Jotakak Week 2020

Scars

Kakyoin woke up to a dull pain in his abdominal area and hips. Tiredly, he shifted slightly to look over at the face of his sleeping husband who was holding him in his arms. While awake, Jotaro's face usually remained serious and stern, rarely showing emotion, especially to those he was not close to. In sleep, his features seemed gentler, almost even vulnerable. Kakyoin couldn't help but smile at seeing such a rare sight, especially since Jotaro was usually the first one awake.

Slowly and carefully, Kakyoin slid himself out from beneath Jotaro's arm that had been wrapped around his waist. Moving as slowly as he could as to not dip the mattress too much, Kakyoin swung his legs over the bed and raised himself to a sitting position. It was only when he began to stand that the pain became stronger, resulting in him letting out a slight hiss.

When he finally managed to stand, he emptied out a few prescription painkillers and dry swallowed them. As he made his way out of their shared room to get a glass of water, he snuck a glance at the bed to make sure Jotaro had not woken up. Luckily, it seemed he was still asleep.

As Kakyoin turned on the kitchen sink faucet to pour himself a glass of water, he realized it had been dripping even while turned off. Gulping down the water quickly, he thought about the repair costs and who they would call for them. Without realizing it, his mind quickly drifted to other things.

Costly repairs...

Repairs...

Drips...

After their journey to Egypt, Kakyoin had endured major injuries that almost led to his death. Thanks to the SpeedWagon Foundation and a combination of their advanced knowledge of medical science, as well as plenty of money to spare, he was able to recover from such devastating injuries. Still though, after countless surgeries, transplants, and transfusions, scars remained and so did other minor complications. On occasion, he would have abdominal pains, lethargy, trouble walking, as well as other treatable but mostly manageable issues. Today just happened to be one of those days.

After a moment of consideration of whether he should sit on the couch and work through his sleepiness, he decided to just go back to bed and rest as much as he could until the painkillers kicked in. Upon returning to the bedroom though, he saw Jotaro sitting up, combing his fingers through his hair.

"Ah, sorry, did I wake you up?" Kakyoin asked sympathetically as he gingerly crawled back into bed on his hands and knees before lying on his side next to the other, making sure to not move in a way that would aggravate his pains. "I just went to get a drink of water, we can go back to sleep if you want."

"Noriaki, you haven't taken painkillers in a while...is it bad?" Jotaro asked, a sorry look on his face.

"Awe, JoJo, don't worry about it, it's just a little ache here and there. In 30 minutes it should be fine" Kakyoin assured, placing a hand gently on Jotaro's cheek.

Jotaro leaned into his touch, closing his eyes as he put his own hand over Kakyoin's to keep it in place.

"Kakyoin..."

While neither of the two seemed to be very outgoing with others, even while in a relationship, Jotaro usually didn't have words to spare. Times like this only ever seemed to make it harder for him to express himself, to tell the other how he truly felt. Luckily, he had married a man with plenty of understanding and patience. Kakyoin could already tell that the transition from using his given name to his surname meant Jotaro was probably remembering the past. The reason for the drop in mood was nothing new either.

"Are you scared I won't get better? You should have more faith in the foundation. Well, the human body is an amazing thing as well, so you don't have to worry about my stomach splitting open and guts spilling out everywhere anytime soon" Kakyoin joked lightly.

"It's not that. I just feel like there isn't much I can do to help you, like I don't do enough. I don't know what to do. I don't want to see you in pain..." Jotaro explained carefully and slowly, his cheek pressing into Kakyoin's palm slightly harder as he spoke.

"Jotaro, I'm not even sure what to do with myself. You've helped me enough on my journey to recover and everything before, but if you insist" Kakyoin said, slipping his hand out from beneath Jotaro's to grab the hand that had been keeping his in place. Putting Jotaro's middle and pointer finger together with the others tucked into his palm, Kakyoin placed them on Jotaro's lips.

"With the power of all the love in your body, I command you to seal my wounds" Kakyoin said as he shifted onto his back, placing Jotaro's fingers just above his forehead.

"This is where you held my face and removed DIO's flesh-bud, saving my life even after everything that happened" Kakyoin said as he felt Jotaro's fingers against the scar. Closing his eyes momentarily, he moved Jotaro's hand down to his left eye, tracing the scar running from above his eyebrow to below the eye. "And this is where N'Doul attempted to blind me in the desert. Do you remember how you held me and tended to my wounds? Even while I was drifting in and out of consciousness, I could feel your strong grip, your worry...do you remember?"

Kakyoin's heart began to ache as he watched Jotaro's eyes become glassy, but he went on regardless. Trailing his hand down to his chest, Kakyoin pressed the tips of Jotaro's fingers into the center of his chest, letting it rest there for a moment. Once he felt content with that, he slowly dragged the other's hand down to the center of his abdomen, using his free hand to lift his shirt and spread Jotaro's hand across the large scar. Similar in color to the scars on his eyes, the scar spread across his abdomen, leaving it slightly concave. Stretch marks and webbed lines ran across the patch of scarred skin, reminding them both of the many surgeries and procedures that were done to close the wound.

"It wasn't the most honorable battle, but it was my fault for trying to take on DIO alone. A bit ironic, isn't it? I had told Polnareff after we thought Avdol had died that we wouldn't fight alone ever again, and yet..." Kakyoin trailed off.

"You told me to stay behind with him" Jotaro breathed, his eyes wide as he felt tears begin to prick at them. "If I had been there with you, I would have told you...I would have protected you..."

"It's okay. We're all alive now, aren't we? Just like this pain I feel, or your guilt, or happiness, pleasure, even sorrow...it just means that we're still alive to feel it, that I'm still alive" Kakyoin explained gently. "Even if it isn't exactly ideal, it's how you know you're still alive. This scar came from a wound so severe I almost died, yet it was able to heal and now you're able to touch it. Now all we can do is take it as evidence of everything we've been through and keep living."

All Jotaro could do was stare at him for a moment, the tears in his eyes welling up more than before as he visibly tried to process everything that Kakyoin had told him.

Kakyoin wrapped his arm around Jotaro's neck and pulled his head into his chest. For a few minutes all Jotaro could do was quietly sob and take in what he had heard, while Kakyoin hugged him tightly.

Kakyoin guessed the reason for his unusual emotional outburst was due to a number of things. Stress from both their jobs, sleepless nights, and the fact they had both been hoping to wean him off the heavy prescription painkillers as his body finally seemed to go back to normal, or at least as much as it could. It had been a while since he had been in such pain, so it was a reasonable hope. Regardless, the road to recovery was a long one and especially one they were willing to fight through.

"Thank you for those 50 days of friendship, Jotaro Kujo. After 17 years of loneliness, I hope we can make up for it with loving each other for the rest of our lives."

For the rest of the morning, they embraced each other in silence.