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“You know, my mother didn’t raise me and I turned out fine.”
Jotaro rolled his eyes. This again. The fact that Joseph was always harping about his mom was weird. The fact that his grandfather often compared compared him to her was even weirder. He met with her from time to time, and the thought was never far from his mind. This was the woman who had taught him cigarette tricks as a child, after all.
“You had Erina, old man. And the whole of the Speedwagon foundation.”
A scoff. Typical. It’s not like Jotaro ever forgot, but his grandfather really was just a rich American. Well, technically British, but. Who cared. How Holly grew up well-adjusted was something he’d never understand. Even her Stand was a less obnoxious version of Joseph’s. Vines ran in the family, it seemed. Jotaro was an odd one out.
Joseph poked back.
“You say that like you haven’t made extremely liberal use of my poor uncle’s accumulated funds.”
Jotaro tried not to grin, knowing that Joseph was just laying bait, trying to get him to talk more. It was a decades-old routine at this point. But he went ahead and bit down on the hook.
“And you say that like you didn’t buy a submarine and have it destroyed within an hour.”
“Come on, Jotaro, can’t you give a hunky old man a break?”
Joseph waggled his eyebrows conspiratorially, the sharpness in his eyes more present than it had been in years. Ever since he’d “adopted” Shizuka, the old man had been doing that ripple breathing again. It was uncanny how much younger he seemed. Was that a hint of brown in the old bastard’s roots?
He’d been bugging Jotaro to start on it too, and judging by how he practically looked younger at twenty-seven than he did at seventeen, Jotaro had to admit it seemed like it was working. Hell, Lisa Lisa was still around and putting men in the hospital.
Still though, Jotaro didn’t like the waggle of that eyebrow.
“Don’t call yourself that. And don’t look so damn proud, Having an affair at sixty years old isn’t exactly an accomplishment to be proud of.”
To be fair, he wasn’t sure if that was what his grandfather had been referring to, but he paused, completely ignoring Joseph’s inevitable retort as he turned to his daughter, which he had been absently bouncing in his lap. Something had moved, almost quicker than he’d been able to see.
“Joseph, did you see something?”
Jotaro didn’t even wait for a response, holding Jolyne close to his chest as he scanned the surrounding area. He switched to ripple breathing, both because he found it helped his body recover, and because it would help him keep calm. Ever since Egypt, he didn't just blindly trust in his ability to make sure everyone made it out safe. Everything froze in place as Jotaro stepped out of time.
Jotaro and Star Platinum looked around the halted world, hurriedly searching for anything that had changed. Time was limited, but for the moment, it belonged to the two of them. The Stand had appeared as soon as Jotaro had considered the possibility of a threat, and stood opposite Jolyne, ready to spring to her defense. It also served as hell of a scan. Jotaro’s eyes were sharp, but Star’s were sharper. Even then, it was still Jotaro who noticed it first. Joseph would probably have called it a father’s intuition, if he wasn't frozen like the rest of the world.
There. A small blur by Jolyne’s shoulder, and… was that a string?
The string was wrapped around the object his daughter had apparently just stolen, which Jotaro quickly recognized as the tip of one of Joseph’s mechanical fingers. The string was itself attached to Jolyne’s own fingertip, unspooling like a ball of thread. Jotaro’s face split into a smile, one that reached his eyes for once.
Time resumed.
Jotaro’s smile split into raucous laughter right as Joseph screamed.
“Just like your damn father! Jolyne!”