A Crazy, Noisy, Bizarre Adventure (Reader x Josuke)- Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 26: A Moment In Between

"Come on, I'm walking you home." Josuke stood over your desk, catching you by surprise.

You had been rubbing at the marker on the table all throughout class time, but all it managed to do was smudge it farther, even getting similar marks onto your papers and notebook. Your hands were gray with the stuff, and you were doing your best not to get it on your bag as you put away your belongings.

You ran the pad of your thumb over your palm. "You don't have to do that. I was going to stay a bit later anyways to," you gestured to the stained desk, "you know."

"Want a hand? It'll go a whole lot faster if you let me help." He had leaned up on the adjacent desk, having been long since deserted by the student who'd occupied it. You and Josuke were the only ones left in the room at that point, and upon realizing your intentions, Miko had left. During lunch you had refused to talk about what happened.

"Are you sure? There're a lot better ways to spend a Friday than cleaning."

"Well, the funny thing about that is..." Josuke eyed the surface of the table, and you felt inclined to follow his line of vision. The surface vibrated faintly, the sort of buzzing energy that could only be felt if you'd put your hand to a wall, while a conversation was being held three doors down, but it could be felt like static in the air. The ink had risen off the table, twisting and curling, almost like the shape of swirling plumes of smoke. In the space of a blink of an eye, it seemed to evaporate into nothingness. The desk gleamed, completely absent of any marking, and Josuke smiled coyly. "Who said anything about cleaning?"

You gawked at the clean table top, running your fingers over the cleaned surface. "That's so amazing!" You giddily inspected each corner, but there were no remnants of writing. "Your power is the coolest!" You grinned up at him, but Josuke looked away with wide eyes, his face beet red. You felt your own face flush up, and you looked away. "It's... thanks. Seriously." You mumbled to the ground.

You were suddenly aware of his warm hands, pulling your own up. Josuke danced his eyes to you with a little smile. "Missed a spot." He murmured.

It took a moment for the tingling warmth to entrap your hands. It tickled a little, and you watched in wonder as the grey blurs lifted from your skin, dissipating into the open air. Your hands came to a still, leaving the tingling feeling only where Josuke's fingers touched your skin.

He set your hands down gently, and gave one of those eye-crinkling smiles. "There, now you have to go home with me."

Uh?

Your stomach flopped.

He blinked, and you could almost see the recognition hit him like a bat over the head. "I-I mean WALK home with me! I didn't-" he stuttered. He looked away, swiping a hand through his hair.

"I didn't think that's what you meant!" You felt your own face ignite, reading in between the lines what he thought he had said.

"Cool, because I wouldn't want that! I mean, it would be cool with me- Y-you know-!" Josuke slapped a hand to his face. "Whatever, forget it. L-lets just go. Non-negotiable." He stood up, tucking his hands in his pockets and keeping his eyes on the ground.

"Yeah, right." You hoisted your bag over your shoulder.

The halls were almost deserted, but the locker area was packed with the slow moving crowd that were making an attempt at trying to get everything ready to go home. Josuke slinked off to his own locker, leaving you to make sure you were wearing the right shoes and that the proper ones were left in yours. You felt eyes digging into your back as you shut the door, but you kept your head up, shuffling through the crowd to get to Josuke.