P H A N T O M B L O O D

"He's your guy when stocks are high, but beware when they start to descend."

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Late October 1988. An odd month for a university term to end but oh well! Presenting the 888th year of the Second Millenium, leap year extraordinaire and mostly known as The Year of the Three Emperors!! Could it be a lucky year for the Joestars? No. Actually in roman numerals 1888 has a whopping 13 digits. Bodes well.

But what is the gardener of a century doing amongst all this? Well for starters-

"Interception!"

"The ball is plucked out of the air by our hero Jonathan Joestar!" The commentator yells, cheers erupting from the crowd of gents watching the blue-haired boy grab the ball and start running.

"ARGGGHHHHHHHHHH."

"Joestar! A gentle giant at 195cm, sprints to the try zone with a spirited roar!" The commentator continues enthusiastically, "Can he win this, the final game of his university career?"

A small brunette bloke jumps out onto Jonathans back, looking like some overgrown frog trying to stop a charging cow.

"He's tackled from behind!" The commentator cries but is immediately relieved when the Joestar puts a foot down and stays on his feet, "Wait! He's still standing tall!"

Jojo's grinning because well, what a legend when out of nowhere two superman looking players fly in and grab a handful of his thighs and shoulders in a doubtful attempt to stop him.

"Two more fly in! It's three on one out there!" Despite the three men aggressively trying to embrace him onto the floor, Jojo stays standing. After a determined yell, he starts speed walking forward with the three in tow, "Incredible! He's still making for the try line undaunted by the men who dog his steps!"

"What power! What determination! He's Hercules reborn!" The commentator yells as the Joestar continues, however before he can continue announcing the game he's shoved away by a flowery smelling figure.

"Oh honey, you mean Hunkules!" You cheer, quickly gaining praise from the crowd who had grown endeared to you after the first seven times you'd randomly shown up. Jojo gets divebombed by yet another chap and you grin, "Another tackle! Oh, boohoo, the weights too much for him! Better luck next time Jojo!"

Jojo stumbles towards the ground before tossing the rugby ball backwards to some other member of his team, your eyes follow the ball, "Hold on, he flings the ball away and..."

"Yes, there's the catch!"

Dio's caught the ball, posing slightly as he jumps into the air to grab it, you raise your voice, "The ball lands straight in the muscled up arms of Dio Brando! Has leather ever been this envied before? Oh goodness, off he goes! Headed straight for victory with a sprint!"

Dio starts running, side-stepping two tacklers and shoving another headfirst onto the ground and sliding under the final opponent. The crowd holds its breath, well except for you, "He's done it! There's nothing between Dio and try line and still, he's flexing on us all!"

Dio quickly backflips the ball onto the try line, ending the match, the crowd goes wild, the players go wild, hell even you go wild, "Yes! They did it! Can I get a bravo for the brilliant boys of Hugh Hudson?"

At this point, you're rudely shoved aside by the real commentator who begins speaking over the cheering crowd, "On the last play they snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat! What teamwork! When Jojo and Dio work together there's nothing they can't do!"

Dio is quickly picked up and being cheered at by his teammates, looking genuinely happy. Jojo makes his way through the team and he and Dio shake hands and start speaking to each other.

Not that your paying attention to anything other than the guy stealing your big speaking lines.

"Having finished his studies Dio is set to graduate with top marks in law! Jojo, meanwhile, has set the faculty afire with his bold thesis on archaeology!" The crowd cheers for the commentator and you sigh.

"Goodness gracious, imagine all the homework!" You holler, shoving the commentator out of the way again, "On and off the field these blokes are giants!"

"They're the pride of our school!" The commentator shoves you out of the way a final time, speaking to the crowd before speaking to you about what happened the last time you pulled this stunt.

"I've had it with you, worm feeder-"

"Oh shut it, William," The commentator has once again been shoved out the way but this time by a newspaper reporter, "(Y/N) (L/N) is it true you're particularly close with Jojo and Dio?"

"Pft, yeah. Why else would I be here for all the games? I'm bound to be fond of them with all the wagon costs these days." You say absentmindedly, flipping off the sulking commenter.

"Are they happy about your participation during the game?"

"Participation? I'm only cheering them on louder than everyone else. Nothing to be not happy about. Oh, look at the time, bye-bye Mr Reporter!" You and the reporter wave goodbye to each other before you scamper to Jojo, who just stood all alone, probably brooding about something.

"Nice playing Hunkules." You grin, easily getting the blue-haired boy's attention as he whips his blushing face down slightly to look at you. Just like how his massive honker kept your attention for most of the game.

"O-Oh! Hello, (N/N). Are you staying for the celebration tonight?" Jonathan asks, smiling sweetly.

"There's already a party planned for the game?" You tilt your head slightly, deviously, "Quite confident that you would win then?"

"Don't be silly, it was planned for both teams to attend, no matter who won." The Joestar explains bashfully.

"How noble, letting the losing team celebrate their defeat with you." You smirk at the way Jojo's face goes pink with embarrassment. Goodness you haven't been this happy since you last saw him.

"It's not like that! It'll be fun for everyone and not some boring affair for bragging," The blue-haired boy scratches at his neck slightly, an endearing childhood habit he'd never broken.

"Hm. Well if you want me there, I suppose I'll have to go." You put your hands behind your back, helping you crane your head up to look at Jojo.

"I'm looking forward to seeing you there then (N/N)."

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The party had taken place in a warm local pub later in the day. There was a fiddler and lots of cheering as the music began however that had eventually dwindled down to slow and quiet conversations as the celebration went on into the evening.

You and Jojo were laughing together, dancing to the music with each other until your feet hurt.

"Bloody hell, Jojo. I can't believe how long its been since we last danced!" You say blissfully, twirling with your aristocratic dance partner.

You two were a match made in heaven out on the dance floor. Jonathan having years of training in waltzes and you having learnt some really sick moves from a brief romantic affair with a travelling dancer back when you were 17. Not to neglect the time you'd both spent spinning around on soft moss and toadstools back in the ol' garden.

No, but seriously though, dancing with Jojo? Amazing. Can't even exaggerate it's like the most fairy tale, magical thing in the world even with the whole rowdy tavern thing in the background. Plus while dancing you got to touch his muscles.

"(N/N) we were dancing five minutes ago." Jonathan laughs brightly, much soberer than you personally would ever want to be at a party, "We only stopped so you could have a drink."

"Such infinite knowledge! This must be the academic might of a university graduate! I suppose then that I must leave you to be witty and well educated rather than waste your time with another dance," Your eyes widen at your own exclamation, slowly trailing your hands away from the Joestar's arms with disappointment.

"No-no, hey let's dance some more, you did just get back onto the dance floor," Jojo protests softly grabbing your hands, putting one on his waist and holding the other, "They've started playing a waltz now so we might as well see it through. You can lead this time too, okay?"

"You're using my constant urge to touch muscles against me. I can feel it." You squint slowly but as Jojo puts his hand on your shoulder you begin to dance nonetheless, swaying and stepping in threes and doing all the fancy posh dance moves as an excuse to get closer to the cute Joestar.

Everyone around you was drunk and over six feet, which meant the dance floor was too crowded for anyone to even see yours and Jojo's amazing dance moves. Oh well, there'd probably be some big controversy over it anyway with Jojo being the son of a lord and no other reasons at all. Hm.

"You know I love you, right Jojo?" You say dreamily, words full of alcohol and eyes watching the lights blur around the Joestar's hair like a halo. He's probably the kindest person you know and that inner beauty of his really tended to shine through.

"Of course! We have been best friends for years after all."

'Oh yeah.' You blink. Your childhood sweetheart was much too oblivious to be your actual sweetheart, no matter how many times you whispered affection to him or how often you'd try to hold his hand.

Though the class divide probably didn't help either.

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Eventually, after Jojo had to go and speak with some members of his rocking rugby team, you went to sit down and just so happened to sprawl your upper body across the bar next to a particular blonde rocking rugby player.

"Dio are those sun kisses?" You ask dreamily, having been enjoying the drinks at the bar for a while. You stare at the Brando with a grin.

He turns away from his plotting to look at you in confusion, "Sun kisses?"

You poke at his ear, "These little marks, are they sun kisses or some moles?"

Dio hesitates slightly at how close your face has gotten to his own, confusion knotting his brows, "You don't mean freckles do you?"

You hum in agreement, managing to smell more of flowery grain fields than of alcohol. It was as though fermentation meant nothing to you, "Are they?"

"No, just birthmarks." Dio's eyes widened at the sensation of you leaning your head against his shoulder and sighing into his neck.

"Oh well, they're still cute lovey."

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The ridiculously fancy dorm room was quiet and still, the only indication of life being the wind blowing gently through the curtains and the steady rise and fall of breathing chests.

You groan slightly at the light filtering through your eyelids, trying to move your face away from it and stay sleeping. Too tired to realize that you're nuzzling up against someone's chest.

Eventually, however, you give up on hiding from the sun rays and instead focus your attention on the blonde embracing you.

After taking a moment to somewhat access the situation you speak softly, "Dio what happened last night?"

The blonde's eyes open narrowly and he peers down at you through his eyelashes, "Nothing, you passed out at the bar. Go back to sleep."

"Good morning to you too, sunshine. Are you worried I might leave if I wake up enough?" You tease, smirking the first smirk of the day.

Dio groans, knowing the peaceful morning was most likely over, "I'm more worried you might wake up the whole university, what with being a walking churchbell and all."

"Are you trying to silence me? That's not very autonomous collective of you, Mr The Law," You move some blonde strands out of Dio's face before continuing, a lot less teasingly, "But since you're so pretty I'll try and be quieter."

The blonde mutters something along the lines of 'I, Dio am so much more than pretty' but you'd had already wrapped him up nicely in your arms and couldn't be bothered to reply.

Time passes and you and Dio fell back to sleep before you can remember you're needed back at the Joestar estate. You are busy softly gazing at the peaceful blonde when your eyes widen.

'Shit I gotta go.'

After spending an embarrassingly long time trying to leave without waking up Dio, you had managed to get onto your wagon all ready to go.

"Are you leaving before graduation?" Jojo asks, having approached you and the wagon before you could leave.

"Sorry Jojo, but I promised Simon that I'd have the wagon back today." You lean as much as far forward as you safely could to hug the Joestar before continuing speaking, "Congratulations on graduating with such a good education and all that. I'm very happy for you."

"Thank you (N/N). Those five words made the years I've spent trying to get a degree worth it." Jojo enjoys the hug for a moment more before pulling away and grinning, "Only joking, you need to work on being sincere."

"I know that, don't rub it in." You pull something out of the back of the wagon and hand it to him, "Here maybe this present will make up for my faults."

"Oh thank you (N/N)! Though uh... You really didn't have to." The blue-haired boy looks closely at the triangle-shaped cake in his hands. It looks delicious for sure, a delicacy fit for Queen Victoria... but its shape is a little puzzling.

"I'm glad to be of service Jojo!" You grin slightly before sweatdropping, "I tried to cook a shepherd's pie but it burnt. So I thought I'd make your favourite cake- it's supposed to look like one of the pyramids in Egypt. They are archaeological and all. I think."

'My old archnemesis, savoury foods.'

"Don't worry, it's still a sweet gesture!" Jojo says reassuringly before smiling, "Did you get in trouble with Cicely again?"

You shudder slightly, answering the question. Good old Cicely was the sweetest senior in town unless you couldn't cook and well, you were only really gifted at baking.

"I'll be in even more trouble if I don't get back on time. Say Jojo can you give this to Dio for me?" You reach back into the wagon and hand Jojo another gift, a small jar filled with what looked like liquid gold, "It's dandelion honey."

"Alright, I'll get it to him." The blue-haired boy pouts at the mention of his evil adopted brother.

"Oh Jojo, you can't still blame him for all the terrible things that happened when he first arrived?" You say, brows furrowing slightly. By terrible things, you meant Danny's horrible death. Everything else was entirely Dio's fault.

"No, no of course not." Jojo quickly says, trying to wipe away all of his disliking towards the villain with a dazzling smile, "Goodbye (N/N)!"

"Goodbye, Jojo!" You both waved before you start driving the wagon and horse away from the prestigious university. Aiming to leave the city and get back to nature as quickly as possible.

Later on, a grumpy Jojo had to go and visit his much-detested brother. Whilst handing over the honey-like they were good friends the Joestar couldn't help but notice the flowery smell of Dio's dorm.

Meanwhile, on the road, you couldn't help but notice how hungover you are.

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Should be back at it with the more weekly updates mwhahaha. Ignore how bad I am at writing dance scenes.

Hope you enjoyed it!