Sometimes Mista would tell Giorno that he had a great tendency to get mortified and think too much about things. After having mentally repeated the farewell in the hallway a few hundred times, he had to admit that perhaps Mista was right. They might have had a pleasant time, but afterwards…
He had only wanted to remove the leaf from her hair. It really had been his only intention. But then he saw her face, looking like it was waiting for a kiss. Had she been expecting a kiss? Because she sneezed on his face. Maybe she had already been about to. The thought of him looking like a weirdo grabbing her face while she was clearly trying to sneeze horrified him.
It's not like he ever had any other intentions at all. Yup, he was completely sure. The moment where he was close to her certainly had to be a matter of blood. He didn't want to think about it any more.
It didn't matter that watching her cry had been like getting punched. Maybe he would have felt the same around any other Joestar. He got a chill when thinking of possibly feeling the same way about Dr. Kujo. No matter how attractive the man was, the idea of wanting him was simply impossible for Giorno.
Perhaps the blood thing had made him some kind of half-adolescent vampire. When passing through his adolescence, he did not necessarily like the things that turned him on. Okay, she was very pretty and he supposed she was fine, but he knew people who were better. It was a matter of blood, nothing more.
He should focus more on Donatello and less on Jolyne, that's what he should do. End him and allow the girl to return to her life of normalcy, no longer having to worry about monsters like Donatello. Monsters like him.
Although it was early, he knew that Master Mateo would be up by then, so it was no problem to give him a call. Of course, the elderly professor was delighted to be offered a job by the Don de Passione after working for him with Narancia. He said that he would be delighted to start teaching a lovely young lady that very day at mid-morning.
In another part of the mansion, Jolyne slept soundly. She may have had her doubts about what had happened and would have died of shame, but she was truly tired and had never had trouble sleeping. That's why when a maid went to wake her up, she yelled at her to leave while covering her head with a pillow.
She also ignored them the second time they called, but soon after, the sound of a zipper was heard.
"Rise and shine, Jolyne!"
She tried even harder to burrow under the covers. The next thing she knew, there was a tug on the blankets and pillow. "Jolyne, I'll throw you into the shower fully-dressed if you don't get up and eat some of the breakfast we brought you. I'd go shower on my own two feet if I were you."
In less than two hours, she had her first Italian class.
"Class for what...?" Jolyne asked sleepily. She stared at the cup of coffee in her hands as if it would give her more answers than the two who had come to wake her up.
"Italian. You told Giorno that you wanted to learn, right? Well, he called a teacher," Bruno replied as he went to the closet. "Let's see what you'll be wearing today..."
"Woah, woah, stop right there. I told him I'd learn, but not right this morning!" Jolyne whined. "Fuck Giorno, ever heard of asking?"
"'Fuck Giorno, he should have asked' is something I say often too," said Abbacchio. "But it's not like you have much else to do, and honestly, if you make yourself very obnoxious, I'll run out of English vocabulary to insult you. If I insult you in Italian, I want you to be able to understand me."
Her mother had spent years trying to get her ready in time for class. She was sure that if they were to meet each other, her mother would adore Bruno and he would not give her a chance to breathe with his charming bustle. Or maybe she would have rather liked the threat to throw Jolyne in the shower with her pajamas on and the ice water to wake her up.
Finally, she wore the brown Gucci floral dress that Trish had chosen the day before. She seemed like a good girl.
"If you behave well, I'll buy you a backpack with butterflies," said Abbacchio half jokingly as he accompanied her to the room where the teacher was. "With all that we bought yesterday, we didn't even think about school supplies."
"Can you buy them from Hot Topic?" Jolyne replied also half jokingly.
"I have work to do until the afternoon and you have class, but then... Yes, okay, let's go to Hot Topic to buy geeky notebooks for you and maybe something for me. I deserve it after putting up with you and Trish yesterday."
"Leone, my love," said Bruno, leaving for another direction. "You're wearing Gucci right now. My heart, don't lie. You love to go shopping."
When she came before the old master, Jolyne tried to be as polite as possible. He seemed like a wise man from a movie. She felt a bit intimidated, especially when she had to confess that she only knew a few words of her mom's mother tongue.
She had accidentally chosen her Japanese-speaking side of the family because it seemed more fun to learn a language where she had the opportunity to see more cartoons. The possibility of speaking it with her dad as a kind of secret language between the two helped, but the truth was that when she was little, cartoons helped a lot in her decision. And if she was honest, they still did. She wasn't as tied up as before, but she liked manga and anime. Romeo had laughed at her for it, but she told him that there were few series that showed the script quality of Full Metal Alchemist .
She felt strange when thinking of Romeo; the distance had taught her that someone who made fun of her and belittled her did not deserve her. According to F.F., the only thing a guy like that deserved was a bullet between the eyebrows. Normally, Hermes would tell her when she was passing, but this time her two friends agreed.
The teacher was kind and patient. In fact, he seemed delighted with his new student; she was much easier to deal with than Narancia. It was an enjoyable class, especially when they were introducing themselves and checking what was salvageable for Jolyne's Italian. Normally, she wasn't looking to be the master's favorite or anything like that, but this charming man made her want to do well. He had a pleasant Italian accent and a singing tone.
Even though she'd gotten mad at Giorno for making her go to class without asking, she was enjoying herself quite a bit. That didn't mean she wasn't still mad at Giorno for doing things without counting on her when they concerned her. The anger might have been good for her, as it was an emotion she controlled better than being confused. Last night had been confusing and humiliating in equal measure. She was more used to feeling humiliated.
When the teacher told her that it was the end of class for that day, she recalled telling Bruno earlier that using DuoLingo couldn't be that different from having a teacher. She would have to apologize to Bruno. Not Giorno though; she would only apologize if he ever learned to ask permission.
"Oh, buon gior... Bonasera signore Giovanna," greeted the teacher. "The young lady and I have met and she is as charming as you told me. It is a pleasure teaching her." He turned to Jolyne. "I think in a short time, you will be speaking the language without major problems."
"Glad to hear. Do you want to have lunch with us?" Giorno asked him with a polite smile.
"I'd be delighted, but I'm afraid not this time. You will have to settle for just the young lady and her charming company," replied the teacher.
Neither Jolyne nor Giorno were very comfortable with the idea. After how things turned out the night before, they would have appreciated any outside intervention. And for once in their lives, they were lucky. Their lucky star was named Narancia Ghirga.
"Master!" he cheerfully shouted as he entered. "It's a pleasure to see you again. They told me that you're now teaching my Sorellina."
"Young Ghirga, it is a pleasure to see you again. It seems that you have not aged a day. You still look like a teenager."
Maybe Jolyne didn't know him well, but she noticed some of the boy's cheerful energy fading. Giorno did know him, so he politely bade the teacher goodbye and then went to check that Narancia was okay, although he seemed calm when in Jolyne's company.
"Before you try, don't apologize. It's not your fault," Narancia said to Giorno. "I'm not sad. It's just that sometimes..."
"I won't say anything to anyone, but if you want to talk in private..." Jolyne told him.
"It is not necessary, but thank you, Sorellina," Narancia said with a sad smile. "Do you know that I am 17 years old? Folks always tell me that I look even younger than that. What they haven't told you is that I am actually older than Giorno and Fugo. Bruno, Leone, and I can't change, or grow old or anything. We're not alive and sometimes it's very easy for us to forget that, but man, when we remember... It still hurts."
He looked quickly at Giorno. "But it's not your fault, I don't want to hear you talk about it. I've never blamed you. Even if you were in my body, it was all Diavolo. Damn, this has to be really weird for Jolyne and she has to eat, so let's keep our faces from being sad. I found out that you're going to Hot Topic to finally buy cool things, so I'm going too. Trish is the fashion consultant, but I'm the cool stuff consultant."
Just like that, Narancia wiped away his sadness and was on his merry way again.
If the gang were looking to keep Jolyne busy so that she wouldn't think of depressing things, they were doing a good job at it. After touring various music stores, geek hangouts, and the aforementioned Hot Topic, Jolyne slept peacefully that night, completely spent.
The next day they didn't need to make such a fuss to wake her up. She went to class of her own volition, but this time with Nightmare Before Christmas stationery and a butterfly notebook. Contrary to what one might expect, Narancia chose the stationery and Abbacchio the notebook.
Narancia swung by at lunchtime to tell her to change, as in an hour and a half, she had another class in one of the gyms. This time Bruno led her to the place. While she was dressed in sportswear, he was impeccable in a suit.
"Giorno says that you want to train and that you're already very good, but for hand-to-hand combat, you need some more work. To assist you in the learning process, they've sent you the best assassin in all of Italy," he said in his usual friendly tone.
"And this fearsome murderer," Jolyne said when they arrived at the gym. "Is he hiding somewhere, or did he not arrive yet? Or..." When she looked at Bruno again, she suddenly understood and pointed at him incredulously. "It's you?
She had barely gestured when her hand fell away from her body to the ground. She did not complain about the choice of instructor again. That night, she almost had to crawl into bed from exhaustion. Bruno's kindness completely vanished when he was teaching her how to fight.
"Our Stands are quite a bit alike, my dear," Bruno told her as he helped her get up off the ground for the umpteenth time. "We both possess close combat stands. I have seen you unravel the strings in your arm to hit further. Have you ever tested the extent to which you could stretch or unravel your body?"
"Once, I unraveled my hand enough to allow my strings to follow my lying traitor of a lawyer. I wanted to discover what he had done and..." She stopped, not having the courage to tell him about what she had done to her lawyer afterward.
"You don't have to tell me, don't worry," Bruno replied kindly. As a member of the mafia, they had their own methods of dealing with traitors, none of which were very pretty.
She was grateful for his understanding nature and quickly changed the topic to something she was more comfortable with. "Anyway, aside from that, I once also wove together a net to catch poisonous frogs before they could touch me... And sometimes I stitch up my own wounds. How's that?"
"That's very smart! You should consider exercising the extent at which you can separate your limbs from your body. It's very useful in a fight and for other things too, especially if you have a very tall boyfriend."
"Bruno!" Abbacchio hollered, appearing at the door. "I was coming by to let you know that it's time to have a snack, yet this is what I see. Just what kind of things are you teaching her?"
"Nothing about the size of your penis," Jolyne said so seriously that Abbacchio believed her.
Bruno may have slept on the couch that night, but he gave her such harsh training that her muscles hurt even until the next day. She swallowed her pride and asked Giorno for his healing touch.
