Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

After what felt like forever,  he had completed the immense stack of forms that had been placed on his desk. There were so many that Joseph had checked them at least seven or eight times, ensuring that he had completed every single page.
As a matter of fact, he had finished the forms so long ago that he was sure a inch thick layer of dust had settled on them, and a reclusive family of booklice had made their home in amongst the pages. Possibly in between clauses 49 and 67.

Okay, maybe he was exaggerating a little bit, but he had been waiting for ages . The other interns in this glorified fax room were nice enough, but no one ever wanted to, or had the time to, amuse him. Apparently they all had jobs to do.

The nerve of some people.

The long stretches of time spent alone in the room were mostly filled up by poor attempts at creating origami cranes from scrap paper, as well as trying to balance his pen on it’s nib. And failing. Miserably. Of course.

Eventually, he became too bored to even sit still.
The ticking of the clock, once a steady companion to the scratching of his pen across paper, had become grating, droning repetitively with it’s tick, tick, tick, tick, tick…

He was so bored.

“Shut up .” He whined at the ticking menace, scowling up at it’s stupid hands and it’s stupid face. He knew the object couldn’t possibly respond, but he could tell that if it could, it would be smiling smugly at him. He just knew . “Don’t think you’re better than me, you stupid fucking clock.”
In reply, The face of the clock merely read eighteen minutes past ten, mocking him. He swore it had read eighteen minutes past ten half an hour ago. Either something was wrong with this clock, or his boredom was somehow causing time to slow to a near stand still.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, fucking tick.

Joseph was so, so, so bored.
He stood up quickly from his desk, sending the chair juddering backwards harshly. Catching it just before it fell, he pushed it back in under the desk with a scrape, and looked again at the clock.

Did Suzie mention when lunch would be?

It was just turning eleven, a little less than an hour after he had last checked the clock. It was a wonder he hadn’t left earlier, really - he fidgeted too much for his own good at the best of times. Lunch would be at midday, so he had plenty of time to wander about, right? He was sure Suzie would understand if he didn’t get back to his base room in time for her to collect him. Anyway, he wouldn’t be going that far, would he? Down the corridor; just to familiarise himself with the floor he was on, and find out where the restrooms would be. That’s all.

Ordering the stack of forms as best as he was able (which meant very poorly and with the organizational skills of someone without arms), he left the room almost as tidy as he had found it, closing the door behind him and giving a smile to one of the interns based in the same room, who happened to be returning just then.

“Hey, dude!”

“Hold it, where are you going?” The intern asked, eyebrow quirked. “Interns are normally supposed to stay in the base rooms until they finish all of the forms and are collected-”

“Exploring, obviously. How do you expect me to be able to navigate this place on errands if I have no idea where to go?” Joseph interrupted, watching the intern fumble a little and try to find the thread of his sentence once more. “By the way, your next line will be ‘that’s not a good idea, you could get in trouble for doing that!’.”

“That’s not a good idea, you could get in trouble for doing that!” Predictably, the poor guy was more than a little surprised at that. Joseph didn’t always use that little party trick of his, but when he did it was hilarious, every single time. “How did you do that?”

“Don’t worry, man! I’m like a ninja, No one knows I’m coming until I’m already there.” He ignored the desire to make an immature, ‘that’s what she said’ joke and continued. “I’m only gonna to walk down the hallway and find the restroom. Cool your jets.”

“Yeah, fine. Whatever. Just don’t get lost or do anything stupid.” Not that it should concern him -  he was an intern too, so he couldn’t be held liable, right? Unless he thought he had more authority than he actually did.

Without another word, Joseph moved past the smaller intern in the hallway and continued down, tossing a quick look over his shoulder to find the guy staring back. Joseph grinned and offered a friendly wave as he walked, to which the other intern responded in kind, if a little unsurely.

Great. Now that that was over and done with.

Joseph stuffed his hands into his pockets and let the sound of his tuneless whistle carry down the wide, bright corridor. He paid attention for a few minutes to the various magazine spreads fixed to the walls. They were different issues to the ones that he had spotted earlier in the other corridor that lead up from the elevator to the reception, but very much of the same concept and setting. It was sort of interesting in a way, how style had developed so much in the last few decades.

After stopping off at the restroom (not that interesting, but cleaner than a lot of the restrooms he had seen around, and with a weird dispenser that you could get anything ranging from gum to condoms from. Provided you had a couple of quarters to spare for it, anyway. Joseph did not. Not that he would want to purchase any restroom chewing gum, either way.), he carried on walking, down the corridor to where Suzie’s desk stood. Both she and the ‘Nina’ woman were absent, presumably off running errands somewhere in the building, doing their jobs just like they were supposed to whilst Joseph wandered about. He’d feel bad for slacking off were he actually given something to do after finishing the forms off.

It was sort of a shame that Suzie wasn’t there. She was nice, not to mention cute to boot and could give just as good as she got.

It was almost as if on cue, when suddenly a hand tapped him on the shoulder, very nearly scaring him out of his skin. “Fucking-” JoJo whipped his head around to see who the hand belonged to, and found himself face to face with a coy and more than a little amused Suzie Q. “Suzie!”
She had in her hand a folder, containing goodness knows what. Probably important documents, or maybe model headshots, or…. something.

“So, you’ve finished filling those forms in?” She asked with an almost catlike smile. “I was going to walk down to check up on you, but it seems like you got bored and decided to explore, right?”

“Yeah, hours ago. I was gonna go find you.” Joseph tried to act like he wasn’t startled by what was probably an unintentional scare courtesy of the Italian receptionist. “I, uh... didn’t expect you to be back so soon.”

The grin on Suzie’s face only widened, and it looked like she was trying to bite back a laugh.

I take it back, she totally did mean that.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d finish them so quickly! Not that that’s a bad thing, of course. Anyway, it’s…” She checked her watch. “Just gone eleven, we can jet off for lunch soon enough, ‘kay?”

That long, huh? Ugh.

Well, he guessed if he had been waiting for as long as he already had been, he could withstand another half an hour or so of painstaking boredom and the torturous ticking of the clock.

“I guess so. I suppose I’ll just have to deal with the boredom. I just hope you don’t come to find me too late…”

“Why? What’ll happen?”

“ Well , where do I start?” Where should he start, indeed. "I might starve to death, for one. You don't want that on your conscience, do you?"

The playful grin that was on her face returned with full force. “I’ll see you at twelve, okay JoJo?”

He found his own cocky grin lessening to something more genuine, but just as playful as the girl’s. “Neat. I’ll see you soon, Suzie Q.”

“Goodbye! I’m sorry I can’t come get you sooner.” She called after Joseph turned to walk away, and she rushed behind the desk to answer the telephone that began to ring with  urgency.  “US Chic Reception, this is Suzie speaking. How may I help? ...Of course, I’ll just transfer you over...”

Really, aside from the initial scare Joseph was sort of glad that Suzie had come to free him from his boredom, even if it were only very momentarily, and even if it ended in him returning to that dull, drab room to wait for his lunch break. He sort of hoped that he’d get something to do after lunch, even if it was just filing random documents (because those filing cabinets had to hold some sort of important thing that needed organizing, right?). As boring as filing would be, it’d at least be something, and Joseph was certain that he’d be able to make a game out of it if he put some effort into it.

Little more than another hour later, Suzie Q arrived as promised to collect him for lunch, and the following hour was spent eating and getting to know the lay of the land, not to mention just getting to know each other. Joseph learned that Suzie was the middle child of five, and she had come over to America a few years ago to start high school, dropping out a year early to pursue a career in the fashion world. She was born the day before Christmas (“ my parents still try to combine my birthday and Christmas presents! Can you believe that? ”) and she loved old, glamorous movies, idolising the beautiful sirens and debonair gentlemen that featured on the silver screen.

It was a typically ordinary conversation that one would have with someone they were just getting to know, but Joseph liked it nonetheless.

It was nice.

Over the next week, Joseph found himself beginning to settle into his new role as an intern. The young man was finding it unexpectedly easy to mesh with the rest of the people employed at the office - even the emaciated models that once stuck their noses up at him and glared with their sharp eyes offered him a ‘good morning’ or ‘good afternoon’ by the weeks end.
Then again, he never found it especially difficult to adapt to any situation. Take when he moved from his native London, when his mother got transferred to the New York branch of the magazine, for example - he was a regular fish out of water, only having had a vague grasp of what America was like. And even then, that was from the television.
However, after a month of living in what was once a completely alien place, he was at home. He had been enrolled in school, he had made friends, and it was almost as if America had been his native country all along.
Joseph Joestar took to almost all situations like a duck to water, and his new career path was no exception.

“You’re getting good at this, aren’t you?” Suzie grinned as Joseph placed a folder of photocopied contact sheets and timetables onto her desk. “Only a few minutes late this time.”

“ Fashionably late.” He returned her grin, leaning his hip against the desk as Suzie checked through the folder.

“Fashionably?”

“ Oi. ” Suzie just laughed at that, and the light sound rang in Joseph’s ears in the best way. He sort of wished that he could spend more time with the pretty blonde receptionist, out of a work environment in a place where they could just be... them . Where they wouldn’t have to worry about the looming responsibility of errands and jobs, or when they had to clock in or out. “Hey, Suz?”

She looked up, eyebrows raised and smile on her face. “Hmm?”

Go on. Ask her out. Ask her on a date to… I don’t know, the roller rink or something. What do girls even like? Do they like arcades? I’ll have to ask Smokey, he knows about girls.

“JoJo?” It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn’t said anything in at least ten seconds, which must have looked really weird to anyone who didn’t hear what he was thinking. Which was, of course, everyone. “What’s up?”

“Oh. Uhh...” Come on. Brave face, Joseph. You can do it. “I just… wanted you to have a good shift! I’ll see you at lunch, right?” He cleared his throat and checked his watch. “Welp, gotta bounce. Places to be, y’know?”

Again, the receptionist laughed. “You’re so weird.”

“That’s me… what a weirdo. I’ll… lunch, yeah. I’ll see you at lunch.” He made finger pistols at her and moved with some haste back to the room he was stationed in, resisting the urge to punch himself in the face AT LEAST until he was out of view from Suzie Q.

Aw, fucking hell.

It was midday that Saturday at the mall, when Joseph asked Smokey for advice on his predicament.

“What makes you think I’m any better at asking girls on a date than you are, JoJo?” His friend asked him, flipping through the pre-owned records standing in a crate at the back of the record store. “You know my track record with girls is embarrassing.”

“Well yeah- but still. You’re the advice guy!” Whenever Joseph had a problem, it was always Smokey that had the solution. “You know how to talk to girls, I don’t.”

“Don’t start with that, yes you do!” The teen stopped at a record, picked it up, flipped it over a few times, and put it back. Too expensive to justify, knowing him. “You’ve never had any trouble asking girls out before.”

“But Suzie’s different , Smokey. She’s so…” It was difficult for JoJo to vocalise the words that made Suzie so different from other girls. Not that other girls were bad or anything, of course.It’s just that Suzie was so...Suzie. She was funny, and charming, and pretty, and she knew how to keep Joseph on his toes. “ Awesome. ”

“Awesome, huh?” The black youth watched his friend search through the rock vinyls, pretending to look interested when Joseph periodically showed him the cover art for each record sleeve. “You sure do have a way with words, JoJo.”

“Quit it. I’m serious.”

“ Okay ,” Smokey said finally, sounding somewhat weary. “Just use some of that good ol’ Joestar charm on her, and she’ll practically fall into your arms. Just don’t mess up.”

“Me? Stupid? Please .” Joseph scoffed. “Since when have I ever messed up with a girl?”

Joseph messed up.

He often did, when it came to things he was really serious about. Most of the time, the young man could half-ass everything and it would turn out in his favour, but the moment he’d put his all into something, be it school work or something insignificant like going through the final level in a videogame, something would go wrong.

And asking Suzie out was no exception.

“...And my mom, she told me that if I didn’t make her my plus one to the Magazine’s Autumn issue wrap party, that she’d cut off my tv allowances! And she was serious, can you believe that?” Leaning over her lunch, Suzie widened her eyes as she animatedly told Joseph about the conversation she had had with her mother the night before. The cafeteria was expectedly animated, being lunchtime, and Joseph was having trouble focusing on what she was saying, both because of the noise around them and his own nervousness.

Shit, she’s looking at you. Say something smart. Act like you were listening.

“Totally?” Dammit.

“JoJo, you weren’t listening, were you?” Her voice was stern, but her eyes were playful, and she held her stare for a second before breaking out into a grin. “Is something on your mind?”

You, mostly.

“Something’s always on my mind, Suzie Q, I never stop thinking. I’m a very deep, complex man.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” If anyone else had said that, Joseph might have gotten annoyed. But something about the twinkle in Suzie’s eye and the bright chiming of laughter in her tone stopped his bad temper from flaring, and he could only find it within himself to smile.

The two fell into a somewhat uncomfortable silence, as she went back to eating, and he tried to steel himself to ask her the million dollar question.

“Suzie?” No wait oh God I’m not ready. Maybe if I stay quiet she won’t notice that accidentally slipped out-

“Yes, JoJo?”

“Uh,” He didn’t realise how shaky his voice had become, he felt like he was twelve all over again, asking out the cutest girl in his class. He just hoped it wouldn’t end as badly as that, with an undignified rejection and trying his best not to cry as his other classmates giggled at him from behind their hands. “I just wanted to…”

“Yes?”

Joseph didn’t respond, taking to fiddling with a paper napkin on the table the two shared. He could feel her staring at him but dared not look up; staring down at his roughened hands. From the way she didn’t press the issue, she must have returned to her lunch.

Alright.

He took a deep breath, and looked up, suddenly blurting out. “Do you like raisins?”

And with that, Suzie choked in mid-swallow on her sandwich.

It took a five minute long coughing fit from Suzie Q, and an ensuing panic for another ten minutes from Joseph, before he was confident that she was no longer going to choke to death.

God, he felt so embarrassed. He was trying to be smooth, with his dumbass pick up line, but in the end he had just made her almost cough up her lungs. That was never a good sign.

“Sorry about that.” He said meekly, ears tinged a little red with the humiliation.

“It just surprised me, that’s all! What were you going to say?”

“It’s stupid.”

“So is making me choke.”

Well, that made him feel so much better. He pouted like a child and crossed his arms tightly over his chest, averting his eyes. “Well gee, thanks.”

“Come on, JoJo.”

He could feel her stare drilling into his forehead. It made sense why his mother relied on Suzie’s help so often, she had the same stare, that wrangled what she wanted out of JoJo, specifically.

“...Do you like raisins?” This was probably the worst pick up line in existence that he could have used, ever. Why did he choose to be the way he was? Why couldn’t he just curl up and die?
She was visibly confused. Understandably so. Suzie Q placed the bottle of water down onto the table, just looking at him. He cleared his throat and continued.

“Well, uh…how about a date?”

He could practically see the cogs whirring in the receptionist’s head, before she figured out the play on words and her face brightened up as she began to laugh.

May as well steel yourself for rejection at this point, JoJo. She thinks you’re a goon. Good job.

“Oh, JoJo!” She managed to say through peals of laughter, wiping a tear from her eye and shaking her head fondly. “Of course! I was waiting for you to ask me!”

“Wait...what? Come again?” He could have sworn that with causing her to almost choke to death, he had reduced his chances of dating Suzie Q to a big fat zero. And yet, here she was, saying yes?

“Of course I’ll go on a date with you, stupid boy! I’ve been waiting for you to ask since I first saw you.” Finally calming down, she smiled widely at Joseph from across the table, and he could feel his chest become a little bit tighter with happiness. "Maybe not like that, but I'll take what I can get!"

Looks like he had pulled it off. As expected, of a dating extraordinaire such as himself.

“Oh...Good! Of course, how would you be able to resist?” The success was filling him with a sense of bravado, and he sat up a little bit straighter, with a victorious grin plastered onto his face. “I was thinking, there’s a cafe near to where I live… we can go there? I wanted to book somewhere fancier for you but...wasn’t completely certain that you’d actually say yes to my offer, so I didn’t bother booking anything.”

“A cafe sounds perfect.”

Joseph didn’t mess up as much as he had originally thought.

How reassuring.

The weekend came, and Joseph arrived at Suzie Q’s house to pick her up for the date. As per Smokey’s recommendation when he reported back to him, he brought for her a bunch of flowers and offered her his arm to hold as they walked to the cafe that he had been telling her about. It was a quaint little place, French inspired, with Toulouse-Lautrec paintings hung on the walls, and wide windows letting the bright autumn light in.
They both enjoyed the date, talking over milkshakes about everything and anything- family, work gossip, what they had for dinner the previous night. Completely insignificant things that seemed so much more important when they shared the information with each other.

As the weeks went on, and Joseph’s birthday arrived at the end of the month, the two went out again, this time to watch a new movie which had been released only days prior.
During the walk home, as Joseph said goodbye to Suzie on her doorstep, she kissed him.

It was the best birthday present he had gotten to date.

Joseph Joestar usually considered himself a lucky guy. But lately, it seemed like trouble was going out of it’s way to find him.
It was a Tuesday right at the end of the month, and as always he was wasting the time he was supposed to be working leaning against Suzie’s desk, talking to her and subsequently stopping her from doing her own work.

In his defence, he had completed the vast majority of filing he needed to take care of that morning, and had run his fair share of errands for different departments, so he deserved a  well-earned break. Of course he could also wait for lunch, but standing around doing nothing for a while seemed far more appealing.

“So Miss Quatro, I was thinking…” JoJo leaned a little closer to the girl, smiling and hushing his tone like he was an agent sharing a highly classified secret. Suzie grinned

“Yeah?” The receptionist played along, leaning in and cupping her hand beside her mouth. “What is it, Mr Joestar?”
The other receptionist, Nina, rolled her eyes but continued to type, she had long since learned that telling Joseph to go away normally didn’t work. And even when it did, he could return within the hour. Besides, the reception area was practically desolate, so it wasn’t like they were holding anything up with their flirting.

“I was thinking that we go out on Friday. I heard there’s a movie marathon going on at the old drive in, if you’re interested.” Nina stood and left the desk, taking with her a portfolio. It looked like she was on a mission to get something, but she could have very well just been leaving to get away from them. The two ignored her.

“Which kind of movies? Are you going to drag me along to some superhero movie thing?”

“W-well, not if you don’t want to! We could do something else-”

Suzie began to laugh, leaning back and breaking from the pseudo-secretive discussion they were having. “No! No, I don’t mind. I haven’t seen your car before, I didn’t even know you drove!”

Well, he did. But he technically didn’t have a car, after he loaned it to a friend and it got driven into a ditch and totaled. Lisa Lisa refused to buy him a new one ‘to teach him a lesson’, and without any source of income he wasn’t able to buy anything remotely vehicular. “My car’s in the repair shop right now.” ‘Repair shop’ meaning the junkyard, and ‘right now’ being permanently. “So I’ll probably have to borrow a car. That’s not a big deal, right?”

“I’m not the type of girl to obsess over what a guy drives, silly. As long as it’s not a complete scrapheap, you can pick me up in whatever you want.” So, his old car was definitely out of the question. Especially since it was probably just a compressed cube of metal at this point.

“Then, it’s a date!” Joseph grinned widely, leaning with crossed arms on the desk. God, Suzie was great. She was so chilled out, and she just got him.

He was thinking of making it official. He had gone on a few dates with Suzie, he had her number and would call her a few times a week (much to the frustration of everyone else who wanted to use the landline at home), and they spent practically every break they had together. They could talk about absolutely nothing and it would be a fascinating conversation, and despite the few differences they had, they had far more similarities. They just worked together. He’d be thrilled to call Suzie his girlfriend.

Girlfriend.

The word was exciting, sparking like electricity in his mind, and the idea of having her to himself made his stomach flutter.

God, what was he? Some middle-schooler with their first crush?
With how he was reacting merely thinking about Suzie, he may as well have been.

“What time will you be picking me up in your ‘fancy borrowed car’?” Suzie asked.

“I was thinking-” He couldn’t even finish what he was going to say, because he was, suddenly and rudely, distracted.

It was the smell that got him first. The heavy aroma of expensive cologne that stung his nostrils and made his eyes water. It was a perfume that he recalled being advertised on the television, in a frankly uncomfortably sexual commercial- strong and aggressive and something that he knew was sprayed onto the lapels of all the hotshots of New York City.

Then it was the over confident, overzealous clicking of shoes on the polished white tiles, something that shouldn’t have gotten on Joseph’s nerves but undoubtedly did, as if the wearer’s obnoxious personality was reflected through how they walked.

Finally, it was the voice. Not stupidly deep, but enough that it was obvious the speaker was male. A smooth baritone, the man had an accent that must have been Italian, and even without looking JoJo could hear the smirk in his voice as the stranger leaned on the desk and interrupted their conversation.

“Scusi, signorina?” The Italian man began, surprising both Suzie and Joseph with the sudden appearance. “I am here to see Ms Joestar, I have a meeting with her for-”

“Um, excuse me?” Joseph turned to look the man over. He was blonde, tall and had two odd marks high on his cheekbones. Joseph felt that he would have likened to the Statue of David in the Galleria dell'Accademia, if the statue itself had a condescending attitude and a bad taste in cologne. “Can’t you see she’s in the middle of something? It’s rude to interrupt a conversation, y’know…”

The young man looked at Joseph for a dragging few seconds, glancing up and down at his clothes and his general outward appearance.  The corners of his mouth turned upwards in a smirk and he turned back to Suzie to continue to display his atrocious lack of manners. “I have a meeting with Ms Joestar for twelve o’ clock. My name is Caesar Zeppeli, you might have me on a list?”

“Yes, ah… Sir, I was talking to this gentleman-”

“Ah! Signorina, you’re also Italian? What is such a beautiful girl doing behind a desk in a place like this? You are pretty enough to be on the front cover of these magazines.” The man- Caesar , what a stupid name- flashed Suzie a grin that Joseph supposed was supposed to melt the hearts of girls that the Italian lothario came across. To Joseph’s dismay, it looked like it worked, even if only a little bit.

“O-oh, well...do you really think so?” Suzie’s cheeks began to tinge pink, and she put a hand to her face, bashful.

“I know so, bella ragazza.” Caesar reached forward and gently took the secretary’s hand. “If it were up to me, the magazine would be dedicated to your allurement.” The Italian leaned forward to gingerly kiss her hand.

Joseph was not going to be having that.

Not at all.

“Alright, asshole. Hands off the lady.” Joseph pushed him away by the shoulder. “Wait your turn, I was speaking to her first.”

“JoJo, that’s really not necessary-” Suzie began, but she was quickly interrupted by the Italian man.

“Your name is JoJo ?” Caesar scoffed, as if it were the funniest thing in the world to him.

“Your name is Caesar ?”  Joseph mimicked, looking significantly less pleased with himself and far more irritated at the man facing him. “Wait your turn. It’s half eleven, surely you can wait until our conversation is over before you book in, buddy?”

“JoJo-”

“Alright, ‘buddy’. I’m going to make the assumption that despite your...frankly embarrassing fashion sense.” Ouch, okay. “You work here. This is a desk for booking people in. And, guess what? You’re not supposed to be booked in. Now, be a good boy, run along, and let the pretty signorina do her job.”

“Who are you calling a ‘good boy’, huh? Do you think I’m a dog, or something? I’m not going to do what you say! If anything, I have more of a right to be here than you do!” That wasn’t strictly true, but when Joseph’s temper was flared, he tended to say whatever bullshit popped into his head, as long as it sounded halfway intelligent.

Nevertheless, the Italian ignored him. “You’re out of her league by miles, anyway. You should be honoured that she even gives you an ounce of her attention-”

“ Right. ” Joseph lunged forward and gripped Caesar by the collar, fingers tightening around the material and no doubt stretching it beyond repair. He hoped that’s what was happening, anyway. “That, is not true.”

Caesar closed his hand around Joseph’s wrist and tightened his grip, enough that it actually hurt, but Joseph wasn’t going to give in. Not without a fight, at least. "Oh, really? Because I'd beg to differ."

Judging by how it looked at the moment, a fight was the direction in which this conversation was headed.

"Do you wanna say that again?! I can't quite hear you!"

“JoJo!” Suzie shouted, and Joseph whipped his head around to face her, as if he had completely forgotten she was there. “What has gotten into you!? Put Mr Zeppeli down!”

“I’m defending your honour, what does it look like!?” He asked, but did as he was told, reluctantly and with a burning glare.

“You’re defending your own honour, Joseph!” Suzie was very visibly annoyed with him, only evidenced further by the use of his full name. He really was in trouble. “Just because he wounded your pride, doesn’t mean you have a right to start a fight in my reception area, alright!? Go and do some work, and let me do my job!”

So, no ‘thank you, JoJo, I’m so glad you told that Italian brute to clear off!’ or anything? Well. He knew exactly where he stood, now. “Fine.” He said. “ Fine. I’ll go do my job.” He turned to walk down the corridor, red in the face with shame after being told off by Suzie. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go, at all!
“But,” He piped up, turning back around and pointing accusingly at Caesar, who merely looked on, both irritated and mildly entertained by Joseph’s performance. “Don’t think this is the last you’ll be hearing of me, Zeppeli!” That was if he even saw him again. “I’ve got you clocked, jerk!”

And with that, he turned with as best a flourish as he could manage, and he walked quickly down the corridor as he heard the conversation about whatever appointment the Italian was attending with his mother.
He hoped to God, as he entered the room where his now cluttered desk stood, that Caesar wouldn’t try to flirt with his mother too.

The thought both irritated and embarrassed him, and he sat down heavily at his desk, knocking his head against the surface to mentally flagellate himself for his stupidity for the next half hour.

By lunch, there was a knock on the door, followed by it clicking open, and a set of footsteps walking in. Of course, Joseph had no idea who it could be, because he still had his forehead pressed against the desk.

“JoJo?” A voice asked. It was Suzie. Back to tell him off, no doubt. Joseph turned his head to look at her from where he was, and he huffed childishly.

“Come to tell me off, again?”

“Yes,” She responded bluntly, dragging a chair over to the desk and sitting across from him, gently prodding him in an incentive to sit up. “But I won’t shout anymore, I don’t like shouting.”

When Joseph sat up and took a proper look at her face, it was plain to see that she was considerably less angry than she once was.

“When I said you were going to ‘shake it up around here’, I didn’t mean like this. You’re an idiot.” She began, and Joseph scoffed. “But, that doesn’t mean that anything he was saying was actually true.”

“Then why did you tell me off?” Joseph asked, holding back a pout.

“Because you’re too hot headed! You were trying to defend your own honour, rather than mine! I don’t need my honour defending, stupid.” The words were harsh, but there was no malice behind them, instead she smiled and reached forward to ruffle Joseph’s already uncontrollable hair.

“Am I still in trouble?” He asked, meekly, but with a small, mischievous smile. Like a puppy who knew he had done wrong, but who still wagged his tail in the hope of getting treats.

“Oh yeah, big time.” Suzie’s own grin widened and she withdrew her hand from his hair. “I expect a biiiig bunch of flowers when you pick me up. And an expensive box of chocolates. Then maybe I’ll consider forgiving you.” Though by the playfulness in her voice, it sounded like she already had.

“Friday is still on?”

“Of course!” She exclaimed, standing up. “Do you think I’d cancel over this? You’d have to really upset me for me to consider that. Now, come on. Are we going to lunch, or not?”

So, that turned out better than he thought.
Though there was still the worry of who this guy was, and whether or not Joseph would be seeing him again, playing in the back of his mind. Whoever this Zeppeli character was, he was bad news, and Joseph didn’t want to get tangled up with him.

But, as was their tendency lately, it was as if the fates were determined to upset him.