Refrain

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure AU
Summary:  The music turns out to be an unexpected way for Jotaro to connect with his daughter.
Word Count: 450
Rating: Gen

            Years pass.  Jolyne grows up.  The divorce happens, and she begins to believe he doesn’t love her.  Has never loved anyone.  Her heart begins to harden.  He’s always gone, never there.  If he loved her, he’d spend more time with her than with those stupid sharks.
            Mom’s friends and family all tell her how lucky she is to have that man out of her life, out of Mom’s life.  She begins to believe them, almost, if not for the way that Mom just looks sad, sometimes, and tells her that Jotaro is a good man, really.  Could her mother believe in a man that was evil?  Or had she fallen into the trap, somehow?
            And then, out of the blue, an email from her father.  She nearly deletes on principle, but curiosity gets the better of her.  Besides, if he’s really distant, she can tell herself and everyone else that she was right.

            “Jolyne,
                      I’m sure you’ve grown.  It’s been a busy time.  I’d tell you about it, but I don’t want to bore you.
                      I remember how you used to want to hear me sing.  I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve changed your mind.  If you write back and say that you no longer want to hear from me, that’s fine.  But I want to hear that from you, yourself, not your mother’s family.
                                  Dr Jotaro Kujo”

            Jolyne grits her teeth.  How dare he—
            But.  There’s an attachment.  That’s it, if it’s a video about whales, she’s getting a restraining order—you can get those against family, not just crazy stalkers, right?
            She opens it, and it’s some kind of audio file.  It doesn’t seem to be working.  There’s just a bunch of silence.  Typical.  She’s about to close it, when.
            That voice.  That singing voice.  She recognizes it, half forgotten in wishful dreams of a family that she’d thought never existed.  Despite herself, it takes her breath away.
            Here’s the man, the stoic stranger who never showed any emotion.  Not even a ‘please don’t tell me to piss off, I’m your father and want to be in your life’.  And yet, in his voice…
            It’s Japanese.  Maybe so that she can’t understand the lyrics.  But that’s genuine emotion in his voice, sadness and guilt and love, all wrapped together with something else indescribable shining through.  He’s much more expressive when he sings, she remembers, drudging that little fact up through her memory.
            “You’re not getting away with that so easily,” she writes back.  “You’ve been gone all the time, and you want me to absolve you from further responsibility?  Not a chance.”
            She imagines she can see him smile, over there on the other side of the world.