Kindergarten archive 🌻

[gianmarco & kasumi] Normal

✔️ 18/9/20

this has been in my head for a while, & i actually have motivation to write today, so tadaa :'3 setting is just SPW or like,,, wherever else, idk it doesn't rl matter, these could just be hypothetical scenarios of these two interacting anw :/

mild language warning.

enjoy!

— — —

Kasumi's right eye is green today.

Gianmarco knows about their Stand. He knows how it changes them, how it turns them into something they're not, how it doesn't just take away their physical form but sometimes their mental one as well. The kid always brushes it off, telling everyone they're used to it and they'll go back to being normal in no time — but how would they know, when their definition of "normal" itself has also been deformed?

"Hey, Kaz." He calls, and they look up from their storybook, the light harlequin of their eye throwing him off. Gianmarco chooses his words carefully. "Used your Stand recently?"

"Yeah. A cockroach got into my room yesterday, so I turned into a cat to get rid of it." Kasumi replies honestly, slightly lowering their book. "What's up?"

"You deactivated it fully?"

"Yeah." They say, puzzled. "Why?"

Gianmarco feels an icky awkwardness bubble up inside him. "Um, your right eye... it's green."

"Yeah, I know." Kasumi cocks an eyebrow at him, smile guileless. "Have you never noticed?"

They stare at him for a few seconds more, then directs their attention back to their book. The eye doesn't turn back until two days later.

—

"Kasumi, you're nearing your limit. Don't—"

A deafening FWOOM shakes them to the core, and Gianmarco winces as he watches the enemy's ship splinter to bits like some toy model, a ten-foot-long sea serpent ramming straight through its underside. Water shoots into the air as if a geyser is lying right below the sea surface, and briny rain starts to drench all their crew members as the serpent dives underneath the water again, tail whipping skywards and severing the wreckage just for good measure. But something looks strange on the monster's scaly skin — dark golden lines are running along it now, its slippery body pulsing like a dying heart.

Shit.

The sea serpent disappears entirely from view, and Gianmarco spots a figure with wild dark hair falling freely into the debris-littered water.

"「Slow Dancing」!" He shouts, and the Stand appears right away, wasting no time in locating its target, then thrusting its hands outwards. Ink-black strings shoot out from the tips of its claws, and sweat mixed with ocean water drips down his face when Gianmarco feels himself near the limit of his range. Fortunately, that blast hasn't blown their own ship too far away; with a grunt, he forces the strings to lengthen and wrap around Kasumi's limp body. 「Slow Dancing」does a yanking motion as if playing tug-of-war, and the fifteen-year-old comes flying into its arms, the force almost making Gianmarco stumble back.

"Kasumi!" He drops down onto his knees where 「Slow Dancing」 has laid the kid down, pushing their sodden hair out of their face. Suddenly, their eyes snap open, and two off-white pupil-less voids gaze blankly at him when Kasumi startles into a sitting position:

"AAAH! Wha— Gian? Is that you? What's happening?! Why... why is everything so bright?"

They grip onto him, shaky hands fisting his shirt tightly. Their head twitches to the side, as if they can't really hear him, even when he has to shout due to all the background commotion:

"Yes, it's me. Kaz, listen. You have to change back. Your eyes are still the sea serpent's; you can't see on land that way."

"C-change back?" The kid echoes helplessly. "But I have! Y&M is gone!"

"No, it's not." Gianmarco says, patiently, even when Kasumi thrashes around in his arms as if wanting to push him off. "Kasumi, your eyes are white. Normally they're gold and blue."

""Normally"... what the hell do you mean, "normally"?!" They half-scream, half-sob into his face, and Gianmarco has to let go when their leg thrusts forward and almost nails him in the groin. "Gian? Gian, where are you?"

He glances at his Stand, and 「Slow Dancing」 nods before wordlessly raising its hand and striking Kasumi across the head. They collapse straightaway, and as much as Gianmarco dislikes the idea, he inserts the black strings into Kasumi's brain and switches off whatever ongoing connection he can sense toward 「Young and Menace」.

He's sure if Kasumi could remember, they would be infinitely mad at him. But when they wake up, rubbing a groggy hand over their gold and blue eyes, they answer his greeting just as normally as before.

—

"Kaz...."

"What."

"You have red in your hair."

They frown at the feathery strands hanging in front of their face. "So?"

"Nothing. I just thought you should know."

"I do know. You know why?" Kasumi turns to him, scowl just a little deeper than usual. "Because it's always been that way. I don't understand what your deal is with pointing out my shit."

"My deal is that it hasn't always been that way." Gianmarco begins, but with an irate wave of the hand Kasumi cuts him off:

"So what? Why does it matter if it's always been that way or not? You're being so fucking annoying, always yapping on about my appearance when it doesn't even affect your quality of life. You got a problem with me or something?"

"I don't, and I'm sorry it makes you feel that way—"

"Okay, then just shut up."

"But I—"

"Man, just shut the fuck up!" Kasumi spits, the animosity in their voice taking Gianmarco aback. "What's your deal?! Your hair's just as fucked up as mine!"

"I have a condition." He snaps, louder than he intended — but Kasumi screams at him without holding anything back:

"WELL MAYBE I DO TOO, BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO KEEP FUCKING BRINGING IT UP!"

They glare at him, livid, before storming past where he's standing and out of the room, slamming the door so hard Gianmarco feels himself jolt. Blood rushes to his head, but he clenches his fists tight and digs his nails into his palms until he remembers that that's not them, that wasn't Kasumi talking. They didn't mean it. It was just their Stand. External circumstances. They'll go back to their normal self in no time.

Kasumi's hair is black the next time he sees them. But under bright lighting, Gianmarco thinks some alien strands still glint red.