#voila! first selfship story is UP

[sunshine-shitposts]

A day late, but here's the final part!

(Part 1) (Part 2)

(Tw: more mentions of past spousal abuse)

Dust in the Wind—Part 3

As Catherine and Jotaro exited through the sliding doors, Sunnie paused, heaved a heavy sigh, and walked back into the suite to see Dio lounging on the sofa, swirling a glass of red in his hand. He had dimmed the lights to his preference, the various candles lit around the room casting a warm, flickering glow.

Sunnie, however, seemed drained. Even with the small little flames dancing around her, her eyes were devoid of light, and her lips had settled into a somewhat grim line. Her shoulders had sunk down and she huffed as she moved back into their shared living room.

"That went better than expected," Dio purred, low and playful, "The Jotaro where I'm from is far more terrifying."

"I wouldn't know," she said simply, sinking back onto the deep seated sectional before grabbing her Switch out of her backpack.

"I must say, you did exceptionally well," he licked his lips and watched her, golden eyes glowing strangely in the low light and independently of the flickering candles, "Catherine was right to suggest demonstrating the difference between me and the Dio from here using your…" his eyes grazed over her covered arms and legs, "…situation. But you were a true natural, I must say," he said, lips sliding into a delighted smile, "I'm tempted to wonder if it was, in fact, an act."

"I don't half-ass things," she grunted as she curled up, focusing on the light of the screen in the now darker room and not his piercingly calculating glare.

"I know, my sweet," came a breathy reply as he set his glass down on the side table and slid up next to her, speaking directly into her ear as a large hand reached around to play with her hair, "I know full well that you don't 'half-ass' anything, but I can smell your feelings. Humans are entirely too easy to read." His nose then crinkled. "I also smell that Joestar boy on you, perhaps… too much."

"I actually found him in Dallas and drove him here. He was lost, so I offered him a ride." Her nose twitched, smelling velvety iron on his breath. It was blood tonight, rather than wine. Of course.

"Ah," his response was short. She could tell he still didn't like the idea, didn't like Jotaro Kujo himself. "You're a bit more prickly than normal today, my Sunlight. Did something happen, perhaps?"

"Just some bullshit with him," she growled, sinking further into the plush sofa, his eyes following her movements closely. "He's threatening to tell people about, well, my powers. I know that he wouldn't because it'd probably just make him look crazy, but it's like, the principle of the thing, right? He's just making threats that he'll never follow through with again. He always fucking does this. And he made it clear that if he finds out I'm working with other men, he'll do everything he can to make this divorce as difficult as possible."

Dio scoffed. "I don't know how he thinks he can control that."

"I mean… he can't, really. But he's vindictive."

"Imagine if he found out you were living part-time with another man," he chuckled, and his vision was sharp enough to catch the barely-there upwards twitch of the corners of her mouth.

"He'd lose his fucking mind," she said softly.

There was a short silence, Sunnie playing on her Switch and Dio watching her carefully.

"...You're afraid of him," he said after a while.

She didn't respond.

"You know you don't have to fear him. He is weak, pathetic. A worm, a parasite–"

Sunnie huffed sharply, hands gripping the Switch tightly in her hands. "Listen, Dio, I know. I know I'm stronger than him, I know he's–that he's shit, but…" Her shoulders let loose tension she didn't realize they had. "It's…"

She failed to finish her sentence, her gaze distant and unfocused, and didn't react to a long finger tucking a loose, wispy strand of dark purple hair behind her ear.

"From what you've told me, that man tried to clip your wings for so long. Tried to convince you that you couldn't fly, tried to keep you grounded," he murmured, tilting her chin up and towards him so he could capture her cold eyes with his own, "I can't wait to see you soar, little bird. Because I know you will. You will make an utter fool out of him."

Sunnie inhaled softly, a faint blush dusting her cheeks, but cut her response short, hardening her gaze again.

"That's some sweet lip service, coming from a manipulative bastard like you," she muttered, causing him to laugh.

"Your assessment of me is not incorrect, but I am not without my sincerities," he said as he pulled away, leaning back against the plush arm of the sofa. "Perhaps I, too, wasn't putting on an act as much as you think I was."

"Bullshit," she laughed bitterly, "I think I have a pretty good idea of what kind of person you are."

"Hm." He watched her go back to her game, eyes narrowing in thought. "My father was abusive, you know."

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Not George Joestar, mind you–but the man before that. He took so much out on my mother that it outright killed her. She tried to protect me of course, but with her gone it was just beatings, verbal abuse, thrown bottles, the works. Believe you me, I am not entirely unfamiliar with your situation. We had different circumstances, different reactions, yes, but there are similarities to what we went through."

"You killed him, didn't you?" Her gaze had thawed, somewhat, and she was curious. Dio laughed again.

"Of course I did. Slowly, patiently. It was a poison, one I knew wouldn't be tracked. We were poor, my father was an alcoholic, no one looked twice! It was incredibly easy." He rolled his head back, stretching it out slightly, and Sunnie saw glimpses of the wicked scar around his neck peek out from his high-necked top. "Alas, I am aware there are procedures now. Autopsies and the like. Makes things more difficult for people who want to get things done."

"Theeere you go," she rolled her eyes, "Another reminder of exactly what you are."

He hummed in agreement and they sat in silence for a while, Sunnie turning back to her game and Dio reading while sipping from his glass. After a while, she shifted.

"...How old were you?" she asked, voice soft.

"Hm?"

"When you killed your dad. How old?"

"Twelve," came his simple answer. His gaze slid over to her to find her staring not at, but seemingly through the screen, her nose slightly scrunched in thought.

"...I'm sorry that happened to you," she said, not sparing a glance at the monster next to her. "No one deserves to go through that."

"No one?" He prodded, grinning like a snake.

"No one, not even you," she affirmed.

"Your own sentiment extends to you as well, my dear," he said, setting the finally-empty glass down on the side table and moving to her side, reaching his muscled arm over the back of the sofa and around her, "No matter what he made you believe, the fact still stands: you didn't deserve it." Sunnie felt a wave of anger—how dare he assume—and she whipped in his direction and opened her mouth to speak, but he raised a finger to her lips to stop her. "Ah-ah. I can tell you were being honest in front of the Joestar boy. You were not acting. Don't try to lie, not to me." Her brows were still furrowed, eyes still fiery, but she closed her mouth. "Don't try to weasel out of giving yourself the same kindness you afford others. Start small if you must, but you'd better start, or I'm going to get very, very annoying about it," he finished with a positively wicked grin, and she threw her arms up in defeat.

"Jesus fucking Christ, I get your point!!! Fine!!!" She huffed, "The last thing I want you to do is get more annoying than you already are." She was unsure if his grin could possibly be any more smug than it was at that very moment, and the victorious twinkle in his eyes began to fluster her, so she pulled away from him, standing and walking briskly away. "I'm gonna go get a drink."

"Would you like for me to make you one?" Dio asked, his innocent tone not at all matching his expression.

"Fuck no and fuck you, I'm not having a repeat of the blood wine like last time, you little shit," she spat, but there was no chance she could disguise the grin in her voice.

"I'm more than a foot taller than you, darling!" He called after her, picking a different book up off of the coffee table.

"Would you like to be a Big Shit? Is that better??"

"I suppose not," he laughed softly.

There was a strangely comfortable silence between them, various clinking and pouring noises coming from the bar before Sunnie went off to her room while Dio quietly ran his eyes across the pages in front of him. Sunnie returned, hair up in a messy bun and sporting a large, loose NASA shirt that draped off her frame and almost completely covered her shorts. Her legs were dappled with various fading bruises, a particularly cruel-looking one on her upper right thigh. Dio cast a glance at the glass in her hand and raised a brow.

"That smells like quite a bit of alcohol," he noted, turning a page with his clawed finger.

"Don't keep me from having my fun. It's a Friday night and my husband is making my life hell," she responded, sitting back down and taking a couple deep gulps of her drink.

"Oh I wouldn't dream of it, dear. I'm merely observing."

She stared at him for a second and sighed. "Sorry. I got defensive." She took another sip. "He just… he never lets me make decisions like this. Staying up late, getting my own drinks, choosing what I eat, stuff like that."

"He's controlling. I'm aware," he said lightly, looking at her again, "And I enjoy seeing you explore your newfound freedom from him. Do things you never thought you could before. In fact, Catherine has informed me that you've begun to truly test your Stand's abilities."

Sunnie looked at him, eyes owlishly wide. "D… did she say anything?"

"That she's quite impressed. You're creative and have incredible potential." He grinned as she flushed. "I would be honored to bear witness to your strength sometime."

There was a nearly child-like glimmer in her eyes, and a smile on her face that he hadn't quite seen before. It was wide, with a little tremble dancing on the corner of her lips. Her cheeks were rosy with excitement. If she were a little puppy, there was no doubt that her tail would be wagging happily.

"Oh? Such a small bit of praise, and you're glowing. How precious," he laughed softly, eyes narrowing in delight at the display, "I'll be sure to keep this in mind for the future."

She immediately looked away, turning her Switch back on, "Ah—w-well. It's just, I've never really been able to share Windy with other people. This is… this is cool."

But her blush was unmistakable.

They sat in silence for a while, Sunnie playing her game and Dio reading, before he heard her clear her throat.

"So, I have a question," she began, and though the way she said it made it sound conversational, Dio had a feeling that the topic she was about to bring up was not a throwaway one. "You know I read that file on this dimension's Dio, right? They found bodies in that Cairo mansion. Lots of them, all exsanguinated. And I was wondering…" She looked at him, green eyes flickering in the light of the candles, expression unreadable, "How many people have you killed?"

"Far, far more than I could ever count, my dear," he answered plainly, leaning against the back of the sofa, his smile soft, "I evaded the grasp of the Joestars for years, but I won't lie and claim that our battles were easy. Every time I managed to escape, I needed to restore myself. And to do that…"

"You needed blood," Sunnie finished, voice quiet. Dio hummed in confirmation.

"Does this bother you?" he asked, tone nearly teasing.

"I'm not the type to hate a predator for doing what it has to in order to survive, Dio," she said, eyes rolling, "You should have figured that out about me by now."

"Then does it frighten you, perhaps? Knowing that you share quarters with a bloodthirsty monster such as myself?" He inched closer to her, the soft smile turning into something far more sinister as his gaze slid down to her neck, "If I'm to be honest, that day when I first smelled your blood, that day when we found out what your husband had done to you…" He reached up and drew a line down the side of her neck with a sharp talon, chuckling as he felt her pulse hitch minutely, but otherwise stay steady, "You smell delicious, you know. And you were so vulnerable, so small… it would have been so easy for me to take."

Her eyes refused to leave his as his hand dropped back down, and he was mildly surprised when a dark smirk played at her lips.

"My favorite creatures," she responded matter-of-factly, "just so happen to be the dangerous ones."

And he threw his head back and belly-laughed, all the tension between them dissipating.

"Hey!! What's so funny??" She shouted over his jovial cackling, "I'm serious!! I'm being completely serious!!"

"It's not that I don't believe you, Sunshine! Because I do, I truly do," he answered, looking at her once more, "I just find it hard to believe my own fortune at times; that we found each other."

She tossed a pillow directly at his face.

A couple of hours later, she shut the door to her room and felt silence overtake her.

The room at the Speedwagon Foundation was a bigger room than she'd ever had, but it was quite empty. She figured that it made sense that it was sparsely decorated after only a couple of months working for them, but it still felt kind of lonely.

She hadn't asked for much. A low queen size bed that she had pushed against a corner, covered in fluffy, soft blankets and a decent amount of pillows, and a bedside table with decent storage space. There was a drawer for her clothes and a good ceiling fan—she hated stagnant air. The connected bathroom was also spacious, with a surprisingly large and wide alcove tub, larger than the bathtub she'd had at her first apartment with… 

She looked down at her feet, saw the bruises littering her legs. Raised her palms up towards her gaze, traced the violence with her eyes.

Her first apartment had been with her husband, hadn't it.

Moving out was going to be difficult. The first time she'd gone back to pack some of her things, there was a moment during which both her parents were carrying boxes to her mom's car, and she was left alone in there with him, and all he'd done was lean against the wall, arms crossed, and pin her with the most loathsome stare she had ever seen from him. Those brown eyes she treasured were filled with nothing but seething hate, and the dimples in his cheeks peeked out not because of a warm smile but because of a firmly disgusted grimace. She'd tried to pay it no mind and kept packing her books but she'd nearly shattered under the weight of the feeling, her chest nearly heaving with the effort to breathe, the frigid coldness of panic beginning to seep in.

Dio was right. Her own husband terrified her.

She'd worn long sleeves and jeans despite the summer heat that day, keeping the bruises and cuts hidden from everyone. She didn't want to… didn't want him to see it? He knew what he'd done, he probably guessed that her body bore at least some marks from the fight they'd had the morning of that big fight. So why did she cover up? Maybe she didn't want him to get some sick sort of power trip. Maybe he reveled in the thought of being able to control someone who had supernatural powers, who had the ability to control wind itself through nothing but fear and her loyalty to him. Loyalty that, that fateful day, had finally snapped.

Her hands dropped to her sides and she looked at herself in her full length mirror.

Spotted all over in a horrible way. Dark circles under her eyes. Drawn brows. And a particular lifelessness that was rare in her.

Pathetic.

"How much does a person have to go through?" Sunnie asked no one in particular. She lifted her loose shirt, eyeing the long bruise on her side and clicking her tongue against her teeth. "You gotta go back, you know. There's more boxes for you. More of your life to reclaim."

Her voice, her eyes, were hollow. Tired.

"…You gotta face him again."

So, so tired.

Suddenly, her skin itched. She felt starved, like she wanted to reach out and grab for something she couldn't name. Her chest shuddered, and she choked on a sob.

Fuck.

She doubled over as the first tears slid down her cheeks, warm and wet and awful.

She'd been so insistent on keeping the pain hidden for so long. She knew she was stubborn—she was like an injured cat at times, in that she never let anyone know when she was hurting. It made moving through life easier. She hated to worry her loved ones and, more importantly, hated feeling weak.

But god, did it hurt. Like a vice crushing her chest, like she was drowning, like she'd never ever recover. She knew she had to get through this, but wondered if she'd be crushed by the weight of it all in the process. She felt it bubble out of her, despite her insistence that no, I have to keep this inside, I want to keep this inside, but her efforts were useless.

She didn't realize that she'd fallen to her knees until her hand shot out to brace against the ground. More tears came and fell to the hardwood floor and fuck she was desperate to stop them. She hated feeling things, she hated feeling this…

In her sharp peripheral vision she caught the quickest glimmer of gold, which disappeared the second she tried to look at it.

...He saw.

Goddammit, he saw.

Her body trembled, the concept of being known at such a vulnerable time in her life making a flash of freezing terror rip through her. Desperate to calm herself down, she forced herself to think, to just think for just a moment.

There it was again, glimmering warm and bright in her chest. That tug in her body, that cry for something, for anything, for… 

...Oh.

Dio was still lounging on the large sofa when Sunnie emerged from her bedroom, her comforter wrapped around her and her pillow in tow. The head of her worn-out stuffed bear peeked out from her arms as well, its one-eyed state making it look like it was winking. Sunnie's eyes were red and puffy, but her expression was blank. She and Dio stared at each other for a minute or so before he spoke.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" he asked, his smile sly but knowing.

"Cut the shit, I know he saw me crying," she responded, voice clipped as she referred to his Stand.

"He did," he hummed, thinking for a moment before elaborating, "That is to say, I did."

Another silence.

"I…" she gulped, shuffling her feet on the hardwood, "I don't want to be alone right now. …I can't."

He nodded. "That's understandable."

"Do… do you mind if…" Her gaze fell to the ground for a second before looking back up at him, "…Maybe…?"

There was something strangely soft in his eyes as he patted the space on the sofa next to him. She paused, then shuffled towards him and past the coffee table. She put the pillow down right next to him then crawled onto the cushions, laying down on her side, nuzzling her head into the pillow as per her habit. Dio turned back to his book, eyes skimming the words until he heard her voice, soft and unsure.

"You were right. I'm afraid of him. And I have been for… years."

He glanced at her, but she didn't elaborate. Sunnie just snuggled into her fluffy comforter some more, brows furrowed, before she looked back up at him.

"Dio? I… I wouldn't mind, y'know. If you, uh…"

A small hand peeked out from the comforter and patted her face in an attempt to ask without words.

He chuckled and reached his hand down, placing it, large and nearly overwhelming, on her head, ruffling her mussed up hair softly. She couldn't help the sigh and shiver that ran through her as he trailed the hand to her round cheek, delicately stroking the skin there.

She closed her eyes, curling her knees close to her chest and getting comfortable, letting out a quiet hum when she felt a sharp nail tuck some hair behind her ear before going back to dragging softly down her face.

"Thank you," she murmured.

"It's nothing, my dear."

"Not to me it isn't," she insisted, and he raised a brow, looking back down to her face as it sank into the plush pillow, "I mean, I know you're a bastard and all but… it means a lot."

"...I understand," he said, voice low and soft as he settled his long fingers across her neck and chin, his thumb trailing across the apple of her cheek.

They remained quiet for the rest of the night, and Sunnie eventually fell asleep to the feeling of his cool hand cradling her head and softly carding through her hair.

For the first time in a very long while, she didn't have nightmares.