A/N: Spoiler alert this is set after chapter 83 of Jojolion (latest chapter as of writing this ) because I wanted to use the tension between Yasuho and Josuke with the whole ex-boyfriend showing up and plant appraiser disagreeing with Yasuho thing. For the purpose of this story I'm saying that Mamezuku went off alone to research the Head Doctor and Josuke and Yasuho have got a bit of down time.
Anyway with that out of the way please enjoy because Yasuho and Josuke are the cutest couple in Jojo.
"Why won't he just text me already!" Yasuho stared at her phone, willing a notification to pop up. You'd think with her stand she might actually be able to do it, but nothing appeared.
"I swear if I find out his phones been turned into a frog or something…" She continued, desperate for a reason why Josuke wasn't contacting her that didn't revolve around him growing sick of dealing with her. Sure, their relationship had been a bit strained lately- what with all the fighting for their lives and everything. The more they investigated the Rokakaka, the more enemies seemed to appear, digging up wells of doubt between the two of them- never sure who they could trust. But wasn't Josuke humble enough to move past that, and try to talk it out?
"If he wants to fix things between us he'll have to put the effort in himself!" She huffed obstinately. In the moments of silence following her outburst, she found herself wondering; 'What is there to fix?'. It's not like they were dating; she had said as much to Tooru when he asked about it. But she was sure they were more than just simple friends. Weren't they?
...
Josuke wandered the town of Morioh without any particular destination in mind. Mamezuku had told him and Yasuho to relax for a bit until he had the information he needed to move onto the next step in finding the Rokakaka. Well, to be more precise- he had told Josuke to rest up in preparation for the battles to come, and he told Yasuho to just go home and be out of his way.
"I wish she'd just call me, I wanna hear her voice." He mused, alone in his own world. He tried to remember all the sweet things she had said to him- her innocent, oblivious tone as he distracted her from the beat-down he gave the first stand user they encountered. The time she made fun of him for crying as tears rolled down her face, and when she praised the song he sung for her right after. But the more he thought about, the quicker his memories turned to her hurt voice when he sided with Mamezuku over her.
"Should I?" He held his phone in his hand, Yasuho's number open on his contacts.
"No, she's probably mad at me, I shouldn't push it." A sigh of resignation.
...
"Move forward now." Paisley Park's voice sprung from Yasuho's phone- almost making her drop it in surprise. She examined the phone, and sure enough the same thing was written: 'Move forward now'.
She stood and took a few cautious steps, not sure what had suddenly activated her stand.
"Is there an enemy stand user nearby? Paisley Park- what is it you're trying to tell me?" She continued to move as she spoke, eventually walking out of her room, and out of her house- throwing on her shoes in a hurry.
"Take a left turn." She looked over her shoulder as she did, scanning the area for anything out of the usual. Nothing suspicious as far as she could see, but there were plenty of stand powers that could hide somewhere from her view.
"Take a right turn…. Continue straight for 200 metres…. Take a left turn…." Yasuho sped up her pace, focusing all of her attention behind her- barely noticing where she walked- moving further and further into the heart of Morioh.
"It doesn't count if I call Josuke now right? I can still wait for him to make the first move after I'm through with this…" She tried to select his number, but the directions on her screen wouldn't disappear. Paisley Park refused to let her use her phone for anything else- somehow overriding her control over it. It planned for a face to face meeting for Yasuho, and it was going to make sure it happened.
"Take a right turn"
...
"Is that what I think it is?" Josuke stood higher on his toes, sniffing the air for that familiar smell.
"Gomamitsu dango! I must be near the shop that sells them!" The thought of their delicious flavour filled his mind with excitement for a few moments, before his brain linked that to his memories of Yasuho- bringing his excitement back down.
"I wish she were here to share them with me." He muttered; talking to the ground. If he bought some to give to her- would that be enough to tide over her anger?
"Don't be an idiot, she's not gonna just forget about everything with some food." That was more something that would work better on him than her. His instincts had his feet walking towards the smell regardless, too tempted to ignore it. But just as he got close to the store he thought was right, the smell seemed to move a few shops down. Each time he thought he was close, a new smell would appear just beyond him.
"What on earth is going on?" Could it be a stand attack? Was someone trying to lure him somewhere with his favourite treat-using some sort of teleportation ability to constantly stay just out of his sight? Or maybe they were invisible? Having come this far, he had no choice but to continue on for now- ready to face whatever may come at the end of his trail. If he had been thinking more rationally, he might have paid attention to the slight sounds of bubbles popping each time the sound moved.
...
With Yasuho's eyes open wide to the world behind her, and Josuke's closed shut to focus more fully on his sense of smell- neither of them saw the other approaching. The thuds of the pair falling to the ground were followed by a scramble to stand up and call their stands to fight- until they finally looked each other in the eye.
"Yasuho?!"
"Josuke!?"
"I was, there was an enemy stand user chasing me and Paisley Park was telling me where to go…"
"Be careful Yasuho, I think there's an enemy right around here."
A few moments of confused silence.
"You have reached your destination." Paisley Park piped up from the phone in Yasuho's hand- now showing a map with her and Josuke at the centre, and no stand users anywhere close by. Josuke sniffed the air for the smell of Gomamitsu dango- it was right next to him now.
"It was you? Where are you hiding them?" Josuke lurched forward to check behind Yasuho for the dango.
"What are you on about? I'm not hiding anything!" Yasuho defended herself, but as she did- three bubbles burst above her head. In two of them were fresh Gomamitsu dango, dropping right into her hands, while the other simply burst into a ball of sweet fragrance.
Yasuho looked at Josuke, down to her hands, and then up at Josuke again.
A few more seconds of confused silence.
"Want one?"
The pair burst into laughter, finally letting their guard down.
"Just remember to bite into it with your back teeth ok?" Yasuho warned as Josuke took one from her hand.
"Or else…" She got no further before sesame filling coated her face.
"Or else that'll happen… What am I going to do with you Josuke? Even my dog wouldn't be this messy when he ate." She scolded with a smile.
"Delicious!" The strange man exclaimed, eyes glued to the mess on Yasuho's face. Such delicious dango filling just going to waste… Without giving it much more thought, he leaned forward and brought his tongue to his friend's cheek- its two halves gliding against her skin.
"Yup, still delicious!" He beamed, as Yasuho's cheeks shifted from the brown coloured sweet to a bright red.
"Josuke! You don't have to try and be more like my dog by licking me!"….. "Although, I am glad to see you. Even if I can't actually see very well for all this filling in my eye." Her face softened, and Josuke decided it was best to call out Soft and Wet to get rid of the rest of the mess.
"I'm really happy to see you too Yasuho. I wanted to call you but I thought you might still be mad about how everything went with the plant appraiser."
"I mean, I am kind of annoyed with you still, but it's not like I wanted to just cut off all contact. The only way I can forgive you is if I actually talk to you, right?" The pair admitted, their feelings of pride and hesitation melting away in each others presence.
"I hope you can forgive me. All the evidence I had seemed to point towards whoever the head doctor is having the branch, but I was too blinded by that to listen to what you had to say. You've been helping me since, well, since as long as I can remember. I should have trusted you more." Josuke apologised, knowing his reasons were nothing more than excuses- but still needing to express his regret to his dear friend. To the single most important person in his world.
"Yes, you should have trusted me. But for now, that's beside the point. I've been looking into Joubin and the Higashikata family and while I don't have any proof yet, I'm sure that we'll find our answer if we keep searching. You can make this all up to me by helping me search, yeah?" She kept her response related to the search for the rokakaka- bottling down her feelings about them as a couple for the moment. They needed to get that fruit to save Holly. Her worries about what to call Josuke- her friend, her boyfriend, her mystery solving partner- had to stay buried deep inside.
"Ok Yasuho, I can do that. Where do we start?" Josuke wished they could revel in their reunion for a little longer, crack a few more jokes or sing a song or two- but he too put the mission first.
"Ding," another sound from Paisley Park alerted the two of them. The screen read:
'Time until Mamezuku discovers the identity of the Head Doctor: 14 hours, 47 minutes.'
"Paisley Park? How can you know this?" Yasuho asked in amazement- still not quite sure what the outer limits of her stands power were.
"In any case, it looks like we have another 14 hours or so to investigate Joubin and the Higashikata estate- if we can find the branch by the time Mamezuku finishes his investigation we can show him where it is!" She exclaimed.
'And we can prove the guy wrong.' She thought to herself.
"That's plenty of time! We should head to the estate now and see what we can find out." Josuke decided, and the pair turned to run to the boy's current home.
"Make a U-turn." Paisley Park declared, but the radar still showed no enemies anywhere near.
"Make a U-turn." They continued to run.
"Make a U-turn." Yasuho sighed in annoyance.
"Paisley Park- I'm grateful that you took me to Josuke, but we're done playing around now! We don't have time for your games." The fact that their stands had even brought them together in the first place was pretty hard to swallow- Paisley Park was an automatic stand which tended to act on its own sometimes, but Soft and Wet had never acted independently before. They had kind of just accepted that Soft and Wet had conspired to make Josuke meet with Yasuho- because with so many bizarre happenings- they were kind of used to that sort of thing. But now that they had made up, and were finally a team again- they had to put their foot down on any more stand shenanigans.
"Make a U-turn." Paisley Park persisted, and before either Yasuho or Josuke could say something in return, the world in front of them suddenly turned black with a pop as four bubbles formed.
"Did Soft and Wet just take our eyesight? What the hell Josuke?" The stand wasn't done just yet though, moving to a pair of dogs nearby and firing bubbles at them to steal their momentum; popping them onto the pairs skin. In a flash their bodies turned and started racing in the opposite direction, now following each of the directions given by Paisley Park. Each stand user yelled at their stand to stop, but to no avail. The only response they got was from Paisley Park- now vocalising the written message from before.
"Time until Mamezuku discovers the identity of the Head Doctor: 14 hours, 45 minutes."
"Time until Mamezuku discovers the identity of the Head Doctor: More than enough."
...
The pair were whipped around the town for minutes, eventually accepting their powerlessness and letting their stands take them where they pleased. Who knows, maybe they knew something Josuke and Yasuho didn't after all. Those thoughts quickly vanished once they grinded to a halt, however, their vision returning.
"A love hotel? This is where you two were taking us?!" Yasuho bursted out in disbelief.
"Yasuho, what's a love hotel? I can remember what a normal hotel is, are they any different?" The amnesiac questioned, painfully innocent.
"They're something we don't have time for right now. We need to find the branch!" Yasuho would be lying if she said her heart didn't skip a beat when her eyes finally opened- the blush from before rushing back into her cheeks. But there was no time for that now! She could wait until after everything was solved to sort out their relationship.
"Our stands really want us to go inside though, we've got time for a little detour, right?"