Key to Family

[madimpossibledreamer]

Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Stardust Legacy)
Summary: Dawn and Jotaro bond a little after the funeral.
Word Count: 655
Rating: Teen
Spoilers: specifically for The Body and the end of season 5, and yeah I moved some events here

 

          Dawn glances up and Jotaro is looming large and ominous in the doorway and she can’t help but think this is it, this is the moment where her life really ends. She bursts into a fresh batch of tears, which is wild, you’d think she’d have cried all those out already, and he looks uncomfortable and uneasy but he doesn’t look away like normal. Like he’s forcing himself to do this. To be here. “So you’re here to kick me out, aren’t you?”
          “Why would I do that. This isn’t even my house.” He fidgets a bit, like he can’t decide where to stand, or if he should approach where she’s having the epic breakdown of a century on her bed.
          “Well, it—Mom died, and then it turns out I’m not really your daughter.” She’s a little confused. She hadn’t really gotten to know him, not like Buffy had, because he’d been kicked out before she even started forming memories except it turns out that none of them are real.
          Shockingly….he actually smiles at that. Just a little, but it’s like this is a game, or, God she doesn’t know. “Pretty sure you’ve got my DNA, and if not, it’s not like that’s the only marker of lineage. Just the legal one.”
          What. This isn’t like anything Mom had said he was like, so she’s just mostly confused, or maybe that’s just been her state since she found out. “But I’m not even real!” she screams at him, and he does approach, slowly, like her tears are going to reach out and drown him or something. The caution is fair. For all she knows, that’s a thing she can actually do. And then, gently, he touches her arm.
          “You feel pretty real to me.” The tears intensify, and she leans in, and he’s still hesitant about the touch stuff but he lets her, patting her awkwardly on the back.
          “I’ve seen a lot of bizarre things in my life. Having another daughter with powers isn’t too different.” Having a daughter who’s an inanimate object, he means, but it’s really nice of him to put it like that, and—yeah, okay, maybe he doesn’t see that as too weird, actually, because he still sees her as his daughter, somehow, and she’s moving and breathing and doing normal living stuff, so the fact that she’s not even human doesn’t even register. And then, because she’s not crying enough already, he just has to keep going. “I just lost my ex-wife. I don’t need to lose another daughter, too.”
          His hands are shaking, she realizes. He’d been so cold at the funeral, like he’d been carved out of stone, just cold toward Hank like he didn’t deserve to be there, and here Dawn had been half mad at him for being so rude because she was pretty sure that’s what scared Hank away from actually adopting them. And then he goes and says that all matter-of-factly, like it’s just the way things are, like the sky and the ocean are blue, Buffy is the Slayer, and he loves them.
          “Obviously, things are going to change, and change isn’t easy, but we don’t have to talk about any of that now. Take your time to grieve.” And there he goes, focusing on the practical just like Buffy. Maybe because it’s something they can control. Dawn can kinda get that.
          And maybe she’d get to reconnect with her older sister again, now that they’re living under the same roof again. And maybe things would be all right, because she’s weird but maybe that’s actually fine. It still hurts, though.
          But also, maybe he’s actually telling the truth, because why would he be letting her cry all over him if he didn’t actually love her? “I want pizza,” she sniffles.
          “I think I can manage that,” he responds quietly. And maybe the slight amusement isn’t mocking. Maybe it’s just love.