hair, she looked the same as she had in 1988. It was an incredibly welcome change.
She rinsed the soap suds from a plate and dropped it without warning. Kakyoin snapped out of his daze and scrambled to catch it. There was no chance of making it in time, but a shimmering vine shot out of Holly’s arm and caught it. Kakyoin’s eyes went wide. Joseph had somehow forgotten to mention that Holly’s ordeal left her with a stand.
Holly yelped and put a hand over her heart. “Oh goodness, you scared me! I’m alright, Jotaro, don’t-”
Kakyoin went red. This was a wonderful start to this ridiculous plan of Jotaro’s. How any woman chose to marry him willingly, he wasn’t sure. Had Jotaro even told his mother he was coming - and why he was here? “Hello, Miss Holly. Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not your son.”
Holly did a double-take and slowly shook her head, a smile growing on her face. “You must be Kakyoin! You’ve grown up so much I hardly recognized you! Please, sit down. I completely forgot the time.”
Kakyoin let himself be shooed to the table with a small laugh. It seemed Holly’s personality also hadn’t changed much. “Yes, that’s me. Did Jotaro tell you anything?”
“That boy prefers to keep to himself, you know that.” Holly shook her head, but it was clear she wasn’t upset. “He mentioned you would be here, that’s my mistake for being a poor host.”
Kakyoin stood and grabbed a dishtowel. “You’re far from a poor host, Miss Holly. Here, let me help with this.”
“Thank you dear, but here’s no need, really.” She waved her hand, letting loose a handful of golden sparks. Kakyoin stared, mystified, as a current of energy ran through the pile of wet dishes. “My grandmother insisted I learn Hamon. Never really found a use for the more violent parts of it, but little tricks like that come in handy.”
Kakyoin picked up a plate. Sure enough, it was completely dry. “Incredible.”
“You flatter me. The Joestar line comes with incredible power, but I prefer to use it to make my life a little easier.”
“Like the vine you caught the plate with.” Kakyoin felt himself smile. It seemed Holly’s endless positivity was infectious. “Was that your stand?”
“That’s right!” Holly beamed as a sparkling tangle of thorns came into view behind her. They were similar to what Kakyoin remembered of Hermit Purple, twisting idly of their own accord, but Holly’s vines were a rich, healthy green. Deep red flowers bloomed alongside the spikes. “This is Guns n Roses. They keep me company with Jotaro gone so often.”
Kakyoin could have sworn one of the vines waved at him before fading out of sight. “I’m grateful you’ve recovered completely. I don’t think I would have believed it if you weren’t here.”
“It takes more than a little fever to get me down! Even so, I wouldn’t be standing if it wasn’t for you and the others. Going from country to country like that, danger everywhere… I can’t imagine it.” Holly shook her head. “Jotaro doesn’t like to talk about it much, but- thank you, Kakyoin. You and the others saved my life.”
Kakyoin felt numb. The hole in his torso, the braces that supported his legs, the hellstorm of health issues that followed, all of it wasn’t for nothing. Holly and countless others terrorized by Dio were now living happily because of what he did as a teenager. His sacrifice had worth.
He swallowed the lump in his throat. That was more emotional than he had planned, especially considering the reason he was visiting her in the first place. “... Of course, Miss Holly. I’m glad I could do something, even if you won’t let me help with the dishes now.”
Holly chuckled. “I already told you there was no need. I do wish we were catching up under better circumstances, though. It’s disheartening, to say the least.”
“Jotaro told you about his master plan, then.” It wasn’t a question. Still, nervousness settled into his bones. He’d avoided thinking about it the entire trip there, but it was inevitable.
“The basics of it, yes.” Holly nodded, thoughtful. “I’ll admit, I wasn’t so sure about it myself, but it may be the best chance we have to keep Jolyne out of harm’s way. Jotaro has his family here, which means he has a good support system. Being married would be just what he needs to seal the deal.”
Kakyoin leaned back in his seat. “Are you sure?”
“I’m not,” Holly admitted. “But it’s far better than we were before. He shouldn’t have asked you for such a big favor. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you said no. It’s… well. It’s going to be a big change.”
“I’m not doing it for him. I don’t want a kid to be in trouble when I can do something about it.”
“There’s the hero that traveled Egypt,” Holly teased. Her eyes sparkled with the mischief of a much younger woman. “Still. Most people wouldn’t go this far for a child they’ve never met.” She squeezed his hand reassuringly. “Jolyne is a very lucky girl. Have you decided on what you’re telling her?”
“We haven’t decided on anything save for getting married, of all things. I haven’t spoken to him since he asked.” Kakyoin rubbed his temples. “How old is she now?”
“She just turned seven. And has he really not said anything at all?!” Holly scowled. “He’s out and about now, but rest assured. When he comes back, I’ll give him an earful. The audacity!”
“Tell me about it.” Kakyoin cracked a smile. It was hard to stay upset around Holly Kujo for very long. “Is Jolyne taking this well?”
“It’s hard to say.” Holly took the teapot off the burner and poured two cups. Kakyoin took one gratefully. “Jotaro and Marina have been split for a few years now, but they’ve been civil to one another until recently. Jolyne… she had a horrible fever while Jotaro was away.”
Kakyoin’s blood ran cold. “A stand?”
“That’s what we all thought, but no. It was a terrible sickness that had nothing to do with that damned vampire. Jotaro was fighting a stand user just a few minutes from here and didn’t leave to be with his sick daughter. That was Mariana’s last straw.” Holly stirred her tea, struggling for words. “I can’t be upset with her. Jotaro wasn’t around enough and he never told her why. Anyone would be angry.”
“And that’s why she’s fighting for full custody now.”
“Exactly.” Holly took a sip from her cup as she thought over her words. “It’s difficult to explain any of this to someone without a stand. Even so, it’s hard to call Jotaro’s silence the right choice.” Holly shook her head. “I’m sorry, this is a conversation you should be having with him, not me. I suppose I got carried away.”
Kakyoin sighed. Talk about family issues. “No, I appreciate it. You’ve given me a lot to think about.”
“Think about what?”
Kakyoin looked to the sound of a much younger voice standing in the doorway. Even without seeing Joseph’s photograph, he could see the resemblance immediately. Dark untamed curls framed her face, so much like her absent father’s. Her eyes were greener than Jotaro’s, but they still carried the same weight. Most similar of all was her judging glare, assessing the stranger who had made himself comfortable in her grandmother’s home. There was no doubt about it. This was the kid Kakyoin was apparently throwing his life upside-down for.
“There you are, Jojo! I was just starting to get worried.” Holly bustled over and kissed Jolyne’s forehead, much to her chagrin. She wiped her forehead with an exaggerated pout. Holly’s grin only grew. “Oh, I forgot. You’re a big girl who doesn’t need Grandma’s kisses.”
“Uh-huh,” Jolyne said stubbornly, but her eyes never left Kakyoin. “Who’s that?”
Holly hesitated, gaze flicking from him to Jolyne. He almost smiled. How do you introduce someone who was going to marry her dad within a week? “Jojo, this is- well. This is an old friend of your father’s.”
“No he’s not,” Jolyne said. Her glare grew more suspicious. “My dad doesn’t have any friends.”
Holly set her hands on her hips. “Jolyne!”
Kakyoin grinned like the Cheshire cat. He liked this kid. “You’re not too far off. I used to be a friend of your dad’s, but things change.”
He got on one knee to be at eye level with her. The braces made it awkward, but he managed. As strange as his life was going to be in the coming weeks, it was his choice to be involved in this mess. Jolyne didn’t get that choice. The least he could do was listen to her and make it as seamless as possible. Gently, he offered a hand to her. “My name is Kakyoin Noriaki. It’s a long story, but you’re going to see me a lot more often.”
Jolyne stared shamelessly. “You have lines on your eyes.”
“A blind man in the desert gave me those.”
“You have metal on your legs.”
“A vampire gave me those. It’s how I met your dad, actually.”
“I am so sorry,” Holly mumbled. She hid her bright red face in her hands. “Jojo, that is NOT how we talk to people.”
“It’s alright, Miss Holly.” He gave Jolyne a small wink. “I’ve heard worse. I promise I’m not gonna hurt you or your grandma. Your dad isn’t off the hook, though. He can be horribly pigheaded.”
Jolyne giggled and slowly shook his hand. “That’s a funny word. Nice to meet you, Mr Kakyoin.”
“Well, it’s accurate,” he mumbled. Still, he offered her a half-smile. If a sham marriage meant she could grow up safe, it would be worth it.
“Nice to meet you, Miss Jolyne.”