Unfinished Business [A Jotakak Fanfic]

Chapter 8

Jotaro woke up slowly, a low ringing in his ears accompanied the pain he felt in his head.

His eyes took several seconds to adjust to the light of his room, and he shifted his body weight on the floor. A hand trailed its way through his hair and he groaned.

What the fuck happened?

It took him several more minutes to get himself up off the floor and remember why he was sitting with his back pressed up against his door in the first place.

He saw his suitcase and several articles of his clothing strewn across the floor. He stared and stared, finally realizing what he had done. His heart sank.

Kakyoin... no, there was nothing he could do about those letters.

Holly. He needed to apologize.

He didn't know why he had blacked out, but that didn't matter. He hadn't yelled like that in... years. Especially not at his mother.

He fumbled with the sliding door that lead out into the hallway and his vision blurred.

What the fuck.

This definitely wasn't normal, but he pushed forward. His hand found its way to the wall, feeling around for the kitchen where his mother most likely was, and also to keep his balance.

This wasn't the first time he's had this kind of thing happen to him, but it had been several months since the last occurrence. He still needed to tell his mother...

He bit his lower lip, struggling to keep himself up on the wall so that he wouldn't come tumbling down like a shit ton of bricks and stress his mother out any more than he had to. He needed to apologize properly.

When he reached the end of the hall, he took several deep breaths to at least try and level the oxygen in his brain. Parts of his curly hair stuck to his forehead with the sweat that had formed on his skin from the struggle. He pushed himself off the wall when he felt he could maybe stand up properly.

His vision blurred once more before he forced his body to move forwards. One sluggish step at a time, he had reached the kitchen, only to find Holly staring down into the sink. She turned around to face the new presence in the room, her eyes a little swollen and her cheeks had dusted a light pink as if she had just finished crying.

Jotaro's expression softened and his hand reached for the wall as his head hung low, trying to force words to come out of his mouth only to hear light grunts.

"...Jotaro? What's wrong?" Holly maneuvered her way around the kitchen island and was at Jotaro's side in a matter of seconds, a hand grasping his arm. "You look terrible! Here, come sit down-"

Jotaro stumbled forwards, trying to shake away Holly's hold on him. "No- I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell.. at you. There's something you need to know—" His breath slowed as he finally managed to get out his pathetic apology before letting the dizziness consume him whole. He collapsed.

-

The black waters of Jotaro's heart had been eating him from the inside out. It was those few hours in the hospital that changed Holly's life forever. She had been strong for the longest time, keeping herself together for so many years despite having a failing marriage, and a child who seemed to be going down the very same path she dreaded he'd walk. But the unpredictable happened.

Heart disease.

Jotaro had heart disease.

The doctors had told her that there was nothing they could do. They were baffled with his case, it was strange considering he was in his late 20s and already suffered from a later stage of heart disease. But it was only a matter of time until...

Holy wept outside of Jotaro's hospital room, it seemed as though she had just gotten her son back from the hands of death, only for death to snatch him out of her hands again like some kind of greedy little child.

They hadn't told Holly just how much time Jotaro had left, but he was allowed to leave the hospital if he didn't do any excessive activities with his body. It's was only when Holly's limited amount of tears had finally stopped that she slowly made her way into the room where her beloved son lay.

As quietly as she could manage, she opened the heavy hospital room door and slid inside. His room was beige, from the walls to the bedsheets with a large window that overlooked tall yet skinny pine trees. There was a small TV positioned across the room plastered against the wall that looked to be extendable. The floor was tile and the room smelled like hand sanitizer and rubber. Looking around, Holly choked back another sob before making her way to Jotaro's bedside. She sat down, grabbing Jotaro's large, calloused hand that was covered in a beige piece of tape that held some kind of tube into place. She pressed her forehead to Jotaro's fingers, silent tears falling down her face again. She hated crying in front of Jotaro. Even though he was asleep, she didn't want to risk the chance of him seeing her in such a state.

She had taken care of him for so long. She never thought the day would come where she would have to say goodbye first.

How long had Jotaro known? Had he planned on telling anybody?

Was this why he really came to visit?

She pondered for several more moments, unable to graze over the possibility that this was probably her fault.

After all, Jotaro had gotten upset at her over some letters she kept in her kitchen cabinet.

Honestly, she couldn't recall any type of letters, especially ones from Kakyoin.

Of course she remembered the red haired boy with the kind smile.

The boy that risked and lost his life for their family.

Was it even possible for letters from Kakyoin to be at the house? She had been told that the boy had left little to nothing behind aside from a few articles of clothing, so how was that even possible?

Her gaze lifted up towards Jotaro's tired and pale face, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead before removing herself from the seat and going back home with a mission.

Finding those letters.