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Chapter Text

Polnareff sighed. 

It had been less than twelve hours since the vampire DIO had been vanquished at the hands of Kujo Jotaro and his mind was still racing, rather than celebrating like the rest of his comrades. How many other vampires had sworn their loyalty to him? Would those said vampires come after them for retribution? Would they be safe as soon as they were to leave Egypt or would his associates follow them back to their home countries? While both himself and Jotaro could fend them off just fine, even in their current reduced states, but he worried about the others. While no doubt a formidable opponent in his prime, Joseph was nearing the end of his fighting days, and Kakyoin and Avdol are only human. 

Extraordinary humans, but still, just human. 

Something inside of Polnareff bristles at the remembrance of Kakyoin, and Avdol's, mortality. Most of his friends growing up had also been human so he wasn't unfamiliar with the lives of humans but with all of their recent battles he had to commend the two of them on their strength. The two of them also knew about his, Mr. Joestar, and Jotaro's condition and didn't treat them differently because of it. 

"Oi, Polnareff, you coming or not?" Jotaro asked harshly, drawing Polnareff out of his thoughts. 

"Where are we going?" Polnareff asks with a short laugh, not remembering where they were supposed to be headed. 

"The Old Man wants to get drinks" Jotaro explains, looking at Polnareff one last time before walking away. 

Polnareff follows behind the student, knowing that this is what they've been looking forward to the entire journey. The celebration after the defeat of DIO, something that they've all fantasized about for the last fifty or so days. A few drinks will help him get in better spirits, Polnareff tries to convince himself, before shoving his hands in his pockets. 

The hotel that they were currently staying in had a bar within its main building and that's where Polnareff and Jotaro found Mr. Joestar, Avdol, and Kakyoin already waiting for them. Mr. Joestar waves them over with a jovial smile on his face, one that Jotaro unpleasantly grumbles at. They quickly take their seats, Jotaro beside Avdol and Polnareff beside Kakyoin. The bar was empty except for them, which put Polnareff on edge. It was the weekend in Cairo, shouldn't this bar be packed with other tourists and some locals?

"We'll be taking the first train out of Cairo tomorrow, we still don't know if it's safe to fly so we'll only do that when absolutely necessary" Mr. Joestar says to the group, informing them of their new plans for the day to come. 

"You're sure this hotel is safe? We're only a few blocks away from DIO's mansion" Jotaro says, eyeing the bar around them suspiciously. 

"It should be. All of DIO's supposed contacts have been either wiped out by us or detained by the Speedwagon Foundation" Avdol explains. 

The longer he was sitting at the table with his friends, his uneasy feeling was being replaced by something else. An almost tranquil feeling, as if the four of them sitting at the table together was as natural as breathing. The weeks of constant fighting with DIO's henchmen had tired Polnareff out to the core, something that he's never experienced before. The wolf in his subconscious was content, but was ready for any enemies that could appear. 

"No need to talk about DIO now! Now is the time to celebrate!" Mr. Joestar exclaims. 

Jotaro rolls his eyes at his grandfathers' antics but Polnareff doesn't miss the small upturn of his mouth as he does so. Jotaro cares more than he lets on, or believes that he lets on, and that's been apparent to Polnareff ever since they first met. 

"I think we'll have to wait a little while longer to do that" Kakyoin says vaguely. 

"And why is that?" Avdol asks. 

"This bar, it's completely empty aside from us. No bartender in sight either. I'm sure DIO had someone installed in here as well" Kakyoin says confidently. 

Polnareff looks around the room, noting that there in fact were no bartenders or any sort of staff anywhere to be seen and they've been sitting there fo a few minutes at that point. Either their service is abysmal or something else was at play here. His wolf presses at the edges of his subconscious, begging to be let out and tear into any possible enemies around them but Polnareff keeps it at bay. 

He does a test sniff to the air, smelling no one else besides himself and his party. Meaning that they were alone, at least in that room and for now. Both he and Jotaro rise from the table, giving each other a quick nod before they stalk off in separate directions. Polnareff towards the staff-only door in the corner of the room and Jotaro to the main entrance of the bar. He silently prowls over to the door, keeping his breathing in check so if there's a vampire on the other side they most likely won't hear him, and hovers his hand above the door knob. He turns around to see Jotaro nearing the main door of the bar.  

Before he can have any time to react, white-hot pain explodes on the side of his face that was facing the door. He stumbles away from the door as he feels liquid running down his face, looking back in time to get a good look at his assailant. The assailant in question was a man no older than forty with a crazed look in his eyes and a bloody knife in his hand. While Polnareff wasn't looking, he must have somehow opened the door and slashed at his face without him hearing anything. 

"Polnareff!" Everyone gasps, all of them moving closer to him and his attacker. 

"Stay back! I'll handle this" Polnareff says, his arms shooting out to try and motion for his friends to stay away from their new enemy. 

"You killed Lord DIO! You shall pay with your life!" The man screamed at him, the knife shaking in his hands. 

Polnareff sighed. 

The man was human, making this more difficult for him. He didn't want to kill him, or any human for that matter, but if he didn't he'd just keep coming back to try and either kill him or his friends. And Polnareff couldn't allow that. 

The man charged at him, slashing at the air wildly with his knife. Polnareff surges forward, easily dodging the uncoordinated slashes, and grabs the man's wrist, easily crushing it in his grip. The knife clatters to the ground as the man howls in pain, his now broken wrist still trapped by Polnareff's grip. He looks up at Polnareff for a moment, tears beginning to form in his crazed eyes, before a wild smile contorts his features. He reaches for his back pocket, slowly withdrawing something from it that Polnareff cannot see. He looks behind Polnareff, at he can only assume to be Mr. Joestar, Avdol, and Kakyoin. 

The man flicks his wrist and a flash of metal catches Polnareff's eye before he hears a series of gasps from behind him. He cranes his head around to see Kakyoin stumbling into Avdol's side, clutching a blade handle that was now protruding from his side, red staining his uniform all around it. 

His grip on the man's obliterated wrists intensifies as red-hot rage washes over him, his wolf slamming itself at the edges of his consciousness in the hopes to be let out. He pulls his fist back and brings it down on the man's cheek as hard as he could, reveling in the cracking sound beneath his knuckles. His fist comes down again and again and again until the man goes limp in his hold, his eyes rolling back into his skull. Polnareff's fist was covered in the man's blood, sending a shiver of disgust through the Frenchman. 

His disgust is quickly forgotten when he turns his attention back to Kakyoin, rushing over to hopefully be some sort of aid to his friend. Avdol had moved him to one of the tables, the redhead partially leaning partially sitting on the table in question as Avdol surveys his wound. The knife was still lodged in his side, for the better at least for now, but the amount of blood around it had rapidly increased in the last few seconds. 

The sight of Kakyoin sent foreign feelings through Polnareff, mostly anger, but there was something else there that he couldn't place. Something deeper.

Chapter Text

"We have to get him to the hospital!" Polnareff exclaims, looking at Kakyoin with evident worry on his face.

"The hospital is too far away, we'll have to do something ourselves. Can you walk, Kakyoin?" Avdol asks, the same amount of worry also evident on his face. 

Kakyoin looks up from the blade handle protruding from his side to look at the two men, his pain very evident behind his eyes. He shakily nods his head while Jotaro and Joseph share a quick look between the two of them. 

"My room is the closest, we can bring him there" Polnareff suggests, not even looking at anyone else besides Kakyoin as he speaks. 

Worry and guilt simmer together hotly in his gut, had he been faster at taking out that man they wouldn't be in this situation. Kakyoin wouldn't be hurt. Kakyoin simply nods his head and pushes himself off of the table with a slight hiss, garnering the looks of everyone around him. Polnareff unconsciously sticks close to his side as they make their way out of the bar, sneaking glances at him the entire way. Everyone else took notice of that and hung back slightly, giving the two of them some space. 

"I'll be fine, Polnareff. Don't blame yourself" Kakyoin says just quiet enough for the two of them to hear as they walked.

"It's my fault" Polnareff grumbled as they walked. 

"It was clear he planned on doing an attack like that, regardless of what you were doing or what you were going to do, so it isn't your fault" Kakyoin says, trying to reason with him. 

Polnareff didn't respond, knowing that whatever Kakyoin had to say wouldn't convince him otherwise. Had he been faster, and not worried about the man being human instead of a vampire, they wouldn't be in this situation. He simply had been too slow and his teammate was the one who paid for it. Anger still lingered in his system, both at himself and at the man who attacked them. 

As they all neared Polnareff's room, he could hear snippets of the conversation behind the two of them. 

"Are you sure, Mr. Joestar?" Avdol asks.

"Quite positive" Mr. Joestar says vaguely. 

"How can you be so sure?" Jotaro asks. 

Polnareff fumbles for a moment to pull his room key out of his pocket as they reached his door, racing ahead of Kakyoin slightly so he's able to unlock the door before he arrives. He ushers the redhead inside while also holding the door open for his other companions, closing and locking the door once they were all inside. He formally enters the room after just as Avdol comes out of the bathroom with all of the medical supplies that both Polnareff and the hotel staff had left in there. 

His eyes quickly land on Kakyoin, who is sitting in the makeshift dining area of the hotel room, painstakingly unbuttoning his now blood-stained uniform. The sight of his blood made him both angry and nauseous, two different feelings that he wasn't expecting to experience at that moment. As Avdol is setting up everything he needs to help Kakyoin on the table next to him, Polnareff turns his gaze away from them. 

He approaches Jotaro and Mr. Joestar, who were standing next to Polnareff's temporary bed. He had rented a single-bed hotel room for their last day or two in Cairo, knowing well enough at this point that he'd most likely be rooming by himself. But, luckily, the room seemed to come with an abundant amount of chairs so they could all comfortably sit down. The two Joestar men look up at him in a silent greeting, the rest of the room silent around them. 

"What were you guys talking about on the way here?" Polnareff asks bluntly. 

"I...uh......was telling Jotaro and Avdol that now the hotel should be perfectly safe" Mr. Joestar obviously lies, a fake smile plastered on his face as he speaks. 

"Is that right?" Polnareff questions. 

Anyone with eyes and/or ears could tell that Mr. Joestar was lying through his teeth but why was he lying? Did he not trust Polnareff enough to actually tell him? Or is it a personal family matter that he has no right to know about? 

"Yes" Jotaro says, lying in the place of his grandfather. 

"I'll keep watch outside the room, just in case" Polnareff says. 

Something deep inside of him was screaming for him not to leave Kakyoin in there, despite being in the good care of Avdol, but he reasoned that away with being a result of his guilt. He didn't want to see Avdol panicking as he stitches him up because of a mistake on Polnareff's part. Both Jotaro and Mr. Joestar nod at his words, giving the Frenchman his right to leave the room. He does so quickly, knowing that Avdol was about to pull the blade out within a matter of seconds. 

Quickly closing the door, Polnareff leans against the wall next to it and huffs. He knows the walls won't do much in terms of muffling Kakyoin's eventual screams but they'll do a better job than his remaining in the room would ever do. 

~~*~~

The doorknob next to him rattling makes Polnareff jump, his heart beginning to beat rapidly in his chest. The room had fallen silent almost an hour ago now, Kakyoin's muffled screams no longer present to torture Polnareff's already guilt-ridded mind. 

Avdol, Jotaro, and Mr. Joestar silently walk out into the hallway, Avdol quietly closing the door behind himself. Polnareff looks between the three of them for a moment, a million questions racing through his mind all at once. 

"He's asleep and he'll be fine. For now" Avdol says.

"For now?" Polnareff asks, clenching his fists at his sides. 

"I did as best as I could but those stitches will only hold for so long. Once we leave Cairo we'll rendevous with doctors from the Speedwagon Foundation" Avdol further explains. 

Polnareff nods. 

"The three of us are gonna head back to our rooms for now, and try to get some sleep. Would you mind keeping an eye on him?" Mr. Joestar asks. 

"I'll take care of him" Polnareff says, promising that to himself. 

The three of them all share a look before nodding. Polnareff opens the door to his hotel room as they depart, making their way back to their own rooms. He closes and locks the door quietly behind himself and enters the room properly. The stench of Kakyoin's blood hangs heavy in the air, making Polnareff's stomach turn. He could see his ruined uniform sticking out of the trash in the bathroom of the hotel room, something that he's sure Kakyoin was upset about. Without thinking too much of it, Polnareff grabs a spare plain white tee shirt out of his bag and drapes it over the back of the chair Kakyoin previously was sitting in, in case he doesn't have an extra shirt. 

Speaking of the boy in question, Polnareff's gaze fell heavily onto him. The steady rise and fall of his chest underneath the duvet sent a large wave of relief through Polnareff's body. He looked to be paler than normal but that was to be expected with a large amount of blood loss. Everything in him screamed to wake him up, just to make sure that he was truly alive and well, but Polnareff resisted. Kakyoin needs his rest and he would allow him to get it.

He slides down onto the chair closest to the bed, his gaze landing on Kakyoin's face. His wolf shuddered in contentment deep within him at the sight of Kakyoin sleeping soundly within his hotel room, whatever that means. His wolf must just be glad that one of his dear friends is safe, that's all. 

"je....an" Kakyoin mumbles in his sleep. 

A jolt of warmth runs through Polnareff at the use of his first name, as the group only ever referred to him using his surname, and he drags the chair closer to the bed, closer to Kakyoin. His eyes are moving wildly beneath his lids, his face screwed up in neither a pleasant nor disgusted way. He must be having a rather intense dream, Polnareff thought. 

"You'll be okay Kakyoin, everything's gonna be okay" Polnareff says, moreso trying to convince himself rather than the sleeping Kakyoin. 

Kakyoin stirs again, this time resulting in his eyes slowly opening. Polnareff is frozen in his chair as Kakyoin takes his time taking in his surroundings before his gaze lands on the other man. His lips quirk up into a tired smile before he looks up at the ceiling, breathing much louder than normal.

"Stuck on babysitting duty?" Kakyoin asks jokingly. 

"You know it" Polnareff says, smiling weakly. 

"I'm stealing your bed" Kakyoin points out after a few moments of silence. 

"I'll manage without one tonight" Polnareff says, knowing that he'd give up his bed a million times so that Kakyoin could have it instead. 

"I....I can push over" Kakyoin says, looking anywhere but Polnareff as a small blush appears on his cheeks. 

"What?" Polnareff asks, looking at the younger man with a slightly confused look on his face. 

"We could...share the bed" Kakyoin proposes. 

Polnareff looks at the younger man blankly for a moment. He was willing to share the bed with him? They've all been in relatively close quarters throughout their journey but they all always got their own beds, if not their own individual hotel rooms. His wolf wildly nudges at the sides of his mind, beckoning for Polnareff to climb into the bed with Kakyoin and for him to stay there for as long as he possibly could. Polnareff pushes those thoughts to the back of his mind, not knowing where in the world they were coming from. 

"Avdol would murder me for so much as jostling your stitches" Polnareff states, his mind otherwise going blank. 

"I said we could share the bed, that doesn't mean we'd be spooning" Kakyoin says, looking back over at Polnareff with an arched brow. 

Polnareff blushes slightly as he looks away, biting the inside of his mouth as he does. 

"Just go back to bed, I'll be here when you wake up" Polnareff says, still not looking at Kakyoin. 

Kakyoin sighs but doesn't say anything else. Polnareff looks at him out of the corner of his eye, seeing that he was already fast asleep. He sighs. Soon, they'd be on their way home and won't have to deal with any more life-threatening injuries or vampire assassins coming after them in the dead of night. 

Chapter Text

None of his companions mentioned the dark circles under Polnareff's eyes when they arrived at his hotel room the following morning, all of them instantly knowing that the blonde hadn't gotten any sleep. He had hardly left the chair beside his bed all night, not wanting any more harm to fall upon Kakyoin under his watch potentially. The man in question had slept for the rest of the night without any trouble and still had yet to wake up that morning. 

"How's he doing?" Avdol asks as he walks past Polnareff into the room. 

"Fine. He's still sleeping" Polnareff says quietly. 

He quietly closes the door behind Joseph and Jotaro as they enter the room. He watched as Avdol approached the bed, his body becoming tense almost in unison with the other man nearing Kakyoin. His foot lifted off of the ground before he could stop himself and, before he even thought about what he was doing, he easily cleared half of the room and was nearly in front of the bed. The now awake Kakyoin looked at him with a slightly arched brow as he came to an abrupt halt a foot or so away from the end of the bed. What the hell was that? Polnareff clenches and unclenches his fists at his sides, trying to relax both his mind and the wildly thrashing wolf in his mind. 

"How are you feeling, Kakyoin?" Avdol asks, completely ignoring Polnareff. 

"A little stiff but other then that fine" Kakyoin says, moving his gaze from Polnareff to Avdol as he speaks. 

"Good. We'll be leaving the hotel in a few hours, right, Mr. Joestar?" Avdol asks, looking over at the older man. 

"Yes, we'll be heading out soon and rendezvousing with a couple of doctors from the Speedwagon Foundation" Joseph explains. 

Polnareff breathed a small sigh of relief, knowing that they would soon be seeing capable doctors that could ensure that Kakyoin's wound would be on the mend very shortly. The doctors would surely also tell Joseph, Jotaro, and himself that it would be best to wait another few days before traveling due to the upcoming full moon. Something that Polnareff would be fine with, as they hadn't waited out the last full moon and were in the midst of traveling and had to deal with the aftermath of their transformations while also fighting multiple DIO henchmen. The three of them, unlike other members of their species, are able to more or less control themselves whilst in their wolf forms but the transformation still took both a mental and physical toll on them. 

"I'm gonna grab some breakfast from the restaurant downstairs before we head out, if anyone wants to join they can" Jotaro says nonchalantly. 

Polnareff nods, knowing that he could go for some breakfast. They hadn't had a chance to get dinner or drinks last night due to the attack upon Kakyoin so he was properly starving, as he was sure the rest of them were as well. Kakyoin also nods, pushing himself into a further sitting position on the bed. 

"Avdol and I will meet you guys down there, all right?" Joseph asks, already halfway to the door by the time he even started speaking. 

Avdol simply nods his head before joining Joseph near the door, openly looking back and forth between Kakyoin and Polnareff for a moment while he's walking over. Polnareff frowned, had he done something wrong to upset Avdol? Did he think that he didn't take good enough care of Kakyoin the night before or something like that?

"Yeah, we'll meet you down there" Kakyoin said, seemingly both for himself and Polnareff. 

Joseph nods before opening the door, allowing himself, Avdol, and Jotaro to all leave the room. Jotaro gives the two of them a silent nod as he leaves, as if he's leaving to not possibly intrude on something. The door closes and Polnareff sighs, slowly turning his gaze back over to Kakyoin. 

The redhead was looking everywhere in the room besides Polnareff, slowly twirling his thumbs in his lap. Was he embarrassed about the night prior? Polnareff sighs, hoping for that to not be the case. He was in pain and didn't want to be by himself, there was nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about by that. 

"You OK?" Polnareff asks him, looking at him as he crosses his arms in front of his chest. 

Kakyoin's gaze lands on him after a moment, the younger man slowly nodding his head. 

Polnareff wordlessly grabs the shirt that he had left out the night before and stalked over to the side of the bed Kakyoin was laying on, dropping the shirt down onto his lap. He looks up at Polnareff with an arched brow. 

"I have a change of clothes in my room" Kakyoin says, looking down at the white shirt that was now in his lap. 

"You're gonna walk around the hotel in a bloody shirt then?" Polnareff says, roughly pointing at the dried blood stains on Kakyoin's side. 

"No," Kakyoin says after a moment, "thank you"

Polnareff nods. 

Kakyoin sighs as he slides his legs out from under the covers, lightly clutching at his side as he stands. Polnareff, without thinking, lunges forward, grabbing Kakyoin's shoulders in an effort to stabilize him. They stood like that for a moment or two, Kakyoin holding his side and looking up at Polnareff with an unreadable expression on his face, and Polnareff holding Kakyoin's shoulders with a tense look on his face.

"You can let go now" Kakyoin says with a small roll of his eyes. 

Polnareff quickly lets him go and steps back a foot or so, inhaling deeply as he did so. The air still smelt strongly of his blood, but there was something beneath that that Polnareff recognized as purely Kakyoin. A hint of cherries, along with sand and musk, lay beneath the stench of his blood.

Kakyoin spares no time and sheds his bloodied undershirt, hissing slightly as the fabric of the shirt scrapes against his bandages. Polnareff looks away as Kakyoin pulls on his shirt, hearing the redhead moving around behind him until he completely walks around Polnareff and walks to the other side of the room. 

Polnareff's breath catches in his throat as he catches a whiff of his scent intermingling with Kakyoin's, both that and the sight of the other man wearing his shirt sending a shot of foreign feelings through his body. His wolf was bouncing happily within him, something Polnareff struggles to push down. Just why was he so damn happy about it? The shirt he gave the other man was too large for him, clashing horribly with the pants that he had been wearing from the previous day. Kakyoin deposits his bloodied shirt in the trash can before looking back over at Polnareff. 

"Let's go get breakfast" Kakyoin says simply. 

Polnareff nods, silently and happily following behind the other man.