Chapter Text
Jotaro didn’t like hospitals. The sterile smell, the fluorescent lights that were either too bright or annoyingly dim, the distant beeping of machines - it all made his skin crawl. He would’ve walked out the moment he stepped inside if it weren’t for his mother’s insistence. And, admittedly, for the tight, squeezing pain in his chest that hadn’t quite left him since Egypt.
It's been two weeks since the fight with DIO happened. Ever since he had been very reluctant to have doctors take a look at him. However, he made the mistake of opening up to Kakyoin and Joseph about him stopping his own heart.
So now, here he was, sitting on the edge of an examination bed, arms crossed, hat pulled down low over his eyes as a doctor flipped through his medical chart. His mother sat beside him, hands folded anxiously in her lap. Joseph, standing nearby, shifted his weight and exhaled heavily. The doctor finally looked up, his expression neutral - too neutral.
“Kujo, I’m going to be blunt with you,” he said, folding his hands over the clipboard. “Your tests show signs of cardiac strain. To put it simply, you’ve had an event similar to a heart attack - though it doesn’t match the usual causes.”
Jotaro exhaled sharply through his nose, gaze lowering. “Yare yare daze.” He figured as much. Stopping his own heart back in Cairo might’ve been a clever trick at the time, but maybe it had done more damage than he realized.
Joseph frowned, arms crossing. “What kind of strain are we talking about here?”
The doctor sighed, flipping to another page in the chart. “Some arrhythmic activity. His blood pressure is unstable, and there’s residual damage to cardiac tissue that suggests he suffered from a temporary lack of oxygen-”
Jotaro’s mother let out a small gasp, her hands covering her mouth. Jotaro, on the other hand, remained eerily quiet, absorbing the information with a clenched jaw. The doctor continued.
“Given these results, I’m recommending that Jotaro stays under observation for at least a few more days. Possibly longer, depending on how his heart responds to rest and monitoring.”
That was the moment Jotaro’s head snapped up. “No way. I’m fine.”
Joseph groaned, rubbing his temples. “Jotaro-”
“No. I have things to do.”
“You have nothing to do, Jotaro,” his mother interjected sharply, voice trembling. “You just turned eighteen. You just got home from- from-” She shook her head, not even able to say it. “And now they’re telling you your heart isn’t working right! Please, don’t be stubborn about this.”
Jotaro felt something uncomfortable twist in his chest, and for once, it wasn’t physical pain. He glanced away. “I just don’t want to be stuck here.”
The doctor watched the exchange with a calm, professional patience. “You won’t be alone. I believe one of your friends is still in recovery, correct? Noriaki Kakyoin?”
Jotaro tensed. His eyes flicked toward the door, toward the hallway beyond, where he knew Kakyoin’s room was.
“Yes, that’s right,” Joseph nodded. “Kakyoin’s still resting. He got the worst of it out of all of us.”
The doctor nodded. “Then it might be a good thing that you’re staying. If you won’t do it for your own health, maybe having someone around who understands what you’ve been through will help.”
Jotaro clicked his tongue. His arms remained crossed, but his grip had slackened a little. He hated hospitals. He hated sitting still. He hated the idea of being monitored like some fragile patient. But the thought of Kakyoin, alone in a hospital room for days, recovering from injuries Jotaro had barely been able to prevent from being fatal-
Yeah. Maybe it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to be stuck here after all.
“…Fine,” he muttered.
Joseph raised an eyebrow. “Huh. That easy?”
Jotaro scowled, pulling his hat lower. “Shut up, old man.”
His mother let out a relieved sigh, and the doctor made a note in his chart. “Alright,” he said. “We’ll set up your bed in Kakyoin’s room.”
The hospital room was quiet except for the rhythmic beeping of monitors and the occasional rustling of blankets. Kakyoin was awake but still groggy from his pain meds, sitting up slightly in his bed with an IV line in his arm. His bandages had been changed recently, the fresh gauze standing out stark against his skin.
Jotaro, on the other hand, was perched stiffly in the chair beside him, his hat pulled low over his face as he stared at nothing in particular. His own IV was taped against the back of his hand, a heart monitor clipped to his finger, its quiet beeping annoyingly in sync with his own erratic heartbeat.
Kakyoin glanced at him, studying the way Jotaro held himself - shoulders hunched, jaw clenched, fingers twitching every now and then. Something wasn’t right.
“You’re quiet,” Kakyoin finally murmured.
Jotaro exhaled through his nose. “I don’t have anything to say.”
That was a lie. Kakyoin could tell. His grip on the armrest was too tight, his breathing just slightly off, like he was forcing himself to stay still.
“…You’re in pain.”
Jotaro barely reacted. Just scoffed lightly and turned his head away. “Tch. I’m fine.”
Another lie. And Kakyoin wasn’t buying it. Sometimes he wishes Jotaro wasn't so stubborn about his own feelings and let him have some insight.
“I don’t think you are,” he pressed gently. “You keep shifting like you can’t get comfortable. Your hands are shaking a little.” He let the words settle before adding, “Jotaro, you stopped your own heart. Did you really think that wouldn’t come back to bite you?”
Jotaro’s fingers twitched at that. He opened his mouth - probably to dismiss it again - but the moment he took in a breath, his entire body jerked. His chest suddenly seized up, a sharp, unbearable pressure clawing its way up his ribs like his heart was being squeezed in a vice.
He let out a sharp gasp before he could stop himself, one hand flying to his chest as his fingers curled into the hospital gown.
Kakyoin’s eyes widened. “Jotaro-?” He feared his words were a trigger for this sudden outburst.
The pain hit harder, a deep, crushing sensation radiating up to his shoulder and neck. His vision blurred. His limbs felt weak. He tried to get a grip on himself, but his own body was betraying him. He yelped for air, unable to keep any inside him.
“Shit-” he hissed through gritted teeth, folding forward slightly. His pulse was hammering now, erratic and fast, the beeping of his monitor growing frantic.
The door burst open almost immediately. A nurse and a doctor rushed in, drawn by the alarm set off by his vitals.
“Kujo, what’s happening?” the doctor demanded, already checking the monitors.
Jotaro could barely focus on them. He sucked in another shaky breath, only for it to feel wrong, like his lungs weren’t expanding properly. His skin was clammy. His fingers tingled.
Kakyoin, despite his own injuries, tried to push himself up. “He- He just started seizing up, he was holding his chest-”
“Kujo, lie back,” the nurse instructed firmly, already adjusting the bed to recline. “You’re tachycardic, your heart rate is too high-”
“I noticed,” Jotaro gave back sarcastically and gritted his teeth, trying to shake them off, but another wave of pain made his whole body flinch. He sucked in a sharp, unsteady breath and forced himself to lie back.
The doctor was already adjusting his IV drip. “I’m giving you a beta-blocker to stabilize your heart rate. Just breathe.”
Easy for them to say. Every breath felt shallow, his head was spinning, and - damn it all - his vision was starting to blur.
The beeping slowed slightly, but his body still felt tense, his muscles coiled like a spring about to snap. His fingers dug into the blanket beneath him as a lump built in his throat.
This wasn’t just about the pain anymore. This was everything he had refused to process catching up to him at once.
The fight. The sheer exhaustion. The moment a road roller was dropped on him. Seeing Kakyoin being thrown 20 meters into a water tower. Holding his grandfather’s lifeless body in his arms, just for him to miraculously come back.
He clenched his jaw, but his breathing hitched. His fingers twitched where they gripped the sheets.
“Jotaro…?” Kakyoin’s voice was quiet. Careful.
The dam cracked.
Jotaro shut his eyes tightly, but it was too late - his face twisted, and he let out a sharp, ragged breath, his hand still clutching weakly at his chest.
The doctor glanced at him before nodding to the nurse. “His vitals are stabilizing, but keep him on observation. The adrenaline crash is hitting him hard.”
Jotaro turned his head slightly, eyes squeezed shut, his body still trembling faintly from pain and sheer exhaustion. He hated this. Hated feeling weak. But he couldn’t stop it this time.
Kakyoin, still watching him carefully, exhaled softly. He shifted in his bed, wincing at the pull of stitches, and reached out - just barely brushing his fingers against Jotaro’s wrist in a quiet, grounding gesture.
“…You don’t have to hold it in anymore.”
Jotaro didn’t respond. But he also didn’t pull away.
Jotaro didn’t move for a long time. He just lay there, fingers still weakly curled into the fabric of the blanket, his breathing uneven. The ache in his chest was beginning to dull, the medication finally kicking in, but the weight pressing down on him - that heavy, suffocating something - refused to go away.
The room felt dimmer somehow, even with the artificial hospital lighting. The beeping of the heart monitor was slower now, steadier, but the sound grated on his nerves. He focused on the rhythm, tried to match his breathing to it.
Tried not to think about the fact that Star Platinum had stopped that same heart. That it had stopped beating. That, for a few awful moments, he hadn’t just been faking - he had actually been dead.
A fresh shudder ran through his body before he could stop it. Kakyoin noticed. Of course he did. He was watching him too closely now, his expression unreadable but present, like he was waiting for something.
Jotaro hated being watched like that. Like he was something fragile. Like, if he looked away for a moment, Jotaro would shutter apart like broken glass. But for once… he didn’t have the strength to glare or snap at him for it.
“…You’re still shaking,” Kakyoin said quietly.
Jotaro swallowed hard and forced himself to breathe. “I'm fine.”
Kakyoin didn’t even dignify that with a response.
Instead, he shifted slightly in his bed, grimacing at the pull of his wounds, but never took his eyes off Jotaro.
“You ever think about it?” Kakyoin asked suddenly, voice soft but unwavering.
Jotaro blinked. “Think about what?”
Kakyoin exhaled. His fingers twitched against the sheets, like he was considering his words carefully.
“…The fact that we survived.”
Jotaro didn’t answer immediately. The words settled between them like a weight. Kakyoin tilted his head slightly, gaze searching. He was testing his grounds, checking what would trigger Jotaro and what he was letting go. “Because I do.” His voice was steady, but there was something fragile underneath it. “A lot, actually.”
Jotaro turned his head slightly, just enough to look at him properly. The dim lighting cast shadows across Kakyoin’s face, highlighting the still-healing scars around his eyes. Scars that hadn’t been there before Egypt. Scars that wouldn’t have been there at all if it weren’t for DIO.
Kakyoin’s fingers curled slightly. His voice remained quiet.
“Sometimes I wake up and I forget we made it back,” he admitted. “Like… I expect to still be there. In Cairo. On that street.” He swallowed. “Or worse, I wake up and I do remember, and then I realize how close we actually were to not making it at all.”
Jotaro felt his throat tighten.
He turned his gaze back toward the ceiling, his jaw clenching slightly.
“…Yeah.”
That was all he said. But it was enough. Because Kakyoin understood. He always did.
The silence stretched between them for a while, neither of them needing to fill it with empty words. The world outside the hospital room kept moving, but inside, everything had slowed to a crawl. Jotaro flexed his fingers weakly against the blanket, testing his strength. The tremors had mostly subsided, but his body still felt heavy. His heart still felt wrong, like it didn’t belong to him anymore.
“…They said I have to stay.”
Kakyoin blinked at him. “Huh?”
Jotaro exhaled slowly. He hated admitting it out loud, but there was no point in pretending. Not towards Kakyoin.
“The doctors. They said I have to stay under observation for at least a few more days.” His voice was flat, tired. “Something about monitoring for arrhythmias. Or other complications.” He sighed. “Apparently stopping your heart is a big deal.”
Kakyoin gave him a look. “No shit.”
Jotaro huffed a breath through his nose. If he had the energy, he might’ve smirked.
Instead, Kakyoin just shook his head and settled back against his pillows. His body relaxed slightly, something unspoken shifting in his expression.
“…Guess that means we’re stuck here together, huh?”
Jotaro closed his eyes.
“…Yeah.” A pause. Then, softer, almost teasing: "You better not snore.”
Jotaro exhaled, letting his head sink deeper into the pillow. The exhaustion was winning now, pulling at him.
But for the first time in days, maybe even weeks, he let it.