Word Count: 2363

Knocking on the door roused you from your sleep as you looked around, squinting your eyes in confusion.

"...The fuck?" Hearing that be groaned out, you vaguely saw the dark shape of Jotaro getting up from his bed, the entire room still pitch black as his footsteps sounded through the room. A moment later, he opened the door to Joseph standing there, lit by the light from the hallway.

"Morning, you two! Doing a little bit better?"

"Is it a Stand?" Jotaro asked, rubbing his eye to try and get himself more awake and alert, his exhaustion evident.

"Oh, no no, not at all. It's time to get up! Boat leaves in half an hour."

Squinting his eyes, Jotaro glanced down at his watch. "It's two in the morning, old man..."

"I know it is. I'm not too happy either but I told you yesterday, this boat only leaves once every two days and if we want to make it, we have to go now." The man grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Mr. Joestar, we weren't there at dinner yesterday, remember?" You spoke up, having rolled out of bed as you kept your eyes squinted and tired, taking bleary-eyed steps towards the door, stopping behind you classmate. "No one told us."

"Right..." The older man made a guilty face as he realised before he just awkwardly cleared his throat. "Be down at the lobby in fifteen." With that, he carefully pushed an exhausted and confused Jotaro back into the room before closing the door for the two of you, his footsteps walking away.

"I swear I am going to strangle him someday." Jotaro sighed as he turned around to face you. "You take the bathroom then, get changed and let's go."

- - - -

Breathing softly, you were seated in the middle of the backseat of the limousine with your eyes closed, exhausted.

After rushing to get up, Mr. Joestar had ushered you all into a shoddy looking boat, one he guaranteed was fine and trustworthy, the captain having promised to take you across the Arabian sea in one night. True to the captain's word, the boat was fast and swift in cutting through the waves, but the lack of space on the boat left your little group on the deck, open to the spray of the ocean and the wind blowing hard – in other words, leaving you all without a wink of sleep.

Arriving in the United Arabs at around eleven in the morning, everything had been a haze and now here you were, squeezed between Kakyoin and Jotaro.

"That sun may be merciless, but it sure is nice and cool in here with the air conditioning." Polnareff hummed from behind the wheel before his eyes landed on Kakyoin through the rear-view mirror, noticing the teen's wariness. And he wasn't the only one.

From your right, Jotaro shifted as he turned his head left to his friend. "What's wrong, Kakyoin?"

Snapped out of his thoughts, the redhead looked back. "It's nothing. I was just thinking about how open the landscape is here. If anyone were after us, I'm sure we'd spot them. But I just can't shake the feeling that someone is watching us."

"Yeah, can't say that I blame you." Polnareff piped up and you frowned, turning around in your seat and looking through the rear window, seeing nothing but the road behind you.

"Hmm. Either way-" Mr. Joestar spoke up, getting everyone's attention on him. "-I've given some thought to what route we should take. About a hundred kilometers northwest of here is a village called Yarpline. We need to cross the vast Saudi-Arabian desert so we'll rent a cesna plane there and use it to fly over it!" His voice was optimistic as he spoke, looking over the map he had on his lap. "I've been apprehensive about getting near a plane thanks to the Stand attacks but with a cesna we wouldn't be putting anyone else at risk!"

"Just us." You mumbled with a little chuckle, earning a smirk and little nudge from Kakyoin.

"With a cesna, I could be the pilot, so no innocent bystanders are necessary!"

At his grandfather's words, Jotaro sighed and leaned back in his seat, hiding his face behind his hat as he brought his hand up to rest his head against. "Flying in a cesna with a man who has been in three plane crashes." He held up three fingers with his other hand. "Yeah, that sounds like a perfect idea to me."

Glaring at the boy with a bit of a pout, Joseph then harrumphed. "Ignoring that, our priority should be to cross the desert leading to the village of Yarpline first. It'll take one day on camel-back."

"We what now-?" Polnareff questioned, glancing at the man beside him as he expressed all your confusions. "A cesna is one thing, but camels? Just hang on, I've never ridden one in my life!"

Laughing smugly, the older Joestar closed his map before looking sideways. "Leave it to me. I know these creatures well, I'll show you the ropes."

- - - -

About an hour later, you all reached the edge of the city of Abu Dhabi, parking the car right where the road seemed to end.

"Alright, everyone out!" Mr. Joestar happily proclaimed before cheerily getting out himself, the rest of you following.

Watching as Jotaro got out of the car, you shuffled your butt a bit to scoot along. Looking up, you noticed the teen was holding the door while looking at you and you smiled briefly, grabbing hold of the door and using it to pull yourself out, Jotaro's hold making sure it stayed put.

"Thanks." You smiled and he simply dipped his head and hummed before throwing the door closed behind you, turning to look over the grounds in front of you all while Kakyoin joined to stand next to you as well.

Before you, a white tent stood, encircled by a large fence that held a numerous amount of the aforementioned animal.

Widening your eyes, a smile split on your face as you walked up, looking around to see if it was okay to approach and crossing eyes with a man who was lazily sitting on a chair a few meters away.

Seeing Mr. Joestar go into conversation with his boss, the man smiled at you and motioned his arm for you to go ahead, making you nod a thank you he couldn't hear before you stepped up to the fence, watching the large animals. A few walked over to check you out and you smiled.

"You can touch them."

Startling a bit, you looked right to see the employee standing beside you, bringing his hand up to scratch one of the animals. "Sorry?"

"It's not every day I see a tourist who actually seems excited to see our dromedaries." He spoke in somewhat of a thick accent, bringing his arm back down with a little protesting noise from the animal he was just petting.

"Oh." You spoke a little dumbly before looking down and smiling. Though your heart was beating fast from the man's sudden appearance, it now calmed down. "They're very big."

Laughing at that, he hummed and nodded. "They need a gentle hand though. They might seem big and mean, but they're very sweet and need to see that kindness back."

Nodding in understanding, you curiously looked back up at the one right in front of you, watching as it chewed on a random bit of food while leaning it's head down, checking you out.

"I see you are already well equipped to travel through the desert, no?" The man beside you hummed and you looked at him as you placed your hand on the dromedary's face.

"How do you mean?"

"Your jacket. It's light and thin. Keeping it on is wise in the desert." The man praised, pointing at your sleeves. "However, your head is uncovered. Here-" before he could finish, he rushed off, running over to a little market stall that was splayed out about fifteen meters away.

Following him with your eyes, you watched as he pulled an intricate looking fabric off of it, speaking quickly to the person manning the stand before running back to you.

"A pretty lady such as yourself shouldn't get burned." He happily spoke as he held out the piece for you to see.

Realising what he was doing, you held out the hand you weren't petting the dromedary with. "Ah, I'm sorry, I don't have any money."

Quickly holding up his free hand, the man shook his head. "No, no, it's fine! I can give it to you for real cheap!"

Grimacing, you once more shook your head. "I'm really sorry-"

"Is one of these gentlemen your boyfriend? I'm sure he'll be very upset if you get burned." He spoke gravely and you couldn't help but let go of the animal and hold up both hands now.

"No, they're not, I-"

"Boyfriend back home? You can show him how pretty you look, no?" The man smiled, wrapping the fabric around your neck and you froze. "See? Beautiful. Here, you can take it for free, I'm sure your gentleman friends will agree with me." He smiled again and you just hummed a squeak and nodded, unsure what to do anymore.

"Y/N."

Looking back, a wave of relief washed over you as you watched Jotaro walk up to you, his eyes squinting at the man beside you in slight distrust as he put his hand on you shoulder. "What is it?" You asked, getting no answer as the boy already started to steer you away from the dromedary pen and the employee.

"Don't go wandering off. We just traded the car for the beasts so it's time to go."

"O-Okay." You squeaked again as you started walking with him, casting a glance back at the employee to see the man holding two thumbs up at you as he waved encouragingly.

"I see you've already picked up a new accessory." Jotaro remarked, raising his eyebrow at you, and you hid slightly.

Swallowing, you nodded as you walked beside the delinquent, him having let go of you already. "Sorry."

"Don't apologise, you didn't waste any time so you're fine." Though his words were spoken in his usual gruff manner, as you looked up, your eyes crossed with his, showing a calm and content look on his face.

"Thanks." You smiled softly and Jotaro grunted as he straightened up and pulled his hat over his face.

The two of you walked back to the group just in time to see four camels tied to the fence on the outside of the perimeter, the fifth standing before one Joseph Joestar.

"Ah, you're finally here! Let me show you how to get on!"

- - - -

Trudging through the desert, you were breathing harshly as you looked up at the sky, squinting to try to avoid looking at the sun. For the past god knows how long you'd been sitting on the backs of the dromedaries, your legs stuck in the riding position the sellers (and Mr. Joestar) taught you, causing you to stop feeling them a little while ago.

"Something's wrong."

Looking up, it took a moment before you sluggishly turned your head behind yourself to Kakyoin.

"I still have the feeling someone is watching us." He remarked and you hummed, looking past the redhead and Frenchman to look at the desert trail behind yourselves.

"Kakyoin, don't you think you might be worrying a bit too much? The palm leaves erase our tracks, plus we can see for kilometers in all directions. If someone were here, we'd know." Polnareff spoke up, pointing out the obvious, yet Kakyoin wasn't the only one as Jotaro now voiced his thoughts.

"No, I've been sensing someone's presence too."

Moving to ride beside his grandson, Mr. Joestar pointed at him. "Better take a look around then, Jotaro." Urging everyone to stop, he handed the boy a set of binoculars from his saddlebag and Jotaro took them without a word, wordlessly calling out Star Platinum as he then used his Stand to look around in all directions. "See anything suspicious out there?"

"No, nothing. Nothing whatsoever. But something's not right here. Something's just..."

Furrowing your brows in unease, you adjusted the scarf on your head, looking around while Jotaro's words trailed off, his eyes sternly gazing into the desert, as if trying to find something that wasn't there.

"Hey, let's hurry up and go." Polnareff grunted as he took the last sip from his water flask, also looking around.

"Yeah." Joseph hummed, sharing a look with you all. "Let's travel as far as we can. We'll travel until the sun goes down, then stop to pitch our tents. It's much too dangerous for us to travel at night."

Agreeing with him, you nodded with a little grunt before suddenly seeing Polnareff flapping his arms from your peripheral. "Yeah, but it's sweltering out here! Look, it's fifty degrees Celsius!" He whined, shoving the little thermostat he carried into your face from where he sat on top of his dromedary.

"Polnareff, I don't need to see it, you telling me is enough." You huffed, wiping the sweat off your forehead.

"Yeah, it's hot out here." Mr. Joestar hummed as he looked at the two of you, simultaneously taking out his watch. "Then again, right around this time is when it is the hottest- Huh?!" Snapping your head around, you looked at the older man in concern as he muttered something before looking at his grandson. "Jotaro, check your watch. What time does it say?"

Frowning in confusion, Jotaro brought up his left arm to his face. "It's ten past eight..." He muttered before his eyes widened in alarm. "Hey, old man!"

"So it is..." Mr. Joestar spoke with trepidation, looking down at the pocket watch in his hand. "I know we lost track of time, but what the hell is going on!"

Your eyes widening, you looked around in alarm, watching the sky.

"It's past eight o'clock at night! So why isn't the sun setting!"

-

Imma say it right now already. Merry Christmas everyone, and a happy new year! This story has come so far since I first posted it back in March of 2021, and now we're almost into 2023 already. Thank you for everyone who has stuck around and everyone new who has joined. I hope you liked this chapter, happy holidays, and I'll see if I can't sneak in some extra writing time to give you all the gift of an early chapter before the end of the year ;3

21-12-2022