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"Are you sure you have everything?"
"Yes papa."
It was Jolyne's first day of school and tension was running a little high. Jotaro couldn't decide whether he was happy or not about his wife leaving him to drop their daughter off on this auspicious day. On one hand, it was nice to actually be there for Jolyne, who seemed to consistently (although not entirely by choice) come second in his life. However, he had a sneaking suspicion that there were altering motives in that early meeting on today of all days, besides the onslaught of emotions that he may or may not have to deal with from a little girl being suddenly broken from her usual stay at home routine.
Please don't cry. Please don't cry...
He finished buckling her into her seat and it wasn't until he was adjusting the rear view mirror that he took a moment to smile at Jolyne who was patting at her starry purple skirt to keep it down.
The drive was almost entirely silent. Jolyne seemed preoccupied with nervousness, her tiny thumbs working circles in her lap, and Jotaro out of habit just preferred not talking.
Finally, Jolyne looked at what she could see of her fathers face in the mirror and spoke; "Papa... Mummy said this morning that I should ask you to give me some, uh..." She scrunched up her nose as she struggled to recall the word, "some 'ad-slice'? Before my first day..."
Jotaro's brow furrowed slightly as he tried to decipher the word Jolyne had misquoted. He sighed a little and his fingers curled around the steering wheel as he cursed mummy for giving him all the tough jobs. Although to be fair, seeing as his wife really knew nothing about having stands, she was in no position to talk to her daughter about appropriate use of them.
Jolyne's eyes widened in expectation.
"Jolyne." Jotaro finally began, his daughter nodding her tiny head in full attention. "This is the first time you'll be on your own for a while. And that means that you have responsibilities to think about."
Her tiny head tilted to the side as she tried to grasp where her father was coming from.
"You know that in public, we don't use our stands. And the same rule applies to school. No matter what's happening, you must never use Stone Free." He took his eyes off the road for a moment to look at her firmly in the mirror.
Jolyne sucked her lip into her mouth and nodded solemnly, but her nod soon died away. "What about play time?"
"Not at playtime."
"But, no one will see..."
"Absolutely not."
"What if someone's mean to me?"
"You tell the teacher."
"But what if..."
"Jolyne."
She sat back suddenly, silenced by her father and nodded solemnly again. "Okay papa. No Stone Free. Not ever."
Jotaro made a low grunt of approval and continued to drive.
Jolyne fiddled with her thumbs once more. "Do you think the other kids will like me?" She asked suddenly.
Jotaro sighed. Yare yare daze...
"Yes." He said curtly.
Jolyne was about to open her mouth again when the school came into sight.
**********
"Will you walk me in?" She asked softly as Jotaro adjusted the straps of her backpack which was almost the same size as Jolyne herself.
He nodded.
"Will you miss me?"
Jotaro stood up and held onto her hand, completely engulfing it in his own which were almost impossibly big. He nodded again as they began to walk towards the main building, his steps reduced by 90% to allow Jolyne to keep his pace.
They walked quietly, Jolyne becoming increasingly distracted by the growing crowd of children. Eventually her attention was pulled in by a limo which drew up by the entrance. With a hurried step, a tall man with long white hair stepped out quickly and opened the door facing the building. He bowed solemnly and put up a large black umbrella as two ridiculously curled slippers made contact with the footpath.
Jolyne was entranced by the appearance of the man as he slowly came into her line of vision. His clothes were outlandish, a bright yellow suit with green heart-shaped accessories, and she thought to herself that she had never seen anyone quite so pale.
Once out of the car, the man looked up at the school and seemed to nod in approval before reaching his hand into the car helping a small, blonde haired boy out. Compared to who Jolyne could only guess was his father, the boy looked incredibly normal, he was wearing shorts, sneakers and a t-shirt with a big ladybug printed on the front, the only thing that really caught her attention about him was how solemn he looked, and also how peculiarly his hair was arranged.
"Whose that?" Jolyne whispered, tugging on her fathers hand.
Jotaro had assumed a particularly stern appearance upon spotting these newcomers and now that they were drawing closer, his hold on his daughters hand was steadily becoming firmer.
"No one you need to worry about." He mumbled as he hurriedly lead her up the steps, Jolynes neck craning over to where the blonde man was giving orders to his doorman.
Once they entered the classroom, the teacher welcoming Jolyne and showing her where to leave her bag, it was time for Jotaro to leave.
"When will you come back?" She asked sadly after he broke the news to her, kneeling down so that they were more even in height.
"When you're finished."
Jolyne balled up her skirt in her fist and found it hard to meet her dads eye. She wanted to be brave for him but she couldn't help feeling nervous.
"Hey." She looked up at him and he gave her a slight smile. "You're going to have a great day."
"Promise?" She asked with glistening eyes.
Her father nodded curtly and that was enough for her. With a newfound confidence, Jolyne threw her arms around her Papa's neck and kissed him wetly on the nose. "Daisuki otosan..." She whispered with her face still pressed against his.
"Jolyne?" Her fathers voice suddenly sounded worried and he gripped her tiny shoulders with a force that was solely used when Jotaro was being protective.
"Yes?"
Jotaro looked around carefully and lowered his voice. "Remember what I said about Stone Free?"
She nodded.
Jotaro looked around again. "That little boy you pointed out in the carpark... If he comes to talk to you and only in that case... I give you permission to use your stand."
Her mouth opened to question him but her father had already stood up and was pressing the brim of his hat down.
"I have to go now. Be a good girl."
Jolyne raised her hand to grab her fathers coat tail but he was already out of her reach so she was left there with a confused look on her face.
*******
"Haruno, give padre a kiss before he leaves."
Giorno rolled his eyes. He could have started school last year if his parents had let him, but Padre was intensely clingy. In fact, if Daddy hadn't intervened, Giorno would have been starting homeschool. He shivered at the thought.
With a very sullen expression, Giorno obediently stepped over to his padre and leaning onto his toes, he pressed his lips gently onto his fathers pale cheek.
Giorno would have turned away at this point, but Dio, overcome by the cute expression on his sons face, snatched him up into his arms and began peppering kisses all over his sons hastily reddening skin.
"P-padre! Stop!" Giorno writhed in Dio's grasp, his eyes searching around to see how many people were laughing at him. No one seemed to be paying any attention thank goodness, well... Except for Vanilla who was snapping one too many shots for Giorno's liking.
Dio sighed and breathed in his sons scent once more. He could hear distinctly the quick pumping of his little heart and smell the sweetness of his blood as it rushed through his body. Placing the harassed Giorno gently on the ground he managed to tear himself away.
Giorno wiped at his face, slightly disgusted.
"Alright Haruno. Padre will leave you now. And remember, if you need anything, I packed your phone." He leant over and kissed the top of Giorno's forehead again. "I'll be back at three and..."
Giorno didn't listen to his Padre's farewells any longer, the teacher looked to be about to begin class and he was far more interested in that.
After introducing herself to everyone and politely asking the remaining parents to leave, she instructed everyone in the class to find a buddy for the morning.
Some of the more gregarious children grabbed onto the person closest to them while shyer kids tended to clasp their hands and look at the floor.
Giorno looked around curiously to see if anyone seemed interesting enough to approach when a little girl backed into him and promptly fell on her bottom.
"S-sorry!" She cried as she clumsily got to her feet.
Daddy always told him that it was a boys duty to be kind to ladies and so in accord with his advice Giorno promptly lent the girl a hand in regaining her balance.
Jolynes eyes widened as she realised that this boy was the one her Papa had spoken about before leaving, "Wow!" She breathed, "Your hair is sooo cool!"
Giorno's eyes narrowed for a moment. Usually people only made fun of his slightly wacky hair, but she seemed genuine. Not to mention, her hair was pretty neat as well. He smiled a little then. "I like yours too. So you wanna be my buddy?"
Her eyes sparkled at the very suggestion. "Okay!"
"My names Giorno."
"Giorno?" Jolyne repeated unsurely. "My names Jolyne," she extended her hand which Giorno shook. "Jolyne Kujo." She grinned happily.
After standing silently while the other kids teamed up with their partners, the teacher asked them to sit down with their buddy and find out three interesting things about them.
Once they were comfortably settled on the carpet with their knees pressed against each other, Jolyne bit her finger in thought about what made her interesting.
"Do you have a favourite colour?" Giorno asked politely.
Jolyne nodded. "Of course. I like blue. What about you?"
He shuffled a little on the floor. "Uh... Probably red."
There was a brief silence.
"My Papa's a Marine Biologist. What does your daddy do for work?"
"My daddy's an archaeologist." He sounded a little snobby when he relayed that.
Jolynes nose crinkled. "An arkalontagist? What's that?"
Giorno's cheeks flushed. He had no idea what an archaeologist was. "What's a Marine Biologist?" He shot back.
Jolyne raised an eyebrow. "I dunno." She said simply. "It has something to do with fish. I just hear my Papa say that's what he is."
"Same for me..." Giorno admitted meekly.
"Oh. Uhh... So, do you like ladybugs?" She couldn't help noticing, not only the ladybug on his top, but the ladybug swatch watch on his wrist and little ladybugs embroidered into his sneakers.
Giorno looked down and smiled. "Yea." He said with a chuckle. "They're probably my favourite."
Jolyne's eyes narrowed in thought. "I guess I like Butterflies..." She put in, trying to keep the conversation going.
"Yeah?" Giorno asked with a mischievous grin, "you wanna see one?"
"You have a butterfly?" She asked in a squeaky voice, her eyes roaming his person for where it might be.
Giorno continued grinning and reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin, Jolyne's eyes widened unbelievably as she stared intently at the coin. After a moment of making sure her attention was glued on his hands, he covered the coin with his other hand briefly before removing it to display, not a coin, but a blue butterfly perched elegantly in his palm.
"Woaaaah!" Jolyne leaned over his hand and stared in wonder. She thought she might have captured a glimpse of gold out of the corner of her eye... She looked up at him slyly. "Is that your ability?" She whispered.
If her Papa had told her that she could use her stand around him, it must have meant that Giorno was a stand user too, right?
Giorno'a face flushed. "I don't know what you're talking about." He said bluntly, clasping his hand over the butterfly and placing it back in his pocket.
Jolyne's eyes narrowed. "You have a stand right?"
Giorno looked mortified at the word and leaned over, clamping his hand over her mouth. "What are you doing?! Are you crazy? If you know what stands are then you should know not to talk about them like this!"
He released her when he saw the teacher looking over at them, Jolyne's eyes were lowered.
"Sorry." She said humbly.
Giorno didn't say anything in return, he merely glanced around them before leaning closer towards her again. "Do you have a stand?"
Jolyne nodded and felt relieved when Giorno's eyes lit up in excitement.
"Do you want to see it?" She asked.
He nodded eagerly but as he saw her move as if to call her stand he placed his hand on hers and regarded her severely. "Not here!" Her chastised expression confused him. "Hasn't anyone ever told you to be careful about using your stand? There could be other users anywhere watching us. If someone sees your stand then you won't surprise them."
Jolynes face was blank. "Why would I need to surprise them?"
It was Giorno's turn to look blank. He shrugged. "I dunno, it's just something I hear my Padre say."
Jolyne pulled a face and was about to make a smart remark when the teacher called for attention. It could wait...
**********
An apple and a muesli bar.
"Eurgh..."
All the other kids had chips and chocolate bars and Jolyne's parents had left her with these...
She was about to bite into her apple when she felt someone tap on her shoulder.
"Are you coming outside?"
It was Giorno.
"Can't I eat first?"
"Come on, you can eat later." He wasted no time in grabbing Jolyne by the hand and pulling her to her feet.
"Where are we going?" She asked as she held her apple tightly with her other hand and allowed herself to be dragged along.
"To the toilets." He replied.
His eyes had a determined gleam to them and he walked with purpose but Jolyne really didn't understand why.
"Okay." She said as she finally fell in step with him and contentedly continued eating her apple as they walked.
Once they reached the toilets, the two had another dilemma altogether.
"Ouch!" Giorno cried, pulling his hand back from Jolyne who had unceremoniously slapped it. "What was that for?"
Jolyne placed a hand on her hip. "Don't you know anything? I'm a girl. I can't go in the boys toilets. Why are we going to the toilet anyway? I don't need to do anything."
Giorno grimaced. "But I want to see your stand!" He cried, stomping his foot.
"Ohhhh!" She looked around. There was no one anywhere near them. "Can't I just show you here?"
Giorno rolled his eyes. "No! You should only use your stand somewhere really private unless absolutely necessary." He looked at Jolyne as though she ought to come up with some brilliant idea but instead she just bit into her apple again and watched him while she chewed. "Eurgh... Fine. I'll go in the girls toilets..." And with that he grabbed her hand again and pulled her into the unknown.
It was still too early for there to be any traffic in here, which relieved Giorno greatly. Wanting to get out as soon as possible, he hauled her into the first stall and shut the door quickly behind them.
He breathed a sigh of relief once the door was shut and turned to face Jolyne who was taking a loud, crisp bite of her apple and watching him curiously.
"Okay." He said quietly. "Now you can show me."
"Why do I have to go first?" She asked from a full mouth.
Giorno sighed again, "okaaaay, I'll go first... Gold Experience." Jolyne stopped chewing for a moment as a golden stand appeared beside Giorno, his arms linked around his waist, his green eyes peering at Jolyne curiously.
After a few seconds of staring at his stand, she couldn't help bursting into laughter.
Giorno grew quickly flustered and Gold Experience twisted its arms tighter around its user."W-what?! What's so funny?"
Jolyne snorted and almost rubbed her apple into her eye. "Sorry Giorno! It's just... Even your stand has little ladybugs on it!" She burst into a gurgle of laughter again.
Giorno huffed, his cheeks shiny and red, he crossed his arms over his chest. "The ladybug is the symbol of life, that's my talent."
She paused then and took a deep breath, her eyes shining in understanding. "Ohh, that's really neat."
Giorno grimaced, "okay, your turn..."
Jolyne blushed a little and took a hesitant bite out of her apple, muttering a small "Stone Free" before chewing bashfully and looking away from Giorno.
Stone Free appeared slowly behind Jolyne. Her arms twisted around her users neck, she peeked over her shoulder at Giorno and looked at the small boy and his stand with the same curiosity as with which they peered back.
"What did you call her?"
Jolyne swallowed and looked at her stand meekly. "Stone Free... She can stretch out really far and grab stuff and sometimes I can even hear things that are happening far away with her..." As if in demonstration of her ability, Jolyne's fingers started to unravel and the stringy substance moved out and latched onto Giorno's hand pulling it upwards.
"Cool..." He breathed watching her intently.
"Do you really think so?" She asked shyly.
Giorno smiled at her. "Uh-huh."
**************
By the time lunch came around, Jolyne and Giorno found their way underneath a big tree in the schoolyard and were quietly eating their respective sandwiches in peace.
"Do you think maybe we could let our stands play together?" She suggested hopefully between bites of peanut butter and jelly.
Sometimes, very, very rarely, Papa would let Stone Free play with Star Platinum. Jolyne liked to pretend that Star Platinum was Stone Free's own father and that they, like Jolyne and Jotaro, needed quality time together. Jotaro still wasn't sure how she'd convinced him, but on the nights when it was his turn to tuck Jolyne into bed, Star Platinum would have to hug Stone Free and tuck her in beside her user, giving her a kiss on the forehead just like Jotaro did with Jolyne.
In short; the idea of playing with another kid stand user was just too good to pass up.
Giorno didnt have to think the idea through for long. "Sure. But we'll have to do it at your house. How about tomorrow?"
He had never been to any other kids house before. And he liked Jolyne, she was pretty cool.
Jolyne grinned, "Okay! I'll tell my mummy when she picks me up."
They both smiled at each other then and felt a surge of satisfaction.
"So, you said that Stone Free can hear things from far away...?"
Jolyne nodded. "Mm, this one time I was practicing how far I could stretch when I couldn't sleep and I heard all this stuff from my mum and dads room at the other end of the house."
"Like what?" Giorno asked curiously, sipping his juice box.
Jolyne shrugged. "I dunno it was weird. My Papa kept telling my mummy to hit him and she kept saying he was being naughty but they sounded kind of happy... And then they were breathing really weird. I tried to ask them about it the next day but they wouldn't say anything..."
Giorno nodded. "Yea, one time I went into my parents room to ask them something and my Daddy had tied Padre up and they were kissing but when they saw me my Daddy freaked out and went all red and Padre yelled at me to get out..." He shook his head. "Adults are so weird."
Jolyne nodded in agreement. "So, you have two daddies?"
"Uh-huh. One is called Padre and the other one is Daddy."
Jolyne tilted her head, she had seen something like that on TV before and her mummy had said that some families were like that. "Which one came to school today?"
Giorno grimaced. "Padre..."
Jolyne giggled, "he looks funny."
Giorno rolled his eyes. "Hopefully tomorrow Daddy will drop me off. He's much cooler."
"Mm... Hey Giogio, don't you think its funny that we met? You know... Coz we both have stands." Jolyne regarded him evenly as she ate the last piece of her sandwich.
"Not really." Giorno leaned back against the tree nonchalantly. "My Padre says that stand users are attracted to each other."
"Attracted? What does that mean?"
Giorno thought for a moment, "I think it means that they like each other."
"Does that mean... We're friends?" She looked at him with wide eyes.
Giorno smiled and nodded.