Work Text:
The day was almost over in the office building where you worked, thank goodness. The dark circles under your eyes were an eyesore and some blemishes managed to manifest onto your face due to the stress of working all day of everyday, but your coworkers and the friends you made throughout the months and years made it easier for you to enjoy the awful hours.
Josiah Nguyen always made a point to wave a hello to you when you clocked-in in the morning and hung out with you during breaks and during lunch, so he was your go-to companion in the office despite the whispers of other coworkers. Though you would never say it out loud, Josiah was extremely clingy, sometimes even going a little too far when it came to the way he interacted with you. Constantly sneaking up on you or pulling pranks on other coworkers that even looked at you the wrong way, he was adamant on always, always keeping an eye on you, whether you even knew about it or not.
Annette, one of the secretaries, liked to ask you what you had for dinner and if you enjoyed the day off over the weekend. She liked to gossip even though she's often told you that HR would throw a fit if they found out about it, but the two of you enjoyed it anyway. You shared lunch with her once or twice when either Damian or Josiah was out sick, but it was unfortunate that the two of you couldn't enjoy one another's company as well as you wanted to. Annette was always worried she'd say something wrong out of the blue and make you upset, so you consider her a people-pleaser like yourself.
Emery Bryan was an office basket case. If you said one single thing out of line she would immediately get hostile towards you, saying that you said it on purpose and not an accident. She was in desperate need of a friend, or at least someone to listen to her ramble on and on about how everyone in this office barely knows how to work a coffee maker, etc., but you find it difficult to consider her a friend if you find it impossible to see you two talking to one another outside of the office. Hanging out in a public setting seemed practically impossible, because she's told you on numerous occasions that the things you considered fun were things she found childish.
Gavin was... Gavin. He liked talking to you about his spiritualistic ideals and the like, sometimes giving you little gems. LARPing was always fun, but he also wasn't someone you would choose to hang out with outside of work. Thoroughly impressed with how intricate his speech patterns could be at once, you find yourself wondering if you need an entire thesaurus just to speak to him at times.
Damian Stasiuk was another story, however. Despite every little interaction between the two of you in the hallway, or the employee lounge, or even in his own cubicle, he always seemed distant and aloof. You always thought that it was because he wanted to make a good impression with the managers and supervisors, almost as if he was putting on a façade that made others think he was a no-nonsense kind of employee. That taking breaks out of necessity was only worth it if you got a lot of work done throughout the day. Damian often liked to chastise you whenever he saw you slacking off in the lounge with Josiah (as usual), but he was endearing. He knew how tough it was to get up every single day to go to a job that seemed monotonous, but he tried to be quick about it. When grabbing a cup of coffee, he wouldn't assert himself into the conversation you and Josiah were having, but he would brush past your shoulder and tap his watch with his index finger, then make his way back to his cubicle as you gave him a nod.
As stated previously, Josiah was using your valuable time to slack off near the vending machines, or in most cases, your own cubicle. While both you and Damian knew that Josiah was lazy, where he often used his time to play videogames or disappear somewhere in another part of the office. The fact that he was able to complete his work for the day was a surprise to Damian, as he can barely complete his work throughout the week.
Damian would never say it to Josiah's face, because he wouldn't want to start an altercation, but it always irked him whenever Josiah would waste your precious time talking about the same topic over and over. It's a pity that you never bothered to share a conversation with Damian. He would actually talk about things that would genuinely interest you.
Josiah only ever liked to chat about videogames that were trending at the moment. Pranks were an all-time favorite of his, but you would try to refrain from being in on it in fear of getting suspended or terminated. Whenever lunch rolled around, Damian would watch you from his cubicle as Josiah grabbed your attention away from your computer to take the mandatory break.
He's been bottling up these feelings for awhile now, and Damian can already tell that they're set to bursting if he doesn't get this out of his system. He's just scared of what Josiah might say if you end up telling him about the conversation he plans on sharing with you.
Damian always mumbled under his breath when he heard Josiah's voice through the countless other conversations around him. All these other people walking to the elevator for lunch made it difficult to hear what you and Josiah were talking about, so he had to really concentrate in order to pay attention to whatever he had to say.
"Hey, dude. Where do you wanna go for lunch? It's my treat." Josiah always liked to emphasize that last part, and as usual, you liked to retaliate.
"But, Josiah, you know I don't like mooching off other people. Can't we split the bill 50/50?" You ask, your voice on the cusp of breaking from the lack of water you often forget to drink throughout the day. "I think a sushi restaurant opened across the street. We can try that place."
"Cool. Did you wanna go now or did y-"
"Oh, I just remembered! I actually have to wrap up whatever I'm working on right now. It's really important. Can you pick up some sushi for me and I'll pay you back?" You say this as sweetly as possible, hoping to get on Josiah's good side, but he's not buying it.
Damian could practically hear Josiah groan and sigh from where he was sitting. Why was Josiah upset when he was the entire reason you're stuck doing all this work?
"Aw, come on, can't it wait? You've been sitting in that chair for over three hours now. Just do it later after getting some fresh air." Josiah nudges you in the arm with his elbow, prompting you to chuckle and shake your head.
Josiah has a big, genuine smile on his face. Despite being a little sarcastic and cold from time to time, at heart he is the type of person who just wants you to be happy and safe.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry, but Gary wants this assignment specifically done today or I have to sit through another one of this disciplinary meetings. I forgot to complete it after you convinced me to slack off for the day, remember?" You told him, hoping to get him off your back without being too rude. "We can chill at my desk once you get back, I promise."
"Fine, whatever makes you happy." Josiah finally relents, because Damian could hear the chair squeak as he stood up, and you thanked him multiple times. Though the partition was in the way, Damian watches Josiah walk past your office desk and towards the doorway leading to the hallway where the elevator was. "I'll be back soon. Good luck with the work."
Standing to his feet, Damian readjusts his tie and fixes his orange hair as he makes his way to the bathroom to freshen up once Josiah enters the elevator and the doors close behind him.
Now with Josiah out of the picture, Damian finally had the chance to speak with you about a certain someone.
Despite the fact you desperately and genuinely wanted to leave the office for some fresh air and lunch with one of your friends, you were stuck taking care of work that should've gotten completed and sent to your boss ages ago. Now forced to sit around and stare at numbers and letters that were beginning to morph and change if you looked away for a few seconds, you slump back into your uncomfortable chair and complete spreadsheets or code files that were supposed to have important data in them.
All you had with you at the moment was a bottle of water that you've been drinking from throughout the day, but it was starting to look pretty empty. You hoped that Josiah would come back with another bottle, or even a can of Monster, but for now, all you can do is savor what little amount of water was still inside it until he came back.
You hear footsteps coming up to your cubicle, so you momentarily look away from your monitor to find out who it was, and what they wanted.
"Hey, Y/n. Can I talk to you for a moment? It's urgent." Damian says to you the moment he see's you typing away at your computer.
"...Can it wait? I'm really busy." The second you make eye contact with Damian, you're already back to whatever task you have at hand and barely paying attention to what he wanted to tell you. "Josiah thought it was a great idea to slack off and now I'm swamped with work."
"Yeah... that's actually what I wanted to talk about." Damian chuckles, putting a hand on his hip. His other hand is fidgeting with his perfect tie as he stands there, hoping you could give him the time of day to hear him out. "If I may be frank with you, you're looking a little worse for wear."
He's leaning against your desk now, and you find it difficult to properly type the words and numbers, so you sigh and take your hands off the keyboard to give him your attention while rubbing your sore eyes. "Fine, I'll take a quick break. So what did you want?"
"I wanted to talk to you about Josiah. He's being a bad influence on you and I can't stand it anymore." Damian says unwaveringly, his eyes locked on the dark circles under your eyes. "Listen, I get that he's your friend and all... but he forced you to shirk your duties to do what? Play a videogame? Chat? You two already do that on your breaks and during lunch. Why would he waste your valuable time doing that when you need to be working? He should know how important this job is to you, especially since your own supervisor is so strict. One wrong move and you'll be terminated and jobless."
Sighing and looking down at your keyboard, you try to process all this information at once, but you're so exhausted and hungry that most of it goes in one ear and out the other. "I get where you're coming from, but I wanted to hang out with Josiah since he's... y'know... my friend? It's not the end of the world if I have to spend one lunch hour working at my computer to complete this work. It's my own fault anyway, all he did was coax me to do it." You try to smile, but Damian could tell it was forced despite how hard you tried. "It was stupid, I know. But I can-" It took every fiber of your being not to be worried. After all, this was half Josiah's fault and half your fault.
"Ever since you've joined this company, he's been stuck to your side like a little leech. And I've always hated it. You have the potential to do better, so please don't let him walk all over you." Damian takes his hand off his hip and tries to explain his reasoning to you. You flinch the second he puts his hand on your shoulder to grab your attention, but ease up once he pats it rather than rest his hand on you. "I get it, he's your friend. But I just don't want you to squander your job over some guy that doesn't even deserve to have a job here. Half the time, I don't even see him at his desk, so I don't understand why you're so quick to defend him when I could-"
It took ever fiber of your being not to roll your eyes and get back to work while simultaneously ignoring Damian, but all you could do was raise your arms up to get him to stop talking. "I guess that's kind of true, but Damian, please, I don't want to argue with you. I just want to get my work done and have lunch."
"I'm not arguing with you, I just want you to understand that he's not a good friend or coworker. I could help you out with work, not gloss over it like he does. I can't stand to see you so unhappy when you have the opportunity to do so much more with your life. Is that such a bold statement to make? Is it so wrong of me to say that Josiah isn't a good person? He's constantly pulling these pranks of his that are completely unprofessional, yet no one seems to be firing him. Haven't you seen the way he interacts with you? I don't like it. He sneaks up on you, he mumbles to himself when you're not around, and hell, I've seen him crash computers just so our coworkers wouldn't speak to you. He's sick. Deranged. Stalkerish. Perverted. I don't want anything bad to happen to you, that's all."
"What are you talking about? Josiah isn't a bad person-"
"Not to interrupt your uh... exciting conversation, but," Jackson cuts in, holding a printed out copy of a spreadsheet that read "INSUFFICIENT DATA" in big red letters across the work he did, "Y/n, I need you to head down into the Archive and find a file that tells me how to fix this big error screen. I get that you're busy, but you know your way around the Archive better than all of us. It's under Spreadsheet F-10, but that place is like a labyrinth. One wrong move and you're stuck down there, and with my eyesight it'll be like navigating a maze. Take care of it for me."
Damian quickly looks away from Jackson as he hands you the copy of his spreadsheet, so you save your work, and stand to your feet. "Sure, Jackson, I'll get on it. Spreadsheet F-10, right?"
Glancing at Damian, you shake your head and start walking to the elevator to head down into the Archive. Despite this, you and Damian were none the wiser, for a certain someone just so happened to hear the whole conversation from the beverage machine while buying you a soda, and he wasn't happy in the slightest.
Placing the bag of sushi into the fridge so it doesn't stay out in the open for too long, he takes a post-it note and writes "Josiah - Y/n" and sticks it to the bag so other coworkers won't steal it. Since you must have been starving, he had to make this quick.
Quickly following you to the Archive, he readjusts his hat and proceeds to take the stairs on the off chance the elevator acts up again.
You were in the middle of looking for the old file in the Archive. Jackson requested that you find something for him, an old code or spreadsheet that was valuable to the task he was having trouble with. Unfortunately for you, you were stuck taking care of his own work, including yours. It only made things worse once you practically saw double while searching through piles upon piles of folders and storage boxes.
If that wasn't bad enough, the godawful florescent lights were buzzing and humming like an electric fence, and at some points, you had actually hoped it could electrocute you to put you out of your misery in this stupid office building. To make things worse, the lights were flickering like a goddamn horror movie, so not only were you practically in the dark and unable to see what you were even looking for, you had to worry about seeing a ghost.
"Okay, I gotta look for Spreadsheet F-10. F-10 should have the step by step guide..." You quickly fix your hair and try to figure out a way to find what you're looking for, but you quickly realize that you left your phone on your desk, so using the flashlight on your phone was out of the question. "I'm hungry. Why couldn't Jackson find somebody else?"
Your stomach grumbles from the lack of nutrients, especially since all you've had since breakfast was a bottle of water and a granola bar, and you silently hope that Josiah got the kind of sushi you like and didn't just grab whatever he could find.
Someone, a male by the sound of it, made a noise that was more akin to clearing their throat to gain your attention rather than scare you, but failed miserably at it. In the middle of looking through the tall rows and rows of files in the dark Archive, you flinched.
Your heart almost began beating out of your chest the second you realized you were backed into a corner in this specific location, and the flickering of the lights made your eyes grow wide in fear, almost as if you were the protagonist of a horror movie, ready to be murdered without a second thought by whoever made the noise across the room.
Turning your head slowly, as if you were testing to see if you were safe with whoever was down here with you, you let out a shaky exhale in relief once you realized it was Josiah, one of your close friends. Your heart struggled to accept the fact that you were perfectly fine, especially since you didn't even hear Josiah coming.
"Oh, hey, dude! You can't just sneak up on people like that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" You chuckled out, almost immediately smiling at the sight of him. "...So, what's up? Does Jackson need me for something?"
Josiah was standing far enough away so that the darkness of the Archive left his face as a shadowy silhouette, but the flickering florescent lights above the two of you managed to light up his lower body just enough to see that he was standing perfectly still; just staring at you.
He was just standing there; watching you in the dark, and it was freaking you out.
And mumbling something under his breath?
You knew damn well that while Josiah was your friend, you considered him to be pretty creepy. Always randomly appearing in the weirdest locations without any sound whatsoever, he always seemed like he knew where you were like he had a GPS specifically for you.
Even though you would never say it to his face, you didn't enjoy the way he acted towards you at times. He's also a man that likes you a little too much, or so they say. Josiah absolutely does not respect boundaries, either. Constantly fighting tooth and nail to make other people miserable for simply looking in your direction, you find it difficult to even make friends that Josiah hasn't messed with yet.
Damian even went so far as to say that Josiah has ulterior motives, or at least he insinuated it. You were too tired and overworked to properly listen to him earlier, but now that your heart was pumping and you were on high alert, you started to understand what he meant.
Josiah's eyes seemed to pierce right through you. You almost couldn't look away, like he would lunge for you if you even glanced somewhere else.
Your stomach grumbles again, and you press your arm against it in embarrassment to get it to shut up, but to no avail. Despite your best efforts, all you can do is awkwardly smile and shield yourself within the darkness of the Archive.
"You weren't at your cubicle and lunch was almost over. I was worried." Josiah shrugs below the flickering light, but the way he moved didn't seem... friendly. "I got that sushi you wanted, by the way."
"Huh? Oh! Right, sorry, I... I got dragged away from my cubicle by Jackson. Said he needed me to find something for him because he was swamped with his own work." You attempt to show him the messed up Spreadsheet, hoping he could figure it out. "Jackson mentioned that he's missing valuable data despite all of the parameters being filled out. How much do I owe you, by the way?"
Josiah sighs through his nose and looks off the side with his eyebrows narrowed, prompting you to think he was angry at you, rather than worried about your well-being. "I already told you that you don't have to pay me back."
"It's okay! I insist, I can get my wallet-" You find yourself beginning to laugh as you say this.
You see Josiah blink in the darkness and hear him sigh through his nose. "...Why do you always let people walk all over you?"
"Excuse me?" The instant Josiah asks you this, your smile curls into an offended frown and you can't help but form a fist with your fingers. "What are you talking about?"
"You heard what I said. And... I heard that little argument you and Damian had too. It's a shame that he doesn't trust me around you."
"...You heard that? I-I mean, what? No, we weren't having an argument, Josiah. Ignore Damian, he's probably just as overworked as I am. We all are overworked. Please don't do anything to him or his computer. He's having a really tough time and he can barely eat or sleep because higher ups keep piling work on him."
"...That's not an excuse for him to call me a bad influence on you. I thought you and I had a close connection because we genuinely like each other. Unlike Damian, I don't waste my time and effort to talk to you about work. I talk to you about your interests. I ask you about your day. I spend time with you on our breaks because you have nothing better to do. I invite you out to lunch because I want to show you that you're really my friend." Josiah finally takes a few steps forwards and leers at you. "I can do things for you that Damian hasn't even thought about."
By this point, you wanted to get out of here. This Archive was suffocating, Josiah's words were twisted and mind-bending, and you were so exhausted that your body felt like giving out from under you from just how quickly your heart was beating as his body language was, by all rights, threatening to you. You feel the wind getting knocked out of you when your back hits the wall with some force.
Being trapped between two ginormous walls of files with no means of escape, where Josiah is pinning you in such a claustrophobic corner of the Archive, you find it difficult to control your breathing. "You made me skip work to talk about nonsense."
"You chose to hang out with me. Isn't that what you said before?" Josiah sports a dead, unemotive smile.
"Do we have to do this here? You're freaking me out just standing there in the dark like that. This isn't a horror movie, we can talk like normal adults, y'know." You say condescendingly, prompting a breathy laugh from Josiah as you hold the file close to you. You could practically feel the adrenaline coursing through your veins as soon as Josiah tilted his head to the side.
"Jesus Christ, you don't get it, do you, Y/n? Damian's jealous of us. He's jealous of what we have."
"I... I don't understand. Damian isn't jealous, he's just worried about my work ethic due to stress."
"Really? Because Damian said I'm sick." Josiah takes another step, and you hear his voice begin to rise. "I'm deranged for doing the bare minimum, meanwhile he's barely even there to talk to you."
You huddle against the files and begin to breath heavily as he comes closer. "Josiah, stop it, what's gotten into you? Is this another one of your shenanigans or something?"
"Apparently, I'm stalkerish? That's a new one. I'm a stalker now because I just so happen to be in the same location as you at the exact same time?"
"I didn't agree with him, Josiah! Why are you interrogating me instead of him? I don't like this!"
"And the worst part of it is..." Josiah leans in close to you, and uses his tall body to pin you to the wall behind you. He narrows his eyes and laughs to himself condescendingly. "He thinks I'm a pervert just for spending time with you. I'm your friend, not just some random guy that wants to get into your pants."
As if some force of nature tried to terrify you even more than you already were, the flickering florescent light finally goes out the second you feel his chest press against your own. You begin to hyperventilate, your brain running rampant with the mental images of what Josiah might do to you in the dark of the Archive. Attempting to steady your breathing as you stare up at Josiah, you furrow your brows together.
Away from prying eyes, you quickly realize you're far away from coworkers or janitors that could save your life if he lets his jealousy and anger get the better of him.
You can smell his cheap, suffocating cologne from how close he was, still sporting that threatening expression on his face that you wanted absolutely nothing to do with. One wrong move and one wrong sentence could be your undoing.
"...You know you're my friend." Your voice cracks from the fear. "I tried to reason with Damian, honest, but he kept talking over me and telling me stuff without any proof." You begin to mumble to yourself and try not to get on Josiah's bad side while explaining your reasoning. "You're not a bad person, but you're scaring me."
Josiah fixes some of your hair, and the second he puts his fingers against your scalp, you instantly tense up from the fear. "I'm not putting the blame on you, but I want you to understand something, Y/n. Damian's trying to twist your opinion of me by telling you shit that isn't true. Quite frankly, it's downright insulting. You said it yourself. It's not the end of the world if you slack off for just one day. Don't let him get to your head."
"Okay, okay, I get it. Can you let go of me?" Struggling in his grip, you attempt to get past him in order to run towards the elevator to get out of here, but if you tried to take the stairs he would probably catch you due to how fast your blood was pumping. The fear and overwhelming anxiety was messing with your ability to act rationally, so you were stupid enough to hit him a few times in the chest. "Dammit, Josiah, I'll report you if you do anything to me!"
"Relax a little bit, you're practically sweating through your work uniform. I don't want you spending time with Damian anymore." His voice is low and gravelly, almost like it took a lot of strength to even say this without losing his temper. He's still staring at you with that cold and calculating expression on his face, but he's unwavering. Still pinning you against the wall, he whispers, "If he even attempts to manipulate you again he won't step foot in this building. I'll make Damian disappear off the face of the Earth if I have to. He'll regret that he ever spoke to you." Josiah leans in closer and his hot breath hits your ear, prompting you to widen your eyes. "It would be a shame if the same thing happened to your other friends. Don't tell anyone about our little conversation, okay? I'd hate to see you fear me because of this."
Josiah's toying with you now. These weren't just petty threats of violence anymore.
He means every word he says.
You try to struggle out of his grip, but he's unwavering. Trapped between Josiah and the wall of the Archive he has you pressed up against, you nod and look down at the floor to keep from crying. "Okay, okay, I get it. I won't spend time with them anymore."
"I need you to understand. If you ever speak to them again, or better yet, if you even glance in their direction, their faces will show up on missing person posters before you can even realize they're gone." By this point, Josiah is finally satisfied. "I got your back in case you need me. Even if I do some really morally questionable stuff on the side."
"Y...Yes. I understand. You're my... friend."
Josiah's facial expression changes from angry to calm as fast as lightning. "That's more like it."
You had no other choice but to listen to what he told you, especially since it was no secret that Damian was right. Though Josiah tried to deny it by forcing you to believe him, everything Damian told you earlier finally came to light. The only problem was that you had to face the consequences of Josiah's jealousy because Damian decided to open his stupid mouth.
Letting go of you, Josiah continues making eye contact with you, like if he takes his eyes off you for even a second, you would disappear from his life forever.
"Come on, let's get going." Josiah says to you nonchalantly, moving his body away from yours so the two of you can head back to the office. "We still gotta eat lunch."
Following close behind Josiah with your head held down as he gets out his phone to use the flashlight function, you sniffle and try to maintain your composure. "You got the sushi we wanted, right? ...And you're sure I don't have to pay you back?"
Looking at you over his shoulder, he nods and softly chuckles as you ask your question. "Of course I did. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't spoil you rotten?"
Lunch was just about over by the time you got back to your department. There was probably less than 25 minutes left to eat and relax, but your stomach was racked with nerves from anxiety and fear that you were no longer hungry. In fact, you were feeling quite nauseous after what you experienced in the Archive. Holding your aching stomach with one hand, you look around as people are flocking back to their cubicles with full stomachs, all while they are none the wiser.
Damian's gaze catches your own, and his body language and his facial expression leads you to believe that Josiah knew, and that he was in severe danger if he attempted to get Josiah away from you.
Freezing up as you feel Josiah's hand on your shoulder as he leads you to the cased opening that takes you back to the desks, you see Damian staring at you out of the corner of your eyes from Jackson's cubicle. Apparently they were both impatiently waiting for your return, and here you were, completely ignoring them both while practically bending the file against your torso in fear of what Josiah might do or say if he catches you staring at Damian.
"Y/n. You still have the file. Didn't you say Jackson needed it?" Josiah asks, his tone of voice sharp yet mellow at the same time. has an odd tone in his voice, and he seems quite irritable and rude.
From his look of disgust and from the tone of his voice, it seems that he is very jealous that you instantly began looking to Damian for assistance. Josiah grumbles to himself. It pierced your ears like a rapid animal growling in your ears.
How could he be so calm after threatening the people you were close to?
"What? Oh, right, yeah. Um, can you get the sushi you bought us and a drink from the vending machine? We can meet up at my desk once I finish." You reassure him, hoping that he takes his hand off your shoulder soon. "...Josiah? Are you listening to me?"
Josiah's grip only continues to tighten, and you feel his gaze locked on your form as you wince from the pressure. For a split second, he stares at you and gives you a half smile, then he goes back to his normal, emotionless self.
But right now, where you're practically still shaking after his confrontation with you in the Archive? You wanted to quit and cut all ties with him and this entire company.
You are not staring at him; you can't and don't want to.
"Actually, I was thinking that I could deliver the file for Jackson. It'll give you the opportunity to eat since lunch is almost over." Josiah's tone is still sharp and he is very dismissive with you, almost like he wanted to show off to Damian that he knew about the conversation Damian shared with you earlier. "Can't have you passing out from the stress again, can we? Go ahead and get the sushi and our drinks from the fridge, buddy. I'll be waiting for you at your cubicle."
Before you could even reply, Josiah steals the file out of your grip and proceeds to leisurely walk away from you while you stand there dumbfounded. You quickly realize that you had no idea just how hungry you were. As you keep your eyes trained on Jackson and Damian as Josiah hands him the file he needed, you make your way to the fridge and get the bag and the drinks out of the fridge.
It was hard to tell due to their body language, but Damian almost immediately walked away from the conversation just as Josiah glanced in his direction. You had no idea what they were saying, but you mentally apologized to Damian and the rest of your friends for the way Josiah was acting.
Sighing to yourself and getting the food, you shake your head and wonder what you were going to do now that Josiah forced his way into your life 24/7. Now that you knew the truth, maybe you could report him? But what if he does something bad to you and your friends in retaliation?
Where did this shift in his personality even come from? Did Damian's words strike a nerve so bad that his jealousy went through the roof? And what did Josiah mean by "morally questionable stuff"? What could he possibly do that was worse than what he already does in this office?
"Hey, buddy. Ready to eat? I also got you some energy bars in case you feel woozy. Sushi is nutritious, but you gotta have fiber too." He hands you snacks from the vending with the same old smile, but his tired eyes seem to have some light in them. "You look out of it. Don't tell me that getting lost in the dark Archive scared you that badly." Josiah's lies through his teeth as he chuckles.
The second he breaks you out of your thoughts, you try to smile and follow him to your desk like a lost puppy, completing ignoring Damian's worried expression the whole time you made your way through the rows and rows of cubicles. You can't glance at Damian. Josiah already told you that if you did, there would be consequences, so you try to get on Josiah's good side.
"I know, I know. I'm as blind as a bat, dude. You know that already. It's not my fault that the lights in there are a billion years old. It was only a matter of time before those stupid things blew a fuse. If you hadn't looked for me down there, I probably would have found a way out of there by myself."
"Ha! As if. You looked like a deer in the headlights when I found you. I can't believe we wasted our entire lunch hour trying to look for each other in the Archive. Maybe our coworkers will start talking about us. That'd be bad." Josiah steals one of the empty chairs beside your cubicle so he could sit next to you, but you find it hard to keep up the fake smile. "I'm just glad I found you before you got hurt."
"...Ha, yeah, totally." You sit in your chair and pick up the cold chopsticks since they were sitting in the fridge. "I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful friend like you, Josiah. I really... don't need anyone else to be happy."
"...That's what I like to hear." Josiah smiles for real and takes a swig of his own drink. It seems like he's starting a conversation with you despite the fact you could barely eat your meal. "Now, about that indie game you suggested to me..."