[He gives Jotaro a look that's somehow both sour and tearful, jerks his chin towards the rise and fall of the other's chest.]
I saw you. You did something. You stopped. Don't you think I know what that looks like? Don't you think I know?
[Him of all people, so afraid to let those he loves slip away into death that he nails them back to the world of the living, holds them to him with an iron grip - he knows.]
[Just like he knows, somehow, right before Jotaro asks him a question in return. Is that when I freaked out? And the thought of it, this unlikely and absurd similarity, it's almost enough to make him laugh, not a laugh laugh but a desperate whine of a noise, for lack of anything better to do.]
[When he was about to kill someone. Mostly me.]
[Mutely, he nods. And it takes him a little while longer to come up with words in response, so he presses his forehead to their clasped hands, then his lips, eyes squeezed tight shut, trying so hard not to start trembling.]
I didn't know.
[He shakes his head, blinking rapidly, then squeezing his eyes shut again. Freaked out, like it was nothing.]
I didn't know. Jotaro, if I don't know, how am I supposed to protect you?
[From himself, from the echoes of Dio, from bad memories, from being so scared that he feels he has to stop his heart to survive. From everyday bad things, which Jotaro is too good for - from everything. That's all he wants: to protect him from everything.]
no subject
I saw you. You did something. You stopped. Don't you think I know what that looks like? Don't you think I know?
[Him of all people, so afraid to let those he loves slip away into death that he nails them back to the world of the living, holds them to him with an iron grip - he knows.]
[Just like he knows, somehow, right before Jotaro asks him a question in return. Is that when I freaked out? And the thought of it, this unlikely and absurd similarity, it's almost enough to make him laugh, not a laugh laugh but a desperate whine of a noise, for lack of anything better to do.]
[When he was about to kill someone. Mostly me.]
[Mutely, he nods. And it takes him a little while longer to come up with words in response, so he presses his forehead to their clasped hands, then his lips, eyes squeezed tight shut, trying so hard not to start trembling.]
I didn't know.
[He shakes his head, blinking rapidly, then squeezing his eyes shut again. Freaked out, like it was nothing.]
I didn't know. Jotaro, if I don't know, how am I supposed to protect you?
[From himself, from the echoes of Dio, from bad memories, from being so scared that he feels he has to stop his heart to survive. From everyday bad things, which Jotaro is too good for - from everything. That's all he wants: to protect him from everything.]