Chapter Text
After what feels like ages, Jotaro finally turns off the highway and onto the exit close to his home. He might be speeding just a bit, keeping an eye on the clock as he switches lanes.
For the past month, Jotaro was away at a marine ecology conference. It took place under the fading summer sun of Florida in the States, a perfect location to continue his research. Warm and busy with new things to learn about every day. He had fun there, enjoying the hands-on experience with the different marine creatures he wouldn’t be able to find in Japan, as well as being able to fit into most spaces comfortably. Compared to Japan, everything in America was bigger. The cars, the food, the buildings. He did find it excessive at times. He’s a big guy, but how would anyone be able to eat a five-pound cheese burger without throwing up? Americans were a different breed.
The conference went over well. Jotaro and his team presented new research to a significant group of scholars. It was exciting, and the first trip where Jotaro’s been out of the country for so long. The second longest time he was away from home was on a high school trip to Italy.
The only downside to the trip was that Jotaro had to miss Jolyne starting kindergarten. His little, precious daughter starting her first steps in education. She was always a curious tot, wandering away the moment she was set down on the ground to explore the wonders of the world– or in this case, the local park. She scurried away faster when she learned how to walk.
He tried to call every day, but having a twelve-hour time difference made it difficult to find a time when they were both not busy or awake. As much as it pained him to be away from her so long, at least Holly was there to take care of her. Jotaro will always be grateful for his mother. She’d drop anything in an instant if it meant keeping Jolyne safe and happy.
Since Jotaro was returning at a reasonable hour, Jotaro told Holly that he was going to pick Jolyne up from kindergarten.
It took a long time trying to find the school for her. He and Holly spent weeks researching the kindergartens in the area that were taking new students, as well as housing the right curriculum that would satisfy Jolyne’s quickly developing brain. They checked out about a dozen schools before visiting Stardust Kindergarten. It was a small school just outside the city, a quieter location from where the others were.
Jotaro met with the principal, a woman in her fifties who seemed to know what she was doing. She went over what the kids would be doing every day and who the teachers were who would be caring for them. By the end of the day, Jotaro was assured his daughter was in good hands and signed the papers before leaving.
He wants to hear all about the fun new things she's doing and what kind of friends she’s been making for the week she’s been there.
Jolyne has always been a kind child, a little rambunctious at times, but it's clear she wears her heart on her sleeve.
It's just past three o’clock when Jotaro pulls into the gravel parking lot of Jolyne's kindergarten. He may look a little out of place still dressed in formal wear, but the thought doesn't even cross his mind as he shuts the car door and makes for the entrance.
It looks like most of the students have already been picked up by their parents, the coat room free from clutter and the cubbies safely housing a collection of indoor shoes. Jotaro slips off his own shoes and moves down the hall decorated with drawings and colorful origami figures, absentmindedly wondering if Jolyne made any of them. As he gets closer, he hears the chattering of little voices, smiling to himself before turning the corner.
Jolyne is sitting on the rug next to another little girl around her age with a red marker in hand, chatting away while drawing side by side.
Holly had told him that she was experimenting with Jolyne’s hair, and he has to say that the little space buns suit her nicely. There are even a few butterfly hair clips set in each bun.
When his footsteps go unnoticed, Jotaro clears his throat, “Jolyne?”
Jolyne perks up from her spot, eyes going wide and a smile spreading across her face.
“Daddy!” She squeals, dropping her marker and running to her father. She barrels into him and Jotaro crouches down just in time to catch her with ease, squeezing her tightly. “Are you here to pick me up today?” She looks at him with big eyes, her excitement not wavering.
Before Jotaro can respond, Jolyne wiggles from his grasp and takes his large hand, pulling him further into the room. She points at the girl with red hair. Now that Jotaro can see her up close, she might even be a year or two older than Jolyne.
“This is my friend Ryoko! She likes drawing with me. Look what we were drawing!” Jolyne lets go of Jotaro’s hand and picks up her drawing, holding it out for her father to take. It’s a stick figure drawing of what Jotaro assumes to be Holly, Jolyne, and himself out in a field of flowers. There’s a rainbow in the background and they’re all smiling. He likes that Jolyne put a pair of sunglasses on the sun up in the corner. Holly has old drawings Jotaro made when he was little and he did the same thing.
Ryoko doesn’t say anything, obviously shy around new adults, but passes her drawing to Jolyne. Her picture is of her and a man with the same red hair as her. The stick figures are sitting at what looks like a cafe with a big cake on the table decorated with heaps of frosting and sprinkles, the word ‘Saturday’ spelled as ‘sater day’ at the bottom.
“These are really good,” Jotaro praises, waving Jolyne’s drawing. “Can I put this on the fridge when we get home?”
Jolyne nods enthusiastically, “Yeah! I made another one yesterday and Oba put it up high so you can see it. It’s of a starfish!”
“Oh, goodness-”
Jotaro turns to see a tall stack of boxes before he can see the person behind them. Without thinking, Jotaro stands to help with the heavy load in their arms, taking a few of the boxes into his own. Once half of the boxes are in his care, he’s met with a beautiful man with glittering purple eyes and bright red hair. He’s speechless, too stunned to say anything. Jotaro doesn’t believe in love at first sight, but this encounter has him revising his initial opinion. He almost feels stupid.
“Thank you, I wasn’t expecting these to be so heavy. Oh! And I wasn’t gone for long. The girls were only left alone for a minute, I promise. I was just down the hall so if either of them needed anything I would be right there.”
Jotaro regains his composure, remembering where he is. This must be Jolyne’s teacher if the green smock was anything to go by. He puts his own boxes on the low table before taking Jotaro’s and placing them side by side.
“Mr. Noriaki! This is my dad! He just got back from work. He learns about fishes in the sea!” Jolyne bounces on the balls of her feet, her hair buns bobbing with her.
Jotaro clears his throat and holds out a hand, “Jotaro.”
Mr. Noriaki takes it and Jotaro can’t help but notice there isn’t a ring on his finger. “Noriaki. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Jolyne has told me a lot about you.” His handshake is firm, but not overbearing. “Should I expect you to be picking up Jolyne more often?” At that moment, Jolyne decides that’s enough being around adults and goes back to Ryoko’s side to continue her next masterpiece on construction paper, “Ms. Holly has been wonderful, but I’m assuming that since you’re back in the country you’ll hopefully have more time to pick your daughter up from kindergarten.”
Jotaro nods, “That’s the plan. I already talked with my employer so I should be able to pick her up most if not all days. I can give you my number if plans change and my mom has to pick her up.” Warmth rises from Jotaro’s skin at his last sentence, but he hopes color isn’t detectable under his Florida tan. Since when did he react like this around people he found attractive? He was always cool-headed, but that’s when he was a teenager. A lot has changed since then.
Luckily, Noriaki doesn’t notice and he takes out a notepad and pen from the pocket of his apron. He holds them out for Jotaro to take and Jotaro accepts them quickly. He scrawls down his number and home phone, but he assumes Noriaki has that one anyway. Jotaro hands the pad and pen back, and Noriaki slips it back into the pouch.
Their attention drifts to the two girls on the carpet, completely immersed in their arts and crafts.
“They’ve gotten really close since Jolyne joined us. She’s great and gets along with everyone.”
Jotaro nods, glad his daughter isn’t wreaking havoc among her fellow kindergarteners. A light flickers on in Jotaro’s head, glancing at Ryoko’s head of hair.
“Is Ryoko your daughter?” That would explain her drawing as well as her physical features. She even has the same stunning purple eyes as Noriaki does.
Noriaki doesn’t respond and Jotaro thinks he didn’t hear him, but a beat later all he says is, “You could say that.”
Jotaro hums, deciding to drop that point of minor contention. He gets it, having gotten a lot of unwanted questioning from strangers when they saw him and Jolyne together. Aren’t you a little young to be a father? Where’s the mother? A father shouldn’t be caring for a kid by himself. His temper has mellowed out over the years but god if that doesn’t piss him off.
“Jolyne,” Jotaro says, approaching the two scribbling away, “Let’s go, we don’t want to keep Mr. Noriaki and Ryoko from going home.”
Jolyne gives him a look like he told her that her dog died. She doesn't have a dog.
“But we just started drawing a new picture! Can we stay until we’re finished?” She stares up at Jotaro, tagging on a “please” at the end for good measure. One thing that Jotaro needs to work on is saying “no” to his five-year-old daughter. When she looks at him like that, with her big, sad eyes, Jotaro has trouble refusing her. He glances at Noriaki who smiles knowingly.
“We’re in no rush, we can wait a little longer,” Noriaki says, taking a seat at the small table with the boxes on it. Jotaro does the same, feeling absurdly big in a chair made for someone a fifth of his size.
Noriaki opens one of the boxes and begins sorting its contents. It’s a mess of colorful paper and sticker sheets, and Jotaro hopes not all of the boxes are like this. He opens one himself and finds that, yes, they are all like this.
“So, Jotaro, what kind of stuff are you studying? Jolyne has told me you’re somewhere in the aquatic realm.”
Jotaro starts his organizing, placing fuzzy craft balls with their like colors into small plastic containers.
“I work with marine animals, but I have experience with freshwater ones too. It’s mostly research with a bit of teaching every once in a while. We have a big aquarium at home that Jolyne likes to look at and feed sometimes. She’s more interested in bugs though.”
“Mm, yes, she’s been making lots of butterflies and ladybugs recently.” Noriaki finishes with a stack and reaches over to the drying table behind him. He pulls over a purple pipe-cleaner butterfly glued to a sheet of green construction paper with Jolyne’s name written in large letters in the corner. It’s covered in silver glitter and squiggles of sparkling glue. “She made this today. You can take it home tomorrow after it dries.”
They continue sorting, listening idly to Jolyne and Ryoko.
“Jolyne has quite the imagination too. Lately, she’s been playing this game where she has an imaginary friend who can make spiderwebs. It’s like a superpower,” Noriaki muses, glancing up at Jotaro.
“Ah, that’s from me. It’s a game we play at home, and I didn’t know she talked about it elsewhere. I can talk to her about it if you’d like.”
Noriaki laughs, waving a hand, “On no, no, it’s alright. Most of the kids have a fun time with it and play along,” Noriaki pauses, smirking. “Do you have one of these magic ghosts?”
Jotaro narrows his eyes, knowing a playful taunt when he sees one.
“Yes, I do, actually. He’s big, strong, and purple. I made them up when Jolyne first started getting nightmares, so I told her there would always be this friendly ghost that would watch over her to scare the bad thoughts away.”
Noriaki softens at that information, smiling as he grabs another stack of art supplies.
“That’s sweet. Ryoko does something similar. We have a huge book of fairy tales and she’s able to read most of them by herself. She puts the book under the blankets with her to sleep so the knights and heroes can keep her safe.”
Jotaro hums, wondering if, or when, Jolyne won’t need something like that to reassure her at night. It’s a little secret kept only to himself – and Holly–, but Jotaro had first thought of these ghosts when he was a child. He never thought the idea would resurface, especially so soon.
Jolyne was the result of a college party and a little too much tequila. Jotaro’s boyfriend at the time broke up with him around then, and he thought it would be a good idea to tap into the ‘bi’ part of his bisexuality. Unfortunately, the alcohol lead to bad decision after bad decision. It wasn’t until three months later that Jotaro learned the woman he spent the night with was pregnant.
They barely knew each other nor did they have an interest in seeing where the relationship went. She had asked Jotaro if she should terminate the pregnancy. The smart answer would’ve been ‘yes,’ that Jotaro doesn’t have time to care for a newborn child. He was halfway through his undergrad education and wanted to do master’s work once he graduated. But something in him asked her to wait until the baby was born. They would be able to put them up for adoption, but even that idea made Jotaro feel uneasy. Six months passed and a healthy baby girl was born, and Jotaro knew that he had to keep her. Her tiny hand gripped Jotaro’s finger as if to say, “please don’t leave,” and Jotaro gave his final answer.
His contact with Jolyne’s mother faded as quickly as it came, but Jotaro was miraculously able to keep his head above water while up to his ears in class assignments and part-time jobs; he has his mother to thank for that. He still lives with Holly, waiting until Jolyne is older to move elsewhere. It’s important for Jotaro for Jolyne to have support while he’s away, because if there’s one thing he doesn’t want to be it’s to be like his own father. It’s a tentative subject that Jolyne has asked about before, but Jotaro told her it’s complicated and that he’ll tell her another time.
Sadao left Jotaro and Holly when Jotaro was a young boy, leaving him with the blurry face of a man who called himself a father. Jotaro has learned to forget him, though, clearing out space in his heart for new people. It took years for that, sometimes wishing to know what it would be like to have a father who loved him as much as his mother.
Even for the month that Jotaro was absent, he was worried he’d come back to his daughter hating him for abandoning her. Jolyne hating him is one of his greatest fears, but having gone through an angsty teen phase himself, he’ll brace himself for the worse when the time comes.
Jotaro glances over to Jolyne and sees her slowly reaching for another sheet of paper as if her dad wouldn’t notice.
“Jolyne, we said just one, remember?” Jotaro places his hands on his knees and pushes himself up from the orange plastic chair. Jolyne pouts, but no complaints follow. Instead, she looks up at Jotaro and asks, “Can we get a treat?”
“We can after–”
“Jolyne!!” Ryoko gets to her feet and runs to Jolyne with excitement in her step. “You should come to the cafe with me and Noriaki tomorrow! We go every Saturday and they have so many yummy things!” She turns to Noriaki, her purple eyes big at the prospect of spending more time with her friend, “Can Jolyne pleeeeeeease join us?”
Now both of the girls are looking at Noriaki, practically vibrating with anticipation. Noriaki smiles and looks to Jotaro.
“If you’re not busy, we’d love to have you. We go every week around nine.”
Jolyne and Ryoko both turn to Jotaro at the same time, intense stares unwavering. It’s a little scary.
“I don’t think we have any plans. We’d love to join you two.”
More excitement explodes from the five-year-old and the possible six to seven-year-old.
“Great! I’ll text you the location. We’ll see you then.”
Jolyne collects her stuff and says goodbye to Ryoko and Noriaki with a hug. Jotaro puts Jolyne in her booster seat while she tells him about her day. Noriaki is right, Jolyne does seem to get along with everyone she plays with. She did show him the scrape on her knee from tripping over a fallen branch, but the blue bandaid patched over the injury made everything alright.
Ryoko was the first person Jolyne made friends with. On the first day, Jolyne was coloring by herself when Ryoko came up and asked if they could draw together. They made this game where one of them would draw something on a piece of paper, and then trade paper to continue drawing. They’ve done so at least once a day since.
They go to a local scoop shop and Jolyne gets cotton candy ice cream with rainbow sprinkles while Jotaro opts for peach sorbet. Jolyne’s ice cream is impossibly colorful and looks stomach ache inducing, but she hums happily with each lick.
The drive home gets quieter and quieter until silence fills the car. They roll into the driveway of their house and Jotaro has to do the unpleasant thing of waking up his ice cream coma-induced daughter.
“Jolyne, we’re home,” Jotaro whispers while unclasping her seatbelt.
Jolyne rocks her head, bringing a hand up to her face to rub at her eye but doesn’t move from her seat. She’s still small enough to be carried inside, so that’s exactly what Jotaro does. He slings her backpack over his shoulder and lifts Jolyne with ease, holding her close to his chest.
Jotaro can’t believe how big she’s getting. It’s like it was yesterday when she first began to walk.
“I thought I heard a car come in.” Holly stands in the doorway, smiling warmly. Jotaro approaches her with his arms full, and Holly gives him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You’re home later than I anticipated. I hope the traffic wasn’t bad.”
They move into the house and it smells divine. Holly must have been cooking dinner if the tantalizing scent of tonkatsu is anything to go by.
“No, it was nothing like that. We ended up staying a little longer at the kindergarten since Jolyne wanted to finish a drawing.”
Holly lights up. “Oh, so then I’m assuming you met Noriaki?”
Jotaro clears his throat, “Yeah, he’s nice. We’re actually going to go to a cafe with him and Ryoko tomorrow. I didn’t realize Jolyne made such a good friend.”
“Noriaki is nice, isn’t he? One time I had to take a detour because of road work and he said it was no problem. I felt a bit bad about it because he ended up staying for more than an hour, but he was so nice about it all! He seems to really care for the kids there.”
Jolyne rouses in Jotaro’s arms, the smell of food bringing her back to the land of the living. They all sit down and eat, Jotaro relaxing back into the comfort of his home.
After dinner, Jotaro gets Jolyne ready for sleep and tucked into her bed, her plushies waiting for her return. He joins her on her tiny bed and reads her a bedtime story, tonight’s being Rapunzel per Jolyne’s request. It isn’t before long that she succumbs to sleep, snoozing gently against Jotaro’s chest. With plenty of practice, Jotaro slides himself from under Jolyne and presses a kiss to her forehead, making sure her blankets and toys are keeping her warm and protected.
He leaves her room and gets into his own loungewear; a pair of sweatpants and a loose shirt. Just as he gets into bed, his phone vibrates on the nightstand.
[ Unknown number ]: hi! its noriaki! if we’re still on for tomorrow, meet us at cafe deux magots. see you then! :p
Jotaro smiles at the emoji at the end, quickly adding Noriaki as a contact in his phone. He types out Sounds good before deciding that’s too formal, with how Noriaki has messaged him and all. Jotaro spends a little too long on what to say before settling on a simple:
[Me]: See you then 🐬