Chapter Text
Prologue:
Clip.Clop.Clip.Clop.
Dio knows those noises. It is the sound of horses hooves clicking on a road. Of wheels rolling and digging in the mud.
Clip.Clop.Clip.Clop. He is conscious. Somewhat. Why?
The burn of the sun. His body lying on the floor, in pieces. Star Platinum's fists of rage. Jotaro's anger.
Clip.Clop.Clip.Clop.
I am dead. Why am I feeling anything?
He can't see. Just hear the noise of the carriage. Where is he going? His eyelids are so heavy. He feels dizzy. His head feels like it is wrapped in cotton.
Clip.Clop.Clip.Clop. Stop.
The carriage pulls over. Dio slowly opens his eyes. He has arrived. Now what? He has to get out of there he presumes. There is a suitcase at his feet. He throws it by the window. Why did I do that? That gesture seemed so instinctive for him. As if he had already lived that moment. He steps out. The rays of sunlight on his cheeks. A caress he had forgotten.
Those blue eyes.
"You're Dio Brando, right?" And you must be Jonathan Joestar. He doesn't say these words.
"Am I dreaming?" Confusion.
"Hm no I don't think you are. Oh you must be talking about the house! It's true it's really huge, too good to be true. But really it's almost too big here just for my father and I."
He offers his hand.
"I am Jonathan Joestar but all my friends call me Jojo."
We are not friends. We are so much less and so much more. Two sides of the same coin.
He never accepted the handshake the first time, he recalls. Maybe it's the reason why he is tempted to do it now. Jojo's palm is so warm. So alive. So Jonathan.
It's very real for a dream. It is a dream, right? He remembers the others dreams, before. Usually, when Jonathan appeared in his dreams, he would flee Dio. He looked so sad. This Jonathan looks happy.
His smile is the sun. His smile had always been the sun. Very few times this smile had been destined to him though. Dio had turned it cold. Liveless.
Barks. The dog is coming closer.
"It's Danny my dog. He is very kind! Don't worry he doesn't bite!"
It runs towards him. His foot rise on its own volition. If he kicks, Jonathan will stop smiling. For some reasons, he doesn't want to. Not yet. Jonathan can still be happy for a moment. He lowers his foot. He doesn't do any moves, good or bad, staying still. The mutt sniffs at him then come back near its master.
"You don't like dogs?" He asks, looking slightly disappointed.
He hates them. Ancient, blurry memories where dogs were chasing him accross London's streets, starving, trying to bite his calfs, comes to his mind.
He shrugs.
"It will get better when you'll learn to know him!" Jojo, the eternal optimistic.
He follows Jonathan inside the house. The boy is even carrying his suitcase for him, as if it was a great honor. Whatever. He can humor Jonathan for a dream's length of time. A very real feeling dream.
Mr Joestar is welcoming him to the family and introducing him to the staff but he answers absent-mindedly. Before this fantasy ends he feels the need to keep his eyes on Jojo. His adolescent body. His dark locks. The quiet sea of his eyes. Dio had so many times awakened the storm in Jonathan's eyes but he never really took the time to gaze upon the calm waves.
To be drown in the heart of the storm. So dangerous yet so tempting.
To float in the quiet warm ocean. Boring yet peaceful.
Dio wants to swim in both.
He had put his few things away in a wardrobe. Does his room looks like the one he knew so long ago? He doesn't remember. Although the bed is comfortable. He lays down there. The sun, piercing through the large window is warming his back. For a century Dio's skin had been cold. There had been no warmth. Just the scorching heat of the star and of the Ripple of Jonathan's fists. When he drowned me inside of his storm.
It it dinner time now and he is still in that dream. It starts to be too long for a dream. Food. A wide range of smells and flavours. After all those liters of blood he had drank, tasting human food again is so strange. Again, so very real for a dream.
However, some things had not changed.
"Won't you finish your cake? Asks Jonathan when he pushs away his barely touched dessert.
"I don't really like sugary things. You can have the rest."
"Oh tank you Dio!"
A piece of cake. That's all it takes to light up the stars above the quiet blue sea. A piece of cake indeed.
After dinner, Jonathan takes him to the library. He prefers to play outside, he explains to him, but when he wants some peace he comes here. He shows him his favorite novels. Dio remembers he had spend entire afternoons here. To read of course but also to think and to plan ways to steal the Joestar's fortune. To make Jonathan's life a living hell. Unacomplished dreams. The house, the money had burned. Jonathan had died smiling, and surely, he had reach Heaven. If there was one to begin with.
And exactly where I am now?
The theory of a too long dream is slowly collapsing. He doesn't know what to think about it. It's night time now and everyone has gone to bed even the servants. But Dio is still awake. The wardrobe is open, revealing a full-length mirror on the inside of its door.
He has undressed and stands entirely naked, facing the mirror. He examines his young body, the scars given by the cruelty of the slums and of his father. The only one missing is from around his neck. The tender, pale flesh of adolescence, not yet of an adult but not so much of a child anymore. He knows it's his but he feels strange. After all he has spent more time in Jojo's body than in his own. Jonathan.
What to do now?
He puts on a nightshirt and slips into the bed. He feels tired. If he sleeps will he keep on dreaming? Will he wake up? When? And where? Is he trapped, forced to relive the young days of his life? To persecute Jonathan, kill his dog, kiss this girl, pretend to be his friend, kill his father, become a vampire... All of this to be defeated and spend a century into a coffin with only Jonathan's head to keep him compagny in the middle of his mistakes, remorses and regrets.
I respected you Jonathan. I still do. I didn't want to kill you, you forced me to do it. We could have been so strong together. We could have take over the world. You could have been richer, more powerful than ever. You could have been mine.
He has make his decision. If he wakes up in this bed tomorrow, he'll make Jonathan his. All wrapped around his little finger that young Joestar will be. And Dio shall never let him go.