[That look on his face, the honesty there, is so beautiful and so important that it really does make Giorno's chest hurt. He has no illusions that this conversation is going to be easy, and he's very tired and very sad and full of regrets, but Jotaro was right - this isn't going to tear them apart, and he has to trust in their bond in order to move forward.]

[So his smile fades a little, but not completely, and he pulls his own coffee forward but doesn't take a sip yet, just holds the warm thermos in his hands and watches the steam rise from the open lip.]

So.

I must have run into the cat. Anyway . . . what I forgot was you. Not everything about you, but that you died. I think my mind filled in the gaps, so that I assumed that you'd just left us after everything was over. Thinking that, I avoided you, less because I was angry and more because I felt you'd made your choice, and it was to stay away from me. From us. Mista and Trish, too. So why push it?

Izabel and I were together in the mirrors. We had to decide whether to save you . . .

[He sighs a little, blinking down at the surface of his coffee through the top of the thermos.]

And then I remembered, and I didn't really know what to do with the fact that I'd forgotten. I should have come to you sooner, probably, but I didn't, and that is what it is.