Chapter Two:
The unrelenting rays of sunlight peered through the cream-colored curtains of Emilia's room. Puffs of air fanned across the sleeping girl's face, its repulsive breath edging her awake. It was only when the feeling of a warm tongue ran along her cheek and her eye that she fully awoke. Disgruntled, Emilia blinked her eyes open; light grey eyes clashed with brown as she stared into Danny's grinning face. Sitting up abruptly, the girl let out a harsh sneeze, startling the poor dog who jumped wide-eyed away from her.
"I must've forgotten to put him in Jojo's room last night." Emilia thought to herself as she watched the dog in front of her. Scratching her arms insistently, she looked down to notice the hives creeping up her body.
"Come on, Danny," Emilia sighed out, opening her door to free him. The Great Dane rushed out, most likely headed to greet Jonathan in the same way that he had done to her. Emilia was about to close her door to get ready; when a figure passed by her room, startling her. Letting out a small shriek of surprise, she held a hand to her heart, feeling her elevated heartbeat.
"You scared me, Dio. I didn't think anyone else would be awake," Emilia commented, staring wide-eyed at the boy. Dio stared back, his gaze locked onto an unimpressed one.
"I was just headed to the library to do some light reading before we eat," Dio smoothly responded, his voice like melting butter. His unimpressed gaze morphing into one of disinterest.
"Oh," Emilia responded quietly. "I'll let you go read then. I have to get ready," she added before letting out a gasp of realization. Slamming her door shut, the girl could feel the heat rushing up to her cheeks, a deep red settling there, as she bathed in embarrassment. Dio's laughter passed through her door before the sound slowly faded away along with his footsteps.
She had just been spotted in her nightgown, and by a boy no less. How improper! How could I be so obvious? Emilia couldn't help but reprimand herself as she basked in embarrassment.
Once her embarrassment nullified and she could feel the heat leave her cheeks, Emilia quickly got ready for the day. They had lessons with Mr. Joestar that day, and he was nothing less than a strict teacher.
Dio, Jonathan, and Emilia sat together around a large square table as Mr. Joestar began his lecture. Unfortunately for Emilia, Dio had been placed right in front of her. It was hard to look him in the eye again after that morning without the flush returning to her cheeks, so she took to avoiding his piercing eyes.
Rubbing her scarred arm through the thick fabric of her dress, Emilia listened closely to the lesson. Mr. Joestar was not a patient man when it came to learning; she and Jonathan learned that the hard way.
This lesson seemed to be the hardest one yet, though, and it seemed like his impatience was not lacking in the slightest. The rapid spitfire of questions made it a lot harder to answer it correctly under all the pressure. It amazed Emilia how Dio managed to get all of them right. Forgetting her vow not to look him in the eye, the girl couldn't help but stare at him in disbelief. She and Jonathan both got a lot of the questions wrong, although, Jonathan did a lot worse than she did. The arrogant blond only sent a smug smirk back.
"Wrong again, Jojo! You claim you don't understand, but no matter how much I teach you, you never learn!" Mr. Joestar's patience finally wore out after Jonathan got yet another question wrong. Slapping the boys' hand with his disciplinary stick, he gave him a look of disappointment. Jonathan flushed deeply from embarrassment, sending Emilia a look for help. All the girl could do, though, was shrug helplessly. What could she do?
"Look at, Dio; he's gotten everything correct. Maybe you should learn something from him; I see now that I've been too lenient!" Emilia couldn't help but think that the comparison of the two boys was a little unfair. It was only his second day there, and Dio was already getting praised as the better one? Seeing the crestfallen look paint across his features, the girl wanted nothing more than to stand up for him; and say that she had gotten some of them wrong as well, so why didn't he mention her? But she didn't; after all, it would only land her in trouble as well.
The clanking of silverware scraping against their plates filled the mostly silent room as they ate, seated at the long mahogany dining table. Sitting beside Jonathan, Emilia tried her best to avoid the inevitable of clashing elbows with the boy as they ate. Although he wanted to be a gentleman through and through, his table manners were more than lacking; at this point, they were almost nonexistent. Anytime they ate together, Emilia swore that he acted as if his food was going to magically disappear before his eyes with the way that he inhaled his food. However, by now, she was used to his behavior and thought nothing of it as she continued to eat her meal politely.
Dio was not, though. Looking up from his food, he couldn't help the look of complete disdain and disgust from crossing his face. He was raised in the slums and still had better manners than him.
Reaching over from where he was wolfing down his food, Jonathan tried to grab his glass of wine. However, he had been in too big of a hurry and knocked it over; the red liquid spilled from its container, staining the beautiful white cloth that rested beneath the food.
For Mr. Joestar, who had been watching his son eat, this was the last straw. Fed up with Jonathan's deplorable table manners, the nobleman decided it was about time that he put it to an end.
"Jojo! Your manners are deplorable. And you call yourself a gentleman!" Mr. Joestar reprimanded him harshly. Jonathan looked up at his father, startled. The boy has never been scolded for his eating habits before.
"Look at Dio and Emilia. Their manners are impeccable! Maybe I have been too lenient on you over the years. Clear his plate at once!" Mr. Joestar commanded with a snap.
Jonathan, once again, was being compared to Dio. Not only that, but he lost the rest of his meal for the night! It was more than upsetting for the poor boy. Lifting his head slightly from its bowed position, he glanced up with tears welling in his eyes. With one last look cast across the dining table and its occupants, he scrambled out of the room, tears flowing freshly down his face.
"Hmph, imbecile." Emilia could faintly hear Dio scoff under his breath. Casting a firm glare across her face, she sneered at him before rushing out of the room behind Jonathan.
Unaware that Emilia had been following him, Jonathan slammed his door shut behind him. Plummeting face-first onto his fluffy bed, he let his mattress embrace him. Grasping tightly onto the cotton covers, he brought them up to his face as he sobbed. These weren't only tears of sorrow from being compared and scolded all day; they were tears of frustration. No matter what he did, everything was wrong.
A gentle knock on the door broke Jonathan from his self-deprecating thoughts. Already knowing who was at the door, he let out a muffled shout through the sheets he had burrowed himself in, telling her to come in.
Creaking the door open, Emilia slipped through with Danny, who had loyally followed when he sensed something was wrong. Silently, she sunk onto the bed beside him, rubbing his back comfortingly. "That wasn't fair," Emilia muttered softly.
To Jonathan, at that moment, Emilia was the only one who understood him and cared. Clinging onto her, the boy let her warm embrace comfort him as he cried. Danny, who wanted to join in on the scene, curled up beside Jonathan as well.
The familiarity of this was all too well known for the siblings. The feeling of immense loneliness or despair, as no one wanted to befriend them. In fact, everyone their age seemed to want to do the exact opposite. Bullying was nothing unknown to them; after all, any of the kids who lived in poverty wanted nothing more than to take their anger and frustrations out on the nobles who were "above" them.
However, after a particularly rough day, the siblings were always there for each other. Crying it out, clinging either onto each other or Danny, they would let their tears lull them to sleep. Sometimes it wasn't even just the bullying from other kids, though. Even if one of them just had a bad day, the other would be there for them. That was how their system worked. After a while of bullying and teasing from the other kids, they learned to come to terms that they only had each other. That's why Dio showing up brought the two hope. Would they finally be able to add another person to their group? However, so far, it wasn't looking that way.
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Waking up with your arm asleep and tingling never made for a pleasant morning. A heavy pressure against Emilia's arm slowly brought her from the realm of dreams. Fluttering her eyes open, she groggily tried to pull her arm away from whatever was pinning it down. Once her vision finally cleared from its morning haze, Emilia could see that Jonathan and Danny were the ones crushing her arm. Jonathan had sprawled across his bed like a starfish throughout the night with Danny.
Twisting and pulling, Emilia tried to pull her arm from beneath them. After a bit, it worked, but the tingling only became more uncomfortable. Shaking it, she tried to get her feeling back, but it proved useless.
Emilia swept the curtains gently to the side, and a soft array of oranges and yellows flowed in through the window. Seeing the rising sun, she decided that it was early enough to start her day. Creaking the door open, Emilia tried to be as silent as possible while she slipped through. Having caught her bulky dress in the doors of the manor all too many times, the girl let out a breath of relief once she was safely outside. Softly clicking the door back shut, Emilia, made her way back to her room.
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Resting against the uncomfortable wooden headboard of his bed, Dio watched the array of morning hues fill his room as he lost himself in thought. He'd been at the manor for three days now, and so far, his plan to isolate Jojo was beginning to work. Already Mr. Joestar was treating him better than his own son, and soon if his plan worked, which he had no doubts that it wouldn't, then the Joestar fortune would go to him without issue. However, now he had to figure out how to get Emilia away from Jojo.
When he first arrived at the manor, Mr. Joestar had explained Emilia's situation and why he had adopted her, as well as how close she and Jojo were. It put a falter in his plan, that was for sure. To do that, he knew he'd have to befriend her and slowly lull her away from Jojo. After hearing about how close they were, though, he knew it wasn't going to be an easy task.
Stretching his arms above his head, Dio climbed out of bed. It was still a little early to be starting his day, but he figured walking around for a little bit might help him come up with a plan. After dressing for the day, Dio slipped out of his room quietly, careful not to awaken anybody.
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Steam flowed into Emilia's room as she opened her connecting bathroom door. Shivering a little from the abrupt temperature change, Emilia rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm back up.
It was still too early in the morning for anybody else to be awake, even after her forever long struggle against her dress to tug it on, so Emilia decided to wander around the mansion until everybody else woke up. Humming silently to herself, Emilia slipped out of her room. Rubbing her arm, she let her eyes wander across the various things that lined the walls as decoration.
It had been a while since the girl had done this, just wandering freely about without a care. When Emilia was younger and had a rough day and wanted to be alone, she would wander around the halls or the large courtyard outback. She found it was the best way to relax and clear her mind. The last time the girl had found herself wandering the courtyard, though, was after some petty argument with Jonathan. Emilia could hardly remember what it was about anymore, but she could still remember laughing it off at the end of the day with him as they sat near the water fountain.
Distracted by her reminiscing, Emilia wasn't paying attention to her surroundings as she turned the corner. Crashing into a firm surface, she let out a shriek of surprise as she stumbled away from whatever she had crashed into. Looking up, Emilia was even more surprised to meet a piercing orange gaze.
"Dio?! What are you doing up?" Emilia couldn't help but immediately question the boy in front of her, who was watching her with raised eyebrows.
"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to walk around. Is this going to become a morning thing, though?" At first, Emilia didn't understand what he was asking, but then a deep flush settled on her cheeks. This was the second day in a row that she had been startled by him. At least this time, though, she was dressed properly. The girl still hadn't gotten over the fact that she had been so oblivious to hold an entire conversation with him while in her night-wear.
"I certainly hope not," Emilia replied embarrassed. An awkward silence fell over them as they stood watching each other waiting for the other to initiate a conversation. Finally, Dio was the first to break the silence.
"Well, it seems like you were going for a morning walk as well. Why don't we walk together?" Not seeing a reason not to, Emilia agreed. After all, she did want to get to know him; she was still grasping onto the hope that she and Jonathan could befriend him.