Chapter Text
Jotaro Kujo is many things. Thirty-four years old, six foot five and apparently very daunting to look at (or so he’s been told), a marine biologist, divorced, a single father to an overly-energetic seven year old girl, and a brand-new resident of Port St Lucie Florida, but most of all, he is completely, utterly exhausted. How could he not be? The move had been stressful and abrupt, with his sudden transfer to a city halfway across the state for work, and having to move that far while also toting a young girl who managed to inherit all of her father’s stubborn personality and all of her great-grandfather’s boundless energy is quite the difficult task. The only real upside to the move in the grand scheme of things is that he’s now only about a twenty minute drive away from Polnareff and Avdol’s place. But then again, that does mean he’ll have to see Polnareff more often, so can it really be called an upside?
Now having finally finished unpacking and settling in, Jotaro starts work in a few days, and Jolyne is finished with school. Summer break hasn’t been an issue for the move and the last couple of days, as Jotaro has been around to watch over her, but now with his new job starting so soon, he’s going to have to figure out something to do with her while he’s away, since even he knows that seven is far too young an age to be left alone for nearly an entire day every day for a whole summer. And so, one afternoon, while Jotaro cooks a grilled cheese sandwich for Jolyne, who sits at the kitchen table drawing with a crayon clenched tight in her fist, he decides to ask about it.
“Jolyne. How do you feel about going to a childcare place this summer while I’m at work?”
He doesn’t bother with a gentle tone or a dumbed-down question. Jolyne is a perfectly capable, intelligent kid, and he’s always decided to treat her that way.
She ponders the question for a minute, lifting the crayon from the paper as she thinks. “Can I go to summer camp? Gwess from school said she did one last summer and it sounded fun.” She watches him with wide, hopeful eyes. Jotaro flips the sandwich over and shakes his head.
“No. I don’t want you gone at night and also those only last a couple weeks at best. Besides, you didn’t even like Gwess. You always complained about her, remember?” He hands her a plate with the freshly-cooked sandwich on it. Jolyne picks it up and takes a bite, talking with a mouth filled with cheese.
“Yeah. What do you think then, dad?”
“Hm.” Jotaro grunts, sitting down next to Jolyne at the table and stealing a bite of her sandwich, prompting a surprisingly intense glare to come his way from the smaller Kujo. “I’ll look into some places, but you can have the final say in where you go.”
Jolyne opens her mouth to speak, a look glinting in her eye that Jotaro has long since learned to recognize as a sign that she’s about to say something far too sarcastic for a kid her age, so he interrupts.
“No, you can’t just refuse every place and make me stay home. I’ll get Polnareff to babysit you every day if you try that, got it?”
Jolyne pulls a face. “Nooooo!” She whines. “Uncle Polnareff always tries to cook his weird French food for me! I don’t wanna eat a snaaaaail!”
Jotaro chuckles. “Well then, you have to go to a childcare place this summer.”
Crossing her arms, Jolyne sighs in defeat and nods, turning her focus back towards her lunch. Jotaro hoists himself from the table and goes to find his laptop.
Time to do some research, I guess.
As it turns out, finding a good childcare place is a lot more stressful of a job than it seems. Jotaro had rather naively hoped that it wouldn’t take long at all. Just find a place with good reviews and plonk little Jolyne onto their colorful, carpeted floor and drive off. But then he started stressing out over the reviews of each place. This one looked good until he saw all the comments at the bottom saying the neighborhood was really sketchy. This other one seemed perfect until some further research on the primary caretaker there revealed a criminal record.
He runs his fingers through his hair and heaves a sigh. He’d looked through about eleven places in and around the city, all of which ended up not even qualifying for a test-run visit. He clicks on the next link, already having no real hope for it thanks to its strange name.
“Emerald Splash Childcare”, the website reads in green letters. Huh , the reviews are all actually positive. Glowing, even. A cursory google search of the owner, one Noriaki Kakyoin, reveals nothing out of the ordinary. The building is less than a ten minute drive from their house and is actually on his route to work. And not that it matters thanks to his high-paying job and his Joestar family money, but the rates are pretty manageable as well.
“Hey Jolyne!” He calls out, summoning her from wherever in the house she’s tucked away in right now. She comes running towards his office, the sound of her feet echoing through the halls to indicate her arrival. “Take a look at this place. If it looks okay I’ll call and we can go check it out in person.”
She nods and scrolls through the website. Jotaro knows she isn’t really processing any of what she’s reading, but he also knows she likes to feel like she’s giving her actual input in the decision, so he stays silent as the screen reflects onto her eyes while she looks through the page. Eventually she looks back up at him and nods. “Looks good!”
Jotaro suppresses a laugh at her attempt at professional behavior and nods back at her, ruffling her hair with one hand. “Got it. Thanks kid, I’ll call and set up a meeting.”
Jolyne runs off again and Jotaro picks up the phone. Time to see what Emerald Splash is all about.
---
He had to leave a message, probably because he had ended up calling after Emerald Splash had already closed for the day, so Jotaro hadn’t gotten the opportunity to properly divine any additional information about the place or the owner aside from the fact that whoever this Kakyoin guy is, he has a good customer service voice in his voicemail. At the time he had been grateful for the fact that he wouldn’t have to talk on the phone, but now that also means that Jotaro is going to essentially be going in blind to Emerald Splash aside from what little he knows from online reviews and the website’s description of the place. He pulls his car into the small parking lot outside the address listed on the website and steps out, looking at the building. Jolyne hops out of the back seat and dashes towards the door. Clearly leaving her father behind for hours on end isn’t exactly the heart-wrenching difficulty that a normal kid might experience.
The building looks clean and inviting, at least from the outside, and the sound of children playing echoes through the door as Jotaro approaches, holding Jolyne’s hand- doing so more to keep her from running off without him than to try and comfort her in any way. A sign on the door in neat, swoopy handwriting invites visiting families to come inside without knocking, so Jotaro pushes the door open and steps in. A cursory look around reveals a front desk, behind which is a large room filled with little tables littered with art supplies that Jolyne eyes greedily, a large television with more than a few gaming consoles in front of it waiting to be plugged in, and what Jotaro thinks might be the entrance to some kind of kitchen. A small, grassy yard is visible through some sliding glass doors on the back wall. In the room, Jotaro can see a few kids, some running around playing and others sitting at various stations entertaining themselves.
Jotaro lets out a satisfied “Hmph.” and looks at Jolyne. “What do you think so far?”
She squeezes his hand and smiles wide. “It looks fun!”
“I would hope so.” A new voice rings out in response. Jotaro looks up in the direction of the sound, and whatever words he was about to say back fizzle out on his tongue. The man walking up to them now is absolutely stunning. He’s probably about a half-foot shorter than Jotaro- which in the grand scheme of things makes him still quite tall- and has red hair that hangs down loosely to his shoulders aside from a seemingly slightly more gravity-defying section of bangs in front of his face. His lavender eyes are bright and kind-looking, and his smile matches.
The man crouches down to Jolyne’s level and continues to smile, holding out one hand towards her. “Hi, I’m Noriaki Kakyoin, but you can call me Nori if you’d like. You must be my newest prisoner.” He gasps a little and glances up at Jotaro playfully. “I mean, my newest visitor.”
Jolyne giggles and shakes Kakyoin’s hand. “Nice to meet you Mr. Nori, I’m Jolyne Kujo, but you can call me Jolyne.”
“Lovely to meet you, Miss Jolyne.” He gestures to Jotaro with one thumb and whispers to Jolyne, “Who’s my competition here?”
Jotaro holds back a snort, but allows a slight smile to grace his lips. This guy really knows what he’s doing, so it would seem. Pretty and great with kids? A dangerous combination to be sure.
Jolyne whispers back at Kakyoin in the way that only a child can whisper, which is to say speaking at full volume, just with a lot more breath involved. “That’s my dad. Don’t let him intimidate you.”
Kakyoin nods, a serious expression on his face, and stands to meet Jotaro’s gaze now. “Mr. Kujo, how nice it is to match a face to the voice on the phone.”
Jotaro shakes hands with Kakyoin, trying his best not to take note of how well Kakyoin’s hands fit into his own. “Um. Just Jotaro is fine. It’s good to meet you.” His voice comes out gruff and annoyed. Great. Nice going on the first impressions, dumbass. He kicks himself for allowing his natural tone to come out. Luckily, Kakyoin does not seem put off at all, and the redhead just smiles at him.
“Shall I show you around while we let Jolyne get acquainted with the place?”
Jotaro crosses his arms. “What makes you think we’ve decided this place is a yes anyway?”
Kakyoin laughs. “Fine, then why don’t you allow me the chance to win you over while Jolyne plays with the other kids.”
Jotaro smirks. Nobody can usually get a smile out of him so easily. Stupid, pretty Kakyoin. “Sure.”
Kakyoin takes Jolyne into the main room and gestures towards a group of kids sitting over at the art table. She runs over towards them and looks perfectly content introducing herself.
With Jolyne now thoroughly distracted, apparently already deep in conversation with a pink-haired boy, two little girls, and an older-looking boy, Kakyoin turns his attention to Jotaro.
“I’ll give you my usual spiel, but feel free to ask me any questions if you have any.” He looks Jotaro over and grins. “Though I suspect you’re one of those man-of-few-words types, so it’s fine if you don’t ask any questions also.”
Jotaro stifles his laughter once again and pulls his hat over his eyes. “Good grief. And I suspect you’re one of those sarcasm-is-my-only-personality-trait types, so I should probably be more concerned over who I’m getting my daughter involved with.”
“Touché.” Kakyoin laughs. He then claps his hands together and starts talking in what Jotaro can only assume is a pretty well-rehearsed description of the business at this point.
“Let's see. Here at Emerald Splash we look after kids ages five to thirteen. I don’t go any younger because although I love kids, I’m not the biggest fan of babies.” He laughs, as if that’s some sort of inside joke with himself, and moves on. “It’s only me watching them, so I understand if that concerns you, but I assure you I’ve got my full attention on every kid at all times, since they all tend to stay in the main room and I don’t have too many clients.” He gestures to the room where ten kids including Jolyne are spread out in the space. “Now unless a parent or guardian specifically requests that their child gets something done, like if you wanted Jolyne to practice her reading or writing, something like that, the kids are generally allowed to do whatever they want throughout the day. There’s lots of art supplies because I’m selfish and I like art, so I push my own interests onto your child.” He winks at Jotaro with the joke, causing Jotaro’s poor heart to flip over traitorously in his chest.
Deciding it’s best to push past the way that action made him crumble like a deck of cards, Jotaro only acknowledges the joke rather than the wink. “Well Jolyne already likes to draw so I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to join your efforts in forcing artistic lifestyles onto the other kids.”
Kakyoin punches Jotaro’s arm. “That’s the spirit!” he cheers. “But just in case some of the kids are able to resist my brainwashing, we’ve got lots of books and a tv, plus some video games. But I’ll need your permission to let her watch or play, and no matter what I don’t let any of the kids use either of those for longer than an hour a day.”
“Harsh.” Jotaro comments.
Kakyoin shrugs. “Just because I had my brain melted by a video game addiction at their age doesn’t mean they have to as well.”
“Good point.”
Kakyoin also goes over the basics of the business as well. The hours he’s open, how pick-up and drop-off works, and how although parents are highly encouraged to send their child there with food, he’s always willing to cook some breakfast or lunch for them if they haven’t eaten or don’t have anything. Jotaro easily decides that Emerald Splash is the perfect place to leave in charge of his daughter, or rather that Kakyoin is the perfect person. The only real obstacle to face now is Jolyne herself, because if she doesn’t like being here then all of Jotaro’s opinions are for naught. Damn that kid and her iron grip on her father’s heartstrings.
Jotaro finds his daughter in the room again sitting at the art table with the same kids she had gravitated towards when she first came in. The pink-haired boy is very dutifully drawing what looks like a portrait of Jolyne, who is currently in a heated thumb-war with one of the two girls, while the other girl and the older boy watch and cheer on the competitors. Or at least the girl is cheering; the older boy is watching with mild interest at best.
“Jolyne.” He says, patting a hand onto her head. She jumps at the sudden contact and the other girl quickly overpowers her in the thumb war.
Jolyne whips around to shoot her best attempt at a glare towards her father. “Daaaad!” She whines. “You totally made me lose!”
Jotaro pats her head again. “Sorry kiddo, but I wanted to talk to you. I was going to ask how you like this place. Think you can survive the summer here?”
Jolyne lights up. “Yes!” She cheers. “Look! I already made so many friends!” She proceeds to introduce the kids at her table one by one. Pink-hair is Narciso, one grade above her. The thumb-wrestling opponent is Hermes, the cheerleader is FF, and the older boy is Wes, though apparently he goes by Weather. The two girls are in her grade, and all three of the younger kids will be attending the same school as Jolyne in the fall.
That’s good. Jotaro thinks. She won’t be alone at school.
“Okay then, kiddo. It’s settled. I just have to figure out your paperwork and then you can come by tomorrow.” He takes her hand and leads her over to the front desk while she waves goodbye to the kids at the table. Kakyoin hands him a folder and tells him to have everything signed and to bring in some extra papers within the next couple days so that Jolyne can start as soon as possible. Jotaro takes the folder and starts to turn towards the door when Kakyoin’s voice catches his attention once more.
“Oh, one more thing, Jotaro.”
Jotaro turns and sees Kakyoin holding out a small slip of paper.
“My personal cell phone number. In case of emergencies, or if you have any further questions.”
Jotaro could be imagining it, but he could swear he sees the hint of a blush on Kakyoin’s face. He feels one of his own rapidly climbing up his neck as he realizes that he’s getting the phone number of Jolyne’s very cute, kind, witty, sarcastic new caretaker. He thanks Kakyoin quickly and pushes Jolyne outside towards the car, pulling his hat over his eyes to try and hide his definitely flustered expression.
As Jotaro punches Kakyoin’s number into his phone back at home, his heartbeat still echoing in his eardrums like he’s some teenager who was just asked to prom, he realizes that this is going to be a very long summer if things continue this way. He lets out a long sigh and tosses his phone to the side, heaving himself from the couch to go start filling out those papers.