Chapter Text
“i fucking hate you charlie.”
“OH! so now it’s my fault that the hot water stopped working? look at the bozo who was using it all up this morning!”
“don’t look at me!”
corpse huffed and fell onto his bed. the hot water in the dorm just stopped working right when he was going to take a shower. why are they so loud? not that he hated charlie and jack, but sometimes they get a little too rowdy for his liking. he silently cursed to himself as the two continued bickerings on who was at fault.
“why don’t we just ask toast or felix to borrow their shower?” charlie suggested.
“nah, felix is on the same block as us. chances are he’s having the same issue and running to 5up for assistance,” jack added.
“so toast is still an option?” charlie said, voicing perking up.
“well... if you want to go talk to him, you can go with corpse. i’m not going to embarrass myself. i heard toast lives with someone else too and they might be uncomfortable when three sweaty strangers barge into their personal space,” jack huffed.
“okay fine then. corpsey it’s me and you buddy.” charlie cheered, as he wrapped an arm around corpse’s shoulders.
corpse rolled his eyes and adjusted his mask. he grabbed his phone and reluctantly walked out of the dorm room, following charlie to the upper levels. there, he saw a group of people crowded around in front of what looks like to be “toast’s kingdom,” as the door sign read. charlie jabbed corpse and headed over, indicating that he follows.
“hey toast! michael! what are you two buddies doing on this lovely day?” charlie greeted.
“hello charlie. michael here is upset that his shower ran out of hot water and he wants to use mine and sykkuno’s, which i bluntly refused,” toast stated, looking in corpse’s direction, “and you are?”
“corpse.”
“holy shit is that real?” michael said, mouth agape.
“yeah,” corpse replied, monotoned as ever.
“toast why is brodin complaining of no hot wa-”
the four men turned to the voice behind them. the person wore a cream-colored hoodie with some sort of great patch on the left side. they held a small bag of groceries is what it looked like and their mint green phone in the other hand.
“w-who are all these people?” they stuttered.
“sykkuno just in time. welcome home. now can you tell these sons of bitches to find someone else’s water to use?”
corpse almost laughed out loud at the person’s, who he assumed to be sykkuno, reaction to toast’s cursing.
“toast, w-what’s the issue with them using our water?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.
before toast could reply, charlie jumped in front of sykkuno and held his hand out for him to shake.
“hello sykkuno! nice to meet you! i’m charlie and this is my roomie corpse. you see, we don’t have any hot water and we are really struggling to shower because of how cold it is. do you mind if we use the shower?” charlie said, raising his eyebrows.
sykkuno rose his hand up to his mouth, muffling some of his words.
“u-uh sure! if you really need it? michael do you have the same issue?” sykkuno said, peering over to him.
“yeah! hell yeah!” Michael cheered, pumping his fists and flipping over toast before he ran downstairs.
“that motherfucke- well then... looks like we’ll be seeing you two quite often,” toast said, sighing in defeat.
“more friends to have!” sykkuno beamed, eyes crinkling.
corpse couldn’t stop staring at sykkuno. the man glimmered with positivity and happiness. the way sykkuno spoke made corpse almost melt.
“corpse? earth to corpse?”
oh god. everyone was staring at him, including sykkuno.
“introduce yourself yet?” charlie nudged.
“oh.. yeah,” he cleared his throat, “hello sykkuno. my name is corpse. nice to meet you.”
sykkuno waved awkwardly before greeting him as well.
“mhm! nice to meet you too! your mask is cool.” he complimented.
thank god for the mask or else everyone would’ve seen him turn redder than a tomato.
“y-yeah thank you.”
charlie’s eyes widen and corpse immediately caught the smirk in his peripheral vision.
“if you’ll excuse us sykkuno and toast, corpse and i have to prepare for our shower in your dorm! see you again soon!” charlie cheered, pulling corpse away by his wrist.
sykkuno waved before heading in behind toast. the door slammed shut and charlie immediately started cackling.
“dude did you just stutter?? big bad corpse with the deep voice stuttering in front of a measly anime boy?” charlie teased.
“shut the fuck up. you’re telling me you weren’t fazed when he said ‘oh jesus’ either?’ corpse argued back, “it was so endearing. how come we’ve never met him?”
“from the looks of it, he’s always running some type of errand or studying. didn’t you see the huge stats book in his bag? the only person i know that takes stats is 5up and 5up has a huge brain,” he rambled.
“sykkuno huh…” corpse mumbled to himself. he shook off the thought and prepared to go take his shower at toast’s dorm.
time skip
there was a knock on the door and sykkuno could hear loud commotions outside. he put his textbook on the desk and stood up to open the door. in front of him was charlie, the guy who he met this morning, corpse, the one with the cool mask, and another guy with a green man bun. they all had a duffel of what looked like clothes inside and waved at him.
“it’s sykkuno right?” the guy with the man bun asked, “i’m jack! great to meet you!”
“g-great to meet you as well!” sykkuno smiled, raising one hand to his mouth like always, “come in! sorry, it’s a little messy right now. i have a big stats test coming up.”
the three men walked into the small dorm and placed their belongings down on the carpet floor.
“hopefully the hot water will return in a few hours. i’m sorry that we had to barge in like this when you were studying,” charlie apologized.
“no worry! it is really fine. i don’t think toast minds either!” he replied, “feel free to ask for anything.” sykkuno said, trying to ignore the gaze of the masked man.
jack noticed this and visibly frowned.
“sykkuno don’t mind corpse. he’s not a people person, but i’m sure you two will hit it off just fine,” jack grinned.
sykkuno nodded and returned to studying as jack was the first to use the shower. charlie and corpse watched tv to kill time, flipping through the channels for content.
hours pass and corpse is the last one to take a shower. jack left first because he had to do some laundry. charlie had just finished his and came out wearing the funniest pajamas ever. sykkuno couldn’t help but crack a giggle when the long-haired man came out wearing polka dot sweatpants.
“hey sykkuno, do you mind if i leave corpse here for a second? i think i forgot my phone back at my place,” charlie said.
sykkuno’s eyes widened.
“u-um only if corpse is okay with it! i mean i don’t know you all that well yet so i would want to respect your personal spaces.”
charlie cooed. “you are too sweet for this world. corpse is cool. he wouldn’t mind at all.”
“t-thank you? i think.. u-um well if it’s okay with him sure!” sykkuno beamed.
“alright, see you later sykkuno.” charlie said, leaving the dorm with the loud door slam.
sykkuno resumed his studying session as he patiently waiting for corpse to come out. not long after that, a lock click was heard from the bathroom door as corpse walked out wearing a different mask. he peered around the room for his two roommates before turning in sykkuno’s direction.
“where is charlie?” his voice boomed.
“h-he went to go grab his phone. he said he left it at the dorms. i’m sure he’ll be back soon to come to get you. toast is also on his way back from his debate seminar,” sykkuno reassured.
corpse silently nodded before scrolling on his phone. he heard a small grumble of frustration, looking over to the desk where crumpled lined paper filled the brim of the trashcan below.
“do you need help sykkuno?”
“h-huh? yes. i mean no! if you don’t want to, you don’t have to! i wouldn’t want to burden you!” sykkuno stammered.
“let me take a look.”
corpse walked over to the desk and pulled the stool over. he looked over the notes and fixed a mistake sykkuno made in his math.
“that should make more sense,” he said.
sykkuno gasped and clasped his hands together, turning to corpse.
“thank you so much! i owe you one now mr. corpse!”
corpse could only let out a small hum as his face burned with the emotion of warmth.
------
“the water is still not working yet?! it’s been 6 months! i don’t know how long i can take walking up and down different levels every day!” jack screamed.
“shut up i have a headache,” charlie groaned, burying his face in the pillows.
corpse didn’t mind much. as long as he could shower, he was happy. sure, he was secretly happy that he could see sykkuno again, but the main reason is showering! right? right. the past few months, corpse and sykkuno have grown closer, eventually even growing closer with toast and one of sykkuno’s other friends, rae. through rae and toast, he met lily, tina, brooke, abe, scarra, poki, and even grew closer to michael. he pretended to huff and puff as he packed his duffel bag again. the three made their way over to the dorm and let themselves in. in the dorm was toast and sykkuno studying at their respective desks as usual.
“hey hey hey! we’re back… again!” jack cheered.
sykkuno giggled a bit and stood up to greet them. when he got to corpse, he reached up to his ear and whispered something. his breath tickled corpse a little.
“do you want to get lunch with me?”
corpse’s eyes widened and he nodded profusely. they snickered, knowing that the other men were confused, and left the dorm giggling together.
“what the hell was that? how did corpse warm up to sykkuno that fast?” charlie exclaimed.
toast sighed before replying, “beats the hell out of me. yesterday i caught sykkuno giggling over the phone at 6 am. they woke me up with their giggling.”
“do you think they’re..” jack suggested.
“nah,” they said in unison.
------
“do you think we caught them off guard corpse?” sykkuno laughed.
“of course we did sykkuno.” corpse replied, chuckling back.
they walked to the cafeteria and corpse bought them both lunch. they sat at a secluded area and talked about their days.
“the english teacher gave me a fucking b on a subject i was really passionate about!” corpse huffed dramatically, slamming his weight on the body.
sykkuno giggled and patted his head.
“it’s okay corpse! i’m sure you did your best and that is what matters!” sykkuno said, nodding.
“do you know how cute you are?”
“w-what?! corpse you can’t just say that all of a sudden!” he stammered.
“isn’t it the truth?”
“come on corpse you know that people aren’t into me that way..”
“i know a few people that are.”
“are you ‘a few people?’”
“perhaps.”