Archive of Our Own ^beta

"Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur

"I met you in the dark, you lit me up
You made me feel as though I was enough
We danced the night away, we drank too much
I held your hair back when
You were throwing up
Then you smiled over your shoulder
For a minute, I was stone-cold sober..."

“Oiiii! Josuke!” Okuyasu was waiting out by the Higashikata’s gate as Josuke emerged from the house. It was a Friday, thankfully. There were several hours of school still before them, but then...then there would be two whole days of ignoring homework, kicking back and relaxing, eating any and every snack they could get their hands on, and maybe they’d even attempt to play a really challenging video game (which for Josuke could be any game that hadn’t be set to his default easy mode). They just had to survive class and then they’d be free.

This would be Okuyasu’s second weekend without his brother, and, overall he’d seemed to be adjusting pretty well to Keicho’s absence. True, he was a bit helpless the first few days, but after that things had gotten better. And really, as far as Josuke could tell, he’d done a good job taking over caring for his father. The two actually seemed to be getting along and Okuyasu felt encouraged by the realization that his father was much less destructive since he’d brought him down from the attic to wander the main part of the house. And he was much quieter too. Okuyasu figured that before, when he’d been cooped up in a single room for extended periods of time, he’d gotten pretty bored and restless, and that would account for why he was always tearing things up or making a racket. But now that he had the run of the house whenever Okuyasu was out, he was much more subdued.

Recently, Mr. Nijimura had even taken to waiting for Okuyasu in the entryway in the evenings, which had been a bit startling at first, given Mr. Nijimura’s propensity to crouch in a dark corner near the stairs only to jump out suddenly when his son came through the door. Mr. Nijimura had also taken to gathering random items throughout the day and night which he would leave in a pile at the foot of his son’s bed. The latter hadn’t had the heart to put anything back in its original place and the pile was starting to become quite substantial now. Okuyasu had felt a bit bad at first that he didn’t seem to have any way of showing his father how much he appreciated the gestures, but he’d found that simply talking to his father seemed to please him more than anything else. Mr. Nijimura gave no sign of understanding what that was said to him, but just hearing the sound of his son’s voice seemed to be enough. He’d sit at Okuyasu’s feet for hours at a time, his small beady eyes shining with interest and wonder, while his son told him about anything and everything that he could think of. It felt like the first time either of them had received positive attention from another family member in a very long while. And even though Okuyasu still had high hopes that some cure or other might be discovered for his father’s condition, he was already beginning to think that if one wasn’t possible then this might not be so bad. Things really weren’t bad with his father. They were just different. And different felt pretty okay at the moment.

--

“You know, I think we might actually be early today. My hair came together way faster than usual this morning.” Even as Josuke spoke, though, he was double checking it in a small compact mirror he’d extracted from his pocket.

“We’d better walk extra slow then.” Okuyasu gave Josuke a jovial nudge in the ribs. “Can’t risk our reputation as delinquents.” Not that they really were too delinquent. Just enough to maintain their kewl aesthetic.

---

Since Okuyasu’s first appearance at Josuke’s door on the Thursday of the previous week, the two had been walking to and from school together every day. The habit had almost foundered at its inception when, on the second day, Okuyasu had failed to appear at the Higashikata gate. But Josuke had marched over to his new friend’s home to inform him that he’d been late for their morning rendezvous and should really make a point of being on time so the latter wouldn’t have to rush over to fetch him and risk his freshly-coiffed do. Okuyasu had looked a bit surprised at this, but he hadn’t failed to show up at Josuke’s house at the prompt hour of 7 am ever since then.

Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, the two had discovered they had rather a lot in common. They both ardently disliked going to school, doing homework, having to be anywhere at an unreasonably early hour... they also bore particular loathing for the absurdly popular manga Pink Dark Boy. On the other hand, they quite enjoyed playing video games, styling their hair, and eating food...which just about summed up Josuke’s extra-curricular life at the moment. Of course, at some point, Josuke was planning to branch out into other kinds of after-school activities like...well, he was planning to branch out and that was good enough for right now.

And having someone around with a developed Stand was pretty kewl as well. Not that there was anything wrong with Koichi. But his Stand was still...well...an egg and that wasn’t able to do much of anything. But Josuke and Okuyasu could swap ideas about possible uses for their Stands and discuss tag-team fighting strategies in preparation for any future encounters with Red Hot Chili Pepper. And though the electrical Stand and its user had been strangely quiet since his last appearance at the Nijimura house, Josuke supposed it was only a matter of time before he showed up again.

---

When the pair separated to head to their respective classes, neither Josuke nor Okuyasu had confirmed any plans to hang out later. They’d known each other little more than a week and yet they already expected that they’d drif together during lunch hour and then again after school for the walk home. Except today, as Josuke fell in at Okuyasu’s side and the two were about to walk out the school door, he’d been greeted by the class rep, who had stepped out to intercept them with both hands on her hips and her foot tapping.

“Forget something, Higashikata?”

“I don’t think so...wait...I’m not assigned to stay after school today...am I???”

“Actually you are. So don’t think I’m going to let you wander off.”

“Shit...no way. Really?” He turned to Okuyasu and given him a helpless look.

The latter shrugged. It was bad luck Josuke get stuck doing cleaning duty on a Friday of all days, but what was he supposed to do about it?

“Guess I’ll catch you later.”

“Guess so. Sorry, dude.”

“You and me both.”

--

A few hours later, as Josuke was trudging home by himself in a less than chipper mood, he noticed a small squabble taking place in front of a store. On closer inspection, he was surprised to find that one of the two participants in the disagreement was Okuyasu and the other appeared to be the shopkeeper, who was a short, wizened old woman. The woman was performing a rather impressive monologue that she delivered with very precise vehemence...which she punctuated with furious swings at Okuyasu with her walking stick.

Okuyasu was trying to apologize for something or other, but the old woman, probably hard of hearing and loathe to pause her eloquent diatribe (lest she lose her momentum), kept at it a for a good three or four minutes more before she delivered one final, indignant swing and returned to her place in the shop, huffing and muttering.

Josuke walked over suddenly feeling highly amused.

“What’d you do to piss off the old lady?” He’d asked, a huge grin on his face.

“Y-you see that?”

“It was kinda hard to miss. So what’d you do?”

Okuyasu looked embarrassed. “Nothing.” Josuke gave him an incredulous look. “Well, I didn’t do anything this time anyway. My brother and I...before when we first got here, we were pretty broke… and we might have, uh, shoplifted food from the old lady a few times. It was Keicho’s idea, ‘cause he said she doesn’t see too good. He’d have me distract her while he...well, let’s just say I wasn’t very good at it and she caught on. And she’s still angry.”

Okuyasu was looking at his feet. Josuke probably thought he was a pretty crappy person right now. “I-I don’t like doing that kinda stuff and I don’t do it anymore. But we literally had nothing and the first time we did it, it had been two whole days of no food because some shit had gone wrong with the bank and--” He felt the need to explain, to justify himself in his new friend’s eyes, but Josuke had put a hand on his shoulder, halting his speech.

“Wanna see something hilarious?” Josuke was giving him a mischievous look.

“What?”

“Wait here.” And Josuke had disappeared into the woman’s shop.

A minute later there was a crash of glass and the sound of the woman shrieking.

“Aaaiiii!! Shitty brats breaking my merchandise!!”

Josuke’s voice drifted out. “I don’t know what you mean. Your merchandise is just fine. See?”

“Don’t you think you can pull one over on me!!! I saw you knock that bottle off the shelf!!!!”

“Really, I’m very confused... there’s nothing wrong with this bottle.”

“Don’t you sass me young man!”

“I would never…”

“Out of my store!”

“I really don’t know what you think I did, but…”

“Out! Out! Out!”

And out came Josuke with the woman close behind him, brandishing her walking stick in one hand and a broom in the other. Josuke had really done it now.

“You again!” She’d spied Okuyasu. “There are two of you shitheads!!!”

“I’d suggest we run.” And Josuke had grabbed Okuyasu by the arm and the two had gone barrelling down the street to escape the old woman’s wrath.

They only stopped after they’d put several blocks between themselves and the woman and turned several corners. It really hadn’t been necessary to go so far, but something about their overreaction made it all the funnier. Josuke was fairly cackling as he stooped to catch his breath.

“You should have seen her face when I fixed that bottle. She was SO mad! She was even more upset than when I broke it.” He gave Okuyasu a friendly pat on the back. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re crazy fast? I thought I was gonna die trying to keep up with you.” He straightened up. “Well, you seemed to have enjoyed that.”

Okuyasu realized that he was grinning from ear to ear.

“I guess I did. But why did you...I mean what made you…”

“You looked pretty down about her yelling at you. So I figured I’d lighten the mood a bit.”

“That was pretty crazy of you.”

“Yeah? You want to try something even crazier?”

“Like what?”

“You wanna see how many shops we can get kicked out of using my ol’ smash and fix trick? You can help with the smashing and I’ll do the fixing.”

“Are you serious? Is it even okay for you to use your Stand like that?”

“It’s not hurting anything. Besides I wanna see if I can set a new record. You think ten is doable.”

“Ten?! You want to get kicked out of ten stores?!”

“What, you think ten isn’t enough?”

“No, I just mean…”

“Just think of it as earning points towards our delinquent aesthetic AND getting in our daily exercise. And, if that’s not tempting enough, we can head to my place afterward to EAT. You haven’t lived until you’ve tasted my mom’s cooking. That sound like something you’re game for?”

Okuyasu was overwhelmed, but he managed a weak nod.

“Alright then. Let’s go.”

And off they went.

---

By the end of the evening, they’d managed to anger a whopping fourteen store owners (a new record) and had only had to stop a half dozen times to fix Josuke’s hair. Apparently, successfully pulling off the delinquent aesthetic required that Josuke’s hair maintain its uncomparable flawlessness. Josuke had even fixed up Okuyasu’s hair a few times, because, as he explained, bros did not let bros cause mischief and mayhem with unkempt hair.

They’d finished the night with multiple servings of Tomoko’s katsudon and several rounds of Mario Kart, all of which ended with Okuyasu soundly defeating Josuke. And when they finally parted later that evening at Okuyasu's front door, Josuke having insisted on walking his new friend home, they were both so giddy that it would be several more hours before either of them could even think of trying to sleep.

---

Josuke had hardly slept that night, which was unusual. He was awake long before the crack of dawn and by the time the sun was finally starting to ease over the horizon, he’d already made plans that he’d make his way over to Okuyasu’s at the not unreasonable hour of eight. He’d invite him for a Mario Kart re-match and once they’d worn themselves out on that he had a few ideas for things they might do downtown.

But as Josuke, with his hair freshly pomped and his least wrinkled shirt on, had been heading towards the front door he’d felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Tomoko, her hair tied back in a handkerchief, wearing sweats and an apron.

“You forget that we’re cleaning the garage today?”

“Uhhh...funny you should ask…” But seriously, what was it with people trying to get him to clean shit this weekend?

“Josuke. You are not going to ditch me again so I can throw my back out again trying to…”

“Didn’t you just clean out the garage the other week?!”

“Try three months ago.”

“I mean, that’s pretty recently. How bad can it be in there?”

“Bad enough. Now go change into something you’re okay with getting dirty.”

“Ah, come on. I just did my hair, though. You know how long it took to get it this nice?”

“Yes, your hair looks wonderful. And whoever you’re all dressed up to go see can wait until you’re done helping your poor mom lift heavy boxes.”

“I’m not all dressed up to...what makes you think I’m...I mean...where’d you get the idea that I’m…”

“You overdid it on the cologne. Come on, Josuke. I wasn’t born yesterday. But it’s clearly not a date date because you’d be even more dressed up for that. Also, it’s way too early in the day. Which means your ‘just hanging out’ and keeping things casual. But... since you agreed to help me with the garage over a week ago, I think I have first dibs on your time.”

“But I…”

“Now go call your friend and tell him you’ll be over later.”

“I don’t have his number to…”

“Well, then you’d better work extra hard so we can get done faster.”

“I--why can’t I just--oh, whatever. Fine, then. We gotta hurry, though.”

But as Josuke went marching back to his room, he missed his mom’s knowing smirk and the small glance she cast in the direction of the dilapidated old house just down the road.

---

Unfortunately, cleaning out the garage ended up taking up the greater part of the day. It was nearing six when Josuke had finally gotten himself back into a presentable state and made it to Okuyasu’s house. He’d run up the front steps and was on the verge of knocking on the front door when he saw Okuyasu coming around the side of the house with a garbage bag.

“You cleaning too? And without being told to by anyone?!”

“Sort of.” Okuyasu had set the bulging bag down at his feet. “I’m throwing out some of my bro’s stuff.”

“Why?”

“Well, it’s just stuff I don’t want around the house anymore.”

“Like?”

Okuyasu pulled open the top of the bag and gestured for Josuke to inspect its contents.

“Holy shit...this is...liquor! Okuyasu you can’t throw this out! This stuff is still good. Where did he even get this? He’s not old enough to buy liquor.”

“Keicho gets whatever Keicho wants. He’s always been that way.”

“Well, I was gonna ask you over for a Mario Kart re-match, but I’ve had an inspiration. Instead of you throwing this out, why don’t we sample a bit of it.”

“Josuke! We can’t do that!”

“Throwing it out is such a waste, though! I mean have you ever tried alcohol?”

“Well, no. I mean, I saw what it did to my dad and my brother and...well...I wouldn’t want to be like that.”

“Okuyasu. As long as you’re responsible and show moderation, you’ll be fine. Having a drink every now and again won’t make you a bad person. Here.” He’d taken out one of the bottles. “Tell you what. Just to prove my point, why don’t we try some?”

“Right now?!”

“Yeah. Of course! Right here, right now. It’s totally safe. We’ll each take one sip and if you don’t like it, you don’t ever have to have any again. Okay?”

“I don’t know…”

“Listen. I know you’ve had a really shitty time with your family, but you shouldn’t let that make you afraid of things. It shouldn’t keep you from enjoying life.” Okuyasu still had an uneasy frown. “Okay, look...if this really makes you that uncomfortable, I won’t push it. Okay?”

“Okay.” His friend’s whole expression relaxed in an instant.

“But you wouldn’t mind if I…”

“Oh, go ahead.”

Josuke had the bottle open in a second and was taking a swig. He coughed and made a face, his cheeks flushing red.

“Woo! That stuff burns all the way down. But it’s actually not bad.”

“What kind is it?” Okuyasu was peering at the dark bottle curiously.

“Vodka, I think.” Josuke sloshed the dark liquid around in the bottle. How the hell was he supposed to know? He’d only ever seen (and sampled) his grandfather’s stuff and he wasn’t even a hundred percent as to what that was.

“Well, I’ll put this back I guess.” He was about to place the bottle back in the trash bag when Okuyasu put out an arm to stop him.

“Maybe just a sip.”

“You don’t have to just cause I did.”

“No. It’s not that. I-I don’t know. I’m just kinda curious is all. And it can’t hurt right?”

“Up to you, bro.”

Okuyasu scrutinized the bottle carefully. “Well, here goes nothing.” But he nearly spat it up. “What the hell is that? Do people actually drink this?! That tastes like shit.”

“It’s not about the taste, though I guess people get used to that. It’s the nice warm feeling afterward.”

“Do they all taste like this?”

There was a mischievous glint in Josuke’s eye. “We could find out.” He was already digging through the bag and bringing out bottles.

“Josuke!”

“Okay! Okay! I’ll put them back!”

“We can’t just sit out in the front yard like this where everyone can see! Come on! Aren’t you smarter than that?”

Josuke was a bit stunned for a moment. And then he gave Okuyasu a huge Cheshire cat grin.

---

Several “samples” later, Josuke was stumbling through his front door with Okuyasu in tow. He vaguely remembered his mom saying something about going out that evening, and, sure enough, when reached the kitchen, he saw her note on the fridge that said that she would be back later (but she wasn’t going to give him a specific time because if he assumed she would be walking in the door at any moment then he'd feel more compelled to behave and less compelled to make a mess) and that she loved him (but not enough to share her sponge cake and so he had better keep his greedy little hands off them if he knew what was good for him) and that really he’d been a big help (despite the fact that he had complained the entire time)...he’d stopped reading because he’d gotten the basic gist of it.

Josuke heard Okuyasu giggling behind him as he summoned Crazy Diamond to reach in the cabinet above the fridge. He was looking for his mother’s favorite flask, a gift from Joseph Joestar, which she of course never used and wouldn’t miss for just this evening.

“Hey, don’t spill the goods.” Josuke reprimanded as Okuyasu tilted to one side precariously. He was carrying their two favorite “samples”. Josuke brought out the flask and set it on the counter. “Alright. Pour it in.”

“Both of them. Are you supposed to do that?” Okuyasu’s speech was already a bit slurred.

“I don’t fucking know. Let’s just try it and see what happens.”

They sloshed half the bottles onto the counter and themselves in the process, but their flask was sufficiently full.

“You mind if I change real quick?”

“Go ahead, bro. ‘s your house.”

“Thanks.”

“Thanks for what?”

Josuke paused and then said, emphatically. “I don’t know! Be right back.”

And off he went down the hall. But by the time he had gotten to his room, he couldn’t seem to remember what he’d gone there for.

“HEY! OKU!” He popped his head out into the hallway, hollering as loudly as he could manage. “OKU!”

“Huh?” Okuyasu had appeared from the kitchen.

“What’d I come back here for?”

“Uh… a shirt or something.”

“Oh, yeah! You know where I put it?”

“Uh…”

“Well, don’t just stand there mouth agape. Come help me find it!”

“Uh, okay.”

Okuyasu came tripping down the hall.

“Dude, your room’s a disaster.”

“Thanks.”

“So what are we looking for?”

“A shirt.”

“Okay. What color? What’s it look like?”

“I don’t know. What color do you like?”

“Ummm….”

“Whatever. I’ll pick.” Josuke was flinging clothing left and right from the many piles scattered throughout his room. He came out finally with two shirts: one pale blue and the other lilac. “Opinions?”

“Uh...that one.” Okuyasu pointed to the lilac shirt.

“Thaaaaat….is the correct answer.” Josuke tossed the other shirt at Okuyasu.

“What’s this for?”

“You got booze all over yourself.”

“But this is yours.”

“So? We’re about the same size, right?”

“Yeah, but…”

“Just put it on.” Then Josuke realized he was being rude. “Please.”

“O-okay then.”

Josuke had already changed and was applying cologne generously.

“Want some?”

“Nah. That’s okay.”

Josuke had paused and tilted his head to one side. He was looking very carefully at Okuyasu. “Hey. Blue’s good on you.”

“You think?”

“Yeah. Now let’s jet.”

They were starting down the hallway toward the door when Josuke came skidding to a halt, throwing out both arms as he did.

“HOLD ON!!!”

“What? What’s the matter?” Okuyasu had wrinkled up his face in concern.

Josuke gave a small toss of his head and winked at his friend. “We forgot the most important thing.”

“What’s that?”

“HAIR CHECK!” And Josuke had thrown an arm around Okuyasu and was steering him back toward the bathroom.

---

One hair check later, Josuke and Okuyasu were out the door, the flask tucked away in Josuke’s pocket.

“First order of business…” Josuke pointed a single finger upward for emphasis, “...we need to visit our fifteenth store of the weekend.”

Okuyasu was howling. “They won’t know what hit them!”

But even before they’d arrived at the store Josuke had identified their first “target”. A tall, thin man with teal hair and a green headband was taking pictures of people in the park. Probably some photographer or something taking advantage of the gorgeous sunset.

“What a shame would it be if someone were to run through the back of all his pictures.” And off Josuke went to do just that. The photographer guy looked rather irritated at first, but he continued snapping shots. Josuke continued ruining each picture he tried to take.

“Do you fucking mind?” The teal-haired guy was turning red with fury.

“You druuunk, bro?” Josuke taunted.

“I swear, I will beat the fucking shit out of you.”

“NOO!!!!!” Okuyasu had charged in suddenly and football tackled the guy. “Run, Josuke! I got ya covered!”

“What the hell?!” The photographer was trying to shove the drunken teenager off of his lap. Josuke was rushing in to help his friend.

“Jooosuke! You’re going the wrong way. Saaaave yourself!!!” But even as he spoke, Josuke was attempting to pull Okuyasu to his feet, which turned out to be much more difficult than it looked, as the latter seemed to be having some serious balance issues.

“Up we go. Come on now. Stay with me here.”

Josuke had finally managed to seize his friend under the arms and was hoisting him into a standing position. Or trying to anyway.

“Come on, Oku. This is not the time to be making friends. So let’s get on our feet and get on out.”

“Nah. You don’t gotta worry ‘ bout me. I’d never hang with anyone who dresses like THAT.” Okuyasu yanked his shirt up to expose his midriff in clear, mocking imitation of the man’s crop top. Josuke turned eight different shades of red as his bloodshot eyes ate up the sight of his friend's beautifully toned abdomen.

“EXCUSE ME?!” The man looked furious now.

“Holy shit, Oku, you can't just show people up like that. It's seriously unfair.” Josuke was reaching over to pull his friend’s shirt back down. “You’re seriously gonna mess a guy up doing stuff like that. And besides, like I was saying, right now is really not a good time to start making friends with…” He threw a judgmental glance at the photographer. “...the cantankerous among us.”

“The what?”

But before Josuke could answer, there was a camera flying at his head. The teal-haired guy had chucked it at him with everything he had. Luckily, as fast as the thing came at him, Crazy D was a split second faster and knocked it off course.

“Oh, he’s pissed. We better scram.”

The pair were scuttling away, laughing hysterically.

The photographer, not a photographer at all but a mangaka, rose and adjusted his clothing and smoothed his hair. He strode to collect the remnants of his camera. He figured if the film roll was intact he still might be able to get the pictures developed. But he really needed to not make a habit of throwing expensive devices at people. This’d be the second time this week that he’d...but he as he lifted the camera off the grass, he saw there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. That small, colorful flash he’d seen when the pompadoured asshole knocked it away...what exactly had that been...

“YOU’LL NEVER TAKE US ALIVE CROP TOP!!!!!!!!” Josuke’s drunken voice rang out across the park. It was the most irritating sound Kishibe Rohan had ever heard.

---

The night was really off to a great start. After having thoroughly vexed an unsuspecting shopkeeper, they’d gone to Koichi’s house, snuck into the garage, and placed his bike on the roof. Then Josuke had run up and down the street screeching incoherently about eggs until even Koichi’s lazy dog, Police, noticed and gave a few unimpressive barks to let the delinquents know that they’d disturbed his sleep.

Now they were standing outside the Morioh Grand Hotel. Josuke had the flask out and after taking a few sips, he passed it to Okuyasu.

“Liquid courage.” He explained unnecessarily. Okuyasu nodded and they bumped fists and headed for the hotel entrance.

They walked into the lobby very calmly and Josuke informed the front desk that he was Jotaro Kujo’s uncle and asked if they would please call his nephew and inform him that he needed to come downstairs for a very serious discussion. The hotel clerk gave him a dubious look, but did as she was asked. After the call had been placed, the boys tried to play it cool as best they could while the hotel staff looked on with raised eyebrows.

Nearly five minutes had passed when Okuyasu suddenly excused himself on some pretense or another, leaving Josuke to wait ever so patiently with arms crossed and foot a-tapping.

After another few minutes, Jotaro appeared.

“Something wrong?”

“I wanted to ask you some questions about my Stand.” Josuke was trying incredibly hard to sound sober.

“Your Stand?”

“Yes. I was hoping for a demonstration or something from my favorite nephew.”

“Josuke?”

“Hmm?”

“You wouldn’t happen to be drunk would you?”

“No way. I just wanted you show me how to make Crazy Diamond...uh...do kewl stuff.”

“Do ‘kewl stuff’?”

Josuke’d summoned Crazy Diamond. The Stand was a hovering a bit off kilter.

“First off, if you could make him fly straight or whatever the hell he’s doing. See when I try to get him to...oh shit.” The Stand had stumbled forward as if it was going to fall flat on its face, but Star Platinum had appeared, catching it.

“You are drunk.” Jotaro narrowed his eyes at Josuke.

“Wow. Good catch there. That was like super neat-o nephew. Kinda like your hat.”

“My what?”

But it was gone. Holy shit. They’d done it. The Hand was sprinting away with the hat and delivering it into Okuyasu’s outstretched hands. And now Okuyasu was sprinting faster than he ever had in his life.

“RUN OKU!!!! RUUNNNN!!!! I’LL HOLD HIM OFF!!!!!”

Crazy Diamond had seized Star Platinum’s arm before the latter could pursue Okuyasu, who was already out the lobby’s sliding doors.

Jotaro’s eyes were slits.

“I will be calling your mother.”

“That’s kewl. But before you do, I have something for you.” He clapped something into his nephew’s hand. “Since you seem to have misplaced your hat.”

And Josuke was gone with a cackle. Jotaro looked down at the container in his hand. And the label, which read ‘women’s hair styling cream’.

“Yare yare daze…”

---

Josuke and Okuyasu had sprinted all the way back to the park. Their idea had been to run straight home from the hotel so they could hide the hat, but Okuyasu hadn’t made it that far. When Josuke, who had a been a little ways behind, saw his friend had stopped off early, he rushed to close the gap between them. Okuyasu was bent over, as if exhausted from his run, his hands on his knees.

“You tired or something?”

“Nah, bro. I’m feeling kinda sick actually.”

“Shit. No kidding?” But Okuyasu was already retching. “Oh, hey. That’s okay. That happens sometimes.” He’d come up behind Okuyasu and put his arms around him to steady him. “That’s okay. Get it all out. I promise you’ll feel so much better after. Yeah, there you go. You’re okay.”

When Okuyasu had finished, Josuke pulled him upright.

“Hey, sorry. That was pretty gross.”

“It’s cool, bro. Here.” He helped Okuyasu wipe his mouth with the hat. “And just take a quick sip of this. You don’t gotta swallow it, but just swish it ‘round your mouth a little. It’ll get the bad taste out.” He was offering Okuyasu the flask.

“Thanks.” Okuyasu did as instructed.

“You think you’re okay to walk home now?”

“Could we maybe just sit here for a few minutes?”

“Sure. But let’s move over there. Okay?”

“Yeah.”

Okuyasu was extremely unsteady on his feet.

“I gotcha.” Josuke had an arm around him again and was half-lifting him off the ground. “I’ll get you over there. Don’t worry.”

“Sorry, I’m such a lightweight.”

“You call this light? Dude, you weigh a ton.”

“Oh…”

“Kidding. Kidding. You’re fine.”

“I meant about the booze...being a lightweight about the booze. I’m sorry about that.”

“You don’t gotta apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Are you apologizing for apologizing?”

“Uh...I guess?”

“Well, don’t. You don’t gotta be sorry all the time. And wouldn’t that cancel out the apology anyway?”

“Maybe?”

They were heading through a cluster of trees toward one of the park’s grassy knolls.

“Josuke! Watch your hair!” Josuke had ducked rather dramatically just in time to miss a low hanging branch. It had been a very near miss.

“Shit. Where’d that come from?” He steered them out into the open and away from the trees as quickly as he could. “Good eyes, bro. Did my pomp survive?”

“It looks like it.”

“Good.”

They’d reached the knoll and Josuke helped his friend seat himself on the grass before he flopped down next to him. Josuke was fumbling for his compact to check his hair, but he couldn’t seem to find it.

“Ah, fuck it. I’ll just look like shit then.” He had the flask out and was taking a large swallow.

“You’re gonna make yourself sick.”

“Eh, probably. But having bad hair will make me sicker.” He took another swallow for good measure.

Several minutes passed in silence. Okuyasu had laid down in the grass and was looking up at the night sky. Josuke was fiddling compulsively with the flask and unscrewing and re-screwing the cap over and over again, taking the occasional sip.

“You know what?” Josuke said finally, slurring every syllable as another wave of alcohol entered his bloodstream. “I’m really glad you tried to kick my ass last week. I mean, yeah, there was a lot of fuck-y things that happened with that, but, shit, man, it’s real nice having a friend I can do stupid crap like this with. I mean, it’s gonna sound weird, but I’ve never really gotten along with people. They always rubbed me the wrong way or vice versa. Growing up with a Stand...that’s some lonely shit right there. And not having anyone who could see it and always feelin’ different. I mean, if you look at all the girls running around after me, you’d think I was a real popular guy or something. But no one’s ever cared about me as more than just a nice thing to look at. And maybe that gives a guy a bit of an ego but then at the end of the day you’re sitting at home alone and wishin’ you weren’t. That’s how it’s always been.” There was an almost sober pause. “But now you’re here and shit and that’s just great, Okuyasu. You know? It’s really just great. It just makes everything feel okay. Like all the time before when I worried about not having friends doesn’t matter now.” Another long pause. Josuke was yanking up tufts of grass. “Shit, dude, you didn’t fall asleep on me, did ya?”

“Nah, I’m just thinking about what you said.”

“Do I sound as stupid and drunk as I feel?”

“No.” Okuyasu sat up and cocking his head slightly, gave Josuke a curious look. “I’ve just never had anyone who wanted to be my friend before.”

“You kidding me?”

“No.”

“Well, fuck. Everyone else is just missing out.” Josuke flopped down onto his back, clearly too drunk now to notice his hair was getting messed up. “The stars look real nice.”

Okuyasu looked up. “Yeah, they do.”