#the whole business in morioh made her want to tear her hair out

[loriane-elmuerto]

Lying in bed, thinking about how shitty Caroline's life actually became and how much she sacrificed for others

[jojosbizarreblog]

Hi! I don't know if you're taking requests, but if you are, I was wondering if I could get a small scenario set during part 4, where the Reader was a crusader and Jotaro needs her to help to catch Kira. But the reader herself is done with stands and all that jazz so she flat out refuses (and of course she ends up getting convinced to help!). Sorry if this is too specific... I like to go into detail with my requests ❤️

(Don’t apologize! It actually helps me out a lot when it goes in depth like this, so thank you! Hope you like it!)

(P. S. Zinnia flowers have a purpose in the title, trust me)

(P. P. S. It’s long. It’s angsty. Buckle up)

Zinnia Blossoms in Full Bloom (Jotaro x reader)

You opened up a little shop to get away from your past. Unfortunately it comes back to you through the visit of an old friend.

Opening the little flower shop outside of Morioh was arguably one of the best things that you’ve done. It was good to leave the old things behind, leaving behind the oozing monsters that threatened to drag you down and envelop you whole. Of course, you still kept in contact with some of your remaining friends, but it was difficult with them all over the globe. 

‘Fire Cherry Flowers’ was the name of the little shop, in honor of the ones who have passed. It was your way of remembering their life while you tried to forget the pain that came with their memories. Business was slow when you first opened but eventually, the shop gained popularity, and now you had no trouble keeping yourself busy.

You were getting ready to close up shop for the day, cleaning up the fallen flowers on the ground behind the counter, when the bell to the shop rang behind you. “In a moment!” You called. Straightening up, you started turning to the person. “I’m about to close up for the day, but what do you nee—” You froze as your eyes made contact with familiar ocean blue ones. 

“(Y/n),” Jotaro said. He still looked as handsome as ever, decked out in a long white coat and matching pants, almost like what he wore ten years ago. You couldn’t help but remember all those nights spent with the others, long lost memories.

You swallowed thickly. “Jotaro. What brings you here?”

“I need your help.”

“How about we sit down for some tea,” you said. “I’m closing up the shop, so we can sit in the backroom and you can tell me what’s going on.” You two parted on good terms all those years ago. He left Morioh to pursue his dreams of becoming a marine biologist while you stayed near to apprentice under a skilled gardener, learning about the nuances of plants.

He nodded and hovered in a corner of the shop as you bustled around, locking doors and turning off lights. You beckoned him to your back room, where a little stove accompanied by a table and chairs occupied the area. Tea was made in a few short minutes and you sat down across from him, setting down two cups.

“What brings you here?” You asked him, nursing the warm cup between your hands.

Jotaro sighed and took a sip of his tea. “There have been murder cases popping up around Morioh lately.”

You nodded. “That’s right... I overheard it in the news. What has that got to do with you needing my help anyway?”

“We believe it’s the work of a Stand user.”

Frowning, you told him, “Jotaro, you can’t be serious. I told you guys that I’m done with all that Stand business.”

“I know. I’m working with a few others, but it’s better to have more seasoned people to help us with this.”

You slammed the cup down, face shadowed by your hair. “I can’t! Stands have caused me nothing but pain! I’m done with that Jotaro, that life is over for me.”

“Please,” Jotaro said. “I’m begging you, (y/n). I know it hurts, I feel it too. I spend nights remembering their deaths, it hurts so damn much.”

You paused as a lone tear trickled down his face. Jotaro never talked about his feelings and showed them even less. Even when they were close to bursting. He must’ve really been desperate. You sighed and blinked away your own tears. “Let me think about it,” you said, even though you knew what your answer was. Scribbling down your address, you handed it to him and said, “Come back tomorrow.”

Jotaro nodded and set the teacup down. You stood there alone in the backroom as he left. The chime of the bell was the only thing heard before the silence overtook your shop.

Well, time to get ready for tomorrow. Who knew what laid ahead.

The car rumbled as you stared out the windows at the familiar sights that passed you. Buildings that were still so similar despite the ten-year difference.

The old cream parlor. Whose maraschino cherries were something Noriaki often gushed about

That ramen shop that had great sushi. Something Avdol would’ve loved. Perhaps even Iggy too.

Next to you, Jotaro was focused on the road. You couldn’t help but scan his features over. Soft dark hair, a sharp jawline, striking aquamarine eyes. Perhaps Noriaki was right when he told you that you had a crush on Jotaro. You’d thought the feelings would have been gone by now, but absence makes the heart grow fonder, you supposed.

His phone rang, somewhere in his coat’s pocket, and Jotaro fumbled to take it out and answer it. “Dr. Kujo speaking,” he said. You watched as Jotaro shrank back from the multiple loud voices screeching over the speaker. “Yare yare daze, I leave you three alone for one moment, and trouble’s already found you. I’m only a few minutes away so try not to burn down my hotel room.”

Jotaro sighed as he hung up, stuffing the phone back into his pocket. You raise an inquisitive eyebrow at him. “People you working with?” You asked.

“You could say that. I’m more of a babysitter for them though.”

You shook your head. What the hell did you get dragged into now?

The car rolled to a stop in front of a hotel. “We’re here, let’s go.”

You grabbed your bag and followed Jotaro as he briskly walked through the lobby and up the stairs, questions in your head. What sort of people was Jotaro working with? Detectives? Criminal investigators?

Your expectations were quickly dashed when he opened the door to three teenagers. Two of them were sporting pompadours, though one had quite a sizable one. Both were screaming their heads off, trying to yank a jar off of the one with a smaller pompadour. The last one, who was comically short, was sitting in the hotel’s armchair, watching the chaos in front of him.

None of them heard you two enter, too stuck up in their troubles. They didn’t notice the dangerous aura Jotaro was giving off either. You looked at him and said, “Are you shitting me? Jotaro are these who you’re working with????”

The screaming stopped and all eyes zoned in on you. The previously screaming teens straightened up, hiding the jar behind their back. Jotaro gave a long-suffering sigh as he shut the door behind you two.

“Jotaro!” The one with the larger pompadour beamed. “Who’s this?”

“This is (y/n) (l/n). She’s a friend of mine and a former Crusader.”

You nodded at them. The shortest one stood up and walked to you, sticking out his hand. “My name is Koichi Hirose, nice to meet you.”

Taking his hand in yours you gave him a smile. “Nice to meet you too.”

The larger pompadour wearing teen pushed Koichi aside, grinning at you. “I’m Josuke Higashitaka, Jotaro’s uncle! That’s my friend Okuyasu Nijimura!”

You blanked. He looked seventeen at the oldest. How did he end up being Jotaro’s uncle? You squinted at him and then Jotaro, trying to pick out any similarities. “What the fuck happened when I was out?” You asked Jotaro.

“Joseph got busy,” was his reply.

Sighing you turned back to the teen and nodded. “Pleased to meet you, Josuke.”

Josuke brightened. “You said you were a former Crusader, right??? What was it like, traveling across Egypt???”

Oh god.

Nights under stars. Making fun of each other. Two limp objects and a canid body in Polnareff’s arms. A crumpled water tower.

You forced a smile to hide the inky blackness seeping through your heart. “It was hell and high heaven at the same time.”

Josuke frowned at the cryptic phrase but was stopped from asking any more questions when something shattered and Okuyasu screamed. You winced at the volume and wondered how Jotaro managed to work with them.

“Crazy Diamond!” Josuke yelled. A being appeared and you blanked.

His Stand...

Oh god oh god oh god.

You flinched as Jotaro’s hand came to rest upon your shoulder. He turned your attention away from whatever was happening with the teens. “Will you be alright?”

Swallowing thickly, you replied, “There’s... going to be some adjustments needed.”

He sighed a straightened up, walking to the now quieter teens and ushering them out the door. “Come back tomorrow,” he barked. “We’ll work on some more stuff next time.”

The door shut with a resounding slam, leaving peace and silence at last. You found yourself drawn to the balcony overlooking Morioh. Jotaro’s presence settled next to you and you two stared at the little town below.

“Josuke’s Stand...” you began tentatively.

From the corner of your vision, you could see Jotaro give a shart nod. “I know. I promise that it’s different from his.”

You nodded stiffly. “Alright.”

“Hey... do you want to go to that ice cream parlor we passed?”

Your heart clenched at the unexpected question. “The one that Noriaki swore up and down had the best maraschino cherries?”

There was the barest hint of a smile in Jotaro’s reply. “Yeah... we did promise to try it out when we got back. Never got around to it.”

“I’m in,” you agreed. “We do need to fulfill our promise after all.”

“Alright. We’ll head over there tomorrow, then we’ll get to work on the case.”

That was it for the conversation between you two as a breeze passed over the quiet bubble that had set in.

In that quiet, you couldn’t help but reminisce about those long gone.

[Zinnia is a symbol of endurance. It also symbolizes lasting friendships, goodness, and remembrance.]

[cosmicevila]

Merry Christmas, @losttostardust! I am your Secret Santa for the @jjba-secret-santa swap! I’m sorry for getting this to you so close to the deadline, but December ended up being ridiculously busy! I hope you like the fic! Best wishes to you in 2018!

Edit: Fixed the GARBAGE formatting that I got with trying to post this via mobile, and added a readmore link.  Also, if you click on the title of the fic, you’ll find the song that inspired me a little, Joni Mitchell’s Come in from the Cold.

Title: Come in from the Cold

Pairing: Gappy Higashikata/Yasuho Hirose

Rating: PG

Summary: Yasuho finds Gappy alone in the snow on Christmas Eve.

The snow always fell long and hard upon Morioh in the winter, ushered in by cold winds blowing in from over the sea.  It was beautiful to look at, no doubt, but the way it buried the city and dampened its hustle and bustle made Yasuho feel at once refreshed and terribly lonely. She spent a lot of time holed up in her room in the winter, ignoring her mother as hard as possible when she did bother to check in.  However, today was a day when she just couldn’t stand being shut away any longer, and so she pulled on all of the warm clothing she could handle and set out for a walk.

Yasuho only meant to take a short walk around her block to shake off her cabin fever, but Paisley Park woke up the moment she stepped outside, and Yasuho couldn’t ignore her Stand’s call.  Her heart beat a little faster as she followed Paisley Park’s directions further and further from town, because her Stand so often led her to Josuke, and if Josuke was in trouble, then Yasuho needed to go to him.  (And if he wasn’t in trouble, well, then Yasuho needed to go to him then, too – she would never pass up a chance to see the boy she cared about so deeply.)

The snow grew deeper and the roads and sidewalks messier the further she ventured from the city, and the wind rushing in from the ocean stung her cheeks and nose.  Her eyes watered, making it difficult to see, and she pulled her jacket’s hood closer around her face to try to block some of the gale.  She sped up, hoping to find out where Paisley Park was taking her as soon as possible – and before she realized it, she had reached the Wall Eyes.  The land they surrounded was eerily quiet, and Yasuho realized that it was slightly warmer there because the strange structures blocked some of the wind.  But the tradeoff was the disquieting feeling of being watched by something that wasn’t quite human, and that chilled Yasuho right to her bones.  Still, she wandered closer at the insistence of her Stand, and suddenly she noticed a familiar tassel peeking over a snowbank.

“Josuke~?” she called, and trudged through the deep snow to the valley beyond.  And there he was, sitting on the ground without a single thread of winter clothing on, his canvas sneakers almost hidden by the snow.  She called his name again, but he still didn’t answer her.  His lips were tinged with blue, and she would have assumed that he had found a new shade of lipstick if she’d found him in any other weather.

“Josuke!  Josuke, it’s me, Yasuho!” she yelled as she finally reached him, dropping to her knees in front of him and taking his face in her wool-glove-warmed hands.  “Are you okay?”

Josuke blinked, and his lips silently formed her name.

“Yes, it’s me, Yasuho!” she cried, voice shrill with panic.  She gently shook his head and said, “What are you doing out here without a coat or anything on?  You need to get inside!”

“Yasuho-chan,” he murmured, and hot tears spilled onto his cheeks.  “It’s good to see you.”  Yasuho pulled him into a fierce hug, vigorously rubbing his back, his arms, anything.  “I had a feeling I’d see you today.”

“What?  It’s good to see you, too, but it’d be nicer if we were inside,” Yasuho stuttered, the chill from the snow she was kneeling in finally seeping through her jeans.  “You know, I had a feeling I would see you, too…  Paisley Park led me here.”  Keeping one hand over his heart, she moved on to trying to rub some warmth back into his legs.  The fabric of his sailor suit was thicker than she realized, which was a slight relief, but only a very slight one. 

Josuke dropped his head against her shoulder.  “It was so strange,” he murmured.  “The Wall Eyes were calling me, pulling my heart here, and I just walked here without a second thought.  And when I realized how cold it was and where I was, I thought, well, Yasuho-chan always finds me here, and I waited for you.  And here you are.”

“I always find you here?  What do you mean?  Paisley Park did all of the work.”

“This is where I’m from…  Where you found me.  Where I was born from the ground…”  Josuke trailed off, and Yasuho looked around.  They were sitting on the exact spot on the coastline where Yasuho had originally found Josuke, naked, alone, and unknowing; where Yasuho’s tiny world had expanded more than she’d ever dreamed it would.  And they were both called here again on this day… 

Suddenly, Yasuho’s breath left her in a gasp.  “It’s Christmas Eve,” she whispered.  She’d completely forgotten.  She didn’t have any plans – she and her friends had exchanged gifts earlier in December, and she certainly didn’t plan to give anything to her mother, even if her mother gave something to her.  Her mother would probably just leave money on the kotatsu before she went on another all-night bender with some strange, dangerous man.  That was her Christmas Eve tradition.

Christmas Eve was supposed to be a day that you spent with the ones you love.  Yasuho hadn’t celebrated it properly since she was a child because her mother’s addiction trumped whatever love she had left for her daughter.  And today, on this Christmas Eve, both she and Josuke were drawn to the same place, together.  The place where they met for the very first time.

At least the blush covering Yasuho’s face made her feel a little warmer.

“Come on, Josuke,” she said, unwinding her scarf and wrapping it around his neck, making sure that every inch of his always-exposed collarbone was covered up.  “Let’s go back to my house, where it’s warm.  I’m surprised that you haven’t already frozen solid!”  She tugged on his elbow and guided him into a standing position.

“It’s not that bad.  Soft and Wet keeps taking my cold away,” Josuke said, and, right on cue, a familiar robotic hand appeared from behind Josuke’s shoulder and touched a star-marked bubble to his cheek.  Yasuho hadn’t noticed them earlier because their translucency caused them to nearly blend in with the snow, but Josuke’s Stand’s bubbles were littered all over the snowbank.  She sighed in relief.

“Thank God for Soft and Wet,” she said.  “But this is no place to spend such a special day!  Come back to my house, warm up, and then maybe we can get dinner later.”  She tugged on his elbow again, and Josuke followed her gladly as they climbed the snowbank.

“Can we get fries?” Josuke said, a hopeful lilt to his voice.

Yasuho giggled.  “Whatever you want,” she said.  They walked along at a happy clip, humming Josuke’s large fries jingle all the way.

*****

Her house was empty, just as Yasuho suspected and hoped.  She ushered Josuke through the doorway, and, as they toed off their shoes, said, “I’ll plug in the kotatsu in a second after I get you a blanket.  I’ll warm some water for tea, too – or would you rather have coffee?”

Josuke hummed and then said, “Coffee, please.  What’s… a kotatsu?”

Yasuho blinked.  “You don’t know?  Do they not have one at the Higashikatas?”

“If they do, they haven’t said anything about it.”

“Well, here.  It’s so~ good.”  Yasuho led him by the elbow – as she’d been doing this whole time, she realized with a bit of embarrassment – into the living room, where her family’s kotatsu was set up.  Its pink flowered blanket and round black tabletop were looking worse for wear, but the heater worked just fine, and that was the important thing.  She lifted up the blanket and arranged one of the pillows, and motioned for Josuke to sit down.  “Here, sit down, and arrange the blanket however you like.  I’ll plug it in…”  Josuke settled himself underneath the blanket, and as soon as Yasuho plugged the kotatsu in, he let out a cry of surprise.  Yasuho giggled.

“It’s a warm table?!” Josuke said, sticking his hands underneath the blanket as well, and then scooting up until his forearms were covered, too.  “This is amazing~!”

“I know, right?” Yasuho said with a smile.  “Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll make it even better.”

Yasuho rushed to the kitchen to start the coffee pot, and then to her room to grab some blankets, because she’d hoarded all of them for those days when her mother was using the kotatsu and those cold, cold winter nights alone.  On her way back to the living room, she pulled a couple of oranges from the fridge, peeled them, and grabbed some napkins.  When she returned to the living room, Josuke was nowhere to be found.

Yasuho frowned.  “Josuke?” she called – but then she noticed the blanket around the kotatsu bulging strangely, and, after setting the oranges on the table and the blankets on the floor, she lifted it to find Josuke curled up underneath it.

“’S warmer under here,” Josuke mumbled. 

“I guess Soft and Wet wasn’t doing as good of a job of taking the chill away as you thought, huh?” Yasuho said.  “You should come out.  I don’t want you to burn yourself on the heater.  I have blankets for you.”

Josuke slid out from underneath the kotatsu, pouting, and as soon as he sat up, Yasuho piled every blanket she brought on his shoulders.  He pulled them around himself and retreated into them like a turtle going back into its shell, until only his sailor hat and a little bit of his curly hair was visible.  Yasuho couldn’t resist giving his shoulders a little squeeze.  “That’s better, right?” she said.  “I’ll be back – I need to pour the coffee.  Have an orange, too, if you want.  That’s also something you do at the kotatsu.”

A few minutes later, Yasuho returned with two steaming mugs of coffee and cream, and the Josuke bundle hadn’t budged.  “I’m back~” she said, and, placing one mug of coffee in front of him, sat down next to him – not too close, but not too far away.  Just the right distance for a friend to sit next to another friend.

But Josuke had other plans, and suddenly Yasuho was absorbed into the blanket pile.  She felt like her face was probably steaming with how hot it got from Josuke’s arms wrapping around her middle and his head tucked under her chin.  For one of Josuke’s impromptu hugs that he was prone to giving, it felt impossible intimate with the added layers of warmth.

“Josuke…?” she stammered, her voice barely above a squeak.

“Yasuho-chan,” he said, his voice muffled by the blankets and Yasuho’s sweater, “you’re always there when I need you the most, even when I don’t know that I need you.”

“Oh,” she breathed.  Did she?  Well, this was the second time she’d found him at the Wall Eyes, and she did come to him when he was in trouble, but…  She’d never felt like she was truly that helpful to Josuke.  Maybe she was doing better than she thought. 

She placed her hands on the arms that surrounded her, and stroked them gently with her thumbs.  “Well, I just want to help you,” she murmured.  “No matter what, I want to help you.” 

“No matter what,” Josuke murmured in reply.  “I always want to help you, too.”

Tears pricked the corners of Yasuho’s eyes, and she shifted so she was full-on holding Josuke.  “Do you want to stay with me tonight?” she blurted, and the tears suddenly fell, regret immediately replacing the sudden surge of feeling in her heart that prompted the question.  “I mean – I don’t mean like that, just – we can watch TV, we can just talk, we can play a game –”

But Josuke hugged her tighter, and laughed.  “Yeah,” he said, “I wanna stay here with you.  I want to eat oranges and sit under this amazing table all night.”

“Well, if you get tired, you can sleep between the mattresses on my bed,” she said.

“Or you can just lay on top of me right here,” Josuke mumbled, and he giggled when Yasuho choked and fell back.  Josuke snaked an arm out from underneath his cocoon, picked an orange slice, and popped it into his mouth – and when orange juice squirted from the gap between his two front teeth, Yasuho collapsed onto the floor with laughter. 

Merry Christmas, she thought.  I don’t wanna spend it with anyone but you.