Young Writers Society

Welcome to the publishing company responsible for the New York Times' Best Selling comic High Point University, featuring characters from all of Comic Corp's best-selling stand-alone series in what critics are calling "the world's most ambitious crossover" and "the most entertaining alternate universe yet." 

Here at Comic Corp we believe in combining storytelling with dynamic visuals to tell creative, engaging stories that draw readers in. Our goal is that you'd pick up a comic and not want to put it down until you know how it ends.

Comic Corp's long-running founder and CEO, Maime Pages, recently stepped down to enter into retirement. Now we'd like you to welcome to the company your new CEO Dr. Lordshire. We're excited for the new direction he'll be taking our company and the new stories that will come into the world under his creative leadership.

On the 51st floor of Comic Corp, this story follows a group of interns who got a job at a comic publishing company over the summer. While the summer starts out light, dynamics begin to shift when the interns accidentally stumble onto something more nefarious going on behind the face of the company.

Who is Dr. Lordshire? What is the new CEO doing behind the scenes? Maybe it just takes a few dumb, lucky, and brave interns to find out.

Kazimir's brain felt numb. Something about staring at numbers on a screen for several hours in an excel spreadsheet did that to a person.

Training was more boring than he ever could have imagined. The lady assigned to train him was named Judy - a 45 year old divorcee who had no sense of humor and didn't like answering questions. And, she yet kept oversharing whenever there was an opportunity - which ended up being a lot. Like... a lot. He felt like he learned more about her ex-husband than he did about "data entry" and that was saying something. Data entry seemed pretty self-explanatory, and he knew he wasn't that bright.

That said, apparently it wasn't that self-explanatory since he need to be trained and all. And he wasn't quite... uh... getting it.

He was glad for a lunch break.

He didn't think he could stare at a screen any longer. This was different than playing video games. This felt like torture.

When he finally made it to the break room he realized he hadn't actually brought anything for lunch. He'd forgotten to bring food, or rather, forgot that food was a thing at all when he was rushing out that morning to make it to work on time so people would actually believe he took this job seriously.

Normally, he really wouldn't care. He'd never been the kind of person to be on time. But this internship was more than just a job for him. 

It was a test. This was his father giving him one last chance to prove himself before he got cut off for real this time, and Kazimir knew he couldn't blow it.

All of that spun in Kazimir's head as he stood a few steps into the doorway, and it wasn't until someone brushed past him that he remembered what he was doing again.

Lunch. Right.

How long did he have? Thirty minutes? He couldn't remember.

Damn. That wasn't long enough to run to the garage and speed out to get something, was it?

"Do you like spaghetti?" a voice cut into his thoughts. 

Kazimir blinked, looking up at the guy who looked nearly as big as he was himself. He was buff and sitting at a table by himself with a huge tupperware of spaghetti in front of him, but he patted his lunch bag on the bench next to him. "I brought extra." 

Relief flooded through him. He didn't know who this guy was, but for now, he was his spaghetti angel. Amazing. Kazimir didn't have to starve.

Jumping into the chair across from the guy, Kazimir smiled.

"Oh, shit, dude. Thanks," Kazimir said. "I didn't really, uh -- well I forgot to bring food today."

"All good my man." The man gave a warm grin and pulled out an equally large vat of spaghetti. "I figured first-day nerves people might forget or whatever and I thought, hey, what better way to make friends than spaghetti?" He pushed it across the table towards him. "Spaghetti friends forever? S-F-F?" 

"Sff?" Kazimir sounded out, saying the acronym like a word. "Sff. Sounds like I have a lisp."

He did have a lisp, actually, when he was a kid, but that didn't need to be said.

Kazimir took the tupperware and popped off the lid.

"Did you bring an extra fork too?" he asked.

"Ah sh--" He cut himself off, looking around. 

"You know what, it's okay," Kazimir said, reaching his hand into the tupperware.

"I bet they've got plastic ones some--" the man blinked. "...Or that. Okay. You do you."

Kazimir twirled some of the noodles around his finger and used them like a fork.

"They do have a microwave," the man offered, nodding over his shoulder. "But that might burn your fingers, I dunno." 

Kazimir hummed, chewing on the noodles as he considered it.

"Nah," he said through his mouthful. "You're right. It's better cold."

"I didn't say that," the man said. "But I can respect it." He nodded, then picked back up his own fork and started eating from his own Tupperware. 

Kazimir waiting until he finished chewing, and then pointed at the man.

"So what's your name, spaghetti guy?" he asked.

"Spaghetti Guy, huh? That could be my superhero name," the man said past a mouthful of food, then swallowed and smiled. "Aeron." He looked like he was about to offer a handshake, then glanced at Kaz's pasta-y hands and thought better of it. He glanced back at his face. "Aeron Munen. And you?" 

"Kazimir," he answered. "But most people call me Kaz. Unless you're like, my boss. Or my dad."

"Luckily, I am neither," Aeron said with a smirk. "Are you, uh, another-- er, I mean-- how long have you been with the company?"

"Today's my first day. I'm an intern," Kazimir said. "You?"

"Ah!" Aeron visibly relaxed, still smiling. "Mine too -- and me too. Marketing. What, uh, division...?" 

Kazimir motioned like he was typing, but realized that wasn't a very clear answer.

"Data entry," he said after a beat. "You know. Just. Numbers... stuff."

"Nice." Aeron nodded. "What's your major, then? Like... ac..counting?" 

Kazimir blinked.

He was supposed to have a major? Shit.

"Uh..." he trailed off, staring down at the spaghetti. "Yeah," he said too quickly. "Yeah. That."

Aeron squinted at him. "...Yeah?" 

"Yeah. I'm great at counting," Kazimir said. He pointed at Aeron. "One." Then himself. "Two."

He felt like he was digging a hole but he didn't know how he got into it in the first place.

"Impressive," Aeron deadpanned. 

"What do you do in marketing?" Kazimir asked. "Go to the market?"

"I prefer to go wee-wee-wee all the way--" Aeron cut himself off, blushing. "Sorry. That was... dumb. Sorry." He cleared his throat, glancing away. 

Kazimir snorted.

"Wee-wee," he said with a laugh, poking at his pasta. "That's such a funny nursery rhyme. I don't even know where it comes from. Is it American?"

"Dunno." Aeron shrugged. "I think it actually started out kinda dark, though. Like... I don't think the piggy was the one going shopping at that market, ya feel?" 

Kazimir slurped up a noodle and nodded.

"I mean, it's just pig meat," he said. "But I guess some people feel bad for the pigs. Is it dark? Or is it just a silly metaphor for pigs going to the butcher? I guess it's weird to make it a children's rhyme though."

"Yeah." Aeron shrugged. "Dunno, bro. Head empty, no thoughts." 

"Same," Kazimir said, and then picked up a big glob of congealed spaghetti and took a bite out of it.

Aeron nodded. "So... how's your first day going, then?" 

Kazimir swallowed and let out a long sigh, leaning forward on the table.

"God, it's so boring," Kazimir said. "I feel like Judy is very slowly crushing my soul with repetitive tasks."

He held us his hands and brought them together, representitive of the crushing. 

"I am going to die," Kazimir said, dramatically slumping his head forward, only to pop it right back up again. "Maybe. Except I can't. So it's fine. How's it with you?"

"That's rough, bro," Aeron said with a solemn nod. Then he shrugged. "Mine's going well enough. I get paid to make a cool product look cool. Pretty sweet gig so far!" 

Kazimir poked at his spaghetti.

"Like, you advertise the comics or whatever?" he asked.

"Yeah." He nodded. "I mean... I think so. A lot of this morning was team building and such, getting accustomed to office culture more than the actual job, y'know? But it seems like it'll be mostly advertising and sales and stuff. Getting to talk to people. Kind of my specialty seeing as I never shut up." 

"Dude..." Kazimir said slowly. "You got to do team building? Bro..."

He didn't know who was over his department, but man, they sucked. He wished he'd gotten to do team-building or something. Not all the heavy info-dumping he got his first day.

Aeron chuckled. "Yeah, perks of being on the most extroverted team I guess."

And perks of not working in the most boring department to ever exist. But Kazimir knew he never would've gotten into marketing, or any other department for that matter. Not only did he not have the credentials, but he didn't have the experience or knowledge either, and he knew that. At least, when he was honest with himself.

Why did all of the well-paying "normal" jobs with good benefits require so much... stuff?

He wished his dad would've let him just do warehouse work or something to "prove himself." That was a different set of skills he felt he was more fit for, but it was work his dad turned his nose up at.

So now he had a desk job.

"Did you guys talk about any of the stories you're trying to get people to buy? Or was it all just socializing?" Kazimir asked.

"We haven't really gotten to the work part of stuff yet, honestly," Aeron admitted with a shrug. "But it's only been a single morning."

"Maybe it's fun in the morning, work in the afternoon," Kazimir said. "That's what the people call, uh... a work-fun balance."

"Yeah." Aeron nodded, then shrugged again. "I don't know, man. I just do what I'm told. I'm sure the training will get started when it's meant to."

Kazimir nodded again, but didn't really feel like talking about work anymore. After taking a big gob of spaghetti and stuffing it in his mouth, he used the time he needed for chewing to think. Though he mostly ended up thinking about chewing, he did manage to come up with a question.

When he finally swallowed he looked down at his spaghetti-sauce-covered hands and wondered if there were napkins anywhere.

"So, uh--" 

Oh no. He forgot the guy's name. It had been five minutes and he already forgot.

"Crap, uh, can you remind me of your name again?" he asked.

The man smirked. "Aiden." 

"Aiden," Kazimir repeated. "What got you into marketing at a comic company anyway?"

"Charisma?" the man said with a shrug. "I dunno, bro. It seemed fun. I try to have fun. I like getting paid to talk, and I like comic books, and this combined the two."

Getting paid to talk sounded easy. Marketing was not that easy. It was more than just talking. You had to be good with people and understand people, right? Apparently Aiden was good at that. He did think ahead to even bring spaghetti to make friends with people who forgot to bring food. That wasn't a small-brain move.

But Aiden also liked comics. So that was a plus. Kazimir wasn't exactly a comic book nerd, but he had read some here and there. Mostly the short ones, though. The ones in the Sunday papers.

Did those count?

"What comics do you like?" he asked anyway, knowing anything Aiden said he probably wouldn't know unless there was a movie of it already.

"Oh, uh... y'know..." Aiden hesitated. "HPU, obviously... uh... Marvel... DC... mainstream things more or less. My attention span is too short for the really nerdy things, y'know? I like when there are movies to go along with them."

"Yes," Kazimir said, pointing a spaghetti-covered finger at him. "Yeah. Me too. I don't really read comics, actually. I just got this job to get a job."

"Valid." Aiden nodded. "I mean, I guess the data-entry side of things isn't too lively no matter where you go."

"Wish it was," Kazimir said wistfully, looking down into the nearly empty tupperware. "Guess I'll just have to do exciting things outside of work instead."

"Yeah." Aiden glanced at him. "We should hang out sometime, maybe? Or not. I dunno. Whatever the vibe is."

"It's a vibe," Kazimir said with a smile. He reached to pull out his phone out of his pocket but then realized, again, that his hands were covered in spaghetti sauce.

"Uhh..." He glanced around the break room, scanning to find napkins. There were paper towels. That was better, actually.

Quickly, he got up and wiped off his hands, tossing the paper towels in the trash with a flick of his hands to get anything else off. As he walked back over he pulled his phone out and pulled up his messages app.

"Just uh, text me," Kazimir said. "Or. Yourself. I mean yourself. That makes-- you know--"

Why could he not talk today? All the numbers were ruining his brain.

"Yeah." He slid his phone across the table to... crap. He forgot his name again.

"Sure." The man picked up the phone and then hesitated, then punched some things in and slid it back. "Here you go." 

He'd texted an unknown number with the message 'Aeron Munen.' 

Then he hesitated, glancing up at Kaz. "That was a dumb thing to text myself, I know my own name. What's your last name, that's what I need in my phone, not my name."

"Oh, right," Kazimir said. He took his phone and texted the man in the same thread: Kazimir Petrov.

"But just Kaz?" Aeron clarified. "'Cause I'm not your dad or boss?" 

"Yeah," Kazimir said with a huff through his nose. "Call me my full name and you'll trigger my uh, what do they call it. The fight or flight response."

"Oh, that'd be awkward, watching a grown man run away," Aeron said with a smirk. 

"Well it's more just my fight response," Kazimir said, getting up as he pocketed his phone away. "Which is kind of more awkward actually. Anyways. Uh. Working on... that."

This felt like as much of a trainwreck as training was, but maybe that was just because he was way out of his element. Being in an office space felt like he was on mars, surrounded by aliens.

"Anyway," Kazimir said, trying to move on quickly. "I should probably get back. Gotta type numbers and shit. Nice to meet you, Aeron."

Ah. There it was. He remembered the dude's name. Nice.

"You too." Aeron offered a little wave and smile.

Waving back, Kazimir turned to go back to data input hell.

Cute outfit, check. Hair products, check. Packed lunch, check. Lip gloss, check. Intern paperwork, check. Meeting with supervisor, check. Stalking the other interns again... hm, Mel could re-check that.

The day was off to a slow start. It was her first day, though! As a colorist! At a comic company she was practically a celebrity in!

Well, okay, maybe that was a stretch. She was in the High Point University comics as herself, yeah, but she wasn't a main character. Not that that was important. Mel wouldn't want to give main character vibes anyways.

She was also learning that apparently the comic was all based out of real people, but she didn't learn that but of trivia until today. Isabel Powers, her super suave and cool supervisor, told her a ton of cool trivia today, but not really about coloring.

That was why she was here, right? To color and shade and stuff?

So why was she reviewing a technical report about the comic process?

Mel groaned, smashing her hands on the keyboard. This was boring. She had a couple minutes until lunch, so maybe she could stalk the interns again...

She glanced around, making sure Isabel wasn't around her cubicle. Sometimes it felt like she just popped out of nowhere, and Mel didn't want her to think she was slacking off on her phone. Even though that was exactly what she was doing.

Mel pulled up the email that HR sent her and the other interns. There were three total: Kazimir Petrov in data entry, Aeron Munen in marketing, Puck Ward in public relations, and herself. She was bummed out that they were all white boys in business - that was, until she stalked their Instagram.

Were they all models? Why were they all tall and hot? Was this real life?

Kazimir (or Kaz, she noted) and Aeron looked like they had a six pack and were gym rats. Puck looked like a cool edgy skater boy type of dude, and scrolling through his Instagram, she noted that he had a boyfriend. She couldn't tell if Kaz or Aeron were taken though. Aeron had a private account so she couldn't really tell outside of his profile pictures, but Kaz's was public, albeit sparse since he only had five pictures.

Something about him intrigued Mel, though. His pictures were mainly showing off his motorcycle or him being silly. His bio literally just said "just livin" and it really showed. His captions were also simple and seemed to be in a mix of English and Russian.

Mel hummed, wondering what he was like in person. Maybe he was some smart Eastern European business analytics student who liked motorcycles and comics. And who happens to be hot.

A few more minutes go by, and Mel went on to trying to stalk Aeron across all social media, but then quickly gave up when she saw the time.

Why stalk these boys when she could just meet them in person? According to Outlook, they sit in the opposite side of the building as her. She could go to the lunch room first, then wander over to their neck of the woods when she finished. Yeah. That sounded like a great plan.

Mel quickly gathered her items and then bounded for the door, her heels clacking across the door. She didn't see Isabel anywhere, so she figured she went to lunch as well.

She took a few turns down the hall and was about to enter the break room, but then nearly bumped into someone as she turned a corner.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed as she quickly stepped out of the way, but then blinked and looked up at who this tall person was.

"Oh, hey, it's fine," Kaz said in a Russiany accent. It was cute.

Wow. It was like the universe was wanting them to spend time with each other.

"Oh my gosh, you must be Kaz!" Mel squealed. "Hi, I'm Mel. Also an intern. Hey, have you had lunch yet? Let's go get lunch. Come on!"

She was already walking ahead, beckoning for him to follow.

"What... I though the lunch break was almost over?" he said, hesitating.

Mel giggled, flicking her wrist down in a playful motion in front of her. "You can take your lunch break whenever, silly. It just has to be thirty minutes."

Kazimir blinked slowly, as if visually processing the information for a moment before his expression brightened, and he looked relieved.

"Oh," he said, walking up to her. "What'd you say your name was? Did I meet you earlier?"

It was at this moment that Mel realized that it was implied that she knew him because she had stalked him, but she played it off cooly, sauntering towards the elevator with Kaz closely following her.

"Mel Sommers. You're Kaz, right? HR told me about you and the other interns. I was thinking we can all meet up after work or something. Have you met anyone else?" she asked.

"I met this guy named Aeron," Kaz said. "He's a cool dude. He gave me spaghetti. Seems like a smart guy. Good at talking."

That was kind of a weird compliment, but Mel laughed it off. She wondered what they could have talked about since Kaz praised him on that.

"Oh, neat. You're the first one I met, so we'll have to find Puck later. Are you still hungry?"

"Kind of, yeah," Kaz said with a shrug. "Though maybe that's because the pasta hasn't hit my stomach yet."

Mel looked up to him with an amused smile before pressing the down button on the elevator. She straightened out her purse straps on her shoulder.

"There's a cafe and bakery across the street. Want to check it out?" she asked.

"Sure!" Kaz said with a smile, still following along.

The door to the elevator opened and they both stepped in. Mel pressed the down button and waited to see if anyone else would hop in. She was glad that the doors closed with just the two of them in the little space.

"I'm a colorist intern, by the way. What's your department?" she asked, pretending to not know.

"Data entry," Kazimir said. "A lot less exciting."

Mel hummed. "What's that? Like, are you reading off papers and putting it in Excel or something?"

If so, that would be too menial for a college student, even as an intern.

"Well... kind of, yeah," Kazimir said, scratching the back of his head. "I mean, you like, update information in their database. Sometimes transcribe stuff from meetings too. Just... a lot of typing either way."

"Ew," Mel said as she scrunched her nose. The elevator door opened and she stepped out, leading the way again. "That sounds soooo boring."

"Yeah," Kazimir sighed. "It's something, though."

There was a beat before he turned to her and asked: "What's a colorist do?"

"Well, color, obviously," Mel said with a laugh as she headed for the door. "But I haven't done any of that yet since it's our first day and all. Probably soon though. I wonder what comic we'll be working on next? All the interns helped with High Point University last year. Wouldn't it be cool if we could all work on the same thing, too? I could color and you could... like, do data thingimajigs. Or something."

"I could type word bubbles," Kazimir said. "Except that's not actually in my job description."

"Someone's gotta do it, though!" Mel said cheerfully. "I'm sure you can ask around and do other stuff too. Are you like, a data science major or whatever? There's maybe some other stuff you could do."

There was a short pause as they stepped outside and Mel stopped to scan her surroundings until her eyes landed on a coffee shop across the street called Brewed Awakenings. She gestured to the cafe and turned back to Kaz.

"You said you haven't been there before, right? Want to go?"

"Yeah, let's check it out," Kaz said.

Mel nodded and started to lead the way. "You know, this coffee shop was in HPU as well. Did you know that?"

Kazimir glanced at the shop, then back at her, and smiled weakly.

"I uh... haven't actually read it," he admitted. "I don't really know much about it. Except that its popular."

"Wait, you haven't read the comics?! Even though you work here now? It was the most sold comic of the year!" she said with a laugh.

Kazimir smiled wider and shrugged.

"I don't really read comics," he said.

"Oh my gosh, why even work at a comic company doing boring data entry stuff then?"

"It's a job," Kazimir said with another half-shrug. "I don't know. Seemed more interesting than working for like, I don't know..."

"The stock market?" Mel finished when he trailed off.

Kazimir laughed, shaking his head.

"Ah," he said, looking away. "I'm not smart enough for that."

"Pfft, those bozos just have charisma and looks. Which you have too, by the way," Mel said with a smirk as she opened the door to the cafe for him, motioning for him to go on in. "After you."

Kaz laughed lightly and nodded in thanks as he stepped through, but there was something odd about it. Even though he was being very friendly, it felt tense. He almost seemed nervous.

Mel narrowed her eyes as she watched him walk towards the counter. She wondered if he was hiding something or just nervous to be around her. Maybe both.

"What do you want to drink or eat? It's on me!" she exclaimed as she stood by him.

"You sure?" he asked.

"Mmhmm. You'll have to get the next one to make it even," she said with a wider smile as she playfully elbowed him.

There was a split second where he looked down at her with a curious, almost confused look, but then his eyes smiled.

Finally, it seemed like he was starting to catch on.

"Yeah," he said as his mouth turned up into a playful smile. "I guess I will."

"Sounds like a date," Mel said with a bigger smile, but quickly moved on. "So, what are you feeling?" She gestured to the menu above the cashier with her head. "Menu's up there."

Kazimir turned to look at the menu and even though he was looking at it, he seemed to have a bit of a blank expression. She noticed a few seconds after the person in front of them ordered, he answered.

"Triple shot expresso," he said. It was the same as their order.

Either he was copying the random person in front of them, or he was REALLY tired.

Mel had to do a double take. "Are you sure? It's, like, noon."

"I dunno... do you have a suggestion? I'll try anything once," he said.

Mel had to suppress a laugh. Did he ever go to coffee shops?

She stepped forward and decided to order for him.

"Can I get one cinnamon cappuccino, and one upside-down caramel Frappuccino with oat milk, please?"

She finished ordering and paying, then veered off to the side to wait for their drinks.

"I've never been to a coffee shop before," Kazimir said the moment they turned away from the register. "My dad drinks Folgers. That's all I know."

Mel scrunched her nose in disgust. "Ew, that stuff tastes like dirty bean water." She paused, glancing between him and the counter. "Wait, are you serious? You've never been to a coffee shop? This is your first time?"

Kazimir shrugged innocently.

"I don't know, I just have the coffee from the gas station," he said. "It's good enough for me."

Mel laughed incredulously, staring up at him in awe. Did he live under a rock? Where did this guy come from?

"That stuff is sooo burnt and acidic!" she said with a laugh. "How do you get through the day with that stuff? I'd fail all of my exams."

"Well, I mean, it's not like I have coffee every day," Kazimir shrugged. "Just when I really need the boost."

"Hm, well, this drink will give you an even bigger boost then."

Just in time, the barista called Mel's name and dropped off two drinks at the end of the counter. Mel happily snatched them up and then offered the cappuccino to Kaz.

"Here. Try it," she said.

Kazimir took the drink and popped off the lid, looking inside. He gave it a few sniffs before putting the lid back on and gave a small nod of approval, though it seemed like the nod was more to himself.

"Did you just sniff your coffee?" Mel said with a suppressed smirk.

"You don't?" Kazimir asked.

"No, that's weird." She paused. "What's it smell like to you?"

"Smells like coffee. And a lot of sugar," he said, and then took a long sip of the drink without pause. There was no way he didn't burn his mouth doing so.

Mel couldn't help but laugh, shaking her head as she took in the sight. "You're a weirdo." A cute weirdo.

When he pulled the cup away, he smacked his lips and then pursed them in thought. That didn't take away his frothy whipped cream mustache on his real 'stache, though.

"Hm," he hummed.

"So? How was it?" she asked.

"Tastes like... ice cream. If it were a hot liquid," he said.

Mel hummed as well, walking back towards the door and motioning for him to follow. They only had 15 minutes, and it was coming close to an end.

"Not a fan?" she asked.

Kazimir followed smoothly behind her, taking another long sip before answering.

"I haven't decided," he said, and then took another drink.

Mel opened the door for him again, swirling her hand out for him to leave first. "Well, you'll have to let me know when you finish, then."

"Thanks for the drink by the way," Kazimir said.

"Yeah, don't mention it! I mean, we literally work in the same building, so I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other."

"For sure," Kazimir said, and she noticed he'd pulled out his phone and was pulling something up. Then he offered it to her.

Mel was eager and happy to take his phone and put her number into his contacts as if it were second nature.

"I met Aeron earlier and got his number. Maybe we could all hang out sometime. You know, when we're not working," Kazimir said. "If you're cool with that."

"Yeah, totally, that'd be fun!"

She finished putting her name and number under the contact "Mel Sommers ☀️😊💖" then handed it back to him.

"Hey, we should all hang out tonight. There's this cute bar not too far away we could go to. They have happy hour and karaoke on Mondays. What do you think?" she asked with a smile.

Kazimir beamed. "Perfect," he said, typing on his phone. A second later, she heard a faint notification sound from her phone in her purse. She knew that was him, but she quickly rummaged through her purse to look at her phone anyways.

It was a text from an unknown number with the message:

Kazimir Petrov ;^)

Mel grinned, putting her phone away again. At this time, they had already crossed the street and entered the building again. Their time with cutting short, especially since Mel conveniently saw Isabel nearby and made eye contact with her. No doubt her supervisor was going to want to talk to her, maybe get to know her some more in the spare minutes she had left for lunch.

"Hey, if you get bored doing your data entry stuff, you can IM me on Teams. You know, so you can be productive. Since we're collaborating on totally important stuff," she said with a growing smile, glancing at Isabel as she started to make her way over.

"We are?" Kazimir said, and then blinked, like it took him a second to catch on. "I mean. Yes. Okay."

Mel giggled. "See you later tonight then?"

"Later," Kazimir said with a smile, and then walked off. She caught him chugging the rest of his coffee as he walked away within a few seconds, and within another few strides he already threw the cup away.

Mel suppressed another laugh, shaking her head in amusement as she prepared to go back to professional mode.

She had a feeling tonight would be a fun night.

Skull hated cleaning the bathrooms.

When he had complained about it several times to his roommates, they had told him it was his fault. He was the one who had gotten himself a job as a janitor, which meant cleaning things like bathrooms.

Skull wasn't exactly opposed to the messiness of bathrooms. Skull, as Nathaniel had pointed out in a frustrated voice when he saw the state of Skull's bedroom, could be absolutely disgusting, and Skull took great pride in that.

The thing that Skull did hate about cleaning the bathrooms is that, without fail, at least one person would ignore the cleaning sign and march in there to use the bathroom when he was in the middle of a hypocrite.

Skull, of course, honestly couldn't read that well himself and would have done the exact same thing. But it was annoying when other people did it and he was the one who was cleaning the bathrooms. Asmira would have pointed out that he was a hypocrite, and Skull would have argued only a little because he would have suddenly remembered seeing her collection of knives on display the last time he went into her bedroom.

But, anyways. Bathrooms.

Skull was cleaning the men's bathroom right now, and it was shockingly empty for once. He was listening to some music, too, because Nathaniel's secret theater kid Spotify playlist from early high school actually had some good songs on it.

(Not that Skull would ever let him know that.)

Ohhhhhhh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

Out of nowhere, Kazimir felt the entirety of his bowels gurgle, and it was like everything hit him at once. The solid pound of pasta. The 16 ounces of coffee. The rest of the day on an empty stomach. Had he even had water?

Oh god. Oh shit.

Kazimir got out of his chair stiffly without announcement, but the moment his head poked up over the cubicle wall, he knew Judy saw him.

"Where are you going, Kazimir?" she asked, already poking her nose over at him.

Kazimir kept moving.

"Bathroom!" he said in what he hoped was desperate enough to get the point across while not being too embarrassing.

"You have to log your--" was all Kazimir heard as he fast-walked out of the office door into the hallway, speeding towards the bathroom.

He could feel it all building, like a goddamn bomb inside of him. He was sure the stress of the day hadn't helped his stomach, but damn, it felt like someone was kicking him in the gut.

What a way to start his first day.

He rounded the corner and saw the men's sign on the nearest door, and didn't think of anything else as he threw the door open and barreled in.

He ran into the nearest stall door that was open and shut it behind him, and immediately dropped his pants and underwear and sat down on the toilet.

And then it all let loose.

Skull groaned.

"There's a sign," he said, "for a reason."

And it was the stall he had just cleaned, too. Skull muttered a swear underneath his breath—one of his favorite old Victorian ones—and resisted the very strong urge to slam his head on the nearest stall door.

Kazimir hadn't realized there was someone in the bathroom, nor that there was a sign.

"I'm sorry man," he said, not really sure what he was apologizing for. "I swear if I didn't go I was gonna shit my pants."

Skull let out another groan, followed by another swear, and then questioned once again if it would hurt too badly if he slammed his head on the door of the nearest stall. It probably would. It would hurt even more if Asmira and Nathaniel found out and Asmira decided to use one of her knives on him.

"Fine," Skull said, as if there had been some alternative to this whole situation. "Just don't take too long."

Kazimir really hoped he didn't, but he didn't feel like he could leave in good conscience while his stomach still hurt so much. He'd already gone, but he felt like it wasn't over.

There was a long silence where he waited, trying to see if his body was done and got it all out, but he still didn't feel quite right.

Was... the guy still there?

Kazimir looked below the stall door. He saw feet.

"You're uh, maintenance, right? Cleaning staff?"

Skull gave a deadpan stare at the closed stall door.

"What else would I be?" he asked.

"I... I don't know I didn't see the sign on the way in," Kazimir said. "Sorry."

He felt another wave and there was another plop in the toilet. Then a long pause.

"So, uh... what's your name?"

"Skull," Skull replied. He waited for the inevitable question that would follow—one that he usually took pride in answering, because he loved seeing the expressions on people's faces when he insisted it was his name.

Not that he could see the expression on this guy's face.

"What about you?" he asked.

"Kaz," Kazimir said, deciding his full name felt too formal for a toilet conversation. "How long have you been working here, Skull?"

Skull did the mental math, which was hard, considering that his math skills were about as good as his reading ones.

"A few weeks," he said. "Right after my stint in customer service."

He smirked, even though Kaz couldn't see it. He was surprised that Kaz hadn't commented on the name, but he also didn't know a lot of Kazes. Or any, really.

"Apparently," he said, leaning up against his mop, "I don't have the right smile for it."

"Oh, yeah," Kazimir said. "They want you to be all buddy-buddy with everybody. Even when they treat you like shit. Weird you went from that to being a janitor, though. Surprised you stayed with Comic Corp and didn't just go somewhere else."