Remnants of Stardust

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Summary:  Jotaro is at college when he meets someone.
Word Count: 585
Rating: Gen

 

            “Yare yare daze, woman.  And here I thought I’d get a break from your nattering.”  Jotaro cradles the phone between shoulder and ear, careful to not break it as he’s done before, and sits with pencil poised, thinking about what he wants to say next.  It’d be easy enough, almost effortless really, but it’s in English, and that always requires a lot more thinking than Japanese, particularly when he’s trying to write in English and speak to his mother in Japanese.

            “Nope,” she states cheerfully and then goes on to give him the latest gossip, all about how her friends are doing, and about their children.  He doesn’t really care, but it’s nice to hear her voice, and it’s like some soothing background music while he works.  He picks up a pencil and starts writing the next couple lines, trying at least to make his writing readable.

            University is an adjustment, but in most ways it’s better than any of the previous years of school.  He’s actually learning about things he cares about now, instead of boring things that put him to sleep.

            “Did you do your laundry?”  That doesn’t mean that it isn’t annoying when she fusses.  He may be on a different continent but that’ll never stop Holly from worrying about him.

            He grunts rather than an actual reply.  It may have been years, but Egypt is still an influence.  They hadn’t really had the ability to shower much, and aside from the jacket that burned, they hadn’t really had the chance to change for fifty days.  Some days he still wakes up and wonders what Stand User they’re going to fight next before he realizes that even though he’s no longer in Japan, the greatest challenge he’s going to have is getting his homework done and dealing with the old man.  Sometimes he’s tempted to use the time stop, but then he remembers its origin.  It might be Star Platinum’s but it still has The World’s name.

            Generally, it’s not that bad, until the old man appears and drags him off to a movie or dinner, whining about how he never gets to see his grandson even when they’re in the same country.  Some days, he’ll realize that he’s lost three hours due to his grandfather’s clowning around.  But in the end, he doesn’t begrudge Joseph those moments, and this is worth something, as much, perhaps, as defeating DIO, so he works hard.

            The only problem is that the girls are as annoying and clingy as ever, perhaps even more so now that he’s a foreign student and therefore exotic, or whatever goes through their heads.  All but one.  There’s one woman, Joyce, he thinks her name is, who’s different.  She’s one of the few people in the world who isn’t intimidated by him at all.  Somehow, she managed to get him to agree to volunteer, and she wasn’t irritating about it at all.  Persistent and quietly unyielding in her beliefs, yes.  She challenged him, like Kakyoin had, really, and it doesn’t quite hurt anymore, the same way it had.  He’s curious about the effect, is intrigued to see if it will happen again.  She’s calm, patient, playful.

            There’s no way he’s telling his mother about this, though.  She’d just take it the wrong way, and if this Joyce turns out to be just like all the others, it might break Holly’s heart.  The old man either.  He wants to explore this on his own.  It probably won’t amount to much, anyway.