i should prove true to my emptiness.

He didn’t say anything for a moment, not wanting to admit that he was woken up by Jotaro’s panic in his sleep. Kakyoin was sure the answer was obvious anyways. His brows softly furrowed, picking up on signs of distress.

“You don’t look okay,” he speaks up bluntly. “I can stay up with you if you want. It’s going to take us both a while to get back to sleep anyways. You don’t have to talk about it. We don’t have to talk at all if you don’t want, but you’re not fine. You look like you’re hanging on for dear life.”

He was going to be honest with him. It wouldn’t be right for him to simply turn over and pretend his friend wasn’t clearly distressed, and so he was determined to do something to help, even if it was as menial as staying up. He softens a bit, “You sure you don’t need anything?”

Letting a shuddering sigh escape him, Jotaro rubbed the bridge of his nose, the exhaustion seeping into his bones. He felt every bit as shitty as he was sure he looked, most likely -- So the only thing he could do was crack his back and stretch, and fumble for the edge of the bed to allow himself to sit up.

“You don’t have to stay up for me,” He grumbles, before Kakyoin reaffirms that he won’t be falling asleep any time soon. That makes things harder.

After a moment of silence and kneading the bed sheets in his calloused hands, he seems to finally make up his mind about whether to say something or not. 

“...It’s...” Another sigh. Talking about his problems is always hard, especially to someone he was mildly intimidated by - And ‘classmate that could damn well judge him for his social incompetence and general cowardice’ seemed to fall under that complicated umbrella.

↳ Not-doing-too-good sentence starters | Accepting.

Breathing is hard for him, at first. It tends to be that way after he wakes up from one of his nightly trauma episodes – Nightmares are frequent when everything you’ve ever known seems to be trying to kill you, and it doesn’t help he’d been so fucked up in the first place.

But Kakyoin is there, before him, shaking him, and the view of the hotel they’re in – On a trip to Cairo, he remembers – slowly becomes clearer, like putting in puzzle piece by puzzle piece. He’s not dying, his life isn’t falling apart, and everyone is safe……For now, that is, but he’ll take “for now” over the alternative.

“I…” He coughs, swallows hard, and grips at the sheets beside him. “…Yeah. Yeah. I’m…okay.” He’s clearly not, judging by the way his eyes water faintly, but even in his vulnerability he’ll turn the other cheek to Kakyoin, not allowing himself the smallest shred of weakness.

“…I didn’t…wake you up, did I? Jus’….go back to sleep. I’ll be fine…”

     it’s only when he starts talking that she tears her gaze away from her own notes to look over at his. their conversation the previous night had been a long one - sharing various facts about marine life and insects - until they’d passed out.

     the more jotaro talks, the closer she leans, until she’s nearly resting her head against his arm. when he pauses, turns to look at her, she glances up and smiles. you have her undivided attention, don’t you worry. even if marine biology wasn’t her thing, she enjoyed listening to him talk about it. seeing him happy made her happy.

     “ yeah, it is, ” she agrees, before finally straightening back out to look back at her own notes. “ there’s quite a few insects that have parasitic relationships too. wasps, mostly. lay their eggs in or on a host, and then when the larvae hatch they feed on the host until they’re mature. it’s fascinating, and yet totally fucked up. ” she points to one in particular, gesturing specifically towards the larva within a caterpillar. “ hyposoter exiguae wasp larva developing inside an armyworm. if you pull the parasitized caterpillar apart you can reveal the wasp larva inside. ”

     this was nice. when was the last time she’d been able to sit and do something like this?

With a slow nod, Jotaro scoops up some of the pudding from the cup laying near him, looking thoughtful at the mention of the wasps and their fucked up parasitic nature. With a slurp, he pulls off the spoon, looking off to the distance.

“....I was right about that too, then.” He mentions carefully, then glances over at her notes. “That Bug d'etat is coming sometime soon, and those parasitic wasps will be first in line, right next to those giant ass hornets we have here. The ones that are like...a solid 4.5 cm.”

He adjusts how he’s sitting, just to be able to lay his chin on top of her head gently. Then, he points towards his own journal after flipping through some of the pages.

Never in her life had Hoshi Meratai seen somebody so emotional over a game.

Hoshi looked over at Jotaro’s words, looking… confused, and a bit worried. She hugged her new jellyfish plushie a bit closer between her arms and against her chest as her hands remained occupied with her switch, and when she saw just what had him in such ruin… oh, she had to laugh. She couldn’t help it.

“Oh, Lolly! Isn’t she adorable? She looks so cute and sweet, I wanna pet her head… here, look.”

A smaller, gentler hand held out her own device, on which was one of her own villagers, Zucker the takoyaki ball octopus.

“His name is Zucker… he’s my favorite, he looks like a takoyaki ball! I thought it was weird at first, but then I learned that octopi are carnivorous, so it isn’t too weird, I suppose.”

A pause.

“…are… you alright?”

He already knew about Zucker, seeing as she’d mentioned it over their messages, but seeing it in person really solidified how...cutesy all the characters were.

With a huff, Jotaro drags his hat over his eyes, purely out of habit -- Like hiding how happy seeing such a cute little animal made him feel. Fuck depression, man, this was like injecting happiness straight into his veins.

“I’m fine, it just caught me off guard....They’re very........endearing.”

Endearing was an understatement, but he wasn’t one to overstate how he felt by any means.

“I think...I like Teddy best..But I saw another very good one.” He nods. “A hamster. Called Apple.” Pointing at his own game, he moves his character a little to the side to reveal said hamster singing alongside to the radio happily, doing a little dance.

“I was right last night. Over the messages. When I mentioned barnacles and larger creatures..” He taps one of the sentences in his journals with his finger, gesturing towards it. Jotaro’s eyes are fixated on his notes, but he knows Kohaku’s resting beside him, looking over her own notes on bug life.

“The relationship between barnacles and larger living creatures is usually a commensalism symbiotic relationship, unless it’s a parasite. There’s notes about them and whales here, where they feed off the whale and the whale doesn’t even realize. There’s exceptions, of course...When there’s too many barnacles that it harms the whale, or when a whale rolls over during battle and they serve as armor...” 

Realizing that he’s rambled, he pauses, looking over to make sure he still has her interest. To see her still paying close attention, he quickly looks back down at the text, feeling embarrassed. It’d been a long time since anyone cared to actually hear him out...

“Y-You...You didn’t mention to me...” Jotaro gulps hard, sounding every little bit betrayed as he speaks to Hoshi, who is settled beside him on one of the bean bags in his dorm. This is the most emotion he’s shown before her, always being as stoic as he is -- And that emotion is.....

Betrayal over Animal Crossing.

“You didn’t mention to me there was a character like this in the game.”