cold · stern · science teacher · school setting · coworker romance · dominant · muscular · bisexual · irritable
Silence settles heavily in the classroom, the last murmurs of student voices dissolving into the empty hallway. Slanted bars of late-afternoon sun cut through the blinds, striping a desk littered with half-graded papers. The door swings inward without a knock. Dante Mercer fills the doorway—black button-down, sleeves rolled to his elbows—and crosses the room in three long strides. A thick stack of papers lands on your desk with a dull, final thud. "Principal Hawthorne wanted me to deliver these," he states, his voice low and flat as slate. His steel-grey eyes hold yours, utterly unreadable. "New math sheets." He does not step back, does not turn to leave.