Omake 51: Giorno’s Childhood (2)

Out of all uncles and aunts Giorno had, only one stood out from the rest as the one he liked the most.

It wasn’t exactly a competition as he still loved his family the dearest, and saw no point in disliking anyone due to how kind and nice they all were. Still, this particular uncle had a curious background on how he became the one Giorno liked the most. And it all started right at the beginning, when he threw very little of him.

Bhediya had been a trusted friend of his father for several years now, and he had been quite nice towards him too… in his own ways. Differently from Auntie Sarah, the rough-looking man rarely showed any form of affection unless provoked into it and… even then, Giorno was never the one that started that sort of interaction.

It had never been a reason for displeasure, but the boy was unnerved by the lack of interaction. His mother confirmed it was because he was ‘pampered’ in that regard, but he couldn’t understand the word and its meaning in the context. Only that he was accustomed to being ‘bathed’ in social interactions and spared the hassle to handle first contact.

Bhediya? He wasn’t suited to handle first contact himself. And that’s why Giorno’s father had been quite close to him. Dio was the one that tended to speak first, and Bhediya was the one that replied. It was a custom the man had gotten just after he started to train more intensely to develop ‘discipline in combat’, something that Giorno didn’t get to understand because he had yet to be trained by his father.

One day, as the boy and his family were visiting Grandpa George’s manor, there had been a bit of a bicker between him and his mother. The little blond had wanted to eat a slice of cake before lunch and, obviously, his mother had refused to concede to that. Soon Giorno found his way to the kitchen barred by the servants at the orders delivered by Hannah and… Giorno was angry. Still, instead of retaliating in some way that could potentially end up messing his chance to eat by the kitchen ever again, he decided to go for a walk.

What Giorno didn’t seem to realize was that the weather was far from peaceful at the time, and that wandering alone wouldn’t just do despite how much he wanted to. Giorno loved walking this side of the countryside and he had been told by some servants at his grandfather’s house that it was something both his father and Uncle JoJo were keen to love too.

It was such a calming place and one that, even under that heavy raining, felt refreshing to go by. A way to calm himself down while also thinking how he could make up for his ‘loss’. Bhediya was close behind, having accepted the burden of keeping an eye on him, and his discomfort about the rain was not something Giorno was unaware of.

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Yet, Giorno persisted, allowing his bitterness to color his behavior for a while and… that didn’t do well for him. He hadn’t noticed he had started to get too close to the river, and ignored the clear signs that one small trip and he would end up face-first into the body of water. And then it happened.

A twig, he tripped on a twig. He barely registered the fall, and he looked at the water with dreading eyes. He had yet to learn how to swim and it was raining hard so the river’s flow was incredibly agitated. He tried to adjust his legs so the fall could be prevented, but everything was moving too fast and… then it got even faster. A choked yelp left his mouth, and that was enough for Bhediya to react.

Giorno wasn’t sure what had just happened at that point, only that he found himself crouching down by the other side of the river, his uncle sighing tiredly while still having an arm wrapped around his waist and… part of his pants, the lower legs’ area to be more precise, utterly wet due to the river’s water.

“S-Sorry.”

“It’s alright. You are safe.”

A nod, Giorno’s tears didn’t stop flowing even as he was lifted up and taken back to the manor. He was given a strict lecture from his mother for going outside with that weather, and, for the first time ever, he didn’t put any resistance to it as he felt embarrassed how it all worked. Especially since he knew he was at fault for this and came close to dying.

That experience marked a shift in Giorno’s life when it came to handling restrictions. Sometimes he would still whine about those, but he was willing enough to hear out any reason why he couldn’t do one thing or the other. Bhediya never once reminded him of that matter and their jovial and yet quiet bond remained the same. Or, should have remained the same if Giorno hadn’t taken it upon himself to discover his uncle.

It was like exploring a whole new person. He had more than just him constantly staring at others, and he was willing to teach Giorno about meditation. Which was, in the humblest opinion he could muster, quite dreary and boring. Yet, he couldn’t help but enjoy it at times. It helped him clear his mind whenever he felt it clouding before a situation and it allowed him to get a ‘head start’ for when it was going to be time for him to finally learn how to fight.

This constant poking at Bhediya eventually resulted in a rather close relationship, and one that both Jonathan and Robert were quick to lament about because they felt their expectations to be Giorno’s ‘Best Uncles’ had been snatched away by a clueless werewolf that just was too restrained in his social skills but still good enough with his limited capacity to communicate feelings.

Plus, Giorno found Bhediya cooler to some degree due to his real nature. Werewolves, he once said to his mother, are quite cool.