Layla was in the kitchen helping Suzi prepare dinner while Holly and Joseph sat at the table playing checkers. He could not figure out Go so Holly switched to a more familiar game for her father.

Jotaro opened the door and stepped one foot into the room. His mother and grandparents greeted him as he glanced around. His eyes fell on Layla chopping vegetables at the counter.

Although her back was to him, Layla could feel his angry eyes burning into the back of her skull.

"Oh, you're here," he muttered and instantly left. His loafers banged on the wooden planks of the porch as he stomped away in fury.

Angry child, Layla thought and stabbed a berry with the knife in her hand rather than picking it up out of the bowl.

"What the hell was that about?" Joseph mumbled, looking up from the checkerboard.

Suzi and Holly cast concerned glimpses at Layla who continued chopping trying to pretend nothing was wrong.

"Layla?" Holly called to her. "You look a little pale. Are you feeling all right?"

"Sweetheart," Suzi said, laying her hand on Layla's shoulder.

Her body stiffened and she put down the knife before she inadvertently cut herself.

No, please, no, dear god, please Miss Suzi, don't ask, she begged silently as humiliation settled into her chest making it difficult to breathe. She was pretty sure she was as red as the strawberry she was slicing to put on the cake after it was covered in frosting.

"Did something happen between the two of you?"

"No. Nothing," she lied, placing her palms flat on the counter on either side of the chopping board.

"If you need to go talk to him, I can take over," Holly offered, sliding her chair back from the table.

"No. I don't want to talk to him," she murmured, picking the knife back up to hull a strawberry. "It's convenient having strawberries available year round but hothouse strawberries never taste as good."

"You're right," Suzi agreed, carefully placing the vegetables in the broth for the hot pot she was preparing for dinner. "Dear, will you please go get Jotaro? Dinner is almost ready."

Layla sighed. She would not rude or disrespectful to Suzi. Saying no never crossed her mind. Taking off her apron, she twisted it in her hands before draping it over the back of the chair as she walked toward the door.

As soon as she left, Suzi and Holly both went to the window to watch her.

"Would you two mind telling me what's going on?" Joseph requested.

"I think it finally happened," Suzi answered him.

"What?" he asked, more confused than before.

"Tsk, Jojo," she huffed.

"What?!"

His pretending to oblivious annoyed her. He knew exactly what she meant.

Layla knocked on Jotaro's door.

"Go away," he growled from the other side.

"Dinner's ready," she said, holding her hands behind her back to keep from opening the door herself.

"I said go away!" Jotaro bellowed furiously ripping back the door.

Layla looked up, way up, to his face. Trying to keep herself calm and her gaze neutral, affectless, she bit the inside of her cheek and inhaled deeply.

"Grandma Suzi wanted me to come get you. Dinner will be ready soon."

"Go away," he snarled, his upper lip peeling back from his teeth and arching upward on one side.

"I guess I should have expected you to act like a spoiled child. You're too accustomed to getting what you want. I'm not some schoolgirl who is going to fall at your feet and beg for your attention," she said, astonishing herself by keeping her tone flat and her volume low.

"Oh, no, not you. I never expected that of you," he returned, raising his arm and leaning it against the door jamb as he lowered his face toward hers. "You are a grown ass woman who fucked a kid. And it was great...if I do say so myself. You got what you wanted, then walked away without a second thought."

Layla slapped him with all of her might.

What the hell...why didn't Star Platinum catch her wrist?, Jotaro wondered, rubbing his stinging cheek. Probably because I deserved that.

His eyes met hers that now had tears in them. She looked sad and hurt, not angry.

"You are hardly a kid. I would have thought what you just went through matured you quite a few years. Besides, you're only three weeks away from being eighteen for God's sake...or have you forgotten already? I can't forget because I've been busy helping with planning your damn birthday party," she growled at him, her eyes narrowing in anger.

"Is the thought of loving me so horrible?" he asked her, getting right to the point. He reached for her, but she had backed away putting herself out of his arm's length.

"The thought of loving you terrifies me, Jotaro Kujo. I just don't think I can handle getting caught up the drama of being a Joestar girlfriend or wife or, or, or..." she stuttered in her anger, waving her hands helplessly. "Or whatever you want me to be. And let's face it... you're not the marrying kind."

"Stop saying that. I could be," he insisted holding her eyes presently brimming with tears.

Layla chuckled, a sardonic sound filled with sadness rather than joy. Several tears broke free and rolled down her face. Jotaro reached out to wipe them away, but she took hold of his wrist to keep him touching her.

"Be honest with yourself. Can you really see yourself having a wife? A child? Playing the part of the doting husband and affectionate father?"

His hand slowly lowered as he backed away. Honestly, no he couldn't see it. Her making such a personal and insulting far reaching assumption, thinking she knew him so well, pissed him off.

"How dare you?" he growled, thrusting his hands under her arms and lifting her into the air like a child.

"What are you doing?" she screamed in fury and humiliation from being held in such a manner with her feet dangling helplessly in the air. "Stop treating me like a child!"

"I will stop treating you like one as soon as you stop acting like one!" he shouted back angrily.

"Look who's talking!"

In the kitchen, Joseph jumped up from his chair with such force he flung it back against the wall. His wife and daughter grabbed his arms, but he pulled them along the floor in their stocking feet with him as he walked toward the door.

"I'll kill that little bastard if he hurts her, I don't care if he is my grandson," he seethed, reaching for the door.

"Jojo, please, stop," he wife begged, trying but failing to dig in her heels as he slid back the door.

"He won't hurt her, Daddy, please," Holly pleaded, tugging on his arm. "Let them work it out. Stay here. Have faith in Jotaro."

"Ugh, fine," he acquiesced, closing the door. "Only because you two asked me."

The three of them gathered back at the window to observe what happened next. They watched as Layla planted her left foot in the middle of Jotaro's chest. Swinging her right leg back, bending her knee and turning her leg to the side, she delivered a fierce roundhouse kick to his jaw.

Suzi and Holly gasped simultaneously in astonishment.

Joseph laughed heartily, shouting with pride, "That's my girl!"

"Oh, my," Suzi murmured, pressing her fingertips to her lips.

Jotaro let her go, stumbling backwards several steps but not falling. Layla was able to get one foot under her which left her kneeling on a single knee, her other leg extended out in front of her. Leaning forward, she pulled her foot back and pushed up on her bent knee to stand up.

The onlookers from the kitchen continued to observe the interaction between the two young people that had suddenly become a much more physical altercation but did not move to interfere.

They watched as Jotaro approached Layla, rubbing his sore jaw. The beginning of a smile quirked up one corner of his mouth before he forced it back down into a frown.

"Oh, hey, I think the boy likes it rough," Joseph remarked.

"Jojo," Suzi gasped, swatting his chest.

"Likes what rough, Daddy?" Holly innocently inquired.

Joseph put an arm around his daughter's shoulders and pulled into his side for a sideways hug. "Oh, don't you worry about it, baby. There's some things you don't need to know."

"Like what?"

Holy shit. It makes me happy to know my daughter is so innocent despite marrying that awful man who took her away from me, Joseph thought, squeezing her in a sideways hug.

"Seems our little nurse would make a suitable bodyguard as well. Rosas will be pleased to know he will have someone to back him up. Possibly a student," Suzi stated pensively.

"Why do you think I want her to be right with us all the time? She can take care of my Suzi Q," Joseph said, nuzzling the top of his wife's head.

"What did they teach her at nursing school?" Holly marveled as she watched her son continue to massage his bruised and possibly disjointed jaw.

"She didn't learn that in nursing school for damn sure. I think you all would be surprised what kind of an education that girl has received," Joseph muttered cryptically. "She knows six languages as well."

"I was wondering how she spoke Japanese so fluently," his daughter said, tapping her chin with her finger as if considering other things she had never noticed about Layla that might be construed as unusual.

Although they could not hear what was being said, the nosy trio continued to watch from the kitchen window.

"I'm sorry," Layla apologized. "You just make me so damn mad."

"Yeah. Well, you piss me off too," Jotaro said, dropping his hand from his face. "Damn that fucking hurt."

"Sorry," she apologized again, pushing away the lock of hair that had fallen down from her bun. "Want me to take a look at it?"

"Hell no," he muttered, swatting her hands away.

"Big baby," she snapped, folding her arms under her breasts. "It's not broken since you're still running your mouth, but it will be bruised. We should go get you an ice pack."

"What are you?" Jotaro demanded, his eyes narrowing to mere slits as they looked her over with suspicion. "You're a hell of a lot more than just a nurse."

"I was taught to take lives before I learned how to save them," she admitted, pushing back the numerous wisps of hair that had come free from her bun. Her eyes met his. "I prefer saving them."

"Hmph," he snorted in his typical grumpy fashion.

Jotaro thought it odd that was the second time she had landed a hit on him and Star Platinum had not stopped her either time. Apparently way down down he felt her physical retaliation for his verbal insults was warranted so his more than capable Stand did nothing.

"I think you're right, Layla," Jotaro agreed, allowing his eyelids to part a little more to allow for better eye contact. "Forever isn't meant for us."

You're damn right I'm right, Layla thought, resolute in her own stubborn assumptions meant to keep her heart from being broken. Her folded arms acted as a physical shield as if to further guard her fragile emotions.

"Why can't you just let things happen as they will?" he muttered, straightening his hat and pulling the bill down over his eyes to hide them like usual. "I learned how to do that on the trip with the Old Man. We can't always control the outcome. Maybe we should just enjoy the ride."

"How very inspiring," she retorted.

"Good grief," he muttered, looking down to further hide his face from her. "You are such a bitch."

"You're right," she sighed. "So what do you suggest? How do we enjoy this ride in the amusement park of life?"

The muscles at the corners of Jotaro's mouth twitched. As much as this woman infuriated him, he liked the way she always kept him guessing especially with what words might come out of her mouth next.

"There's somewhere I want to take you Saturday," he told her gruffly, still agitated. "Don't make any plans, and I'll tell the old man not make any for you either."

"Are you asking me out on a date? Or more like ordering me out on a date?" she teased him.

"Just as friends of course," he clarified.

"Of course," she confirmed, nodding her head enthusiastically.

"Say yes or no," he huffed impatiently.

"Do I have a choice?" Layla inquired not thinking she really had one.

Actually, for once in her life she did not mind her lack of choice since there was only one answer in her mind anyway. However, she wasn't going to let him off the hook on which he uncomfortably wriggled like a worm that easily.

"Yes or no?" Jotaro demanded, tilting his chin up to glare down at her from under the bill of his hat.

"Ugh...yes," she groaned, rolling her eyes. Although he was giving her commands like a drill sergeant, the idea of going out on a date with him did appeal to her. "So it's a friend date?"

"Something like that," he admitted, the corner of his mouth sliding upward.

"Where are we going, friend?"

He resisted the urge to growl at her. So damn aggravating. "You'll find out when we get there."

"Wha - " The question died on her tongue as he pivoted on his heel and trudged away from her. Balling her hands into fists, she thrust them down by her sides and stomped her feet on the porch like a child throwing a tantrum as she snarled in frustration.

"If you don't want me to pick you up again, stop acting like a spoiled brat," he warned her without turning around.

"Jotaro Kujo, you are the most irritating person I know!" she yelled after him. "Even more so than your grandfather!"

Right back at ya, he thought, giving in to the smile this time since she could not see his face.

Back in the kitchen, the eavesdropping onlookers heard her yell at Jotaro. They watched the small, self-satisfied smile push up the corners of his mouth.

"That boy," Suzi sighed, shaking her head but with a smile on her face. "I think you were right about him needing someone like her."

"What did she just say?" Joseph asked his wife.

"I have no idea, darling. It's none of our business anyway," Suzi assured him, patting his chest as she turned to walk away. "Well, Joseph, what you wanted to happen has come to pass. Those two seemed to have found each other. For better or worse."

Joseph clenched his fists. It looked as if those two had indeed made a connection. They were definitely deeply involved, and their relationship had gotten off to a passionate and dramatic start. He had hoped their love would be the innocent, puppy love experienced by most young people. But such a sweet and gentle relationship was not meant to be for them.

Joseph guessed he should not be surprised. That kind of love was not meant for the Joestar men. They always seemed to meet their one true loves under the most dramatic circumstances. He the sinking feeling something would come along to destroy their relationship - something always did.

His greatest fear for Jotaro and Layla is one of the two parties comprising their relationship would sabotage it themselves rather than the problem being caused by an outside party. But hopefully they could overcome their differences and make their way back to each other.

So far, he and Suzi had defied the odds of the Joestar legacy in life and love. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss. Closing his eyes, he sighed regretfully. He had been stupid and impulsive and rushed into something without thinking things through. What Suzi did not know would not hurt him.

~\..'../~

Layla stared up at the huge blue and white sign identifying the big blue building as an aquarium in both English and Kanji. On the English lettering, a wave began under the first leg of the A and rose and fell under each subsequent letter until it rolled into white foam at the end.

"The aquarium? Really?" she inquired in disbelief, actually quite happy they were here. But he misunderstood her restrained awe as sarcasm and disappointment.

"We don't have to go in," he muttered, shoving his hands in his pocket. He turned around so fast it almost gave her whiplash. "We can go back home."

"No! That's not it at all!" she exclaimed, grabbing his arm.

Jotaro halted his quick and angry retreat without turning back around to face her. Although she knew she could not move him or stop him should he continue to walk away, Layla held fast to the sleeve of his jacket.

"I love the ocean! The beach is my favorite place to be," she admitted to him. She believed a beach vacation would be in order quite soon after their return to New York and her new job began in earnest. "I can find peace there. I can relax and think and...just..." She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before opening them again while exhaling. "Breathe."

When Jotaro turned to face her, she smiled at up him despite his dark and scary expression of irritation. Layla knew he was more hurt than angry due to the misunderstanding of her underwhelming reaction. She had no clue how this man expected her to react to anything.

His feelings are as big as his body. His fierce scowls and cold attitude made it easy to forget he feels emotional pain too. He looks like a stone fortress: tough, solid, impenetrable, having no feelings and incapable of being hurt. Nothing could be further from the truth.

"My favorite thing to do is sit by the edge of the water, close enough that the foam of the wave barely washes over my toes. I picture that the benevolent waves are washing away my problems...taking my pain far out to sea away from me," she said, hugging his arm between her breasts. "So I don't have to feel the hurt anymore."

Linking her arm through his, she held onto his arm in case he tried to run away again. If he did, he would just drag her behind him, but she held on with determination nonetheless.

"What the hell are you doing?" he muttered grumpily but she could see the slight lifting of his lips.

Layla pulled on him to move forward, and it was like trying to motivate an obstinate donkey sitting on it's ass. His feet stayed planted at first, then eventually as she continued to tug on his arm threatening to disjoint his shoulder, he took a step toward the entrance of the building.

When they were at the door to go inside, Jotaro reached around her to take hold of the door handle, purposely bumping into her back. His other arm hooked around her waist to hold her upright and pull her back against him while he opened the door.

Once they were in the building, he released her to go to the ticket counter. She meandered over to the wall covered with a giant map of the aquarium. A gentle smile of contented joy coaxed up the corners of her mouth. Smiling for absolutely no reason felt good.

Glancing behind her, the smile grew wider when Jotaro cast a glimpse at her and their eyes met. His lips curled up ever so slightly at the corners. Her face flushed with heat and color, the warmth of happiness permeating her entire body. No, she had a good reason to smile. Before her face turned a deeper shade of red, she turned back to the map.

Jotaro walked up behind her, astonishingly fast and stealthy for his size. Standing close, but refraining from touching her, he inched along behind her as she studied the map. Leaning down, he placed his mouth close to her ear.

"What are you doing?" he whispered.

If he was trying to scare her he was not disappointed. Layla issued a short, sharp shriek before clapping her hand over her mouth. She whirled around, her brown eyes the size of dinner plates.

Jotaro waited for a searing slap across the face but received a playful punch in the gut. She dropped her hand from her mouth and started laughing despite her face being red with embarrassment because everyone in the entire place was glaring at them.

"You idiot," she hissed.

"Come on," he murmured, taking her by the hand.

His fingers grasped her tiny hand inside of his. He could not wipe the smile from his face as he thought about when he startled her just now. Although he had not been trying to frighten her out of her wits, it was good to see whatever they had trained her to be at one time no longer existed.

Hand in hand, they walked under the blue and white arch that resembled a wave. The corridor branched off in two directions, one on either side of them. Well, this was strangely appropriate: which path do they choose to take?

"Where do you want to go first?" she asked, swinging her head to look both ways. "Lead the way. You're in charge of this expedition."

"Let's go to the South China Sea," he suggested, squeezing her hand and pulling her to the left.

Eventually the walls turned to glass and the glass roof curved to form an arc over them along the corridor. The floor under their feat was concrete painted blue. They stood in the middle of the wide pathway, looking all around at the water and sea creatures, not noticing the fellow patrons walking past them on either side.

Jotaro let go of her hand to stand at the left wall to get a better look at sea turtle leisurely swimming by. His eyes, the same shade of blue green as the water, remained fixed on the ancient and slow moving sea creature as he flapped through the water with unhurried, carefree strokes. The turtle's path followed the curve of the glass dome above them; up and up he pushed himself through the water until he appeared on the other side.

Mesmerized by the sea turtle, Jotaro had followed him from one side of the arc to the other, passing in front of Layla to stand on the right side to watch the creature disappear among the sea life swimming about in the gigantic tank.

Layly eased up beside the silent, pensive man, more interested in watching him than the fish and eels and sharks swimming all around them.

"We were in the South China Sea," Jotaro stated as if talking out loud to himself. "It was deep. And cold...so cold it made my bones hurt. We could talk because of our stands but..."

Layla gulped to swallow the choking lump that formed in her throat in an instant. She moved closer to Jotaro, but did not touch him as he continued to study the sea creatures teeming all around them.

"But we couldn't breathe," he added in a whisper.

The sun shining through the water cast a surreal barely blue light all around them. The combined prisms of the glass and water separated the sunlight into individual rays, bending and turning them into wavering gold lines that rippled over his face making him appear to be under the water too.

As Jotaro relived the battle deep under the sea in his mind, his chest began to ache. He remembered so clearly what it felt like to be close to drowning.

Star Platinum's strength, and by virtue of their connection his strength, was being sapped away by the acorn barnacles rapidly growing and covering the Stand's body. Jotaro had made a desperate push to swim to the surface but did not make it.

Deep Blue Moon, the fake Captain Tennille's Stand, formed an underwater maelstrom around him, sucking him back down into the deep blue sea away from the air his lungs had so desperately needed.

Jotaro could still remember the sting of Deep Blue Moon's razor sharp scales as they cut him and Star Platinum. Thin rivulets of blood had streamed into the foaming underwater whirlpool to disappear as if it had never been there at all and it did not matter one damn bit the life giving fluid was being washed away.

Jotaro used the last bit of his mental fortitude and physical strength to push Star Platinum to free himself from the coccoon of life draining barnacles. Although it was only two fingers, that was enough to stab Deep Blue Moon through the eyes and brain to kill him.

"Jotaro," Layla called to him, keeping her voice low and calm despite wanting to shout in a panic to break him out of whatever memory had taken such a strong hold on him.

He stood stiff as a board, his eyes wide, his face fixed in a mask of fury. He was not breathing.

"Jotaro, honey, breathe," she said, tentatively laying her hand on his chest.

If she startled him and he hit her, she had no doubt he would knock her out. But she had to chance it to draw him out of this waking nightmare. Massaging his chest, she pushed into him harder, flattening her breasts against his belly as she tried to make him aware of her presence.

"Please, come back to me," she begged him, her words quivering. Her hand massaged his chest to entice him to inhale. "Breathe, please, just breathe,"

Jotaro blinked and inhaled, a loud wheeze like a man near drowning would make when breaking the water's surface.

"Breathe, Jotaro," she implored him, relief flooding her entire body so violently she felt light headed and leaned more heavily into him.

His arms went around her as he finally became aware of her closeness. Looking down at her, he watched her sway back and forth with each powerful rise and fall of his wide chest.

"Wh-what did you say?" he breathed.

"Breathe, just breathe," she repeated, pressing her palm to his cheek as she smiled sweetly at him.

A comforting warmth flooded his body. The familiar soothing warmth he recalled experiencing when his mother would hug him as a child and tell him everything was going to be all right. The comfort he would receive when she would hold him and let him cry because his father missed another birthday or Christmas or whatever special occasion.

It never stopped hurting but eventually, Jotaro stopped crying. The anger and bitterness set in and he also stopped accepting his mother's affection, refusing her kind words and soothing embrace. He choose to go numb, deadening himself to most emotions. It was easier not to feel. Then it doesn't hurt. And the anger kept anyone from getting close enough to hurt him.

Jotaro looked down at the woman in his arms. Then she showed up in his life. She understood his anger and his pain. She wouldn't let it stop her from getting close.

Kakyoin's words, came back to him in such a rapid rush it made his head ache. Ms. Holly, is a woman capable of calming the hearts of others. People feel at ease around her. This may sound awkward... but if I were to fall in love, I'd like it to be with someone like her. I would give my all for her. And I would want to always see her warm, happy smile.

Although she could be a smart mouthed, sarcastic bitch who had very nearly unhinged his damn jaw, the woman in his arms was like his mother, the woman Kakyoin described. She was always kind, polite, and respectful to his mother and grandmother. She treated him and the old man the same thoughtful attitude until they made her lose her patience or flat out pissed her off.

Nurses heal. Her gentle touch and caring words brought healing to not just the body but the soul. That soothing warmth penetrated his cold heart he had been so careful to surround in a thick layer of ice so no one could get through to the soft mushy center. He blamed Kakyoin for this - all of it. Then the old man had the nerve to go and die chipping away more of that ice layer. Damn him too.

And this woman.

Jotaro looked down at her, running his hand over her hair she had left loose and hanging in soft natural waves. Sunflower. She was like a sunflower: her golden hair the color of the petals and her dark brown eyes the color of the middle of the flower.

"Sunflower," he murmured, touching her cheek that filled with pink. The more he stroked her skin the darker she blushed until her cheeks turned flame red.

"Are you okay, Jojo?" she asked him, blinking those big brown eyes at him.

"What?" he chuckled awkwardly, not trusting his ears. "What did you call me?"

"Well..." Her eyelids lowered, hiding her eyes from him. "You are a Joestar. It is a family nickname. It's just a matter of time before someone calls you Jojo so..."

"Grandma is the only one who calls Gramps that," he muttered irritably as if the nickname offended him.

Which it didn't. Grandma Suzi always sounded so sweet, so affectionate - so in love - when she called the Old Man Jojo.

"Yeah, and..." Layla leaned into him, opening her eyes to meet his. When he did not say anything, her eyebrows shot upward questioningly.

"And," Jotaro repeated as if mocking her, pressing his palms to both of her cheeks to poke out her lips giving her a fishy face. He kissed her weirdly puckered lips. "I guess I'll be your Jojo."

The way her eyelids gradually separated further and further apart until her eyes almost bugged right out of her head freaked him out. She really looked like she was transforming into a fish.

Jotaro had seen some bizarre shit, and he was not taking any chances. He removed his hands from her face and pushed her away from him as she continued to stare up at him wide eyed, her mouth in a little silent o of surprise.

"Good grief," he grumbled, turning his eyes upward so he would not have to see that strange, piscine face she was still making. "Don't make such a big deal of it."

"Okay, I won't," she agreed, turning her back to him. "But it is a big deal to me." Taking him by the hand, she pulled. "Come on, Jojo. Let's go. There's lots more to see."

"Yeah." His fingers gripped hers as he permitted her to lead him. "I suppose there is."

Eventually they found their way into a darkened room full of pressurized tanks and special black lights. Fish and eels and coral put on a fantastic light show thanks to Mother Nature and her ingenuity to make something beautiful and bring light to even darkest places deep in the ocean hardly ever seen by man.

Some of the sea creatures had their own bioluminescence like neon lights inside their bodies. Others fluoresced under the special lights showing up in eye popping shades of green, red, orange, and yellow.

"It's amazing isn't it?" she asked, gazing into the tank with the wide eyed wonder of a child.

"It's incredible," he agreed, but his eyes were on her rather than the technicolored fish.

"I don't understand why they're always shooting off rockets and satellites...so intent on studying space when there's so much in our oceans right here on earth we don't know about."

A cylindrical floor to ceiling tank in the middle of the unusual round room held hundreds of small moon jellies that glowed bluish white. They were like little living pieces of moonlight that had been captured and now flitted around in the tank.

"Wow," Layla whispered in mesmerized awe as she circled the tank of jellyfish. "Look at that lovely pattern inside of them. It looks like a flower."

"That's their gonads," Jotaro informed her bluntly, gazing at her through the glass.

She blinked in astonishment. She had not expected the cute design to be their reproductive organs. Grateful for the muted light so he could not see her blush and tease her, she said, "Well, sex is beautiful."

Layla caught the slow smile spreading across his face before he could stop it, but she pretended not to notice.

"I would agree." He shoved his hands in his pockets and moved around the tank to stand beside her. "You know what?"

"Hmm?" She turned her head up to look at him while he continued to stare into the tank.

"I think I've decided on a major. Marine biology."

"Congratulations. That's a difficult decision to make," she said, placing her hand on his upper arm. "Why - "

Before she could ask her question of why he decided on marine biology, he bent down and pressed his lips square to hers, the tips of their noses bumping together.

"I want to see what a truly beautiful place the ocean can be...the way you see it," he confided, placing his palms on her cheeks. "Someone needs to find out what there is hiding down there. Right?"

"Right," she agreed, tilting her chin upward.

Closing her eyes, she waited for his kiss which he pressed to her forehead. She smiled. In this moment, that chaste kiss was actually much more meaningful and affectionate than if he had kissed her lips again.

"You weren't supposed to mean this much to me, Layla," he whispered, his thumbs flexing and pressing into her cheeks. "It's going to be damned difficult leaving you."

Jotaro lowered his mouth to hers for that sweet kiss she had been anticipating to keep her from saying another word and ruining the moment.

I know exactly how you feel, her inner voice replied while her heart thumped vigorously in her chest.