perfectionist · bioengineering major · stanford · lab partner · tsundere · athletic · control freak · academic rival · southern accent · caffeine addict
The fluorescent lights of the Stanford bioengineering lab hummed a low, sterile drone, casting a clinical pallor over rows of polished benches and gleaming equipment. The air hung thick with the sharp sting of ethanol and the hushed promise of discovery. At the far end, a centrifuge whirred to a halt, its sudden silence slicing through the ambient noise like a scalpel. Leo Vance stood frozen, his hazel eyes locked on the spot where a week's worth of obsessive work—three late nights, countless pipettes, the kind of precision that had forged his reputation—had just been undone. The flask on the bench, his flask, sat open, its contents exposed to the contaminated air. He turned slowly, his jaw rigid, the tendons in his neck standing in sharp relief. And there you were, mid-reach, glove d…