Another fic for the RWCW discord Trope Bingo Challenge. For this one I used the prompts: bound/handcuffed together, hurt/comfort, hand holding and 'please don't leave me'

I don't really know when this wound be set during Steel Ball Run, it's just kind of a random interlude. No major spoilers.


Bound

A JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Fanfic

Johnny and Gyro end up staying the night in the wrong hotel and wake up handcuffed together in the middle of the desert without any of their supplies. Will they be able to get back to their horses and rejoin the race before it's too late?

It was an unlucky break, but this time it seemed like they couldn't blame their misfortune on the other race contestants. The simple fact was, Johnny and Gyro had just decided to stay the night in the wrong hotel.

Johnny woke slowly, cringing against the light that would not stop beating down on his face. Was the window open? This bed was also really hard, and gritty.

He tried to roll over to at least get the sun out of his face, but something tugged at his arm.

Johnny pried his eyes open, blinking blearily, and glanced to the side. He saw the sky first, then sand—which should not be in his hotel room—and then looked down to see the reason behind why his arm would not move.

Silver glinted on his wrist, leading to another wrist that tugged against his, followed by a groan.

"Johnny? What the hell?"

Gyro pushed himself into a sitting position, glancing down at their bound wrists before picking his hand up, shaking it.

Johnny growled, trying to tug his hand away. "Stop it! I'm attached to this, you know."

"I know—that's kind of the problem right now, Johnny!" Gyro snapped, looking around. "Those bastards…I knew there was something up with them. They took all our stuff—our horses!—and dumped us out here, thinking they'd get rid of us that easy."

Johnny pushed himself up, rubbing a hand over his face, feeling slightly woozy. "Think they drugged our food or something."

"Probably," Gyro muttered, shaking himself and looking around, glancing at the sun to try and at least figure out the time and their position.

"Where are we, do you think?" Johnny asked.

Gyro continued to scan the area. "I'd say we're at least a couple miles south of the town. Shouldn't take us too long to get back."

"Gyro, have you forgotten something?" Johnny demanded, yanking on the cuffs.

Gyro looked down. "Oh, right. Well, we don't have anything to get them off with right now."

"Okay, then what are we gonna do?" Johnny shouted. "In case you've forgotten, I can't walk, Gyro!"

Gyro stared at him for a second, then gave a small smile. "Well, you'll just have to get on my back until we can get our horses back, then.

Johnny huffed indignantly. "You're not serious, are you?"

Gyro shrugged. "Either that or I drag you across the desert, your choice. But it looks pretty rocky to me—I wouldn't suggest it."

Johnny glowered at him, but really, they didn't actually have another choice in the matter. There wasn't going to be a better way for them to move anywhere.

"Fine," he muttered, going to fold his arms across his chest before he realized that wouldn't actually work out.

The maneuvering was the worst part, because it was the hands nearest to each other that were stuck together, so in order for Johnny to get on Gyro's back, he had to get their bound hands over Gyro's head, and then Gyro only had one hand to heave Johnny up.

After several (mostly accidental) instances of nearly strangling Gyro, Johnny was finally perched steadily on his friend's back.

"This is humiliating," he muttered.

"Heh, I could have carried you princess style if you would rather."

Johnny slapped him in the back of the head. "Let's just get this over with, I want my horse back."

He was also thirsty, and hungry, and really wanted a cup of coffee. It was decidedly not a good morning.

The sun started to beat down on them too as it rose further in the sky, which made Johnny even more furious at their situation.

"How much further?" he complained.

Gyro huffed, hitching him higher on his back, his steps getting heavier. "How am I supposed to know? I don't even know how far they took us?"

"Are you sure we're not running around in circles?"

Gyro craned his neck over his shoulder with a glare. "Shut up, Johnny, I have a fantastic sense of direction."

"Gyro, you know that's not entirely—"

Gyro suddenly stopped and Johnny half expected him to drop him out of spite, but instead he was looking at something off in the distance.

"What is it?" Johnny asked, instantly alert for any danger that might be present.

"It looks like a party camping out," Gyro said.

Johnny caught sight of the group that was maybe half a mile away. He wasn't sure how they had missed them before, but it was starting to get rocky in that direction and the group was slightly hidden behind part of an outcropping.

"You think they might be part of the race?" Johnny asked.

"Hmm," Gyro mused, narrowing his eyes. There's an awful lot of horses there for the amount of tents. I'd say we might have found the second part of the operation that dropped us out here."

"Oh yeah?" Johnny asked with a grin spreading over his face. "Think we should go see if we can find our stuff?"

"I think it would be stupid not to," Gyro replied. "Maybe they even have something that we can use to get rid of these cuffs."

"Let's go then!"

They may not have had any weapons, but the best thing about Johnny's nail bullets is that they were always with him so they would have something. Maybe at least enough for a few warning shots.

It was lucky for them that there were rocks to hide behind as they approached, because otherwise, they knew that if they were caught there would be no escaping with Gyro carrying Johnny and no way to leave him behind even if he wanted to.

Gyro stopped behind a rock and leaned forward so that he and Johnny could both see.

"There, look! There's Slow Dancer and Valkyrie!" Johnny growled. "These are the bastards who took our stuff!"

Gyro grit his teeth. "Probably local rustlers who have a deal with that hotel we tried to stay in."

"I wouldn't be surprised if one of the other race contestants paid them off either," Johnny muttered, sure that Diego wouldn't have any qualms about doing something like that. And they had pissed off Hot Pants too. Come to think of it, they'd pissed off a lot of people during the course of the race so far.

"So, what's the plan?" Johnny asked.

"Can you see if the horses are tethered?" Gyro asked.

Johnny squinted. "I think so. Looks like they're just staked to the ground though."

Gyro nodded and then brought his fingers to his lips. Letting off a shrill, complicated whistle Johnny had heard him use for Valkyrie before.

The mare perked her ears up instantly, raising her head and tugging at the rope that bound her.

The men were looking around for the source of the whistle, and one went to try and contain Valkyrie as she reared, successfully freeing herself, only to get kicked in the back.

Shouts broke out, Gyro whistled again and his horse barreled toward them.

"Good girl!" Gyro called.

"Hey, catch that horse! What the hell is going on?"

"All right, Johnny, hold on, I think we're only gonna get one attempt at this," Gyro said as he reached out with his free arm, grabbed the halter Valkyrie was wearing as she trotted up, then with a grunt, swung them both up onto her back.

Johnny settled behind Gyro as the man kicked his horse into movement.

"We'll come back for Slow Dancer later, let's get back to town and find some way to get these cuffs off fir—"

A gunshot rang out and Johnny ducked. Gyro urged Valkyrie into a swerve, but another shot rang out and Gyro cried out, getting thrown forward as a spray of red splashed across Johnny's face and shoulder.

"Gyro!" Johnny shouted a second before the man started to topple sideways, from overcorrection. Johnny tried to grab onto Gyro as he reached around to grab Valkyrie's mane as well, but Gyro was slipping and because of their current position, Johnny was going with him.

They both hit the ground hard in a tangled heap, Johnny's face scraping though the dirt as he fell partly on top of Gyro.

Valkyrie stopped a few feet away with a distressed whinny and Johnny tried to push himself onto his elbows, seeing Gyro lying still beneath him.

"Gyro!" he cried, shaking the other man. "Shit! Come on, get up! I can't get out of here by myself!"

The men who had robbed them finally caught up and Johnny rolled over, bringing up his hand, pointed in their direction, calling up his power as his nails began to spin dangerously.

"Get back, asshole!" he snarled.

The man in front sneered and the sound of a gun cocking had Johnny glancing to the side where the man's partner already had a pistol aimed at Gyro's head.

"What are you gonna do about it?" the man asked. "It's not like you can really run away, can you?"

Johnny bared his teeth, glancing down as Gyro stirred. They really were sitting ducks here. He finally lowered his hand and the men came forward and grabbed him and Gyro, dragging them away.

This day was just getting worse and worse.


They ended up in the back of a cart, which was an incredibly bumpy ride. Johnny sat next to Gyro, trying his best to tend to the bullet wound through his shoulder. Of course, it had to be the one attached to the arm Johnny was currently chained to, which made it even harder.

"Ugh, Johnny! Just leave it!" Gyro snapped as Johnny tried to maneuver his coat aside while attempting to move Gyro's arm as little as possible. It wasn't working out for the best as every movement Johnny made moved Gyro's injured arm.

"I can't, asshole, you'll bleed out!" Johnny snapped. "Geez, I thought you were the doctor."

Gyro grunted and rolled his eyes, glancing over to the man who was sitting in the cart with them, guarding them. He glowered at the pair, a gun held over his lap as he sat on a stack of crates and bags that Johnny suspected held their stolen stuff.

"So what's the deal, hm?" Gyro called. "You always steal from travelers."

The man snorted. "That's none of your business. We wouldn't have bothered with you at all if you had stayed out of it before. Thought we had gotten rid of you out there in the desert."

"Hm, did you hear that, Johnny? He thinks we're easy."

Johnny snorted. "Yeah, well, he's an idiot then."

The man glowered at them. "We were paid to take you out of the race, you know. Seems like you two are causing too much trouble."

"Is that so?" Gyro asked with a proud grin, gold teeth flashing, before it turned into a grimace as Johnny pressed a handkerchief firmly against the bullet wound to try and attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Yeah, and it looks like we're gonna need to do a little extra business, since you two refuse to stay out of ours," the man sneered.

Johnny shared a look with Gyro. "What's that supposed to mean?"

The man smirked. "That we're handing you off to proper authorities," he said with a little too much satisfaction.

Johnny and Gyro shared another look. They both knew what that probably meant. Valentine was trying to take them out before they could collect the rest of the corpse parts. Well, if that was the case, then Johnny didn't think that they would be sticking around here too much longer.

He pretended to bend over to inspect Gyro's wound, and muttered low so that only the Italian could hear him.

"You got any plans on how to get out of here? I don't think any of these guys are Stand users, so we might have a chance."

Gyro furrowed his brow. "If you can find my bag anywhere in here, maybe my steel balls will be with it."

Johnny nodded. "Alright, why don't you pretend to pass out or something? Then I can use the excuse of needing medical supplies."

"Don't really need to exert my acting skills too much for that right now," Gyro muttered.

Johnny shot him a worried look, realizing just how much blood had soaked into Gyro's coat and the wood below. But he didn't have time to really worry about that too much right now. They needed to make their escape before they were handed off to Valentine's men.

Gyro gave Johnny a wink and then suddenly moaned dramatically. Johnny wanted to smack himself in the head or maybe Gyro for his histrionics, but Gyro allowed his head to loll to the side, going mostly limp.

"Hey Gyro!" Johnny cried, reaching out and shaking him slightly. "Hey!"

He glanced up, seeing that their guard didn't seem to care too much about what was going on.

"Hey!" Johnny snapped at him. "He's bleeding really bad! We need medical supplies."

"If he's worth saving, I'm sure someone will patch him up when we hand you off," the man said.

"I know you have our stuff!" Johnny tried again. "I bet your ass is on it right now. How about you let me have Gyro's bag? He's got a medical kit in there."

The man still ignored him and Johnny snapped. "Come on! Don't you think we have important information that would be vital to the people you sold us to? They might not be happy if you bring them corpses!"

The guard groaned. "Fine, if it will make you shut up!" He got up and started to rummage through the bags. As he took several off the top, Johnny spotted his and Gyro's bags.

"That one!" he pointed.

The man grunted and grabbed it, throwing it over to Johnny. The heavy bag landed across Gyro's legs and made him flinch slightly. Johnny hurriedly grabbed it and started to rummage through the contents. He pulled out the med kit since they would actually need that, and then dug some more, finding one of Gyro's extra steel balls.

He slipped it out with a roll of bandages and pressed it into Gyro's hand out of the guard's sight as he began to look through the medical kit.

Gyro's eyes cracked open and Johnny watched as the ball started rotating in his palm. Johnny patched his shoulder as best he could while the guard watched them and then Gyro finally glanced at him, giving a slight nod…

Chaos erupted.

Something slammed into the cart, the horses pulling it freaked out and Johnny looked up to see that they had encountered a rockslide, part of which had fallen down to slam into the cart. The driver was thrown out, getting run over by the cart before the cart itself teetered onto two wheels and crashed onto its side.

"Holy shit!" Johnny cried as everything was flung around. More rocks fell, taking out the guard, and all the contents of the carriage surged forward to hit the two captives.

A heavy bag fell across Johnny's legs, pinning him and a crate came crashing down, striking Gyro in the head, effectively knocking him unconscious.

"Gyro!" Johnny cried as he watched the steel ball roll away, out of reach.

The horses, panicking that they were still stuck to the cart, dragged it several feet in a desperate attempt to get away. The vehicle wildly twisted toward the rocky drop on one side of the road, and Johnny and Gyro were caught up in it, heading closer and closer…

Johnny cried out, grabbing Gyro and rolling them away from the cart, but Gyro's unconscious body rolled too far, and began to slide over the side of the cliff.

"No!" Johnny shouted. "Gyro! Wake up! Wake up!"

He scrambled, grabbing the other man's hand as they both started sliding.

Gyro went over the side and Johnny cried out as he took his full weight, trying to get purchase, fingers scrabbling against the ground to try and keep himself on the top of the precipice as Gyro's weight felt like it was going to rip his shoulder from his socket.

"Ugh…" Gyro groaned, eyes opening briefly before he seemed to see his position and they widened almost comically—if there was anything at all comical about this situation. "Johnny!" He flailed.

"Gyro, don't…" Johnny panted, still trying to stay on top of the cliff. "Stay still dammit!" He was slipping despite everything, though, and Gyro's hand was slipping in his, and he knew that if he lost hold of Gyro's hand now, the shock from the chain holding them together going tight around both of their wrists would pull him over completely. "Don't let go!"

Gyro was slipping though, his weight and the blood that had dripped down his arm earlier from the bullet wound were not conducive to providing a good grip. Not to mention that Gyro had gone extremely pale, because this had to be killing him with a hole through his shoulder.

He looked around, as Johnny still fought a losing battle against staying on top. His fingernails were tearing, scratching furrows into the ground.

"Gyro," he said breathlessly. "Can…can you try to reach up and grab the edge?"

Gyro brought his hand up, fingers grasping, but they only barely grazed the rock in front of Johnny before the shift tugged the smaller man further over the edge.

"Stop!" he panicked. "I can't—I'm gonna go over too if you do that, be careful!"

Gyro's hand was trembling in Johnny's, his face breaking out in sweat from pain and exertion. Their eyes met finally, and Johnny didn't like what he saw in Gyro's.

"Don't," he warned. "We're stuck together, Gyro, if I drop you, we still both go over."

Gyro glanced downward again. "That's not…" he panted, wincing. "What I was gonna do."

Johnny opened his mouth to reply, but Gyro beat him to it again, taking a deep breath.

"You trust me?" he asked.

Johnny stopped panicking for a second, having no clue what his friend was talking about. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

"Listen," Gyro grunted, his fingers tightening even more around Johnny's wrist as he tried to keep his hold. "There's a ledge," he panted. "Below us. Not too far. We'll survive."

Johnny growled as he made a desperate effort to haul Gyro up, trying to roll backwards, but only skidded further toward the edge, as Gyro cried out at the pain in his shoulder.

"Johnny! Listen!" he snapped. "It's the only way! You're not strong enough to get me back up there."

"I can!" Johnny cried. "I'm not gonna let you fall. "If I only had my damn legs…"

Tears leaked down his cheeks; one fell onto Gyro's face below as he looked up, pleading with him.

"Just do it Johnny," he whispered. "Keep your body limp."

"You're insane," Johnny snarled through clenched teeth. But he trusted Gyro. As crazy as he was, the man didn't have a death wish.

They were going to go over anyway, so they may as well choose when they did it.

"Okay," he finally said.

Gyro nodded shakily, flashing a brief grin. "Ready?"

"Hell no."

"I'll catch you."

Johnny took a shuddering breath.

"Let go, Johnny."

Johnny could still feel himself slipping fraction by fraction and he finally let go of the small rock he had been holding onto to anchor himself, fingers cramping. He closed his eyes and felt himself slip over the side.

There was a brief moment of weightlessness before a heavy, sickening impact.

It wasn't far, Gyro had been right, but the breath was still knocked from Johnny's lungs, and everything hurt, especially his wrist.

He choked air back into his lungs, glad he couldn't feel his legs at the moment, and finally shifted off of Gyro who he had partially fallen on.

The older man was completely still.

"Gyro," Johnny croaked, reaching out.

It was then he realized that the impact had broken the cuffs. The one around his wrist was bleeding and he thought it might have broken his wrist in the impact. But he wasn't worried about that right now. He was more worried about Gyro lying there, partially on his bad shoulder, deathly pale and barely breathing.

"Gyro!" Johnny shouted, shaking him as he rolled him completely onto his back, pressing against his chest to try and get his lungs to work.

"Don't leave me," he pleaded. "Please…Please, Gyro, don't leave me. I can't…" Tears welled in his eyes. "I can't get out of here if you don't wake up!"

A horrible thought entered his head then as he stared at Gyro's pale form. What if he had broken his neck? Just like Johnny's brother…

With a shuddering breath, Johnny reached up and moved Gyro's hair aside, trying to look for any horrible bruising or unnatural angles.

But Gyro stirred, finally, and Johnny breathed a shaky sigh of relief, reaching down and grabbing his hand again as he slumped onto the ground.

"Johnny?" Gyro croaked. His eyes didn't open, but his head turned slightly to one side. No broken neck then. Johnny felt weak with relief.

"I'm here," Johnny said, squeezing his hand so he would know.

Gyro gave a brief squeeze back. "M'not gonna leave you."

Johnny let out a shaky sob, hanging his head so it rested on Gyro's shoulder.

"Me either," he said.


Johnny wasn't sure when he had passed out, but it was almost evening when he was woken up by shouting. Instantly ready for anything, he pushed himself up, looking around.

"They're alive!" someone shouted. "Hey, mister! Can you hear me?"

Johnny blinked up at a man leaning over the cliff and nodded. "Yeah!"

"We got ropes and we're gonna get you up."

Johnny glanced back at Gyro, shaking the other man's shoulder. "You hear that?" he asked, feeling lightheaded with giddiness—or maybe because he had hit his head in the fall. "We're being rescued."

Within an hour, they were pulled up, bundled into the back of another, more comfortable, cart, and driven off for medical attention to the nearest town. It turned out they had Steven Steel to thank for this as one of his informants had gotten word of what had happened to Johnny and Gyro. Their bags and horses were collected and brought to the town with them and they were put up in a hotel that promised not to sell them out to anymore scumbags looking for a little profit.

The only problem was Gyro's injuries were pretty severe, not to mention Johnny's left wrist was broken, which would make riding pretty difficult. They put it in a plaster cast, but he was sure Gyro could probably heal it quicker using the spin.

That was, when he recovered himself.

After sleeping through the night, Johnny sat by his friend's bed, watching over him as he seemed to be sleeping off the pain and blood loss for an awfully long time.

Finally, on the morning of the second day, Gyro opened his eyes, looking perturbed.

"Hey," Johnny smiled at him. "'Bout time you woke up."

Gyro blinked, frowning as he looked around. "Where're we?" he slurred tiredly.

"Little town not too far from the one we stayed in. Turned out we could have traveled a couple more miles and found a place that wouldn't try to sell our horses and leave us out in the desert to rot."

Gyro snorted. "Just our luck, eh?"

Johnny smirked wryly and slumped, playing with his cast. Gyro's eyes caught it instantly.

"Hey, what happened?"

"Oh, this happened in the fall. The cuffs broke, and so did my wrist," he said grimly. "Could have been worse though." He looked up. "Sorry I wasn't strong enough to pull you up. My damn legs…"

"Hey, that's not on you."

"Come on, Gyro, if our positions were reversed, you could have had me up in a minute! Even with your bad shoulder! And after you carried me on your back for multiple miles, I couldn't even pull you over the side of a cliff!"

"Hey," Gyro snapped suddenly. "None of that, okay? What happened happened; we got out of it pretty much intact. If you hadn't held me for that long we wouldn't have been able to prepare for the drop. We probably would have ended up with way more injuries if that was the case. So, stop blaming yourself."

Johnny sighed, but offered a small smile. "Okay."

Gyro grinned, then groaned, raising his good hand to his face. "But we are going to be really behind schedule now."

"Well, I guess you'll just have to drag your ass back into the saddle," Johnny said.

Gyro peeked at him balefully between two fingers. "You know that you have a terrible bedside manner, right?"

"I'm not the doctor," Johnny replied with a shrug.

"I would hope not, you did a terrible job of my shoulder…"

They continued bickering until Gyro convinced Johnny to let him get out of bed. Johnny was glad they had both come out of this one alive but they'd had way too many close calls for his liking during this race.

He really just wanted this whole thing to be over with as soon as possible. He hoped they would survive to see the end of it.