Eloquence

Kakyoin is a Painting, Waiting to Dry

they won't come off

these things, in his skin, they won't come off, and Kakyoin's arm is bleeding and stinging but the roses in it won't come off no matter what he does

it takes Polnareff coming into Kakyoin's room with a "whoa, hey, no, stop that, what are you doing" to still Kakyoin's hands

then it's "I can't deal with this, stay here, just wait and I promise I'll be back in a minute" with Polanareff's bright blue eyes full of worry

got to get the roses out, can't look at them, can't deal with them (can Star Platinum pull them out like flesh buds or grab them with his teeth and drag them out of him? Kakyoin doesn't know and the not-knowing pulls another flower to the surface of the back of his hand. Kakyoin wants it gone but he promised Polnareff and Polnareff promised him so he waits)

Kakyoin keeps his promise and Polnareff keeps his and now Avdol is watching Kakyoin with his brow furrowed in what looks like anger but reads like sorrow and "Is this what it was like" Kakyoin says tonelessly and hopes that Avdol can read him and hopes that Jotaro can't and the hoping brings another rose higher up on Kakyoin's arm than the rest

"I don't know," says Avdol. "When you held me together with Hierophant, I was too overwhelmed to understand it. It was have been frightening, but I expected the afterlife to be frightening." His voice is soft and raspy. "May I?" His broad fortune-teller hands wrap around Kakyoin's bleeding arm. Pink roses blossom up Avdol's arms. Avdol smiles at them. "I know," he tells them. "It would appear that the flowers are not harmful. Nor would I describe them as particularly distressing. Is it possible that the color indicates different meanings? Or are you simply-"

Polnareff bursts through the door, medical kit in hand. "Right. Good. Got this. Let's get these fixed, Cherry Boy. Thanks for keeping an eye on him, Avdol."

"Don't touch-" Kakyoin pulls his arms out of Avdol's grasp.

"Huh? Relax, I'm not gonna hurt you."

"I believe that Kakyoin was referring to this effect. They seem to be contagious, you see." Avdol takes Polnareff by the forearms. Orange roses spring to life, stark and bright against Polnareff's pale skin. 

"Oh," Polnareff breathes, and his skin flushes so deeply that the flowers seem to glow. Then he shakes his head briskly. "Well, I've got it now, Kakyoin, so you'd better hold still and let Jean-Pierre work his wondrous healing. Shame about covering up the pretty red flowers. This shouldn't sting too much. I use it all the time. Get hurt a lot, y'know? I'm always clumsy when my fingers aren't where I expect them to be. You know what's weird about that?" He swabs something cold onto the scratches on Kakyoin's arms. Polnareff's right, it doesn't sting, but it burns a little. "I don't know where my fingers are. See, if I'd lost 'em in a machine accident or something, I'd know they were getting chewed up by the gears or whatever. But they went to nothing and then the nothing stopped existing, so for all I know they're in a parallel universe somewhere. Can you imagine? Some poor guy just trying to live his life opens up his fridge and voila! Fingers! That would be a nasty surprise. He should be glad that's all I lost."

"What if I'd stayed in there?" Avdol chimes in, a rare and lighthearted smile playing on his lips. "Some fellow walking along and I drop out of the sky into his path with my arms ten feet away in different directions."

Polnareff makes a wonderfully inelegant snorting noise and dissolves into laughter. "And then Kakyoin's Stand comes squirming along after it like a deranged fishing line."

Neither of them notices more roses climbing up their arms.

Kakyoin thinks he's figured out what Avdol had been about to say before Polnareff interrupted. He suddenly wishes Polnareff would hurry up with the bandages and cover the roses.

Before... 

Kakyoin hears footsteps.

Before... Jotaro...

A hand appears on the door, stained with a white flower.

Before... Jotaro... shows... up...

Kakyoin feels roses burst to the surface of his skin from his stomach to his neck as Jotaro storms into the room, anger streaming from every line of his posture and roses covering his hands.

(Note: the reference to Avdol and his arms refers to one of TaroTaro's fics on Ao3... I leave it up to you to find which one.)