Chapter Text
The downstairs bathroom was cramped, certainly not built for two people to inhabit simultaneously; let alone two grown men, and yet there they were. Jotaro sat on the edge of the small bathtub as his husband paced circles around the limited floorspace.
“Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck,” Kakyoin muttered under his breath, “We’re so fucked. Even people who are fucked are pointing at us going ‘at least we’re not as fucked as those two fucks-”
“Will you stop saying that,” Jotaro hissed, hands tensing so tight he nearly crushed the small cardboard box in his grip, “Fucking is what got us here in the first place.”
“How could this have even happened?”
“You know how this happened.” Jotaro’s voice adopted so much gravel that it was nearly a snarl.
Kakyoin’s pace slowed, his face turning slightly red at the memory. Yeah, he knew how it happened.
Jotaro was in the trenches of one of the most violent heats he had ever experienced. His scent was so thick it smothered everything within a 15 foot radius, including Kakyoin’s capacity for rational decision making. The alpha’s rut wasn’t scheduled for another week, but the intensity of the pheromones surrounding him overrode his body’s rhythm. It wasn’t long before Kakyoin’s rut-ridden brain was all too eager to do whatever his omega demanded of him. Even if that demand was knotting him raw because he was taking too damn long to find a condom.
That had been two months before Kakyoin found himself crammed in the downstairs bathroom with a pregnancy test and a pissed off omega by his side.
He turned to Jotaro, shrinking back defensively. “You told me yourself that ‘safety is for pussies!’”
“And you fucking believed me? I was in heat! You were–” Jotaro stopped himself, noticing the crack in his composure with a mounting sense of self-awareness. He drew in a deep breath, trying and failing to force himself to relax. “You know what? It’s fine. It can’t happen. This won’t happen, we’re gonna be fine. Nothing is going to happen.”
It was clear to both men in the room that he was more trying to convince himself that it was true than anything else.
“If that’s the case, then you shouldn’t have any problems with taking the test,” Kakyoin said, matching Jotaro’s energy the best he could.
Jotaro’s eye twitched, looking down at the pastel box in his hands and then back up at Kakyoin.
“I’m building to it, okay?” He snapped, a bit louder than intended.
“Just piss on the stick, Kujo!” Kakyoin snapped back. They had been hemming and hawing at this test for an hour and a half, and the breaking point was fast approaching for both of them.
“Alright. Alright!” Jotaro said, finally tearing open the cardboard packaging.
One of the plastic wrapped tests fell to the bathroom tile with a clatter that made both mens’ hairs raise. Kakyoin crouched to pick it up, handing it off to Jotaro with a mild tremor in his fingers. The omega took the test in his hands, his usual stoicism peeling back further with every passing second.
He shuffled past Kakyoin to get to the toilet, the alpha taking his old space on the edge of the tub. The instruction booklet lay waiting next to Kakyoin’s feet, he grabbed it, clearing his throat.
“Hold the absorbent strip under the stream for at least ten seconds,” Kakyoin read aloud, voice monotone but somehow still trembling.
Ten seconds passed.
Jotaro swallowed the sour taste building at the back of his throat.
“Done.”
“Alright.” Kakyoin took a deep breath before continuing, “Re-cap the test, and place on a flat surface.”
The test was placed face-down next to the sink, Jotaro couldn’t bring himself to look back at it as he rinsed his hands off.
“Wait ten minutes for results.”
“Ten minutes?!”
“I didn’t write the instructions, babe. Just relax,” Kakyoin said, his voice somewhere between frustration, fear, and forced calm, “Freaking out is not doing us any favors, it’s not like it’ll change the results.”
Jotaro dragged his hands through his hair, bracing his elbows on the sink. “Yeah. Yeah. You’re right. Panicking won’t– I mean, what’s the worst case scenario? We can have a kid. We’re both adults. You have a job. I have a job. We’ll be great at it.” His breathing was still shaky but he kept going regardless, “Granted, I work sixty hours a week, we live in an industrial loft that has concrete floors, and our roommates are a pervy Frenchman and a dog that has a long history of biting children… but that’s fine! People have been raised in worse conditions! And then there’s the whole permanently altering my body thing, right after I got my bench to 220 kilos. But that’s fine, really! Who even needs a pelvic floor?”
It was the fastest Kakyoin had ever heard Jotaro talk, his voice cracked awkwardly between sentences and he’d stammer between words. It was almost endearing.
Kakyoin reached for the omega’s hand, rubbing calming circles across his knuckles with his thumb.
“Look, we agreed that we wanted to have kids eventually! It might just be happening a little sooner than we thought. We’re financially stable thanks to SpeedWagon, Polnareff loves kids. Everything is going to be fine,” Kakyoin said, stable and soothing and lying through his teeth.
“You mean it?” Jotaro glanced up, unsure.
“No,” Kakyoin said, folding under absolutely zero pressure.
Jotaro’s face dropped further, horror slowly mounting as his brain came up with a true worst-case-scenario.
“Twins.”
Kakyoin froze in his place, time seeming to stop without the help of The World this time.
“What if it’s multiples?” Jotaro asked.
“It’s going to be fine!” Kakyoin said, composure cracking, desperation seeping in, “Let’s just… Let’s just distract ourselves. Funny internet videos!” The redhead scrambled for his phone, tapping the first source of short-form entertainment that he could find.
The volume was set to high, hopefully whatever video comes up first would be loud enough to drown out the noise of their collective anxiety…
“WHAT I EAT IN A DAY AS A MOM OF TRIPLETS!” echoes through the bathroom from the phone speaker.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!” The response was unanimous. Noriaki nearly threw his phone across the room.
The shock, while breathtakingly horrific, still managed to pull them back into the present. Kakyoin let out a shaky, broken laugh, which Jotaro was quick to join in on. The universe, it seemed, had decided to toy with them specifically. What else could they do?
"Ok. Best case scenario…” Kakyoin said, steadying his breath, “It's nothing. Huzzah. Let’s go get gyoza and pound back some beers.” He let the comfort of the possibility linger for just a moment longer than was necessary before continuing.
“If it's the worst case scenario, we call Holly. She is smarter than us in that regard, right? She raised you and you turned out…” his breath hitched, his eyes darting back up to his husband, “The way that you turned out.”
Jotaro huffed but stayed silent, allowing the alpha to speak further.
"We talk to her, figure out our next steps. Then we can freak the fuck out, and we still go get gyoza and pound back beers.“ he stopped himself, pausing for a brief moment of consideration, “Or I guess I'll pound beer. We'll get you, like, a mocktail situation.”
Jotaro buried his face in his hands. "If I'm knocked up my students will never let it go. I’m going to be that professor, the one that gets pregnant halfway through the school year and has to go on leave before final exams,” he said, voice still cracking unusually at random intervals, “I used to give my teachers all sorts of crap for doing stuff like… performing the miracle of childbirth. God, I was an asshole. What if this is some sort of cosmic justice for my past behavior?”
"You're talking about this like we already got the results. You even said you were confident it couldn't happen." Kakyoin said, warming Jotaro’s hand in his.
"I was lying. I have a PHD and an elementary understanding of statistics. I was in heat, you were in a rut, we're both in our prime in terms of fertility, and oh yeah, it was unprotected. Do you know what the odds are?"
“Not really!”
“Higher than 50 percent I’ll tell you that. I’d give you the actual percentage but 82 percent of statistics are made up on the spot.”
“Ok, I know that you’re stressed, but making a dad joke is not helping your case at the moment.”
“Huh? Jotaro paused, ran his previous statement back through his head, and realized Kakyoin’s assessment was accurate. “Goddammit!”
“Babe, I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but you need to calm down. Take whatever time we have left to bre–”
The timer went off. Ten minutes had passed.
Kakyoin went pale, Jotaro froze in his spot. The obnoxious ringer and vibrations echoed.
“I guess it’s time to turn it over,” Kakyoin said, his voice hushed. “Do you want me to flip it over or…”
“I’ll do it,” Jotaro muttered back, “Just give me a minute.”
“Okay.” Kakyoin nodded.
Jotaro looked down at the back of the test next to the sink, he had been through several near-death experiences less terrifying than this. He cleared his throat and looked up at his husband, their eyes meeting.
“Nori, before I flip it over, I want you to know that I don’t know how I’ll respond if it’s positive, and I need to know if you’ll be ok with whatever my choice… ends up being.” Jotaro gripped one hand on the marble countertop, the vulnerability weighing on him. “I can’t go through what my mom went through. I’m not strong enough- emotionally, for that.” The last part of his sentence was rushed, admitting weakness was never something that Jotaro excelled at.
Kakyoin got up to stand next to the omega in front of the sink, wrapping his arms around his shoulders from behind.
“Babe, no matter what you choose, I’m staying right here. You’re my mate. I’m not gonna jump ship at the first sign of trouble. Because you are my best friend, Jojo. I’d follow you to the ends of the goddamn Earth if that would make you happy.”
Jotaro closed his eyes just for a moment, leaning into his mate's touch.
“Okay.”
“You ready?”
“Not in the slightest,” Jotaro let out a soft huff, “let’s do it.”
Kakyoin’s hold loosened slightly as Jotaro slid the test across the marble countertop, still face-down.
The nausea roiled heavily low in Jotaro’s gut as his fingers met the plastic handle.
“Whatever happens…”
“I’ll be there for,” Kakyoin finishes.
And, with one quick flick of his fingers, the test was flipped around.
“MOTHERFUCKER!”
Two little pink lines.
Jotaro didn’t say anything else after the knee-jerk obscenity he let slip. His jaw locked up tight as the weight of the results crashed into him. Emotions. A lot of them. All at once. Too much to process.
His shoulders started to shake, nausea crawling up his throat, the test fell from his fingers. He didn’t notice that his scent was getting thicker, but it was, water lily and seasalt hung in the air around him.
It was a defense mechanism before anything else, an evolutionary quirk unique to omegas. It was popularly theorized that omega’s scents grow more potent when in distress to attract either an alpha to protect them, or more morbidly, have their pursuer feel more inclined to fuck them than kill them. While it may have been very useful in prehistory, the reflex had little use in most modern contexts, at least outside of a few intimate moments between partners.
Kakyoin, also terrified and in shock, was abruptly pulled out of his own spiral after taking one sniff of the air surrounding him. His big, unshakable, perpetually stoic best friend was panicking. And, on a more primal level, he registered that his mate was in distress, and that took precedence any day of the week for him.
Jotaro was a bigger man than him by a not-insignificant margin either, but when they were both willing, Kakyoin could maneuver him with relative ease. His arms slid down his torso and firmly tugged the omega into his arms. While Jotaro was stiff at first, he never made any effort to pull away, instead he let himself be handled just for the moment. Kakyoin’s fingers laced through the back of his hair, just above the scruff of his neck, tilting his head to rest on the alpha’s shoulder.
Jotaro’s heartbeat was all over the place, his breathing ragged and unsteady. He refused to cry, even for this, but he couldn’t stop himself from trembling into Kakyoin’s shoulder.
“Deep breaths, big guy,” Kakyoin said, voice steady and comforting, “I need you to breathe.”
Jotaro forced his eyes shut tight, and drew in a long inhale. Kakyoin’s scent was strong, distinct; amaretto, cherries, coffee grounds, and something earthy that Jotaro couldn’t quite place. It was just grounding enough to bring his heart rate to a steady pace, the nausea and fear was all still there, but it wasn’t mind-breaking anymore.
“I thought… I thought I would have more time,” Jotaro whispered into the fabric of Kakyoin’s cardigan, “or at least have quit smoking beforehand.”
Jotaro began to tremble again, Kakyoin widening his stance to brace himself against the extra weight.
“I just thought… I’d be more prepared. I’m scared, Nori,” he mumbles, the confession felt awkward and clunky coming out of his mouth but he kept going, “I’m scared because…”
“Hmm?” Kakyoin hummed, continuing to trail his nails across his husband's back.
“Because… I don’t want to get rid of it,” Jotaro said, his voice broke on the last syllable, eyes glossy with tears he would not let fall.
“Then we won’t get rid of it. That’s your decision, and I’ll be here for all of it,” Kakyoin said, pulling away just far enough that he could cup his hand to Jotaro’s cheek.
Jotaro leaned into the touch instinctively, shoulders finally going completely slack.
“This is the craziest decision we’ve ever made.”
“Absolutely bonkers,” Kakyoin conceded, “And you once bet your soul on a poker game.”
Jotaro snorted, “I did do that, didn’t I?”
“Mhmm.”
“Who the hell is letting us become fathers?”
“Don’t know,” Kakyoin said, running his middle and index fingers down Jotaro’s jawline, “But I hope they were fired for that blunder.”
Jotaro let out a soft puff of air from his nose as his husband snickered, something adjacent to a laugh.
Jotaro sat back down on the rim of the bathtub, legs slightly off-kilter and wobbly from the… everything about their situation. Kakyoin remained standing, hand braced on the sink to keep him upright.
“Okay. We need to start by calling your mom. She’s imminently practical, and will know what our next steps should be,” Kakyoin said, already reaching for his cellphone.
“You’re right. It’s just…” Jotaro looked down at the floor, running his fingers through sweat-soaked hair, “What if she’s mad?”
“Holly? Why would she be mad?”
“It’s not like this was a planned thing, we’re completely unprepared. It feels like this is all because I did something stupid and irresponsible.”
“First of all, this is all because we did something stupid and irresponsible.” Kakyoin pointed between the both of them. “Also, it’s not like this is a teen pregnancy. Holly won’t be mad, you know that. She’ll at worst be a bit worried, but we’re two gainfully employed, mated adults, one of which has a hefty trust fund that he just refuses to use.”
“Shit, I don’t want to take Speedwagon’s money.”
“Hopefully we won’t have to, it’s just a safety net. All I’m saying is that we’re not completely fucked.”
Jotaro raised an eyebrow, unconvinced.
“That’s not what you were saying fifteen minutes ago.”
“I was panicking fifteen minutes ago. I say a lot of shit when I’m panicking.”
“Panicking, past tense?”
“It’s… coming in waves,” Kakyoin admitted, rubbing the back of his neck in an effort to stave off the nerves catching up to him, “Which is why we need to call your mom before I get going again.”
“Yeah, good-” Jotaro’s stomach turned, a sour taste building at the back of his tongue, he swallowed it back, “good point.”
Kakyoin set the phone to speaker. The dial tone only needed to hum twice before Holly picked up,
“Noriaki? Is there something going on, dear?” She had her voice raised to drown out the background noise of whatever cafe or restaurant she was occupying.
Kakyoin opened his mouth but couldn’t speak, his knuckles turned white from how hard he was gripping the counter.
“Mom,” Jotaro said, his voice raspier than average, “we fucked up.”
“Oh, honey. Do you need an alibi? I have bleach and rubber gloves in the pantry. I can make some calls to Speedwagon, get us on a plane within the hour. I know that Nicaragua doesn’t have extradition laws…”
Half a laugh escaped from Jotaro’s chest, “Not like that.”
“Kind of the opposite, actually,” Kakyoin finally spoke up, jaw unclenched.
“Oh?” There was a pause as Holly put two and two together on the other line, “Oh. Congratulations? Or… my condolences?”
Kakyoin dug his canine tooth into the chapped skin of his lower lip, “We aren’t really sure yet. We need help.”
“Alright, I'll be there in an hour. Hold tight. Love you both.”
Before either of them could respond, Holly hung up.
There was a solid thirty seconds of silence between the two men, they stayed in place, occasionally looking up at eachother in some effort to ground themselves. Kakyoin drummed his fingers against the marble and cleared his throat.
“What are we gonna tell Polnareff?”
“We obviously can’t tell him immediately,” Jotaro said, picking up the torn carcass of the pregnancy test packaging, folding it flat, and stuffing it into the wastebasket, “Not when we don’t even know what we’re working with. Besides, you know how he gets when… events occur.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Kakyoin's eyes trailed down to the positive test next to his hand, face unreadable. “We can probably hide it for a while. I mean, we convinced him Avdol was dead for, what? A month?”
Jotaro nodded, getting back on his feet and turning towards the door before stopping in his tracks. “You know, it’s really dawning on me how fucked up that was.”
“We did what we had to do.” Kakyoin shrugged. “If we had told him, Dio would have gotten our ass for real.”
“And all it took was some minor psychological warfare.”
“Yeah… Ever consider that we might be going to hell?”
"Oh, if there's a god we're fucked," Jotaro said, a little too casually, clinging onto what normalcy that he could. He looked back at his husband, pushing the door open, "But still, if we tell Polnareff, our secret’s out before we even know–”
“Before you even know what, Jotaro?” Polnareff said, seated right outside the bathroom door. Jotaro and his eyes met. He did not look happy, nor particularly impressed.
“Polnareff. How much of that did you hear?” Kakyoin asked, mouth suddenly dry.
“All of it. You guys have all the quiet subtlety of a freight train, and these walls are thin.” The Frenchman scowled, leaning back in his wheelchair, arms crossed. “Do you know how hard I was trying not to listen to you both? Christ.”
“So, you already know…”
“I think I can piece it together, yeah.”
Kakyoin shoved his hands in his pockets, “Great.”
Polnareff sighed, "Look, your guys' business is your guys' business, I'm not gonna intervene or whatever. But I am a little annoyed that you compared it to the shittiest thing you people have ever done to me,” his expression softened “I’m happy for you. You’re going to make great parents.” He turned towards the living room seemingly satisfied, having said his piece.
He looked back at both of them before he could disappear down the hallway.
“I’m just saying, as your roommate, that I’m praying to god that your baby is quieter than you.”
“All the quiet subtlety of a freight train,” Jotaro repeated under his breath. He and Kakyoin stood in the doorway, neither quite able to process the fact that they were just reprimanded by Polnareff, and it was completely warranted. “Holy shit.”
“I guess that solves that problem,” Kakyoin said, taking Jotaro’s hand in his and starting towards the living room.
“He knows,” Jotaro said, his gaze fixed on a middle distance as they walked to the couch and settled down.
Polnareff knew, that meant that three other people already knew about his… situation. Situation, not a problem. As terrified as he was, he couldn’t bring himself to frame the conception of his future kid as a problem.
Still, he felt exposed in a way he was never and probably never would be fully comfortable with. He’d only been “openly” an omega for just over a year, not even intentionally; it was just that after he bonded with Kakyoin it got harder to find any plausible deniability. He stopped taking heat-suppressants and wearing scent blockers as regularly as he used to. After a while, it didn’t exactly take his top students to put together what their professor was doing on his week-long siestas every two months.
Knocked up. In less than a year after his commitment ceremony. He used to make fun of people who did that. It was enough to make him sick to his stomach… or that might have just been the constant glaring nausea he’d had for the past 24 hours.
He lurched forward, balling his fists into the fabric of his pants. “I’m nauseous,” he said, trying to push back the acrid taste building at the back of his tongue.
“Yeah, the anxiety is getting to my stomach too.”
“No. I actually might throw up.”
“Morning sickness?” Polnareff asked from the corner, not looking up from his phone.
“Don’t call it shit like that–” His sentence was cut off by a soft gag as the sour taste flooded Jotaro’s mouth. Wasting no time, he pushed himself off of the sofa and rushed back to the bathroom.
Kakyoin got up to follow him, he made it two steps before Jotaro made it to the bathroom and slammed the door behind him. The alpha put his hand to the door. “Babe…”
“GO AWAY!”
The retching was still perfectly audible from the living room as Kakyoin walked back to the couch, shoulders jumping up in cringing sympathy with every wet-heave.
Polnareff glanced up from whatever stupid TikTok he was watching, attention shifting from the door to Kakyoin to the door to Kakyoin.
"Is he... okay?"
“He’s a 6’5 cisgender male who just found out he’s gestating. Would you be okay?” Kakyoin said, readjusting his glasses.
"Point taken. How are you holding up?"
"As well as I can be doing, given the-" Another loud dry-heave echoed down the hall "Circumstances."
"I suppose you got the better end of this deal, huh?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I did.” The alpha shifted uncomfortably in his spot, “Holly's coming over, should have already been here by now. She'll probably know better what to do and she's just a calming presence in general, y'know?"
Polnareff nodded, and went back to his short-form content.
Kakyoin walked past the counter into the kitchen, pulling out the electric kettle from the cupboard.
“I’m… going to make some tea,” he said, turning the faucet on. He didn’t know what else to do, his husband was a pregnant, vomiting mess and the best he could do for him at that moment was make a pot of tea and hope he could keep it down when he came out.
It had started to rain at some point while he and Jotaro were locked in the bathroom having a collective breakdown. It wasn’t light rain either, raindrops pounded against the kitchen window as the water in the kettle started to bubble. Tempestuous. Just the theme of his night, he supposed.
The doorbell sounded out through the apartment from the bottom floor. Kakyoin almost set the kettle down mid-pour, before Polnareff wheeled himself past the kitchen to the stairwell ramp.
“I’ll get it.”
Kakyoin found it difficult to keep his mind on the tea, he could hear Holly shaking off her umbrella and making smalltalk with Polnareff in the studio, and he kept forgetting which drawer the goddamn tin of lapsang was in.
Holly was standing at the top of the stairs before he ever ended up finding it. Her hair was damp and she had multiple precariously soggy, overstuffed paper bags dangling from her fingers. Her eyes met Kakyoin’s, stable, experienced, and concerned.
Kakyoin couldn’t swallow back the lump at the back of his throat anymore, the eye contact sealed the deal. His jaw trembled, unable to pretend he wasn’t completely overwhelmed anymore.
“Sweetheart…” Holly said, setting the bags on the marble countertop, “Come here.”
She held her arms out, tilting her head to the side, and allowing her son in law to wrap her up in a tight hug.
The dam broke, Kakyoin sobbing into her expensive sweater without an ounce of control. She pulled him closer, holding him steady.
“It’s gonna be alright.”
Kakyoin nodded against her shoulder.
“I know,” he said between sniffles, “Just overwhelming, s’all.”
He pulled away from the embrace, his red eyes flicking towards the stains he left on her shoulder.
“Oh my god, I am so sorry.”
“Honey, it’s alright. I’ve had this for over twenty years,” Holly chuckled, rubbing his forearm, “Believe me, this sweater has seen worse.”
“I really do apologize for being late, Noriaki. With the storm and all, traffic was just a nightmare,” Holly said, rustling through the paper bags on the counter, “But, you know me, I had to come prepared and with food.”
Kakyoin didn’t realize how long it had been since he had eaten, not since he went to the Family Mart to buy the test that morning. His eyes almost welled up again from sheer relief.
“Mrs Kujo, you are… incredible.”
“I try,” Holly said, wry smile on her lips. “First off, I went to store and got some things for–”
A wet heave sounded out from the hall, followed by a drawn-out groan.
“Morning sickness. Which I see was a good call.” She began unpacking her haul onto the counter, “I brought takeout from that Gyoza place that you boys like, some homemade chicken pastina I made last night, chocolate chip cookies also homemade… then there’s the stuff I got from the store, ginger tablets, electrolytes, prenatal vitamins in case he chooses to carry to term. If he doesn’t I have a couple bottles of prosecco in the back seat of my car.”
“Dude, your mother-in-law rules,” Polnareff said, passing by both of them to grab a can of sparkling water from the fridge.
“You really thought of everything, Holly,” Kakyoin said, running his hands through his hair.
“We’ll see about that,” Holly hummed, drumming her fingers on the marble, “Now, where is that son of mine? I want to talk to the man of the hour.”
Holly walked up to the restroom door, leaning up close to the hardwood.
“Bug? You still alive in there?”
“Unfortunately…” Jotaro’s voice was ragged and even coarser than usual.
“That good, huh?”
There was a pause and then the sound of the sink faucet running. Jotaro emerged, his face was pallid and grey, the smell of water lilly, sea salt, and a faint back-end of bile choked the air around him.
“I think I got it all out of my system.” He shuddered at the very recent memory. “Fuck.”
He looked nearly composed at that point, his hat was back on and he was upright at the very least. Then, he looked up at his mom, and just… cracked. He stumbled forward into her outstretched arms, dumping most of his weight onto her shoulders.
Holly had to brace herself for the impact, but she managed to keep herself upright without even staggering. Three decades of practice seemed to pay off at that moment.
“I’m fucking scared, mom,” he said, he couldn’t bring himself to cry, but he was far from stable at that moment.
“I know, bug.” Holly tightened her hold, running her hand down the length of his spine. “I was too.”
After several minutes of clinging to his mother’s neck with the trust of someone half his size, his ragged breathing slowly went back to normal.
He tore himself away from the hug, he still didn’t look great or even well, but a bit of color had returned to his cheeks.
Holly led him by the hand back to the couch, Kakyoin was already seated there, two steaming mugs of lapsang tea waiting for them on the side table.
Jotaro sat next to his mate, wordlessly slumping against his shoulder. Kakyoin handed him one of the cups, Jotaro took it in both hands, the slight tremor in his wrists causing a trickle of liquid to slide down the ceramic.
Holly didn’t take a seat, opting instead to stand in front of them with gentle authority.
"Alright, I need you both to be honest with me; when did this all start?"
Kakyoin beat Jotaro to the punch, almost eager.
“About a week ago, it was funny at the time… but, uh, I caught your son here… dipping strawberry mochi… in fucking oyster sauce.”
Jotaro slunk down lower into the couch, his arms crossed.
“Not my proudest moment.”
Holly covered her mouth, lips twitching like she was just barely holding back a laugh.
“How did that… taste?”
Jotaro leaned back, unable to look anyone in the eye.
“It was strange but not–”
“Don’t believe his lies! He conned me into trying it, and it tasted like strawberry mochi dipped in oyster sauce. So, in other words, bad.”
“You know, Jojo,” Holly began, carefully, “I think I’m more inclined to believe Noriaki on this one.”
“So, oyster sauce and mochi was not enough to make him sick to his stomach, but do you know what was? Eggs.”
“Not the eggs themselves, it’s just… I can’t deal with the smell of them cooking anymore. Sulphur,” Jotaro muttered.
Holly rubbed the scruff of her neck, looking a bit sheepish.
“That one might be my bad. Had the same issue when I was pregnant.”
“Thanks, mom. Appreciate it.”
“So, it sounds like you had–”
“Oh, I’m not done,” Kakyoin interrupted, holding up one finger, “It was a weird week.”
Holly’s eyebrows raised.
“There’s more?”
“Nori…” Jotaro said through gritted teeth.
Kakyoin decided to ignore him and carried on, shifting closer to Holly. He laced his fingers together and rested his elbows on his knees, a smirk tugging on the corners of his mouth.
“He almost showed emotion while watching a movie.”
“My god. It’s worse than we feared,” Holly said, bringing her hand to her collar, if she had pearls she would have clutched them.
“Why was Jojo Rabbit so fuckin’ sad,” Jotaro asked under his breath.
“Oh, and also…” Kakyoin’s smug look deepened, twisting his body to the free space behind the couch, pointing to nothing, “You might have noticed the absence of our punching bag.”
Polnareff’s obnoxious laugh erupted from where he was eavesdropping in the kitchen, making it clear he already knew where this was going.
Jotaro glared at him until he shut up.
Holly raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
“Well, that’s because last night, we decided to order curry from one very specific restaurant, at the opposite end of the city, because someone, not naming names, had been passive-aggressively campaigning for it all day.”
Kakyoin and Polnareff both pointed at Jotaro, who himself was considering flashing his own hand gesture.
“So we ordered it for delivery, and when it arrived, the order was from a completely different place than the one that we ordered it from. Jotaro took one look inside the bag, said nothing, and then, very calmly, proceeded to punch a hole through our punching bag.”
“Through the punching bag?”
“Yeah. Just right through it. Sand everywhere. Didn’t even use Star Platinum, just pure fucking rage.”
“That punching bag was a cheap piece of shit anyways.”
“Sure it was, kid,” Holly said, patting his knee.
“Anyways, he refused to talk to anyone until I bit the bullet and went to the curry place myself to pick up his order, five minutes before it closed.”
Holly slapped her palm over her lips to keep her giggling contained.
“Oh, you poor thing.”
“When I got back? He went from a hardass to happy as a goddamn clam.” Kakyoin shook his head. “I told him we’d be getting a test in the morning. What do you know? I was right to be suspicious.”
Jotaro crossed his arms, toying with all sorts of ideas to deny his mate’s story, all coming out dry. He tugged the brim of his hat down past his eyeline.
“Good grief.” Old reliable.
“I’m going to ask you a question, do not feel obligated to answer right away, but it is something you need to think about.” Holly sat down on her knees by the coffee table, resting her elbows on the lacquered wood. She looked both of them over, expression softening. “What do you want to do with this?”
Kakyoin put his hand over Jotaro’s, glancing over at him. Jotaro didn’t return his gaze, his jaw was set in place. He knew the answer, but voicing it out loud felt like finality he just wasn’t quite ready for.
“It is your body, Jotaro. Nobody gets to decide what you do with it, except for you,” Holly said, tilting her head to the side, she spoke with complete neutrality but remained gentle. “Japan has a lot of rules surrounding termination. However, we could catch a flight to Seoul–"
“That won’t be necessary…” Jotaro finally spoke up, cutting her off. He swallowed what little moisture he had in his mouth. He was certain about his choice, and had been since he saw the test results. He somehow found the wherewithal to say it out loud, “I want to– I want to keep it.”
Kakyoin squeezed his hand harder, nodding up at Holly.
“Alright then,” Holly said, her voice firm and unwaveringly supportive. It was clear that she would have gone with whatever Jotaro told her he wanted to do, whether that be 3-pointing the zygote into the Pacific ocean, or if he was already writing baby shower invitations. “Let’s get planning.”
“First off, Jotaro, this is going to be just your favorite,” Holly said, the edges of her eyes crinkling in an awkward smile.
Jotaro’s head tipped back until one eye was visible beneath the brim, he stared at her warily. In all his years as her son, her cheerily saying something would be just his favorite; it was never proceeded by something pleasant in the slightest.
“We’ll need to schedule you an appointment with an obstetrician who works with male omegas as soon as possible.”
It dawned on the Omega that the notion he held such contempt for was a result of his own decision, one that he had no intention of going back on either; it didn’t make the idea of an OB/GYN visit suck any less. His scowl deepened, he pushed his hat down further to compensate.
“Fine.”
“Woah there, Jojo. Don’t sound too excited,” Polnareff yelled from the kitchen counter.
Jotaro stared daggers at him. Kakyoin rubbed the bridge of his nose trying not to dignify the remark at all with a response. Holly rolled her eyes with a slight smirk on her face, not amused, but not unamused either.
“Yeah, it won’t be the last one, either. Gotta have one once a month in the first two trimesters, once every two weeks in the third.” She inched closer to Jotaro, putting her hand on his knee. “I’d say you get used to them, but I don’t want to lie to you either. They’re weird… and invasive… and sometimes painful… always uncomfortable.”
“But on the bright side…” Kakyoin prompted, looking up at Holly with far too much hope in his eyes.
“On the bright side,” Holly paused for a few moments drumming well-manicured nails against hardwood, “Eventually you’ll give birth, and have a baby. Other than that, the well's coming up dry.”
Polnareff cracked open another can of seltzer. “You’re really selling it so far, Mrs Kujo!”
Jotaro clutched at his face, he thought he felt a migraine coming on.
Holly side-eyed Polnareff before clearing her throat. “But I know you, Jojo, and I know you’ve been through a lot worse, and you’re strong enough to handle a checkup.”
“Yeah… probably,” Jotaro said, leaning back on the sofa, “Won’t stop me from being pissed off about it.”
“As you should be,” Holly said, a proud little smile on her face.
Holly sighs, readjusting her position on the floor, “Now, before we continue; I’ve brought enough food for… probably an army. So, everyone please help yourselves. Including you, Jean-Pierre, have at.”
“Thank you!” Polnareff said over a mouthful of chocolate chip cookie that he had already swiped before Holly could finish her sentence.
Jotaro got to his feet, he didn’t realize that he was hungry until the topic of food was brought up. His earlier purge had left his stomach wrung out and aching.
Holly watched him amble to the kitchen and rifle through the paper bags. He found the plastic tub of leftover pasta and shoved it to the side, instead reaching for the styrofoam clamshell containers.
Holly raised an eyebrow, “What do you think you’re doing, Vomit-Comet?”
“Hunting my dinner,” he answered in his usual monotone, snapping open a pair of chopsticks, “And I only kill what I intend to eat.”
“Yeah, well, Fred Flintstone, hunt yourself some pastina. It’s lighter on the stomach.”
“Pastina is for seven year olds with the flu.” He popped the plastic lid of the container, “I’ve been stabbed on nine non-consecutive occasions, I can handle some fucking dumplings.”
It only took five minutes to prove that he could not, in fact, handle some fucking dumplings.
Kakyoin picked at his rice, the sound of violent retching echoing through the apartment enough to slightly dampen his own appetite. He turned to Holly, who seemed to be more desensitized to disgusting bodily functions than he was, judging from the fact she was eating gyoza without even flinching.
“I’m sorry, how many more months of this are we gonna go through?”
Another loud heave came from behind the bathroom door. Holly swallowed a bite of gyoza before answering.
“Several, presumably.”
“Lovely,” Kakyoin said, clicking his tongue and dropping his chopsticks back into the styrofoam.
Polnareff rested an arm on the back of the sofa, leaning over to both of them.
“Remember when we all thought Jotaro was the quiet, rational one? Whatever happened to that?”
When Jotaro came back he was hunched over, shaking and pissed off in equal measure.
Kakyoin opened his mouth, right before the omega held up his hand to the small crowd.
“Whatever you people are about to say… Don’t.”
Polnareff and Kakyoin immediately bit their tongues, giving him ample space to sit back down. Holly, on the other hand, didn’t even feel the need to talk. She made eye-contact with her son, and before he could look away, gave a quick subdued smile. Something more infuriating than anything the spoken-word could surmise.
“Good grief.”
“Alright!” Holly clapped her hands together to address the group, “Now that we’re all fed and watered, and Jotaro has evidently forgotten everything he learned within ten minutes, seeing as our cookie supply has mysteriously halved.”
“I thought you didn’t even like cookies,” Kakyoin said, discretely trying to snatch away the ziplock of cookies from his husband’s lap.
“They’re the one thing I can keep down right now,” Jotaro muttered, yanking back the plastic bag from Kakyoin’s fingers.
“Okay, okay.” The alpha raised his hands, resigning. “Fed is best. Whatever works, man.”
“Precisely!” Holly pointed at Kakyoin from the coffee table, “Speaking of; I assume Jotaro eats three meals a day?”
Kakyoin snorted, giving way to a full chested laugh that Polnareff was quick to join in on.
“God, no.”
“What?” Holly looked her son up and down, “What do you mean?”
Jotaro shifted to the other side of the couch, jaw clenched tight, tugging his cap low.
Polnareff leaned over to Kakyoin, asking in a stage-whisper, “Does she not know about Snake Meal?”
Kakyoin covered his mouth, eyes wide. “Oh my god. She doesn’t know about Snake Meal™.”
Holly’s brow furrowed. “I think I’m going to regret this, but what is… Snake Meal™?”
“Intermittent fasting,” Jotaro muttered, drawing back even further.
“It’s so much more than that,” Polnareff said with near reverence, “It’s a whole orthorexic ritual. Beautiful in a strange way.”
Kakyoin nodded, turning to Holly with an equally deferential sheen in his eye. “Here are your son's weekday eating habits. In the morning, he drinks one 20oz coldbrew. He goes to work. Drinks another canned coffee at lunch, maybe a protein shake if he's feeling particularly gluttonous. He then heads back to the loft, where he practices the art of Snake Meal™.”
Holly sat, lips pursed, as her son in law unfolded the entire horrifying narrative in front of her.
“He walks to the kitchen, grabs a half pound of whatever meat we have in the fridge, cooks it with cabbage, collagen protein powder, onions, radish, a shit ton of rice, and a squeeze of miso paste, douses the entire thing in hot sauce and eats the entire thing in one sitting.”
“Usually straight from the pan, over the sink,” Polnareff added.
“And that is his one 2500 calorie meal for the day.”
“Really explains his can-do and chipper attitude, huh?” Polnareff smiled, gesturing vaguely towards Jojo with an airy flick of his wrist.
Jotaro crossed his arms. “I stand by it. It’s efficient.”
Holly slowly turned to Jotaro, mouth held slightly agape, staring at him in silence for a few seconds. “Yeah…” she began, trying to find the words to convey whatever the hell she was feeling at that moment, “That… Don’t- Don’t do that anymore.”
“Fine,” he said, still scowling.
“I appreciate the sacrifices you’re making for this, Jojo.” Kakyoin ran the tips of his fingers over his husband’s pant leg. “I know I wouldn’t be able to–”
“Go fuck yourself, Noriaki.”
“That’s fair,” Kakyoin said, still smiling.
Holly wedged herself between Jotaro and Kakyoin on the couch, phone in hand, with an article on male-omega pregnancy already pulled up on the tiny screen.
“The first trimester is pretty simple,” she said with a quick shrug of her shoulders, “Don’t smoke, don’t drink, take a prenatal vitamin in the morning, switch to decaf, one or two doctor’s visits, microwave your leftovers, mazel tov.”
“Oh, so, just stop smoking,” Jotaro said, “It’s just that easy, huh?”
“I said it was simple, I never said it was easy,” Holly sighed, “I know for a fact that it’s not easy. You were just as much of a surprise to me, I had to quit a lot of things cold-turkey when you popped up.”
It was Holly’s turn to be stared at belligerently.
“What? I was cool once.”
“What… exactly did you quit?” Kakyoin asked, pushing the phone screen out of her face.
“It was the nineties in New York, I met my husband at a Nine Inch Nails concert. You connect the dots.”
Before anyone could connect those dots, Holly kept going.
“Look, all I’m saying is, I know you can do this. If my dumb twenty five year old self could find the willpower to have a semi-healthy pregnancy while coming off of quaaludes, you’ll be able to do it just fine,” she said, putting her hand over Jotaro’s.
Jotaro let out a soft huff, which was the closest thing to a ‘thanks’ that he was capable of at the moment.
“Anyways, the first trimester does suck because of the morning sickness and the growing pains, so to speak. That’s pretty universal,” Holly glanced back at her phone, “Then we get to the male omega pregnancy, which I personally have not experienced. Says here that you’ll experience some chest pain pretty soon, because your body is kind of building mammary glands from scratch. So it recommends taping up like you’re running a marathon.”
“Jesus Christ,” Jotaro muttered, his arms crossing tighter.
“Oh, also, this one…” Holly drew in a sharp hiss, “Not sure how to put it delicately… I’ll just let you read that one for yourself.”
She zoomed in on one passage from the article, passing the phone to her son.
He raised a brow, but took a look at the wall of text, only for the first words he read to be
“#12: Rectal Pain” in bold subtitular type.
He could feel the lower lid of his left eye twitch, but he found enough testicular fortitude to continue reading.
Due to the partial closure of the secondary canal attached to the rectal cavity post-implantation, many omegas experience a cramping or twinging sensation in the rectum or an–
He stopped reading, dropping the phone into his lap without preamble. Kakyoin leaned over to shoot him a concerned look. Jotaro said nothing back, but did hand the phone to him.
“Come on, man, it can’t be–” Kakyoin looked down at the screen. “Oh. I see.”
Polnareff, now the only person in the room who did not read the article, naturally asked the question. “Can I look?”
“No.” Kakyoin and Jotaro answered in unison, Holly just shook her head.
“Well, okay then.”
“On the bright side, the second trimester is actually kind of nice; morning sickness stops, your hair gets thicker, the acne clears up, those stupid hormones go away temporarily,” Holly said, her voice honeyed and nostalgic, “And strangers start doing tedious shit for you when you start showing.”
“That only works if you’re cute, and a girl,” Jotaro pointed out, devoid of any particular warmth, “People are just gonna think I got fat.”
Holly shrugged, unable to find a good counterpoint. “At least your hair will look nice.”
“You can have my seat on the metro,” Kakyoin said softly.
Jotaro rolled his eyes, but his lips gave a slight upward turn. He was outwardly cold… and inwardly cold, but around Kakyoin, he couldn’t help but soften just by the slimmest of margins.
“Third trimester is significantly less fun, just on a maneuverability level. Also, sometimes the baby will randomly kick your bladder, and that’s…” Holly trailed off, taking a sharp inhale through her nose trying to stave off some clearly unpleasant recollections, “You know what? Let’s just get to the delivery.”
“This is sounding more and more like a Kronenberg movie,” Polnareff said, more amused than horrified.
Holly opted to ignore him.
“Let’s see here..” she brought the article back up on her phone scrolling past a wall of presumably horrifying late pregnancy facts, “Male omegas can give birth in the traditional sense, but it’s not recommended anymore, because we’re dealing with two canals with weird angles and an exit route that is, uh, less flexible so to speak. Most hospitals just default to c-sections. Which means a longer recovery time,” she said, turning to Kakyoin, suddenly firm, “So Noriaki, I’m expecting you to be doing most of the moving and shaking when it comes to taking care of that baby while your husband is healing up.”
“Yes ma’am.” He straightened up his posture, looking her dead in the eye. “That was always the plan.”
Holly gave him a satisfied smile. “I figured, but I needed to hear you say it.”
“I dunno, Mrs Kujo…” Polnareff said, arms crossed, “The last time I saw Kakyoin deal with a baby, he wasn’t exactly kind to it–”
“Nobody asked you, Polnareff!” Kakyoin snapped, “That was completely different. I was sixteen, and that wasn’t even a baby, that was a fuckin demon, ok?”
“Sure looked baby-shaped.”
“You don’t know what that baby was capable of! I did. You can’t understand–”
“Do you know how insane you sound right now?”
“I know I sound insane! None of you people believed me, I’m still bitter–”
“Ooh, holding grudges against a baby, you’re really putting my worries to rest.”
“That’s not what I meant!”
“Oh, really? What did you mean then?”
Polnareff and Kakyoin’s bickering slowly faded to white noise, Jotaro couldn’t keep his focus on the back and forth. Not when his mind was stuck on the looming fact that in a matter of months, he and Kakyoin would have… a kid. A baby. A whole separate person from him, that would be dependent on them for everything. It was a nice thought. It was also terrifying. He could only hope that eventually the niceness would overtake the terror he was feeling.
Polnareeff and Kakyoin were still going at it when Holly turned to look at Jotaro, whose expression seemed more perturbed than the mild disdain that he defaulted to.
“You doing ok, bug?”
He grunted in reply, vague enough to convey that he didn’t want her pressing him on this issue. She took the hint, and brought her focus back on the Polnareff and Kakyoin show.
Her phone pinged, a notification bouncing into view with enlarged text so that her aging eyes could actually read it.
“Oh. Your first prenatal appointment was just confirmed, by the way. Tomorrow at eleven thirty,” she said, almost off-handedly.
That snapped Jotaro right out his malaise, eyes going wide.
“Huh?”
“Made sure it didn’t interfere with your morning lecture and everything. You’ll have plenty of time.”
“I–” he tried his best not to stammer, mind only coming up with monosyllables, “How?”
Holly shrugged.
“Speedwagon Foundation. Pretty good network of hospitals and doctors. They like to expedite things like this, especially for Joestars.”
“Tomorrow?” Jotaro asked, mouth going dry.
“Yeah, tomorrow. Did you have something scheduled that I didn't know about?”
“It’s not that. It’s just, I could have scheduled it. Couldn’t we just let this wait for–”
“Jotaro,” Holly said, putting her hand on his shoulder, “I know you. If I just ‘let this wait’ and had you be the one to schedule this appointment, it would never get done. You don’t voluntarily do things you don’t want to do.”
Jotaro looked to Kakyoin, desperate for back-up.
“Yeah, man…” Kakyoin rubbed the scruff of his neck, “I’m sort of with your mom on this one. With your work schedule and everything, it just wouldn’t happen. I kind of want to know what we’re dealing with as soon as possible.”
Fucking traitor.
“I am going to reiterate, that this is still your body, and you can absolutely choose to opt out of pregnancy entirely without judgement from any of us,” Holly said gently.
Jotaro shook his head, “I don’t want to do that.”
“Okay. That means that you’re going to have to start taking care of both of you. The first prenatal appointment is important, it makes sure that the pregnancy is even viable in the first place. It’s good to know that early on, bug.”
“I… don’t really have a leg to stand on, do I?”
“As the resident expert,” Polnareff said, tilting backwards on his wheelchair, “I’d have to say no.”
That earned a soft laugh from Jotaro, who fidgeted with the brim of his hat for a second, before he let his muscles go slack.
“Fine. Tomorrow at eleven.”
“Well, this has certainly been a night,” Holly said, rising from her spot.
Understatement of the fucking century, Jotaro thought about voicing that particular thought before choosing to drop it.
“But, I am up far past my bedtime, my son and son-in-law no longer look like they emerged from the trenches of The Great War, and I need some space to process the fact that I am, in fact, old enough to be a grandmother.” Holly stretched out, her joints audibly shifting much like the sands of time. “So, I believe that would be my cue to leave. I’ll leave the food here for your enjoyment, and will see you boys tomorrow at 10:30 sharp. It’ll be a great time… for Noriaki and I, at least. Jotaro, your mileage may vary.”
“Tch,” Jotaro muttered, “Yeah.”
Holly crouched down leveling herself with her son, pulling him into a hug.
“Everything’s gonna be okay.” She pushed the brim of his hat up and planted a kiss on his forehead. “Get some rest.”
Kakyoin got up to walk her out, stopping just at the top of the stairs for her to give him a tight hug. She whispered something to him that Jotaro couldn’t quite pick up on, but he could see Kakyoin’s smile wobble as he wiped his eyes with his forearm.
“Thanks, Holly. Drive safe.”
“I will.” Holly gave his forearm a gentle pat, looking up at the alpha fondly. “You should get some rest too, dear. See you tomorrow morning.”
Polnareff shook her hand before she descended the stairway, and took her leave.
Kakyoin leaned against the stair’s archway, oddly serene. “How the hell does she do that?”
“Don’t know,” Jotaro answered in complete honesty.
He felt calm. All the dread that he had built up with the positive test result had dulled since he first heard Holly from outside the bathroom door. In its place was unadulterated exhaustion.
He glanced at the clock in the hallway, midnight was an hour out. He normally didn’t feel that sort of bone-deep fatigue until the small hours of the morning; maybe it was the weight of the day he just had, maybe it was the fact his body was rearranging its priorities. He didn’t know. He didn’t care. He wanted to go to bed.
“Tired. G’night,” he said, waving off Polnareff and Kakyoin as he bypassed both of them. The omega couldn’t be bothered to give any further explanation before he started towards the upstairs bathroom.
“I’ll come with you.”
Kakyoin was even more of a night owl than him, there should have been no reason that he’d be going to bed with him at this hour.
“You really don’t have to do that,” Jotaro said, not breaking his stride.
Kakyoin caught up with him anyway, he loosely grasped his hand around Jotaro’s wrist.
“I know, but I want to.”
Jotaro stayed silent until they both made it up the stairs, he turned to look at his husband with tired eyes that were becoming harder to keep open.
“... Okay.” His forearm broke free of Kakyoin’s feeble hold. “But I get to use the bathroom first. I need to brush my teeth.”
When he walked through the bedroom door, Kakyoin was already stretched out over the comforter wearing nothing but his glasses and an oversized Rush teeshirt… Jotaro’s Rush teeshirt. The fucking klepto.
He sat down on the edge of the bed, the mattress creaked under his weight. A long rattling sigh escaped his lungs, not anguished, just resigned to his choice and its impending consequences. The warmth of Kakyoin’s hand met his back right between his shoulderblades, his mind momentarily went blank as he brought all his focus on the sensation.
“You should lay down, babe,” Kakyoin whispered from behind him.
“Yeah, yeah. I will.” Jotaro pulled his sweat shirt and undershirt off in one go, chills running down the freshly exposed skin. He tossed them into the hamper along with his pants, before allowing himself to fall back onto the mattress next to Kakyoin.
Out of habit, Kakyoin rested his head up against Jotaro’s chest the minute that his back hit the memory foam. Jotaro shifted beneath him so that both of them could lay in that position comfortably, his arm snaking around Kakyoin protectively.
The alpha’s hand trailed from his chest down to his abdomen, fingers trailing across scars and the contours of his musculature before landing just below his navel. He kept it there for a moment, looking up at Jotaro with a soft smile on his face.
“Have any name ideas?”
Jotaro’s eyes snapped back into focus, darting down to his mate who was grinning into his chesthair.
“Christ, Nori. The kid’s a unicellular organism, and you already want to saddle it with something? Let it cook for a minute.”
“So, no?”
“Obviously not.”
“You’ve never thought about what you would name your future progeny? Not even in passing?”
“Not even once,” Jotaro scoffed out with an abnormal amount of grit, perhaps compensating for the fact that he was swapping their positions so that he could be the little spoon for once.
“Oh yeah,” Kakyoin sighed, pulling Jotaro close to his chest, burying his face into the omega’s raven hair, “I forgot that you’re a big tough guy. Big tough guys don’t think about things like that.”
Jotaro was smiling now that he knew not even Kakyoin could see it, his eyes were half closed and content. “Thank you for respecting our culture.”
“Well, I have thought about it. What about Sakura for a girl’s name?”
“I’d just be thinking about Cardcaptor Sakura whenever I saw her. So, that’s a hard no from me.”
“Oh, come on. Sakura’s a great character.”
“If we’re naming our kid after a fictional character, it should be something respectable. Like Casca or Blue Eyes White Dragon.”
Kakyoin snorted into the nape of his neck. “Oh, he makes jokes now?”
“Don’t get used to it.”
Jotaro could feel Kakyoin shake with silent laughter up against his back, he gave a couple hard exhales out of his nose which was about as much of a laugh as he could give his own joke.
They laid in comfortable silence for the next few minutes, save for the occasional errant chuckle at the absurdity of everything the past day entailed.
“We’re… really doing this. Aren’t we?” Kakyoin murmured before he could fully drift off.
“Yeah,” Jotaro answered, already half asleep. “We are.”