— ☆ —

It was a cold and rainy night for the Crusaders. It was past midnight, and they all craved the thought of being able to lay down and rest, even if for just a few hours. With each one of them exhausted from their previous battle with the enemy Stand user, Rose, and the swim that had followed with it.

The rain pounded quietly on the surrounding windows, creating a soft, calming hum of background noise. It was almost soothing enough to send Jotaro to sleep at that very moment, even while he was standing up, waiting for Joseph to get done checking them into hotel rooms.

Next to Jotaro, Kakyoin, Polnareff and Avdol were in the same trance as him, desperately trying to wait until they got to their own rooms to crash into bed. Joseph turned to face the four of them.

"Look's like they've got two rooms still available. Each room has two twin sized beds," Joseph explained tiredly. "Who's sharing with who?"

"Doesn't matter, jiji," Jotaro said after a moment, his sleepiness not interfering with his voice. Although, I don't want to be in the same room as somebody that's annoying. He glanced over at Kakyoin, staring into his shining lavender eyes. As long as he shuts up and goes to sleep right away, he won't be that bad—

"How about me and Jotaro in one room, and you, Avdol and Kakyoin in the other?" Polnareff suggested with a small smile, slinging one arm over Jotaro's shoulder. Jotaro closed his eyes, his hat casting a black shadow over them. Of course, probably the loudest of the Crusaders had suggested to sleep in the same room as Jotaro.

"That's fine. Here's the key," Joseph said as he placed the metallic key in Polnareff's hand, already walking off to the hallway. Kakyoin and Avdol hesitantly followed after the old Joestar, but not without Kakyoin glancing a look back at Jotaro.

Polnareff and Jotaro began walking towards them shortly after. They eventually found the two rooms that were not yet taken, which happened to be right across from eachother. The three Crusaders walked into their own room while the other two arrived at theirs.

Polnareff flicked on the lightswitch, only to turn it off because of the room's sudden brightness. "Jotaro, you care about which bed I take?" He asked, pointing at the bed closest to the door. Jotaro shook his head, and the Frenchman jumped onto his bed, already peeling out the covers and burying himself under them. Jotaro sighed and sat down on his bed, reading the alarm clock with red letters that sat on the nightstand between the two beds.

2:06 a.m., it read. Jotaro kicked his shoes off from his sore feet, removed his hat from his head, and placed it on the nightstand. With another tired sigh, he got under the covers and itched his sweaty head of hair. He slowly closed his eyes, the soft patter of rain soothing him further more.

As he was just about to fall of into the darkness of unconsciousness, he heard Polnareff whisper, "Sherry . . ."

A few moments later, louder this time: "Sherry."

Is he having a dream about his sister? Again, with a noise that sounded like a sniffle, "SHERRY."

"I'll kill that son of a bitch . . . Hey, get your hands . . . Off of . . . My sister . . . Don't, no, stop touching her like that . . ."

"It's barely been a minute, and he's already talking in his sleep?" Jotaro muttered quietly. He reached lazily for the other pillow and threw it over his head, attempting to block out the noise.

But it did no good. Polnareff was beginning to talk at a normal volume now, still on the subject of his sister's death. Jotaro began to get even more annoyed. He removed the pillow from his face and sat up to face Polnareff's sleeping figure.

"Polnareff!" He whisper-shouted, knitting his eyebrows together. Jotaro wasn't trying to sound as mean as he did, but he was beginning to grow impatient, and his groggines wasn't helping in the slightest.

The Frenchman groaned and creaked open his eyes. "Hm?"

"Can you please be quieter? You're not the only one trying to sleep in this fucking room," Jotaro hissed.

"S-Sorry," Polnareff apologized quickly. "Sometimes I talk in my sleep. I've already been told that it gets pretty annoying."

Jotaro simply stared back at him for a few seconds with a cold glare. "Yare yare. Just . . . I dunno, try not to be so loud."

A few minutes passed by. Still, the only sound was the relaxing raindrops against the windows. Jotaro was in the same state as before, just about to slip off into nothing.

And then Polnareff started repeating his sister's name again. At one point, he even quite literally screamed "SHERRY!" at the top of his lungs, but managed to stay asleep.

"Dammit," Jotaro whispered. "I wonder if Kakyoin's having the same problem."

— ☆ —

Kakyoin layed in the twin bed with a small smile. He was more than relieved that he and the other Crusaders had finally made it to their destination after the dangerous trip from point A. They were all finally able to get at least a little bit of rest, even if it wasn't much.

Joseph was already asleep in the bed next to him, while Avdol had not so happily volunteered to sleep on the floor. Even being the cool and collected man he was, he definitely had showed he wasn't excited about it.

Kakyoin was so and totally relaxed at that moment, he didn't even notice the quiet noises that were beginning to emit from Joseph. He could only hear the softness of the rain outside that acted as if it were an anesthetic.

And so, to shake the Japanese student from his relaxed state of mind, Joseph began to snore. It had went from the quietest of noises to the loudest of them all in such a short time. It was so noisy, so ear-shattering in such a way that Kakyoin could've sworn that the room had even shook.

Kakyoin sat up abruptly in bed. He immediately stared down at Avdol, checking to see if he was still sleeping through the disrupting action. He was still sound asleep, eyes shut, face showing no emotion. He must've been a heavy sleeper if he couldn't be woken up by Joseph's snoring.

"I was almost alseep," Kakyoin said to himself. "Mr. Joestar! Mr. Joestar!"

No reaction. Only another round of snores from him. Kakyoin groaned and messed with his hair, rolling his hair noodle around in his fingers. Although he didn't want to stay awake in his bed while uncomfortably trying to fall asleep, he didn't want to disrupt Joseph from his obviously cozy sleep.

Noriaki reached for the phone on the nightstand and dialed in a few numbers. After some time, the phone was picked up. Kakyoin was greeted by the irritated tone of Jotaro saying, "Hello?"

"Jotaro, I'm having a bit of trouble trying to sleep. You see, your grandfather will NOT STOP SNORING and I was wondering if you or Polnareff were still awake."

"Same. Polnareff keeps talking in his sleep about his sister. It's pretty fucking torturous over here."

"Yeah. Hey, um . . . I was just wondering, since we're both having a pretty hard time trying to sleep, if you'd rather sleep in the lobby or something?"

"In the lobby? I don't know if they'll even let us do that." A short pause, and then, "Fine. Just because we're both tired and we really need to get some sleep. Meet me in the hallway in five minutes."

— ☆ —

Jotaro gently shut the door behind him. He had already woken up Polnareff to tell him that he would be sleeping in the lobby. Jotaro had already assumed that Noriaki had done the same.

Noriaki? Since when did I start referring to him by his first name?

Jotaro just grunted and pulled a cigarette out from the box in his coat. He grabbed his lighter as well and lit the tip, shoving the lighter back in his pocket and breathing in deeply. A few minutes passed by, and Kakyoin stepped out into the hallway.

Nori . . . Huh, that's a cute nickname.

"Oi, Nori," Jotaro said, pulling the cigarette from his mouth and blowing out grey curls of smoke from in between his lips. Kakyoin became immediately flustered at the mention of his real name, but Jotaro didn't seem to notice. "Let's go try to find a couch or somethin' in the lounge."

Kakyoin nodded vigorously while walking after Jotaro. He was still blushing madly from behind, and was trying to cool himself down. They soon reached the lobby. The windows were filled with the pitch blackness of the sky, with raindrops continuing to pelt at them.

The attendant clerk at the front desk didn't seem to be bothered by Jotaro and Kakyoin deciding to sit in the small waiting space. There were multiple one-seater chairs, but only one couch that would fit probably four people comfortably. Or, could comfortably fit one sleeping Jotaro laying across it on his back, with Kakyoin on top of him, arms wrapped around his chest.

Jotaro blushed at his sudden train of thought suddenly spiraling off his mind. He hadn't even realized that he had thought of that. He had to pull his hat down even further to conceal his burning face.

They approached the sofa, not even with a single glance at the other. They both sat down, Jotaro next to the armrest of the royal blue sofa, and Kakyoin sitting not too far, nor too close next to him. Jotaro continued to smoke his cigarette, while Kakyoin fidgeted with his cherry earrings. Neither of them suddenly wanted to go to sleep as much as they had thought.

Jotaro stared at Kakyoin, the bill of his hat concealing his eyes in a black shadow. He was silently waiting for him to yawn, lay down, or even just close his eyes for a few moments. But he didn't. He continued to do random little things, as if the thought of sleeping on the same couch as Jotaro didn't seem like a good idea, and he wanted to distract himself.

The hell is Kakyoin doing? He's the one that suggested we come sleep down here. Now he looks like he suddenly doesn't want to sleep.

Jotaro sighed quietly, breathing in his cigarette one last time before facing the tip down on a table next to him, putting it out. We came down here to sleep. That's all, and that's what we're going to do.

Jotaro reached his arms out as if to hug Kakyoin, then pulled him close to his chest. The redhead made a small, suprised noise. "U-Uh, Jotaro, what're you—"

"Relax. I'm just making you more comfortable," Jotaro whispered in his ear, pulling his left arm out of his jacket and slinging the black material over Kakyoin's shoulders for comfort. He sensed Kakyoin tense up, but he eventually sunk back into Jotaro, his head against his chest.

"You sure you're just trying to make me comfortable . . ?"

"Absolutely."

Kakyoin chuckled lightly. He leaned in closer to Jotaro's left ear, and whispered with his crystal clear cherry breath: "Then why are you holding my hand?"

Jotaro suddenly realized he was indeed squeezing one of the redhead's free hands with his own. He immediately let go. "Sorry, I was just—"

"You're OK, JoJo. Just hold me closer, please?"

"Oh, yeah, of course," Jotaro stuttered, not letting his embarrassment spill into his words. He didn't want Kakyoin to notice him visibly beginning to get flustered, and he was trying his absolute hardest not to. He wasn't quite ready to be mushy with him just yet.

Wait, hold on. Why is Kakyoin talking to me like I'm his boyfriend . . ? It's not like I'm trying to be all cuddly with him . . . Am I?

Shit.

But Jotaro did as Kakyoin asked, tightening his hug around the cherry lover. The shorter of the two breathed out deeply, snuggling his head closer to Jotaro's chest. At this point, Jotaro couldn't hold himself back, and he pulled Kakyoin even closer so he could rest his chin on top of his hair. He breathed in the fresh smell of Kakyoin's hair, burying his nose in those fuzzy red curls.

The two enjoyed the moment as best as they could before they eventually fell asleep. Jotaro, squeezing Kakyoin with his nose lost in the red hair, and Kakyoin, being embraced affectionately by the black haired teenager.

Joseph, Avdol and Polnareff found them the next morning in that very position, sleeping soundly with the brightest smiles on their faces.

☆—☆