Chapter Text
Jolyne’s playing with her friends in the garden, herding them away from the little pond with all her father’s bossiness.
“My dad says if I’m good, I get a bike. And I choose the colour.”
“Which dad?” Foo Fighters pipes up. “The froggy one? He’s my favourite.”
Hermés hums. "You think he'd get me a bike too?"
"Ribbit."
Jolyne pouts at Hermés, "You're not getting a bike! I am!"
Foo Fighters pats Hermés’ back sympathetically, or, more accurately, in a sympathetic imitation of a gesture she saw on TV.
“Ow! Foo , That hurts.”
“What colour are you getting, Jo?” Foo Fighters ignores Hermés’ complaint, and pats harder.
“Lime green, obviously.” Jolyne rolls her eyes. “I’m not stupid.”
The other girls nod sagely. Until Foo Fighters gasps, and clutches at her throat.
“I’m thirsty!”
The other two groan.
“Get a drink, then.” Hermés offers this action plan as if it’s a cure for cancer.
"We got juice," Jolyne offers.
“I need water!”
Jolyne sees her friend eyeing the koi pond hungrily.
“Don’ mess with th' indingus wilelife ,” she says sharply. Foo Fighters sticks her tongue out at her, and Hermés kicks a little stone into the pond. Jolyne shrieks.
Jotaro sticks his head out the door.
“Don’t mess with the indigenous wildlife,” he says, voice flat, eyeing the children like they’re convicted felons and not, like, six.
“ Toldja. ”
Jotaro only barely saves his only daughter from being pushed into the pond.
-
"Jolyne having fun?" Kakyoin turns a page of his book absently, watching Jotaro over the top as he returns.
"They're bothering the koi," Jotaro says. He switches the oven off without bothering to peer through the door, shakes out a teatowel. The kitchen was clean and warm, and it would be much smaller had the wall not been knocked through into the dining room. Kakyoin is sprawled out on a sofa pushed up against the wall.
"They don't know any better," he says, lightly.
"The koi don't know that." Jotaro pulls a casserole dish out of the oven. Kakyoin snorts.
"Get the kids in, will you?"
Kakyoin complies, pulling himself up off the couch with a groan. He claps a hand on his husband's shoulder as he goes, then steps out the sliding door with an exaggerated flourish.
"The time for dinner is upon us!"
Jotaro watches him promptly start chasing the shrieking girls around the back garden. Foo Fighters runs directly into the kitchen and clings to the hem of Jotaro's long coat. Hermés and Jolyne are trying to climb the old oak tree by the wall together, though their dogged attempts to leave no man behind is hindering their progress significantly.
Jotaro silently fills a plastic cup with water and hands it down to the girl beside him. Outside, he can see a faint shimmer of emerald around Hermés and Jolyne both, though his husband is valiantly pretending to be stumped by the girls in the tree. They're only a few feet off the ground, clinging to one another and to the sturdy branch which arcs almost all the way to the ground. Jotaro feels a tug on his sleeve. He lifts Foo Fighters up to sit on the countertop, and lets her help.