When they get there, Caesar isn’t breathing. Joseph knows that even before he rushes over, even before he presses a hand to his chest, his cheek over his mouth. He’s not breathing.
His body is slumped against a stone cross and there’s more blood than there is wreckage in the room. There’s more blood than he thinks is in the human body to fucking begin with.
“I can fucking see that,” he snaps at Lisa Lisa but she’s not looking at Caesar. She’s looking at the blood trail on the stairs and fuck. Fuck.
The cigarette she takes out is backwards when she puts it in her mouth.
“We can’t let him get away with this,” she says fiercely and Joseph agrees, he agrees but.
Caesar is still warm under his fingertips. So, he takes a breath.
“Joseph, we have to go. It’s too late,” Lisa Lisa whispers, but he refuses.
He breathes life into Caesar, he knows that’s what Hamon is. It’s life, it’s strength, and he’ll use it to save Caesar long enough to get help.
The taste of blood is hard to take but he focuses. The weight on his chest, the way it hurts to breathe – this is what his training was all for. What fucking use was it if he can’t save a life?
If he can’t save Caesar’s life?!
He loves him, he loves him, he fucking loves him so fucking Goddamn much and the last thing he said to him was fuck you.
He feels Lisa Lisa hands on his shoulders, feels her own Hamon flow through his body. He uses it, he knows together they can resurrect a dead man.
He can’t stop himself from sobbing when he feels Caesar move against him. He moves away quickly, watching Hamon ripple through Caesar’s body, to his fingertips, to the toes of his boots. Caesar gasps harshly. His eyes don’t open but his fists clench and Joseph knows he’s goddamn alive.
“Forgive me, Master,” he says, rising up with Caesar in his arms. There’s so much blood and Caesar should be too heavy but it’ll be a cold day in hell if he fails now. “I have to save him.”
He can’t read the expression on Lisa Lisa’s face, but she doesn’t refuse. She doesn’t tell him no.
She wouldn’t be able to stop him if she tried.
Joseph turns and sprints. He can get to the hotel fast, he knows he can. “Don’t fucking die,” he says and he hopes Caesar’s cough is a laugh. "I love you,“ he says and he swears to Caesar he’ll say it when he’s conscious and healthy and okay, too. He won’t be a coward anymore.
"M'too,” Caesar mumbles and Joseph runs even faster. It burns and it burns but he doesn’t waste his breath on words anymore.
He runs and runs and runs and–
He makes it just in time.
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