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Cairo was stifling.
The setting sun, along with the wind that had begun to rise, signaled the end of the day. A scorching day, spent searching for Dio's hideout.
Kakyoin stood on the balcony overlooking the city, admiring the sunset that could realistically be his last. Yet he smiled involuntarily. In his head he replayed the adventures of the past month — all the fights, the meals, and the sleepless nights.
Despite the physical exhaustion, the countless scars on his body, and wounds that had not yet managed to close, Kakyoin finally felt belonging. Understanding. Brotherhood.
He valued every fight.
Every layer of ointment on his wounds.
Every single smile he managed to bring to the faces of his companions.
But strangely, the desire to defeat Dio for his own need for revenge had moved to the background. It gave way to the desire to protect Jotaro, to show him how much worth he carried within himself. How much he meant to him.
Kakyoin laughed quietly to himself, lowering his head. These feelings were absurd.
He never thought he would find someone who understood him the way Jotaro did.
Someone he wouldn't regret staying up through the night with, even if much of it passed in silence.
Someone he would trust enough that he wouldn't be afraid to sacrifice his life to protect him.
He was no longer afraid of Dio. Nor of the enemies they would encounter.
The absurdity lay in the fact that he was afraid of rejection. Something he had ignored his entire life had now grown to the scale of the end of the world.
Kakyoin snorted quietly to himself and shook his head.
"You should be resting," a deep voice sounded right behind him.
Jotaro Kujo leaned back against the railing. He lit a cigarette, glancing sideways at Kakyoin.
"That's the plan," he replied, still not raising his gaze.
"Yare yare daze. You're annoying."
He took a drag of the smoke and, without thinking much about it, lifted his hand to ruffle Kakyoin's hair.
"You think so much you don't even notice what's happening around you. Everyone went to their rooms ages ago." Jotaro nodded toward the now empty hotel lobby.
Kakyoin focused his gaze on the sky, which just a moment ago had been bathing in the colors of the setting sun. Now it was purple, first stars reflected in his eyes.
"I'll stay here a little longer," the redhead smiled.
It wasn't a sincere or joyful smile, which Jotaro caught immediately. It was tense, too controlled.
Jotaro stepped closer, leaning slightly past the railing so that his gaze was level with Kakyoin's.
"If something's bothering you, it's better if you tell me right away." He said, exhaling smoke from his mouth.
Kakyoin lowered his gaze, even though the color of Jotaro's eyes magnetized him.
"I remember when you taught me where to look for constellations..." his eyes lit up with a swarm of stars again. "Sorry, I suddenly got terribly nostalgic."
Jotaro fell silent. He straightened and turned toward the sky, crushing the cigarette butt under his shoe.
"You can't see them that clearly in the city anymore," Jotaro muttered, stepping a little closer.
They stayed in silence for a few moments. Only light falling on them was the warm glow from the hotel lobby.
"I can be nostalgic too," Jotaro said suddenly. "That stupid song you showed me still won't leave my head."
"Stupid?" Kakyoin frowned. "If it's stuck in your head, that means you liked it. It's stuck in mine, too."
Jotaro snorted. The sky had turned almost black now, the stars clearer. The atmosphere eased, leaving room for a bit of breathing.
Kakyoin sank into his thoughts again for the next few moments. When Jotaro pulled another cigarette from the pack, Kakyoin analyzed all his gestures, the smallest movements. But he snapped out of it immediately.
"It's not my nostalgia that's bothering me," he began quietly, turning toward Jotaro.
"The thought that I might die tomorrow, it—"
"No," Jotaro interrupted him. "Talking about it like that is a bad omen."
Kakyoin sighed.
"It makes me think about things I wouldn't even have allowed myself to consider before," he finished, not taking his eyes off him. "Sooner or later I'd suppress it. But if I were to leave tomorrow... I'd like to do it with a clean slate."
Jotaro put the unlit cigarette back into the pack when Kakyoin took another decisive step toward him.
"You are the first person who understood me. You saved my life... And you showed me what it's like..."
He hesitated, lowering his gaze.
"What it's like to feel safe. Safe enough..." he stopped, shaking his head.
"Safe enough that I wouldn't want to leave your side ever again," he finished.
He didn't have the courage to look Jotaro in the face. He wondered whether he should prepare for a punch to the face, or perhaps for calm rejection.
Jotaro straightened, sighing deeply.
"Kakyoin," he heard above his head. "If you don't look at me now, I'll make you."
Slowly, Kakyoin lifted his gaze. Ready for a disgusted look, a rejecting expression. But instead- he saw a half-smile.
Something that rarely appeared on Jotaro's face.
"Yare yare daze. Still irritating," he adjusted the brim of his cap.
"Mhm. You told me to look at you and now you hide. Irritating," he snorted.
Jotaro took a step forward, reducing the distance between them to a minimum. His hands were still resting casually in his pockets, yet every movement was intentional.
From this perspective Kakyoin could see his slightly reddened cheeks, which he tried to hide under the cap earlier.
The gaze that had been confident until now became less focused. More scattered.
Jotaro froze in place. He was about to say something, but withdrew in a second.
His thoughts involuntarily returned to one evening when they played chess together.
To the evening when he first felt that irritating stab in his stomach and the endorphins buzzing in his brain, for the first time connected to another person.
Jotaro saw his victorious smile, saw the way his mind worked and for the first time someone impressed him.
That annoying, beautiful feeling in his stomach that reminded him every time Kakyoin was near him from this moment.
And he had no intention of losing that.
"I'm not good with words. So maybe I'll show you."
Jotaro lifted Kakyoin's chin and leaned closer slowly, giving him many chances to pull away.
He stayed.
Distance disappeared in a warm, slightly clumsy kiss.
Kakyoin sighed in surprise against his lips, but pulled him closer by the collar. Jotaro's hand rested in the hollow of Kakyoin's neck, deepening the kiss.
And finally both of them felt emotions that were no longer absurd.
Their hearts were no longer beating faster because they were afraid of dying.
They beat that way because they had finally found someone equal to themselves.
Jotaro kept his hand on his waist, pulling him even closer.
"Stay," he said, resting his chin on Kakyoin's head.
Cairo was stifling.
The memory of it suddenly blurred.
Leaving behind the lingering feeling of an unfinished thought.
Before his last conscious breath, Kakyoin admitted:
The decision they had made was right.
The world fell silent.
With it, pain eased.
Cairo turned into darkness.
...
The hospital was bright. Blindingly bright for Jotaro.
Halogen lamps hummed irritatingly, illuminating the room with cold light.
Light that drilled a hole into his head.
All he could see were memories from the ambulance.
Scarlet spreading across the bandages.
Kakyoin, pale and unconscious.
"The pulse is barely detectable," the doctors said.
Barely. Barely is not nothing, right?
Jotaro growled, pulling his arm away from the nurse.
"Take care of those who need it. I'm fine."
The woman shook her head, looking at the extensive wound on Jotaro's bicep.
"Let me help you."
Jotaro clenched his jaw and extended his arm toward her.
"Hold still. I need to stitch this. I'll give you anesthesia in a moment—"
"Don't need it," he interrupted immediately.
Nurse didn't want to argue, so she began the procedure in silence.
Jotaro only heard the ticking hands of the clock, the distant hum of machines. Through the fogged glass in the door he watched the doors to the operating room.
Every time they opened, his jaw clenched tighter.
Barely detectable. Barely.
Barely.
He didn't feel the needle piercing his torn arm, and he didn't even notice when the nurse finished and left the room. She seemed to be saying something, but he wasn't sure.
Jotaro sighed. He finally stood up from the chair and began pacing around the hospital room. He rolled a cigarette between his fingers, not even thinking about lighting it.
A few minutes passed. Maybe hours. His bloodshot eyes looked once again toward the operating room. He stepped into the corridor.
Polnareff sat on a chair, half asleep, staring ahead. He leaned on a crutch, careful of the sleeping Iggy on his lap.
"Joseph and Avdol are in their rooms. Sleeping, like this one," he pointed to the snoring dog.
Jotaro only nodded, adjusting the blanket under which Iggy slept. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. squeezing them a little too tightly.
The operating room door opened again, but this time a short, older man stepped out from behind them. Jotaro pushed himself away from the wall, but he couldn't move.
His hands trembled, and the seconds dragged on before the doctor said anything.
"Operation was successful. Next few hours will decide."
That was all he managed to say before Jotaro focused his gaze on the hospital bed being wheeled right past him. His breath stopped when he saw Kakyoin.
He was still pale. Still unconscious. But no longer dying.
Alive. Barely.
Jotaro's shoulders dropped slightly and he breathed out the air he had been holding for hours. He immediately followed the nurses leading Kakyoin to the post-operative room.
"You should give him some space now—"
The doctor's words bounced off Jotaro completely unnoticed.
Polnareff replied with something, to which the doctor only sighed.
No one stopped him anymore.
With every step the weight in his chest grew.
Finally he stood in the corner of his bed.
The sound of the machines, irritating until now, became the reason Jotaro relaxed his jaw.
His breath trembled when he finally touched Kakyoin's icy hand.
Too cold.
Far colder than it should have been.
He allowed himself a few more trembling breaths, tightening his hand around his a little more.
And when he made sure the oxygen mask hadn't slipped even a centimeter, he finally sat down on the chair right beside the bed.
He noticed the bandages, all kinds of tubes and wires sticking out from under them. With passing time Kakyoin's hand became warmer.
Jotaro realized he was still holding the cigarette only when he unconsciously snapped it in half.
A nurse entered the room several times, silently changing the IV bags. That was the only way Jotaro knew time was passing. And when the same man entered the room for the third time, Jotaro finally spoke.
"Is he in any pain?"
"No. He's receiving strong painkillers."
Jotaro nodded.
Night fell.
Moonlight came through the slightly open window. He looked at the stars, but immediately turned away when he felt Kakyoin's hand twitch almost imperceptibly.
"Kakyoin..." he said immediately, leaning against the bed rail.
The redhead's brows furrowed and his eyelids opened heavily. Not knowing what was happening, Kakyoin immediately tried to sit up, but a dull pain pierced his chest.
"Don't move," a familiar voice reached him, and only then did he feel the weight on his palm.
Warm. Familiar.
"Jotaro... you're alright," he said in a hoarse voice.
He looked around slowly. Jotaro sat right next to him. Dark circles under his eyes, and his crumpled cap lay on the bedside table.
"Yare yare... Took you long enough," Jotaro muttered.
Kakyoin clenched his teeth, but a shadow of a smile appeared in his tired eyes.
"Did you win?" he asked quietly.
Jotaro nodded and moved a little closer.
"We won," Jotaro lifted his hand to his lips, letting out a long, tired breath.
"Is everyone alright?" he asked, feeling his eyelids becoming heavy again.
Jotaro nodded.
Kakyoin allowed himself to fall asleep, this time not with the memory of Cairo, but with a feeling of fulfillment.
Victory.
Jotaro stayed beside him and, without letting go of his hand, fell asleep in the chair.
Looking at the starry sky.