Cherry Lessons

[madimpossibledreamer]

I'd been hanging onto this forever assuming at some point I'd use it to show that Johan's getting his mom's memories too...only to realize there wasn't a great timing and the one place it might make sense it'd slow down the pacing.  So this is pretty old work (i.e. written near Volume I, which was about 10 years ago now) so adjust your expectations accordingly.
I realized I never looked up if suspensions actually were a thing in Japanese schools, and a quick search is no more enlightening, but Josie could definitely be considered a bit of a delinquent so her deciding to just head home fits well.  (I spent way too long researching cherry stem tying instead...)

Main Points:
Shadowed Suspicion, universe optional
Summary: The Cherry Stem Incident.
Word Count: 950
Rating: Teen

 

          “Uncle Kaks! Uncle Kaks!” By this point, Kakyoin is pretty sure that she’s just giving him a cutesy nickname, but none of them could argue with Josephine. Not for the most part, anyway. It was a miracle they weren’t spoiling her worse than they were.
          “Yes?” He sets down his book carefully, almost fastidiously, and turns attentive eyes toward the child.
          “Could you teach me to knot cherry stems?”
          A game over screen flashed in the ‘uncle’s’ mind. His mind instantly became busy coming up with an alternative to what she was proposing. Jotaro would be annoyed if he walked in and discovered Josephine’s father beating him to death, until he discovered exactly why it was occurring, at which point he’d promptly join in. Unaware of his inner conflict, the red-head cheerfully prattled on. Did she even know what she was proposing?
          “Everyone in class knows how to do it, except for me. Not that some of them are any good at it. I’ve never learned how. And they’re all making fun of me.” That wouldn’t sit well for a child who, even at the age of ten, has inherited the Joestar temper.
          “U-um, it’s something hard to teach…” Where’d his eloquence go? “It’s kind of hard because it happens inside your mouth, so I can’t just show you, and it involves your tongue…”
          Josephine is watching him with the kind of horror that says her expectations are being shattered. “I thought you knew everything about cherries.”
          Okay, think fast…how does he do it when he does it? “I can try, but I can’t promise anything. And I’m definitely not teaching you the way that some people do.” If he just tells her how to do it, rather than kissing her, that won’t be worthy of death, right?
          “Yay!” She goes and grabs a big bowl of cherries, staring up at him with intent eyes.
          “All right. Let me do it first so I can actually explain how I do it.” Hazy memories of learning how himself come from a very distant past. He grabs one of the longest stems and goes slowly, trying to analyze every step.
          While she’s waiting, Josephine eats a couple cherries. Her face is a mess, but it’s rather adorable.
          “All right, grab one of the longest stems.” That step takes her a while, as she selects and discards a number of the cherries in the bowl. Once she’s found one that she deems long enough, she stares up expectantly, and he smiles approvingly and moves on. “You’ll need to make it flexible using your saliva. I’ve found that bending it in your mouth helps too.”
          She makes a face, but follows the instruction with attention if not enthusiasm.
          Now comes the harder part. Slowly, step by step, he walks her through it, giving her an alternative method when it turns out that one is too complicated. At last, a tied cherry stem that is really pretty good for a beginner’s attempt is presented by her sticking out her tongue, grinning, and Noriaki matches her smile.
          “Thanks, Uncle Kaks!” She hugs him, messy face and all, and runs off. Kakyoin breathes a deep sigh of relief. Crisis averted.

          “Everyone, Josephine-chan’s amazing!” The others are staring at the knotted cherry stem, eyes wide with surprise and not a little jealousy, as Josephine preens proudly.
          “D’ya know what that means? You kiss good.” Oonishi-kun grabs Josephine and kisses her, as several of his friends quickly back away from the inevitable.
          With a roar of fury, Jojo pushes him off, spitting quickly to the side to try to get the taste out, and begins whaling on the kid with fists of fury. There’s no screaming, because most of the children saw this coming, but the school yard quickly and quietly becomes a ghost town.
          Well, Oonishi-kun is screaming, but the red-head is efficient as she pounds him. She’s not going for irreversible damage or anything like that. She’s trying to make him hurt. It’ll fade, but the memory scars won’t, and hopefully he’ll remember not to stick his paws on any unwilling female anytime soon. Judging by the way he’s trying to crawl away, it’s working.
          Despite the rage pulsing through her, she’s surprisingly calm and in control. He’s crying and whimpering, pleading for her to stop, and at last she steps away. “It’s kiss well, you moron,” she corrects him, spitting again. That annoying taste won’t go away.
          “Higashikata-chan!” The teacher’s probably going to be annoying about it, but she was in the right. There was absolutely no call for a guy to just kiss her out of the blue like that. Especially since it was her first kiss. “Stop that this instant! What on earth do you think you’re doing?”
          “I’ve already stopped,” Josephine points out. “And it’s really kind of time Oonishi-kun learns he’s not actually a lady killer.”
          “Ladies aren’t to fight! Look at how hurt he is!” Suzuki-sensei’s assistant grabs the boy and helps him toward the Nurse’s Office.
          “Tell that to Great-Grandma,” Jojo continues logically. “I didn’t hurt him that badly. Honestly, what do you think would happen if I told Daddy, Officer Josuke, the truth, that a boy in my class just grabbed me and kissed me when I didn’t want it? He got off lightly.”
          “Where are you going?” the teacher screeches, possibly angrier that she doesn’t have any real points to argue with than anything else.
          “Home. I’m probably suspended for fighting again anyway. But don’t worry, I’ll do the reading. There are consequences for what I do. I know that. Oonishi-kun didn’t know, but I hope he’s figured it out now or he’s more annoying than I thought.”