Joseph sat on the ground, squinting at the sunny, cloud laced sky. It was a particularly beautiful day, and he was glad he chose to meet Caesar then. He played with the grass and walked around, picking a bouquet of flowers for his best friend, and the one he loved the most. They've always known it was right for them to be together, but the rest of the world thought differently. They may not be together in this life, but they will be in the next.
Joseph smiled when he spotted the other man sitting in the shade of a large white jasmine tree. He waved and sighed when sitting in front of him.
"I'm too old to be picking you flowers," Joseph laughed, rubbing his back and placing the bouquet on the ground between them. He appreciated the beautiful smile on the blonde's face, sunlight speckled across his nose and high cheeks, his signature markings highlighted by the nearly white locks of hair hanging off his forehead. Caesar didn't talk much now, but Joseph didn't mind. He never understood how Caesar avoided aging, he didn't look a day past 20, yet here they were, celebrating his 71st birthday in secret. He even had a special glow to him, as if made of gold.
"You still look as perfect as ever... I really missed you, Caesarino." Joseph grinned mischievously at the face he received from the older man. Caesar snorted and shook his head, then turned his attention back to Joseph, who knew what he wanted to hear.
"I've seen the world, done it all
Had my cake now
Diamonds, brilliant, and Bel Air now"
"I almost didn't get to make it this year," he admitted. "I went around the world, Caesar! I saw Japan and even Egypt!"
Caesar's eyes widened, then he furrowed his eyebrows.
"We had- Well, my grandson, his schoolmate, a French guy, a dog, an Egyptian friend of mine, and I had to travel to Egypt to save Holly. There are these things called stands," Joseph paused to breathe. "-and you get sick when developing one, but Holly wasn't doing well at all. So we went to Egypt and ended up battling Dio! Oh- Don't look at me like that! I'm not kidding," he giggled.
"Really, I'm not! He stole grandpa Jonathan's body! Yeah, that's what I said," Joseph responded to Caesar's wide eyes and head jerk forward. "It was crazy as hell, man!"
The two laughed together as Joseph leaned his back against the tree and Caesar laid his head on the younger's shoulder.
"We lost the schoolmate, my Egyptian friend, and the dog, but they fought hard... yes, I know, I know I can deal with it but I'm not sure about Jotaro... He lost three good friends at 17, it's hard just losing one..."
They sat there in silence until Caesar turned his face up toward Joseph's with a nostalgic glint in his eyes. Joseph happily sighed and looked up toward the sky.
"Hot summer nights, mid-July
When you and I were forever wild"
"Do you remember when we were young? The way we would- Okay, I won't say it," Joseph gave in to the blonde's stern look, but couldn't help reminiscing.
During the night, the empty, gaping hall grows still like a machine that's powered down. The bright airiness of Roman days fade, and darkness falls over like a downy comforter. All that's left is the low oil lamp lighting that throws short, yellow ochre beams across the polished floor, reflecting in some of the antiqued oak and glass cabinets. Not even a breeze disrupts the papers stacked upon the laquered desk, yet the slightest thought of movement momentarily blocks the low light, as a sheer swirling mist, with its soft, blurred edges, seeps through microscopic pores in the wall. The sort of movement that's seen on the ill-defined peripherals of anthropoid vision, the kind that breeds insomnia-instigating insinuations of monsters lurking in the dark, towing the shadows along as if they weren't immovable.
Joseph and Caesar stop in the shadows, their bodies shifting to solid in a sudden, dizzying rush. They press back against a cold stone wall deeper in the darkness, where it would have been absolute, save for the warm, dusty hue cast by the hanging oil lamp. Joseph closes his eyes, Caesar focusing on who, or what, could be emitting the unnatural pulsing. It was like ripples, ocean waves through the seemingly solid marble floor, vibrating under their feet, up through their bones and coming to a rest as a dull rumbling in their chests, their heads. They looked at one another in terror — Would they be caught? Surely Lisalisa and Suzie Q couldn't be awake at this hour — and attempted to calm themselves.
