Word Count: 4660

"Really?..." You dropped your bag to the floor in defeat as you viewed your room. It wasn't that it was bad or unsanitary! No, no. It was just that... there was only one bed. One queen sized bed by the looks of it.

"Yare yare daze, that old man is at it again." Jotaro sighed from behind you and you huffed slightly. First the car, now this. Was not having enough spaces gonna be a trend?

"Maybe these were the only rooms available, so he couldn't help it?" You tried, giving the benefit of the doubt, but your roommate wasn't having it.

"There weren't." Jotaro stood still for a moment before another aggravated sigh left him. "I'll go fix it." You turned back to see him bring down the brim of his cap over his face as he walked out the still open door, not bothering to close it behind him as he marched down to the front desk.

Unsure of what to do and not wanting to crinkle the bed sheets for the next guest, you softly closed the door and just sat down on the ground next to your bag, waiting for Jotaro to come back.

Some time passed and the door opening caught your attention. You looked back, only to see Jotaro slam the door shut before stuffing his hand in his pocket and briskly walking into the room.

"What-?"

"We're sharing the bed." Was all he said as he walked past you and opened the balcony doors before pulling out a cigarette. He knew you didn't like the second hand smoke and he also didn't feel like having it linger in the room so he closed the doors behind him, a little louder than intended; lighting his cigarette so he could try to relax a bit.

What he didn't expect, was for you to open the doors and step out behind him.

You gently closed the doors behind you, trying to make as little noise as possible for Jotaro. You felt as if something was bothering him and though you didn't know what, you didn't want him to wallow in it on his own. So you just stepped up besides him and leaned on the railing of the balcony, overlooking the city.

It was already a little later in the evening. The sun had set and the city was quieting down for the night, people getting ready for bed while others were rushing home after a long day of work. All in all, it was a peaceful sight to see, with the shimmering stars and moon illuminating the world below.

"Why did you come out here?" Jotaro spoke through the silence. You felt him looking down at you from underneath the brim of his hat but you kept looking outward.

"I didn't want you to be alone."

You didn't see it, but Jotaro's eyes softened noticeably. The next few minutes passed in silence, Jotaro smoking while you simply looked at the view.

Finishing his cigarette, the man put it out on the railing before turning to look at you. With a little bit of hesitation, Jotaro moved to stand next to you, leaning down onto the railing just like you were.

"If it's about the bed..." You started and Jotaro stiffened up slightly, though you did not seem to notice luckily. "I can just sleep on the floor. I'm fine with that so long as I get a good pillow and blanket." You tried to joke but it came out a little awkward.

"Fuck that. You're sleeping in the bed with me." It came out a little more crass than he intended, so he quickly added. "There's plenty of room."

You were a little taken aback by his statement but soon started softly chuckling. You didn't know what it was about Jotaro but the way he showed that he cared and showed his emotions just endeared you to him. With most people this rude, you'd cower and apologise but somehow, Jotaro had broken past that barrier with you and made you comfortable around him no matter how angry or annoyed he seemed sometimes. You knew he wouldn't harm you.

With him so close, your arms nearly touching, and your head turned to face him, you couldn't help but scrunch up your nose teasingly.

"You smell like smoke."

"Well no shit, I've been smoking out here, dumbass." Jotaro dryly replied as he put his hand on your head and quickly pushed it down. The gesture having become a regular thing between the two of you. You giggled slightly before returning to the silence, your mind wandering as you absentmindedly twirled your ring in habit.

You were more comfortable with Jotaro than you had been with anyone in years. And yet, despite knowing him for a little bit, you actually knew very little about him. All those times he sat next to you during school breaks, or when you'd done the project with him, you never really talked to each other. Sure you had figured out what kind of person he was and he most likely did the same with you, but other than that? He happened to run into you when you were at the aquarium so he knew you worked there. And you found out by chance (being forced by a teacher) what his house was like and what kind of family dynamic he had, but other than that you knew nothing. Maybe it was time for a change.

"Hey." You spoke to get his attention and he turned his head to face you, seeing you hold a small smirk. "Have you ever played Shithead?"

This got his attention and he raised an eyebrow at your question. An amusedly-questioning expression present as he looked at you and you perked up. It took a second for you to figure out the logistics of how you were gonna do this but once you did, you excitedly ran towards the doors of the balcony, running inside before leaving the room altogether and leaving a bewildered Jotaro on the balcony, confused as to where you just ran off to.

- - - -

It took some asking around at the front desk but you were finally able to lend a pack of cards from the hotel - they had a playroom with games for both adults and kids where you could take one from.

And so now here you sat on the bed. Jotaro leaning against the headboard while you were sitting at the foot end. You had just explained the rules of the game to him and he seemed willing enough to play!

"I was thinking." You started and Jotaro looked up from the cards you used to explain the rules that were splayed out in front of him, his eyes grazing over your form as you kept your own gaze fixed on the cards. "Usually when you lose the game and become the 'shithead', you're supposed to do something the other orders you to do. But instead of that, why don't we do it that the one who wins, gets to ask the loser a question. And the loser has to answer as truthfully as possible."

You looked up to see his reaction, only to see him squint slightly. Whether that was in reprehension or disgust you didn't know, so you quickly held up your hands, waving them back and forth. "Just as a way to get to know each other a little better! I wasn't planning on this become a party game where weird and uncomfortable questions are asked. If I wanted that, I'd have invited Polnareff to come along." At that, Jotaro relaxed and even huffed a short chuckle. "It just occurred to me we didn't know too much about each other. So this is a way to fix that?" You were a little unsure, afraid you had dissuaded him from playing the game but he quickly drove away that fear.

"Alright. Deal." He motioned to the cards and you beamed a smile, quickly starting to shuffle the cards before dealing them. And so, the first game began.

Both of you held your cards and started placing them down one by one. Jotaro's face was as cold as stone, not giving anything away. But then again, that did not play a part in this game. It was pure luck on whether or not you had good cards.

You won the first game by the luck of the cards, giving you the right to ask Jotaro a question before you moved on to the next game. It started out with simple questions; 'when's you birthday' 'what's your favourite book' etc. But the further into the evening you got and the more games you played, the deeper the questions became.

Flipping over the last card in front of himself, Jotaro was able to place it down, making him win the game.

"Damn, I was so close." You chuckled softly, looking at your two leftover cards.

Smiling a bit to yourself, you started gathering the cards to shuffle them again while leaving Jotaro to think of a question. As you had just put it all together, ready to be shuffled, Jotaro shifted a bit and you took it as him having come up with a question, making you look up at him.

"Right before we left-" He started and you sat up a bit. "You said your mother had been sick. What's with that?"

"Ah, that." You shrugged a little apathetically. "Just as it sounds, really. My mom was extremely sick for about two months. We didn't have money to go to the hospital, so we just had to wait and see what would happen." Looking up to see his reaction, you saw he was clearly waiting for you to elaborate and blew your breath out a little heavily. "Mom was so sick she couldn't really do anything, so it was left to me to do so."

"That's why you worked at the aquarium." Jotaro deduced and you sent him a bit of an empty smile before snapping yourself out of it.

"Work, not worked. Technically I still work there. I am on leave." You pointed at your roommate to bring home your point but he grabbed your finger and pushed it down.

"I doubt they'll wait that long for you."

"Hey, it hasn't been that long." You stated but Jotaro pointedly raised his eyebrow. "Yeah okay, the journey is far from over. Here, it's your turn to shuffle." To end the topic, you threw the cards at Jotaro, the pile falling apart and fluttering through the air, only for Star Platinum to come out and grab all the cards in a flash before they could fall off the bed or get lost.

"Throw the cards like that again and I will make you sleep on the floor." Jotaro threatened as he glared and you held up your hands in surrender, him dealing out the cards a second later.

You won this round and you decided to ask a question that had been nagging away at you. "Say, if you're half English, how come you barely speak it?"

"Quarter English." Jotaro corrected you but then he sighed. "My mother never spoke it. I guess to conform more to my piece of shit dad, or because she figured that since we live in Japan anyway, it was better to blend in completely. She did speak some Italian to me sometimes but even that was few and far in between."

"So you can speak Italian?" You questioned, choosing to not prod about his dad. You saw him visibly deflate just the tiniest bit after he had tensed up but his expression seemed no less exasperated as he answered plain and simple.

"A little."

"Can you say something in it?" You asked, already knowing his answer. There was no harm in trying though, even as he deadpanned and dryly spoke.

"No."

"Hm, oh well." You shrugged but giggled a little before you got a thought. "So, when we got assigned that project together, did you even understand the things I had written down about whales when we shared our notes?"

"I could fill in the blanks." Jotaro shrugged and you openly laughed at that.

Soon, the cards were dealt again and after a quick game, you won once more.

Not wanting to keep Jotaro waiting, you blurted the first question that came to mind, not giving yourself enough time to think it over.

"Why did you ghost me after the whole thing with my dad?" You asked but then realized what you said, your eyes widening a bit. "Not to accuse you or anything! I've just been... won...dering. Never mind. Sorry..." your sentence fell away near the end, already hating yourself for bringing it up.

"You need to learn to be more confident with yourself. If you've got a question, just ask it. Don't backtrack." Jotaro gritted his teeth as he spoke, holding onto the brim of his hat before sighing and pulling it down over his eyes, leaning back into the headboard more, getting into a full aloof stance where you couldn't see his face. "And I did it because it was best. Because of my rash actions you got hurt and I figured stepping away would prevent that from happening again."

"I didn't get that hurt." You protested but Jotaro lifted his hat and raised an eyebrow in response.

"You got a scar from it." Jotaro remarked plain and simple, and you, who had just opened your mouth to say something, paused in your steps.

"Wh- how do you know?" You spluttered a bit.

"I saw."

"Wha-? How? When?"

"When you came to my house and Star Platinum held you up by your shirt." Jotaro simply stated and in horror you realised that by the Stand holding you in the air like that, your shirt must have ridden up and exposed your back. You just hoped the scar was the only thing they saw. "And at the pool." He then shrugged and you drew your lips into a 'welp' face.

"Ah, yea okay." You reached your arm back and patted your lower back as if you could feel it through your pyjama shirt, still with that stupid expression on your face.

Jotaro could clearly see that you weren't too hung up about it, your hands already reaching back forward to shuffle the cards once more, and what you said next proved that as well, a sweet smile on your face directed at him. "All in all, the trade-off was more than worth it."

-

"What's with the ring?"

Jotaro had just beaten your ass every way to Sunday. You weren't even close this time.

The teen in front of you pointed at your left hand, and more specifically the jewellery that sat there. "I've seen you twirling it on the boat, in the car; whenever you're in thought."

"Do I?" You questioned, genuinely surprised. You fiddled with it, yes, but you didn't realise you did it that much.

Bringing your hand with the ring up to your face, you had a look at it, smiling for a second before focusing back to Jotaro.

"It's for good luck." A soft smile was on your face as you said that.

Jotaro raised an eyebrow at your statement, scoffing slightly. "What superstitious family member told you that when they gave it to you?"

"None of them." Your smile turned slightly teasing as you said that. Jotaro tilted his head every so slightly, barely noticeable but clearly his way of asking for you to continue. And so you did. "I was having a bad day a few years back." You started, frowning slightly as  you recalled the memory. "My parents wouldn't stop yelling at each other and me so I left, going for a walk through the park just to get out of there." Your eyes were glued to your ring, Jotaro carefully observing your facial expressions.

"Sitting down on a bench, I met an old lady." You continued. "She came out of the blue and just sat down next to me and comforted me, managing to calm me down by telling me some stories and trivial talk. To this day, I still don't know why. She didn't have to do that but she did. She saw a sad young girl and took time out of her day to give me some wisdom and just be kind. There was absolutely no reason to do so and yet still she did. At the end, she gave me her ring. No explanation, no reason. She just did and disappeared before I had any clue.

"Ever since then I have worn it. Just looking at it gives me hope and joy, as if the ring itself gives off that comforting aura she had." You finished the story and looked at Jotaro.

"That's stupid." He briskly said and you couldn't help but giggle.

"I figured you'd say that but it works and that is enough for me." Jotaro could physically see a thought pop into your head, seeing your face light up slightly despite trying to hide it, sitting up a little straighter and making him bring down the brim of his hat, dreading what was to come. "Jotaro?" You mused lightly and he uncrossed his arms, raised his head and looked at you. "If you ever need or want, you can borrow it." You smiled cheekily.

"Why the fuck would I want that?" His tone was sharp but your cheeky look never faltered.

Jotaro reminisced for a second how different things were. When he just met you, you would have flinched and apologised, cowering away slightly, thinking you had done something wrong. Hell, he didn't even have to be shouting at you and you'd still flinch. But here you were, openly grinning at him unapologetically.

"I dunno." You shrugged, trying to maintain your composure but the true annoyed confusion on his face proved too much and you burst out laughing.

"Yare yare..." Jotaro muttered and brought down the brim of his hat again, although from behind it, he watched you. Laughing without a care in the world in this small moment of rest.

Once you finally calmed down, still giggling slightly, you took a deep breath before looking at the man again with a smile. That same warm smile that continued to take his breath away.

"I'm serious though. If you ever need, just ask and you can borrow it." He was about to protest again but you continued before he could. "And... if there is one thing of mine I want to continue to live on when I can't, it's this." You twirled it around absentmindedly while looking to the side.

Jotaro, of course, knew that there was a risk of all the members of the group dying. Hell, they've gotten close several times before already. But hearing you speak about it like this still hurt something within him. He couldn't really explain it but his chest tightened slightly as he looked at you.

"Yare yare, just shuffle the cards again, woman." He sighed and you snapped out of your state, nodding as you grabbed the cards again.

You won the round and asked to wear his hat.

"No."

"C'mon. It's better than asking a deep emotional question isn't it?" You tried to reason and he just glared at you.

"No." He reiterated and you pouted slightly. He locked eyes with you, his arms once again crossed over his chest as the two of you had a silent stand off, his eyes cold and glaring while yours were hopeful and pleading. A loud sigh left the teen as he took his hat off. "Fine." With that, he leaned forward and placed it on your head.

It was too big for you and slid over your eyes, making the smallest of smirks appear on his face as you fixed it with a giggle. "I can only see half of what I normally see, how do you do this every day?" You asked, still trying to keep it up on your head and finally succeeding.

Jotaro didn't answer and just shook his head, throwing the cards he still had in his hands over to your side of the bed, indicating you to shuffle again before sitting back against the head board again, leaning comfortably.

He wouldn't admit it, but seeing you wearing his hat was very appealing to him.

About another twenty minutes passed, the questions having died down a bit and the two of you instead just playing mindlessly until the delinquent broke up the party.

"That's enough. It's late." Jotaro threw his cards down on the bed and you hummed, nodding in agreement. Starting to gather the cards, Jojo threw his legs over the side of the bed, yanking his hat off of your head that you surprisingly enough were still wearing before taking off his jacket, hanging it over the one chair that was in the room while you stretched, popping your back a little from sitting hunched over for a while. Placing the cards back into their pack, you stood up and started walking to the door.

A hand on your shoulder stopped you and you looked back to see Jotaro. "Where are you going?"

"Just gonna return these real quick." You held up the pack of cards but Jotaro just plucked them from your fingers.

"They can come get them back themselves tomorrow, just go do your business and get in bed." He let go of your shoulder while throwing the pack of cards on the nightstand next to him once he walked back