As Jotaro stared blankly at the passing reflections of himself darting past with every single car speeding down the road apparently looking to kill the first sucker to meander their way into the fucking street, he thought to himself that coming to the surface was a bad idea.

He knew that it was a bad idea the moment he dragged himself up the shore and waited to dry out enough to make tearing his tail in two only a mildly uncomfortable process instead of a mildly painful one, which meant having to wait out in the sun like a dumbass on a beach that- while isolated enough- any jackass could wander into and spot him. Hell, that was how a lot of the human friends he had, few and sparse though they were, had ended up meeting him- they wandered onto the beach and while trying to hide he got spooked enough to bite down on the nearest appendage. That just meant that drying himself off behind some rocks took longer, since the shade kept him wet for a little longer than he would have wanted.

Then there was the fact that he then had to figure out how the fuck legs worked again, making himself look like a goddamn idiot as he tried to get up on the two flesh stalks he hadn't bothered to turn his tail into in a couple full months at the very least, maybe longer than that. That meant far more coordination problems than he expected, and more than once, Jotaro had to deal with tripping and eating shit because coordinating two limbs instead of one was slightly more bullshit than expected. The sand in his mouth didn't help with the parched throat either…

No, now standing at an intersection with some old clothes the shitty old man had dug up for him after a visit with the beach and sea far behind him, Jotaro was tempted to turn tail and dive back into the water. Not because the surface itself was really all that terrifying- but because he almost felt like he couldn't even fucking breathe up here. How the hell did Mom do this shit? Deal with not feeling her gills?

Rubbing at his neck self consciously, he stepped along the side of the road and looked for a sidewalk to where the schools were. It wasn't as if this city was particularly big, especially since it was more of a tourist trap than anything else, but even then, there were at least a couple of schools, and Jotaro didn't bother going into town the few times he did end up coming to the surface, so his memories of the area were at least a year old by this point. What could possibly be built in a year? Probably fuck all, especially since google maps apparently said that there was still only three schools in this little place.

Three schools, three separate goddamn high schools that Kakyoin could be at right at this time. If he didn't have a cram session or any clubs, he might have even been anywhere in this little town, and that meant that Jotaro only had a couple hours to find him or find the nearest water source to get himself hydrated before he went and continued again.

As Jotaro crossed the street and passed by some high school students in uniforms a little like the ratty thing he wore, he realized that he really, really should have thought this all through.

But it was supposed to be a surprise. If he went and asked too many questions, Kakyoin would ask questions himself. That was one of the things that Jotaro appreciated about him. He wasn't a fucking idiot. Even if that meant Jotaro nearly having to explain the confusing biological bullshit that was apparently his physical form because he accidentally let slip some slang or knowledge that he'd somehow still retained from the surface.

High school one had black uniforms like Jotaro's, and he distinctly remembered Nori telling him that he wore green, so this one was probably out. Which really, wasn't too many scales off Jotaro's skin- the girls to the left of him had been looking at him weirdly for a bit now, and he knew for a fact that he didn't have fins on display. Or really, anything that would give that shit away- he wasn't a completely reckless and dense imbecile. He knew when to hide fins and when to let the scales on his legs rub up against the wool of these pants. Wait. Shit. His fins- were they visible? He reached up quick and felt his human ears, then turned the action into adjusting his hat. So not that. What the hell did they want?

He wasn't really given much chance to answer that, because out of the corner of his eye he spotted a head of red hair. He turned his head, spotting a green uniform coat and familiar earrings, and of course Kakyoin would wear the uniform coat of an entirely different school while going to a completely different one. As much as Jotaro cared for Kakyoin (and even said that "L" word to him and himself and meant it, which in and of itself was slightly terrifying), Kakyoin was also kind of a weirdo in the first place.

There was a reason why Jotaro immediately ate any cherry things Kakyoin tried to bring. Better they be stuffed in his aching stomach than to be molested by his boyfriend's weird lizard tongue. Jotaro didn't even like cherries.

Still, all that aside, just as it looked like luck was on Jotaro's side for once and that maybe he could spend more than an hour with the love of his life, he was suddenly surrounded on all sides by that group of girls. He only just barely kept himself from baring his teeth- not only did he need to make sure that he wasn't looking suspicious, but baring teeth wasn't something that humans did in the first place. Biting someone while under the guise of a human- that sounded like a surefire way to make someone suspicious and force him into a tight, potentially far drier, place.

"So~" The high pitched drawl of the first, some girl with a weird headband with some kind of ears on it (fox, it kind of looked like), was already grating on his damn nerves and she'd only uttered one single sing song syllable. Jotaro glanced away from the gaggle of women to see that Kakyoin had disappeared into the crowd going into the school. God dammit. "I don't think we've seen you around here before! Did you just transfer in?"

"Oh man, if you did, why haven't we seen you before?! A face as handsome as yours is pretty hard to miss…" A second girl, with hair dyed an obnoxious shade of neon pink (because there was no way in hell that Jotaro was believing that any human could have hair like that), batted her eyelashes up at him and suddenly he was put in a really weird, shitty situation. It wasn't like Jotaro had ever actually gone to school in the first place- the perks of needing to stay by the ocean or near some kind of body of water for pretty much all of his childhood, he guessed. He had no fucking clue if it was normal to get this close to what people assume is a transfer student.

But he probably couldn't just push them off or tell them to get lost immediately- the last thing he needed was for these flighty broads to start trouble with him or whining to other people who would make things more difficult before he ever even got to Kakyoin. So he just shrugged and said, "Yeah, I guess you could say that. I'm actually looking for someone-"

"Well," A third giggled, stepping closer and reaching a hand out to brush his arm. He bristled slightly, grinding his teeth in his mouth to keep from snapping his jaws. This wasn't the ocean- shit wasn't as easy as "big thing/unknown thing = danger = bite". Society had way too many nuances and expectations to keep up with sometimes. Jotaro vehemently wished he'd found some other way to surprise Kakyoin and just spent the last half hour back hunting cuttlefish like he was originally planning on doing. Oh, shit, he was too busy thinking about shit he'd rather been doing that he completely missed whatever this human girl was saying, and now she was just looking up at him gooey eyed with her hand on his arm.

"..." He only considered what to do for a second, trying to figure out if he should be rude or if he should just go with it, he just said, "I really have to find someone specific-"

"Well, you have three specific someones ri~ight here!" The first girl said, a little smile lighting up her face as she found a place trying to cling to Jotaro's other arm.

"Maybe a couple more!" The second said, clapping a bit. "Yoshiko and the others would absolutely love to have a look at our newest student! And besides, some of us might even be in the same class! Wouldn't that all be extra fun, spending time with the lot of us? We'd be the luckiest gals on campus!" Okay, wow, this was getting worse and worse, and Jotaro violently jerked his arms away, stepping backwards.

"Kakyoin Noriaki. I'm looking for Kakyoin Noriaki, so if you could just point me-"

"Oh, Kakyoin-kun?" The second said, clapping her hands as if in recognition. "Of course we know where Kakyoin-kun is! Don't we girls?"

"Isn't he that creepy guy who sits in the back of the class next to that other weirdo?" The third whispered to the first girl.

The first made a bit of a face. "Yeah, he is… They do some kind of art thing together I think? They act so arrogant, it's-" The second elbowed the two girls at her sides, and the first immediately lit up, as if Jotaro didn't just hear that whispered conversation. "Oh, yes! Kakyoin-kun is one of our very best friends, you know, along with Rohan-kun! We could take you down to where they are…."

"... If you come with us for a tour! It'll be two birds, one stone!" The third said in such a disgustingly chipper way that as Jotaro backed up another step they seemed to get a little worse.

"I think I can-"

"What's your name then?" The second girl completely bowled over what he was about to say, and Jotaro put up his hands, the back of his head itching. Gotta fight. But this wasn't exactly a dangerous situation, so Jotaro told his shitty instincts to go fuck themselves right then and just told them his name. "Jotaro-kun~ we'd be honored to show you around! Though of course, you'd be in our debt…"

"No." Jotaro said, shaking his head. "That's fine- I'll find them on my own. It's not like Kakyoin is a hard guy to miss-" mostly because Jotaro sometimes couldn't take his eyes off the guy, but the point still stood.

Still, they kept going. It was pissing him off, now that the initial shock of actually having to interact with society was wearing off and Jotaro's patience was wearing thin. The still insistent fight or flight senses causing the hairs on the back of his neck and his teeth to grind more weren't helping shit. "Nonsense! Sometimes, Kakyoin-kun is so quiet we don't even see him. It'll be more fun with all of us there, promise, and besides, we can all just have a good time if it ends up that we don't find him. Wouldn't that just-"

"Will you bitches shut the fuck up?!" Jotaro snapped, only feeling slightly bad about the slight shocked expression on their faces when he barked it out. They just weren't leaving him the hell alone, so maybe the only thing to do here was to make them have a reason to leave him the fuck alone.

Then the girls squealed, a red flush coming over their faces, and suddenly the situation felt a shit ton more dangerous. That wasn't the right reaction to being yelled at, what the fuck. "Ahh, Jojo~ So assertive and cruel!" The second one said, her hands flying to her cheeks. "There's no need to be so mean to us! It doesn't suit a handsome guy like yourself~"

"Yeah, Jojo, just come with us!" The other two were pleading with him, and after that, Jotaro did the sensible thing, something that his grandfather would be proud to see him take a page out of that shitty old book of his for.

Jotaro chose 'flight' and turned on his heel, running the fuck away.

Despite the fact that he was double the size of the main girl leading the pack, these little bitches were fast. Faster than they had any right to be. That, and Jotaro hadn't run with actual legs in such a long time that he constantly felt as if he was one tilt away from stumbling straight onto the ground, which wasn't going to help the situation anymore than any of his previous actions had. Jotaro hoped to god that Kakyoin appreciated this entire surprise, because after this, he was never leaving the ocean again. If the old man and Mom wanted to celebrate Christmas or some shit they'd just have to haul the tree and presents down to the beach where he could isolate himself from all this bullshit. Kakyoin would just have to drag his ass out to a boat on the sea to live for the rest of their lives, because if Jotaro was learning anything, it was that human women were fucking mental.

He stumbled over the threshold of the school doors and nearly tumbled ass first into the front hall, but he kept on going, not even looking back as the girls were crooning sickly sweet shit at him like "Jojo~", "Come on! We haven't even introduced ourselves!" as if Jotaro would slow down even one second. Usually, Jotaro could last for hours during a chase like this, especially when it came to outrunning killer whales and shit, but on land when he was already sort of drying out faster and faster? He was starting to slow down, dammit.

He ducked around a corner and spotted an open doorway, squeezing himself through and fumbling his form enough to make some noise. It was an empty classroom, it looked like, and Jotaro stood stock still against the wall, just listening to the footsteps passing by. "C'mon, I think he went this way, towards the gym!" "Ohh maybe we'll see him in gym clothes soon, just to try them on~" "Hurry it up!"

Holy shit, these girls were fucking terrifying. Thank God that apparently Jotaro had gotten the slip. He took a deep breath, rubbing at his throat again because it felt strangely constricting not to have his gill slits, and now his throat felt like someone had rubbed sediment all down it. Disgusting. He needed to find a drinking fountain, or a bathroom. Something with some water that he could use to quench his thirst before trying to find Nori in this weird hellhole of a place. He stepped gingerly out of the empty room, looking to the hallway. First right, down the way the girls ran, then to the safe, equally empty left. Thank God, they were gone.

Letting out a breath, he started down the left, hoping that maybe he would just chance upon the art room. It seemed to be the safest bet for an art club, unless more weird shit was going to go and push his fucking patience. Which, Jotaro thought with a sinking feeling in his gut, was probably pretty fucking likely.

Unfortunately, due to never having been to this damn school, it meant that Jotaro had to look in every room until he found either someone who could direct him to the art room or until he found the art room himself. And Jotaro was fucking awful with spoken directions. This was already shaping up to be a fun time, and he'd already looked into at least three more empty classrooms. With a sigh, he peeked into one at the end of the hall and found the place fucking lousy with weights and other equipment, but with no body builders or anyone using them in sight. Instead, there were a couple of students just kind of lounging at the table in the center, playing games. Well hell, may as well try to ask and figure things out.

The girl at the far end of the table looked up lazily, black hair falling into her eyes despite the headband she wore. "What d'ya want?"

"I'm looking for someone. Do you know where the art room is?"

"Down the stairs, last door on the left near the other flight of stairs."

"Thanks."

He half expected that to go at least twenty different ways wrong, but thankfully, it looked like he struck out this time. Now all he needed was some water, Kakyoin, and maybe for the distant sounds of high pitched squealing to-

Oh no.

His head whipped back down the hallway to where the distant voices of those girls were, and the universe was just fucking with him now. It had to be. Because when he looked back at the bitch in the room with all the weights, her phone was out to take the shot at Jotaro that was inevitably sealing his fate. Oh god dammit, now getting to Kakyoin would be even worse. Jotaro was never doing this shit again. No matter what Kakyoin's reaction might end up being. Still, there was a chance that he could get to the art room before he was accosted by these girls. He started rushing down the stairs, trying to outrun them and hope to god that they weren't smart enough to go around the other way.

That was the moment when Jotaro immediately tripped over his own clumsy goddamn stupid lousy human feet and fell the rest of the way down the stairs in only the way that some especially unlucky cartoon character is wont to do, complete with the accompanying thuds of his own big body hitting against the railing, the stair, the wall, and anything in his way. Just as he was getting up, rubbing his head, he heard the bone chilling shriek of triumph down the end of the hallway. "Found him!"

A couple heads poked out of doorways as the girls made their way down the hallway towards him, and shit. Now Jotaro really had nowhere to run. He could loop back around, but he was already dehydrated, and all this extra effort with using legs was taking its toll on him already. Of all the heads, only one stepped from their room, at the end of the hallway on the left. Her hair was brown, swept to the side, and unlike the ravenous lampreys on his tail, she looked pretty damn unimpressed with the whole situation. She stepped forward, blocking the girls off before they could even think about descending, hands on her hips.

"Hey, knock it off Kanna." She said, and Jotaro could just hear the frown in her voice. "Don't you all have better things to do than to go picking on the new guy?! Or, I'm sorry, chasing after him to have him accept your affections. You lot really don't have any idea how much worse the latter thing sounds, do you."

The main girl, Kanna apparently, sputtered a bit, arms crossing over her chest. "Oh, get out the way Aoi! It's not fair that you're such a downer about these things. Besides, what are you, Jotaro's wife?"

"No." Aoi said, posture straightening and shoulders squaring. "And neither are any of you. So get your heads out of your collective asses and go already. Kakyoin-kun and I are trying to get a piece done and hearing your screeching is killing brain cells which we kind of need at the moment. Don't you all have cram school or something so you can actually do something with your lives?"

There was a stony silence, and Jotaro was very uncomfortably reminded of every single time he'd seen a territorial dispute. It looked like this bottom hallway was Aoi's territory, which apparently boded well for Jotaro, because being in that gaggle's territory was liable to shave his scales. The rabid ones had the advantage of numbers, but Aoi had the advantage of this being her territory and her own apparent strong will. There were a few more moments, and then Jotaro saw the main girl of the trio fold in on herself, hunching submissively since it was obvious who'd won.

"C'mon girls," Kanna said, turning on her heel. "We'll see Jojo soon, I'm sure!" With that, the three ascended the stairs again, and Aoi turned back around, nodding to Jotaro.

"Alright, it's safe for you to come do whatever you were doing- and don't look so much like a frightened animal!" She smiled, putting her hands up placatingly. Jotaro hadn't moved from his spot on the ground, tense, for the last five minutes straight. He was starting to actually get slightly lightheaded from the lack of oxygen and then, whoops, looks like he forgot he didn't have gills to take in what he needed. He still got up, dusting off the pants of his uniform. "So, your name is Jotaro, right? Mine is Aoi. If you need a place to hide, the art club room is open, right here."

She gestured to the room and then turned, glancing over her shoulder before going back, speaking so loudly that Jotaro could even hear it from the end of the hall. "Hey Nori! We got a straggler! He's what fell down the stairs like a chump!"

Well thank God all that shit was over. Now he could get to what really mattered. And, not to mention, there was a drinking fountain, and he was able to hunch over that and soothe his throat, at least partially.

With everything behind him, he walked into the art room.

It was a little space, with pottery and all sorts of strange sculptures made of anything from sand to glass to video game cartilages (who had the money for that?) lined one wall. One table in the corner was absolutely lousy with sketches, with some asshole with the stupidest and possibly ugliest headband Jotaro had ever seen was drawing, not even looking up to acknowledge that someone new was in the room. There were a couple others milling around the room, but none of them really paid him much mind after an initial glance. And then there was Noriaki, sitting at one easel in a ring of them, Aoi looking over his shoulder. Noriaki looked up, face illuminated by the dusty light shining through the lone little window in a way that kind of left Jotaro wondering if he was thinking about anything important just then because whatever it was, he forgot it.

Kakyoin's mouth opened a bit, the paintbrush slipping from his fingers before he could stop it, and he stood up quickly, looking up and down Jotaro's form. Gaping like a fish. This was the first time Kakyoin was seeing Jotaro as a human, and it made Jotaro slightly nervous, with the intense look gaze and clear confusion. Then, Jotaro pulled the rim of his hat down and said, "Hey."

"Jotaro?! How the hell did you get here?!" Noriaki was definitely surprised by this, and suddenly all that shit with being chased around by those maniacs earlier seemed completely worth it just to see this. Kakyoin covered his mouth for a moment, but there was no hiding the wide smile that broke out.

"Walked." Was all Jotaro said, and he proved it by stepping across the room. With his two legs. And this time, he didn't even feel like he was going to trip.

"No, I just- well, this is certainly a pleasant surprise, Jojo." Kakyoin said, seeming to collect himself. He looked down at whatever painting he had been working on, and then back up at Jotaro. "Ah, Aoi? I think I'll be leaving early today." Aoi's eyebrows raised high, and she looked between the both of them before snorting.

"Alright then, get the hell out! I doubt you'll be much use right now if I were to try and force you to stay. If I could." Aoi laughed a bit at that.

"You couldn't stop me if you had all the mastery over time on Earth." Kakyoin said before starting to get his apron off and was out the door dragging Jotaro by the arm in an instant. Jotaro heard the tail end of some snarky comment from Headband in the corner and then Aoi's hysteric laughter as they ended up in the hallway, starting to quickly move towards what Jotaro ended up finding out was an empty room. Once they were inside, Noriaki turned, closed the door, and then leaned against it, staring at Jotaro for a while. Specifically at his legs. "... Alright. Explain."

"How I fell down the stairs? It's because being bipedal is shit and I'm still not used to it because I haven't be upright in months."

"The legs, Jotaro! How do you have legs?! I thought- I thought you were confined to the ocean! Or what- are, are you going to tell me that magic is real and that you have to find some magic artifact or a sea witch will turn you into sea foam, or something ridiculous."

"I've always been able to turn my tail into legs. It's something all shark merpeople can do, at the very least. Why do you think I live alone? My mom and the shitty old man are up on the cliffside, pretending to be human."

There was a pause, and Kakyoin just stared in amazement at Jotaro. Everything that was written on Kakyoin's face made it seem as if Jotaro was the most amazing goddamn thing on the earth, and fuck, it pissed Jotaro off when he was looked at like that because it made him feel things fluttering around in his stomach. It made him want to punch Kakyoin. Softly. With his mouth. And all that sappy shit that Jotaro wanted to do with Kakyoin made him far too goddamn embarrassed because holy shit, how fucking scandalous was that? Feeling in love. Fucking ridiculous.

"Jotaro, why- why didn't you tell me sooner? We could have been done things on the surface together." Kakyoin said, and Jotaro rubbed at his neck where his gills should have been. "There are a lot of places I wanted to show you, but I thought I couldn't because I just kind of thought you were going to stay in the ocean. You acted like you've never seen the land before!"

Jotaro had to collect his thoughts for a moment, because when Kakyoin put it like that, keeping all this shit from him was kind of stupid. "... To be fair, I like hearing you talk for show and tell. I know what shit is, but hearing your voice is. You know." He absentmindedly waved a hand, as if that would better get his point across. It was times like this when Jotaro hated that he couldn't just talk like a regular fucking person and articulate what he meant. "It's you."

Kakyoin smiled a bit at that, snorting. "God, such a way with words. Maybe it's better you stayed in the ocean- half the time, I don't even know if I understand what the hell you mean." It was just teasing. Just some light banter. Jotaro could work with that. "This time, though… I get it. And you're still a sweetheart, no matter how much you snap your jaws. I'm still a little angry that you kept this from me, though- legs? Really? Probably one of the most important ways to actually get to see each other and you just kind of forgot to say something, or keep it a secret that you know about the land?"

"To be fair- I can't actually stay on land that long." Jotaro admitted after a beat. "I'm not used to it. It's a trade off- I live in the ocean and don't have to worry about shit like college or the economy or the government. If I want to come on land, I dehydrate in a few hours. There's probably some scientific law for that, but honestly, I could give less of a damn about studying when I can just survive out there."

"Yes, I guess that's one of the perks of pretending to ignore civilization- you don't have to worry about taxes." Kakyoin chuckled a bit, shoulders lowering. Then, he tensed, looking to Jotaro with a slightly panicked expression. "Wait. How long have you been out of the water now?"

"Uh." Jotaro very eloquently said, trying to gauge how long that entire chase went. "An hour. Maybe an hour and a half." Depends how long those girls were chasing me."

"How long what-" Kakyoin just shook his head, looking up at Jotaro. "You know what, you can explain later. We need to get you some water, or something." Jotaro hadn't even noticed how thirsty he had gotten, so god damn, it was a good thing that Kakyoin had the sense to ask. He followed Kakyoin out of the room they'd been talking in and Kakyoin left Jotaro to the drinking fountain while he went to grab something. As it turned out, that something was a couple of water bottles, still fairly cold, and soon Jotaro was being led outside the little hellhole that he was going to be sure never to visit again without at least some kind of protective armor.

"Rohan will probably throw a fit over these," Kakyoin mused quietly as he led Jotaro through the grounds. Jotaro was a little too busy drinking to verbally agree, but he nodded anyway. Now that he'd found Kakyoin, that basically meant he had no fucking clue what to do next. He kind of didn't even think he'd make it this far. "But honestly, Rohan will throw a fit over anything. He'll just have to deal with it."

Things were a lot quieter out there than inside. Jotaro cautiously looked around, but there were no sign of those girls, which helped. He still didn't know how the hell he could even deal with them- he was too out of his element. Kakyoin snorted softly beside Jotaro as he slowed to a stop, bringing a hand up to his mouth. Then Kakyoin had the audacity to look Jotaro dead in the eye and tell him, "I suppose that you must be a fish out of water when it comes to these sorts of things, eh, Jojo?" Jojo dumped the remaining water in the bottle on Kakyoin's head, but from the startled laugh, he was guessing that the little asshole still thought it was the fucking funniest thing.

Then, he felt a warm hand curl around his own. Kakyoin was still warm, even here, and when he leaned up to kiss Jotaro's cheek it left a tingle in the spot that mingled with Jotaro's own growing blush. He tried to stomp it down, but with Nori, that was becoming less and less easy. Then Noriaki whispered in his ear, "You're still the densest person I've ever met."

To shut him up before he could go anymore about this entire thing, Jotaro leaned down and kissed him himself. It still was something that made his head reel sometimes, that he could do that whenever he damn well pleased, but it made his heart do awful things in his chest that made him feel like it was going to swell up so big that it would one day explode because he just wouldn't be able to hold in the rising swell of emotion. God, if only Jotaro could tell Nori just what he did to him.

He pulled away, and saying "I love you" came so easily that it was almost dizzying. God dammit- he'd always known, deep down, that he was somewhat of a romantic, but this was getting absolutely ridiculous.

Noriaki just laughed a bit, cheeks flushing to match Jotaro's. "I love you too."