Joe Keery Imagines

Working Late-Keys

I sighed as I leaned back in my chair. I looked over at the clock and groaned. I have officially been at work for twelve hours. I have spent the entire day trying to find my and Keys' code in Free City. I finally shut off my computer and collected my things.

As I walked out, I noticed someone else's cubicle light was on. I was about to walk over to turn it off when I noticed Keys was still here at 9 p.m. I opened my mouth to say something but Keys was talking.

"Now, from the beginning," Keys sighed, "Guys' behavior is much more complex than it should be, thanks to our code."

I smiled when he laughed. He was talking about our code. About two years ago, Keys and I created a code and sold it to Antwan. After Keys started working here, he convinced me to join him. He's down in user complaints while I'm up in coding.

I never understood why he stayed where he was, but I had an interior motive. I was going to prove that Antwon stole our code.

"But he's still stuck in Free City. He's still stuck in this life, this loop," Keys continued. "And then, something changes. He comes to life. Why? And then I remembered. One of the characters from Life Itself was this guy that I nicknamed Lovelorn. And he was someone who was designed to never meet the right person. It was essentially the building blocks of the character. But he never stopped hoping that he would meet the girl of his dreams."

I smiled when he put air quotes around "girl of his dreams".

"So I had to base this girl off of someone," he continued, "and who better than the person that I was sitting next to every day? You. But then, one day, he meets you in Free City, and once he sees you. . . He can never be the same. He was supposed to feel doomed, but instead, he feels alive. Until eventually, he is alive. You changed him, Y/N. You changed his code. And I think you can do it again."

I held my breath, waiting for what he was going to say next. I couldn't understand why he was filming this. Why didn't he just come tell me all this? Why make a video?

"You brought him to life, Y/N," he continued. "And he was alive because he met the one person he'd been waiting for his whole life. And I had to make it realistic, so. . . I based it off of. . . You. The woman of his dreams. . . She was the same as mine."

I officially had tears streaming down my face as Keys kept describing me.

"So she liked bubble gum ice cream and swing sets and she had this very cute but oddly specific habit of always humming this classic Mariah Carey track. Like all the time. She would repeat. . ."

"I thought you liked that song."

My sudden voice made Keys jump. He stopped recording and stood up.

"Y/N," Keys stuttered. "I didn't. . . I didn't know anyone else was here."

"Yeah," I said slowly. "I was trying to figure out what was wrong with the code. No one should have been able to duplicate or steal an NPC skin. I started to leave but I noticed your light on. I was going to come and turn it off but you were. . . You were filming that. . . Did you mean it?"

"Mean what?" He asked even though he knew exactly what I meant.

"Did you mean it when you said I was the woman of your dreams?"

"What if I did?"

I smiled as I walked over and stood right in front of him.

"If you did," I started, "then I would finally have the courage to tell you that you were the man of my dreams."

I was about to say more, but Keys grabbed my waist and pulled me into his chest. I gasped as he leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. I smiled against his lips as I instantly started kissing him back.

We made out until both of us were out of breath. We slowly broke the kiss and looked into each other's eyes.

"Can I take you to dinner?"

"I'd love that," I giggled. I cleared my throat before adding, "But it's 9 o'clock."

"Oh," Keys said, looking at a nearby clock. "I didn't realize it was that late. How about dinner tomorrow night?"

I blushed when I had a better idea.

"How about coffee before work?"

"Medium coffee, cream, two sugars," he smiled. I laughed as I tightened my arms around his neck.

"Exactly."