For as long as he'd had Crazy Diamond, Josuke couldn't get over the fact that his Stand often behaved more like a puppy than the mighty guardian spirit he regarded him as. Jotaro had rolled his eyes at the term "guardian spirit" when he first heard it, but even a disapproving stare from his older nephew wouldn't stop Josuke from holding his Stand in such high esteem.

It was simply hard for him not to feel affection or admiration for Crazy Diamond, particularly when his Stand insisted on assisting him in such mundane tasks as getting ready for school in the morning—throwing his things haphazardly into his backpack, for instance, and even attempting to help him style his hair on days when Josuke was running late. He wouldn't dare say these attempts were unhelpful, however; he was certain they'd saved his ass on more than one occasion, on the (thankfully) rare days where a call from school would have been the inciting event for his mother's wrath.

So Josuke was very grateful to his Stand, indeed, and was musing over this fact as he applied the finishing touches of hairspray in the bathroom; he could hear his long-time companion rummaging through his things back in his bedroom, no doubt searching for the misplaced English homework he had been muttering about under his breath moments earlier. With a grin, he silently wondered what he had done in his past life to be deserving of such a Stand. He was about to utter this thought out loud as he turned to leave the bathroom, but before he could speak several crumpled sheets of paper were shoved into his face.

After he recovered his footing, Josuke eyed the barely-legible English a past version of him had scrawled onto the worn-out pages, shrugged, and smirked to hide his relief. "Ah, well," he sighed, gingerly taking the pages from Crazy Diamond's tentative grip. "I guess I can still turn it in…or just copy Koichi's if he'll let me. Thanks a bunch, though, Crazy Diamond! You saved me a lot of trouble."

The Stand nodded once and then, with a softly uttered "Dora," returned the pages to how they had looked before they had been stuffed into a backpack, trampled, torn, and otherwise destroyed by his user's daily activities.

Josuke took the utmost care to avoid crumpling them again as he placed them into his folder. "Ah, you're the best, Crazy Diamond!"

The simple show of gratitude caused the Stand's expression to light up like a Christmas tree—only for it to be extinguished in the next instant.

"Ah, crap…" Josuke swore inwardly as he eyed the drop of blood that beaded on his finger. "A paper cut." He quickly placed the appendage into his mouth to avoid getting blood on his carpet or repaired homework, and flinched at the stinging sensation. "Of all the rotten luck…"

"…"

He realized his error as soon as he saw the look on Crazy Diamond's face: a sorrowful, dejected mask that deepened the pain in his finger. "Damn…hey, look, it's not that big a deal, okay? This kinda stuff happens all the time. You know that. It's not like I'm dying or anything!"

Even though he didn't speak, his Stand's expression said it all. But it's not usually my fault, is it?

Josuke frowned. "It's not your fault, you…it's mine. I was clumsy, that's all. You did me a favor by repairing my homework. Lighten up a bit, okay? This'll heal in no time."

He thought he saw his Stand flinch at that—but it could've just been his imagination. Crazy Diamond gave him a tentative smile, nodding his assent and hovering like an overbearing parent as his user applied a bandage to the small cut and continued on with his morning routine—only now, it seemed to Josuke as though he were trying even harder to be helpful.

As his Stand watched him spread butter on toast with a comically intense stare, Josuke was reminded of something he hadn't thought about in years—a time when the large spirit had acted similarly, only for a more extended period of time. It wasn't a memory he particularly enjoyed thinking about, even if it had been a huge milestone in his relationship with Crazy Diamond.

After all, who likes being reminded of their second hospital stay?

Kids liked to play in the streets. Josuke had when he was younger, at least—and while his mom hadn't appreciated it, her attempts to stop him from doing so had been met with his refusal to obey. He tried to be safe about it; he was meticulous about his hair, and didn't fancy having it ruined by an incoming car.

On that day he must've been sleep deprived, then, since he didn't even see the rock jutting out of the sidewalk until his skateboard rammed into it. The collision sent him careening off the board, stumbling forward and into the street as he tried to regain his balance.

"Josuke!"

His mother's panicked voice caught him off guard more than the sound of tires screeching, and when a frozen Josuke glanced up all he could see was the front of the car bearing down on him, and the driver's terrified expression as he struggled to slam on the brakes in time.

He felt a tug on his arm, his stomach being left behind as he was flung backward, and then, nothing.

Later on, Josuke would be thankful that he lost consciousness.

At the hospital, his mother breathed a sigh of mixed relief and dismay when the doctor informed them of his condition: his leg was broken in two places, not to mention he had heavy bruising on his upper arm and back, where he had hit the ground.

"Oddly enough," the doctor said, "I couldn't trace any of the injuries back to the car itself. All of them could be attributed to a nasty fall—and there weren't even any bruises on the side of his body where the car should have hit, according to you, Higashikata-san. In any case, I think we should keep him overnight just to make sure he doesn't have any undetected internal injuries. You can never be too careful about these kinds of accidents, especially when children are involved…"

It was the strangest thing—according to the doctor, it almost seemed as though Josuke had been thrown to the ground, rather than knocked down by a car. But given that he had escaped with apparently minor injuries, considering the car's speed, he informed the two of them that they had been lucky.

Of course, Josuke knew that luck had nothing to do with it.

After his leg had been given a cast, the doctor took his mother into the hallway to discuss payment. Finally alone, Josuke allowed himself to wince, sniffling as his eyes teared up from the pain he'd held back in front of his mom.

This sucks. He was unable to get into a comfortable position, what with his leg being elevated and weighed down by what felt like pounds of stone. He didn't want to have to wear this thing for weeks!

An idea occurred to him then—perhaps he didn't have to. Muttering under his breath so no one would overhear, he called out his friendly spirit. "Crazy Diamond."

Josuke smiled upon seeing the familiar pink and blue anomaly. He wasn't quite sure how it happened, but the spirit had been following him around for a while now, and seemed to be capable of fixing broken things—objects like his mom's fine china, for example—and it never failed to amaze the young boy when he saw it. He'd even been able to heal some of his friends' scrapes without them noticing. Maybe he could fix broken bones as well. "Can you do it, Crazy Diamond?"

The spirit nodded his assent, hovering his large hands over the thick cast. Josuke watched with rapt attention, waiting for the usual glowing yellow light to encompass his limb.

And he waited.

And waited.

A frown appeared on Crazy Diamond's face, and as Josuke watched worriedly, it morphed into horrified realization. He stared at the young boy with the most apologetic look he had ever seen on anyone, human or not.

"You can't do it?"

He shook his head.

"Why not? I've seen you do it to my friends…"

It seemed as though the tears that had previously been in Josuke's eyes had transferred to Crazy Diamond; they welled up with impressive speed, running down his face and dripping onto the cast.

"So…" Josuke trailed off as he came to the same conclusion the spirit obviously had. "You can't heal me, then? Only other people, and objects and stuff?"

A demure nod was all he received: Crazy Diamond's tears kept on flowing.

While he was slightly bummed at the prospect of actually having to wear the cast until his leg healed, Josuke felt worse for the spirit—he seemed to be taking this limitation pretty hard. "Hey, it's not so bad! It's my fault this happened in the first place—I should've been more careful, like mom said. Besides, if it weren't for you, I would have gotten hurt way worse."

If anything, this only appeared to upset Crazy Diamond more. Josuke frowned, brows furrowed as he extended his hand towards the spirit's. It seemed as though he understood implicitly how he felt—he could sense his anguish, his guilt, and above all else, his frustration—not at his user, but at his own inability to heal him.

I'm the one who caused your injuries, and I can't even heal them.

Josuke sniffled, his own eyes burning with tears as the influx of emotions rendered him speechless. His connection with Crazy Diamond had always been there—his existence alone was proof of that, but these emotions were too intense for him to bear, especially after such a stress-filled day.

"It's okay…" he mumbled, the words nearly inaudible. "I'm fine, really…"

To his surprise, it wasn't the pain in his leg that woke him up, but the pain in his side.

Josuke released a groan, shifting in an attempt to find a sleeping position that would cause him the least amount of discomfort. His leg was still elevated, so he couldn't move much, but he'd eat his own shoe before calling that horrible night nurse for help. She smelled like onions and bone meal.

I wanna go home…

His throat felt tight, but he made a valiant effort to stop himself from crying again. He should be strong, shouldn't he? It was just a broken leg and some bruises. He'd be better in no time.

This really sucks, though.

A higher power seemed to have mercy on him, as his consciousness began to fade in and out. He thought he felt his upper half being lifted up, though he supposed he could just be imagining it.

But when something warm dripped onto his face, he was jolted awake once more. With the scant light that came from under the door, his eyes were able to make out a pair of vivid, watery blue ones.

"….Crazy…Diamond…?"

Josuke vaguely realized that his spirit was serving as an impromptu pillow for his upper body; he was much softer than he looked, infinitely more comfortable than the hospital bed he was lying in. He was still crying, with a pained smile that matched the soft, shaky motions of his hand against the young boy's hair.

I hope you're okay. I hope you feel better soon. I want to help you, but I don't know how.

The last coherent thought Josuke had was that he was doing a fine job already.

Looking at Crazy Diamond now, it wasn't a stretch to think that he still felt guilty about what happened all those years ago. His reaction to the paper cut said as much. Thinking back on it, that was probably why he so often thought of his Stand as more of a guardian than a manifestation of his own spiritual energy, as Jotaro referred to it. It was strange to believe, but he felt like his own entity, overflowing with all of the kind, gentle nature that Josuke didn't always feel comfortable displaying to others.

Perhaps it was fanciful, but Josuke wouldn't change it for the world.

Thanks a lot, Crazy Diamond. For everything.

"I'm leaving for school!" Josuke said a quick goodbye to his mother before darting out the door and towards Okuyasu, who was waiting with a goofy grin on the sidewalk.

"Yo," his friend said, his hand raised in greeting. "You're late, Josuke. I almost had to leave without you!"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry. I had a bit of a setback this morning."

"Eh? You okay, bro?" Okuyasu glanced at the bandage on his finger, eyes wide and curious.

"'Course," the young man said, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "Better than ever."

So I'm finally getting around to posting this story on this site. (It's already on AO3.) For those of you who don't use the archive, I hope you like it. There's already five chapters written, but I don't know if I'll post them all at once since I'm lazy with uploading documents and re-editing them despite the fact that it's not that hard.

-Vicious Ventriloquist